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

Chapter 85 It’s not too late
10 month 6 day.

The fourth day of the group stage is also the last day of the first round.

JDG faced their last opponent in the first round, TL, which had lost both previous games.

"Playing against North America shouldn't be too stressful, right?" Today's opponent wasn't strong, and Toothpaste seemed relaxed. "Mingjing doesn't even need to make a move this time; we can win it straight away!"

Ming Jing listened to his teammates' boasting, but he didn't want to spoil the fun. He just nodded and said, "Okay, I'll lie down then."

Of course, Toothpaste has a certain degree of confidence in saying this, after all, the opponent is only the third seed in North America.

And Kanavi's jungle style is also here. Every time he encounters a weak opponent, he attacks really hard.

There is really no need for Mingjing to take action this time.

While Mingjing was still figuring out how to suppress the enemy and take down the tower in the bottom lane, Kanavi's Graves in the upper lane had already roamed around in the opposite jungle.

Just like when Canyon was roaming around in his jungle.

Nine minutes later, when Ming Jingcai and Lvmao had just taken advantage of the opportunity to grab the sixth place and launched a wave of line kills, the team's head ratio had reached a terrifying 8:1!

Mingjing also enjoyed this comfortable situation.

In fact, he doesn't pursue being dazzling. As long as he can play like this every time, he would rather lie down.

This game was a foregone conclusion and it finally took 27 minutes. JDG's dragon soul and the big dragon gathered together, ending the game in one wave and getting their third win in the group stage!

At the same time, LPL's winning streak continues.

Not only JDG was bullying, but SN was also doing so. They defeated PSG in 30 minutes and ended the first round with 2-1. The situation for qualifying was clear.

Even LGD won a game. Although the 1-2 situation seems a bit difficult in the balanced Group D, there is always a chance!

Everyone in the anti-bar resumed their singing and dancing, as if the title of the first division had returned to LPL.

But the players of the four teams did not relax at all.

Because several teams understand that the smoke of battle in the group stage will not really begin until the second round!
There have been cases in the past where a team won 3-0 in the first round but still failed to reach the quarterfinals.

The World Championship is a 40-day-long battle, and all teams must ensure continuous adaptation and growth in order to make it all the way to the end.

On October 7, the group stage was suspended for one day during halftime.

The JDG team did not slack off and gathered in the training room to hold a summary meeting.

There are a total of 24 games in the first round, and they are all high-level matches between the top 16 teams. Combined with the data from the previous qualifying rounds, it is enough to see a lot of things.

"First of all, one thing is certain." Hongmi projected the data table created by the analyst onto the whiteboard: "Lilia is indeed a trap."

Lillia's pick/ban rate in this first round was actually quite high, reaching 85%, but her win rate wasn't ideal. She played in twelve games, but only won three, a measly 25% win rate.
This winning rate alone is enough to relegate it to the sidelines.

"I'm glad we made the right move on this point." Hongmi smiled, "Perhaps it was because we figured this out in advance that we were able to beat DWG."

In the match against DWG the day before yesterday, banning Graves and replacing Lillia was indeed one of the brilliant moves in BP.

At that time, Lillia's win rate was not that bleak, and her trap attributes had not been fully exposed. JDG just made an attempt, but fortunately it was successful.

Lillia is not as good as Graves in carrying ability, not as good as Nidalee in suppressing the jungle, and even lacks control. She is not strong enough in ganking or tower diving. She is too mediocre in all aspects.

The jungler is here to be a hero, and mediocrity does not meet the requirements.

"But even if we leave Lillia out of the picture, there are still many noteworthy heroes in this patch," Hongmi said, pointing to the data on the chart. "The strength of Nidalee and Graves is self-evident. Both heroes have a 90% pick/ban rate, and their win rates are also quite high."

Graves appeared more times, appearing in twenty games, but his win rate was not ideal, just over 50%. However, despite his extremely high appearance rate, he is still the T1 jungler.

Nidalee has both a high appearance rate and a high win rate. She appeared in 16 games with a win rate of 68.75%. As long as it is a version where the jungler has a high status, Nidalee will definitely be the hero of the version, there is no doubt about that.

