The three iconic moments have drawn widespread attention!

Each year, the LOL World Championship produces numerous "memorable moments," like the Chieftain-era "Horse Stomping Arrows," TheShy's "River Aatrox," and last year's Faker's clutch Sylas against Chovy's full-health Ahri. This year, after just one day of the S15 World Championship, three major highlights have already appeared. Many viewers joked that these scenes are just as impressive as any previous "famous moment" in Worlds history, and each could even become a new esports meme or a "historic esports benchmark" on its own.

For example, the first iconic moment was BIN's hilarious tower dive with the excavator. The opposing 28-year-old "veteran" top laner just stood still under the tower, and BIN simply ran under the enemy turret to "commit suicide." This play effectively redeemed TheShy, as both play excavator top: TheShy kills opponents under the tower, while BIN just gave away a death there. Many LPL viewers couldn't understand BIN's move, with some even saying this play would rank among the top clips in "Teacher Xu's Bronze queue highlights" from back in the day.

Besides BIN's comedic tower dive, HLE's mid laner ZEKA also delivered the second iconic moment of the S15 Worlds during the match against AL. Ryze is a classic LOL champion with a standardized build path: every pro buys Tear of the Goddess first, followed by Archangel's Staff and Seraph's Embrace. However, ZEKA abandoned this formula during the game. Many LPL fans thought ZEKA was trying some "black tech" by skipping Tear, but when ZEKA only bought Archangel's Staff at 20 minutes, many laughed in disbelief.

Since Ryze’s damage scales with mana, buying Archangel's Staff without Tear meant Ryze lacked damage and shielding during the crucial 20-minute team fights. This caused HLE's mid and support to be outmatched by Shanks' Cassiopeia (who had fully stacked Archangel's by 20 minutes). Many LCK fans mocked ZEKA’s bizarre build, calling him an "insider" for the LPL, while LPL fans affectionately nicknamed him the league's "international friend." (AL barely managed to beat HLE, with support Neeko stealing dragons and ZEKA’s strange build choices.)

The third iconic moment came in the TES versus G2 match, where TES top laner 369 pulled off an incredible one-versus-five play in the bot lane "corridor." This Aatrox play by 369 was arguably the most spectacular move on the first day of the Swiss stage. Though not as flashy as BIN’s tower dive, many LPL fans believe 369’s play rivals TheShy’s legendary river Aatrox godlike moment. (If 369 can perform at this level every game, do you think TES has a shot at the world championship?)

ELK's interview sparks controversy

After BLG’s defeat, ELK addressed the reasons for their loss during the interview. ELK admitted that BLG chose an aggressive early-game lineup but played too timidly, failing to "snowball" the game. Many BLG fans blamed jungler Beichuan for the loss, labeling him a "choke artist" in big matches. Consequently, many called on BLG management to replace Beichuan with jungler Shadow in future matches. (Beichuan didn’t win a single game in the finals; it was only when Shadow started that BLG secured victories. Is BLG letting Beichuan play now just to give him a championship skin?)

Conclusion

It seems BLG underestimated their opponents. Keep in mind BIN often loses more than he wins with the excavator in ranked games. I really don’t understand why BLG’s coach allowed BIN to pick this champion. Also, choosing Caitlyn and Elise in a BO1 is puzzling; logically, these picks would make more sense in the third or fourth game of a BO5, since many champions can counter this combo in a single game. The second round of the Swiss stage draw is out — do you think TES and AL can keep winning all the way?