LOL: What does it mean to torture players?

Chapter 179 SKT is the elite? We are fighting against the elite! (2 and 1)

"We're finally here." After entering the hotel, everyone in EDG felt relieved.

The S-League cycle, if it reaches the finals, will take more than a month. Everyone brought a lot of luggage, and their hands were full of bags.

"Let's go to the front desk to register and get the room card." Abu greeted.

So everyone followed Abu to the front desk and met the receptionist.

Su Mo noticed that there were quite a few Riot official staff members in the hotel. They all wore work badges, so they were easy to identify. Many of them were white, probably on business trips.

While Abu was registering his identity information, Su Mo looked left and right.

The staff who looked like foreigners nearby recognized them and were discussing in English in a low voice:
"That's EDG, the No. 1 seed in the LPL region."

"EDG? They look so familiar. It seems like their performance is a bit bleak every year, but I can still see them every year."

"Yeah, I have the same impression. Every year before the game starts, there will be people saying that this team is very good, but every time there is no result, it is very strange."

The corner of Su Mo's mouth twitched slightly, and he was speechless.

These staff members do not seem to have updated information in a timely manner, and their understanding of EDG is still stuck in last year.

But that's true, they are foreigners, it's normal for them to have this kind of perception.

Just like most domestic audiences don’t pay attention to the European and American regions, only after the S game starts will they take a look at the situation of the European and American teams coming to the S game.

Therefore, these staff members naturally don’t know what changes have taken place in EDG.

Just then, there was a commotion at the door.

I saw a group of people striding in, quite fast and covered in dust.

This group of people were wearing plain clothes, and Su Mo recognized one of them, Khan!

Khan looks a little immature, yet has a bit of domineering aura. He doesn't hide his edge, but instead wants to be noticed and seen.

Maybe this is the drive of young people.

Since there is Khan, this is Dragon Ball.

"Oh shit, the Dragon Ball Team is here too!" Suddenly, Meiko, who was standing next to Su Mo, widened his eyes.

The two staff members who were evaluating EDG just now noticed the Longzhu people:

"Dragon Ball! LCK No. 1 seed!"

"I heard that Longzhu is invincible in LCK this season? Other teams, including SKT, can only be defeated."

"Yes, I watched their game, it was really amazing, I think they will be the champion this year."

Su Mo was not surprised to hear this, Longzhu's performance was indeed very good.

Of course, these two people made a fatal mistake, which was static and one-sided observation.

She thought she understood it, but in fact she didn't combine the versions. Once the version changed, what was originally correct might turn out to be wrong.

Soon, many staff members around came up to take photos with the Dragon Ball team members, and it turned into a fan meeting.

After the Longzhu team dealt with their fanatical fans, they walked over to EDG and met the EDG team.

Except for the bottom lane, the mid, top and jungle of the current Longzhu are all newcomers. It feels quite competitive. After all, e-sports is a game that relies on youth.

"You can take it yourselves." Abu's voice came, and the room card was obtained.

So everyone in EDG took a room card.

Abu turned around and saw the Dragon Ball team. He stepped forward and greeted them, "Coach Jin."

"Manager Abu."

This Coach Jin is Longzhu’s coach.

"Congratulations, you are the number one seed again this year," said Coach Jin.

However, even though they were words of congratulations, the EDG players were not happy to hear them.

Because after EDG got the No. 1 seed, its performance was not good.

So, this number one seed sounds a bit like a mockery.

Of course, the other party didn’t say anything else. We weren’t sure if it was a real mockery, so we didn’t want to show any displeasure.

"Then we'll go first." Abu led the EDG team away, walked to the elevator entrance, took the elevator and went up to find a room.

Just then, Meiko muttered, "Did you see that just now? The aura of the five people in Longzhu is really confident."

Zet agreed, "Yeah, it feels like there's a sense of oppression when they stand over there."

Su Mo scratched his head: "Is it possible that this is your own illusion, and you are putting pressure on yourself?"

Factory Manager: "Xiao Mo is right."

When we got to the fifth floor and the elevator door opened, Abu said, "Put all your things back first and tidy up. Is half an hour enough? We'll go out for dinner in half an hour."

