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

Chapter 264 EDG's Dominance
"EDG Phi has killed GEN BDD!"

The chilling announcements of kills echoed through the arena, much to the delight of the European audience who cheered once more.

The audience was actually a bit stunned by this solo kill.

Although Phi likes to pick Malzahar, a champion that's good for playing passively, you have to admit that he gets a solo kill every time he plays Malzahar!
After creating a crucial skill and economic advantage during the battle, the player then relies on precise damage calculations down to the single digit to achieve a simple and straightforward solo kill.

Is this also in your plan?

Backstage at GEN, coach Ggoong watched as Malzahar, still at full health after a solo kill, pushed the lane all the way to the second tower, forcing GEN to send a jungler to defend the tower. He nearly fainted in the commentary booth.

If you split the lanes like this, won't the mid tower be gone?

that's the truth.

Taking advantage of the numerical disadvantage, EDG's bottom laner and jungler quickly grouped up and pushed mid, forcing Ruler to use his ultimate to clear the wave of minions.

But this is nothing more than a futile struggle.

At this moment, the grasshopper switched to the mid lane and, taking advantage of the newly arrived wave of minions, formed a four-man push.

Although Zoe had respawned, the GEN team, with its excellent defensive capabilities, couldn't keep up with the lane rotation due to the extremely passive situation, and could only watch as the mid tower was destroyed.

After pushing down the mid tower, the time came to 13 minutes. EDG grouped up and took control of the newly spawned dragon.

The canyon terrain changed dramatically, and the dragon soul attribute was determined to be water dragon soul.

With overwhelming momentum, EDG is marching towards victory!

Looking at the situation before him, BDD couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sorrow.

EDG's lineup is clearly weak in the late game, since both Malzahar and Jhin are known for their lack of damage output.

But even with such a lineup, they failed to hold on in the early game, and the disadvantage grew bigger and bigger!
And he is the culprit behind all of this.

"Ah," BDD hesitated for a long time before saying, "I guess I played too badly. I'm sorry, friends."

These words rang out in the voice channel, but seemed to sink without a trace.

With morale already low, the GEN players had no time to pay attention to such words that had no bearing on victory.

After a long pause, jungler Clid finally spoke up: "It's okay, just clear the minion wave and wait for me to gank. We'll have a chance this time."

“Okay,” BDD replied.

There are still opportunities, of course.

After all, the second vanguard is about to spawn, and EDG will definitely set up defenses in the upper half of the map.

And the Malzahar in the bottom lane, who has no Flash and no ultimate, is of course the perfect target.

There's really not much to say this time.

In fact, everyone in the world knows that GEN, who are not qualified to take the lead, can only go to the bottom lane to gank Malzahar to stop the loss.

Even Ming Jing himself knew this.

But this didn't stop him from pushing out and clearing the wave line, which was equivalent to deliberately walking into GEN's encirclement.

Firstly, he only has a 1-0-3 score and no bounty. If he trades one life for a wave of cannon minions, it's not actually a loss.

If you're not at a disadvantage, using one life to determine the enemy's movements allows your teammates to make more informed decisions and also slows down the enemy's push. So it's not a loss.

As for KD, it doesn't matter at all. Mingjing never cares about these things. If he's supposed to die, he'll die.

However, even though Mingjing deliberately gave away a wave of kills, GEN actually paid a considerable price.

Seeing how easily the grasshopper walked out of the tower, GEN's first thought was that there might be someone around.

Therefore, their decision was quite decisive. After Zoe broke Malzahar's shield, Rakan used his ultimate to accelerate out from behind Zoe and forcibly flashed and used W to keep Mingjing in place.

Foygo also flashed in and used a fully charged W to control the enemy, all for the sake of a kill, afraid that another Kennen might suddenly appear and ruin their plans!

Ming Jing was stunned when he saw the enemy jungler and support use Flash twice.

"Isn't that unnecessary?" Ming Jing was a little confused. "What's the meaning of those two flashes?"

Meiko noted down the Flash cooldown and then laughed, "I guess they thought you had someone camping around you because you were feeding so obviously this time."

At this moment, it can be seen that after killing Mingjing, the GEN members looked around at the empty surroundings, appearing somewhat bewildered.

On the EDG side, the team acted swiftly, with four players securing the Rift Herald and then pushing directly to the top tower!

The vanguard charged headlong into the tower and secured it firmly.

At this point, GEN had only just taken down the bottom lane tower.
In terms of operational rhythm, GEN was almost always behind, and it's hard to imagine that this team is actually the strongest in terms of operational rhythm.

At this point, the economic gap between the two sides had widened to 4,000, and EDG's decisions became increasingly reckless.

If you can arrest people, why can't I?

