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

Chapter 539 Hiding their moves, aiming for the LPL finals! The Summer Split playoffs begin!
Almost everyone thought that TES and RNG would have a fierce battle in the final regular season match that would determine their second and third place rankings.

Both teams, however, opted to play casually.

RNG has absolutely no intention of holding onto their second-place finish in the regular season.

TES didn't show the same fighting spirit to compete for second place in the regular season.

This was somewhat unexpected.

But upon closer reflection, it becomes understandable.

Ultimately, the reason for vying for second place in the regular season lies in the tournament format, which allows for one less best-of-five series, giving them more time to prepare.

However, the reason for not competing for second place in the regular season is also due to the competition format.

Starting with this year's Spring Split, the LPL regular season will abolish the regional system that it has used for three years.

All teams are ranked together.

After the regular season ended.

The first and second place teams in the regular season will directly advance to the playoff semifinals, placed in two separate brackets.

Then, the third-place team in the regular season was in the same half of the bracket as the second-place team in the playoffs.

In other words, it doesn't matter whether TES or RNG is ranked second or third.

In the playoffs, the team ranked third only needs to win one best-of-five series to advance to the semifinals, where their opponent will be the team ranked second.

Therefore, considering the current positions of TES and RNG.

Before the final regular season game between the two teams, there was a high probability that they would face each other in the semifinals of the playoffs.

So, the reason why TES and RNG decided to play casually in the final round of this year's regular season was mainly because both coaching staffs had their eyes on the upcoming LPL finals.

If, in the pursuit of winning this game, too many things are exposed, it could lead to a loss against the same opponent in the subsequent playoff semifinals.

Then the gain outweighs the loss.

In comparison, playing one more best-of-five series in the playoffs is nothing compared to securing a spot in the LPL finals.

Moreover, it's the summer season now.

A spot in the Summer Split finals is worth far more than a spot in the Spring Split.

In the S-series points system, the runner-up in the Summer Split has a whopping 90 points, while the champion in the Spring Split only has 90 points.

Some teams, despite performing poorly in the Spring Split, can still secure the second seed for their region in the World Championship by achieving the highest total points, simply by finishing as runners-up in the Summer Split.

This has been a recurring occurrence in the history of various competition zones.

Moreover, esports is not like some sports that require physical contact; playing multiple matches in a short period of time can easily lead to physical exhaustion.

This problem does not exist in esports.

They might even get into form after playing an extra game, making it easy to upset higher-ranked teams that haven't played for a long time.

Therefore, under these circumstances, it's not necessarily a bad thing for TES and RNG to be ranked third.

Unless you have absolutely no confidence in the playoffs, specifically in the round of 6 to 4.

We definitely need to fight tooth and nail for second place in the regular season and make it to the semifinals of the playoffs before we can talk about anything else.

However, both teams are clearly confident that they will finish third in the regular season and advance to the semifinals of the playoffs.

In that case, winning or losing this match really doesn't matter.

It's impossible to just let the water flow carelessly.

Play with the standard lineup and play the standard game. If you win, you win; if you lose, you lose.

Whether we win or lose, we will make corresponding preparations.

In any case, we can't reveal our tactics in this match.

This is what both coaching staffs think.

Under this competition policy, the outcome of the match really comes down to the teams' theoretical strength.

In terms of current strength on paper, TES is indeed stronger than RNG.

With just the top and mid lanes, TES completely dominated RNG.

Zhou Dian is undoubtedly superior to Lang Xing.

As for Xiaohu, the "Spring Tiger Emperor," his performance in the Summer Season was as lackluster as ever.

Moreover, this summer of 19 was perhaps the worst summer for Xiaohu in recent years.

Uzi really deserves a lot of credit for RNG's high ranking in the Summer Split regular season.

Uzi's famous quote from back then, "I'm the one carrying Royal Club," can finally be brought up again after so many years.

This year, RNG has indeed relied on Uzi to carry the team most of the time.

Uzi has been particularly strong since the Summer Split.

In the Summer Split MVP rankings, Uzi is second only to Knight.

ADC is a relatively difficult position to win MVP, at least compared to mid and jungle.

However, Uzi's second-highest number of MVP awards in the Summer Split regular season is enough to demonstrate his performance in this year's Summer Split.

This also illustrates how abnormal RNG is now.

