Foreword: The S16 season has officially begun. I believe most fans have been following the recent matches. The playoffs in the LPL region have been intensely fierce, now reaching a white-hot stage where every match eliminates one team. The showdown between WBG and TES has become a major talking point among netizens, especially in the decisive game. TES's jungler made a highly questionable itemization choice: against WBG's nearly full AD composition, he opted for zero armor and full magic resistance items, even seemingly building towards a second Spirit Visage. This sparked widespread discussion. If the team doesn't replace the jungler for the next split, serious questions must be raised about the management.

TES Creme's Zero Armor, Full Magic Resist Build Against Full AD Composition

Most fans are quite familiar with TES. As a historically strong team in the LPL with significant investment in recent years, they've consistently rebuilt their roster around star AD carry JackeyLove. This season, due to JackeyLove's health-related break, TES's overall performance has been highly unstable. After barely securing a playoff spot, they failed to achieve strong results and were eliminated after a grueling five-game series against WBG. The most baffling part for fans was undoubtedly the item choices in the fifth game.

Looking at WBG's team composition: top lane Yorick, jungle Dr. Mundo, mid lane Galio, AD carry Jinx, and support Thresh. This comp doesn't have much AP damage; the primary carries are the AD-based Jinx and Yorick. Yet, in this crucial match, TES jungler Creme, playing Skarner, chose a full magic resistance build. Examining his final items: Heartsteel, Spirit Visage, Negatron Cloak, Mercury's Treads, and Kindlegem. These items provided zero armor. The most perplexing part is, after already having a Spirit Visage, why build a Negatron Cloak and Kindlegem? Was he planning a second Spirit Visage?

Even if the goal was to counter Galio's AP damage, Galio was completely shut down in lane by Smolder and had no significant impact. The main damage threats were Elk's Jinx and the top lane Yorick. From any perspective, the jungler Skarner should have built some armor items, like Randuin's Omen or Dead Man's Plate. This led many netizens to speculate whether the jungler was intentionally throwing the match, as there seems to be no other plausible explanation for such item choices. The real victim was mid laner Creme, whose Smolder dealt a whopping 70k damage, while his teammates seemed intent on feeding.

Following this match, all five teams from the inaugural Global Pioneer tournament have now been eliminated: HLE, KC, CFO, TES, and TL. Their final placements were generally poor: HLE finished last in the LCK regular season, KC was the LEC runner-up, CFO had a first-round playoff exit, TES was eliminated in 6th place, and TL placed 4th in their region. It's clear the competitive landscape has shifted dramatically this year. All eyes are now on the LPL's AL and BLG, while JDG also has potential to be a dark horse, despite their noticeable flaws.

Goodbye thinks

Probably no one expected TES to lose in such an embarrassing manner, especially with such critical itemization errors in the decisive game. If even one of WBG's top, jungle, or AD carry had been an AP threat, his build wouldn't have been so glaringly problematic. It's time for a serious internal review. The LPL is gradually straying from its former course, and if this continues, the eventual outcome could be a total collapse.

What are your thoughts on this, everyone?