The first round of the LPL second stage playoffs is over. In the lower bracket, AL vs. EDG only went three games, and AL swept EDG to reach the winner's bracket semifinals. Earlier in the Knights' Road, EDG surprised everyone by beating the rising dark horse NIP, leading people to believe they had skill. However, when matched against an elite team, they completely fell apart, just like LGD.

All three teams from the Rebirth Group have fallen into the loser's bracket. It seems the gap between strong and weak teams in the LPL is still huge. The upsets these three teams caused during Knights' Road were purely due to their opponents being in poor form and lacking strength. On the same day, another match featured BLG against WE. Nobody expected WE to win, since BLG was first in the Summit Group and WE was last. BLG actively chose WE as their opponent.

Everyone thought BLG would easily beat WE and meet AL in the semifinals. But suddenly, WE stepped up. In the first game, WE's jungle and support set the pace from the start, with Monki's wolf-dog hero going wild in team fights, easily securing the first win. In the second game, Xun woke up and carried all three lanes with his blind monk, tying the series. The third game was the most bizarre, filled with mistakes from both sides, turning the match into a series of back-and-forth throws.

BLG had a nearly 10,000 gold lead in the mid-game. During WE's dragon soul fight, Viper was absent from the main battle, sneaking to destroy enemy base structures, but his team lost the fight. Later, during the Elder Dragon soul fight, Monki picked off Knight, splitting BLG's formation and leading to their collapse. WE tried to finish the game in one push but got their jungler killed. If they had pushed the bot lane inhibitor and then retreated to take the Elder Dragon, WE would have secured the win. However, a poor decision gave BLG a chance to counterattack.

Like the previous dragon soul fight, WE gave up the Elder Dragon and sent their jungler to sneak attack the enemy base. Their teammates held off the opponents, and Monki successfully won the game by hitting the nexus, securing match point. From a nearly 10,000 gold lead to a comeback defeat, BLG's performance was terrible. In the fourth game, BLG started strong again, but during the final base push, they got wiped by WE and failed to close out the game.

The last-place team in the Summit Group toppled the first-place team with a 3:1 score. The irony is that BLG actively chose WE as their opponent. If they had picked any Rebirth Group team, they probably wouldn't have suffered such an upset. Before the match, everyone said BLG chose a team they were familiar with, but the result shows they didn't know WE at all. Still, we can't entirely blame them, since even the audience didn't expect WE to be this dominant in the playoffs.

The team that might feel worse than BLG is WBG. After the first stage, WBG kicked out Erha. But after switching teams, he not only made the playoffs with his new teammates but also upset the top team in the league. Meanwhile, WBG is nowhere to be found in the playoffs and doesn't even know where to make money. They've fallen into the Rebirth Group for the third stage. Owner Shi Tou must be heartbroken seeing Erha's current results.

Besides the fans, the person most delighted by WE's win is probably Ai Xiao. Cube posted after the match: "Next AL." Ai Xiao quickly appeared in the comments and mocked Bin Ge: "Are you also the world's best top laner?" Goodness, Ai Xiao never misses a chance to belittle BLG. Choosing their opponent first and then losing to them—BLG is indeed embarrassing, but Ai Xiao's behavior is also a bit classless.

Conclusion:

After falling into the loser's bracket, BLG will next face EDG. Although the chance of losing is low, given their performance against WE, another upset isn't impossible. If BLG ultimately fails to reach the finals, then Erha will have repaid WBG for their training, because if BLG doesn't win the championship, WBG will secure a spot in the EWC.

So, who do you think is the biggest problem on BLG?

Feel free to leave your comments and discuss!