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

Chapter 406 The first major region team to suffer an upset in the qualifying rounds
However, Zhou Dian's opinion differs slightly from Dgc's.

Dgc's point of view is certainly valid, but the problem with WE's opening match in the play-in stage today is not here.

In Zhou Dian's opinion, the problem lies in WE taking their opponents too seriously.

In terms of individual skill, the WE players are far stronger than the wildcard team players. They can just pick a few heroes with strong laning phase and crush their opponents.

After the opening match, the next match will be against LYN, WE's opponent from the previous game.

After picking Syndra against WE, LYN, the mid laner, pulled out Jayce.

LYN easily defeated GMB, completely dominating in the mid lane.

This wildcard mid laner seems to have some real talent.

Perhaps inspired by this match, in the next game between WE and GMB, Xiye also directly picked Jayce for mid lane against Anivia.

The scene was somewhat brutal, with Xiye completely dominating the mid lane.

In just over twenty minutes, WE won the game.

Jayce's damage output is three times that of Anivia.

WE's two matches on the first day of the qualifying rounds have concluded, and WE won both matches, with no upsets occurring in the LPL.

There are also three more BO1 matches in Group B that day.

C9, from the North American region, dominated both games and secured two victories.

Judging from the matches on the first day of the qualifying rounds, the gap in strength between the wildcard teams and the mainstream teams is quite obvious.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, these four third seeds from the four major regions should be able to easily secure first place in their respective groups.

They then successfully advanced to the group stage in the second round of the qualifying rounds.

After the qualifying rounds began, there is one more point that must be mentioned.

In less than half a month since the release of the World Championship version—7.18—one hero in casual games has gone from being extremely powerful to being invincible.

That's Kalista.

During this period, many teams also played a few practice matches against each other.

Based on data feedback from various sources, the champion Skateboarder is far too powerful.

It doesn't matter what support you use; just let it out and you'll win.

Before patch 7.18, getting Skateboard Shoes might have meant losing a match, but now, getting Skateboard Shoes means you can't lose!

In today's six BO1 matches of the qualifying rounds, the red side naturally banned Kalista in all of them.

Even teams like WE and C9, when playing against wildcard teams that are far weaker than them, banned Kalista in the first round of the draft when they were on the red side.

In League of Legends, the strength of a champion is always greater than the strength of the player.

If you think the players are stronger, it's only because the strength and stats of those version heroes aren't high enough.

Therefore, the champion Kalista will basically not be seen in this World Championship.

Why is it considered fundamental?

Because there are always some stubborn people in this world.

For example, during the S5 World Championship, LGD let Mordekaiser go.

On the second day of the S7 World Championship Play-In Stage, Ironhead appeared.

All the viewers witnessed the power of skateboard shoes in this version.

The second match of the second day of the play-in stage was between C9 and the wildcard team DW.

DW on the red side didn't ban Kalista, and C9 directly picked Kalista on the blue side's first floor.

Then, C9 not only won the game in about 20 minutes, but Kalista also got a pentakill.

On the second day of the tournament, a pentakill occurred at the S7 World Championship.

On the second day of the qualifying rounds, the first three matches were played in Group B.

After these three matches, C9 easily won all four and advanced to the second round of the play-in stage as the top team in Group B.

In the match against DW team, the female AD carry Sneaky even got a pentakill with skateboard shoes.

Unfortunately, he's currently abroad competing, so it's not very convenient for him to do cosplay.

If this player got a pentakill in the LCS league, they would definitely post some crossdressing cosplay photos to celebrate afterwards.

After the group stage of Group B is completed, it will be the remaining three matches of Group A, where WE is located.

Because Group B played a tiebreaker match to determine the second-place team in the group, it was almost dark by the time Group A's match started.

After three matches in Group A, WE also won all four matches and advanced to the second round of the play-in stage as the top team in Group A.

The second-place team in Group A is LYN, with two wins and two losses.

As for GMB, formerly known as M5, this wildcard team, which is probably the most familiar to LPL viewers among the eight wildcard teams, suffered four consecutive losses in the play-in group stage, thus ending their journey in this World Championship.

The group stage matches of the qualifying rounds, Groups A and B, were quickly completed within two days.

September 25th has arrived, and there are still ten days until the start of the group stage of the main event of this World Championship.

Most of the foreign teams that can directly participate in the group stage have not yet arrived.

