Buzz
A MSI champion faces intense community criticism for... not knowing how to utilize strategies effectively.
On the eve of the 2024 Lunar New Year break for leagues across Asia such as LCK, LPL, and VCS, one of the most anticipated matches is the showdown between LNG Esports and JD Gaming. Alongside Bilibili Gaming and Top Esports, LNG stands as a formidable adversary to JDG in this year's LPL Spring. Overall, LNG's roster hasn't seen many changes compared to the previous season, except for Tarzan departing as the Jungler and Weiwei securing a starting spot. However, after the initial matches of the LPL Spring 2024 group stage, LNG finds itself mid-table with 2 wins and 2 losses.
One of the factors contributing to this underwhelming performance stems from the current form of some players, who haven't quite hit their stride since the disastrous 2023 Worlds campaign against T1. Perhaps the morale of the LNG stars hasn't fully recovered. Notably, one of LNG's two losses came against ThunderTalk Gaming, a considerably weaker opponent. The player receiving significant criticism after the recent defeat to JDG is GALA, the former MSI 2022 champion, who seemed largely ineffective in the decisive match.
Specifically, in the third game, GALA picked Draven, a potent AD carry, especially when his passive is utilized effectively. However, throughout the match, GALA's Draven was entirely ineffective, dealing only 14k damage by the end. While 14k damage might seem significant for any other marksman, it's underwhelming for Draven, immediately putting GALA in the spotlight. According to one spectator's analysis, GALA only used Draven's basic attacks throughout the match when engaging enemies. The specific breakdown includes: 6 basic attacks in early game skirmishes, 9 on the lane, and 13 during team fights.
Despite Draven's challenging nature, requiring precise positioning in skirmishes, JDG also fielded champions like Xin Zhao, Aatrox, and Taliyah, yet GALA's contribution was minimal, if not negligible.
GALA's performance played a crucial role in LNG's loss to JDG in the decisive game 3. If GALA had performed better, his Draven would have outclassed Ruler's Varus by a significant margin in the late game. Despite Draven's scaling strength, GALA's performance left much to be desired, proving to be a setback for LNG in the mid-season standings before the 2024 Lunar New Year break.
