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

Chapter 422 You reap what you sow?

"In any case, it's great that three LPL teams made it to the quarterfinals of this World Championship, which is the first time in the last three years!" Wawa continued.

"Next up is the draw for the quarterfinals. Ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned, we'll see you later!"

The commentators didn't seem too concerned about LGD's loss to AHQ in their final match due to underestimating their opponent and missing the chance to compete for first place in the group in a tiebreaker.

However, on forums and other places on the internet with the most hostility, the insults had already started.

An hour ago, those who were praising LGD wildly when they easily defeated SKT are now criticizing them the most.

Take a closer look at the IDs of the most vocal critics on Tieba.

Several of them, in a previous post asking "What if LGD loses their last match to AHQ?", said they wouldn't care if they lost.

Of course, many people on the forum also said that if you lose, you lose.

Since we've already qualified from the group stage, let's not focus on the group stage anymore.

After being drawn into the same group as SKT, the king of the S-series, everyone's expectation for LGD was not that they had to be the top seed in the group, but that they could just advance from the group stage.

They have indeed advanced from the group stage, which is considered to have met expectations.

There's not much to say, just focus on doing well in the remaining knockout rounds.

At this point, amidst the "outrageous public sentiment," some people who spoke up for LGD were immediately labeled as "rational and objective" by many trolls and subjected to a barrage of written criticism.

Of course, the internet is inherently a place for venting extreme emotions.

Often, netizens argue just for fun.

In real life, most people lose their "arrogance" from the internet and become a completely different person.

However, only a minority of people are harshly criticizing LGD.

No matter what, LGD has made it to the quarterfinals.

If LGD weren't the MSI champions this year, probably no one would criticize them for finishing second in their group.

It's worth noting that in the previous two World Championships, LPL's best result was only reaching the quarterfinals.

The last time all three LPL teams made it to the quarterfinals was three years ago.

During this year's World Championship held on home soil, the LPL displayed an unprecedented atmosphere of unity, with everyone primarily supporting the LPL teams.

LGD and SKT, the defending world champions and the team that always finishes first in their group in the World Championship, are in the same group.

There's no reason to be overly critical if we don't get first place in the group.

Even though LGD defeated SKT head-on at MSI.

But everyone knows that the SKT in the World Championship is completely different and cannot be generalized.

MSI is something you can brag about all the time.

But when it comes to the World Championship, they really don't have much prestige.

Although LGD underestimated their opponent and made a risky pick in the last game of the day, losing to an LMS team was a bit embarrassing.

But then again, it didn't have much of a substantial impact.

Does that guarantee that LGD will beat SKT in a tiebreaker?

On the other hand, in Taiwan, on PTT, a notorious forum that frequently discusses esports.

Many Taiwanese viewers jokingly expressed their gratitude to LGD for gifting AHQ a win, saving them from a complete wipeout.

There is a gap of several tens of minutes between the end of the group stage and the draw ceremony for the quarterfinals.

In just a few tens of minutes, the online sentiment suddenly underwent some strange changes.

A statement spread rapidly online in a short period of time.

That is—if the group doesn't work hard, they'll beat their brothers in the quarterfinals!

Who else could this be referring to?
It's clearly referring to LGD, who just suffered a crushing defeat against AHQ!
The draw for the quarterfinals of the World Championship follows only two principles.

The first team will draw the second team from the same group.

Second, two teams that advance from the same group cannot be in the same division.

LGD finished second in Group A, and their opponents in the quarterfinals will be the winners of the other three groups.

The other three group winners are Longzhu, RNG, and WE.

Two of them are LPL teams.

In other words, there is a two-thirds chance that LGD will face an all-LPL team in the quarterfinals.

Then this comment appeared online: "If you don't work hard in the group stage, you'll beat your brothers in the quarterfinals."

The fact that this statement could spread so widely online in just a few tens of minutes between the end of the group stage and the draw clearly indicates that it was driven by online trolls.

They really seize every opportunity to market and grab fans, even going so far as to use such malicious comments to attack teams in the same region.

This is clearly a sarcastic remark implying that LGD deliberately lost to the Taiwanese team.

LGD deliberately got second place in the group so they could face an LPL team in the quarterfinals.

But upon closer reflection, is a two-thirds probability really that high?
Not high!
The other one-third chance is that it's the LCK's number one seed, Longzhu Gaming, a favorite to win this year's World Championship.

Is LGD just bored and looking for something to gamble on with a two-thirds probability?

