LPL didn't want me? I joined SKT instead!

Without any fancy maneuvers, Xiao Yan's Kalista decisively flashed forward, triggering Hail of Blades, and three spears instantly pierced Xayah's body, followed by her E skill "Tear" to slow her down. Peanut's Jarvan IV executed a precise EQ combo to knock her up, and Wolf's Thresh followed up with crowd control.

"First Blood!"

At 2 minutes and 45 seconds, Viper gave up the first blood.

This is just the beginning.

Upon returning to the arena, Xiao Yan seemed poised to unleash all the killing intent he had accumulated over the past two months. His Kalista was like an unstoppable demon king in the bottom lane, out-farming Viper by thirty CS in six minutes and single-handedly taking down the bottom lane tower in eight minutes.

GRF's jungler Tarzan tried to find a breakthrough in the top lane, but to his dismay, he discovered that TheShy, who was once so arrogant, was now controlling an Ornn, hiding under the tower and happily farming minions, even showing a "thumbs up" emote.

"Damn it! How are we supposed to gank top lane?!" Tarzan yelled in despair over the voice chat.

Unable to secure kills in the top lane, Chovy and Faker were evenly matched in the mid lane, and the bottom lane was completely overwhelmed. GRF, the invincible young guard in the Summer Split, only managed to put up a twenty-minute fight against the fully-formed SKT before Xiao Yan's Kalista, with the Baron buff, pushed down their high ground in one fell swoop.

10-0-4.

This is Xiao Yan's answer sheet in his first appearance after returning. A godlike performance, zero deaths.

The second game followed a similar script. Xiao Yan chose Vayne, and under Faker's Galio's protection, he moved like a ghost in team fights, securing a pentakill and once again ending the game with a crushing victory.

2: 0!

SKT sweeps the league's top team, GRF!

This match heralded the official return of the nightmare that sent shivers down the spines of the world.

The rest of the match turned into a one-sided massacre by SKT.

Whether it's a veteran powerhouse or a dark horse rising star, they all appear utterly vulnerable when facing SKT, a team that has undergone a transformation, boasts a flawless tactical system, and has "Death" at its helm.

SKT's top, mid, and jungle can perfectly withstand pressure and manage the game perfectly, while Xiao Yan in the bottom lane is responsible for destroying everything. If the opponent focuses all their efforts on targeting Xiao Yan, TheShy and Faker will take over the game in team fights; if the opponent lets Xiao Yan develop freely, then after twenty minutes, they will be facing a monster with a one and a half item advantage.

This is an unsolvable deadlock.

An incredible eight-game winning streak!

SKT overtook all other teams, advancing to the playoffs as the top seed in the regular season and securing a direct qualification for the Summer Finals.

The entire LCK, and even the entire League of Legends scene worldwide, was shrouded in a dark cloud by SKT's suffocating dominance.

"So boring..."

Such sentiments have even begun to emerge on South Korean esports forums.

"Although I'm an SKT fan, I have to admit that the matches are too boring these days. As soon as Xiao Yan enters the game, it's over in twenty minutes. There's no suspense, no comebacks, and no excitement. It's like an adult beating up a child."

"The LPL is full of amazing teams, with all sorts of comebacks, while our LCK is just one-sided massacres. This isn't good for the region's development!"

These voices, though only a small number, precisely touched the sensitive nerves of certain high-ranking officials.

Riot Games headquarters, Los Angeles, USA.

The atmosphere in the spacious conference room was somewhat somber. A huge projection screen was displaying SKT's statistics for this season.

Average match duration: 23 minutes and 15 seconds (the shortest in the world).

Fifteen-minute economic gap: Leading by 3500 (first by a wide margin).

Average time for the bottom lane tower to fall: 9 minutes and 20 seconds.

On the right side of the screen is another alarming chart – the viewership ratings curve for the second half of the LCK Summer Split.

Since Xiao Yan's return and SKT's winning streak, LCK's overall viewership has not only failed to rise but has actually declined slightly. Especially in SKT's matches, once the game reaches the 15-minute mark and SKT gains an economic lead, viewer attrition skyrockets.

The reason is simple: the suspense has been lost.

"Gentlemen, we've encountered a major problem."

David, the Chief Esports Operations Officer for League of Legends, stood with his hands crossed on the table, his brow furrowed as he looked at the balance designers and tournament rule makers present.

"The charm of competitive sports lies in suspense and miracles. But now, this SKT team, or rather, this player named XiaoYan, is erasing that suspense."

David tapped the table, his tone serious: "I'm not belittling his skill. On the contrary, he's a genius, a once-in-a-century genius. But he's too strong, to the point of disrupting the game's ecosystem. He's turned an ADC role that should require farming and team protection into an assassin who can take over the game in the early game. This completely contradicts our original design principles for the bot lane ecosystem!"

"If this year's World Championship is like MSI, with SKT speedrunning every game in 20 minutes and no team posing even the slightest threat, then this will be the most poorly-rated World Championship in the history of League of Legends esports! Viewers want to see epic, evenly matched battles, not one-sided massacres!"

A moment of silence fell over the conference room.

Lead balance designer Mark adjusted his glasses and sighed, "David, I understand what you mean. We noticed this issue after MSI. But League of Legends is a fair game; we can't just ban a player because they're too strong."

