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

Chapter 193: A Clash Between Undefeated Teams!
The moment the Topsports training base exploded for the second time, the entire arena was ablaze with light, and the rousing drumbeats resounded throughout the stadium!

Although the absence of an audience made the atmosphere less interesting, it didn't stop viewers in the live stream from flooding the screen with comments.

[Damn it, I'm numb. I just went to get some food, and when I came back, the whole thing was over!]

[One game took 23 minutes, the other 24 minutes, for a total speedrun of 47 minutes, wow!]

[Holy crap, is this still EDG? Why is the pace of this game so fast?]

Is it possible that Top Esports is just too weak? They barely fought back in these two games.

[It's true, top laner Qingtian and Flandre were playing like idiots, mid laner ZuoShou was getting completely destroyed, and bottom laner Bingbing was secretly feeding. How could they possibly win? I'm asking you.]

Oh no, is Top Esports really not going to make it to Worlds?

Given Top Esports' current state, it's normal that they won't make it.

There wasn't much discussion about EDG in the live chat at the moment.

After all, they are the MSI champions, so it's normal for them to come back and win a regular season game.

On the contrary, Top Esports deserves more discussion.

After all, they were a top LPL team last year with two championships and one runner-up finish. It is indeed a bit strange that they have experienced a significant decline this year, even though their roster has not changed much.

As it turns out, esports is indeed full of variables, and the saying that the strong will always be strong does not apply to everyone. A small version change may cause a strong team to fall quickly.

Seoul, inside the DK base.

The DK members looked solemn as they watched the footage of the Top Esports base explode.

They certainly understand why these two games ended so quickly today.

Ultimately, it's because Phi changed his playing style.

The playstyle that emphasizes coordinated movement and roaming is the fastest way to end a match and the most effective way to crush weaker opponents.

In today's two matches, Phi did not achieve any solo kills in the mid lane. Both his CS lead and gold advantage against his lane opponent have decreased significantly compared to before.

However, the team's overall pace has improved dramatically, most notably in terms of the team's average kills per minute.

With so many kills happening, the opponent simply didn't have the ability to engage in team fights in the late game, so they naturally collapsed very quickly.

Kkoma watched the live stream and felt a pang of emotion.

He often finds himself comparing Phi to Faker.

As a coach who won three championships with Faker, Kkoma knows all too well what a genius is like.

However, he also had to admit that in terms of talent, Phi might be even more extraordinary than Faker.

In less than a year since their debut, they have reached the pinnacle in two different positions, achieving a significant lead in personal ability in this era that has moved beyond the primitive stage.

Of course, Kkoma doesn't think Phi can surpass Faker's achievements.

Faker's rise to the top is due not only to his unparalleled talent but also to his years of consistent hard work and dedication.

Kkoma has seen countless exceptionally talented individuals, but in terms of perseverance, no one has ever come close to Faker's level.

At this moment, in the live broadcast, the EDG team had already walked to the Top Esports players' bench.

It was clear that the expressions on the faces of the players from Top Esports were all quite grim.

JackeyLove stood up, a hint of resentment on his face.

After preparing for the Summer Split for so long, to end up with a 0-4 start is disappointing for anyone.

"How so?" Ming Jing stood in front of JackeyLove, raised his right hand, and smiled, "Are you alright?"

JackeyLove bumped fists with Ming Jing, a hint of helplessness on his face: "It's alright."

JackeyLove was originally considered a representative of exceptional talent.

They won the championship in their debut and reached the semi-finals the following year. Even if they changed teams in their third year, they still had a strong competitiveness to win the championship.

Although they still finished in the semifinals in their third year, the fact that they lost to an internal battle and the championship meant that many viewers still had extra tolerance for Top Esports.

But this year, not only the audience, but even JackeyLove himself could feel that the feeling of playing this year's competition was completely different from the previous three years.

"Come on, come on, let's go to the World Championship together." Ming Jing couldn't care less about JackeyLove's feelings, he just cheered him on as usual, and then continued to punch.

The left hand is behind JackeyLove.

If JackeyLove's face showed resentment, then Zuo Shou's face simply showed disappointment.

Today's match was a significant blow to him.

Even when punching, Zuo Shou kept his head down and didn't even dare to look Ming Jing in the eye.

Mingjing didn't have much to say, he just nodded and gave a fist bump.

Finally, he arrived in front of Yu Zihan.

A hint of helplessness appeared on Yu Zihan's chubby face, and he used a little more force when punching: "Go easy on me, for the sake of the gods!"

As a player who debuted with Top Esports, Yu Zihan's current competitive state can be described as walking on thin ice.

After all, this team has a large following and a lot of haters.

And most importantly, the top laner's status is not high.

Having finally earned a starting opportunity, Yu Zihan suffered four consecutive losses, making her feel that her professional career might be coming to an end.
But Ming Jing was also helpless about this, and could only laugh and say, "OK, I'll go easy on you in the playoffs."

These words made Qingtian sigh again.

Can I really survive until the playoffs without being eliminated?

