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

Chapter 365: The Top 20 Predicted Champions? A Miracle in the Rift!
The National Day holiday is over.

The V5 team boarded a flight to Seoul, South Korea, the venue for this year's World Championship.

And today, the S13 World Championship version was finally released.

"Master Ye, Genshin Impact, will there be any major changes in this version?"

Mario Ho had booked the entire business class cabin. Xun, who was in the seat in front of him, was counting on his fingers and repeating the interpretation of the version coming from behind. He turned around and asked.

Ye Bo seemed to be thinking as well. "Probably."

While V5 fans will undoubtedly complain, their first reaction upon seeing the update content will be, "This is targeting V5!"

But the players themselves don't actually think that way.

After all, a hero is nerfed because the designers think the hero is too strong—and the fact that V5 players are frequently nerfed only shows that they are very quick to "grasp the version" and "adapt to the version".

After all, to be honest, Ye Bo's assassins who shone in the Summer Finals, as well as the mid-lane Blade of the Ruined King he used before, and his most famous but not actually strong Akali, have not been nerfed.

If it's really about "targeting the cutter," these few will definitely be the first ones to be targeted!

And whether it's {Electrocute}, {Quisanti}, {Sion}, {Varus}, these are all common top picks in the first half of the year and the summer split.

Quesanti, in particular, has dominated for almost an entire season, and despite multiple nerfs, it has had no effect whatsoever.

The designer couldn't stand it anymore and made those drastic changes!

The Q3 flash mechanism has been removed. After W is charged and cast, the direction can no longer be adjusted. Once the ultimate is activated, it can no longer be manually canceled and must be automatically canceled after the ultimate's duration expires.

Although some of the values ​​were restored, it was obvious to the naked eye that they had become many times "dumber"!
The operational limit has been significantly reduced!
"Sion and Quesanti have been heavily nerfed, while Jax and Renekton haven't been weakened. On the contrary, Aatrox and Gwen have been buffed."

"In that case, the landscape of the top lane should be completely changed."

Ye Bo stared into thought as he looked at the list of heroes in the update announcement.

A hero's strength isn't necessarily defined by directly buffing that hero.

The hero who counters him gets nerfed → which is also a buff.

If everyone else gets buffed but you don't, that's a nerf; if everyone else gets nerfed but you don't, that's a buff!

The theory of canyon relativity states that...

Therefore, with each major version update, it might be worthwhile to try to discover some previously unknown heroes that are currently viable or even very strong.

Ye Bo turned to look at Li Xuanjun, who was leaning against the window without saying a word: "Brother Gun, have you been practicing Gwent and Rumble lately?"

Li Xuanjun immediately nodded: "You asked me to practice before, and I've been practicing all along."

Beryl noticed a seemingly insignificant change: "I feel like this tower buff is weird."

Ye Bo nodded: "I noticed that too."

"However, I don't feel that this level of force has any impact; in fact, I feel that it's something we can still utilize."

The timing of the update is awkward, with only a few days left before the upcoming qualifying rounds.

This update strategy is intended to test the foundation and true capabilities of each team.

Therefore, all current speculations are just that—speculations—and are difficult to prove in practice. We can only get a glimpse of the truth once the qualifying rounds begin.

The meeting concluded quickly.

The relaxed atmosphere in the cabin quickly returned.

Ye Bo looked at the clouds outside the window for a while, then took out his phone and connected to the business class Wi-Fi.

He went online to search for Riot Games' official Twitter account, hoping to see the reactions of international viewers, but he didn't expect to see his own team's name as soon as he clicked on the homepage.

[Regarding LPL's number one seed, Victory 5, once again representing the LPL region on the Road to Gold, do you think they can succeed?]
The tweet, which included a poll, also listed a retrospective of teams in League of Legends' ten-year history that had "arguably" embarked on the Road to Gold.

SKT in S5: Spring and Summer Split Champions, World Championship Champions, only one game away from the final MSI finals;

SKT in S6: Spring Split Champion, MSI + World Championship Champion, only missing the LCK Summer Split Champion;
RNG in S8: Spring and Summer Split Champions, MSI Champions, World Championship Quarterfinalist;

G2 in S9: Spring and Summer Split champions, MSI champions, World Championship runners-up, only missing the World Championship title;
V5 in S13: Spring and Summer Split champions, MSI champions, only missing the World Championship (?)

Looking back over the past 13 years—excluding this year's V5, only 4 teams have actually embarked on this path!
Even EDG, who won back-to-back S11 and S12 championships, cannot be described as "just missing" because they lacked the Spring Split and MSI trophies, and cannot be considered as having ever challenged this achievement.