So everyone took the room cards to find their rooms and started packing their luggage.

Half an hour later, Su Mo came out of the room and found that others were already waiting in the corridor.

"Everyone is here, let's go." Abu led the EDG team and prepared to set off.

However, after reaching the first floor, the EDG team ran into the RNG team who were processing procedures at the front desk.

Although the two teams set out from the airport together, various encounters along the way caused EDG to arrive much earlier.

"Coach Firefox, let's go to eat." Abu even greeted him specifically.

"it is good."

At this moment, three beautiful figures appeared at the door!

I saw three fashionably dressed women walking in from the door, talking and laughing, with work badges hanging around their necks.

These three people are none other than Rita, Yu Shuang and Luo Xin.

The three of them had no luggage in their hands, and it seemed that they had not just arrived.

"Brother Mozi!"

"Manager Abu!"

The three of them noticed the EDG group.

"Hello." Abu walked up and greeted.

The factory manager walked over with a smile on his face and said, "You guys..."

But before he could finish his words, three girls came to Su Mo and asked in a chattering voice:

Luo Xin: "Brother Mozi, you guys just got here, right? I didn't see you this morning."

Rita: ""Brother Mozi, what are you going to do now?"

Yu Shuang: "Come on, Mozi! Bring back the championship!"

[Get torture points from the factory manager +10]

[Get Torture Points from UZI +11]

"UZI?" Su Mo felt puzzled. He turned around and found that UZI was staring at him with a face full of envy and jealousy.

Su Mo nodded at him and gave him a friendly smile.

[Get Uzi's torture points +20]

Su Mo: ...

At this time, Abu also spoke up: "We are going to have dinner. Have you eaten yet? If not, let's go together."

"Really? We can go too?" The three were overjoyed and didn't think about being polite at all.

"of course."

So the large group joined the three beauties and left the hotel to find a place to eat outside.

It was already evening when we came back from dinner. Abu assigned tasks to everyone, asking them to take care of all daily matters today, buy whatever they needed, and start training tomorrow.

In addition to the LPL teams, teams from other regions are also arriving one after another.

Su Mo watched the expedition videos of various regions on the Internet, and they were all quite effective.

The next day, the training match began.

The process was not as smooth as everyone imagined.

In the training room, Abu was explaining: "I originally wanted to play a training match with an LCK team, but I didn't expect that they had already scheduled a training match tomorrow, so I didn't have time."

Meiko muttered, "After all, they are the strongest region. Other teams will definitely want to play against them. They can learn more this way."

Abu nodded: "Yes, so I will find another opponent for you, FNC."

"FNC?" This team name is quite familiar. I come here every year and we are familiar with each other.

"Get ready first, the training match will start in twenty minutes." Abu reminded.

So everyone began to prepare.

Su Mo suddenly said, "Why don't we let A Guang play, and let him practice more."

Abu asked back: "What about you?"

"I'm not in a hurry." In fact, Su Mo didn't want to fight because it was meaningless to him. If there were tasks and rewards, he would consider it. But here there is nothing, what's the point of fighting?

Twenty minutes later, the training match began.

Su Mo stood behind A Guang and watched the fight.

Seeing Su Mo behind him, A Guang suddenly felt a lot of pressure: "Brother Mozi, do you really have to stand behind me?"

Su Mo replied: "It's okay, are you still afraid of being seen? Just fight well."

All ten players from both sides were pulled over, and Su Mo saw several familiar IDs, Rekkles and Caps.

As far as I can remember, FNC's double C is very strong.

After the BP is over, the game screen will appear.

EDG’s playing style is relatively conservative. It feels like they haven’t fully adapted to the new version yet and need to explore new heroes and playing styles.

Because we are unfamiliar with the situation, we tend to be conservative in all aspects.

Just as Su Mo thought, the strength of FNC's double C is indeed very strong, whether in laning or team fighting.

During the laning phase, Scout didn't gain any advantage over Caps.

In terms of teamfighting, the two are similar, but Rekkles is better than Zet.