Watching Ming Jing walk towards the center of the stage, Qing Tian felt a mix of emotions, but seemed to have made a decision, her face gradually hardening.

Despite being trained in the same youth academy, Ming Jing has already achieved great success, winning numerous FMVP awards.

But he is still struggling, striving for a starting position.

He really needs to work harder!

After the handshake ended, the EDG team packed up their mice and keyboards and left amidst laughter and cheers.

As expected, Ming Jing was stopped by Yu Shuang halfway there.

In both games, Ming Jing had explosive stats, so it's only natural that he was interviewed.

Ming Jing first went back to the lounge to put away his peripherals, and then waited with Yu Shuang at the backstage entrance.

At that moment, the TV screen next to us displayed the MVP of the game.

Without a doubt, he is still the MVP of this game.

The terrifying Ruined King with a score of 9-0-6 is in the top tier in both damage output and damage mitigation.

The end of the MVP segment means the start of the interviews.

Ming Jing stood in the center of the stage with Yu Shuang and soon heard the first question she asked.

The first question, as usual, was about Mingjing's feelings about the victory.

"Of course I'm quite happy to win," Ming Jing said with a smile. "This is actually my first time playing a best-of-three match. I can only say that it felt pretty good and quite easy."

In the past six months since Mingjing debuted, he has either played tense and exciting BO1 matches with little room for error, or he has played long BO5 matches where every point is crucial and the battle goes down to the last moment.

After playing it so many times, I even felt a little uncomfortable.

After winning two games, Ming Jing instinctively headed backstage, thinking there was still one more game to play.

After his teammates reminded him that the match was over, Ming Jing felt relieved.

The BO3 format is indeed much easier.

The season is just the right length, and the intensity of the regular season is also low.

However, Mingjing's words were interpreted differently by some who were paying attention. [Translation: Xiaofei thinks Top Esports is too unfair, playing without pressure.]

[Does this even need translation? What else can we do?]

[That's true. Just half a month ago, Xiaofei was killing DK in Iceland. What difficulty could he possibly have against Top Esports after coming back?]

Yu Shuang smiled and asked her second question: "Today is also Phi's first appearance in the Summer Split, right? So, as usual, what are your goals for the Summer Split?"

"My goal for the Summer Split?" Ming Jing thought for a moment and said, "I'm just one Summer Split FMVP away from achieving a grand slam of FMVP awards. So I'll try my best to win one."

Mingjing is still quite confident because he genuinely believes that EDG is very strong.

As soon as these words were spoken, the screen was flooded with comments, with "crazy" and "explosive" filling the screen.

The interview session ended there. When Mingjing handed back the microphone and returned backstage, he saw that his teammates were already preparing to leave and were planning to have a big meal.

Ming Jing quickly packed his backpack and boarded a bus heading towards Lingshi Road.

Sitting in the car, Mingjing habitually took out his phone.

After every Top Esports match, the Anti-Basketball Forum is an indispensable part of the discussion.

In terms of traffic and number of fans, Top Esports is not inferior to EDG.

In terms of the number of haters, Top Esports is far ahead!
At this time, the competition had just ended, and the Anti-Japanese Bar was at the peak of discussion, with countless posts emerging.

[Just arrived. Who was giving their all today, who was making mistakes, and whose play wasn't team-oriented?]

[Is that even a question? Wasn't today's game purely about the mid-lane difference?]

Even on a sunny day, things aren't clean; Top Esports hasn't won a single game since he started playing!

[Does Pizza really play well? I think he's getting old and can't keep up with the pace of the game anymore. They should replace him with a different jungler soon.]

It's just another classic case of teammates being inexperienced and inexperienced.

There are always posts like this after every Top Esports game.

Of course, the efforts of the haters were also indispensable.

[That's enough, upstairs. What's the harm in changing your teammates? Why not just give you three Xiaofei guys to fill your top, mid, and jungle positions?]

[Last year, when the bot lane got crushed in the semifinals, the blame was placed on the mid laner for being invisible and not carrying. This year, the mid laner wasn't crushed either, so why isn't the bot lane carrying? So, it's always the mid laner's fault anyway?]

I tried my best, but my teammates are terrible.

[Exactly, if I, Shui, went to EDG to play AD, wouldn't I be winning championships hand and foot?]

My grandma and Xiaofei can win a championship together.

Ming Jing couldn't help but laugh as he looked at the heated discussion thread in front of him.

That's why he likes to browse Tieba (a Chinese online forum) after Top Esports matches.

Win or lose, it's all fun.

Mingjing refreshed the page and quickly found the rating post again.

In the rating thread, in addition to the usual praise for the winners and criticism for the losers, the forum users have also opened up a second battlefield, where water ghosts and water haters are fighting back and forth!

Mingjing slowly read through the entire article before returning to the homepage to continue browsing.

At this time, there were still many posts discussing the two teams' prospects in the Summer Split.

With a 0-4 start, Top Esports is seen by fans as no different from a maggot, with no future prospects. It would be a success if they don't get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

But EDG is worth talking about.

It's worth noting that during the Spring Split, even before Mingjing returned, EDG still achieved an excellent second-place finish in the regular season.

