You've only been playing for half a year, and you've already reached the finals?

Chapter 147 Mingjing will have a way.

On the very night EDG returned from their defeat, the team immediately resumed their training sessions.

Generally speaking, teams will not have practice matches on the day a match ends, regardless of whether they win or lose.

Especially when you lose, the significance of reviewing the game is far greater than that of practice matches.

But this time the situation is different. Ming Jing is old enough and is confirmed to play in the upcoming loser's bracket final. There is no need for a review. It is better to arrange more training matches for Ming Jing to help him integrate into the team.

Not just on the night the game ended.

The next day, April 8th, Mingjing officially turned 17 and became eligible to make his debut.

But the team didn't even have time to celebrate Mingjing's birthday before they went straight into training mode, with their day packed full of matches. Mingjing took on all of these training sessions, leaving Scout to watch from the sidelines.

Unfortunately, the double-elimination format has very short intervals between matches. The winners' bracket final was played on April 7th, and the losers' bracket final had to be played immediately on April 9th, with only one day in between.

On this day, they had to ensure that Mingjing's performance would go smoothly.

After all, if they lose again this time, the team will really be eliminated.

Therefore, during this period of training matches, EDG's management team was basically watching from the sidelines, observing Mingjing's performance.

Although Ming Jing is the team's nominal starter and cost the team more than 20 million to buy him, if Ming Jing cannot integrate with the team in the short term, they will still have to put him on the bench for the time being.

After all, Ming Jing has been busy with the national team and hasn't played a match for several months, so it's normal for his strength to decline slightly. Perhaps he needs to work on his synergy with the team more.

Scout was also observing from behind, comparing his own performance with Mingjing's.

He understood that the team prioritized results above all else, and if Ming Jing's performance in the training matches was not ideal, then the starting opportunity might still be his.

But after a day of training matches, all these doubts vanished.

"Not bad." Abu smiled and patted Mingjing on the shoulder. "Do your best tomorrow."

Ming Jing smiled and nodded, indicating that the other party could rest assured, then lowered his head to reply to Song Xuan.

When Song Xuan learned that Ming Jing had played training matches all day and hadn't even properly celebrated his birthday, he said he would order a big cake and send it to the club.

Mingjing quickly stopped the other party's extravagant behavior.

Actually, his cousin ordered a cake for him today, but Mingjing wasn't really enthusiastic about birthdays. He simply divided the cake up and then went into training mode.

Playing more practice matches today was his idea all along.

After all, the team trusts him so much and is willing to let him play at this crucial juncture, so he has to give the club some positive feedback.

"Alright then, tomorrow's the decisive battle, right? Come on, come on!"

“It’s packaged!”

Behind him, Scout looked at the green scoreboard and felt an endless chill creeping in from all directions.

If Ming Jing continues to perform like this, will he really still have a chance to play?
That very evening, EDG's official Weibo account released the starting lineup for the loser's bracket finals.

Top Laner: Flandre, Jungler: Jiejie, Mid Laner: Phi, Bot Laner: Viper, Support: Meiko

The list immediately sparked countless discussions, and the hashtag "#Phi debut" even made it into the top five trending topics!

Some people cheered, believing that the emperor of the LPL had returned.

Others expressed their dissatisfaction, sparking considerable discussion.

Another night passed, and it was April 9th, the day of the losers' bracket finals.

Ming Jing and his team entered the backstage area of ​​the Hongqiao Tiandi Performing Arts Center and sat down in the lounge.

Although he has already won the World Championship, this is his first time playing in an LPL match, so he is still a little excited.

With an hour left in the match, he took out his phone and checked the discussions on the anti-racism forum.

At this point, the discussion in the forum was still focused on Mingjing temporarily replacing Scout.

[This feels a bit unfair. The junior player has been playing so well this year, why was he eliminated after just one BO5 loss, even though he wasn't eliminated?]

[Indeed, my junior is a first-team mid laner. How can a first-team mid laner be eliminated after losing a single BO5?]

[Is Xiaofei's last-minute return to the team enough to handle the intensity of the playoffs? Will they be eliminated immediately?]

Are you kidding me? Last year, Xiaofei came straight from the youth training camp to the intensity of the World Championship. What's the point of your playoffs? Isn't this just like sending people to the countryside for poverty alleviation?