In the top lane, they have little presence, with two tanks on both sides fighting each other.

In the end, EDG lost the first game regretfully.

Abu's face looked a little strange. This was their first training match in this S League, and it was not off to a good start.

Abu asked with concern: "How do you feel? Is it hard to fight?"

Meiko replied: "I feel that their style is completely different from ours, and I'm a little uncomfortable with it."

Scout said: "Their mid laner Caps has strong personal abilities, but I have figured him out and feel I can limit him."

Factory Manager: "There's nothing special about their jungler. He's not bad, but he doesn't have any special abilities either."

So Su Mo asked a soul-searching question: "Why did you lose..."

This is indeed a problem. Judging from their description, EDG should be the winner.

Zet took the initiative to take the blame: "It's my fault. I didn't play well this time."

A Guang also admitted his mistake: "I didn't perform well on the road."

Abu said, "It's okay, everyone is playing well, keep playing, FNC is not weak, if we can beat them, we will have a chance to challenge the LCK team."

So the second game began, and we lost the second game as well. This one was a close defeat, as we almost won.

In two rounds, they were beaten 2-0.

Su Mo also realized that without him, EDG’s current strength might not be as good as FNC’s, but the gap is not big.

FNC should have the strength to reach the quarterfinals, but EDG is not even in the quarterfinals now.

"Let's review it. Let's review it first." Abra asked everyone to review it together.

After the review, continue to make appointments.

This time Abuyo joined the LMS team, AHQ!

"You should have some impression of AHQ, they're from the LMS region. I've made an appointment with them and the game will start in fifteen minutes." Abu greeted.

Su Mo felt it was a bit outrageous that he was actually going to train with the LMS team.

But on the other hand, Abu should be trying to help everyone build confidence.

What if we continue to fight with FNC and still can’t beat them?

By that time everyone will feel that they are incompetent. They are good at civil wars but not good at foreign wars, and they will not be able to fight at all.

So it is important to build confidence.

After a while, players from both teams were ready and entered BP.

This time, EDG's BP needs to be much more proactive, and only an active lineup can seize the opportunity.

If your lineup is too passive, you won't be able to catch the kills from the opponent.

This time they finally won, although the process was not pretty. In the early stage, they were actually outclassed by the AHQ jungler, and they still relied on team battles to turn the tables.

AHQ was also boosted with confidence by the defeat and immediately started the second game.

In the second game, EDG was indeed more confident and crushed their opponent all the way to victory.

"We won!" The factory manager was a little excited.

Meiko cheered, "Two to zero, we win!"

This is enough to show how much pressure they were under just now. The greater the pressure, the happier they are to win now.

This may be Abu's purpose, to boost the confidence of his players first.

“Let’s start reviewing.”

After the review, it was getting late, so everyone went out to have a meal together and continued after coming back.

"This time we have arranged a wildcard team for you, MSF." Abu reminded.

Upon hearing the word "wild card", the factory manager muttered, "Are we going to play against a wild card? It feels like a waste of time. We won't learn anything."

A Guang joked: "Playing against wildcards is like playing against bots. It's just a waste of time."

Su Mo reminded: "A Guang, don't be too optimistic. They might have something."

Ah Guang chuckled: "Don't worry, Mozi. I certainly won't treat the opponent as a robot. I'm kidding. This time I will use... 80% of my strength, hahaha."

However, after the actual fight started, the EDG players found out that they were wrong.

MSF is not as weak as they imagined, it can even be described as strong!

EDG quickly lost the first game.

"Ah? Is this a wild card? They are actually wild cards?" A Guang stared at the screen and fell into deep thought.

Abu said: "I told you not to underestimate the opponent. The teams that can come to the S League are not weak teams. They must have their own way of playing to win the game."

The EDG players got ready again and the second game began. This time EDG was much more cautious and the situation became very tense and not one-sided.

Although it was not one-sided, EDG still couldn't win and was defeated by the opponent 2-0!
"We lost again?" A Guang looked at the screen and seemed unable to accept the result.

Su Mo smiled and said, "A Guang, you should take a good look at what you were saying before the game started. You were not like this at that time."

