Royal Never Give Up beat Suning in a close three-game series today during the second week of the 2021 LPL Spring Split.
Going into this match, all eyes were on the top lane since Xiaohu, who recently swapped to that role from the mid lane, had to face Worlds 2020 finalist Bin. But Xiaohu popped off with a surprising Orianna top lane pick and Gnar throughout the series, earning two MVP votes.
This League of Legends series began with a great draft phase for both teams. RNG surprised most spectators by picking Orianna in the top lane against Bin’s Aatrox. Xiaohu used the champ perfectly after playing mid lane for so many years, shutting down the Aatrox and providing great utility in teamfights.
RNG got a lead due to some early-game skirmishes, which they maintained and transitioned to neutral objectives. After picking up the cloud dragon soul, RNG were able to win teamfight after teamfight before eventually closing out the first game.
In the second game, Suning changed their draft priority and game plan to quickly dismantle RNG’s defenses in a 32-minute game. RNG looked completely different compared to the first game, not fighting for objectives and losing most teamfights.
Entering the decisive third game, RNG first picked Alistar, one of the best supports in the current meta. He was banned in the first two games by Suning, but the pick made it through the banning phase in the third game. With this pick, Ming managed to help his team snowball early on and maintain good control of the map throughout the entire game. After a slow-paced 42-minute game, RNG won a teamfight and finished the series with a 2-1 score.
RNG will be back in action next week with a match against Oh my God on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 5am CT. OMG are 0-2 in the LPL Spring Split standings and shouldn’t be a huge threat to RNG.
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