The first stage of the LPL Knight's Journey has reached the second round. On the last match day, Top Esports faced WE in a fierce five-game battle. Ultimately, Top Esports won and advanced to the playoffs. Although the score was tight, the performance from both teams was somewhat disappointing. Every game had players making critical mistakes and throwing leads. The contest wasn’t about who had the stronger lineup or better teamwork, but rather who made fewer errors. Clearly, Top Esports had a slightly lower mistake rate.

Though this match was quite frustrating to watch, at least Top Esports made it to the playoffs. We look forward to their upcoming games. On the same day, another match featured IG versus NIP. Before the game, many believed IG would win, but NIP stepped up and closed the series 3-1 in just four games, securing the sixth playoff spot. IG’s top laner Soboro’s performance in this BO5 can only be described as extraordinary—in a bad way.

In the first game, Rumble was constantly caught out; whenever the enemy jungler or mid came to gank, he was there. At 12 minutes, the score was 0-4. Although IG managed to overturn a 10,000 gold deficit to defeat NIP, the top laner had little to do with it—he was basically invisible throughout. In the second game, Sion’s laning phase was okay, but he was severely out of sync during team fights. As the only frontline for the team, he failed to hold the front line and kept trying to flank with his ultimate, which was puzzling.

In the third game, he picked Jax. Both the jungler and mid roamed top to help him gain some advantage, but he was still pressured in lane. Even with assistance, he didn’t contribute much to the team and remained unseen and ineffective. The final deciding game was the most absurd: he chose Malphite to face off against Ornn but couldn’t even hold his own. Within five minutes, Ornn solo killed him despite Malphite having his ultimate available to survive. He waited too long to use it, and after finally activating it, he still got solo killed again.

Guan Zeyuan, the official channel commentator, couldn’t understand Soboro’s play and openly criticized him: “This top laner is just insane—in a bad way. Even if I put up a comment barrage, it would be bigger than him. His play made the big boss blush.” Soboro’s crazy performance needs no further explanation. Letme, the secondary commentator, also couldn’t hold back after seeing this play and exclaimed: “It makes no sense, is Soboro even human?”

Honestly, whenever Ornn uses his second ultimate, Malphite can interrupt it with his own ultimate without losing too much health, at least allowing him to safely farm under tower. But Soboro’s play maximized his losses. During the Demacia Cup and earlier matches, he performed decently—though his tank play was average, his warrior picks could carry. It’s surprising that in just a month, his level has dropped so drastically.

This year’s Korean imports in LPL, like LNG’s jungler Croco and NIP’s jungler Guwon, have performed quite well. Compared to them, Soboro looks very weak—sometimes he doesn’t carry, sometimes he causes losses. Who can tolerate that? As viewers say: he’s not even as good as Wayward. People used to say his style resembled TheShy, but now it seems he only learned TheShy’s late-career mistakes, with none of his prime carrying ability.

After losing to NIP, IG has fallen to the third round. Their next likely opponent is LNG, since TT is too weak to win. Given IG’s current form, they have no right to challenge LNG. Of course, the loss to NIP isn’t just about the top laner; Rookie has also been inconsistent, and the bottom lane duo often overextends. Relying on Wei alone to win matches is extremely difficult. They need to quickly regain form.

Conclusion:

Up to now in the first stage of LPL, no top laner has been completely detrimental throughout. Soboro’s poor play has set a new low for top laners. If he can’t improve soon, IG will have to consider replacing him. However, his contract lasts two years, so changing players in the short term seems unlikely unless they sign another player to bench Soboro or mutually terminate the contract.

So, do you think Soboro is the worst Korean import this year?

Feel free to leave your comments and join the discussion!