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

Chapter 358 The Summer Season Regular Season Ends, Playoffs Begin!
The direct confrontation between LGD and RNG will likely determine whether a team with a perfect record in the regular season will emerge in this year's LPL Summer Split.

Even so, LGD did not do any special targeted training.

It's just standard preparation; Dgc is preparing to play RNG in the same way as recently.

It highlights a confidence in one's own abilities.

So what if RNG has been on a winning streak lately?

That's just because they didn't run into LGD.

Therefore, in this regular season match against RNG, the LGD team felt that there was no need to treat them differently.

Just follow the normal training routine step by step.

Saturday, April 8.

The match between LGD and RNG is scheduled as the third game of today.

The first two matches ended with a score of 2-0, without taking up the time of the teams that followed.

Therefore, the third match started promptly at 6 PM.

LGD continues to play a strategy centered around the bottom lane, which is currently the mainstream approach in the game.

They've been doing this in most of their matches in recent weeks, and their recent winning streak shows that this style of play is quite effective.

However, it seems that this approach won't work as well against RNG today.

Since his return in the Summer Split, Uzi has indeed been in top form.

It's too difficult to break through RNG's bot lane head-on.

In the first game, Uzi's Ashe ended imp's perfect 8-0 record with Caitlyn in the summer regular season.

RNG takes the first game.

In the second game, RNG was on the blue side and LGD was on the red side.

In the latest version, the red side's draft picks are indeed difficult to manage, as there are too many heroes to ban.

Skate shoes are definitely going to be banned.

However, after the first round of bans, Dgc realized that they hadn't banned either Xayah or Rakan, they had forgotten about them.

There are still some potential risks involved.

As a result, RNG, on the blue side, directly picked Cho'Gath on the first floor, without choosing either Xayah or Rakan.

LGD didn't hold back and immediately picked the Xayah and Rakan combo on the first and second floors.

PYL and imp were the first to bring out the Xayah and Rakan combination in the LPL, and they lived up to expectations by carrying the game after picking Xayah and Rakan in this match.

LGD won a game.

In the decisive third game, before LGD's players could say anything, Dgc started to panic.

In the third game's draft phase, Dgc directly changed LGD's recent strategy of focusing on the bottom lane.

They've reverted to the same strategy LGD used before the Intercontinental Cup.

He was genuinely afraid of losing this game and shattering his dream of a perfect record in the Summer Split.

So let's go for something safer!
In recent weeks, Zhou Dian has been playing tank heroes in LGD's matches.

As a result, none of the teams LGD has faced recently have chosen to ban Fiora.

Moreover, Fiora's carry potential has been declining in recent patches.

The same applies to RNG today.

LGD didn't ban Fiora in the first two games, and didn't even pick her.

In the third game, RNG naturally wouldn't ban it either.

Then, when LGD locked in Fiora.

Letme's face turned green on the spot.

In the end, Zhou Dian's Fiora achieved an unstoppable split push, and LGD successfully won the decisive game, securing victory in this regular season match against RNG.

LGD's winning streak, which began at the start of this summer's season, continues.

The next day is Sunday.

It was the last day of the ninth week of the regular season.

On this day, the bottom three teams from Group B in this year's LPL Summer Split – DAN, IM, and Snake – all made their appearance.

Then they all lost the game.

All three teams currently have only 4 wins, but DAN is still ranked fourth in Group A due to their superior point differential.

With only one week left in the regular season, DAN's chances of making the playoffs seem to have actually increased.

However, DAN has already suffered ten consecutive losses. Any normal person would think that even if DAN is lucky enough to make it into the playoffs, he is just a pushover.

Moreover, DAN's ten-game losing streak has broken the current record for the longest losing streak in the LPL.

August 17th marks the start of the final week of the LPL Summer Regular Season.

After the final ten best-of-three matches are completed, the Summer Split will enter the playoffs.

The top three teams in both Groups A and B have been determined, but their specific rankings may change.

