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

Chapter 267 Sweep
Ming Jing bowed to the audience, then handed the microphone to Yu Shuang, concluding the interview.

When he returned to the lounge, he saw that his teammates were already there, waiting for his return.

"Quickly, quick, the boss is treating us again today, let's eat something good!"

"OK OK."

Ming Jing didn't delay. He immediately slung his backpack over his shoulder and left with his teammates.

Boss Ed Zhu and his trusted confidant cousin hung at the very back of the team, watching the starting players get on the bus together, and they both felt a pang of sadness.

In the past, when we couldn't get past the quarterfinals, the championship always seemed so far away.

But now, looking back, it suddenly seems like the championship is within reach.

Ultimately, esports is a battle of talent.

All those coordinated tactics and versions are bullshit. There's only one reason for failure: not having enough talent.

So what if you get one or two points with tactics and version updates? If you push those talent monsters too far, they only need to close their eyes, adjust their strategy, or take a sip of water, and enter the second phase, and they can crush you with their talents!
No one understands this better than the five members of DK.

Of course, I'm satisfied, but I certainly can't express it directly.

"Although we won the game, it was only the semi-finals. We must not be arrogant or complacent."

After getting on the bus, Edward Zhu stood at the front and said, "The last leg of a journey is the hardest. The most crucial final is still ahead. This week, everyone should try to stay focused and win the final. Then you can celebrate however you want!"

Actually, even without the boss saying it, everyone in EDG thought the same thing and agreed immediately.

As Showmaker said in the Bible, no one knows if this is the only chance they'll ever have.

Once the bus started moving smoothly and the interior gradually quieted down, Ming Jing smiled, lowered his head, and reconnected his phone to the internet.

As soon as I connected to the internet, countless messages came flooding in on WeChat.

Today's match was truly crucial, so there were an unusually large number of people coming to congratulate us after the victory.

As always, Mingjing patiently replied to the messages from his parents and Wang Hao one by one.

After replying to all the messages, my phone rang again, and I saw that Song Xuan had also sent a message.

The message I received was a picture of a packed suitcase with a plane ticket to Iceland on top.

"Leaving tomorrow!" The girl's joy, hidden in her words, was palpable.

"You're only getting ready now?" Ming Jing typed with a laugh. "Don't you believe me?"

"certainly not!"

The girl sent a message first, and then a while later sent a picture showing the reservation time for the final tickets.

It was just a week ago.

Even before the quarterfinals began, Song Xuan had already secured his ticket to the finals.

Below is additional information showing that Song Xuan bought a second ticket, which, judging from the name, should belong to his mother.

“Actually, you don’t need to buy tickets,” Ming Jing typed. “I have internal tickets.”

"Hey, let's keep the ticket stub as a souvenir~" Song Xuan didn't care about the ticket price; for her, it was worth spending money just to buy a ticket stub.

She has carefully kept the ticket stubs from last year's final.

"Oh, right," Ming Jing suddenly remembered something and asked, "Are you still allowed to travel abroad?"

He remembered that Song Xuan's identity was somewhat special.

"It's alright," Song Xuan replied. "Just need to report it and get a stamp."

"Really?" Mingjing continued to ask, "I remember that getting a stamp wasn't that easy."

Mingjing had seen related content on Douyin and heard that it required approval from several levels of leadership, and even if there were no problems, it would still be very troublesome.

"It's easy, just make a phone call."

"."

Mingjing scratched his head, speechless for a moment.

What else can I say?

"We can meet next week!" the girl continued to message. "Good luck! Don't forget our promise!"

The message was followed by an emoji of a hand extending its little finger.

I don't know where this hanging picture came from.

"Don't worry, don't worry!" Ming Jing's message was full of confidence.

After replying to all the messages, Ming Jing finally had a moment to look at the forum.

At this point, the anti-racism forum was already at an unprecedented level of popularity.

After all, LPL's performance in this year's World Championship was not ideal. First, there was Feng Yiqi's loss, and then RNG lost to T1 in the quarterfinals, a classic old story.

With one team facing three opponents in the semifinals, even if EDG is strong, it's still a cause for concern.

But the current one-on-one situation in the finals is inexplicably reassuring.

[Hey, hey, hey? Korean sympathizers, speak up! What happened to the promised Korean civil war? Why is GEN being beaten like maggots crawling on the ground?]

To be honest, I'm not worried at all. There's no reason to expect BDD to crush Flying God.

[Really? Isn't BDD known for being a devoted LPL player? Doesn't he understand the significance of the 18 MSI?]

