Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 280 The Building Is About to Collapse! A Storm Is Brewing!
On the night the quarterfinals ended, the entire LPL team flew directly to Gwangju.

Compared to the EU and LCK regions, which each have only one representative left, the LPL region, although facing internal competition, will at least have one guaranteed spot in the finals.

In other words, one region will definitely be eliminated in the lower bracket. Whether it's LCK or EU, losing a match will result in direct elimination.

"Brothers, this is going to be a lot of pressure." Sitting on the plane, looking at the calm faces of the RNG members sitting in front of him, Doinb couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Regardless of whether they win or lose, LPL always has a team that can enter the finals, but which professional player doesn't want to win the highest honor, the S-series championship!
The current situation is very awkward. Rw's tactics are almost a given. A little analysis of the matches between IG and Rw will reveal their core tactics and weaknesses.

"RNG is understandable, but the key is SKT, who is also keeping secrets from us, and FNC, none of the remaining three teams are easy to deal with." It was rare for Ma Ge to say several words after hearing what Doinb said.

Normally, Sima Laozei would just listen to what Doinb said and wouldn't comment, but now that he's speaking, everyone in Rw immediately felt a sense of pressure.

Although two days have passed since the tournament, the storm surrounding the two best-of-five matches in the lower bracket is still raging online, with the entire region at the center of public opinion, and even Rw is not immune.

"After watching so many RNG matches these past few days, are you confident against them?" Coach Niu Pao, sitting in the back, asked with a smile.

Rw members: "???"

Thanks to Steak's methods, RW's atmosphere is so harmonious. Historically, Steak played a crucial role in RW's victory over KZ in the S8 Intercontinental Cup, helping LPL keep its hopes alive.

"If RNG doesn't hide any tactics, then we can still put up a fight. But if they're like SKT, then there's nothing we can do."

After much discussion, no one seemed to believe that RNG hadn't hidden anything.

After all, the unexpected performance of the mage-centric bot lane in the group stage of S8, and the Yasuo flex pick in the quarterfinals, failed to reveal RNG's true strength at the World Championship.

After the plane landed in Gwangju, the two teams tacitly refrained from communicating and instead boarded the officially arranged bus to their hotel to check in and begin training for the upcoming semi-finals.

That's right, the first match of the semifinals will be between the two teams in the left half of the bracket, and the LPL internal battle will begin the day after tomorrow.

To facilitate training for players participating in the World Championship, Riot Games will assign super accounts from local servers for players to practice in ranked games. RNG players obtained super accounts from the Korean server long before the group stage began.

Because ranked match records can be checked by others, they are mostly used as warm-up games before practice matches. By the end of the quarterfinals, Li Luo had only played less than 60 games. As an ADC, his 54 wins and 6 losses still demonstrate his dominance.

Super accounts have very high hidden MMR, often gaining dozens of points per game and losing only a single digit per game. With more wins than losses, almost all RNG members have reached the Challenger rank.

"These guys in the Korean server are too steady, so steady they've lost all their edge."

Seeing that the opposing Fiora, who was 3-0, still didn't dare to come up against his own Xayah, who was 1-2, Li Luo shook his head and chuckled.

In the Chinese server, even if Xayah is 4-0 or 5-0, the moment Fiora sees her, Fiora will probably already be planning how to easily pocket Xayah's bounty.

At this point in Season 8, and even further into the future, the skill gap between the top players in the Chinese server and those in the Korean server will definitely widen.

Of course, this is also why RNG members, including Letme, can easily reach the Challenger rank. The most lethal thing is the dimensional reduction attack. If you can't even win the laning phase, how can you talk about team fights?

"I wonder if I can reach the top of the Korean server before the finals end."

After winning the rank, Li Luo glanced at his ranking and saw that he had risen 22 places on the leaderboard filled with various teams.

He wasn't particularly obsessed with reaching the top; it was just that in his previous life, Xiaogou had never been able to reach the top of the Korean server, and now he just wanted to do it for Xiaogou.

Of course, for professional players, being the number one in the Chinese server or the number one in the Korean server is just a gimmick.

The only true test of one's ability is on the field!

On the day the factory manager played 4396, his main account was still ranked eighth in the Korean server.

While LGD was criticized for its "double king" collaboration resulting in one death and the other feeding, the King of Law was the number one player in the Chinese server, streaming his fancy slaughter in the Chinese server's top-ranked matches.

