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

Chapter 211 Mingjing's Galio is a bit like me

After a grueling five-game series, RNG finally won the match. The five RNG players stood up and celebrated with smiles on their faces.

RNG's journey in this summer split has not been smooth.

After all, they were only formed this year. During the Spring Split, they were a team of one-trick ponies who only had that one set of playstyles.

Moreover, their players don't have the same frightening adaptability as Mingjing. Cryin also experienced some difficulties adapting to the Warrior version in the Summer Split.

It was precisely under these internal and external troubles that RNG members changed and grew at the same time. They not only added more playstyle possibilities while maintaining the strength of their original playstyle, but also the mid laner Cryin quickly expanded his hero pool, bringing heroes such as Renekton, Nocturne, Twisted Fate, and Ryze to the field one after another.

The crew not only gradually filled the holes in the bottom of the ship, but also gradually reinforced the hull, and it quickly grew into a huge aircraft carrier!

This BO5 victory is the best reward for their hard work!
Therefore, in the post-match interview, Xiaohu made a bold statement, expressing his full confidence in the upcoming winners' bracket final and that he would definitely work hard to win.

This scene drew cheers from countless fans.

EDG's strength is undeniable. Regardless of whether we can win or not, it's always a good thing to dare to challenge EDG!
Meanwhile, inside the EDG training room.

Everyone witnessed the entire battle, and their faces were all somewhat serious.

FPX didn't make any major mistakes today, sticking to their best playstyle, and their draft picks were also fine.

However, they were still defeated by RNG in a head-on confrontation.

RNG's training and growth during the Summer Split have been witnessed by everyone.

Now, they seem to have finally found the right path and have a real chance to compete for the championship.

"Keep yourselves focused, brothers," Maokai reminded them from the front. "If we make a mistake, we'll really lose."

“But all we need to do is focus,” his cousin Mingkai said with a smile. “You guys are stronger, so there’s no need to feel too much pressure.”

The EDG members smiled and nodded, agreeing with their cousin's words.

RNG's biggest weakness is that their mid laner's ID isn't Phi.

"."

After the two semifinal matches of the winners' bracket were completed, the entire LPL team took a three-day break until August 26th, when the semifinal matches of the losers' bracket kicked off first.

The two teams that lost in the loser's bracket—LNG and FPX—will face off in a do-or-die battle.

In the live stream, countless viewers flocked in to watch this crucial match where no resurrection item was available.

The LPL playoffs are still quite unpredictable. Although LNG lost to EDG, this loss doesn't necessarily mean anything. LNG's true strength can only be determined after they play against other strong teams.

Therefore, the current match is the best subject of observation.

FPX and RNG are relatively evenly matched, so watching this match will give you a sense of where LNG stands compared to the other two teams.

The competition began at 5 p.m.

Without any resurrection items, both teams were full of fighting spirit.

This fighting spirit was quickly reflected in the match result.

The two teams seemed to be evenly matched, and the battle was fierce with back-and-forth exchanges. The first game was intense!
Although FPX, on the blue side, won the first game, LNG quickly caught up in the second game!
The plot of this match was remarkably similar to the previous one, with the two teams battling back and forth, fighting until the fifth game, when the battle anthem was played.

Unfortunately, this time it's the real Blue Alliance making their move.

In the fifth game, FPX prevailed, winning a narrow victory after a grueling 40-minute battle.

After watching this match, countless viewers were left with something to think about, and their perception of LNG truly changed.

LNG's previous three BO5 wins lacked substance, so their loss to EDG was somewhat understandable; it didn't really reveal anything significant.

Only the current match against FPX is truly meaningful for comparison.

Although LNG still lost the game, it's easy to see that LNG really has something special.

The current LPL is quite interesting.

Next, we'll see how the winners' bracket final goes.

The night passed, and it was August 27nd.

In the winners' bracket final, EDG will face off against RNG.

At 4 p.m., an hour before the start of the competition, Ming Jing followed the team through the pre-match checks and took his seat in the rest room.

At this moment, Flandre was still complaining about Maokai's bad hands.

"Seriously, what kind of luck do you have? You can't even win a single coin toss?" Flandre exclaimed helplessly. "Losing every single time?"

In the half year since joining EDG, the team has done quite a few coin tosses, but Flandre doesn't seem to have any recollection of winning with Maokai.

It's worth noting that in the last two BO5 matches in the LPL, which totaled ten games, the blue side won nine of them.

When the two teams are evenly matched, the difference between red and blue can very well be the key factor in determining the outcome!
"That's just awkward criticism," Maokai corrected from the side. "Didn't we win the MSI finals?"

"And then?" Meiko pressed, "Anything else?"

"Uh..." Maokai broke out in a cold sweat before saying, "Wasn't winning the MSI finals enough? This is called winning only the crucial games, do you understand?"

