TES avoids an upset, Doinb falls into a dire situation, LPL misses a golden opportunity, and JKL’s Caitlyn shines brilliantly.

Greetings to all LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, this is Tianxia Game Report.

In the fourth game of the second match on the second day of the LPL playoffs, NIP faced a catastrophic draft, and TES’s Caitlyn composition showed overwhelming strength, sweeping NIP to secure the win.

As a result, the golden opportunity long awaited by LPL fans will not materialize, with NIP’s loss setting up a match against AL next.

NIP chooses red side, TES picks Caitlyn.

In the fourth game, NIP took the red side, allowing TES on blue to secure Volibear first, then drafted a dual-threat composition with Akali and Wukong. In the second round, TES revealed the Caitlyn composition aimed at fast pushing, with top, mid, and jungle grouping for pressure, while the bot lane focused on lane control and mid-game team fights.

NIP responded by picking Gwen to face Volibear, then locked in Orianna and Pantheon for mid and jungle, with support choosing Elise for single-target burst. Their bot lane featured Miss Fortune as the damage carry, but her potential seemed somewhat limited. Overall, NIP’s red side draft appeared suboptimal.

From the start, TES launched a full offensive, executing an invasion and dominating the bot lane, gaining a significant advantage. However, Doinb responded with a level four support gank on bot lane, forcing TES’s duo to burn both summoner flashes to relieve pressure on their teammates.

At six minutes, during the first dragon fight, NIP initiated the dragon, with Naiyou securing it, but TES claimed the first blood.

TES’s bot lane maintained a strong lead, destroying two turret plates. At seven minutes, NIP seized an opportunity through a jungle-support-mid coordination to secure a kill, opting to let their bot lane free farm to accelerate their offensive rhythm.

At eight minutes, NIP took a Rift Scuttler but were forced to retreat by TES, who then secured two more Rift Scuttlers.

TES denies the upset, JKL dominates.

NIP’s free-farming strategy allowed TES to group quickly and take down the first bot turret, then rotate mid. NIP attempted a tower dive on 369 but failed, while JKL seized the chance mid to cooperate with teammates to kill Leave. Despite the huge disadvantage, NIP repeatedly made mistakes; bot lane’s solo kill attempt on 369 failed as the target barely escaped with low health.

TES’s reinforcements arrived to kill Gwen and then chased down the support, leaving NIP almost defeated at this point.

NIP tried to kill 369 in top lane but was easily disengaged by TES. TES’s Akali arrived to clean up with a kill, but during TES’s final top lane tower dive, JKL made a tower tanking error and was killed. Akali’s follow-up support also got killed, and the support couldn’t escape either.

NIP managed to take a top lane turret after much effort, but a quick TES ambush caused heavy losses as TES reinforcements arrived and eliminated multiple members one by one.

At 22 minutes, NIP’s Pantheon initiated a fight and, with teammates’ help, killed Caitlyn. However, TES immediately countered with a team fight that resulted in a 2-for-5 wipe. Even without Caitlyn, TES’s top, mid, and jungle strength was enough to clean up the fight.

At 26 minutes, TES once again executed a team wipe in a top lane skirmish, effectively ending all doubts about the match outcome.

Doinb trapped in a desperate situation, LPL misses the golden opportunity.

With this match concluded, it confirms that the LPL playoffs will miss the highly anticipated golden clash. Previously, in another BO5, WBG led by Xiaotian successfully came back to defeat fourth-ranked AL 3-2. For a Doinb vs. Xiaotian showdown to happen, NIP would have had to beat TES first.

But TES clearly did not give NIP that chance, showing the strength of the regular season’s top seed. In contrast, NIP’s draft looked very questionable. Personally, I think the moment the fourth game’s draft was revealed, NIP was already at a disadvantage — their top-mid-jungle mid-game strength was weaker than TES’s, and their bot lane matchup was comprehensively inferior.

Additionally, Leave, the team’s core, failed to secure a major carry champion, making NIP’s game even more difficult from the start. It’s likely that when Leave picked Miss Fortune, he was already quite desperate.

Now in the losers’ bracket, NIP will face AL next. Doinb is deeply trapped, with very little chance to defeat AL, and this year’s journey will probably end here. In contrast, WBG has the opportunity to advance further; winning one more BO5 would guarantee them at least a top-six finish in the playoffs.

In summary, the biggest regret for NIP this year is failing to remain in the upper bracket during the second stage. Even if they managed to break through to the playoffs, competing at high intensity mostly ended up in vain.