Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 256: Version Code, Battle for World Championship Spots!

Draven was running rampant under the high ground tower, so Vg simply abandoned the bottom lane, and Ezreal and Sona went to the top lane to farm with Gnar.

As RNG launched their overwhelming attack, the chat gradually calmed down.

Actually, there is a very simple way to prove that you can use Flash to dodge Nidalee's WQ combo.

That means letting the puppy try again.

Unfortunately, Draven, who was incredibly fed in this game, has become an unstoppable monster. Little Nidalee might not even survive three hits before she's on her knees.

After 21 minutes of gameplay, RNG secured the victory in the first game.

"RNG ended the game in just over twenty minutes. RNG won the first game rather decisively."

The doll concluded:
"VG's early game disadvantage was too great, the difference in combat power was too huge, especially with the mid laner picking Kassadin, they were still suppressed by Wu Wukai, even when Kassadin reached the level in the mid-game, due to the lack of equipment, they didn't deal much damage."

“Hmm,” Pdd nodded and said seriously:

"Well, in the latest version, it's just too difficult to turn the tide."

"Oh, now that you mention it, I just realized what you meant."

Miller raised an eyebrow and said uncertainly, "That's right, we've seen very few comebacks in recent matches."

"Is it just my imagination?" Wawa thought for a moment and said, "Apart from these top teams, the other teams are all playing pretty closely. For example, JD Gaming often drags the game into the late stages, and then uses their team composition and team fight advantages to pull off a comeback."

"Emmmm"

The three pondered for a while but couldn't come up with a clear answer. Looking at the time, they stopped worrying about the issue.

They are commentators now, not players or team coaches, so it's not their place to worry about or judge these kinds of issues.

The doll's skill level was not high to begin with, and he quickly forgot about the incident, starting to recite the sponsor's advertising slogans.

Meanwhile, the RNG members, except for Li Luo, were all having a blast led by Bai Xing and Wu Wukai after the match.

because
"That was a good fight! Lu Benwei is in great form, and Bai Xing has become famous overnight, hahaha!"

Chris clapped and laughed, "We won this match smoothly, proving that our understanding of the version was correct."

If RNG's tactics were able to secure first place in the regular season because their players were already very strong, then their sudden change in tactics caught other teams off guard.

Now, with Wu Wukai and Bai Xing on the roster, RNG's ability to achieve this level of success demonstrates that they have cracked the code to this version's success.

In previous years, due to the immaturity of the LPL coaching system, many LPL teams were much slower to adapt compared to Korean teams.

Before the S5 World Championship, LPL teams played a year-long strategy centered around the mid and bot lanes, while the top laners played champions like Maokai, Gnar, and Hecarim. However, with the World Championship patch, the core tactics underwent a dramatic change, suddenly shifting to a top lane-centric meta focused on heavy armor champions.

S7 was another year before the World Championship patch, when it suddenly became the support meta. The LPL coaching staff failed to react and make the right response. Even with RNG leading the way, the other two LPL teams failed to change their tactics and adapt to the patch in time.

The same applies to S8; the sudden addition of the turret plating version undoubtedly foreshadowed the pace of version changes.

In fact, the malformation of version S8 was no less than that of version S5, which was criticized by all professional players.

It's just that the deformity isn't very obvious.

If Li Luo knew what PDD said in the commentary booth, he would definitely be able to tell PDD firmly:

"Fewer comebacks? That's right, it's not just an illusion."

Historically, LCK's dominance in professional League of Legends competitions for a long period was not due to reasons like the supposed superior talent of Korean professional players or the more sophisticated system of LCK, which are rather unsophisticated.

In terms of population size, industry development speed, and the probability of geniuses, China completely outclasses South Korea in every way.

Unfortunately, in terms of training effort and the unwavering pursuit of the championship, the LCK region is far ahead of the LPL players.

Many of LCK's geniuses are actually "geniuses" created by massive amounts of training, like products made on an assembly line. In the current version, they are terrifyingly powerful.

But after one or two more versions, it will become just another ordinary product.

Once these so-called "geniuses" arrive in other regions and lose their relentless training, their level of poor performance is shocking.

The extent of the hidden deformity in the S8 version lies in the six-word mantra that Li Luo and Chris summarized before the match:

It was weak at the beginning, and it continued to weaken.

