Saint Gun returned to the starting lineup and scored 10 points for his performance after the game
On the evening of April 5, the 2024 LPL Spring Playoffs ushered in the JDG vs. WBG match. The team that wins this game will advance to the Final Four, which is equivalent to one more chance of repechage in the playoffs. This year's MSI will be held in Chengdu, China, which is a good opportunity for LPL teams to further attract fans, so all major teams hope to advance to the top two. JDG switched to Flander before their opening game, and the Gunslinger hasn't been in the starting lineup for a while, and everyone is curious about how much gas the veteran still has.
JDG's choice of Flander as a starter was mainly due to the change in the playoff version, which improved the ability to carry in the lower lane and the priority of the top laner position. In addition to Quisanti who is still active in the arena, the new top laner heroes Trist and Rexer are also characters that Flander plays well, and these two top laner heroes eat the proficiency of the players. As you can see from T1's series against HLE, even the new champion Zeus is not very familiar with both versions of the hero, but has a high priority.
Many viewers thought that JDG's intention to replace Flander was too obvious, and they wanted to take out heroes like Rexai and Udil on the top lane to mess around, so as to reserve the opportunity to choose Conte in the bottom lane. Zdz, on the other hand, played with confidence in the playoffs and had a chance to suppress Flander's development during the matchup, but it turned out to be the opposite. Throughout the series, Flander was the one who took the initiative on the top lane, and continued to put pressure on the wings, as well as playing good damage in teamfights. Lexie's four kills and three consecutive MVPs proved to us that Xuanjun is not old.
In the first game, WBG grabbed top laner Trist, but Flander took out Jax as Conte. Trist is a hybrid character who relies on walking A for kites, and his core W skill is a basic attack effect, which can be perfectly restrained by Jax's E skill. Flander's line details are well done, and he has always controlled the lane under the tower, and Trist, a hero, has no displacement, and he is afraid of being caught in the early stage. After the battle against Ueno, JDG's advantage is very great, especially Triste's single belt may be outflanked by Taliya's big move, and WBG can't handle the lane.
The MVP of the first game to Zhao Xin of Kanavi is also acceptable, after all, his early jungler rhythm suppressed WBG and made the upper lane more comfortable, but the MVP of the second game was Flander's hard power. His Rexey put out a 6/3/10 stat and a wave of four kills in the key Dragons, earning all six MVP votes after the game. Lexy frantically pushed the line and invaded the jungle in the early stage, so that WBG could not play around the upper half, and they chose to target Ruler in the lower half, but Lexus developed too well, resulting in insufficient damage in the middle of WBG.
Luna in JDG's second game was average, and Yagao's Anne mainly provided control, which resulted in Lexie becoming a teamfight reaper. WBG was forced to ban Lexer in the third game, and Flander got his wish to get Trist and put on a teaching board. When WBG landed a lane kill in the bottom lane for 5 minutes, Flander had already suppressed 20 knives in the top lane and gained control of the lane, which allowed Kanavi to successfully capture Zdz after level 6. In the crucial dragon team battle, Trist played full of control and damage, and WBG was wiped out by the team and the economic gap was widened.
In the 20th minute of the game, Triste, who was ahead of a large piece, made WBG have to huddle and catch people, and they seized the time difference to get the big dragon, which once shrunk the economy to less than 3,000. But WBG has never been able to solve JDG's single belt, Flander led the line to let the team get the dragon soul and the big dragon, WBG's last wave of strong capture Trist failed, the frontal battlefield Varus was opened, and the team was directly defeated in the team battle. It's rare to see an LPL team play a single-belt system like this, and Flander made me dream back to the S11 World Finals, the gruffs that made the opponent's scalp tingle.
Overall, JDG's Ueno played better this time, and the mid lane player did his duty, and the bottom lane could finally lie down once. Due to Flander's two versions of strong toplaning, Jax was able to be selected as a counter, and he complemented Sheer's style, which gave JDG a big advantage in BP, and WBG's Zdz, which had played well before, was uncomfortable. In the post-game group interview, Flander also confidently gave his performance a 10, after all, he hadn't played in a while, and as a result, he returned to win the series MVP alone.
If JDG can maintain their current momentum, they may have more surprises for us in the subsequent playoffs. After all, the two top laners have different styles, and the team can give different tactics to choose people, and if the opponent focuses on the top or bottom lane, Yagao's laning pressure will be much less, but Annie, who can't get sick, is still a bit funny. But today's game can also be seen that Ruler's competitive state is average, in this version of the crit stream and the big core ADC, he did not play a very bright performance, and he still needs to be prepared when he encounters TES and BLG.