Congratulations to AG Super Play for securing their fifth championship of 2025. Looking forward to their impressive run through the losers' bracket to advance by winning three consecutive matches.

During the Challenger Cup break, AG Super Play took some time to win another championship, which was the King of Glory China vs. Foreign Challenge at the Puyuan Esports Festival! While this title isn’t highly significant, it is still a championship, and hopefully it will bring good fortune to AG Super Play. Up to now, AG Super Play has won five championships in 2025!

If AG Super Play can clinch the Challenger Cup, it will be their sixth championship in a single year!

However, it must be admitted that AG Super Play’s form has noticeably declined compared to the annual finals! On one hand, the coach and coaching staff’s drafting strategy is too outdated. The current meta no longer requires such conservative hero usage—they keep trying to use weaker lineups to counter stronger ones. The opponents can simply pick the powerful heroes they want. They assume that if the enemy wins the first two games, there won’t be many strong picks left, but by games four and five, it becomes clear there are still plenty of strong heroes available.

On the other hand, the form of AG’s five players is uneven. Except for Xuanran, who truly gave his all in these BO7 matches, the player usually ranked third in tactical importance performed at the level of a first or second, while the others mostly made mistakes before trying to compensate. AG is no longer at their peak; other teams have deeply understood AG’s playstyle.

AG now resembles a veteran master in his later years, relying on years of experience to defend against the chaotic attacks of younger players. If they can avoid being overwhelmed, there is still hope for a counterattack.

An even more important factor is the Challenger Cup format. Last year, there was a group stage before the round of 16 knockout matches, but this year it’s a straight single-elimination tournament from the start. AG has been fully committed this year and returned from break the latest among clubs. This gave them very little time to adjust, and facing teams that started preparing early, AG currently appears behind the meta and underprepared.

Therefore, AG dropping into the losers' bracket is both surprising and expected. To climb back to the finals, AG must regain momentum through actual matches; merely studying others’ drafts won’t suffice. Players can only recover their form by fighting. This Challenger Cup format is not favorable to slow-starting teams like AG but can allow explosive teams like WB to exceed expectations.

It has been five days since the update of Monkey’s clone and somersault cloud. Although Monkey’s win rate has recovered from 44% to 46.5%, his pick rate has dropped to only 13.8%, placing him at the bottom of the hero tier list. In lower-ranked matches where player skill is weaker, Sun Wukong holds only a 45.5% win rate, even lower than his “equally struggling” counterparts Lü Bu and Li Xin. This shows that Monkey’s “mutation” has been a failure.

In fact, the added clone and somersault cloud aren’t as great as expected. Now the clone deals 25% enhanced normal damage to any unit it hits, unlike before when it only affected jungle monsters, and it even retains the 15% execute threshold, seemingly a pure buff. But the numbers tell a different story. Previously it dealt true damage, now it’s physical damage. Although clearing minions and finishing kills feels smoother, early jungle farming is slower, which is a problem for Monkey, who is a tempo-dependent assassin—slower jungle means slower overall pace.

As for the somersault cloud, players who have used it know it has very low impact. Summoning the cloud requires standing still, making extreme escapes nearly impossible. Even flanking maneuvers require avoiding minions. Overall, this adjustment to Monkey can be considered a failure!