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EDward Gaming took care of business Friday in its first match since returning from Rift Rivals with a 2-0 sweep of Newbee to begin Week 5, Day 2 of the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai.
Heading into Game 1, Newbee (4-4, 10-11 match record) had an eye on the late game as it drafted a double-marksman composition, which led EDward Gaming (5-2, 11-4 match record) to focus its draft on early-game success. With jungler Ming "Clearlove7" Kai's Rek'Sai and support Tian "Meiko" Ye's Tahm Kench roaming into Newbee's jungle together, EDG jumped out to a small gold lead, effectively bullying Newbee's jungler. In traditional EDG fashion, a 10th-minute five-man tower dive in the bottom lane gave the aggressors a 3-for-2 kill advantage and first turret gold, which put EDG at the early advantage they needed.
Newbee played conservatively, not letting EDG find free picks as it bided time to get to the late-game, but EDG's 4,000-gold lead was still a problem, and Newbee fell behind 4-to-0 in towers. EDG earned a 4-for-1 teamfight win near the 20-minute mark and used its ever-increasing gold lead to gain more map control. After EDG took a 24-minute Baron following a quadra kill from AD carry Hae "Zet" Sung-min's Kalista, EDG cracked open Newbee's base and pulled back with a whopping 14,400-gold lead at 30 minutes.
A second Baron buff six minutes later set up the final 5-for-0 ace, and EDG took Game 1 in 35 minutes.
Newbee went with the same double-marksman draft strategy in Game 2, and EDG again went for champions that could aggressively engage early. This time, however, Newbee struck first with two kills in the first seven minutes. EDG fought back, though, with a timely gank from Clearlove7's Gragas at 10 minutes, beginning a sequence of back-and-forth kill trades between the two teams well into the mid-game. EDG would eventually regain full control after obliterating its opposition in a 4-for-0 teamfight near the Rift Herald to break the game wide open.
Once EDG got going, there was little Newbee could do to stop them. EDG took several objectives into the late game and baited Newbee to the Baron pit for a 5-for-1 ace. EDG again took the second Baron of the game and wrapped up the series with another 35-minute win.
Newbee will next take on Snake Esports at 5 a.m. ET on Sunday, while EDward Gaming prepares for a clash against league-leaders OMG on Sunday at 8 a.m. ET.