The LPL Second Stage playoffs have already seen the top four emerge. In the previous match day, BLG defeated JDG with a 3-1 score, securing a spot in the third round to face AL. The so-called "Little King" going up against the "Big King" didn't even manage to play a full BO5. Gala shoulders major responsibility—over the whole series, except for a somewhat decent showing with Sivir in game two, he was the team's vulnerability in the remaining three games.

In the first game with Ezreal, JDG had an early lead, but Gala made three critical mistakes that cost the match. During the 18-minute dragon soul fight, Gala used E to gap-close and got caught, losing his flash and also getting his midlaner killed. This interrupted the dragon tempo. Later, in the fourth dragon fight, with both flash and E available, Gala was stunned by Bard and gave away a free kill. The Baron fight was similar—another instance of being stunned with flash and E up, dying without doing anything.

In the two games they lost afterward, Lucian got crushed in lane, farmed all game but dealt little damage, and even couldn't land his ultimate. The decisive game was also ugly—Jhin walked right up to enemies to deal damage. In a 34-minute match, he managed only over 10k damage, lower than the enemy support. Among all ten players, he was only slightly above his own support (by about 1k). It's hard to believe this is the AD performance of the team that ranked second in the LPL regular season.

Of course, aside from Gala, JDG's top and mid were also struggling. Xiaoxu kept feeding the enemy top laner, and HongQ showed no discipline. The jungle and support tried their best, but with such a trio, it was impossible to beat BLG. With JDG eliminated, the playoff top four are now set: WE and TES in the winners' bracket, AL and BLG in the losers' bracket. Only two of these four teams will qualify for the Mid-Season Cup.

After BLG's upset loss to WE, they've shown much better discipline and player form. It seems AL might stop at top four in the next match. Before facing JDG, an interesting incident happened: Bin, who was just fined 150,000 yuan, made some outrageous remarks in an interview. The reporter asked: "Last year at Worlds, BLG was eliminated in the top 16. How did that affect you?"

Bin said: "The top 16 result isn't a big deal, because it's a team game. Personally, I felt the patch last year wasn't friendly to top laners, which limited my performance. Also, I made some mistakes, and we had a bit of bad luck. So we ended up 16th." Wait, bro—was BLG's luck really bad last year? Apart from the final qualification match against TES, all their opponents were Western teams.

Facing three Western teams in a row—losing to 100T, then G2, and finally falling to TES—how is that bad luck? KT also faced two Western teams consecutively, but they won both and advanced by beating TES. Losing to 100T and still blaming luck? Bin's shamelessness knows no bounds. As for the patch being unfavorable to top laners, the only thing to say is: Strong players adapt; only the weak complain.

If they had faced teams like GEN, T1, or KT in the Swiss stage, then you could say the top 16 was unlucky. But playing against Western teams back-to-back and still getting eliminated? That's just making excuses. To put it bluntly, they were simply not good enough. The key is being bad without realizing it and shifting the blame elsewhere. No world champion top laner would ever say the patch doesn't suit them. Adapting to the patch is always the most important thing.

Conclusion:

Eliminated without facing a single Korean team, yet still claiming bad luck. Every time they lose, they say the patch is unfriendly to top laners. Now we have to question whether Bin truly has the ability or potential to win a World Championship. It's been over half a year since Worlds ended, and he still hasn't realized his own problems. Bin's growth is way too slow.

So, do you think BLG had bad luck last year?

Feel free to leave your comments!