As we know, on the match day of June 15 in the LPL, a very rare event occurred when eStar’s jungle player – Wei, did not select the summoner spell Smite in the first match against Bilibili Gaming.
This mistake led to eStar losing the first game and ultimately losing 1-2 to BLG. After the match, the eStar players faced a strong backlash from the gaming community, and in that context, the legend of the LPL – PDD, who is also a major shareholder of eStar, spoke on livestream about this issue.
“Playing jungle without Smite, I had to review the match and find out what happened, as I was out playing badminton at the time. The players responded that they used that account to rank up and forgot to change their control settings. Then our staff responded to the referee about Wei forgetting to adjust the summoner spell and asked if they could remake the match. The referee said that it was not possible. In general, that’s what I gathered, and I will definitely investigate the issues surrounding this incident.”
PDD also agreed with the views of most fans, stating that not bringing Smite cannot solely be blamed on Wei, but rather it is the fault of all 5 members.
According to audience perspectives, properly preparing for the ban/pick phase is the responsibility of all 5 members. Wei being distracted is one thing, but even the other 4 members not noticing that their team lacked Smite is truly a grave mistake.
Even in ranked matches, where players are both banning/picking and scrolling social media, if the jungle player forgets the summoner spell, it is rare for the other members to “let him be,” let alone in a tournament match, and even the coach’s responsibility for the ban/pick in the last match must be scrutinized.
In reality, Wei’s mistake not only resulted in a defeat for eStar, but more importantly, it raised negative signals from the audience directed at this team. eStar is a name that gathers many potential players, and especially does not have the financial backing like most other LPL teams, the aforementioned basic mistake has even led many to suspect that this young team is showing signs of “economizing” and not performing to their full potential for other purposes.