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

Chapter 212: The Shock LPL Brings to the World (Internal Version)
September 16, 2013, is a day that North American gamers will never forget.

A heartbreaking massacre that could have been avoided unfolded at Staples Center.

Many players who didn't follow the LPL closely were surprised to find that the kill difference between professional teams could be as exaggerated as when they encountered a smurf in ranked matches.

Yes, they're smurfing. The game was only a little over sixteen minutes in, and IG's top, mid, and jungle had already racked up a combined eleven kills.
The mid and jungle players had very even scores, both with a 0-4 record. The top laner died less because he was playing Vladimir, but he was killed a total of three times.

There was one thing that Brother Wild Turtle was right about.

Compared to the rest of IG, Kid's individual skill in the bot lane is indeed mediocre in professional matches. The fact that he didn't cause any trouble is because Jiang Ming gave them special training before the group stage.

So what? Your bot lane has Teemo. Whether I gank him or not won't affect my Ezreal and Sona's performance in team fights.

The countless North American spectators at the scene went from ecstatic to utterly devastated. The scene before them made those who saw Teemo during the ban/pick phase feel as if they had fallen from heaven to hell.

IG is only the second seed from the LPL. Is there really such a big difference in strength?

In fifteen minutes, a difference of nearly seven thousand economic units was achieved.

It's not really TSM's fault. The main problem is that Riot's move to update the version before the World Championship was too abstract. Their original intention was to reduce the gap between Jiang Ming's NXG and other teams. However, with the help of their foresight and a group of gradually maturing training staff, NXG mastered the new version much faster than anyone imagined.

Even if IG only learned half of it, it's still something TSM can't compare to, especially since these guys honestly revealed their tactics and strategies completely in scrims.

Given this situation, if xiaoyan, as the head coach of IG, doesn't make any moves, then he would really be letting down the team that drew such a favorable draw.

IG's slaughter continues.

After the top and jungle lanes exploded, the situation of Teemo in the bottom lane was predictable. The expected aggro-drawing and targeted attacks did not materialize in the early game.

With the first mid-lane turret destroyed, the jungler and jungler, Jarvan IV and Ahri, took control of the entire game.

Seventeen minutes in, IG's mid and jungle players moved to the bottom lane. The moment Wild Turtle saw the pink heart, another corpse of Teemillion was added to the professional arena.

[Debon Flag] + [Dragon Strike]!
The prince used a feint, and just when everyone thought he was going to knock out Teemo, he turned around and left the support Thresh behind.

"Thank goodness, not everyone can predict and interrupt E like those freaks from NXG..."

Amidst the shadow's self-reflection, Thresh followed in his AD carry's footsteps and returned to the fountain.

Kill people, push towers, and take dragons!
Having been tormented by NXG countless times in scrims and having developed muscle memory for it, IG didn't hesitate much. Even when Zz1tai had some ideas about using his third ultimate on the Centaur at TSM's second tower, Xiaowu stopped him.

The club boss gave the manager the power of life and death, the manager in turn gave the coach the power of life and death, and the coach in turn gave Xiao Wu absolute command on the field.

have opinions?
I sat down next to the water dispenser. It just so happened that Boss Wang had just bought a few more young men from NXG's youth training program.

It wouldn't be bad to train the second team in advance.

In the English commentary booth, watching IG's cautious approach, not taking any risks even with a 7,000 or 8,000 gold advantage, the bearded commentator who had commentated on the S2 matches last year held his head and muttered to himself.

"This is impossible, this doesn't make sense, this is not the IG team I know at all!"

"OH~TSM is like a kindergarten child in front of IG. Their top, mid and jungle were easily breached."

“PDD has even soloed all the way to the second tower, and Dyrus has no way to deal with him.”

"Undoubtedly, Timo really brought a lot of entertainment value to the show, but that's all it was for entertainment value."

"TSM paid the price for their underestimation of their opponents."

"Haha, bro, what I really wanted to say was that even without underestimating their opponents, TSM wouldn't be a match for IG."

"In the new version, our poor Mr. Hecarim seems to have a problem even with farming jungle monsters. In the past ten minutes, he has had three or four camps stolen by the opponent during ganks."

"Your Highness, your halberd strike was a bit too heavy-handed!"

As the saying goes, everyone's joys and sorrows are different.

The louder the screams from the English commentators, the brighter the smiles from the LPL commentators.

In the end, even though Zz1tai was playing Ahri, a champion not known for her instant-kill ability, Teemo's level was too low. Zz1tai rushed in, used Deathfire Touch followed by a combo, and instantly melted the full-health Teemo.

At 24 minutes and 11 seconds, instead of going for Baron, the five-man IG team chased TSM all the way from the Red Buff to the high ground. After wiping out TSM, they pushed down the base of the esports cult.

