Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 388 The Internet Has No Memory! I Do!

Stepping into the Iceland Sports Centre, which was originally intended for other sporting activities, it was transformed into a venue suitable for esports competitions through emergency construction.

Several large screens that were temporarily installed, along with artificial flowers placed nearby to enhance the atmosphere of the competition, all drew gasps of amazement from the onlookers.

However, as it turns out, Iceland's transformation was not a waste of money.

From the very first Edg match, all tickets were snapped up the moment they were released.

There were even scalpers reselling tickets at inflated prices.

The added value of local industries brought about by tourists watching the games is also a considerable source of income.

The first match was hosted by Edg.

Domestically, there's anticipation, while internationally, people are eager to see Edg fall.

However, how could Edg possibly lose to a weak team like Pvb?

The five Edg players, who started in red-hot form, directly showed the global audience that they were not just a name without substance.

At 17 minutes, with a huge advantage in all three lanes, Edg pushed all the way to PvB's Nexus, practically blocking their fountain and killing them.

The violent performance in the opening match has brought a glimmer of anticipation to the upcoming games.

After the match, since we arrived early today, everyone discussed it and decided to stay at the venue to watch the game and wait for the match against Skt at 1 pm.

It wasn't until 1 p.m., past lunchtime, that the highly anticipated Dynasty vs. Dynasty showdown, which had been eagerly awaited by spectators worldwide, was finally about to begin.

After a simple opening ceremony, the Edg team grabbed their equipment, looking ready to go into battle, full of energy. They knew they had to win today!
"Welcome everyone to the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) Group Stage. This is the Iceland Sports Centre."

The commentary team that came to Iceland this time was also quite substantial.

Not only the Haier brothers, Wawa and Miller, but also a host of LPL viewers and commentators, including Teacher Remember, Changmao, Guan Daxiao, Haokai, Rita, etc., were present at the event.

Today's commentary team consists of Teacher Ji, Changmao, and Rita.

After a brief opening, the camera began to pan.

In the distance, Iceland was shrouded in mist, with large, fluffy snowflakes falling naturally, covering the entire plaza in front of the stadium with a layer of white frost.

"Oh dear, the weather is really cold today. It was sunny this morning, and now it's snowing heavily. I wonder if this weather will affect the players' performance!" Teacher Ji said worriedly, looking at the heavy snow outside.

"However, LPL players who have already arrived in Iceland are full of praise for the weather."

“That’s right. The outside temperature is about 5 degrees Celsius, but with the heavy snow, Iceland has a unique beauty. I wonder which team will take first place in this snow country today!” Hao Kai, who has oxygen tank, nodded with a smile.

"Yes, it's my first time in this kind of environment, and as a southerner, I'm quite curious. I just don't know if everyone will have a deep impression of this place after the MSI."

Rita then changed the subject:
"Leaving behind the honor of our LPL team reaching the top of Iceland!"

"Yes, both SKT and Edg secured their first wins in today's group stage matches. The two teams will now face off for the first time to determine who will advance as the group winner."

At this point, the three paused, then spoke in unison.

"Okay, now you can see our team members are starting to enter the field!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the director switched the camera, and on the big screen, the Edg team was already coming out with their peripherals.

Li Luo was walking at the very front, and the camera focused on him first, which made some of the audience members excited.

"Factory Manager!!!"

"Here it comes, the clash of titans begins!"

Normally, according to past practice, the authorities would not have brought out such a head-to-head decisive battle on the first day.

However, it wouldn't be fair for all teams to go and crush wildcard teams, which are obviously weak, on the first day. That would be bullying.

Normally, the match would be arranged between North American LMS teams, which would at least save face. But this time, EDG was matched against SKT, which was unprecedented and whetted everyone's appetite.

The group stage uses a double round-robin system. Unlike the World Championship, there are fewer teams in the MSI, so you only need to go through the group stage twice with other teams to win.

In this way, the choice between red and blue is also very simple. If you choose the blue side when the two teams meet for the first time, then you will be the red side when they meet again in the group stage.

In this round, Skt rolled the dice first and got the blue side, while Edg got the red side.