The fourth-place finisher in each group, which is the last playoff spot in each group, is yet to be determined and will be decided in the final week of the regular season.

In the eyes of the audience, no matter which team in either group finishes fourth, the gap between them and the top three is too large, and making it to the playoffs would be a complete waste.

However, we should still fight for what we deserve.

The first match was a best-of-three series between Snake Esports and WE.
The first match turned out to be a minor upset, with Snake Team unexpectedly defeating WE 2-1.

Now the Snake team has a record of five wins, surpassing DAN's four wins and moving into fourth place in Group A.

This undoubtedly sealed the fate of the DAN team.

Because no one thought that DAN, who had already suffered ten consecutive losses, could defeat IG in the final match and regain fourth place in Group A.

Snakes have one game left, against IM, their direct competitor for fourth place.

If they can win even one game in their best-of-three series against IM two days from now, it will be enough for them to beat IM and advance to the playoffs.

By 9 PM on August 20th, the 2017 LPL Summer Split regular season had concluded.

Snake lost to IM in their final match, but by a score of 1-2.

Therefore, Snake Team ultimately ranked ahead of IM by one point, qualifying for the playoffs as the fourth-place team in Group A.

The Snakes had a record of two wins and nine losses in the first eleven rounds of this summer season.

To everyone's surprise, they made it into the playoffs.

One person who deserves special mention is Crystal Bro kRYST4L.

After the S6 Regional Finals BO10, Crystal's hand, having suffered a serious injury, was no longer sufficient to support his performance as a professional ADC.

Therefore, Snake Club brought in a Korean player, Ohq, for the ADC position.

In order to get playing time, Crystal, just like Uzi did after he joined OMG, resolutely switched to the support position.

Unfortunately, Ohq was just too bad, otherwise he wouldn't be called the worst Korean import in LPL history. Before the second round of the regular season, Snake Esports' manager, Zuo Wu, couldn't stand it anymore and had to contradict himself by signing Ohq, whom he had strongly advocated for.

Crystal was called upon to take over the ADC role again.

In the final five regular season matches against each other in the same group, he led the Snake team to a record of three wins and two losses, making a comeback and entering the playoffs.

Snake team fans said they were "moved to tears"!
In the final BO3 match, DAN lost to IG with a score of 1 to 2.

In this best-of-three series, DAN won the first game.

Many people thought that DAN was finally going to win a BO3 after two months.

Moreover, TheShy fed terribly in this BO3 series; he kept feeding throughout all three games.

Unfortunately, IG's ADC, West, was just too fierce in the last two games, so fierce it was unbelievable.

IG has already secured third place in Group A, while the others are playing somewhat casually.

As a result, Xihuang carried the team to victory against four opponents, dominating two games and leading IG to a comeback from a 1-0 deficit, eliminating DAN from the playoffs.

Seeing West Emperor's incredible prowess, IG fans exclaimed:

"If the Western Emperor can maintain this level of performance, then what's the point of Jack's hot dance!"

JackeyLove, who was recruited by IG as a prodigy, is currently unable to play for IG this year due to his age not meeting the requirements.

However, IG fans have always placed their hopes on JackeyLove.

I never expected the Western Emperor to be so powerful lately.

DAN, having lost to IG, ended their first LPL season with an unprecedented eleven-game losing streak, ranking last in Group A.

Back when DAN was ranked first in Group A and said "LPL is nothing special," he was incredibly arrogant. Now, he's being ridiculed so harshly by fans of other teams.

All I can say is, he brought it all on himself!

After all, in esports, being bad is the original sin.

As for LGD, after defeating RNG last week...

The last two opponents were completely unable to pose any obstacle to LGD.

LGD ended their 17 LPL Summer Split regular season journey with a sixteen-game winning streak.

This makes them the second LPL team to achieve a perfect record in the regular season, following EDG last summer.

Last year, EDG won the Summer Split championship with a perfect record.

