As the last representative of the Lien Quan Mobile Vietnam (AOG) region to reach the Quarterfinals of AIC 2024, Saigon Phantom had to stop before its opponent, BMG.

Losing with a score of 1-4 to GCS representative BMG caused Saigon Phantom (SGP) to be officially eliminated from AIC 2024 in the Quarterfinals. This is a sad result for Saigon Phantom fans and Lien Quan Mobile Vietnam audience as they are the last team from AOG to leave the tournament. Previously, other AOG teams such as FPT Flash (Team Flash), One Star Esports, TDT or SH were also eliminated from this international playground. 

Thus, in the next rounds there are only representatives from Thailand and Chinese Taipei competing for the AIC 2024 championship. 

After losing to BMG, Saigon Phantom officially bid farewell to AIC 2024

Throughout Saigon Phantom's performance at AIC 2024, the reigning Champion of the Arena of Fame actually did not fully demonstrate his qualities. Many players on the Saigon Phantom squad are not in top form and the way they coordinate is quite sporadic in many situations. 

The most obvious reason for Saigon Phantom's losing games is the dispute over Caesar the Tyrant. This is what happened in many BO5 matches from the AIC 2024 group stage to the Swiss round and all the way to the Quarterfinals with the BO7 format. Saigon Phantom often loses and loses Caesar to his opponents. When captain Lai Bang is not in good form and Saigon Phantom does not suppress the opponent early to comfortably eat Caesar, the competitive situations for Trung Tri are said to be 50/50, the loser is often SGP. 

Meanwhile, the power that the Evil God Caesar the Tyrant buff brings is extremely terrible with the ability to deal sustained damage and push the road strongly. For example, in the 4th game against BMG, Lai Bang lost the biggest buff on the map to his opponent despite having a quite proactive stance. 

Lai Bang is not in good form at AIC 2024 and SGP star Trung Tri has repeatedly lost to his opponent - something extremely rare before.

Besides, the performance of Fish - SGP's mid lane star is also very low in this international tournament. In a mid lane meta that is more about tactical "make play" instead of "carry" with damage, Fish seems to be inferior to many opponents. Not to mention this guy also often makes movement mistakes and gets caught by his opponents. 

Fish had an AIC 2024 season with very low performance

With the important positions not being in good form, Saigon Phantom's failure is not difficult to understand. 

However, the fact that there is no representative advancing to the Semifinals of AIC 2024 also poses a problem for Vietnamese Lien Quan Mobile fans. AIC 2024 is a rare international tournament where Lien Quan Mobile Vietnam does not advance to the Semifinals. Before that, there were many seasons where the AOG region consecutively reached the Grand Finals, even taking home the championship. 

Are AOG teams stagnating, even regressing compared to other regions? There is no answer to the above question, but this will be a big lesson for the entire AOG region and the teams need to learn from the failure at AIC 2024 this time.