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Suning Gaming defeated DAN Gaming 2-1 in a nail-biting, back-and-forth series during Week 5, Day 3 of the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai.
Game 1 opened with a standard draft from both sides, yet the action started off early. Mid laner Li "dian" Guopeng was able to use Orianna to turn around a gank and pick up first blood for Suning Gaming (3-4, 10-11 match record) thanks to an assist from Fan "Avoidless" Junwei's Jarvan. Just moments later, SNG picked up another kill and began building a gold lead to put DAN Gaming on its back foot.
The advantage gained from the plays was enough that despite giving up a pair of kills and infernal drakes, SNG had an 8,000-gold lead just 20 minutes into the game. SNG kept ahold of its respective lane leads to great success by forcing fights that didn't give DAN a chance to find its way back into the match, and that gave SNG's carries time to scale. Despite having a free-farmed Kog'Maw in the hands of Lee "Natz" Yong Jin, DAN was dominated in teamfights, giving up a 30-minute victory to SNG.
DAN showed the desperation it felt after its poor showing in the Game 1 defeat, subbing out all of its players apart from jungler Jeong "Karin" Soo-jong. The strategy worked out in the early game with DAN Gaming (4-5, 11-10 match record) quickly picking up a kill in the top lane thanks to Karin's Nunu and Guo "Lies" Hao-Tian's Jarvan.
Despite being down in gold, SNG responded with a Rift Herald play to take three towers for one and bring the gold back to even. After an uneventful early game, a series of Baron fights broke out, and DAN come out ahead. Yu "Ggoong" Byeong Jun's Corki quickly melted the enemy team, and SNG was swiftly defeated in a final teamfight, allowing DAN to close the game out in just 30 minutes.
With the series brought to a final Game 3, SNG bounced back. After finding three quick kills on Lee "Fury" Jin-yong's Xayah, SNG gained full control of the game with a 4,000-gold lead, several towers and a pair of drakes just 14 minutes into the game. Although the action slowed down during the mid game, DAN struck back with several impressive moves -- followed by a series of devastating mistakes.
The back-and-forth nature of the contest, particularly centered around the neutral objectives, gave SNG just enough space to stop a surging DAN Gaming, picking off Ggoong to win the ensuing teamfight and escape with Game 3 win that nearly pushed to 50 minutes.
Suning Gaming will aim for another win Friday against I May at 5 a.m. ET, while DAN Gaming will look to bounce back from its defeat the following day against JD Gaming at 5 a.m. ET.