"In terms of the jungle hero pool, we are still in line with the version." Hongmi said this, and then the topic changed, and the tone became serious. "But it may not be the same in the online position."

"After the group stage, the appearance rates of heroes like Clockwork Ornn, Jhin, and Senna increased significantly! This is completely opposite to our playstyle!"

Ming Jing was thoughtful when he heard this.

This is true.

In the jungle core version, with the jungler as the core, there are only two sets of ideas based on the half-zone principle.

This is JDG's style of play. With the top lane as the core, they dominate the mid and top lanes, protecting Kanavi's jungle invasions and establishing an advantage. Bottom laners quietly develop in an advantageous environment, waiting for teamfights to take over the game. This is a typical fast-paced early-game style.

Their most popular picks in the summer season are lane heroes like Crocodile, Volibear, Galio, and Zoe. Even in the group stage, they used this style of play.

The only drawback of this style of play is that if the opponent is too tenacious and drags the game into the middle and late stages of a team fight, then the two Cs will need to step up and take over the game.

Loken's carrying ability is too weak and he is lacking in this aspect, so he cannot complete the final closed loop, which is why he lost in the summer season.

Now that Mingjing has arrived, this shortcoming has been made up. He has proved his carry ability with Aphelios and Jinx, giving Jingdong the confidence to take on team fights in the later stages.

Only after the establishment of Mingjing did JD.com evolve into a complete team.

But now, another style of play is popular in the World Championship!
Clockwork and Ornn are both typical late-game heroes, and they both have certain self-protection capabilities in the early stages to ensure that they will not explode.

With this kind of hero on the field, the first thing is that the pace is bound to slow down, after all, it has to match the strength curve of Ornn and Clockwork.

All I can say is that after the World Championship, the extremely low tolerance rate will force each team to play with stability as the main focus, avoid unnecessary fights as much as possible, and focus on the Dragon Soul and the Vanguard. A slowdown in the pace is inevitable.

The second is that the core rhythm point is definitely not related to the upper half of the zone. The jungler needs to go to the lower half of the zone to do things, so the bottom lane must also increase the laning strength accordingly.

Therefore, under this style of play, heroes such as Ashe, Senna, and Jhin who can take the line and fight in the early stage are the correct choices. Even DRX has locked on extreme choices such as Draven.

Ming Jing thought for a moment and said, "I feel okay. We can also use these heroes. I can play in the laning phase. I can also play Senna or Jhin."

Mingjing was the team's strong lane leader in the youth training camp, but now he is just a teamfight fighter in JDG, and he cannot bring out his full strength.

Not only can Guangming Jing choose Senna, but he can also choose Clockwork and Ornn in the mid and top positions. JDG's players have never had any problems with their hero pool.

"But." Hongmi shook her head, "I don't dare to gamble."

Theoretically, it is possible to fight, but who knows what it will be like in reality?

And taking a step back, who can guarantee that Clockwork Ornn is definitely right?

This year's World Championship embodies the efforts of all JDG members throughout the year, and no one dares to take risks.

"But what if this really is the meta?" Ming Jing asked directly, "Do we really have to play against it? We clearly have the ability to adapt to it."

But Hongmi remained unmoved and just shook his head: "Let's wait and see, the version hasn't been finalized yet."

Ming Jing didn't say much, but instead asked, "Who are you playing in the training match today?"

"It's still DWG."

Ever since JDG defeated DWG, the two teams' training matches have become noticeably more intense.

In the final analysis, the two teams are just competitors in the group stage. It is not a zero-sum relationship. They can completely achieve a win-win situation and qualify. In fact, the competition is not that fierce.

On the contrary, once the two teams leave the group stage, they will be in completely different halves of the zone and will not meet before the finals, so they will naturally be the best sparring partners.

As for the recent winning rate, I can only say that it is a little better, but not much better.

As Mingjing became more integrated into the team, JDG's strength became higher and higher, and its win rate also increased, but it only increased from 20% to 33%, and it still lost more than it won.

But fortunately, victory is still improving, and that is enough.

It is precisely this gradually rising winning rate that makes Redmi certain that JD.com is on the right track and does not need to change.

