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

Chapter 331 Live Streaming Sales?

The bus stopped in front of the hotel.

The team leaders got off the bus first, checked in at the hotel front desk, and then led their team members off the bus to their hotel rooms.

(Fixed a bug: The scene of watching the lottery ceremony was originally set in the hotel restaurant, but considering that it does not conform to the logic of epidemic prevention, it has been changed to take place on the bus to the hotel. The change does not affect the plot, it is just a hint.)
"I'm off. See you in the practice match."

"OK, OK, please be careful and take precautions, don't get seriously injured."

"Yes, yes, you too."

The virus that emerged a few years ago is still raging around the world, with the United States being the hardest hit area, where the country is completely uninvolved and neglected.

Even if the hotel where the athletes are staying has implemented strict disinfection measures, extreme caution is still necessary.

Upon arriving at the room, the EDG staff were already prepared and immediately began to work, thoroughly disinfecting each room and training room.

"During the World Championship, brothers, try not to go out. Just stay between the venue and your room."

Abu called out from the front, "If you have any questions about food, clothing, or accommodation, just ask our team leader, Brother Wang."

"OK, OK." The EDG members nodded, indicating that they understood.

In esports, a mental sport, the negative effects of fever can be devastating, and no one wants such a problem to occur at a crucial moment in the competition.

I heard that during the qualifying stage, a player from one of the teams had already been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Mexico City, and that team ultimately failed to advance to the group stage.

After eating the meal delivered to their room by Riot Games staff and disinfected, they entered practice mode.

Holding a thick stack of data records, Maokai said, "This time, just like before we set off, we'll mainly focus on studying the jungle."

Although EDG's training team had previously conducted a preliminary analysis of the version update, relying solely on data is clearly insufficient to fully predict the version's direction. In recent scrims, they have indeed discovered many unexpected things.

For example, the sudden rise of three jungler heroes: Hecarim, Maokai, and Graves.

These three heroes have all received significant buffs in the last two or three versions.

Hecarim's Q has had its AD scaling significantly increased, and his W has also gained dual resistances.

The tree has received a minor rework; the percentage damage from its E skill has been moved to its Q skill, and an additional damage bonus has been added to its Q skill for clearing jungle camps.

Graves' approach is simple and straightforward: his Q skill cooldown has been reduced, and his ultimate skill damage has been increased.

EDG's training team originally thought that these changes would not have a significant impact on the game, since these heroes are not considered popular junglers in the current competitive environment.

Moreover, all three heroes have been modified to be more jungle-centric, making them more like reworks specifically for ranked matches.

I just didn't expect the designer to give so many numbers.

So JieJie has been quite busy lately, needing to get these three heroes practiced as soon as possible.

Of course, the team still sticks to its original assessment, believing that these three heroes will not be very popular and will at most be a backup option.

"In addition, the female police officer in the bottom lane also needs to be practiced more. This hero will definitely be very important."

Based on recent scrimmages, it's clear that the gameplay and pace of the S12 World Championship won't change much. It will still focus on early lane control and dragon control, along with mid-to-late game team fights, which is exactly what EDG excels at.

Under this pace, the newly strengthened female police officer naturally becomes extremely important.

A policewoman who can break free from the Dragon Soul rhythm is invincible.

In the midst of busy training, October 8th arrived in the blink of an eye.

After the National Day holiday, the World Championship Finals have finally entered the main event stage.

October, the month of League of Legends, has officially begun.

Mingjing deliberately got up a little later today, not until noon Eastern Time.

To accommodate a global audience, the group stage will begin at 5 PM, while EDG's fourth match will start at 8 PM.

This kind of evening competition will become the norm going forward, so Mingjing has adjusted his schedule accordingly.

However, since EDG is the defending champion, they need to go to the venue before the first match to return the trophy, which is a bit troublesome.

The EDG team timed their trip perfectly and drove to the venue on time.

But of course, there were plenty of complaints along the way.

"They've already decided we have to return the trophy, so why don't they just let us play the first round? Isn't it a hassle to keep running back and forth like this?"

"Whether it's troublesome or not is secondary; the main problem is that it's very dangerous."

"really."

Today's opponent was EG, the third seed from North America, who advanced from the play-in stage. It was an easy and enjoyable match.