After Mingjing's Malzahar respawned, he still went to the bottom lane to push the lane. As a hero with little mobility, Malzahar cannot participate in the team's decision-making without Flash.

But with such a significant advantage right now, he doesn't need to exert any effort.

After returning to base, Flandre did not immediately head to the top lane, but instead made his way to the mid lane in the dark.

Needless to say, JieJie had been waiting in the mid lane for a long time; he was the one who initiated this decision.

At this moment, GEN's three junglers were crouching under the tower, trying to defend the mid-lane second tower.

But everyone in EDG knew perfectly well that the three junglers were all without Flash, making them incredibly easy to catch!
After the minion wave pushed into the tower, Viper stopped pretending and Jhin immediately activated his ultimate, "Perfect Curtain Call," to slow down and lock down the enemy.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Meiko's Leona used E-Flash-R to engage, triggering Aftershock to tank the tower!
At the same time, a ward appeared by the wall, and then the Blind Monk taunted the ward.

JieJie didn't hold back either; the Lee Sin flashed in and delivered a powerful kick.

[Dragon Tail Sweep] A flying kick sent Fryego flying after being knocked unconscious by Leona, and then he rammed into Miss Fortune!
He kicked two of them, and at the same time, the last one, Luo, used his W to lift Meiko into the air. At this moment, the three members of GEN were gathered together.

At this moment, Flandre's Kennen arrived late, but he delivered the most crucial finishing blow.

Electric Mouse flashes in with his push rod, bringing all three into the range of his ultimate skill and activating electrotherapy!
Viper's Jhin slowly walked up, firing one basic attack after another. With a combination of crowd control and damage, the four players killed all three members of GEN under the tower.

If you kill one of me, I'll kill three of you!
"After the kill, EDG can easily destroy the second mid-lane tower. Oh, and they can push the high ground too!"

They only pushed down the high ground tower, but didn't destroy the high ground crystal. After all, it's still too early, and breaking one lane would mean they wouldn't be able to take the middle lane, which isn't a good thing.

But it's enough.

After the first wave of fighting, the economic gap between the two sides widened to six thousand.

No one on EDG was carrying the game; everyone was incredibly fed.

It was precisely because of this that the team had no weaknesses and was invincible in team battles!
At 19 minutes, EDG secured their third dragon.

At 24 minutes, in the crucial Dragon Soul team fight, GEN started playing a high-risk, high-reward strategy, attempting to use Baron Nashor to kite EDG. With their top and jungle duo of Graves and Fryeko, their dragon-slaying speed was far faster than a normal lineup, and it actually seemed like a well-thought-out plan.

But EDG dismissed this with disdain.

What's the point of all this fuss?

Do you have the leverage to pull a tug-of-war?
Seeing this, EDG decisively abandoned the dragon and headed straight for the Baron pit.

Up to this point, this is what everyone in GEN wanted to see.

At least EDG didn't secure the Dragon Soul, so they still have some breathing room.

But what happened next was beyond GEN's expectations.

EDG actually took over the Baron Nashor, upgrading the Dragon Soul fight to the Baron Nashor fight.

This ferocious fighting style instantly put immense pressure on the GEN team.

For them at this stage, losing the dragon is far more serious than losing the dragon soul.

They just wanted to use the dragon to create some trouble, but they didn't expect it to turn into inviting a wolf into the house.

But it was too late to regret it then. With their excellent equipment, EDG's dragon-slaying speed was incredibly fast.

They brought the dragon to near-death almost in a single encounter.

With no other option, GEN had to bite the bullet and try to take on the group.

But the result was not pleasant. Just like the previous vanguard team, as soon as Foygo entered the field, he was firmly suppressed by Malzahar and had no chance to fight for the penalty. He could only watch as Jie Jie steadily took down Baron!

Immediately following was EDG, with their huge economic advantage, who crushed their opponents in a team fight with the Baron buff!
GEN's lineup instantly collapsed, scattering and fleeing. At the cost of their top and jungle, three of them managed to escape.

EDG wasn't satisfied yet, so they slowly moved to the bottom river, secured the Water Dragon Soul, and then left satisfied.

With the Water Dragon Soul and Baron Nashor in hand, EDG's advantage is now overwhelming!
When he returned to the city, Ming Jing had already crafted his third magic penetration staff.

Malzahar is not affected by ability power; he mainly relies on his skills to slowly trigger the Liandry's Anguish burn for sustained damage. Therefore, two Liandry's Anguish plus Void Staff is the optimal solution.

With the three-piece set in hand, Malzahar's damage finally underwent a qualitative change, and he quickly achieved amazing results.

After leaving the house, Ming Jing did not go to the lane immediately, but instead went into the jungle and waited quietly in the bushes.

