Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 169, Section 166: The Second Stage – A Foregone Conclusion

After the first game, the atmosphere in TLN's training room was as quiet as if someone had died.

Everyone listened to the coach's debriefing, then nodded like zombies to show they had heard.

However, in this situation, no matter how much the coach reviews the game, it's not very meaningful.

The ending was already decided at that moment.

With Ryujin constantly saying in his livestream, "This is a trash match, Shimamura-nee, hurry up and take it 2-0," the second match of the day continued after a short halftime break.

However, the match did not bring any unexpected developments.

Similarly, there was a deafening cheer from Shimamura Yuna's fans in the audience, and an overwhelming cheer from CFO's fans.

But what remains unchanged is the game content.

It's clear that the CFO isn't planning to show his true abilities today.

With the league environment still unclear at the beginning of the season and the strength of heroes still needing to be verified, the CFO team has been tentatively playing some heroes that they rarely play before.

For example, Shimamura Yuna directly picked the Captain in the second game.

This character isn't unusable; in fact, he had a fairly high usage rate during the Vanguard Tournament.

However, this is indeed a character that Shimamura Yuna doesn't use well and has very low proficiency with.

Among characters who tend to be more complex and focused, Shimamura Yuna's control over this role is probably the lowest.

The only moves she knows are probably some basic double and triple barrel combos.

Moreover, the greater the pressure in a match, the worse she performs and the lower her usage rate of the captain's difficult combos.

Ultimately, the Captain and heroes like Vladimir, who rely on fundamental skills but mastery of abilities, are fundamentally different in their underlying logic.

To develop this hero in lane, you not only need basic skills, but also a high level of proficiency and specialization.

Among the heroes frequently seen in competitive matches, this is one of the characters that requires the highest level of proficiency.

Shimamura Yuna's Captain has actually played nearly a hundred games on the ladder, but in actual combat, her flexibility and adaptability, as well as her placement of barrels, are very poor.

Since the CFO chose this role for Shimamura Yuna, it's because she wanted to practice playing the hero, not because she was determined to win.

Even so.
Yuna Shimamura still managed to crush AZHI.

She really doesn't know how to use a bucket.

She really used the bucket very poorly.

Even so, her captain, who had no barrel and was ablaze with fire, still managed to cook Azhi by hacking him to pieces with his burning blade.

[Shimamura-san also knows how to use a fire-resistant knife]

Wow, Shimamura-san is just too amazing!

These two are clearly not in the same league. Shimamura-san's captain skill is completely nonexistent; she's just playing him like a dog.

[Don't be so harsh on him. This captain even lost to Zeus in the finals. Don't underestimate him.]

To be fair, the Captain wasn't played very well in the finals either. As far as I remember, he never managed to land any crucial barrels in team fights; he basically just threw out a big orange and went in to hack away.

[That's true. Shimamura-nee's captain only knows what the skills are; she's nowhere near being a good player.]

The comments were almost unanimously saying that Shimamura Yuna played the captain poorly and was bad at the game.

When such a discussion takes place when the team is about to lose, it is more likely to belittle and criticize.

However, when it comes to a one-sided massacre, the meaning is completely different.

What people really mean is, "Even if Shimamura doesn't know how to play a hero, she can still crush you guys."

And this is indeed the case.

Yuna Shimamura's Captain's E skill is indeed used very infrequently in scenarios other than clearing minions.

When exchanging blows and dealing damage, you rely more on your Q skill and passive, and you hardly use your E skill.

The reason is that Shimamura Yuna's proficiency with the E skill is too low. Sometimes the barrel combo is too brain-intensive, and she can't think of such complicated things when she is under pressure.

Even so, she was still able to beat Azhi in lane.

In this context, no matter how much criticism is leveled at Captain Shimamura Yuna's trashy gameplay, it's more of a mockery of this seemingly hopeless gap in strength.

The match continued in a completely predictable manner.

Ultimately, the second game also ended with a huge score of 20-7.

Shimamura Yuna's Fire Blade Captain did not deliver the carry performance she usually does in this match. Although her laning phase was decent, her team fight performance seemed lackluster, and she didn't contribute much beyond giving up her ultimate in team fights.

