WE have swept TES. Xi'an Team WE beat TOP ESPORTS 2-0 in Week 4 of the LPL on August 14, and the two games could hardly have looked more different: a 59:44 grind followed by a 24:56 rout.

The opener was the one TES will regret. On paper they did plenty right, taking four dragons to WE's one, matching them on barons and finishing just one tower behind at 8-7. JackeyLove posted 43,631 damage on Ziggs, the highest figure of anyone in the series. It still wasn't enough. WE ended that game 31-20 up in kills and roughly 9,000 gold ahead, and their bot lane was arguably the difference: About finished 7/2/11 on Ashe with 34,405 damage, while Zhuo went 0/8/11 on Shen across the aisle.

Karis at the centre

If one player defined the series, it was Karis. The WE mid laner went 10/4/11 on Ahri and then 9/1/7 on LeBlanc, for 19 kills against five deaths over the two games. His 28,229 damage in game two was more than any other player put up in that match. Around him, Monki and Erha were involved in almost everything, with Monki's kill participation at 74% and 78% across the two games.

Game two was as lopsided as the scoreline suggests. WE took it 23-6 in kills, 10-2 in towers and finished about 13,500 gold clear. Tian had a rough outing on Lee Sin at 0/7/4, and JackeyLove and Zhuo didn't record a kill between them. Creme's Locke was involved in 83% of TES's kills, but with only six on the board that was scant consolation.

Questions for TES

The worrying part for TES is that their stronger showing came in a game they still lost. Holding the dragon count 4-1 and getting a monster damage tally out of JackeyLove should usually be a platform to win from; instead, ten more deaths than WE across that game seemingly undid the work. The follow-up offered nothing to build on.

For WE, it's a clean two-game win and an emphatic one in its second half. Whether Karis can keep producing at this level will go a long way to deciding how far they push from here, while TES will need to figure out how to turn objective control into results.