LPL's next season is seeing major upheaval! WBG and iG have dropped into the Nirvana group! Top-tier players are now facing a severe lack of matches!

After last year's reform in the LPL, every team is ranked across the first three splits. Teams that get eliminated early typically face a gap of almost six months without any matches. OMG, an old-school legendary LPL team with no new funding or big-name acquisitions, ended its season in April and was excluded from all later official LPL tournaments. Meanwhile, the Nirvana group, despite its name, offers fewer games than the Summit group—though at least some matches are still played. In reality, there is a clear hierarchy among LPL teams, with a massive gap between average and elite squads. However, unexpectedly, multiple underdog victories have recently occurred: three teams fought their way out of the Knight's Path and into the Summit group!

First, iG was swept 3-0 by TT and demoted to the Nirvana group. Although iG no longer has its super-roster firepower, they still boast Meiko (champion support), Wei (MSI champion jungler), and the seasoned Breathe, plus two rookies—so they shouldn't be this weak. Yet this lineup lost decisively to a younger TT squad, which came as a real surprise. What will iG do next season? Their brand-new home stadium in Shanghai just opened, but now their match count will be cut by more than half!

On the other side, EDG defeated NIP to advance to the Summit group. NIP's current roster with two Korean imports came at a significant cost—they poached TT's two core players for high prices. People previously thought NIP's upset over BLG proved their strength, but now they can't even beat EDG. Having fallen into the Nirvana group, and with a home stadium in Shenzhen, their matches will shrink drastically, likely heavily impacting their sponsors as well.

The toughest situation, however, belongs to WBG. As a newly assembled "mini super team" this year, they spent a fortune, featuring veteran MSI champion midlaner Xiaohu, champion jungler Jiejie, and multiple-time LPL champion ELK! Yet they couldn't even overcome LGD, perfectly illustrating the saying "they don't slay nameless teams." The value gap between these two rosters is enormous. In the third stage, WBG will also face very few matches. Can the players endure this? Perhaps some veterans will choose to retire. What are your thoughts?