Ah Guang scratched his head: "I was just pretending a little bit. I thought we were sure to win. Oh my god, are the wild cards so strong now? Then we are doomed, right?"

A Guang looked at the factory director, who was resting his chin with his right hand, as if he was thinking.

A Guang looked at the two people in the bottom lane, who were discussing something in a low voice.

Finally, A Guang looked at A Bu.

Abu spread his hands and said, "Why are you looking at me? I can't beat them. Although our lineup is relatively random, it is enough to prove that the opponent is also very strong."

Then Abu looked at Su Mo and said, "You said before that you wanted to win the championship. You know why I didn't let you say that? It's not that we don't have ambition. The S League is just so difficult to win."

Su Mo also felt a bit pressured. This S-League was indeed full of hidden talents. Not to mention the LPL and LCK regions, there were also top players in the European and American regions and the wildcard regions.

Abu also realized that if Su Mo did not play, it would be a question whether EDG could reach the quarterfinals.

In this case, he should not be allowed to play during training. If he keeps playing, his teammates may become dependent on him. When A Guang plays, the training effect will be better.

"Keep practicing, there is no other way." Abu called out.

After saying that, he turned and looked at Su Mo, "By the way, Xiao Mo, I have a task for you."

"What's the reward?" Now when Su Mo heard the word "mission", he subconsciously thought about the issue of reward.

"It's not a big deal. You should know that there are promotional videos for every S game. There were promotional videos for S5 and S6. This year it should also be related to legends. To put it simply, they interview one or two legendary players in each region. This year, the LPL region has chosen you." Abu explained.

Hearing this, Su Mo was stunned. He had never thought about this question.

Abu continued: "What you need to do is think about what you are going to say in advance. The other party will ask questions and ask you to introduce yourself. Briefly talk about how you became a professional and talk about some meaningful things that happened during that time."

Su Mo felt something was not right after hearing this. He could always say that it was because of the system that he had achieved what he had today.

"Do we have to tell the truth?" Su Mo asked.

Abu responded: "Of course you have to tell the truth. You can embellish it a little bit, but it has to be based on facts. Otherwise, if people find out it's fake, you'll be in trouble and it's easy for netizens to lead you in the right direction."

"Can we change factories?" Su Mo asked again.

"No, this was decided by Riot. They think you best fit their theme, Legend."

"Actually, it's not that complicated. Just briefly talk about the whole process of your hard training, painful growth, overcoming difficulties, and reaching the top. When people see your achievements today, they will understand these things." Abu advised.

Su Mo nodded: "Yes, I can achieve what I have today because of my hard work and talent!"

Abu rolled his eyes at him and said, "What a waste of effort!"

……

The next day, Su Mo was queuing in the training room to prepare for qualifying training.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door of the room.

Abu came in with a few people, including a host with a microphone, a photographer, and a translator...

"He is Mo. You guys start the interview. I won't bother you any more."

Before driving, Abu gave Su Mo a thumbs up, as if to cheer him up.

"Hello." The tall, well-dressed female host walked up and shook hands with Su Mo.

Su Mo stood up and greeted, "Hello."

"Your coach should have told you in advance why we are here."

"Ok, I know."

"You can relax a little. We will adopt a relaxed and pleasant chat-style interview style. We will ask a lot of questions. You can speak freely. It doesn't matter if you say something wrong. We will edit it."

Su Mo nodded.

"If you don't mind, we'll start filming. Please sit back down and we'll start over again."

"Okay." Su Mo sat back down, the photographer adjusted the direction, and the female host smiled and came up to greet him, "Hello, contestant Mo."

Su Mo could only cooperate and stood up to shake hands: "Hello."

"Please take a seat." The female host motioned Su Mo to sit down.

Su Mo guessed that they must have filmed everything, and then edited out some of the better-looking clips and combined them with the interview content. This is how documentaries are shot.

After Su Mo sat down, the female host sat opposite Su Mo and shot the camera at Su Mo's face.

"Please introduce yourself?" the host asked.

"I'm EDG's top laner, Mo."

