TES suffered a crushing defeat to GEN! Their record against LCK this year stands at 0-9! The commentators frankly said: Kanavi's performance was somewhat disappointing.

In the S15 World Championship Swiss round BO3, TES was swept 0-2 by GEN, suffering a heavy loss. This match immediately caused significant debate, primarily because TES was clearly outclassed and defeated decisively.

First, TES’s official Weibo blew up, with many fans feeling hopeless and openly criticizing: The result was expected, the difference in raw skill is obvious, they are just too poor, but it’s still hard to watch! Some fans angrily blamed Kanavi: He always performs poorly at Worlds. Others defended JKL: No one should blame the AD for this loss! There were also fans hoping for a favorable draw next time, wishing for some good luck.

After the match, LPL official commentators PYL, Maomao, and Tongxi discussed the reasons behind TES’s defeat. They believed Kanavi’s performance was mediocre, even quite poor, as he was completely controlled by Canyon’s pace and couldn’t make an impact. TES seemed a bit rushed in their play; actually, the double carry of Azir and Yuumi could have been played more patiently. They might have feared the enemy Ornn’s item power spikes, and after GEN took two mid towers, the vision pressure was overwhelming, making it uncertain if TES could drag the game into the late stages. Creme’s laning was really impressive in this match.

Watching the whole game, it’s hard to say TES’s loss was very unfortunate — there was indeed a skill gap. By the later stages, Creme’s farm was too poor, and only JKL was dealing damage. He could challenge Ornn, but the pressure on output was too high. Ultimately, the difference in strength was clear, especially since GEN is the top seed from LCK.

Throughout the match, TES had almost no moments to fight back. The gap in laning and macro play between the two teams was quite large. It felt like GEN didn’t even need to exert full effort; TES kept trying to make moves but GEN easily countered them. Hopefully, this heavy defeat will help TES recognize their weaknesses and learn from this experience to improve quickly. This year, TES’s record against LCK teams has reached 0-9: they lost 0-2 to HLE in the Play-In BO3, then 0-3 in the knockout stage, and in the Worlds Swiss round, they lost 0-2 to both KT and GEN. Nine games without a single win — hopefully, they can break this curse and prove themselves in the future!

So, what are your thoughts on this match? Feel free to share and discuss in the comments below.