LPL History

Chapter 203: Both Red Kai and Dark Kai are Zhuge Mingkai, possessing both literary and martial talents comparable to Zhou Yu's genius.

"Hello viewers watching the live stream! You are now watching the 2014 League of Legends Pro League Summer Playoffs! The two teams facing off are EDG Esports Club and WE.A Esports Club! I'm your commentator, Miller!"

"I'm the commentator, Waa!"

"I'm Bella, the commentator!"

As the voices of the three commentators rang out from the commentary booth, the entire stage suddenly lit up with bright lights.

As the audience's enthusiastic shouts rang out, red and black clashed in the stands, instantly igniting the atmosphere!
"As everyone knows!" Miller's smile was no longer concealed. "EDG and WE have a long-standing rivalry. I never imagined that the two teams would face off again in the first match of the playoffs today. I'm really excited!"

Miller had barely finished speaking when the shouts from the audience, which had just subsided slightly, erupted once again.

The conflict between WE and EDG is common knowledge among anyone who watches the games, let alone the fans who come to the stadium to support their favorite team.

The match between the two teams, who already had a private feud, attracted countless online viewers.

In Douyu's official live stream, the viewership had already surpassed the highest viewership record in LPL history an hour before the match started.

The most popular match before that was the clash between WE.A and EDG during the regular season.

Even before the match started, the chat in the live stream room was already buzzing with excitement.

It's important to know that at this time, Zhou Li held an exceptionally high position in the hearts of League of Legends players.

With the backing of WE and its massive fan base, coupled with Zhou Li leading the youth training team to a sixteen-game winning streak, and his father MVP's skill in playing professionally as if he were playing against bots, Zhou Li's fans are now called 61e.

[Go WE.A! Go Zhouli!]

Crush EDG!

Zhou Li, the Great General of Summoner's Rift, is an exceptionally clean person with no scandals, no negative press, and no menstrual problems or gynecological issues!

Ah, Zhou Li, I love you!

[Husband! Husband!]

"The two teams had already faced off once before, with EDG losing both games to WE.A. However, based on my understanding of EDG, they really put in a lot of effort to study their opponents. After this season, I think they will bring something different to today's match!"

Upon hearing Bella's words, Miller spoke up:

"Yes, I still remember those two games vividly, one was a tower pass and the other was a bear pass... Anyway! Today, Koro1 is back in the starting top lane position! In the last few rounds of the regular season, Koro1's performance was outstanding, winning the team's MVP five times in a row! I believe he is now ready to face WE.A, the strongest dark horse in history!"

The doll smiled and said:

"If you hadn't mentioned that WE.A was a dark horse, I would have forgotten its true identity. To be honest, in my opinion, EDG, the Spring Split champion team, is more like the challenger."

“That’s absolutely right,” Miller said with a smile. “WE.A is in such great form right now! They’ve been undefeated in the regular season, not losing a single game!”

Bella nodded and said:

"Yes, speaking of Koro1, we can see that today WE.A's starting top laner is Flandre! In the last few rounds of the regular season, Flandre and Khan often took turns playing, and both were able to bring different changes to the team!"

The doll glanced at the fact that both sides had entered the ban/pick phase and shouted:

"Alright! Enough chit-chat! The match has begun! Both sides have started the draft phase. Let's see what kind of exciting performance these two teams will deliver in today's opening match of the playoffs!!"

EDG player seats.

Mingkai, who was chatting and laughing with his teammates just a second ago, suddenly changed his expression after receiving the referee's instruction to start the game. His narrow eyes revealed a dangerous yet wise light, and he quickly put on his headphones, transforming into Dark Kai.

His calm and collected voice conveyed an unquestionable authority.

"The enemy team has Flandre, so Koro is the one you can carry with the weapon this round. I'm not watching you anymore."

Before the match even started, they had already thoroughly studied every member of WE.A!
If they bring on Saint Gun, then WE.A will most likely shift their tactical focus towards the mid and bottom lanes!

Upon hearing Zhuge Mingkai's words, Kou Rou nodded solemnly.

The last person he faced was Khan; Koro1 has never directly faced Flandre in a match.

Even so, Kou Rou still has absolute confidence in his abilities.

After all, Abu had forced him to watch WE.A's match videos quite a few times. In his eyes, Flandre was not bad, but he was a team-oriented top laner who was often sacrificed by the team. In this situation, he could play more aggressively.

"What should we do first?" Mingkai thought for a moment after hearing Kou Rou's question.

"Leopard Girl."

As the originator of the Nidalee jungle build, Zhou Li's status among Nidalee players is now extremely polarized.

