You promised a top lane tutorial, but you're just using Worlds as material for your videos?

Chapter 134 What kind of champion are you?
When IG's base crystal exploded, Zhou Dian's Karma score was frozen at 1-0-7.

Judging by this record alone, it seems like he's been pretty mediocre.

On the post-match results panel, Karma's damage output was naturally not high.

If you didn't watch the first game, or only watched the second half of the game.

It's easy to think that Zhou Dian's Karma play was just a bluff.

In fact, he really did get by.

However, this only applies to the latter half of the game. Zhou Dian would just shield his teammates, casually unleash a couple of skills, and the game would be won.

However, in the first half of the game, Zhou Dian did a good job of suppressing Kennen.

I have completed my task for this game.

That's fine too.

If each teammate does their job well, the game will be easy to win.

This is the healthiest ecosystem for a strong team.

In a team, most of the time it's one person carrying the load, and the others can't step up at all.

No matter how strong that person is, they won't make it to the end.

Moreover, the Karma champion that Zhou Dian played in this game doesn't have the ability to carry the game alone.

So perhaps it's because the game wasn't exciting enough and their KDA wasn't outstanding.

The MVP of the first game was not ultimately awarded to Zhou Dian's Karma.

Instead, the prize was given to Ashe, who had the most kills and dealt the most damage for LGD.

imp's Ashe also performed exceptionally well in this game.

Despite a poor start, they managed to kill IG's bot lane and unleashed several powerful moves in the mid-game.

As for the player who dealt the most damage throughout the game, it was naturally Rookie's Jayce.

This led many IG fans to say again after the first game:
Rookie did his best, but his teammates were too bad and he couldn't carry the team.

Once the post-match blame-dealing phase begins, the other IG players besides Rookie will inevitably face criticism from IG fans.

What's with all this talk about "Did Kid Gossip God shield Wang Sicong from an atomic bomb? Can this jungler even play in the LPL?"

"Can't we replace this terrible AD carry? Kid has been playing jungle for over a year now, is it really that hard to find a reliable AD carry?"

When the topic of AD comes up, IG fans will inevitably launch a tirade against EDG to vent their anger.

If EDG hadn't reported JackeyLove's age issue, would IG be struggling with their AD carry problem right now?
To this day, there is still no definitive conclusion as to who reported JackeyLove.

It's still hard to say whether EDG was behind it!
However, since its inception, EDG has been rampant in the LPL, and has done quite a few things, such as privilege incidents and unethical incidents.

EDG is now seen as a villain in the LPL, and the general public is happy to blame them for everything, criticizing them first and then talking about it later.

IG fans kept arguing, mostly criticizing the jungler and AD carry, and occasionally mentioning Baolan's issues.

Only occasionally do fans say that Duke got crushed by Karma in this game.

Very few.

After all, Duke is the newly crowned champion top laner, and IG spent a lot of money to acquire him.

Although his performance over the past half-season has been decent, it hasn't met the expectations of IG fans for a championship-winning top laner.

Influenced by the filter of the title of champion top laner, and the expectation that champion top laners will perform even better.

Most IG fans are reluctant to mention Duke's performance in this game, which was far inferior to that of rookie top laner Zhou.

Moreover, Karma's performance in this game wasn't particularly "sparkling," lacking any truly spectacular moments.

Many IG fans with lower skill levels who didn't understand the game well didn't even realize that Duke was completely outplayed in this game.

Unlike the "tolerance" shown by IG fans towards Duke, in places like the Anti-Pressure Bar, many forum users are quick to hurl insults.

Don't think that just because you're a "mere" one-time S-series champion top laner, you're a three-time champion; you'll still get flamed to death.

This has always been the case with esports toilets.

After the first game of the BO3 between IG and LGD, some posts criticizing Duke appeared on the Anti-Pressure Bar forum.

[Is this all the champion top laner is capable of? He got completely dominated by a rookie top laner who's only been playing professionally for two months!]

[For a moment, it's hard to tell whether Duke is too bad or Zhou is too strong!]

[IG is really foolish and has too much money! Why buy Duke? I think they should just poach that top laner from the opposing team for a high price in the Summer Split!]

As a legendary powerhouse and one of the earliest LOL teams in China, IG naturally has many rivals.

Some fans of other teams are posting messages that are no longer seriously discussing the gameplay of the top laners, but are instead taking the opportunity to mock the IG team.

This naturally provoked a backlash from some IG fans.

Moreover, Duke, as a champion top laner, naturally has fans.

In addition, there are some mindless arguing people on Tieba who have to argue with whatever others say.

This led to a small-scale discussion on Tieba (a Chinese online forum) during the short break between the IG and LGD matches, comparing the strength of Duke and Zhou Dian.

The discussion results were not surprising; most of the forum members who participated in the discussion still believed that Duke was better than Zhou Dian.

Zhou Dian's performance in the first game was not convincing enough.

Karma neither managed a solo kill in her lane nor carried the team fights, so she can't really be said to have dominated Duke.

It was just that he pressured the opponent's last hits online.

Although the number of last hits is a bit too high.

So, when they can't win an argument, IG fans, Duke fans, or rather, Zhou Dian's haters and LGD haters will say something like this—

"Duke is the newly crowned World Championship winner, what championship are you claiming? Don't try to pull this on me!"

The question, "What champion are you?" can often kill a game in the heat of an argument.

In the fan circles of various competitive sports in China, the pursuit of honor above all else is a very common phenomenon.

This is the prevailing trend!

The question, "What champion are you?" immediately put an end to the discussion.

Some fans who acknowledged Zhou Dian's superior skill but were speechless at this statement only hoped that Zhou Dian wouldn't play a more passive hero like Karma in the next game.

Can't we pick a warrior hero next game and crush Duke?
Only in this way can they come back and continue the laning phase, or rather, exchange insults.

