Can Top Esports live up to expectations?

After a disappointing 2021 season, Top Esports makes some changes to its roster in attempts to finally live up to Knight’s potential. Top Esports has always been a great team but never quite makes it. They have their superstar mid laner Zhuo “Knight” Ding, who is heralded by many as the best mid laner in all of China for his generation.

A number of analysts even claim that he is as good, if not better, than Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon. Despite Knight’s prowess as a mid laner, he has only become an LPL champion once, and he has only made it to Worlds once, where they got knocked out in the semifinals. For the majority of 2020 and 2021, the meta did not favor Top Esports at all. Carry-oriented junglers just did not suit Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan’s style of play with the team.

Roster changes

Since his laners were all strong, aggressive players, the best approach for him to jungle was a more supportive, ganking style. In the end, their semifinal finish at Worlds 2020 was proof of their talent, but their inability to play more towards what the meta demanded meant that they could not advance further.

In 2021, the team changed supports. Liang “Yuyanjia” Jia-Yuan was listed as a substitute, and Wang “Zhuo” Xu-Zhuo took his place as the starting support. The team also tried rotating top laners, with both Bai “369” Jia-Hao and Yu “Qingtian” Zi-han in the starting roster. This did not work as well, with the team ending up fourth in the spring and 7th/8th in the summer.

Following this clearly disappointing season, making some changes felt like the right decision to make. First, Karsa departed from the roster, and so did 369. To replace Karsa, the organization signed two junglers: Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang from FunPlus Phoenix, and Wang “Xiaopeng” Peng.

Despite Qingtian staying, the team acquired two more top laners– Huang “Wayward” Ren-xing, and Zhang “Zoom” Xing-ran. Seeing as Zoom has been a consistent force for his team during his time on JD Gaming, he will be a great addition to this team. In addition, as he knows how to play the weak side of the map, this could help bring balance into the way the team plays out the laning phase. Nothing much is known about Wayward, however, aside from the fact that he has been with Top Esports’ academy team since 2019, and that he has also played jungle professionally.

With Knight, Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-bo, and Zhuo all remaining with the roster, the changes could be seen as minimal. However, this is not necessarily the case. For starters, Qingtian might not even be the starting top laner. The expectation should be that Zoom will be starting.

Can Tian live up to fans’ expectations?

In addition, when in peak form, Tian is one of the best in the world. However, it is also understandable that fans have questions around his current level as he has been riddled with injuries and some issues concerning his mentality. Xiaopeng, on the other hand, while he could be seen to have some potential, has not exactly proven himself both in high-pressure situations, and it is not yet known how he would perform in a relatively better roster. It is also unknown if there would be differences in strategies employed depending on the top laners who would be starting, and depending on the junglers that would be put in.

In addition, with the heightened importance of supports in the last few years of professional play, Zhuo still has to be put into question. While he is good when it comes to laning and he is quite good at initiating, the decision-making around the initiating still has to be ironed out. He also needs to work a bit on his vision control. Unless Zhuo makes big strides in his play, Top Esports might not quite make it yet again.

With some of the strongest solo laners in Zoom and Knight, expectations for Top Esports are sky-high once again.