Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 264 Group 1st Place, Quarterfinal Draw

The next day, as soon as the group stage started, when IG also picked a mage carry bot lane and secured their first victory, announcing that LPL had won all three matches, the popularity of League of Legends exploded!
In S8, if RNG hadn't faltered at the World Championship, they would have been arguably the strongest team that year.

The ID Uzi is currently a correct indicator of public opinion and trends for domestic and even global audiences.

It's not just about popularity and traffic; it also feels like it's subtly catching up to the historical status of Lee Sin.

In any forum related to League of Legends, discussions about Uzi and RNG have never stopped.

Whether RNG can achieve an unprecedented Grand Slam and ascend to their second S-series throne has become everyone's expectation.

The controversy is escalating, and public opinion continues to flow.

In Group B, no team was a match for RNG. After RNG crushed Samsung in the second game without any suspense, the official organizers seemed to have sensed the trend of the year and came out to support them.

Countless news and daily tidbits about RNG, even the list of takeout restaurants that RNG players frequently eat at, caused an immediate surge in orders.
The four groups will compete in a round-robin format, and the third day's competition will feature SKT and Rw.

This match garnered a tremendous amount of attention, and if it weren't for the fact that this year is RNG's year of dominance, the viewership ratings might have reached the first new high of S8.

One is SKT, the number one seed from the Korean LCK and a veteran powerhouse, while the other is RW, the number two seed from the LPL, which was just formed in S8 and was hailed as a "galactic battleship" in the Spring Split.

The first encounter between the LPL and LCK regions at the S8 World Championship – a battle of the century!
Especially in South Korea's home stadium, Busan Gymnasium, even before the game started, everyone felt the pressure just watching the South Korean fans with their faces painted with the national flag and looking like fanatics enter the stadium!

The result of the competition, however, was beyond everyone's expectations.

In this match, the story of SKT crushing Rw and thwarting the LPL's dominance, which all the Koreans were looking forward to, did not unfold as expected. Instead, the match was evenly matched in the early and mid-game.

Although SKT dominated the lane early on, they used their terrifyingly strong individual skills to achieve lane dominance.

But Sima Laozei's Karthus ADC with a magic core and Doinb's Kled mid lane, these two oddball champions redeemed themselves.

From a certain perspective, before the start of S8, everyone divided the teams into several levels.

The first tier is undoubtedly the top group, dominated by teams like SKT and RNG, which are S-level teams and have the ability to dominate at least within their own leagues.

The second tier consists mainly of established powerhouses, including teams with long and impressive records such as FNC, IG, and TL.

The third tier consists of Rw and many other emerging teams, or teams that performed well in S8.

Before the match between an S-tier team and a B-tier team, apart from their own LPL teammates, no foreign media outlets predicted that Rw would win.

Eighteen minutes later, as Karthus's equipment began to take shape, SKT suffered devastating blows in two consecutive team fights.

In this situation, jungler Black King completely lost his way and launched an unstoppable charge. The jungler, who repeatedly lost his way, led SKT to their doom.

At exactly 28 minutes, after Karthus acquired three items, a fierce battle for Baron Nashor ensued, and SKT lost, their base being destroyed.

Thus, even when facing the LCK region, the LPL region still maintains a perfect record.

LCK's number one seed can't beat the other team's number two seed?
Public opinion in South Korea instantly reached a peak. Although all LCK fans had full confidence in SKT before the match, it was completely unacceptable for SKT to perform like this in front of everyone, given the esports environment in South Korea.

"Why not play a mage carry bot lane? How many times do I have to tell SKT before they keep up with the meta?"

"Haven't we learned our lesson from MSI? Blank probably got paid by the royal family? No wonder, considering he's a member from the royal family."

"Is LPL going to dominate the World Championship? Our country's coaches and players are heading towards self-destruction!"

"."

Unable to accept SKT's defeat, a series of traditional stunts erupted on Korean forums.

It's hard for the members of SKT, including Faker, to believe that the Korean esports scene, which used to be full of high hopes for SKT even at the last minute and believed that they could make a comeback, has started to criticize SKT after they only lost one group stage match.

Is this the treatment a team that won three World Championship titles for LCK deserves?

The match then continued.

On the fifth day, when Rw faced SKT again, they handed the LPL region its first defeat. Of course, it wasn't because SKT was strong enough to win the game.

