Ahead of MSI 2023, the LPL region has already sent a warning to the teams of the LCK. Notably, there have been strong “trashtalk” exchanges from the players of JD Gaming. While Ruler targeted his former teammate Chovy with jabs, 369 aimed his remarks at the players of T1. In fact, the top laner of JDG even dug into the pain of T1 by bringing up the sad memories from Worlds 2022.
Perhaps the League of Legends community still remembers, after defeating JDG and reaching the finals of Worlds 2022, T1 faced off against DRX. It seemed like Faker would easily secure his fourth Worlds championship, but DRX pulled off a miracle. Meanwhile, Keria’s emotional collapse and Faker’s worried, stunned look towards his younger teammate became one of the iconic moments in League of Legends history.
It was 369 who used this to “poke fun” at the T1 players ahead of MSI 2023. The content of 369’s statement was: “Doctor K (Keria), strong overall but has the downside of being easily beaten to the point of crying uncontrollably.” This statement, according to LPL fans, is intended to evoke the heartbreaking image of Keria in New York last year.
Of course, this has sparked a wave of outrage among T1 fans both in Korea and within the LPL region. According to some assessments, Keria’s tears should not be incorporated into the trashtalk scripts of players since it is an emotion of each individual. Moreover, JDG was the team that lost to T1 last year and still has three players (369, Missing, and Kanavi) from that roster. Not to mention, 369 himself is a prime example of what happens when trashtalk becomes too harsh. In fact, Bin had to apologize after his own taunting severely affected 369’s morale.
– “Didn’t 369 cry out loud after being provoked by Bin?”
– “This scenario isn’t really appropriate”
– “I hope BLG gets to face JDG at MSI 2023 and sends them home early”
– “I don’t think 369 looks down on T1 or their fans. Perhaps this time it’s just the JDG media going a bit too far”.
LPL media also asserts that 369 has yet to truly show much on the international stage. And surely, many fans are eagerly waiting for his performance as well as that of JDG at this year’s MSI. If it turns out to be a poor performance, 369 will face even greater criticism than during Worlds 2022 or surrounding the recent trashtalk incidents.