Is shadow about to be eliminated?

Since BLG brought in the jungler shadow, many BLG fans believed that the team was experiencing a "rebirth," especially after BLG decisively defeated TES and AL, currently sitting at the top of the LPL standings. Many fans think that BLG is now the king of the LPL, with other teams unworthy of facing them directly. Some fans even began to anticipate a matchup between BLG and IG, given the significant rivalry between jungler WEI and BLG fans.

However, something unexpected happened for many BLG fans during the key match against AL: despite having an 8000 gold lead, BLG surprisingly gave up the dragon soul, which allowed AL to stage a comeback. Ultimately, AL capitalized on their strong team fights and resilience to turn the game around, while shadow's outrageous performance faced collective criticism and protests from many BLG fans. After the match, numerous fans hoped that BLG's management would implement a standard jungler rotation, with some believing that shadow's potential ceiling is not as high as that of Beichuan.

Becoming a tragic hero in the first round

The reason for shadow's poor reputation post-match was entirely due to the life-or-death game between BLG and AL, where shadow failed to secure any dragons while playing Nocturne, allowing AL to easily take the dragon soul. In the mid to late game, shadow repeatedly found himself isolated against all five of AL's players, ultimately being focused down. Many viewers joked that if shadow had secured even one dragon during the match, BLG could have easily pushed down AL, but his neutral resource control rate was far too low.

I personally watched this BO3 and felt that aside from top laner BIN, the other four players took turns underperforming. Support ON transformed into "Death" during this BO3, consistently becoming disconnected from the main group in team fights, leading to multiple instances of being quickly eliminated by AL. Meanwhile, mid laner Zuo Shou was suppressed by Chovy from the start of the lane phase, having no impact throughout the match, whether playing Viktor or Annie. (I can’t understand why Zuo Shou, regarded as the best domestic mid laner, seems to falter against Chovy.)

Moreover, the performance of BLG's absolute core ELK in this BO3 left many viewers baffled. Playing the strongest "value hero" Yuanna in the current patch, ELK consistently fell in team fights, even being outperformed by AL's MVP candidate. In contrast, BLG's top laner BIN was undoubtedly the most unfortunate player in this BO3. Despite BIN's Ornn dominating both in lane and team fights against AL's top laner, he ultimately lost due to the outrageous late-game plays by the double carries, finishing with a record of 10/1/20.

IG fans are celebrating!

After BLG's loss, IG veteran player Ning was undoubtedly the happiest, as just recently he had criticized BLG's strength compared to IG during a live stream, provoking a backlash from many BLG fans. (BLG lost a small game to WE, while IG swept WE.) Now, seeing BLG's significant advantage overturned by AL, Ning took the opportunity to mock BLG fans during his stream, suggesting they should thank the weather, as without it, BLG would have already been defeated by IG.

Conclusion

The matchup between BLG and AL was truly "spectacular." To be fair, with such a huge advantage, BLG could have won easily with normal play. However, the decisions made by BLG in the mid to late game, along with the double carries' team fight execution, were indeed perplexing. Personally, I am looking forward to the key battle between IG and BLG, as I truly want to know who is stronger now, especially since IG has swept AL and WE.