Actually, LGD underestimated their opponent in the last game and made a big mistake.

The logic behind this is easy to understand.

However, with the help of online trolls, some viewers actually believed this claim.

Do you think RNG and WE can beat LGD?

How many times have these two teams lost to LGD in the LPL this year?

LGD can easily beat these two teams.
These viewers felt that made perfect sense; LGD deliberately wanted to have an internal battle in the quarterfinals!
Many RNG fans, especially those who have been brainwashed by marketing, are increasingly convinced that this is the truth.

LGD is the champion of this year's LPL Summer Split, and they just beat RNG in the LPL finals a little over a month ago.

This is just taking advantage of the fact that RNG's top laner is far weaker than you, using your absolute advantage in the top lane to bully RNG mercilessly!
Bah! Shameless!

However, is it true that LGD deliberately finished second in the group stage in order to beat RNG in the quarterfinals?

Such remarks are even more idiotic.

They didn't even mention that this was a proper competition.

Even if this is gambling, have you ever seen a gambler who would go all in with only a one-third chance of winning?

That's idiotic!
However, with malicious online trolls spreading rumors, many RNG fans actually believed it.

Many onlookers, while not believing that LGD specifically targeted RNG, felt that LGD wanted to start an internal conflict!
After all, LGD's chances of facing each other in the quarterfinals are now as high as two-thirds!
That's the power of marketing!

Many people who lack comprehensive information are easily misled.

A significant portion of those who were misled, even if they later come across the truth, simply refuse to believe it.

Because denying one's past spiritual investment is also a cost.

Human beings are inherently averse to loss!

After being accused of "LGD deliberately losing to AHQ in order to have an internal battle in the quarterfinals," LGD's fans were not satisfied.

Because many RNG fans started using this to attack LGD, many LGD fans also started retaliating against RNG fans online.

How dare you, RNG, accuse others of engaging in internal conflict at the World Championship?
Since RNG keeps saying they want to inherit Royal Club's two World Championship runner-up titles, let's start from Royal Club's first participation in the World Championship, S3. From S3 to S7, in the World Championship, RNG's only win in BO5 matches was against FNC, and all the other BO5 matches they won were all LPL internal battles.

In the S-series, RNG lost to a Korean team in a best-of-five series, which goes without saying, since Korean teams are indeed very strong.

However, in the past few years, RNG has never lost a single LPL internal match in the World Championship.

Who exactly came to the S-series to fight among themselves?
In short, due to the meddling of online trolls...

Since the start of this S-series tournament, the previously united atmosphere within the LPL has begun to show cracks.

A significant number of fans from different groups have already started making sarcastic remarks or directly engaging in online flame wars.

Jiangcheng, the venue for the S7 group stage matches.

Backstage, LGD's rest area.

The LGD team had just finished packing up their things and hadn't left the venue yet.

The quarterfinals draw was about to begin, so they decided to wait until the draw was over before leaving the venue.

Anyway, the draw for the quarterfinals was very short, only a few minutes.

In the lounge, the LGD team leader held his phone, his brow furrowed. "The public opinion seems to be very unfavorable for us. Many netizens are criticizing us!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Dian raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean, Brother Song?"

"It's just a matter of us finishing second in our group and advancing!"

Dgc quickly said, "This is my fault, it has nothing to do with the team members."

He clearly thought netizens were still criticizing the loss to AHQ.

Zhou Dian shook his head. "Did someone say we deliberately lost the last game?"

"Yes, and the sound was quite loud!" the team leader said with a serious expression.

"Now everyone is saying that we 'didn't work hard in the group stage, but ended up beating our brothers in the quarterfinals,' implying that we deliberately finished second in the group stage so that we could beat our LPL teams in the quarterfinals."

puff!

PYL burst out laughing.

He thought the slogan was quite catchy and probably had a good brainwashing effect.

The team leader, however, couldn't manage a smile. With a bitter expression, he said, "I'm under a lot of pressure right now. My boss just messaged me about this too!"

"It's nothing. Whether we draw an LPL team in the quarterfinals or not, as long as we keep winning and win the championship, these rumors will fall apart on their own and are all nonsense," Zhou Dian said calmly.

"If we don't win the championship in the end, even if we advance as the top seed in our group today, we'll still get criticized in the end, it's the same!"

"Alright! Let's cheer for Guangzhou, everyone!" The team leader quickly composed himself.

Indeed, in esports, only results matter; everything else is a crooked path.

