Mingkai, if you're this cowardly, you should just go home and raise pigs.

Upon seeing EDG pick Varus as their first pick, SSG immediately began a discussion.

After the group stage, all teams have increased their priority for Galio in the current version.

It can act as a front-line tank, initiate team fights with W-Flash, and deal decent damage while protecting teammates, making it a high-priority choice.

"Should we take Galio first?" Cuvee couldn't help but ask.

“We can’t pick Galio!” SSG’s head coach Edgar shook his head slightly: “We have to pick Lulu and Kog’Maw, and the third pick has to be a jungler, otherwise EDG will definitely shut one of us down in the second round.”

After reviewing their consecutive losses to RNG in the group stage, Edgar knew he had to prioritize the bot lane.

The original plan was for the bottom lane to farm peacefully and wait for the support to build Ardent Censer to drag the game into the late game.

But if everyone is developing peacefully, who will be able to synthesize the incense burner first?

Therefore, invading the jungle and depleting the health of the turrets become extremely important.

These are all places where you can gain gold, besides laning and getting kills.

If you don't pay attention to the laning phase, you'll lose health if the enemy pushes your lane.

Therefore, in addition to pushing and making moves first, another very important advantage of lane control is the ability to deplete the opponent's health.

If you pick Galio first, and you don't want your jungler to be restricted, then you can only let your AD carry come out in the second round.

There will be very few ADs left to choose from, which is something Edgar cannot accept.

"Let's choose Lulu and Big Mouth first!" Edgar made the decision decisively.

"OK!"

The red team's SSG chose Lulu and Kog'Maw.

EDG didn't hesitate to choose Rakan and Galio.

This is what makes EDG and SSG different.

SSG must pick a jungler in the first three picks because the only strong junglers in the current meta are Jarvan IV, Sejuani, and Gragas.

The prince has already been banned; if you don't select him, he'll be completely gone in the second round.

EDG doesn't have this problem, as Clearlove has a wide selection of champions.

Of course, these junglers, including Ambition and many junglers in the World Championship, can play these games.

Knowing how to play and knowing how to win are two completely different concepts.

When the factory manager picks junglers that aren't considered strong in the current meta, this includes both the factory manager and coach Nofe...

They all don't know how to win the game!

Because if it's not a strong version, the operational logic, when to force team fights, vision placement, gank timing, and how to split push are all completely different things.

But Zhou Hanyang knew all of these things, and he could direct the factory manager and EDG to play.

This is the fundamental reason why Nofe trusts Zhou Hanyang so much and is willing to listen to his business plan.

Ultimately, the game is played by the players. As long as the players can manage the game well and win, then it's a good draft!

Rakan is indeed very strong at initiating team fights, but his laning phase is really too weak.

This is the fundamental reason why RNG's bot lane can't play Rakan; RNG's bot lane needs to win the lane.

why?

They have no advantage in the top lane or the mid lane.

If the bottom lane doesn't gain an advantage, Spicy Pot won't even have a chance to enter the river; his jungle will become the enemy's backyard.

Seeing that EDG had chosen Galio and Rakan as their mid and support, forming a strong teamfight initiation strategy, SSG, on the red side, directly chose Gragas.

Gragas can initiate team fights or use his ultimate to counter-attack, blasting any enemy who charges in to pieces.

After both sides completed their first round of selections, the second round of banning began.

There's not much to say about SSG on the red side; he immediately banned the Factory Director's Sejuani.

This forced EDG to choose an unconventional jungler!

The second ban spot went to the excavator!

The excavator is too powerful in the jungle in the early game, and it's also incredibly strong when paired with Galiolo.

EDG restricted mid laners, banning Ryze and Taliyah!

Nofe ultimately didn't restrict the top laner, trusting Zhou Hanyang's individual ability and not needing to provide him with much help in the draft phase.

Even when facing a disadvantageous draft, Zhou Hanyang can still gain an advantage in his lane through his individual skills.

SSG, on the red team's fourth floor, chose Ice Maiden.

It's not certain yet that EDG's Galio will definitely play mid lane.

SSG continues its strategy of counter-engaging, choosing heroes like Crystal Maiden who can both engage and restrict counter-engage.

"Zhou Hanyang, what should we choose?" Nofe looked at Zhou Hanyang.

Actually, EDG has a lot of champions to choose from right now, such as Camille and Hecarim in the top and jungle, Camille and Galio in the top and jungle, Nocturne and Kennen, or Nocturne and Galio in the mid and jungle...

"Let's choose the crocodile and the spider!" Zhou Hanyang said after a long pause.

"A crocodile and a spider?" Nofe was slightly taken aback.

EDG's mid and support have already chosen to engage in team fights, so in theory they should just add top and jungle players who can also engage in team fights.

But Zhou Hanyang is now saying he wants to play the top, mid, and jungle of Renekton and Elise, and Nofe is not quite following Zhou Hanyang's thinking.

"It's obvious we've done our research; they're trying to limit us by counter-engaging," Zhou Hanyang explained. "With Kog'Maw positioned far back, Gragas, Lissandra, Janna..."

If they pick another Maokai in the top lane, and it's all anti-engage champion picks, it'll be very difficult for us to really disrupt their formation. In that case, we won't engage; we'll just snowball our advantage in the laning phase!

Many people only know that Xayah and Janna are an excellent teamfight bot lane combination, but few people know that Kog'Maw is also a very strong AD carry who can counter-engage!

In later generations, many people chose Kog'Maw to counter Draven, and achieved quite good results.

It's all thanks to its long arms!

This is true that basic attacks are needed in the Ardent Censer version, but when the lineup is too countered, poke can also be surprisingly effective.

Just like EDG's Jayce/Nightmare/Twitch combo in the group stage.

It must be said that SSG was indeed well-prepared.

They've already dug a pit for them, just waiting for them to jump in.

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[The World Championship knockout stage is here, so I need to talk to you about some more advanced stuff! The earlier parts were mostly mindless, enjoyable content; the strategic drafting and proper macro-management will come later! Everything the author has learned in 8 years of experience is in this World Championship! After watching this World Championship, you'll truly understand the game!]