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

Chapter 336 Mingkai becomes Ankai, LPL takes the first win in the Intercontinental Cup finals!
After the semifinals ended, it was already late when the four LPL teams returned to their hotel.

However, the teams still exchanged ideas and trained with each other until very late before dispersing.

The LPL showed great unity during this Intercontinental Cup.

After the training match ended, 957 messaged Zhou Dian, saying he wanted to do some laning practice temporarily.

957's idea is that, based on WE's current established tactics, he is very likely to pick Jarvan IV in tomorrow's match.

When facing strong LCK teams, there is one champion that must be considered in the top lane.

That's Jayce.

Most top laners in the LCK are good at playing Jayce.

Among the top laners from the LPL teams that came this time, Zhou Dian is probably the only one who plays Jayce well.

Zhou Dian was naturally happy to help with 957's request.

I played several games with 957, practicing Jarvan IV against Jayce, and we discussed many key points to note in this matchup.

Finally, Zhou Dian suddenly said, "I'll switch to Jax, and we'll practice some more."

"What do you mean?" 957 asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Jax was just buffed this patch, and I feel like with Huni's erratic style, he's very likely to pick him tomorrow. It wouldn't hurt to practice him; what if we happen to face SKT tomorrow and they happen to pick him?"

So the two started practicing Prince vs. Jax again, until almost 3 a.m.

The date is July 9th, Sunday.

The final of the inaugural Asian Games will kick off today.

The two teams facing off are from the LPL region and the LCK region.

Half an hour before the start of the Intercontinental Championship finals, the organizers announced the teams that would play in the first game of the finals.

The LPL region sent the EDG team.

The LCK region sent the SSG team.

As soon as the match schedule was released, LPL viewers on various online platforms exclaimed that things were not looking good.

For the LPL, this was arguably the worst matchup order in the first game.

In the "Tian Ji horse racing" scenario of the finals, most netizens believed that EDG, the "inferior horse," would be best matched against SKT or KT.

KT is currently ranked first in the LCK Summer Split regular season.

Many people believe that KT is currently the strongest team among the four LCK teams participating in the Rift Rivals.

If EDG could trade their players for one of the two top LCK teams, that would be ideal.

Facing Samsung (SSG) would be the worst possible matchup.

Among the four LCK teams, Samsung is neither the strongest nor the weakest.

Facing the weakest MVP team, EDG has a very good chance of securing a point for the LPL.

However, they encountered Samsung, a team with considerable strength and currently in excellent form in the LCK league.

Both junglers, Clearlove and Ambition, are map control type junglers.

Moreover, the two teams have very similar playstyles, both focusing on macro-management, development, and team fights.

However, Samsung is clearly more adept at using the "turtle" strategy than EDG.

Therefore, most viewers believe that EDG cannot beat Samsung.

EDG is highly likely to lose this point, but they also cannot play the role of exchanging a "lower-tier horse" for a "higher-tier horse".

That's a huge loss!
If EDG loses, it will be a complete loss.

Under these circumstances, such a matchup is naturally the most disadvantageous for the LPL.

As a result, netizens began to criticize: What is this joint coaching team doing? Why did they field EDG in the first game?! What a mess of lineup and strategy.

Four p.m.

Takakuma Exhibition Hall.

Most of the audience had already entered the venue, and the final of the first Asian Games was about to begin.

The stage lights flashed, and the host appeared.

Today's opening ceremony was once again hosted by Ren Dong and Taiwanese female host Anna Lee.

Anna Lee started her speech in English today, which left the audience a little confused.

Then he called on the audience to give the already eliminated LMS region some applause as encouragement.

That's a bit too much of a scene-stealer!

After thanking the sponsors, pre-match interviews from the LPL and LCK regions began playing on the big screen.

The first person to appear in the video is SKT's three-time world champion coach, Kk0ma, who is also the "spokesperson" for this LCK joint coaching team.

He said he watched yesterday's LPL vs. LMS semi-final and said the match was quite exciting.

Next up is Faker, the three-time world champion mid-laner.

Faker believes that LPL's playstyle is very aggressive, which is actually a point that can be exploited.

They also said that this format, where the opponent is unknown beforehand, is very interesting.

In the LPL, the player being interviewed is RNG's jungler, Mlxg.

Mlxg said one sentence: "The teams that came from LCK this time are all very strong, and we from LPL are also facing them with a learning mindset."

Mlxg's Mandarin is not very standard. The word "learning" sounds like "bloodbath" to him.

Following Mlxg is WE's head coach, Hongmi. In an interview, he mentioned that he felt the weakness of LPL teams stemmed from poor communication and players frequently changing teams.

Then Redmi said that there are counter-relationships between teams, so if the order of appearance is arranged well, there is a greater chance of winning.

As soon as this was mentioned, viewers in the LPL official live stream chat started criticizing it.

[Is this all Redmi has to offer? What's the point of sending EDG in the first match?!]

