This year’s China-Korea Grand Battle can be seen as a stage for LPL teams to showcase their strength. Monsters like FunPlus Phoenix, Top Esports, and JD Gaming have all achieved victories against their Korean counterparts. They have won in both comeback styles and dominant fashion, but the majority of results still favor the LPL side.
However, lost among them is Invictus Gaming, which suffered three incredibly swift defeats and left with the bottom result of Group B, placing even below DragonX with the “choker” Deft. “Weak” might be the two most fitting words to describe IG at this moment, and it rings even truer for The Shy. The once “top lane monster” of IG is now just a shadow of himself, having set a negative record as the top laner with the most deaths in the group stage at 18 times, while securing the least kills with only 2.
The noteworthy point here is that The Shy’s performance had already started to decline from the playoffs of the LPL. He was also the most frequently killed among top laners, despite maintaining a stable damage ratio. The reason for his high death count is that The Shy often chooses Marksmen rather than more conventional picks like Ornn, Maokai, Sett…
Remember that in the China-Korea Grand Battle, all participating members are the elite of both LPL and LCK. The Shy can use those Marksmen to climb ranks and dominate top laners from Suning or Victory 5, but he cannot do the same against Zoom or Doran, resulting in the once “monster” now transforming into the legendary “The Shy Sa Dec” and feeding uncontrollably like this.
Of course, the LPL tournament has already secured the championship of the China-Korea Grand Battle with the finals being between FunPlus Phoenix and Top Esports. However, fans of this tournament will surely have significant concerns given that Invictus Gaming was eliminated early, and being eliminated in such a humiliating manner is hard to accept.