Invictus Gaming have another series in the bank. IG beat WeiboGaming 2–1 in Week 4 of the LPL on August 16, but only after WBG pulled level and dragged the best-of-three to a decider.

JiaQi leads the way

IG's wins ran through their bot lane. JiaQi finished the opener 12/2/6 on Jhin, then put up 49,423 damage on Yunara in the third game, the biggest damage total of any player in the series. Rookie was close behind in the decider, going 8/2/6 on Aurora, and with Meiko collecting 19 assists on Lulu, IG's carries were seemingly never short of support.

The structural numbers were just as one-sided in IG's wins. The first game ran past 44 minutes, yet IG finished it with ten towers to WBG's one. The decider was settled in under 30, with IG taking 11 towers and both Barons. Wei was a constant presence too, featuring in 92% of IG's kills in the opener.

A response from WBG that didn't last

WBG did have their moment. Elk went 10/3/6 on Kalista as WBG took the second game 21 kills to 15, with Moham stacking 18 assists on Renata Glasc and Xiaohu adding 16 on Galio. For one game, WBG's bottom side looked every bit the equal of IG's.

The decider told a different story. Xiaohu's Rumble finished 5/8/2, the most deaths of anyone in that game, and Zika's Yorick farmed heavily but took part in just a third of WBG's kills. Elk matched JiaQi almost exactly on creep score, but the gold gap and the tower count suggest WBG could not turn that farm into map pressure.

For IG, the encouraging sign is how much of the damage load JiaQi and Rookie shared, and how comfortably they controlled the map once ahead on the scoreboard. For WBG, the question is whether the version of the team that showed up in game two can show up more consistently... because across the series as a whole, it was IG who looked the more complete side.