The first round robin of the LPL's first split group stage is nearing completion. On the last matchday, IG played against BLG. TheShy, who had been missing for a while, began live streaming to watch over the game. Watching IG’s top and mid get solo killed one after another, and Soboro Yahang ending 2-8, TheShy was silent for a bit before concluding: he can’t play this champion. Being a key LPL figure, TheShy’s popularity is staggering, drawing close to 100,000 viewers.

Besides the official stream, regular secondary streamers like Shuizi Ge and Zitao have seen a noticeable drop in popularity this year, with key matches drawing only 20,000 to 50,000 viewers. TheShy’s return to streaming attracted a huge audience, showing his massive influence. During the stream, he also touched on his comeback, responding: “Don’t ask, just wait.” He didn’t deny a return outright, so a comeback is still possible, though the chances seem somewhat slim.

According to LPL’s official transfer period rules, TheShy is suspended until the third split. If the league strictly enforces this without considering regional popularity, even if TheShy wants to return, he would have to wait until the final split. Next, IG will face Top Esports, battling to avoid last place in the promotion group. If TheShy joins JKL for a live commentary during the match, that would be interesting—they both make for entertaining commentators.

Another match on the same day was AL versus WBG. The two teams played only two games before deciding the winner. AL quickly secured their third win on Weibo with a 2:0 score. Both teams have recently faced issues; Weibo’s top, mid, jungle, and support players have been underperforming, even ELK has been vulnerable. The team’s main problem is trading losses each game, which leaves Weibo completely unable to compete against strong teams.

AL still faces old problems: the top lane can't hold its own. Saint Gun faced a struggling Zika but still couldn’t gain lane advantage. In the 2:0 wins, among four teammates’ ratings, one scored 8, and the others were above 9. Tarzan and Keal nearly achieved perfect scores, but Saint Gun averaged only 4.9 over two games—0.1 lower than the opposing jungler Jiejie. He gets out-traded every lane, always “feeding the boss.”

Hope held his lane against ELK without being broken, showing some improvement. But Saint Gun has been really disappointing lately. Losing to Bin or Xiao Xu is understandable, but even being out-traded by Zika is unacceptable. The losses in the previous two games are closely tied to the top and bottom lanes, so both the players and coaches there must take responsibility. Compared to last year, AL’s overall strength has clearly declined this season.

Hope and Saint Gun’s laning skills are both weak. Last year, they could swap lanes to drag the game into mid and late stages and rely on team fights for advantages. But this year, with new rules, lane swapping between top and bottom is no longer allowed. Due to patch changes, their weaknesses have been exposed. Hope is slightly better since he’s part of a duo with a very strong support partner. Saint Gun is in a tough spot, consistently losing trades and being pressured in lane.

Although they shut out Weibo, the previous problems remain. It seems there’s no tactical fix to change the situation. With Yahang, Weapon, and Renekton strong in the meta, it’s hard for top laners to survive even with tanks. So AL’s issues feel unsolvable for now. The good news is that AL’s coach has realized they can’t give Kai’Sa a weak support. In the two games against Weibo, using two engage champions reduced pressure on Tarzan significantly.

Conclusion:

Saint Gun’s current problems are hard to fix quickly. Playing fighters, he can’t get lane advantages; playing tanks, he still can’t withstand pressure. Not giving the enemy top laner kills is already his best contribution. It seems Saint Gun really needs to find his form. If he keeps playing like this, even as a world champion top laner, his legacy might be tarnished.

So, what adjustments do you think AL should make?

Feel free to leave your thoughts and join the discussion!