If we had to find a team that the community of LoL in general and LPL fans in particular are particularly concerned about right now, it’s not T1 or Gen.G, but rather Edward Gaming. The LPL representative once crowned the 2021 World Champion after defeating many teams from the LCK. Additionally, EDG is also one of the teams that boasts some of the most beautiful World Championship skins in the history of the tournament. However, after numerous roster changes and endless drama from management to players, EDG now truly resembles a chaotic mess primarily characterized by their self-destructive plays.
Recently, in the match between EDG and FunPlus Phoenix, both teams were positioned in the bottom half of the LPL Spring 2024 standings, but Phoenix clearly played significantly better than the 2021 World Champion. Moreover, many people pointed out a serious mistake made by EDG’s player Fisher. This error stemmed from a fundamental oversight in a player’s responsibilities: building the wrong items for champions due to not reading the patch update. Notably, in a previous match just a day earlier, Yuekai from Ultra Prime also used Akali in game 1 and built a completely different item set from Fisher.
Specifically, instead of building Hextech Rocketbelt and Riftmaker, Fisher opted for Stormrazor as his first item. This item has been nerfed since patch 14.2 due to its overpowered nature, and no professional player currently builds Stormrazor as the first item on Akali anymore. With Hextech Rocketbelt and a few components of Riftmaker, one can sufficiently compensate for the amount of AP that Stormrazor can provide.
Furthermore, an expert commented: “Fisher is building all items that were nerfed in 14.2. You need to read the patch notes carefully instead of waiting for Chovy to build them and then following suit.” Yuekai from UP built Hextech Rocketbelt and Riftmaker, and his Akali shone in the match against AL with 5 kills, only dying once.
Not only does this highlight that Fisher has yet to meet expectations, but it also shows a basic oversight of a professional player. EDG is sinking into a crisis, and no one can be sure how long this lineup will last.