When Mala Xiangguo (a hot pot restaurant chain) delivered the decisive blow in the final best-of-five series, he was a Diamond 5 player on the Korean server.

Behold my invincible PDD, a Platinum 1 player in the Chinese server, draped in the national flag. When Wei Shen won the LPL Summer Split championship, he would quit the game and go AFK in one out of three games during his daily livestream.

When Sima Laozei made his famous play and was wiped out, a third of the ranked games in the Korean server were played by players AFK with six Tear of the Goddess items.

KidGod reached the top of the Korean server and was the biggest contributor of Bronze highlights in that season's competition. He was hailed as the worst player to ever go abroad and the shame of lpladc.

The technical and tactical training of professional teams, especially top teams, is not on the same level as the technical accumulation of casual players in ranked games.

Matches and ranked games are two different concepts. The attention to detail in matches is completely different from the mindless fun in ranked games.

Back in the day, Sima Laozei and Wei Shen repeatedly fought to avoid relegation, and every year they crushed PDD's e-sports Huangpu team.

At that time, ZuoShou was already ranked number one in the Korean server, and the team had Ning and Ming, who were both top players in the Korean server and would prove themselves on the field two years later.

Based on rank at the time, the entire Huangpu eSports team was higher than the entire LGD team, which was higher than the entire OMG team. However, based on their performance and head-to-head results, the order was OMG > LGD > Huangpu eSports team.

Furthermore, the competitive spirit of League of Legends is widely recognized.

Faker gets thrown around to the point of vomiting even on the Chinese server, let alone in the even more brutal esports environment of the Korean server. Most of the six games he lost were due to throwers, and even then, it was often two or three throwers.

Back then, during the S8 preparation period in South Korea, Uzi even changed the official super account ID he was given to "Let the world see the Korean dogs" and was eventually publicly punished.

With two weeks left until the end of the S-series, Li Luo was about to log off after checking his ranking when a message popped up in the lower right corner.

"Hi, Uzi!"

"Hi, Rekkles!"

Seeing that it was Ou Cheng, the two were still happy to communicate and exchange ideas before the match.

Of course, like Xiaoming, this guy is also a social butterfly in esports. Caps is a big mouth and invites taunts, while Rekkles is well-behaved and has very good relationships with people from various regional teams.

"Do you have any secrets to beating SKT? You know what I mean. Teach me. I don't think you want to see SKT on the final stage, do you?"

The mischievous Rekkles even joked about his own past as a loser in Europe and America.

Almost all LPL fans genuinely hope that no LCK team will be in the finals, even if it's SKT, and even if FNC wins the championship, no one will be too upset. Conversely, if SKT wins the championship, it would prove that the LPL miracle was just a flash in the pan.

Seeing that Ou Cheng came to ask for advice in this way, Li Luo, unusually, chatted with him for a while with a smile, giving a general explanation of his understanding of SKT's tactics.

Ou Cheng, who had initially thought he had gained nothing, was overjoyed to receive the advice and quickly thanked the person several times.

"Thank you, Uzi! Let's do our best in tomorrow's match! Hope to see you in Incheon!"

"OK!"

They didn't continue chatting; it was getting late, and both prepared to log off and rest.

Outside the window, a light rain began to fall in Gwangju, accompanied by increasingly dense dark clouds on the horizon, creating an atmosphere of impending doom and impending storm.

October 26, Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium, South Korea.

The rain grew heavier, turning from a light drizzle last night into a vast, continuous moderate downpour. Countless pedestrians, some with umbrellas and others in raincoats, hurried along, waiting to enter through the ticket gates.

Fortunately, the terrace of the Universiade Stadium has a glass cover to protect it from the rain; otherwise, everyone would have had to come to watch the games in a downpour.

In my previous life, during the semifinals, all the LCK teams had been eliminated. At that time, due to the rain and the low enthusiasm of LCK fans, probably less than half of the audience showed up.

But today is different. Even though it's an internal battle between LPL teams, tens of thousands of spectators still came to watch the game, and the entire stadium was packed.

When RNG's bus arrived at the parking plaza, it was already packed with people.

Unlike the quarterfinals, at least half of the supporters this time were viewers from China who came specifically to support their own team, so that the atmosphere wouldn't be lacking and the Koreans wouldn't laugh at them.

Of course, now, the LPL region is really just one step away from achieving its goal.

