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

Chapter 299 No destruction, no establishment
The 2022 national training team has now come to an end, and those who missed out on the International Olympiad have naturally gone home.

The first and second-year high school students are full of confidence and are preparing for the next year's exams in advance, hoping to redeem themselves next year.

Even when the talent gap isn't too large, practice is still useful.

Wang Hao is the best example. He didn't even make it to the second round last year, but after a year of studying, he climbed to eighth place.

Although I didn't get my wish in the end, being admitted to Peking University and ranking among the top ten in the country is a perfect ending to my high school years.

After finishing his last semester after the winter break, he will be faced with an equally unknown and challenging university life.

As for Ming Jing, who was selected for the national team, his mission is not over yet. He still has to follow the arrangements and stay in Peking University for two more days.

I participated in several media interviews and registered for the competition.

Meanwhile, the official website of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad also updated the list of participants representing the country in the International Mathematical Olympiad this year.

Undoubtedly, this year's Olympiad list has garnered a tremendous amount of extra attention, and the list quickly spread online, causing a huge uproar!
Ming Jing was having lunch with Song Xuan in the cafeteria at Peking University's Yanyuan campus when he happened to come across a discussion thread on the Anti-Japanese War forum.

Breaking news! Xiao Fei has been officially selected for the national team!

[What national team? Have the spots for the Hangzhou Asian Games been decided in advance?]

Holy crap, it's the national math team! A perfect score, number one in the country, wow!

Looking at the rankings and final roster provided by the official website of the Chinese Olympic Games, the e-sports forums were the first to erupt in discussion!

[You want to compete in world championships for gaming, and you want to compete in world championships for studying too? That's unbelievable!]

Oh no, Fei Shen will really have to rest until August before he can return.

[What kind of champion are you? International Mathematical Olympiad champion?]

[If you don't understand, which is more prestigious, this or the World Championship title?]

Are they comparable?

[Before, they'd just use World Championship titles to try and get ahead of students from Tsinghua and Peking Universities; now they're directly trying to get ahead of IMO gold medalists, right? Are they even on the same level?]

These are completely different fields, and comparing combat power across different works is not advisable. It's enough to know that they are the strongest in their respective fields.

[Just ask Xiaofei when he goes live someday; only he's qualified to judge this.]

[That's true, but the problem is he doesn't stream! Fun fact: Fei Shen's last stream was during last year's Summer Split.]

[It should be soon; he won't have much to do if he's not streaming.]

Let's watch the EDG documentary that LPL just released first, everyone.

For some reason, the forum members started arguing again.

Cricket fighting scenes, similar to Guan Yu fighting Qin Qiong or Goku fighting Saitama, have always been a favorite topic of discussion among netizens, who enjoy it even though they know it's pointless.

Song Xuan looked at the content on Ming Jing's phone screen, blinked, and then asked, "So what do you think?"

“Everyone has their own reasons for this, who can really say for sure?” Ming Jing laughed. “From my subjective point of view, math competitions are definitely more difficult.”

Mingjing is telling the absolute truth.

He went through a lot of trouble to get that spot on the national team.

Why does playing games have to be so difficult?
However, if we set aside personal factors and compare them from an objective perspective, then it becomes really difficult to compare them.

The first issue is competition. Although Ming Jing has high gaming talent, it's questionable whether anyone in the country can rival him.

After all, only a minority of people can truly understand League of Legends and realize their potential.

If Wang Hao hadn't dragged Ming Jing into this mess, Ming Jing might never have discovered his gaming talent.

Such examples are by no means isolated cases in the country.

But mathematics is different.

With the widespread implementation of nine-year compulsory education, those who truly possess mathematical talent will never be overlooked.

China's Jordan, Messi, and Beethoven may be studying, but China's Gauss and Euler will definitely shine in the field of mathematics; there is no possibility that they will be buried in obscurity.

In this situation, achieving the top spot nationwide is clearly more difficult in the field of mathematics, where competition is fierce across the entire population.

Besides, winning the S-series championship is already the highest achievement in the gaming field, but the IMO gold medal is only the first place at the high school level, which is not worth mentioning. At most, it can be called a world-class youth training camp.

Taking this aspect into account opens up considerable room for discussion.

Ming Jing didn't think too much about it, but followed the discussion among the forum members and opened Bilibili.

Just today, Abu messaged him, asking him to forward the LPL's newly released annual documentary, but Mingjing was busy, so he just forwarded it as requested without even reading it carefully.

The comments from other users have given him a reminder.

Ming Jing opened Weibo, ignoring the tens of thousands of new likes and comments, and looked at the documentary video that had been newly reposted under his Weibo post.

No destruction, no construction

Episode 1 - EDG Chapter.

This year, LPL sponsored the annual documentaries of all the teams, all titled "No Destruction, No Construction," and were then broadcast in episodes.

As the champion team, EDG is naturally the first episode.

Song Xuan was clearly also very interested in the documentary, so he moved a little closer and leaned on Ming Jing's shoulder.

The camera panned across the EDG base, and a voiceover quickly followed.