Now that Mingjing has returned, EDG's momentum is terrifying. Forget about being number one in the regular season, some fans even believe that EDG has the ability to win the entire regular season!
After all, EDG had achieved something similar before.

In the 2016 Summer Split, led by his cousin Mingkai, EDG achieved a sixteen-game winning streak in the regular season and subsequently won the Summer Championship.

If my older cousin could do it, then my younger cousin certainly can too!
The regular season will continue for the remainder of the season.

In order to give the MSI teams enough rest time, the league did not schedule any matches for EDG in the first week.

However, the number of matches to be played has not decreased, so the subsequent schedule will naturally be even more intensive.

After just one day of rest, EDG is off to war again, facing off against Suzhou LNG.

This year's LNG team actually has a pretty good roster. Tarzan, who came from GRF like Viper and also joined the LPL in the same year, has delivered an outstanding performance at a smurf level.

Under his leadership, even the mid-laner Leng Shao, who had been dormant for many years, delivered the best performance of his career, holding his own against top mid-laners from all walks of life!
This time, they even chose to ban the mid-jungle duo of Yasuo and Diana instead of Yasuo, seemingly intending to go toe-to-toe with EDG.

But once Ming Jing makes a move, you can tell whether he's capable or not.

As the first person to come up with the Yasuo-Diana combo, Mingjing certainly had ways to deal with it.

He still chose to pull out the Broken King, resorting to violence to combat violence.

With Blade of the Ruined King's 600-yard Q and 225-yard attack range, Cold was completely unable to fight back and entered tower defense mode early on.

This is also why Mingjing has been focusing on roaming lately, and the heroes he has chosen generally lack the ability to solo kill in lane.

If he pulls out a crocodile, Leng Shao will definitely have to lane against the second tower!

But he managed to stay calm, while his teammates suffered.

Mingjing's Foygo and Jiejie's Prince roamed around, first crushing Ale, then going to the bottom lane to withdraw gold, all with ease!

In just ten minutes, EDG released the Herald and destroyed LNG's bottom lane tower, extending their gold lead to over 4,000.

Mingjing and Viper once again became unstoppable farmed targets, and under EDG's tight tactics, LNG's Diana and Yasuo duo never found a suitable opportunity to initiate team fights.

They then pushed straight through, ending the game in twenty-five minutes.

The second game was more eventful this time, with LNG focusing heavily on the mid lane.

This targeted attack was indeed effective; Mingjing was repeatedly targeted by the jungler and support, leaving him unable to make any plays.

Furthermore, Flandre made a fatal mistake in the top lane, getting chased down and solo killed by Ale's Jax.

LNG reacted very quickly, rapidly expanding their advantage in the top lane and taking the Rift Herald and the first tower!
Judging from the current situation, it feels like the ball is about to snowball and they're about to turn the tide!

However, the EDG players remained calm, steadily withstanding the pressure and using their consistent operational skills to try to exchange resources and find opportunities to turn the tide.

And soon, the opportunity came.

At 31 minutes, during the Dragon Soul team fight, Ale found a good opportunity to flank, and the Weapon Master jumped into the team fight with his fan on.

But EDG reacted quickly. Flandre decisively sacrificed himself to block LNG's front line, while his four teammates turned around to deal with Jax!

The two top laners ended up trading one for one, but compared to Flandre, who had been caught and was no longer worth much, Ale was much more valuable!
The two sides then engaged in a thrilling 4v4 battle, with Mingjing's Lucian dominating the battlefield, gliding back and forth in the formation and freely maneuvering, ultimately securing a beautiful two-for-five exchange and taking control of both the small dragon and the baron!
It can only be said that Ale made them and broke them. After taking down the Baron, EDG caught up in gold, and then won the game in one fell swoop with a devastating final team fight!
Another 2-0 score, EDG's winning streak continues!
These two matches were among the few tough battles EDG faced in the first half of the season.

The opponents in the following matches are mostly teams ranked lower in the Spring Split, so the pressure will be even less.

The subsequent matches were basically all in this style.

During the regular season, the team mainly focused on experimentation and practice. Of course, there were bound to be times when they messed up, and sometimes they even lost a game because they played too much.

But this is the limit that EDG can tolerate. As soon as they lose a game, they will immediately get serious and use their strong skills to crush their opponents!
As match after match went by, the regular season quickly passed the halfway mark, and EDG's record reached an undefeated 7-0!

However, the team is not ranked first, but is currently ranked second.

They're not the only teams maintaining an undefeated record.

Since the start of the Summer Split, the mid lane has been dominated by Lee Sin and Foljerk fighters, which has clearly put Doinb in his comfort zone. As a result, FPX's strength has increased, and they remain undefeated.

Moreover, because they played an extra week of matches, they are currently holding the top spot with an 8-0 record!
It's a case of rivals meeting on a narrow road; it's clear that neither team will be able to maintain their undefeated record until the end.

The time has come to September 7th.

The two teams finally met head-on.

The battle for the top spot in the regular season has begun in earnest!
(End of this chapter)