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

Just as Lin Shu was building his e-commerce empire brick by brick, time was quietly moving forward.

2012 12 Month 3 Day.

YY Live, Room 900010521.

Regular viewers noticed something was wrong as soon as they entered. The original title, "Aiming for 3,000 points, let's continue playing the LOL mini-game to defend the number one spot in the Chinese server," had been quietly changed to a new one.

Let's skip the ranked games today and check out the IPL5 finals!

The live stream room is still the same live stream room.

On camera, the young man appeared noticeably more composed than when the show first aired a month ago.

The youthful naiveté in his eyes and brows has faded somewhat, replaced by a maturity honed by his busy life.

Fortunately, his ability to crack jokes is still there, and he speaks with the same old flair.

Lin Shu sat cross-legged on the chair, his feet resting on the edge of the seat, curled up like an old man from Northeast China chatting on a heated brick bed.

He faced the camera, scrolling through the comments section as he spoke, his tone tinged with helplessness.

"No, this is the finals already, can those people who are still debating whether IPL5 has any value stop?"

Seeing the comments that were either deliberately stirring up trouble or just for fun, Lin Shu emphasized again: "Let me say it again, IPL5 itself was one of the most prestigious and strongest LOL tournaments in the world in 2012, without a doubt."

"You can see for yourselves by looking at the participating teams. Our region has WE and IG, while other regions have strong European and American teams like M5, FNC, TSM, and CLG, as well as the S2 champion TPA. In terms of the number of strong teams, IPL5 is even more prestigious than S2 in my opinion."

"So those who are deliberately stirring up trouble by saying that the World Championship isn't as good as my ranked games, can stop now."

"The skill level in solo queue is incomparable to that in professional matches."

The comments kept coming in relentlessly, one after another—

[Emperor, the problem is, after watching IPL5 from the group stage, the teamwork and strategy of those teams were really terrible. I didn't feel they were much better than the high-elo teams in our Chinese server.]

[I agree with the comment above. It turns out I'm not the only one who feels this way. After watching the matches for a few days, it seems like those European and American players are just playing haphazardly. Their vision control is terrible, and their resource control is awful.]

[Emperor, I admit you're the undisputed godfather of League of Legends tutorials, but when it comes to the value of IPL5, you really can't argue with the guys.]

There are many strong teams, but that doesn't necessarily mean the tournament is more prestigious. Given the organizers' terrible draw, if IG and WE hadn't been matched up early in the semifinals, and instead faced those weaker teams, a LPL final would have been a shoo-in for the championship.

Therefore, there's only one truth: our Chinese server is too strong.

[Agreed. I watched the quarterfinals, and the North American team's AD carry's CS was really bad, even worse than my roommate's.]

Speaking of this, I'm reminded of that hilarious top laner from CLG the other day. His own jungler was already showing up in the bottom half of the map, and this Rumble player just didn't know to retreat.

Indeed, as a veteran player who's been playing since Season 1, I've noticed that the skill level in the Chinese server is significantly higher than last year. Before, I could easily dominate at 2000 MMR, but now, a slight slip of the eye and a loss of vision can lead to a complete team fight comeback and a loss of the game.

[Here I want to say, Emperor is fully responsible. It's all your fault for releasing one tutorial video after another, making everyone on the national server practice the basics, and everyone has to carry two glasses—one real and one fake—when going out.]

[That's a bit of an exaggeration; it's unlikely to be a nationwide phenomenon, but it's true that this habit is prevalent among high-ranking players without exception.]

The current high-elo games on the Chinese server are a complete mess. Before, 2300 points was considered top-tier, but now even 2500 points might not get you into the top 100.

[After all, that freak already has 2900 points!]

Please, Emperor, slow down your video releases! Your update speed is even more ridiculous than Riot's patch updates. If you miss even two, you won't learn some key strategies, and you'll get crushed in ranked games.

[Hilarious! How is Emperor supposed to sell his products if he doesn't make videos? His shop is overflowing with pork floss pastries and fish tofu, waiting for you guys to buy them for him.]

Hey, you know what? The stuff in Emperor's gaming gear section is really great. Not only is it cheaper with group buying, but it's mostly brand-name products.

【…】

Lin Shu looked at the comments, his brows furrowing slightly before relaxing, and finally, he unconsciously touched the back of his head.

Well, this is really his fault...

Ever since he dominated the high-elo games on the Chinese server, decimating pro players and solo queue kings with 2300-400 MMR, the entire ranked environment has changed.

In the past, people relied on feel, instinct, and a little bit of intuition to rank up, just playing as they pleased.

Now? Everyone is desperately trying to master the details—last hitting, positioning, even timing their recalls to replenish supplies with the minion wave.

In particular, in order to further generate traffic and drive traffic to his Taobao store, he also made videos of many game ideas that were ahead of their time.

What about minion wave control, vision control, tempo trades, resource swaps...?

Although he felt that he had only picked out some "relatively basic" parts to talk about, these things were still a game-changer in the context of 2012.

Mechanics, rhythm, vision, and minion waves—each of these may not seem particularly daunting on its own, but when they are all combined and incorporated into every ranked game, the overall competitive level of the ranked environment is raised significantly, which is only natural.

Lin Shu picked up his cup and took a tactical sip of water.

This is actually one of the underlying reasons why WE and IG were able to achieve such outstanding results at IPL5 in this generation.

Both teams swept through the group stage, washing away the shame of S2 and remaining undefeated until the semi-finals, where they faced off against each other.

There's no other reason than the skill level of casual players has risen. Those high-ranked casual players who were repeatedly crushed by Emperor in ranked matches have improved and are now participating in a new round of ranked matches, which has inadvertently raised the level of competition.

Professional teams like WE and IG spend their days in high-elo games, laning, battling, and maneuvering against these hard-earned solo queue pros. Over time, this naturally elevates the competitive level and attention to detail of their teams.

Besides, the game backgrounds he shows in his videos are clearly more suitable for a professional gaming system.

Although the original intention was to teach ordinary players how to rank up, professional players saw it as ready-made tactical material.

They talk about minion waves, and they learn how to use minion waves; they talk about vision, and they learn how to use vision.

You talk about rhythm and priorities, and they directly apply that approach to training matches, studying it repeatedly.

When it comes to imitation and learning, the Chinese have an innate advantage.

How could a team that has absorbed new ideas and been repeatedly tempered in a high-intensity environment not be strong?

Lin Shu put down his cup, glanced at the viewers in the live chat who were still arguing about the "strength of the Chinese server," and unconsciously curled the corners of his mouth.

What he didn't say was that the current high-elo games in the Chinese server, and even in professional matches, are far from reaching their most intense phase.

He's only released a few episodes of his videos.

I've only scratched the surface of my own thinking.

Once he has gradually rolled out that complete system, once everyone starts playing the game with a professional eye, once a team that has truly received professional training for the future enters the LPL region...

That's when the real show begins.