Royal Never Give Up entered their Worlds 2017 campaign as the second seed after a disappointing reverse sweep loss in the LPL finals to EDG. As the second seed coming into the tournament on their home soil, RNG was also said to be the second best Chinese team. They were not ranked second to Summer champions EDG, but to Chinese 3rd seed Team WE who had to make it to the group stage through the play-in tournament. There’s a theme developing here for RNG—second place.

That theme goes deeper when we examine the star carry of RNG, AD carry Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao. Uzi’s career so far has been almost exclusively a list of falling just short. LPL Spring and Summer 2017, Summer 2016, China’s Regional Final 2014, and the two that hurt the most Worlds 2014 and 2013. For a player like Uzi, who believes that an AD Carry needs to be essentially perfect in terms of in-game micro play, coming just short of victory so many times has just fueled the desire to win.

RNG has had a somewhat predictable playstyle so far in their Worlds run, although much of that predictability could be a factor of an “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” type of mindset. Many teams find what works for them during the best-of-one centered group stage and stick with it. If the strategy works, the team makes it to the knockout stage without revealing the many other strategies they may have.

What has worked almost flawlessly so far for RNG has been the performance of their mid laner Li "xiaohu" Yuan Hao. If xiaohu is able to continue his great form against Fnatic, it will open up Jungler Liu "mlxg" Shi Yu to play aggressively into Fnatic’s side of the map. Pressuring the enemy mid laner and gaining priority will also allow xiaohu the ability to roam first, potentially in conjunction with mlxg. For RNG to make quick work of Fnatic, they should focus these roams onto enemy top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer. sOAZ has shown he still has what it takes to win and was an integral part in Fnatic’s week 2 win streak to get out of groups. RNG being able to shut down sOAZ would be a big step forward towards semifinals.

Uzi is a dominant laner and with his faithful support Shi "Ming" Sen Ming by his side they make a formidable opponent for any team they face, and they will be able to handle the 2v2 against Fnatic. With the Ardent Censor rush being the go-to meta thus far, Ming has begun to include gold generation runes into his rune page. This extra gold generation allows him to purchase ardent censor earlier than his opponent, which gives Uzi the freedom to go for even more aggressive trades.

For RNG to make quick work of this series, look for the team to snowball off of xiaohu’s pressure mid lane to get picks and neutral objectives. The earlier RNG can get Uzi ahead, the better it will be for their chances of success. Uzi has been on a tear so far through Worlds and unless that changes in this series, RNG should play through him in order to have the best chance of advancing to the semifinals.

If the goal for RNG is to drop the “second best” moniker that hangs over them, the possible semifinal matchup against Korea’s SKT would be the greatest obstacle in their path. But as it stands now, it remains just that—a possibility. First, RNG has to complete step one of the knockout stage, overcoming Fnatic.

Photo Credits: Riot Games

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