AL manager harassing JDG analyst sparks criticism.

After coach Tabe departed from the AL team, a majority of the audience believed AL's results in the new season would see a significant drop. Tabe is considered the LPL's strongest coach. Quite a few viewers even felt BLG would take AL's place as the LPL's new king-level team. Yet, upon the regular season's end, AL successfully demonstrated their capability. AL's top laner Flandre, jungler Tarzan, support Kael, and the coaching staff all made it onto the LPL's Best Team roster. Many fans joked that even without Tabe, AL remains the LPL's strongest team.

However, as the LPL playoffs progressed, many viewers gradually realized they had underestimated coach Tabe's impact on the team. In the key match between AL and JDG, AL had two games where their draft phase was completely outmatched by JDG, with the gap in the fifth game's draft being particularly glaring. Veteran LPL commentator Zitai stated bluntly during his stream that once JDG finished their champion select, AL had essentially already lost the game. (Do you think AL's loss to JDG stemmed from the gap in the draft phase?)

Following AL's narrow defeat to JDG, JDG's owner Blue Lotus seized the opportunity to attack, posting various scandals about the AL manager on his social media account. Among these, the most baffling to viewers was that the AL manager, Aixiao, was keen on privately harassing a JDG analyst, repeatedly trying to coax the analyst into making "extreme statements" during their exchanges. For instance, he wanted the JDG analyst to "show weakness before the match" and even tried to get the analyst to leak internal JDG scrim information. These bizarre actions by Aixiao genuinely angered many JDG fans.

Uzi reveals the LPL's final fig leaf.

As top-tier LPL teams, the match between JDG and AL attracted many LPL commentators and pro players to watch. Among them, the LPL's top AD carry, Uzi, watched this BO5 during his stream. During a break, Uzi noticed the director's camera repeatedly focused on the same section of the audience, appearing very fixed. Based on this observation, Uzi speculated boldly on stream: perhaps due to a low live audience, the director intentionally chose areas with more spectators to avoid filming empty seats.

Finally, to confirm his suspicion, Uzi recalled the filming techniques of LPL directors in the past for his viewers. When LPL live audiences were much larger before, directors loved wide shots to capture the entire crowd at once. Nowadays, LPL directors only dare to frequently cut to close-ups. Many viewers, seeing this situation, lamented that the LPL is "cooling down." Of course, many also believed it's because AL and JDG don't have enough star power; if it were a BLG match, the live audience would likely be larger.

Personally, I believe the current decline in LPL popularity is due to too many star players not competing. LPL commentator Crystal once said on stream that if TheShy, JKL, and Uzi all returned to play, LPL viewership would definitely explode. Last year, TheShy's solo comeback boosted the LPL's overall热度. If Uzi and TheShy could both return to compete in the future, it's possible the LPL could welcome its Nth spring. (In your opinion, which generates more hype: the热度 from Uzi and TheShy's comeback, or the热度 from the LPL region winning a World Championship?)