Foreword: The S16 season matches have officially begun, and I believe most players are following the recent competitions. The matches across all major regions have gradually wound down, and we've now entered a brief off-season. The recent transfer moves have become a major focus of discussion among netizens, with the IG team's lineup drawing significant attention. Top laner Theshy, after an eight-month hiatus, has returned to training on the Korean server, but his current performance is not great, with only a 20% win rate in Diamond-ranked games. He's likely still trying to find his feel. Meanwhile, Ruler's penalty has also been officially announced—surprisingly, he only received a fine of 90,000 yuan for tax evasion, along with 40 hours of community service.

Theshy's comeback training on Korean server has only a 20% win rate

I believe most players are quite familiar with top laner Theshy. As a top-tier professional in the LPL region, his overall popularity and influence have remained high in recent years. After being eliminated in last season's World Championship, he chose to take a break. Many thought he had fully retired, but unexpectedly, after IG fell into the "Nirvana Group" in the second split, he decided to make a comeback. This instantly caused a stir across the internet, with all fans hoping he could bring some miracles to IG. In the past couple of days, he has stopped resting and resumed regular Korean server training, but the results have been disappointing, given that he hasn't played ranked games for eight months.

So far, he has played five ranked games, switching between three different Korean server accounts, using champions like Rumble, Aurora, Ambessa, Aatrox, and Sion. Out of five games, he only won the one with Aatrox, losing all the others, resulting in a 20% win rate. Based on the stats, his laning phase seemed quite strong in each match. In the four lost games, except for the Ambessa one, all the others had him as the SVP. The Aatrox game was particularly impressive with a score of 13/7, but his teammates had even better numbers—the bottom lane Ashe secured 17 kills. In Diamond/Master ranked games, it often depends on teammates' performance; no matter how well you play, if your team has major issues, it's hard to turn things around.

During this break, the LCK officially announced the penalty for AD carry Ruler. In the end, for this serious tax evasion, Ruler was only sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a fine of 20 million Korean won. Converted, that's only about 90,000 yuan. To put it in perspective, Bin was fined 150,000 yuan just for failing to follow official protocols during the entrance ceremony and interacting with fans. The LCK's penalty is indeed too lenient. If such a serious tax evasion case had occurred in the LPL, the player would likely have been permanently banned from professional play. It seems Samsung put a lot of effort into mediating behind the scenes.

The most explosive news is probably RNG's "resurrection." The official account of RNG's Delta branch responded to news of the club's return. Although the message was later deleted, many people have saved screenshots. It's unclear whether this is a prank or real. If RNG can come back, it would only show that the league's regulation has serious issues. If a team with so many debts and contract problems can return, wouldn't other teams have the same excuse? If RNG returns and pays off all its debts, that would be commendable. But if they still carry all those liabilities, the backlash from netizens would likely overwhelm them.

Goodbye's Take

Recently, Theshy has brought a lot of attention to the LPL. Having not trained on the Korean server for eight months, his return to competition will inevitably see a significant drop in his mechanics. There's no need to demand too much from him, as he's no longer chasing results. As long as we can see him on the professional stage, that's satisfying enough. It remains to be seen whether IG's new home arena will undergo any changes. It's already a given that tickets will be hard to come by; the only question is whether they'll increase the price.

What do you, the audience, think about this matter?