Another night passed, and on October 8, the National Day holiday ended.

If he had not encountered the fork in the road, Mingjing should have returned to campus by now and made the final sprint for the mathematics winter camp that will begin soon.

But once the path is chosen, it cannot be changed. What Mingjing needs to do is to pursue the championship in front of him first.

After the second round, the competition system underwent some minor changes. It would no longer be a mixed battle among four teams, but would be conducted separately, with the life and death of one team decided every day.

JDG's Group A was ranked on the last day, so before JDG's game, Ming Jing had to watch the big battles of the other three groups first.

The first thing to do is another death group, Group D where LGD is located.

"Can this old man hold up?" Zoom looked at the LGD and GEN members entering the field and couldn't help but ask, "This 1-2 start seems a bit difficult to hold up?"

In Group D, TSM, GEN, LGD, and FNC, the four teams are not top-notch. If they were in other groups, they might have problems qualifying. But when the four teams are put together and their levels are similar, it has undoubtedly become the most competitive group!

LGD already has a record of 1-2. If they lose to GEN in this game, then their chances of qualifying will basically be only theoretical.

"It doesn't matter." Ming Jing didn't take it seriously. "I didn't think LGD could qualify from the beginning."

With Peanut leading the charge, LGD, as a jungle core team, is definitely in line with the version, but winning the championship depends not only on the version compatibility, but also on the individual abilities of the players.

In Mingjing's opinion, several players from LGD are unskilled.

Even though DWG's bottom laner Ghost is not very good, Beryl is strong enough. The combination of tool AD ​​+ roaming support is half the answer to the version, so even if they are not good, they are still competitive.

Not only is LGD's bottom lane combination a bit disappointing, but even the big brother Peanut is also giving away points, so naturally the chances of them qualifying are slim!

Entering the BP stage, after both sides banned Graves and Nidalee, LGD did not hesitate and locked Lillia in seconds!
Seeing this scene, all the JDG players held their foreheads in their hands.

send!
"Still on Lillia!" Kanavi was stunned. "Doesn't their coaching staff look at the stats?"

In fact, half of Lilia's defeats were caused by Peanut.

And in this game, Peanut was also abstract enough. Lillia played a variation of the two-level gank, and cooperated with Langxing's crocodile to chase the opposite Rascal's bear and punch and kick him!
But the damage was still a little short, and the bear slipped into the tower with low health.

Peanut wanted to enter the tower to kill but also wanted to run away. While hesitating, he resisted the defense tower three times and was happily sent away by the tower dad!

Rascal smiled.

Lang Xing was confused.

Pain.jpg
Under Xiaohuasheng's sincere performance, the two sides fought passionately again, and the game lasted all the way to 30 minutes.

But LGD was strong enough to hold onto their disadvantage and not let it get wider. They even won a miracle team fight despite being 5,000 gold behind, and took control of the Baron!

The chance of victory is right at hand!
In the team battle for the little dragon, LGD decided to go all out and let GEN go to fight the little dragon. They took advantage of the big dragon buff and marched straight in and pushed the base directly!
Pushing all the way from the middle lane to the front teeth, they were only one crystal away from victory, but unfortunately all the GEN players had already rushed back home at this moment, and the Tsar and the Bear came in with their ultimate skills, launching an explosive AOE, giving LGD a team wipe!
Hopes of victory were dashed.

With 50 seconds of resurrection time, GEN launched a counterattack and won the game!

1-3, LGD only has a theoretical chance of qualifying.

If they want to qualify next, they must beat FNC, who are currently second in the group, and FNC must also lose to GEN and TSM.

But is this possible?

Let’s not talk about the chances of winning against FNC.

You have to know the most crucial point, TSM, the top seed in North America, the team in the first tier of training matches, has not won a single game so far, 0-3
Are you counting on the North American brothers to help you qualify?

The final result was not unexpected. Although FNC was only the second seed in Europe, they were as powerful as a god. They first defeated TSM in 25 minutes, and then defeated LGD in 35 minutes, sending the two brothers away together!

At this point, the only thing left in Group D is the final battle for the top spot.

