Ruler snags flashy pentakill in first career LPL game with JDG

In his first career match in the LPL, longtime League of Legends pro and reigning LCK MVP Ruler grabbed a pentakill to kick off the 2023 season. The penta was the seventh of Ruler’s career, which is among the most out of all active League players. 

Ruler’s pentakill today came in the final teamfight on a 47-minute victory over Bilibili Gaming. The final fight ended up clinching the series for Ruler’s new team, JD Gaming, who won their opening series of the year by a score of two games to one. 

During the play, Ruler, who was already relatively fed with seven kills coming into the fight, ripped through the frontline of Bilibili, taking down top laner Bin to start off the skirmish. From there, he helped pop three separate Guardian Angels spread across Bilibili’s lineup before cornering their support player ON near his own inhibitor and grabbing the fifth and final kill needed for the penta. In the end, ON surrendered to Ruler, giving him the pentakill as a courtesy. 

Related: Dot Esports’ League of Legends esports global power rankings: 2023 preseason

Out of Ruler’s seven career pentakills, he’s accomplished them with five different champions now. The only champions he has more than one pentakill with are Ezreal and Kai’sa, according to League data site Leaguepedia. 

Across the three games of today’s opening series, Ruler held the highest KDA among all 10 players with a mark of 7.3, and during the third game of the series, Ruler threw JDG on his back, accounting for 29 percent of the team’s total damage, according to League stats site Games of Legends. 

The hot start for Ruler and JDG throws the team atop the LPL table to open the season. Their next game isn’t for a while, though, as JDG isn’t scheduled to take to the stage again until Feb. 2.