LPL teams advance to semifinals, fans suspect match-fixing! JDG wins bizarre match, this time it's the jungler again

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The LOL Global Pioneer Tournament yesterday held the quarterfinal stage matches, with Chinese and Korean teams competing separately. The result was that LCK's second seed BFX suffered an upset loss to G2, while JDG defeated LYON 3-1 to advance.

Editor

This means the two LPL teams will meet in the semifinals, competing for a spot in the finals.

JDG wins bizarre match, fans suspect match-fixing

Yesterday's JDG versus LYON match wasn't won particularly smoothly, especially as their bot lane performed poorly, frequently getting killed in lane during the laning phase. In the first two games, JDG fell into deficits in the early to mid-game, though in the first game, Junjia's Xin Zhao seized an opportunity and JDG executed a comeback teamfight to win. In the second game, JDG launched consecutive counterattacks but still lost.

Because the early-game deficit was too large, even JDG's strong late-game capabilities couldn't guarantee a comeback every time. This reveals JDG's team characteristic: they indeed have shortcomings in early to mid-game laning and tempo. GALA's laning ability is insufficient, and the tempo almost entirely relies on Junjia's individual performance.

Starting from the third game, the match began to turn bizarre. LYON's jungler Inspired was suspected by viewers of potential match-fixing. Originally, after securing a solo kill mid-lane, LYON's situation was favorable, but they suddenly started making mistakes in the mid-game. The jungler began acting recklessly, continuously giving away advantages, with extremely absurd performance.

In the subsequent fourth game, LYON again gained an advantage, yet Inspired continuously gave up three dragons, never approaching whenever a dragon spawned. Despite having an early dragon lead, JDG secured a pure Electric Dragon Soul.

Viewers suggest strict investigation, this time it's the jungler again

In the later Baron and Elder Dragon contests, JDG also prevailed in the smite fights, ultimately winning this bizarre match and advancing to the semifinals.

From a post-match perspective, LYON's strength is actually not weak; at least they could pressure JDG in the early to mid-game.

JDG's victories in this round largely relied on opponents' mistakes. LYON not only had a highly suspicious jungler Inspired, but their mid-laner also appeared questionable. If the operation of giving up three dragons without contesting was directed by the jungler, it's even possible that the entire LYON team isn't entirely clean.

Viewers also widely suggested Riot conduct a strict investigation. This time it's the jungler position again, reminding people of Naiyou.

But actually, last year's World Championship also had cases of foreign team junglers suspected of match-fixing. The situation then was even worse than now: it was 100T's Korean import jungler River, who used Monkey King in a match against T1. In every teamfight, he was disconnected; his teammates engaged but he stubbornly refused to join, even not using any skills in teamfights while full health and full mana.

He was edge observing in two consecutive teamfights. At that time, people suspected this person was also a match-fixing player. Besides his absurd in-game performance, River announced retirement immediately after the match, being perceived by viewers as "loyal service to his country," taking a payout and returning home beautifully.

Not only LPL, other regions are also not clean

In the first stage of this year's LPL, everyone was angry about the Naiyou incident, directly calling out the poor environment. Actually, aside from LPL, other regions are also not clean. Overseas舆论 compared to domestic is somewhat better, even the voices demanding official investigation aren't as loud. The European and American regions likely already have大量 match-fixing and it一直不会被 punished.

Even the strongest region LCK cannot排除存在 match-fixing的可能性. The reason is that most LCK teams operate with常年亏损,俱乐部经营存在很大困难. Even in a country where match-fixing is illegal, they might take risks.

Viewers who watch LCK should also know that this year LCK has had不少神人对决, many players are quite suspicious.

Personally, I believe the main cause of this situation is the immense生存压力 on players across major regions' clubs. This stems from the恶劣影响 caused by the huge泡沫 during LOL's peak period. Today, as LOL's热度持续下滑, many suffer from the backlash of high salaries and high investments. When unable to achieve results, they choose another way to earn收益, even though such actions违背体育精神.