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

Chapter 524 Divine Punishment from God Zhou! Is it time to leave?
After the match, besides the result of RNG losing to G2 in the quarterfinals, the most popular things on the internet, besides Zhou Dian's Weibo post before the decisive game, were a screenshot of WuZhuangTai's expression.

When the fifth game ended, the LPL official live stream switched back to the commentary booth in the domestic studio.

Under the live broadcast camera, Wu-Zhuangtai, who was the commentator for this game, couldn't keep his composure.

That expression—desperately trying to suppress a laugh, wanting to laugh but trying her best not to let it out—was all too obvious.

The expression of being in a state of inactivity quickly went viral online.

Aside from RNG fans, fans of other teams have expressed that the value of Wu-Zhuang's old comment "the world's number one cjb" is still rising!

That statement is absolutely correct.

This guy is hopeless!
Incidentally, the LPL officials were also subjected to a barrage of ridicule from the audience.

Are they still going to do this disgusting marketing?
He called Wuzhuang over intending to stomp on his head, but ended up getting his head stomped on instead!
At this time, Zhou Dian posted another Weibo post.

[Just a heads-up, I'll be an official LPL commentator for the IG vs. G2 semifinals next weekend.]

Zhou Dian's meaning on this Weibo post is quite clear.

This is to tell the audience that our LPL official marketing team is not only going to criticize Cool today, but also plans to annoy me in the weekly rankings next week.

Since you, the LPL officials, are going to make things difficult for me, I definitely have to seize the opportunity to retaliate.

Come and go without indecent!
As soon as Zhou Dian posted this Weibo, RNG, along with LPL, was once again ridiculed by many righteous people.

Mocking the LPL officials is a bit presumptuous.

They actually dared to use Zhou Shen as a marketing stepping stone and a stepping stone to rise to the top.

Well, now they've been punished by the gods!
All I can say is, why is Zhou Shen a god?
A true god like Zhou Shen is not someone that some false god can easily try to take advantage of!
Labels such as "HZ region" and "GSL region" have been slapped on the LPL officials.

It can only be said that the current state of the internet is an era of rampant labeling.

If you don't label others, they'll label you.

Since that's the case, we might as well strike first.

If RNG wins today, Zhou Dian will definitely continue to be insulted by hz and gsl.

But since RNG has already lost, why should Zhou Dian care about maintaining a semblance of harmony?

If they don't go all out, they'll be letting G2 down for their amazing performance today!

However, if RNG gets ahead again in the future, Zhou Dian's two Weibo posts today will inevitably earn him the title of "King of Loser Weibo Posts".

But I can't worry about that now, I'll just live for the moment.

The most important thing in life is to be happy!

The second day, Sunday, saw the quarterfinals of the S8 World Championship continue.

Today's two quarterfinal matches are AFS vs. C9 and FNC vs. EDG.

The presence of EDG means that LPL viewers are still paying close attention to today's match.

The very first match turned out to be a major upset.

LCK's second seed, AFS, nicknamed the "African team," was surprisingly swept 3-0 by North American team C9.

This is truly a very, very unexpected topic.

However, with RNG's elimination by G2 yesterday setting a high bar, today's result didn't seem as surprising.

With this, all teams from the LCK region were eliminated.

No team made it to the semifinals, marking the worst performance in LCK history at the World Championship.

Moreover, it has fallen below the lower limit, which is extremely bad!
What infuriated South Korean viewers even more was that this global finals was being held on their home turf, South Korea.

As a result, before the four quarterfinal matches were even finished, none of their local teams were left.

The Korean internet was naturally flooded with criticism.

LCK fans also expressed their nostalgia for SKT.

If SKT had Samsung General Manager, they wouldn't be bullied so badly by other regions.

Losing to the LPL was barely tolerable, but losing to the North American region was a complete 3-0 sweep.

If this continues, we'll lose to Vietnam next.

No shame!
The final semi-final match was between EDG and FNC.

To be honest, LPL viewers weren't very confident in EDG this time.

EDG's performance in the World Championship has always been lackluster, consistently failing to advance beyond the quarterfinals.

Today, EDG's opponent, FNC, is also considered an old rival of EDG.

In the quarterfinals of the 15 S5 World Championship, EDG's opponent was FNC.

Back then, EDG was the MSI champion, and LPL viewers had complete confidence in them.

The result was that FNC easily won.

It's one thing to be defeated, but to be swept 4-0 by FNC in a best-of-five series is utterly humiliating.

However, despite all these grudges and feuds, most EDG fans are not very willing to shout the slogan "revenge against FNC".

I really don't have much confidence!

As a result, EDG lost the first game to FNC right away, and the whole game didn't seem to take much effort.

Most LPL viewers couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

Both teams faced FNC in the quarterfinals. In S5, everyone favored EDG, but EDG unexpectedly lost.

I'm not optimistic about EDG this time, does that mean they're going to win?

It seems we need to do it the other way around!

However, as it turns out, the outcome of League of Legends matches depends on skill, not luck.

Next, FNC quickly adjusted and won three consecutive games, coming back from a 1-0 deficit to eliminate EDG and secure the last semifinal spot in the S8 World Championship.

After this best-of-five series, it's clear that FNC is indeed stronger than EDG.

The number one seed from the European region is no joke.

They even beat IG to finish first in their group and advance to the quarterfinals, which shows they really have real skill.

With EDG's elimination, the four semifinalists of the S8 World Championship have been determined.

They are IG, G2, C9, and FNC.

Of the four semifinalists, three are from the European and American regions, which is unprecedented.

However, at this stage, IG became the biggest favorite to win the championship.