"OK, OK." The EDG members didn't say much more about it.

Of course, everyone was just joking when they said that.

In fact, EDG doesn't care whether they take the blue buff or the red buff.

Because of Mingjing's presence, EDG's utilization rate of the red side's counter picks is outrageous, and the blue alliance's rule does not apply to them.

Just go for it!

"."

At this moment, in the stadium, the three commentators—Wawa, Miller, and Rita—were ready and were analyzing the outcome of the match based on the data provided by the director.

"But this data..." Wawa looked at the data and couldn't help but cross her arms and laugh, "It doesn't really make sense. EDG just won by too many goals."

Team strength affects win rate, and win rate affects team statistics.

EDG won all their regular season games and dominated all three playoff games, their statistics are simply outrageous!
RNG's stats are actually quite average. Their first blood rate, first dragon rate, and team KD are all not impressive, ranking around tenth in the league.

Only the Vanguard Lane and the first tower rate are relatively outstanding. After all, RNG still mainly relies on the top and jungle duo, and these two have always been key resources that they strive to compete for.

Even with these two statistics, they can only rank second in the league.

EDG is still number one.

This makes it easy to see the data gap between the two sides.

"Haha, so dirty!" On the Douyu platform, Ya Shungao was lying on a chair, marveling at EDG's data. "How did they calculate this 0.99 level of gore? It's almost twice as high as RNG's!"

"It seems to be kills plus deaths divided by time," Zoom said from the side. "EDG's pace in the summer split is indeed quite fast, with a lot of kills and deaths, all from fighting."

"That's truly amazing." Kanavi's tone was tinged with disbelief. "How can someone fight so fiercely and keep winning?"

The most reliable way to maintain a winning streak is through strategic management.

Fighting is inherently unpredictable; one wrong move by any player could lead to total defeat. The best approach is to employ a steady, strategic approach that eliminates all uncertainty.

That's what EDG did in S6.

The fact that EDG, a team that fights fiercely and wins every game, is somewhat shocking to Kanavi's worldview.

Also watching the game was Song Xuan, who was at home during the summer vacation.

She wasn't too worried about the match. After all, she had been communicating with Ming Jing and knew his current condition.

Even before arriving at the venue, Ming Jing spent two hours doing math problems before boarding the bus with the team to prepare for the battle.
Emphasize a relaxed state.

On Song Xuan's tablet, Ming Jing's solution process was being displayed. Although the process was a bit hasty and some steps were skipped, resulting in a less-than-perfect and neat paper, it had all the necessary points and no major flaws.

This was a final problem at the IMO level, and Mingjing not only solved it, but also in just two hours, which is quite satisfactory.

With Mingjing's current abilities, he could easily represent the country at the IMO.

Of course, Mingjing believes that this is far from enough.

After all, Mingjing's competition schedule for this year is not over yet. When the world competition stage arrives, Mingjing will inevitably have a period of time without time to practice problems, which will lead to a decline in his performance.

Ming Jing wants to be among the top six in the country by the end of the year to participate in the IMO. He needs to go even further and leave himself some room for improvement.

Mingjing is like that; he always leaves himself a lot of leeway to increase his margin for error.

The same applies to the game.

Ming Jing is a genius destined to become the greatest in history, and an ordinary winners' bracket final is certainly no match for him.

At the call of host Liu Hang, the players from both sides took to the stage one after another, and the draft phase began quickly!
"Alright, the match has begun! This is a rematch of the Spring Split Finals! According to our information, RNG won the pre-match coin toss, so they have the first choice of side in the first game, and unsurprisingly, they chose the blue side! Let's see the draft picks for both sides!"

In the first round of bans, both sides made rapid progress.

RNG, on the blue side, quickly banned Syndra, Irelia, and Kalista.

On the other side, EDG banned Lucian, Twisted Fate, and Ryze.

Upon seeing this ban, the JDG members frowned slightly.

RNG mainly bans heroes that are strong in the current version, while EDG focuses on banning heroes that are particularly strong in the current version.

This shows that RNG actually faces very little pressure in the draft phase, and even has time to ban lanes.

This is the combined effect of version changes and the individual skill of RNG players.

Mingjing's four signature champions, Lucian, Akali, Irelia, and Lee Sin, were both rendered useless by the current meta. RNG also picked Lucian, which meant they only needed to deal with Irelia, significantly reducing their draft pressure.

On the other hand, EDG, under pressure from the red side, had to ban Lucian themselves.

When has Mingjing ever suffered such an injustice?
Moreover, RNG's draft strategy is still ongoing.

They didn't rush to choose a mid laner, but first locked in Xin Zhao, Aphelios, and Leona for the bottom lane and jungle. Then, after banning Renekton and Diana in the second round, they finally locked in Kennen and Malzahar.

