Ultra Prime vs Rogue Warriors: Last spring’s top outsiders meet

Another LPL Summer 2021 group stage clash between Ultra Prime and Rogue Warriors will take place on Tuesday, June 15. Both teams failed in the spring, what will happen to them in the summer?

LPL Summer 2021 is the Chinese professional eSports league for the League of Legends. The tournament is held for the ninth time in its history, the summer part included the competition of 17 best Chinese teams that will play with each other in the group stage. The top ten teams qualify for the play-offs, where the prize money ($656,383) and the right to represent the region at the 2021 World Championship will be awarded.

Ultra Prime are the former eStar Gaming team that took the penultimate 16th place in the final standings in the LPL Spring 2021 Chinese Championship.

Besides the renaming, there were a couple of other changes to the team during the off-season. Arguably the best ex-EStar Gaming player, top lineman Xiaobai, moved to the RNG club system. But it wasn’t just UP who lost, the team acquired a new carry Smlz, who is remembered for playing for Oh My God, but will sit out the whole of last season in the inactive.

So far, the Ultra Prime team has already played two matches in the new LPL season. In the match against the vice-champion of the spring championship FunPlus Phoenix (1:2), the guys managed to get one map, which is already good enough to start with such an opponent, but at the end of the first match week, they lost to the LGD Gaming team (0:2) without a chance.

The fact that Ultra Prime exist at all is already a gift for the LPL. The team formed in 2020 went through a complete lockout, funding problems and somehow managed to compete in the last three seasons of the Chinese championship.

The worst team of the spring championship starts the summer tournament with a familiar defeat. Their first opponent is FunPlus Phoenix (0:2), a defeat from the vice-champion is not too shameful.

The team did not lose their previous squad, they kept everyone in the off-season, but will they be able to play better than in the spring? It’s a difficult question. RW have never been at the top of the Chinese region. Yes, the LPL bronze medal was taken once (2018), but the team has never climbed so high, floundering somewhere in the middle of the table, if not even at the bottom.

The teams don’t like to drag out full-time games for three maps, so I think this game will end with a 2-0 score. The Ultra Prime team looks more interesting than their opponents at the start of the new season, so here are some options for you: Ultra Prime Handicap -1.5 maps for 2.17, Ultra Prime to win on the 1st map for 1.51, Total Under 26.5 frags on the second map for 1.83.