LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 510 Locking in a Spot in the World Championship

Kkoma's Suning perfectly exemplifies the mentality of being "not good enough for the best, but not bad enough for the worst." When facing tough challenges from later teams, they hesitate and are timid when challenging the top teams.

Especially against IG, the king of the regular season, in this playoff battle of the top six to the top four, Suning was completely outmatched and defeated 3-0 from start to finish.

Clearly, IG is far too professional in both dominating weaker opponents and playing aggressively.

Although the inexperienced Suning team didn't just go all out on offense, their aggressive playstyle completely overwhelmed them with IG's relentless attacks.

In this regard, throughout the match, it seems easy to think that Kkoma's traditionally steady coaching style has not been fully integrated into the Suning system.

It's hard to call this Suning team "stable".

However, as a newly formed team in the LPL, Suning, with almost entirely rookie players, has managed to reach the top six in the LPL this season, which can definitely be described as remarkable progress.

The next day's match between RW and JDG was, as many viewers had predicted, exceptionally intense.

JDG, also a newcomer to the league, has performed even better than Suning. Even in the playoffs, where strong teams abound, they are still capable of competing with any team.

As one of the top four teams in the Spring Split, RW's strength is self-evident. However, in this Bo5 battle against JDG, the RW team struggled a lot.

First, they had a poor start and were defeated by JDG, thus falling behind 1-0.

In this first round of competition, they were almost powerless to resist. They only managed to get the first blood in the early game and briefly operate. After losing the Rift Herald team fight, the whole game lost even the slightest rhythm.

Of course, the lineup also played a significant role in the crushing defeat.

RW's first game lineup attempted to rely on the mid, top, and jungle to exert their strength, instead treating the bot lane as a mere utility player, which is somewhat different from the team's initial playstyle.

This is why RW seemed to be out of sorts at the start of the game.

In the second game, RW changed their playstyle and followed the conventional operational system, quickly and easily winning the game by coordinating the mid and jungle to gank the bottom lane.

However, just when everyone thought that RW had only relaxed in the first game and would definitely sweep JDG in the later games, the offensive and defensive dynamics of both sides suddenly changed in the third game.

RW suffered another crushing defeat. In this game, jungler Clid's rhythm took off completely, providing Zoom's Gangplank with enough room to farm in the early game.

Another classic dragon fight around the 20-minute mark, Zoom's barrels completely destroyed RW's entire team, leaving them in a state of agony. As their economy widened, the situation began to collapse.

Since then.

JDG leads the star team RW 2-1, truly deserving of the title of the strongest new dark horse team this year.

In the subsequent match, RW, who were on the verge of collapse, finally erupted, with the players' individual abilities almost completely dominating the next two games.

First, in the fourth game, Doinb's Ryze dominated the mid lane, completely suppressing Yaogao, JDG's star player this year, which was very rare and laid a huge foundation for RW's victory.

Then came the fifth game, where Smlz's Jhin once again stepped up without reservation. With the economic gap between the two sides not too large in the early game, his unerring sniping in two team fights extinguished JDG's hopes of advancing.

Ultimately, RW, with their superior experience, defeated JDG 3-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Although the Xia team is a newly formed super team this year, apart from the support player who is a newcomer, the other four players have been competing for many years and are undoubtedly players with rich competition experience.

JDG's loss seems entirely reasonable.

Even if they are eliminated in the top six, JDG's performance in the Spring Split, where they also made it to the playoffs, still secures a spot in the gauntlet, giving them a chance to compete for the third seed at Worlds in the upcoming qualifiers.

With this, the top four teams for the Summer Split were determined.

The upper bracket consists of EDG and IG, while the lower bracket consists of RNG and RW, mirroring the Spring Split format.

Because of EDG's overwhelming strength, most viewers have even lost some interest in the playoffs, but they might still be hoping for an upset against other dominant teams.

But for EDG, what can they possibly do to upset the other three teams, especially IG, whom they will face in the semifinals? They simply can't pull off any upsets at all.

If there were a chance of an upset, we wouldn't have had to wait until now.

So, before the first semifinal match of the upper bracket, EDG vs SIG, even started on September 8th, many LPL viewers switched to the LCK livestream.