"As a five-time LPL champion and former world champion, EDG has gone without any trophies in the past two years."

"EDG urgently needs a restructuring."

The theme of "no destruction, no construction" immediately emerged.

The turning point came from the youth training camp in 2020.

Sixteen-year-old Ming Jing appears in the picture, which is a screenshot from the youth training camp in 2020. This is Ming Jing's first public appearance.

At that time, Mingjing was just an ordinary Master in the first region, ranked AD20, and seemed to have little presence in the bustling youth training camp.

"Ming Jing's appearance was actually a complete accident."

Abu appeared on screen and laughed, "Back then, Mingkai suddenly approached me and said, 'If we can hold onto this kid, then EDG won't have to worry for the next few years.'"

At this point, question marks were already appearing in the live chat.

Is that really what they said?

At this moment, his cousin Mingkai appeared on screen, and a voice-over began asking questions.

How did you recognize Mingjing's talent back then?

Hearing the question, my cousin shook his head helplessly and laughed, "If you saw someone who had only played the game for a month and could reach the Master rank, you would have the same thought."

Of course, my cousin didn't say a lot of additional information.

For example, back then, Mingjing not only reached Master rank, but also defeated professional player Loken.

Moreover, it was using a battle-worn A4Tech keyboard and mouse set.
Of course, even without my cousin saying it, many people who have a deep understanding of Mingjing's story already know these things.

Before we knew it, it was time for the youth training camp to close.

At the draft, EDG Club stole the show, securing three of the five black-card players.

Among them, the most outstanding was undoubtedly the black card AD Ming Jing. At that time, Ming Jing dominated the youth training camp with his unparalleled performance, which made all the teams give Ming Jing the green light and offer him a maximum price of 50.

During the reverse selection phase, Mingjing did not forget EDG Club and returned to his old team without hesitation, becoming the hope for EDG's future rise.

This reverse selection marks the beginning of EDG's rebirth and the start of a legend.

Up to this point, all we have seen is the story of a genius's rise to power.

Seeing this, Ming Jing probably knew what kind of documentary this was all about.

"Is this really an EDG documentary?" Song Xuan asked from the side. "It looks more like your personal biography to me."

“That’s normal.” Ming Jing felt it was only natural. “EDG was indeed rebuilt around me.”

It was from here that the story of the rise of a genius quickly took a different turn.

No one expected that JDG, who advanced to the World Championship, would actually borrow a youth player from EDG to play as a booster.

"Did you ever imagine that Mingjing would win the championship and be named FMVP?"

In response to the question from the voice-over, Abu laughed and said, "Who could have imagined that?"

In the video, Ming Jing led JDG to victory with an incredible performance, becoming the youngest champion and FMVP in history.

Next up is the transfer window story. This is where countless viewers are most interested.

Although viewers know from Hanyi's revelation that Scout became a substitute because he made some abstract moves during the transfer period, which led Mingjing to move to the mid lane and directly squeeze out his position.

But viewers really want to see what happened from EDG's perspective.

Unfortunately, this unlucky plot point definitely won't be included in the cut.

Viewers can only learn from the documentary that when the club was in a dilemma because of Scout's maneuvering, it was Mingjing who chose to switch to the mid lane, which made the club's thinking clear and allowed them to quickly assemble this championship-winning team without any hesitation.

What follows is a story that everyone knows and has witnessed firsthand.

Although the contract has been signed, Ming Jing will have to wait until April 8th to turn 17 and perform on stage due to his age.

Before that, Scout needs to fill in as a substitute for a while.

However, Scout, as the core of EDG for many years, has performed admirably. He not only won the first team mid lane position all the way, but also led EDG all the way to the winner's bracket semifinals.

Unfortunately, they made a crucial mistake and lost to FPX, led by Doinb, falling into the loser's bracket.

The documentary footage then presents a stark contrast.

As the EDG members walked dejectedly through the backstage passage, behind them, the FPX members, led by Doinb, strode confidently into the scene.

It was during this opportunity that Mingjing returned to his loyal team, EDG.

Ming Jing's return to the starting lineup at the time caused quite a stir.

After all, Scout's performance was actually quite solid, and even if they lost the game, it wasn't a problem with the mid lane.

How can losing a single best-of-five series lead to the elimination of a core mid-laner?
But with Mingjing's return, everyone quickly realized that they had spoken too soon.

Brother Fei, you're really something else.
Next, the young champions made a triumphant return, leading their team to fight their way out of the loser's bracket and then winning the Spring Championship.

At this moment, the five starting players of EDG were already sitting in the interview room, and the voice-over rang out again: "When you won the Spring Championship, did you ever think that you would win the final S-series championship?"

Everyone's answer to this is yes.

Ming Jing's performance gave everyone a sense of what it means to be a champion.

This sense of security is something Scout can never provide.

The narrator then continued to ask questions.

"Have you ever considered that you might complete the Golden Road?"

Several teammates shook their heads.

They had never thought about this, nor dared to.

After all, no one has ever achieved such an accomplishment in the history of League of Legends competitions.

However, Mingjing still nodded.

"At the time, I didn't know what the Golden Road was."

