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

Chapter 321 The Invisible Blade, the Most Deadly

The day after the loser's bracket finals.

The EDG team then boarded a plane and flew directly to Beijing.

During this special period, the LPL team has put in a lot of effort to secure a stadium in Beijing for hosting large-scale competitions.

But clearly, it was all worth it.

With LPL currently on a four-peat, no one wants the LPL finals to be watched only online.

After this regional competition is over, there will be no more concerns about this, because this year's World Championship will be held in the United States.

The United States has no control measures whatsoever, and the virus is growing wildly. The atmosphere of watching the games will reach its peak, but at the same time, the level of danger will also rise sharply.

Even Abu, when discussing the upcoming World Championships, warned his players in advance.

None of the EDG players have tested positive, so a period of adjustment is expected.

We can only hope that the pain of labor won't be too devastating.

Of course, that's all for later.

EDG's immediate goal is to win the finals first.

Besides filming promotional videos and trash talk for the LPL official team, and rehearsing for the finals stage, Mingjing had other tasks.

Upon landing in Beijing, Ming Jing immediately left the team and made a trip to Peking University.

The registration for new students at Peking University is on August 28th, so Ming Jing was actually considered late.

In addition to registering as a new student, Mingjing also needs to apply for a leave of absence for another semester.

Song Xuan had already settled in at Peking University. Due to the special circumstances this year, there was no military training, and she was already preparing to start her university courses.

Having long been familiar with Peking University's campus, she took Mingjing around and quickly streamlined a series of procedures.

Of course, Ming Jing didn't want her to make a wasted trip. He also brought an internal ticket to the finals, saving Song Xuan the cost of a ticket.

Finally, it was Coach Jiang, who had previously led the national training team and national team training, who stamped Mingjing's leave of absence.

Old Jiang happily stamped and signed the document, then patted Ming Jing on the shoulder, signaling Ming Jing to do his best in the upcoming competition and return to his studies as soon as possible after the exam.

Mingjing is, after all, a gold medalist in the national team, and his math skills have long surpassed the level of a freshman. Taking a semester off is not a problem for him, but he certainly cannot take a break indefinitely, otherwise he will inevitably fall behind.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Ming Jing said with a smile. "I'll come back to class after I win this year's championship."

It was no secret that Ming Jing went to Peking University to register. The internet is full of hidden talents, and a student from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University actually posted a picture of Ming Jing and Song Xuan walking together on the campus, which sparked a lot of discussion.

The meaning couldn't be clearer, and discussions about Ming Jing's future career quickly spread.

Many people understand that Fei Shen would never give up his studies; if he wanted to, he would have done so long ago. In the past three years, Fei Shen has never played a complete season.

The main question is whether Fei Shen will temporarily give up on the competition.

It's really hard to say.

If we can still spend most of the year studying, like this year, and then stage a triumphant comeback at the crucial moment, that would be great.

Ming Jing didn't expect that simply going to the school to register would cause such a big reaction. After registering, he had a meal with Song Xuan before returning to the hotel and resuming his normal training routine.

As usual, EDG held a special pre-match meeting.

"Our opponent in the finals is Top Esports." Maokai adjusted his glasses and said, "This is something we expected; the team is well-prepared."

Top Esports was the top team in the regular season, so making it to the finals was a natural progression.

As for the team's style, it's quite obvious; it simply relies on Xiaotian's rhythm ability to connect the three lanes.

This playstyle is actually very similar to EDG's, both of which focus on the early game tempo.

“Then we don’t need to change anything,” Jie Jie said. “Just play normally.”

In terms of early game tempo, EDG is certainly not afraid; they'll just go for it.

Before losing a game, no one needs to adjust their strategy.

"That being said, we still need to have more contingency plans," Maokai said. "What if Top Esports is in good form that day? So it's best to have a strategy to drag the game into the later stages."

The EDG members nodded and immediately resumed their discussion.

Having already won five best-of-five series, all that's left is to get through this final hurdle to complete this unprecedented six-game winning streak.

Of course, no one wanted to miss out on such a rare achievement.

For the EDG team, achieving a six-kill streak is truly difficult; this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

After all, teams need to rank 7th-10th in the regular season to qualify for the first round.
In all the years since EDG was founded, apart from the year of S10 when they completely failed and didn't even make it to the playoffs, this year is their worst regular season result.

Time passed day by day, and the Summer Finals on September 3rd drew ever closer.

