After a competitive League of Legends drought that lasted a couple of months (but felt like an eternity), we are finally getting ready to jump back into action.
The LPL is right around the corner, and while the official start date hasn’t been unveiled yet, we expect it to kick off by the 2nd week of January.
Every single team in the league has gone through significant roster changes, so we’ll go over the most important ones and talk about which teams and players are looking the best heading into the upcoming 2023 season.
Also, we’ll be checking out some interesting odds in case you are interested, though it’s important to keep in mind that some of the lower-rated teams haven’t fully revealed their rosters.
Due to what we mentioned above, the odds might change in the near future, so make sure to stay tuned as we’ll be posting an update as soon as all the rosters are fully revealed, but without further ado, let’s get into it!
Favorites To Win
First, if we take a look back at what happened during the 2022 Summer Split, then it’s fully understandable why JD Gaming (+150) is the absolute favorite to win the whole thing. Not only were they the strongest team already, but they reinforced some of their weaker parts. One of the most coveted ADCs in the world, Ruler, who is coming all the way from the LCK, has replaced Hope and will join Missing in the bot lane.
If Ruler wasn’t enough of an incredible addition, Knight, who has been considered to be the best mid laner in China by a huge margin, will be joining the JDG lineup. Yes, that’s right, Knight left Top Esports (+300) after a three-year history with them and failing to show up at Worlds last year.
Ultimately, not only is JDG stronger now, but Top Esports, the team that was considered to be their direct rivals, is now notably weaker. Fortunately for them, it wasn’t a major setback because Rookie, the 2018 world champion, will take his place, and we know what this mid laner is capable of.
There is another team worth considering as the favorite to win, though it might be a bit too early to tell. I’m talking about Royal Never Give Up (+300), a team that only made a single yet extremely impactful change to their roster. After 7 years, legendary mid laner Xiaohu decided to part ways with RNG. I can’t stress enough how important he was for this team, and I think it is going to be really difficult for RNG to find a proper replacement.
Sleeper Picks
I have to admit that I had a hard time deciding if RNG was the third team worthy of being called “favorite to win.” I really think that Xiaohu’s departure was a huge blow to the lineup, and we still don’t know who will replace him. Fortunately for Xiaohu, he didn’t waste any time and joined one of the strongest teams on paper that will take the competition by storm.
Surprisingly enough, Weibo Gaming (+500) has worse odds than RNG, even though they managed to put up a significantly improved roster compared to last split. In Summer 2022, this team was basically TheShy and friends, with Huanfeng popping off from time to time. Now, star players Xiaohu and Karsa will join the lineup, accompanied by 2019 world champion Crisp and ex-LNG’s ADC Light in the bot lane.
We could say that the previous WBG bot lane wasn’t all that bad, especially when ON wasn’t OFF. Speaking of ON, he decided to move on to greener pastures after virtually playing his whole career for Suning/WBG. Now, he will be lending his services to a renovated Bilibili Gaming (+1000). I think that BLG has a lot of potential, as they showed in the Demacia Cup; however, if Bin, Yagao, and ON, manage to build enough synergy as soon as the split starts, they might be able to reach 4th place.
Keep An Eye On These Duos
Right now, it’s way too early to talk about every single team in the league, not only because there’s 17 of them, but also because we don’t have every single roster fully available to the public yet. That said, we can go over some of the most interesting duos we’ll get to see in the upcoming season.
First of all, we have to talk about LNG Esports’ (+5000) duo of Scout and Tarzan. I find it somewhat unfortunate that a duo as strong as this one won’t have the tools needed to secure a high spot in the standings. We are talking about two of the absolute best players in their respective roles. I’m confident that they’ll show up big from the get-go and be the main reason why LNG just might be able to pull off some sort of miracle run during the playoffs.
Another duo to keep an eye on is the ThunderTalk Gaming (+1800) mid/jg in Beichuan and Ucal. This duo is one that might give us a lot to talk about during the season. They did show inconsistency throughout the Demacia Cup tournament, but their good moments looked really great, and there is no doubt that they’ll be able to take on some of the strongest mid/jg duos in the league.
LPL Spring Split 2023 Winner Prediction
Compared to prior LPL splits, the competition at the top of the standings seems a bit too lopsided this time around. Before, it was hard to predict which team was going to dominate the league, but now, it’s a different story.
I think that JD Gaming is the absolute best team in the league right now. Not only did they reinforce their roster, but at the same time, they took their direct rival’s best weapon, which was an incredibly smart move.
Knight and Ruler are two of the very best players in the entire world, and they’ll be accompanied by 369 and Kanavi, two players that were good enough to carry the rest of JDG last year. We could say that this team doesn’t have an exploitable weakness and they have the best shot at grabbing the title in the spring split.
As the League of Legends competitive season gets closer, we’ll be talking about every single major league in the world. Also, in the next few days we’ll be releasing our LCS, LCK, LEC, and LLA power rankings as well as sharing our esports picks with you!
Don’t forget to bet on esports at BetUS Sportsbook & Casino. We’ve got plenty of lol odds for you to take a look at and fully enjoy.
- PICK: JD Gaming to outright win LPL Spring Split 2023 at +150
