You actually want me to...

Back in S8, everyone thought RNG wouldn't lose to G2. But so many years later, we still see them being constantly criticized. Taking the enemy seriously tactically while underestimating them strategically is the most correct pre-battle approach.

"How's the research going?"

Before she arrived, her voice preceded her. She gently kicked open the conference room door, and the white crescent-shaped figure appeared before Roland.

"It's alright. Generally speaking, I find it quite strange that a team like HLE could make it to Worlds. Is there no one else in the LCK region?"

I'm not kidding.

With this level of skill, if it weren't for Chovy holding things up, he felt V5 would have been dominating the game.

With this level of ADC strength, why is everyone in your region still playing a dual-carry strategy to protect the bottom lane?

Just kidding.

"Early on, many talented players were bought by the LPL. The current LCK is not commercialized, with veterans occupying positions and newcomers having nowhere to advance. It is indeed a period of transition, so it's normal for you to feel this way. But they also have their merits."

"Survivorship bias?"

"No, it should be said that the original location is different. Take black truffles for example. They can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan per kilogram, but in Yunnan they are used to feed pigs. The same applies to the LPL. Our AD position here is too complicated, unlike the health-conscious LCK next door."

One player is focused on killing their opponent, while the other is focused on farming minions. These are completely different and should not be confused.

"But how's your adjustment going?"

"Huh? What adjustment?"

"Don't tell me you're not nervous. Looking at the whole club, you're the one with the tightest nerves. Not to mention Ah Shui, even Da Huang noticed and told me behind my back. You think you're hiding it well?" White Crescent handed over a cup of hot tea, saying with a half-smile.

TES is on a good track.

With the Spring and Summer titles, the MSI championship, and now heading straight for the final S-series championship, he's basically on the path to a Grand Slam. If this had happened last year, he certainly wouldn't have felt any psychological burden. As a first-year player, losing is just losing. Even if he was unwilling, he could rely on his youth and have the opportunity to fight for it in the following years.

But...this year is different.

This year they've had it too easy, just like RNG in S8. If they make one wrong move, they'll lose the whole game. The scene of everyone criticizing them after losing the game back then is still vivid in Roland's mind.

He feared that his team would repeat the same mistakes, so he carefully reviewed the information of each team, lest he fall into the same quagmire again.

Similarly, he was also afraid of letting down Ha Huang and Da Huang's expectations. As veterans, no one could be sure whether they could maintain their form next year, or whether they could return to the world stage again next year.

As the captain, he has to be responsible for his teammates.

The pressure from the outside world, the pressure from within the team, and even the pressure from within himself made him feel a little overwhelmed. Even with two lifetimes combined, this was the first time he had ever learned to bear this burden.

TES is like a national team player now.

Everyone is praising your strength and taking pride in you, so you absolutely cannot lose, and you must win, and win beautifully. Once you fail, there will be no way out. How could Roland possibly be completely unaffected by this pressure?

Ignoring Roland's silence, White Crescent continued speaking to herself:

“During this time, I’ve seen Da Huang practice those few heroes until the early hours of the morning every day. He refused a lot of advice and always felt that the more he mastered, the more he could help the team. Haro and Knhgt duo queued every day. They know that this is a version where the mid and jungle must exert their strength in the early game. They have also been unusually contacting me on WeChat to ask questions recently. As for Ah Shui, you probably know more about his efforts than I do. But one thing they have in common is that they always leave the room 15 minutes before you leave, perhaps to avoid putting too much pressure on you or making you worry.”

......

Professional training is tough, extremely tough.

The same exercise can feel novel after an hour, tiring after three hours, numb after eight hours, and torture after sixteen hours. Yet, during the World Championships, even the usually lazy Ah Shui forced himself to maintain this high-intensity training regimen.

No one backed down; they were all silently supporting each other in their own ways.

Men don't need sweet words; companionship is the most genuine reflection of feelings between two people.

"You always present a cheerful face, but you're actually the one with a heart. Life is a constant series of encounters and partings; where there are flowers, there will inevitably be withering. In this life, we come and go, our relationships begin and end, we gather and disperse, we separate and reunite. No one can accompany you forever, not even your inseparable shadow. But you've found your own light, so why not make this memory even more magnificent?"

The door opened.

Under the lamplight, the shadows of several figures intersect on the wall, accompanying each other...

Settled: Chapter Twenty-Seven: So It Is

On October 22, the quarterfinals of S11 officially kicked off. Despite the tight schedule, the TES team, including players and coaches, appeared on the big screen on time and waited quietly for the match to begin.

The reason is simple: this is the quarterfinals match between EDG and RNG.

For LPL fans, it's a tough battle between teams from the same region. EDG's fans hope their team can break the quarterfinal curse, while RNG's fans also hope to see their team advance. For these two familiar rivals, even someone as knowledgeable as Roland, it's hard to predict who has a better chance of advancing.

"I think EDG might advance."

After thinking about it, he still put forward his opinion.

"Really? In the past three years, RNG's win rate against EDG has been overwhelmingly superior. EDG has barely won a few games. I think it's RNG."

"I second that."

"I can't believe RNG might lose. Logically speaking, after watching so many match replays, you should know the gap between them." Haro scratched his head in confusion. Neither the "curse of the quarterfinals" nor the match statistics indicated that RNG's chances of advancing were far greater than EDG's.

Now it was Roland's turn to remain silent, because he knew that no matter what he said, his teammates wouldn't believe him.

Although the phrase "every year in the top eight" is indeed memorable, EDG's most famous meme is "When you believe in EDG, EDG will definitely disappoint you." This causal weapon, if used well, is in a sense a unique kind of invincible!

soon.

The two teams then put on a show for the audience, demonstrating what an LPL-style internal battle looks like.

