Anyone's Legend have taken the series. Down a game to Beijing JDG Esports in their LPL Week 4 best-of-three, AL won the next two and closed it out 2–1, with the decider over in just 20:59.

The opener belonged to JDG. They finished it with 23 kills to 16, ten towers to two and a gold advantage of more than 9,000. GALA's Jhin went 7/2/10 and HongQ's Anivia added 5/2/10, while Xiaoxu chipped in 6/2/7 on Jax. It was a tidy, convincing win… and arguably the last time JDG looked like themselves in the series.

Shanks takes over

If one name explains the turnaround, it is Shanks. AL's mid laner finished the series with 27 kills against 8 deaths, and he was at his sharpest once the momentum swung. He went 11/1/6 on Locke in game two and 8/3/6 on Viktor in game three, where he was involved in 93% of his side's kills. Even in the loss, his Cassiopeia led AL with eight kills.

He had plenty of help. Hope was untouched on Varus in game two at 8/0/8, and across the final two games he died just once. Tarzan's 5/1/14 Lee Sin was a big part of a game-two scoreline that finished 24 kills to 7, with AL's gold lead topping 14,000 by the end. Over those two games, AL took all eight dragons and both Baron Nashors.

A familiar story for JDG's carries

JDG's problem was the mirror image of their opener. GALA, so productive in game one, went 3/4/1 on Corki and 2/2/0 on Ezreal across the two losses. JunJia never found his footing either, finishing game two at 0/5/5 on Jarvan IV. In the decider, HongQ's Annie was part of all eight JDG kills, but there simply weren't enough of them to go around: Xiaoxu and GALA each had a hand in just a quarter of their team's takedowns.

For AL, it is a result built on a mid laner in form and a bot lane that stopped dying. For JDG, the question is how a side that controlled game one so completely could look so far off the pace a game later. They will want an answer quickly.