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

Chapter 163 Champion Skin Revealed!

The next day, in the morning.

Ming Jing woke up in his own bed at home and stared at the ceiling for a while.

MSI won't officially start until May 6th, which is 23 days away. The MSI version hasn't even been updated yet, so the club has given the players a week of free time.

So after finishing his meal, Mingjing went home with his parents.

His parents had already left for work, and the house was empty. Ming Jing turned around and saw the FMVP trophy on the table, but he chose to pick up the phone placed at the foot of the trophy.

Overnight, the discussions on the anti-racism forum cooled down slightly, but they were still quite heated.

Most people are still discussing yesterday's final match.

In fact, most of these discussions are meaningless, lack rationality, and are mostly just emotional outbursts.

Since the 1020 incident in S8, RNG fans have had little say in the anti-RNG forum, their status being equivalent to 60E (a derogatory term for fans of RNG). However, after RNG won the regular season and the upper bracket championship recently, RNG fans have been revived and are quite active in the forum.

Now that RNG has lost, the fans are naturally taking this opportunity to launch a massive crackdown on RNG fans.

These people may not be supporters of EDG; they just want RNG to die.

Ming Jing wasn't particularly interested in this; he was just having some fun. He refreshed the page a couple of times and saw a lot of discussion about MSI.

Is this EDG team any good? Will they underperform in major tournaments?

[Where did this traffic-driving dog come from? Fun fact: EDG was the champion of the first MSI]

[EDG only underperformed at Worlds; when have they ever shown weakness in other competitions?]

[If you don't believe in EDG, why don't you believe in Xiaofei? That doesn't make sense.]

Having already won the World Championship, playing in MSI is child's play for him. Just watch Xiaofei's performance.

Looking at the cacophony of discussions before him, Ming Jing couldn't help but think about the MSI three weeks from now.

To be honest, he didn't know either.

After all, since returning to the team, they have never played a scrim with DK.

I heard that DK's dominance this year is even greater than before, and they have made it so that no one in the entire LCK region can stand up.

But upon closer reflection, it shouldn't be a big problem.

The only chance for DK to win the championship was last year's World Championship.

Because he had only been playing games for a short time at that time, he had not yet fully understood the game.

If you miss the opportunity last year, then no matter how fast you grow afterward, it will be meaningless.

Because his opponents' growth rate was destined to be slower than his.

Mingjing left Tieba, then opened Bilibili and browsed around.

I just refreshed the page and an abstract title came into view.

"LPL, tremble! Welcome your old king! EDG dynasty is back! RNG defeated! Fei Shen's 101 KDA! Commentators across the board shout: DK, prepare to die!"

This alliance's stress-resistance king seems to have very abstract titles every time.

It's hard not to click in and take a look.

Once you click in, you'll see that the video content is more abstract.

The moment I stepped inside, I was struck by lightning.

"Spicy! It needs to be shipped! Shipped from another city!" The three members of Deyunse were wailing as soon as they entered. "Meiko was sent too!"

In the scene, the crocodile presses the golden body button to avoid being controlled, while around the crocodile are Kai'Sa, Udyr, and Galio.

Sun Yalong yelled, "Can one fight three? I feel like I'm definitely going to die!"

"Whatever, so be it, we've already given up!" Sika slapped his thigh. "It's just a best-of-five series, what's wrong with letting him win one game! Who picked the Renekton champion? Next game, let Xiaofei pick a champion that's fast at killing!"

The camera cuts to a few chubby guys from JD.com, and you can see that even their old teammates' expressions have changed.

"Isn't this bad? Will we even survive this wave?"

"The crocodile has Flash! What do you say about Flash + E to escape?"

"How could that be? Doesn't Kai'Sa chase after people randomly?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the crocodile's invulnerability ended. He first used a lightning-fast Flash to dodge Galio's charge punch, then used his Red Fury W combo to instantly kill Kai'Sa. After that, he used his Drill ability repeatedly, relying on Q, Bloodlust, and E to deal multiple AOE damage, sending all three RNG members away.

In one wave, they completely overwhelmed JDG's big guys, turning them into a "damn it" repeating machine.

De Yun Se went even further, wailing and howling, with Xika even shouting, "Pan Hui, are you going to ruin RNG?" leaving Ming Jing somewhat bewildered.

Who is Pan Hui?

Several other secondary broadcasts also reacted similarly.

The players from Huya who came from RNG couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw this, as if they had seen something unbelievable.

In the second round, after Viktor interrupted Malzahar's [Nether Grip] twice in a row, the expressions on everyone's faces became even more exaggerated.

