LOL: What does it mean to torture players?

The factory manager smiled when he heard this: "We're playing games with President Mo today, so let's all be on our toes and make the most of it."

Entering the draft phase, EDG players picked their respective champions: Kled for top lane, Taliyah for jungle, Kayle for mid lane, Garen for ADC, and Yuumi for support.

After entering the game, Su Mo did not get brutally beaten by the opposing top laner as the factory manager had expected.

On the contrary, they completely dominated the opposing team. Clearlove had a pretty easy time in the jungle, since his teammates were so effective from the start.

The factory manager joked, "It seems Mr. Mo hasn't completely given up on this game; his skill level is quite high."

Meiko replied, "Brother Mozi's talent is undeniable. I feel that even if he doesn't play games for a year, he can recover after playing a few rounds, right, Brother Mozi?"

Su Mo smiled and said, "That's about right."

The first game ended quickly, and the factory manager had the lowest KDA. In the second game, Jiejie was substituted in.

Jiejie hadn't fought alongside Su Mo in a long time, so she was very serious. The two of them coordinated their top and jungle skills, making the opposing team suffer terribly.

The factory manager and Abu were watching from behind when Abu suddenly asked, "Mingkai, what's going on between you and Xiaomo? Why do you seem to be deliberately keeping your distance? Are you having a fight? Or are you joking around?"

The factory manager denied it, saying, "Really? Are you overthinking it? I don't think so."

The factory manager's denial made Abu realize something was amiss, and he wondered, "You don't have a problem with Xiao Mo's sudden retirement...rest, do you think he betrayed EDG?"

"If that's what you think, you don't need to. Xiao Mo has made such a great contribution to EDG, we're grateful to him. He was just a substitute at first, we just wanted him to fill in temporarily, who would have thought he would have such ability."

Abu lowered his voice, not wanting others to hear.

The factory manager replied dismissively, "Alright, I understand. Let's talk about something else."

Abu continued, "Actually, after winning the championship last year, I felt that Xiao Mo's emotions were not right. I advised him, and the boss also advised him."

"But there was nothing we could do; we couldn't persuade them. Later we realized,"

The live stream continued until the early hours of the morning, and amidst the fans' reluctant comments, Su Mo chose to end the live stream.

Everyone took off their headphones, and Meiko exclaimed in surprise, "Did you guys feel it? Mozi's skills don't seem to have declined at all. He's so strong, he's MVP every single game!"

Scout exclaimed, "That's amazing!"

Iboy said, "Awesome, I feel like I've regressed a lot. I guess I only have two or three levels of my peak strength. I usually play two or three games a day."

Abu greeted everyone, "You've all worked hard. The playoffs don't start for another few days. I see you're all in such a good mood today, let's go out for a late-night snack together. How about it, you must be hungry too."

Meiko exclaimed excitedly, "Great! I want to have a late-night snack with Brother Mozi!"

Iboy was also very excited: "It's been so long since I had a late-night snack with Brother Mozi, let's go!"

So the entire EDG team set off together, including the new members, leaving the training base to find food outside.

The group went to a barbecue restaurant, asked for a table, and ordered food.

Su Mo was sandwiched between Meiko and Iboy. Meiko seemed to have a thousand things to say and frantically tried to find topics to chat with Su Mo.

The atmosphere was joyful and pleasant, very comfortable.

Suddenly, Su Mo asked, "Are you confident about the playoffs? You won't be eliminated in the first round, will you?"

Upon hearing this, Meiko, who had been talking incessantly, fell silent instantly.

Everyone lowered their heads awkwardly and looked away.

Hope said, "Brother Mozi, when are you planning to come back? You haven't been playing practice matches with us. If you suddenly play, I feel like we won't be able to coordinate well."

"Of course, I don't care about the bot lane anymore. The main thing is the mid and top lanes. The current version is different, and the tactics have also changed a lot."

Iboy is clearly unaware that Su Mo has retired; only a handful of people know this right now.

When Su Mo was with EDG, although he often didn't play, he was indispensable when reviewing games and developing tactics.

This time, Su Mo didn't come to EDG at all during the entire regular season, which was completely different from before.

Before Su Mo could speak, Abu interjected, "You can't just rely on others; you have to improve yourselves too. It's been months, and you haven't made any progress."

Hope seemed a little confused: "Huh? Mozi will be playing sooner or later, he's one of our EDG players."

Abu was speechless, because what Hope said wasn't wrong either. Su Mo was still nominally an EDG player, at least in the eyes of outsiders.

