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

Chapter 476 Split Push on May 1st, Ingenious Dragon Steal! LGD Advances to the S7 Finals!

The economic gap between the two sides is a very real issue.

Moreover, although Samsung's lineup has a lot of control, most of it is point control, and the only large-scale team control is Varus's ultimate.

Karma's RE ability, however, provides a group speed boost, making it the perfect counter to Varus's ultimate.

If you can't gain the upper hand through crowd control chains, then team fights become a battle of damage output and front-line tanking.

Samsung's front line seems much tougher than LGD's, but the game is still early and the front line doesn't have many tank items, so its toughness is limited no matter what.

But LGD's output capability at this moment is truly overpowered.

With the support of two soft supports, the two marksmen are essentially two turrets.

Shen, who seems fairly tanky, is barely more durable than paper when facing Caitlyn and Lucian's guns, unless he uses his W skill to block basic attacks.

Although LGD's main damage dealers are two marksmen, it seems like they have a problem with being a physical damage-heavy team.

But in reality, the three bodyguards for LGD's two marksmen in this game—Gragas, Lulu, and Karma—are all AP champions.

Although none of the three players are dedicated to damage output, their combined skill base damage alone provides a considerable amount of AP damage.

Samsung is currently struggling to pick off lone targets and is also unable to win team fights.

Given that this was a do-or-die game, the usually cautious Samsung players inevitably became somewhat "timid" in such a disadvantageous situation.

As a result, in the game, LGD players huddled together, destroying towers everywhere, and Samsung had no solution and offered little effective resistance.

They watched helplessly as LGD took down one of their outer towers after another.

Make way, make way, make way!
I'll give up anything!
Samsung's team simply dragged out the game as if it were muscle memory.

But delaying death only means they're not dead yet.

Not dying doesn't mean you'll live; it might just mean you'll die a little later.

At 16 minutes into the game, LGD's "demolition team" found an opportunity and destroyed Samsung's top lane tower.

One minute later, LGD easily secured the Rift Herald, and Samsung showed no intention of defending it.

Karma picked up the Vanguard's Eye.

At 19 minutes into the game, four LGD players grouped up and pushed towards Samsung's second top lane tower.

Zhou Dian's Karma pushed the bottom lane minion wave a bit, released the Rift Herald, and then teleported directly to the top lane to meet up with his teammates, not giving Samsung any chance to initiate a fight with a numerical advantage.

LGD used the same tactic again, with Karma using her RE combo to rush in and then Gragas using his ultimate to blast away the Samsung tower defenders. LGD's two marksmen then started relentlessly attacking the tower.

However, this time the Samsung team arrived in time and were prepared, so Gragas' ultimate ability wasn't very effective.

After taking down half the health of Samsung's second top lane tower, the five Samsung players regrouped and quickly cleared the red minion wave under the tower.

Seeing this, Zhou Dian decisively ordered his teammates to retreat temporarily and wait for the next wave of minions to arrive.

As the next wave of minions arrived, LGD players once again pressed towards Samsung's second top tower.

However, due to the lack of key abilities such as Gragas' ultimate, LGD players were unable to find many opportunities to attack the turrets this time.

The minion wave under the tower was quickly cleared by the Samsung team, with only Caitlyn managing to hit the tower twice using her long range.

Unable to push down the barrier, LGD players began to slowly retreat.

After all, it's almost been twenty minutes, and Baron Nashor is about to spawn.

If something goes wrong and we lose the dragon, then all the advantages we've built up will be gone.

Most importantly, LGD has achieved its main objective in this wave.

It doesn't matter that we didn't take down the top lane second tower, because LGD has already taken down the bottom lane second tower.

If all five LGD players are in the top lane, then who pushed down the bottom lane second tower?
It's definitely the Rift Herald!

Before Zhou Dian teleported to the top lane, he specifically dealt with the minion wave in the bottom lane.

When LGD's five players first attacked Samsung's top lane second turret, the Rift Herald had already arrived at Samsung's bottom lane second turret with a wave of cannon minions.

The most crucial point is that LGD's minion wave reached the tower before the Rift Herald.

Then, the Rift Herald crashed headfirst into Samsung's bottom lane second turret.

Then, together with the minions and cannons, they chipped away at Samsung's bottom lane second turret, one hit at a time.

On the top lane, seeing LGD retreat, crown quickly pressed the B key, and Malzahar recalled to base on the spot.

As soon as Malzahar returned to the fountain, his health and mana had just begun to recover when crown hurriedly controlled Malzahar to rush out of the fountain and head straight for the bottom lane, without wasting a single second.

