Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 323 The LPL1.0 Era Ends
The first piece of news is a bombshell from the LCK region.

SKT's official Weibo account stated: "In accordance with the players' wishes, ADC player Bang (Bae Jun-sik) and support player Wolf (Lee Jae-wan) will retire and no longer play for SKT. Bae Jun-sik joined SKT in 2014 and achieved significant success for the club."

Have both of SKT's bot lane duo retired?
Yes, SKT was heavily criticized by haters when they returned to Korea. Even Faker couldn't escape the backlash and became the target of attacks from LCK viewers. Bang and Wolf even chickened out after seeing more and more people on the forums wanting to team up to solo kill SKT's bot lane duo.

In crucial games and team fights, the two bot laners always seemed to be sleepwalking, causing countless people to vent their anger over LCK's defeat on them.

I heard that Bang contacted other teams in other regions in the past few days, but because of public opinion, no one dared to recruit him, so he had no choice but to retire.

Various opinions emerged, and domestic audiences instantly perked up after the news of Skt's bot lane duo's retirement broke.

At this point, seeing that the buzz had already started, and estimating that the time was right, more rumors and gossip appeared on Weibo.

"According to a friend's insider information, it's not just SKT that's going to be in turmoil this time. Basically, all the veteran players in the LCK teams will have to retire to make way for the newcomers. Yes, don't overthink it, including those you're familiar with. Very few people know about this right now. All I can say is that the LCK region is going to change drastically this time, and it might even become a franchise!"

"Furthermore, among the players SKT is currently inviting, there are quite a few from our LPL teams. In particular, they offered an astronomical sum to one player. As for the exact amount, I can only say it's a small fortune."

This news caused an even greater uproar in China. With no activity yet during the domestic transfer window, LCK was undoubtedly the region that everyone was paying the most attention to.

However, most people chose not to believe it, because it was just a small blogger's revelation.

However, not long afterward, the LCK region, in conjunction with Riot Games, released another message.

Riot Games stated that starting next year, LCK will adopt a franchise model, with the league and clubs becoming partners, working together as a community to decide on league-related matters and share operational revenue.

For LCK teams, the biggest change is:

1. Abolish the promotion and relegation system.

2. The CK League was cancelled, and a secondary league was established (clubs that obtained the franchise rights must have teams in the secondary league).

3. Increased player salaries: The minimum annual salary for players will be increased from 2000 million won to 6000 million won in 2021.

This news is even more shocking than the retirements of Bang and Wolf!
The elimination of the promotion and relegation system ensures that teams will not fall out of the league, giving new players a chance to play. Instead of keeping teams in the league to maintain stability and prevent them from taking the risk of using new players, the system is now more robust.

Secondly, the abolition of promotion and relegation has also incentivized the youth training systems of various teams. The stability of the teams has brought the biggest benefit to the entire league in terms of attracting sufficient capital.

As an emerging event, capital injection is definitely more beneficial than harmful to the growth of esports. It increases player and team income, attracts more talent, improves all aspects of the event, and gains more exposure and traffic.

Even after the secondary league is canceled, it will become a reserve source of LCK players. Similar to LDL, the level of the region will rise to a level, and a large number of Korean players may return to Korea, which will have a significant impact on LPL and LCS in the short term, and the strength of each region will tend to be more balanced in the long term.

With LCK revenue skyrocketing, it will likely become much more difficult for LPL teams to acquire players from the LCK.

All these factors demonstrate the LCK region's determination to stop the LPL region's RNG team from achieving a three-peat.

When a large number of professional players such as showmaker, Nuguri, Chovy, Tarzan, and Canyon entered the competitive arena ahead of time due to the league system, it created a sense of impending doom and uncertainty.

It seems that apart from RNG wanting to win, all other teams around the world, including LPL teams, don't want RNG to win their third championship.

After announcing the retirement of their bot lane duo, SKT's official Weibo account immediately posted several more messages.

Top laner Khan has left the team.

Blank, the jungler, has left the team.

At the same time, Skt began recruiting for teams around the world.

The team is now just an empty shell. Apart from mid laner Faker, all four vacancies need to be filled with new blood.

After the league was formed, SKT became the first to dare to take the plunge, and even some players from the LPL region were invited to try out, trying to make their region the first team to have Chinese players.

Subsequently, LCK team's Lonzo Ball also announced his retirement.

The news of Ambition's retirement seems to have triggered a butterfly effect, with more and more LCK teams stepping forward to announce the current status of their players.

Support player Mata has retired.

Mid laner Pwan has retired.

