LNG Esports Preview – Worlds 2023

LNG Esports Preview dives into the three^rd seed of the LPL, who got here out of left area to play on this yr’s Worlds.

The LPL is without doubt one of the strongest League of Legends tournaments on this planet: it gave is groups similar to Royal By no means Give Up, Invictus Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix and Edward Gaming, all former MSI and Worlds Winners, and may give us one other one if JD Gaming fulfils the prophecy. Fortunately for the followers of the Chinese language league, all their representatives are extremely robust, so even their 3^rd seed, LNG Esports has an actual shot at making it to the Knockout Stage – and even additional past.

LNG Esports Preview

LNG Esports Workforce Historical past

LNG has been within the LPL for 4 years now, becoming a member of the fray again in 2019. Their first squad of Flandre, SofM, Plex, Fenfen, Asura, Duan and Maestro had been a center of the pack crew, ending the crew’s first ever LPL break up within the 6^th place.

After their first season, LNG Esports had two poor years when it comes to efficiency: they couldn’t crack the LPL Playoffs in 2021, and so they had weak showings in 2021 as nicely, up till the Summer season Playoffs and Regional Finals, the place they completed 4^th and a couple of^nd respectively. This meant that the revamped squad of Ale, Tarzan, icon, Gentle and Iwandy may play at Worlds 2 years in the past, however they didn’t qualify for the Knockout Stage.

Final yr, LNG Esports signed former world champion Doinb for the midlane, who helped them bounce again from the center of the LPL pack and get into the Playoffs twice. Nevertheless, the Malphite and Nautilus mid connoisseur couldn’t assist them get their second Worlds look, in order that they parted methods with the crew.

Initially of the 2023 season, LNG Esports revamped their roster once more, solely retaining Tarzan from earlier than whereas signing Zika, Scout, LP and Dangle. Collectively, they got here in 3^rd in the course of the Spring Cut up, however solely made it to the 6^th place of the Playoffs, in order that they wanted modifications once more. The crew traded LP for GALA, the ADC of Royal By no means Give Up, who clicked with the squad immediately, ending 2^nd within the Summer season Playoffs. Whereas they couldn’t qualify for Worlds instantly, they made a shock comeback within the LPL Regional Finals, beating Edward Gaming for the three^rd Chinese language spot.

LNG Esports Roster

• Tang “Zika” Hua-Yu
• Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong
• Lee “Scout” Ye-chan
• Chen “GALA” Wei
• Fu “Dangle” Ming-Dangle

LNG Esports Playstyle

LNG Esports returned to the highest groups of their areas after a protracted hiatus and are aiming for a spot greater than they completed at 2 years in the past. Whereas the crew doesn’t have a ton of worldwide expertise, 3 of their gamers do, as this can be Tarzan’s and GALA’s 3^rd and Scout’s 6^th Worlds look, with the latter managing to win the 2021 occasion with Edward Gaming.

General, LNG Esports is a crew that may come again from nearly any deficit, and so they also can shut out video games whereas being behind in gold, expertise, and tempo. They’re additionally adept at mitigating the harm their opponents do, as they spend the least time in a Main Deficit once they lose matches outdoors of all LPL groups.

They’ve a superb early sport, however their stats don’t actually mirror that: they don’t focus first Heralds and Drakes, don’t have that prime of a First Turret% or excellent Gold Distinction of Tower Distinction teamwide. Nevertheless, they do have some good stats, as they had been the very best Chinese language crew when it comes to getting First Bloods, and their Ok/D@14 can be nice.

This is because of Tarzan having nice early video games, optimizing farm and ganking for his crew, which supplies LNG a excessive Jungle Proximity. The opposite focus for this squad is Scout, because the midlaner is the one which will get the most important gold leads within the laning part. He additionally continuously roams, often with Dangle however toplaner Zika additionally joins them infrequently. Zika is a singular toplaner as nicely, as he can go on adventures on his personal or escort Tarzan into the enemy jungle.

Within the later levels, LNG Esports falls aside a bit. They don’t all the time have a transparent gameplan or execution for the later levels and are sloppy round aims. Additionally they have a low Soul%, though they have an inclination to play lengthy matches in comparison with different LPL groups. They prioritise kills as a substitute of Dragons and Barons, trying to finish video games by way of fights – which may come in useful within the 13.19 skirmish heavy meta of Worlds.

Alongside the formidable duo of Tarzan and Scout, GALA additionally has some good numbers. His Xayah and Kai’Sa are very robust, having an 80% winrate and a 13.6 KDA on the previous out of 20 video games. LNG’s opponents often need to ban Kai’Sa in the event that they need to keep away from GALA’s wrath, as he had an ideal report on the Daughter of the Void within the Summer season Cut up.

LNG Esports has an opportunity to write down historical past akin to what DRX did final yr. Whereas they’ve some features that could possibly be exploited by different groups, they’re actually good at stabilizing, so even essentially the most skilled squads may discover hassle towards them – hopefully, Fnatic can come up with something when facing the LPL’s 3^rd seed!