During the first stage group matches of the LPL, the schedule is more than halfway complete. On the last match day, Weibo and Top Esports clashed in their second encounter. WBG’s form was unstable in the first round, giving TES a free win. When they met again, both sides had visibly improved. This BO3 also went to the full three games, but the jungle and support gap was too large, with Naiyou and Fengyue constantly underperforming. In the end, Weibo secured their revenge.

After this match, the casters on the second stream agreed that Top Esports needs to replace their jungler, and Naiyou probably doesn’t have much time left. On the same day, AL faced AL, where the skill gap was huge and the outcome was never really in doubt. However, IG still went the full BO3 against AL before losing. Not getting swept was slightly better than expected, but watching all three games, IG’s play was truly erratic.

In the first game, IG was at a disadvantage across all three lanes. Wei tried desperately to create plays but couldn’t stop teammates from feeding heavily. Jwei even played a soft support but built hard support items, shattering instantly in team fights. IG couldn’t compete in direct confrontations. The second game saw Saint Gunner grow into a gold crocodile fighter, and Wei’s Jayce picked up momentum, with IG’s entire team fighting back to even the score. The decider was the most chaotic: Rookie’s Ryze severely underperformed, and after this game, his reputation took a massive hit.

Shanks picked Galio first, and Rookie countered with Ryze. Despite having range advantage, Rookie failed to exert any pressure and was even forced to use his ultimate before the dragon fight, preventing IG from contesting the dragon. The strangest part was that after 10 minutes, Rookie had only stacked 4 passive charges on Ryze. Ryze’s E or W hits add a stack, and Galio’s E can negate Ryze’s second E, but 4 stacks are really too few.

The third small dragon fight was the most unbelievable. IG’s jungle and support were caught out, leaving only three alive. Normally, they should have given up the dragon, farmed for five more minutes, and waited for the soul fight. Instead, Rookie had a sudden idea: he TP’d behind the enemy and ulted, leading a 3v5 with the top lane AD carry. Although Ryze with two items was strong, the enemy’s Rell wasn’t fully formed yet, so 3v5 was a losing battle. This play directly handed the enemy five kills.

Before the dragon fight at the pause, IG was ahead by 700 gold. After that team fight, they fell behind by 3,000 gold, and the match lost all suspense. The one who called that fight was definitely Rookie; without his TP, the top lane AD wouldn’t have engaged. The game ended at 31 minutes, with Rookie only stacking 35 passives. Saying it was unbelievable is no exaggeration. Judging by the final game, IG really isn’t up to par — they might as well bring up the mid laner from the Demacia Cup and have Rookie watch from the sidelines.

After losing to AL, IG’s record dropped to 2-5. Although tied with TES, they are two points behind in tiebreakers, currently sitting at the bottom of the Pinnacle Group. With 10 games in the double round-robin, IG has three matches left against BLG, JDG, and WBG. They seem likely to win at most one of these. IG’s path to the Knights is basically hopeless now; at this rate, they might not even be able to beat WE.

With their fourth win, AL climbed to the top of the standings by a narrow one-point margin. With Top Esports and IG as the dark horses, the competition for the top four isn’t very fierce. Barring surprises, the current top four teams will likely advance directly to the playoffs. As for the wildcards, the situation remains uncertain: AL, JDG, and BLG are all tied, with only one point separating them, so there’s still a chance for changes.

Conclusion:

Rookie is really aging; he lacks lane pressure and often makes baffling decisions in team fights. It’s almost a fantasy for this IG to achieve good results. Honestly, the mid lane spot could be tried out by Renard. With Rookie’s current form, even if the substitute mid underperforms, it probably wouldn’t be worse than him.

So, what do you think about Rookie’s performance?

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