And LGD also became the first team to be eliminated from LPL!
Mingjing glanced down at his phone.

As expected, the anti-bar immediately began to show its true nature as a cesspool, and the crusade against LGD began immediately!
The first one to bear the brunt was naturally Peanut, who gave away a blood in two minutes and put a mask of pain on Lang Xing.

[Oh my god, last time we played against GEN, Peanut refused to leave because of his low health. This time, he's clearly giving up again. Peanut is just going to give up on his acting, right?]

[If you ask me, you can't trust Korean aid. Korean aid always serves the country with all their heart in times like this!]

[Didn't I buy it? Seeing how happy Peanut was after losing, it felt like I'd definitely won a house.]

[A house? When I get back, I'll have to change the name of Jiangnan Road to Wanghu Road!]

[Don't just criticize Peanut, the others are not normal either. They can't even qualify from Group D, which shows that their strength is just like that.]

[But that's normal. The fourth seed is there for show effect. As long as the other three teams don't have any problems, it's fine.]

Ming Jing looked at the comments and didn't know what to say.

I can only say that what someone said later was still pertinent.

GEN is only the third seed and is definitely not a strong team. LGD lost both games and clearly had a chance of winning.

I can only say that I'm not strong enough. In the end, the Group D competition ended, GEN won the tiebreaker and advanced as the first in the group, and FNC ranked second.

On October 9th, Group C competition started.

Compared to the ups and downs of Group D, Group C seems to have little suspense. After all, the addition of two wildcard teams makes the competition level of this group almost the same as that of BabyBus!

The main suspense is whether SN can defeat the team leader G2 and take first place in the group.

The two sides went into overtime. At 23 minutes, SN even took the Baron and was 5,000 economically ahead, but unfortunately they were still slightly inferior. The opponent's Sion and Senna's late-game heroes began to exert their strength, and SN was exposed to decline and was eventually pushed down in one wave.

The Group C competition is over, G2 is first in the group and SN is second in the group.

On October 10, the Group B competition where TES is located started.

The situations in Group B and Group C are similar, and the second round will be a battle for the first place in the group.

Everyone in JDG just felt unstable.

There is no doubt about the strength of TES, but you never know if TES will suddenly give you a big wave.

But it turns out that it’s actually not that bad.

Both TES and DRX are teams centered around the bottom lane, which resulted in a large number of kills on both sides, making it look quite bloody.

JackeyLove was incredibly stable today, and Karsa was also assisted by God with the blessing of Double Ten Day. Graves and Nidalee were incredibly powerful!

TES showed the upper limit of its strength and won three consecutive victories without any waves!
No need for extra games, they directly defeated DRX and secured the first place in the group!

With consecutive victories, teams have qualified one after another, and the LPL audience has started singing and dancing again. Even the anti-corruption bar is jubilant!
JD.com is the only team left in the group stage, and with a record of 3-0, there is almost no chance of elimination!

Doesn't that mean three teams will qualify?

Enough is enough, I can't ask for more.

In the ten years of LPL, there have only been a few instances where three teams have advanced to the quarterfinals.
If JDG can take first place in the group tomorrow, it will be a decisive victory!

But at this time, in the JDG training room.

The JDG players all looked unhappy.

Before the start of the second round of the group stage, they started another round of training matches with DWG.

But this time, the winning rate is extremely bleak.

All five games were lost, with a winning rate of 0%.

The winning rate that had just climbed up plummeted to the bottom today!
JDG's playing style has not actually changed, it is still their style, and there shouldn't be much change in intensity.

But the problem is, DWG has changed.

In today's training match, DWG changed its previous playing style and began to actively choose late-game heroes such as Clockwork and Ornn, and began to shift its focus to the lower half of the zone.

This shift directly hit JD.com's vital point.

"Nuguri played really well in the laning phase." Zoom didn't shirk responsibility and directly admitted the problem: "I couldn't suppress him."

Nuguri in the top lane has no airs of a top laner. He can carry the lane by choosing Kennen or Jayce, and he can also do well by choosing Ornn. He defended the first tower despite the attacks of Zoom and Kanavi, and he was not too far behind in last-hitting.

