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

Chapter 440 Departure to Shanghai, the S7 World Championship Semifinals Begin!
All the LGD players have arrived, but they can't leave yet.

There's one more step.

After each best-of-five (BO5) knockout match in the World Championship, there is a post-match group interview with the coaches and players from both teams.

After waiting in the lounge for a while, they received a notification from the staff, and then the LGD players and coaches followed the official staff to the media room.

Esports is becoming more and more standardized, and it's starting to resemble a post-match press conference in traditional sports.

The first to be interviewed were all the Dragon Ball players and coaches.

It has to be said, Dragon Ball's head coach Kim is really stubborn.

When answering interview questions, he intentionally or unintentionally pointed to the players' performance today, without mentioning the fact that his own draft picks were exposed.

During the Q&A session with the players, Khan was the one who received the most questions.

After all, the entire BO5 series today clearly demonstrated a significant difference in top lane performance.

Before the quarterfinals began, Han Yishang, whose reputation was comparable to Zhou Dian's, undoubtedly became the target of everyone's criticism.

Khan is a very honest person. He openly admitted that he was "taught a lesson" by Zhou today, that there is indeed a gap between the top laners of the two sides, and congratulated LGD on advancing to the semifinals.

Khan didn't make excuses or shift blame, which contrasted sharply with his coach's attitude.

The subsequent interview with Pray, the veteran ADC of the Dragon Ball team, was quite touching.

He and his support player Gorilla, the "Two Elders of Xuanming," have been veterans of the team for a long time. Although the Dragon Ball team has changed its name three times in three years due to the constant changes in owners and sponsors.

From runner-up in S5, to semifinals in S6, and now to quarterfinals in S7.

Pray thought he was getting closer and closer to the championship, but in reality he was getting further and further away from it.

The peak of an esports player is actually very short; some opportunities, once missed, are gone forever.

Only a very few can reach the top, and countless contestants come and go in obscurity.

Finally, when asked when he would consider retiring, the veteran, who has been playing professionally since Season 2, said:

"Although I don't know how much longer I can keep going, I will keep going!"

Pray's words gave Zhou Dian some insights.

When an opportunity presents itself, you must give it your all to seize it.

Because you don't know if this might be your only chance in this lifetime!
Next was a group interview with the entire LGD team.

When asked about draft picks, Dgc kept saying that it was because the players played well and had a deep champion pool that he was able to draft effectively, not because he was particularly good at it.

In the LPL, where there are countless mediocre coaches who rely on rote learning and lackadaisical skills, Dgc's humble attitude is quite rare.

After the post-match group interview, Zhou Dian and his teammates returned to the locker room to pack their belongings and walked out of the competition venue. It wasn't even completely dark outside yet.

It was indeed a BO5 that ended too quickly, a straight three-game sweep.

Except for the third set, which lasted a bit longer, the first and second sets didn't take very long.

After returning to the hotel and having dinner, the LGD team leader told the team members to pack their luggage and prepare to depart for Shanghai.

After defeating Longzhu 3-0, the LGD team leader had already arranged their flight to Shanghai that evening.

Anyway, given the daily routine of professional players, traveling at night won't have much of an impact.

This is also to save a day's training time.

It's always good to have one more day of training.

We can't just consider it a success by making it to the semi-finals and then become complacent!
So on the night they defeated Dragon Ball and advanced to the semifinals, the entire LGD team traveled from Guangzhou to Shanghai.

Shanghai is the venue for the two semi-final matches of this year's S7 World Championship.

Upon arriving in Shanghai, although their own team's base is located there, during the S-series, each team must stay in a hotel designated by Riot Games before being eliminated.

Therefore, neither LGD nor RNG, the other LPL team that advanced to the semifinals, can return to their respective team bases and can only stay in hotels.

The LGD team arrived at the hotel arranged by Riot Games in the middle of the night.

Although it wasn't yet the usual time for most of them to sleep, they were quite tired after finishing a heavyweight match and traveling a long distance. Most of the LGD players were preparing to take a shower and go to bed.

The next morning, Zhou Dian was once again the first person in the team to arrive at the hotel training room.

Zhou Dian turned on his computer and logged into the Canyon of Heroes, ready to play ranked matches to maintain his form and practice some new heroes.

He did not play on the Korean server.

There are many fights in the Chinese server, and many skilled players use all sorts of strange and unusual heroes, which is quite effective.

Besides, the Chinese server is also the official training server designated by Riot Games during this year's World Championship!

In 17, the number of players in the Chinese server was still quite large.