The voices of the LPL audience erupted from below the stage.

"IG!" "IG!" "IG!"

On this day, the League of Legends World Championship reached a peak viewership of 27 million, surpassing the previous All-Star event's peak.

As Captain Gorilla had hoped before the match, picking Teemo brought his team immense attention, but at the same time, the 26-3 kill score forever cemented their place in shame.

Interestingly, after IG won the S3 opening match by a large margin, a large number of foreign players on esports forums went to China via VPN because someone appeared in IG's rest room.

They were very curious: if such a powerful team like IG only deserved to be the second seed of the LPL region, then how powerful would the first seed be?

It's fine if you don't watch it, but this circumvention of the Great Firewall has startled foreign viewers who only knew JM as the captain of the LPL All-Star Dream Team before the World Championship and didn't pay much attention to the LPL.

What?

NXG achieved a perfect record in both the Spring Regular Season and Playoffs, with no losses.

They only lost three games in the summer regular season and led the second-place team by a full five points!
There are even two stronger teams, one black and one white?
My God, are we playing the same game?!

"Damn it, TSM is involved in telecom fraud!"

As soon as he stepped off the stage, PDD couldn't help but complain.

"I thought they were so strong in practice matches, they would be even more terrifying in the actual competition. It turns out that practice matches were just their full potential."

"Hehe, Erzi performed well in the mid lane today. Your synergy with Shadow is about 80% as good as Lao Jiang's."

He said weakly, "The enemy captain's Orianna didn't put any pressure on me. Shadow has also memorized many of his habits from scrims..."

"By the way, who are we playing in our last match?"

"SKT!"

……

After the opening game, some of the North American audience members left the stadium immediately, not even bothering to watch the post-game interviews.

They secretly stuffed the TSM support flags in their hands into their backpacks or threw them into a trash can—being treated like a bot in the World Championship was too embarrassing to bear.

After the match between IG and TSM, SKT and Lemondogs quickly took over in the Riot Games studio.

The number of viewers in the live stream has decreased slightly, but not by much.

Lemondogs doesn't have many fans, but SKT, as this year's Summer Split champions, especially after mid laner Faker and Yue Lun played a historic "Double Zed Battle," garnered just as much attention worldwide as the World Championship opening ceremony.

Although after winning the Summer Split, his performance fluctuated briefly due to the mid laner's physical condition, and he even almost lost his qualification to participate in the World Championship through the gauntlet.

Fortunately, they managed to pull through in the end. However, SKT's performance in the first round of the group stage... well, to put it simply, was a huge disappointment for Jiang Ming.

Kkoma failed to demonstrate the qualities expected of a championship coach. In the patch update, Riot added a new set of jungle monsters, and SKT clearly hasn't realized the significant impact this new set of monsters will have on the jungle.

In the match against Lemondogs, it's unclear whether they intentionally held back or genuinely failed to notice, but Bengi was still using the strategy from the previous version: the jungler mindlessly sacrificed himself to protect the mid laner's development, and then relied on Faker to set the pace and push the bot lane to let the farmed duo carry take over the game.

SKT didn't realize that... under Jiang Ming's influence, Riot Games had already nerfed the mid lane solo burst damage stats for two rounds, and the addition of a new jungle camp had actually increased the jungler's chances of carrying the game.

However, while their tactics may have been outdated, that was only in comparison to NXG. Against Lemondogs, a European team, SKT had it easy, defeating them with a massive 14,000 gold lead in just 29 minutes.

In the third match, TSM faced off against GG!

It can only be said that the organizers went to great lengths for their own region, playing IG in the first opening match to attract viewers, and then playing wildcard GG in the second match to secure points.

In the second game, TSM didn't completely break the hearts of North American viewers, winning the match against GG 23-5 in 35 minutes.

Wild Turtle, who had been thoroughly thrashed by IG after playing Teemo, seemed to take out his frustration on GG, single-handedly racking up 12 kills with his Corki.

However, despite TSM's performance, many players have already prejudicially concluded that TSM is just good at stomping weak teams and will show their true colors when they encounter real strong teams.

As luck would have it, right after TSM finished playing, LD, who had just been crushed by SKT, faced GG!

In 28 minutes, less than TSM, they won the game by a large margin of 20 to 5.

LD's Spider Queen even delivered an amazing 11-0-5 score, slapping TSM, who were having a good time just a second ago.

That's like saying: It's just bullying a wildcard team, buddy, what are you so happy about?

The last match of the night was between IG and SKT.

The number of viewers, which had dropped significantly midway through the show, suddenly surged.

SKT, who had already played scrims with NXG, were clearly aware of IG's strength and dared not underestimate this second seed from the LPL.

