Victory Five have taken down JD Gaming to secure a playoff spot in the 2020 LPL Summer Split.
Jungler Wei “Weiwei” Bo-han and mid laner Li “Mole” Hao-Yan were the crucial players of V5, securing the MVP votes on Volibear and Galio, respectively. Weiwei’s Volibear dominated the rift and ended with a 4/1/9 scoreline, while Mole’s Galio was a near cosplay of Faker. Mole ended the third game deathless, with 100 percent kill participation and a score of 11/0/5.
The first game was ruthless towards V5. JDG secured early leads in all three lanes, which gave free roaming potential to their superstar mid laner Yagao. Yagao’s roams alongside his jungler on Volibear ensured that the lead would grow to insurmountable amounts.
After securing the Cloud Dragon Soul and the first Baron, JDG closed out the game in convincing fashion in 31 minutes with a 13,000 gold lead.
After the devastating loss in the first game, V5 picked up the slack and subbed in Lee “samd” Jae-Hoon in the ADC role. They adapted their draft by taking away Ashe and Volibear from JDG and crushing them with their picks from the first game.
The pressure from Weiwei on Volibear was too huge for JDG to handle and as a result, they kept losing objective after objective. In the course of the 27-minute game, JDG secured only one Infernal Dragon, which barely gave them any stats due to a lack of items.
After picking up the Baron, V5 crushed JDG in an all-out teamfight and finished the game, equalizing the series.
The third game was a copy of the second one with V5 dominating all lanes and pushing JDG in. The game ended with a similar scoreline after Mole dominated everyone on Galio with his roams. His game reminded the community of Faker’s performance during the 2017 World Championship.
V5 set a record last split by not being able to win a single series. They’ve turned it around this split and are looking like one of the best contenders for the championship after securing a spot in the LPL Summer Split playoffs with this win.
While V5 is far away from a title of the World Champion, they can begin their journey with a domestic LPL title first. If they win the LPL championship, then they get a good shot at qualifying for the World Championship. If they don’t advance sufficiently through playoffs, then their arc will be ended.