BLG’s “celebration banquet” ridiculed by many

Since BLG made the most humiliating top 16 exit in LPL history, many LPL viewers have urged for the team’s dissolution. Naturally, some BLG fans wish the players to take the shame as motivation, improve quickly, and aim to bring the LPL a championship next year. But what broke many BLG fans’ hearts was a recent leak revealing that apart from LeftHand and Beichuan, all other players and coaches were attending a commercial KTV event. After this news surfaced, many LPL fans flocked to watch the drama unfold, even joking that this was BLG’s top 16 celebration banquet, specifically to celebrate their top 16 finish.

After this incident was exposed, many female BLG fans collectively unfollowed the team, and quite a few LPL viewers began voluntarily reporting BLG players. As the situation escalated, BLG’s bottom lane AD carry ELK was the first to clarify, stating he had a cold yesterday and therefore didn’t go out at night. He also frankly said, “The innocent are clear.” (Personally, I checked the comments, and most fans supported ELK, believing he was falsely accused, though some joked about how quickly ELK distanced himself.)

Besides ELK’s immediate post, former TES veteran player DaHuang also supported LeftHand during his live stream, saying LeftHand had dinner with him yesterday and had no time to be elsewhere. DaHuang’s backing directly helped clear LeftHand’s name, and many fans joked that LeftHand not only “disappeared” during matches but also managed to “disappear” from this off-field “major incident.” Many are still waiting for BLG’s top laner BIN to comment, as the leaker claimed BIN was also at the commercial KTV, but so far no one has defended or testified for BIN.

LeftHand responds to top 16 performance

After DaHuang personally cleared LeftHand’s name, LeftHand appeared in DaHuang’s stream and answered various questions from the chat. LeftHand admitted he never attended any chaotic events and had been working out continuously since the top 16 exit. He also expressed frustration during the stream, saying BLG’s performance at the World Championship was very disappointing because their scrims were excellent. Many strong teams in the LCK were no match for BLG, so the whole team believed they had a chance to win the championship. They even intensely simulated full-game BP compositions and new strategies during scrims.

However, neither BLG players nor coaches expected to be eliminated without playing a BO5. LeftHand revealed that before the Swiss stage started, BLG players didn’t take BO1 seriously since elimination required losing a BO3. Thus, their mindset was relaxed. But unexpectedly, their last Swiss round opponent was TES, a very strong team, and unfortunately, BLG was knocked out. (BLG really underperformed; if they hadn’t lost BO1s to 100T and G2, they wouldn’t have faced TES in an internal match.)

Finally, LeftHand disclosed that the biggest regret of this World Championship was not facing T1. He believed if BLG had played a BO5 against T1, BLG had a 90% chance to eliminate them. However, luck was not on BLG’s side as they never met T1. LeftHand’s remarks drew criticism from many LPL fans since BLG couldn’t even beat TES, so how could they be confident against T1? (After watching GEN and KT’s knockout matches, I really feel LCK is too strong. Unless TES and AL perform extraordinarily, beating GEN is extremely difficult.)

Conclusion

Although the entire BLG team is caught in a public controversy, both ELK and LeftHand revealed in interviews that they will join the LPL practice squad in the future. If the whole BLG team participates in the practice squad, could their public image improve? What do you think — do LPL’s two teams have a chance to win the championship at this year’s S15 World Championship?