You promised a top lane tutorial, but you're just using Worlds as material for your videos?

Chapter 521 Zhou Dian's final effort ends the S8 season!

As expected, GSL jumped up in celebration after Uzi won the Spring Split.

The first to be attacked by GSL were naturally JackeyLove and his fans.

Unfortunately, JackeyLove's fans are the type who are very good at praising and marketing their idol.

While not quite to the level of fanaticism seen among Uzi's fans, during IG's incredible winning streak in the Spring Split regular season this year, the AD carries of other teams were naturally criticized to varying degrees.

Imp is now a two-time S-series champion AD carry, and JackeyLove's fans dare not mess with him. In addition, LGD's performance in the Spring Split has been lackluster, and they can't be considered a competitor to IG, so JackeyLove's fans don't want to cause trouble either.

The one who was criticized the most by JKL's fans was naturally Uzi.

Unfortunately, in the Spring Split semifinals, JKL was defeated by Uzi in his lane matchup, demonstrating a clear difference in skill level.

After the match, JKL was relentlessly mocked by GSL.

After RNG won the LPL Spring Split championship in the finals, GSL's offensive firepower became even stronger.

It's fair to say that after RNG won the Spring Split, half of GSL's fury was directed at JKL.

The rest are mostly teams that have dealt damage to IG and Uzi's old rivals and nemesis teams from the past few years.

Among the teams, IG has been the most ridiculed.

Besides RNG fans attacking IG, many fans of other teams also took the opportunity to criticize IG.

There's nothing we can do about it; it's because IG fans criticized other teams during IG's incredible winning streak in the regular season!
Because IG lost to RW in the third-place match, they ultimately only managed to secure fourth place in this year's Spring Split.

Therefore, the label of "fourth place after eighteen consecutive victories" was immediately attached to them.

All I can say is, what goes around comes around!
The LPL region is essentially a large-scale boomerang-shaped experimental base.

Of course, LGD doesn't need to pay back for the time being.

After all, only half a year has passed since LGD won the Grand Slam of the year, and they still hold the Grand Slam title.

Even if Zhou Dian is considered the person who offended RNG and Uzi's fans the most in the past.

However, the now somewhat frenzied Royal Fan and GSL haven't dared to target Zhou Dian yet.

HZ and GSL, who occasionally stepped on the top spot of the week and LGD, have always been there.

However, they haven't dared to organize and launch a large-scale attack to slander and disgust Zhou Dian and LGD.

However, the online public opinion landscape quickly changed.

In the subsequent MSI Mid-Season Invitational held in May, RNG defeated the LCK's KZ team and successfully won the 18 MSI championship.

Peanut is truly amazing. After handing LGD two international championships last year, he switched teams this year and handed LPL another international championship.

After RNG won the MSI championship, the official Chinese server immediately launched a celebratory lottery event on the client.

The scale and scope of this Chinese server event are so large that it even feels bigger than LGD's event after winning the S-series championship last year.

All I can say is that this "all-Chinese team" makes marketing easier and allows him to make more money!

Now, hz and gsl have truly gone completely mad.

Even Zhou Dian and LGD are getting into a fight.

After all, Zhou Dian was the one who offended GSL the most, and now that GSL has found an opportunity, they're bound to pounce on him fiercely.

However, as mentioned before, at this point in time, Zhou Dian and LGD still hold the Grand Slam title, and their fans are evenly matched in their online battles.

Even the GSL has the upper hand!
After all, the phrase "all-Chinese team" is incredibly useful in the online debates on the Chinese internet.

Even if LGD fans bring up the ultimate question—what Grand Slam do you have?

HZ and GSL can also unleash their ultimate weapon—the nationality stripping technique—to compete on equal footing.

No matter when or where, the phrase "all-Chinese team" holds an invincible position in the public opinion arena in the hands of professional online marketing trolls.

In terms of online public opinion, when the "all-Chinese team" is at a disadvantage in terms of performance, the public opinion is evenly matched.

When an all-Chinese team is on a winning streak, they dominate.

Amidst the frenzy and commotion of the Royal Club and GSL, the brief summer transfer window quickly came to an end.

The LPL Summer Split regular season of Season 8 is about to begin.

During this summer transfer window, no team made any major personnel changes, except for a few teams that promoted players from their second team to their first team.

LGD, of course, made no personnel changes; the main team still consisted of the same few players.

This is also normal.

After all, it has only been less than a season since LGD won the Grand Slam.

Even if the same team that won a Grand Slam performs poorly in the future, it's impossible to make adjustments before the season is even over.

At times like this, let alone replacing someone from the original cast, even finding a substitute for someone would cause an uproar among the fans.

Fans are a crucial element in all competitive sports.

Without the support of fans and viewers, no project can be launched.

However, the LPL is unique in having such a deep level of "fan-driven team management".

Most LGD fans naturally hope that the five players who won the Grand Slam together can regain their form in the Summer Split and make a comeback.

Unfortunately, this wish of most LGD fans is destined to remain unfulfilled!

Since the start of the Summer Split, Wei Shen has been playing less PUBG, and Imp has been drinking less alcohol.

Even though Eimy is still somewhat mediocre, PYL remains as good as ever.

However, after their two carries improved, coupled with Zhou Dian's still-excellent performance, LGD's regular season performance clearly improved.

In the first ten matches of the Summer Split regular season, LGD achieved a record of 7 wins and 3 losses.

Because they are not in the same division as IG and RNG, the two strongest teams in the LPL right now.

LGD's record in the first ten games of the Summer Split regular season was so good that it could even be tied with RW for first place in the group in terms of overall score.