The reason is simple: today is the first round of the gauntlet match between SKT and Gen.G, and whoever loses this match will be eliminated from this year's World Championship.

Before today, something very dramatic happened in the LCK playoffs: in the summer semifinals, GRF, a new team that came up from the secondary league, miraculously defeated AFS, the runner-up of the spring split, and advanced to the summer split finals for the first time.

This is almost an impossible feat for a team that has just come up from the second division.

The real issue is that GRF might even win the Summer Split and become the LCK's number one seed to compete in the World Championship.

Apart from that, GRF has no other way to advance to the World Championship.

Because the Spring Split was still in the secondary league, GRF, who had no points, would be immediately eliminated if they lost the finals, and would have no chance to participate in the gauntlet. It was undoubtedly a case of extremes.

However, this has also become the most attractive aspect of GRF. If they can make it to the World Championship in one fell swoop, they will surely be remembered in the history of League of Legends esports.

On Korean online forums, GRF has become the most popular team, and almost all Korean fans are hoping that this team, which came up from the secondary league, can advance to the World Championship.

The reason is simple: not only is GRF strong and its rapid rise attractive, but also because LCK's performance this year has been terrible, with several LCK teams participating in international tournaments performing in a very disheartening way.

This is why all LCK fans have placed their hopes on the new team, GRF.

They need GRF to become the new hero of LCK, and even more so, they need GRF to defeat all the top teams in LCK to prove a point.

All the LCK teams participating in the international tournament this year are not the strongest in the league at all. If you don't believe me, look at our GRF team, which crushed the so-called league champions and runners-up as soon as they came out.

This means that the LCK's strongest fighting power is truly demonstrated at the World Championship.

As long as this argument is made, LCK fans will still have reason to be arrogant, and their desire to watch the World Championship will greatly increase.

Instead of having several teams that have been consistently crushed by the LPL advance to the World Championship, even if it were held in South Korea, LCK fans probably wouldn't be very interested in watching it.

After all, if watching it is definitely just asking for trouble, then it's 100% better not to watch it at all.

In the SKT vs. Gen.G gauntlet match, many LCK fans regretted watching the game after watching the first match.

Because both teams played so poorly, making more than ten mistakes in the 30-minute match, it was not entertaining at all.

SKT's roster this year shows absolutely no star power, and Gen.G's form is unpredictable, fluctuating wildly. To the untrained eye, these two teams look like they came from the secondary league. But that's not the scariest part. The truly terrifying thing is that the winner of the SKT vs. Gen.G match will face the Spring Split champions, KZ, in the next round of the gauntlet.

That's right, it's KZ, who got crushed by Europe and America at MSI and then thrashed by LPL's fourth seed at the Rift Rivals.

Their performance in this summer split was almost on par with SKT. However, as the champions of the spring split, KZ, who were eliminated by GRF in the first round of the playoffs, were not only able to secure a spot in the gauntlet but also to prepare for the next round from a high position.

The thought that the teams participating in the gauntlet were all such weaklings made LCK fans desperately hope that GRF would win the league championship and advance to the World Championship, at least giving them a glimmer of hope.

Instead of facing the brutal reality of the World Championship.

After watching the first round of LPL semifinals held at the same time, LCK fans' desire became even more real.

This time, EDG, with Lin Ruo starting, did not easily defeat IG. On the contrary, IG showed a very good performance in the first game, with no problems in terms of early and mid-game rhythm.

The reason there was no problem is that the first game was a complete free-for-all between the two sides, with no rhythm at all, so how could there be a problem?

Perhaps Korean fans are used to their region's dull gameplay lasting over 30 minutes. When they see the LPL playing back and forth, and each exchange isn't about one side making obvious mistakes and giving the other an opportunity, but rather both sides truly gaining the advantage they want based on their lineups and strength.

In particular, there were many brilliant plays, such as Ning's demonic mastery of Camille, where every E-flash missed, and TheShy's Jayce's superb poke timing, always finding the most suitable position in every team fight.

The match left LCK fans completely bewildered.

Especially in the first match, the so-called final winner was actually IG, whom they thought they couldn't beat at all.

Yes, after a grueling 30-minute battle, IG prevailed and secured the victory.

The Korean online community is in an uproar. They haven't beaten any LPL teams this year, and now they have an even bigger problem.