Instead, Faker pulled out Galio, a champion he had played like a god in S7, and carried the game, activating the still-sleepy top laner, Hanzi. They held out until 42 minutes, and thanks to SKT's resilience, they managed a hard-fought victory.

In contrast, RNG, having won all four of their matches in Group B, has already secured their place in the next round.

With the conclusion of the fifth day of competition, the positions in each group have been largely finalized.

Among the four groups, Group A and Group B, which are the most competitive, are the most dazzling.

Group A consists of the all-star teams TL, Fw, G2, and Kt. There are no wildcard regions, and all of them are historically considered strong teams in the world. The four teams have already played two rounds of matches, with wins and losses. On the leaderboard, Kt, as the second seed from LCK, has firmly secured first place.

G2 and Fw followed closely behind, while TL, with a record of four losses, was at the bottom and was about to become the first team to be eliminated from Group A.

As expected, Team Liquid (TL), the team of the senior player, has once again made it to the top 16.

Of course, no one will remember an ADC who only made it to the top 16, unless he makes it to the top 16 every year!
Unlike the tense situation in Group A, the first team to be eliminated in Group B was none other than Samsung, the runner-up of S7.

If Gen can win the tiebreaker against VIT on Day 6, they will still have a chance; if they lose, they will be the first to go home as the LCK's third seed.

As for Groups C and D, no team achieved a perfect record; the matches appeared to be quite close and the games were exceptionally exciting.

Both groups contain LPL's second and third seeds. Perhaps due to the changes brought about by Li Luo, RW seems to be playing more and more like S9 FPX in the World Championship.

And IG is the champion team from the previous S8 season.

On the sixth day of the competition, Skt and Rw from Group C secured their spots in the next round, leaving the two wildcard teams to weep in despair.

IG from Group D lived up to expectations, winning one game and losing one game against FNC, thus advancing as the top team in the group with only one loss.

In previous years, the group stage of the World Championship was usually divided into two rounds.

The tournament uses a double round-robin format within each group, with each cycle lasting three days and lasting for two weeks. Players are ranked based on their points.

By the sixth day of the second week, those who were supposed to qualify had basically already qualified, and those who were still undecided would go to the seventh day for the final best-of-five series to determine their spots.

For LPL fans, every day with a match is like celebrating the New Year. For school students, the match is on time to relax after school every afternoon.

Those who work will go home after get off work and immediately turn on their computers to enter the live stream room to start watching the competition.

In fact, after the first three days of competition, the initial clashes between the teams were enough to determine their potential for advancement. Upsets are rare, especially in this unbalanced early game, where the strength of each team is crystal clear.

Day six has ended, and the top two spots in each of the four groups for S8 have been decided:
Group A: KT (first in points), G2 (second in points)
Group B: Rng (first in points), C9 (second in points)
Group C: Skt (first in points), Rw (second in points)
Group D: ig (first in points), Fnc (second in points)
Of the four groups, LPL and LCK each occupy two spots in the top two, while Europe and North America each occupy one spot in the second group.

With this, all wildcard teams were eliminated, and Team Liquid, who had consistently reached the top 16 every year, had no choice but to go home. Flash Wolves, having lost their star player, could only settle for the top 16 as well.

For teams like Gen.G, who started 0-3 and didn't win a single game, they've basically announced their exit from this year's World Championship and ended their run prematurely.

Unless Samsung wins the match against VIT on the seventh day, they will also have to wait for C9's result in Group B. If C9 loses to VIT, Samsung will have to play a best-of-five tiebreaker match against C9.

This is a more difficult way to qualify than the theoretical way.

As the runner-up of the S7 World Championship, without any major roster changes, they managed to plunge all five members of Samsung into an abyss in just two weeks at the World Championship.

The task of providing passionate commentary for VIT and GEN was naturally handed over to Guan Daxiao.

Listening to the colonel's emotional and sorrowful voice, and seeing his slightly trembling body, countless LPL players felt even more thrilled tonight than RNG did when they lost the game.

As for RNG and KT's perfect record in the group stage, it was unexpected for everyone. In my memory, it would be more reasonable to add an "s" before KT.

"RNG is so strong this year!!! Just like how they crushed Samsung in the S7 group stage, Samsung is even worse off this year than last year!"

"Why is Uzi so strong? He was bad in S5 and S6, but from S7 until now, his performance has been just like Faker's all year round, he's been dominant?"

"No way, no way, is LPL going to win the championship again this year?"

"If RNG wins their second championship, wow, they'll definitely become a towering mountain in the LPL!"

