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

Chapter 237 Preview!

Riot Games has already arranged training facilities for the players of each team, as well as meeting rooms specifically for meetings, similar to the arrangements for the World Championship.

However, only the champion teams from each region can participate in MSI, so the number of participating teams is not large, and the arrangements in all aspects can be carried out in an orderly manner.

Today was the final match of the Play-In Stage, and as expected, Vietnam and the LMS region successfully defended their titles, defeating numerous opponents in the Play-In Stage to advance to the main event.

With this, the teams participating in the MSI main event have been officially confirmed.

They are EDG, the LPL Spring Champions, and KZ, the LCK Spring Champions.

Fnatic from the European region, Team Liquid from the North American region, EVOS from the Vietnamese region, and Flash Wolves from the LMS region.

A total of six teams will play a double round-robin BO1 format, and the top four teams will advance to the knockout stage, where the first-place team can choose its opponent.

This is the only new format change at this year's MSI; everything else is the same as in previous years.

While the EDG members were chatting, Maokai walked into the meeting room with a thick stack of documents.

"Everyone, please be quiet."

Maokai coughed a few times to attract everyone's attention. "Before we officially start training, let's understand the version situation first, so that we can have a clear mind during training."

Currently, EDG's training strategy is mainly formulated by Maokai, Wang Yao, and Clearlove. Wang Yao provides training ideas, while Maokai and Clearlove are responsible for information gathering and confirmation.

Wang Yao took the documents from Maokai, which highlighted the key changes in the version and hero modifications.

"The version used in this Mid-Season Invitational is 8.8, which is quite a significant change."

The current version has added two minor patches, and it has to be said that Riot Games is becoming more and more adept at handling version changes and modifications.

Based on past practice, apart from the major changes at the end of the year, there are also mid-season patch changes after the MSI season ends.

Other patch changes are mostly limited to numerical adjustments to equipment and heroes, and there are no patches that overturn the existing game structure.

Maokai cut to the chase, saying directly, "The first thing to watch out for is a reworked hero."

"That's Irelia!"

Irelia, the Blade Dancer, finally received the designers' favor in patch 8.7, undergoing a rework that almost turned her into a completely new champion.

The W skill has changed from being an active skill that adds true damage to basic attacks to [Group Dance] which now provides percentage-based damage reduction.

However, Irelia's E skill, Twin Blades, makes her control less reliable. She is no longer guaranteed to stun the opponent as before, as long as her current health percentage is lower than the opponent's.

However, now, E skill and R [Vanguard Blade] can mark enemy heroes as long as they hit them, thus refreshing the cooldown of Q [Blade Impact].

In fact, Riot Games follows a principle when reworking champions: to raise the skill ceiling of champions, but this also lowers their skill floor.

Take Fiora for example. Although many people miss the Blade Waltz skin, it is undeniable that the new version of Fiora has a much higher skill ceiling than the old version.

Similarly, the old version of Irelia didn't have a high skill ceiling or floor. Once she was fully equipped, even a Silver player could rush in and dominate the ADC.

Activate W and use a basic attack to deal true damage, use the ultimate to heal yourself, and even if the E skill doesn't stun, it can still slow you down – that's easy for anyone.

However, the new version of Irelia has all her skills revolved around stacking passive stacks by refreshing the cooldown of her Q skill.

If Irelia misses her key abilities, she's less effective than a super minion in team fights, which is quite unfriendly to novice players. However, with high skill levels, the new Irelia can be incredibly fluid and exciting, like a second Yasuo, offering a smooth and enjoyable experience.

"Actually, from the perspective of skill mechanics, this hero is not very suitable for professional matches."

Maokai said with a slight frown.

He is a typical EDG-style coach, always prioritizing stability in his top lane champion picks, and ideally, the top laner should be a master of champions like Maokai, Shen, or Ornn.

He doesn't really like to let players use agile champions like Irelia.

The reason is simple: the new version of Irelia does have a high skill ceiling, capable of kiting five people and even turning the tables in highlight reels, but her skill floor can also be terrifyingly low.

Professional matches require a high margin for error, and heroes with inherently low tolerance for error are not suitable for professional matches.

"There's nothing we can do about it. This champion is just a stat monster right now, dominating the top lane in the Korean server."

Saint Gun Bro smiled and said.

After Irelia was reworked in patch 8.7, her win rate and usage rate were just average, mainly because players hadn't yet adapted to the hero's playstyle.

As a result, in version 8.8, the designers immediately buffed Irelia, making her already terrifying stats even more incredible.

Once skilled players mastered Irelia, the champion dominated the win rate charts across various servers.

Hearing what Holy Gun said, Maokai nodded thoughtfully, then turned to ask, "Wang Yao, Flandre, how are you two doing with this hero?"

"I can take it anytime."

Wang Yao said confidently.

In terms of hero pool, he has never let EDG suffer in the draft phase; his top-level hero proficiency is no joke.

"I'm only so-so at it, barely usable. If needed, I can practice some more." Saint Gun Bro wasn't so confident.

"Okay, as long as you can take it."

Maokai nodded in satisfaction. He didn't want to be at a disadvantage in the draft phase because of the players' limited champion pools, as it would make it difficult to design a good draft.

As long as the player dares to pick it, there shouldn't be a big problem. After all, the current version of Irelia is an absolute stat monster. A skilled player can easily dominate with her, while an average player won't have much of a problem either.

"Besides the Irelia rework, there are a few other minor changes, such as the reverting of LeBlanc's abilities," Maokai said.

At the beginning of Season 7 last year, Riot's designers made a rather groundbreaking design: a delayed burst damage mechanism for assassin champions.

According to Riot's explanation for the changes, assassin champions are too strong, capable of instantly killing opponents with a single combo, leaving them no chance to retaliate, which makes the game too boring.

As a result, a large number of assassin heroes have been adjusted. For example, Rengar's Q has been changed to a dash AOE damage, and heroes such as Talon and Fizz have been adjusted. LeBlanc has been almost completely reworked!

A once agile assassin LeBlanc has been turned into a clumsy mage who can only unleash burst damage after her passive marks are fully charged.

While clearing lanes is faster, the core burst damage has weakened.

The LeBlanc mid laner who once dominated the mid lane was completely ignored for almost a year. Since they couldn't make a proper adjustment, the designers simply reverted her back to her previous state.

(End of this chapter)