Just a week ago Positive Energy won the LPL Summer split after defeating OMG 3-2 in the grand finals. Shocking to most who watch LPL, the Chinese scene has been dominated by OMG, mainly because of their long time rival Royal Club all but disbanding at this point. As the analyst of LPL here at Cloth 5, someone who wants to see eSports succeed and an avid follower of the Chinese scene, I felt it was my duty to bring my two cents to the topic of this series.

I feel that Positive Energy’s upset victory over OMG, was quite reminiscent of the Finals of OGN Champions Spring split of 2013. For those of you who were not present, or simply do not remember, the Finals of OGN’s Spring Split had Samsung Ozone (MVP Ozone at the time) facing off against heavy favorites CJ Blaze. Ozone, a team who relied on their star marksman Imp to carry them through the playoffs, even gave themselves only a 10 percent chance to win the series. Montecristo even went on to say that Ozone could be proud to win at least one game. The exact opposite happened as they swept Blaze, countering the 6th man push strategy that had dominated the entire spring split up to that point.

Given the fact that OMG has swept World Elite the last 3 times they have played each other, and Positive Energy got into the finals through Royal Club’s forfeit, you could say that OMG was expected to take this one home. While not as lopsided as the OGN Spring Split Finals, Positive Energy was clearly the better team that day, and they found a glaring weakness in OMG’s game plan.

Setting LoveLin Behind:

After a back and forth game 1 that OMG would eventually go on to win, Positive Energy made a gamebreaking discovery in game 2 that would win the series for team PE. After a failed invade to steal blue buff from PE, LoveLin was left alone to do his own red buff. This meant three things, both of which that Positive Energy’s jungler Ziv capitalized on. First was that LoveLin was going to be quite low after having to solo two buffs, second that his smite would be down from getting no leash and third is that he will be about 15-20 seconds behind. Ziv realizes this and invades OMG’s jungle right as LoveLin is securing his blue buff. Here Ziv waits out of sight due to Evelynn passive, until the last possible moment in which he steals blue buff with Hate Spikes.

Seeing LoveLin is low because he had to solo two buffs, Ziv ignites him and goes for the kill. This not only forces LoveLin’s flash, but more importantly takes his pressure off the map by making him base. This is so crucial against a Team like OMG ,who rely on early pressure and snowballing ahead. With LoveLin effectively removed from the game, Positive Energy was allowed to slowly but effectively get all their lanes rolling, to a win in game 2.

Game 3 was a total stomp by Team OMG, and I won’t be the first one to say that I thought the series was over at that point. Positive Energy’s jungler Ziv came in red hot after a superb game 2, only to be completely shutdown as a jungle Nunu with zero buffs (or any CS of any kind) after 4 minutes into the game.

To my surprise they chose to pick Nunu again, and selecting him after that kind of game in a win or go home scenario nonetheless spoke worlds about their emphasis in putting LoveLin behind. The plan this time around was well executed, starting from level 1 where they see LoveLin and gogoing invade their red buff.

Typically with a Nunu on the opposing team, you want to take one of his buffs level one or else he will Consume your second buff away from you. OMG does exactly this and PE capitalizes with a brilliant hook from SicCa’s Thresh getting NaMei first blood on Vayne.

After seeing LoveLin and Gogoing at blue buff, Ziv (who is now level 2 with double buffs) walks right up to them and Consumes the buff despite LoveLin attempting to smite it.

Ziv is now level 3 compared to Gogoing and LoveLin’s 1, and he turns on them knowing that SicCa is coming up from behind. SicCa’s flash hook then forces a flash in return from LoveLin. LoveLin and Gogoing then run bottom lane in desperation, as the wave is enormous and is a quick way to ensure they do not get too far behind. However the complete opposite ensues.

Seeing LoveLin is at sub 300-health, NaMei recognizes this as an easy dive and he flash condemns LoveLin for his second kill of the game.

Juggling tower aggro superbly, Gogoing becomes easy pickings as NaMei gets his third kill of the game. Unfortunately for OMG, NaMei isn’t your average Vayne player and while Vayne is a snow-bally champion, NaMei takes it to another level. He absolutely rocks OMG, ending the game 12-1-4.

Following this game, OMG was at such a moral disadvantage from seeing LoveLin shut down so hard in the previous games that the rest of the series looked bleak for them. This is seen in game 5, where they decide Ezreal is more of a threat than Vayne at this point and ban him, along with picking a team that had almost zero synergy. LoveLin was a non factor in this game, due to the fact that none of the lanes had any form of CC before level 6. He looked helpless and lost, as their team would eventually get out scaled with the damage that JoJo’s Kassadin would bring along with NaMei’s Vayne.

TLDR: Shut Down LoveLin, NaMei is GOD

Anytime someone goes 12 and 1 in the Grand Finals of an event, you know that someone is pretty special, and NaMei is exactly that. Doublelift even said that he is, along with fellow countrymen WeiXiao and Uzi, one of the best marksman in the world. He even managed to double kill OMG’s bot lane in a 2v2 duel, when he was down a level, items, and 40 cs.

Concluding thoughts in a nutshell would be optimistic. Optimistic that Positive Energy is another great Chinese team, NaMei is the next great marksman, and lastly that the Chinese scene has finally toppled OMG’s signature play-style. After watching VOD after VOD of LPL, the chaos that is caused by teams that claw and scratch in an desperate attempt to keep up with the pace that OMG sets, may finally end. I look forward to a fresh and new Season 4, where teams can have their own playstyles and innovate, rather than adapt to monster teams such as OMG and WE during the beginning of Season 3.

While the LPL Spring split isn’t for quite some time, you can check out NaMei and SicCa as they sub for San and Coma on team OMG at the WCG 2013.

You can also check out all of the VODS of this series by clicking right here. (Games 1-5 ascend in the playlist on the left, so scroll up to see the next game!)