"Wow!!!" Zita was stunned by what he saw. "Areiz! How did he unleash that ultimate move? The timing is perfect every time!"

As a supporter of RNG, Zz1tai shouldn't be praising the EDG players' plays.

But this Victor is just too outrageous.

Even Zita, who calls himself Viktor's dad, felt that Viktor's two ultimate abilities were really outrageous.

Is this really not a script?

Because of Mingjing's terrifying performance in these two games, RNG's supporters even fell silent for a time, believing that the finals were already over.

Even in the third game, when the plane and Lucian teleported to EDG's base and were about to end the game in one fell swoop, everyone still felt uneasy.

Because Mingjing's Akali was blocking the way from the other side.

As it turns out, Mingjing's Akali was indeed terrifying. Facing a fully equipped Corki and Lucian alone, she managed to chase down and fight both of them, almost saving the world!

If EDG's base had an extra 100 HP, Akali might have been able to use another Q and take down the Corki!

"Wow, bro." Zizi slumped in his chair, pressing his right hand to his chest as he took deep breaths. "That was fucking close."

It's quite immersive, as if he's the one who escaped Akali's clutches.

But this wave did give RNG a glimmer of hope.

After all, the first two games were narrow defeats, and now that they have won the third game, it is not impossible for them to come back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2!

But the final result was quite humorous.

In the fourth game, Mingjing went berserk, killing in the mid lane, then in the jungle, and then in the side lanes.

There's nothing else, just one word—kill!

They slaughtered RNG so much that no one dared to push a lane alone, and RNG supporters wailed and fled in terror!

The scariest episode yet.

It wasn't until this point that everyone found out.

It turns out that this person will enter the second stage after losing.

Losing one game puts you into stage two, and then into stage three, huh? Well, who can beat you then!
At this point, the video came to an end. As expected, Sika started yelling at DK to come and die, thus completing the title's purpose.

Ming Jing happily rolled over and got out of bed.

He had been lying down for a while and was about to go downstairs to get a bowl of hot dry noodles.

Just then, another WeChat message came through.

Ming Jingqie went over to take a look and found that the message came from Lan Baiqing, the boss of JD.com.

Ming Jing glanced at the message and immediately understood.

The champion skins are coming out.

On April 24th, with two weeks to go before MSI, Riot Games officially released the update announcement for version 11.9, which will be released at 4 AM tonight.

This version will be featured in the Mid-Season Invitational, so it's an absolute must-have for the EDG team.

Normally, there shouldn't be many changes in the version of such a major tournament, but this time the designers are quite unusual, making many changes in order to bring some new fun to this Mid-Season Invitational.

Therefore, EDG held a special version meeting to study the issue carefully.

The main changes are concentrated on the jungler position.

Both Udyr and Hecarim have been nerfed. Udyr was nerfed purely, while Hecarim's stats were reduced but his AD scaling was increased, making Hecarim more like a warrior.

Also nerfed is the core mythic item for these two, the Turbo Alchemy Jar, whose movement speed bonus has been reduced from 60% to 40%.

Clearly, the designers couldn't stand the result of these two junglers dominating the major leagues.

These two heroes are too powerful and there's no need to ban them, which leads to Udyr and Hecarim being picked against each other almost every game in major leagues, seriously affecting the entertainment value of the matches. It would be good to limit them a bit.

The conclusion of the discussion among the EDG members was that it wasn't a major blow, and they could still choose it.

The designers didn't intend to completely nerf these two heroes. Their plan was clearly to weaken the top-performing ones and buff the lagging ones, thus balancing out the heroes.

Therefore, champions such as Darius, Zed, Diana, Rumble, and Morgana have all received buffs to their jungle clearing abilities. These champions are not junglers, and their significant buffs will obviously be a nightmare for junglers, requiring them to practice a lot of players who don't know how to play them.

"In addition, there's the buff to Lee Sin; his E skill cooldown has been reduced by two seconds, which is worth noting."

Maokai concluded by emphasizing, "This champion has already received buffs for two consecutive patches. This champion already has competitive strength, and its pick rate should increase in the future."

"There's not much else to say. MSI is in two weeks, and we're flying to Iceland in a week. Use this time to practice hard! Especially Zhao Lijie, your task is very important!"

This version was designed purely to torture junglers, requiring them to practice a large number of unconventional jungler heroes, and Zhao Lijie's hero-learning speed is not particularly fast to begin with.

Jie Jie nodded and then quickly entered ranked mode.

Ming Jing, on the other hand, didn't feel much pressure.

