The first round robin of the LCK’s third-split group stage is nearing its end. After opening with two wins, NS began to slide. They lost unexpectedly to BRO and then got crushed 2:0 by DNS, the league’s worst team already out of playoff contention. A two-game winning streak flipped into a two-game losing streak, and losing to the cellar dweller—is this the same NS that stomped T1 in the KeSPA Cup? Unbelievable.

If NS loses one or two more of the remaining four games, they will miss the playoffs. NS’s overall regular-season record is 8–26. Compared to KRX, who are third from the bottom, NS trails by 2 match wins and a whopping 20 points in the small-score differential. If they can’t surpass KRX in match wins, NS won’t even get to play the Royal Road. So over the next four games, NS must win at least three while KRX loses all of them just to have a shot at the playoff spot.

On the same day, another match featured T1 versus HLE. Right before the game, T1 suddenly announced a roster change: second-team jungler Painter would start in place of Oner. T1 had been on a two-game win streak before facing HLE, yet they still swapped junglers—the management’s thinking truly baffles. After the swap, T1 predictably lost the match. Although they lost in three games, the new jungler’s performance was very mediocre.

In the first game, top laner Doran stepped up, solo-killing the opponent with a level advantage at five minutes. Keria led the rookie jungler to pressure the top lane, giving Doran a huge lead. With all three lanes ahead, T1 easily won the first game. But from the second game onward, things went wrong. T1’s top and mid lanes fell behind, and the Lee Sin jungler never found gank opportunities. He farmed until the fourth dragon fight at 20 minutes, only then getting his first assist of the entire game.

Although he didn’t throw any major leads and secured several dragons to get the soul, Lee Sin is a champion that becomes useless if he doesn’t make plays early. In a disadvantageous situation, he hesitated to take risks when opportunities arose. This ultimately allowed HLE to equalize the score despite T1 having the dragon soul. In the decisive game, the coach still gave Painter an early-game jungler, but once again he had no impact—and even led his teammates into a huge throw.

At five minutes, HLE started the dragon and T1 tried to contest. But Faker’s Viktor was in poor shape, almost out of mana—he couldn’t even cast his ultimate. Forcing the fight resulted in disaster: T1 lost the dragon, and the mid, bot, jungle, and support all died. That play ended the game on the spot. HLE took four consecutive dragons, slowly chipped away at T1’s towers, and steamrolled to a reverse sweep. One move, and the game was gone.

However, in this BO3, Faker also looked off. Not only did he fail to gain an advantage over Zeka, but he also showed repeated discipline issues, making several big mistakes. His Renekton was clearly low-skill—just like his Ahri, opponents could score whenever he picked it. The team should think twice before picking that champion. As a rookie, it’s understandable that Painter wants to avoid mistakes, but without any aggression, his ceiling is limited.

After the match, T1 head coach Tom addressed the jungler swap. Tom said there was no internal conflict. The decision to promote Painter was made to win. In scrims, Painter performed well in communication and shotcalling, filling in many gaps for the team. From the perspective of teammates playing together, he can handle the basic in-game aspects and set the direction of the game.

Conclusion:

Painter may continue to start in the future. Tom also mentioned in the interview that there is still a possibility of keeping Painter in the starting lineup, but it ultimately depends on his actual performance. They will observe further through scrims before making a decision. Wow, Oner gets benched while on a winning streak, and the rookie keeps his chance to start even after losing—what is T1’s management thinking?

So, what do you think of the rookie’s debut performance?

Feel free to leave a comment and discuss!