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

Chapter 540: The defending champions are eliminated in the first round; the Summer Split Finals equal a spot in the S9 World Championship!
IG, the newly crowned S-series champions, swept aside all opponents in the Spring Split with an invincible performance, winning the LPL Spring Split championship this year.

After playing through the summer season regular season, they actually only finished sixth in the regular season.

This is undoubtedly very unexpected.

Of course, this refers to before the start of the Summer Split.

At the time, IG was widely considered to be the biggest favorite to win the LPL Summer Split this year.

However, it seems that IG's performance has plummeted since their defeat to the North American team TL at this year's MSI, where they were eliminated in the semifinals.

After the start of the Summer Split regular season, IG continued their poor performance from MSI.

Their performance has been inconsistent, with ups and downs.

Most viewers initially thought that IG would gradually improve their performance.

But after the entire summer split regular season, IG's performance just didn't improve.

They ultimately finished with a record of eight wins and seven losses, barely exceeding 50% and ranking sixth in the regular season.

IG's overall performance in the Summer Split was unsatisfactory, with the biggest problem being their jungler, Ning.

Ning's performance in the Summer Split plummeted, and he played terribly.

As a result, almost when the regular season of the Summer Split was over, IG surprisingly brought in another jungler, Leyan, to rotate with Ning.

Keep in mind that this is the LPL, not the LCK next door, which is completely professional and shows no mercy.

The original roster of the S-series champion team was rotated out the following year, which is very rare in the LPL.

Take Zhou Dian's former team LGD for example. After winning the S7 championship, PYL's performance in S8 plummeted and became incredibly bad.

Throughout the entire S8 season, LGD never assigned a substitute to PYL to put pressure on him, let alone rotated him out.

It's clear that Ning's rotation in this year's Summer Split wasn't solely due to his performance on the field.

There must be some off-field issues as well.

The team's management couldn't stand it anymore, so they promoted a new jungler.

It's clear that IG definitely doesn't want to give up on the remaining summer playoffs and the subsequent World Championship.

They still harbor ambitions to defend their LPL championship and S-series championship titles.

Unlike last year's LGD, who were completely outmatched and only Zhou Dian was struggling to keep things going.

However, finishing only sixth in the Summer Split regular season means that IG's playoff journey will have to start from the first round.

Their opponent in the first round was Snake, or LNG, who were ranked seventh in the Summer Split regular season, right after IG.

In fact, after Snake was acquired by Li-Ning this summer, the team name was naturally changed to LNG.

However, as a team that has been competing in the LPL since S5 and has always had its own unique characteristics.

In the first season after the name change, most viewers still habitually referred to them as the Snakes.

Although IG's regular season ranking was only one place higher than LNG's, and both teams had the same number of wins in major matches.

However, most casual viewers still favor IG to defeat LNG and advance to the next round, entering the top six of the playoffs, in their first-round matchup.

IG fans completely disregarded LNG.

They've all already assumed IG will make it to the top six.

Then their eyes were already on their opponent RNG, who were advancing from the top six to the top four.

They all thought that since IG failed to catch RNG in the Spring Split playoffs this year to avenge their consecutive losses against RNG in the LPL last year, it would be a good thing to catch RNG in the Summer Split playoffs!

As for the general public, they are all happy to see IG upset RNG in the next round.

Aside from the fact that IG is the newly crowned S-series champion and currently enjoys a much better public image than RNG.

Also, if IG were to upset RNG, then in the next round of the playoffs, the semifinals, IG and TES would face off.

The general public is now eager to see Zhou Dian and TheShy face off.

This is something many viewers have been looking forward to ever since Zhou Dian was loaned to TES and revitalized the team.

Fans shouldn't argue about who's stronger. Now that they're both on a competitive team, just watch their head-to-head matchups.

However, by the time Zhou Dian joined TES, the regular season match between TES and IG had already been played.

The general public who want to see TES-Zhou and IG-TheShy face off will have to wait until the playoffs.

So, RNG, you might as well just get taken down by IG!
Everyone wants to see Zhou Shen beat TheShy!
I advise RNG not to be ungrateful and disappoint the great curiosity of the general public.

Anyway, it doesn't matter what the various fan groups and onlookers think.

In these discussions, Snake Esports, IG's opponent in the first round of the playoffs, now known as LNG, has long been relegated to obscurity.

Nobody cares what LNG thinks.