Even if you still can't beat that "What champion are you?", you'll always have a lot more confidence in lane.

Do many viewers really care about how the players perform on the field?
No, they don't really care.

They're just using the players' performance as leverage to argue and flame with other viewers.

"Alright, everyone, welcome back!" "As you can see, both teams' players have returned to their seats. The second game of the BO3 between IG and LGD is about to begin!" Wawa said.

In the commentary booth, the two commentators chatted for a few more minutes.

The BP interface appeared on the large screen at the scene.

Blue side LGD, red side IG.

In the second game, LGD, who had the right to choose sides, actively chose the blue side.

In the first round of bans, IG, on the red side, only banned Fiora in their third ban and did not ban any other top lane champions.

After the first game, IG realized that Zhou Dian has a very deep hero pool, and it's impossible to completely shut him down with just a few bans.

The general situation in this version is that the top laner's carry ability is average.

Top laners like Zhou Dian are naturally an exception.

However, we cannot allow this one exception to affect the game progress of other lanes.

Spending too many bans on the top lane makes it very easy for LGD to pick champions in other positions.

It's easy to pick several strong heroes in the current version.

Therefore, IG chose to trust Duke in the second game.

Let Duke and Zhou Dian have a head-to-head battle.

I don't ban top lane champions from Zhou Dian as often anymore.

Since IG is on the red side, let Duke play a counter-pick hero.

After enduring the grueling laning phase of the first game, Duke was extremely wary of Zhou Dian.

So, when I first heard head coach Mafa's suggestion...

Duke's first reaction was that he didn't really want to go head-to-head with Zhou Dian in the second game.

But then I thought about it.

I'm the world champion top laner.

How can you be afraid to go head-to-head with a rookie top laner!
The pride of being a champion top laner reminded Duke that he absolutely could not back down.

Just do it and it’s done!
LGD players' bench.

After the first three bans on both sides, Zhou Dian turned to look at Dgc and said:

"Brother Xu, I want to first pick Jayce! Let's go all out against the champion top laner this game! We might not be able to get him in the second round!"

Duke, the top laner for IG, is considered to be among the less popular players, even among all the previous S-series champions.

But no matter what, Duke is a champion top laner, and his overall strength is really strong.

Facing the champion top laner today, Zhou Dian was inevitably a little excited.

We absolutely have to give the champion top laner a good dressing down.

In the first game, Karma, playing top lane, only managed to torment her opponent during the laning phase and slightly out-farm her.

We didn't have as much fun as we'd hoped.

This game needs to give the champion top laner a lot of pressure.

Upon hearing Zhou Dian's request, Dgc immediately nodded, "Then it's Jayce. Just pick whatever you want to play!"

Dgc now has absolute trust in Zhou Dian.

As soon as Dgc said this, before Zhou Dian had even locked his hero, Eimy next to him said, "Brother Xu, Brother Xu, I want to play Lee Sin this game, is that okay?"

"You think you can play with that elementary school kid's stuff?!" Dgc's expression immediately changed. "Just stick to playing Gragas and Excavator. Forget about Lee Sin. I almost cried watching you play Lee Sin in the locker room last time!"

Dgc's sarcastic remarks immediately drew laughter from the LGD players' bench.

This made Eimy start to doubt himself, muttering to himself, "Is my Lee Sin really that bad?"

Next to him, Zhou Dian found Jess and locked him up on the first floor of the blue team's building.

"Oh, Jayce is the first pick, just like IG was on the blue side in the last game!"

Miller continued, "However, LGD probably won't be using Jayce in this flex pick!"

“Yes!” Wawa nodded. “Basically, it’s Zhou Shen’s top lane Jayce. In my memory, Wei Shen basically doesn’t play mid lane Jayce.”

IG player seat.

Duke's expression immediately changed when he saw LGD pick Jayce as their first pick.

These young top laners are really disrespectful to their seniors!

All you want to do is stomp on the old senior, right?
However, Duke doesn't have a deep understanding of the LGD team as a whole.

In his view, LGD's first pick of Jayce, like IG's in the previous game, indicates a willingness to switch between top and mid lanes.

Therefore, Duke decided to wait until Jayce's position was confirmed before choosing a top lane champion.

At worst, I can wait until the fifth floor is the last pick before choosing my hero. I'll eventually see when LGD's top laner is revealed.

This time, you can forget about trying to trick me again.

Having suffered the same loss from being countered by Karma on the first floor, Duke definitely doesn't want to experience it a second time.

Next, both sides will select their representatives in turn.

With LGD locking in Taliyah on the fifth floor of the blue side, it was announced that LGD's Jayce would be playing top lane in this game.

At this point, IG still had their top laner yet to be drafted.

"It doesn't feel like there are any champions that are particularly good at laning against Jayce!" Duke muttered.

Duke used Korean to mutter this.

Upon hearing this, Rookie immediately said, "Duke, Lucian! Lucian is good against Jayce in lane!"

"Yeah, yeah, Lucian is easy to beat!" Kid chimed in. "Top lane Lucian is perfect against Jayce, and it's exactly the playstyle that Zhou Shen developed on the other side!"

Duke frowned. "My Lucian skill level is low, I'm not good at playing him!"

"That's a bit tough, other mainstream top laners don't have a good time laning against Jayce!"

Then Kid changed the subject, "Here's what we'll do: you pick a champion that's good for teaming up with the jungler, and I'll gank hard for you this game!"

"Really?" Duke looked at Kid suspiciously, somewhat disbelieving him.

With the selection countdown nearing its end, Duke had no choice but to rely on Kid.

“Camille!” Duke said.

Baolan secured Camille on the fifth floor of the red team's team in the last second of the selection countdown.

(End of this chapter)