LPL History

Chapter 250 Pei Shengqiang wields the Reverse Scale Blade, Zhou Lang cleverly lights the Heart-Piercing Lamp

Samsung Blue Players' Seats.

The faces of the five contestants were now burning red, whether from shame or anger, it was hard to tell.

The emperor was clearly the most furious one.

"Damn it, that bastard is putting on a show again! We'll crush them today!"

The Emperor clearly harbored the greatest resentment towards the Zhou rites.

After all, Zhou Li is the boss of WE.B.

The Emperor still vividly remembers the final group stage match against WE.B.

That match cemented the entire Samsung Blue team's place on the pillar of shame.

The Emperor, who played a stable and dedicated role in that game but gave away three kills in two minutes, has been ridiculed ever since and has become the representative figure of the Joker.

That match caused the Emperor immense pain.

Even his fans in China have been criticizing him relentlessly.

Before this, he was the most loved and praised mid laner in Korea!
And now he has fallen to such a state of being ridiculed by everyone, and the culprit is Zhou Li, who is right across from him!

Therefore, the Emperor's revenge today can be said to be imperative!

After witnessing Zhou Liliang's clownish behavior, the Emperor gritted his teeth even more. After thinking for a moment, he spoke again:

"Can I have Zed? Lulu can be played top or support."

The Emperor didn't notice that neither his previous nor this statement had received a response from Spirit's Lee Da-yoon.

In fact, this once inseparable "strongest mid-jungle duo in Korea" had a huge argument after that group stage match, which created a rift between them.

Since the start of this year's Spring Split, DaDi and Spirit have demonstrated absolute dominance on the field.

Although Samsung Blue's late-game core is still Deft as the ADC, as a team that excels at macro play, in essence, if a game lasts forty minutes and Deft determines the outcome of the last ten minutes, then Emperor and Spirit determine the outcome of the first thirty minutes.

With the synergy of the mid-jungle duo of Emperor and Spirit, they successfully entered the World Championship as the number one seed.

It's fair to say that before WE.A emerged, they always believed they were the strongest mid-jungle duo in the world.

This extreme confidence began to waver after watching WE.A's matches.

However, the two sides had not yet fought each other at that time.

Until they experienced that match against WE.B.

It's important to understand that WE.B's strength is far inferior to WE.A's.

However, they were completely overwhelmed by WE.B in that match and had no chance to fight back!
This supposedly strongest mid-jungle duo in the world has become a result of their coordinated attack, with one dying and the other feeding.

After the match, not only did the Emperor suffer ridicule, but Spirit also endured a lot of cyberbullying.

Originally, Spirit was essentially taking the blame for the Emperor.

In that game, the Emperor's mid lane was completely destroyed, forcing him to constantly check the mid lane. As a result, the opponent seized the opportunity and caused him to collapse as well.

However, during the post-match review, the confident and arrogant Emperor directly shifted all the blame onto Spirit.

Every time the Emperor saw himself die, he would blame Spirit for not coming to help him counter-gank.

If this counter-gank succeeds, then the situation can be turned around in one fell swoop, and so on.

As a result, the two had a violent confrontation that day.

The Emperor's overly arrogant personality was something Spirit found hard to accept.

Although the two eventually shook hands and made up after the coach's mediation, the resentment remained, and it's not something that can be easily erased.
Especially for teams like them that have won all season.

They appear to be invincible, but in reality, they are the most vulnerable to setbacks.

Today's match against WE.A is the most important hurdle for Samsung Blue right now.

If they overcome that hurdle, then that peak Samsung Blue will return to the arena.

If they fail to overcome this hurdle, it won't just be a matter of missing out on the finals; the entire team could very well be devastated and never recover.

Spirit understands this too.

So he had already adjusted his mindset before the match started.

But he soon discovered that although he had made changes, the emperor was still as self-centered as ever.

Picking Lulu first was a tactical arrangement they had made before the match.

However, now, the Emperor is going to play a game of tribulation again because of his extremely boring pride.

While Lulu can indeed be played in the top lane or as support, this kind of last-minute lineup change affects more than just the laning phase of a single lane; it requires adjustments to the entire team's tactics.

Spirit wanted to offer some advice to the Emperor, but considering the Emperor's personality, he simply kept quiet.

