LOL: I just turned 18, let me fight back and be reborn

Chapter 313 Who is Stealing Someone Else's Stamcon! The Battle of Retribution? The Showdown Between the Two Extremes!

"Welcome everyone to the 2023 LPL Summer Semifinals! This is the Shenzhen V5 home stadium!"

Host Yu Shuang, dressed in a high-slit cheongsam, gracefully took to the stage to begin the event: "After six days of intense competition, WBG successfully defeated BLG yesterday to advance to the semifinals, while last year's defending champion EDG was unfortunately eliminated, confirming their departure from the S13 stage."

"The four teams that will advance to the LPL playoffs have now been determined!"

"They are V5, LNG, JDG, and WBG."

"These four teams will now compete in a double-elimination tournament to determine the team that will ultimately go on to compete in this year's World Championship, and to crown the new champion of this summer's season!"

The competition in the upper half of the bracket is fierce.

The competition in the lower half of the bracket is equally intense.

It's unclear whether the frequent player changes led to BLG's poor team cohesion or whether the imported drug, Tadalafil, was too potent and they haven't adapted yet.

BLG was ultimately defeated by WBG for the second time, and along with TES, they fell into the gauntlet.

This result, however, directly exposed the hidden dangers behind EDG's loss of the game the day before yesterday!
The LPL's "Giant Tournament" rules stipulate that the top six teams in total points will advance. This means that in addition to the champion and runner-up teams who are guaranteed to advance based on their Summer Split points, the two losing teams from the top four will also advance. Therefore, in reality, there are only two spots in the Giant Tournament.

EDG has a higher Spring Split points advantage compared to Li-Ning and Top Esports, and is also tied with WBG. If BLG, with the higher points, wins, it will not affect their qualification spots.

And yet!

EDG not only lost to TES first, allowing them to advance further, but TES then lost to LNG, securing their place in the semifinals. Finally, BLG, with a high score, also lost to WBG.
Netizens who have been calculating their "scores" on various platforms for two days are already feeling a bit overwhelmed.

This is the defending champion team of last year's S-series!
They won the World Championship with a perfect record, retained their jungler and support players after winning two championships in the new season, and even brought in foreign players. This team, which was a two-time champion and a "half-dynasty", announced early this year that they would not be able to enter the World Championship at all, and they didn't even have a chance to play in the gauntlet qualifiers!
The Verus incident in Uzbekistan is considered the culprit.

Soon, many sharp-eyed bloggers posted video analyses, revealing the absurd actions through slow-motion replays.

That very night, an even bigger media frenzy erupted, and the era of "The Great Liquidation" suddenly arrived!
This is divine retribution! Seven years ago, it was a war between pigs and dogs; seven years later, dogs are standing in pig cages. The State Grid is destined to be buried along with the Imperial Army~~~~

Anyone who's watched the analysis video knows Varus is absolutely to blame. It's infuriating! That was the final game of a best-of-five series, a do-or-die situation! How could they practice a hero like that?!

[YE's Verus: "The Terrifying Arrow-Puller"; Uz's Verus: You've come to pull arrows, haven't you?]

It can only be said that when the tide goes out, you see who's been stealing someone else's work!

Were we champions before you arrived? — You only became champions after I arrived! — You ceased to be champions after I left!

[That's true. Given EDG's performance in 22, they were destined to only reach the quarterfinals at Worlds. Thinking about it that way, it was actually worth it. They should have had this opportunity last year.]

While netizens seem to be settling scores on key issues in Uzbekistan's final match.

But mostly I felt a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing feelings, emotions, and reflections).

After all, EDG, a weakened version of the championship team, had their mid-laner FOFO, burdened by guilt, fighting tooth and nail, but the former mid-laner's brilliance was simply too dazzling, and there was nothing they could do.

Top laner Ale is a "pseudo-god" type of player who can reliably carry the team in crucial games, while the jungler and support have indeed seen a slight decline in performance.

In fact, Uzi's overall performance this year has not been too bad, and he can still be ranked in the top six. However, the gap between him and his peak performance is obvious.

What netizens truly miss is the EDG team from last year that moved so many people.

That's why.

Today's semi-final match in the upper bracket is highly anticipated!

The hopes come from multiple sources: "EDG internal war", "grudge match" and "BLG's revenge against the avengers"!

The live stream camera cuts to the audience seats.

The venue was packed with people, demonstrating its immense popularity.

Upon seeing the light shone on the big screen, the audience excitedly waved their support items—most of whom were V5 fans, with their black and gold team logo and the team slogan "Break Through the Enemy's Formation" showing a clear numerical advantage.

