Preface: The S16 season matches have officially begun, and I believe the vast majority of players are closely following the recent competitions. The LPL region has been generating quite a buzz lately, especially the WE team. After the second-stage playoffs, they've undergone a rebirth. Although they didn't secure an MSI spot, many fans have high hopes for them. However, a recent video has sent shockwaves through the entire player base—it turns out that T1 proactively invited WE for a scrim, and Erha vs. Keria has become a reality. We can only say that the first round of playoffs was truly authoritative, as WE is the only LPL team that has defeated BLG.

T1 Takes the Initiative to Invite WE for a Scrim

I believe most players are quite familiar with WE. As a veteran team in the LPL, they won a world championship as early as Season 2. The scene of the entire internet congratulating WE is still vivid in our memories. With the successive retirements of veteran players like Weixiao and Caomei, WE's overall performance saw a significant decline. They had a brief resurgence in Season 7, but due to a draw mishap with RNG in that year's group stage, they ultimately fell short in the semifinals, allowing Gen.G and T1 from the LCK to meet in the finals.

This season, WE's results have still been less than ideal, especially during the regular season, where they struggled to secure wins. They entered the Knight's Path as the bottom seed in the Summit Group. Then LNG became the "responsible brother"—after a 13-game losing streak, they turned things around dramatically, even becoming the only team to defeat BLG in the playoffs. In a recently released video, WE surprisingly received an invitation from the world's strongest team, T1. At that moment, Erha thought Cube was joking, since his idol is Keria and he really wanted to face him. However, given WE's current strength, making it to Worlds seems nearly impossible, so a direct match appeared out of reach.

Thanks to T1's proactive invitation, the impossible became reality. Erha looked stunned as he asked his teammates and staff, all while feeling the joy of finally facing his idol. It seems T1 is also looking for ways to beat BLG. In the playoffs, WE is the only team that managed to defeat them. In fact, throughout the entire playoffs, BLG only lost six small games—five of which were against WE, and the other against JDG. At this point, BLG should probably take the initiative to invite Gen.G and see how they play against T1.

MSI is just three days away. The schedule this time is relatively friendly for the LPL region, with matches starting at 11 a.m. every day—even office workers can catch them. The opening match will be between T1 and TL. There's basically no suspense in this game. The LCK organizers clearly want to kick off the tournament with T1's high-profile match. The key will be the later games involving BLG and TES, especially BLG. As long as T1 doesn't run into trouble, their first-round opponent will be BLG. Otherwise, why would Faker and his team be so eager to scrim with WE?

In my opinion

No one expected T1 to voluntarily invite WE for a scrim—this would have been almost impossible in previous years. All of this is the result of WE's hard work. Erha's decision to turn down WBG during the transfer period was likely the right one. In my view, WBG will probably sink completely in the third stage; they have virtually no chance of competing. Their current lineup has too many contradictions, with players all having their own ideas, making unified play impossible.

What do you, the audience, think about this?