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

Chapter 215 Phi! It's him again!

As EDG secured the Rift Herald, Tabe, backstage at RNG, slumped into a chair.

He knew this was going to be very difficult.

Some matches end after eight minutes, but the game doesn't end until thirty minutes later.

With the collapse of RNG's vanguard plan, the hopes of engaging in direct confrontations, gaining an advantage, and influencing teammates have all become distant dreams.

Xiaohu couldn't benefit from the economic advantages brought by the Vanguard. The kills he got from tower diving were simply not enough to give him enough dominance over Flandre. He struggled to even clear the top lane, let alone influence the bottom half of the map.

In contrast, EDG's rhythm was completely unaffected in this game, and they even secured the first dragon at five minutes, making it even smoother than the previous game.

With the balance of power shifting, even though the situation may appear relatively balanced, the gap between the two sides is actually enormous.

EDG just needs to play it safe and play it safe, use the Rift Herald to expand their advantage in the bottom half of the map, and then steadily control the dragons. Victory will be a piece of cake!

And that's exactly what EDG did.

This vanguard wasn't even properly used by JieJie before being released in the bottom lane.

RNG's bot lane duo was barely holding their own in lane thanks to their long-range abilities, but the Rift Herald's impact caused the tower to lose most of its health. Moreover, with EDG's mid and jungle constantly roaming the bottom side of the map, it was only a matter of time before they lost a tower.

When the time reached 11 minutes, EDG grouped up four players and pushed down RNG's bottom lane tower in one fell swoop. They then moved to the dragon pit, guarded the dragon's spawn, and secured another dragon!
At this pace, RNG will face the pressure of the Dragon Soul around the 20-minute mark.

If we really get to that stage, then it's really impossible to play anymore.

The pressure from the Dragon Soul will force RNG to group up head-on, while EDG can pull them apart however they want.

Therefore, RNG had to start fighting hard early, and at 16 minutes, when the third dragon spawned, they went to the bottom river to engage in a team fight.

Instead of betting on a miracle team, it's better to start betting around the 20-minute mark. That way, if you win, you'll have more room for error.

At this point, Xiaohu's economic lead was still not significant enough; he only had one and a half items, not much better than Flandre.

"But the problem is, Aphelios at this stage is far inferior to Kai'Sa!" Miller, watching the situation on both sides, said from the commentary booth, "It will be very difficult for RNG to win the team fight!"

Considering the lineups of both sides and the economic gap, for RNG to win the team fight, Xiaohu's Gnar and Cryin's Galio must deliver a high-level synergy.

If Gnar doesn't get two or three shots, winning the team fight is just wishful thinking!

"Can you close the account?!" The doll's tone was filled with anticipation: "It all depends on your group buying!"

Xiaohu's rage control was still textbook perfect. With 95 rage, Gnar's mere presence was enough to intimidate everyone!

As Xiaolong's health dwindled, both teams unconsciously tightened their formations around him.

The moment their health dropped to the point where both sides could execute them with Smite, both junglers entered the fray simultaneously, and a beam of Smite light crashed down!
"The Blue Legion has seized the Mountain Dragon!"

Wei timed his Smite perfectly, and Lee Sin's kill threshold was indeed higher, allowing him to forcefully steal the Earth Dragon from JieJie!
However, a team fight was inevitable!
Saint Gun's Ornn brought the team fight to a fever pitch.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xiaohu used his fully enraged Gnar to stomp on his teammate Lee Sin's head with an E, and transformed into a giant beast form in mid-air while performing a double jump!
However, there's a little trick to Gnar's E skill: you can't use R in mid-air while he's stomping on a teammate's head to make it bigger.

You must hit an enemy unit to launch a powerful attack in mid-air and unleash the "Buddha's Palm" technique.

In situations like this, you have to wait until Gnar lands after his second jump before you can unleash your ultimate.

This level of team fight initiation poses no threat to EDG at all.

Ming Jing's exceptional vision in team fights allowed him to spot Gnar's mistake immediately. Without hesitation, he decisively moved the mouse and unleashed his ultimate ability, Devastating Shot!

Gnar hadn't even landed when Tristana used her ultimate to send him back!

The team fight has ended.

With Mingjing's ultimate move, RNG's crucial chance to win was aborted, and naturally, they lost any chance of winning the team fight.

"Boom!!!"

Ornn used his ultimate to knock up four people, and Tristana and Kai'Sa, the two marksmen, entered the fray at the same time, and the two sides clashed in close combat!

RNG's fighting strength is not weak either. Aphelios, with the support of Lulu's ultimate, is also a decent fighter. With the help of his teammates' damage, he still managed to kill JieJie's Xin Zhao.

But that's about it.

