LOL: My talent is top-tier, my professional skills are unparalleled.

Chapter 399, New Version 8.19! Lottery Ceremony!

Wang Yao returned to the training room at this time. Mao Kai didn't say much, "Everyone, come sit down quickly and have a short meeting. The update content for version 8.19 is out."

Riot Games announced early on that patch 8.19 would be the version used for the World Championship.

Maokai continued to distribute the pre-prepared updated materials to the players, and then analyzed and explained them.

"The update in patch 8.19 wasn't significant. Champions like Aatrox, Blade Dancer, and Akali weren't nerfed, meaning the draft phase of this World Championship will still revolve around these champions."

"However, it is worth noting that Darius and Fiora have received slight buffs, and in the jungle, Elise, Jarvan IV, and Kha'Zix have also received buffs to varying degrees. It is clear that Riot Games is still encouraging teams to be aggressive."

Wang Yao glanced down.

Spider's W and E skills have had their cooldowns significantly reduced, and Jarvan IV's passive "War Rhythm" cooldown is now 6 seconds at all levels.

The increased AD scaling on Kha'Zix's Q skill and the increased damage of his W skill are significant buffs that will greatly enhance these champions' early-game fighting power in the jungle.

These heroes are all early-game tempo-oriented junglers. Although Kha'Zix is ​​not a tempo-oriented jungler, this hero's gameplay focuses on attacking the jungle.

"At the same time, we also need to consider the changes in the previous versions. Akali, Blade Dancer, and Aatrox are all very overpowered."

Maokai prepared very detailed information, not just the 8.19 version update.

Instead, it includes all the changes to several key heroes from patch 8.17 to 8.19.

This way, it will be clear at a glance.

After several nerfs, Riot Games has reverted the damage coefficient of Irelia's Q skill against minions.

Don't underestimate this change; whether Irelia's Q can instantly kill ranged minions makes a huge difference.

Being able to kill with Q means constantly using Q and interrupting the passive. If you're just a little short of killing a ranged minion with Q, then Q is interrupted. Once Irelia's Q is interrupted in a fight, she basically has no chance of winning.

The same goes for the Sword Demon.

Previously, when Aatrox learned E, he would immediately gain two charges, meaning he could use it twice right away.

After the changes in version 8.18, Aatrox can only gain one charge when he learns E, but as compensation, the healing ability of E skill against hero damage has been greatly improved.

However, Aatrox's ultimate cooldown was nerfed by 20 seconds, and the level 1 cooldown was increased from 140 seconds to 160 seconds, which is another huge nerf.

Overall.

Aatrox's strength has fallen from T0 to barely T1. His team fight ability is still excellent, but his laning phase depends heavily on the player's individual skill. There are many heroes that can deal with Aatrox.

This means that this hero is no longer a must-ban or must-pick.

As for Akali, she can be considered the only Tier 0 champion in the current version!

Because Riot Games hasn't made any nerfs to Akali so far, the designers did indeed mention on Twitter that they would be making a series of nerfs to Akali.

But so far it seems like it's just a pie in the sky, with no substantial changes at all.

In patch 8.18, Akali's ultimate ability's base damage was reduced by 20 points, which is negligible.

Anyone who has played Akali knows that this champion has no shortage of damage. Even if her ultimate's base damage is reduced by 20 points, it still won't affect Akali's ability to one-shot squishy targets.

The core W-shaped formation can still block defensive towers, which is the most outrageous point.

Although Akali's combat power is only so-so in the early game, her Q skill can heal her when it is close to full energy. Combined with the Fleet Footwork rune, Akali's ability to stay in lane is very strong.

Once Akali reaches level 6, full health is Akali's kill threshold.

"By the way, there's a change in the bot lane that we also need to pay attention to. Lucian has received a slight buff," Maokai reminded. "This champion might change the ecosystem of the bot lane." Although bot lane mage carries were once the mainstream in the league, later on, everyone felt that they couldn't do without a regular marksman, since it's hard for mages to replace the marksman's tower-pushing ability.

Ziggs is an outlier, but this hero has a very low margin for error. Picking Ziggs means that the overall lineup is more poke-oriented.

With champions like Akali and Irelia being so strong at engaging, the poke composition can easily be overwhelmed by a single mistake.

Therefore, the mainstream marksman choices for the bottom lane are still Kai'Sa and Xayah, one can be paired with an aggressive playstyle, and the other is invincible against strong engages.

However, Kai'Sa and Xayah both have a range of only 525 yards, which is relatively short for a marksman. Moreover, the current growth curves for these two heroes basically require two items to become effective.

Kai'Sa needs Stormrazor and Guinsoo's Rageblade to evolve her Q, and then needs to get Nashor's Tooth to evolve her W and E. The price of these three items combined is nearly 10,000.

The same goes for Xia.

The core items are the Mana Drain Blade and Infinity Edge; only by adding the Cannon later can it evolve into its complete form.

Both of these marksmen have long development cycles, while Lucian focuses on laning and can become a formidable fighter with just one Blade of the Ruined King, allowing him to fight alongside his teammates.

If you use Kai'Sa or Xayah to lane against Lucian, it's easy for them to push your team to the brink of defeat before you can even get ahead.

Of course, the true strength of a hero still needs to be tested in actual matches. Based solely on the data, we can only make a rough estimate.

"These next two days, you should focus on individual ranked games. In a couple of days, I will help you arrange practice matches. You will need to practice every day, so be prepared."

Maokai gave the team members a heads-up in advance.

Thanks to EDG's outstanding performance at MSI and Rift Rivals, they remain the number one seed team in the LPL.

With so many accolades, many teams are willing to seek out EDG for scrimmages.

Maokai waited two days specifically because he wanted to wait for the group stage draw results before making any decisions.

If you're constantly arranging practice matches against your group stage opponents, wouldn't that be tantamount to prematurely revealing your tactical reserves?

He wouldn't do a deal that loses him money.

Wang Yao and others also used the super accounts provided by Hanquan to conduct high-intensity personal training on the Korean server. Due to the influx of a large number of professional players, the already highly competitive Korean server has become even more competitive.

It's not that Wang Yao dislikes the top of the Rift.

From a purely training perspective, the Korean server definitely outperforms the Challenger tier.

After all, the Korean server doesn't have that many streamers who want to piggyback on the fame of professional players to generate traffic, nor does it have that many strange and uniquely skilled players.

Players play ranked games to maintain their form and accumulate laning experience, making certain actions instinctive.

On the evening of September 20th.

The entire EDG team gathered together to watch the draw ceremony!

LCK also attached great importance to this, and the guests invited for the draw were all well-known players.

The guest for the group stage draw was Flame, the original handsome top laner known as the 'Princess', who previously played for CJ team and also played for LGD team in LPL during the S5 season!

The lottery rules remain the same.

The number one seed team will be placed in a pool of players because of the poor performance of the North American region in the World Championships over the past year.

Therefore, the number one seed from the North American region cannot enter the number one seed pool and has to be placed in the number two seed pool.

(End of this chapter)