He wasn't killed; he was originally Fei's substitute, and now he's just back in his rightful place.

[You got killed, isn't that your own fault? If Xiaoming hadn't kept taking you down the other day, would the team have lost?]

[EDG can make roster changes, just don't apply double standards. If Scout gets punished for a loss, then hopefully the team will treat Xiaofei the same way when he loses.]

Mid lane isn't that easy to beat. Waiting for Xiaofei to honestly go back to bot lane.

[Viper is the regular season MVP, bot laner. He might lose his job later, that would be a joke.]

Ming Jing looked at the comments in front of him and couldn't help but chuckle.

"What are you looking at? Why are you laughing so happily?"

Beside him, Saint Gun Bro came over and looked at Ming Jing's phone screen, immediately spotting the chaotic discussion that seemed to be going on like a madcap dance.

"Hiss!" Saint Gun Bro thought it was weird when he saw it. "You can still stand looking at this thing?"

“What’s so unbearable about this?” Ming Jing laughed. “Don’t you find it quite amusing?”

"What's so interesting about this? Isn't it all just pressure?"

"Won't they all change their tune once I win?"

Saint Gun glanced at his younger brother in front of him, "So confident?"

"Damn it, the opponents aren't strong today."

Mingjing was naturally confident.

Because their opponent in the loser's bracket final is FPX.

After a year of decline in S10, Little Phoenix finally made a comeback in S11 and returned to the ranks of LPL's top teams.

It's said that they negotiated with DWG during the transfer period, trying to trade for top laner Nuguri, but unfortunately, last year's crushing defeat made Nuguri only want revenge, and he turned around and renewed his contract with DWG, which meant they could only use their original top laner Khan.

Of course, Khan is no problem either. Even if he's not the best in the world, he's still definitely world-class. His journey all the way to the loser's bracket final, guaranteeing at least third place, is the best proof of that.

However, FPX's problem is also obvious: they rely too much on mid laner Doinb's rhythm.

When Doinb can set the pace, FPX is a top-tier team. But once Doinb is suppressed, all four of their other positions become disoriented!

In this respect, teams like RNG and DWG are in a better position. The mid laner's tactical importance is not high, so even if the mid laner is not performing well, other positions can still step up.

Based on this point, Mingjing believes that EDG has absolutely no chance of losing the game today.

He could just crush Doinb completely, wouldn't that solve the problem?

At the same time, in the LPL live broadcast room, the screen was filled with comments flying by, and everyone was spamming "urgent!"

One characteristic of League of Legends is that the popularity of the game and its tournaments is highly correlated with the results of the World Championship.

With LPL winning three consecutive championships, the number of viewers for LPL matches has reached a new peak.

In addition, Mingjing is one of the biggest figures in the LPL right now, and this "hero's return" drama has attracted countless casual viewers.

Even before the match started, the live stream had already reached its highest level of popularity so far this year.

Whether EDG wins or loses today's match, it will be a huge entertainment event!
Soon, the commentators Wang Duoduo and Gugu were ready and began to analyze the outcome of the match based on the data provided by the director.

However, the director was a bit of a showman, and even compared Mingjing's and Doinb's stats. Compared to Doinb's impressive stats, Mingjing's string of 000s was only good for the show.

"Although Xiaofei's stats are still zero, no one should question his ability."

Wang Duoduo laughed and said, "This match should put a lot of pressure on Doinb."

Doinb is indeed under a lot of pressure right now.

He sat in the lounge, his heart pounding, and had to take deep breaths to calm himself down.

This is not only a crucial battle that will determine FPX's fate in the Spring Split, but also a battle for both of them to prove themselves as champions!
Ever since Mingjing won the championship, the chatter about the "third-place champion" in Doinb's live stream has never stopped. Everyone says that a championship without a direct victory over the Korean team has no value, just like the dismal sales of FPX skins.

These words deeply hurt Doinb's heart.

Now, the opportunity for revenge has arrived.

He has personally sent JDG away.

All that's left is to get rid of Phi, and he will prove the value of FPX's championship!

At this moment, FPX coach Steak was also standing in front, working with the players to analyze the draft logic.

"The draft picks for the other EDG players are pretty easy to predict, since we've all faced them before," Steak said, looking at everyone. "The only one is mid laner Phi; his champion pool is still a question mark."

