LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 393 You know, I've already bought my plane ticket to Berlin.

With about a week to go before the Spring Finals, the EDG team continued their daily training and preparations, and then set off for Chengdu on April 27th ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, there are other hot topics, namely the ongoing LCK Spring Split Finals, with KZ and AFS facing off.

KZ, also known as LZ, the team that dominated the LCK Summer Split last year, has maintained its overall roster unchanged after sending Cuzz away and bringing in Peanut. Their dominance remains the same this year.

SKT, who had been sending off their top and jungle players one after another, suffered a major collapse this year. Not only did they lag behind in the regular season, but they also only managed to finish fourth in the playoffs, failing to qualify for MSI for the first time and creating the club's worst performance in nearly four years.

Nofe hasn't been dismissed yet, and for the first time, Lin Ruo felt that his good coach was so strong that he could actually hold on until the Summer Split against the truck-filled SKT.

After landing in Chengdu and checking into a hotel near the competition venue, the group immediately went to film promotional videos and trash talk for the Spring Split Finals, which took up the entire afternoon without any rest.

It wasn't until around 19 p.m. that everyone returned to their hotels after finishing their dinner.

In the makeshift training room, the others were gathered together watching the ongoing LCK Spring Split finals, while Lin Ruo chose to play PUBG.

There was nothing he could do; he knew who would win the Spring Split championship, so there was no point in watching.

"This Peanut is amazing! Olaf got 11 kills, is he playing against bots? Holy crap!"

Watching the fourth game, Haro suddenly felt that the betel nut in his mouth no longer tasted good; this was clearly the Olaf form he had been dreaming of.

It's too swollen.

Everyone knows that Peanut's performance has been declining since last year's MSI, and his development at the World Championship was equally poor, which is why SKT kicked him out at the end of the season.

However, now that Peanut has come to KZ, he seems to have regained his peak form and is gradually showing the spirited youthful vibe he had in 16.

Mingkai understood this best, especially when the camera frequently cut to Peanut's smiling face, and he felt as if he had returned to the day he was called 4396.

Peanut was smiling like that while sitting in the players' section, without any pretense or reservation.

"They'll most likely win 3-1. This year's KZ is really strong, much stronger than last year's World Championship. We need to prepare well," Mingkai said, keeping an eye on things.

Lin Ruo, who was playing the game, couldn't help but laugh: "Are you kidding me? You look down on IG?"

He's already started researching MSI before even winning the Spring Split championship—a long-standing tradition of Kawhi Leonard.

Of course, he wasn't just talking about Kai, but also about the strong team KZ that he mentioned.

This should be the biggest fraud or fake strong team in LCK history. They were fierce and arrogant in the Spring Split, but then they went abroad to play in MSI and suffered from various culture shocks, eventually becoming the stepping stone for Dionb's rise to fame.

Hearing this, Mingkai retorted indignantly, "You better not get beaten up by Peanut later, kid."

"Just kidding, Peanut is my brother, how could he possibly bully me?"

Lin Ruo was full of confidence, after all, he had a super move to counter Peanut.

And it turns out that Peanut is indeed his brother. In the interview after KZ won the championship, many hosts asked him about the opponents they might face in MSI.

LCK's only real rival is the LPL region, which won the championship last year.

So the Korean host directly asked Peanut for his thoughts on the upcoming LPL finals.

Peanut expressed his strong desire to meet EDG, and he especially looked forward to a showdown with Lin Ruo in the jungle position.

Lin Ruo knew that Xiao Huasheng had always regarded him as a brother.

That being the case...

Lin Ruo thought for a moment, then immediately opened Twitter to congratulate Peanut on making it to MSI, and posted: "Peanut Butter, looking forward to the day we eat beef noodles in Berlin."

Ever since that meal last year, Xiao Huasheng has developed a love for beef noodles. Lin Ruo knew that he would have a hard time finding authentic beef noodles in Brazil, a country with a limited culinary scene, so he decided to find a Chinese restaurant in Berlin, the host city of the MSI, and treat him to a proper meal.

Peanut, who had just won the championship, was probably surfing the internet, so he quickly came to the comments section of the tweet.

"Really? That's great! Good luck with the LPL finals the day after tomorrow."

Lin Ruomiao replied to Peanut: "Of course, wait for me in Berlin. By the way, you can ask your teammates if they also like beef noodles. Delicious food is more delicious when shared."

