At the League of Legends ASI Asia Invitational, only one best-of-five match remains. On the previous match day, WBG, the only all-Chinese LPL team to reach the semifinals, suffered an upset loss to NS. In the losers' bracket, they faced BFX. Before the match, many expected a closely contested battle since WBG was the only team in this invitational to have defeated DK, and their raw strength was considered slightly superior to BFX’s.

The result was quite shocking. After just two games, WBG was swept and eliminated. Judging from the performance, BFX and WBG were not on the same level at all. There were significant gaps in late-game team fights, decision-making, and macro play. Let’s review this BO3 to see how WBG lost. In the first game, WBG had a decent early lead; at 3:30, Xiaohu scored a solo kill in the upper river area.

Later, Tian secured two kills with his ganks, and by 7 minutes, the kill score was 5-1. With both carries doing well early, as long as they played normally and controlled resources, this should have been a straightforward win. However, during a Baron fight, due to slow positioning, the Baron was taken by BFX. Tian attempted a risky contest and ended up dying. If only the jungler had died, it wouldn’t have been too bad, but WBG’s subsequent plays completely squandered their advantage.

After the jungler’s death, WBG tried a 4v1 dive to kill the fully enraged Renekton, but BFX countered. Despite going all out to kill Renekton, WBG lost three members, signaling BFX’s comeback. This was actually a command error—the team misjudged the situation. After BFX took the Baron and only the AD was visible mid, the enemy was obviously in the blue side jungle. Yet WBG still tried to dive under tower, targeting a fully enraged Renekton.

After losing that team fight, WBG was basically out of options; they lost every subsequent fight. In the second game, WBG again had early advantages, scoring kills in mid and top lanes. BFX’s mid laner started 0-2 at 7 minutes. However, during the next dragon fight, WBG made mistakes: the support was level 5, the jungler lacked ultimate, and the AD was low on mana but forced a fight, resulting in a 0-for-4 exchange. Diable’s Seraphine opened 3-0, setting the stage for later fights.

After losing the dragon fight, WBG found some chances to claw back and by 24 minutes were still 2k gold ahead. But the AD gap was too large; Seraphine was 3.6k gold ahead. With such a lead, WBG couldn’t handle team fights. In the late game, they lost fights and at 30 minutes their base was destroyed. Down in the bottom lane matchup, Light’s deficit reached 8766 gold, setting a new LPL historical record.

Since Season 5, in the past decade, no LPL player has ever fallen behind by over 8700 gold in a single lane. Light completely embarrassed himself in this invitational. After this year, he might retire, as continuing to compete would only mean breaking more shameful records. Retiring early would at least preserve some dignity. However, WBG seems to value him highly and might not let him go easily.

WBG’s elimination is not surprising because the players clearly didn’t take the invitational seriously. During the event, except for Xiaohu, no one kept up ranked play to maintain their form. Light and Breath hadn’t played ranked for nearly 20 days since the bubble qualifiers. With such a professional attitude, how could they win? In contrast, LCK teams, though treating this as an entertainment event, continued training and played seriously. They deserved to win.

In conclusion:

LCK teams swept the top three spots while LPL was completely wiped out. It seems like the darkest hour has returned for LPL this year. Next, DK and BFX will face off in a BO5 to decide the invitational champion. The prize money for this home tournament will all go to LCK. It’s likely the organizers won’t hold this invitational again next year. This is truly embarrassing.

Have you ever seen a game where an AD carry falls behind by 8700 gold in lane?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!