However, there are also quite a few teams with the blue and white team logo "Qilin Appears in the Clouds" on the other side.

More importantly, although there was a difference in numbers, the other side had a surprisingly large momentum, and for a time it seemed to be able to rival V5!

"Junior! Junior! Go for it, junior!"

"Kill YE!!!"

"My junior's mom loves you so much! Aaaaaaaah!"

"Today I'll show you that even world champions have differences! Hey you, are you taking pictures of me without my permission?!"

Compared to V5, which has been around for a season, although Ye Bo's fans still make up the majority of their fanbase, all other players have also received love and cheers from him, and there are very few individual cheers anymore.

But the composition of LNG's fanbase is quite clear.

After all, besides Scout, the most famous player on the team is actually Breatha, who was only acquired during the Mid-Season Invitational.

It's obvious that even if the remaining four are tied together and their numbers double, they still don't have as many fans as the mid-laner alone!

Furthermore, the biggest advantage of female fans is their high "tolerance." Even if Scout played poorly last year, even if he led his team to a near-last place finish in the first half of this year, even if he was embroiled in a bunch of negative news, they can still interpret it all with a positive attitude!

And as soon as the team gets into form, especially after just defeating Top Esports 3-0 the day before yesterday.

This has further boosted the confidence of the fan base to an unprecedented level.

Everyone on Weibo is saying: V5 was just lucky! They ran into LNG, who were in bad form at the beginning of summer!

They even used the T1 next door as an example!
In addition, xmm is definitely one of the groups that "hates" Ye Bo the most - they have hated him since the time when he was fighting for the bench in EDG, and they believe that everything Scout is doing today is because of Ye.

All I want to see today is "The Reckoning War"!
So when it was time for the contestants to take the stage, each of them did their best to let out the loudest screams and howls, cheering for their idols!
The terrifying scene made people wonder if they had stumbled upon Silent Hill.

The players took their seats, and the commentators' cameras came on.

"Today's BO5 is going to be interesting. Both sides are familiar faces, and it's also a showdown between former teams," Remember was the first to start the conversation.

Wang Duoduo immediately chimed in, "That's right. Before V5, Flandre played for LNG and EDG. And then there's Ye Shifu and Xue Di, these two former champion teammates in the mid lane. Today is truly a very familiar matchup!"

"At the same time, this match is also crucial to the LPL playoffs!"

Gu Gu adjusted his headset and, following the instructions from the broadcast director, said, "According to the tournament rules, Spring Split champion V5 currently has 90 tournament points, while BLG, the team with the highest points in the gauntlet, only has 30 points. However, the Summer Split runner-up has 110 points, and the third-place team has 90 points."

"In other words, if LNG can win this game against V5, they only need to win one more game to squeeze into the finals, and they will be guaranteed to go to the World Championship!"

"If V5 wins this semi-final, LNG will still be in a difficult situation, meaning they will have to win two or three consecutive games, and their opponents will be strong teams like BLG, WBG, and JDG!"

The points earned in the Summer Split far exceed those in the previous stages; even third place is equal to the Spring Split champion.

Therefore, a poor performance in the Spring Split generally won't significantly affect a spot in the World Championship.

The problem is that V5 and JDG are currently ranked first and second in the spring and summer playoffs! This means that as long as V5 and JDG finish in the top three, their two spots in the playoffs are basically already reserved.

For LNG, a team with zero points in the Spring Split, this match was tantamount to stepping onto the brink of elimination.

A crisp, resounding sound rang out, and the BP panel appeared before everyone.

The audience erupted once again with excited shouts from both fan groups!

"Entering the ban/pick phase, V5, with the higher score, will be the first to move to the blue side!"

First round of bans —

V5: Renekton, Xayah, Poppy
LNG: Akali, Quesanti, Ruined King
Shortly after the changes to Statikk Shiv, Tristana was also targeted and nerfed, with her early-game base stats, especially her magic resistance, being significantly reduced, clearly indicating that they didn't want her to be played in the mid lane.

While Tristana is still playable in the mid lane, she no longer deserves to be banned.

The fall of a series of previously powerful heroes will also indirectly affect some of the logic changes in the current version's ban/pick phase.

"V5 will definitely secure Varus on the first floor!"

"Light, the player on LNG's side, is the only player this season to get a pentakill with Varus, which is also his absolute signature hero!"

Speaking of this, Wang Duoduo said with a hint of regret, "Speaking of which, Master Ye's combo of arrow rain in the Dragon Pit was just one of his enemies killed by Kindred's Wolf Spirit's automatic attack. Otherwise, there would definitely have been a chance for a pentakill!"