Mid laner Justice has retired.

As more and more names appeared on the retirement list, veteran players felt a sense of confusion and bewilderment.

These familiar faces seemed young when they were competing, but it was only when they retired that the audience realized just how short a professional player's career really is.

Domestically, a large number of contestants have also been eliminated in this "gold rush" movement.

adc imp (retirement)

Top laner xiyang has retired.

Cool, the mid-laner, has retired.

ADC kRYST4L retired.

Mid laner Easyhoon has retired.

Top laner 957 has retired.

Jungler Shirahoshi has retired.

Countless professional players familiar to the older generation of gamers ultimately could not withstand the ravages of time and chose to leave the arena they loved all their lives.

As the train of time slowly passes through the LPL arena, countless remnants of the old era sit there, their affectionate gazes reflecting the shadows of their debut days. It is still that same train that, with the passage of time, has carried away fleeting passengers and quietly traveled to another continent.

Countless former professional players, once illustrious and talented, stood there, their affectionate gazes seemingly reflecting their own 17-year-old selves. The expectations for the future were certainly beautiful, but the brief stop on the train felt more like a beautiful glance back at the passing years.

As time quietly turns away with tears in its eyes, they are there, looking back with affectionate eyes, trying to return to the starting point, to the platform where they set off, remembering how they looked when they were seventeen years old and carrying their bags.

Too many regrets have become memories for the audience as the players sadly leave the stage. With the fading of these remnants of the old era, the LPL 2.0 era of fierce competition has officially begun.

The first piece of news comes from the JDG team. Unlike his previous life, JDG's ADC player Loken was not sold to TOP after S8. Instead, he stayed with the team because of Imp's retirement and continued to form a bot lane duo with Green Hair.

As for the jungler position, Clid did not choose to renew his contract with JDG after it expired, becoming a free agent and leaving the LPL market.

Because the market value of junglers has skyrocketed, JDG couldn't find a good jungler for the time being, so they had to temporarily promote their second-year players.
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ID: Kanavi
This jungler is said to be incredibly strong in scrims, and his chemistry with Duke Zoom is just as good as Clid's.

However, since this is just a practice match and the jungle carry meta that everyone is looking forward to hasn't fully arrived yet, Kanavi isn't being taken seriously; it's just a minor news story. Flawless, who was previously dropped by Rw, has once again missed out on the team he would have joined in S9; it's hard to say whether that's a good or bad thing.

Second news.

IG acquired their support player from Flash Wolves in the LMS region, the team everyone knows as Fw, a team that always seems to have a chance but always underperforms.
SwordArt (Snake)
Previously, IG's support player Baolan was demoted to the second team, and he and SwordArt formed the new generation of the SwordArt-SwordArt duo in IG.

The third news item.

Due to the influx of capital and their impressive performance in the semifinals, Rw team did not disband as it had in the previous game. Instead, they opted to replace Haro, the rookie jungler who had reached the semifinals, with A-Guang, the top laner.

In the end, they traded for Flandre, a very famous aggressive top laner in the LPL, and Sofm, a Vietnamese jungler.

They formed the second generation of chivalrous heroes.

The lineup consists of Flandre, the richest man, Doinb, Ma, and Liu Qingsong.

These three pieces of news, which others might consider trivial or nothing new, left Li Luo, who was just observing, stunned.

With various changes in history and versions, he has gradually lost his advantage as a prophet.

More and more players who should have been on other teams have joined teams they shouldn't have been on in their previous lives, and it's unclear what kind of chain reaction this will cause.

In today's LPL teams, many dream lineups that were only imagined by fans in later generations have appeared one after another, including the complete teams of some teams that have appeared ahead of time due to the entry of capital and the change of version.

However, Li Luo soon lost interest in gossiping.

Because RNG is about to make headlines again.

RNG Esports Club:
[Announcement Regarding Roster Changes in RNG's League of Legends Division]

Effective immediately, RNG-Letme (Yan Junze) has officially retired. As a veteran who has been with the team for many years, Yan Junze has grown and improved alongside RNG, reaping numerous honors for both the team and himself through his hard work. We extend our sincerest gratitude to him.

As RNG defends its championship title and the new season transitions, the club has communicated extensively with Yan Junze to understand his intentions and ultimately decided to respect the player's personal wishes. After retiring, Yan Junze will remain with RNG Esports Club as an important member of the family, and the club will do its utmost to develop a future plan for him.

We may meet again someday, but we will meet again someday. No matter what, we will fully support Junze's decisions and plans for the future, and wish him all the best in achieving his ideal life!

