China's League of Legends Pro League Summer season is drawing to a close with this week the last in the regular season.
There are once again LPL Summer matches every day this week as teams make a late scramble for the playoff positions or try to improve their seeding.
Heading into the tenth and final week of the split, six teams - JD Gaming, Top Esports, Royal Never Give Up, Victory Five, Edward Gaming and Weibo Gaming - had already secured their spots in the playoffs with four more places up for grabs.
At the other end of the standings, Team WE, LGD Gaming, Ultra Prime and Rare Atom had begun the week knowing a playoff berth is beyond them.
Seven teams started the week in contention for the final four playoff spots with the successful sides determined by their games win-loss record, meaning taking a game off a bigger side could be as crucial as winning matches in the final week.
With the regional league reaching its conclusion and moving towards the playoffs this week, here is a look at the matches taking place on Tuesday - LGD Gaming v Rare Atom and Top Esports v Victory Five.
What | LGD Gaming v Rare Atom, LPL Summer 2022 |
| Where | China |
| When | 05:45 ET, Tuesday August 9th, 2022 |
How to watch | LPL Twitch channel |
| Odds | LGD Gaming +163, Rare Atom -225 |
Rare Atom can gain pride with comfortable victory over struggling LGD Gaming
It has been the same old story for LGD Gaming at the LPL Summer 2022 with the team once again battling it out in the lower reaches of the division.
Back in the LPL Spring, they finished 16th out of 17 teams and heading into the final week of the LPL Summer, they are out of contention for the playoffs with a 2-11 record.
They begin their final week of the split against Rare Atom, who are also unable to make the playoffs at this stage but have suffered a fall from grace since the LPL Spring in which they finished in the mid-table positions.
And although Rare Atom have only picked up one more win than LGD Gaming, they were pretty solid in week nine, running Invictus Gaming close in 2-1 defeat and overpowering mid-table LNG Esports 2-1.
With that in mind, the -225 on offer for a Rare Atom win looks about right but the better selection could be to back them at -1.5 on the match handicap - in other words to win 2-0 - at +150.
LGD Gaming have lost four of their last five matches in the LPL Summer and three of those defeats were by 2-0 margins.
Rare Atom may be struggling in the lower echelons but they are arguably better than their record suggests and will be determined to finish an underwhelming split on a positive note.
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What | Top Esports v Victory Five, LPL Summer 2022 |
| Where | China |
| When | 08:00 ET, Tuesday August 9th, 2022 |
How to watch | LPL Twitch channel |
| Odds | Top Esports -225, Victory Five +163 |
Top Esports could be too strong for Victory Five
Two teams readying themselves for the LPL Summer 2022 playoffs are Top Esports and Victory Five and they go head to head in a blockbuster clash on the second day of week ten.
These sides locked horns in the semi-finals of the LPL Spring playoffs earlier in the year with Top Esports prevailing 3-1 on that occasion before losing 3-2 to Royal Never Give Up in the final.
Both sides will be hoping for better in the LPL Summer playoffs and Top Esports are once again fancied to come out on top at 4/9.
And it is hard to dispute that given the LPL juggernauts are on a 13-match winning sequence in the split, have dropped only seven games in the split so far and possess not one but two players in contention for the LPL Summer MVP award with Zhuo "knight" Ding and Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang having both picked up nine player of the match awards.
They are the better side but the better betting angle is Top Esports at -1.5 on the match handicap at +150.
Backing them to win 2-0 seems the smart option given their red-hot form and the fact that Victory Five have wobbled in the last couple of weeks, losing to both JD Gaming and OMG in week eight.
The defeat to JD Gaming was by a 2-0 scoreline, suggesting V5 struggle to match the division's better sides and they could be in for a tough time of it against Top Esports.