This version update seems to have forgotten about the mid-lane, with basically no changes, so Mingjing can play as usual.

But he also has things he has to do.

In addition to the Mid-Season Invitational update, there's something else everyone's been waiting for – JDG's championship skins have finally been released!

Therefore, Mingjing also needs to participate in the championship skin promotion event on Douyu with his former JDG teammates.

During this promotional event, the final video of the champion skin will be released for the first time.

That's right, after keeping a low profile for so long, Brother Xiaofei is finally going to start live streaming!
Douyu started a crazy promotional campaign a week in advance, and fans had been waiting for Mingjing to stop streaming for a long time, so their expectations were naturally at the top!
With the club's help, Mingjing set up the live streaming equipment and then, with half an hour left before the event, started the live stream to test it out.

This broadcast was originally just to test whether the live streaming function was working properly, but Ming Jing clearly underestimated his current popularity.

Mingjing's Douyu live streaming account was created a week ago and has never been broadcast before. It was only through Douyu's promotion that users were able to follow him in advance.

Even so, Mingjing's account immediately gained over a million followers.

And these are all fresh, live powders.

Now that the show has started airing, millions of subscribers have received the message and immediately flooded in!
In less than a minute after the broadcast started, the number of viewers in the live stream exceeded 50,000, and it was still soaring!

It's safe to say that the other League of Legends streamers who are going live tonight are destined to only get the scraps.

[Holy crap, let's fly!]

[You secretly started streaming early, huh? Luckily, my buddy already followed you.]

[It's been over half a year since he won the championship, and he hasn't even done a single live stream. He doesn't seem to be thinking about making money at all. Xiaofei is truly invincible.]

[Xiaofei is still short of money? Hanyi has already revealed that Xiaofei has a record-breaking contract in the LPL. Earning this much at seventeen, he's set for life.] [This is nothing. After Xiaofei graduates from high school, he'll go back to Peking University. If he chooses the right path then, he might earn even more.]

[Damn, that's so cheesy! Did they really just open all the doors and windows for him?]

Ming Jing looked at the comments in front of him and was quite happy. He simply didn't turn off the broadcast. After testing the microphone and finding that it was working properly, he chatted with the comments.

"I can't say whether it will be broadcast again in the future. It depends on when it remembers."

The live streaming contract signed between EDG and Mingjing is a reward-based contract. He receives extra bonuses for the amount of time he streams each month, and he also receives a bonus if he doesn't stream.

Therefore, Mingjing naturally tries to be as lazy as possible, since live streaming every day is too tiring.

"Does MSI have confidence, bro? Just you wait and see."

After chatting with the comments for a while, it gradually came to seven o'clock.

Douyu had been preparing for this for a long time, connecting the live stream signals of the five JDG players to the main live stream room of the championship skin event page, and Mingjing finally met his old teammates across the network.

There wasn't much small talk between the two sides. Once everyone was in position, the pre-made promotional video for the champion skin was finally released in the main live stream room.

After a brief blackout, the Riot Games logo appeared on the screen.

Immediately afterwards, the LPL commentators' passionate roars began to ring out.

"Let's congratulate JD.com on becoming the year-end champion of 2020!"

The screen then lit up with images of the shattered DWG base, followed by a group photo of the five JDG players holding the trophy, and Mingjing looking triumphant with the FMVP trophy in his left hand and the Summoner's Cup in his right, instantly transporting the audience back to that night six months ago.

At this moment, Zoom's official photo appeared on the screen, followed by a highlight reel of his amazing plays.

In the scene, Ornn faces a three-on-one attack from Syndra, Camille, and Kindred. He uses his W to knock off Camille's E, then uses his E to control and cancel out Syndra's push, and finally knocks Kindred into the air, completing a counter-kill.

Then the scene shifts to a mid-game team fight.

But this time, Ornn has changed his clothes.

The image of the adorable and sturdy Uncle Sheep is gone, replaced by a ferocious, dark red beast.

Each year, the design of the championship skin needs to have a corresponding theme.

For example, FPX's championship skins last year had a clear and unambiguous super team theme.

However, the audience clearly didn't buy into this Japanese theme, and the skin sales weren't good.

When designing this skin, the designers gave the JDG players many options.

For example, an idea was proposed that used Norse/Greek mythology as a theme, with five heroes corresponding to five gods, but it was rejected because it did not fit the theme.

JDG uses red for both their logo and uniforms, so it would be best to find a design element that corresponds to it.

Ultimately, both sides set their sights on the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

Five heroes, each corresponding to a mythical beast.

