It has been a decisive few days in China's League of Legends Pro League, as teams continue to battle it out for playoff berths in week nine.
The week began with wins for Royal Never Give Up and FunPlus Phoenix over Anyone's Legend and Ultra Prime.
Ultra Prime subsequently saw their playoff hopes mathematically dashed and the same happened to Rare Atom on day two as they fell to defeat against Invictus Gaming.
High-flying Victory Five, meanwhile, ran out comfortable winners over Bilibili Gaming, while on day three of week nine there were wins for ThunderTalk and JD against LGD Gaming and Weibo Gaming respectively.
Friday also serves up two intriguing fixtures as Top Esports look to keep the pressure on JD Gaming at the top with victory over struggling LGD, before Bilibili and OMG, two teams either side of the playoff line, lock horns.
| What | LGD Gaming v Top Esports, LPL Summer 2022 |
| Where | China |
| When | 04.45am ET, Friday 5th August 2022 |
| How to watch | LPL Twitch channel |
| Odds | LGD Gaming +800, Top Esports -2500 |
LGD Gaming finished second from bottom in the LPL Spring standings earlier this year and things have not got much better for the GameSquare-owned outfit in the LPL Summer 2022.
They still find themselves in the table's lower echelons, with a 2-10 record and no hope of making the playoffs and their failure to settle on a best starting team has held them back.
Defeat to ThunderTalk Gaming on Wednesday would have hurt them given both sides had equal records in the LPL Spring, but TT Gaming have since shown signs of progression, whereas LGD are merely stagnating near the bottom of the standings.
They are averaging 14.7 deaths per game in the LPL Summer and starting bot laner Xie "Jinjiao" Jin-Shan's kill-death ratio is a disappointing 0.8 in this Split.
Both of those statistics show this is a side susceptible to attacks and for that reason high-flying Top Esports are worth considering at -10.5 on the kill handicap at -120.
Top Esports have won 12 of their 13 matches in the LPL Summer and are unsurprisingly heavily fancied to win this match.
They are already through to the playoffs of the LPL Summer with a high seed likely and they have the best game differential in the division at 25-7.
This is a game they should most definitely win, but it is also worth noting that in their last three games they have won the kill counts 31-20 v ThunderTalk , 36-14 v Ultra Prime and 38-16 v Rare Atom and so the kill handicap bet looks the best way to approach this match between two sides in contrasting form.
| What | Bilibili Gaming v OMG, LPL Summer 2022 |
| Where | China |
| When | 07:00pm ET, Friday 5th August 2022 |
| How to watch | LPL Twitch channel |
| Odds | Bilibili Gaming +110, OMG -150 |
Time is running out for Bilibili Gaming, who are trying to make a late push for the LPL Summer 2022 playoffs and they could have a tough time of it against OMG.
Bilibili placed eighth in the LPL Spring standings earlier this year, but have fallen short of that this split, having lost nine of their 14 encounters.
They have already featured in week nine, but were blown apart by Victory Five 2-0, with Song "Rookie" Eui-jin having once again been named player of the match with 13 kills, four deaths and 24 assists in the series.
Those figures alone show how dominant a win that was, however Bilibili Gaming have still failed to win a map only twice in their last ten matches in the LPL Summer.
OMG are on the cusp of securing a playoff berth with a 7-7 win-loss record and they enjoyed a brilliant week eight, winning back-to-back matches against Anyone's Legend and Victory Five.
They should come out on top in this one, but it is also worth considering that seven of their last nine encounters have been settled by 2-1 scorelines.
The meeting between the teams in week two of the Spring split earlier this year also finished 2-1, albeit in favour of Bilibili Gaming on that occasion, and the best betting angle in this one could be to back over 2.5 maps at -110.
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