Viewers generally favored IG and FNC to advance from their respective brackets and meet in the finals. A week later, the semifinals of the S8 World Championship began.

In the first semifinal match, IG faced off against G2.

IG easily defeated G2 3-0, advancing to the final battle of this World Championship.

A complete and utter thrashing; not a single match lasted more than thirty minutes.

Zhou Dian even stated bluntly in the commentary section:

How did G2 even make it to the semifinals?

These words naturally drew another round of criticism from the audience against RNG.

Yes, G2 got completely crushed by IG, and RNG, as the number one seed from the LPL region and the top favorite to win this year's World Championship, actually lost.

With this kind of performance, what's the point of aiming for a Grand Slam or following the golden path?
If this is how you try to scam Zhou Shen, you should just go home and raise pigs!
Of course, Zhou Dian's words also drew dissatisfaction from a small number of IG fans.

What do you mean by saying G2 is bad at a time like this?
Are you saying that IG's victory in this competition was meaningless? That reaching the finals was meaningless?
Of course, this is a typical example of fan culture thinking.

The mindset of fandoms is that "if you don't praise someone, you're criticizing them."

If you're not praising my brother, then you're badmouthing him.

While praising my brother, they also pointed out his flaws, subtly implying his shortcomings in various ways – a sophisticated form of sarcasm.

The saying goes, "Loyalty that is not absolute is absolute disloyalty."

Fans don't come to watch the games or appreciate high-level esports.

They came to chase stars and idols.

My idol has to be perfect!
Of course, fan groups exist for every team and every player.

It's just a matter of proportion.

The more a team or player likes marketing, the higher the proportion of their fans who are part of the fandom culture.

After all, whether it's traditional sports or esports, there's a certain threshold to understanding and appreciating any competitive sport; it requires some mental investment.

Becoming a fan in the fandom has no barriers and requires no brainpower.

In the other semifinal match, FNC also easily defeated C9.
Similar to the semi-final against IG, it was a complete rout, with FNC winning every game easily.

This resulted in AFS being subjected to a similar situation of being thoroughly criticized and ridiculed on Korean online forums as RNG.

C9 is so bad, how could AFS get swept 3-0? Just how useless are they?!

Ultimately, the final battle of S8 will be between IG and FNC.

Public opinion generally favors IG.

However, IG fans aren't particularly confident, since IG didn't have the upper hand in their match against FNC during the group stage.

But Zhou Dian thinks that IG's championship is pretty much guaranteed.

There is actually a clear difference in strength between the two teams.

IG is unlikely to make the same mistake as RNG.

Sure enough, on November 3, 2018, in the final battle of the S8 World Championship, IG easily defeated their opponent FNC 3-0, lifting the first major trophy in the history of the League of Legends.

This marks the second consecutive year that the LPL region has won the World Championship, achieving a regional title defense.

Zhou Dian, who went to Incheon to watch the S8 finals, was deeply moved as he watched the IG team lift the Summoner's Cup on stage. Seeing their excited, enthusiastic, and thrilled expressions and body language, he couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion himself.

Even though he had already experienced this feeling at the Bird's Nest at this time last year.

But at this moment, Zhou Dian still yearned to lift the Summoner's Cup again.

A truly ambitious and determined athlete will not give up the pursuit of championships just because they have won one.

This yearning that welled up inside Zhou Dian made him re-examine his current situation and future career plans.

Perhaps it's time to leave?
The winter transfer window at the end of 18 quickly came to an end.

The LPL Spring Split of Season 9 is about to begin.

During this winter transfer window, the LPL sold two player slots for high prices.

This means that in the new LPL Spring Split season of 19, the LPL will add two new teams.

The number of teams in the LPL region has increased from fourteen to sixteen.

With the number of teams increasing to sixteen, the LPL regular season format has also been reformed.

The system of dividing all teams into two groups, with a double round-robin within each group and a single round-robin outside the group, which was implemented in the previous three seasons, has been abandoned.

This year's LPL regular season will no longer be divided into groups. Each team will play a single round-robin BO3 series, with unified rankings.

Sixteen teams play a single round-robin format, which means each team will play 15 best-of-three (BO3) matches in the regular season.

The changing demands for broadcasting and live viewing have led to the LPL region adding several new home venues for its matches.

From then on, LPL matches were no longer limited to the Shanghai Hongqiao Tiandi Performing Arts Center as before.

The presence of multiple home venues also allows the regular season schedule to be more concentrated in prime time.

Because it's possible to have two matches running simultaneously and broadcast them live at the same time.

LGD team has also established its own home venue, located in Hangzhou.

With their own home stadium, the team's future revenue will definitely increase.

However, when a team is setting up its own home venue, it needs to invest a significant amount of money upfront.

This large investment has also led LGD's management to have no plans to spend money to upgrade the roster in the new S9 season.

In the upcoming 19 LPL Spring Split, LGD's top, mid, and jungle players will remain the same: Zhou Dian, Eimy, and Wei Shen.

The bot lane duo is completely different from what it used to be.

First, there's Imp, who is still recovering from the emotional trauma of being betrayed by his ex-wife. After his contract with the club expired during this winter transfer window, he did not choose to renew it.

imp has not signed with any team for the new season and is currently a free agent.

PYL, the captain, veteran player, and support player of LGD team for the past few years, chose to retire after the end of the S8 season.

PYL is getting old, and he has won all the championships he could, so he has completely lost his fighting spirit.

In this situation, his performance declined last year, which is a permanent decline that is impossible to recover from.

Therefore, with one year left on his contract, PYL chose to retire and terminate his contract with the club.

He retired with considerable dignity, instead of simply relying on a year's salary.

(End of this chapter)