On January 22, the LPL Spring 2024 officially kicked off with a spotlight match between Bilibili Gaming (BLG) and Top Esports (TES). With the addition of superstar Knight and a well-understood lineup, BLG managed to secure a hard-fought victory with a score of 2-1 against TES. This is seen as a favorable start for Bin and his teammates on their journey to conquer the LPL title.
As for TES, the loss to a strong opponent like BLG seems to have caused some internal rifts within the team. Specifically, fans discovered that 369 shared complaints with former teammate Missing about the bot lane players of TES. He even expressed that sacrificing himself to play a tank champion in the last match was not worth it at all.
In reality, 369’s complaints are justified as JackeyLove had a pretty poor game 3 against BLG. From the laning phase, this player was thoroughly exploited by BLG, suffering several early kills. In the mid-game, a careless attack on the Mid Lane turret by JackeyLove led to his immediate death. As a result, this player took down Creme along with him, completely losing the game to BLG.
Nevertheless, 369’s actions were inappropriate as he chose to reveal internal team issues to outsiders. It’s true that JackeyLove had a subpar performance, but 369 could have directly advised this player instead of complaining to a former teammate. As a result, fans are raising significant concerns about the unity within TES as 369 openly “gossips behind his teammate’s back”.
Essentially, the TES players this year are mostly established stars with high egos and hefty salaries. There are even reports that TES’s tax alone could support a mid-tier team in the LPL. Therefore, it’s not surprising that these stars have disputes over dissatisfaction with teammates. It’s unfortunate that this is happening right from the start of the season when TES lost their opening match.
Perhaps in the near future, the TES team needs to take reasonable measures to resolve the issues between 369 and JackeyLove. Otherwise, the team considered the “Super Team” of the LPL may struggle to achieve success and titles for the remainder of the current season.