"Oh, how could that be?" Lin Weixiang asked from the side, "Didn't he get a pretty high score?"

Since returning to the club, Ming Jing has been working hard to gain points in his spare time between training matches.

Before entering the national team, Mingjing's score had already reached the top ten in the Korean server. However, because he hadn't played ranked games for half a month, his score either stagnated or declined. In addition, the half-month of downtime triggered the rank deduction mechanism, which deducted an extra 75 points from Mingjing's score, causing his ranking to drop out of the top 100.

Fortunately, Ming Jing has successfully returned. After returning, he played for a few more days and regained all his previous rankings, even breaking into the top five.

They've already reached the top five in the Korean server, how could they lack data?
But Steak just shook his head when he heard that.

"Phi's ranking record is of no reference value."

After EDG's official Weibo account confirmed Phi's starting position last night, Steak immediately checked Mingjing's ranked game history.

But the result shocked him.

"He plays too many different heroes in ranked games. In more than ten ranked games, he doesn't play the same hero at all. It's impossible to tell which hero he's good at." Steak shook his head. "So, Coin might be under a lot of pressure today. We should be careful."

"It's alright." Doinb remained calm. "Just follow the usual draft and ban phase, it's not a big problem."

In fact, Doinb is never worried about his laning phase.

Don't think that being a strong laner means you have to dominate your opponent in lane, have a huge CS lead, or get a lot of turret plating.

Doinb, who can consistently dominate the lane and control the pace of the game with fighting champions, and also farm effectively with farming champions, is another example of a strong laner.

Having played in the LPL for so many years, it's rare to see Doinb get completely crushed in lane.

For this type of player, it doesn't really matter what the opponent picks, because no matter what hero the opponent plays, he always sticks to his own strategy—push the lane and leave.

Doinb has dominated the mid lane for many years and has faced off against champion mid laners from all walks of life. He doesn't think he will be defeated by a mid laner who is new to the game today!

"Get ready to go on stage!" At this moment, a staff member came over to give the notice that Doinb was going on stage, and he immediately stood up and shouted exaggeratedly.

"Brothers, charge!"

At the same time, on the Douyu platform.

Toothpaste is currently live-streaming, chatting with several teammates.

JDG, the defending champions of the Spring Split, did not perform well in this year's Spring Split, and were eliminated by FPX in the quarterfinals.

Now, a week later, the toothpaste has even returned to Pingxiang, enjoying a rare holiday.
"Here we go, guys!" Zoom's voice crackled through the voice chat. "Is the match about to start?"

"Almost there, the players are all on stage, hurry up!" Green Hair urged in the voice chat, "Ming Jing is about to appear!"

At the call of the host Liu Hang, the two opposing players came to the stage at the same time.

When it was the mid laner's turn, Liu Hang took a deep breath and read out the IDs of both mid laners.

After Doinb went on stage, he immediately looked at Mingjing with a determined gaze, as if he were playing in the S11 World Championship Finals.

Ming Jing was clearly a little confused by that look and scratched his head.

Seeing this, the JDG members burst into laughter.

They also understood that Doinb harbored inexplicable hostility towards the JDG championship team members ever since winning the championship.

When Doinb won the quarterfinals a few days ago, he even excitedly performed monkey fist on stage!

JDG members were naturally furious about this, but unfortunately, they were not strong enough to beat their opponents, so there was nothing they could do.

But they believed that Mingjing would find a way.

At this moment, Mingjing also sat down and put on his headphones to communicate with his teammates: "What's wrong with Doinb? He's acting like I have a grudge against him."

“He’s got a grudge against you.” Flandre, who had also put on his headphones, laughed and said, “He dreams of beating you once to prove that S9 is more valuable than S10. He was so excited when he beat JD Gaming a few days ago that he was even boxing on stage.”

After a few seconds of thought, Ming Jing finally gave a two-word evaluation: "Crazy."

Soon, both players took their seats, and after confirmation from the referee, the match began.

Since EDG came from the winners' bracket finals, they had a higher ranking and therefore had the right to choose sides in the first game according to the rules. Therefore, they naturally ended up on the blue side.

Maokai then banned the enemy's preferred champions, Renekton, Lillia, and Hecarim, before asking Mingjing, "Do you need me to pick a champion for you?"

