Before the 2022 World Championship kicked off, Top Esports (TES) was one of the teams highly rated. The reason was that TES was the runner-up of the LPL Summer 2022 and boasted an extremely high-quality roster with balanced players in every position.
However, during the Group Stage of the 2022 World Championship, TES disappointed its fans with their performance. In the first round, they lost to both direct competitors, Rogue and DragonX. In the second round, the loss to GAM Esports officially eliminated TES from this tournament.
Following this disappointing result, TES fans received more “bad news” when Support player Mark shared that he is highly likely to retire. “I’m really sorry that we couldn’t perform well in the recent Group Stage. I think this is the year I can retire. I wish the remaining members of TES all the best” – Mark shared with the media.
We must remember that Mark is an incredibly important player for TES’s success in LPL Summer 2022. Before Mark joined, TES was performing poorly at the start of the season, and many did not believe they could compete for a World Championship spot. However, after Mark joined TES, the team became much stronger and played exceptionally well. If Mark truly retires, it would be a significant loss for the Top Esports team.
Moreover, Top Esports’ defeat at the 2022 World Championship continues the “curse” of the runner-up team from LPL Summer. Before TES, teams like RNG in 2019, JDG in 2020, and FPX in 2021 all had disastrous performances at the World Championships despite being LPL runners-up.