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

Chapter 274 Everything is in the Cards
"Double kill!"

No one knows how Lucian survived being attacked from all sides by Qiyana, Twisted Fate, and Jhin.

Anyway, after the chaotic battle, only Lucian was left surviving in EDG's bottom jungle.

"This is AD, a position capable of creating miracles!"

In the commentary booth, Colonel Guan, seemingly in a frenzy, shouted hoarsely, "Brother Xiaofei fought three against one and killed two of them!"

"Wow, that's the vibe!" Miller grinned. "It's Xiao Fei from last year's finals! We've seen him in this episode!"

The world's best ADC is a mid-laner. This may sound a bit abstract, but no one would question it.

Ming Jing's incredible performance at last year's World Championships was witnessed and remembered by audiences worldwide.

Although he switched to the mid lane this year, Mingjing is still using his marksman heroes to prove his status as the world's number one, or even the greatest AD carry in history.

Even the few teammates in EDG's voice chat were shocked when they saw this.

This daring moment wasn't just being watched by the commentators and the audience; all the other players present were also switching screens to watch it.

Everyone was shocked!

"Holy crap." Even Saint Gun Bro scratched his head after seeing that.

What the heck is this? How could they turn the tables like that?
This had a huge impact on his worldview.

Viper, who was also an AD carry, was the most helpless, and in the end even smiled with relief.

Because he put himself in that situation.

Don't talk about a counterattack.

If it were him, Kiana alone would probably be enough to take him down.
Because he definitely couldn't dodge the initial ultimate move.

Once someone is pushed against a wall by the ultimate skill and receives crowd control and damage, even if they use Cleanse and Flash to create distance, it won't work.

After all, Qiyana still has Flash and E available, and she can easily unleash a full Flash-EQWQ combo, guaranteeing his survival.

Ming Jing, on the other hand, was quite pleased with himself.

There was no other reason than that he was already used to his teammates' exaggerated reactions.

"I knew it," Ming Jing laughed. "This guy was definitely trying to frame me!"

Ming Jing had indeed anticipated this ambush, so he was prepared.

Otherwise, even he would have had a hard time reacting to Kiana's ultimate move from the bushes.

After all, this isn't the first time EDG has fallen for this kind of trick.

Back before the Vanguard was launched, when JieJie died, EDG had already discussed where this Qiyana came from.

If all other possibilities have been ruled out, then there is only one conclusion—Kiana used the continuous invisibility of the grass element to sneak over.

Therefore, EDG will naturally be extra cautious when Qiyana disappears again.

"Let's just go for the dragon," Ming Jing said. "I'll go back to the city and come back later."

The benefits of this counter-kill go far beyond just those two kills. With the enemy mid and jungler dead, it means EDG can take down Baron Nashor without any pressure.

"Oh, good!"

The four teammates nodded and headed straight for the dragon pit.

There's really nothing special about this dragon, since the DK side doesn't really have the ability to steal dragons.

While EDG was fighting Baron, the director finally switched to the replay of this counter-kill, allowing countless viewers to watch Mingjing's brilliant play once again.

Flash to dodge Qiyana's ultimate, E to dodge Jhin's R1 and Qiyana's grass element Q.

Then, use Purify and reposition to dodge the Wild Card and R3.

The last two E's dodged the fatal R4 and Earth Elemental Q, respectively, allowing for a counter-kill.

Using multiple dashes, he completely dodged Qiyana's two Qs and one R, and also dodged three of Jhin's four ultimate bullets.
In the end, Lucian only took one yellow card, one Eternal Frost, and one of Jhin's R2 attacks.

"All I can say is, given how well they executed the play, a comeback was to be expected." Colonel Guan didn't know what words to use to describe this play.

All I can say is that it's breathtaking.

This scene is absolutely no less spectacular than the Battle of the Two Tribulations, and it will surely be remembered for generations to come as Ming Jing's honor and reputation increase.

[Holy crap, let's fly!]

Witness history!

This is truly witnessing history; I feel like this GIF is going to be a hit.

[Last year, Jinx's pentakill solo base push went viral, and now another one is trending, right? Xiaofei is a master at compiling iconic moments.]

Oh no, DK is just background noise again.

[Making a fuss over nothing, this happens every time we fight a Death Knight.]

The live stream feed switches back to the live broadcast.

Not long after Mingjing arrived at the front, JieJie used Smite to secure the Baron Nashor.

"The Blue Legion killed Baron Nash!"

A single 0-for-2 exchange, along with the Baron, instantly widened the economic gap between the two sides, which was initially somewhat balanced, to 7,000!

This is truly the end.

After securing the Baron buff, EDG no longer needed to risk split pushing. The team only needed to group up and push forward, taking as much as they could, and wait for the Dragon Soul team fight in three minutes.

Even if Canyon were a god descending to earth and used his ultimate to push five enemies, it wouldn't be effective in team fights.

