EDward Gaming escaped from Shanghai with a 2-1 series win over Snake Esports on Sunday to close out Week 9, Day 4 of the League of Legends Pro League.
Being a fan of Snake Esports (4-10, 12-24 match record) is nothing if not emotionally taxing, as Snake went through several ups and downs against EDward Gaming (11-3, 23-7 match record). In Snake's sole Game 2 win, Snake jumped ahead thanks to intelligent rotations and teamfighting in the midgame, unlocking top laner Li "Flandre" Xuan-Jun's Jarvan IV. EDG's double AD Carry composition was no match for Flandre, who dunked his way to a game-high 16,300 damage dealt to enemy champions to go alongside a flawless 5/0/7 KDA (kill/deaths/assists) for 100 percent kill participation. Snake managed to snowball a lead cleanly, something that has eluded Snake thus far in the split, running over EDG in dominating fashion. There were some red flags in a win, such as mid laner Liu "Zz1tai" Zhi-Hao's Viktor dying a little too much, but Snake overcame that to put one over on EDG.
By all accounts, Snake should've won this series. Sure, it lost Game 1 due to a lack of frontline and EDG's methodical playstyle, slowing the pace of the game until it's "Protect the Kog'Maw" composition scaled into an unstoppable juggernaut, but Game 3 looked like a lock. EDG drafted an incredibly greedy early-midgame composition against a strong late game teamfighting composition from Snake. EDG drafted no frontline against AD carry Yang "kRYST4L" Fan's Tristana and Zz1tai's Viktor, who exploded everyone on EDG the further the game went.
Things were finally going well for Snake, until a series of disasters began with Snake getting picked apart near Baron, haphazardly wandering into EDG to get butchered. When Snake needed to come up clutch with a base defense, Zz1tai made a critical error, walking straight into EDG again and immediately dying after respawning at 36 minutes, giving EDG plenty of time to end the game and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
EDG did a good job outlasting Snake, but it's hard to tell if EDG underperformed or if Snake simply exceeded expectations. As we move into the final week of the Summer Split, though, it's clear that Snake has a leg up over the rest of the bottom dwellers in Group A, all but ensuring a playoff spot if Snake can keep this form up.
Snake Esports has another tough task ahead of it on Thursday when it battles Team WE at 5 a.m. ET, while EDward Gaming face off against Invictus Gaming at 8 a.m. ET on Thursday.