Of course, it's also possible that RNG's unbalanced performance made Uzi's performance stand out even more.

Uzi's performance so far this year has led many of his fans to remark that he has truly matured this time.

Last year, his Grand Slam journey ended in defeat against G2, which was a huge blow.

However, Uzi matures every year, so it's hard to say whether this is the final stage of his maturity.

Relatively speaking, the opinions of the general public are more objective.

After all, the eyes of the masses are discerning!

Most viewers still acknowledged Uzi's performance this year, even though he didn't win a single championship.

While acknowledging the criticism, they began to tease him.

This year, Uzi encountered the most awful teammates at his peak performance.

But you, Uzi, really can't blame your teammates.

You've come here to pay off your debts.

Since your teammates were at their best when you were at your most popular, it's understandable.

So, the suffering you're experiencing now can only be described as a calamity you were destined to face.

However, this statement displeased TES fans and Zhou Dian's fans.

What did Zhou Shen say?
Is Zhou Shen paying off his debts after being repeatedly humiliated by LGD over the past year or two?

Zhou Shen clearly doesn't owe any debts, so what kind of debt is he repaying!
In the end, some viewers still spoke up for justice.

Zhou Shen is a Grand Slam winner, a true god; Uzi is a cjb, a false god. How can everyone have the same expectations for the two?

It's only natural to have higher expectations of Zhou Shen.

Back to the game.

With both sides using standard lineups and strategies, TES easily defeated RNG 2-0.

After all, RNG didn't even use their most frequently used and most reliable strategy, the four-protect-one, in these two games.

The current RNG team needs to rely on a four-protect-one strategy to beat strong teams, or even mid-tier teams.

Since the regular season is now a single round-robin, the two teams will only play each other once during the regular season.

RNG's head coach simply locked everything in, not only preventing TES from revealing their ultimate moves, but also denying them even the most frequently used four-protect-one strategy.

There will definitely be no scrimmages with TES during the playoffs.

Anyway, they're holding back until the playoffs semifinals to unleash their full potential and crush TES, determined to make it to the finals of the Summer Split.

In this way, each line is aligned with its own line.

TES's bot laner LokeN is incredibly tanky.

The advantage that Uzi and Ming gained against TES's bot lane was far outweighed by the disadvantages they faced in their own top and mid lanes.

RNG thus lost the game as a matter of course.

After losing the game, the RNG players all remained relatively calm.

Since the goal is the Summer Split finals, losing this match was expected, so there's nothing to be discouraged about. On the TES side, Zhou Dian also appeared completely calm.

He could naturally see what RNG was planning.

The other team members had smiles on their faces, but they weren't exactly excited.

After all, White Crescent had already made the stakes very clear to them.

The real showdown between RNG and the summer split will take place in the playoffs semifinals two weeks later.

As for this match, let's pretend it never happened.

After winning this BO3 regular season match against RNG, the most excited person on the TES team must be manager Guo Hao.

He didn't care whether RNG had a "strategic abandonment" reason in it.

All he knew was that after the end of the 19 LPL Summer Split regular season, TES was indeed ranked second in the regular season.

This is also TES's best LPL regular season record to date.

Moreover, finishing second in the regular season guarantees a spot in the semifinals of the playoffs.

TES finished fourth in the Spring Split this year, and their worst result was fourth in the Summer Split.

Adding to the fact that JDG, the runner-up in the Spring Split, failed to make the playoffs in the Summer Split.

So, at this point in the summer playoffs before they even begin, TES is ranked third in the LPL in this year's World Championship points.

It can be said that TES's situation of advancing directly to the S9 World Championship based on points is currently very promising.

Moreover, regardless of the circumstances, TES has at least secured a spot in the gauntlet to compete for the LPL's third seed in the World Championship.

Even if you don't make it into the top two in the final standings, you can still try your luck in the qualifying rounds!

Guo Hao spent so much money to acquire Zhou Dian, but he could only use him for half of the Summer Split, all for the sake of qualifying for this year's World Championship.

After Zhou Dian joined TES, they went on a seven-game winning streak, helping TES secure second place in the regular season.

In Guo Hao's view, this was already halfway done.

Regardless of what others think, as long as TES makes it to this year's World Championship, he feels that the money spent on Zhou Shen was worthwhile.

Thinking about it this way, if TES really makes it to the World Championship, then using Zhou Shen in the World Championship would be a complete free win!
I actually made a profit?