Ruler was also a disappointment today; it just goes to show that there's a difference even among the Finals MVPs in the AD position.

Did nobody notice the expressions on Gezi Ge and Keli De's faces? They're hilarious!

[Of course we saw it! It's hilarious! The two of them were staring at BDD together, and they both made up and said yes.]

Last year, the top and jungle players were locked in a fierce battle; this year, they're united against a common enemy, playing the mid lane together.

I'd be happy if Ue, Naka, and Jungle could be on the same team next year!

Because GEN's performance today was so terrible, most of the discussion in the forum was still about GEN.

Mingjing continued scrolling through the posts, and soon some that he wanted to see caught his eye.

[Here are some posts from Korean websites for you all!]

Tonight, Korean online forums are far more lively than the anti-Japanese online forums.

Seeing such a despicable GEN, the Koreans were completely enraged, and the forums were full of condemnation!
Especially for fans of the T1 series, these two companies are notoriously at odds. Now that their rival has suffered a rare setback, they will naturally seize the opportunity to kick him while he's down!
[This is utter rubbish! It makes me sick! Is this how you guys play games?]

[Anyone who can watch this match to the end is an amazing person. I turned it off halfway through the first game; it was obvious they couldn't win!]

There was no other way but to watch. If GEN won, they would have secured the championship, but unfortunately, they couldn't win.

We still need DK; only Xu Xiu can suppress Phi!

[You're talking nonsense! Shouldn't T1 be the one to come? What is Xu Xiu compared to Daesang Hyeok?]

[T1 is out of the question. They got swept twice in the group stage and still have the nerve to talk. They can't exactly say they're hiding something, can they? Even Phi said DK is stronger now.]

[Phi is your father? You treat his words like gospel? Just wait and see if Daesang Hyeok abuses your DK tomorrow!]

On the Korean online forums, the debate was raging, and the topic quickly shifted from criticizing GEN to the match between DK and T1, which was quite amusing.

As for who will win or lose tomorrow, we'll have to wait and see the results.

October 31st, afternoon in Iceland.

The EDG team had just finished a training match and were chatting with RNG to discuss their match experience.

"To be honest, these scrimmages feel pointless," Xiaohu said, after another 0-3 score. "You guys are too strong! We couldn't fight back at all!"

It's worth noting that EDG didn't target him in the top lane this game; they focused on the dragon as usual.

The main problem is that Flandre was too passive after getting Graves, so he couldn't break through the top lane at all, and he couldn't even gain much of an economic advantage!
Once the bottom lane collapses and the game enters the mid-game, it's a complete rout, there's really nothing to say. "That's not true," Ming Jing laughed, "You guys are very strong too, we're under a lot of pressure."

"really?"

"real."

"Who's stronger, us or GEN? Tell me the truth," Xiaohu asked the probing question.

After thinking for a long time, Ming Jing finally answered honestly, "...about the same, they're both pretty strong."

"What about us and T1?"

"More or less...?"

"Then what's the point of forcing it!"

When playing against T1 and GEN, you hit harder than anyone else!

Xiao Hu rolled his eyes and simply changed the subject to the upcoming semi-final: "The match is about to start, which side do you think will win?"

"I said it yesterday, I'm optimistic about DK." Ming Jing said casually, "I feel that DK is a bit stronger. But it's hard to say the score. We've never played a scrim with DK before, so we don't know what level this team is at."

"We haven't played much together," Xiao Hu thought for a moment. "Then we can only wait and see how today's match goes."

"Yes."

Mingjing is also waiting for the results of today's match.

If DK and T1 are evenly matched, that's a good indication that DK and GEN are also on the same team.

If DK wins easily... that would be very delicate.

In the live broadcast, both players have taken to the stage, and the match has begun.

In the first game, DK was on the blue side. With Twisted Fate being banned first, they did not rush to lock in the mid lane, but instead picked Lee Sin first.

On the other hand, T1's choice was much more decisive, directly locking in Ryze and Jayce for the top and mid lanes, deciding from the beginning to focus on the top half of the map.

With this move, DK made a decisive choice, immediately locking in LeBlanc and initiating a classic China-Mage duel.

LeBlanc is basically the same no matter who she faces in the mid lane – she can win trades, but she will lose when pushing the lane.

Therefore, learning how to avoid weaknesses and leverage strengths becomes a required course for every female demon.

Showmaker performed quite well this game, effectively demonstrating his dominance in last-hitting minions.

Just five minutes later, the difference in last hits between the two players had already widened to ten.