Thank you for being with us through the years. Let's work hard together in the future. [Reluctant to part]
The moment the news of RNG's personnel changes came out, the transfer period, which was still full of discussions, was suddenly filled with only the voice of RNG.

"What? Yan Junze is retiring?"

"This morning I was browsing other teams' transfer news, thinking we'd be late to the party, and then suddenly I just [burst into tears, burst into tears, burst into tears]."

"Have you not seen the eagle soaring through the sky as if crossing the heavens? All of you remember the ram that reached the heavens."

"I knew this day would come, but when it finally arrived, I still couldn't accept it!"

"So we already watched Letme's last match! [crying]"

Even though RNG has won two championships and Letme is a two-time champion top laner, the most decorated domestic top laner, there is no doubt that even with three or four championships, countless people will be saddened when he retires.

Numerous official media outlets and official Weibo accounts of various teams sent their blessings and messages. Even C-Station (a Chinese video-sharing website) went to RNG's official Weibo account to send their blessings, showing them great respect.

After announcing Letme's retirement, RNG immediately released several more announcements.

Jungler Xiaotian has been added to the first team's rotation and will take turns playing alongside Xiangguo.

Chen Zebin (Id: bin), a domestic top laner from RNG's youth training camp, has been officially promoted to the first team and will rotate with top laner Mole (Li Haoyan).

At the same time, it was announced that Steak, who served as top laner and captain of Flash Wolves from 2015 to 2017 and later transitioned to coaching, has been recruited to join RNG's League of Legends division as assistant coach.

Chris will continue as head coach and will form a coaching staff with Steak.

At the same time, RNG began recruiting globally.

Although Principal Wang previously said that RNG couldn't recruit players, surely they can recruit analysts and coaches, right?

However, RNG has not given up on the idea of ​​further strengthening its youth training camp.

RNG team is recruiting players from all positions to enter the youth training camp. The minimum rank requirement is 400 points in the Challenger tier of the Chinese server or 300 points or above in the Master tier of the Korean server.

The much-discussed recruitment drive gave hope to some aspiring, unofficial players.

In several major regions, more and more teams have announced transfers or recruitment news, throwing the League of Legends community into chaos. Even before the All-Star event has started, Li Luo has already prepared to leave.

In the spacious gym of Rng's large villa.

"It's only because you're disciplined that everyone else has gone off to who knows where." Watching Li Luo sweating profusely, Bai Xing sat to the side and pretended to train by picking up a 1.5kg dumbbell.

The system's power made Bai Xing subconsciously ignore the thought of asking why Uzi didn't go back to be with his family.

"It's alright, we're just idling around anyway. We still have to push for the last championship, how can we relax now?"

After completing a bench press to failure and resting for a bit, Li Luo continued:
"Moreover, RNG will face far more difficulties next season than they do now. Even if I were to win the championship, the probability would be only 30%, or even lower."

Seeing Bai Xing's disbelieving look, as if to say "Fine, fine, you're just showing off," Li Luo laughed.

Given his current status and fame after winning two consecutive championships, most people probably wouldn't have much of an obsession with winning a third title. Even if they did, it would mostly be based on their ability if they won, and there would be nothing they could do if they couldn't.

During the second championship, Riot's sniping was so ruthless that not only were all the attributes of ADCs weakened, but even the core item Infinity Edge was nerfed into oblivion. If it weren't for the need to take care of the gaming experience of ordinary players in solo queue, the Stormrazor item would never have appeared.

When it comes to the third championship, needless to say, things might be okay in the Spring and Summer Splits, but when it comes to the World Championship version, given Riot's track record, even if it means sacrificing the ADC experience and even if players in solo queue are cursing, they will resolutely nerf the ADC position to the point of obsolescence.

The best example is Brother Li.

Back in S7, SKT's Faker could still carry the team with his signature champions, but once the World Championship patch came out, the bot lane was significantly buffed, and the jungle even got an experience compensation mechanism.

Left with no other choice, Faker forced himself to play Galio for the championship, defeating RNG in five games and advancing to the finals.

But once it comes to the finals, this weakening of the mid lane becomes too obvious.

Samsung beat SKT 3-0, and Crown went straight to the finals with three games against Malzahar. They really messed up.

In the first game, he played Cassiopeia; in the second, he played Ryze. Despite the power of Riot Games, he couldn't carry the game. In the third game, he had no choice but to pick a tanky old woman to play against him, and unfortunately, he lost the game.

The puppy episode is coming to an end~ Hooray!
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(End of this chapter)