In the League of Legends 2026 Global Pioneer Tournament, the second round of group stage has begun. The LPL's top seed BLG faced Europe's G2 and secured a 3:0 victory, advancing to the knockout stage first. BLG's win over G2 was expected, but the ease of the victory was surprising. Except for the top laner Broken Blade, the rest of G2's players performed poorly in this BO5, especially the mid-laner CAPS.

As a newly inducted Hall of Fame player, "Old Hat" (CAPS) was completely outperformed by "Left Hand" (Knight) in this BO5. Playing Annie without coordinating with the jungler to create opportunities, just staying in lane passively; playing Lillia and missing skills repeatedly, relying on basic attacks for damage; getting solo killed as Ahri, and even after getting kills, failing to make an impact. After watching, one can only say the Hall of Fame has not only legends but also "sugar" (underperformers). It's clear CAPS is truly aging, struggling against top-tier mid-laners.

Of course, G2's coach was also quite abstract. In a version focused on the bot lane, they still picked a 4-protect-1 Senna composition. Can this champion really carry as an AD? Once the draft was locked in, it was already clear G2 would lose the first game. Instead of clinging to survival, they should have gone all-in from the start, picking Draven + Thresh for the bot lane to gamble. Even if they lost, at least the viewers would have enjoyed it. Crawling and waiting to die is too abstract.

Broken Blade really tried his best in this match; he was the only one on the team with stable performance. However, after watching Vietnam's TSW versus BFX, it's clear G2's top laner isn't the most unfortunate, because the Vietnamese "God King" was 1v9 every game. This BO5 was also a 3:0 sweep, with TSW having no resistance. The mid, jungle, and bot lanes were crushed badly, but the top laner Pun dominated the Korean top laner.

In the first game, Pun played Gwen. Despite Gwen being unfavorable against Renekton early, he still exerted pressure, creating opportunities for jungle ganks. After gaining an advantage, he directly tower-dived and solo killed Renekton, creating a huge lane gap. Although he tried hard in team fights, his teammates were too weak. Whenever Gwen died, TSW was instantly wiped. In the second game, Pun picked Volibear, got solo killed early, but later solo killed back.

In the mid-to-late game, Volibear again tried to 1v9 in team fights. During the opponent's soul point dragon fight, Volibear charged into five enemies alone, crippling the jungler, but after his teammates cleaned up, they abandoned him. A Nautilus and a Galio only entered after Volibear was nearly dead. In a fight where five versus four, following the lead could win, four teammates just watched. How much more must a top laner do to lead the team and secure a winning fight?

Seeing Pun's tremendous effort, LPL viewers collectively gave this player a perfect 10 score after the match. Since the Pioneer Tournament started, he is the first player from the losing side to receive a perfect score, showing how outstanding Pun's performance was and how poorly his teammates played. In the final game, the coach also made a blunder: knowing the double carries were weak, he still picked Ornn, a tank, for the top lane. Although Pun gained an early advantage again, Ornn cannot carry.

At 20 minutes, leading by 2K gold and holding the soul point dragon, this was the most promising game to win, yet the double carries still didn't perform. Ornn only died once, and the game was lost. TSW's mid-laner truly should go home and farm pigs. Getting kills early but feeding recklessly in team fights. If either of the double carries could step up, TSW had a chance to win one game against BFX. It's just unfortunate; in the current version, top lane influence is too low.

Conclusion:

After losing to BFX, TSW became the first team eliminated in this Pioneer Tournament. Next, BFX will face G2 for the last knockout spot in Group A. Based on G2's performance against BLG, "Old Hat" (CAPS) likely will stop at the quarterfinals. The strength gap between the two teams is clear; G2 might even get swept by BFX.

So, do you think G2 can still enter the knockout stage?

Feel free to leave comments and discuss!