League of Legends: Reborn in Season 3, Tuning the Entire League

Chapter 117 Training Begins with the LPL All-Star Team!
Lin Ming!

As an ordinary office worker, I am also a League of Legends player.

Unlike young people who love esports and follow their favorite teams and players, his life doesn't offer much free time to waste; his daily routine consists of nothing but work.

The reason is simple: working an extra day every Friday has almost drained all his energy.

Don't ask why it's 5+1. Just ask if it's a normal weekend. It's just that the company requires us to work an extra day.

But just one less day made him lose all desire to go out for a stroll after lying in bed at home for half a day.

Well, to the point that he's still a single husky.

On weekdays, he spends his spare time playing the new ARAM mode in League of Legends and watching videos of bad champions uploaded by content creators to have a good laugh. That's one of his few pastimes.

League of Legends Pro League?

Sorry, I don't follow that.

That day, after returning home as usual, Lin Ming, having eaten and drunk his fill, searched for spiritual nourishment on video websites as he always did.

Suddenly, a popular video titled "I Love Invention: LOL 'Black Technology' Dominates the Rift" Episode 1 caught his eye.

I love inventing?

Black technology dominates the Rift?

The successful search of several keywords instantly caught Lin Ming's attention.

As luck would have it, he has been a die-hard fan of "I Love Invention" since it started airing in 09.

There are indeed many unconventional strategies in League of Legends, and he and some friends have tried quite a few in ARAM. It's just a mystery what new and interesting thing this video creator came up with that actually made it to the top of the trending searches.

Click the mouse to play the video.

A cheerful background music started playing, and various chibi versions of League of Legends heroes appeared on screen. Finally, the video creator's name, "JM," appeared below the video title.

A glint of light suddenly appeared in Lin Ming's eyes, as if there was something there.

This JM is quite famous in the LOL community. I originally thought that he was only interested in regular tutorial videos on game operation or tactical understanding, but I didn't expect that he would even make entertainment videos.

That's right. There are millions of League of Legends players, and not everyone is thinking about climbing the ranks. You may talk a lot about your game understanding, but if it's not useful to us casual players, you'll miss out on a large portion of your fans.

The video's brief intro quickly ended, followed by Lin Ming's familiar background music, and even the narration intentionally imitated the original program's host.

Are you still frustrated when you fail to kick the enemy champion back during a crucial gank with Lee Sin?

Are you still frustrated because your hand speed is too slow, and you're always a step behind when it comes to warding, which leads to criticism and complaints from your teammates?

"A young player from the Bandle City server of LOL initially just wanted to be able to master the jungler Lee Sin when playing with his roommates in a five-man premade team. Who would have thought that through constant practice and exploration, he would unexpectedly discover the ultimate secret to Lee Sin's 100% accurate kicks and master this amazing skill."

Inventor: A single point of cold light shines with boundless brilliance!

"Invention Project: Bolt's Blind Speed ​​Flow!"

Right!
Lin Ming couldn't help but envy the video creator's talent. Ignoring the LOL game keyword, this is definitely the pre-release of a new episode of "I Love Invention".

【High energy ahead! 】

[Haha, front row seat! I didn't expect JM to be so amazing at making entertainment videos.]

[Calculate the area of ​​psychological trauma experienced by players in the game.]

【Wait, what the heck? I got kicked back by this thing?】

[Haha, this is a game exclusively for elderly blind people! I've already saved it and cast my All-Star vote!]

As the video began, a barrage of comments flooded in, startling Lin Ming so much that he quickly switched to half-screen mode.

In the video, a vividly portrayed blind monk is seen rushing up the river.

From God's perspective, the purple team's top laner Fiora had already set up vision and scouted Lee Sin's position.

The two were quite far apart, and by the time the Lee Sin approached the lane, Fiora had already retreated to a safe distance.

Some junglers who hadn't finished watching the video were swearing in the comments, condemning JM's video for raising the overall anti-gank awareness of League of Legends players, making their lives as junglers even more difficult.

