LPL Goes 0-4 in Swiss Stage Opener at Worlds S16, Caster Miller Reacts

All four LPL teams lost their opening Swiss Stage matches at Worlds S16, and caster Miller didn't hide his frustration on social media.

Well, that's not the start anyone in the LPL was hoping for. Early on October 24 (Beijing time), the first round of the Swiss Stage at the League of Legends World Championship S16 wrapped up, and all four LPL representatives came away empty-handed.

IG and TES fell to LCK squads GEN and HLE respectively, BLG got upset by Europe's second seed MKOI, and first seed AL lost to KC, a team that fought its way through the play-in stage. According to the source, this marks the first time the LPL has gone winless in the opening round since the Swiss format was introduced at Worlds.

Caster Miller was feeling every moment of it, live-posting his mood on Weibo throughout the day. After IG's loss to GEN, he tipped his hat to GEN jungler Canyon for a world-class performance. As TES and BLG dropped their games back to back, he wrote "getting stomped twice" and then "0-3 now." When AL's defeat sealed the full 0-4, Miller kept it short: "Feels awful. 0-4."

Before you panic, though: the Swiss Stage runs on a three-wins-to-advance, three-losses-to-eliminate system, so an opening loss doesn't knock anyone out. That said, all four LPL teams are now sitting in the 0-1 bracket, and the margin for error just got a lot thinner.

Here's the wrinkle that makes things spicier: starting from round two, the same-region avoidance rule no longer applies, and the round-two draw has already served up an LPL vs. LPL matchup. Nothing like a little civil war to sort out the standings, right?

So the road ahead is clear but bumpy for the LPL faithful. Can any of these four teams bounce back and string together the wins they need, or is this hole already too deep? Drop your takes in the comments and let us know who you're still believing in.