The League of Legends 2026 Global Pioneer Tournament is just three days away. Before boarding, BFX's bot lane player Diable gave an interview to Korean media. "Big Pineapple" declared in the interview: Although BLG plays well, we will play even better. If we only look at the bot lane, I'm confident against any opponent. If the team performs well, we have a chance to win. His words are clearly a response to Bin.

After the draw results were announced, Bin was asked by media for a pre-match declaration during an interview. Bin directly stated: I haven't studied this team, don't know where they came from, I think it should be quite easy to play against. Bin really speaks without restraint. Compared to GEN, BFX isn't particularly strong, but BLG shouldn't underestimate them either, as any team that reaches an international tournament is not weak.

Helper Suspected to Have Been "Executed" by AL

The LPL first stage transfer window opened after BLG's championship win. Recently, Han Yi and Hong Cha both posted爆料, revealing that AL is changing coaches, with Bigwei close to signing. AL's first stage coach Helper seems to have been "executed." Some netizens recently noticed that Helper's personal social media account originally had the AL prefix, but he recently removed it. It looks like he was let go by AL.

When the first stage regular season ended, AL's coaching staff was rated as the best coaching staff. Just after receiving this honor in LPL and finishing the playoffs, they were "executed," which is quite hard to accept. The two coaches from GEN indeed had somewhat underwhelming BP水平 during playoffs. However, AL's problems aren't just about the coaches; the players' strength also isn't quite up to par. If they want to go to MSI in the second stage, they probably need to consider changing players.

IG Reported to Borrow Top's JiaQi

The breakup between IG's mid-laner Rookie and Xiao Yu has been沸沸扬扬 recently, but the players' personal issues haven't affected the team. During this transfer period, IG is also seeking to strengthen. Beichuan's agent recently posted爆料: IG is negotiating with Top to borrow JiaQi. "哥哥" has already confirmed his return for the second stage. If JiaQi isn't loaned out, he'll likely just watch from the sidelines, with very low chances of playing.

Right after the first stage ended, I personally mentioned that if IG couldn't find a strong AD, they could borrow from Top. Unexpectedly, IG management actually did this. If they change the AD and also strengthen the top lane, then IG still has some potential. Jiaqi's individual skill was evident to everyone in the first stage; he's definitely much stronger than Photic. However, the transfer period lasts nearly a month, so changes might still occur.

Foreign Media Rates Pioneer Tournament Junglers

A well-known foreign media recently rated the jungler positions for the Pioneer Tournament. Ranked first, unsurprisingly, is GEN's "Three叔." Next is BLG's Xun, followed by YLON's Inspired. This might be the first time in an international tournament that the top three include a player from the欧美赛区. The junglers from the remaining two中韩队伍, BFX's Raptor ranks 5th and JDG's JunJia ranks 6th, neither making the top three.

BFX's jungler is somewhat underestimated. During the LCK playoffs, he showed strong压制力 against Oner and Lucid, even praised by Ruler帝. It feels like G2's Skewmond should swap positions with him. Inspired being third is fine; his操作 and思路 aren't worse than中韩 junglers, and he can even pull out many黑科技. LOUD and TSW junglers at the bottom is relatively reasonable.

Conclusion:

If Rookie hadn't caused this breakup incident, IG strengthening their top lane and AD for the second stage would actually be值得期待的. But now the mid-laner's reputation has崩了, so probably few will support them in future matches. AL only changing coaches is治标不治本, though changing players now is indeed difficult.

So, do you think changing coaches will help AL?

Feel free to leave comments and discuss!