The 2022 LPL Spring Split has found its second finalist after Top Esports defeated Victory Five 3-1 in the lower bracket final. TES now have one last hurdle to take before being able to lift the trophy and make their way to the Mid-Season Invitational in Busan. This Saturday, April 23, TES play the grand finals against Royal Never Give Up.

TES needed some time to warm up in the series. V5 opened with an incredibly clean game and ran circles around TES. Especially jungler Hung "Karsa" Hao-Hsuan and mid laner Song "Rookie" Eui-jin looked crisp, leading their team to an early lead in the best-of-5.

Wayward and Tian key for TES

However, that is where the tides turned and TES started putting on a clinic. Top laner Huang "Wayward" Ren-Xing — playing his rookies season — and Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang did not give V5's top side any wiggle room and choked them out of the second game. While Rookie did manage to steal a Baron Nashor with a Smite from Unsealed Spellbook on his Ryze, it was a futile effort.

The third and fourth games echoed the same tunes. TES were superior almost every step of the way and V5 were left with no foot to stand on. Even a four-man Gnar ult from top laner Lee "Rich" Jae-won amounted to nothing for V5, as the team did not properly follow up and instead lost the fight.

V5 destroyed in 24 minutes final game

In game 4, the embarrassment for V5 only grew. Top Esports was already ahead in the game when Rich and Karsa decided to towerdive Wayward's low-health Irelia. Wayward broke the proverbial ankles of Rich and Karsa, sent both of them back to the fountain, and only continued to snowball his lead. TES closed out the final game in just 24 minutes.

TES' dominance in the final three games of the series against Victory Five should give the team some much-needed encouragement ahead of the finals against RNG. The first time the two met in the LPL playoffs, RNG were vastly superior and sent TES to the lower bracket.