Ming Jing spoke with confidence and arrogance, "But all I know is that I will win all the championships, and that is my only goal since I embarked on my professional career."

Amid a significant increase in bullet comments, the documentary continues to progress rapidly.

MSI, Summer Tournament.

EDG remained undefeated, sweeping away all opposition.

Even when facing the LCK runner-up and three-time champion T1 in the group stage of the World Championship, EDG showed no fear and directly and forcefully completed a double victory!

This moment marks EDG's first highlight in the World Championship.

His subsequent performance was even more outstanding.

A 3-0 sweep of HLE, where Deft plays.

They swept GEN 3-0.

Until the final match, he faced DK.

In the first game, Mingjing delivered a perfect performance with his signature Lucian, achieving a tower dive solo kill in the laning phase alone!

This solo kill actually puzzled many people at the time.

After all, while Twisted Fate isn't particularly strong in lane, his ability to farm in lane is top-notch, comparable to Ziggs.

With a Q that can reach extremely long distances and a yellow card that provides point-and-click control, how could you possibly not survive in lane with the help of the tower?
Therefore, after the finals, many people did a replay from Ming Jing's first-person perspective to analyze the secrets behind this solo kill.

There's nothing to it but that his skills are accurate.

Lucian's [Transcendent Light] is like a lock-on; within 40 seconds of the game starting, and with the second wave of minions just arriving, Lucian's Q has already hit three times in a row.

They then seized an opportunity and launched a full-scale attack, dealing a huge blow to the card!

After one wave, although Twisted Fate still had nearly half his health left, he was already within the kill range of Lucian's strong attack. As for the yellow card, it posed no threat to Lucian who had Cleanse, so he was doomed.

The documentary didn't hold back, cutting in all of these shots to showcase Ming Jing's solo kill, sparking a flurry of discussion in the live chat.

The next game will be the second game.

DK's performance in this game was nothing short of perfect, with perfect coordination across all three lanes, giving them a huge early advantage and pushing EDG to the brink of defeat.

For EDG, there are probably only a handful of games with this level of disadvantage throughout the entire year!
At the time, countless viewers thought that a decisive battle was about to begin.

But the EDG players didn't think that way.

"Can fight."

Mingjing's voice rang out in the voice channel, like a stabilizing force, calming the slightly chaotic voice channel down.

Subsequently, Mingjing continued to drive the pace, feeding Saint Gun Bro one head after another into his mouth.

Even without anyone else saying anything, Flandre felt immense pressure after getting the kill.

"Don't feed me heads." The pressure on Flandre was even palpable in his voice. "Even if I get the head, I still can't beat Jayce. I'm useless."

"It's useful, believe in yourself." Ming Jing's voice remained steady. "We absolutely need you to turn this game around, get ready."

Mingjing's words put even more pressure on Saint Gun.

Looking at Ming Jing, Song Xuan found it hard to reconcile the peaceful and gentle young man before her with the decisive and resolute commander on the field.

"Did you really think you could turn this around back then?" Song Xuan asked, "Just relying on Flandre's Kennen?"

"Who can say for sure? After all, the other side isn't stupid either," Ming Jing laughed. "But I do think the chances are very high. Flandre played very well in team fights."

Saint Gun also appeared on screen with a smile, saying to the camera, "Mainly because Mingjing trusts me so much, I would feel very guilty if I didn't perform well."

A championship is never something that can be won through individual heroism; only when five people trust and support each other can they win in the end.

Fortunately, Flandre is someone Mingjing can trust.

Kennen perfectly flanked the enemy, unleashing a furious and terrifying thunderbolt, instantly helping his team close the gap and turn the tide of battle!

The camera then panned to EDG's backstage area, where everyone excitedly launched themselves into the air. Zhu Kai and Mao Kai immediately hugged each other, their faces beaming with joy.

Then, taking advantage of this rare initiative, Mingjing perfectly maneuvered, using the card's ultimate and TP to traverse the map, making the opponent completely at his mercy, and then ending the game with a base steal!
After the match, commentator Guan Zeyuan called it a comeback game that would go down in history.

In this comeback game, the key player was none other than the mid-lane Twisted Fate who didn't get a single kill and whose damage output was relatively low.

With the comeback victory in the second game, the outcome of the championship was no longer in doubt.

In the third game, EDG, having survived the comeback, became even more united.

JieJie delivered on his promise to cripple Canyon with a perfect opening invasion, helping his team establish an advantage.

Saint Gun didn't let Jie Jie's help go to waste, responding to Nuguri with a solo kill in his lane.

Viper did what he was supposed to do, and rightfully suppressed Ghost.

The colossal statue of justice, Mingjing, blotted out the sky and dominated the battlefield!

With a strong push from all three lanes, EDG secured the victory and ascended to the throne as the new king.

We are the champions!

[The voice recording during the second game's comeback really gave me goosebumps. Can you believe how exciting that was?]

This is the bond that binds us at State Grid!

Such a united team deserves to complete the golden journey!

[The original team is back for another year! Let's go! Another championship! An unprecedented back-to-back championships with the original team!]

(End of this chapter)