Should BLG thank Uzi?

As the LPL's acknowledged strongest team, BLG fans commonly hold that, leveraging the squad's immense potential, qualifying for the Global Pioneer Tournament is a breeze for BLG. All five members are top-tier in the league in popularity and ability. BLG certainly did not disappoint their fans in the playoffs. So far, BLG has played two BO5 series, sweeping both opponents 3-0 with an average game time under 28 minutes. To date, no LPL team has even seen BLG's high-ground turrets in a match.

BLG's dominant performance has earned recognition from many LPL commentators and players. Uzi praised BLG as the "LPL King" during a stream, stating the gap between them and other teams is significant, making BLG's matches feel like "playing against bots." Uzi also joked that he deserves some credit for BLG's strength, having invited knight to play Flex Queue in the Canyon Summit to help him maintain form. Uzi quipped that knight might feel more pressure in Flex Queue than in the LPL, since "he got stomped by random players during those sessions."

The Nation's Top AD Suffers "Backlash"

Aside from mid laner knight's excellent performance, BLG's easy victory over WBG also featured bot laner Viper proving himself in this BO5. During the regular season, due to insufficient synergy with his teammates, especially support On, Viper made some laning mistakes, leading to criticism from many BLG fans. Some even believed Viper was inferior to ELK. However, as Viper and On built better coordination, Viper gradually displayed the ceiling potential of a champion AD, even earning the series MVP by outperforming ELK in this BO5.

Viewers who watched this BO5 know that ELK bears major blame for WBG's loss. In this series, whether playing strong early-game champions or scaling picks, ELK was consistently crushed in lane by Viper, which heavily pressured WBG jungler JIEJIE's pathing. The final game was particularly disheartening for WBG fans: the coach drafted a safe scaling pick for ELK, intending for him to "farm cautiously," yet ELK stubbornly traded with Viper at level one, resulting in an early death, followed by a double kill for Viper at level two.

After witnessing ELK's performance, many viewers believe the LPL's official "star-pushing project" has failed again. Despite WBG's mediocre results in the regular season, the LPL still placed ELK on the All-Pro First Team AD position, which many fans considered undeserved. Now, with ELK being dominated by Viper, audiences are looking forward to Viper's future performances, as many believe only Viper is worthy of the LPL First Team AD spot.

Although ELK's in-game performance was lacking, some analysts argue he was hampered by WBG's coaching staff. Among them, LPL champion coach Zhu Kai defended ELK on stream, stating that ELK enjoys aggressive bot lane trades, so WBG's coaches should not have given him a passive scaling duo like Sivir plus Yuumi, but rather stronger early-game champions. Zhu Kai also suggested WBG should focus their strategy around ELK. For instance, when ELK picks Caitlyn paired with a jungler like Elise, the rest of WBG should build their entire game plan around him. (Do you think WBG lost to BLG due to draft issues?)