No one thought IG wouldn't make it past the first round of the playoffs.

However, countless examples in esports have taught us that you should never underestimate any opponent!
October 8th, Thursday.

The 19 LPL Summer Playoffs have officially begun.

The first best-of-five series of this playoffs will be between EDG, who ranked fifth in the regular season, and SN, who ranked eighth in the regular season.

EDG was defeated by SN in the first game.

Is SN going to follow JDG's example from the Spring Split and pull off a Cinderella run from the bottom eight?
Just like in the Spring Split, FPX finished first in the regular season of the Summer Split.

However, EDG then won the next three games, completing a reverse sweep and showing the onlookers that even after Clearlove retired, EDG no longer had any dominance in the LPL.

But since I haven't reached that level yet, how could I be easily overthrown by someone from below?

In a normal best-of-five series, the biggest contributor to EDG's 3-1 victory over their opponent was top laner Jinoo.

Jinoo, this Korean player, does have some skill.

When they faced SN's mid laner Angel playing top lane, they naturally went all out and created a significant difference in their performance in the top lane.

The next day, August 23, was another first-round playoff game.

IG vs. LNG.

Everyone thought that IG would crush their opponent just like EDG did yesterday, and the team with the higher regular season ranking would easily win the game and advance to the next round.

As it turned out, they really crushed them.

However, it wasn't IG that completely crushed LNG.

Instead, LNG completely crushed IG.

LNG defeated IG 3-0, a complete and utter shutout that left them with no room for argument.

Three months after being eliminated 3-1 by a North American team in the MSI semifinals, IG has once again delivered a stunning upset.

In just a few months, two major upsets have occurred.

All we can say is that IG was fortunate to win the S-series championship last year, which gave them a golden shield.

Otherwise, based on the two games IG lost, they would have to suffer the same fate as RNG when they lost to G2 last year.

If we were to say that IG lost to TL at MSI, the biggest gap was in their support role.

So, the biggest gap for LNG, who were underestimated today, was their jungler.

Or rather, Ueno Gap.

In all three games, IG fielded four players: their top laners Duke and TheShy, and their junglers Ning and Leyan. IG used three different top-jungle combinations across the three games, yet none of them could match the performance of the opposing team's Flandre and SofM's top-jungle duo.

Especially in the two games Ning played, his head was completely destroyed by SofM.

Compared to Ning, SofM was like a Challenger-level smurf playing ranked games in Platinum tier.

In the game where Xiaoleyan played, TheShy was completely crushed by Flandre.

Therefore, IG's top and jungle players were outmatched in every game.

Of course, IG's mid and bot lanes weren't clean either.

It's just that it wasn't as obvious as when the jungler was outplayed.

If there's a gap across the board, it's perfectly normal to be swept 3-0.

While many casual viewers found the result of the match unbelievable, and IG fans found it hard to accept the result,

All the teams still competing in the playoffs have keenly realized one thing.

That means their team's chances of making it to this year's World Championship have increased significantly.

This year, the LPL region will still have three slots for the S9 World Championship.

The Summer Split champion is the number one seed and also the team with the highest points in the region throughout the year.

The team with the second-highest total points in the entire S-series is the second seed.

The remaining three teams, ranked third to fifth in the annual S-series standings, will compete for the last third seed through a gauntlet tournament.

After the first two matches of this year's LPL Summer Playoffs, the top six teams have been determined.

They are FPX, TES, RNG, BLG, EDG, and LNG.

This list does not include IG, the champion of this year's LPL Spring Split, nor JDG, the runner-up of this year's LPL Spring Split.

JDG didn't even make it to the Summer Split playoffs.

Let's take a look at the strength of each team in the top six.

IG is almost certain to qualify for this year's LPL gauntlet.

JDG, on the other hand, has a very high chance of not even making it to the gauntlet.

In the gauntlet tournament, a best-of-five series can decide everything; anything can happen.

No one expected that just a day ago, IG was the reigning champion of both the LPL and the S-series.

A day later, the LPL champions failed to defend their title and may not even be able to go to this year's S9 World Championship.

There's no way around it; for the same ranking, the Summer Split's S-Series points are more than double those of the Spring Split.

This spring season championship is not as valuable as the summer season championship!
If the Spring Split champions didn't get to participate in MSI and have an international championship to compete for, then the Spring Split champions would truly be just empty titles.

