LPL History

Chapter 152 The Rat King's Edge Fails and His Spirit Collapses; The Night Hawk Carries a Branch to Scout the Enemy's Formation

NJS Backstage Lounge

The atmosphere was terribly oppressive.

As the number one seed from the Korean region, their performance in the first game of the semifinals was undoubtedly an extremely ugly match.

Before the match, the Korean media hyped up NJS and completely disregarded EDG.

Most well-known esports figures in China predicted a 3-0 victory or at most a 3-1 win for this match.

However, judging from the course of the first game, it seems that the score of 3-0 should be reversed.

Losing a game is not terrible.

What's frightening is that NJS was completely outmatched in this game.

Just like how NJS used to bully those wildcard regions.

Whether it's the players' abilities or the tactical execution!
From any angle, EDG completely crushed NJS!
As the number one seed, NJS was originally arrogant.

But now, their self-esteem has been shattered.

Especially pray.

His pre-match boast has now become a joke, and South Korean netizens have stripped him of his title of "Rat King" and renamed him "Clown King."

Although NJS dominated all three lanes in this game, his bot lane played exceptionally poorly.

Some netizens on foreign websites have even edited together footage of Pray being frantically pulled, set to tango music, making it look particularly mesmerizing.

When a person encounters a huge blow or faces incomprehensible difficulties in a short period of time, the brain, unable to bear the pain, will choose to shift the contradictions of the problem to others.

At this moment, Pray was cursing at Cain.

"Damn it, what are you doing? Did your Thresh even manage to hook the enemy once the entire game? It feels like I'm facing two people all by myself!"

Watch spoke up to advise:
"Alright, now we should think about what to do in the next game."

“You’re the same,” Pray suddenly turned his attention to Watch. “You could have just helped me push the minion wave after that, why did you have to fight him?”

NJS head coach Reach had to intervene to stop Pray's biting behavior.

"Watch is right. The first game is over, so let it go. What we need to do now is think about how we should deal with the next game."

"The policewoman needs to be brought down, her performance with the policewoman is too good..."

"Let's switch lanes and avoid the bot lane..."

The crowd began to discuss it.

In fact, the discussion about EDG at this time went far beyond just them as opponents.

Zhou Li's first-person perspective has had a huge impact on all the clubs.

Especially SKT, who have already made it to the finals.

Kouma stood behind Lee Sang-hyeok with a frown.

At this moment, their team's genius mid-laner is trying to replicate Zhou Li's plays.

After another screen switch, Lee Sang-hyeok's fox character made a positioning mistake and was caught and killed by the enemy jungler and mid laner.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Ah, this is too difficult. It's hard for me to stay focused if I keep switching screens like this."

Koma looked somewhat helpless upon hearing Lee Sang-hyeok's words.

Even Lee Sang-hyeok, the team's genius mid-laner, couldn't imitate the opponent's plays in regular ranked games, let alone in high-pressure matches.

To put it bluntly, is that something a human being could do, or a person with such a strong heart?

If it were just frequent screen switching at other times, that would be one thing, but Lion was even switching screens during team fights.

What exactly is going on in that freak's head?

Moreover, it's obvious that his constant screen switching isn't just for show; this guy is genuinely gathering information and directing his teammates.

As the head coach of SKT, Kkoma has seen far too many so-called gaming geniuses.

But I've never seen anyone so outrageous.

He now only hopes for a miracle, that NJS can develop some new and ingenious strategy to defeat EDG.

Otherwise, if he were to face EDG in the finals, he really couldn't think of any strategy to deal with them, at least not yet.

The first-person perspective footage of Zhou Li had already spread all over the world in just a short break of ten minutes.

This caused a major upheaval in the League of Legends community.

On Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, there are two trending topics related to the Zhou Dynasty's ritual system.

One is the #lion screen-switching challenge#.

One is #lion is not human#.

This content undoubtedly brought huge popularity to this semi-final.

When the second game started, the number of viewers in the official live stream was almost double that of the first game!
"Hello viewers watching the live stream! You are now watching the semifinals of the 2013 League of Legends World Championship! The two teams facing off are NJS from the Korean region and EDG from our LPL region!! I'm your commentator, Miller!"

"I'm the commentator, Waa!"

"I am commentator Ruofeng."

In the commentary booth, Miller and Wawa were all smiles, a stark contrast to Ruofeng standing beside them.

"In the first game that just ended, EDG took the lead and won the first match, gaining an advantage in this best-of-five semifinal. Now the two sides have switched sides and are starting again. Feng, what do you think the next match between the two teams will be like?"

When Miller asked him this question, Ruofeng replied:

"Yeah, I think NJS was definitely crushed in the first game. Now that we're going into the second game, NJS should make some adjustments, after all, they are the number one seed from Korea. But compared to them, I still have more faith in EDG! Because the strength EDG has shown is beyond doubt."

Ruofeng's words surprised both Miller and Wawa.

They hadn't expected Ruofeng's expression to change so quickly.

