The opening week of the League of Legends Pro League summer split kicked off last week and it was back to business as usual for a region that saw no turnover whatsoever between splits. Unsurprisingly, Invictus Gaming ended the week atop the standings in the Eastern Region, while Rogue Warriors continued to impress in the Western Region.
No doubt, Rogue Warriors (2-0) were pleased with the group draws, as it managed to escape being in the same division as both Invictus Gaming (2-0) and Royal Never Give Up (0-1). As such, it has taken an early lead in the western conference by taking out both Topsports Gaming (1-1) and OMG (1-1) in a pair of dominating 2-0 sweeps. Time will tell if it can continue this streak, but you get the feeling that the west is Rogue's to lose.
Meanwhile, things are looking to be quite interesting as both Invictus Gaming (2-0) and Suning Gaming (2-0) opened the week with perfect records. While Invictus starting off hot was not at all surprising given the team's 18-1 finish to the spring split, Suning's results were somewhat unexpected. The team narrowly missed out on the playoffs with a 9-10 record, but look rejuvenated this split so far. Led by top laner Xie "XiaoAL" Zhen-Ying, who has shined on champions like Dr. Mundo and Singed, Suning picked up a pair of quality wins over Vici Gaming (0-2) and LGD Gaming (0-2), which may bring Invictus and RNG some competition.
Equally as surprising as Suning's 2-0 record was RNG stumbling out the gate this week. The defending LPL and Mid-Season Invitational champions only played a single series this week against JDG, but it wasn't the result many would have expected. RNG opened the series with a win as Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao picked JDG apart with an 8/3/3 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) on Kai'Sa. From there on, though, mid laner Zeng "YaGao" Qi on Cassiopeia and Kim "Clid" Tae-Min on Graves took turns popping off to take down the champions. One loss in Week 1 is nothing to be worried about just yet, but it was still a bit surprising to see the champions get decimated.
Bilibili Gaming (1-1), another one of LPL's playoff teams from the spring, had a bit of a tempered opening week. It barely edged past Vici Gaming in a 2-1 series before being defeated in an equally close 2-1 series against JD Gaming (2-1). Against JDG, Bilibili looked caught off guard by a few picks of the new meta, including a Fizz for JDG mid laner YaGao that put up an 11/3/2 KDA in Game 2 and an old ADC favorite Varus for Lee "LokeN Dong-wook that tallied a 6/1/3 KDA to bury Bilibili in Game 3.
--Wyatt Donigan