EDward Gaming have seemingly done it again.

Though only a week’s worth of data are available to judge the League of Legends Pro League giants, EDG smashed 2-0 through both of their first week matches before the Chinese New Year break. A roster that replaced its star AD carry with the 2016 ROX Tigers’ mid lane substitute and decided to run Zho “Fireloli” Zhiming over Team Captain Ming “clearlove” Kai in the jungle effectively humiliated Team WE, slated to top their group.

Following the final match of the week, a swarm of journalists hovered around EDward Gaming’s players and newly hired Coach Jeong “NoFe” Nochul demanding to know how they had pulled it off, particularly how Hae “Zet” Sungmin might be propelled to greatness from his unassuming bench status in 2016.

NoFe’s answer was predictably press-appropriate.

“When I saw the players on the list, I already thought they could get good results together,” he said. “The first week also supports this. Now the team is heading in the direction I want to develop them in: a direction that gives priority to communication.”

Naturally, NoFe’s implication is simply that the core synergy among EDG’s players, even with substitutions and a perceived heavy downgrade to a primary role, remains intact. Peeling back the layers of his testament, EDward Gaming still lead the LPL in communication and macro play. They stunned Vici Gaming and Team WE because they’re ahead in simple fundamentals of the game.





I don’t mean fundamentals in every aspect of League of Legends. EDward Gaming are a mid game team. Though many have praised them for Ming “clearlove” Kai’s early game pathing or Kim “deft” Hyukkyu and Tian “meiko” Ye’s command of bottom lane, EDward Gaming only led the league in gold lead data at 10 or 15 minutes in 2015. Since then, they haven’t averaged the highest leads in the early game, and the true strength of EDward Gaming shines with a roster that has fewer stars.

Team WE illustrate that EDward Gaming aren’t ahead of every team in controlling the early game. Xiang “Condi” Renjie showed surprising resourcefulness and understanding of pressure in the early game in both games against WE, something that spectators didn’t expect from him after 2016.

Though EDG had strong matchups in every lane, at least after the first few levels, Condi and Yoon “Zero” Kyungsup met early in the blue side red buff area jungle, ran the area ensuring they didn’t encounter Fireloli, then ganked mid, demonstrating the team’s understanding that, in the current meta, using advantages to pressure and play through mid lane is most advantageous.

View photos Condi and Zero meet up in the jungle to set up a mid gank More

Due to mechanical errors, the gank wasn’t successful. Condi then identified he could pressure top lane from two different angles. Though Fireloli and meiko responded by securing wards on the bottom side, they didn’t make use of them, and Condi and Zero were able to sweep around after a back and secure vision of bottom river as soon as they expired. They used this control to acquire first brick gold several minutes later.

Through these map movements, WE demonstrated they actually had a better understanding of the early game. This continued in Game 2, when they identified they could invade the top side jungle at Level 1 with mid and top lane advantages and a vulnerable Vi jungle pick for EDG.

Compared to WE, EDward Gaming appeared clueless for the first 10-15 minutes of their games. They didn’t follow up on wards, Fireloli’s pathing was occasionally indecisive, and the advantages they got were either through WE forcing or making similar fumbles.

It’s after the very first turret falls that EDG’s LPL opponents have typically unraveled. No matter how strong the early game, they begin making errors in calls. One of the most typical (especially in the current meta, where immobile bottom laners like Varus, Jhin, and Zyra are normal) is poor transition to the top lane. By being the first to take the initial ring of turrets, EDward Gaming were able to catch their opponents and come out ahead in all four games their first week of the LPL.

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