AL’s international results revoked

Since TES was thoroughly dominated by GEN in the Swiss round, many LPL fans have become despairing about LPL’s future. The top seed BLG couldn’t defeat Western teams, and TES didn’t win a single game against LCK opponents. Thus, many LPL fans placed their world championship hopes on AL. But what surprised many AL fans was that IG legend Ning openly stripped AL of their international achievements during a livestream, bluntly stating that AL’s wins over GEN were only because GEN threw the matches.

During his livestream, Ning claimed that when GEN played against AL, they intentionally threw to “annoy” T1 in the group stage. If GEN had seriously drafted, AL would never have beaten them. Ning admitted that GEN’s drafting against AL was very unusual. If GEN had used the same drafting strategy against TES, AL would have been crushed. Now GEN is just “trolls,” deliberately toying with AL and LPL viewers. Ning even confidently stated that GEN will win the S15 World Championship and that no team at Worlds can challenge GEN.

Can Chovy prove himself?

As Ning personally “pessimistically” judged AL, many LPL fans criticized Ning as an insider betraying LPL. Of course, some viewers believe that esports heavily depends on player form and in-game reactions. Every year Chovy is hailed as the world’s best mid laner, but whenever Chovy faces elimination matches, he tends to falter and make mistakes. Last year, GEN was also considered a favorite to win, but Chovy was directly outperformed by Faker, who was the MVP in their matchup. Hence, many LPL fans still believe AL can create a miracle and defeat GEN.

Whether GEN threw against AL is unclear to many fans, but GEN’s jungler Canyon revealed in a post-match interview that GEN did throw against TES. Canyon said GEN’s scrims went so smoothly that the coaches couldn’t understand the meta’s direction. So during the match against TES, GEN deliberately let TES have the meta-strong champions Azir and Rell to explore their potential. Many TES fans were frustrated after hearing this because even with the strongest double carry picks in the meta, TES still lost to GEN, indicating a huge skill gap between the teams.

TES’s chance to reach the quarterfinals is 100%?

After TES lost to GEN, many insiders predicted TES would be the “ticket seller” of the S15 World Championship, as TES is notorious for having a fragile mentality. TES had already lost multiple times to Western teams in the Rift Rivals due to mental issues. Now, after being beaten badly by KT and GEN, many fans believe TES’s entire roster is mentally broken. (For example, Kanavi’s poor play on Xin Zhao, where he failed to cross a wall and then flashed to contest blue buff, led many to think Kanavi’s mindset was shattered.)

When outsiders worried TES couldn’t reach the Worlds quarterfinals, TES top laner 369 revealed in a post-match interview that communication issues caused their loss to GEN. He said that as long as TES performs well in future matches, their chance to reach the quarterfinals is 100%. However, many TES fans felt uneasy because TES players have a history of being proven wrong after confidently celebrating. In Rift Rivals, Kanavi claimed TES wouldn’t lose any more games, and at Worlds, Xiaonaiyou confidently said TES would easily beat KT but was proven wrong. Now 369 says TES is guaranteed to make the quarterfinals — do you think TES can actually pull it off?

Conclusion

Personally, I’m not sure if TES’s mentality has truly collapsed. If the entire TES squad is mentally broken, I think TES will fail to reach the Worlds quarterfinals. But if their mindset is still intact, then with a 2-2 record and avoiding draws against T1 or BLG, TES still has a chance to advance to the quarterfinals. (Do you think TES’s mentality is problematic?)