Following the conclusion of the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational, T1, BLG, and other squads hurriedly traveled to Paris to gear up for the EWC group stage. The Saudi organizers have now announced the schedule, featuring all top-tier Chinese and Korean teams on the opening day. Notably, BLG and T1 ended up in the same group: T1 will play GAM first, while BLG takes on MKOI. Should both win their initial matches, a clash could occur as soon as the second round.

The remaining two LPL teams, JDG, have been placed in Group D alongside MSI dark horse LYON and champion HLE. AL is in Group A with G2 and DK. GEN's Group B has the lowest overall strength, with the other teams all being from Europe, America, and Vietnam. Barring surprises, GEN should advance to the knockout stage undefeated. The LPL teams' groups, however, pose a bit more pressure.

Doran receives differential treatment from T1

During T1's flight to Paris, they shared the same plane with foreign media reporters, an LEC host, and "Doublelift" (who participated in the classic server exhibition match). A reporter on the same flight revealed that all T1 players were seated in business class—except for Doran. This sparked immediate controversy, with many T1 fans demanding the club clarify. However, the LEC host later retweeted the reporter's post.

The LEC host didn't mention Doran by name, but her reply didn't deny the claim either. Given T1's lack of any denial statement, the differential treatment of Doran seems almost confirmed. Doran indeed performed poorly at this MSI—even being benched would be understandable to fans. But treating him differently is truly distasteful. A club as big as T1 can surely afford travel expenses for everyone.

Sun Yalong speaks up for Bin

After BLG's loss in the finals, Bin faced widespread criticism for his poor performance. In Mille's latest video, he and Guan Zeyuan discussed BLG at length. Mille urged Bin: "A true master always has the heart of a student." Guan Zeyuan was more direct, saying: "Bin, you can fool your teammates, but don't fool yourself. You can be cocky, but you shouldn't claim to be the world's best top laner without achieving results."

While everyone was criticizing Bin, DYS's Xiaoxiao suddenly stood up for him. Xiaoxiao posted: "It's hilarious that the whole internet is ganging up on Bin. He lost to Zeus in a close match—what's there to flame? In the finals, only Knight played well; everyone else had issues. The jungle and support made mistakes but had more contributions than errors. Viper was completely outclassed by the opponents' draft." Wow, Sun Yalong's remarks were clearly defending Bin while throwing Viper under the bus.

Asam reportedly joins IG

After IG officially announced TheShy's return, the roster for the third split was almost set. Apart from the AD carry position, the other members are all "veterans" from last year. To break out of the Relegation Group, IG sought to strengthen the AD role. Lianlian Hongcha recently revealed that Asam has left NIP, with his next stop being IG. Since they already have Jiaqi, signing Asam suggests IG might use a two-AD rotation next split.

Asam's performance in the second split was indeed impressive—aggressive in lane and able to carry with an advantage. However, his playstyle is quite risky, which fits IG's tendency to be aggressive. Whether he'll have chemistry with IG remains to be seen. If the synergy works, it could be effective; if not, it's uncertain. Playing AD on IG comes with high pressure, as the team is full of star players, and mistakes will invite heavy criticism.

Conclusion:

Xiaoxiao's angle in defending Bin is somewhat unreasonable. The other four players could be said to have lost narrowly, but not Bin. He forced the team's draft, didn't participate in team fights, and only farmed. The one game he carried was because Xun camped top lane for him. With such a performance, no amount of defense can clean his slate. As the saying goes, if a top laner only thinks about laning and ignores the team, BLG's ceiling is limited.

So, do you think Viper is the second culprit?

Feel free to leave a comment and discuss!