Meanwhile, the LCK's journey has already reached its final stage.

GEN, who had been on a strong run, did not disappoint. They swept T1 3-0 in the playoffs and won the LCK Summer Split championship.

GEN and T1 have secured the top two LCK seed spots in advance thanks to their championships and points.

The third and fourth seeds have already been determined through the qualifying rounds.

First came the big battle between DK and DRX.

Although DK has been a bit weak this year, unable to beat the top two seeds, they are still better than the rest.

With a nonchalant 3-0 victory, DK easily advanced.

The addition of Scout and Deft did not bring about any major qualitative changes to DRX, but it did maintain good competitiveness.

In the final battle for the fourth seed, DRX held on to their bottom line, sweeping LSB 3-0 to secure the fourth seed and make it to the World Championship!
Seeing this, countless LPL viewers finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, DRX made it to Worlds.

If they don't get in, where will they make up for the lack of entertainment value?
I can't wait to see DRX vs. EDG!
Before we knew it, it was Saturday, September 3rd, at 9 PM.

Although it was a day off, due to different prevention and control measures in various places, countless people still chose to stay at home and watch the LPL's year-end finals with friends in real life or online.

There were quite a few streamers providing commentary on the match today. In addition to big streamers like Huya Siquan and Doinb, the JDG players, who were recently dismissed by Yuyue, also started streaming and watched the match on time.

In the pre-match commentary booth, Wang Duoduo, who was in the center position, was analyzing the data from the broadcast.

Because TES's win rate is not high, and they have even fallen into the loser's bracket, this data comparison is not very interesting. They are almost completely weaker than EDG.

Of course, there's some truth to the players' statistics.

The TES players each have their own strengths and stand out in many statistical categories.

For example, jungler Xiaotian's first blood participation rate is a terrifying 90%!

This is even after the playoffs saw a slight drop in stats. At the end of the regular season, Xiaotian's first blood participation rate was a terrifying 100%!

This also shows how important Xiaotian's rhythm is to TES. "In addition, JackeyLove's damage per minute and damage share are still slightly better than Viper's."

Wang Duoduo laughed and said, "Of course, this might also be because Zeli dealt 90,000 damage in that game, which boosted the stats too much!"

"Yes!"

After we finished talking, it was time for the final round to begin.
At this moment, it can be seen that although the stands of Wukesong Stadium are not completely full, they have reached the limit under the epidemic prevention and control regulations. The atmosphere in the stands is lively and the cheers are deafening!
Countless viewers are all ready and waiting for the start of the ultimate battle.

After a ten-second countdown, today's host, Liu Hang, stepped onto the stage and called out in a deep voice:
"From the regular season to the playoffs, and now to the finals! After nearly three months of fierce competition, the seventeen LPL teams have finally ushered in their perfect farewell!"

"EDG! Top Esports!"

Liu Hang announced loudly, "Two champion teams that have once topped the regional competition have come to the end and will meet at the summit of Wukesong Arena to compete for the championship and the Silver Dragon Cup!"

"Next, let's welcome our contestant to the stage!"

"First up is TOP ESPORTS!"

Top lane: 369! Jungle: Tian! Mid lane: Knight! Bot lane: JackeyLove! Support: Mark!

Offstage, countless spectators erupted in applause.

TES is undoubtedly the second-best team in the LPL right now, and it also has top-tier, high-profile players like JackeyLove, so it naturally has a lot of supporters.

"And then, it's Edward Gaming!"

Top Lane: Flandre! Jungle: Jiejie! Mid Lane: Phi!!! Bot Lane: Viper! Support: Meiko!

Off the field, the cheers grew louder and louder with Liu Hang's shouts!
In terms of team popularity and player traffic, no one in the current LPL can compare with EDG and Mingjing.

Especially considering that EDG started from the first round of the playoffs this year and achieved a remarkable 15-0 record, winning all five rounds, this finals added a touch of legend to the competition.

"Please take your seats, both contestants. The ultimate battle is about to begin!"

While the players were taking their seats and preparing, the director switched to the trash talk that had been pre-recorded before the match.

This year's trash talk will still be presented in the form of short skits.

Outside a private room at a restaurant, Ming Jing and Yu Wenbo met face to face. They exchanged a glance and then pushed open the door together to enter the private room.

A long table was set up in the room, with the two finalists sitting on either side, laughing and gazing at each other.

"Let's order first."