However, LGD's score is lower than RW's, so they can only sit in second place in the group for now. Just when LGD fans were hoping that LGD could fight harder and better in the remaining nine regular season matches and finally take the top spot in the group,...

LGD is in trouble!
To be precise, it was the imp that exploded.

Actually, the main reason why Imp is in poor condition this year is not that he has started drinking heavily again.

Imp might be a natural alcohol connoisseur; drinking too much alcohol does affect his performance, but not nearly as much as it does for other athletes.

The main reason is that Imp got a girlfriend named "Jida Yakiniku," who is a minor internet celebrity.

The two were inseparable and deeply in love.

Some other members of the LGD team actually felt from the beginning that this internet celebrity was not very reliable, but this was, after all, imp's private matter.

In addition, Imp didn't do anything stupid like bringing his girlfriend to the team's base all the time, and even the team manager didn't say anything, so his teammates had even less to say.

Later, when they learned that the two had even obtained their marriage certificate, there was nothing more to say.

Moreover, Imp seems to be getting better and better, which might be thanks to getting married!

Then, after playing ten regular season games in the Summer Split, problems arose!
Jingtian Yakiniku, who is also imp's wife, ran off with all of imp's money.

Imp will result in both financial and personal loss!

This was a huge blow to Imp. He, who was already drinking less and less, started drinking heavily to drown his sorrows.

That's not even the worst part.

The worst part is that Imp was so badly betrayed that he developed mental health issues and didn't even want to play anymore.

If something like this happens to Imp, you can't force him to play even if he doesn't want to.

They had no choice but to promote the second team's ADC to play in the LPL.

However, LGD's second team's AD carry is really not good; he has no ability to compete in the LPL at all.

Adding to the fact that PYL is also bad now, the two of them are paired up in one lane, and the second team's AD and the rest of LGD have not had any practice together at all. LGD's bot lane is really prone to disasters.

The other LGD players still had some hope that Imp could adjust his mentality quickly and come back to play.

But after waiting for three regular season games, Imp's response to the team was that he didn't want to play this season at all.

Coupled with some rumors circulating in the media, the other members of LGD were no longer keen on playing.

Wei Shen started playing at lightning speed, while Eimy and PYL seemed to be just going through the motions.

This has dampened Zhou Dian's fighting spirit, even though he wanted to work with the second team's AD carry even without imp playing and try to win more games in the remaining matches.

Although it hasn't reached the point of completely tanking, once a player loses their fighting spirit, their performance on the court will definitely decline.

After all these changes, LGD surprisingly achieved a record of one win and eight losses in the nine best-of-three matches in the second half of the Summer Split regular season.

Ultimately, LGD's record in the Summer Split regular season was 8 wins and 11 losses.

Even more outrageous is that LGD's record actually ranked fourth in the group, just like in the Spring Split, barely making it into the playoffs.

It can only be said that the division where LGD is located is really not competitive.

In the other division, let's not even talk about IG and RNG, who are ranked first and second.

Even JDG, which ranked third, had the same regular season record as LGD, who ranked first in their division, RW.

Compared to the Spring Split, JDG's performance in the Summer Split has improved significantly.

Besides JDG, TES also saw a significant improvement in their performance from the Spring Split to the Summer Split.

TES's performance in the Spring Split regular season was the worst in the entire LPL.

Marin is indeed no longer good. TES spent a lot of money to acquire Marin, but compared to last year, Marin has experienced a precipitous decline.

This caused Guo Hao, the TES manager who brought in Marin, to be heavily criticized and put him under considerable pressure.

When the spring regular season ended, Guo Hao even thought, "If I had known this would happen, I would have just used our original roster, since we were going to finish at the bottom anyway!"

When the summer split came around, TES coach White Crescent insisted on dropping the two Korean players and using only their own players.

Perhaps seeing RNG's success with an all-Chinese roster, Guo Hao gritted his teeth and agreed.

As a result, White Crescent promoted top laner Moyu, jungler Xx, and mid laner Corn, the former runner-up of the S4 World Championship, from the second team.

They directly benched the team's two highest-paid Korean players, the mid laner and top laner.

What seemed like a sign of giving up to the audience turned out to be a very successful move.

TES ultimately edged out LGD in the Summer Split regular season, finishing third in their division.

Moreover, TES won a best-of-five series in the playoffs, advancing past the first round.

They only lost 1-3 to the newly crowned MSI champions, RNG, who are currently the biggest favorites to win the LPL Summer Split, in the second round.

TES's performance in this year's Summer Split not only brought widespread praise to "Esports Jiang Liuer" White Crescent, who already had a considerable reputation in the LPL, but also made Guo Hao's mind wander once again.

He was thinking that if he could ask his parent company for more money during this winter transfer window, he could strengthen the team and make great strides for TES next year!
Compared to TES, who was at the bottom of the standings in the Spring Split, LGD, who was a Grand Slam champion last year, performed even worse than TES in this year's Summer Split.

LGD faced JDG in the first round of the playoffs.

JDG's 13-win record in the regular season is not something they achieved by chance; it's a testament to their genuine strength. Many viewers even believe that JDG's current strength is second only to IG and RNG, making them the third strongest team in the LPL.

LGD's performance in the latter half of the regular season was so poor that the entire team seemed to be in a terrible state.

Even the most die-hard LGD fans couldn't expect LGD to defeat JDG and advance past the first round of the playoffs.

All viewers realized that LGD's S8 season should come to an end.

Ultimately, JDG easily defeated LGD 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs.

LGD's ability to win even one game in this BO5 series is already a testament to Zhou Dian's final effort.

And so, Zhou Dian's second season as a professional gamer came to an end.

It's only September now, and compared to last year, this season's peak season ended a full two months earlier.

(End of this chapter)