The audience at the North American event had incredibly high expectations.

After all, in the recently concluded Summer Split, both SKT's mid laner Faker and IG's Zz1tai were mid laners known for their mechanical skills. It remains to be seen how the two sides will perform in this mid lane match.

In the draft phase, IG, on the blue side, banned Jax, Thresh, and Valkyrie.

SKT removed Ahri, Syndra, and Leona.

After a brief selection process, the lineups were finalized.

Blue side IG: Top lane Jayce, Jungle Kha'Zix, Mid lane Orianna, Bot lane Varus and Zyra.

SKT (Purple Side): Top - Kennen, Jungle - Jarvan IV, Mid - Gragas, Bot - Caitlyn and Nami!

……

"Haha, as we can see, sure enough, SKT still opted for the Caitlyn fast-push strategy!"

"Jungle Kha'Zix plus solo Jayce is the perfect counter to Caitlyn."

In the TGA studio, Xiaoxiao's voice was unrestrained, "Top, mid, and jungle? Actually, SKT should be playing mid and jungle, or rather top and mid. The jungle economy has increased in the current version, and Bengi is a typical herbivore jungler, so SKT can only put half of their focus on the bottom lane."

"The key to this game is Kid. If Kid's Varus doesn't collapse, SKT won't be able to play at all in the mid-game."

"Banning Leona meant IG would opt for an engage composition, or even pick Nami to counter engage, but this Zyra pick completely shut down SKT!"

"Shadow's original creation?"

"That was definitely not Shadow's idea. After Riot's update, those geniuses at NXG had already started experimenting with the effects of jungle Kha'Zix on various smurf accounts."

Facing IG's three-poke system, SKT seemed a bit anxious in the early game. Bengi's Jarvan IV even tried to go to the mid lane at level two to help Faker open up the game.

Unfortunately, the strategy of ganking mid at level two has been experienced countless times by the NXG, even with prior preparation.

Coach xioayan simply arranged for his Kha'Zix and Jarvan IV to swap jungle camps during the draft phase, revealing their strategy for the early game.

In the past, IG would never have dared to play like this, but now that they have been learning from their operations coach for so long, they have learned to do it to some extent, even though it's seven parts similarity and three parts skill.

Anyway, the blue team doesn't need to gank in the early game; they can just farm slowly.

Soon, after six or seven minutes, the difference in skill between the two junglers became apparent.

Mantis: 44 stabs, Prince: 25 stabs!

The jungle clearing gap was almost double, and in terms of levels, Kha'Zix reached level six almost simultaneously with the solo lane champions.

This is considered a special talent of Shadow, making him exceptionally good at farming in the jungle.

This was a chance discovery by Jiang Ming during the training camps of the two companies!
It's understandable. For a long time, IG's top, mid, and jungle lanes all needed Shadow's support, and his teammates would occasionally take some jungle resources. Even so, Shadow was able to maintain his individual role and not collapse, which clearly shows that he has his own unique understanding.

After trying it out, Jiang Ming found that it was indeed true. With the shared jungle farming strategy as a condition, Jiang Ming and NXG's training team conducted some intensive training for him.

With such a significant difference in jungler strength between the two sides, it was clear that IG had won in the early game due to the back-and-forth battles.

In the eight-minute dragon team fight, the upgraded Kha'Zix, in combination with Jayce, dealt devastating damage to the purple team, and occasionally a stray arrow would come from the back of the blue team.

pat!

boom!
"Let's retreat, we can't win!"

After a stalemate lasting several dozen seconds, SKT's support player, Fumando, looked at his teammate's health bar dropping by more than half and said helplessly.

Ouch!

Just seconds after the SKT members retreated, a dragon's mournful roar was heard, and a symbol of +190 gold coins suddenly appeared above the heads of the five IG players.

At 8 minutes and 30 seconds, Faker revealed his true colors, taking advantage of Zz1tai's Orianna's pressure on her health bar with a single ultimate, blasting Orianna back to the tower.

Bengi, who had been lying in wait, pounced on Faker's Gragas, flashing and using his EQ combo to knock the enemy up, dealing full damage before pressing S to give the precious kill to Faker.

"IG won the first round!"

Jiang Ming, who had already returned to the hotel and was about to sit down and start training with his teammates, shook his head as he watched the live broadcast of the match.

The chicken is still eating grass—no, it's practically on the verge of scavenging!

The once-popular "airplane combo" strategy has now become their biggest constraint after Riot Games made version changes.

Just twenty seconds later, Bengi lost his Flash and failed to reach level six in the mid lane, allowing Shadow's Kha'Zix to successfully gank the bottom lane.

Varus, who helped Kid, successfully secured a double kill.

(End of this chapter)