But in that very second, cherry blossoms suddenly appeared on Li Qing's hands, and his feet, which had been swaying and walking slowly, suddenly started running.
Before anyone could even wonder why Lee Sin would build the Cherry Blossom Blade, the blue light around Lee Sin in the video intensified, and his movement speed experienced another burst.

hum!
It happened almost instantly. Before the viewers in front of the video could react, they saw Lee Sin, still in the river, speeding forward at a speed comparable to Usain Bolt—no, even surpassing Usain Bolt—overtake the retreating Fiora.

then……

"Ichiku!"

Fiora, in a dazed and bewildered state, was kicked into Rui Mengmeng's arms.

"Pfft..."

"Watfa?"

While drinking water, Lin Ming couldn't help but spit it all over the computer screen.

In a state of half-laughing and half-feeling, the young man hurriedly wiped the computer screen.

"Good, good, good. A blind man with Ghostblade and Sprint, truly worthy of being called Bolt the Blind Man."

The following video content is undoubtedly a scene where Lee Sin demonstrates how to use Ghost and Youmuu's Ghostblade from various angles to kick someone back.

Hehe, you know what, it feels so good to just run right up to someone's face and kick them back!

Don't run away, my darling!

[Suddenly realized that the cooldown of Sprint is shorter than that of Flash. Mom won't have to worry about me missing my Flash + R combo anymore.]

[Alas, JM is amazing! Even we old folks can play blindfolded now!]

[Let's play ranked matches, brothers!]

What's the rush? There's more!

[Haha, Jayce and Veigar, I didn't expect this bot lane octagon positioning drill.]

After the final team fight scene featuring Lee Sin, the screen went black to complete the transition, and the narrator's voice continued to play.

"Inventor: Dandelions have no love!"

"Invention Project: Bottom Lane Lockdown and Dog Beating - The Law and Artillery Alliance!"

When Jiang Ming was arranging the production of the "I Love Invention" comedy video, he provided two sets of cutting-edge technology materials for each episode. After all, if there were too few, it wouldn't be enough to attract viewers, and if there were too many, the materials wouldn't last long given the current number of heroes in the League of Legends. Therefore, he decided on two sets and included more fun clips.

Jiang Ming had wanted to get involved in the entertainment aspect of League of Legends for a long time, but unfortunately, there are only so many things one person can do. He was overwhelmed with work, and just streaming, making regular tutorial videos, running his online store, and preparing for the LPL had already consumed most of his energy.

Now that the club is on the right track and the team that needed to be recruited has been basically assembled, he only needs to provide some ideas to get the new type of program going, and of course, he wants to get it started as soon as possible.

In League of Legends, while seeking tactical strategies to climb the ranks is the mainstream demand among players, the huge number of players who prefer casual play should not be overlooked.

In fact, this group makes up a significant proportion of the League of Legends player base.

They neither follow tournament updates nor pay attention to player performances, treating League of Legends merely as a form of entertainment in their daily lives. For them, lighthearted and entertaining videos are far more appealing than sophisticated strategy guides.

It's a very simple principle: if you spend ages discussing Jayce and Veigar's combos in front of a player who doesn't care about ranking up, it's far less enjoyable than Veigar using his E and then watching the trapped champion get slammed in the face by Jayce's cannons.

At the end of the video, in addition to the usual advertisements for the NXG online store and "JM Food Time", Jiang Ming also specially added a segment to garner votes from all the stars.

As a casual player who doesn't play ranked matches or watch many competitions, his account naturally still has the support votes it comes with.

He didn't have high expectations, only hoping that a small number of players who watched the video would be willing to vote for the NXG team members, which would be a success.

If they still can't snatch one or two more spots from WE, then all we can say is that 60E is amazing.

……

However, it is obvious that Jiang Ming's previous worries were completely unnecessary.

Before the All-Star qualifiers ended, LPL still had two rounds of matches to play, and as the matches progressed, WE's original overall lead was gradually being broken.

NXG won all their matches in the second round! NXG also won all their matches in the third round!

The only change is that NXG is finding it difficult to create kill margins of ten or twenty kills when facing LPL teams that have evolved to a certain extent.