Ornn corresponds to the Taotie.

Of course, considering the art style, it is impossible to completely replicate the appearance of the mythical beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas in the game. The original size and style of the heroes must be maintained, and the game can only try to get as close as possible.

However, the ferocious appearance of the Taotie was still basically shown.

During a team fight, Ornn activated his ultimate ability, and a dark red phantom of a gluttonous beast rushed in from afar.

When the ultimate attack is used, the sound effect is no longer the crisp sound of metal striking metal, but instead a deep, resonant sound that can only be heard when striking a bronze cauldron.

After all, the Taotie is a common evil-repelling motif on bronzes, and with the added advantage of being a blacksmith, elements of bronzes are indispensable.

Q ability summons a bronze Summoner's Cup, slowing down nearby enemies.

When the E skill knocks an enemy away, the JDG team logo will appear in the center of the skill effect.

Upon returning to base, Ornn used his hammer as a brush to draw a Taotie pattern array on the ground.

In the center of the formation, the player's signature, "Zoom," is clearly visible.

Finally, the formation summoned a bronze colossus, which swallowed the Taotie whole and returned to the spring.

"Holy crap. That's awesome!" From behind, Flandre was also joining in the fun, watching the Ornn skin demo in front of him. "Wow, they really put a lot of effort into this?"

Seeing the scene before him, a peaceful expression appeared on Zoom's chubby face. "Not bad, guys?"

As one of the skin's developers, Zoom had certainly seen the finished product beforehand, but with countless viewers praising it now, it must be a different kind of thrill!
At this moment, the number of comments in the live stream also surged, with countless viewers shocked by the extremely high quality of the JDG skin.

Wow, did JD.com bribe Riot Games? Why are they putting in so much effort this time?

Following closely behind Ornn is the jungler Nidalee.

The leopard woman corresponds to the fierce beast.

Its appearance is like a red leopard, with five tails and one horn, and its sound is like striking a stone, which coincides with the image of the leopard woman.

The leopard woman in human form wore copper scale armor that didn't cover much of her skin. Her weapon was a horned bone spear with red and gold flames wrapped around its tip. She wore a beast mask and had bronze bells adorning the ends of her hair.

In human form, the Q skill throws a horned spear whose trajectory becomes a fire meteor. Upon hitting a target, it triggers a roaring sound effect from a ferocious beast. The W trap places a JDG team logo, and when an enemy steps on the trap, a five-tailed ferocious beast bites the enemy.

When the ultimate skill is activated, the phantom of the ferocious beast intertwines with the JDG team logo, and its form changes.

The leopard form is so cool! Its whole body is crimson red like lava, and its five fiery tail feathers leave scorch marks as they sweep across the ground!
We've all seen plenty of leopard girls with one tail, but a leopard girl with five fiery tails is something most people have never seen before.

But there's not much to say about the leopard form; it's difficult to design special effects for this kind of punch-to-pump skill set.

But that's clearly enough.

Upon returning to base, Nidalee summoned a pack of ferocious beasts with her bone spear, leaped onto their backs, and ascended into the sky on the moon. The red and gold flames burning from the spear tip etched the JDG team logo and Kanavi's signature on the ground.

Wow, that was awesome, bro! That leopard woman is so cool!

I thought the Duke's skin was already pretty cool, but it's still not as good as Nidalee's.

After all, watching videos is the team's second-in-command, so it's only right to put in some effort.

[Who could resist a leopard woman with five tails and flames burning on her body?]

【Aaaaaaah, I have to buy it now!】

Next up is the Tsar toothpaste chosen by the middle unit.

The mythical beast corresponding to the Tsar is the Bifang, a divine bird of fire with "one red stripe on one leg, arriving with fire in its mouth," symbolizing imperial majesty. In terms of both appearance and symbolic meaning, the Bifang is exactly the same as Azir.

The sand soldier model has been replaced with a Bifang bird form, with wings composed of a combination of red gold and red jade.

The passive ability [Sun Disc] will summon a Bifang divine bird directly from the ruins of the defensive tower, spewing flames and lava.

Q skill summons a Bifang bird to dash forward, leaving trails of fire.

The ultimate skill summons a group of Bifang birds to form a wall of fire, with clear JDG patterns engraved on the wall.

"He is indeed quite handsome!" Ming Jing nodded with a smile.

Among the skins in this season, besides his own, Ming Jing's favorite is Tsar. After all, Tsar's design concept is consistent from top to bottom, and the special effects are indeed quite well done.

After showcasing the mid laner, we deliberately skipped the AD carry this time and gave the spotlight to the support first.