Reaching the bottom lane inhibitor turret, the low-health Rift Herald was already preparing to charge.

Crown quickly stepped forward, intending to shoot the eye behind the vanguard.

However, it was ultimately too late.

The Rift Herald slammed headfirst into Samsung's bottom lane inhibitor turret, knocking away half of its health.

Then Malzahar's basic attack landed on the Vanguard's eye, killing it.

In the commentary box.

"Can we break through?" Doll stared intently at the Rift Herald in the center of the screen in front of her.

At this moment, those who care about this Rift Herald also include many viewers at the scene and in the live broadcast room who support LGD.

"Hey~ we crashed it out, this vanguard made a killing!" Doll exclaimed.

"That was a really good trade. LGD put all five players on the top lane to pressure the tower, and then placed a Rift Herald on the bottom lane to pressure the tower as well. It seems like Samsung was caught off guard!"

Miller continued, "This vanguard, all alone, not only destroyed Samsung's bottom lane second turret, but also destroyed one of Samsung's bottom lane inhibitor turrets, successfully completing his mission!"

Seeing this pioneering spirit suddenly reminded me of a word. Do you know what it is?

"What?" Miller asked curiously.

"Isn't this the legendary 'May 1st' split push?" Wawa chuckled. "You Korean teams don't usually play the 4-1 split push, do you? Today we're going to give you an upgraded version of the 4-1 split push—the 'May 1st' split push!"

"So the first one to split push on May 1st is Rift Herald, right? Haha!" Miller couldn't help but laugh too.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Rift Herald only knocked down one of Samsung's bottom lane inhibitor towers.

But this collision was crucial.

Samsung's bottom lane inhibitor turret is down to half health. If a player doesn't rotate to another lane in time, LGD could easily take down the turret.

For the losing side, once the game has been going on for more than 20 minutes, the importance of the bottom lane inhibitor tower becomes paramount.

The reason, naturally, lies with the dragon.

If the losing side loses their bottom lane inhibitor out of thin air, then they will almost certainly lose Baron Nashor as well, and the game is practically over.

At 22 minutes into the game, LGD took down their third dragon of the match, an earth dragon.

The next one is still an earth dragon.

Seeing the earthen dragon, the mood of the Samsung team became even more depressed.

Is fate truly favoring the opponent?

It's one thing to kill one earth dragon, but to kill a second one is another.

If LGD gets the second Earth Dragon, it means Samsung's game is over.

With the buff from the two Earth Dragons, LGD's lineup of two marksmen and two enchanter supports will be able to take down Baron Nashor at an incredibly fast pace.

It would probably only take about seven seconds for LGD to rush down Baron. Such a fast Baron kill speed wouldn't give Samsung any time to react.

If Samsung hadn't had anyone camping in front of the Baron pit, LGD might have rushed down Baron.

Even among the disciplined Samsung team, the players' emotions began to waver to varying degrees.

At 25 minutes into the game, LGD destroyed the low-health Samsung's second top lane tower.

With this, all six outer towers of Samsung were destroyed.

LGD, on the other hand, only lost one top lane tower.

The economic gap between the two sides remains at nearly six thousand.

Next, it won't be so easy for LGD to push onto the high ground; they'll have to rely on the power of Baron Nashor.

Samsung will naturally defend this dragon.

LGD lacked split-push capabilities in this game, so although Samsung was at a significant disadvantage, defending Baron Nashor was much easier than in the previous game.

The key lies in the second earth dragon that follows.

If the Earth Dragon isn't lost, and the situation can be stalled for a few more minutes, Samsung's situation will gradually improve.

After all, LGD's top, jungle, and support players in this game all have AP damage, so they can be considered pure supports and didn't build much damage items.

In the early to mid-game, these three characters can contribute decent AP output simply by relying on the base damage of their skills.

However, after 30 minutes, this amount of AP output becomes insufficient.

It's possible that a single Bird Shield could completely negate all the gems.

After 30 minutes, LGD's game could barely be considered a physical damage team.

At 27 minutes and 30 seconds into the game, the second earth dragon spawned.

Samsung didn't have a good vision advantage near the Dragon Pit, but they still managed to get one ward to accurately track the movement of the Barrel.

LGD's jungler, Gragas, headed straight for the dragon pit!

Samsung's players grouped up and headed straight for the dragon. After carefully securing vision in the river, they discovered that LGD only had Gragas in the vicinity.

It's obvious that the other four members of LGD went to fight Baron!
Samsung left Varus and Shen to fight the dragon, while the rest rushed to the Baron pit.