When Ruofeng said this, the ones who were most affected were naturally the 60e fans.

What does it mean that even the captain led the defection?
The doll couldn't help but tease:

"Does Team Wind now also think EDG has a higher chance of winning?"

Hearing what the doll said, Ruofeng explained:

"Actually, I've always been a supporter of EDG, after all, they're an LPL team. But as a commentator, I tend to focus more on the competitive level of both teams. As core LPL players, we might have a different perspective and respect objective facts more. After the first game, I do think EDG has a better chance of winning."

Seeing the big-nosed man making a serious attempt to excuse himself, Miller smiled and said:

"Alright! We can see that both teams are now in position! Najin Black Sword has switched to the blue side, while EDG has switched to the red side! Let's see what their picks are in the draft phase!"

NJS's first move drew cheers from the audience.

"Wow! As expected, Najin Black Sword's first ban was the Caitlyn who performed exceptionally well in the last game!"

Hearing the baby's "Wow," Miller said:

"Indeed, Zhou Li's Caitlyn played exceptionally well last game. From the laning phase, she completely crushed Pray! This is the first time in all my years of commentating that I've seen such a huge gap in the bot lane laning phase! Putting everything else aside, in last game, Caitlyn's CS was almost fifty CS ahead of Pray's Twitch!"

The doll nodded.

"Yes, I feel that we probably won't see Zhou Li's female police officer on the field in the upcoming matches. His proficiency with her is just too high! But I'm also really looking forward to it. I have a feeling that even without the female police officer, Zhou Li can still pull out something even more terrifying!"

“That’s right,” Miller continued, summarizing, “From his first appearance in the Spring Split with Kog’Maw that wiped out five opponents, to his later Graves, Vayne, Ezreal, Varus, Draven… I feel like Zhou Li is a master of every champion he picks, his proficiency with them is terrifying!”

He looked at Ruofeng and asked curiously:
"Actually, I've always been curious about this, because you just mentioned that professional players have a lot of things to train for and a lot of heroes to master, so they can't focus on practicing one hero like a pro player in a random game. So how do you think Zhou Li manages to do that?"

Faced with Miller's question, Ruofeng could only reply:
"Well, maybe it's because of his talent. Zhou Li is indeed one of the most talented players I've ever seen."

The doll added:
"I think talent alone is definitely not enough. This is something that requires practice to master. I guess Zhou Li must have trained very hard."

The three chatted for a while, and the battle between the two sides had already been completed.

On NJS's side, in addition to banning Caitlyn, they also banned Draven and Thresh.

This is completely targeting EDG's bot lane.

On the EDG side, they banned Zed, Renekton, and Zyra.

The right to vote has fallen into the hands of NJS.

NJS remained on the first floor and picked Ahri for the mid lane.

Although Ahri was solo killed by Lu Benwei's Fizz in the mid lane in the last game, Ahri's performance was still the best among the five players.

EDG, on the other hand, continued to lock in Elise and then added Annie.

NJS's subsequent player selections elicited another round of cheers from the audience.

"Wow! Pray, still so confident! You picked Twitch! Looks like you weren't too convinced by the last game!" Miller joked.

"I guess Pray thinks that it wasn't Zhou Li who defeated him, but the policewoman."

Upon hearing Miller's words, Doll started to complain.

"To be honest, the female police officer is so strong, you on the blue team could have picked her yourself, why did you ban her?"

After locking in Twitch, NJS later added Sona as support.

Clearly, NJS's low Thresh accuracy in the previous game has left them with a psychological scar.

Instead of picking Thresh, who doesn't have a Q skill, you might as well pick Sona.

After all, Sona's Q skill is guaranteed to hit.

"NJS has already picked their bot lane duo, what will EDG choose?"

Seeing NJS's champion picks, Zhou Li knew that NJS was definitely planning to play a lane swap this game.

Otherwise, the combination of Twitch and Sona would be quite weak in the bot lane.

In the face of this lane-swapping matchup, Zhou Li believes that having a currently unpopular ADC is actually very useful.

Ice Archer.

Ashe has not been reworked in this version.

Q skill can be manually turned on and off. When turned on, basic attacks will cause a slowing effect.

The E skill is also an amazing skill for opening up vision.

For Zhou Li, the bonus provided by Hanbing's E skill is not insignificant.

As the commander, one can observe the opponent's movements at any time, which helps him to better formulate tactics.

Additionally, this version of Ashe's E skill has a passive effect, which is the same as Twisted Fate's passive: killing units grants additional bounty.

If NSJ wants to avoid early fights, he can use Ashe's E skill to make tactical arrangements in the early game and take the lead in development through the bounty mechanism of the E skill.

"Hey! We see that EDG has locked in Ashe! This pick is really interesting. Ashe has never been played in this World Championship before. It's another unexpected pick!"

Upon seeing EDG's player selection, the NJS members all frowned.