But this is not the core.

"The main problem is that I can't push the bottom lane anymore," Ming Jing said bluntly. "The opponent keeps coming to the bottom lane, and I can't push the line anymore."

The several victories against DWG were almost all won by Mingjing, who played hard and created a huge AD gap. Now DWG obviously understands this and has made decisions to directly target Mingjing and silence him first.

The rest of JDG players were also restricted by their positions and found it difficult to step out and carry the team, so their chances of winning were naturally not high.

This may not be the most suitable style of play for DWG, but it is definitely the most suitable style of play against JDG!
Hearing this, the other JDG members fell silent.

As the highest level competition of the year, every team must continue to evolve for the championship, and DWG is no exception.

After learning from their previous defeat, DWG had already completed a round of adaptive evolution against JDG. JDG, on the other hand, remained unchanged, so their defeat was only natural.

This made Mingjing more convinced that he could not beat DWG by relying on the upper half of the draw.

Even DWG, which was stronger in the upper half of the zone, took the initiative to shift its offensive to the bottom lane.

So what reason do they have to remain complacent?
Redmi finally realized that something was wrong, but the second round of group matches would start tomorrow, and it was too late to change anything. They could only wait until the game was over tomorrow.

But Mingjing understood better than anyone that tomorrow's game would probably be difficult.

10 month 11 number.

On the last day of the group stage, the second round of Group A started directly between JDG and DWG!

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the live broadcast room of the domestic event was already crowded, and countless viewers were looking forward to the next game.

If they win this game, they will once again be first in the group!

Even the jailed anchor Shan Niruo rarely started his broadcast on time. He started by shouting passionately, "Go, go, go! Kill Brother Xiaofei!"

From this posture, it is not difficult to see that Ruozi must have been under a lot of pressure in this game!
But after the game started, Wakako soon began to sweat.

"No, what is BCanyon doing?" Ruozi couldn't help but yell, "You're fucking shameless, aren't you? You're always ganking the bottom lane?"

"And what is Kanavi doing? Is he sleepwalking? Come and catch him! Without Brother Xiaofei, will JD win with a headshot?"

But unfortunately, Shan Niruo's voice was destined not to reach the contestants' seats.

Twenty minutes later, the Pighead anchor had slumped in the gaming chair.

"I never want to support an LPL team again." Shan Niruo's tone was filled with regret and helplessness. "Because I supported them, and they lost, I felt even worse than them."

This shows the love that the older generation of e-sports players have for LPL.

The director's camera follows the contestants to the backstage.

The atmosphere in the JDG lounge was already quite weird.

Including the five training games last night, they have lost to DWG six times in a row.

Even if there is another chance for an extra game, can they really win it?

Ming Jing was the calmest one in the team. He was still thinking about how to win.

But the final result is still unsolvable.

When DWG is determined to limit him, if the team does not give him corresponding help, he is destined not to be the one who decides the outcome.

On the one hand, there are limitations to the AD position, and on the other hand, his ability is not yet sufficient.

After all, he had played for too short a time and was not strong enough.

If the playing style remains the same, Mingjing can only hope that the team can do something in the upper half.

"It's okay, take your time." Ming Jing said, "Brothers, fight well. I'll watch your performance."

Next, the game continued. After defeating MCX and TL successively, JDG and DWG's points all reached 5-1, entering the extra game for the final group leader.

As the last game of the group stage, the number of spectators reached a peak.

Countless audiences are looking forward to watching this final showdown!
But unfortunately, the performance of JDG's top and jungle in this game was still not ideal.

Kanavi returned to his previous King of Haste mode. Eager to gain an advantage, he rushed into the enemy jungle, only to be ambushed and killed.

This also affected Zoom in the top lane. Without a jungler, he could only retreat to the second tower, losing a large number of soldiers!

The toothpaste in the middle lane had also dried up. Under tremendous pressure, he leaned directly on the gaming chair, his eyes dull, as if he was about to fall asleep.

The end result was that Toothpaste was ambushed on the way to support the bottom lane, and the opponent's Clockwork's ultimate and Nidalee's combo directly sent him away!

