Invictus Gaming continued its recent impressive run on Sunday with a 2-0 sweep of I May during Week 9, Day 4 of the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai.
With the postseason steadily approaching in the LPL, this series showed some of Invictus Gaming's (8-6, 18-16 match record) strengths and weaknesses against a one-dimensional I May (4-11, 11-24 match record). For all of the historical success and miraculous comebacks that I May have made in the past, this current iteration of the team can only play one style: wait until mid laner Kang "Athena" Ha-woon can take over teamfights in the late game while top laner Shek "AmazingJ" Wai Ho splitpushes. In Game 1, IM drafted a late game-focused splitpushing composition, but only managed to take three towers against IG's beefy teamfighing draft. This game took much longer than IG would've liked, requiring four Elemental Drakes, an Elder Dragon, and a staggering three Baron kills for IG to eventually take the game in over 40 minutes, but Invictus was never in danger of losing. IG didn't necessarily impress, but it manhandled I May in a careful, borderline glacial, series opener.
After IG made some swaps, notably bringing jungler Gao "Ning" Zhen-Ning into the game and giving him Olaf, IG turned up the heat with a potent pick composition. Of note, the increasingly popular AD carry pick of Xayah consistently thwarted IM's attempts to engage with well-timed Featherstorms, allowing support Wang "Megan" Liu-Yi's Rakan to engage and dance around the battlefield. Delayed aces, unstoppable crowd control chains, and a massive 15-to-6 kill lead at 25 minutes put IG massively ahead, firing on all cylinders while I May looked lost while trying to play a straight-up 5-vs-5 teamfighting composition. Ultimately, IG got sloppy near the end of Game 2, but, with its massive lead, it was more showing off than throwing as IG secured the 2-0 sweep.
Invictus Gaming prepares to take on EDward Gaming at 8 a.m. ET on Thursday, while I May finish its season against Snake Esports at 2 a.m. ET on Saturday.