Because both of EDG's marksmen have Cleanse, they can easily escape.

As long as the two marksmen aren't instantly killed, the two support heroes will immediately restore their health!

that's the truth.

At 29 minutes, the Earth Dragon Soul team fight begins.

At this point, EDG had already reached its theoretical peak.

The complete set of three Double C pieces includes a stopwatch.

Ivern, armed with the cheap Moonstone, Redemption, and Knight's Blessing, focused all his efforts on protecting Lucian.

Lulu holds the Moonstone Incense Burner Crucible, primarily protecting AD.

Meanwhile, Flandre reached level 16, upgraded all the equipment for the two carries and Ivern, and gained an additional 3,000 gold lead.

At this stage, even if EDG is 5,000 gold behind, let alone leading in economy, it is still considered to be on par!

Being 5,000 behind is equivalent to being evenly matched; now that we're 8,000 ahead, it's like being 13,000 ahead—no problem.

Canyon initiated a great team fight, utilizing the river and dragon terrain to unleash a powerful ultimate that covered EDG's top, jungle, and bottom laners!
However, top laner Ornn used his W to knock it away, and bottom laner Aphelios used Purify and Gale to create space. Ivern, with Redemption's circle around him and protected by Ornn and Daisy, was practically unkillable.

There is no suspense anymore.

Lulu used Polymorph on Qiyana, and Mingjing gained the double buffs of Ardent Censer and passive from Lulu's shield. With a slide, Lucian, equipped with Siren, Essence Reaver, and Infinity Edge, demonstrated what true violent output is. He fired four shots with AAQAA, and Qiyana's health bar immediately disappeared, sending her back to the fountain!

Viper's team went even crazier. Aphelios, taking damage from Lulu's ultimate and Ivern's shield, not only had a massive health bar, but also a dense array of white shields from Bloodthirster.

Judging from his health bar alone, he's even comparable to Ornn!

With his three-piece set, Aphelios plunged headlong into the enemy camp, not bothering with any fancy red or white blade moves, and went straight for the blue blade to go all out!

In addition to its spread effect, the blue blade also increases the damage of basic attacks by 110%, making it the simplest and most straightforward blade.

With Aphelios in the lead, his basic attacks forced the Death Knights to retreat.

Mingjing's Lucian slid along the side, relentlessly reaping the scattered and fleeing Death Knight generals.

This time, none of the DK members survived.

After Mingjing killed Qiyana, he went on to finish off the fleeing Camille and Twisted Fate. Viper, meanwhile, used Flash and Gale to rush forward and forcefully kill the escaping Jhin and Nami.

"Triple kill!"

"Double kill!"

"ACE!"

"Our two carries have cleared the entire battlefield! Can we finish them off in one fell swoop?!" Guan Daxiao shouted excitedly, "There are no minions in the mid lane, but our two marksmen are pushing the tower very fast! Let's see what EDG's decision is!"

"One wave, push straight in!" Ming Jing made the right decision after just a glance at the time.

The death time at 29 minutes is around 50 seconds. Even if DK still has high ground in the middle lane, this time is more than enough for EDG to push the game to a draw!

In the video, EDG made the same decision, with all five players quickly heading towards the mid lane and pushing forward along the minion wave.

The seemingly impregnable mid-lane high ground tower collapsed in less than two seconds under the combined fire of the two marksmen.

When the high ground crystal shattered and the minion wave pushed to the inhibitor turret, Qiyana, who was the first to die on DK's side, had already respawned.

But everyone knows how weak this hero is when defending the base. There's only an earth elemental that can be touched in the base, and it's useless except for coming up to fill the lane with its own flesh.

Moreover, Mingjing didn't hold back. The moment Kiana rushed up, he used E to slide forward and sent Kiana away with four shots!

"Legendary!"

The sound of "Godlike" echoed in the arena. Qiyana, who was the first to revive, did not hinder EDG's advance in any way.

Showmaker's cards were finally revived only after both turrets were destroyed.

But by then it was obviously too late. Showmaker was too lazy to even operate, watching his own base's health bar dwindle, resulting in a loss in the first game.

Ming Jing breathed a slight sigh of relief, took off his headphones, and stood up. Immediately afterward, he heard the excited shouts of the European commentators: "In just 30 minutes, EDG is one step closer to the Summoner's Cup! Let's congratulate EDG!"

Ming Jing smiled and gave a light fist bump to his teammate beside him.

"Awesome, awesome, awesome!" Saint Gun Bro turned into a broken record, frantically praising Ming Jing, "You played really well this game!"

Every player on EDG performed admirably in this match. After all, winning so easily proves that there are no culprits in the team.

But compared to Ming Jing's performance, it was nothing special.

A tower dive kill set the pace for the team, a perfect team fight performance laid the foundation for victory, and finally, a 1v3 situation completely sealed off the opponent's hopes of a comeback.

It can be said that the key to everything came from Mingjing's performance.

