The losers' bracket first round of the LPL second stage playoffs has started. TT and LGD, both of which pulled off upsets over leading teams on the Knight's Path, clashed once more in the losers' bracket. Given their similar power levels, the series went the full five games, with LGD edging out TT to move on. Few likely watched this BO5 as it featured lower-tier teams, but Tangyuan's performance was genuinely impressive.

In the first game, Tangyuan immediately picked Anivia, using her ice wall to annoy all five opponents in teamfights. With an outstanding performance, he secured the MVP for the first game. After winning that game, in the second game he played LeBlanc and went on a rampage, scoring solo kills and diving the backline in teamfights. With a superb 10-1-7 KDA, he took the MVP again. Everyone thought LGD would sweep 3-0, but then the bot lane and jungle trio suddenly fell apart, making inexplicable plays and feeding kills.

After throwing two games in a row, LGD suddenly stopped holding back. The whole team exerted full force and destroyed TT's base in 32 minutes. In the decisive game, the combo of Ahri and Blitzcrank provided solid chain crowd control—every time LGD fought, once Blitzcrank hooked someone, they would instantly burst them down. The MVP for that game went to the support, but Tangyuan earned two MVPs across the entire BO5 and only fed in one losing game, so the overall Player of the Match award went to him.

In the second and fifth games, Tangyuan dominated throughout. If you covered up his ID, his Anivia play resembled Faker, his LeBlanc looked like knight, and his Ahri in the decider was reminiscent of Chovy. For a mid laner who only excels in scrims to perform like this in the playoffs is truly unexpected. It seems that during his time at RNG, Tangyuan was deliberately playing poorly. But another possibility is that the live audience was smaller.

As long as there aren't many people around, Tangyuan can regain his "scrim god" form. Of course, this is just a joke. Compared to his RNG days, Tangyuan has indeed improved greatly—he has a deep champion pool, can be both steady and flashy, and most importantly, in the post-game comms, he was constantly communicating with his teammates and even directing teamfights. Capable of both mechanical plays and shot-calling—is this still the Tangyuan everyone knows?

After TT's defeat, they became the first team eliminated from the playoffs. LGD's next match will be against AL. Back on the Knight's Path, LGD upset WBG, so they seem to have a chance against AL as well. The young foreign top laner Burdol has been in great form recently, and it seems he has an advantage over Flandre. Tangyuan has also been performing well and is rarely outclassed in his lane. As long as they don't throw intentionally, LGD really has a fighting chance.

WE sent both BLG and AL to the losers' bracket in two consecutive matches, truly shaking up the playoffs. However, when BLG faces EDG, they should not have too much pressure—EDG couldn't even win a single game against an average AL, so the chance of BLG stumbling is very low. But teams that climbed up from the Rebirth Group all have some tricks, so it's not absolutely certain that BLG will easily defeat EDG in their next match.

LGD defeated TT, which really puts IG in an awkward spot. What kind of strength does a team have to get swept by TT? Based on the playoff performances, TT is undoubtedly the weakest among the eight teams, and IG couldn't even win a single game against them—that's really embarrassing. This stage of the playoffs is indeed exciting. We'll see if WE can continue their dark-horse miracle, toppling TES and advancing to the finals to secure an MSI slot.

Conclusion:

Before the playoffs started, probably no one expected that among BLG, JDG, and AL, only one team would make it to MSI. TES is also in a dangerous position now, because WE is impossible to study—their playstyle entirely depends on jungler Monki's on-the-fly decision-making. Such an unpredictable team is the hardest to deal with; TES might even choke.

So, what do you think of Tangyuan's current performance?

Feel free to leave comments and discuss!