After all, under Jiang Ming's various forms of forceful indoctrination, the operational philosophy has taken root and sprouted in LPL teams in a strange way. With the most basic operational thinking, the players' basic skills, when to fight and when not to fight, the tacit cooperation and discipline between teams, and even resource control and vision management, have all made great progress. Unless there is a huge difference in strength, it is rare to see a crushing defeat in the regular season.

Especially after NXG, who were the top team with a significant gap in performance, OMG, PE, Royal Club, and WE, who barely squeezed into the top tier due to their extremely weak mid lane, have almost reached a delicate situation where the teams are evenly matched and mutually restrain each other. No one dares to say that they can definitely beat anyone else.

Of course, the decrease in NXG's dominant performances is partly due to Jiang Ming deliberately increasing the difficulty of matches for his team. After all, no matter how strong or successful a team is within its own region, it wouldn't be acceptable to fans and viewers if they were to get completely outplayed at the World Championship.

Currently, LPL teams facing NXG, who have been practicing together for almost half a year, will be easily crushed in team fights, regardless of how well they perform in the laning phase.

Facing NXG, a team that continues to maintain an incredibly impressive record, even the most stubborn WE fans dare not question JM and his teammates' strength, after all, WE only managed 14 wins after three rounds, leaving them in the middle.

At most, they might weakly post a comment on their own team's forum—"All-Star selection depends on popularity as well as skill..."

Looking at popularity?
Looking at popularity alone, as the LPL matches continue, WE's fan base, which is completely different from last season, has begun to see a significant loss of members.

On Tieba, the situation where there were so many posts after each match that it was impossible to finish scrolling through them has gradually disappeared, and even posts discussing the looks of the five WE players are gradually decreasing.

This situation is actually WE's own doing.

Before the start of S3, WE's marketing strategy was to portray themselves as an invincible champion team.

With the IPL5 international championship as the core, they achieved dozens of consecutive victories in various smaller leagues and cups, creating an invincible image. Coupled with the superior looks of several WE players compared to other teams, they aimed to win over both fans of skill and fans of good looks.

However, now everyone sees that NXG, who were undefeated in the LPL regular season, seem more like a powerful team than in terms of strength, or even in terms of looks.
Sorry, I admit that Wang Caomei is indeed very handsome, but with JM ahead of him who is highly educated, strong, and good-looking, why shouldn't I become a fan of NXG?
As a result, players were surprised to find that in the later stages of the All-Star selection, the votes of several WE players stagnated, or even stopped increasing altogether.

With this hope of competition, Wang Sicong launched a financial offensive, campaigning for his team's top laner, PDD.

At the same time, a phone call was made to NXG's club, indicating that NXG should not engage in a head-to-head battle with them in the top lane, and promising to provide top laner Song Yuan with certain compensation.

Wang Sicong also knew that NXG's current record was truly terrifying. If it weren't for OMG and PE's two attempts to forcefully target NXG's top lane during the match, causing Norsha to lose the lane, PDD would have had no chance no matter how well he played in lane.

Although there is a chance to compete for votes right now, if JM insists on taking the top lane and gives the support role to WE, he really has no way to stop him.

The key was that he received information that the organizers intended to leverage JM's positive energy to promote esports to a certain extent during this year's All-Star event in Shanghai.

From initially approaching esports with a casual attitude to now aiming to achieve something significant and gain recognition in the industry, Wang Sicong certainly couldn't miss this opportunity.

……

Jiang Ming has no objection.

He already had a serious lack of votes in the competition with WE for the jungle and support positions, so he had very little chance of getting the top lane position.

Song Yuan was well aware of this. Although his stats were much better than PDD's due to the support of the team, he could clearly see the gap between them in terms of individual skill. Moreover, NXG had established a merit-based philosophy among its fans to minimize the negative influence of fan culture. Song Yuan felt that they wouldn't do something so shameful as to use their leader's fame to garner votes.

Besides, the young master of the royal family gave him an extra compensation; what more could he ask for?

Of course, ultimately, NXG's disadvantage lies in its youth.

In the All-Star voting, WE garnered the support of the vast majority of voters in the early stages, so much so that even with their outstanding performance later on, it was difficult for their chances to change significantly.

Finally, with the exciting conclusion of the last game of the third round, the highly anticipated All-Star selection results were also released at the same time.