His teammates were simply playing to their advantage.

Anyone can play a winning game.
A wave of cheers was rising from the audience. The EDG members waved to the crowd and then quickly returned backstage.

This first game was a perfect start, but it was only the beginning.

They have to take this seriously.

At the entrance to the backstage lounge, a group of people had been waiting for a long time, applauding and welcoming the triumphant team members.

After Mingjing nodded to his cousin, the boss, and the others, he finally saw Maokai at the very end of the line.

"Well played." Maokai laughed. "After this game, the draft will be much easier."

The Ivern and Lucian mid-jungle picks that EDG pulled out in the first game are considered the highest-tier trump cards in the EDG team, without exception.

This super move wasn't unleashed to finish the game after taking two points, but rather brought out directly in the first game, all to establish a leading advantage in the draft phase!

In the next game, the loser (DK) will choose sides and will inevitably return to the blue side.

However, given their loss in the first game, DK will inevitably prioritize Lucian, meaning that even if they return to the blue side, their drafting pressure will not be significantly reduced.

Because Ghost's Lucian was not ideal.

This is exactly what EDG wanted.

Maokai led the players back to the lounge to sit down, and then they began discussing the draft picks for the next game.

"Next game, we definitely won't be able to get Lucian, but they still won't have enough bans."

As Maokai chatted, the TV in the lounge kept switching screens, showing the MVP of the game.

MVP winner: EDG.Phi
KDA:10-0-6
Damage percentage: 34.4%
"."

Inside the DK base, everyone was eerily silent.

Coach Kkoma frowned slightly as he looked at the screen, then reached out and turned it off, deciding to avoid seeing it altogether.

Then he turned to the player and said, "The loss in this game can only be attributed to the fact that the opponent was too well prepared and we were careless."

"Therefore, there is no need to review this game, because we lost not because of our actions or decisions, but because of our team composition. So, I just hope that you can keep your minds stable. This BO5 has just begun, and we have many more opportunities."

Actually, Kkoma realized that this game was probably lost as soon as the draft was completed.

Anyone with a basic understanding can see how brilliant EDG's draft picks were in this game.

How complete EDG's roster is is one thing, but how terrible DK's roster is is another.

The moment DK stole Nami in order to cut off Luna, they already had little chance of winning.

If Luna is truly cut off, that would be fine; at worst, both sides would be rendered useless.

The problem is that if you don't keep up with the opponent's counter-pick, they'll pick Aphelios and you'll be instantly crushed.

With such a huge disparity in roster strength, the DK players were under immense offensive pressure, which naturally led to numerous mistakes and gave the opposing team room to maneuver.

"Come on, let's redesign the draft," Kkoma laughed. "Although the reappearance of Lucian in the mid lane was a bit unexpected, we had a contingency plan, so it shouldn't be a big problem."

This Lucian contingency plan was originally prepared for Viper. DK also considered the possibility of banning EDG's Luna again if she performed too well.

It turns out that this was a lucky accident.

The break time passed quickly.

At this moment, cheers surged from below the tower, and countless spectators were incredibly excited, welcoming the return of both teams.

Countless viewers cheered for EDG, but many others also hoped that DK would do better.

After all, today is the real showdown at the Forbidden City. Although DK made some brilliant decisions in the first game, the results were not ideal.

While the European audience supported EDG, they also hoped that today's finals would be more exciting.

There should at least be a give and take!

Amidst much anticipation, BP quickly commenced!
"Okay, we can see that DK chose the losing side in the second game and came to the blue side! And they have already completed the first three bans!"

On the BP panel, DK's ban slots are clearly visible, with Lucian, Graves, and Malzahar banned directly.

The blue side did experience some relief in the draft phase, but only to a limited extent, as EDG still managed to release champions they excelled at, such as Jarvan IV and Twisted Fate.

In fact, DK could have banned Prince and picked up cards, since Showmaker is a pretty good card player.

However, it's clear that Showmaker was also worried that Mingjing would counter with Yasuo, so they banned Malzahar, probably in preparation for building LeBlanc.

With both Twisted Fate and Crystal Maiden currently available, Mingjing can accept either Twisted Fate or Crystal Maiden as a Showmaker who gets LeBlanc.

On the other hand, EDG had a much more relaxed banning strategy. After banning Yuumi, which the red side always bans, they also banned Lee Sin and Qiyana.

Although DK was crushed in the last game, Canyon's Qiyana performance was still not to be underestimated. She was excellent in both the early game tempo and the late game team fights, and deserved to be banned.

"Then it's time to choose the right people. Let's see what both sides choose!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than DK on the first floor instantly locked up the Enchantress!

This is Showmaker's most confident hero this year, so there's no reason for him not to pick him.

Meanwhile, Mingjing saw that the card was outside, so he didn't choose Ice Maiden to counter it and confidently locked in the card!

A fierce battle in the middle lane is about to begin!
"Everything is in the cards."

(End of this chapter)