Correct.

It directly satisfied all the viewers around the world watching the live stream, even making them have the strange thought that "LPL is just like that" while watching the game.

There's no way around it, these two teams are just too hilarious!

Despite being a full five-game match, it gave the impression that the team was simply too exhausted to continue. Not only did it not resemble a strong team at all, but it even played like a wildcard region match. If you were to say they were throwing the game, you would have to question whether the players' acting skills could really be that convincing.

[This is unbelievable! This "Imperial Jade Banquet" BO5 was so bad the last round was like an ICU brawl, with ten chefs taking turns on stage.]

[It's really fortunate that we were grouped together in the upper half of the bracket; otherwise, whether we'd even make it to the semifinals would be a real question.]

High EQ: Give and take; Low EQ: Feed each other.

[Iceland is covered in snow and ice, so it makes perfect sense for Annie to whip up a fire for everyone to warm up, right?]

EDG was the ultimate winner.

Unexpectedly, the one that ultimately defeated EDG's quarterfinals rule was not someone else, but their own first rule. It is undeniable that RNG has tried very hard, even pulling out a black technology like Annie mid, and even achieving some success. However, the S11 version is too damaging to RNG's champion pool. In comparison, it is clear that EDG's champion pool is more suitable for the version.

The group of people in the room were still chatting and laughing while watching the best-of-five series, discussing their "wonderful plays".

But when they saw the camera pan to Xiaoming leaving the stage dejectedly, his eyes filled with tears, they all fell silent.

Yes.

That's how cruel esports is. It's all about winning and losing. No matter how brilliant your performance is throughout the year, when it comes to the world championships, if you lose, you lose. No one can make excuses for anyone else. From that point on, all your hard work for the year will be in vain, and you have to start all over again.

Especially considering Xiaoming and Xiaohu's ages, Haro and Dahuang felt even more nervous in the room.

“We won’t lose, so there’s no need to make the atmosphere so tense.” At this moment, Roland knew he had to step forward and face the gaze of everyone in the room. He repeated once again, “We won’t lose. I’ve told myself that since I first stepped onto the world stage, and I’m telling everyone here as well.”

"That's how competitions are. Whoever wins gets to advance, and it all comes down to skill. EDG has already advanced from the upper bracket, so we should send them our best wishes and encourage them to keep up the good work and try to join us in the semifinals. As for us, while we have confidence in our teammates, we must also have absolute confidence in ourselves."

"After all, we are TES!"

With his fighting spirit high and morale soaring, Roland, having overcome his own pressure, now had high expectations for his team.

If a team has a leader who sets goals for the team, executors who obey the leader's instructions, rational individuals who dare to ask questions, innovators who can inspire the team, collaborators who can bring resources to the team, and coordinators who are good at team communication, then what has it to worry about?

No matter how difficult, we can overcome it in one battle!

With the first day of competition over, the second day's match between T1 and FNC began. Although FNC carried the glory of the entire European region, they could not immediately translate their passion into real-time combat power when facing the old god-like T1.

2:3

FNC used the most aggressive attacks and the most unique strategies to successfully win the first and third games. Of course, this was also largely due to their being on the blue side. However, in the fifth game, the advantages of the LCK teams finally began to emerge.

That is because they have been playing long-term games in the LCK region for many years, which has made their bladder capacity far superior to that of players in other regions. In the fifth game, they managed to drag the game into the late game with their tough and tedious strategy, and then took advantage of the opening given by the opponent who couldn't hold their pee and took them down in one fell swoop.

no way.

FNC's late-game ability is indeed not very good, because they haven't played many late-game games in their own region.

And bladder competitions and such are really a bit too much for them.

With this, the semifinal lineup for the upper bracket is set, with EDG facing off against T1 in a best-of-five series after a six-year hiatus.

Meanwhile, the matches for TES in the lower bracket are about to begin.

Of course, before the match, the online sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of TES to win. It wasn't that TES was particularly popular, but everyone knew what HLE's strength was during the play-in stage. If they lost, the entire TES team would have to go out and find the centipede's natural enemy and eat beef noodles before the match, and maybe even get a fever buff.

Of course, the results of the discussion also vary depending on the platform.

For example, platforms that everyone generally agrees on are like the men's restroom, Xiaohongshu is the women's restroom, PiliPili is the kindergarten restroom, Douyin and Kuaishou are the restrooms in the urban-rural fringe, and Weibo, the ultimate excrement chain of the internet (humorous).

However... he just glanced at it and didn't take the discussions there seriously.

because

"The only ones who can beat us are ourselves, right?" Roland turned around, looked at JKL who had just finished washing his hair and was drying it with a towel, and said with a smile.

"That's just how it is."

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

PS: Thanks to the comments section for the tip. It's probably because of the website's protective measures during those sensitive days. It's searchable now.

Settled: Chapter Twenty-Eight: Have you ever seen the light?

The next day.

When the camera returned to the big screen, the two teams, HLE and TES, were lined up in two rows of ten players each, entering the arena. As the LPL's number one seed that they don't need to worry about at the moment, TES will compete with LCK's fourth seed, HLE, for a place in the semifinals.

However... as soon as Roland sat down in the player's seat, he couldn't help but yawn, which scared the LPL audience half to death.

[Damn, judging by this guy's attitude, he's probably going to send something else again.]

[Stop feeding, they're already in the quarterfinals. If they win the championship and come back to the LPL, they can feed it however they want.]

【You tricked him like this last year too, so why don't you at least provide a signed receipt?】

Come on, I've never seen a no-trolling privilege on the anti-troll forum last more than a month, so signing one is useless.

Unlike the discussions off the field, Roland, looking slightly tired, explained the reasons to his teammates on the field.