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

Chapter 249: The Elimination Rounds Begin!
After the draw, everyone was still discussing the results on their way back.

Saint Gun recalled the matchup and briefly simulated it in his mind before saying, "To be honest, it feels quite difficult."

“Indeed.” Abu nodded. “The main issues are the quarterfinals and semifinals, where we will most likely have to play against the South Korean team.”

Meiko shook her head. "It's not just a high probability, it's a certainty that they'll play against the Korean team!"

It's one thing for EDG to play HLE in the quarterfinals, but the most crucial thing is that the two teams in the same half of the bracket are GEN and C9.

With these two teams playing, GEN's advancement is practically guaranteed.

This matchup reminded EDG of S6.

That year's lottery was similar in meaning.

In the quarterfinals, they faced ROX; in the semifinals, they faced T1; and in the final, they faced SSG.

Of course. EDG didn't even get past the first hurdle; they were kicked to death by ROX.

"It's okay." Xiao Ming said casually, "We're in the same boat. We played T1 in the quarterfinals and DK in the semifinals. It's not any worse than your situation."

After the draw, Xiaohu and Xiaoming didn't leave, but instead hitched a ride back to the hotel in EDG's car.

“That’s true.” The EDG members had no objection to this.

RNG will have the toughest time in this draw.

Their opponent in the quarterfinals is T1, who have never lost to an LPL team in the World Championship.

Their semifinal opponent is DK, the LCK's number one seed and one of the favorites to win the championship.

Even if RNG really does have a breakout performance and beats both T1 and DK, then congratulations to them, they can start preparing to face EDG.

If they can win the championship, then that would be truly a high-level achievement.

"Can you do it?" Flandre asked with a grin.

"Yes, yes, I can!" Xiao Ming said confidently. "Just wait to meet us in the finals!"

“OK.” Meiko smiled as soon as she heard that: “Then let’s meet.”

The bus stopped at the hotel entrance, and the EDG team said goodbye to Hu Ming and his companion before returning to the training room.

"Tonight is the last night of rest."

Maokai stood at the front and said, "Starting tomorrow, there will be high-intensity training matches every day. Brothers, you must be mentally prepared. Anyway, it's only the last three weeks, so you must persevere!"

Any team with extensive experience in world championships can clearly see that the group stage and the knockout stage are completely different games.

Because of the presence of wildcard teams, the average strength of the group stage is not high, and the double round-robin format has a high margin for error, so the strong teams generally do not go all out in the group stage and try to hold back as long as they can guarantee their qualification.

But the knockout stage is different.

In an environment where strong opponents abound and failure means elimination, all teams will pull out all the stops, revealing their hidden strategies, and the players will be even more focused.

The difference in strength is like heaven and earth!
This year's World Championship will be held entirely in Reykjavik. Because of the reduced travel, the schedule is more intensive, with the knockout stage starting just four days after the group stage.

If EDG doesn't want to fall behind, they must improve their performance.

"The main reason is that we have to play the opening game again, and the pressure is too great," Maokai sighed. "Even if we have to wait a couple of days, it would be good if we could copy the strategies of other teams."

The knockout stage matchups are always arranged this way, following the order of the draw: the third group plays first, then the first group drawn, and so on, followed by the fourth and second groups.

EDG happens to be in the third group.

Therefore, the quarterfinals four days later will be a tough challenge for EDG. This will be a test of the team's understanding of the current version. If they misunderstand it, they might really lose.

Fortunately, the EDG players are now quite confident.

They always believed that they were at the forefront of the version.

Or rather, they are the versions.

Amidst the busy training, time flew by and it was October 22nd.

It can only be said that Riot Games was sensible this year, helping the LPL miss that mysterious day through a clever schedule arrangement.

It was still the Laugardalshll Indoor Stadium, and the European announcer's deep, powerful voice was opening the game.

Below the stage, the audience seats were already at the limit of the rules and regulations, with countless people holding up their support items and cheering for both teams to take the stage.

When HLE entered, the European audience members simply gave polite cheers, which was the most basic support they could offer to the team.

But when EDG took the stage, the cheers from the audience instantly rose to a whole new level, with countless European spectators holding up their support items and enthusiastically welcoming EDG's appearance!
After their perfect performances at MSI and in the group stage, EDG now treats Reykjavik like their home turf.

Even if the European team MAD were to take the stage, the Europeans in the audience would probably give roughly the same enthusiastic cheers.

