Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 367 Edg... Let's get started!
"In this round, the teams switched sides. Edg moved from the red side to the blue side, while Suning moved to the red side, retaining a counter-position."

"Edg executed their counter-pick perfectly in the last game, picking Kindred as their fifth pick. This not only disrupted Suning's rhythm but also allowed them to secure victory in the early to mid-game by focusing on their top and mid lanes. This game will depend on how Suning chooses their counter-pick."

The players on both sides took their positions and began setting up their equipment, while the commentators took advantage of this time to begin their final analysis.

"I think Suning could give the counter pick to SofM in this game. In the last game, Clearlove was very comfortable after getting the counter pick. Chashao can completely follow Abu's choice and repeat the same trick to see how Edg can counter it," Coach Ma said.

This analysis time is the commentary's showtime, and also the time to attract fans, which Teacher Ma naturally understands.

"Yes, Edg's tactics in the last game seem to be a bit unsolvable. Ah? Haha, I didn't mean the tactics were unsolvable, but that the tactics were unsolvable when applied to the Edg team." Wawa also wanted to brag, but his skills were not solid, which made him a laughing stock.

"Edg's tactics are a very simple, overwhelming style, emphasizing grandeur and avoiding underhanded tactics. What do you think of this tactic, Coach Ma?" Miller asked Coach Ma, who was smiling beside him.

Although Teacher Ma has become less successful in the past two years, the viewership of his last League of Legends game saw an incredible increase.

Before this episode aired, the director specifically approached Miller and repeatedly instructed the Haier brothers to find opportunities to give Teacher Ma some speaking time, so as to take advantage of Teacher Ma's good fortune and keep the ratings rising.

"Actually, the tactical essence of League of Legends is not much different. For example, the 4-1 split push strategy of the LCK region has always been a nightmare for our LPL region. The reason is that the '1' in their 4-1 strategy is very powerful."

"In the past two years, as the strength of our LPL region has grown stronger, we can also play the 41-1 strategy, and we play it even better than the LCK, making it difficult for them to deal with us."

"EDG's tactics today were the same. They used the counter-pick position to make Clearlove a difficult opponent, forcing Suning to spend time and effort to deal with him, thus falling into EDG's trap. If Suning wants to break out of this predicament, using tactics similar to EDG's might be a good way."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded.

That's the truth. The reason Suning lost wasn't due to poor teamwork, but rather had little to do with the players.

Just then, a drumbeat sounded, music started playing, and all the players joined the room; the second round was about to begin.

"No matter what, we still hope that Suning can bring us a surprise. Of course, it's also uncertain whether Edg can win the game on the blue side with their strength!" Wawa's spirits lifted, and his mood instantly improved.

"The players ahead are ready. Let's move on to the final draft phase of today's tournament. The second game of the Demacia Cup finals, who will get match point, is about to be revealed!"

As soon as he finished speaking, thousands of spectators in the stadium cheered in unison.

The camera then panned to the Bp interface.

The two sides have already played one match, and they have a basic understanding of the strategies and gameplay. They are now more cautious in banning characters compared to the first game.

Edg mainly targeted Suning's mid and jungle. In the first game, Edg's restrictions on SofM's champion pool and their ban on Black Angel's champions effectively disrupted Suning's rhythm and played a crucial role.

Conversely, Suning naturally wouldn't repeat the mistake of the previous game, directly banning the jungler and mid-laner, opting for a direct confrontation.

In particular, Cha Shao showed sufficient respect for Li Luo's two blocking techniques: Kindred and Spider.

"Both sides...their bans seem very targeted," Miller observed the back-and-forth action on the field. "Suning didn't panic because of Edg's mid-lane swap...but this game's proactive targeting of Clearlove is making Edg's early and mid-game rhythm difficult."

"The strategy is clear: let's see if Edg should pick the jungler first."

“We’ll give you the hero in one shot, what do you want?” Abu turned to look at Li Luo.

Facing the gazes of the crowd, Li Luo hesitated for a moment.

In this version, the blue side's first pick isn't actually that useful, as there are too many junglers that can be played, so many that you often see some unpopular heroes in casual games.

The rework of armor penetration items has also allowed some AD junglers to gain a significant advantage in the early game. In fact, after the buffs to many heroes in the Spring Split patch, even Darius could frequently roam and jungle.

"Let's do it the way we agreed before, either way is fine."

After Li Luo finished speaking, Zaozi Ge's eyes lit up and he immediately cheered.

