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

Chapter 407: The Play-In Stage Ends, Heading to the S7 Group Stage Venue
After C9 advanced, the next match was a best-of-five series between FNC and HKA.

Both teams are from the five major regions.

Even though viewers generally favored FNC to advance before the match, they all felt that this best-of-five series was at least a match to be played.

After all, this is a rare clash of titans in the qualifying rounds, so it should be quite interesting.

The match started at 2:30 p.m.

In the LGD training room, Zhou Dian was preparing to watch the match with the coaching staff.

Like C9, FNC also has a 50% chance of being placed in Group A, the same group as LGD, after advancing from the play-in stage.

Consider it a preliminary assessment of potential group stage opponents.

As for why C9's previous BO5 matches weren't considered...

The main reason is that C9 is playing against wildcard teams, which is really not very interesting.

In this best-of-five series, at least both teams are from the five major regions.

Zhou Dian also doesn't think HKA can beat FNC.

However, Zhou Dian didn't think it would be so simple, even though he didn't think it would be.

In the three consecutive games, FNC did not make any proactive adjustments and did not pull out any special killer moves or strategies.

In each game, the top and jungle pick two tank heroes, the mid lane picks a mage with strong laning ability, and the bot lane is a carry AD with late-game potential paired with a support.

FNC played such an "ordinary" game in every set, but HKA just couldn't stop them in any set.

Because in every game, HKA's mid and bottom lanes were completely overwhelmed!

To put it simply, in the BO5 match between FNC and HKA, FNC's two carries—Rekkles and Caps—were completely outmatched, dominating HKA's two carries in all three games.

In League of Legends, isn't the best way to win by dominating the lane?
When your team dominates every lane, do you still need tactics and strategy?

Just run them over and that's it!
Like C9, FNC also easily defeated their opponent 3-0.

FNC, from the European region, became the second team to advance from the play-in stage.

HKA, on the other hand, could only be eliminated in the qualifying rounds.

This is the first time in the history of the World Championship that an qualifying round has been held.

In the first time the Play-In Stage was held, HKA, the third seed from the LMS region, one of the five major regions, was eliminated in the Play-In Stage.

This result undoubtedly greatly increases the rationality of the qualifying round format.

It does seem to have an effective filtering effect!
See, this eliminated one person who wasn't good enough!
The people most delighted by this result are undoubtedly the viewers in the North American region.

According to this year's MSI results, the North American region has become the bottom of the five major regions.

In this year's S7 World Championship, the North American region didn't even qualify for the first prize pool.

But now, the third seed from the North American region has easily advanced through the play-in stage.

However, the LMS region's third seed was eliminated in the play-in stage.

It's quite obvious which of the five competition zones is at the bottom?
Who exactly is the fifth division?
Needless to say!
Of course, it's the Taiwan Division, which you couldn't even get out of the qualifying rounds!
On mainland platforms such as Baidu Tieba, numerous posts appeared mocking the HKA team and also taking the opportunity to ridicule the Taiwanese region for being bad.

This is normal; it's an old tradition for us to mock and tease Taiwan.

Ironically, on PTT, Taiwan's largest online forum, in the esports section, many League of Legends viewers were also mocking the HKA team for failing to qualify for the play-in stage.

Just yell at them!
If that were really possible, these Taiwanese fans would love to kick HKA out of the LMS region!
This is a disgrace to our Taiwan competition zone!

However, when the S7 World Championship group stage started, the embarrassing moments for the Taiwan region were yet to come.

Friday, September 29th.

The final day of the qualifying stage for this World Championship.

The qualifying rounds will conclude before the National Day holiday.

The first BO5 of the day is between FB and ONE, a match between two wildcard teams.

This best-of-five series was arguably the most suspenseful of the four best-of-five matches in the second round of the play-in stage.

Yesterday's match between FNC and HKA saw both teams from the five major regions, but FNC was generally favored before the game.

In today's wildcard matchup, FB from Turkey is naturally the favorite, but the final result is still uncertain.

In the end, after four intense matches, FB defeated ONE 3-1, successfully advancing to the group stage of the S7 World Championship.

This is also the only match in the second round of the qualifying stage so far that did not end in a 3-0 victory.

After this match, it's WE's turn to play.

WE, who were the first to play in the qualifying rounds, were also the last to finish.

The schedule emphasizes a complete beginning and end.

After several matches in the group stage, WE finally got back into form and warmed up.

In this BO5 match against YG, WE easily won with a score of 3-0, with each game lasting less than 30 minutes.

Thus, WE became the fourth and last team to advance from the Play-In Stage to the Group Stage.

The qualifying rounds for the S7 World Championship have now come to an end.

WE has fulfilled the promise made by LPL viewers before the start of the qualifying rounds.

That means not losing a single game, fighting your way through the qualifying rounds, and advancing to the group stage.

After watching the qualifying rounds, LPL viewers were generally satisfied with WE's performance.

The only regret might be that WE didn't get to face the RPG team from Liben, and didn't get to crush the Liben team who were doing so well, which makes it feel a little less than perfect.

Hopefully, in next year's World Championship Play-In Stage, LPL teams will be able to face teams from Liben!

With the qualifying rounds over, there is less than a week left before the group stage officially begins.

At this point in time, teams from various regions participating in the main stage of the World Championship have also arrived in my country one after another.

With the arrival of these truly top-tier international players, the Chinese Super Server has finally become a lively place.

During the previous qualifying rounds, there weren't many players from those teams who were truly competitive; it was mostly just a few from FNC and C9.

Now, all the teams participating in the group stage have arrived, and the players from these teams have started playing on the Chinese Super Server.

The streamers on various live streaming platforms who used to specialize in watching high-ranking Korean server matches have now stopped watching the Korean server and started streaming the Chinese server.