The EDG players were already used to this, waving to the audience before taking their seats to make final preparations for the match.

At the same time, various sports broadcasts also started their live streams on time, allowing viewers to watch this crucial battle.

This time it's not just a few chubby guys from JDG, but also various celebrities from the LPL.

Players like Uzi and JackeyLove didn't miss the match.

Although HLE is only the fourth seed from LCK and only qualified as the second-place team in their group, making them the weakest of the four Korean players, they are still a Korean team and should not be underestimated in the knockout stage.

During the preparation time, the director quickly pulled up the data comparison between the two teams.

This time, the data deliberately lingered on the two C's on both sides for a long time.

Without a doubt, the two centers are the key to today's game.

Mingjing and Chovy are both core players in their respective teams, and the outcome of a team's victory or defeat is inseparable from the performance of its mid-laner.

As for the AD carry, there's a historical connection, since HLE's AD carry player is none other than Deft, the original AD carry for EDG.

Deft and EDG parted ways amicably three years ago, and now the two sides are meeting again at the top of the world championship, which adds a lot of excitement to this match.

"These numbers..." In the live stream, Green Hair looked at the data and laughed, "The two sides are not even in the same league. Han Hua's side is far behind!"

“That’s normal.” Toothpaste thought it made perfect sense: “Hanwha went 4-3 in the group stage, how can that compare to EDG’s 6-0? Chovy and Mingjing are also far behind.”

The only statistic Chovy can rival Mingjing for is CS per minute. Chovy is truly skilled at last hitting; regardless of the outcome, his CS always follows the timeline, a feat that even Mingjing, an AD carry, cannot match.

However, the trade-off is that Chovy's teamfight participation rate and damage per minute are significantly lower, since his CS is achieved by roaming less.

At this moment, people kept pouring into the live stream room, and the number of comments was also skyrocketing.

"What's the score today?" Toothpaste looked at the comments and said without hesitation, "Is that even a question? It's definitely 3-0. Apart from DKT1 and RNG, no other team can get a point from EDG."

At this moment, the comments section surged again.

Many people are asking questions, with most asking which lane T1 is on and why it's grouped with the other two teams.

"Stop the unfair criticism." Toothpaste glanced at the chat and said, "Don't think that just because T1 lost to EDG, they're bad. They're very strong." Of course, Toothpaste could understand the game and knew the general landscape of the current World Championship.

Besides EDG and DK, the two obvious favorites, if we were to pick out teams with a chance to win the championship, it would only be RNG and T1.

If any dramatic changes occur in the versions, the latter two could potentially dethrone the former two at any time.

The screen changes, and BP is now activated!
The quarterfinal matchups were clearly scheduled, so the choice of sides was also clear: EDG, who advanced as the top seed from their group, had the right to choose sides in the first game.

In the later rounds, the loser chose one side.

In the first game, EDG, who chose the blue side, had already completed the first three bans, choosing to ban Sylas, Jarvan IV, and LeBlanc. This was the best result that the team's analysis team came up with based on Hanwha's performance.

There are many popular heroes in this version, covering every position. Graves is in the top lane, Twisted Fate is in the mid lane, and Luna and Yuumi are in the bottom lane.

Simply banning them won't be enough; the players themselves need to master them.

Fortunately, these heroes are all EDG's specialties, and they have prepared countermeasures for them all. So the draft strategy is very simple: grant them all a general amnesty, and focus the bans on HLE's signature heroes, forcing both sides to compete on their meta compatibility.

This is a near-open strategy in the draft phase. Faced with such a ban, HLE on the red side had almost no options and could only follow EDG's strategy.

With so many heroes, they definitely can't ban them all; they can only ban a few of the more troublesome ones.
Their choice was to ban Lucian, Yuumi, and Graves.

These three bans surprised many viewers.

"Oh?" Toothpaste narrowed his eyes, his already small eyes becoming slits. "No cards banned?"

Since Mingjing picked Twisted Fate to crush Doinb in the Summer Finals, he hasn't picked it again and it's been banned ever since.

The only time he released the card a few days ago, Faker even snatched it, which is enough to prove that other teams have great respect for Ming Jing's Twisted Fate.

After all, that performance was indeed quite exaggerated, representing top-level proficiency, and definitely not a fluke.

Judging from HLE's statement, does he think Chovy can handle it?
Or does HLE think Mingjing's card is just an urban legend and want to break this golden body with their own hands?
If HLE really wins this game, it will be a significant blow to EDG, as it means that opponents will no longer need to consider how to deal with Twisted Fate.

