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

Chapter 219 Some matches can't be won just by being good at roaming.
The day after the defeat, the EDG team, along with several other teams that made it to the top six, arrived at the high-speed rail station and took the same train to Hangzhou.

Upon entering the waiting room of the high-speed rail station, Ming Jing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although it's already late August, it's still quite hot; you'll be covered in sweat after just a few steps.

Aside from the final battle between the two teams that have already secured their spots in the World Championship, the remaining four teams will have to compete for the last two places.

Inside the waiting room, Maokai was still working, exchanging information with the analyst team still at the base.

Just a few days ago, Riot Games officially released the update announcement for the World Championship version. According to Maokai, the changes are quite abstract, which angered Maokai so much that he couldn't help but curse a couple of times.
However, Ming Jing was too lazy to pay attention to these things, since the Summer Split hadn't ended yet and these version changes wouldn't affect him.

Everything will have to wait until the summer finals are over.

Of course, Ming Jing had anticipated this.

After all, the team's performance in the playoffs has proven enough that the previous nerfs had no impact on EDG at all.

Mingjing's champion pool is inexhaustible. Even after nerfing Lee Sin and Akali, there will still be countless Lee Sin and Akali champions to emerge.

To weaken Mingjing, we must address the environment directly by nerfing the mid-lane role, which would require a major overhaul at the season or mid-season level.

However, it is clear that with the World Championship approaching, the designers cannot make drastic changes to the environment, so they can only continue to nerf the strength of heroes.

Therefore, Mingjing even knew which heroes the designers were going to nerf.

It's nothing more than banning heroes like Lucian or Irelia.

Ming Jing glanced at the other teams in the waiting room and looked somewhat gloating.

Lucian was the first champion RNG played, and Irelia was the first champion FPX played; both were core picks for their respective teams.

If these two heroes are nerfed, can the two teams withstand it?

Mingjing wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that both teams looked rather grim.
As the whistle sounded, the bullet train slowly pulled into the station. Ming Jing sat comfortably in the business class seat, took out his phone, and started browsing Baidu Tieba.

The drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou is only forty minutes, making it the perfect time to browse Tieba (a Chinese online forum).

As the summer season draws to a close, the Anti-Japanese Bar is at its most popular, and upon clicking in, one can still see many people discussing yesterday's defeat.

I told you Guohuang wasn't good enough; I can't even remember what hero he played yesterday.

[Isn't this normal? If Guo Huang doesn't get killed in lane, that's already a success. How much impact can you expect him to have? That's unreasonable.]

[You're being a bit too harsh. Didn't Xiaohu feed like crazy yesterday? You could have easily caught him. Wei was practically running his legs off to the top lane, and they were still at a disadvantage.]

[It's fair to say that everyone has their flaws. GALA doesn't understand laning anymore, and he can't hold his own in team fights in the late game.]

[RNG is really generous, first sending EDG to Worlds, then sending FPX there too, will they send LNG to the qualifiers as well?]

[You're the guy who bought the tickets, huh? Hopefully, he won't make it to Worlds. What do you mean, "the end of Royal Never Give Up"?]

It's not that bad. RNG still has a decent floor; making it to Worlds shouldn't be a problem.

Surprisingly, the discussion was unusually peaceful. Even after winning the match, FPX supporters did not rush to criticize.

Based on Ming Jing's understanding of Kang Kang, this group is definitely not out of kindness and unwilling to fight; it's highly likely that they are afraid to fight because the finals are approaching.

If they go on a scoring spree here, and the home team gets crushed by EDG in the finals, then the Royal Never Give Up (RNG) fans will dig up their graves and launch a counterattack.
This time, Mingjing helped RNG avoid a disaster.

In addition, many people are also previewing the final four days later.

With EDG's undefeated record, the majority of supporters on Tieba are EDG, but there are also many veteran FPX supporters.

I'm tired of seeing EDG win the championship. Can't we let FPX win just this once?

[What nonsense is the person upstairs spouting? Whoever is better wins, right? Why are you suggesting so-and-so win?]

It's nothing but a fantasy of monkeys and their offspring before they even get second place.

You don't really think EDG can easily beat FPX, do you? FPX is really something else this patch.

Is there any explanation for this?

[Fun fact: LNG and RNG, who played five games against FPX, were both swept 3-0 by EDG]

[They only made it to the finals after playing three best-of-five series, with a barely 8-7 win rate, and then they had to try and take on EDG, who were 9-0. I didn't expect that.]

[I'm already waiting for Xiaofei to complete the FMVP Grand Slam, how about you?]

All I can say is that it's a miracle Big B didn't get beaten to a pulp.