"Little dog, if you hadn't reminded us, we wouldn't have noticed the direction of the change in the fist this time. How did you find out?"

Chris exclaimed in surprise, while the other RNG members all looked on with eager expressions, wanting to learn more.

Historically, LPL only realized the true direction of the World Championship meta after the group stage of the S8 World Championship had ended and the knockout stage had begun.

The sheer dynamism of the S8 World Championship meta is obvious to everyone. After defeating KT, IG was clearly a level above other teams.

In a contest between two sides, whoever can overwhelm the veteran player in the early stages and gain an early advantage will win the game.

In the match between IG and KT, the number one seed from South Korea in S8, IG easily won the first two games, but KT then rallied to win the next two. KT was able to turn the tide twice because they noticed the changes in the game version and played a completely different style of play from the Korean style.

Unfortunately, in the final game, the Korean team, seeking stability, still chose their most trusted lineup of the entire S8 season, lacking initiation and focusing on macro play to gain an advantage and reduce mistakes.

Of course, without exception, KT fell in the knockout stage.

With the addition of the tower plate, the S8 World Championship will become an extremely early-game meta.

While changes to tower plates, Rift Herald, dragons, kills, and equipment may seem like independent gameplay elements, their combination has fundamentally altered the game's ecosystem.

All of this points to the word "early stage".

This year was hailed as the darkest moment for the LCK region.

It's no exaggeration to say that in the S8 World Championship, whoever gained an early advantage was likely to win the game.

In the previous life, during S8, RNG's strength was so great that no one realized what the trend of the version was. It wasn't until they lost to G2 that everyone belatedly realized that RNG was completely out of step with the version.

On the Chinese NGA forum, someone claiming to be a professional data analyst shared data about the S8 World Championship. Each statistic emphasized just how extreme the early game of the S8 version was. While I can't recall all the data, as a RNG fan, I can at least vaguely remember a few analyses of the RNG team.

The first statistic is that the team that gets the first blood is basically guaranteed to take the first tower. And after getting the first tower, the entire team, regardless of their lineup, gains an extra 12.5% ​​win rate.

12.5%—this figure might not seem significant, and in the grand scheme of things, it represents only about one-tenth of the total.

But comparing it with previous years, it becomes immediately clear how unscientific this is.

In Season 5, the win rate of securing the first tower increased by 6%, in Season 6 it was 7.8%, and in Season 7 it was a record low of 4.2%. In comparison, Season 8's 12.5% ​​is more than three times higher than that of Season 7.

With this win rate boost, once it's given to a team that already has an early-to-mid-game composition, the 70% win rate plus the win rate of the first tower will immediately allow them to take off and completely overwhelm the losing team.

The second piece of data is something that many players find unbelievable.

The kill rate is more important than the error rate.

In S8, IG won the championship, and naturally, IG should be ranked first in all statistics, but Edg is ranked second in statistics.

Yes, you read that right. Whether it's average dragons, Baron Nashors, offensive efficiency, or economic conversion rate, EDG actually ranked second among all teams in the S8 World Championship.

Of course, this is partly due to EDG's elimination in the quarterfinals and the retention of their data, but it also shows that the EDG team at that time was very well-suited to the current version of the game.

Unfortunately, EDG's top laner Ray was under pressure during the first half of S8, which made it difficult for him to adapt to the sudden change in attack style. EDG's offensive efficiency was too low, otherwise, reaching the semifinals would have been a sure thing.

The third piece of data is that once the opponent gains an advantage, it's basically impossible to turn the tide.

Taking down the first tower, which gives a team a gold lead of around 1000, provides a 12.5% ​​chance of winning before the 10-minute mark. Similarly, a 4000 gold lead before the 15-minute mark is basically enough to seal the game.

These data clearly show that in the S8 World Championship version, an early advantage is too important. If you can't snowball the game, you can't rely on skill to turn the tide and pull off a miracle team fight. You might be able to do it once or twice, but if you do it too many times, you'll definitely make mistakes.

The S8 World Championship was a game where the first ten minutes determined the outcome; forcibly dragging the game into the late stages was tantamount to blindly pursuing a completely unreasonable tactical objective.