EDG's last match was at the World Championship, where they faced North America in their first group stage game. It was the opening match against North America's number one seed, 100T, and they got thoroughly thrashed.

This is also a match against North America, but it's been placed as the fourth game. Besides taking into account the time difference, it's probably also because they were worried the host team would get crushed in the opening game, which wouldn't look very good.
This is tough on the EDG members.

The backstage area of ​​the venue is now fraught with danger, since the staff on site are constantly running around and there isn't much room for strict prevention and control measures.

Soon, the shuttle bus stopped at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden, and the EDG members, wearing thick masks, hurriedly entered the venue.

At this moment, the North American host, with a deep, resonant voice, delivered the opening remarks for this year's World Championship.

Immediately afterwards, the Riot Games logo lit up on the big screen and the promotional video for the 2022 World Championship Group Stage began to play.

After a black screen, the first thing that catches the eye is the empty competition venue.

Standing by the bridge is Peanut, GEN's jungler.

Peanut looked at the New York sky, and for a moment his hair seemed to shimmer silver.

“New York City holds many memories for me; it was my first World Championship.”

The scene quickly cuts back to 2016, to the same venue.

ROX fought a grueling five-game series, but ultimately lost by a single move, with the fledgling silver-haired Peanut falling to the reigning champion.

"A long time has passed, and I believe this time will be different."

The camera then pans to reveal the five members of GEN. As the number one seed from LCK, they are undoubtedly the favorites to win the championship.

The scene then shifts to the Brooklyn Bridge.

The five T1 players, led by Faker, also stood in the frame.

Faker held up his index finger in front of him, making a shushing gesture.

"I will win again this time."

The appearance of Faker and Peanut brought everyone's memories back to seven years ago, instantly raising the tension to its peak.

Of course, the two teams will not meet in the plaza garden this time.

Following that, the other teams appeared one after another, each making their own tough statements.

Chovy said he wanted to rewrite the structure of the middle unit.

Xiao Tian said he would make Europe suffer a crushing defeat once again.

Caps said there would be no more regrets this time.

Soon, the promotional video came to a close.

The camera finally cuts to downtown New York City, Times Square in Manhattan.

Standing at the crossroads of the world, the drumbeats in the promotional video's background pause for a moment. As the camera slowly pans, a figure appears from behind, the boy's team uniform bearing three English words.

Phi
The camera slowly pans from his back to his front, and when it passes his side, you can see that Ming Jing is wearing two championship rings on his index finger.

This is the championship ring that Riot Games later gave to the champion player when distributing the miniature championship trophy.

Starting from this edition, champion medals will no longer be awarded; instead, rings will be given out instead.

As the camera moved to the front, Ming Jing slowly raised his hand, which was adorned with a ring, and clenched it into a fist in front of the camera.

The EDG members, each wearing their own rings, appeared behind Mingjing.

The stirring drumbeats sounded again, and Mingjing's voice slowly appeared.

Are you ready to usher in a new era?

The promotional video ended there, and the scene finally switched back to the venue.

From the venue, the angry roar of the European presenter could be heard.

"Let's welcome the 2021 World Championship winners—EDG!!!"

On stage, the lights were on, and Ming Jing was seen slowly walking onto the stage with the trophy in his hand, followed by four solid teammates.

Ming Jing held the 60-pound trophy firmly in both arms and gently placed it in the center of the venue.

The audience below the stage was packed with countless North American viewers, and the cheers and applause were quite lively!

This scene made Ming Jing feel somewhat emotional.

He has been playing professionally for more than two years, but either there are no spectators or only half of the seats are occupied due to epidemic prevention requirements.

This was the first time he had ever seen the stadium packed with spectators.

Putting aside the level of danger, having a large audience is quite enjoyable.
"One&Only! The 2022 Global Finals have officially begun!"

The EDG members waved to the audience and slowly left the stage.

But as they were leaving, everyone quickly pulled out their masks from their pockets and hurriedly left.
Of course, the players couldn't stay in the stadium until the fourth game; they had to go back to the hotel and wait until the match started before returning.

Get away!
When everyone returned to the hotel training room, the first game between C9 and CFO had already progressed to the mid-to-late stages.