[KkOma completely outclassed this team in their troop deployment, letting them catch them red-handed with their SSG!]

This is tough; it feels like we've already lost the final!

[They've already lost before the game even started? Can't you Korean fans stop being so annoying?!]

【.】

After playing the pre-match interview video, the two hosts introduced the two players facing off in the first game of today's final.

"Okay, welcome to all the audience members who are here in person, and those who are watching the Intercontinental Championship finals online. This is the second offline viewing venue in Shanghai, Shanghai."

LPL set up secondary venues in both Beijing and Shanghai for LPL fans to watch the finals live.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I'm your commentator, Wawa."

"I'm the commentator Miller."

"Hello everyone, I'm PDD."

PDD has been invited as a guest again today, but he will only be in charge of the first two matches of the finals. After that, WE's former AD player, WeiXiao, will take over.

"The first match of today's finals will be between our LPL's EDG and LCK's Samsung team."

"The match between the two teams is quite interesting, especially the junglers, Clearlove and Ambition, who are both veterans who have been fighting for many years," Miller said.

"What are your thoughts on this match, Mr. Piao?"

"I think we've reached the finals, there's nothing more to say, let's just do it! Factory Manager, give Master An a good beating." PDD is always straightforward and blunt.

"Alright, both players are in position, the first game of the finals' draft phase is about to begin."

"The blue team is Samsung, and the red team is EDG!"

In this match, EDG replaced Audi, who had been playing in the previous few days, with Mouse in the top lane.

It seems that he wants to return to the playing style he is most familiar with.

Before the draft phase began, the live stream camera lingered on the two veteran players, Clearlove and Ambition, for a long time.

In the first round of bans and picks, EDG banned two AD carries, but Samsung on the blue side picked Ashe in the first pick.

EDG, on the other hand, directly acquired the excavator.

The camera cuts to the factory manager, who is expressionless.

With Kled and Taliyah locked in, EDG unusually opted for a very aggressive lineup.

Samsung, on the other hand, sticks to the same old lineup: Orianna in the mid lane, a very stable and conservative composition, playing steadily and cautiously.

At the start of the match, Ambition, playing Gragas on the blue side, started with red buff and had the bot lane help with the jungle clearing. Clearlove's Rek'Sai started in the top side, and when they cleared the raptors, Scout's Taliyah only managed to land a Q skill.

Therefore, EDG's bot lane was able to get to the lane first and seize lane control.

At 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the game, after clearing the F6 and red buff, the excavator crossed the top river and placed a ward at the three-star blue buff.

Then go back and add the river crab.

There was a ward placed in the middle of the river by Samsung's top laner Cuvee before he went online, and Samsung saw all of Rek'Sai's actions.

After taking down the river crab, the factory manager didn't leave; the excavator went to the back of Samsung's blue buff.

At this point, Samsung's eye in the river had already disappeared.

When Master An saw the excavator's movements, he didn't attack the blue buff, but just stood there, while placing a ward next to the blue buff.

The excavator moved towards the middle lane, but finding no opportunity, it turned back and headed straight for Samsung's blue buff.

The struggle to break the deadlock was a protracted and time-consuming affair, which was completely unlike the factory manager's traditionally conservative approach.

The excavator reappeared in Gragas's vision, but Ambition remained calm. This was in his own jungle, and Gragas continued to attack the blue buff.

Then, the excavator dug a tunnel through the wall and went straight to the blue buff.

This action is undoubtedly saying: I, Mingkai, am going to steal your blue buff today!
The factory manager's play was very subtle. The excavator was hit by Gragas's EQ combo after drilling through, but he didn't retaliate. The blue buff's aggro was still on Gragas, and he kept attacking Gragas.

The barrel was starting to feel the strain, so it used Smite to heal, but after using Smite on the blue buff, it still had a dozen or so health points left.

The factory manager followed up with a penalty, and the excavator happily accepted the blue buff.

At this moment, Samsung's mid and top laners arrived first, and Orianna used her E skill over the wall to give Gragas a shield.

The Samsung top laner Renekton who came later was knocked up by the Rek'Sai.

Meanwhile, EDG's mid and top laners arrived.

Scout's Taliyah flashed over the wall and attacked Gragas.

Mouse's Kled flashes and E onto the Gragas.

The barrel quickly dodged, but it had already been marked by Kled's duel (E).

Kled used his second E to follow up on Gragas, who had used Flash, and secured First Blood with a basic attack.

With the situation reduced to three against two, Samsung's top and mid laners dared not engage and had to retreat to their lanes.

The factory manager's aggressive counter-jungling completely destroyed Samsung's jungler, Ambition.

Not only did they lose the blue buff, they also gave up first blood!

With Kled taking the red buff from Gragas, Renekton is going to have a really tough time in lane.

On the large screen at the scene, after the barrel was killed and the remaining people on both sides dispersed, the bottom left corner also showed the real-time footage of the factory manager.

The factory manager remained expressionless as he spoke and communicated with his teammates.