After all, LGD's jungler is not there, so if they can arrive in time, they have a great chance to steal the Baron.

However, two archers can take down the dragon too quickly; having an earth dragon as a buff is enough.

Master An's Blind Monk was still a step too late.

LGD successfully secured Baron Nashor!

"Great! Baron Nashor is in the bag!" Miller in the commentary booth was so excited he almost jumped up.

In the current situation, with the Baron Nashor captured, it's tantamount to a death sentence for Samsung.

Because Samsung's lineup in this game makes it impossible for them to pull off the same miraculous team fight as in the previous game.

At 31 minutes into the game, LGD destroyed all three lanes of Samsung's inhibitor turrets before the Baron buff expired.

At 32 minutes into the game, after recalling to base to replenish their supplies, the five LGD players, along with super minions from all three lanes, surged into Samsung's two inhibitor turrets.

Without crowd control, Samsung is powerless to stop them. You can't expect Lee Sin to use his ultimate on five enemies!
It was the same scenario we'd seen many times before: Karma's RE gave the entire team a speed boost, Gragas's ultimate cleared the way, and LGD didn't give Samsung a chance to fight back at all, focusing only on the turrets and the base crystal.

Seconds later, Samsung's twin towers collapsed, exposing the base crystal.

With victory within reach, Miller could no longer contain his excitement and shouted from the commentary booth, "The final battle at the Bird's Nest, here we come!"

LGD players disregarded everything and charged towards Samsung's base crystal.

They completely ignored the attacks from Samsung, because Samsung couldn't possibly defend against this wave.

When Samsung's base crystal was down to half health, the large screen at the scene split in two.

The left side shows the game screen, and the right side shows the live feeds of several LGD players.

In the image on the left, Lucian has already been killed.

In the right-hand view, Lucian's player, GodV, jumped up from his chair in excitement.

Then, Eimy, who was to Wei Shen's right, also jumped up from his chair.

They were still wearing their headphones, hugging each other with the headphones on their heads.

As the policewoman unleashed her final basic attack before dying, the game screen on the left froze instantly, followed by the blue team's base crystal exploding.

The second semi-final match of the S7 World Championship has concluded!
"Let's congratulate LGD!" Miller shouted.

The cheers from the audience had reached their peak, the powerful sound almost ripping the roof off the stadium.

In the official live broadcast room, the chat was instantly flooded with the message "Congratulations LGD".

"Congratulations to LGD for defeating Samsung 3-2 in this semi-final and advancing to the finals of this World Championship. They will face the three-time S-series champions SKT in the finals!" Wawa shouted excitedly.

"This is the first time in three years that an LPL team has made it to the World Championship finals!"

“Yes!” Miller nodded. “Yesterday, RNG unfortunately stopped in the decisive game, but today LGD withstood the pressure and didn’t give Samsung any chance in this final game!”

"Throughout the entire BO5 series, LGD undoubtedly had a very tough time, but they ultimately pulled through!"

Congratulations again to LGD!

Congratulations to LGD!

The cheers from the audience continued unabated, with no sign of abating.

Even though this is only the semi-final, not the final.

But all the viewers who support LGD and LPL are still incredibly excited.

The prolonged cheers represented that they had poured out all their excitement and exhilaration.

In recent years, LPL teams have had a really dismal record in the World Championship.

LGD has already defeated Longzhu and Samsung in the knockout stage.

Even though LGD won this BO5 against Samsung with great difficulty, there was still an element of luck involved.

But they ultimately won and advanced to the final showdown at the Bird's Nest.

The opponent in the final battle is SKT, and the cheers from the audience actually contain a hidden expectation for the final.

We hope LGD can defeat SKT in the finals and achieve the feat of defeating three Korean teams in one go.

After all, LGD did it in the MSI finals six months ago!
The live stream camera then shifted from the audience seats back to the main stage, focusing on the Samsung players' seats.

All five Samsung players looked utterly dejected.

After Emperor Ruler slumped back in his chair, Crown stared blankly at the screen in front of him, seemingly unwilling to accept the fact that he had lost.

Sect Leader An rested his right hand on his forehead, propping it on the table, his expression indescribably complex.

As one of the earliest professional League of Legends players in South Korea, and a true veteran, Ambition, who switched from the mid lane to the jungle, has experienced a second spring in his professional career.

After narrowly losing to SKT in last year's S-series finals and unfortunately finishing as runner-up, Ambition's goal this year is naturally the championship.

Master An has already made a decision: if he wins the S-series championship this time, he will retire immediately.

(End of this chapter)