ELK openly cheers on IG!

Since BLG’s successful championship win, their core AD player ELK fulfilled his pre-final promise by streaming for 14 consecutive hours after the final. During the stream, ELK interacted extensively with fans and explained his “clown flashing” incident in the match. ELK admitted that at first, he didn’t realize how much impact flashing the “clown” hero would have, as it was just an accidental touch.

ELK’s explanation received recognition from many LPL viewers, especially since there is no significant conflict between ELK and WEI. In fact, in a recent interview, when asked by the host, ELK actively cheered for his former teammate JDG’s jungler XUN and IG’s jungler WEI, hoping both players perform well in the play-in stage and eventually qualify together for Worlds. However, some viewers felt ELK’s words were insincere.

IG becomes the “most sought-after” team

Before the World Championship, several official media outlets interviewed LCK players to find out which LPL team they most wanted to face. Players from HLE, T1, and GEN all expressed a desire to compete against IG. HLE’s top laner Zeus even admitted that besides IG, he rarely watches other LPL matches. During the interview, he praised TheShy’s strength and said TheShy’s Gwen and Rumble taught him many new strategies.

After watching HLE top laner Zeus’s interview, many fans began to look forward to a rematch between TheShy and Zeus. Of course, for IG to qualify for Worlds, they still need to contend with TES, as most LPL viewers and commentators believe TES will easily defeat IG. If IG fails to beat TES, they will face the winner between WBG and JDG in a BO5. Even if IG qualifies as LPL’s fourth seed, they must still play a BO5 against T1, so IG faces great pressure if they meet HLE at Worlds.

Is IG’s coach Dan Shen inferior to Zhu Kai?

Due to the hype around the TES vs. IG play-in match, many IG veteran players made predictions before the game. IG jungler Ning openly criticized IG coach Dan Shen, blaming him for the team’s poor performance. Ning even said Dan Shen’s BP (ban/pick) strategy is abnormal, and if Zhu Kai were in charge of BP, IG’s lineup would likely be stronger than in the playoffs. Ning’s remarks left many LPL fans speechless, especially since Dan Shen was praised during the regular season, but now his BP reputation is worse than Zhu Kai’s.

As chat messages increasingly questioned Ning’s game understanding, Ning praised Zhu Kai’s individual ability. Ning claimed that IG’s current team atmosphere feels like “playing house” rather than competing. When Ning was on IG, if a teammate performed poorly or made mistakes, he would call them out after the match. But now, IG’s atmosphere is strange—no one speaks up when errors happen. Ning believes if Zhu Kai were on the team, he would constantly motivate the squad, possibly helping IG improve.

Conclusion

As a full-strength LPL team, I personally hope IG can make it to Worlds. Whether it’s IG facing T1 or TheShy having a rematch with Zeus, the spectacle will be exciting. What do you think are IG’s chances of qualifying? I feel that as long as their BP and Rookie’s performance are decent, IG has a good shot at making it to Worlds.