The entire LGD team is now aiming to win the subsequent playoffs, achieve a perfect record in the Summer Split, and replicate EDG's feat from last year.

After winning all their regular season games, and with such a winning percentage...

Zhou Dian also erased the slight gap in the number of MVPs in a single game during the regular season.

With a one-point advantage, Tiger surpassed Scout at the last moment and took the top spot in the [Strongest Fighter] score ranking.

This means that Zhou Dian will retain his title as the LPL Summer Split Regular Season MVP for the second consecutive year!

The first round of the 2017 LPL Summer Playoffs will begin on August 22nd.

The top four teams from Groups A and B in the Summer Split regular season will advance to the playoffs.

The final rankings show that the top four teams in Group A are EDG, WE, IG, and Snake Esports.

Group B consists of LGD, RNG, NB, and OMG.

In the first round of the playoffs, the third-place team from each group will face the fourth-place team from the other group.

The matchups are IG vs. OMG and Snake vs. NB, both best-of-five single-elimination tournaments.

As for LGD, as the top seed in Group B, they will start directly from the semifinals of the playoffs.

This year's LPL Summer Split was interrupted by the addition of the Rift Rivals, causing the regular season to be suspended for about ten days.

Therefore, the subsequent match schedule is very tight.

The regular season just finished on August 20th, and the playoffs started just two days later on August 22nd.

However, under the current format, there aren't many playoff games.

In the regular season, there are two groups. In the playoffs, the third and fourth place teams in each group play in the first round, the second place teams start from the second round, and the first place teams advance directly to the semifinals.

Moreover, all of them are single-elimination tournaments.

This means that only six best-of-five (BO5) matches are needed to determine the final two teams.

Not only is the interval between the regular season and the playoffs short, but the playoffs will also use the new version.

The game version has been changed from 7.15 to 7.16.

Furthermore, version 7.16 has only been updated for a little over a week in the Korean server.

LPL has kept up with the version changes quite promptly this time, avoiding the situation where the version used in LPL matches was almost a month behind that of casual games.

This will undoubtedly put each team to a greater test of their ability to adapt and respond.

The 7.16 version used in the playoffs is largely unchanged from the previous version.

The designers have not yet made any adjustments to the increasingly dominant bottom lane.

This is quite normal; designers have historically had a long reaction time, a slow adjustment cycle, and a lack of comprehensive consideration of issues.

The closer to the World Championship, the more likely the League of Legends designers are to create some abnormal versions, resulting in some version monsters.

Players are too tired to even complain anymore!

In the 7.16 version that will be used in the playoffs, there are only two changes to the equipment.

First, the Ancient Coin support item was slightly nerfed. The designers said it was to limit the increasingly popular support champions, but in reality, this change had no impact.

The change is the same as no change at all!

Secondly, upgrading the jungle item to Cinderhulk increases the crafting cost by 75 gold.

The original intention was certainly to weaken the popular tank jungler, but such a small change is better than nothing!
Tank heroes are now popular not only in the jungle, but also in the top lane.

The tree has been nerfed in this version; the damage of throwing tree sons has been reduced.

However, there is some good news for Zhou Dian in version 7.16.

That means Fiora has been buffed in this version.

Although Fiora can still perform well in Zhou Dian's hands.

However, Fiora's overall win rate and performance have been sluggish for several months.

The designers have finally remembered to buff Fiora.

In patch 7.16, Fiora's passive, Duelist's Dance, provides significantly more bonus movement speed than before, especially in the late game.

This will undoubtedly make Fiora's kiting ability even stronger.

Actually, this enhancement is only slightly better than nothing; it's pretty useless.

But Zhou Dian felt that his Fiora was already itching for more.

Even the smallest mosquito leg is still meat!
As for the other changes in the current version, they have little to do with the top lane and are mainly focused on mid lane heroes, with only minor tweaks and adjustments.

(End of this chapter)