On the contrary, HongQ, who played in the mid lane, earned the MVP award.

This best-of-three series ended with a score of 2-0.

And so, CFO's first battle in the second stage came to an end.

At the moment the match ended, Ryujin let out a long sigh: "It's finally over. Luckily, Shimamura-nee was quick to crush the weaker opponents."

"What a boring match. How can this LCP be so terrible?"

"Sigh, it would be great if Shimamura came to the LPL. Or maybe we should just invite the CFO to play in the LPL. I'm really curious to see what it would be like if Shimamura clashed with people like Ma Tou and Bin. What's so fun about dealing with trash like that?"

That's right, this is the perspective of a viewer like Dragon God, an ordinary bystander.

He acknowledged that Shimamura Yuna was very strong and was also interested in this player.

However, he is not really a fan of Shimamura Yuna, and his perspective on Shimamura Yuna is not particularly insightful.

Therefore, he wouldn't find the match exciting simply because Shimamura Yuna won; he would prefer to see Shimamura Yuna, as a strong and talked-about player, compete against other teams that are equally talked-about.

From this perspective, he would find it a very boring match.

This also represents the opinion of a considerable number of viewers regarding Shimamura Yuna's performance in the LCP.

Boring, low in competitiveness, and low in entertainment value.

Even halfway through the match, many people were already asking to change the channel.

However, this thing is often very fragmented.

Some viewers simply want to watch matches that are engaging in discussion and competition.

Some viewers simply wanted to see Shimamura win.

The more Shimamura beat the AI ​​and the less the AI ​​could fight back, the more satisfied they were to watch.

They don't want to see any confrontations, and they don't want to take any strong heart medicine.

Since the opponent is only at the level of LCP, we can just crush them all the way through.

By all means
This segment of the audience makes up a significant portion.

Ultimately, Shimamura Yuna's popularity is so high that her fan base accounts for an exaggerated proportion of the LOL esports audience.

In Longshen's live stream alone, probably two-thirds of the viewers thought, "This competition is so interesting, I don't feel anything interesting about it."

Not to mention the LCP event itself.

Almost everyone who came to watch the game was a fan of CFO and Yuna Shimamura.

The CFO's absolute dominance and overwhelming presence in the game drew cheers and applause from the crowd, who felt it was the most exciting game they had ever seen in their lives.

The simpler Shimamura's victory is, the more spectacular it is.

The more dominant the match, the more exciting it is.

This is the underlying logic behind fans watching games.

And Shimamura Yuna would fulfill their needs. The moment she won the match, Shimamura Yuna took a deep breath and calmly removed her headphones.

She didn't feel much about the victory in this match.

It just felt as natural as brushing my teeth, washing my face, and having breakfast in the morning.

The scenario that had been repeated countless times in training matches was simply repeated once again in the official match.

Having already won the Pioneer Tournament, the current competition is not enough to pique her interest.

It's just a routine matter, just going through the motions.

Amidst the cheers and stage lights, she once again walked to the center of the stage to be interviewed by the host.

"Mr. Shimamura, do you have any special feelings about winning this match?"

"Yes, I'm very happy to have won."

He answered the host's question in a calm and unassuming manner.

They said they were very happy.

But it actually means "I don't have any particular feelings".

However, this is normal.

In the final analysis.
For Yuna Shimamura, this kind of competition doesn't evoke any special feelings in her.

She looks forward to a bigger stage and more championships.

Just as those less enthusiastic viewers of non-Shimamura Yuna's films had hoped.

She also looked forward to stronger opponents, and...
Hopefully, we can win a more prestigious championship.
-
CFO's debut in the LCP basically set the tone for their entire season thereafter.

Since then, CFO has never lost a game in the LCP, not even a single game.

Yes, it's pure torture.

It's simply about dominating the region.

The entire CFO team is currently experiencing a temporary gap in performance that far exceeds the average level of the region. At present, other teams in the region are not even able to compete with CFO on the same stage.