Because even now, Nidalee is a champion that is consistently banned in ranked matches, from Bronze and Silver to Diamond and Challenger.

Of course, the goals of Bronze/Silver players and Diamond/Master players playing Nidalee are different.

“We saw that EDG also banned Zhou Li’s Nidalee. This player, who is known as the Nidalee master, has made this champion a fearsome presence in Summoner’s Rift. I saw a popular saying online before: Nine out of ten Nidalee players are bad, and the other one is Zhou Li.”

"Look at WE.A's ban! It's a pretty standard ban, they banned Kayle! What does EDG say, should they ban Lee Sin too? I remember in that game, Clearlove's Evelynn was playing against Zhou Li's Lee Sin, and he got invaded pretty badly!"

Looking at EDG's ban, the doll smiled and said:

"Banned! The familiar pattern, only banning junglers against WE.A! I heard that recently many fans online have been calling for Riot to increase the ban slots to five, otherwise there aren't enough champions for Zhou Li to ban."

The banning power fell into WE.A's hands, and it was the usual banning: Kassadin in the mid lane.

"EDG's last ban! Let's see what they have to say. There are still Hecarim, Pantheon, and Rengar outside, so they really can't ban them! And if you really use all your bans on this jungler, WE.A, as the red side, actually has the advantage because you've let out too many OP champions. WE.A can directly pick two champions in the first pick."

Hearing Miller's words, Bella nodded and said:

"Yes, this is actually a very difficult problem for most teams when facing WE.A. Hey! EDG's last pick was Lulu!"

Removing Lulu was a decision made by EDG after conducting a thorough, analytical study of WE.A.

WE.A is a team that really likes to pick Lulu.

After comprehensive analysis, Mingkai, Abu, and others believe there are actually three points.

Firstly, Lulu is a lane bully in the mid lane; very few heroes can take lane control from her. The reason WE.A values ​​Lulu so much is because Zhou Li loves to invade the enemy jungle, which requires the mid laner to have lane control. Even if Zhou Li doesn't provide immediate support, he can still prevent the enemy mid laner from going to the jungle, thus creating a one-on-one situation between Zhou Li and the enemy jungler.

Secondly, Zhou Li often plays as a carry when jungling. However, jungling is ultimately a warrior hero, and Lulu's shield and ultimate ability give Zhou Li enough room for error.

Thirdly, in EDG's view, Xiye is a very aggressive player. Such players have a very strong lane dominance, but for the same reason, they also have a very big weakness: they are easily caught. Lulu can allow Xiye to exert lane dominance while ensuring that he has a higher survivability.

It can be said that no matter what tactics WE.A uses, Lulu can be the versatile cornerstone of all tactics.

Removing Lulu is not only targeting Zhou Li, but also Xi Ye; it's killing two birds with one stone.

WE.A, on the other hand, chose to remove Widowmaker in their last substitution.

The way this person was pulled was quite sarcastic.

After all, Widowmaker isn't a mainstream jungler these days, and the last time Clearlove used Widowmaker in the jungle was in the game where he got completely crushed by Zhou Li's Lee Sin. Since then, Clearlove has never used Widowmaker again.

"WE.A's last-minute ban felt like a complete miss. Maybe it served as a wake-up call, reminding Clearlove not to forget that Evelynn game?"

Hearing Miller's words, the doll smiled and said:

"All I can say is, this is the Zhou Li I know. He's genuinely confident. And do you know what's so outrageous about him? I believe many people are probably hoping that Zhou Li will be proven wrong one day, but in reality, even standing on the playoff stage today, the boomerang everyone has been waiting for hasn't appeared! To be honest, I don't recommend young people learn from Zhou Li. After all, sometimes if you talk too arrogantly, you can easily get hit by a boomerang, and then people will really think you're crazy."

EDG player seats.

Upon seeing WE.A's player take down the opponent, Mingkai transformed into Red Kai in a brief three-second moment, before quickly calming down and reverting to Dark Kai.

"Let's pick Braum. The enemy team will definitely pick Lucian to counter it, but that's good too. If we pick Lucian, they'll be aggressive in lane trades, and I'll get opportunities."

Upon hearing Mingkai's words, Kou Rou nodded and immediately locked in Braum.

On the other side, after seeing EDG's picks, WE.A did indeed pick Lucian, but their subsequent picks were completely unexpected by everyone present!
"Huh? Amumu? Really?! It's locked up!"

Hearing Miller's exclamation, the doll said somewhat uncertainly:
"Um, is this Amumu meant for jungling?"

Bella shook her head.

"I think that's unlikely. Knowing Zhou Li as I do, he doesn't seem to have ever played this type of hero before!"

(End of this chapter)