Newbee took down Snake Esports in a swift 3-0 sweep on Tuesday to close out a quick opening playoff day of the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai.
With Newbee given a free win in the series by virtue of finishing third in its group, all it had to do was win two games to move past Snake and into the quarterfinals. Not only did Newbee do just that, but it absolutely dominated Snake all night long. Throughout the series, Snake looked like a team that was simply ill-equipped and unprepared to handle the pressure of the playoffs, which is perhaps understandable given that it came in with a 5-11 record against the 9-7 regular season finish from Newbee. Outside of a few teamfight wins at the end of the final game, Snake had no answers to the might of Newbee.
By far, the biggest two reasons why Newbee won this series rested in the mid and bottom lanes. Mid laner Shin "Coco" Jin Yeong and AD carry Lin "Lwx" Wei Xiang completely owned their respective lanes, which gave Newbee a massive advantage over its competition. Playing on Orianna and Xayah, respectively, in the first game played, the duo combined for a 13/2/16 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) to push Newbee towards victory. The duo went with the double marksmen composition of Corki and the ever exciting Vayne in the final game, leading to an even more incredible KDA of 19/9/21. That all added up to the two accounting for 32 of Newbee's 40 kills in the series. Snake simply didn't stand a chance.
Despite the overall dominance of the win, there were still some slight slipups from Newbee that allowed Snake to desperately prolong the final game. After stealing the Baron 27 minutes into the game, Newbee overcommitted to deep dives, giving Snake back-to-back teamfight wins in the late game to give a semblance of gaining control of the game. Newbee was already so far ahead, however, that all it had to do was hang on for one last 4-for-2 teamfight win powered by another Lwx triple kill to close the coffin on Snake. While Snake couldn't punish Newbee's brashness, such instances of overcommitting won't fly throughout the rest of the playoffs.
The win pushes Newbee into the quarterfinals where it will face off against the reigning LPL champions, Team WE. It won't have long to prepare, as the teams will face off Wednesday at 6 a.m. ET.