But this is obviously impossible.

On EDG's side, Mingjing didn't hesitate and decisively locked in Twisted Fate!
On the other hand, Chovy wasn't in a hurry to make his move, but instead locked in Lee Sin and Miss Fortune, taking advantage of the current meta picks.

The EDG players seemed to have something on their minds when they saw HLE actually pick Miss Fortune.

Miss Fortune had an extremely high pick rate in both the Play-In and Group Stages. In the Play-In, her ban/pick rate once reached 100%! Even in the Group Stage, her final ban/pick rate reached 70%, making her an undisputed top pick in the current meta.

However, in EDG's system, Miss Fortune is not actually a high priority.

As a champion who needs her ultimate ability to reach her full potential, Miss Fortune is not consistent and has almost no utility, which does not meet EDG's needs.

EDG doesn't need the bot lane to provide much damage output; the team has plenty of damage dealers. In fact, the team needs the bot lane to provide support, such as using strong lane priority to initiate dragon races, or using Luna to hold the mid lane and help the team's coordination and flow.

Output is secondary; just play casually and don't die instantly.

As the World Championship progresses, the bot lane becomes increasingly utility-focused; this has been an unchanging truth throughout the World Championship's history.

JDG last year was a special case.

EDG didn't think much of it and naturally locked in Xin Zhao and Jhin as their counters.

At this point, HLE finally revealed its true colors.

HLE's third pick was Yasuo, finalizing the first round of selections.

Countless viewers were shocked by this choice.

Not only were the chubby guys from JDG surprised, but even the T1 players who were watching the game in the hotel were somewhat astonished.

The T1 players, who had just been thrashed by Ming Jing's Yasuo, glanced at their veteran Faker, and none of them dared to speak.
Faker adjusted his glasses, becoming even more serious.

It's an undeniable fact that Twisted Fate has a tough time against Yasuo.

Especially since Yasuo was paired with Lee Sin in this game, this mid-jungle combination makes it incredibly easy to target a single card.

Faker is really curious to see what method Phi will use to overcome this difficulty.

The drafting and banning (BP) process continues between the two sides.

Since both of HLE's carries are AD carries, they definitely need to provide AP damage in the top lane, so EDG chose to ban Gwen and Kennen.

HLE had no choice but to settle for Rumble, while EDG was prepared and picked Renekton to counter him.

The two sides traded blows, and the lineups were finally determined.

Blue side EDG: Top laner Renekton, jungler Xin Zhao, mid laner Twisted Fate, bot lane Jhin and Leona.

Red team HLE: Top lane Rumble, Jungle Lee Sin, Mid lane Yasuo, Bot lane Miss Fortune and Nautilus.

Inside T1's training room, everyone looked at the lineups on both sides and made some calculations.

"EDG's lineup is under a lot of offensive pressure," Gumayusi said. "They're very weak in the late game."

Renekton, Twisted Fate, and Jhin are all excellent snowballers; they're dominant in winning games, but become somewhat crippled in even or losing situations.

If the cards can set the pace, it's fine; once the snowball starts rolling, this lineup will be unstoppable.

If it's not brought up, then it will collapse completely, leaving no chance to fight back.

“But,” Oner frowned, “this deck is countered, are we still going to pick this lineup? Aren’t we trusting Phi too much?”

After saying that, Oner turned to Faker and asked, "What do you think, bro?"

"I don't know," Faker shook his head. "You'll see, we'll find out soon enough."

Faker understood that EDG was definitely not a blindly confident team; they must have had some ulterior motive for making that choice.

You'll find out once the competition starts.

After a brief loading period, the game interface quickly appeared before the audience.

In the first team fight, neither side seemed to have any particular ideas and simply maintained their defensive positions.

Flandre's Renekton guarded the top bush, exchanged a glance with HLE's top laner Morgan, and then each disappeared into the darkness.

Everything was so ordinary.

But it was at this moment that EDG finally revealed their true colors.

Flandre made an appearance in the top half of the map, placed a defensive ward in the jungle, and then immediately pressed B to return to the fountain.

At the same time, the card, also hidden in the darkness, stepped forward and headed towards the top lane.

Upon seeing this scene on the minimap, Faker pondered for a moment, then was suddenly startled.

EDG has swapped lanes!
(End of this chapter)