Amidst much anticipation, the day finally arrived at September 2nd, the final day of the Summer Split.

Outside the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, spectators lined up early, with 10,000 people slowly entering through multiple entrances while ensuring safety.

China's control capabilities have always been quite good. Under the high-intensity control measures, the impact of masks has been temporarily suppressed. In fact, LPL could have resumed offline viewing long ago.

However, esports competitions are primarily held online, and the few hundred tickets sold offline don't generate much revenue, so the offline, no-audience model is still maintained.

Now that we've reached the finals, of course we have to make money off the ticket sales.

Song Xuan was in one of the queues when he had his ticket checked and entered the venue.

After waiting for a whole year, she finally got the chance to watch the game offline, and it wasn't far off, so of course she couldn't miss it.

She had the EDG team logo and a chibi-style image of Mingjing pasted on her left and right cheeks respectively, and held a light stick in each hand as she sat down in the front row.

At this point, it can be clearly seen that both players have already taken to the stage and are installing their respective peripherals.

Song Xuan spotted Ming Jing at a glance, chuckled, took out his phone, snapped a photo, and then moved the camera towards the audience to capture the scene.

At this point, most of the audience seats were already occupied.

Looking around, I saw that the vast majority of the audience were holding EDG support items, with black flags waving everywhere.

Only in a corner of the venue could a small number of FPX supporters be seen waving FPX phoenix flags.

Before long, all the audience members were seated, and it was exactly four o'clock in the afternoon.

The lights in the entire venue suddenly dimmed, and a ten-second countdown appeared on the water droplet screen hanging in the center of the venue, eliciting a tidal wave of cheers and a collective countdown from tens of thousands of spectators!

As the countdown reached one, rousing music began, and singers such as Aifugen and Xilinna Yigao took to the stage to perform at the opening ceremony.

After all the singing and dancing had stopped, today's host, Liu Hang, finally stepped onto the stage and announced in a deep voice: "After nearly three months of fierce competition, the 2021 Summer Tournament has finally come to an end! In the end, only two teams have stood out and are standing on today's stage!"

"Next, let's welcome our contestants to the stage!"

Liu Hang stretched out his right hand, extending his arm towards the left side of the stage.

"First, let's welcome the five players from FPX, the 2019 World Championship winners, to the stage! They are..."

"Top laner: Khan, Jungler: Tian, ​​Mid laner: Doinb, Bot laner: Lwx, Support: Crisp!"

Offstage, countless spectators erupted in applause. Even though EDG supporters still outnumbered FPX supporters, they didn't mind giving them a round of applause and cheers.

Regardless, this is the LPL champion team and deserves praise.

"And then, the 2021 Spring Split champions, the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational champions—EDG!!"

Top laner: Flandre!

The camera panned to Flandre's side, where he was seen raising his right hand in a pose reminiscent of Ultraman taking flight, which looked quite comical.

"Jungle: Jiejie!"

Zhao Lijie turned his body slightly to the side, extending his left index and middle fingers and placing them in front of his chest.

"Mid laner—Phhhhhi!"

The cheers from the audience erupted instantly!

Although he has only been in the industry for a year, Mingjing is now undoubtedly the top player in the LPL.

The director immediately switched the camera to Ming Jing, giving him a close-up.

The young man was fair-skinned and handsome. He raised his head slightly, stretched out his right hand, and pointed directly at the camera.

Because the fingertips were close to the camera, the fingers appeared magnified to some extent, which, combined with the boy's condescending gaze, created a sense of oppression.

This action is one of the promotional photos taken by Ming Jing at the beginning of the year. It is usually used in the MVP settlement interface. In addition, Ming Jing has won a lot of MVPs, so the audience is quite familiar with this action. Many people even jokingly call it the Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heaven Finger.

Seeing this, many viewers naturally understood that the EDG players were on stage just to create a show effect.

Everyone has to take action, right?
This was indeed suggested by Flandre during yesterday's rehearsal, and the EDG team was delighted and naturally wouldn't refuse.

"And then there's the AD carry player—Viper!"

Viper and Mingjing are about the same height and build; when they stand together, they are roughly equal in stature.

Park Do-hyun, with a tense face, made a lightning bolt move like Usain Bolt, and then stood still again.

His face remained tense throughout.

"Finally, the support—Meiko!"

Meiko probably has an idol image to maintain; he absolutely refused to do anything abstract on this stage watched by millions, so he just stood there with his arms crossed.

Host Liu Hang watched the EDG players' actions with a smile, and then continued, "Alright, both teams have entered the arena. Now, please take your seats and make your final pre-match preparations. The match is about to begin! Who will be crowned champion? Let's wait and see!"