"Edg chose to field their starting five for this match, while T1 also opted for their strongest lineup from the Spring Split. Both sides are giving each other a lot of face. It remains to be seen what kind of draft and ban strategy the coaches will employ to counter them!"

Hao Kai looked at the starting lineup in his hand and said.

"Let me introduce the now-named Skt team, which is now T1. Faker, the mid laner of this team, is someone that all LoL players will be familiar with, as is Teddy, the ADC of T1 team."

"Their top laner is Canna, who has had an outstanding season, their jungler is Cuzz, and their support is Effort!"

It has to be said that T1 did achieve a breakthrough in their performance after bringing in Cuzz, who was seemingly a third-rate jungler.

tarzan, clid, canyon, onfleek, cuzz, dread, peanut.

These seven junglers are one of the key assets that enable the seven teams to compete for the championship.

It might not be easy to rank these seven junglers.

However, Cuzz stands out because he is the dividing line among these seven junglers.

With Cuzz as the dividing line, one side is Tarzan, Clid, and Canyon.

On the other side are onfleek, dread, and peanut.

When Cuzz is in good form, he can definitely be categorized as Tarzan, but when he's not in good form, he might even fall out of Peanut's category. That's Cuzz's level.

As for T1's current top laner, Canna, describing him as a beast is not an exaggeration at all.

Looking at Canna in the soundproof room across the way, laughing as she packed up her peripherals, Li Luo's fist hardened!

Back then, Canna's use of the blue square to mock him with a rat move really made many Chinese people's fists hard, wishing they could punch him hard in the face.

And today, Li Luo has arrived.

He arrived at MSI carrying the wrath of millions from the main timeline. T1's bot laner, Teddy, has never played a single game as Twitch in his 391 professional career.

T1 mid laner Faker has never played a single game with Plague Rat in his 740 professional matches.

The culprit behind T1's top laner's death is rumored to be Canna, who "mourned his deceased mother." Canna has never played Plague Rat in his 55-game professional career.

T1 jungler Cuzz has never played Plague Rat in his 240 professional games.

T1 support player effort has never played Plague Rat in his 177 professional games.

T1's explanation after the match was more like a joke, insulting the intelligence of all LPL players.

The internet may have no memory, but today, Li Luo will show Canna with his strength that he does!
"Hmm, we can see that the factory manager's expression seems a bit off today. We wonder what happened. It's clear that the factory manager takes this match very seriously."

The sharp-eyed Rita interrupted Haokai and Teacher Ji, drawing everyone's attention to the contestants' cameras in the broadcast.

When Hao Kai and I looked at it together, we immediately noticed something amiss.

"Yeah, Clearlove seems really serious today. But to be honest, SKT is probably Edg's biggest rival this year. Back in S5, Edg and SKT faced off, and Edg came out on top. Maybe Clearlove wants to recapture Edg's glory days?" Remember guessed, then continued:

"Skt is a team that I believe everyone is familiar with. Last year at the World Championship, Skt suffered a shocking defeat to G2, which was quite an upset. This year, they rebuilt their roster, and sure enough, it paid off in the Spring Split, where they won the Spring Finals 3-0."

I remember that as soon as the teacher finished speaking, the two commentators next to him nodded.

In the first half of this season, SKT's strength after their restructuring was evident and they were definitely not weak.

But no matter what, they still believed in their team in such a major competition.

"Edg isn't weak either," Haokai said with a smile. "They were undefeated in the Spring Split and the playoffs this year. They're just as strong as SKT, if not weaker. I'm looking forward to Edg maintaining their undefeated streak today and showing SKT what the power of the LPL is."

“Yes, and in terms of personnel, Edg is indeed very excellent,” Rita chimed in. “Especially in the jungle matchup. In the past, when we played against LCK teams, the jungler and top laner were always a headache.”

"Take Cuzz, the former jungler from Longzhu, for example. He is definitely one of the world's top carry junglers. His early-game counter-jungling and mid-game team fight initiation make him one of the top players in the LCK this season."

"But this year is different. They are facing Edg, and given Clearlove's current hot streak, I really want to see their epic showdown!"

Rita's words were very encouraging, instantly making some viewers in the live stream who were suffering from "Korea phobia" feel much better.

