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

Chapter 403 S7 Group Stage Draw: We're going to face the elite!
It is a long-standing tradition that the group draw for the World Championship is conducted by players from the region where the World Championship is held.

We must give face to the host.

As soon as Ren Dong finished speaking, the camera panned to show two people walking up from the audience.

AJ and Rookie were both wearing white shirts and black pants today.

After all, it's a formal occasion for a global audience, so even many professional players who are usually unkempt will dress themselves up quite formally.

After greeting the audience, the two took a photo together with their arms around each other's shoulders.

When the two stand together, AJ is noticeably larger than Rookie.

Judging by appearances, it would take two Rookies combined to equal the size of AJ.

Rookie tucked his shirt into his pants, but AJ, with his big belly, couldn't tuck it in and it just hung down.

"So today, you two are dressed to the nines for the draw ceremony of the S7 World Championship," Ren Dong said.

"The draw you two will make today will also determine the fate of some teams in the Play-In Stage!"

The two guests who were drawing lots walked to the front of the drawing pool and stood there.

The large screen at the scene displayed the four teams in Pool 1.

They are the third seeds from the four major regions: WE, FNC, C9, and HKA.

The 12 teams that qualified for the play-in stage came from twelve different regions around the world.

Therefore, the group draw for the qualifying rounds will not involve things like avoiding teams from the same region, so the group draw couldn't be simpler.

Simply draw the four teams from pool one into groups A, B, C, and D respectively.

Then, in order, draw the teams from pools two and three into the four groups one by one.

The camera pans to AJ, who is standing in front of Pool 1.

AJ immediately started with the "fly rubbing hands" move, rubbing his hands together vigorously a few times.

Then he put his right hand into the transparent lottery pool, stirred it a few times among the four silver-white spheres, and took out one sphere.

"Let's take a look at today's play-in stage, who will be the first seed to be decided?"

As the narrator spoke, AJ unscrewed the sphere in his hand and took out the roll of paper inside.

Then, facing the camera, it unfolds towards the audience.

"Team WE~"

AJ had good luck, drawing his own LPL team as the first one he drew.

Therefore, WE was placed in Group A of the Play-In Stage.

On the large screen at the back of the stage, a montage of WE's matches in the S7 qualifiers began to play, accompanied by a brief introduction of the team.

This introduction is in English, since the lottery ceremony is open to a global audience.

Each subsequent team that was drawn was also shown some match footage along with a brief description.

"That's right, WE is back on the world stage after more than a thousand days, and we are really looking forward to WE's performance!" Ren Dong said loudly.

"Look at AJ's hand! Who's the number one seed advancing to the next group in the play-in stage?"

As AJ drew out the remaining balls from pool number one in turn.

C9 from the North American region has been relegated to Group B.

FNC, from the European region, has been placed in Group C.

Both of these teams are veteran teams from the European and American regions.

The last one remaining, HKA, automatically fell into Group D.

HKA is the third seed from the LMS region in this World Championship.

In recent years, the LMS region's World Championship slots have been occupied by AHQ and Flash Wolves.

These two teams are far stronger than the other teams in the Taiwan region, who previously had no chance of making it to the World Championship.

This year, Riot Games added a Play-In Stage to the World Championship, so the LMS region not only retains its two main event slots but also gains an additional slot for the Play-In Stage.

HKA, the team that secured the third spot in the LMS region, is actually a team from Hong Kong. Their coach is Tabe, who previously played support for Royal Never Give Up.

However, some people have always felt that given the overall strength of the LMS region, taking three World Championship slots is a bit too much, and suggested reducing one slot.

However, the North American region performed terribly at this year's MSI.

As a result, the number one seed from the North American region was not even allowed into the number one seed pool for the group stage draw at this year's World Championship.

There were fewer calls to reduce the number of slots available for the LMS region.

After all, North America is Riot Games' home turf, and Riot Games can't possibly reduce the number of slots available for North America.

If you're not even cutting the North American region's spots, why are you cutting the LMS region's?

Of course, if neither the North American nor the LMS region's third seed can make it out of the play-in stage, then the strength of these two regions is really not that great.