This IG team seems to be evolving. If another team comparable to EDG comes to the World Championship, will LCK still have any hope of winning the title?

No, no, shouldn't it be that there's still hope of making it to the finals?
It's really tough.

While Korean netizens were feeling pessimistic, the LPL's online forums were also in an uproar.

Undoubtedly, the potential of this young IG team has impressed many fans on Tieba. Even JK, who is often criticized in the past, has achieved maximum output in this game and has not died frequently.

IG's potential remains unpredictable, which fuels the high expectations of LPL fans.

However, after the second game, although the expectation still existed, all the attention inevitably returned to EDG, who had swept the series and won the game.

EDG, who experienced some fluctuations in the first game, successfully identified the problem during the halftime break and made a strong comeback in the second game with a brand-new draft strategy.

Kim Gung is just too versatile.

As a top laner with an absolutely versatile style, he was able to adapt to a wide variety of styles, making it extremely easy for him to adapt to EDG's changes in tactics and playstyle, and he was even willing to accept being at a disadvantage.

This allows Lin Ruo to thrive in the jungle role, enabling him to showcase all his abilities to the fullest.

If Mouse were playing, after the top half of the map broke down in the first game, even if the strategy was changed in the second game, Lin Ruo would probably still have to think about how to help the top laner.

Mouse can withstand the attack, but it absolutely cannot carry the team.

However, Jin Gong could give Lin Ruo multiple options, much like a spinning wheel, so dealing with the situation wouldn't be a problem for the team.

IG, on the other hand, cannot do that. Their style is too obvious, and it is simply unrealistic to expect them to suddenly do something restrained.

This led to a one-sided style shift and overwhelming dominance in the subsequent matches.

3: 1.

Despite finally winning a game against EDG, IG unsurprisingly lost the best-of-five series in the end.

When the enemy top laner is unable to be controlled, and the top laner doesn't put any pressure on their own jungler, Lin Ruo becomes the fearsome demon king that the entire IG team dreads.

Whether it's Kindred focusing on early-game development and accumulating marks to pick off enemies one by one from the mid-game onwards, or Jarvan IV emphasizing rhythm and macro play, Kindred appears in various positions throughout the game, maximizing the tempo.

Or, to put it another way, the fourth game's nuke Gragas played himself as an assassin who provided crucial damage in team fights and delivered a fatal blow, completely adapting to his role as a jungler.

Completely unable to cope, IG naturally found themselves in a situation where they were led by the nose.

They lost to EDG, but the loss wasn't entirely unjustified, nor was it particularly bad.

With EDG advancing to the Summer Split finals, the first LPL team to qualify for the World Championship has been born amidst much anticipation.

With the Spring Split championship and a guaranteed runner-up finish in the Summer Split, EDG already boasts the highest points total for the year. Therefore, regardless of the outcome, they will at least qualify for the World Championship as the second seed.

Of course, EDG's goal is not just to be the second seed. They want to win the Summer Split championship and then look forward to the World Championship.

That's the only thing a world-class team should be thinking about.

...

"Holy crap, SKT got eliminated. They're not going to make it to Worlds."

After the match, the entire EDG team watched some LCK matches on their way back. They should have just watched them, because watching them made their thoughts jump around a bit.

The problematic SKT team and Gen fought to the fifth game, and then the classic scenario unfolded: SKT had an absolute advantage in the early game, and Gen advanced.

Yes, SKT failed to capitalize on their advantage, and Gen.G, who always likes to wait for others to make mistakes, got their chance.

"Isn't it normal for SKT to be eliminated? There's no need to make a fuss. Gen.G still has to face KZ, who are like a big gift, later on."

Lin Ruo, who hadn't watched the match, knew perfectly well what was going on, but what he truly couldn't understand was another match.

The semi-final match between GRF and AFS.

One of the strange things was that Lin Ruo found that this GRF team seemed to be even stronger than the GRF team he knew from his old days.

However, another possibility cannot be ruled out: the LCK in this era is even more desperate when facing the LPL, to the point that the performance of LCK teams has declined even more.

This naturally makes it easier for the newcomer GRF, who are fresh out of the gate and unafraid of tigers, to gain a greater advantage.

(End of this chapter)