After MSI 2024 concludes, teams will enter the second half of the season with the crucial goal of securing a spot for Worlds. Even in the LPL region, the summer tournament has kicked off early with the Qualifying Round and a new pick and ban format. Unfortunately, less than a week into the competition, LPL Summer 2024 has already experienced some “drama.”
It all started with the match between Top Esports (TES) and LNG Esports (LNG) on June 7. In game 2, TES player Meiko discovered a serious bug related to the item Youmuu’s Ghostblade after being upgraded by Ornn of GALA. The referee then ordered GALA to sell this item and replace it with another. Due to this disadvantage, GALA lacked sufficient damage in the team fight, leading to LNG’s subsequent defeat.
It’s important to note that the champion Ornn and the items upgraded by him are experiencing several interaction issues. Specifically, the upgraded Youmuu’s Ghostblade is supposed to provide only 26 Lethality. However, the code for this item is buggy, resulting in the actual Lethality provided being as high as 44 points. Receiving an additional 18 Lethality for free clearly makes the champion significantly stronger.
The notable point is that after the aforementioned match ended, viewers accused GALA of intentionally exploiting the bug but were caught. According to common logic, Taliyah at level 17 in place of Scout should be prioritized for item upgrades over GALA’s level 14 Kalista. Therefore, the community believes that GALA might have called for Ornn from Zika to upgrade items for him to activate the bug.
LNG quickly responded to this incident on Weibo, likely aware of the accusations. “Our players were not aware of the Youmuu’s Ghostblade bug. When they realized the item was faulty, they sold it immediately at the referee’s request. We did not exploit any bugs” – LNG stated.
At the moment Zika upgraded items for GALA, LNG’s AD carry had a significant advantage with 5 kills and more than 1 major item over JackeyLove. Zika likely wanted to help his teammate extend this lead by upgrading items for GALA. The LNG players probably were not aware of the Ornn and Youmuu’s Ghostblade bug and just unintentionally activated it.
It should be noted that before the bug was discovered, LNG had a fairly balanced game against TES and had a chance to win. Perhaps this unfortunate loss will serve as a great lesson for LNG as they need to be more careful in avoiding game bugs. They may very well abandon the choice of Ornn, as this character could create numerous bugs at present.