LPL Summer week 5 preview: the battle for second place

Week 5 of the League of Legends LPL Summer split starts tomorrow. As the season’s first half comes to an end, OMG is back on the throne once again and in very commanding fashion. In second place is a three-way tie between World Elite, Star Horn Royal Club (SHRC), and Edward Gaming (EDG), although we’ll see that completely change after this week’s crucial battles.

Preview the top matches coming up, and then tune in to our live English stream!

Invictus Gaming vs. Star Horn Royal Club

Time: Friday, July 11th at 4 P.M. China time (4 A.M. EDT).

Invictus Gaming (iG) only has a few chances left to prove it can still be a top contender, and this is one of them. The team’s inconsistency caused a gut-wrenching loss against LGD in week 2, but a tie against World Elite in week 3 somewhat bounced them back. Still, it was not a convincing win by any means and Zz1tai, as skillful as he may be, needs to play more carefully.

iG’s opponent this time is team Star Horn Royal Club, led by Uzi, which has slowly been showing more consistency. Very slowly. The team was still filled with communication errors during its recent loss against OMG and tie with EDG, especially from Insec. If iG can solo the SHRC jungler out and neutralize his effectiveness, then there’s still a game to be had. If not, then…

My guess: SHRC will take both games (2-0).

Edward Gaming vs. World Elite

Time: Sunday, July 13th at 7 PM China time (7 AM EDT).

In spite of being the LPL Spring champions and how much we love Namei, Edward Gaming is simply not showing champion material right now. Their tendency to stall games gave Star Horn Royal Club the chance to steal away a match last week, and overall it just screamed mediocrity.

Now, they face a World Elite which has seen major improvement since the beginning of the season, especially from Actsin. Ninja, on the other hand, is showing that he definitely has the skills, but is still getting into the groove of things.