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Jian "Uzi" Zihao, bot laner of Bilibili Gaming (BLG). /Sina Weibo account of BLG
The League of Legends Pro League (LPL) on Friday announced the schedule for the upcoming spring season that will begin on January 10 and end on March 20.
Each of the 17 teams will play the rest once in best-of-3 matches (BO3) in nine weeks to decide who will win the spring season championship.
Usually, the season opener will be eye-catching matchups either between champion candidates or teams (players) with a history. But the two matches the LPL arranged on the first day don't belong to this category.
Oh My God (OMG) will meet ThunderTalk Gaming (TT) first before FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) grapple with Royal Never Give Up (RNG) later on January 10.
Edward Gaming (EDG) from League of Legends Pro League (LPL) celebrates after defeating DWG KIA (DK) from League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) to win the 2021 League of Legends World Championship Final in Reykjavík, Iceland, November 6, 2021. /CFP
Edward Gaming (EDG), reigning champions of the League of Legends World Champions (Worlds 2021), will play against JD Gaming on January 11. JDG were fourth in the spring season last year but finished the summer season with six straight losses. So, they are unlikely to cause too much trouble for EDG.
Bilibili Gaming (BLG), which acquired LPL legendary bot laner Jian "Uzi" Zihao and former FPX support Liu "Crisp" Qingsong, will play their first match of the spring season on January 16 against Weibo Gaming (WBG). WBG used to be the World's 2020 runner-up Suning Gaming and reshuffled their lineup in 2021 by signing former Invictus Gaming (iG) world champion top laner Kang "TheShy" Seung-lok.
WBG should be a great test for Uzi, who stayed away from professional eSports for more than one year and a half.
Rosters of Royal Never Give Up (RNG). /Sina Weibo account of RNG
Things will get more interesting when the Spring Festival approaches. On January 27, RNG and BLG will play against each other. Uzi spent the best years of his career in RNG, and their relations complicated in the past two years. Nothing makes a better story than playing against your former teammates in professional sports.
Another two matches are also must-sees for LPL fans. EDG will meet Top Esports (TES) on February 26. After disappointing 2021, TES landed former JDG top laner Zhang "Zoom" Xingran and FPX jungler Gao "Tian" Tianliang, becoming one of the most promising teams in the spring season.
Then on March 5, EDG will meet another challenger, RNG. Back in Worlds 2021, EDG knocked out RNG in the quarterfinals, starting their epic journey to win the world title. RNG won’t need extra motivation to invest 120-percent efforts trying to prove that they are as good as EDG.