In the official live stream room, the chat exploded with comments.

[Wow, Nana-chan! The world is watching you!]

[Holy crap, is this really the Nana I remember? She's so brave!]

[How dare you call me "Seven Sauce"? Call me Factory Manager!]

[Today I'm not Mingkai anymore, today I've transformed into Ankai!]

[Everyone, get 777 up and running!]

【77777777】

Five minutes into the game, the factory manager's excavator captured two crabs and leveled up to level 5.

Then he ran to Samsung's F6 position to harass the barrel.

They arrived a little late, and the Gragas used Smite to take down the big bird, leveling up to level four.

In just five minutes, the factory manager had already taken the lead over Master An by a whole level.

At 6 minutes and 40 seconds, Samsung's second red buff was about to spawn, and the excavator was near Samsung's red buff again.

Although the barrel in the grass hit him first, taking away more than a third of his health.

But after the Gragas lost his skills, the factory manager's excavator knocked out the ward he had just placed right in front of the Gragas.

Seeing the excavator in action, the live stream chat exploded with excitement once again.

I kept going into the enemy Gragas' jungle.

[Master An: "The enemy excavator keeps invading my jungle!"]

[Sect Leader An: "Don't you have any wild monsters to farm yourself?"]

[Seven the Immortal, his magical powers are boundless!]

【.】

With no other option, Master An had to call his own bottom laner over, which saved the red buff.

The next few minutes of the story consisted of Taliyah pushing the lane in the mid lane, and then going into Gragas' jungle with Rek'Sai.

Master An had a really tough time!
Samsung's team relies heavily on Ambition's early-game map control and vision control abilities.

At 9 minutes and 50 seconds, after a trade of blows between Renekton and Kled, before EDG's minion wave even reached the tower in the top lane, Rek'Sai dove the tower, and Kled used his ultimate to kill Samsung's top laner, Renekton.

At 12 minutes and 15 seconds, the excavator secured the Rift Herald.

EDG maintained firm control of the game's pace from then on.

EDG had two ultimate abilities in this game, Taliyah and Kled, and they used them whenever they had the chance.

The factory manager's excavator was equally unyielding, hitting anyone it encountered.

At 21 minutes and 10 seconds, the factory manager led the charge, directly bypassing the mid tower of the three-star team, flashing to knock up Ashe who was defending the tower, and Kled and Taliyah instantly used their ultimates to arrive on the battlefield.

They chased him all the way to Samsung's mid-lane high ground and managed to kill Ruler's Ashe.

The score is now 5-0.
But it must be said that when it comes to the ability to "stay put," Samsung is number one in the world.

Economically, they have kept pace with EDG and haven't fallen too far behind.

At 26 minutes, Samsung even found an opportunity, with four players grouping up to push down EDG's mid tower.

But at this moment, Meiko stepped forward.

With only a third of his health remaining, Rakan used R-Flash-W to hit three opponents, securing another kill on a three-star enemy, bringing the kill score to 6-0.
It's safe to say that if the team names and IDs were covered up, no one watching this match would think the red team was EDG.

Everyone on the team seizes every opportunity to engage in combat; they just start and think things through first, without needing to consider anything else.

At 28 minutes, Taliyah and Kled, once again disregarding the minion wave, forcibly tower-dived and killed the Renekton who was farming in the bottom lane, bringing the kill score to 7-0.
Judging from this situation, Samsung might even be swept by EDG.

In the mid lane, the remaining four Samsung players were unwilling to give up. Ambition's Gragas used E-flash to collide with Kalista, and then unleashed his ultimate.

However, this game was also the most brilliant match in Zet's short career with EDG.

His skateboard shoes instantly flashed, allowing him to dodge Gragas' ultimate attack.

However, Samsung is such a good team at playing defensively!
EDG was already playing with unprecedented ferocity and determination, but they were still outmaneuvered by Samsung.

At 44 minutes, Samsung won a team fight where 2 could be exchanged for 3. At this point, it seemed that EDG's lineup was about to lose.

The survivors from Samsung started working on the Dragon Vision system.

However, just as the director was replaying that team fight...

Scout's Taliyah soloed the Elder Dragon.

EDG's five players bathed in the golden dragon's blood.

Upon hearing the sound effect of the Elder Dragon being destroyed, Samsung quickly attacked Baron Nashor in an attempt to minimize their losses.

On EDG's side, Kled uses his ultimate to charge forward.

“We have the Elder Dragon buff, and you guys still dare to take Baron? What are you pretending for, bro!” PDD’s voice rang out.

"Kill Emperor Ruler! Kill Emperor Ruler! Kill Emperor Ruler!" Miller's shouts never stopped.

With the skateboarder securing a quadra kill, EDG achieved a 1-for-5 exchange, wiping out Samsung.

"Congratulations EDG!"

When the Samsung base crystal exploded, the three commentators said in unison.

The first game of the Intercontinental Championship final has ended.

LPL 1-0 LCK!

(End of this chapter)