Faker’s fan meeting in Chengdu recently ended, and upon returning to Korea, he promptly took part in the New Year reception where the South Korean president personally presented him with the Blue Dragon Medal, the top accolade in Korean sports. Faker’s status in League of Legends is unmatched historically; typically, the award is given by the sports minister, with the president’s involvement being very rare.

The Blue Dragon Medal has very stringent criteria: either achieving historic breakthroughs in top international sports events, making profound contributions to the development of Korean sports, or long-term promotion of Korea’s international sports exchanges. Faker undoubtedly meets the last two, as he is the undisputed leader in the LOL esports scene. The global tournament hype largely depends on whether he or T1 are competing.

TES jungler tops Korean server

With just over half a month before the start of the first stage of Season 16, LPL teams resumed training and ranked matches preparation at the end of December. The recent Korean server ranked leaderboard remains highly competitive, filled with professional players. However, the top ten are mostly LCK players. Recently, TES jungler Naiyou briefly climbed to first place on the Korean server with a 67% win rate.

When Naiyou reached the top, he was on a 10-game winning streak, hitting first place with 2041 points. However, after losing a few games, his win rate dropped to 61%. KD’s second team player Sharvel quickly overtook him to claim first place on the Korean server. After Lucid, now there’s Sharvel—there are many rising stars next door. Additionally, T1’s second team’s young top laner has also climbed to third place on the Korean server. Both organizations are doing an excellent job with their youth training.

BLG promotes second team support

The former RA team manager and agent Beichuan recently revealed that BLG’s second team support Thehank has been promoted to the main roster. According to him, ON is unable to participate in scrims due to a back injury, so the second team support was called up temporarily. However, ON is still expected to start in the first stage. Thehank mentioned in his fan group that he has been asked not to stream recently and aims to secure a starting spot in the new season.

If Thehank performs well in scrims, BLG might keep him on the main roster as a substitute for ON. This could be beneficial for BLG since ON’s discipline has been questionable—he’s been given many chances even in the Demacia Cup. It’s time to put some pressure on him. Given Daeny’s personality, if ON continues as before, he might really be demoted, especially since even Faker has been benched by Daeny before.

Incheon Double C Review: The God’s Descent

LPL top player TheShy recently collaborated on the LOL mobile game, releasing the "God’s Descent" Aatrox skin. He and Rookie were invited to an offline mobile event, and during their joint live stream, they reviewed the iconic S8 “God’s Descent” play. Rookie said, “I told him to leave and not follow, but he went straight to attack the enemy. When he saw they had low health, he quickly ran over to secure the kill.”

TheShy explained, “Our teammates communicated to leave, but all skills were swapped except mine. I felt I had a chance to make a play, so I focused. Honestly, the timing was perfect. The key was my own courage; otherwise, that legendary river Aatrox play wouldn’t have happened. Watching the match, I was honestly a bit stunned—how did I dare to go in like that?”

Conclusion:

BLG’s roster on paper is undoubtedly top-tier in the LPL, but after the Demacia Cup, it’s clear they still need to gel, especially the bot lane duo who were repeatedly broken in lane. Even if the support item build is forgivable, sometimes the AD carry gets tilted. Hopefully, after the coach’s return, these issues will be properly addressed.

Did you guys get amazed by TheShy’s Aatrox during S8?

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