Like Spirit, the rest of the Samsung Blue team also had objections to the Emperor's sudden decision to change heroes at the last minute.

However, the Emperor is, after all, the core player of the team. It can be said that he is the most famous star player in the team right now. In addition, due to the personalities of the others, no one really stood up to criticize the Emperor's behavior.

However, in reality, the emperor was just saying it casually.

He discovered that when he casually said it, no one actually disagreed with him.

Since no one has any objections, then I, the Great Emperor, will make the decision myself!

Therefore, the Great Emperor directly revealed the Calamity.

Spirit sighed silently, feeling somewhat helpless.

The last player who always confidently showed off his Zed ability in matches was Gogong, whose team, NJWS, has already been sent home by WE.A.

In order to complement the Emperor's Zed, Spirit had no choice but to pick Elise, an AP jungler, to enhance their mid-jungle strength.

Upon seeing Samsung Blue's selection, Miller exclaimed in surprise:

"Hey! We see that after Samsung Blue first picked Lulu, they also locked in Zed! As expected of the confident Emperor. I knew it felt weird to have the Emperor playing Lulu. In that case, Lulu should be either top lane or support!"

Bella nodded and said:

"I feel there's a slightly higher chance of her going up, because if she's facing Jayce, Lulu is at least easier to deal with in the early game than some short-ranged champions."

Just as the doll was about to express her agreement, Miller exclaimed in surprise:

"Hey! Who told you that WE.A's Jayce was going to walk up?!"

WE.A locked in Kennen as their third pick!
In this version, Kennen is not very suitable for the mid lane. Also, when Kennen faces Lulu in lane, his range is even longer than Lulu's.

So WE.A's Kennen pick was clearly intended for the top lane!
"So Jayce is going mid lane then!"

The doll exclaimed in surprise.

At this moment, on the Samsung Blue player's bench, the Emperor's face instantly darkened, and he began to curse with foul language.

Zed is a champion who is easily suppressed in the early game, even when facing traditional mages, due to his methods.

Only after reaching level six can one rise from serf to master.

However, when facing a champion like Jayce, who is an AD carry with long range, Zed's laning pressure will increase exponentially!

Even after reaching level six, Zed doesn't have much of an advantage against Jayce.

The opponent went first with Jayce, and Emperor went second with Zed. Going second resulted in picking a counter-pick.

Meanwhile, in the WE.A player's area, Khan, who was backstage, jumped up like a monkey, laughing strangely as he said:

"Hahaha, that idiot Emperor! Does he look down on our Xiye, thinking that our Xiye can only play Lulu?"

Seeing the Khan's appearance, Tabe couldn't help but glance at the camera beside him and remind him:
"Khan, the cameras are rolling. They might broadcast what you just said and what you just said."

Upon hearing Tabe's words, Khan had not yet reacted, but Zhu Kai waved his hand and said:

"Tabe, if you want to become a qualified coach, it's not enough to just be good at drafting and banning (BP). You also need to pay more attention to the players' lives."

Tabe was taken aback and asked in confusion:
"What do you mean?"

Zhu Kai looked at the Khan, who was still jumping around, and a loving smile appeared on his face, as if he were looking at a pet.

"Do you think the Khan didn't know the cameras were filming? He deliberately wanted the cameras to capture his image."

Zhu Kai's words were clearly beyond Tabe's imagination.

Who is this?
Did he deliberately want the whole world to see that he was mentally unstable?

He remembered that the Khan's parents were still alive and well, and they weren't very old, so he guessed they hadn't found girlfriends yet. How come there was no one in the world he cared about?

Seeing Tabe's puzzled look, Zhu Kai leaned closer and whispered in a low voice:
"A few days ago, the Khan contacted me, saying he's been very troubled lately because that old scoundrel Sima keeps poking at him, asking if he's planning to return home, and what he'll do if he has to serve in the military..."

Tabe listened very attentively.

He knew that Khan's form had been fluctuating during training matches recently, which is why he substituted Flandre into the starting lineup for this semifinal.

So it turns out it was because he was worried about having to go back to serve in the military.

It's not fair to blame the Khan for being overly worried, given that bullying incidents in South Korean military camps are notorious worldwide.