However, Dgc heard that two European and American teams have already arrived in Jiangcheng.

Considering the previously identified issue of "being out of practice for too long," Dgc immediately contacted the two European and American teams that had already arrived in Jiangcheng.

I'd like to see if we can arrange a training match or something, to experience the creativity of "Western artists".

The answer, of course, was "NO!"

The tour leader said that we came to Jiangcheng so many days in advance so that we could have a good time for a few days.

As for training, we'll talk about that after we've had enough fun!

All I can say is that European and American teams know how to have fun playing the game.

Today is the third day of the qualifying rounds.

However, WE's group stage has ended. Since no LPL teams participated, and the level of the play-in stage was too high, Zhou Dian didn't bother watching the matches today.

Just check the news and battle reports when the time comes to find out.

Zhou Dian is someone who likes to pay attention to and study his opponents.

Within the LGD team, besides the coaching staff, he probably watched the most matches.

Many fans may think that the teams that made it out of the qualifying rounds have rather limited strength.

Regardless of which team ends up in Group A with LGD, they shouldn't pose a significant threat to LGD.

However, in Zhou Dian's opinion, we really shouldn't underestimate any team that can participate in the World Championship.

Especially in BO1 matches, these European and American wildcard teams often pull out some strange and unusual heroes.

One wrong move and you could easily capsize in a ditch.

BO1 has very little room for error.

Today's qualifying rounds will begin with three matches from Group C.

FNC from the European region easily secured two victories.

Next up are the three matches in Group D.

In fact, the qualifying rounds have been going on for three days, and the results of all the matches have basically been in line with the pre-match predictions of the mainstream audience.

But today, something unexpected finally happened in Group D.

The qualifying rounds consist of 12 teams in 4 groups, with one third-seeded team from a major region in each group.

In Group D is the HKA team from the LMS region.

In all the previous qualifying matches, the third-seeded teams from the major regions in Groups A, B, and C had not lost a single game.

This HKA team, although it is an LMS region team.

But it wasn't a team from Tai Wan, but a team from Heung Kong.

For LPL viewers, the most well-known member of this team is actually their head coach.

Their head coach is Tabe, who was Uzi's first support player in his professional career and was formerly the support player for Royal Never Give Up.

After retiring, Tabe quickly transitioned to a coaching role. In the past few years, he has worked in the coaching circles of both the LPL and LSPL, but without making a name for himself.

This year, he chose to return to his hometown of Gangkou to lead a team in the LMS league, and unexpectedly, he got the third seed in the LMS region this year.

If you had to choose the third seed from the four major regions in the qualifying rounds, you could pick the one most likely to have an upset in the qualifying rounds.

Most people would probably choose the HKA team from Hong Kong.

After the three group stage matches in Group C were completed, the matches in Group D began.

The first match was between HKA and RPG from Liben.

The RPG team "Little Days," with its full-time lineup, seems a bit weak in combat.

They were completely outmatched by HKA, their base was destroyed in just 25 minutes, and they almost got zero kills.

The next match is between HKA and Fenerbahce (FB) from the Turkish region.

The Turkish region is actually a bit higher level than the usual wildcard regions.

Because there are many South Korean players in this region.

Like KaKao, a former jungle king, who went to the Turkish region to make money after leaving IG.

The current FB team participating in the qualifying rounds has a Korean jungler named Crash.

Just when the vast majority of people were still optimistic about HKA.

After a grueling 50-minute battle, Türkiye's FB defeated HKA.

This is the first defeat for a team from a major region in the play-in stage.

Then FB easily defeated Liben's RPG team.

The third day of the qualifying rounds has ended.

That evening, on PTT, a notorious Taiwanese online forum, many Taiwanese viewers expressed schadenfreude over HKA's loss to Facebook.

Of course, even among these people, no one would think that HKA would fail to advance from the qualifying group stage.

However, they are quite hoping that HKA will ultimately advance to the next round as the second-place team in their group.

In the second round of the BO5 knockout tournament, the rule is that the first-place team in each group will be drawn against the second-place team in the same group.

As a result, HKA will inevitably be drawn against one of the three teams: WE, C9, or FNC in the second round of the play-in stage.

Although these three teams are all the third seeds in their respective regions, they are all veteran teams with undeniable strength.

If HKA draws any of these three teams, the outcome will most likely be disastrous.

what?
You're saying HKA is also from the LMS region?

