The second round of the winners' bracket at the 2026 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational is done. BLG crushed LYON 3-0, securing their spot in the winners' final against HLE. After six months, Bin successfully avenged himself against the "Indian God King." Despite being counter-picked, he still destroyed his opponent in the top lane. Clearly, Bin was too careless during last year's Worlds—when he locks in, the gap between them is massive.

T1, falling to the losers' bracket, cleanly took down Panther 3-0 to advance to the second round of the losers' bracket. The next three BO5 matches are TSW vs LYON, T1 vs G2, and BLG vs HLE—all highly suspenseful. TSW has dark horse potential and could upset LYON; if G2 is in form, they can go toe-to-toe with T1; and BLG is obviously a strong contender too.

Bin calls out Zeus: no junglers needed

After HLE beat G2 to reach the winners' final first, their players said in an interview that they would defeat BLG 3-1 to make the finals. When BLG advanced to the winners' final, Bin responded: "They said they'd beat us 3-1, but I think it'll be us beating them 3-1." He also shouted to Zeus, "Let's both tell our junglers to stay away—just one-on-one." It looks like Bin wants a true man's duel with Zeus.

However, in this patch, BLG's top-jungle proximity is quite low; Xun rarely checks the top lane. Kanavi, on the other hand, tends to coordinate with Zeus to secure advantages topside, especially when playing fighters. So Bin needs to be cautious—trash talk is one thing, but his opponent won't give up a championship chance just because of a few words. Still, a straight 1v1 between these two would definitely be exciting to watch.

TES contacts Hang and Zhuo

After TES's shocking loss to the Vietnamese team, being eliminated in the quarterfinals, the rookies Zuian and Fengyue were heavily criticized by fans. TES management is planning to swap players for the third split. According to leaks from Beichuan's agent and Lianlian Hongcha, TES will recall 369 next split to help Zuian improve. For the support position, TES has reached out to two players: first Zhuo, and second Hang.

NIP was dismantled after falling into the losers' bracket. WBG had previously contacted Zhuo, but he declined due to his emotional attachment to NIP. Now TES is reaching out—who knows if he'll accept? Zhuo still has a contract with NIP, so any move to TES would have to be a loan (or a contract termination). As for Hang, Weibo hasn't officially announced anything yet, likely keeping him as a backup plan. Both players have previously teamed up with JackeyLove, so synergy wouldn't be an issue.

Miller fulfills his promise: shaves head and dyes hair

The biggest victim of TES's unexpected loss to TSW is official caster Miller. Before the match, Miller, like everyone else, was confident in TES, thinking they would at least reach the semifinals since their opponents weren't strong. To show his conviction, Miller made a bet: "If TES doesn't make the top four, I'll shave my head bald and dye my hair red." And then TES actually lost.

When Miller went to the barber to shave his head, he looked absolutely devastated. But by the time they started dyeing his hair, he had lightened up. While getting his hair dyed, he played "Sudden Top" on his phone in the barber shop and even hummed along occasionally. This was one of Miller's rare ways to "get back" at TES. After being let down by them, Miller has completely given up on the team. He declared live on stream, "I will never trust TES again."

Conclusion:

At this MSI, TES's players' shallow champion pools were fully exposed. When the opponents targeted the top and support positions just a little, those two had no suitable picks left. Honestly, they should have brought 369 along—if they had a top lane substitute, maybe they wouldn't have lost to the Vietnamese team. Of course, saying this now is just hindsight, and it's meaningless.

So, who do you think suits TES better: Hang or Zhuo?

Feel free to leave a comment to discuss!