Even in the morning when there are relatively few people, the queue for high-scoring individuals is still very fast.

In several consecutive games, Zhou Dian was matched up against top laners who were all well-known top players in the Chinese server, and they were mostly streamers.

Then, these skilled players were brutally defeated by Zhou Dian.

There were also games where Zhou Dian wasn't particularly skilled, but he still managed to get a lot of kills while practicing the heroes.

In the Chinese server, the saying "when a one-trick pony gets his signature hero, he is no less skilled than professional players in the same position and may even be better than them" was rampant and quite popular.

But now, at least these fans of top laners with exceptional skills have learned a good lesson from Zhou Dian.

Streamers shouldn't try to piggyback on professional skills; there's a real difference in skill level.

Many streamers' fans like to boast about how high their streamer's score is.

However, most professional players who can consistently start in top leagues were already top-ranking players who could climb the ranks like water before they went pro.

Ranking points are meaningless.

Playing in tournaments and playing ranked matches are two different things!
Zhou Dian played a few ranked games, and the rest of the LGD team members gradually arrived and began their day of training.

After lunch, LGD began their practice matches ahead of the semifinals.

Now that the World Championship has progressed this far, LGD's only scrim partner is RNG.

Similarly, RNG can only play scrims with LGD.

The two teams are not only from the LPL, but also from different halves of the bracket.

They played a training match all afternoon, with both teams winning and losing.

However, Letme was tormented by Zhou Dian to the point of complaining endlessly.

In these few scrimmages, neither side's jungler went to the top lane much.

Mlxg focused on the mid lane, while Eimy focused on the bot lane.

So a bizarre scene unfolded in the top lane: Letme was solo killed every single game, and Zhou Dian could solo kill Letme even when playing a tank.

This made Zhou Dian shake his head repeatedly.

It's not that I'm too strong; no matter how strong I am, I can't get a solo kill every game.

It really is Letme who played the game incorrectly.

I wonder if my brother's hands will shake when he plays a practice match. This is too abstract.

In the same hotel, in the RNG team's training room.

After being solo-killed by Zhou Dian once again, Letme couldn't help but complain, "Xiangguo, come help me, I can't play this anymore!"

Mlxg immediately said, "You'll have to bear the pressure yourself, Yan Junze. Our opponent in the semifinals is SKT, so I definitely have to target Faker!"

"If I'm helping you target Zhou Shen in every match, what's the point of these practice matches?"

Mlxg's words were essentially a critique of both his mid-laner and top-laner. He was clearly implying that Letme couldn't beat Zhou Dian, and Xiaohu couldn't beat Faker.

Upon hearing this, Xiaohu and Letme both looked rather displeased, but neither of them uttered a word of rebuttal.

Because this is the truth!

The gap between Letme and Zhou Dian is huge, and the gap between Xiaohu and Faker is also huge.

If Xiaohu sees the five letters "Faker" above the opponent's head during an official match, he even feels a little panicked.

After several scrimmages, Mlxg thought to himself, "If Huni is at 80% of Zhou Shen's level, then there's no need to play against SKT this weekend; we're guaranteed to lose!"

During the Intercontinental Cup in July, RNG and SKT did not face each other directly, so Mlxg did not have a direct understanding of Huni's skill level.

However, RNG was eliminated by SKT in both the S6 MSI and World Championship. Mlxg knew all too well what would happen if Xiaohu faced Faker.

RNG's current winning strategy mainly relies on their jungler and bot lane.

Mlxg has a strong ability to control the tempo in the early and mid-game.

Uzi in the bot lane also has the ability to reliably carry in the mid-to-late game.

The current slightly unbalanced "Ardent Censer Monster" version, with the game focus shifting towards the bottom lane, is actually a major advantage for RNG.

The only drawback is that RNG's support player, Xiaoming, is actually somewhat inferior to those support players who excel at playing enchanter supports.

Fortunately, SKT struggled in the quarterfinals. In the five games against the Rabbit team, Bang couldn't win in the bottom lane every game. They were able to win against the Rabbit team and advance to the semifinals, all thanks to Faker.

Teams with one carry player are usually easier to deal with.

Just focus more on the person who can carry!
Although no one dares to underestimate the three-time world champions SKT, after the quarterfinals, LPL viewers have more confidence in RNG's upcoming semifinal match against SKT.

At least this year's RNG has a better winning percentage than when they faced SKT in the quarterfinals of last year's World Championship.

In the eyes of most viewers, SKT still has the aura of a three-time world champion.

However, from the perspective of the teams that are still in the World Championship, the current SKT team has many problems.

