eStar has been the surprise story of LPL Spring so far.

Despite only joining the LPL this year, and all but one of their players coming from China’s League of Legends Development League (LDL), the underdog team managed to upset reigning World Champions FunPlus Phoenix in week one, and this week, they took down 2018 World Champions Invictus Gaming in convincing fashion.

Week 4 Results

  • Top Esports 2 – 0 Dominus Esports
  • Vici Gaming 1 – 2 Edward Gaming
  • Invictus Gaming 0 – 2 eStar
  • Rogue Warriors 1 – 2 Team WE
  • Suning 2 – 1 LNG Esports
  • Oh My God 2 – 0 Victory Five
  • Top Esports 2 – 0 JD Gaming
  • FunPlus Phoenix 2 – 1 Bilibili Gaming
  • Rogue Warriors 0 – 2 Dominus Esports
  • Suning 1 – 2 Team WE
  • Vici Gaming 2 – 0 LGD Gaming
  • FunPlus Phoenix 2 – 1 Oh My God
  • LNG Esports 1 – 2 eStar
  • JD Gaming 0 – 2 Royal Never Give Up
  • LGD Gaming 2 – 0 Victory Five
  • Bilibili Gaming 2 – 1 Team WE
  • Suning 0 – 2 Invictus Gaming
  • eStar 2 – 0 Dominus Esports
  • Top Esports 2 – 0 Oh My God
  • Royal Never Give Up 2 – 1 Edward Gaming

Match of the Week: Invictus Gaming vs eStar

eStar handed Invictus Gaming their first loss of the season this week in two straight games.

As a team, they have an aggressive but calculated playstyle. eStar have also displayed high team fight synergy marked by solid communication and clean execution, much like Griffin in the LCK in 2018.

Screenshot by Amanda Tan/ONE Esports

Choosing Maokai as a surprising, non-meta third pick on red side, eStar’s plan was to match him against Rumble in a solo lane. In team fights, Maokai’s crowd control would prove to be extremely useful.

Catastrophe struck iG swiftly at level one. Rushing red and blue buff, Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei on Jarvan visited iG’s bot lane when they were pushed up.

To secure both kills on iG’s AD carry and support, Liu “ShiauC” Chia-Hao landed an amazing Thresh hook that predicted Su “Southwind” Zhi-Lin’s flash.

Despite iG dropping two early kills, they still had a chance to come back. The tipping point however, was when they initiated a fight at bot in between two turrets.

Even though Song “Rookie” Eui-jin on Lucian opened with a kill onto Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei’s Corki, the rest of the fight did not go according to iG’s plan. ShiauC landed another deadly accurate hook onto Rookie while he was backing off, and secured a return kill for his team.

On Maokai, Yang “Xiaobai” Zhong-He teleported onto eStar’s first outer bot turret, sandwiching iG. Nature’s Grasp hit the remaining three members as they fell to eStar in a 4v5.

Aside from Nautilus, iG lacked reliable hard crowd control and a strong frontline. They could not win any fights against eStar’s team composition, and only managed to grab two kills to eStar’s 18 at the end of game one.

As expected, iG changed things up in game two with a team composition that gave them more tools to take fights. However, eStar overhauled their team composition too, and activated full-on assault mode with Renekton, Elise, Pantheon, Syndra, and Blitzcrank.

Screenshot by Amanda Tan/ONE Esports

Aside from Blitzcrank, every champion in their draft had a stun. They also chose very strong early game champions, signaling their intention to close the series quickly.

eStar hammered iG in lane, rotated around the map and used Pantheon’s ultimate Grand Starfall to outnumber side lanes.

eStar were relentless and racked up 35 kills in the 32 minute game against just four for iG, proving why they deserve to be on top of the table.

Player of the Week: Zhuo “knight” Ding

With victories over Dominus Esports, JD Gaming and Oh My God, Top Esports made a huge jump up the standings, going from 11th to fourth.

Much of their success this week can be attributed to knight, who nabbed three MVPs.

At the age of 19, the young TES mid laner demonstrated his versatility with two different play styles in their series against JD Gaming on control mage Viktor and front line Pantheon.

Alone in mid lane, JDG decided to pull a 4-man dive under tower in game one. Knight timed his flash well and avoided Haymaker’s range.

He bought time for his team mates to collapse and turn the situation around, snatching three kills. With that, TES pushed forward with a gold lead, and the game.

Standings

1. eStar (9-1)
2. Invictus Gaming (7-1)
3. FunPlus Phoenix (7-2)
4. Top Esports (6-3)
5. Royal Never Give Up (5-3)
6. JD Gaming (5-4)
7. Oh My God (5-4)
8. Team WE (5-4)
9. Edward Gaming (4-4)
10. LNG Esports (4-4)
11. Suning (4-5)
12. Vici Gaming (3-6)
13. Bilibili Gaming (3-6)
14. Rogue Warriors (3-6)
15. LGD Gaming (2-6)
16. Dominus Esports (2-7)
17. Victory Five (0-8)

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