We are tired of winning championships, and we still need youth training?

Chapter 178 A decisive moment: Against TES!

After securing the first victory against JDG, Karam returned to the rest area looking much more relaxed.

"If we play to our normal level, we can win."

He made this assertion.

Because JDG has been synonymous with consistent performance this season.

If you can win, you can win; if you can't, you can't.

From the very first game, Karam has already pinpointed the biggest weakness.

"Their bot lane isn't very strong."

With Missing's departure, JDG's bot lane strength has dropped significantly.

Although he wasn't given many opportunities, how could he carry the game when the mid and jungle were outmatched?

impossible.

In other words, he excels at capitalizing on trends, but his individual breakthrough ability is relatively weak.

Such an AD carry poses a significant threat to teams with exceptionally strong top, mid, and jungle players.

Because it's difficult to break through their mid, top, and jungle, but it's also unlikely to find a rhythm in the bot lane.

Fortunately, JDG's top, mid, and jungle players do not yet possess that kind of dominance.

To use a more vivid analogy, it's like a youth version of DWG.

"Focus on the bottom lane, put immense pressure on them in the early game, and then push quickly."

Karam's tactics were simple.

Aren't you supposed to be very resilient in the bot lane?

Then I'll target your bot lane.

Because teams like this rarely play against lineups centered around the bottom lane.

It's impossible to suddenly ask someone who's always under pressure to take on a crucial game.

Just like RNG in S9.

After their failure in S8, RNG also sought to change.

They started sacrificing Uzi in the bot lane during the draft phase, attempting to have Xiaohu in the mid lane step up and lead the team, and to have the top laner take over the game as much as possible.

The consequences were extremely dire.

If it weren't for Uzi's near-godlike performance in the qualifying tournament, they might not have even made it to the World Championship.

The same applies to JDG now.

If IG chooses to play in the bottom half of the map, and JDG falls for it and also chooses to play in the bottom half, then they can already win today's BO3.

Even if they don't fall for it, IG can easily launch a fast push.

Meanwhile, the coach of JDG also discovered the problem.

"Our bottom lane is too weak. Can Kanavi check on the bottom lane more?"

"No, if I go, I might not be able to make a difference in the top lane."

Kanavi shook his head immediately.

He plays most often with Zoom, but conversely, he has almost no synergy with the bot lane.

Kanavi isn't averse to ganking, but he genuinely hasn't practiced it much.

"...Tsk."

JDG's head coach rubbed his chin and quickly made a decision.

"let it go."

He chose to give up directly.

"Keep playing mid and jungle, and try to help the toothpaste get back on track."

JDG's coach is skilled; he immediately chose to give up after realizing the situation was hopeless.

After a short break, both players returned to the court.

During the draft phase, Karam made no secret of his emphasis on the bot lane, giving it a full three protective bans.

By banning Aphelios and Xayah, JDG was forced to ban Kai'Sa, and then they countered by locking in Ezreal and Karma in the bot lane, aggressively pushing the lane.

In the mid lane, Rookie picked Taliyah to counter JDG's Galio, the jungler picked Sejuani, and the top laner chose Renekton to strengthen the early and mid-game top side of the map.

JDG's response was equally effective.

The bottom lane picked Nautilus and Miss Fortune to improve laning strength, while the top and jungle chose Kennen and Wukong to enhance team fight capabilities.

The BP of both parties is as follows:

Blue Square IG:

Top order crocodile
Fight the wild boar girl
Mid lane Taliyah
Bot lane duo: Ezreal and Karma
Red team JDG:

Top laner Kenan
Jungle Monkey
Mid laner Galio

Bot lane duo: Miss Fortune and Nautilus
Game start!
For IG, the start was a bit rough.

At 2 minutes and 37 seconds into the game, Viper's Miss Fortune dodged Nautilus's Q with her positioning and then, in coordination with Missing, forced Nautilus to use Flash.

Xu Xinghe acted swiftly, coordinating with Rookie's teleport in the mid lane to complete a four-man gank on the second lane.

Kanavi's support arrived quite quickly, but Xu Xinghe had anticipated his arrival before making his move, so he acted extremely decisively.

First, they focused fire and quickly eliminated the support Sejuani, then immediately retreated, causing Kanavi to fail and wasting time.

After crossing the bottom lane, they immediately entered Kanavi's jungle.

Kanavi was only able to drive Xu Xinghe out after the support revived.

However, Kanavi inevitably lost two sets of monsters, which made him very unhappy.

A jungler like him who likes to invade the enemy jungle will have a hard time when he gets invaded.

But this is just the beginning.

Taking advantage of his position in the bottom lane, Xu Xinghe would immediately apply pressure to the bottom lane once he had cleared the top half of the map.