Abu also instructed Flandre to reveal his hero and select it.

"Adventures are more fun when you go on adventures with your best friends!"

A blue figure appeared in the first hero selection box, with a silly-looking avatar and emoticon.
Snowman Rider!

"Snowman!" Everyone outside was stunned. Miller was even more astonished and said, "Are you sure? Although Snowman isn't as withdrawn as before in this version, his hero characteristics mean he can't be picked. Besides, he's a hero who plays on the edge, and he'll be too weak in the mid-to-late game if you pick him!"

Before he could finish speaking, Edg had already made his decision.

Snatching a snowman – a decision that seemed like a joke.

"Locked! Confirmed!"

"Wow!!"

There was an uproar at the scene.

"Factory Director, you're very confident. You dare to pick Nunu in this version. I remember the last time Nunu appeared was in S8 when Condi played it once and then disappeared, right? Are you completely trying to compete with SofM in terms of jungle clearing speed and rhythm?"

"I'm not sure, but this pick must have caught Suning off guard, leaving them unable to choose many jungle heroes."

Suning was indeed very surprised.

"Snowman?" Cha Shao looked at this bizarre pick, first surprised, then couldn't help but laugh: "Is Clearlove planning to have a jungle clearing speed competition with us? Speaking of which, has anyone encountered this hero in ranked matches recently?"

This was said to SofM, who laughed and replied, "It's alright. I haven't seen this champion before. Has Clearlove used it recently?"

After a break, the Suning players weren't too devastated.

After all, the previous game was lost due to tactics, not because of the laning phase, so no one was too angry and approached this game rationally.

"It seems like I've never played it before? The Yeti isn't in my Korean server stats," Chashao said with a grin after flipping through his notebook.

"Is the factory manager giving us a free lesson? A lesson in teaching us a lesson?" Abin laughed.

“Education!” Sofm nodded confidently!
The Yeti's pick seemed to set the tone for Edg's tactical style in this game. Edg made their subsequent picks extremely quickly, with both sides trading back and forth, rapidly finalizing their lineups.

Blue side Edg: Top lane Mordekaiser, Jungle Nunu, Mid lane Kled, Bot lane Senna + Lulu.

Suning (Red Team): Top lane Aatrox, Jungle Rengar, Mid lane Qiyana, Bot lane Xayah + Leona.

Looking at the lineups of both sides, Suning's lineup is a classic fighting lineup that is strong from the early to mid-game and into the late game.

Sofm's Rengar and Qiyana with Black Angel, once they gain an advantage within 15 minutes, will be a ruthless massacre, while Xayah and Aatrox will take over the game in the mid-to-late game.

Furthermore, due to the counter-pick, Suning also caught Edg's bot lane and picked Leona to counter Lulu.

As for Edg
"Xiye picked Kled. So, Edg is really putting all their hopes on Uzi." Wawa said with a wry smile, "Does Edgg also play a four-protect-one strategy? This is so frustrating!"

In Edg's lineup, the only strong player in the early game is the mid laner. Kled definitely dominates Qiyana in lane. As for the top lane Mordekaiser and Nunu, well, the three commentators were just staring at each other, unsure how to judge this unconventional lineup.

"Anyway, Edg has shown something new this time. Let's jump into the game!" "Aaaaaah!!"

Go Edg!

Miller started it, and the fans in the audience went crazy, cheering wildly.

Miller emphasized, "The game has begun, the battle for match point has begun, let's dive in."

Summoner's Rift!

Inside the stadium, as Miller finished speaking, the other two also shouted along.

Sitting in a soundproof room, Li Luo could faintly hear the shouts and cheers of the fans outside through his noise-canceling headphones.

"Our fans are all outside, so let's cheer up this round and not let them down!" As the team leader, Li Luo began to boost morale.

"no problem"

"No more talk, we'll crush them in ten minutes."

The game screen has finished loading.

The game officially begins.

In this match, Edg's lineup was extremely weak in the early game. The Senna and Lulu bot lane was basically useless until nine minutes in.

The only reliable point is Xiye's Kled in the mid lane.

If Edg cannot gain an advantage in the mid lane in the early to mid-game, then Edg will have a particularly difficult time between 15 and 20 minutes into the mid-game.

On the other side, Suning's lineup was much more reasonable, and they got Xayah, which iboy is good at, in the bottom lane, which was very comfortable.

