LPL Summer Playoffs Preview – who is heading to the grand finals?

After an intense week of LPL Playoffs, only three teams are left to fight for a spot at the Summer finals on August 5.

LPL 2023 Summer Playoffs Finals – It’s a 3-way fight

JDG and BLG faced off on July 30 in the winners’ bracket and the outcome was probably something no one expected. BLG dropped the ball heavily, getting dominated by JDG in a quick 3-0 series, which ended in less than 2 and a half hours.

Once again, BLG failed to get a win over what is now their kryptonite, after losing all series so far this season. Even in the regular split, BLG defeated all the teams in the LPL, except JDG.

Now, BLG and LNG will go up against one another in the losers’ bracket to determine the second finalist of the LPL Summer Playoffs. If BLG were to win this match, they would also lock a spot at Worlds, following JDG as the second team to do so.

Otherwise, they would have to wait for the outcome of the finals. If JDG were to beat LNG in the finals, they would still lock second seed. In the other case, BLG would have to go through the Regional Finals. You can check the championship points standings here.

LPL Summer Playoffs Preview – Matches and predictions

Below you can find the next two matches for the LPL Summer Playoffs:

BLG vs LNG – 11:00 CET – August 1
TBD vs JDG – 11:00 CET – August 5

BLG vs LNG

While we would’ve probably expected BLG to win this match initially, there are higher concerns for this match after their performance against JDG, especially considering LNG’s ability to push JDG to 5 games when the two faced off.

BLG looked a bit shaky and also quite timid in the series, which is not a common thing to see. All the players felt like they were scared of messing up and going for the plays against JDG, and eventually allowed them to take control over the game.

This must not happen against LNG, who has been having solid performances and two strong carries to play around. Tarzan found a good form again, playing around his mid laner Scout and giving him all the resources: Xun and Yagao will have to match that.

The other important matchup will be between ADCs: GALA and Elk will be an explosive battle worth looking at. But the ones swinging the matchup in one or the other’s favor will be determined by their support, Hang and ON, with the latter a lot more favored.

Top lane, on the other hand, will be a weird one. On paper, Bin dominated all top laners except 369, so Zika should be an easy target for him. But Zika stepped up quite a lot in recent games, so there might not be such a gap.

Overall, I feel like we’re going to see a much closer series than we would’ve probably anticipated. LNG have serious chances of making the upset happen, especially after the match BLG played against JDG. It shouldn’t be a one-sided series, regardless, so let’s hope it goes to silver scrapes and let the best team on the day win.

Prediction: BLG 50% | LNG 50%

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