What if we win another championship or something?
Wouldn't I make a fortune?

Tsk tsk, I can't even imagine it!

Guo Hao was already lost in a deep fantasy. He was even thinking that he should just skip posting the Weibo message today: "Expensive things, the only downside is that they're expensive!"

It doesn't seem expensive at all!

However, upon further reflection, Guo Hao still couldn't swallow his anger towards Xiao Heizi.

Moreover, he now has confidence in his own team and is determined to go all out against Xiao Heizi.

So, almost ten minutes after TES defeated RNG, Guo Hao still posted that "must-post-the-match" Weibo post.

As soon as it was posted, the comments section started flooded with jokes about why Guo Hao was late today.
After all, he usually posts immediately after the match ends.

In response, Guo Hao could only say, "It's late, but it's here."

To cover up the slight embarrassment, Guo Hao quickly forwarded the TES official Weibo account's post about the TES playoff matchups and schedule.

Several messages were sent in a row.

Because the match between TES and RNG was the last match of the LPL Summer Split regular season this year.

With this match concluded, all matches of the LPL Summer Split regular season have now ended.

Therefore, the playoff spots and matchups for the Summer Split are now completely decided.

The team that ranks first in this year's LPL Summer Split regular season is naturally FPX.

FPX's regular season record is 14 wins and 1 loss.

The only match they lost was against TES.

TES ranked second in this year's LPL Summer Split regular season.

TES's regular season record is 12 wins and 3 losses.

With a slight advantage in points, they surpassed RNG to rank second.

Before Zhou Dian played for TES, the team had a record of 5 wins and 3 losses in the eight regular season games.

In the seven regular season games since Zhou Dian took the stage for TES, TES has won all seven.

The change is obvious.

FPX and TES, as the top two teams in the regular season, directly entered the semifinals of the playoffs.

According to the official schedule, the TES semifinals will begin on September 1st.

It's been about half a month since the regular season ended on August 18th.

FPX is in the same situation; both teams will be without matches for about two weeks.

Actually, this is not a good thing.

In any competitive field, the phenomenon of "being rusty" is an objective reality.

Especially in esports, the impact of being "unskilled" is particularly evident.

After all, training matches and official matches are completely different things.

Training can never replace the effects of actual competition.

In the coming period, maintaining the team's overall performance is the primary concern for both coaching staffs.

Maintaining a player's individual performance depends more on the player themselves.

More training is always a good thing.

Of the remaining teams, RNG had a regular season record of 12 wins and 3 losses, ranking third, behind TES due to a lower point differential.

Following closely behind in fourth and fifth place are BLG and EDG.

BLG's fourth-place finish in the regular season was a surprise to many.

In 18, Bilibili acquired the former IM team and renamed it BLG.

However, the players in BLG in 18 were still the same people from IM, and no money was spent to buy new players.

Throughout 18, their rankings were basically at the bottom of the LPL, indicating their lack of skill.

This year, they invested a lot of money to acquire two strong Korean players, ADD and Kruo.

One top laner, one mid laner.

With the two individual player lines strengthened, the team immediately improved.

They improved significantly to ninth place in the Spring Split, narrowly missing out on the playoffs.

After getting into sync during the summer season, they climbed straight to fourth place in the regular season.

Their record is 11 wins and 4 losses.

They're only one win behind TES and RNG, which is pretty good.

All I can say is that nothing is truly bad if you spend money.

Expensive reason.

The two South Korean players that BLG bought at a high price seem to have been worthwhile, at least for now.

The BLG example has indirectly reduced the number of voices criticizing TES for spending too much money on Zhou Dian's loan and deeming it not worthwhile.

At the same time, it also made many viewers understand one thing.

In the current LPL, which has abolished promotion and relegation and become a franchised league, you basically can't achieve good results without investing money to buy high-value players.

Of course, this is also because League of Legends esports is becoming increasingly professional.

Regardless of the region, once professionalization takes hold, the days when a few geniuses would suddenly appear out of nowhere and form a team to win the championship are virtually over.

Having innate talent alone is no longer enough; experience and professional training are becoming increasingly important.

Following EDG, IG team ranked sixth in the regular season.

Of all the regular season results this summer, the final regular season standings were the most surprising.

That still has to be IG.

(End of this chapter)