After the four teams from Pool 1 were placed into the four groups, the remaining eight teams all came from the wildcard region.

Rookie took two steps forward and stood in front of Pool 2.

The first team drawn from pool number two was GMB.

GMB team has been placed in Group A, the same group as WE.

The GMB team comes from the CIS region, and its players are mainly Da Mao and Er Mao.

The ANX team, which advanced from the group stage at the S6 World Championship and was dubbed the "strongest wildcard," comes from the CIS region.

The GMB team, which is now grouped with WE, was formerly the legendary team M5.

Throughout Season 2, Team M5 dominated the vast majority of League of Legends tournaments.

In the S2 World Championship, they eliminated IG in the quarterfinals, but unfortunately lost to the eventual S2 champions, TPA, in the semifinals.

Diamondprox, who was M5's jungler back then, is still GMB's main jungler and can be considered a living fossil of League of Legends.

Rookie will continue with the draw.

ONE, YG, and FB from Pool 2 were placed into Groups B, C, and D respectively.

Of these three teams, the most well-known is naturally FB.

FB stands for 1907 Fenerbahce, which is an esports team under the Turkish football club Fenerbahce.

Players like Kuyt and Van Persie have played for Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce.

After drawing from pool number two, Rookie returned to his chair and sat down, while AJ took over drawing from pool number three.

The four teams in Pool 3, LYN, DW, KLG, and RPG, were placed into groups A, B, C, and D respectively.

Of course, among the four teams in Pool 3, the only one that LPL viewers are truly concerned about is the RPG team.

This is certainly not because of the flashy team name RPG.

It's because this RPG team comes from the LJL region.

The LJL region is also known as the Japanese region, so the members of the RPG team are naturally all Japanese who are living a pretty good life.

When AJ drew LYN first in pool number three, Zhou Dian and many LPL viewers exclaimed in disappointment.

Everyone wants to see AJ draw the RPG team from the Japanese region into Group A, putting them in the same group as WE.

It's a pity we won't see Chinese people beating up Japanese people for the time being.

However, it's not entirely hopeless. LPL viewers are hoping that RPG will perform well in the next few days and secure second place in Group D to advance to the next round.

That way, WE would still have a chance to be drawn against them in the knockout stage of the play-in tournament.

On the LPL broadcast side, after a lengthy analysis of the Play-In Stage matchups by Ren Dong and the two guest commentators, the arrangements for the S7 Group Stage draw were completed.

Next up is the highlight of tonight's draw ceremony.

"Now, what we're really looking forward to is the group stage draw!"

Before Ren Dong could finish speaking, the scene switched back to the lottery drawing.

AJ will still draw first.

"Now for today's big event, starting with AJ drawing the number one seed."

"The number one seed pool contains Dragonball, LGD, G2 and Flash Wolves."

AJ reached into the transparent prize pool, stirred it around a few times, and picked up a black sphere.

The previous qualifying round draw used silver balls, but now they have been changed to black balls.

Twist open the sphere and take out the roll of paper inside.

AJ unfolded the roll of paper in his hand towards the camera.

"Wow, AJ is amazing! He always draws an LPL team first!" PYL said with a smile in the LGD training room.

In the LPL broadcast studio, Ren Dong said, "Like WE just now, LGD has directly entered Group A, the first group in the group stage."

"Next, let's continue to focus on the group stage draw. The atmosphere is starting to get increasingly tense!"

Continue with the draw.

AJ picked up another black ball, opened it, and inside was a scroll of paper that read—【Z7】.

What is the Z7?
Everyone was stunned.

AJ on stage gave an awkward smile and quickly turned the note in his hand upside down; it read "[LZ]".

The number one seed from the LCK region, Longzhu Gaming, has been placed in Group B.

Ren Dong smiled slightly: "It doesn't matter if you hold it upside down, you can tell if you look closely!"

The big screen began playing clips from Dragon Ball's performance in this year's LCK Summer Split finals.

Longzhu, who was only ranked 7th in the LCK in the Spring Split, defeated SKT to win the Summer Split. Their progress can only be described as leaps and bounds.

The final shot lingers on Pray holding the LCK championship trophy.

