JD Gaming will face LNG Esports this Thursday to decide who advances to the penultimate round of the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Summer Playoffs.

LNG made it past Weibo Gaming (3-2) on Tuesday and reached the double-elimination stage, where it’ll get much more difficult for Lee “Scout” Ye-chan and his crew to keep getting away with their inconsistency in the mid-late game. JD Gaming have proven to be a level above any other LPL team besides Bilibili Gaming, so the $1.28 price tag is justifiable.

And it’s not only that JDG are better than LNG Esports; it’s also that LNG didn’t look good in their win against Weibo Gaming. The whole game was a mess, with both teams making questionable plays, and had just one teamfight ended differently, Weibo would’ve won.

JD Gaming haven’t played a game since the regular season, but that benefits them as they have plenty of film to look over. Still, any significant preparation won’t be needed here, mainly because JDG stylistically match up nicely with LNG Esports.

LNG Esports rely a lot on getting ahead early, which will be extremely difficult to achieve against JD Gaming, who have held a gold lead at 15 minutes in nearly 85% of all maps they’ve played this split. That was noticeable in JDG’s 2-1 victory over LNG during the regular season, which was achieved through pressuring their opponents early and slowly choking them out.

JD Gaming have a straightforward win condition – they have to play their own game. LNG Esports must hope that their foes slip. We’ll give LNG one map, but this is JDG’s game to lose.

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