Preface: The S16 season has officially begun, and most players have been paying attention to the recent off-season period. The hottest topic in recent days has been the IG team. As a top-tier all-star lineup, they recalled two Korean players during the off-season. The return of Rookie and Theshy has significantly boosted the team's popularity. Unexpectedly, along with Theshy, the familiar figure Xuan Shen also made a comeback. Recently, he officially announced that he had obtained the official MSI second-stream commentary rights. It seems the officials truly valued his traffic, and after his public apology, the IG team apparently chose not to pursue further action.

Insulting Theshy, apologizing, and regaining official recognition

Most players are quite familiar with the IG team. As a top-tier team in the LPL, they won the World Championship back in Season 8. Over the years, IG has invested significantly, especially in recent seasons, with many veteran players returning one after another, rapidly boosting the team's popularity and maintaining stable results. However, this season brought many issues for IG—the departure of top laner Theshy and Rookie's breakup caused a sharp decline in the team's popularity. To ensure that the third stage still attracts fans to follow IG, the team went all out to build a new roster.

Barring any surprises, top laner Theshy and mid laner Rookie will both be starting in the third stage. With IG's home ground, this is likely to yield significant returns. A while ago, IG officially announced a penalty against Xuan Shen, ultimately winning the case, ordering him to publicly apologize and pay compensation for mental distress damages, along with legal fees and court costs. At the time, many fans were very happy, knowing that Xuan Shen had frequently made provocative remarks about IG, especially regarding Theshy. When fans criticized him, he even claimed that "horse head" was a term of respect for Theshy.

Many initially thought this legal action would completely knock Xuan Shen down, given how much he had profited from negative traffic. However, just recently, he officially announced his comeback. "I'm back. Even Jordan became the GOAT only after his second comeback. Gods make mistakes and deserve a second chance." Through this incident, he surprisingly gained official recognition and became a second-stream commentator for the MSI event. It's baffling how the officials could give commentary rights back to someone with such a tainted record. Perhaps they truly value the traffic—the league now needs more bullet-screen engagement to sustain itself.

Top laner Theshy hasn't been training as much as many expected. Since his return, he has only played 12 ranked matches, winning just five, with a win rate of 41%. He doesn't even log in to train every day. This might be related to the off-season—after all, after coming back, he needs to catch up with old friends. The third stage is still about a month away, so there's plenty of time for intensive training later. However, it's unclear how much of his former skill he has retained, and whether he can still pull off those iconic plays on stage.

In my opinion,

For a player who lost a lawsuit, the officials still returned the second-stream commentary rights—this only shows that the current environment of the league is indeed struggling, and the officials need this kind of traffic to support match popularity. IG probably raised objections but had to bow to the officials' authority. Hopefully, Xuan Shen will step up his commentary this time, since fans still have some expectations of him. Many netizens even joked that the god of second-stream commentary has returned.

What do you, dear viewers, think about this matter?