The 2025 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage has concluded. IG, highly anticipated by LPL fans, was sent home by T1 with a 3:1 score, finishing at 17th place and missing the Swiss stage. In fact, judging by the results, IG winning even one game against T1 already exceeded audience expectations. Although everyone hoped IG would win before the match, rational viewers believed that not getting swept would already be a success.

But after watching all four games, IG left the audience feeling worse than a complete haircut, because in two games, despite having the advantage, major mistakes by some players caused the matches to be turned around. In the first game at 28 minutes, IG secured the Infernal Soul; with normal play and good vision control, IG should have won easily. However, TheShy made a mistake by teleporting behind enemy lines to forcibly dive the tower, dying and also causing his teammates to fall.

This kind of game-losing mistake happened more than once. In the third game, Wei made the same error. Starting with a big disadvantage, they barely managed to reach a state where Gala had a small Infernal Dragon. In a normal team fight, protecting Gala would have secured the win. But Wei went alone to place a ward in the dragon pit and the match was lost. These mistakes from the top and jungle in those moments were honestly unreasonable—winning games and then throwing them away like this is unforgivable.

However, in the first game, the teammates also played quite sloppily; the two carries insisted on standing together in team fights and got caught by Faker’s double kill. If the team had made fewer mistakes, IG could have dragged the match to a deciding game or even had a chance to send T1 home. Overall, T1’s form in this BO5 wasn’t as strong as expected. Doran gave many opportunities, but what T1 didn’t expect was that IG’s top and jungle were even more impressive than Doran.

Both top and jungle made mistakes, but Wei actually died less than TheShy. Except for Sion in the second game, TheShy died in nearly all other games. Early on, T1’s main point of attack was on TheShy. Losing the match, especially when already having many haters, meant he was inevitably criticized. Even the international English caster IWD posted angrily, saying: This might be TheShy’s most disgusting performance in his career.

Maybe after watching the first two games, fans’ expectations of IG rose, so losing felt hard to accept. But looking back before the tournament, very few people believed IG could beat T1, so the loss was understandable. Rookie’s performance in this BO5 was indeed outstanding. Previously, many worried he would be IG’s biggest weak point, but throughout the series, the “world championship noob” proved reliable and gave his best effort.

Gala’s performance was also largely flawless. It’s just unfortunate that this year they still didn’t break into the quarterfinals. Training in Korea did have some effect, to be honest. But in the deciding game, Daeny’s draft was a bit too abstract. After three games, he still didn’t realize the top lane could only mirror Doran, while Gazi was the main carry. Picking a non-mobile top lane Varus under NOC pressure made T1’s coach laugh out loud.

Despite all the criticism, IG reaching the top 17 is already commendable. During the third stage of the regular season, most assumed IG wouldn’t qualify for Worlds, yet they made it. Regardless of wins or losses, these five players put on entertaining matches. Hopefully, after this year, TheShy will continue competing next year. If LPL loses him, there won’t be as many exciting games to watch.

Conclusion:

IG has been eliminated, finishing 17th. The upcoming focus is on the Swiss stage main event. The three remaining LPL teams are expected to bring their best form and win consecutively to enter the knockout stage. This year’s championship hopes rest on Top Esports, BLG, and AL. These three teams must reach the knockout rounds.

So, who do you think was the biggest problem for IG?

Feel free to leave your comments and join the discussion!