Yearly Elimination Tournament Blacklist: JDG embarrassingly exits with 8 losses in 9 games, Xiao Pang teams up with Meng Lan to make the list!

The 2025 KPL Annual Finals have already produced six finalists, and the remaining matches are few. Over the past week, which teams and players have been increasingly disappointing? When picking the most underperforming team, how could JDG be left out?

After reaching the knockout stage, JDG’s performance was a far cry from their arena matches. It’s unclear whether they thought surviving the first round and then beating AG Super Play was guaranteed, or if they were simply content with earning the prize money for making the playoffs. In the BO7 match against KSG for the quarterfinals, JDG showed no fighting spirit to push further. Those who should have carried the team didn’t, and those who shouldn’t have died ended up feeding.

As for the match against Wolf Team, they were messing around with big brawls before the game, so what else could anyone say about JDG? The result was predictable — the match ended hastily in less than an hour! Two BO7s, 9 games played, 8 losses — only JDG could pull off such a record!

Xiao Pang surprisingly made it onto the blacklist, which shows just how bad the Wolf Team’s performance was! The Wolf Team dropped out of the winners’ bracket in the first round of this year’s finals. During the arena stage, people mostly talked about Guiqi and Yisheng, but once the knockout stage started, it became clear that Xiao Pang wasn’t much better! During the Tyrant team fight, neither side managed to punish properly, which might be excusable, but in the Lord fight, Wolf Team rushed the Lord with almost no resistance. When Wanwan’s Da Siming casually walked over and stole the Lord with a single skill, what could people say? You can’t blame every loss on teammates failing to control enemies.

In the third game against DRG, Yuantan had only 4.1% damage contribution and took 23.2% of the damage but narrowly defeated Yisheng’s Lu Da, despite barely tanking any damage and ending with a 0-4-0 scoreline. Rumor has it that if Wolf Team performs poorly in the finals, Xiao Pang might be put up for sale!

Speaking of the blacklist, how could DRG’s Meng Lan be missing? It’s well known that whenever it comes to crucial matches, Meng Lan tends to “give warmth” (make costly mistakes)! When DRG defeated Wolf Team 4-2 in the winners’ bracket first round, many had high hopes. But soon, in the second round of the winners’ bracket, Meng Lan reverted to his familiar poor form, reminding everyone of reality.

In the first game against WB, DRG picked mostly popular heroes except for Huayuan Damo, aiming to contest the early game aggressively. However, when four teammates focused Yang Jian, Meng Lan’s Gongsun Li took advantage of the caster’s distraction, flawlessly executing a 3-3-2-2-1 combo with displacement, flying right into WB’s team and gifting them a kill.

For DRG to have a shot at the championship, they absolutely need to let go of Meng Lan! Time and again, in critical matches, Meng Lan starts “giving warmth,” and no one can tolerate that! However, both Xiao Pang and Meng Lan still have one last chance with a resurrection item — it’s up to them to redeem themselves!

In Season 41, marksman strength has been reshuffled significantly. Currently, in high-level play, only these two marksmen are recognized; stop practicing the wrong ones! Hou Yi is currently Tier 1 in peak matches above 1350 points, with a win rate of 50.6% and a pick rate of 18.3%. Hou Yi’s strength comes from the changes to the Gale equipment. Previously, Gale required attacks on a single target to stack movement speed and extra damage. Now, hitting targets with skills or basic attacks increases movement speed and damage. Recommended build: Attack Speed Boots, Electric Blade, Apocalypse, Gale, Ominous Sigil, Dawn Breaker.

The other is Ailin! Ailin currently boasts a 52% win rate on the development lane and a 20.4% pick rate, remaining a favorite in that role. Ailin’s power comes from her ultimate, which triggers a magic orb effect every three hits. With a build of Shadow Blade, Apocalypse, and Sunbow, Ailin’s development is extremely rapid. Moreover, her ultimate benefits from the increased range provided by Sunbow, making the damage output max out instantly. Enemies trying to escape won’t get out of the ultimate’s range.