The third stage of the LPL Knight's Journey has concluded. JDG swept LGD 3-0 to secure the final playoff spot. Although the score looks dominant, JDG's performance on stage did not meet audience expectations. In the first game, they started with a 0-6 deficit and only recovered mid-game thanks to opportunities given by LGD, eventually turning the game around through team fights.

The second game saw back-and-forth early action, with LGD overtaking economically mid-game. In the final team fight, LGD’s jungler abandoned the dragon soul to flank and initiate, causing their formation to split. JDG then leveraged the dragon soul to win the match. From these two games, JDG seemed lacking the dominant momentum seen in top-tier teams, to the point where “feeding each other” wouldn’t be an exaggeration. However, in the third game, JDG clearly dominated comprehensively.

Kills in the bottom lane, solo kills mid, team fight domination, and late game even saw the top and mid laners pulling off a 2v4 to kill two enemies. This game truly resembled a top-tier team versus a weaker one. Yet overall, JDG still has many issues: Scout’s inconsistency swings from brilliant to poor; Peyz’s laning has dropped significantly; Zhuo is only slightly better than Wink; Xun occasionally makes mistakes; comparatively, the most stable player is the top laner, Xiao Xu.

The lowest-valued top laner is leading JDG as the team captain, which says a lot about how dire the team’s situation is. They will likely struggle against BLG in the playoffs. JDG’s early game tempo is genuinely poor, something both players and coaches acknowledge but can’t fix. In the newly released regular season documentary, after losing to WBG, during the team review, Xun couldn’t hold back and openly criticized everyone.

In front of everyone, Xun directly pointed out the early game problem: our rotations never happen at the right time. Because of slow recalls, we lost our jungle camps. After that, when I tried to take the dragon, I was chased off. For me, the game was already decided by 8 minutes because we were too slow. When Xiao Xu tried to explain, Xun immediately said: I’m not blaming you, I’m talking about the whole team.

The meaning is clear: the top lane’s recall timing is off, causing jungle camps to be lost; mid and bottom lanes lack lane priority, so fighting for the dragon is impossible. The jungler’s job becomes very difficult in this situation. Yet the main cause of JDG’s decline seems unaware of his own decline. When Scout reviewed the game, he felt the team was weak because they were at a disadvantage no matter what they played and could only hope to win fights.

After watching the documentary, it seems JDG still doesn’t realize their biggest problem is that the mid lane often dies meaninglessly. With so many jungle resources in the current game, rotations are crucial. When Scout dies, vision is lost, jungle-support synergy falls behind, and when switching lanes, the risky lane gets forced to farm under pressure. After getting caught, their own rotation is wasted again.

Scout’s decline affects not only mid lane advantage but also the jungler’s rhythm. After the top lane substitution, Xiao Xu has been playing well, and the bottom lane is slightly stronger than before. However, the mid lane frequently causes problems before resource fights, making it hard for teammates to perform. As Xun said, without control of jungle camps and dragon, the rhythm can’t be established, which is basically the same as surrendering at 8 minutes.

Conclusion:

Though they beat LGD, JDG’s playoff run will still be tough. Apart from dominating weaker opponents, Scout struggles against top mid laners. If mid lane is broken through, mid-jungle coordination collapses, and control over neutral objectives suffers. The urgent task is for Scout to regain his form.

So, do you think JDG can beat BLG?

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