"I get it now. That towering mountain at the end of the pre-match music video wasn't the S8 champion, it was RNG!"

The entire internet is basically praising RNG. Whether it's MSI or the Spring and Summer Finals, although they are not low in quality, they are not nearly as good as the World Championship.

The World Championship (S-Series) is always recognized by all players and viewers as the highest level of competition in League of Legends!

Throughout the year of S8, RNG's performance seemed to have no ups and downs, always a bottomless abyss.

You never know which mysterious weapon Uz will pull out of his arsenal the next moment.

Having won all their group stage matches, an unrealistic thought began to cross everyone's minds.
Will they win the S-series championship with a perfect record?
is it possible?

Of course, where there are people praising, there are bound to be people criticizing. You can't even tell whether the critics are Chinese or Koreans pretending to be Chinese.

As translation software becomes increasingly sophisticated, there are many voices on Baidu Tieba expressing pessimism about RNG.

"KT also had a perfect record, are you blind? Besides, the Deft and Mata duo is no worse than RNG's bot lane, okay?"

"What kind of trash is Group B? C9 and Vit, aren't they easy targets? Besides, Samsung couldn't even beat RNG in S7, what are they so arrogant about in S8?"

"If RNG could avoid facing KT in the knockout stage, they would have kicked you out of the tournament!"

"The defending champions? I think they'll be going home in the quarterfinals."

The true identities of these speakers behind the keyboard and screen cannot be seen.

Among these people are LPL fans who have been living in fear of LCK's dominance since S2. Even though RNG won the S7 championship, this nightmare still makes people find it hard to believe that LPL has risen so suddenly.

Unless RNG can truly silence all doubts and win their second championship in the Incheon finals this year, taking home the title on LCK's home turf!
With the group stage now over, this public opinion and pressure has gradually built up into a typhoon, with RNG's voice heard everywhere.
-
Sunday night at 9:30 pm.

Despite the end of Saturday's matches, major live streaming platforms around the world did not shut down their broadcasts. As the hour drew closer to midnight, the viewership of these live streams continued to rise.

It's even higher than some weak teams fighting each other!

The importance of the quarterfinals draw in the World Championship goes without saying. Fans of teams around the world are on tenterhooks, fearing that they will be drawn into an internal battle between their own teams in the first round of the knockout stage.

Of course, some casual players do hope to draw an internal battle, since at least they can guarantee a top-four finish.

"Come on, smile! Why are you all frowning so much during the quarterfinals draw?"

Sitting in the dressing room, watching the busy preparations on stage, Li Luo relaxed on the sofa and joked.

In their past life, RNG was drawn against G2 in the quarterfinals, and with a smile, they made it to S9.

But in this lifetime, this situation will never happen again.

G2?

Without the partnership of Ap and Caps, G2 would probably be nothing more than mediocre under RNG's current leadership.

If he were to draw G2, Li Luo had already considered how to use a globally shocking strategy to force the team into a rebuilding phase ahead of time.

"Hey puppy, be serious, the camera's on you! If you get Rw, that smile of yours will be a crime!" the handsome rookie next to him said sarcastically.
"Hopefully we'll be drawn against C9, so our IG team can make it to the semifinals too."

Sima the Old Thief: "???"

"Damn it, damn it, four number one seeds, each stronger than the last, two from the LPL region, two from the LCK region, RW is down (crying voice), Doinb, S8 World Championship quarterfinals!"

Listening to Doinb's funny antics, everyone in the LPL region, including the staff, laughed while sitting in the lounge.

For RNG and IG, it doesn't really matter who they draw, because of the protection principle, RNG will only draw G2, FNC, and Rw.

IG will draw G2, Rw, and C9.

Given the strength of both teams, playing against these teams doesn't actually put much pressure on them. On the contrary, it's a bit of a suspense that IG drew their own region's RW.

But for Rw, the opponent they could draw was just too crap (a type of plant).

According to the rules of the S-series, teams from the same region can be drawn together in the quarterfinals, while the second-place team in the group stage will be the first-place team from another group because they will not be in the same selection box.

The top team in the same group will not be matched, which means that Rw will not face SKT, a team from their own group, before the finals.

The opponents can only be the three first-place teams from other groups: RNG, IG, and KT.

With two teams from their own region and one LCK team, Rw's only hope for avoiding an internal conflict and securing a 33.3% chance of advancing lies with the special guest who will be drawing the quarterfinals tonight.

(End of this chapter)