This shows just how demanding and difficult this path is.

The anonymous "Voting Ratio" below is also very "real," highlighting a clear factor that doesn't even require guessing.

Investment banks accounted for 43.96%.
The percentage of respondents who voted "no" was 25.38%.
30.66% of voters believed that the other party might not succeed, but that they might.
The comment section of the tweet was also very lively.

[Wow! Even the once-mighty SKT dynasty couldn't complete their journey to the top. Guess where V5 will fall in the World Championship?]

[I bet they'll be knocked out by G2 in the quarterfinals, just like RNG in S8! And they'll probably be playing in the quarterfinals again this year on October 10.20th, right? Plus, it's in Korea this year, everything makes sense—G2 is going to have a dynasty this year!]

[This is unfair! Seriously unfair! I now strongly suspect that Riot Games changed the tournament format this year just to promote V5. Since the format has been changed, even if they win, it shouldn't count!]

[A turtle carrying a barbershop has caused a huge uproar among Korean enthusiasts.]

[Type 1 if you believe V5 can win the championship! Gouge your eyes out if you don't believe V5 can win the championship!]

【Does nobody believe WBG will win the championship? Has anyone forgotten that Busan is the lucky place for Incheon players in our all-star team! Just wait for me to return to my peak, lead the team as the fourth seed, and storm all the way to Busan to win the championship!】

[Didn't see the latest post? I can only say that even Riot Games has predicted V5 will win the championship!]

Due to the reforms to this year's World Championship, the "Group Stage" which had been used for twelve years has been changed to the "Swiss Round," and the previous draw order of the four groups (A, B, C, and D) no longer exists.

The Swiss system rules stipulate that teams with the same number of wins will be drawn in each round, so the group stage draw will have to wait until the play-in results are released a few days later.

Furthermore, due to the success of its use at MSI, Riot Games has also optimized the Swiss system for Worlds.

Will this new competition format bring new challenges?

Ye Bo also felt a strange sense of anticipation.

When he saw the last message, he subconsciously clicked refresh.

— Riot Games' official Twitter account just posted a new thread!

"Brothers, look at Riot Games' official Twitter! We've got some good news!"

Instead of using the group stage draw for publicity, Riot Games' official Twitter account simply started with their annual World Championship tradition.

[Top 20 Players at the 2023 World Championship]

"Where am I! Where am I!" Xun frantically scrolled down as soon as he saw it.

"Don't worry, the fact that I can't see you means you're ranked high," Li Xuanjun said with a smile, and quickly scrolled to his own page.

"I'm ranked 12th? That's really impressive, Fist!" Don't underestimate the 12th place ranking; surrounded by many strong teams and star players, it's definitely a high level of external recognition.

To know.

就算是五年前那与V5{当前战绩}相等的RNG，在这份S赛开打前的毒奶榜名单里，同定位的上单Letme都没能挤进名单————而其余人的排名分别是17、11、8、1。

All five starters on the list is a rare occurrence in any World Championship.

Not to mention that the lowest ranking is still in the top 12!
This ranking is clearly influenced by Li Xuanjun's performance at the Asian Games not long ago, where he was repeatedly outmaneuvered by Zeus; otherwise, his ranking would have been even higher.

Below each of the TOP20 contestants are real-name "comments" from the reporters who participated in the official voting.

"We certainly know Flandre's importance to V5, but frankly, in a team as aggressive as V5, he often just acts as the glue holding the table together. And sometimes I feel his 'sacrificial playstyle' is quite unorthodox. If it weren't for strong teammates who could steadily absorb that sacrifice, it would be a disaster. But we all know that even Faker and YE can't maintain consistency forever!"

"That guy has a really sharp tongue. He's definitely from the LCK!"

Xun had obviously also come across this post and saw the signature that followed.

It was none other than CloudTemplar, an LCK league commentator.

"Don't listen to him, Gunner! We all know what you're up to!" Xun tried to reach out and grab him, but the straps on the plane were too tight to pull his hand away, making the movement look rather abstract.

"That's right! Gunner is our best top laner!" Ye Bo shouted loudly from behind.

"Oh, 12 people is great, really great! I'm just doing this anyway~~" Li Xuanjun said happily, looking quite satisfied.

Even though some time has passed.

Even now, Li Xuanjun still feels lingering fear about the Asian Games.

During this vacation, it's no exaggeration to say that he worked even harder than the training fanatic Ye Bo.

Li Xuanjun didn't know if it would work, but he didn't want to repeat that scene at the World Championship.

The crowd continued looking down until they saw the second V5 member at number 8.

