You've only been playing for half a year, and you've already reached the finals?

Chapter 101 Hidden dangers
The next day, January 10st.

Mingjing sat in his seat, sipping a can of Coke slowly while watching the toothpaste operation.

Toothpaste did not play well in this game.

He picked Zoe, and was planning to end the battle quickly, but the opponent chose a perverted demolition genius. He only saw bombs but no one. He couldn't push the line or kill anyone, and was stuck in the middle lane!

"Shit." Gao Gao was anxious. "Isn't it disgusting? Choosing this kind of hero."

Ming Jing couldn't help but laugh, "Then just forget about the minion line. Just go and gank the side."

"I thought so too." Toothpaste simply stopped laning in the middle lane, bought magic penetration shoes and a killing ring, and went to the side lane.

His roaming rhythm is still good. He can kill the opponent's top laner successfully by cooperating with the jungler.

But when the camera cut back to the middle lane, it was seen that 30% of the middle lane coating had been lost.

Not only that, the bomber also used his ultimate skill to move towards the bottom lane, resulting in a double kill on Toothpaste's side.

"Fuck." Toothpaste became even more annoyed.

How come there is such a born hero?

Ming Jing didn't say anything, just watched the fun from the side.

But at this time, he heard Hongmi's urging voice. Ming Jing turned around and saw that the game had already started.

Today, the quarterfinals came to the lower half, and the first battle to begin was between GEN and SN.

The third seed of LCK and the third seed of LPL will have a rare battle in the same order. The outcome of this BO5 game will be a more intuitive comparison of the strength of the two regions, so the game is attracting a lot of attention.

Zoom still asked the players for their opinions and asked which team they were optimistic about.

But after all, the two teams have never played against each other directly, so it is really hard to say in this regard.

"If I have to say, it's probably Suning." Ming Jing thought for a moment and said, "Samsung is a bit too weak. I haven't felt any pressure playing against them in recent training matches. Suning is a little more difficult to play against. And Suning has an easy time against Lao Gandie."

GEN and LGD are from the same group. Although they defeated LGD twice, the victory was not easy. Both were narrow wins, mainly due to LGD's serious illness.

In comparison, SN was not so fancy. When the two teams were competing for the third seed of LPL, SN directly completed a 3-0 sweep and successfully took the top spot.

With the combination of multiple parties, SN will definitely have a greater chance of winning.

"Then come on," Zoom said, drinking a Coke. "Can we have a finals meeting?"

Hearing this, Hongmi smiled and shook her head.

The possibility of meeting in the final is close to zero.

After all, DWG is standing behind us, and this is not an opponent that can be defeated easily.

Hongmi made some inquiries yesterday and learned that this team’s win rate in training matches is still over 90% so far!

Of course, the GEN in front of us is relatively easy to deal with, there is one on the side of the road.

At this time, Toothpaste also dragged a chair over and sat down. Ming Jing turned around and asked, "Did you win?"

Toothpaste lay down on the chair, chewing betel nut lazily: "I sent it."

"OK."

The two sides soon took to the stage to fight.

SN started off badly and was dragged into a late-game stalemate by GEN, eventually losing in the 44-minute Ancient Dragon fight.

But this defeat did not seem to affect the mentality of the SN team. In the second game, they returned with stronger confidence and even used a level one tactic. The four of them crouched in the upper river and successfully ambushed the GEN jungler and support who came over to place wards.

Bin was lucky this time, and he inexplicably chopped off two heads with a basic attack!

When he went out again, the blue crystal in the captain's hand had turned into dazzling light.

What is the value of a first-level shining captain?

Rescal didn't understand at first, but after Gangplank came online and used an Undying Flare Q to take down a quarter of his health, he understood.

The laning battle in the top lane went wrong from the very beginning.

The Captain originally came here to fight the bear to resist pressure, but he ended up becoming the advantage lane inexplicably!

