Many believe there is a curse when it comes to the League of Legends World Championship, where the winner is doomed to struggle the following year. That’s likely a superstition, but Invictus Gaming’s season has certainly helped to reinforce this idea.
The LPL revealed the 2019 LPL Summer Split All-Pro team and only one player from the defending champions made the cut.
Top laner Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok is the lone Invictus Gaming player present in the All-Pro team. Ironically he is not even a starter for IG at this point, as the organization announced they would be working with Lee “Duke” Ho-seong in the next stage of the tournament.
FunPlus Phoenix jungler Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang and bot laner Lin “Lwx” Wei-Xiang, Top Esports mid laner and summer MVP Zhuo “Knight9” Ding, and Royal Never Give Up support Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming complete the line-up.
RNG’s bot laner Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao fell to the second team while jungler Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan and mid laner Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao made it to the third tier team.
Invictus Gaming won the 2019 LPL Spring title and competed at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational where the team had a mediocre showing. At Rift Rivals, Invictus won two games out of the three they played.
In the regular season, the team struggled to keep up with other squads. The inconsistent performance from Invictus hurt their chances to earn a higher seed in playoffs. Invictus finished the season in sixth place, so they must win three best-of-five series if they want to make it to the final.
Their first opponent in the playoffs is LNG Esports. If Invictus wins, then they will face RNG in the quarterfinals. If they make it to the semifinals, Invictus will face Top Esports. It’s not the easiest path to the finals, but the players are up for the challenge.
In a post-match interview, support Wang “Baolan” Liu-Yi said that the team performs better in best-of-five series opposed to the best-of-threes they play in the regular season. The rest of the team is confident that they’re back in good form and can win their way through the playoffs. If Invictus makes it to the finals, it would automatically qualify for the World Championship based on championship points.
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