Preface: As a superstar of the LPL, many viewers only watch matches featuring TheShy. So when he announced his return, tickets for IG's home games sold out instantly. Many fans remarked that TheShy is the guaranteed traffic driver for the LPL. The opening match of IG's third stage easily broke the record for the fastest million-view video this season. However, despite the massive attention on IG's matches, a lot of off-field troubles have emerged, causing many viewers to worry that IG players might see a decline in performance.

When TheShy first returned to the LPL, many were concerned he wouldn't adapt to the league's intensity. But he proved in just three games that his skill hasn't dropped—on the contrary, after playing over 400 ranked games in a month, his form has greatly improved. In post-match interviews, TheShy joked that he felt no pressure coming back to the stage. (It's fair to say TheShy is still too overpowered for the Relegation Group; not out-farming the opposing top laner by 50 CS is considered being pressured.)

With IG's easy victories, the match video reached over a million views within an hour. For comparison, the most popular LPL match video from the previous stage was BLG vs. TES, which took over a month to reach just 600,000–700,000 views. Many viewers commented that TheShy is single-handedly saving LPL's popularity. The unfortunate part is that IG is currently in the Relegation Group, meaning they can only play six matches in the entire third stage.

The thing IG fans feared most has happened

After IG's clean 2–1 victory over WBG, many IG fans are full of confidence about the future. After all, there are only four teams in the Relegation Group, and if IG continues to improve and gel, advancing to the Knight's Path should be no problem. In fact, given the current level of top laners in the LPL, IG even has a solid chance of qualifying for Worlds. BLG and TES both have rookie top laners, while JDG and AL's top laners have lost to TheShy before. Plus, compared to last year, IG only swapped one AD carry, so their paper strength is really not inferior to the Summit Group.

Although IG's future looks bright, the various off-field troubles have left many fans speechless. First, IG's number-one hater, Xuan Shen, started streaming IG matches again. Many IG fans hope the management will step in and revoke his streaming rights once more, since last year much of the drama around IG originated from his stream. In addition, after the match, Rookie was confronted face-to-face by a spectator shouting at him as he left the arena.

An unknown fan uploaded a video on Xiaohongshu, where the fan directly shouted at Rookie, "You're not a man!" This remark made many viewers associate it with Rookie's breakup with Xiaoyu. After the split, many LPL fans thought Rookie would completely cut ties with the LPL, but no one expected him to withstand the pressure and return to the stage in the third stage. Many IG fans worry that Rookie's state might be affected by off-field matters, especially since he once admitted that he likes browsing various forums. They fear he might come across negative comments about himself.

Conclusion

Judging from IG's opening match, they seem unbeatable in the Relegation Group. Even though they are still in the early stages of synergy, they managed to beat WBG. According to official statistics, TheShy has used 56 different champions. Such a deep champion pool greatly helps IG's draft phase, which is a major advantage when facing Summit Group teams. However, IG still has weaknesses—the bot lane duo's form is quite shaky, and many fans suspect that Assam can't play mage-type champions in the bot lane.