“Why did you choose to become a professional player?”

Su Mo replied: "Because of talent."

"How talented do you think you are? How do you compare to other famous players? For example, Faker, UZI, Smeb, CUZZ, etc."

Su Mo smiled and said, "I admit that these are all very talented players who can achieve greater success in a shorter time than others, but compared to my talent, they may still be a little behind."

Hearing this, the female host's eyes lit up.

He smelled the scent of "headlines"!

Let’s not talk about others, let’s just talk about Faker. Is there anyone who thinks his talent is higher than Faker?

"Do you think your talent is higher than Faker's?" the female host asked.

"Yes, that's right." Su Mo felt that there was nothing wrong with saying this.

No matter how talented Faker is, can he be as awesome as the system?

So the female host asked for the third time: "Faker won the S-League championship in S3 and has won three S-League championships so far. As long as he can enter the S-League, he can win the championship. With such a dazzling record and achievements, do you still think that your talent is higher than his?"

Su Mo was a little speechless, thinking that this host would never stop talking, so he simply gave in: "Okay, then he has the highest talent, OK?"

[Get torture points from the host +10]

The female host shook her head and reached out to touch her long golden hair, seeming to be dissatisfied with Su Mo's answer.

The colleague next to him chuckled and said, "It's okay, we can just edit this part out and ask other questions."

Su Mo:?
The female host continued to ask: "How many hours do you usually train a day? Holidays are not counted."

Su Mo asked back: "Do you only count the training matches or do you also count the rank training matches?"

The female host responded: "It all counts, as long as it's training."

Su Mo replied: "If it's during the league, we train four to five hours a day."

Hearing this, the host's expression became strange: "Four or five hours? What were you doing during the rest of the time?"

Su Mo said, "Watch the short video."

The female host directly denied it: "That's absolutely impossible, contestant Mo. Although I just said that this is a relaxed interview, you can't lie. You can't be too outrageous."

Su Mo spread his hands: "I didn't lie."

The host looked incredulous.

Based on her understanding of LPL and LCK, the two most competitive leagues, it is normal for professional players to train for ten hours a day. Basically, except for eating, sleeping, going to the toilet and other chores, the rest of the time is spent on training.

The four or five hours that Su Mo mentioned is easier than the European and American competition areas. That’s outrageous.

"Player Mo, if you just want to use this method to prove that your talent is higher than Faker, people may not believe it!" the female host reminded.

Su Mo scratched his head helplessly: "If you don't want to believe it, then don't believe it. I'm telling the truth."

In fact, Su Mo has already said too much. Normally, he can train for an average of two hours a day, which is considered a lot...

But no one in EDG cared about him and just let him play.

"Let's move on to the next topic, the next one." The female host's colleague said with a smile.

The female host could only reorganize her words. Before asking the question, she specifically reminded: "Contestant Mo, please allow me to remind you again that our theme is legends. To become a legendary contestant, in addition to talent, you also need hard work and a tenacious mentality. You must show this."

"OK." Su Mo nodded.

So the female host continued to ask: "What is the goal of this S game?"

"champion."

"EDG's best result in the past two years was the quarterfinals. Why do you think you can win the championship?"

"Because everyone in our EDG has become stronger."

The female host asked again: "You should have played training matches with other teams by now, how were the results? Was it smooth?"

Su Mo replied: "It usually goes smoothly."

"Then why are you so confident in EDG?"

“Confidence does not require a reason. Everyone can be confident. It does not require any achievements first. Ordinary people can also be confident.”

[Get torture points from the host +30]

Su Mo could feel that this host was heating up.

But there's no way, he's telling the truth.

The female host looked at Su Mo with a complicated look.

Su Mo's answer was very informal and not suitable for official publicity, but it was definitely controversial and could attract a lot of attention.

She wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Seeing that she couldn't squeeze any "inspirational" words out of Su Mo, the female host said directly:
"Thank you Mr. Su for accepting our interview. This concludes our interview today."

"You're welcome." Su Mo stood up and shook hands with the female host.

After both parties greeted each other, the female host and others left directly.

