After a disappointing spring season, WBG has garnered significant expectations from fans that they will return strong in the LPL Summer 2024. This optimism stems from WBG’s recruitment of notable names such as Breath and Tarzan. In fact, there have been multiple reports that WBG offered the highest salary in the LPL to persuade Tarzan to join the team. This has led WBG fans to believe that the team will perform well enough to compete for a spot at the World Championship later this year.
However, WBG’s heavy spending has not yielded results as they are currently performing very poorly. In the group stage of the LPL Summer 2024, WBG has only managed 2 wins and suffered 4 losses after 6 matches. What’s more concerning is that the team has lost all 2 matches against the weaker opponents UP and NiP.
Clearly, for a team that is the reigning World Championship runner-up, such results are hard to accept. Therefore, right after the conclusion of the third week of the group stage, news emerged that WBG would undergo personnel changes. Former coach Hanyi revealed that the academy team’s support player, xBear, has been promoted to the main roster.
Former coach Hanyi shared on his personal Weibo: “Recently, there has been so much transfer news that I can’t keep track of it all. WBG will definitely have personnel changes, while the situation at RNG is quite complicated. I was informed that the support player from WBG’s academy team, xBear, has been promoted to the main roster.”
If this information is accurate, then former World Champion 2019 – Crisp will have to sit on the bench at WBG or worse, face contract termination. It is known that the poor performance of WBG is a team issue, but Crisp himself hasn’t shown any notable bright spots. Recently, he has often made questionable movements and died unnecessarily.
Not only that, Crisp’s statistics also appear to be quite poor. For instance, Crisp’s KDA is only 2.3, ranking 12th out of 18 support players in the LPL. Meanwhile, his map control stats, such as vision score per minute (3.26) and wards destroyed per minute (0.41), are also not high compared to other support players. Perhaps this is why WBG is considering replacing Crisp ahead of the LPL Summer 2024 group stage.
Interestingly, Crisp’s former teammate LWX is also facing many difficulties since joining RNG. In fact, LWX’s performance is even worse than Crisp’s as RNG has yet to secure any wins after 5 group stage matches. It wouldn’t be surprising if the duo from the 2019 World Championship bottom lane ends up sitting on the bench or worse, “unemployed” in the near future.
Ultimately, WBG is still the reigning World Championship runner-up, so it would be a shame if they miss out on the major tournament at the end of the year. Hopefully, any changes (if they happen) will help WBG regain their form and rekindle hopes of competing for a spot at this year’s World Championship.