JD Gaming secured a spot at this year’s League of Legends World Championship following a clean 3-1 win over LGD Gaming in the LPL Summer Split playoff semifinals.
JDG’s jungler Kanavi popped off in the series, forcing enemies to either ban or pick his pocket Kindred pick. He brought out a secret Evelynn pick in the second game, taking it over with a 8/1/7 scoreline and completely destroying LGD.
The series began with small hiccups for both teams. The gold kept fluctuating between the two teams with JD coming out ahead after a teamfight at around the 25-minute mark. They secured the Mountain Dragon Soul and then destroyed LGD in teamfights, finishing the game after another 10 minutes.
In the second game, Kanavi brought out a secret Evelynn last pick to counter LGD’s composition. While during the draft phase, the pick didn’t look very impressive, but all doubts were gone as soon as Kanavi started collecting kills around the map.
Following 24 minutes of being massacred by an invisible monster, LGD lost the second game. They picked up the slack in the third game, picking up steam in every lane. They put a huge priority on early dragons which paid off once they got the Ocean Dragon Soul. With this Soul, they were unstoppable and JDG crumbled, showing the first signs of weaknesses in the series.
The fourth game was going quite well for the LGD squad. They finally looked to pick up some tempo and possibly equalize the series. But following a teamfight around the Baron, the game ended after JDG’s Loken was left out of control to take over the fight. Soon after, they went to take down the Nexus via the inhibitorless top lane and finish the game.
JDG had a formidable Summer Split, securing the second place in the regular season standings. It’s great to see that both the top two teams advanced in the playoff finals as well. While JDG got the edge last time in the Spring Split, Top Esports looked impressive recently, taking down their opponents in dominating fashion.
JD Gaming are on a path to get their second LPL Championship title and based on their recent games, they could contest Top Esports. However, Top Esports improved their play recently and might prove to be a difficult challenge for the JD Gaming squad. Especially considering how dominant mid lane Knight is alongside the jungle Karsa. That duo looks unstoppable so far.