“There’s no need.” Ming Jing was confident. “I don’t have any heroes that I need to pick. I can beat whatever he picks. Just do your normal draft.”

Mao Kai relaxed a little after hearing Ming Jing's confident speech.

It has to be said that having a player like Ming Jing in the team makes me feel inexplicably at ease.

Mingjing always exudes a sense of security in his every move.
Namokai didn't say much more and simply locked in Udyr first.

Udyr's jungle clearing speed was buffed in the early patches of the Spring Split. The speed of Udyr clearing six jungle camps to level four was almost a level above other junglers, and he also had a reliable crowd control effect, making him quite strong in the early game.

With this gatekeeper blocking the way, other jungle heroes who want to enter the game must undergo two soul-searching tests.

Is my jungle clearing speed faster than Udyr's? And once I clear the jungle, can I fight Udyr?

Under these two soul-searching questions, only two junglers can stand out.

Centaurs and Lilia.

Now that both of these heroes are banned, Udyr's priority is naturally the highest.

On the other hand, FPX didn't think too much about it and chose Volibear to counter Udyr. Although Volibear's jungle clearing speed can't keep up with his opponent, he is a much stronger hero who chases people down, so it can be said that there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides.

After Volibear, lock in Viktor, the farming mid laner, and then lock in the mid and jungle!
At this point, the choice falls to Mingjing.

Assistant coach Zhu Kai, who followed him onto the stage, looked at the notebook in his hand and asked, "If we're going to play Viktor, should we pick Akali? You seem to pick that champion quite often in solo matches."

"No, Akali is absolutely out of the question!" Maokai frowned, rejecting the option, and then continued, "It's up to Mingjing himself. What champion do you want to play?"

"If it's Viktor and Volibear, what hero do you want to play against?" Maokai asked. "You can choose anything you like."

Viktor is a very versatile mid laner, and he doesn't suffer against any ranged mid laner, but he does have a hard time against agile assassins like Akali who can close the gap and leave you no chance to escape.

Zhu Kai's line of thinking is correct, but it's too shallow.

There was a bear following Viktor.

Volibear has a stun that is guaranteed to hit in melee combat, which is a huge limitation for a mid-laner like Akali. This will completely prevent Akali from having any room to maneuver in her strongest early-game skirmishes.

Therefore, it's best to choose a more suitable hero.

If it were Ming Jing during the transfer window, he might actually be a little troubled by this predicament.

Fortunately, Mingjing has now climbed all the way to the top five in the Korean server, and his hero pool has been greatly expanded, which is enough to cope with any extreme environment.

"Give me the fox," Mingjing said. "We'll play mid and jungle this game."

“Fox.” Maokai was a little surprised by the choice, but he didn’t have much to say and simply nodded in agreement.

Nine-Tailed Fox appeared on the second floor of EDG and quickly locked onto the target!
"Oh my, a fox!"

"You're trying to be provocative right from the start, aren't you, Mingjing!"

"Brother Gao, is Fox easy to beat Viktor?"

"I don't know, I don't know how to play the fox, but Mingjing picked it, so it should be easy to beat, right?"

"Are you some kind of professional mid-laner?"

The JDG players joked and laughed, their words filled with surprise.

To be fair, this pick is quite unconventional in the current version, and it has never appeared in the entire Spring Split.

Amidst the astonishment of countless onlookers, the two sides traded blows, and the lineups were quickly locked in!
Blue side EDG: Top lane Gragas, Jungle Udyr, Mid lane Ahri, Bot lane Tristana and Garen.

FPX (Red Side): Top lane Sett, Jungle Volibear, Mid lane Viktor, Bot lane Kai'Sa and Garen.

Both teams had fairly even lineups, neither with any major weaknesses, and neither showed a clear advantage or disadvantage. Therefore, Wang Duoduo didn't have much to say, but simply shouted:
"Alright, let's see how Xiaofei performs in his debut in the mid lane!"

The two coaches punched each other in the center of the stage. Since the audience seats were still empty, the camera switched back and forth between the two athletes, and lingered on Ming Jing's face for a long time.

After a short wait, the entire Summoner's Rift came into view, and heroes from both sides emerged from their respective fountains.

Mingjing didn't participate in the team's command; he simply stood quietly at the entrance to the jungle, listening to the conversation between Jie Jie and Meiko.