While the contestants were getting ready to test their equipment, the director cut to the trash talk that had been prepared before the competition.

This time, the trash talk was a bit more elaborate. Instead of the usual alternating speaking format, it was held as a "press conference," where players from both teams would give each other a scathing interview before the match.

Right from the start, Meiko and Doinb began to compete, comparing how many times they had made it to the finals.

But it's obvious that Doinb has only reached the finals three times and won the championship once, while Meiko has reached the finals seven times and won six championships, so there's no comparison.

Meiko is quite dominant when it comes to winning league titles.

"As for FPX, I don't think there's anything we need to be careful about." Meiko continued to farm minions after his rampage: "Just relax, play normally, and the championship will be a piece of cake."

Saint Gun Bro also smiled leisurely and said, "I just celebrated my birthday a few days ago. I hope Xiao Tian, ​​Lin Weixiang, and Liu Qingsong can give me a belated birthday present. I don't need much, just a few kills from each of them will be enough."

Xiao Tian soon appeared on the field and spoke, but his words were all in telegraphic tone, which were obviously quite aggressive.

The two sides continued their verbal sparring, and the trash talk quickly came to an end.

Doinb, who was giving the summary for FPX, looked at the camera with a very serious expression: "The team's recent performance has been quite good, it feels like we've returned to 19. I hope we can do the same as in 19 and win all the championships we have now."

Ming Jing then appeared on screen and spoke candidly to the camera, saying, "Didn't the LPL have a small problem last time? They sent me the FMVP trophy, although they later swapped it back to me, but I don't think it was really necessary."

"The FMVP trophy was destined to be mine from the very beginning."

Ming Jing continued lazily, "Doinb is a fairly competent roaming mid laner, but some matches can't be won just by roaming. I hope that after today's match, you'll understand what a true roaming mid laner is."

That concludes the trash talk. As the camera cuts back to the live broadcast, the first round of ban/pick begins!
The commentator's voice also came in at the same time.

Now that we've reached the Summer Finals, the commentary lineup is naturally the highest caliber of the time: Guan Zeyuan, Miller, and Ji De.

With Wawa retiring from the front line of commentary, Guan Zeyuan, who has the ability to control the flow of the game, is becoming the top commentator and is now in the center position.

"Alright, the ban/pick phase has begun!" Guan Zeyuan announced loudly. "Because EDG is the winning team, they have a higher team order, so they also have the right to choose sides in the first game according to the rules. Now we can see that the first three bans for both sides have been completed!"

"On the blue side, EDG banned Galio, Foyer, and Aphelios! On the other side, FPX, on the red side, banned Irelia, Lucian, and Syndra! Hmm... it seems FPX is under a lot of pressure!"

"Yes!" Miller nodded emphatically. "After all, Irelia is usually banned by FPX's opponents, but now they have to ban her themselves! It just goes to show that the red side's draft is a bit difficult!"

"However, the red side also has its advantages." Remember added at the end: "At least FPX can give Doinb a stable second pick position. I think this counter position is still very important in the match between these two teams, after all, the strength or weakness of the mid laners on both sides directly determines the level of the two teams."

FPX did indeed do that.

After entering the champion selection phase, EDG immediately picked Lee Sin on the first pick, while FPX locked in Jayce and Varus on the first and second picks.

Maokai then locked in an Ezreal and Leona bot lane combination, and FPX responded by picking Braum.

After entering the second round of bans and picks, FPX banned LeBlanc and Tristana without hesitation, and locked in Xin Zhao as their jungler.

"As expected, they saved the mid lane for last." Maokai looked at FPX's four picks and said, "What do you mean, Mingjing? Should we just take it?"

It should be noted that Ming Jing researched quite a few hidden cards during his training as a hero.

Moreover, based on the version changes, these trump cards can still be used even in the World Championship.

If you're really bold, you can even keep playing until the World Championship finals!

"Of course I'll take it." Ming Jing was too lazy to keep squeezing it. "Use it when you need to, let's win one game first!"

Ming Jing has always understood that there are countless heroes in the world, and there are some things that he is not the only one who can figure them out.

Although some of these strategies were discovered a long time ago, they are now gradually becoming popular in the top ranked games on the Korean server, and it's only a matter of time before they appear on the competitive stage.

Some things are destined to become regulars in the upcoming World Championships.

Therefore, Ming Jing certainly didn't need to hide his moves. If he hid them until everyone started using them, wouldn't it be a waste of time?
Having said all that, Maokai had nothing more to say. "Then it's up to you."

No sooner had the words been spoken than EDG's mid-lane pick was confirmed.

This time, the hero who appeared was a male hero wearing a top hat and holding a red card.

"Everything is in the cards~"

(End of this chapter)