We're all from the same region, we're all family, why should the audience in Taiwan be happy to see HKA embarrassed?

That's just how some people who support Taiwan see it.

Your HKA team is full of country bumpkins, who's on your side?

If HKA really doesn't even make it out of the qualifying rounds, of course we'll have to laugh at them mercilessly!
September 26th, the last day of the qualifying group stage.

The three matches in Group D will be played first today.

RPG team suffered two consecutive defeats at the start, ending their World Championship journey with a four-game losing streak, and can now head back to Liben.

In the third match, after another grueling 50-minute battle, HKA defeated FB.

In that case, both teams would have a 3-1 record in the group stage.

If the head-to-head record is tied, a tiebreaker match is needed to determine who finishes first in the group.

In the tiebreaker, Crash, the Korean import for FB, pulled out a Nidalee jungle pick against the meta and completely dominated HKA.

They also pushed HKA to second place in the group.

Despite this, HKA still managed to advance from the group stage to the second round of the play-in stage.

But backstage in the dressing room, HKA's head coach Tabe had a serious expression.

In the second round, HKA will play a best-of-five series against one of the three teams: WE, C9, or FNC.

He had no confidence in fighting anyone.

On the main stage, after defeating HKA's five players in the tiebreaker, the five FB players on the field immediately hugged each other excitedly, even more excited than when they won the league championship.

Because they knew that by securing first place in their group and avoiding WE, C9, and FNC, they would have a high probability of advancing to the main event of the S7 World Championship.

For teams from the wildcard region, their biggest wish is to participate in the main event of the World Championship and compete in front of a global audience.

They had no greater desires.

Then come the last three group stage matches in Group C.

Surprisingly, FNC also lost their last match in Group C.

This means that HKA is no longer the only major region team to lose a match in the Play-In Group Stage.

Although FNC lost this last match.

However, their 3-1 record secured their place as the top team in Group C, allowing them to advance to the second round of the qualifying tournament.

Immediately afterwards, the draw for the second round of elimination matches began.

Under Tabe's tense gaze, HKA team was drawn against FNC team, who had just lost a BO1 match.

The best-of-five match between the two teams will be held the day after tomorrow afternoon.

Tabe breathed a slight sigh of relief upon seeing that he had drawn FNC.

No matter what, FNC didn't have a perfect record in the group stage, and they also lost to wildcard teams.

It shouldn't be as difficult as playing against WE and C9.

One could only say that Tabe was somewhat blinded by his own involvement, or perhaps he was simply trying to comfort himself.

In fact, most viewers see things more clearly than Tabe.

Hours earlier, when HKA only managed to secure second place in Group D, netizens on various LOL-related forums had already begun mocking these Hong Kong natives.

Regardless of which of the three teams HKA draws – WE, C9, or FNC – netizens believe HKA can pack their bags and go home.

Playing a best-of-five (BO5) game is different from playing a best-of-one (BO1) game; experience is very important.

These three teams are not only veteran teams, but their players have also been competing for many years.

Each team also has one or two, or even three, well-known players.

They're not the CJB type, but truly skilled players.

To be honest, there's a significant difference in their core capabilities.

After a day of rest, the second round of the qualifying tournament began on September 28th.

Two best-of-five (BO5) matches are scheduled for today.

The first match is C9 vs. LYN.

Sure enough, the best-of-five series is where a team's true strength is tested.

LYN, who caused WE a lot of trouble in the BO1 group stage a few days ago, performed poorly against C9 in the BO5.

Aside from causing C9 a lot of trouble in the first game, C9 easily won the next two games in just over twenty minutes.

In particular, in the second game, LYN on the red side prepared a surprising move, confident that he could beat Skateboard Shoes, and actually let Skateboard Shoes out.

C9 immediately picked Skateboard Shoes, and Skateboard Shoes then completely crushed their opponents.

Throughout the qualifying rounds.

While other teams' AD carries couldn't even play a single Kalista.

C9's female AD carry has already gotten two Kalista champions and is having a blast.

In the end, C9 easily defeated LYN 3-0.

C9, the third seed from the North American region, became the first team to advance from the Play-In Stage to the main event of the S7 World Championship.

According to the principle of avoiding teams from the same region, C9 will be placed in either Group A (where LGD is located) or Group C (where RNG is located) in the four groups of the main tournament.

(End of this chapter)