Foreigners might not understand the joke, but this conversation quickly sparked heated discussions on Chinese online forums, with netizens launching a righteous attack.

[Holy crap, Lin is disgusting. He's afraid he can't beat them, so he resorts to underhanded tactics. He's so wicked, but I love him!]

The reason why Lin Gou was able to win both the MSI and the World Championship last year has been found.

[The reason for Peanut's poor performance at last year's MSI and World Championship has been found: it turns out that Lin (Lin Gou) treated him to beef noodles before every match. No wonder he won the game.]

Brothers, from this day forward, I will no longer acknowledge the value of Lin Gou's championship. Anyone who agrees or disagrees, so be it.

I agree. Lin owes SKT an MSI championship and a World Championship title.

[It's obvious you've overlooked the key point. Lin said he'd treat Peanut to beef noodles in Berlin. Is he the Spring Split champion now? Does he even deserve that?]

[Lin is clearly looking down on our little IG. He's already talking about going to Berlin before even playing a match. It's obvious he learned that from the abandoned factory.]

[Damn it, Lin's fans on Instagram attacked his Weibo account. I'm pointing it out to you, his Weibo username is UZIQAQ.]

【No way, do you think we're blind? Lin Gou's Weibo name is RNG Esports Club, isn't it?】

In the ever-popular online forum, everyone is eagerly anticipating the day of the finals.

...

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and April 29th arrived as scheduled. The EDG team arrived at the Chengdu Magic Cube Performing Arts Center early at noon.

They were supposed to have hot pot when they came to Chengdu, but Abu refused this unreasonable request because he was worried about getting an upset stomach. They could only taste Sichuan hot pot after the finals.

Therefore, the EDG team put in all their effort, determined to fight for the hotpot.

Upon arriving at the rest room, everyone still had to hand over their gaming peripherals for inspection as required. Apart from the coach who was in charge of the pre-match side selection and draw, the others had to go to the dressing room for pre-match image preparation.

After finishing everything, I had more than an hour to rest and relax, waiting for the competition to start.

This year's LPL finals opening ceremony seemed to deviate from the usual cosplay style and massive dance numbers, opting instead for a high-end and elegant approach. At 15 PM, various musical instruments were showcased in the center of the stage. This was a purely musical performance, featuring a traditional Chinese-style theme song specially produced by the LPL for the Spring Split finals, titled "Opening the Heavens." There were no dancers, only performers and CG rendering.

Amidst the melodious and rhythmic music, the camera panned across the stage, with various colored lights flashing across the entire venue, immersing the audience in the three-and-a-half-minute performance.

The moment the music stopped, the stage lights suddenly dimmed and the battle music roared up, and the flags of the two teams that would face off in the finals were raised in the center of the arena.

When both teams' logos appeared on the stage, the final match officially began.

The shouts from the audience suddenly rose up and showed no sign of stopping, engulfing the entire performance center like a tsunami.

In particular, the frantic shouts of "Go EDG!" completely overwhelmed the support from IG fans.

It's just like the atmosphere of EDG's home stadium!
Just as things were about to get heated up, the LPL official merciless advertisement interruption shattered the beautiful moment, as two Mercedes-Benz cars, one red and one blue, emerged from the shadows.

After all that buildup, instead of the players making their appearance, it was the sponsors' cars that appeared, causing viewers in the official live stream to chuckle in disbelief.

The advertising alliance is no joke; they even gave us a separate shot during the finals. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a car product launch.

Mercedes-Benz, fearless heroes... no wonder it became the slogan of the LPL.

"Next, let's welcome the two teams in this final: EDG and IG!"

When the host Ren Dong's voice rang out, the actual contestants' entrance ceremony began. The two teams walked onto the stage in an orderly fashion under the spotlight and stood in the front row of the audience seats.

After a series of shots, the scene abruptly shifts to the area behind all the players, in the center of the stage, where the LPL Spring Split championship trophy stands dazzlingly on the display stand.

On either side of the booth stood EDG's jungler Lin Ruo and IG's mid laner Rookie.

After the opening remarks, host Ren Dong slowly walked to the two of them, handed them the microphone, and first asked Rookie, who was making it to the finals for the first time: "Is there anything you would like to say on behalf of IG for this final? Rookie."

Rookie smiled and said shyly, "Since IG has made it to the finals, we will definitely win the championship."