The four best-of-five (BO5) matches from the quarterfinals to the semifinals of this World Championship will be held in Guangzhou.

The two semi-final matches, from the final four to the final, will be held in Shanghai.

The final match will be held at the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing.

Just a few tens of minutes later, amidst the online chatter of LPL fans, the quarterfinals draw ceremony began.

The guest for the draw of the quarterfinals of this year's S-series is—Seven Sauce!
Since EDG failed to qualify for the World Championship this year, Clearlove (EDG's manager) went on vacation and returned to his hometown early.

Fortunately, the factory manager's hometown is Jiangcheng, which is also the venue for the group stage of this World Championship.

Riot Games specially invited this veteran player, LPL number 001, to be the draw guest for the quarterfinals.

The factory manager walked onto the stage, dressed in a suit, and looked quite presentable.

The audience below the stage also cheered and jeered, with many people even shouting "Seven-chan".

The official live stream room was instantly flooded with "7777" comments.

We absolutely have to give Seven Sauce the respect she deserves!
After a long, rambling speech by the Riot Games host, the draw for the quarterfinals began.

The first teams drawn were the top teams from the four groups.

SKT and RNG are in the upper bracket, while WE and Longzhu are in the lower bracket.

Next, the four second-place finishers from each group will be drawn, as long as they are not in the same half of the bracket.

SKT's quarterfinal opponent is MSF, the second seed from Europe, also known as the "Rabbit Team".

RNG's quarterfinal opponent is FNC, the third seed from Europe.

WE's quarterfinal opponent is SSG, the third seed from LCK.

LPL viewers breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this result.

There were no internal matches in the quarterfinals of this S-series tournament.

Moreover, the opponents of both LPL teams, RNG and WE, are relatively favorable.

FNC, needless to say, advanced from the group stage with a record of two wins and four losses, relying on a tiebreaker, and is widely regarded as the weakest of the top eight teams in this World Championship.

Most LPL viewers believe that RNG has already secured a spot in the semifinals.

Although WE's opponent is a Korean team, Samsung was defeated twice by RNG in the group stage.

At this point, no one paid enough attention to Samsung, and everyone felt that WE had a good chance of defeating Samsung and advancing to the semifinals.

So far, LPL's draw has been pretty good.

The last Dragon Ball opponent was not drawn.

At this point, there is still one second-place finisher in the group who has not yet been matched with an opponent; this second-place finisher is...
LGD!

After the first three teams were drawn, LGD, who was the last remaining team, was automatically matched with Longzhu.

In other words, LGD's quarterfinal opponent is the LCK's number one seed, Longzhu Gaming, who advanced from the group stage with a perfect record and is currently the top favorite to win the championship.

Although LCK has been the top region for many years, with the added advantage of this year's MSI championship title, LGD and Longzhu were considered to be the top contenders for the championship before the start of this year's World Championship.

Previously, the odds for both teams to win the championship on various betting websites were roughly the same.

However, with the group stage over and the quarterfinals decided, Longzhu Gaming has surpassed LGD and become the top favorite to win the S-series championship.

In terms of odds for winning the championship, LGD has even been overtaken by SKT and has fallen to third place.

With LGD placed in the lower bracket, they will face Longzhu Gaming in the quarterfinals.

On the official live stream chat, some viewers who simply watched the game and didn't participate in discussions on forums or other chaotic places lamented LGD's bad luck in the draw.

Being grouped with SKT in the group stage and then drawn against Dragon Ball in the quarterfinals was definitely unlucky.

Another group flooded the screen with sarcastic comments such as "666", "serves him right", and "he brought it on himself".

On forums like Baidu Tieba and Weibo, some people have also mocked LGD.

They've made wishful thinking and ended up digging their own grave!
Even those viewers who don't believe LGD intentionally lost to AHQ in the final match and simply lost due to recklessness, after the quarterfinals draw, when LGD was drawn against Longzhu as their quarterfinal opponent, some still mocked them with the phrase, "They brought this on themselves!"

Ultimately, those who were mocking LGD at this point already believed that LGD was no match for Longzhu and would be eliminated in the quarterfinals, which is why they were mocking them so recklessly.

If LGD really defeats Longzhu and advances to the semifinals, then these people will probably be among those who follow the trend and praise LGD.

They truly understand the art of playing both sides!
The various online discussions following the quarterfinals draw demonstrate that the so-called "unity against external threats in the World Championship" is nothing more than an empty slogan.

(End of this chapter)