As the LOL Pioneer Tournament concludes, various LOL major regions are preparing for the start of the second stage. The LCK region, neighboring LPL, recently held a pre-match press conference for players to warm up for the second stage. This press conference mainly involves players answering questions from official media. For example, the host asked Faker, as the captain of the LCK team for this year's Asian Games, who he thinks would be most suitable to participate? During the interview, Faker recommended mid-laner Chovy, and his reason was simple: Chovy performed well in the previous Asian Games.

Of course, in such public interview sessions, LOL Triple Crown Champion Gumayusi also began his "credibility challenge." Gumayusi stated in his pre-match declaration that HLE plans to make a comeback in the second stage, aiming to win every match from the group stage and advance all the way to MSI. Gumayusi's remarks drew many "disdainful looks" from LCK players. It's worth noting that in the first stage, under a format of 10 teams with 9 advancing, HLE failed to even reach the playoffs, making them widely regarded as the bottom team in the LCK first stage.

After Gumayusi's speech spread to LPL, many viewers referred to Gumayusi as the LCK version of Bin. Both players tend to proclaim themselves as "world's best"—Bin claims to be the world's best top laner, while Gumayusi calls himself the world's best AD carry. Moreover, their credibility scores are quite similar. Since Gumayusi left FAKER, many viewers have joked that Gumayusi previously "stole" Faker's credit card, and without Faker, Gumayusi's true form has been exposed.

Uzi Cup sees "suspected match-fixing" and emergency substitution.

Although LPL is in its off-season, the "Uzi Cup" organized by Uzi has provided plenty of entertainment for LPL viewers. With the presence of the "Big Yellow" team, which has yet to win a match, many viewers are curious whether Big Yellow can secure a victory during the Uzi Cup. However, something unexpected happened for many LPL viewers: recently, there were reports from viewers alleging match-fixing within the Big Yellow team, prompting Big Yellow and head coach Wang Song to suspend streaming and conduct internal investigations.

Initially, many viewers suspected that the support player Mark in the Big Yellow team was most likely involved in match-fixing. After all, Mark played support Karma without building Crucible but instead built Remnant Plague while the team was leading. His repeated absence in matches and training sessions, along with various unusual behaviors, didn't resemble a normal professional player. However, after several industry experts voiced their opinions, many viewers realized that the AD player Nagisa in the Big Yellow team might also be implicated. Nagisa's performance with Ashe at 0-10 and Varus at 0-8 indeed looks suspiciously like match-fixing.

Upon learning about possible match-fixing, many viewers expressed sympathy for Uzi. Uzi personally funded 1 million to organize this competition, but the event hasn't been thrilling, with many players showing poor performance or suspected match-fixing. According to leaks from Ale's live stream, every participant signed a contract before the competition, stating that if match-fixing is confirmed, the player will face severe penalties. What do you think these penalties might be? Why does even such a privately-run tournament encounter match-fixing?

Conclusion

Uzi is truly unfortunate. Uzi revealed that he doesn't earn much from streaming and intended to treat the Uzi Cup as a startup project. However, looking at the current situation, the likelihood of a second Uzi Cup is slim. The tournament's popularity isn't very high, and there have been many "scandals" during the event. (Do you think it's likely that Uzi will hold a second tournament? Could there be sponsors to help Uzi succeed in this venture?)