Up to now, JD Gaming – the king of LPL in the 2023 season still has a chance to participate in CKTG 2024. However, they no longer have the right to decide when they had a disastrous loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas. The defeat not only puts JDG at risk of “staying home to watch CKTG” but also may face a more bleak future. In recent days, the Chinese media has provided a lot of evidence showing that JDG is in “crisis”. And their players are also facing many problems. Among them, Yagao is the name mentioned the most by LPL audiences.
Yagao (top row) is the worst player in JDG's lineup against NIP.
From the shocking LPL deal
In fact, Yagao was mentioned first because he was one of the two worst players in the match against NIP. Not only could he not beat his senior Rookie in the laning phase, Yagao was also lackluster in teamfights. Even Kanavi and Ruler's efforts could not make up for the gap in Yagao's key position. But more importantly, the main reason Yagao received a lot of criticism was the “sky-high” price that JDG spent to trade Knight and bring Yagao back in the transfer window at the end of 2023.
The transfer deal between Yagao and Knight at the beginning of the 2024 season surprised many people.
To JDG's dilemma in LPL
Accordingly, Yagao's contract is said to be worth tens of millions of yuan (a price not inferior to Knight's), but the performance of the former Bilibili Gaming star up to now is said to be worth only 1 million yuan, which is even worse than the current mid-range laners in the LPL. But the problem is even more serious when JDG cannot recruit a better mid-laner. Not to mention, according to LPL media, this team will have a season of heavy losses if they cannot qualify for the 2024 World Championship in the context that they have completely lost everything in the domestic tournament.
But Yagao has not met JDG's requirements this season.
Yagao and Missing have fallen into a terrible slump while there is no one capable of replacing them. A spot at the 2024 World Championship is still uncertain, and with huge investments and still empty-handed LPL 2024, JDG is currently facing a prospect even more dire than a loss to NIP.
https://gamek.vn/nha-vua-lpl-mot-thoi-doi-mat-tuong-lai-den-toi-vi-thuong-vu-tham-hoa-178240814003737447.chn