This is still an ordinary person.

Imagine if Khan and his team had defeated the South Korean team this year; he would definitely have become a "celebrity" in South Korea.

If Khan were on another LPL team, it wouldn't be so bad, but he's on WE.A, a team that's hated by Koreans.

When the time comes, you'll probably go into the military camp standing up and come out lying down a few years later.

Zhu Kai continued to explain in detail:

"At that time, I gave him two suggestions."

Tabe's eyes lit up; he seemed quite interested, given the strict military service requirements in South Korea.

“I told him,” Zhu Kai said with a sly grin, “Khan, if you don’t want to go back to the army, there are two relatively feasible methods, the first—”

"Go and break his hand."

Tabe paused for a moment, an incredulous expression on his face.

"What kind of terrible idea is this?"

Khan is an e-sports player, so what's the big deal if he breaks his hand?

“What do you mean by ‘bad idea’!” Zhu Kai raised an eyebrow. “Besides, the Khan is a coward and didn’t accept it, did he?”

Tabe's expression turned serious, and he said solemnly:

"Your idea is harmful and crooked."

Zhu Kai waved his hand and continued:
"So I gave him a second idea—to pretend to be mentally ill."

This time, Tabe remained silent for a long time, simply watching the Khan babbling incoherently before finally asking with a hint of doubt:
Are you sure he's faking it?

Zhu Kai also fell silent.

"It was certain before, but it's not so certain now."

Amidst the commotion in the lounge, WE.A had already locked up Lucian on the fourth floor of the stage.

Lucian paired with Thresh is considered WE.A's signature bot lane duo.

The saying goes that having one trick up your sleeve can make you successful in any situation. In most cases, WE.A's opponents need to use the ban to limit Zhou Li.

This allows other WE.A players to often enjoy using the same strategy repeatedly.

For example, Xi Ye, who played Lulu so much that netizens called him a Lulu "human pillar".

For example, the bot lane duo of Thresh and Lucian, or Thresh and Caitlyn, or Lux and Caitlyn.

However, the tactics of the two are different.

Thresh and Lucian are designed for early to mid-game team fights.

Meanwhile, the Glorious Policewoman relies on quickly pushing down defensive towers to accelerate her speed.

Samsung Blue wasn't too surprised by WE.A's lineup selection, as it was already a classic roster combination for WE.A.

In fact, they had already prepared a lineup to deal with WE.A.

That means having the Emperor pick Lulu in the mid lane and Janna and a late-game carry ADC in the bot lane, using early game macro to trade resources and contain WE.A, and then letting Deft take over the game in the late game.

But now, in order to prove himself, the Emperor suddenly pulled out a Zed.

Lulu was then placed in the top lane.

Therefore, the Samsung Blue lineup is severely lacking in initiators and crowd control.

If you pick Janna, the entire lineup will become extremely passive!

So Samsung Blue's current options are either to move Lulu to the bottom lane to play support, or to add crowd control to the support role.

However, Lulu's performance in the support role is not very good right now, and if the enemy top laner is Kennen, picking a tank to lane against him will cause Kennen to farm too well.

So, in the end, Samsung Blue had no choice but to pick Alistar after selecting Kog'Maw.

After all, Alistar is quite effective against Thresh in lane, and can also serve as an initiator and damage absorber.

The last choice of who gets the pick falls into the hands of WE.A.

Zhou Li looked at the lineups of both sides, pondered for a moment, and locked in Olaf!
He then used his [Capital] ability to purchase Olaf's proficiency.

It costs 100,000 coins to master a hero.

This amount of money might have been expensive in the past, but now that WE's A and B teams have both made it to the semifinals of the World Championship, Zhou Li used to be begging for sponsors, but now sponsors are practically begging to put money into Zhou Li's pocket.

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

Blue side: SSB Esports Club VS Red side: WE.A Esports Club.

Top lane: (Acorn) Purple Garlic VS (Flandre) Kennen.

Jungle: (Spirit) Elise Queen VS (Li) Olaf.

Mid Lane: (dade) Zed vs. (xiye) UZI.

ADC: (deft) Kog'Maw VS (smlz) Lucian.

Support: (Heart) Alistar vs. (ming) Thresh.

(End of this chapter)