LPL All-Star Team: |
Top laner: IG-PDD!

Jungler: WE-Clearlove!

Mid Laner: NXG-JM! (Captain)

AD: WE-weixiao!
Support: NXG-door!

Head Coach: NXG-JM
Assistant Coach: WE - Abu!

Tactical Analyst: NXG-BSYY
Thus, Jiang Ming's painstakingly planned first step in transforming the LPL esports scene—the Shanghai All-Star event—has yielded a fairly satisfactory result.

There are two support and mid lane positions, plus a team captain, head coach, and tactical analyst, making a total of five positions.

……

Devil!

Inside Fuyuanhui.

At six o'clock in the evening, three young people sat around a table, and the warm yellow wall lamps in the private room had just been turned on.

PDD and the WE duo stared at each other blankly.

"Wow, so early!"

"Same!"

"You came pretty early too."

The three greeted each other awkwardly, and PDD felt a pang of unease. The two in front of him were their IG rivals who had fought tooth and nail on the field since Season 2, and now they were fighting side by side for the upcoming All-Star event.

This change in identity made PDD somewhat uncomfortable, and he felt that there was a strange atmosphere in the air.

"NXG hasn't arrived yet?" Mingkai also felt the air was too heavy, so he took the initiative to start a conversation. In the enclosed space, although there were two of them, given PDD's size, he was still somewhat worried that the other party might use the excuse of targeting the top lane in the past to slam him down.

"I don't know, it should be on its way."

"There are a lot of them, so transportation will probably be a bit of a hassle!"

"By the way, where's Abu?"

"He went to the restroom."

Fortunately, before the staff could come in a second time to refill the water, the person who had reserved the seat at the round table finally arrived.

"Sorry, sorry, we're a little late."

Before he arrived, his voice preceded his arrival. The moment the door to the private room opened, even though they had arrived at the agreed time, Jiang Ming, as the latecomer, still greeted them with a smile and politely apologized first.

Jiang Ming led the way, followed by White Crescent and Pang Ran, who also greeted the three of them with smiles.

NXG claimed to have occupied five seats, but in reality, there were only three people in total. Including Abu, who came back from the restroom, the All-Star seven-man group was officially assembled.

Jiang Ming stood up and extended his hand to Abu, saying, "Please guide me through the rest of the competition."

"You're too kind!" Abu quickly wiped the water off his hands with a tissue. He didn't want a handshake to lead to rumors that the WE coach was deliberately trying to annoy the All-Star head coach because he was unhappy with his vice-chairmanship.

Although he couldn't understand why the LPL organizers would give the head coach title to the other party, considering that although NXG's performance this season was very good, he himself was still the coach of a championship team.

Giving NXG so many seats is one thing.

He even made me his assistant...

"Oh, everyone's here!"

Before Abu's brainstorming session could continue for long, the head of the LPL region followed up, "Come, come, let me introduce you all. This is the leader from the Shanghai Municipal Publicity Department. He came here today to visit and show his concern for everyone after learning that our All-Star Esports Dream Team has been formed."

Upon hearing this, apart from Jiang Ming and Abu who were already standing, the others who had been sitting dumbfounded on the table just a second ago suddenly jumped up as if they had been pulled out of the ground.

For them, the head of LPL was already a very important figure, so it was hard not to feel nervous when a propaganda department leader from a municipality suddenly stood in front of them.

"Haha, don't be nervous, everyone. I'm here today to get to know you all," the young leader in his thirties said with a friendly expression.

Over here, the LPL operations manager introduced each person at the table to him. The manager was very approachable and genuinely got to know everyone from Abu to the youngest member, Pang Ran.

But when it was Jiang Ming's turn, the middle-aged man took the initiative to reach out and pat him on the shoulder.

He said with a hint of deeper meaning, "Impressive, junior brother. To have made such a name for yourself in a new field in your sophomore year, no wonder the teacher praised you so much on the phone."

Abu: ...

Okay, now I understand.
JM has strong individual skills and a deep understanding of the game, so it's really reasonable for me to be the assistant coach.

　Today's match was truly outrageous. After all these years, is it really that hard for the LPL to develop discipline?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)