"Eighth Brother! I'm the Eighth Brother!" Xun said with a smug look on his face, his tone even slightly raised: "So happy~!"

The comment below is from a commentator at LEC.

Although Xun is a first-time participant in the World Championship, he has already perfectly inherited the mantle of his predecessor Jiejie, forming a perfect synergy with YE—even though he often appears to be just a mid-lane stalker, everyone knows that ignoring this stalker will come at a huge cost!

They were separated by a Viper's length.

Following closely behind in 6th and 5th place are Deft and Beryl, respectively.

Their comments on the two are also quite interesting.

Deft is known for his conservative playstyle, a culmination of his years of professional experience and a valuable asset – as an extremely rare ADC who doesn't require "resource allocation," his presence allows the team to focus on developing around their "strategic core."

"BeryL's impact has never been superficial; this was evident when he was a key contributor to DWG's championship victory. And after joining V5, his greatest strength lies not in his unique and diverse hero pool and tactics, but in his complete and perfect liberation of V5's 'strategic core'!"

The two commentators are Guan Zeyuan and Jide from LPL.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with the alpaca being ranked higher than Xian!"

"Hahahaha! So this guy, Xiu, is just a fanboy on the list! I thought he'd actually be in the top five~~~~"

"Zeus is fourth, Faker is third, and Chovy is second."

"Oh my, who's in first place? It's so hard to guess!"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Ye Bo also remembers that in the previous TOP20, he was only ranked 12th, which was already very satisfying at the time.

He looked expectantly at the end of the list.

The person in the promotional photo is all smiles and looks like a sunny and cheerful young man.

Before the person behind him could react, Kitagawa had already shouted out a greeting!
"As expected of Master Ye!" He was even more excited than Ye Bo: "Absolutely well-deserved! If Master Ye isn't in first place this year, I don't know who would dare to be in that position!"

"Hey, Brother Chuan, we've come all this way, why are you still trying to steal my job?!"

"How can you talk like that, Xun-ge! Don't you think that way too?"

Although I was the only one in the team who didn't make the list.

But when Beichuan praised Ye Bo, his emotions were absolutely genuine and heartfelt.

After all, whether it was being brought to V5 as a substitute or later when he went to BLG, the opposing team stood up for him.
Despite the hardships he had faced, Beichuan remembered everything and held Ye Bo in the highest esteem and respect.

Xun was so anxious he almost jumped up: "Holy crap, that's slander! Master Ye is the only god in my heart! He's like Doraemon! Like Pleasant Goat on the Green Green Grassland!"

"Okay, okay, don't get too excited, it's just basic stuff~"

Ye Bo was a little embarrassed by the two people's flattery, so he waved his hand, pretending to be calm.

Then he excitedly looked at the screen and even clicked on the judges' comments.

"KDA player" is often not a compliment, but YE has redefined the term—this player understands so well how to control minion waves and how to kill his opponents when they are least expected to react; in these aspects, he is better than any player in history (LCS commentator MarkZ)

"As long as YE hasn't fallen, the game isn't over. It's proven that any team with him will be a top contender for the championship—whether you like it or not, YE is currently the brightest star in the League of Legends scene, and you can never truly know his limits (LCS commentator Jatt)."

"He practically single-handedly carried the team, which is the most surprising thing! We all know that YE's contribution to the team goes far beyond his impressive plays. As the team leader, YE's role far surpasses that of the other 19 players on the list, which is why I firmly believe he should be ranked first (LEC commentator Sjokz)."

"YE, this ID seems to have become a symbol of a magical hero developer, an unimaginably bizarre player, and a fearsome assassin—I think nothing suits him better than 'Miracle of the Rift,' and no one doesn't look forward to seeing him play (Riot Game office)."

"Wow, that's a high evaluation from Master Ye! That's some serious clout!" Xun couldn't help but exclaim.

"Where is it high? It's not high at all!" Kitagawa couldn't help but retort, "I think it's already unfair that we didn't create a separate list for Master Ye!"

"Damn, you're a bit perverted in your sucking up, Kawa-san. But I've always thought so too!"

The bot lane duo in the front seat were laughing non-stop, and Li Xuanjun even secretly took out his phone to film and record the scene.
And obviously.

The fact that V5 took four of the top eight spots, and even secured the top spot, shows that there is a lot of anticipation for them.

This is both an encouragement and a pressure and a motivation for them.

After landing in Seoul, South Korea, the group quickly checked into a hotel arranged by Riot Games and began preparations and training in the limited time available.

In the blink of an eye.

The date has arrived: October 13th.

LoL Park, Seoul.

The League of Legends S13 World Championship has officially begun!

(End of this chapter)