A tragedy involving Korean imports unfolded in the LPL, with a team investing 40 million yuan yet failing to qualify for Worlds, leaving the championship-winning mid laner to shoulder the blame.

Greetings to all LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, this is Tianxia Game Report.

The LPL regional qualifier wrapped up its last match yesterday, with IG turning around a poor start to win 3-1 against JDG, earning the fourth seed from the LPL region and preparing to face T1 next.

JDG, however, ended up as this year’s top failure, also suffering a tragedy related to their Korean imports.

LPL’s Korean import tragedy: The championship mid laner takes the blame.

At last year’s transfer window, JDG was one of the biggest winners. Amid BLG’s off-field issues, they directly signed jungler Xun and, in a bidding war with LNG for two Korean imports, successfully secured the duo of Scout and Peyz by offering more money, while also adding Ale to the top lane.

This lineup was widely regarded as one of the top three in the LPL at the time, and after the transfer window, it was generally expected they could qualify for Worlds and even contend for the championship.

However, the performance of JDG players this year was shocking. Internal problems arose continuously; Missing became the worst support in the league, Ale’s flaws in playstyle were too obvious, and under these circumstances, coach cvMAX resigned abruptly. JDG was then forced to seek further reinforcements.

During this period, the championship mid laner Scout’s form was undeniably disappointing. Off-field controversies surfaced again, and his overall season performance was poor. Consequently, Peyz became the biggest victim, missing Worlds for the first time in his career. As a Korean prodigy, moving to the LPL essentially cost him a peak year. Even if he had stayed in the LCK after leaving GEN, qualifying for Worlds would have been unlikely, arguably even harder than in the LPL.

Insiders reveal JDG invested over 40 million yuan.

Peyz’s move to the LPL region also had reasons behind it. In this new era of big signings, the LPL favors bringing in ADC players with great success: EDG won the World Championship after signing Viper, JDG claimed the MSI title after bringing in Ruler. Players joining the LPL often perform excellently and help their teams achieve strong results.

However, this magic Korean ADC effect stopped with Peyz. Yesterday’s match showed that when behind, Peyz was very anxious and even tried to turn the game around with individual plays but ended up getting killed.

JDG was initially in a strong position after winning the first game and holding an advantage in the second, but after being reversed, the entire team seemed off, even hesitant to play their comfort compositions, ultimately causing them to miss out on Worlds.

Notably, LPL insider Hongcha revealed that JDG has invested over 40 million yuan for two consecutive years without making Worlds, causing huge losses for the club. JDG once built a top-tier roster and had their glorious period, but with this Worlds failure, JDG’s decline is now complete.

LPL faces a shortage of talent, making it difficult to maintain high-level rosters.

After this season ends, JDG must prepare for the next transfer window. In my opinion, the biggest loss for JDG, and perhaps for the LPL overall, is Missing. Once the league’s top support, his rapid decline was unexpected, weakening JDG’s bottom lane synergy significantly.

It now seems that the strength of the Ruler-Missing duo owes much to Ruler’s contribution.

If JDG wants to pursue a high-level roster by year-end, they need to keep Peyz and bring in a strong support. However, top-tier supports in the LPL are scarce. One possible candidate is Kael, but AL probably won’t sell him.

Without a strong bottom lane, Peyz’s value cannot be fully realized.

Other positions are also in a tough spot. Scout is indeed underperforming, but there are few players in the LPL better than him, most of whom are not available for transfer. Unless they bring in another Korean mid laner, the top lane situation is similarly difficult.

In summary, the current talent pool in the LPL is extremely tight, with almost no strong players left in any position.