Saint Gunner’s new “nickname” draws attention.

Since the LOL meta changed from early lane swaps to a format where all three lanes must fulfill new seasonal tasks, the prevailing meta has become focused on laning. The player with superior laning skills can more effectively help their team gain an edge. Notably, BLG’s top laner BIN has openly stated in interviews that this season’s meta is his favorite. BLG has relied heavily on BIN’s laning strength to dominate opponents repeatedly in the league. So far, no LPL top laner has been able to withstand BIN’s lane pressure.

The player most heavily suppressed by BIN is arguably AL’s top laner Saint Gunner. Ever since Saint Gunner was repeatedly beaten by BIN in lane, his public reputation has steadily declined. Whenever Saint Gunner competes, many LPL fans watch his laning closely, and some have even nicknamed him “Yu Xiaogang.” (This is a reference to a master character from the series Douluo Dalu, who is Tang San’s mentor and is known for “raising monsters.” Saint Gunner’s poor laning performances against BLG and JDG have led to him “raising a monster” on the opposing side.)

The saga of Gunner’s substitution has finally come to an end.

Because Saint Gunner’s reputation has deteriorated, even when AL wins matches, he faces heavy mockery from fans. For example, after AL decisively crushed WBG, although Saint Gunner did not collapse in lane, his post-game rating was still the lowest on the team. Many AL supporters have urged the team’s management to replace their top laner. Some speculate that coach Tabe left AL partly because he was dissatisfied with Saint Gunner’s laning abilities.

As Saint Gunner’s reputation continued to decline, AL’s manager Aixiang spoke up for him during Zhukai’s livestream. Aixiang revealed that after AL lost to JDG, nearly 3,000 fans sent him private messages demanding Saint Gunner be replaced. During the stream, Aixiang warned certain AL fans to stop pressuring the team through private messages. He also stated that anyone who continues to cyberbully players via private messaging will be permanently blocked and face legal action.

Aixiang openly criticized BLG’s manager.

During the livestream, Aixiang also took a jab at rival teams, saying that all AL players are like brothers. This year, AL managed to renew contracts with all five players to compete as a brotherhood. He described AL’s roster as players “returned from hell,” and emphasized that as long as AL players don’t make critical mistakes, the management will not abandon them. Frequent roster changes due to poor results, he said, show a team management’s incompetence.

Aixiang’s remarks reminded many viewers of BLG’s frequent jungler swaps last year. After BLG replaced their jungler XUN, their results became unstable. BLG’s habit of changing players whenever results faltered culminated in BIN’s famous comment: “The farce is over.” (Do you think AL’s current underperformance compared to BLG is because of Saint Gunner? Can AL become the strongest LPL team this year?)