At this point, words like "locusts" were already flying across the screen in the comments.

"How did you play like that?" Xiaohu was a little surprised: "You're ahead so much in CS? And Ryze is pushing the lane too."

"That's hard to say." Ming Jing looked at the mini-map, seemingly lost in thought.

Because the director didn't show much footage of the mid lane, Mingjing didn't know how the mid lane matchup actually went.

But regardless, Ryze is the lane pusher, so he shouldn't have missed so many CS.

Unless Faker sacrifices last-hitting in order to improve his lane-pushing efficiency.

He must push the minion wave to the tower as soon as possible to avoid missing the rhythm.

that's the truth.

Faker had just returned to the fountain when he was enveloped in teleportation light and flew directly to the ward in the bush above the top lane!

At this moment, Nuguri was pushing the lane and had no choice but to die when Ryze teleported behind him!

"First blood!"

A blood is born!

"Hey!" Xiao Ming said in the voice channel, slightly surprised. "Ming Jing was right, Faker was prepared. Li Yuanhao, are you alright? It seems like you're not keeping up with the pace of a top mid laner."

"I definitely can't keep up, I'm a top laner now..." Xiaohu muttered to himself.

And it's not over yet.

After helping the top lane secure the first blood, Faker returned to the mid lane to continue taking damage, but quickly seized the opportunity when Showmaker recalled to base to replenish supplies, and used his ultimate to gank the top lane again!

Under Ryze's control, Canna Jayce easily secured his second kill!
Seeing this, Ming Jing crossed his arms and found it pleasing to the eye.

Despite being at a disadvantage in the laning phase, Faker found a new way to make up for this disadvantage in other aspects, and even surpassed it!
Next, if Canna can capitalize on the advantage of these two kills, the situation will shift in T1's favor.

But... is it really possible to do that?
The camera then cuts to the bottom lane, where Canyon's Lee Sin arrives and initiates a three-man gank under the tower.

Because the support player picked Maokai this game, the tower dive wasn't too difficult, and none of the T1 duo survived.

After one wave, the kill count was instantly tied.

And it was only at this point that everyone was surprised to discover that T1's economy was actually lagging behind.

Why was Nuguri able to out-farm Canna despite dying twice?

No one knows the exact answer, but one thing is certain: Canna is definitely out of the running this time.

Jayce, with a score of 2-0, couldn't even secure lane control.

This scene made Ming Jing shake his head.

What is this?

Canna, the top laner, is undoubtedly T1's biggest weakness.

If the top laners on both sides swapped positions, T1 would probably have already secured the victory.

There would probably be a lot of discussion if Xiaohu were replaced as the top laner for T1!
Although Xiaohu can't carry the game himself, he's really useful when he helps out.

It's a pity that there is no if.

Faker's two early kills for the top laner turned out to be T1's swan song. They played until the 25-minute mark, but the kill count remained locked at two.

At the 30-minute mark, T1's kill count finally broke through from 2 to 4, but at the cost of DK's kill count increasing by five.

Taking advantage of the team wipe, the DK team advanced triumphantly and destroyed the T1 base in one fell swoop.

"Ah, this..." The people in the voice channel didn't know what to say for a moment.

If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be "abuse".

"The gap between the two sides seems quite large?"

"Indeed... let's see what happens next. T1 will choose sides, let's see if there's anything to say."

T1 has always been ahead in understanding the game version, as evidenced by their performance against RNG in the quarterfinals.

If T1 can come up with something new in the future, things might change.

Unfortunately, the five-game battle against RNG in the quarterfinals seemed to have exhausted all of T1's strength.

Even when they switched sides to the blue side in the second game, they simply pulled out a standard draft pick.

The outcome will naturally not change much.

The second game's rhythm was surprisingly similar to the first. Although T1 managed to occasionally pull off some plays thanks to the players' ingenuity, DK quickly turned the tide and incurred even greater losses.

Even the third game was the same.

If the top laner can't carry, the bottom lane will collapse as a result.

If the bottom lane can't break the deadlock, the top lane gets completely destroyed in a 1v1.

Moreover, the more Faker roams, the greater the economic gap in the mid lane becomes!

In the final game, Ghost's bombs even started to make a splash. The bomber pushed all three lanes, amassed fifteen plating layers in fourteen minutes, and used his absolute economic advantage to crush the enemy team in team fights. In just 24 minutes, he pushed forward and ended the game.

DK sweeps T1 3-0 to advance to the finals!
(End of this chapter)