The Weight of Incompetence

At the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, during the 2025 Master of League World Championship quarterfinals match four, MCK 4th seed Avallon (AVL) faced off against MCK 2nd seed ZeroX Legendaries (ZX). AVL lost three to one and, once again, crashed out of Worlds.

I'd been cheering for AVL ever since Oracle's debut, but after watching that vomit-inducing performance today, I'm completely burned out. I'm thinking of quitting both my fandom and the gallery for good. As a final act, I'll summarize AVL's historical Worlds record. If any ApolloWorshipper fans are still left, please, just think about it one more time.

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As you can see, my relationship with AVL wasn't just a couple of failures. There had already been numerous attempts, countless opportunities, and changes, but every single one ended in failure. The scars left behind by those defeats remained like permanent marks, endlessly gnawing away at me.

Let's look back for a moment. After an endlessly long time in the second team, I finally became the starting mid laner for the mid-to-lower tier team AVL. For a pro gamer just starting their first-team career, the age of twenty-two was quite a significant obstacle. Still, I was confident that no one could match my ability in teamfight design and macro play.

Even if my reaction speed—the fundamental reason I'd been stuck in the second team—was a bit lacking, I believed my strengths would more than make up for those weaknesses. And that prediction, which might have seemed arrogant, turned out to be exactly right.

My unique yet clean macro play and teamfight design, which people called revolutionary, instantly raised the team's ranking. We achieved remarkable results: third place in Spring, fourth in a small-scale international tournament, and runner-up in Summer. Everyone's expectations soared. After Summer ended, we proudly entered Worlds as the domestic league's second seed.

Of course we ended up falling short, but reaching the finals in AVL's very first Worlds appearance was an incredible stroke of luck. In the following 2020 season, we renewed everyone's contracts and improved our teamwork even further. We got runner-up in Spring, runner-up in a small international event, and won Summer, earning us the first seed and a direct ticket to Worlds. But we lost the finals by the slimmest of margins. My second Worlds ended in failure as well.

However, right after we were eliminated from that second Worlds final, I absentmindedly checked the comment section on AVL's official YouTube channel. By then the fanbase had grown several times larger. Instead of wallowing in past failures, they told me to seize the next opportunity. They passionately ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠encouraged me, saying that even if we got knocked down several times, we had to keep moving toward our goal. Eventually we'd reach it.

At the time, I was drowning in frustration from the continuous failures at Worlds. Every single one of those words felt like salvation. I promised myself that for the sake of those who believed in me and cheered so hard, I would definitely win the Worlds title.

Fans cheered wildly at that confident interview. The coaching staff and my teammates trusted me and decided to follow my lead once more. And so our third season began.

League Spring, small international tournaments, League Summer—our momentum only grew stronger as the year progressed. We kept setting new highs without ever dropping. It felt like no one could stop the 2021 version of AVL.

That flow continued all the way to the Worlds semifinals. We were on the verge of writing a new legend: the first ever Worlds championship without dropping a single set, plus a calendar Grand Slam. Since that year's Worlds was being held in Seoul—the home ground for both teams—the attention was greater than ever.

Everyone was waiting, expecting the birth of a new history that AVL would write. But then—

AVL betrayed everyone's expectations and collapsed miserably in the finals once again. They say the bigger the expectation, the bigger the disappointment? The devastating, complete defeat was so brutal that even the antis who had been cursing us and the V4 fans fell silent.

This wasn't something that could simply be dismissed as another failure or mistake. It was more fatal than ever before. Some sponsors gave up on renewing contracts with AVL. The front office became furious and completely rebuilt the roster. By the time I came to my senses, only new coaches and players known for their skill remained. Not a single one of the coaching staff or teammates I'd spent three years building chemistry with was left on the team.

In the end, I became the only remaining member from the 2019–2021 AVL era and the franchise star of the team. There was nowhere left to shift the blame, no place left to retreat.

But as if mocking the slowly creeping pressure and anxiety about the unfamiliar environment, the 2022 season went far more smoothly than I had expected. Was it because we were fully armed with S-tier players and coaches? There wasn't a single team in the domestic league that could rival AVL. The 2022 version of AVL ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠continued the flow with results comparable to the previous year.

And as the saying goes, humans are creatures of adaptation. I adapted well enough to the new environment and led the team without wavering. Although the teammates I'd started with were no longer by my side, I felt certain that this time I could win the Worlds I'd dreamed of and finally keep my promise to the fans.

That confidence was brutally shattered in a place I never expected.

The domestic league's first seed and a strong championship favorite had been eliminated in the semifinals by a Chinese team. It put a huge dent in the prestige of the domestic league that had dominated Worlds for so long. The moment TRS became the first Chinese team to win the 2022 Worlds, the fans stopped waiting.

Most of the fans who used to support us switched to other teams. The ones who turned anti began pouring out vicious curses and shameful nicknames that made me think it would've been better if they'd just cheered for someone else. ApolloWorshipper, Incompetent Trash, ^Domestic Only^, Worlds AVL, Pressure Choker, A(Shitty)valon, YaBallon, League Devourer, Finals Oracle, and so on.

Some were pure mockery, but most of the nicknames derived from AVL's tragic Worlds history served as constant reminders of how long the fans had been fed false hope. When they started terrorizing the players' personal streams and ripping into us, it was only a matter of time before the already broken mentality of the AVL players completely collapsed.

Even the 2023 Worlds finals, which we reached thanks to favorable matchups and our team's weight class, was handed over to V4 once again. After that, we suffered nothing but failure. AVL's parent company quickly lost interest and cut their investment. The results that came back were more disastrous than ever.

The prestigious team AVL had now been eliminated in the Worlds quarterfinals two years in a row. This record meant that AVL, once a championship contender at Worlds, had completely fallen. At some point, AVL had become just another common mid-tier team that barely managed to qualify for Worlds. They were no longer a team worth discussing as title contenders.

Back in the present, ahead of the 2026 season. The few fans and acquaintances who remain still cling to the faintest thread of hope, saying there's still a chance. But a pro gamer who can no longer look upward, who feels the expectations of fans and those around them as nothing but burden, and who is left only with doubts about their own skill—such a person performing their role properly is clearly even more impossible than AVL winning Worlds.

That was why I decided to stop this meaningless cycle of false hope. The arrogant rookie player's professional career, the one who had chased after such an impossible dream, and the promise to win Worlds, ended with nothing but the stigma of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠being a liar.