However, Faker's presence often overshadowed these problems.

However, problems with esports are relative.

Just because you can't beat someone doesn't mean you can't beat them. Your current state of mind is a very mysterious thing.

A player's performance on the day can be influenced by factors such as skill level, mentality, and physical condition.

The World Championship has progressed to this point, and only four teams remain: two from the LPL and two from the LCK.

Right now, RNG is basically scrimming with LGD every day, and SKT is scrimming with Samsung every day.

During their training sessions, LGD and RNG held nothing back, showcasing everything they had and experimenting with different team compositions in hopes of inspiring each other.

In addition to the 5v5 training matches, Zhou Dian also gave Letme special 1v1 laning training.

Of course, Zhou Dian usually picks damage-dealing heroes, while Letme picks a tank hero to practice withstanding pressure.

In the current RNG, Letme is best suited to playing tanks, as RNG lacks a system where the top laner plays damage-dealing champions and the team revolves around the top laner.

Letme is really not suited to playing damage-dealing top laners; he doesn't have the ability.

Playing tank heroes well will make them effective in team fights.

This version's focus is ultimately on the bottom lane.

While top laners can also carry, it's definitely more difficult for them to do so than for bottom laners.

Every patch brings a new meta, and mid laners are the ones who can carry in most patches.

The mid-lane position has a natural ability to provide backup; as long as the player is strong, they can bring out its potential.

The thought of his own mid laner being Xiaohu and his opponent's mid laner being Faker gave Mlxg a headache.

It's not that Mlxg looks down on Xiaohu; the two have been playing together in the mid-jungle for several years, and Mlxg knows Xiaohu's skill level all too well.

Xiaohu is skilled, but he's no match for Faker.

These two are never in the same league!

Mlxg never expected Xiaohu to beat Faker in the mid lane.

So all he could do was hope that Letme, the top laner, wouldn't get completely destroyed.

If you can't win in either of the two individual lanes, then the match will be too difficult.

In the 1v1 pressure training with Zhou Dian, Letme demonstrated a fairly good level of skill in playing tank heroes.

Most of the time, Letme was able to hold his own in lane, but when facing Jayce, he was consistently and utterly dominated.

Zhou Dian told Letme many ways to play against Jayce, as well as heroes that can counter Jayce.

Unfortunately, Letme wasn't too keen on practicing.

Or perhaps it's because with only a few days of short practice time, he wouldn't dare to take it in the official competition, lacking the confidence to do so.

What else can we do?

There's a better way: if you can't beat them, just ban them.

However, the number of ban slots is limited.

The reason Zhou Dian taught Letme how to play Jayce was because Zhou Dian felt that Jayce was actually quite easy to counter, and it wasn't worth wasting a ban slot on him.

Especially since the red side has to ban Kalista, which already naturally reduces their ban slot, having to ban Jayce as well makes the subsequent draft and ban phase extremely difficult.

During the week between the quarterfinals and the semifinals.

Many LPL viewers have done extensive previews and analyses of the two semifinal matches online.

In Zhou Dian's view, these analyses basically missed the point and were just meant to fool the general public.

Of course, whether it's correct or not isn't really important; what matters is that the audience enjoys it.

As for predictions of the semi-final results, many more people are optimistic that LGD will make it to the finals, after all, LGD just swept Longzhu.

Comparatively speaking, far fewer people actually believe that RNG can advance to the finals.

Of course, on the surface, all LPL viewers were unconditionally supporting LGD and RNG at this time.

Many LPL viewers hope that at least one of the two teams, LGD and RNG, can make it to the finals of this year's World Championship.

The finals must not be another all-Korean battle.

As for the finals being an internal battle between two LPL teams?
That's something I wouldn't even dare to dream of!
Amidst this atmosphere of anticipation and hope, the semifinals of the S7 World Championship kicked off in Shanghai.

The first match will be the semi-final BO5 between RNG and SKT.

October 28th, Saturday, 10 PM.

The stadium in Shanghai was packed to capacity for the match.

Many fans even bought expensive scalped tickets to come and support their favorite teams at the event.

For this match, the LPL official commentary team invited "Outlaw" Zhang Yida.

Many viewers then realized that Zhang Yida was actually a League of Legends player, and quite skilled at it.

After the commentators cheered for RNG, the semi-final BO5 between SKT and RNG officially began at 3:30 pm.

If we include Royal Club, the predecessor of RNG, then SKT has eliminated RNG twice in the World Championship.

This is the third time the two teams have faced off in the World Championship!

(End of this chapter)