In almost every invasion, IG's bot lane arrives first.

This forced Kanavi to avoid the situation.

"How do you play this?"

After being hacked twice in a row, Kanavi couldn't help but ask a question.

He certainly knew he could avoid war.

But the problem is, if he can avoid battle, how can they avoid battle in the bottom lane?

If he doesn't go, then Xu Xinghe's whereabouts will almost certainly not be seen.

This also means that JDG's bot lane will be under immense pressure.

Karma already struggles against an EZ with an advantage, and now she can't even leave the turret.

The only way is to find IG's weaknesses as quickly as possible.

However, IG basically gave them no chance in either the mid or top lane.

Flandre is incredibly slick, and Rookie is a veteran mid laner.

He said he loves pushing lanes, and he really only pushes lanes.

After pushing the lane, they followed Xu Xinghe, causing Kanavi to retreat whenever they encountered him in the jungle.

The lower half of the bracket exploded in less than six minutes.

In professional matches, it's very difficult to come back from the laning phase.

Because once they have an advantage, they really won't give you any chance.

This is why most professional games pay close attention to the jungler.

Because once you're at a disadvantage online, you're truly at a disadvantage. Without a jungler to help you, how can you expect to fight back on your own?

That's basically a fantasy.

Take this game for example.

Once EZ Karma gained the advantage, he could easily dominate JDG's bot lane duo.

EZ taking some damage from Miss Fortune is no big deal, but Karma's RQ combo will make Miss Fortune pregnant on the spot.

It's hard to even stand still under the tower!

This made JDG's bot lane hesitant to even trade blows.

At 9 minutes and 42 seconds into the game, the bottom lane tower was destroyed.

IG's pace in this game was incredibly tight.

"This is a fast break. IG wants to push quickly, and JDG has to find a way to deal with their bot lane."

"But EZ is really hard to catch."

The two commentators on the commentary stage exchanged views, both expressing their concerns about JDG.

Commentators always have to speak from the perspective of the disadvantaged side.

JDG is very good at late-game macro play, but IG doesn't play late-game at all, putting immense pressure on them in the early game.

At this moment, Xu Xinghe went to the bottom lane.

In this move, JDG assembled all five players.

They can no longer afford to lose their second turret in the bottom lane.

However, Xu Xinghe controlled almost the entire jungle area. He initiated a team fight directly in the jungle with a single ultimate, hitting Kanavi's Monkey King.

Karma and Ezreal unleashed their damage, Rookie's Taliyah blocked the way, forcing the low-health Kanavi to use Flash, and a precise WEQ combo locked onto Kanavi, bringing him back and securing the kill.

Both top laners landed almost simultaneously, but Renekton couldn't get close to Ezreal, who was protected by Karma, and could only be endlessly kited. IG scored a 2-for-0 trade, taking the dragon and Rift Herald, widening their gold lead to over 3,000.

"Gone."

The JDG coach backstage sighed slightly.

Once this wave is over, it's basically finished.

EZ is unstoppable.

Looking at the rhythm of the first ten minutes, JDG's rhythm became extremely passive after the Titan's hook at level two.

Against a jungler like Xu Xinghe who excels at seizing opportunities, giving the bottom lane such an opportunity means the game is over.

What followed was a smooth and seamless operation.

Push towers, farm resources, invade.

JDG suffered a series of defeats.

At the 12-minute mark of the game, JDG's mid-lane tower fell.

Their bot lane duo was forced to move to the mid lane, but this did little to improve their farming environment.

Viper's Ezreal completed Manamune and Essence Reaver in fifteen minutes.

At seventeen minutes, IG's Manamune was fully stacked and converted into Manamune, and they began to actively seek team fights.

JDG held back for most of the game, but IG still managed to seize the opportunity.

The economic lead translates into a vision advantage. Kanavi's monkey had almost no room to develop and could only be chased around by Xu Xinghe in the jungle.

After the monkey was driven out of the jungle, IG, having secured the second Rift Herald, pushed straight to the middle lane and even directly onto the high ground.

JDG fought hard to defend their high ground tower, but at the cost of losing their top lane tower as well.

Not only that, Zoom was caught by Ezreal with Karma on his way back, and even after using Flash, he still couldn't survive.

After catching Zoom dead, Flandre's Renekton teleported directly to the front and forcefully pushed down JDG's high ground, widening the gold gap to over 5,000.

At this point, JDG's only hope lies in Monkey's miraculous team fight initiation.

But, can a miracle really happen?

Xu Xinghe's vision was almost completely filled, and Missing's vision setup was equally exaggerated, almost lighting up the entire area around the two carries. Kanavi could only force his way in if he wanted to enter the fray.