"I didn't say we were going to ban him!" David raised his voice. "What I want is balance! I want the game to get back to a normal pace! You guys have to find a way to weaken this extreme snowballing ability of the bot lane before the World Championship!"

Mark took a deep breath and opened the laptop in front of him.

"Actually, our team had already prepared a contingency plan. We originally planned to implement it in the Spring Split next year, but now it seems we have to implement it in the World Championship version before the S-series."

Mark projected several documents onto the large screen.

"First, there's the change to the bot lane turret mechanics. We call it the 'Absolute Barrier' plan."

"Currently, XiaoYan's greatest strength lies in utilizing his exceptional individual skills to cripple opponents in the early game, then coordinating with the jungler to tower dive and quickly secure tower plates to establish an economic advantage. To counter this, we will significantly increase the armor and magic resistance of the bottom lane tower in the first fourteen minutes. Additionally, the tower will gain additional damage reduction when multiple enemy heroes are near it. This means that the cost of early tower dives and fast pushes of the bottom lane tower will increase exponentially."

The other designers present nodded in agreement; this change would indeed significantly slow down the pace of pushing towers in the bottom lane.

"Secondly," Mark turned to the next page, his expression becoming somewhat complicated, "it's a targeted nerf to the heroes."

Lead balance designer Mark adjusted his glasses and sighed, "David, I understand what you mean. We noticed this issue after MSI. But League of Legends is a fair game; we can't just ban a player because they're too strong."

"I didn't say we were going to ban him!" David raised his voice. "What I want is balance! I want the game to get back to a normal pace! You guys have to find a way to weaken this extreme snowballing ability of the bot lane before the World Championship!"

Mark took a deep breath and opened the laptop in front of him.

"Actually, our team had already prepared a contingency plan. We originally planned to implement it in the Spring Split next year, but now it seems we have to implement it in the World Championship version before the S-series."

Mark projected several documents onto the large screen.

"First, there's the change to the bot lane turret mechanics. We call it the 'Absolute Barrier' plan."

"Currently, XiaoYan's greatest strength lies in utilizing his exceptional individual skills to cripple opponents in the early game, then coordinating with the jungler to tower dive and quickly secure tower plates to establish an economic advantage. To counter this, we will significantly increase the armor and magic resistance of the bottom lane tower in the first fourteen minutes. Additionally, the tower will gain additional damage reduction when multiple enemy heroes are near it. This means that the cost of early tower dives and fast pushes of the bottom lane tower will increase exponentially."

The other designers present nodded in agreement; this change would indeed significantly slow down the pace of pushing towers in the bottom lane.

"Secondly," Mark turned to the next page, his expression becoming somewhat complicated, "it's a targeted nerf to the heroes."

"I didn't say we were going to ban him!" David raised his voice. "What I want is balance! I want the game to get back to a normal pace! You guys have to find a way to weaken this extreme snowballing ability of the bot lane before the World Championship!"

Mark took a deep breath and opened the laptop in front of him.

"Actually, our team had already prepared a contingency plan. We originally planned to implement it in the Spring Split next year, but now it seems we have to implement it in the World Championship version before the S-series."

Mark projected several documents onto the large screen.

"First, there's the change to the bot lane turret mechanics. We call it the 'Absolute Barrier' plan."

"Currently, XiaoYan's greatest strength lies in utilizing his exceptional individual skills to cripple opponents in the early game, then coordinating with the jungler to tower dive and quickly secure tower plates to establish an economic advantage. To counter this, we will significantly increase the armor and magic resistance of the bottom lane tower in the first fourteen minutes. Additionally, the tower will gain additional damage reduction when multiple enemy heroes are near it. This means that the cost of early tower dives and fast pushes of the bottom lane tower will increase exponentially."

The other designers present nodded in agreement; this change would indeed significantly slow down the pace of pushing towers in the bottom lane.

"Secondly," Mark turned to the next page, his expression becoming somewhat complicated, "it's a targeted nerf to the heroes."

Lead balance designer Mark adjusted his glasses and sighed, "David, I understand what you mean. We noticed this issue after MSI. But League of Legends is a fair game; we can't just ban a player because they're too strong."

"I didn't say we were going to ban him!" David raised his voice. "What I want is balance! I want the game to get back to a normal pace! You guys have to find a way to weaken this extreme snowballing ability of the bot lane before the World Championship!"

Mark took a deep breath and opened the laptop in front of him.

"Actually, our team had already prepared a contingency plan. We originally planned to implement it in the Spring Split next year, but now it seems we have to implement it in the World Championship version before the S-series."

Mark projected several documents onto the large screen.

"First, there's the change to the bot lane turret mechanics. We call it the 'Absolute Barrier' plan."

"Currently, XiaoYan's greatest strength lies in utilizing his exceptional individual skills to cripple opponents in the early game, then coordinating with the jungler to tower dive and quickly secure tower plates to establish an economic advantage. To counter this, we will significantly increase the armor and magic resistance of the bottom lane tower in the first fourteen minutes. Additionally, the tower will gain additional damage reduction when multiple enemy heroes are near it. This means that the cost of early tower dives and fast pushes of the bottom lane tower will increase exponentially."

The other designers present nodded in agreement; this change would indeed significantly slow down the pace of pushing towers in the bottom lane.

"Secondly," Mark turned to the next page, his expression becoming somewhat complicated, "it's a targeted nerf to the heroes."