Even TLN, widely considered the second-best team in the region, couldn't get a single point from CFO, so who else could?

The answer is, no.

The CFO may not necessarily be that strong, and may not necessarily be part of a team that can dominate in world championships.

However, this does not prevent LCP from being targeted by anyone.

In the following regular season games, they dominated almost without any suspense.

Why say almost, rather than all?

Because Shimamura Yuna did not play the entire game.

In two of those games, the CFO intentionally wanted the Driver to come up and get some experience.

These matches were won smoothly thanks to the high spirits of the middle and lower ranks, but in terms of dominance, they were clearly not as good as when Shimamura Yuna was on the field.

This also allowed the CFO to contribute a few games to the league where the opponents looked like they "could put up a fight".

However, everyone knows that as long as Shimamura Yuna plays, the result in the LCP league is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

This caused many people to quickly lose interest in watching LCP matches.

I find this competition very boring.

I felt the competition was too low-intensity; it was just watching Shimamura Yuna get thrashed in match after match.

As mentioned before, apart from a few die-hard fans who are obsessed with watching Shimamura Yuna fry fish every day, there's basically no one paying attention to this competition anymore.

Everyone should go back to watching LPL if they want, LCK if they want, and not watch if they don't want to.

LCP did indeed attract a significant amount of attention compared to the first stage.

However, to be honest, the level of popularity isn't as exaggerated as one might think.

On the contrary, the LPL's popularity has increased significantly due to the resurgence of discussion.

A lot has happened in the LPL this season.

First and foremost, the most eye-catching event of the entire season was undoubtedly the dramatic power struggle between BLG's junglers.

BLG, who were supposed to be aiming for the S15 championship this year, actually put on a very poor performance in the second stage.

They showed inconsistency in the early part of the season.

Towards the middle and later stages of the season, there was a growing sense that they couldn't beat anyone and wouldn't even make it to MSI.

This is obviously unacceptable for BLG, who aimed for the World Championship and fought a full match against T1 in last year's S-series finals, narrowly missing out on the title.

They have to change; they have to make things different.

After discussing it within the team, they clearly believed that the main problem lay with their jungler, Wei, because he was playing too poorly and was not suitable for the team.

Therefore, in the latter half of the regular season, they chose to demote Wei to the bench and trade for Beichuan from the TT team to become the team's starter.

This incident generated a considerable response among the audience.

Many people believe that BLG formed a clique around Wei, while others think that Wei was indeed too bad and it was only natural for BLG to kick him out if they wanted to achieve better results.

Regardless of the truth, when BLG made this decision, they put both sides in the spotlight of public opinion.

If BLG keeps winning, then everyone will say, "BLG is right, WEI is really bad."

If BLG keeps losing, then people will say, "BLG is wrong, they like to shift the blame onto Wei."

In short, it was a roundabout segment with a high degree of suspense, and for the audience, it was incredibly exciting.

Aside from this incident, there are many other noteworthy events in the entire competition area.

For example, IG's internet celebrity team unexpectedly performed well, TES became the king of spinning tops and led the region, and AL made a dark horse comeback and showed strong strength.

All of this makes the second stage of the LPL very exciting.

Although it still gives people the feeling that "with this bunch of maggots, I don't know who can take on LCK".

However, sometimes people watch a competition not just because they're going to win.

Even if it's a bunch of maggots, as long as they're entertaining, evenly matched, and have their own grudges and feuds, it's still an interesting story.

The only thing that everyone feels is regrettable now is
"Sigh, if only the CFO were in the LPL."

Dragon God has said this countless times during his live streams.

Indeed, if Shimamura's LPL team had participated in such an exciting season, there would have been countless more topics of discussion.

The matchup between Shimamura and star top laners like BIN, Ale, and Matou is sure to generate a lot of buzz and viewership.

What a pity.

Shimamura is still dominating her own LCP territory.

Meanwhile, the top laners in the LPL are still fiercely battling it out within the league.

And so, the two sides continued their own stories in completely parallel ways.

until
The second stage has ended.

The world lines have finally converged.

(End of this chapter)