The biggest dark horse in the LPL has been knocked out.

Since the new LPL season started with team group competitions, there has been a serious "strength disparity gradient" among the teams. Powerful teams have enjoyed higher visibility in tournaments, drawing more viewers; weaker teams have been neglected, barely receiving any attention or exposure. Industry insiders reveal that offline matches for the Perseverance and Phoenix groups are often sparsely attended, with few spectators showing up. (Zhu Kai revealed on his stream that TT and UP teams will disband and leave the LPL next year.)

Of course, within the Perseverance and Phoenix groups, some teams show great potential and are regarded as dark horses by many LPL fans, such as NIP, OMG, and LNG. These teams’ theoretical strength matches that of the Summit group teams. In fact, NIP from the Perseverance group successfully crushed IG during the qualifiers, becoming the first team in LPL history to advance from the Perseverance group to the playoffs. Many viewers believed that if NIP could reach the playoffs, LNG also had a chance.

After all, LNG demonstrated strong dominance in the Phoenix group, leading many fans and commentators to call LNG the biggest dark horse in the LPL. Even LPL caster Miller believed LNG had Summit-level strength. However, unexpectedly, LNG lost to WE and missed the LPL playoffs, which disappointed many LNG supporters. LPL champion coach Zhu Kai commented post-match that LNG underestimated WE due to facing weaker opponents too often. Despite early advantages in each game, LNG lacked discipline in mid-game, leading to several costly mistakes.

The LPL group results are out.

With WE successfully advancing to the playoffs, the eight teams participating in the LPL playoffs have been finalized. These teams are WE, IG, NIP, TES, AL, BLG, WBG, and JDG. Based on regular season rankings, the LPL officially arranged for team captains to pick their playoff opponents in order. AL’s captain Shanks chose WE; BLG’s Left Hand picked NIP; WBG’s Xiaohu selected IG; and JDG chose TES.

During the selection phase, captains exchanged some bold remarks. AL’s captain Shanks openly targeted WE, stating that WE is the weakest team in the LPL playoffs and that picking WE guarantees a win. BLG’s mid laner Left Hand also chose his "old teammate" Zhuo’s NIP team, admitting he wanted to bully his former teammate. (What do you think about AL and BLG choosing WE and NIP? Are these two teams generally considered the weakest?)

Among these LPL qualifier teams, TES arguably has the strongest roster on paper. During the selection, BLG, AL, and WBG all avoided picking TES, forcing JDG to face TES in a BO5. TES’s performance this season has been inconsistent: at their best, TES can easily defeat BLG, WBG, and JDG; at their worst, they can’t even beat IG. (In the group stage this season, TES lost only to AL but beat all other teams.)