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In a solid show of strength, Royal Never Give Up (7-1, match score 14-5) swept Newbee (2-6, 6-13) on Saturday during Week 5, Day 3 of the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai, China.
Royal Never Give Up made this series exciting before Game 1 even began with a surprising early Leona pick followed shortly by a Nocturne. Jungler Liu "Mlxg" Shi-Yu got off to a great start on the latter champion, outplaying Baek "Swift" Da-hoon's Graves to grab first blood before even hitting level six. Mlxg and the rest of RNG snowballed brilliantly off of this lead, pulling off gank after gank and taking skirmish after skirmish. RNG's chance at a perfect game ended when its bot lane was caught out at the 24-minute mark, but that didn't stop the team from finishing what was a stomp of a Game 1 in just under 30 minutes.
Game 2 saw an even earlier first blood for Royal, this time claimed by top laner Yan "LetMe" Jun-Ze's Renekton in a top lane gank before the five-minute mark. There was a short period of time in this game where Newbee looked like it would finally find its footing, but in the end this disaster was no more mitigated than the first. Newbee managed to find a few more kills when RNG overstepped, but could do nothing to win skirmishes or stop the members of Royal from taking whichever objectives it pleased. Ultimately, Game 2 ended in an even quicker 28-and-a-half minutes, completing the dominant sweep for RNG.
Still sitting alone at the top of the table, Royal will look to continue its success up against Team WE on Saturday, March 18 at 3 a.m ET. Meanwhile, Newbee looks to rebound against I May on Friday, March 17 at 5 a.m ET.