As soon as they left, Abu came in: "So fast? It feels like only a few minutes. Did it go smoothly?"

Su Mo replied: "It feels okay. If it doesn't go well, they won't leave."

"That's true..." Abu nodded, "But I don't really believe you can stay out of trouble."

"Am I that kind of person!"

"Yes!"

"..."

Abu didn't dwell on this question and continued, "You have to do well in this S game. If you can really get a good result, plus this wave of publicity, you can take off directly!"

Su Mo is not so optimistic. People can only remember the championship. These interviews and documentaries can be regarded as "0", and the championship is the "1" in front of zero. Only by winning the championship will the zero behind it have value, otherwise it will always be zero.

There may even be side effects, and netizens may criticize you for it.

As time passed, the drawing ceremony began.

In the evening, everyone in EDG gathered together to watch the group stage draw ceremony.

Abu walked in and looked around the room: "Is everyone here?"

Su Mo, who had just had a good sleep, said, "Mingkai is not here. I don't know where Mingkai went."

Abu responded: "Can you please pay more attention, Mingkai is going to the live draw to represent our region."

"Hehe...the factory has a lot of reputation." Su Mo was a little embarrassed. He knew about this, but he forgot it happened today.

Abu further explained: "It's mainly because we won the summer championship. If it weren't for this championship, how could Mingkai have won the championship?"

Su Mo nodded and took out his cell phone. He wanted to check the pace online.

So I opened Weibo and found the official EDG channel.

#Give EDG a good draw, otherwise they will be eliminated in the round of 16.

#EDG still has no problem reaching the quarterfinals.

#Don't you know? EDG can't beat anyone in practice matches right now

#So bad? Not really, EDG is the No. 1 seed.

#This is an expert in civil wars but a layman in foreign wars. Don’t you understand?
EDG fans are quite anxious about the grouping now.

Afraid of encountering this, afraid of encountering that.

I am afraid of any LCK team, even a team like SSG that is looked down upon by many people.

In the end, we can only see a little hope by being in the same group with wild cards and European and American players.

After all, EDG has a pretty good historical record against European and American teams.

"here we go."

Abu reminded.

Su Mo looked at the screen and saw the host coming on stage and introducing the rules.

The rule is also quite simple. The four number one seeded teams will not meet each other. They will be drawn into four groups in the first round, and the subsequent draw is the most critical.

At the same time, teams from the same division will not be drawn together and must be avoided.

After introducing the rules, the host asked the guests to come on stage!
There are four guests in total.

"Mingkai is out!" Meiko looked excited.

The factory manager appeared in the screen, and the person walking in front of him was none other than Faker.

This time, the official brought the top players from each region to attract attention.

Then Faker walked to the middle first and went up to draw lots.

He drew from Pool 1, which contained four No. 1 seeds.

I saw him reach in and stir it twice, then take one out and spread it out under the camera.

"EDG!"

When the host read out EDG, everyone in EDG was shocked.

Everyone turned around and looked at each other.

Zet was the first to speak: "We are the first one. Faker's luck is so bad!"

A Guang said: "We are Group A, so doesn't that mean we have to play against SKT on the first day?"

Meiko also frowned: "This is a bit difficult. The first game against SKT is a bit stressful. It would be better if we played against other teams."

Abu looked at everyone and said soothingly: "Although SKT is an elite team, we are not weak either. Don't encourage others to be more ambitious and destroy your own prestige. Just keep a normal mind."

Su Mo nodded: "That's right, we have to fight sooner or later anyway, it's just SKT, we are fighting against the elite!"

Faker continued to draw lots, and soon the order of the four number one seeds came out.

EDG, LZ, G2, FW.

Corresponding to groups ABCD respectively.

Next, the factory manager came on stage and Faker went down. The factory manager walked to the draw machine and drew Pool No. 2, which mainly contained the second and third seeds from the major regions and the first seed from the minor regions.

The factory manager also imitated Faker, reached in and stirred it, then took one out and spread it out.

"SKT!"

Everyone in EDG gasped!
SKT was drawn first, which means they are in Group A, and EDG is also in Group A!
(End of this chapter)