After killing the mid laner, DWG took advantage of the situation and grouped together to control the little dragon!

This time it’s not as simple as not being able to gain an advantage, this time we are directly at a disadvantage!
In this desperate situation, even if Mingjing got Jinx, there was no way to save the situation, because the opponent would not give him the opportunity to fight in a team with three pieces of equipment.

As expected, this game lasted only 24 minutes. Ming Jing had just completed two items when he watched his base being razed to the ground.

At this point, the final Group A has been settled.

DWG advanced to the top of the group with a record of 6-1, and JDG ranked second.

This defeat really made Mingjing feel helpless.

In his opinion, DWG is definitely not an unbeatable opponent. As long as the team maintains balance and his development is not affected, he is confident that he can lead the team to victory!
But his influence on the team was limited. Even though Mingjing had earned recognition from his teammates through his carry performance, it was clearly not enough to convince the team to abandon the successful path they had been pursuing for a year.

Ming Jing really didn't like the feeling of not being trusted, but he was too lazy to vent his emotions meaninglessly, so he just returned to his seat.

Seeing that the lounge was silent and no one was talking, Ming Jing looked around and simply took out his cell phone.

He knew that if he resisted now, it would definitely be filled with negative energy, but Ming Jing still wanted to see.
[Hey, weren't we 3-0 in the first round? How come we got swept twice today?]

[I see you guys are praising Xiao Fei so much, but I don't think he's really carrying much? It's like he's invisible.]

[He was constantly being targeted by the opponent, yet he still had the highest damage in the team in both games. Isn't that called carrying? Isn't that the difference between the top half and the bottom half?]

I really don't know what the hell he's doing watching the video. Last time he was treated like a stray dog ​​and kicked around, but this time he was completely invisible. He didn't even dare to come to the bottom half. Is he so afraid of facing Canyon?

[And Zoom is also a jerk. If he can't suppress Ornn's blade as Shen, then what's the point of playing? Go home and raise pigs!]

I really don't understand why JD.com keeps clinging to the upper half of the B zone.

[That's enough. Didn't JDG win the Spring Championship thanks to the top half of the bracket and Char? What's the problem with that? Just because you're Uzi, does that mean the team has to revolve around you?]

[Indeed, it's almost over. He's barely started playing professionally, and he's already blaming his teammates. He's lost Uzi's life, and he's got Uzi's disease, right?]

[It's just second place in the group, and we didn't get eliminated. What's there to complain about?]

Looking at the heated discussion in front of him, Ming Jing remained calm.

"This time, it's my problem."

At this moment, a voice broke the silence.

Ming Jing looked up and saw Hongmi standing at the front of the lounge.

"It turns out that DWG is right, and Mingjing is right too."

Hongmi spoke slowly, enunciating each word. "Our style of play is no longer suitable for this version."

Coach Hongmi is actually a coach with a very strong sense of self. Unlike other coaches who can only order takeout, he will directly intervene in the players' playing style and transform them into what he needs.

Hongmi believes that JDG's tactics are already quite perfect. As long as Mingjing can provide stable team battle output capabilities, JDG will have the potential to compete for the championship.

The gradually rising win rate in training matches seemed to confirm this view, so he had no intention of changing the tactical focus. He believed that JDG was on the right track.

There is an iron rule in every industry: once something has been proven to be successful, don't change it casually, because no one knows whether something will go wrong after the change.

But the seven consecutive losses from last night to today are enough to prove that he was wrong, and extremely wrong.

It wasn't easy to admit his mistakes, but he had to do it.

Hearing this, Mingjing put his phone in his pocket and a smile appeared on his face.

It is a bit heavy to realize the mistake at the cost of finishing second in the group.

But fortunately, it's not too late.

There are still three weeks until the finals, so they have enough time to adjust and get used to each other.

Then take revenge on DWG.

Today is a three-in-one chapter, a big chapter

For the sake of subsequent plot arrangement, this failure is necessary in my opinion.

As a newcomer, Ming Jing joined a team that was not top-notch and encountered the strongest enemy. Failure was something he had to experience.

Only by experiencing failure can the next victory become more precious.


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(End of this chapter)