LPL Spring Split playoffs - 2021 was
kicked off on April 1st, 2021 with an unexpected victory from Rare
Atom over Invictus Gaming. Instead of taking the lead in the early game, both teams' playstyles
revolved around neutral goals and skirmishes during mid-game.
Though Rare Atom won as a team, bot
laner Hu "iBoy" Xian-Zhao played a major role in winning. He was
also voted the MVP of all three of Rare Atom’s wins throughout the series.
Similar to their last match in the
regular season that Rare Atom won (2-0), they unexpectedly took the lead over
their opponents thanks to clever team play around objectives even though they
lost both the early and mid-game.
Invictus Gaming lost a game at the 31-minute mark when Rare Atom waited for the Baron Nashor to melt the Invictus Gaming players’ HP down before engaging with top laner Dai "Cube" Yi, even though their jungler Lu "Leyan" Jue was dead. In the end it paid off - they won a four-vs-five teamfight.
The Rare Atom highlighted one of Invictus Gaming's
major weaknesses in the series, which is that they do not slow down the pace of
the game when they should. This led Invictus Gaming's to lose their advantage
and in this case the game.
Though Invictus Gaming lost the series, they demonstrated strong performance. Their jungler Peng "XUN" Li-Xun had clean early games with precise rotations around the lanes and objectives, which enabled the team to grab the first Herald and dragon in most of the games. Bot Laner - Zhang "Wink" Rui also demonstrated excellent gameplay.