When Tristana and Kai'Sa used their abilities to fly into Aphelios's face at the same time, Aphelios didn't even survive a single exchange before being focused down and killed!

Mingjing jumped again with W, and together with his teammates, killed Lulu, changing the outcome of the team fight to a one-for-four exchange, before finally leaving satisfied with a W!

If we had secured the dragon in this wave, it would have been a decisive victory, but unfortunately, we couldn't.

At this moment, Jie Jie was also saying "my, my" in the voice message, blaming himself for his failure in the penalty shootout.

He failed to secure the dragon and even died in this fight; he definitely didn't play well.

"It's nothing. It's just an earth dragon, it's not important." Ming Jing laughed, "Just lure the enemy into a team fight, and if they come, we'll collapse."

Going forward, EDG will continue with their strategy of not engaging in team fights except around the dragon pit, and will try to only engage in 5v5 team fights where they have a significant advantage. They are confident that they can win these team fights.

RNG's approach is completely different. They don't want to engage in head-on team fights; they prefer to gank the side lanes and engage in skirmishes in the jungle.

Only under these circumstances can a population disparity be created, thereby bridging the economic gap between the two sides.

But EDG was extremely disciplined, giving RNG no chance whatsoever, steadily developing and maintaining their advantage, while RNG's most raids missed!
At the 19-minute mark, RNG finally made a breakthrough, taking a different approach and launching a surprise attack in the mid lane.

Wei's Lee Sin flanks sporadically, emerging from the F6 camp with a ward and flashing to kick Viper's Kai'Sa into his teammate's face!

Viper could have easily escaped using his ultimate and Flash, but Mingjing repeatedly told him in the voice chat that he must preserve the fighting strength for the dragon team, so he chose to submit and wait to die.

Anyway, they won't lose out.

The camera cuts to the top lane, where Mingjing's Tristana uses Rocket Jump to jump directly into Xiaohu's Gnar's face!

Can a small cannon beat Gnar at this stage? The answer is definitely yes.

With his economic advantage, Ming Jing has already crafted his second large armor penetrating item!
With the Gale Force in hand, Little Cannon's combat power is undoubtedly the best in the entire game!
He charged in and unleashed a burst of explosive sparks, then refreshed his W and chased again, finally using Whirlwind to close the gap and finishing with two basic attacks, leaving Xiaohu lying dead on the spot!

"Another solo kill!" Miller's voice was particularly exaggerated. "My God! Xiao Fei is absolutely insane this game!"

"Moreover, after Brother Fei kills someone, he can directly push down a tower!"

Fun fact: defensive towers benefit from armor penetration, so high armor penetration provides the greatest boost to tower-pushing efficiency.

Therefore, Mingjing specifically crafted Lord Dominic's Greeting as his second item, maximizing his tower-pushing efficiency. With an economic advantage, taking down a tower was just a matter of one [Explosive Spark].

RNG killed Viper and took down the mid-lane tower, but Mingjing responded by getting a solo kill and pushing the tower, ensuring they didn't lose out.

Despite managing to gain an advantage, they failed to narrow the gap, leaving the RNG players somewhat frustrated.

This left the RNG members somewhat helpless. Phi! It's him again!

This person is really too troublesome right now!

Even the Spring Split wasn't this difficult!

The most terrifying thing about Ming Jing is that although he has become the strongest in the world, he is still far from being the complete master.

During the Spring Split, RNG was able to compete with EDG by relying on their tactical advantage, and even managed to steal a game.

However, when they faced off again in the Summer Split, RNG's tactics were no longer effective.

Mingjing's awareness and overall perspective have undergone tremendous evolution compared to the Spring Season!

Every time RNG thought their attacks and initiations were clever, Mingjing would single-handedly wipe them out!
With you pulling and I tugging, time has come to Xiaolongtuan again.

At this point, the clock had reached 21 minutes, and EDG's economic lead had reached 4,000.

With a huge economic advantage, EDG undoubtedly achieved a great victory, widening the economic gap to 6,000 while completing the process of getting the Earth Dragon Soul!

At this stage, EDG can play however they want.

Twenty-six minutes later, another earth dragon spawned.

Under immense pressure, RNG had no choice but to prepare for a do-or-die situation at the Dragon Pit.

But EDG won't fight you at all; they'll just take the dragon if you want it.

While pushing the bottom lane, Mingjing saw RNG grouping up at the Dragon pit. He quickly told his teammates to switch lanes to the river, while he pushed the minion wave all the way to the second tower. After RNG started to gank, he used his W to jump into the bush and teleported directly to the Dragon pit!
RNG surrounded the enemy, but only managed to catch nothing. Only then did they realize that EDG's five players had already focused their fire on Baron Nashor!

