The League of Legends Pro League (LPL) 2022 kicks off on Monday, January 10, with the opening round of the LPL 2022 Spring and Michael Lee is here to bring you two betting predictions for the first two games of the new season. Here are his picks for Oh My God vs ThunderTalk Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix vs Royal Never Give Up.
Esports Betting Tips: Monday, January 10th
Oh My God vs ThunderTalks Gaming
LPL 2022 Spring
Oh My God is one of the oldest Chinese LoL teams that had plenty of success in the earlier years but hasn't achieved much for the past three. Last season, OMG finished the LPL 2021 Spring in 15th place with a 3-13 record and while the team improved in the summer split (10th with a 9-7 record), OMG crashed out of the playoffs very early and ended the season in ninth-10th.
Hoping to bounce back, OMG decided to rebuild its roster this offseason, bringing in a few fresh faces to help the organisation rise from the ashes. I'm not sure whether the offseason roster changes will help OMG achieve that, but I believe 2022 Spring will be the split where OMG improves.
Top laner Deng "shanji" Zi-Jian is an exciting addition, assuming he can continue with the growth he had shown last season in the LDL, and I expect Dai "Able" Zhi-Chun to improve as well. Other that the two, OMG have some solid pieces, but I will add that OMG seem more like a team that will slowly improve rather than a team that will be very good straight out of the gates.
I don't have many great things to say about ThunderTalk Gaming, who come off as the main candidates to win this split's wooden spoon. Losing jungler Wang "Xiaopeng" Peng to TES is a huge problem, and I don't see Wang "frigid" Xin as a solid replacement.
Overall, TT Gaming's offseason roster changes seem more like a sidegrade, which is concerning, especially since we're talking about a team that placed 13th and 16th in 2021 LPL Spring and LPL Summer.
Although I don't expect TT to achieve much this season, they still have enough talented players to compete with mid-table teams such as OMG and should be able to pick up a few wins early on. OMG should achieve more long-term, but they will need time, and likely won't be very impressive for the first couple of weeks.
FunPlus Phoenix vs Royal Never Give Up
LPL 2022 Spring
FunPlus Phoenix went through a major roster overhaul ahead of the 2022 season and parted ways with four players, keeping only ADC Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang. Many people will tell you that FPX's roster for the 2022 LPL season is much weaker, but I wouldn't write them off just yet.
The lineup FPX put together, with Kim "Clid" Tae-min and Kim "Gori" Tae-woo has the potential to do well and compete for a top-four finish. I don't expect FPX to reach the same levels they had in 2019, but FPX looks decent overall.
Royal Never Give Up were one of the top teams in 2021 – won MSI 2021 and reached QF of the 2021 LoL World Championship – and I fully expect them to be one of the top teams in the 2022 season. I would even dare to say that RNG can be stronger in 2022.
During the offseason, RNG parted ways with mid laner Yuan "Cryin" Cheng-Wei, who got replaced by Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao, who is returning back to the mid lane after spending the last year as the top laner. In his place, RNG acquired Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin, who was one of the best top laners of 2021, so overall, the roster moves were solid.
I'm not trying to say that Cryin was a terrible player, but he surely wasn't a standout performer for RNG and was more times a liability for the team rather than someone who carried the games.
So with that in mind, Xiaohu's transition back to the mid lane isn't concerning, considering he doesn't need to do exceptionally well for RNG to achieve the same level of success as in 2021, he just needs to be an average mid laner. But if Xiaohu can step up, we are looking at a much stronger version of RNG.
There are still questions about how will RNG's identity change with Xiaohu back in the mid lane, but that's something we will have to wait and find out.
RNG are the stronger team, but we're so early into the season that the raw quality doesn't mean much. I don't believe FPX are as weak as many portray them to be, and the fact that FPX did better than RNG at the Demacia Cup leads me to believe this could be a much closer match than many expect.