I don't remember responding to that, but instead, I jokingly added, "Hey, but I heard Light's post-match interview the other day, and he said he doesn't know how to play Varus~"

Gu Gu paused for a second, then immediately started to suppress his laughter along with Wang Duoduo.

Remember quickly added, "Hey, hey, hey, that's not what I said! It's really what Light himself said in the post-match interview!"

The live chat was already flooded with comments like "How dare you!!!"

The other day, after LNG defeated TES, a reporter asked the outstanding player, Deng, what his insights were on "AP Varus combos".

The moment the Lamp King heard this, he immediately displayed an extremely strange expression.

He quickly went through all the saddest things in his life in his mind, and he was just a hair's breadth away from breaking down.

Fortunately, Deng Huang, who had a good personal relationship with Xiao Hu, stole the other's life-saving technique. He immediately showed a troubled expression and sincerely said, "I don't know how to play Varus."

—However, in that game, his AP Varus had just won the MVP!

However, it was obvious that V5 knew that their opponent was a player with a special skill, which is why they took the initiative to grab the substitute first.

"Junior, are you going to try and steal it?"

LNG's Taiwanese coach, Poppy, asked with a hint of inquiry, "We don't know what V5's playstyle is yet. If it's the same as ours, they'll probably be going for Azir."

This coach, nicknamed Bobby, has no track record despite having been in the industry for many years, but he has left behind quite a few impressive achievements.

For example, the 50 yuan taxi fare that Ah Le received was personally given to him by Ah Le when he was an assistant coach at RNG!
He even paid for it himself!
Poppy, who joined LNG as head coach last year, worked with Doinb for a year and seems to have left behind a lot of traces of their collaboration.

For example, the draft picks tend to focus on the mid lane.

For example, they still often ask the mid laner, "What should we pick this game?"

Scout pretended to be expressionless, but actually enjoyed the feeling very much—perhaps because he always remembered that back in his EDG days, the opposing mid laner was always involved in the draft phase.

I was picked up by chance to work at LNG this year, although I didn't get much money.

However, the whole team really treats him like an "absolute core"!

Li Ning's manager, Zuo Wutaro, also made a big promise to him, saying that as long as he entered the World Championships, he would apply for bonuses for him. If he could make it to the semi-finals, he could even receive an incentive bonus no less than the contract amount!
This might explain why he's been acting like he's been injected with adrenaline lately.

"So LNG has directly snatched Neeko and the Tsar!"

"It's worth mentioning that although Neeko has been nerfed multiple times and has started to be removed from the ban list, it seems that many teams will still pick her as their first pick!"

"So, V5's Qiyana is on their side!!"

"Here it comes! This must be Master Ye's Qiyana! Just before the match, we were saying that we might actually see Master Ye's assassins make a comeback in this version!"

As people study the playoff version, they seem to have discovered the changes in this version.

The designer clearly wanted to see a showdown between the two!
While the "diverse styles" of the regular season were certainly entertaining, they were ultimately too chaotic, and eventually returned to the most common farming mage carry.

The recent minor buffs to various assassin heroes and equipment by the designers are by no means enough to start an assassin craze—but they do open up a new option and provide a completely new choice!

Especially the Assassin type.

It's easy for a single hero to influence the overall environment.

Currently, Qiyana, who has a considerable potential in team fights, is the first hero to be reintroduced into the competitive scene.

This is also clearly evident in subsequent business plans.

Both V5 and LNG have different playstyles and overall styles.

This is the most direct confrontation between the two extremes under these two trends!
As of now, there is no so-called "version answer," or rather, all versions can be considered "version answers."

The design team, who had been tormented by multiple rounds of "unexpected development" during the regular season, actually wanted to use this playoff version as an opportunity to explore the final version for the upcoming S13 World Championship.

"V5 prioritizes the mid and jungle roles, picking them first, including Jarvan IV, who recently received a significant buff in terms of equipment!"

"LNG doesn't seem to prioritize the jungle lane, opting instead to protect the bot lane and secure Kai'Sa first."

The hero pool is quite abundant in the first round.

Both sides followed the established rules in the second round of drafting and banning, each filling in the gaps in their lineups.

The lineup was quickly finalized.

Blue Team: V5 vs. Red Team: LNG

Top Lane: Mountain's Flame vs. Spirit Doll

[Jungle: Jarvan IV of Demacia vs. Garen of the North]

Mid Lane: Empress of the Elements vs. Emperor of the Sands

[Marksman: Arrow of Retribution vs. Daughter of the Void]

[Support: Phantom Feather vs. Wanhua Spirit]

(End of this chapter)