In terms of Worlds points, the Spring Split champion receives 90 points.

With the 10 points from their first-round exit in the quarterfinals of the Summer Split, IG's total points for this year's World Championship are now capped at 100.

The runner-up in the Summer Split will receive 90 S-Series points.

This means that among the six teams that are currently in the top six of the LPL Summer Split.

Aside from BLG, whose Spring Split points are below 10, EDG and LNG are also included.

The remaining teams, FPX, TES, and RNG, including RNG, who had the fewest points in the Spring Split, all have 10 points.

If he joins RNG and they ultimately win the runner-up title in the Summer Split, then RNG's total S-series points for the year will be 100, the same as IG.

However, in the case of a tie in points, the player with higher points in the Summer Split will be ranked higher.

In other words, if FPX, TES, and RNG make it to the Summer Split finals, they will have secured at least one of the LPL's second seeds for the S9 World Championship.

In addition, the Summer Split champion will take up another spot as the number one seed, which means two spots will be taken directly for the S9 World Championship.

So, if IG still wants to use these 100 S-series points to secure the LPL's second seed spot in the S9 World Championship...

There is only one scenario where at most one of the three teams—FPX, TES, and RNG—can make it to the Summer Split finals.

However, among the remaining six teams, FPX, TES, and RNG are the top three teams that finished in the regular season.

Hoping that the other three teams, BLG, EDG, and LNG, who ranked far worse in the regular season, will prevent two of the three teams, FPX, TES, and RNG, from reaching the finals of the Summer Split.

It is undoubtedly highly unlikely.

If IG could have made it into the top six of the Summer Split playoffs in the first round, their chances of directly qualifying for the S9 World Championship would have immediately changed from extremely low to high.

Furthermore, the overall S-series points-based qualification system will immediately become chaotic.

However, IG, as the Spring Split champion, failed to win a single game and was eliminated in the first round of the Summer Split playoffs, directly handing over their chance to directly qualify for the S9 World Championship.

It also made the overall LPL's qualification situation for the S-series points much clearer.

All I can say is, what a good person!
Sacrificing personal interests for the greater good—the newly crowned S-series champions have a grand vision!

I don't want the direct qualification for the S-series; I want to play in the intense and exciting gauntlet tournament.

The most excited teams right now are FPX and TES, who have already secured their spots in the playoff semifinals based on their regular season rankings.

Both teams are now extremely excited, from management to coaches to players.

They're all gearing up, determined to win the playoff semifinals in a week.

For FPX and TES, this summer playoffs only require them to win their first match each to qualify for the S9 World Championship.

As the third and fourth place finishers in the Spring Split, FPX and TES should still be a long way from the S9 World Championship, with the Summer Split playoffs just beginning. They would need to win many more best-of-five series.
But then, the opportunity just fell from the sky.

All you need to do is win one best-of-five series to qualify for the S9 World Championship.

On the other side, RNG's coaching staff was also excited.

In retrospect, RNG's coaching staff's decision to simply ignore TES and not provide them with any useful information about their team in the final round of the regular season was absolutely correct.

This significantly increased RNG's win rate in their BO5 match against TES a week later.

After RNG lost to TES in the last round of the regular season, TES overtook them and took second place in the regular season.

Originally, many RNG fans and Uzi fans were furiously criticizing the coaching staff's stupid decisions after the match.

Now they just apologize to the coaching staff on the spot and praise their coaching staff for being so resourceful!
Based on the current overall standings of the LPL for the World Championship.

RNG only needs to win the game against TES in a week to achieve their goal.

As for RNG's opponent in the semifinals, LNG, who just upset IG, was also overlooked by RNG fans.

There's nothing you can do. Even if a weak team upsets a strong team, it doesn't change the fact that they're still a weak team and will still be looked down upon.

JDG, who were completely upset in the Spring Split this year and made it to the finals as the eighth seed, were still extremely underestimated in the finals.

Not to mention LNG, which has only been criticized once so far.

Furthermore, in the eyes of most viewers, LNG in the Summer Split, like JDG in the Spring Split, were both dark horses, but in the end, they only achieved their goals.

Dark horses never end well.

The further a dark horse goes, the more important the game becomes when it's finally defeated, and naturally, the more painful the loss.

After all, if you can really stay dark horse all the way through, then you're not a dark horse anymore.

Then you really have real skills!

(End of this chapter)