The North American number one seed is facing a Southeast Asian team, which is the matchup with the highest chance of winning for the North American region.

As the host country, they really wanted a successful start.

Unfortunately, even so, the outcome was still not as desired.

As soon as Mingjing opened the live stream, he saw that C9 was already 3,000 gold behind and was under pressure from the Dragon Soul team fight, which was about to break out!
CFO didn't miss this opportunity to end the game, securing the Dragon Soul team fight and taking control of Baron Nashor, quickly accumulating an unassailable advantage.

After a few adjustments and a team fight, CFO actually won the first game!

Seeing this, Ming Jing couldn't help but shake his head.

The North American teams are just too weak.

With C9 and CFO battling it out like this, T1 and JDG can easily advance.

After a short break, the second game began quickly.

This time, the competition is in Group B, where EDG is located, but it's a match between two other teams: DK vs. G2.

This match was related to EDG's chances of advancing, so Mingjing paid a little attention to it.

What if DK loses?
Unfortunately, nothing unexpected happened.

After 35 minutes, DK held on to their point, securing their first win in the group stage.

In the third game, it was finally the LPL teams' turn to take the stage.

100T will face off against RNG.

This was also a match with little suspense.

But the EDG players didn't have time to look closely; they set off again for the venue.

After they arrived backstage at the venue and completed a series of procedures including inspection and disinfection, the third game ended.

It also took 35 minutes, and RNG secured a point!
Ming Jing happened to run into an RNG player, and the two lightly bumped fists.

"Go for it!" Xiao Hu, also wearing a thick mask, greeted him.

"Don't worry." Ming Jing nodded, and he and his teammates went up on stage to install the peripherals first, and then waited backstage. Soon it was time to go on stage.

"."

On the LPL commentary booth, Guan Daxiao, 957 Tongxi, and two others were conducting a pre-match analysis of the upcoming game.

It was easy to hear their confidence in EDG from their tone.

Of course, this is normal. As the defending champions, EDG is facing a team that came up from the play-in stage. If they lose, the consequences after the match are unimaginable.

They might be able to win even if they replaced any one of the players except Mingjing with fans or viewers.

"Alright viewers, all the players from EDG and EG have taken the stage, and the draft phase is about to begin!"

"Because the group stage is a double round-robin format, the two teams will take turns choosing sides in this game. In this game, EG chose sides and took the initiative to choose the blue side!"

"Let's see how the draft picks and bans go!"

There wasn't much discussion on either side regarding the bans.

EG dutifully banned Lucian, Twisted Fate, and Caitlyn.

EDG didn't do any in-depth research on EG, and their bans were all done at the last minute before the match, banning Maokai, Akali, and Gangplank.

Akali is actually a champion that Mingjing is very good at, but Mingjing doesn't plan to play her today, so it's best to ban her.

"Here it comes. The bans on both sides are actually more focused on individual heroes, and a lot of meta heroes have been released!"

In the commentary booth, Colonel Guan said, "Of course, this is normal, after all, the group stage is the time to explore the answer to the current version!"

Once the selection phase began, EG made their first move quickly, immediately picking Aatrox.

Picking Aatrox first was definitely the right decision. The dozen or so matches in the qualifying rounds have proven that Aatrox with armor penetration is absolutely the answer for the top lane in this meta, and no other hero can compare to him.

EG is indeed a team centered around top laner Impact, so making the top laner comfortable is very important.

EDG, on the other hand, didn't think much about it and directly locked in the combination of Yuumi and Aphelios.

Since the buffs in last year's World Championship patch, Yuumi has been a must-ban or must-pick in professional matches, and this situation is destined to continue as long as there have been no significant nerfs this year.

With Sivir Zeli being nerfed, Aphelios' priority has naturally increased slightly, which is perfectly reasonable.

On the other hand, EG locked in Centaur Warrunner and Varus, both of whom are heroes that have benefited from the current version.

"Then it's our side, JieJie immediately locked in the Ruined King for himself. Huh?"

This choice is clearly a bit strange.

From a version perspective, Blade of the Ruined King is not bad as a God-Slaying Spinner, but Lee Sin is obviously a better jungler choice.

Could it be that.
"Are they playing with skins?"

They're here to sell products!

(End of this chapter)