Ahead of the 2024 Lunar New Year break for tournaments in Asian regions like LCK, LPL and VCS, one of the spotlight matches is the LNG Esports – JD Gaming showdown. Alongside Bilibili Gaming and Top Esports, LNG is also a strong contender against JDG in this year’s LPL Spring Split. Overall, the LNG roster hasn’t changed much since the last season, except for the departure of jungler Tarzan, with Weiwei securing a starting position. However, after the early matches of the LPL Spring 2024 group stage, LNG sits mid-table with 2 wins and 2 losses.
One of the factors contributing to this underwhelming performance is the current form of some players who are not yet at their “max ping”. Perhaps after the disastrous 2023 Worlds against T1, the morale of the LNG stars has not truly reached its peak. Not to mention, one of LNG’s two losses came in their opening match against ThunderTalk Gaming, a significantly weaker opponent. The player receiving the most criticism after the recent loss against JDG is GALA – the former MSI champion in 2022, as he was almost ineffective in the decisive game.
Specifically, in the third game, GALA used Draven – a very strong AD champion, especially if the passive is activated at the right moment. However, throughout the match, Draven in GALA’s hands was completely ineffective, causing only 14k damage according to the game statistics at the end. Of course, if it were any other marksman, 14k total damage for the game wouldn’t be small. But this is Draven, and immediately GALA became the target of criticism. Notably, according to a spectator’s statistics, GALA only used Draven and… basic attacked throughout the match whenever he engaged the enemy. The specific numbers included: 6 basic attacks during early game skirmishes, 9 while laning, and 13 during team fights.
While it is known that Draven is a very difficult champion to use, requiring players to carefully choose their position in fights. Moreover, JDG also brought a lineup with many champions diving into the enemy like Xin Zhao, Aatrox, and Taliyah, but GALA’s contributions were truly minimal, if not completely ineffective.
GALA’s performance is one of the key reasons LNG lost to JDG in the decisive third game. If GALA had played better, his Draven would have been much stronger than Ruler’s Varus in the late game. Draven is a champion that gets stronger the more he hits, but GALA brought disappointment and has kept LNG stuck in the middle of the standings ahead of the 2024 Lunar New Year break.