Uzi's playstyle makes a comeback! LCK prodigy dominates, Faker's loss is justified, Brother Xu remains the king.

Hello to all LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, this is World Game Hub.

The playoffs on the LPL side are currently in the midst of the first round of the loser's bracket, while the LCK already held its loser's bracket final yesterday. The winner will advance to the LCK Cup final and also secure a spot in the Pioneer Tournament.

As a result, Team BFX swept Team DK with a 3-0 score, successfully advancing.

Uzi's playstyle returns, LCK prodigy goes on a rampage

In the previous loser's bracket match, DK staged a comeback, defeating T1 in a full five-game series to earn their spot in the Hong Kong loser's bracket final. Before the match against BFX began, most viewers believed DK and BFX were evenly matched and expected the series to go to four or five games.

In the LCK official broadcast's pre-match analyst prediction segment, out of 14 analysts, the final predictions were split 7-7, with half favoring DK and half favoring BFX. Not a single analyst predicted a 3-0 scoreline.

The outcome, however, was astonishing. BFX secured a dominant 3-0 victory. During the match, BFX's prodigy bot laner, Diable, remained in exceptional form, lane dominating his DK counterpart and delivering stellar teamfight performances. When commenting on this player, Peanut noted that his style closely resembles Uzi's, stating that very few players in the entire league share a similar style, but Diable is certainly one of them.

Even before this, some viewers had noted Diable's playstyle similarities to Uzi, though Uzi's critics dismissed it as fans trying to "ride on Uzi's coattails." Objectively speaking, however, their playstyles are indeed similar, and BFX employs a strategy reminiscent of a "protect-the-carry" composition focused around Diable.

The protect-the-carry strategy makes a comeback, BFX advances to the finals

Firstly, Diable's playstyle is intensely aggressive, with strong lane dominance and exceptional micro-mechanics and positioning—traits Uzi also exhibited at his peak. During the 2018 MSI, Uzi perfected this style, showcasing overwhelming lane pressure and teamfight damage output.

Simultaneously, BFX's strategy revolves heavily around protecting and enabling their bot lane's development, frequently prioritizing ganks to that side. In terms of champion selection, BFX opted for enchantress supports in all three games to enhance their bot lane's laning strength and better safeguard Diable.

If a player lacks sufficient individual skill, using enchantress supports can create teamfight initiation issues for the team. However, if the bot laner can deliver strong individual performances that benefit the team, such a strategy is justified.

In yesterday's match, BFX's jungler crippled DK's bot lane in the very first game. In the second and third games, Diable consistently achieved lane dominance. Particularly in game three, his performance on Samira was spectacular, almost single-handedly pressuring all five DK members. He even executed a flash to dodge a predicted Pantheon W, an move hailed by viewers as the "killing intent perception" of a top-tier player.

Faker's loss is justified, Brother Xu remains the king

In my opinion, the League of Legends competitive scene hasn't seen such a pure, hyper-carry bot lane focus combined with a protect-the-carry style in many years, nor has a prodigy of such high caliber emerged recently. The rise of Diable and BFX genuinely brings a fresh narrative to the League esports landscape and injects new vitality into the LCK.

The key question now is how far this specific BFX configuration and strategy can go. What level of performance can they show in a rematch against GEN? And in their first international tournament, can they shine brightly and demonstrate their prowess against teams from other regions?

Furthermore, after BFX's sweep of DK, T1's perceived strength takes another hit. It now seems clear that T1 is indeed the fourth-strongest team in the LCK and likely exists on a different tier compared to BFX. While their previous loss might have been attributed to T1 underestimating their opponents, it's now evident that Faker and his team lost to a genuinely superior squad.

In contrast, DK's performance was rather disappointing. Frankly, they played hesitantly and timidly yesterday. Objectively, they weren't in the same form as during their match against T1. Perhaps the team has issues with starting slowly. However, T1 gave them chances in the previous round, whereas BFX simply closed out the series 3-0.

As for Brother Xu, he remains the king, especially with his Yone performance in the second game, which was also a core reason for DK's hesitant and passive playstyle.