Edward Gaming

Edward Gaming is one of the most well-known e-sports organizations in China among e-sports fans. Operating since 2013, the organization was nominated as the best Chinese League of Legends team in the “China LoL of the Year Awards” between the 2014-2017 seasons. However, after 2017, the team's results began to decline, partly due to the disbandment of the core team and the recruitment of new players. It's challenging to find stronger players when you already have some of the individually strongest players in the entire tournament. Nevertheless, after a couple of weaker years, since 2019, Edward Gaming seems to have returned to the LPL elite.

Edward Gaming managed to find a talented young Jungler player, JieJie, who looks better and more confident with each match. Additionally, veterans Scout and Meiko remained in the team, bringing experience and assurance during crucial match moments. However, the key moves were made in this offseason, before the start of the 2021 season – the team was joined by former Griffin ADC player Viper and long-time Snake, later known as LNG, TOP lane player Flandre.

This season, the team has assembled a very solid lineup that looks impressive individually, but the team's main strength is seen in game organization and “macro plays” execution. Macro play involves utilizing the map to give up smaller advantages to opponents while gaining greater benefits in one area or another of the map. Edward Gaming has not lost a single series this season and will undoubtedly do everything to extend their winning streak to 6.

Victory Five

Victory Five is one of the youngest Chinese League of Legends e-sports organizations to join the LPL tournament. Debuting in the LPL only in 2018, the team was undoubtedly the weakest in the league, against which opponents played only out of necessity to earn easy points. However, the situation in the team changed drastically at the start of the 2020 season when Korean ADC player Samd and Support player ppgod joined the team. This “Bottom lane” tandem became the most pleasant surprise of the 2020 LPL season, and Victory Five finished the Summer LPL tournament in 5th place.

This 2021 Spring LPL season started well for the team: after a sluggish first series, where they lost to Team WE, victories were secured against LGD Gaming, Bilibili Gaming, and Rogue Warriors teams, and it seemed that the team was playing well together and would continue to win. However, in the next series, Victory Five faced the challenge of RNG, where they had to acknowledge the opponents' superiority with a 1:2 score. While losing to RNG is certainly not a tragedy considering that RNG is one of the strongest LPL teams, the recent 0:2 loss to the weakest LPL team this season, TT Gaming, raises many questions. The team looked unprepared and confused; it's hard to say if this series will trigger any changes in the team, but after such disappointing losses to a much weaker team, some changes should be expected.

Prediction

The match between Edward Gaming (5-0) and Victory Five (3-3) should be interesting for viewers, as both teams enjoy fast, often risky, “High-Risk/High-Reward” gameplay. Although Victory Five started the season well and one could say that this match should be very competitive and difficult to predict the winner – the recent series of both teams show otherwise. Edward Gaming is sweeping all LPL leaders one by one, while Victory Five not only fails to dominate potentially weaker teams but even lost to the weakest of them with a clean score of 0:2. Edward Gaming should win this series confidently, leaving no additional questions.