The LPL faces its darkest hour! T1 sweeps through three players! The home ground witnesses another LCK internal clash!

“Another year full of hope for the LPL” — for many LPL fans, this phrase seems like an eternal stumbling block, just like the phrase “making history.” Whenever history is made, it rarely yields a good result, and the highest hopes are crushed year after year! After five years, the World Championship returns to LPL’s home turf, hosted domestically. The last time was at S10 Worlds, but due to special circumstances, most matches were played in a studio setting! This time, many LPL fans hoped to witness their teams reach the finals, regardless of winning the championship, at least to see the courage and opportunity to contend! Yet no one expected this ending: the LCK’s third seed KT and fourth seed T1 meeting in the final in Chengdu!

When Deng Ziqi was announced as the finals guest, some joked that she might be the only Chinese person at the final — and they were right! This marks the darkest moment for the LPL region: no team reached the final on home soil, and their overall performance ended in disaster! As the top seed, BLG, despite a favorable draw, exited at the Swiss stage, finishing in the top 16! Fourth seed iG lost to T1 in the play-in, ending 17th! Second seed AL was eliminated by T1 in the quarterfinals! Third seed TES was shut out by T1 in the semifinals, finishing fourth—a match that became a shame for the LPL! T1 once again achieved a one-versus-three sweep (luckily BLG wasn’t drawn, or it would have been a one-versus-four), breaking LPL’s 13-match winning streak in the knockout stage and proving to be the harshest “parent” to the LPL!

During the TES versus T1 match, although it was on LPL’s home ground, there was not even a single cheer supporting TES — not because there were no fans, but because TES failed to deliver even one good teamfight or any strong moments! They were completely outclassed by T1, who handled the game with ease. Even as the third seed, not winning a single small game against LCK this year means that no matter how well they perform domestically, it’s all in vain and only self-defeating! The story of the LPL this year ends here—will there be hope next year?