LPL Regionals: StarHorn Royal Club vs LGD Gaming

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The second best of three for Chinese Regionals (click here for more details on format, timing, and when and where to watch) is a match between StarHorn Royal Club and LGD Gaming. The winner of the North American Playoffs predictions faceoff, Nilu "Dooraven" Kulasingham faces challenger Hughbo "Souldra" Shim to weigh in on the outcome of the match.

Both StarHorn Royal Club and LGD Gaming have undergone extensive roster changes over the past year, so it doesn't make sense to measure their head-to-head further than the Summer Split. Despite splitting even in both their sets during the regular season, StarHorn effectively dominated LGD in a 3-0 victory in the Playoffs to knock them out of the tournament and into fourth place. SHRC are the heavy favorites this time around, but what advantage do they press to close out, and what weakness can LGD exploit to get a foot in the door?

The Contenders

StarHorn Royal Club: Hard and Fast

Most Picked (Regular Split)	Gragas	13 games
Most Successful Champion (Regular Split)	Braum	6/6 games
W-L Regular Split	18-10
W-L Playoffs	7-6
Average Game Time (Playoffs)	37:00
Dragons (Playoffs)	29/52
Barons (Playoffs)	10/21

StarHorn Royal Club has had an up and down season. After placing sixth in the Spring regular season, narrowly avoiding auto-relegation, the team revamped the roster. The new players include Choi "inSec" Inseok and Yoon "Zero" Kyungsup from Korea. Over the Summer, the roster had its ups and downs as inSec and Zero strove to learn Chinese, but in the end, the talent prevailed. SHRC made a push for the top and 2-0'd both OMG and Edward Gaming on their way to a second place tie to close out the split.

SHRC plays a fast-paced game from the word "go" and often looks for early invades or dragon fights to force. Of the seven games in the Playoffs where they attained the first dragon, they only lost two. For StarHorn, an early lead is do or die. On average, their winning games were seven minutes longer than their losing games, which is a result of their struggles to close out. SHRC brute-forced their winning games against OMG, but OMG would occasionally out rotate them and make victory difficult. In two games, OMG took inhibitors before SHRC's gold lead merely became insurmountable, and they took out OMG's nexus.

Early leads come to StarHorn through their bottom lane. Jian "UZI" Zihao and Zero pick up hefty gold leads in the 2v2, and the team will force early dragon fights to start the snowball game. When mid laner, Lei "corn" Wen has Orianna or Fizz, he sets up fights well with inSec, often using Shockwaves while Nocturne travels in midair to snag an unsuspecting carry.

Yet SHRC struggles with champion pool. InSec, corn, and top laner Jiang "Cola" Na have two or three champions they play well. SHRC had the smallest number of unique champions played in the regular season—even with inSec pulling out a one time Shaco. Despite small champion pools on all fronts, however, opposing teams focus bans onto inSec. His tendency to jump into fights with reckless abandon is more easily punished when he does't have Lee Sin or a stealth champion to make his escape. His over-zealousness provides ample opportunities for smart teams to make comebacks. This is a tendency SHRC will have to reign in if they hope to make it far in the bracket.

Why StarHorn Royal Club will best LGD Gaming by Nilu "Dooraven" Kulasingham

SHRC will beat LGD simply because they are, overall, the better team. The last time they met, SHRC swept aside LGD in an easy 3-0 series. Insec is a better jungler than Quan and although XQ and Pyl are a good bottom lane, they are facing perhaps the best bot lane in China: Uzi and Zero. LGD’s best hope is that We1less somehow snowballs on an assassin like Zed or Yasuo and carries the game for them, but it’s going to be rough especially with Corn playing well as he is.

LGD Gaming: Patient and Measured

Most Picked (Regular Split)	Lucian	16 games
Most Successful Champion (Regular Split)	Lee Sin	5/8 games
W-L Regular Split	14-14
W-L Playoffs	0-6
Average Game Time (Playoffs)	32:11
Dragons (Playoffs)	8/22
Barons (Playoffs)	2/9

If StarHorn Royal Club has a champion pool limitation now, LGD certainly does, though there's is much more troubling. Part of why Lee Sin has been LGD's most successful champion, even with only a 5-3 record is that Zhu "Quan" Yongquan seems nearly incapable of playing other champions. Toward the end of 2014 LPL Summer, he managed to play a handful of Jarvan IV and Elise games that ended in victories, but his overall record with those champions were 3-6 and 2-3 during the regular split.

Wei "We1less" Lian, on the other hand, has been a solid pickup for LGD. His favoring of assassins and his ability to play a wide variety of mid lane champions brings to mind Invictus Gaming's Zzita1, especially since he managed to bring out both AP Kog'Maw and Spirit of the Spectral Wraith in China this split only to see them catch on. In the match against SHRC, We1less will be their trump card, though it can be said that corn is better on his best two champions than We1less.

Chen "Pyl" Bo has honed LGD as their captain, and some might even say LGD is one of the strategically strongest teams in China. In games where LGD bested SHRC in the past, they did so with clever diving compositions and intelligent map movements. SHRC might best LGD in raw skill, but if the team keeps from tilting, they could pull an upset.

In their first two Playoffs games against Edward Gaming, LGD remained relevant by taking dragons. In two games they took five of the eight dragons they managed to secure the entire six games they played. If LGD falls behind in a set, they seem to lose their focus, so if they want to beat SHRC into the loser bracket and begin their climb to Worlds, LGD will look to win the first game of the best of three.

Why LGD Gaming will best StarHorn Royal Club by Hughbo "Souldra" Shim

It's obvious that LGD is the heavy under-dog, and they should be; their previous performance against StarHorn during the LPL Playoffs doesn't inspire glowing confidence for the team's growing Western fanbase. Yet, the optimist in me simply cannot ignore the amount of potential that these boys have to turn this series on its head.

Should LGD be able to escape the "Early Game" unscathed, We1less, XQ, and PYL will be able to effectively subjugate an SHRC team that often makes puzzling decisions around objectives. The former, especially, has a strong chance to firmly entrench himself in China's Middle-Lane elite with a fantastic performance on his Assassins, or more standard heroes like Orianna. Additionally, Quan has a chance to redeem his past disappointments with the two new, flavor of the month Jungle Champions: Kha'Zix and Nunu. The Meta is in a perfect place for LGD to finally spread their wings and take flight in pursuit of a spot at the Season 4 World Championships.