The biggest fear surrounding EDG right now is that nobody knows what else EDG is hiding or what new things they might suddenly pull out.

The World Championship has already reached the semifinals, and no team has yet been able to figure out EDG's strength.

At this point, NJS had no other choice but to proceed with the pre-match tactics and take it one step at a time.

EDG then locked in Lulu, the Fairy Witch, for the support position.

The right to pick returned to NJS, and in their final two picks, NJS locked in Jax and Lee Sin.

EDG, on the other hand, locked in Shen as their last pick.

At this point, the lineups for both sides were completely finalized.

Blue side: NJS Esports Club VS Red side: EDG Esports Club.

Top Lane: (Expession) Jax vs. (godlike) Eye of Twilight.

Jungler: (watch) Lee Sin VS (clearlove) Elise.

Mid Lane: (nagen) Ahri vs. (white) Annie.

ADC: (pray) Rat VS (lion) Ashe.

Support: (cain) Sona VS (Fzzf) Purple Garlic.

Both sides were very cautious as soon as they entered the game and did not choose to engage in a level 1 team fight.

EDG wasn't in a hurry, while NJS didn't want the unexpected level 1 team fight to affect their subsequent lane swap strategy.

NJS was extremely cautious; when both sides' minion waves were about to reach the lane, the bot lane duo and the top laner were still standing in the mid lane.

Because EDG's positioning was so good, they blocked NJS's intention to set up vision in advance, so they could only wait for EDG's players to come online first before going online themselves.

It's clear they're determined to switch lanes no matter what.

NJS only started to make a move when they saw EDG's bot lane duo appear on the lane.

"We see that NJS is very determined to switch lanes! Is the trauma from Zhou Li's performance against Pray last game really that deep? They're determined not to lane against Zhou Li at all!"

Ruofeng thought for a moment and then said:

"However, EDG needs to be careful. If NJS swaps lanes, they will obviously benefit more. First, Jax is more comfortable with pressure when facing a lane swap than Shen, and his late-game impact is also greater. Second, Pray's Twitch, although he may not have played well in the laning phase last time, we cannot forget that before the semifinals, his Twitch's average damage output was around 35%. If he gets ahead, he will be very dangerous."

“Yes,” Miller’s expression also turned serious. “I guess that’s NJS’s strategy for this game. I’m avoiding early confrontations with you and using lane swaps to get through the early game weakness.”

NJS's lane swap made Zhou Li's laning phase in the bottom lane a bit boring.

If the director were to switch the camera to Zhou Li's first-person perspective at this point, they would find that Zhou Li was constantly switching screens, and the time the camera spent on the bottom lane was less than a third of the time.

This kind of match is quite boring, both for the players and the audience.

After all, what people want to see in a match is exciting skirmishes and skillful maneuvers, not mindless lane swapping and last-hitting like an old lady.

However, due to Ashe's E skill passive, his development will definitely be better than Twitch's.

Ice, who had reached level two, hadn't even learned the Q skill.

After all, when that weapon is positioned under the tower, there's never a chance to use the Q skill.

Therefore, Zhou Li directly chose the E skill.

However, he still did not choose to cast it immediately.

How to use the E skill is actually a skill in itself.

The Eagle Soars not only provides vision for your own team, but more importantly, it also creates a psychological deterrent for the enemy jungler.

It's too early; the watch is still farming in the jungle, so it's pointless.

When is the best time to use this skill?
That is when the jungler wants to make a move against the laner.

NJS players' bench.

Watch even deliberately changed the jungle clearing route.

In a normal match, teams that choose to switch lanes will have their junglers quickly invade the opponent's top jungle to put pressure on the top laner.

Then quickly push down the outer turret in the top lane.

But this time, Watch did not do that.

Because he knew that EDG had Ashe on their side.

He didn't want his route to be easily observed by Han Bing.

However, what he didn't know was that Zhou Li's very cunning move of sending Shen out with Cloth Armor was actually a purchase of a scout ward, which landed in the upper half of NJS's map.

Therefore, Watch's deliberately changed jungle route not only failed to fool EDG, but also delayed his own rhythm.

Watch waited and waited, but never saw the eagle soar through the sky amidst the icy chill.

Ashe's E skill has a very long cooldown.

As long as he sees Ashe use her E ability, he can have a long time to do things.

But Hanbing wouldn't let go, and he couldn't wait indefinitely, so he started moving towards the top lane.

However, just as he reached the river, he received an Expession alert in his earpiece.

"He released an E."

Watch paused for a moment, then saw Ashe's E skill fly all the way from the bottom river and then fly over his head.

For a moment, Watch, as the jungler, felt like he had been stripped naked and exposed to the world.

"Axiba!"

Watch cursed.

In fact, he can still choose to reveal his hand and push the tower in the top lane.

But it's no longer of much significance.

On the other hand, Expession's life wasn't easy either.

This is a situation where a player with a long reach is fighting a player with a short reach.

But this was Master Zhou Li's specialty.

(End of this chapter)