Despite LPL having won two S-series championships, the fact that the main carries of both teams are Korean has made viewers a little insecure.

Although Edg's mid laner Scout is a Korean import, it's clear to everyone that Clearlove and Uzi are the main players this season.

This is the first time the two teams' key players have had this kind of contact since S8!
Just as the three commentators were about to continue, the cheers from the audience rose, and the director gave a notification.

"We still believe that Edg can maintain its strength and forge ahead. The players are ready, let's move on to the S10 MSI Invitational Group Stage where Edg will face Skt."

After that, the director switched the camera to the BP (Browser/Programmer) interface.

In this match, Edg was on the red side and Skt was on the blue side.

Having played through the Spring Split so far, both coaches have a very deep understanding of their teams.

At this point, Skt immediately banned the Spider, a champion that Li Luo had used this season without losing a single game, clearly indicating that they did not want to let this champion be available.

Skt continued to use their second ban on the jungler, banning Kindred, which Cuzz is not good at, as well as Sett, which is currently considered a bug in the game.

Edg also held their own, banning Trundle, Olaf, and Corki.

Both sides' bans were very targeted, but the bans of Skt's two junglers surprised many people.

"It seems that Skt has thoroughly studied Edg's game before the match, and they have shown complete respect for Clearlove's jungle champions!" Remember nodded.

"Yes, in that case, there's no problem with the bans on both sides. Let's see what Skt will pick first?"

Bp interface.

SKT quickly decided to pick Ornn, a relatively strong top laner in this patch, after a brief discussion.

When it was Edg's turn, since Ornn was already confirmed, they immediately locked in Sylas for Flandre to counter him.

This Sylas pick not only tells Skt that I'm going to use it to lane against Ornn, but also threatens Skt that they won't be able to pick any ultimate-based champions later on.

In the second round, Abu hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to help Meiko secure the Japanese hero.

Seeing this, Skt also pulled out their prepared lineup as their second and third picks - Yasuo and Gragas.

Seeing this, Edg immediately picked Ezreal as their third pick to ensure they wouldn't be at a disadvantage if either of these two champions came to the bot lane.

After the first round of player selection, Edg's lineup was still relatively fragmented, while Skt's lineup had already shown its full potential.

"Yasuo, Gragas, Ornn" recalled the teacher frowning and saying, "To be honest, this lineup is very good. Not only is it strong in the current meta, but it also features the players' most confident signature champions. It seems Edg's bans failed to hit SKT's weak points in the first round."

"I think Edg should pick two counter-pick heroes to counter Skt's engage, otherwise this lineup will be too easy for Skt to get going!" Oxygen Bottle also noticed SKT's idea.

Both sides have temporarily placed their mid and jungle players last, but the difference is that Edg still has a counter-pick position that they can keep to counter.

In the second round of drafting, Skt didn't focus on the jungler, but instead gave all their picks to the mid laner Azir and Syndra. Edg didn't hold back either, banning Faker's recently popular picks, Twisted Fate and LeBlanc.

The two sides were already getting heated during the draft phase, even before the game started.

For their fourth pick, Edg secured Galio, the only champion currently on the field who can counter team fights.

Due to the buffs to Galio in patch 10.7, his R skill now grants allies a shield similar to his W skill, resulting in a decent pick rate for Galio mid lane.

On the other side, after seeing Edg's choice, Skt decisively locked in the Ekko + Excavator combination.

It's Edg's turn to pick the fifth player.

"It seems like EdgG is out of champions for the jungler position right now. Skt's draft picks, I have to say, Coach Kim really has something going for them. To be honest, it was perfect." Remember Teacher said with some sadness, "It feels like EdgG needs Clearlove to pick a champion that can stand out in the early game!"

"SKT's skill is undeniable, and they deliberately forced Edg to reserve their fifth counter pick for the jungler, trying to completely shut down Clearlove."

"Ornn in the top lane ensures the team's mid-game dominance, Yasuo and Gragas in the bottom lane guarantee a strong laning phase and prevent them from being pressured, and Ekko and Rek'Sai in the mid lane are excellent at invading. On the other hand, Edg really needs to pick a champion that can break the deadlock and completely suppress Skt's momentum!"

(End of this chapter)