"But it's too late! The two archers are too fast at taking down the dragon! Wei simply can't get there in time!"

The dragon's health bar plummeted like an avalanche, and this time, without any suspense, it was easily taken down by JieJie with a single Smite!
With the Baron buff, EDG's 41-point split push became increasingly powerful.

When the clock reached 31 minutes and another dragon spawned, EDG had already destroyed all of RNG's outer towers and extended their economic lead to 10,000.

This time, RNG was no longer in contention for the dragon, and EDG easily secured the Earth Dragon Soul.

That's the power of operations: effortlessly dissolving the competition without firing a single shot.

With a 10,000 gold lead and the Earth Dragon Soul, it's time to end the game.

After winning the Dragon Soul team fight, EDG still managed to control the Baron Nashor thanks to the DPS of their two marksmen. They then returned to base to regroup and ended the second game!

"Two to zero!" Miller exclaimed excitedly from the commentary booth. "Congratulations to EDG! They've won the second game in a row! They're just one game away from the series victory, the year-end finals, and a ticket to the World Championship!"

Miller is a well-known fan of EDG. Like countless other fans, he was once lost because of EDG's decline and became a fan of other teams.

But now that EDG has entered its 2.0 era of dominance, veteran players like Miller will naturally be resurrected without hesitation!
Judging from his excitement, anyone who didn't know better would think RNG was a team from another region.

It's hard to imagine that a top-tier esports team like RNG would ever fall behind in terms of fan support.

At this moment, the live stream chat rooms were flooded with comments.

[Is EDG playing with such high spirits today? They seem several times stronger than they were against LNG last time!]

[I told you so, it was just a clean 3-0 victory. Surely no one actually thought RNG could win?]

【Take it! 】

[It's hard to say about other things, but EDG is definitely a good father to RNG; it's an ancient bloodline of mutual restraint!]

[Haha, really! Do you even understand the value of being arrested at both levels?]

[It might not be EDG's superior skill level against RNG; RNG did beat them in S8 and S9. I suspect it's EDG's superior skill level against RNG.]

[That's true, when the two players from Lao Ming's team were starting, they never lost to RNG.]

The camera was focused on the EDG players' bench, where Mingjing drank the water in his cup in one gulp, then grabbed the cup with one hand and got up to leave.

Behind him, four teammates quickly followed, looking very imposing.

"Mingjing, that was awesome!" Jie Jie exclaimed, giving a thumbs-up. "This game was crucial!"

The key to winning this game so easily was Ming Jing's solo kill in the vanguard team fight, which completely threw the overall situation off balance.

The second key point is Mingjing's mid-game solo push.

It was Tristana's split pushing that kept RNG on the run, unable to find any good opportunities. Even when they managed to get a kill, Tristana would quickly stop the damage!
With this kind of performance, it doesn't matter how his four teammates perform.

As long as you don't feed too much, even a small cannon can guarantee a win!

"Wow, Mingjing's really into it today!" Meiko exclaimed from behind. "Is he upset because he didn't get MVP against LNG?"

Ming Jing's performance with Galio was already phenomenal, and he undeniably won the MVP award.

In this game, he once again displayed absolute dominance, clearly making him a MVP contender!

Ming Jing laughed when he heard this, "It's not that bad."

Ming Jing certainly wouldn't fight to the death for an MVP award; he's already won so many FMVP awards that he's practically overwhelmed.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the playing style.

In the previous match against LNG, Mingjing focused more on suppressing icon. Although he did manage to completely shut icon down, his overall influence on the game was weakened as a result. In addition, his teammates also performed exceptionally well, resulting in Mingjing failing to win any MVP awards.

In this round, firstly, Mingjing didn't face much pressure laning against Cryin, and secondly, his teammates in both the top and bottom lanes were caught out quite badly, so Mingjing's performance naturally stood out.

Back at the backstage lounge entrance, they saw that Maokai, the factory manager, and others had been waiting at the door for a long time, lining the way to welcome the triumphant EDG members.

"This game's rhythm was perfect!" Maokai gave Mingjing a thumbs up. "Keep this up, we can't lose!"

Maokai was naturally extremely satisfied with Mingjing.

If Scout could also dominate Icon in the laning phase in the previous round, given that Scout is known for his laning prowess, then dominating Icon would be to be expected.

That level of overall control in this round is something Scout could never achieve!

That's what you call comprehensive!
Ming Jing smiled and nodded, everything was under control.

At that moment, the TV screen also switched to show the MVP of the game.

EDG.Phi
KDA:5-0-5
Damage percentage: 34.4%
Corresponding economic difference: 4936!

Number of MVPs: 20 (2)

(End of this chapter)