In this way, SN has the advantage in three lanes, and naturally there is no chance for GEN to drag the game into the late stage. The team has stable control of the dragon vanguard and pushes it down in one wave in 32 minutes!
In the third game, although there was no such wonderful start this time, the SN players had already found their touch and took control of the situation through smooth early attacks, and then pushed in three directions.

At 24 minutes, Huanfeng's Jhin even appeared standing on the high ground in the middle lane of GEN, using his ultimate to snipe the second tower in the bottom lane!

This sniper move perfectly interprets the combat art of LPL!

There were no more surprises this time. In the fourth game, SN held the match point and punched out, breaking through GEN's turtle defense again and successfully advancing to the semi-finals with a score of 3 to 1!

"Congratulations to Suning!" Wang Duoduo was extremely excited in the commentary booth. "Following Top Esports and JD.com, Suning has also qualified! They've secured the third spot in the semifinals!"

In the live broadcast room, countless viewers shook champagne to record this historic moment together!

Three teams advanced to the semi-finals, this is the value of the first division!

"Winning is fine." Hongmi nodded at this moment. "Now let's talk about yesterday's game. Although we won yesterday, there are still some big problems. By the way, let's discuss how to play in the semi-finals."

After winning yesterday, Hongmi decided to let the players rest for a while, so the review session was left until now.

Hongmi acted quickly, closing the live broadcast while still saying:

"Even though we won yesterday's game, I'm still going to talk about the issues that need to be addressed. First of all, the midfield."

Hearing this, Toothpaste was slightly stunned.

What about my business?
"Toothpaste's performance yesterday was terrible," Hongmi said seriously. "What's going on? Why are you always following the opponent's mid laner? Don't you think this puts a lot of pressure on your teammates?"

When Toothpaste heard this, he lay down on the chair and said, "No way."

"Don't say there's no way!" Redmi immediately interrupted Toothpaste. "Just because you said there's no way, does that mean the team should lose? If there's no way, we should find a solution!"

Redmi is not blindly responding to pressure.

If toothpaste is really as he said, and there is no way to beat it, then Redmi won't say anything.

But Yapao clearly has the ability to do it, yet he habitually avoids it. This is what really bothers Hongmi. "If it's against G2, it's fine. My teammates can handle the pressure," Hongmi continued. "But what about against Top Esports or DWG? Do you really deserve to win with this kind of performance?"

The atmosphere in the training room suddenly became tense.

But no one will come to speak for the toothpaste at this time.

Because it is.

The middle lane is undoubtedly the most important position in the entire game, responsible for both early-game rhythm and late-game output.

If the mid laner doesn't have a strong desire to win, it will hold the entire team back.

"Come on, Brother Gao." Mingjing patted Toothpaste's shoulder, "We still have to rely on you to suppress Left Hand in the semi-finals."

Hearing this, Toothpaste's expression softened considerably, "I'll try my best."

Redmi did not dwell on this issue for long, but turned around to project the data chart prepared in advance and move the review to the next step.

"In the knockout stage, the priority of heroes like Clockwork and Ornn has been further increased, and the focus of the game has shifted significantly to the bottom lane."

Hongmi looked at the data and smiled, "I'm glad we changed our strategy. The facts prove that Mingjing's judgment was indeed correct."

It can be clearly seen from the data that in the quarterfinals in recent days, except for G2 who is still sticking to the upper half, the other teams have almost shifted their focus to the bottom lane.

Combined with G2's behavior of choosing Lillia in the first game, it can be seen that they really have no understanding of the version and deserved to be eliminated.

The most obvious example is today's SN.

Even SN, which used to only play in the top half of the division, chose three games of Gangplank today!

All I can say is that every team is moving forward, and SN is no exception.

It was this progress that allowed them to defeat GEN 3-1 and advance to the semi-finals.

"We're definitely on the right track in terms of the overall direction, but we still have a lot of minor issues," Hongmi said, changing the subject. "The first thing we need to address is the Pioneer control rate."

Redmi then posted the Vanguard control data from the training match and yesterday's match against G2.