The design of this LCK championship trophy, while not exactly the same as the Champions League trophy—the Big Ears Cup—is at least very similar.

As expected of South Korea, they even steal the design of a trophy.

The third seed drawn was G2, a well-known European team known for its unconventional tactics.

In 16 and 17, G2 won four consecutive European league titles, effectively dominating the European region.

However, at last year's S6 World Championship, G2, as the number one seed from the European region, ended up finishing last in their group and being eliminated.

European and American teams have always been known for their unpredictable and unpredictable nature; they just can't stand not to pull off something amazing.

G2 Esports, the number one seed from the European region, has been placed in Group C.

The last remaining seed from the LMS region, Flash Wolves, was placed in Group D.

The draw for Pool 1 was quite easy, without any complications; it was simply a matter of placing the four number one seeds into the four groups.

The second pool, which will be drawn next, is the most exciting part of the S-series group stage draw.

There were as many as eight teams in Pool 2.

Five of them are second seeds from the five major regions, as well as TSM, the first seed from the North American region, SSG, the third seed from the LCK region, and GAM from the Vietnamese region.

There are a total of eight teams. Following the principle of avoiding teams from the same region, four teams were randomly selected to be placed into four different groups.

Rookie walked to the front of Pool 2 and stood still, his left hand covering his chest, and nervously extending his right hand.

Inside the LGD training room at their base.

The coaching staff were all staring intently at Rookie's right hand.

Rookie's first team drawn from Pool 2 will be placed in Group A, alongside LGD.

"Hey Rookie, give it your all! Rookie, we wouldn't mind if you gave us a draw for the Vietnamese team!" Wei Shen shouted at the screen.

PYL also said with a smile, "Apart from these two LCK teams, any of the other five teams are fine. We're not picky."

PYL's joke actually reflects the thoughts of the vast majority of people in the LPL to some extent.

LCK has won the World Championship four times in a row (S3, 4, 5, 6). In recent years, LPL has had more losses than wins in best-of-five series against LCK.

Even though LGD just defeated SKT to win the MSI championship this year.

However, MSI and Worlds are completely different things.

In 15, EDG also defeated SKT to win the MSI championship, but what happened in the subsequent S5 World Championship?

It's a complete mess!
At this point, it would be impossible for LPL teams and viewers to say that they were completely unafraid of LCK.

At this moment, Rookie had already scooped a black ball out of the second pool and was about to spin it.

Eimy turned around, patted PYL on the shoulder, and said, "Hey, what are you guys afraid of!"

"I don't even want Samsung. Rookie, give me a chance to play against the three-time world champions SKT. I'm going to beat the elite!"

As they were talking, Eimy suddenly realized that the training room had fallen silent, and the whole atmosphere was strange.

Eimy's teammates and head coach Dgc all turned around and looked at him with strange eyes.

"What? You got RNG? Let's draw again!" Eimy said with a smile.

Then, turning around and taking a closer look, Rookie was holding a yellow slip of paper with "SKT" written on it.

Rookie on stage wore a pained smile, feeling that his first draw was just too unlucky.

At this moment, the previously lukewarm barrage of comments in the live broadcast rooms of the lottery ceremony on various platforms suddenly exploded.

Wow, that's a really harsh decision!

【Danger!】

Brothers, I'm feeling a bit numb!

[Are you afraid of hooks? You couldn't beat SKT at MSI this year? You'll beat them at Worlds too!]

No way, you don't know anything! The SKT at Worlds is a different team!

Don't panic! There are two spots available for each group!

[Oh, you broiler chicken, you probably didn't wash your hands before going on stage!]

SKT? They're nothing but chickens and dogs! LGD, crush SKT!

Wow, do LGD's players even know how strong they are?!

【.】

At this moment, in the LGD training room.

"Damn it, Dan, you really are a jinx!" Wei Shen shouted.

PYL shoved away Eimy's right hand that was patting his shoulder, and said in a deliberately serious tone, "Go away, don't touch me, you're toxic!"

At this moment, Zhou Dian shrugged, smiled slightly, and spread his hands.

"SKT is SKT, what's there to be afraid of? We're going to beat the elite!"

(End of this chapter)