Meanwhile, top-ranked League of Legends streamers on major domestic platforms are all eager to compete. With so many well-known professional players in the Challenger tier, simply getting a couple of solo kills or carrying a few professional players can significantly boost one's fame.

For live streamers, fame equals traffic.

Traffic equals money!

In the entire League of Legends world, which professional player gained the most fame after a solo kill?

Without a doubt, it's Faker!
After all, "solo kill Faker" has become an honor.

Even worse, some resorted to simpler and more brutal methods.

Since it's all about getting views anyway, killing Faker is less effective than throwing a troll at Faker!

Against this backdrop
"Damn, how come there are so many actors? No wonder LPL players are all going to play on the Korean server, this is too outrageous!"

In the training room of the SKT esports team at a hotel in Jiangcheng.

After arriving in Jiangcheng, Faker did not immediately go out for sightseeing.

Instead, after obtaining the account on the Summit of the Rift, he immediately devoted himself to ranked games.

After playing ten placement matches, Faker was completely exhausted!
2 wins and 8 losses!
Either your teammates completely collapse, or they feed like crazy.

Towards the end, Faker couldn't tell whether his teammates were throwing the game or genuinely playing badly.

"They come to gank me at level one, then at level two, and now at level three?" Faker said indignantly.

"They come to gank me two or three at a time, the bot lane and jungler are all coming together, they're all targeting me, so why did my teammates still collapse?"

He doesn't understand, he can't understand!
Even in the last game of the placement match, when his teammates were at a slight disadvantage and Faker had a huge advantage, Faker was full of confidence and felt that he could carry his teammates to victory on his own.

The result.
Twenty minutes later, all four teammates simultaneously displayed their dog tags and then initiated a surrender vote.

Swish swish!

Four breaks in one second!
It passed instantly with four votes.

This move completely stunned Faker.

Sitting next to Faker, Huni looked at Faker's expression and said with a smile, "Sang-hyeok hyung, you're not good enough. Look at me, I've got eight consecutive wins in my placement matches, and ten consecutive wins are a piece of cake!"

Hearing this, Faker was so angry he almost choked. He shook his head dismissively and said, "Tch, that was just because you were lucky!"

Hearing Faker's words, Huni shrugged dismissively, turned around, clicked to queue, and prepared to start his last two placement matches.

But what Huni was really thinking was, "Sang-hyeok hyung, I was able to win by so much because I, Hu Bawan, am so smart!"

Although Huni had never played on the Chinese server, he had already discovered the problem.

Faker's champion has the ID SKT-Faker above his head, plus the professional player certification on his super account.

Once those streamers recognize you, who else will they target if not you?
In contrast, Huni, after obtaining the account, casually typed a string of random English characters as his ID, and has played eight placement matches so far without being recognized.

With Huni's skill level, even using a super account and being matched with high-ranking players in placement matches, an eight-game winning streak is not particularly difficult.

Of course, he was also lucky; he didn't encounter any particularly bad teammates in eight consecutive games, and he was generally able to carry the team.

In fact, Tencent Games has been cracking down on "actors" (players intentionally throwing games) recently, and there are basically no more "actors" in the top ranks of the Canyon of Kings, and there are also far fewer "actors" in the high ranks.

The main reason is that Faker is too famous.

Some people aren't actually actors, but after finding themselves matched with Faker, they "unconsciously" start acting up.

After all, infamy is still fame, and being famous for being infamous is still fame!
October 1st has arrived, and in my country, the Golden Week holiday has begun.

It was at this time that the entire LGD team flew to Jiangcheng.

At this time, all 16 teams participating in the group stage of this World Championship have arrived in Jiangcheng.

Of the four teams that emerged from the play-in stage, C9 was placed in Group A, while FB, a wildcard team, was placed in Group B.

FNC was placed in Group C, while WE was placed in Group D.

Looking at it this way, the groups that WE and RNG are in are not easy to beat, and their chances of advancing are not very clear.

On the contrary, although LGD is in the same group as SKT, in the eyes of the audience, their chances of advancing are definitely better than those of WE and RNG.

Upon arriving in Jiangcheng, Dgc immediately instructed the team leader to contact the teams for tomorrow's training match.

As for the rest of the day, the team members are free to do as they please!

We also can't let the team members be too stressed.

All members of LGD's first team have come with the team to compete in the World Championship.

Of course, this excludes the five players who were already a fixed starting lineup, including Zhou Dian.

The remaining few were just there to experience the atmosphere; consider it a paid trip.

Teams participating in the S-series must submit a roster of six players.

In other words, each team can only bring one official substitute.

Generally speaking, for other teams participating in the World Championship, the only substitute spot is usually given to the jungler position.

The candidates selected online are generally not changed easily.

However, in the jungle position, the different jungling styles of different junglers can sometimes have unexpected effects.

Of course, from Riot Games' official perspective, the substitutes reported by each team are simply substitutes, without any position distinction or restrictions.

In other words, even if you're playing with a substitute jungler, you can still have him substitute for the mid laner, top laner, or bot laner.

However, under normal circumstances, this substitute player will find it difficult to even get a chance to play in his own position at the World Championships, let alone play other positions.

LGD's substitute player this time is naturally their long-time substitute – Funny, the "King of the Road".

However, the reason for sending the Dharma King as a substitute was simply to make up the full six-man roster.

The Dharma King basically has no chance to play in matches.

They probably won't even have a chance to play in practice matches.

Unless there are unforeseen circumstances such as a broken hand or suspension among the starting players.

Of course, the Dalai Lama himself understood that he was just there to create a lively atmosphere.

Just focus on being a good cheerleader; who knows, you might even get a chance to go on stage and lift the trophy together someday!

(End of this chapter)