However, since it's an unconventional lineup, there's always bound to be some surprises.

At the start, neither side backed down, both eager to give it their all.

As soon as they entered the game, the five members of Suning gathered together and headed towards Edg's lower jungle.

"Suning, is this a move to initiate a level 1 team fight?" Seeing that Suning was actually taking the initiative to attack, Wawa immediately focused his attention on the screen.

No one expected that Suning, who had suffered a loss in the previous game, would be so bold right at the start of the match.

But actually, Suning isn't just randomly aggressive.

They have a Rengar who is particularly strong in level 1 team fights, a Aatrox with three-stage abilities, and a Leona with hard crowd control in level 1 team fights.

If you can catch one person, and then attack them as a group, there's a high chance you'll get their head.

"The poodle is walking ahead, looks like it's about to jump! Oh no, Kled's in that bush, looks like Xiye didn't notice!"

From God's perspective, everyone saw Xiye's Kled as if he was slow to react; the opponent was already right in his face, and he was still running away in a daze.

With this escape, Kled's vision was exposed, and Suning immediately seized the opportunity. Snake's Leona instantly used her Q skill and flashed to stun him.

sofm's Rengar also pounced, dealing his own damage.

In an instant, all of Suning's firepower was focused on Kled, and in less than two seconds, Kled was knocked off his horse.

"Xi Ye is so careless! Knowing that the other side was going to invade, he was just checking out the shop."

Before the doll could finish speaking, a snowman pushing a giant snowball suddenly appeared in God's-eye view.

"Wow, this snowman runs so fast?"

The snowman pushing the giant snowball seemed to have taken a shot of adrenaline, running at an extraordinary speed. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of Su Ning's face.

Bang!
The snowball exploded, and three 300-point damage spells flew up simultaneously, along with a knockback effect, leaving Suning completely dumbfounded.

However, this is not what makes Suning despair.

At this moment, the other three members of Edg finally emerged from the bushes and began to inflict damage on the Rengar at the front.

The fragile Rengar, after suffering damage from a super snowball, had just come down and was about to use Flash when he was unexpectedly hit by Lulu's Polymorph and fell to the ground without being able to use any skills.

Edg.Uzi killed Sn.sofm
First blood!

This is not over yet!

After using Flash, the female player couldn't escape the pursuit and was relentlessly beaten by the Edg team. She was eventually killed in the river.

Edg.Uzi kills Sn.SwordArt
Double kill!

In the level 1 team fight, Zaozi's Senna actually got a double kill and stacked up to four layers of soul essence!
"My god, not only did Xiye survive this wave, but he also used his passive to bait out two members of Su Ning's team. This little dog got a full 700 gold and four stacks of Soul in the level 1 team fight. Su Ning's bot lane is completely wiped out! After getting some items, how is Su Ning supposed to play???"

"That's a bit artistic, bro. I was genuinely stunned by that Yeti's W move."

Edg getting first blood at the start is acceptable.

But the way he got first blood was too unbelievable; he actually took away more than half of the health of three people just by using the snowman's snowball.

"I know that the Yeti doesn't need to leave the base so early in a level 1 team fight. If the enemy team wants to engage, he can leave quickly and use his snowballs to support them. At that time, he can still enjoy the speed boost from leaving the base at level 1. Level 1 team fights are very annoying. However, I haven't seen this technique much in ranked games. Clearlove is so bold as to use it in a professional match?"

Teacher Ma, who had spent years mingling in low-level games, immediately understood the intricacies of the situation and laughed.

"Suning lost two players in this wave, but to be honest, they should have just given up on Rengar and given up First Blood. It wouldn't have been this bad. Without Flash, it will be difficult for Leona to coordinate with the jungler to target the bot lane for the next few minutes."

As soon as he finished speaking, the EDG fans in the audience cheered.

This is the charm of a major tournament. In a game that is crucial to the match, such a large two-kill advantage at the start gets the audience excited.

"This is mine! I didn't expect Snowman to pull this off at level one, using Xiye's passive to lure us in." In the Suning team, Snake looked dejected, feeling like he had given away most of Suning's momentum right from the start.

"It's okay, thankfully Senna got the kills, so it won't be too difficult in the early game," Black Angel comforted her with a grim expression, while simultaneously directing the bottom lane to help Rengar clear the jungle.

However, from God's perspective.

"Holy crap, is the factory manager not planning to jungle? Is he going straight for Suning's blue buff?"

(End of this chapter)