Green Hair chose Bard, and the corresponding mythical beast is Zhulong.

The Zhulong is a serpentine beast that is thousands of miles long, which does not match Bard's image. Therefore, the designer made a simple design, making the Zhulong a red scale armor coiled around Bard's body.

Legend has it that when the Zhulong opens its eyes, it is daytime; when it closes its eyes, it is nighttime; when it exhales, it is east; and when it inhales, it is summer. It is a mythical beast that controls time and celestial phenomena, which naturally coincides with Bard's philosophy.

Q skill throws a crimson fireball, which, upon hitting the opponent, displays the JDG team logo on the opponent and then stuns them.

The W altar transforms into a miniature sundial, its needle slowly rotating until it reaches its full rotation, at which point the altar is completely formed.

The ultimate move involves throwing a crimson-gold dragon from his hand, which crashes into the ground, freezing the moment and leaving a phantom image of the JDG team logo on the ground.

After Bard finished his demonstration, the screen went dark again.

Seeing this, everyone focused their attention and stared at the completely black screen.

They all knew that the big one was coming.

When the screen lit up again, we were already in the lower river.

Jinx, bathed in the greyish-white blood of an ancient dragon, began to unleash her attacks with unrestrained fury.

This is a scene that every LPL viewer will never forget.

The video of this Jinx pentakill is still widely circulated on major video websites. Its popularity far exceeds that of famous moments such as the river Aatrox, and even surpassed the Zed vs. Zed battle at one point!
That's why everyone felt the difference immediately.

This Jinx looks different!
Jinx was rendered with platinum-gold particle effects, surrounded by wind and clouds, a stark contrast to her original rebellious loli image.

Instead of carrying a fishbone rocket launcher, it now carries a platinum five-clawed baby dragon on its shoulder, inspired by the design of the How to Train Your Dragon cannon!

A single shot was fired, followed by lightning!
The corresponding mythical beast for Jinx in her cannon form is the Yinglong, the supreme form of dragons in legend.

Moreover, as Jinx racks up more and more kills, the surrounding platinum particle effects become increasingly intense!

"Penta kill!"

After securing the pentakill, particle effects gathered above Jinx's head to form a platinum Summoner's Cup, paying tribute to Mingjing's legendary performance of winning the decisive game with a pentakill!
After winning the team fight, the demonstration video didn't end. The camera followed Jinx as she moved to the mid lane, starting her final solo push.

When pushing towers, Jinx switches to machine gun form, and the special effects around her undergo a dramatic change.

Jinx has two forms, each corresponding to a different mythical beast.

After switching forms, Jinx's appearance changes drastically, with the overall color scheme shifting from white and gold to gold and red, matching the JDG team logo and the skin colors of her other teammates.

The surrounding particle effects also changed from lightning to crimson flames.

The mythical creature corresponding to Jinx in her machine gun form is the phoenix.

The five-clawed golden dragon carried on his shoulder transformed into a fiery red divine bird held in his hand, firing fiery bullets between high-speed shots.

"Holy crap." Flandre was shocked when he saw the skin in front of him. "Why is your skin like this?"

They're all champion skins, so why is your art style completely different from all the other skins?
Ming Jing also grinned.

He was just lucky to have come across Riot Games' minor update to the championship skins.

Starting from this year, the FMVP skin will be a level higher than that of other players, and Ming Jing is the first player to enjoy this privilege.

[The cannon is the dragon, the machine gun is the phoenix! Wow!]

This is amazing, man! With all the special effects, the new model, and the transformation, I'd believe you even if you told me it was a 199-dollar ultimate skin!

[People have been saying for a while that Xiao Fei is Xiao Ma's illegitimate son. I didn't believe it before, but now I do.]

[Illegitimate child? Not his biological father?]

[This Jinx player is overjoyed and thanks Xiaofei!]

The funniest part is that Xiaofei himself can't use it, hahaha, he can't exactly use Jinx in mid, that would be too much of a joke.

[Haha, Little Fei can only use Gao Gao's skin now.]

After showcasing all five heroes, the video was nearing its end.

Finally, the artwork for the skins featuring all five heroes together was revealed.

All five heroes are standing on the right side of the screen. Although Jinx is the FMVP, she doesn't occupy any extra space in the original artwork. She stands in the center, looking into the distance with the other heroes, united in their determination.

The phantom of a strange beast appeared behind the group.

Below, a line of small text gradually lights up.

This is a tribute to JD Gaming's victory at the 2020 World Championship.

(End of this chapter)