Regardless of who wins or loses today's match, the audience won't experience much emotional fluctuation, except for the team's die-hard fans. At that time, one LPL team will definitely be able to advance to the finals.

Of course, if RNG can win the semifinals and advance to the finals, then regardless of the outcome, its historical status and status in the LPL will become the undisputed No. 1, and even the domestic god Edg will be overshadowed by RNG.

One best-of-five victory will make a name for yourself in esports history; two best-of-five victories will tie SKT's dynasty and create LPL history!

The heavy rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audience who came to support them. RNG members also took the support gifts they had prepared for the fans off the bus and personally distributed them to the audience who were waiting at the scene.

This unexpected segment became a surprise for all the fans in the audience, with countless cheers and screams leaving the audience members who were already seated completely bewildered. After finding out online, they were filled with regret and frustration.

Each exquisite figurine was quite expensive. After receiving them from the fans, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and entered through a special passage.

"Phew, I suddenly feel the pressure. These fans are so enthusiastic. There are still two best-of-five series left. I'll play well!" Xiao Hu was a little excited after being hugged by several female fans across the barrier.

Although the semifinals are an internal LPL battle and there is no pressure in terms of public opinion, there will definitely be friction between the fans of the two teams. Although RNG's players were not affected, their mentality was inevitably affected to some extent.

But now, as we actually enter the arena and experience the atmosphere of the competition, the "friendship first, competition second" motto we had before is immediately forgotten. In esports, success is built on the bones of countless others; no one remembers the losers.

Seeing these fans who had come from afar to cheer them on, the crowd was already buzzing with excitement even before any mobilization had begun.

Seeing the state of the group, Chris, who was walking at the back, nodded. Although he could have chosen not to spend the money on the figurines he had already spent, he still did it on the dog's suggestion, and the effect was surprisingly good.

Riot Games was very thoughtful this time, setting up the rest areas for the two teams on opposite sides of the court, separated by a large space, to ensure that the two teams wouldn't feel awkward meeting before the match.

It was 1:30 PM.

After the final ticket check and entry process at the competition venue, everyone was called to get ready and wait for the match to officially begin at 2:00 PM.

The noisy chatter, occasional cheers, and waves of encouragement did nothing to dampen the audience's enthusiasm despite the heavy rain.

The South Korean audience and the Chinese audience were clearly separated. In today's match, the Chinese and European and American audiences even accounted for more than 70%.

Inside the Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium, which can hold a full 30,000 people, everyone spontaneously got excited as the time drew closer.

"Good brothers who support RNG, open WeChat, select to create a face-to-face group, the password is 6688, everyone please join, we will cheer and command together in the group!"

Some die-hard RNG fans who came all the way from China were on site, using megaphones to direct everyone who supported RNG to join the group. Red banners were unfurled, creating quite a stir in the huge stands.

As more and more people joined the WeChat group, the second and third groups were created one after another. Suddenly, under the command of the group leader, cheers that could pierce the sky rang out!
"Rng! Go for it!"

"Uzi! Go Uzi!"

The Western and Korean fans at the scene were taken aback by the sight of such a spectacle, as it was their first time witnessing it.

Some Rw supporters also imitated the style quite well, with cheers for both teams rising and falling, creating a good viewing atmosphere before the match even started.

"RNG will definitely win, especially the bot lane. Although Ma is strong, he's still quite a bit weaker than Uzi!"

"It's not certain. What if RW has some hidden tactics? RNG could also suffer a setback."

"It's alright, it doesn't matter which team wins the championship."

"Absolutely! Rng, Rw, charge! Charge! Charge! Charge!"

"Holy crap, a jungler with a 100% win rate, that's RNG's owner, Bai Xing is here too!"

The atmosphere was harmonious, with no prior conflict or rivalry between the two teams, and the fans politely cheering each other on.

Bai Xing was also present today. Now, there are still two best-of-five matches left. Even he, a jungler with a 5% win rate, couldn't help but feel nervous.

Before the match, he even offered RNG a staggering 50 RMB reward for every single win! This would continue until the end of S8!

Lured by honor, rewarded with money, and encouraged by fans, the RNG players, sitting in the lounge, were itching to get on the field and beat RW 3-0.

In the live streams of X Fish and X Tooth, the countdown to the start of the match ended simultaneously, and the promotional videos recorded by both teams before the match began to be played one by one.

The competition is about to begin!
(End of this chapter)