In the first stage of the LPL playoffs, only five final BO5 matches remain. During the last competition day, the second round of the loser's bracket kicked off, featuring a fierce five-game battle between Weibo Gaming and Top Esports. WBG came out on top, moving forward to the third round of the loser's bracket, while TES was eliminated in sixth place. The contest between these squads aligned with fan predictions beforehand; given their comparable skill levels, the series went the full BO5 distance before a victor was decided, with TES ultimately missing by a narrow margin and bowing out with disappointment.

Watching the entire series, the term "regret" truly only applies to Creme. In the final game, the other four TES members performed poorly. If even one of them had stepped up, TES could have had a chance to reach the playoff semifinals. The first four games were fairly even, with both sides making mistakes and having their moments, which is why it went to a deciding game. The final match, however, is really worth a detailed discussion and thorough review.

In the decisive game, WBG placed all their bets on ELK, employing a four-protect-one composition around Jinx with their top, jungle, mid, and support. When they locked in this draft, viewers were quite anxious for Weibo. While the current meta focuses on the bot lane, if the ADC falls behind early, the game is basically over. WBG's four-tank frontline composition lacks significant damage until Jinx scales, forcing them to stall.

However, the clever aspect of WBG's coach's strategy was that he chose the four-protect-one only after seeing TES's lineup, which was also geared towards the late game. TES's double carries of Smolder and Aphelios likewise require substantial time to scale. If both teams developed peacefully early on, WBG would be at a disadvantage in the mid-to-late game. But TES's bot lane gave up an opportunity: just two minutes in, the support died first blood from getting hooked, causing their bot lane to collapse immediately.

If the top lane and jungle had held steady, waiting for Smolder's passive to stack, TES could still have been in the game. However, 369 had no real impact this match, and 369 didn't gain a lane advantage either. Only Creme's Smolder developed normally. But his teammates fell too far behind, becoming liabilities in team fights. He couldn't fight 1v5. In the end, despite a 544-stack passive, an 8.3K gold lead over his lane opponent, and dealing 71,000 damage, Creme couldn't carry his team to victory.

The other four TES players truly underperformed in the final game, especially Tian. Against a four-protect-one composition with only one AP threat (Galio), he opted for a build with zero armor—Mercury's Treads, Spirit Visage, and Spectre's Cowl—resulting in high health but no armor. He simply couldn't withstand the damage from Jinx and Yorick in fights. If he had swapped the Spirit Visage for a Randuin's Omen, he could have bought much more time for Smolder to output damage.

Dealing the highest damage in the entire game, holding an 8.3K gold lead over his mid opponent when his team was down 7.5K, and still losing—that's truly astonishing. Saying Creme was fighting 1v9 isn't an exaggeration at all. While LPL has seen many players carrying their teams as the sole reliable member, it's rare to see someone try so hard and still fail to win. It feels like for the rest of this entire season, we won't witness another match in the LPL where a single player exerts such immense individual effort.

That said, looking back to the transfer period when TES's roster was finalized, most people didn't have high hopes for them. Many even doubted they would make the playoffs. Achieving a top-six finish has already exceeded expectations. When "Gege" (JackeyLove) returns for the second stage and if they can strengthen their jungle and support positions, TES might still have a shot at competing for a World Championship spot. There's no need for excessive criticism; reaching this point is commendable enough.

Conclusion:

A Smolder with over 500 passive stacks at 34 minutes—frankly, even in ARAM you don't get to feel this powerful. It's a shame that despite stacking so much, he couldn't overcome his teammates' disastrous early game. In hindsight, if Skarner had built some normal armor and the bot lane hadn't collapsed early, dragging the game to the ultra-late stage and just creating output space for Smolder, TES could have won.

So, what's your take on the Skarner who planned to build double Spirit Visage?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!