The two sides started by making jokes, with one side ordering bubble tea without ice and the other ordering fried pork chop. It wasn't until they ordered the limited-edition Silver Dragon Cup that things really got heated, and they started exchanging harsh words.

Actually, there weren't many jokes in this trash talk, since EDG and TES haven't really played against each other much.

The story of Mingjing eliminating TES in the semifinals of S10 adds a touch of gunpowder to this competition.

“Top Esports is indeed very strong.” Ming Jing concluded, “It was after watching TES’s matches at the MSC that I became interested in League of Legends.”

"But I'm sorry, this championship still belongs to EDG."

"I have never missed a championship in my career so far, and I believe this time will be no exception."

The trash talk ended there, and the camera quickly cut to the commentary booth.

Today's commentary lineup is pretty good too, still featuring the combination of Guan Daxiao and Miller, and then former professional player 957 to supplement the game understanding.

The three-person discussion didn't last long before the first draft phase began.

Both coaching staffs had been preparing for today's match for a long time, and with no changes in the first game, the drafting and banning (BP) process proceeded extremely quickly.

"Okay, we can see that the first three bans for both sides have been completed! TES, who won the coin toss before the match, took the blue side and banned Lucian, Twisted Fate, and Poppy."

"On the other side, EDG banned Yuumi, Sylas, and Draven, which is fine. Now it's time to enter the selection phase!"

In fact, both sides were relatively conservative in their bans, not targeting Wukong, Vi, or Sivir/Zeli. So, the selection of the three positions in the first round was self-evident, simply a matter of hero swapping.

TES, playing on the blue side, immediately picked Vi, while EDG, without much thought, locked in Zephyr and Lulu, essentially using picks as a form of banning.

JackeyLove's Zeli, though sometimes amazing and sometimes terrible, has at least achieved a maximum damage output of 90,000, which deserves respect.

"Top Esports locked in Sivir first, but Lulu was picked and Yuumi was banned. So Top Esports might have to think about which hero to use to pair with Sivir."

TES's final choice was to lock in Lenata.

Although Lena has only one protective skill and no healing or shields, she is still one of the strongest protective supports thanks to her superior resurrection mechanism.

Heroes like Sivir, who are easy to get assists, also have a relatively high utilization rate of their resurrection, so there's no problem with that.

On the other side, Maokai had nothing to say, locking in Monkey King as his third pick, and entering the second round of drafting.

It wasn't until the second round of draft picks that the draft picks became unpredictable.

With neither mid-laner picking a champion, both sides tacitly allocated all their ban slots to the mid-lane.

TES banned Orianna and Galio, while EDG banned Ahri and Lissandra.

Including Sylas and Twisted Fate from before, six mid-lane champions have been removed.

"But even under these circumstances, EDG still hasn't locked in their mid laner! Instead, they've already locked in Sejuani, who should be in the top lane, which is fine too!"

Colonel Guan nodded: "With the team already locked in Monkey King and Zeli, we still need to fill the remaining two positions with some crowd control, otherwise the pace will be very slow."

Top lane Sejuani is a signature champion of Flandre, similar to a combination of Ornn and Renekton, ensuring considerable tankiness while also providing a lot of crowd control.

At this point, it was TES that was in a bit of a predicament.

What heroes are left to choose from?

After much deliberation, TES decided to lock in Renekton for top lane and Taliyah for mid lane, trying to ensure lane priority in their respective lanes.

However, even TES themselves felt uncertain about their mid-lane pick, Taliyah.

Because they also knew that Phi had a knack for using Xerath against Taliyah, and that Xerath had completely overwhelmed Xiaohu!
Knight couldn't guarantee that he would do better than Xiaohu.

But they didn't expect that EDG had no intention of locking in Xerath at all.

Seeing that the opponent had locked onto Taliyah, Mingkai, the older cousin, nodded in satisfaction, closed his laptop, and then patted his younger cousin on the shoulder, "Is everything alright now?"

There are too many heroes that can counter Taliyah in Mingjing, so Xerath is not the best choice.

The reason Xerath was locked in earlier was mainly because it was only the round of six at that time, and there was no need to make a move too early.

But now that we've reached the finals, Ming Jing naturally has no need to hold back.

“Of course, no problem,” Ming Jing said with a smile. “Choose one.”

As soon as he finished speaking, EDG's fifth floor player locked onto the hero.

This time, a ninja hero clad in armor appeared.

"The invisible blade is the most deadly!"

(End of this chapter)