Because he was new to the team and hadn't fully integrated yet, he was still playing a support role for the time being, so the command was still in the hands of the jungler and support.

Meiko didn't have any special ideas in the early game. He just let Jie Jie farm up to protect Flandre. He wanted to play it safe for the first few minutes and then look for opportunities to gank when his Rakan reached level six.

There's nothing wrong with this decision; it emphasizes stability.

Ming Jing didn't say anything, but waited until it was almost time before returning to the mid lane and going online with the minions.

The director was sensible enough to immediately focus the camera on the mid lane and begin observing the laning battle between the two mid laners.

There's not much to say about Ahri versus Viktor. Ahri's ultimate has three dashes, making her quite mobile and able to ignore Viktor's W and R. She also has long range and E for self-protection, so she's not afraid of Volibear's crowd control. She's not afraid in lane and won't be at a disadvantage in mid-jungle matchups.

However, in the early laning phase, Ahri did not have a significant advantage over Viktor, so it came down to the individual skill of the players.

Mingjing, playing as the Fox, went online, simultaneously farming minions to reach level two while estimating the distance between himself and Viktor.

Mingjing, who is extremely sensitive to numbers, knows that Viktor's basic attack and E skill have a range of 525 yards, while Q has a slightly longer range of 600 yards.

So Mingjing kept a distance of just over 600 yards from Viktor, carefully observing Viktor's movements.

He kept himself at a distance of 600 yards, which is not actually that far. If Viktor had learned Q, he would have been inclined to throw Q at him, and the character would have walked straight towards him.

If Viktor makes that kind of move, Mingjing will immediately know what's going on and will obediently go and last-hit minions to level up.

After all, the fox really doesn't have much room to maneuver against a Viktor who has learned Q at level one.

Conversely, if Viktor doesn't make this move, it means that Viktor is very ambitious, that he has learned E, and plans to use E to take both himself and the minions, gaining a health advantage while reaching level two.

If that's the case, then the mid-lane laning phase is already over.

Just then, a laser beam shot out from the third hand on Viktor's shoulder, starting from the ranged soldier and heading straight for the fox!

However, Mingjing had already figured out that Viktor had learned E, so he was prepared and decisively pressed W. The fox summoned three foxfires and used the speed boost from W to move forward quickly, narrowly dodging the laser!
And with the acceleration from W, Fox quickly closed the distance between the two sides from just over 600 yards to 550 yards!
This is the distance at which the fox can hit Viktor, but Viktor cannot retaliate.

Mingjing, who started as an AD carry, is more accustomed to focusing on distance control and using his skills to outmaneuver his opponents!

A basic attack sends three foxfires flying towards Viktor.

Doinb wanted to retaliate, so he right-clicked on it.

But the fox's distance control was precise. After attacking, she immediately turned around, giving Viktor no chance to retaliate!

Furthermore, the fox that created distance also scattered the minion wave, causing the minions on both sides to fight separately, preventing Viktor from using his E to quickly push the wave.

Doinb was left helpless as he was being pulled around, and could only turn around and pull away.

But as soon as he turned away, the fox suddenly turned back and landed a basic attack on his back.

Two basic attacks and a W followed by a red lightning bolt struck down from the sky, further reducing Viktor's health; he was already down to a quarter of his original health.

Throughout the entire process, the fox didn't even take any damage from Viktor; she was only focused down by minions for two rounds.

Right from the start of the laning phase, the two mid laners showed a huge gap in skill!
Moreover, this scene kept repeating itself.

Ahri used her W to speed up and dodge Viktor's E again, and used her auto-attack range advantage to kite him.

Even if Viktor learns Q at level two, it won't be effective because Ahri is also level two. Taking advantage of Viktor's QA animation, Ahri can counter with a Q, pushing the lane while ensuring that the trade is profitable!

After several rounds of maneuvers, Viktor's health had dropped below half.

The fox only ate one QA from Viktor throughout the entire story.

Furthermore, the fox also has a passive healing ability, making her a dominant force in the laning phase!

Doinb's face darkened; he had already sensed something was wrong.

"Fuck, that's awesome!"

"Yes, yes, that's exactly right! That's the pull!"

The JDG players all smiled at the same time, especially Green Hair, who felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity.

This is how they remember Mingjing.

(End of this chapter)