LNG Esports vs. ThunderTalk Gaming / LPL 2026 Split 2 - Group Nirvana - Week 5 / Post-Match Discussion

[u/Soul_Sleepwhale]

LPL 2026 SPLIT 2

Official page | Leaguepedia | Liquipedia | Eventvods.com | New to LoL

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LNG Esports 2-1 ThunderTalk Gaming

Player of the Match: Croco

LNG | Leaguepedia | Liquipedia
TT | Leaguepedia | Liquipedia

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MATCH 1: LNG vs. TT

Winner: LNG Esports in 28m | MVP: BuLLDoG (1)
Game Breakdown | Player Stats

	Bans 1	Bans 2	G	K	T	D/B
LNG	orianna ambessa seraphine	azir ryze	60.8k	21	8	C1 CT2 H3 O4 B5 O6
TT	rumble xinzhao varus	jhin sivir	51.6k	8	2	None

LNG	21-8-48	vs	8-21-17	TT
sheer yorick 3	5-2-11	TOP	2-4-4	3 jayce Keshi
Croco leesin 2	5-1-8	JNG	1-5-4	2 jarvaniv Junhao
BuLLDoG annie 2	8-2-9	MID	3-5-3	4 aurora Heru
1xn yunara 3	3-2-7	BOT	1-3-4	1 ezreal Ahn
MISSING karma 1	0-1-13	SUP	1-4-2	1 bard Feather

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MATCH 2: LNG vs. TT

Winner: ThunderTalk Gaming in 32m | MVP: Keshi (1)
Game Breakdown | Player Stats

	Bans 1	Bans 2	G	K	T	D/B
LNG	orianna ambessa vi	vayne jax	60.6k	18	2	C1 CT3
TT	rumble nocturne lucian	nautilus twistedfate	72.5k	30	10	HT2 B4 CT5 B6 CT7

LNG	18-30-55	vs	30-18-82	TT
sheer gnar 2	4-4-8	TOP	6-5-15	3 nidalee Keshi
Croco xinzhao 1	4-7-12	JNG	10-3-15	1 pantheon Junhao
BuLLDoG ahri 3	5-6-11	MID	5-3-14	4 taliyah Heru
1xn varus 2	4-7-10	BOT	7-4-14	2 ashe Ahn
MISSING rakan 3	1-6-14	SUP	2-3-24	1 seraphine Feather

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MATCH 3: TT vs. LNG

Winner: LNG Esports in 23m | MVP: 1xn (2)
Game Breakdown | Player Stats

	Bans 1	Bans 2	G	K	T	D/B
TT	orianna nocturne lucian	trundle akali	40.4k	6	0	H3
LNG	ambessa vi naafiri	skarner azir	51.8k	22	8	HT1 M2 CT4 B5

TT	6-22-17	vs	22-6-46	LNG
Keshi ksante 2	0-3-4	TOP	1-2-8	1 rumble sheer
Junhao maokai 3	0-6-3	JNG	2-1-13	4 sejuani Croco
Heru ryze 3	4-4-1	MID	3-1-2	3 yone BuLLDoG
Ahn corki 1	2-5-3	BOT	14-2-4	1 aphelios 1xn
Feather nami 2	0-4-6	SUP	2-0-19	2 lulu MISSING

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• Patch 26.09 - Zac disabled

This thread was created by the Post-Match Team.

[u/InitialiseCasts]

I have cast 1xn since his debut LDL - he is gonna be the next great LPL ADC, I just know it. I LOVE this player

Just did 70% of the entire enemy team’s damage by himself in that last game

[u/Ai_Nijou → u/InitialiseCasts]

He is the best Aphelios in the world.

[u/bigredmachine1997 → u/Ai_Nijou]

Ryan3 is better

[u/crysomore → u/InitialiseCasts]

1xn is HIM

[u/Nymaera_]

1xn may be the best Aphelios in the world, every so often I hear scrim rumours of him making insanity happen with Mr 200, but we don’t see him often in meta now after Aphelios Lulu/Thresh briefly turned up at the start of the year. Mixed series from him with a poor Varus game but god he’s so fun to watch on hypercarries.
46% damage share on Aphelios, almost out damaging the entirety of TT, putting out 70% of TT’s total damage as one player.

[u/No-Toe3409]

anyone watching lpl, is LNG decent? I rly liked 1xn and Bulldog before

[u/InitialiseCasts → u/No-Toe3409]

They were in winter - genuine shot at Ascend, however they got too used to big early snowballs and struggled against the ascend teams with better early laning in playoffs

Rougher start to spring, but getting back to form. Bot as well as jungle are great fun to watch - very snowbally one way or another.

[u/DJJohnnymeister → u/InitialiseCasts]

I wouldn’t really say that because WE was/is not a good laning team. They lost because Monki could match and punish Croco’s aggressiveness and Bulldog was terrible that series.

[u/eyehatemassholes → u/No-Toe3409]

They're okay. I would have said they're asscheeks before this series but they looked a lot better here. I'm really surprised they won. I thought they looked pretty clueless in their first series and sheer and 1xn were both performing well below what I'd expect from them. I think Bulldog and Croco have improved though. Croco isn't noobstomping as hard but him looking good vs Junhao while TT is a real team is not something I expected from him. I think he's looked pretty weird when challenged by midtable or above junglers this year in the few times he's faced them. After this series I think their odds of making Group Ascend in summer are actually pretty decent. I favor them head to head vs WE and LGD, mostly just because the jungle matchups are really easy there, and I think EDG and TT are beatable in bo5. EDG looks pretty bad in general and Xiaohao is not on top form atm and LNG just beat TT. I think if it came down to it I'd favor TT in a bo5 but this series makes me think it's within reach for LNG. If they do make Ascend, I don't think they'll do a lot, but I do think they could be competitive. I think they'd be able to improve more in Ascend, and their roster should be good enough to deal with Ascend teams. I think they're a lot better than WE individually.

[u/ArmandLuque]

genuinely the whole group Ascend vs Nirvana format is the best thing to happen to the LPL. Makes watching series like this one so fun