Mingjing's awareness has always been good. After taking down Baron, Flandre cleared all the jungle monsters in GEN's top jungle, so Blademaster could only farm in the bottom half of the jungle, and his position was not hard to guess.

Sure enough, a dilapidated king soon came into view.

Without the slightest hesitation, Mingjing immediately used his E skill on the Ruined King's head, followed by a basic attack.

The Blademaster's equipment is actually quite good, with a Bloodthirster set and Mercury's Treads as a base, giving him not only high health but also magic resistance.

The mythic version of the mage is far less dominant than before. If it were any other mage, even with three pieces of gear, they wouldn't even glance at this Ruined King.

But grasshoppers dare to look.

In terms of team fight damage output, Malzahar is indeed average, after all, this hero severely lacks AOE ability and is not suited for team fights.

But when it comes to one-on-one combat, Malzahar is second to none!
After all, the grasshopper truly possesses four offensive skills.

One E was applied, triggering the double burn from Liandry's and Demon's Embrace, and Fryegger's health bar began to visibly and slowly decrease.

Ming Jing wasn't in a hurry to make a move, but instead followed up with the Broken King's basic attack.

Although Zoe is in the bottom lane, it will take her a few seconds to arrive and provide support, which will be enough time for him to use his second E.

Once his E skill was off cooldown, Mingjing didn't hesitate any longer. He first applied E, then unleashed his entire WQR combo!

Under the suppression of [Netherworld Grip], [Void Summoning] hit its mark steadily, and [Void Swarm], in conjunction with [Shadow Star Illusion], ferociously devoured the body of the Ruined King.

The Ruined King's shield was knocked out in one hit, and his health bar was dropping rapidly!
After the ultimate skill's control ends, Mingjing takes two small steps to chase after the enemy, then applies the third E skill, and then confidently turns around.

The double mask burned Blademaster for a full ten seconds, and with the last E applied, it completely emptied his health bar.

The warrior equipment in this version is truly overpowered, but fortunately Mingjing's equipment is good enough that he managed to get a solo kill despite the Bloodthirster!

Meanwhile, there were also unusual developments on the top lane.

Flandre Kennen used his passive W to push forward with his auto-attack, then used E to accelerate forward, followed by his ultimate R to bring Graves into the range of his ultimate. He then used RAW to stun Graves, and then followed up with a Q while he was still stunned!

Graves was currently equipped with two items: Shieldbearer and Bloodthirster, and his white shield was quite thick, but it was nothing more than a piece of paper in front of Kennen, who had three items.

Kennen chased after him, unleashing his full ultimate, and finished him off!

"Both top and bottom lanes have secured solo kills! EDG is now in a 5v3 situation, with Flandre and Xiaofei both rotating towards the mid lane. They're about to end the game in one fell swoop!"

With a lead of over 10,000, plus the Dragon, and a 5v3 advantage, it would be impossible not to win in one fell swoop.

Super minions, empowered by the Baron buff, possess terrifying combat power, rendering Miss Fortune ineffective even with her ultimate ability.

Ruler, seeing that Ueno and Jungle had only twenty seconds left to respawn, was too lazy to struggle anymore. He watched as EDG pushed forward and the game ended.

"Two to zero!" Miller exclaimed excitedly. "EDG is just one step away from advancing to the finals!"

"EDG is in excellent form today, their offensive rhythm is incredibly smooth! They've completely overwhelmed their opponents!"

It has to be said that EDG's matches are so easy to play, they push quickly every game and always end up with a 3-0 score!

A best-of-five series doesn't even take three hours; I can just clock out and leave!

EDG gets off work early, so their job as commentators is comfortable.

"These two games were really hard to explain." Recalling the two matches, Wawa couldn't help but shrug. "It was a complete crushing victory of pure skill, wasn't it?"

If I had to describe today's match in five words, it would be: an old man playing with a mischievous child!
The child didn't see the competition between professional teams, only pure manipulation!
Amidst the joyful exchange between Doll and Miller, one of the commentators, who was in the center of the room, fell into a rare silence.

The scene shows the five members of GEN, head down and looking disheveled, returning backstage in a daze.

GEN's coach, Ggoong, shared the same sentiment as Colonel Guan.

The coach looked at the athletes who had returned backstage without saying a word and couldn't help but sigh, not knowing what to do.

Based on past experience, every seeded team in the LCK will show championship potential in the knockout stage. This is determined by the LCK's playstyle, which is more focused on stable and strategic gameplay. This allows them to perform at a very high level in tournaments like the World Championship, and they are generally not weak.

But this year's World Championship really left him somewhat bewildered.

Coach Ggoong believes that GEN is definitely not weak, as there is no unfavorable meta and the individual skills of the players are not a problem.

But why is there such a big gap between them and EDG?

Is EDG's dominance really that strong?

(End of this chapter)