It can be seen that the control rate of the first pioneer in the eighth minute in the training match was quite low, only 20%, and yesterday there was no control at all, and all were lost.

Seeing this data, Kanavi said: "It's normal that we can't control the vanguard. We have been working in the bottom half of the zone, and we also controlled the dragon."

But Hongmi just shook his head. "In the first two games, you controlled the dragon exactly at the five-minute mark, which gave you plenty of time to set up a vanguard. Dragons and vanguards don't conflict with each other, and neither does focusing on the bottom lane and vanguards. On the contrary, vanguards are the best way to set the tempo in the bottom lane. A good example is last year's RNG."

After hearing this, everyone in JDG seemed to be thinking about it.

Mingjing also studied RNG's games last year when he was in the youth training camp, and knew that what Hongmi said was correct.

RNG in S9 was also a team with the bottom lane as its absolute core, but they were unusually obsessed with the vanguard in the upper half of the league. The vanguard control rate even reached 100% in the early stage of the summer season, and only slowly dropped to 80% in the summer season.

But even that is exaggerated enough.

Ultimately, it was because RNG relied heavily on the vanguard to quickly break through the bottom lane tower, and then let Uzi transfer to the middle lane and enter the fast money-making mode.

If they can't get the vanguard, then they will most likely not be able to take the first tower. If Uzi can't even take the first step of the three steps, then RNG will basically lose.

JDG is not that pathological, but the vanguard is definitely a part that needs attention.

After all, the shooter is positioned to exert strength in the late game. Using a pioneer to accelerate economic development is definitely better than using a dry wind dragon or water dragon.

Ming Jing thought about this and nodded: "Indeed, the pioneer needs to be designed, otherwise it may be difficult to play in the semi-finals next week."

Let's think about it from another perspective. If both teams are focusing on the lower half of the zone, and Mingjing can no longer suppress the opponent as easily as he did yesterday, how can the balance be broken?

Without a doubt, it is the pioneer!
Hongmi nodded with satisfaction: "Yes, that's what I meant!"

It’s easier to talk to smart people because they’ll understand what you’re saying halfway through!
At this time, several JDG players nodded.

This does make sense.

Hongmi continued, "Of course, the main reason is that we changed our formation too hastily, and many things are still incomplete. So over the next week, we still need to do more design around the vanguard aspect."

Everyone in JDG had no objection to this.

They also understand that they are still some distance away from the championship and need to continue to improve.
But what kind of design should be done around Pioneer? This is still a question.

If you really have to fight for the vanguard, then the bottom lane has to make some sacrifices. The support has to move no matter what. When the competition is fierce, even the AD has to follow.

If this is the case, even the lineup will have to change, such as Ming Jing locking in the policewoman and Kalista in the first two games yesterday.

If the priority of the vanguard is to be raised, Kalista will definitely be much better than the policewoman. This hero is not only strong in laning, but also strong in early group fights and even in resource control. She is stronger than the policewoman in all aspects.

Of course, Kalista is not the optimal solution either.

Thinking of this, Ming Jing suddenly had an idea.

October 18th, the last day of the quarterfinals.

DWG vs. DRX.

In the LCK division civil war, the winner will become the only one in the division and face the three LPL generals alone.

In the first game, both sides played extremely cautiously, and the score was 0-0 until 15 minutes, which was really Shakespearean.

Toothpaste couldn't help but yawn when he saw it. "This won't take an hour, right?"

The overall playing style of the LCK teams is indeed slow now, and it is expected that there will be few kills in the LCK civil war, but I didn’t expect it to be so few!
"It's okay, it's better to go slower." Hongmi smiled: "If we go slower, DRX will have more opportunities."

The purpose of watching this game is very simple, I hope DRX can beat DWG to some extent.

When JDG wins the championship, it can also share one-third of the credit with DRX.

But unfortunately, this scene did not happen.

Although the pace of both sides was slow, it was under the control of DWG throughout the whole process without any ripples.

Three to zero, DWG swept DRX and successfully advanced to the semi-finals!

(End of this chapter)