Rebirth is fine, but I get eight hundred dollars right from the start?

South Korea!

Live stream of the League of Legends All-Star Individual Skills Competition.

The comments section is in complete chaos:

【Ugh, is the event organizer deliberately trying to make things difficult for us?】

[Anbixin faces off against Emperor in the first round? This draw is even more rigged than a conspiracy!]

[Damn it... I said during the vote that we shouldn't have picked Ambition for the lane. Even if we had just brought up Faker, at least we wouldn't have been so badly overshadowed.]

[Alright, alright, the Faker you're talking about, didn't he also get completely dominated by Emperor in ranked games on the Chinese Super Server? Have you forgotten that Orianna vs. Zed matchup, where he got solo-killed twice at level six? The replay is still on YouTube.]

[Stop arguing, stop arguing. The most important thing right now is to figure out how to help An Bixin win against that terrifying man—even if it's just to steal a trick from him?]

[Beat Emperor? Are you asleep? Emperor has maintained a 100% win rate in his lane since his debut. No mid laner in the world could beat him even for a single game.]

[In the interview, he said he hoped someone would challenge him, otherwise it would be too boring—isn't that basically saying "you guys are all noobs"?]

【Ugh... what do we do? He's playing a match in Shanghai, we can't just fly over and unplug his internet.】

Does anyone know any relatives of An Bixin? Send him a text message and ask him to choose a hero from the underworld.

【…】

The live chat was still scrolling wildly, but both sides on the field had already entered the ban phase.

Compared to An Bixin, who was sweating profusely and desperately searching for the conditions for victory, Lin Shu in front of the computer looked particularly relaxed.

He wasn't under much pressure to begin with.

In terms of laning ability alone, Ambition is among the worst mid laners in all five All-Star teams this year, not to mention his increasingly outstanding individual skills.

He had previously wondered why he couldn't stay up late. Around 1:30 a.m., his eyelids would start to droop, and he had to lie down in bed to recover.

Looking back now, the increasingly exaggerated neural reaction speed and the precision of hand operations were probably enhanced by the rebirth—like replacing the graphics card of an old computer; the underlying technology is still the same, but the performance is on a completely different level.

Despite his relaxed demeanor, Lin Shu maintained an extremely proper attitude.

Heroes are banned.

In the first round, Lin Shu, playing on the blue side, didn't hesitate to eliminate Nunu, the policewoman, and Annie.

It's not that he can't play if the opposing team picks these heroes.

There's a saying that goes something like this: even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit, because respecting your opponent is respecting your own time.

To unnecessarily increase the difficulty of a game that can be easily won is something only a fool worthy of a museum would do.

An Bixin, representing the purple team, bit his lower lip, the sweat on his palms making the surface of the mouse a little slippery.

He hesitated for several seconds before finally banning Jayce, LeBlanc, and Syndra—all of them, except for Jayce, were Lin Shu's signature champions.

This ban caused another uproar in the Korean livestream chat:

What's the point of banning Jayce?

He robbed you, what would you do?

[Using this ban slot is practically useless!]

[Anbixin, you can't exactly tell me you're going to lane against Emperor with Zed, can you?]

[Heh, you might as well just pick that Kha'Zix that gets solo-killed by Nidalee.]

The selection phase has begun.

External discussions certainly don't affect the players on the field.

Anbixin took a deep breath, dragged the mouse back and forth in the hero list twice, and finally stopped on a portrait that even he felt was a bit risky—the Exile, Riven!

He's betting!

He bet that the opposing Emperor would pick Zed.

When the tanky Riven faces a squishy assassin, as long as the skill difference between the two isn't too great, the Noxian warrior will ultimately emerge victorious.

"Oh? Anbixin picked Riven in the solo match!"

"Riven, as a top lane champion, has strong close-range burst damage in solo lane. The damage from her three-part Q combined with her passive auto-attack is quite considerable in the early game—this is going for a one-shot kill strategy!"

Anbixin's choice caused a stir in the domestic live broadcast room, and even the commentator Miller's voice unconsciously rose by half an octave.

The doll next to him quickly chimed in: "Indeed, Riven is incredibly effective in solo matches. At level one, her three-hit Q combined with her passive can take down a third of the opponent's health. If she manages to reach level two first, with a large health potion and Ignite, she really has a chance to solo kill. Ambition's pick was very clever; he wanted to use the burst damage of melee assassins to disrupt Emperor's usual mage or assassin rhythm."

The Korean commentators had mixed feelings: "Ambition chose Riven... well, it's a high-risk, high-reward pick. Emperor did ban three mage champions, but the problem is—of Emperor's remaining champion pool, only if he chooses a standard assassin will this pick yield a sufficiently high return."

As soon as the words were spoken, the last pick for the blue team lit up.

Zed, the Master of Shadows.

The moment the profile picture appeared, the entire audience of the Shanghai Grand Stage erupted in cheers, as if the volume had been turned up, even louder than during the awards ceremony.

Inside the venue, the sound system played Zed's classic line: "The invisible blade is the most deadly."

The chat in the Korean livestream seemed to freeze the moment Zed's avatar appeared—the scrolling text on the screen froze for half a second, then exploded again at an almost manic pace:

[Zed!!! He really picked Zed!!!]

[Ahhh, we bet right! Anbixin's Riven pick was absolutely brilliant!]

[A warrior versus an assassin, isn't this an absolute perfect start? Riven's level 3 combo can take down half of Zed's health, and her level 6 execute threshold is even higher than Zed's—this game has a chance!]

Wow, Anbixin, are you the stock trading god of Seoul? This stock selection strategy is called "buy low, sell high," building positions at the bottom and waiting for takeoff!

Defeating Emperor! If you win this game, you'll be the hero of OGN! All the mid laners in Korea will bow down to you!

[Riven is playing Zed, Anbixin, you must realize this—this might be, no, absolutely your only chance in your life to beat Emperor. That man has had a 100% win rate in his lane since his debut, has never been solo-killed, and no one can even out-farm him in the laning phase. Today, you're playing Riven against his Zed, a game with a mechanics advantage; everything is just waiting for this one play from you!]

[Forge the glory of OGN, charge!—Shut up the audience on the grand stage in Shanghai!]

On the Korean official commentary desk, the two commentators were also going at it like crazy, speaking at a breakneck pace due to their Korean pronunciation: "Emperor has chosen Zed! This is a very strong matchup for us! Riven has extremely high close-range burst damage in the current version of solo matches. Her three-part Q combined with her passive auto-attack can deal over 300 damage in two seconds, while Zed is a relatively fragile champion before level six and relies heavily on skill hits—if Xin can reach level two first and make a play, or capitalize on the cooldown period of Zed's W skill, he has a very high probability of establishing an advantage!"

The partner chimed in, "That's right. While Emperor's assassins are renowned, Riven has a 60-70% win rate against Zed in solo matches. And we see Ambition is taking Ignite and Flash—standard solo kill builds—his goal this game isn't just peaceful farming; he wants to get a kill before level six!"

……