The words fell.

A small number of IG fans at the scene tried their best to create a huge cheer, but it couldn't compare to the real cheers from the entire audience. That was when the microphone was handed to Lin Ruo's mouth, the huge performance center was the first to be bombarded by an earthquake.

After waiting quietly for the shouting to stop, Lin Ruo confidently spoke into the microphone: "There's nothing to say. As you know, we've already bought our plane tickets to Berlin."

This caused an uproar not only at the scene but also in the live stream chat.

People have to admit that LPL needs someone like Lin Gou who knows how to use memes.

Ren Dong exclaimed in surprise, "In that case, I hereby declare that the LPL 2018 League of Legends Spring Split Finals are now open!"

After the opening ceremony, the camera quickly switched to the three hosts in the commentary booth: Guan Zeyuan, Rita, and Eleven.

Based on the data provided by the official sources, the three conducted a simple analysis of the possible draft picks and strategies for both sides in this final match.

During this analysis period, the two teams sitting in the players' seats quickly installed their peripherals.

After the commentary session ended, the camera briefly cut to the two teams exchanging words, and the pre-match trash talk video was played on the big screen.

Kim GimGoon spoke broken Chinese, and his trash talk was simple and direct, consisting of only one sentence: roaring, "I want to win the championship!"

TheShy, who is usually shy, chuckled and said in Korean, "I will not only win the championship, but I will also defeat you in the top lane without any doubt."

Both of them spoke in a rather serious manner, which prompted viewers in the live chat to say that it was boring.

It wasn't until the foreign jungler Ning spoke up that things started to get interesting: "Lin Ruo won the championship in his first Spring Split, so I should definitely win the championship in my first Spring Split too, right?"

Tian Ye, who then appeared on camera, spread his hands and said, "You guys haven't even played in the regular season, what are you going to do in the finals? Go to sleep."

"Our IG team once defeated EDG 3-0 in the 15 playoffs. This time, we'll reluctantly give you a 3-1 victory and send you to second place." Rookie, the fourth player to appear on camera, touched his nose and said with a smile.

This prompted Scout, who came on next, to laugh: "Indeed, you've succeeded if you win just one game."

iboy, who then took the stage, raised his hand in protest: "Forget it, I still want to finish with a 3-0 score, because we at EDG never work overtime."

Baolan adjusted his glasses and said calmly, "We at IG can work overtime, so let's make it 3:2."

Finally, Lin Ruo from EDG took the stage, confidently declaring, "At seventeen, I've already achieved a grand slam of Riot Games titles and MVP awards. What about you?"

These words left JK, who was about to appear, speechless. Just not winning the Spring Split Regular Season MVP seemed to make him inferior to Lin Ruo. How could he possibly refute this?

With no other option, he could only reluctantly reply, "Since you've won so many championships, you can have these."

It lacked presence, but at least it managed to get away with it.

But little did he expect that Lin Ruo would have more screen time, so he started to mock her: "That's it? That's it? Your trash talk isn't even as badass as my grandma's. Don't ask me who my grandma is, go ask Dao Mei, she knows who grandma is."

As soon as he finished speaking, the audience burst into laughter. JK had been repeatedly outplayed by Lin Ruo in the pre-match match.

The viewers who were initially bored with the comments finally perked up a bit, but there was still a lot of complaining.

[This segment was great, but neither trashy nor arrogant. I suggest we stop doing it in the future.]

[My suggestion is different. I suggest Lin Gou open a trash-talking training course and train all the finalists first. Otherwise, it affects my viewing experience, you know? I've already prepared the food, and this is how you make me eat?]

[Got it. From now on, Lin Gengxin can play ten different trash-talking roles by himself. I love watching him do it all.]

There's a reason I like Lin Gou (Lin Gengxin); look how confident he is when he speaks.

There's a reason I like Lin Gou (Lin Geng). Look how handsome he is, how talented he is, how skilled he is, and most importantly, how good he is at team fights.

[You bunch of hypocrites, is it really that simple that I like Lin Gou (Lin Gengxin)? Because he's a champion. See, am I a genuine person or not?]

【You're very honest. From now on, we'll call you a champion fan, okay?】

...

Amidst the cacophony of comments, the classic opening remarks rang out, and the camera shifted to the commentary booth, where the Haier Brothers and Jide were still providing commentary for the day.

(End of this chapter)