Then why not play? During the regular season, you could say you wanted to rest and conserve your energy, but when it comes to the crucial playoffs and EDG is about to lose, you should at least play.

"I think if you guys can't even win a league championship, there's no point in Xiao Mo playing," Abu suddenly said, startling the EDG team.

After all, they were counting on Su Mo to save the day if things went wrong.

It was already 2 a.m. when they finished their late-night snack. Su Mo said goodbye to the EDG team. Abu wanted to persuade him to stay for a few more days, but Su Mo refused, saying that he had things to do at the company.

The next day, Su Mo saw a big news story!

#EDG might not field Mozi in the playoffs

Su Mo clicked in and saw that it turned out that someone at the next table had filmed her while she was having a late-night snack last night and posted the video online.

Of course, the comments below are all relatively optimistic:
“Abu is obviously just trying to scare them; there’s nothing to worry about.”

"I feel relieved to see that Mozi and EDG have such a good relationship."

“There were even rumors before that Mozi had broken up with EDG, which was really outrageous.”

"I understand! This is EDG's strategy! To lull the other teams into a false sense of security!"

At the same time, Su Mo received his first piece of good news after doing business for several months. Thanks to his promotion, his personal brand, Mo Zi, was very successful.

After all, his Douyin account has such a loyal following, so advertising on it is much more effective than hiring an advertising company.

The playoffs begin in a few days!
As EDG is usually ranked sixth, they have to start from the first round.

Inside the office, a huge screen appeared on Su Mo's desk, which Su Mo had specially set up to watch the game.

When he went to work today, he specifically told Rita to finish her work so she could watch the game in the afternoon.

Now is the time to enjoy life.

"Alright viewers, thank you for waiting! Welcome to the 2020 League of Legends Pro League playoffs. In the first round, the three-time champions and the strongest team in history, EDG, will face off against RNG!"

During the regular season, RNG ranked seventh, so coincidentally, the two teams met in the first round of the playoffs.

The "Pig vs. Dog" rivalry has always been a hot topic in the LPL, but it's different this time.

In the past, the pig-dog battle usually took place in the finals or semi-finals.

This happened in the first round of the playoffs.

The LPL has undergone a reshuffle, with the top-ranked teams being newcomers. The traditional "Big Three" are now ranked 6th, 7th, and 8th, each in a worse state than the last. WE almost didn't even make it to the playoffs.

The host, Luo Xi, took the stage and gave a brief opening speech before inviting the contestants from both sides. The contestants then took their places on stage.

As the draft phase begins, the director gives a close-up shot of EDG.

The factory manager, wearing headphones and a suit, was holding a notebook and talking non-stop.

"Not bad, the factory is very professional," Su Mo joked.

After the draft phase ended, the match began.

The complexity of this competition far exceeded Su Mo's expectations.

I initially thought EDG's performance was quite poor, as they were put at a huge disadvantage by RNG in the early stages of the first game.

Some viewers were even spamming Su Mo's ID in the chat, expressing their desire for Su Mo to come up and play. However, who could have predicted that RNG, with their advantage, would pull off a daring tactic, initiating a Baron fight, only to have it stolen by their top laner Ornn with a flash!
The reason why Ornn could steal the Baron Nashor in the top lane is because he had Unsealed Spellbook. He teleported directly to the top lane, swapped a Smite, flashed into the Baron pit, and Smiteed the Baron.

The most crucial issue is that when the unsealed secret manual is used to change a summoner spell, the system will notify everyone in the room!

So, as we can see, RNG was completely unprepared, allowing Ornn to easily steal the Baron, and ultimately lost the game because of it.

"So, it's a contest of who's the worst? That's interesting." Su Mo couldn't help but laugh.

RNG's jungler, XLB, is also a comedic genius.

Su Mo pondered that even if UZI's hand was healed now, he probably wouldn't want to go up and play. Going up would ruin his reputation. What kind of teammate was he before? What kind of teammate is he now?
At the same time, Su Mo admired Xiao Hu's mentality and ability to withstand pressure. He truly deserves to be called an e-sports comedian. After losing this game, he showed no expression at all, as if nothing had happened.

In the second game, the two teams were evenly matched at the beginning, but in the end, it was XLB who was eliminated first in the dragon fight, leading to a major team fight defeat. EDG took advantage of this and secured the Baron, winning again!

Su Mo realized that EDG had identified XLG as their weak point and had been targeting him, looking for opportunities to exploit him.

XLG is also very reliable; if you ask him for a chance, he will actually give you one.

The score is now 2-0.

In the third game, EDG continued to let XLB play his heroes and continued to look for opportunities for him.