Therefore, this is a game where you can win by walking a tightrope in the early stages. Whichever player can gain an advantage in the online game can directly help their team win. Conversely, if you want to win by relying on teamwork, you're dreaming.

This is also why, in the history of RNG and G2 matches, Uzi would pick Oma in three games. It's not because Oma was strong in the S8 World Championship, but because Oma is the only ADC who can help the team gain an advantage in the early and mid-game.

Li Luo guessed that RNG's coach Hart at the time must have sensed the trend of the World Championship, otherwise he would not have drafted the game like that.

Unfortunately, the gap between Letme and G2's top laners was too large, and Letme was outfarmed in every game, having to give up his economic advantage every time.

Is this tactical focus reasonable?

This incident also shows that LPL teams are still far behind in terms of data analysts and coaching staff.

The changes to the tower skin have made this trend so obvious that even PDD (a popular Chinese online forum) can notice it.

In the end, it was Li Luo who told Chris to have the coaching staff search for relevant data from recent matches. Only then did the coaching staff discover that this version had shown such an extreme trend, which gave them a fright.

After understanding the version trends, Chris was very relieved.

What to be thankful for?
Fortunately, they changed their playstyle, shifting from focusing on early-game development and then ramping up their power in the mid-to-late game to an aggressive and fierce style, which aligned with the current meta.

All of this comes just one month before the actual World Championship.

This discovery strengthened RNG's resolve to refine the new, still-struggling system.

The inclusion of Bai Xing and Wu Wukai today is not purely for entertainment or hype, but rather to test the feasibility of this tactic more deeply.

The outside audience only saw Draven's slaughter in the bottom lane, his new item build, and even his unconventional reaction speed.

But only a few members of RNG knew how utterly inadequate their individual skills were under such tactical dominance.

During the halftime break, RNG used their crushing victory in the first game to establish confidence in their new system. They originally planned to bring in a fresh lineup for the second game to ensure a win, but they couldn't resist the excellent performance in the first game and Bai Xing's persistent pleading, so they put in the same players for the second game.

Vg, on the other hand, looked completely bewildered as they reflected on their mistakes from the previous game.

Choosing a strong top laner and jungler, then focusing on fighting and creating opportunities around the top lane to secure the first tower is the mainstream strategy in the current version, and it was also Vg's strategy in the last game.

"Our strategy is correct," VG coach reassured all the players.
"In the last game, the enemy Jarvan IV ambushed Swift's Nidalee at level one, which caused us to lose the early game initiative. Plus, the enemy bot lane was really strong."

"You did nothing wrong, and your strength is no less than theirs; the problem lies in our overall teamwork."

Despite spouting lies and completely ignoring everyone's reactions, the VG coach patted Audi and Swift on the shoulder, beaming with joy, showing no sign of his sadness at losing the game.

Vg already had no hope of advancing this year, and now that they can't beat RNG with their fun lineup, the coach isn't angry.

Without any controversy, once the lineup was in place for the second game, although Vg gained an advantage in the early game, they still lost without any suspense when facing RNG's offensive after 20 minutes.

With their victory over Vg, RNG has firmly secured first place in the standings.

The LPL summer regular season is down to its routine: defeat IG, and regardless of the outcome, RNG will advance as the top seed in their group.

The final match of the 2018 LPL Summer Split regular season.
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RNG vs IG
This best-of-three match lasted at least forty minutes in each game. After a fierce battle lasting three hours, RNG narrowly defeated IG with a score of 2-1.

This victory also signaled the start of the playoffs.

The RNG players finally had a chance to catch their breath, as they stopped their nearly 15-hour grueling training sessions.

This kind of grueling training undoubtedly depletes potential and will affect one's career lifespan.

Even Li Luo, who had been practicing tactics with the team recently, felt a slight discomfort in his wrist.

However, there's no way to achieve glory in the world of League of Legends without sweat and pain.

Taking advantage of the week before the playoffs when RNG had no matches, Li Luo secretly informed Bai Xing that the entire RNG team went out for a team-building activity.

The playoffs in the Eastern Conference unfolded as expected.

Aside from a close match against RNG, IG has been overwhelmingly dominant against other teams that have struggled to advance.

(End of this chapter)