LOL: My talent is top-tier, my professional skills are unparalleled.

Chapter 178 All-Chinese Team Showdown! What kind of champion are you!
"Top laner Flandre, jungler Clearlove, mid laner Kshine, bot laner iboy, support Meiko, head coach Zhu Kai!"

This season, the factory manager changed his Clearlove7 back to Clearlove, and last year's Clearlove7 will forever remain on the day he won the championship at the Bird's Nest.

When Ren Dong finished reading out the IDs of the new EDG members, the fans who had come to the scene immediately erupted in a deafening cheer.

This is Shanghai, after all, and it's EDG's home stadium, so the atmosphere here will naturally be much more intense than with RNG.

Moreover, this season's EDG, like RNG, also has a completely all-Chinese starting lineup!

Both teams are all-Chinese rosters, so what kind of champion is RNG?!

"Our club has so many fans!" Flandre couldn't help but exclaim, as he hadn't seen so many supporters when he was with Snake Esports.

"It's nothing, you'll get used to it." Meiko smiled, saying that EDG's popularity was no joke.

On stage, both teams were ready and undergoing the final equipment adjustments.

The director then focused the camera on the commentary booth, where Wawa, observing the audience's reaction, smiled and said, "As the host team today, I wonder if EDG can continue their dominance from last season when facing RNG!"

"No matter what, I still think EDG will win tonight's 'Pig vs. Dog' battle," Miller said with a light laugh.

"Alright, both teams have finished their setup, let's officially begin the draft phase!"

Rita began by saying, "Today's match will be played on version 8.1, which is the first match version of Season 8. Let's look forward to the clash between the two teams."

Today is EDG's home game, and they have the right to choose sides first, but they chose the red side, while RNG is on the blue side.

"RNG banned Syndra right away? Kshine has been playing Syndra a lot lately, so it's clear that RNG is still wary of EDG's mid lane."

"EDG countered by shutting down Galio, that's impressive. Even though Galio has been nerfed in this version, he's still a pretty good pick."

Galio was nerfed in patch 7.23, with reduced base damage of his abilities, but a significant increase in AP scaling for each ability.

In addition, Galio's W skill physical damage reduction has now been nerfed to only half of his magic damage reduction!

This means that Galio, the super tank of Season 7, is no longer as resilient when facing ADCs. The current Galio is more like a mage than a mage tank.

However, with the W-Flash mechanic and the protective capabilities of his ultimate R, Galio remains a frequent pick in the mid lane.

RNG bans Ryze!
"Both sides focused their draft picks on the mid lane. Ryze synergizes well with the Phase Rush and Perfect Timing runes in the new patch."

Miller said thoughtfully.

At this point, the director displayed the explanation of the [Perfect Timing] talent on the broadcast screen: Heroes who carry Perfect Timing will start the game with a one-time stopwatch with an initial cooldown of 360 seconds, which, when used, can have the same active stun effect as Zhonya's Hourglass.

After the stopwatch is damaged, it can be reused to synthesize Zhonya's Hourglass, Guardian Angel, or Gargoyle Stoneplate, and the active effects of the three items will be reduced by 15% of their cooldown.

This mid laner is having a blast!
Recently, in the high-elo Korean server, some Ryze players have developed a new playstyle.

When Ryze activates his ultimate, immediately activate Zhonya's Hourglass to achieve the freeze effect without interrupting the ultimate.

Because Ryze's ultimate ability has a 2-second cast time, while Zhonya's Hourglass effect lasts for 2.5 seconds!
This means that as long as you press Zhonya's Hourglass the moment you activate your ultimate, Ryze's ultimate cannot be interrupted and he will definitely be teleported away.

After players discovered this trick, the pick rate of mid-lane Ryze skyrocketed, because Ryze will no longer be afraid of being caught out when split pushing.

Previously, Ryze's ultimate would be disabled when he was controlled, but now even if the enemy sends five people to gank him, Ryze can use Zhonya's Hourglass to teleport away!

EDG subsequently banned Azir, while RNG banned Jarvan IV.

The current version is still in its early stages, and everyone is still exploring it. There aren't many strategies during the draft phase; it's basically about banning specific heroes first, and then banning the strong heroes of the current version.

"Wow, both sides banned a lot of mid-lane heroes in the first game. Although Kshine just switched to mid-lane, RNG still took it very seriously!" Wawa exclaimed in his usual way.

"There's nothing we can do about it. It's mainly because Kshine has been performing too well in Korean solo queue recently. Many skilled mid laners don't have any advantage when facing him."

Miller exclaimed, "Maybe that's just talent. If Kshine can achieve good results in the mid lane, that would be terrifying!"

Soon, the banning phase ended, and it was time for the pick phase.

RNG instantly picked Varus, the strongest bot lane champion in the current version. Poke Varus is currently the AD champion with the highest win rate in the bot lane.

EDG opted for Alistar and Sejuani, a tempo-oriented jungle-support duo, but the Sejuani pick lacked a bit of aggression.

"Haha, the factory manager's choice of Pig Girl is quite fitting for today's pig-dog war theme," Miller said with a smile.

Although Sejuani is still a very strong champion in the jungle, she is somewhat lacking in aggression.

Here, RNG's choice is to counter-pick and lock in Rakan and Orianna!

"Xiao Hu's setup is a standard, conventional one."

Doll nodded. Two balls and one hero are indeed essential weapons for every professional mid-laner. Xiaohu's proficiency in these three common mid-lane heroes is quite good.

However, it's unclear whether Xiaohu has been practicing Zoe, a popular mid-lane champion recently. In any case, they've seen Wang Yao practicing Zoe on the Korean server quite a bit.

EDG locked in Miss Fortune on the third floor.

Both sides entered the second round of draft picks. RNG still had to pick their top and jungle, while EDG still had two choices left: mid and top.

Maokai signaled to his teammates to ban Xiangguo's Lee Sin and Gnar first.

RNG banned Taliyah and Ornn.

But the next second, EDG immediately picked Camille on the 4th floor!

"Wow! Is Flandre going to show off his muscles right from the start? Let's see which champion Letme will use to counter him."

RNG is also considering and discussing the matter.

They could tell that EDG seemed to want to choose a strong engage composition.

RNG has three champions: Orianna, Varus, and Rakan, all of whom have strong counter-engage capabilities. What they currently need is a solid front-line tank and a powerful champion who can help secure kills.

Immediately afterwards, RNG picked Kha'Zix and Sion!

The only remaining suspense in the draft phase for both teams now lies in how EDG will choose their final pick.

EDG quickly provided the answer: the captain!
The Captain is also a hero who takes off because of the new talent, just like the Kleptomancy Ezreal in the bot lane.

Gangplank's Q ability, "Gunfire Negotiation," can directly trigger basic attack effects, meaning that, like Ezreal, Gangplank can trigger the "Kleptomancy" effect by using Q from a distance.

The captain's passive ability already provides extra gold, and combined with the benefits of [Kleptomancy], it can significantly increase the speed at which the captain can complete his equipment!
Furthermore, Gangplank's Q is stronger than Ezreal's Q. Although the casting range is not as long as Ezreal's, Gangplank's Q is a true targeted skill. As long as it is thrown, it will hit and will definitely trigger [Kleptomancy].

However, the Captain is a champion that is mostly played in the top lane, and the probability of him appearing in the mid lane is extremely low. The last time a Captain appeared in the mid lane was during Season 5 when he was played as the Fat General.

That match was also between EDG and RNG, where Pawn's Gangplank made an incredible play.

Wang Yao's choice of captain has a strong sense of paying homage to the fat general.

(End of this chapter)