But this time it didn't work; instead, they knocked out their teeth and were defeated by RNG.

In the fourth game, Clearlove gave EDG a strategy: a level 1 invasion, catching the opponent off guard.

Taking advantage of their stronger level 1 team fight, they secured two kills at level 1 and forced the enemy to use three Flashes.

In addition, EDG has a strong early-game lineup, so they swept through the competition and ultimately won the game.

Su Mo was not surprised by this result, after all, RNG's regular season record was slightly worse than EDG's.

In addition, the two teams are old rivals and are quite familiar with each other, so there is no question of who has more experience.

After the match ended, Su Mo saw RNG fans cheering for UZI:

"Where are the Uzbeks? Why aren't they playing?"

"Isn't Uzi still with RNG? What does it mean to not let him play?"

"What's wrong with his hand? Does anyone know anything about this?"

"Not a single word. RNG's ability to keep quiet is too impressive."

Just then, Su Mo saw a message from UZI:
"I thought I'd get to see you play today, Mozi. I heard you haven't played a single ranked game or a scrim. How have you maintained your form?"

Su Mo responded: "Meditation training."

UZI: "Hahaha, awesome, awesome. I can't do that. If I don't play games for a while, my hands get stiff. My injury hasn't healed yet, but I still have to play one or two games every day."

Su Mo: "How are your negotiations going?"

UZI: "People from BLG talked to me. They seem to have ideas and are still communicating with the club."

Su Mo: "That's great! It looks like I'll be able to make a comeback soon."

UZI: "Sigh... let's just take it one step at a time."

After the match, Su Mo even took a look at the comments online.

Because Aodi stole the Baron Nashor, helping EDG turn the tide, his reputation is now quite high.

"Holy crap, Aodi must have been trained by Brother Mozi, he's so gifted."

"EDG's top laner is really something."

"This is what inheritance is, do you understand?"

"You've only learned the basics. When Brother Mozi takes the stage, you'll see what true dominance is."

A few days later, the match between EDG and FPX began, the second round of the playoffs.

Su Mo continued watching the live stream.

FPX hasn't changed much from last year; the starting five are still the same.

Doinb picked Twisted Fate in the first game to lane against Scout's Syndra.

During the laning phase, Doinb was indeed significantly outfarmed by Scout in terms of CS.

Despite being a three-time world champion mid laner, Scout still maintains a remarkably high level of performance.

That's quite rare.

Many players perform well in one or two seasons, but few can maintain that level of performance for three or four years.

The odds are even, with an economic gap of less than 2,000, so both sides have a chance to win.

However, in the mid-game, Doinb seized the opportunity when Hope was farming minions alone, used his ultimate to fly over, control him, and cooperate with his teammates to complete the kill!

FPX headed straight for the Baron pit, intending to take down Baron, but because their jungler's health was low, FPX chose not to fight and went back to replenish their supplies.

Anyway, EDG doesn't have an ADC, so they can't take over the Baron.

Then, an outrageous scene unfolded.

EDG has vision and can see FPX recalling to base to replenish their supplies.

Aodi's Ornn decisively activated his ultimate and initiated a team fight.

"Huh? What's going on?" Su Mo was confused.

The opposing team hasn't even gone back yet, what's the point of Sion initiating the team fight?
As a result, EDG, without an ADC, suffered a crushing defeat in team fights, and FPX secured the Baron Nashor, instantly ending any suspense in the match.

"No?" Su Mo had seen plenty of outrageous things.

But this time I was genuinely terrified.

The fact that the opposing team didn't attack Baron Nashor was already a huge concession to EDG, yet EDG still chose to initiate a team fight in a 4v5 situation when they didn't have an ADC.

Most people would never have imagined that this could be done.

Ultimately, EDG lost the first match.

The barrage of comments exploded:

"CS! It's so C!"

Did Audi take money from the other side of the street?

"Is this something a human could do?"

"I reckon everyone else on EDG was shocked by him. What the heck?"

A moment later, the second match began.

In this game, Scout picked Tsar, which means he wanted to carry the game himself.

Entering the match screen, EDG's early game rhythm was quite good, with both carries getting many kills and developing very well.

However, during the push on the top lane, Scout's Azir made a mistake when he tried to initiate a team fight. He didn't deal much damage and ended up giving himself away, resulting in a lost team fight and the enemy team taking Baron Nashor.

"You're getting impatient." Su Mo could tell that the Tsar wasn't a good fit for Scout.

This involves a player's style and understanding of team fights; it's a very complex issue, not just a matter of sufficient hero proficiency. (End of Chapter)