There's no need to ban Renekton if you're picking Kennen, and banning Diana is to limit the mid-jungle duo of Yasuo and Diana.

Then lock in a disgusting grasshopper.

Almost every move limits the options available to the mid laner.

"Mingjing practically has no heroes left to pick; Malzahar is just too overpowered." Zoom looked at the screen, pondered for a moment, and then asked, "Brother Gao, do you have any ideas?"

Toothpaste pondered for a moment, "It's alright. If EDG has Gwen in the top lane, they can also pick an AD mid laner. It depends on Mingjing's champion pool. If all else fails, they can pick a long-range AD to farm. There shouldn't be any problem."

The decision was made as soon as the words were spoken.

Long-range AD carries can be selected, but it's not necessary.

Mingjing was indeed a bit afraid of Malzahar during the Spring Split. He only managed to win by playing Viktor and making two incredible plays that interrupted Malzahar's ultimate.

But now, he's not afraid anymore.

Galio, lock on!

With that, the lineups for both sides are finalized!
RNG (Blue Side): Top lane Kennen, Jungle Xin Zhao, Mid lane Malzahar, Bot lane Aphelios and Leona.

Red side EDG: Top laner Gwent, jungler Jarvan IV, mid laner Galio, bot lane Ezreal and Karma.

"That Galio pick was really good!" Toothpaste couldn't help but praise, looking at both teams' lineups: "He completely countered several of the enemy players!"

Whether it's Kennen, Malzahar, or Aphelios who lacks mobility, they are all heroes who are very afraid of Galio.

Mingjing's hero pick was a direct hit on RNG's Achilles' heel!

As long as Galio performs well, there is no chance of losing this game.

However, now a problem arises.

Ming Jing has never picked Galio in his professional career, so his proficiency with the champion remains a question mark.

Fortunately, Mingjing's strength as a mid-lane warrior is undeniable, and Galio's mechanics are not significantly different, so there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

As Maokai and Tabe shook hands in the center of the stage, the first game officially began!
EDG actually had a very strong level 1 strength this time, but the team didn't seem to have any specific strategies for level 1.

The main reason is that EDG had a clear advantage in the bottom lane matchup this game, and they only needed to wait for Galio to get going. There was no need for a level 1 invasion, as it would only increase the uncertainty.

The camera pans to the mid lane, where the early levels for both mid laners are relatively peaceful.

After all, one is a grasshopper and the other is Galio; neither can defeat the other.

However, Ming Jing's individual ability remains outstanding. He repeatedly hits the grasshopper with his Q [Righteous Gale], breaking its passive ability.

Without his passive shield, Galio's crowd control became a threat to Malzahar, forcing Cryin to retreat and defend.

Meanwhile, Mingjing took this opportunity to help Jie Jie control the two river crabs.

Seeing that JieJie was already leading by eight points in the first round, the JDG members nodded.

"Okay, take it slow like this!" Toothpaste said with an appreciative look. "I feel that Mingjing's Galio is a bit like mine."

Upon hearing what the toothpaste said, several teammates immediately couldn't hold back.

"Huh?" Zoom asked with a laugh, "Does it really look like it?"

"Yes, I did." Toothpaste was quite frank: "Last year, didn't I always fly to the bot lane with Galio? Mingjing must have been influenced by me."

JDG teammates had countless questions, but considering that it might be hurtful, they ultimately reduced all their words to a single "Indeed."

Everyone realized that this was absolutely nonsense.

Galio is a hero who relies heavily on seizing opportunities.

Mingjing's ability to seize opportunities is completely different from Yagao's, which means their Galio playstyles are worlds apart.

Just thirty seconds later, Ming Jing proved this point.

At 4 minutes and 30 seconds, JieJie crouched down in the middle lane bush just as Cryin's fake ward disappeared.

At this point, Cryin's passive ability, the grasshopper, had been broken by Mingjing, giving him a chance to take the initiative.

"I've arrived, can I drive now?"

"can."

Ming Jing's words were concise and to the point, and his actions were swift and decisive.

Galio decisively used Flash and countered with his E.

Mingjing quickly moved the mouse to release the skill, and Galio flashed and backstepped almost instantly, getting right up to Malzahar's face!

Cryin was startled and immediately tried to dodge, but he was a step too slow and was knocked away by Galio's close-range punch!

Seeing this, JieJie didn't hesitate at all. The prince flashed and used EQ to follow up!
Mingjing launched an A followed by a Q, then took advantage of the knock-up to follow up with a fully charged W to taunt, and finally relied on the passive refresh to deliver a heavy hammer!
The grasshopper, whose health was already low, obviously couldn't withstand this combo and was sent back to the fountain by Galio's punch!

(End of this chapter)