However, with Karma's acceleration, these two Cs basically have no chance to get close.

At 22 minutes into the game, IG easily secured Baron Nashor with overwhelming vision control.

There's not much to say after that. IG grouped up and destroyed JDG's bottom lane second tower, and then their high ground.

After breaking through both high ground lanes, IG cleared JDG's jungle and directly increased the economic difference to 10,000.

An economic gap of 10,000 is not something that can be reversed under normal circumstances.

IG is not EDG, and JDG is not SKT.

After 25 minutes of gameplay, IG completed a speedrun against JDG.

From start to finish, JDG was given virtually no chance to fight back; the pace was smooth and exaggerated.

The IG audience below the stage were stunned.

Holy crap, is this IG?

They're back! They're all back!

[Xinghe's pace is still exaggerated, this game is really a super jungler]

There's nothing we can do; Kanavi doesn't like ganking bot lane, so IG exploits his weaknesses.

That's basically how a normal match goes.

As long as they don't make mistakes, the dominant side can easily disrupt the rhythm of the disadvantaged side, and even not give them any chance to turn the tide from start to finish.

Even though JDG played very tenaciously, putting all the pressure on their own bot lane was still not a good choice.

“Let’s congratulate IG!”

"They've easily defeated JDG, and their winning streak continues!"

"It's clear that IG is in exceptionally good form right now!"

The child praised.

IG's rhythm was absolutely unbeatable this game. They barely suffered any setbacks, and they were always successful in small-scale team fights, maintaining the initiative at all times.

Although there were still some mistakes, they were far from fatal.

Given this situation, the MSI might be within reach.

Xu Xinghe stood up from his seat, looking much more relaxed.

This is what he wants to see.

With their team cohesion improving, IG has finally officially entered the ranks of top-tier teams.

Instead, it wasn't that he single-handedly saved the world from dire straits.

However, such a match also puts a lot of pressure on the current veterans of IG.

Despite the prolonged high-intensity training, Flandre's expression remained relatively calm, while Rookie showed signs of fatigue.

It's truly amazing.

Saint Gun's debut wasn't too late, but he was able to withstand high-intensity operations and decision-making more than Rookie.

Perhaps it's related to the different roles of mid laners and top laners?

But it's hard to say.

After all, in the S14 World Championship finals, Faker was still able to fight BLG to the fifth game, and his performance did not fluctuate much.

They're getting better the more they fight.

It can only be said that people's physical constitutions are not the same.

Today's interviewee is Nakano.

Then Xu Xinghe fell ill.

Interviews are something you only need to do once in a while; why go every day?
Some things you say can lead to a stir and cause controversy.

He's too lazy to go anyway.

"...You mean, right after the match, Galaxy, the jungler, suddenly felt unwell?"

Luo Xin, who was in charge of the interview, had a strange expression.

"……Um."

Missing, who was being stared at by him, nodded reluctantly.

Luo Xin: ...

"Ok."

After the interview ended, Missing, feeling relieved, returned to her car and couldn't help but complain about Xu Xinghe.

"Seriously, Xinghe? You know that host's expression was a bit weird? Don't call me for the next interview."

"You don't even like interviews? We're all old-timers, it's time for you young people to shine."

Xu Xinghe casually pressed the iced cola against his face and said.

"And Viper, who was with you, didn't say anything, did he?"

Missing turned her head and glanced at Viper, who was slumped in his seat next to her.

Viper had already closed his eyes and fallen asleep.

Viper played exceptionally well today, so he's really tired now.

Viper: Haha, everyone's still chatting, I'm already asleep.
Missing: ...

He didn't say anything.

He was too weak to speak!
"We can't always be the ones to go, right? Xinghe, when are you going to do an interview?"

Missing squinted.

Xu Xinghe smiled and looked at the neon lights flashing outside the window.

"rest assured."

He said calmly:
"When we lose, it's our turn to give interviews."

Although he doesn't like interviews, he won't avoid interviews after losing.

As the senior member of the team, this is one of his responsibilities.

At that point, he won't let the bot lane duo go.

Missing paused for a moment, then fell silent.

After a long while, he muttered something under his breath.

Unfortunately, no one could hear what he said.

After defeating JDG, the next matches will pose little threat to IG.

Before we knew it, it was late April and the regular season was over.

IG successfully advanced to the playoffs in Group A with the highest points.

One playoff game after another was played.

Shortly after IG adapted to the playoff version, a new challenger quietly emerged.

TES!

In the playoff semifinals, TES defeated RNG 3-1, successfully advancing to the final round of Group A.
The upcoming match is against IG.

(End of this chapter)