knight

Knight — The Fading of the "Golden Left Hand": From League Ace to Invisible on the International Stage 2025 was a year of collapse and a full-blown crisis of trust for Zhuo Ding. Once hailed as the "Golden Left Hand" and the face of LPL's domestic mid-laners, he completely exposed his vulnerability and limitations as a carry player under immense pressure this season. At the start of the season, he and BLG showed signs of fatigue, their dominance in the first stage of the LPL vanishing. The team struggled until the introduction of jungler Beichuan, barely managing to stabilize and secure a spot at MSI. However, this was only the beginning of an embarrassing situation. On the MSI stage, he was first completely crushed 3-0 by LPL's rising powerhouse AL, utterly silent in his lane; then he was swept 3-0 by old rivals T1, his usual league dominance disappearing completely against Faker, becoming nothing more than a background character. Returning to the second stage of the LPL, they were utterly crushed 1-3 by AL in the finals, finishing as runners-up, which clearly indicated a serious problem with BLG's core competitiveness. Although in the third stage, BLG managed to reclaim the LPL annual championship and enter the World Championship as the number one seed by rotating junglers Shadow and Beichuan, this seemed more like a lucky result after internal league struggles than a demonstration of their true strength. Knight's performance at the World Championship was the ultimate footnote to their year-long failure. As the team's highest-paid and most heavily invested core player, he completely lost his way in the Swiss system and crucial knockout stages. His laning phase no longer consistently provided pressure, his roaming was often slow and inefficient, and when he needed to pick assassins or mage assassins to break the deadlock, his choices were always conservative. Ultimately, this highly anticipated number one seed ended with a humiliating "round of 16" finish. Knight's 2025 completely shattered his false label of "international champion," proving that he was merely a "greenhouse ace" who could only perform within the comfort zone of the league. When the team needed him to carry the ship against the wind, the motivation he provided was even less than that of an ordinary sailor. His mechanics may still be fluid, but his mentality and competitive spirit are no longer commensurate with the title of "world-class mid laner."