A Controversial “Pause Game” Situation in LPL
In a professional Esports match in general and League of Legends in particular, there are instances where the game is paused for various reasons, mostly related to game bugs or technical issues such as equipment or network problems. Of course, there is a protocol for requesting a game pause. However, if after the pause one team gains an unexpected advantage, it will always raise questions and debates within the LoL community, such as in the recent match between LGD and EDG during the LPL 2026 Split 2.
Specifically, this situation occurred around the 48th minute of the match, when both teams were still in a tug-of-war, but LGD had certain advantages and was preparing to launch an attack. Suddenly, this team requested to pause the game due to technical reasons. But after a few minutes of the pause, when the game resumed, LGD immediately executed a powerful wombo combo and completely annihilated EDG, officially putting an end to this team’s hopes of a comeback.
Notably, according to EDG’s perspective, this pause was a “tactical trick” by LGD, so before the game ended, EDG paused once more to file a complaint. However, the LPL organizers still accepted LGD’s victory, and the controversy erupted not only in the Chinese LoL community but also on an international level.
– It needs to be clarified whether LGD had any issues that warranted a pause, right? There are regulations for that, aren’t there?
– As far as I know, during a pause, the players are not allowed to communicate, but just after the pause, within 5 seconds, they executed a wombo combo that they couldn’t do throughout the match, which is very strange.
– But if a remake were to happen, the players from both teams would be extremely exhausted; the match would drag on for hours.
But perhaps LPL will not take any action
In reality, determining whether a team has violated any rules when pausing the game is quite difficult. Every team and player has the right to request a pause when they feel there is an issue affecting their performance. If the referee and organizers have allowed the match to be paused, then the responsibility no longer lies with the players or the team. Therefore, it seems that this incident will only remain as a topic of controversy within the community, while EDG must accept a defeat.