LPL History

Chapter 142 Deceiving the Heavens and Hiding One's Edge, the Emperor Appears to Unveil the Dragon-Slaying Ceremony

Miller's casual remark has caused an earthquake in the e-sports world.

Let alone these netizens, even Miller was speechless with shock when he learned of this news just half an hour ago.

Who was Zhou Li?

A young man who is only eighteen years old.

It turns out to be the low-profile owner behind the EDG team who has never shown his face!

Furthermore, the level of skill this person displayed in professional competitions was far from being just a hobby.

During the Spring Split, this man punched IG and kicked WE, truly turning the entire LPL upside down!

Considering Zhou Li's previous role, he was merely the manager of the IG esports team.

It's astonishing enough that someone could go from being a manager to a top professional player.

Even more outrageous is that he actually bought a club and was playing matches there!
It's hard to imagine what the IG members will think when they hear the news.

After the initial shock, Miller felt an overwhelming urge to laugh.

For the past six months, Zhou Li has truly been making a fool of everyone in the esports industry.

Especially our fans.

Since Zhou Li gradually faded from the competition stage after the Spring Tournament, think about what kind of comments the 60e fans have been making online.
They felt their struggle had succeeded.

They think EDG chickened out.

They felt that Zhou Li had been sidelined and banned by EDG.

Even now that Zhou Li has reappeared on the world stage, fans still think he's a pitiful scapegoat who was pushed up there, and that he brought it all on himself.

Unexpectedly, EDG's owner is Zhou Li!
Miller saw Zhou Li's replies on Weibo before the match.

Watching Zhou Li feign pitifulness and confusion on Weibo, making his fans (60e) go crazy, he couldn't help but laugh.

What are the feelings of the 60e at this moment?
Miller didn't even dare to think about it.

It's probably even more uncomfortable than eating watery, runny poop.

This Zhou Li, one man turned everyone into clowns.

That kid's ruthless, he's gone way too far.

Looking back now, the fact that Abu was so tragically dragged out of the esports scene by his fans (60e) must have been due to the dirty tricks of the EDG owner.

You think he's been out of the public eye and hasn't done anything for the past six months.

In reality, they're all doing the really high-stakes stuff.

Fortunately, Miller had previously disliked 60e, but he still liked Zhou Li quite a bit.

During the period when Zhou Li was "shelved," he did not join the group of Taiping rebels in making sarcastic and malicious remarks on Weibo.

Now that the truth has come out, he feels like he has survived a terrible ordeal.

Miller glanced at the doll beside him.

He didn't even tell the baby about this; he was just secretly hoping to see the baby's reaction.

The doll's mouth was wide open, its face blank, and it had forgotten to respond.

Clearly, the shock was too great, and his mind went blank.

"Haha, when I first heard this news, I was just as shocked as you were. It really was shocking news."

The baby swallowed hard.
"Is this news...reliable?"

He knew his partner wouldn't speak without reason in such a situation.

However, the plot was so outrageous that his brain couldn't choose to believe it.

"It's not a matter of reliability; EDG officials told me this themselves."

At this time, EDG's official Weibo account also updated with a new post.

[Upholding etiquette and cultivating virtue, competition knows no bounds! Our boss has reached the world championship!]

The accompanying image is of Zhou Li wearing an EDG team uniform.

The officially verified news turned all doubts into disbelief at that moment.

Holy crap! EDG's owner is Zhou Li?!

[I can't hold it in anymore, this is simply the most surreal plot of the year.]

[Was Zhou Chu really hiding his true intentions so well? He's really treating us like clowns!]

To be fair, EDG's team uniforms are quite nice and very clean.

High emotional intelligence: Cleanliness. Low emotional intelligence: No sponsors.

[Wait, is now the time to focus on team uniforms?]

Oh no, I'm really jealous. Buying a club and playing professionally myself...

[The title "Director Zhou" isn't given lightly; I think this kid has had leadership qualities since he was little.]

[Hilarious! This is the most normal Weibo post in the comments section of EDG's official Weibo account. Where are all the 60e fans?]

[The 60e players still need to process this information; they'll arrive on the battlefield in ten seconds.]

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the 60e army, having realized what was happening, began to bombard EDG with even more frantic and extreme rhetoric!
I'm so angry!

What a shame!
"The Zhou rites have been buried! Our struggle has succeeded!"

The collective narrative that had supported them for the past six months shattered instantly. They suddenly realized that they were the ones playing a part in the drama: the pitiful comments on Weibo about "poor scapegoats" and the celebratory posts on Tieba about "EDG chickening out" all turned into invisible slaps in their faces.

They not only swallowed the bitter pill of defeat, but also the humiliation of being openly mocked by their enemies.

The scene of the official Weibo account's comment section being flooded with comments in seconds mirrored the "hundreds of thousands of comments flooding the page" during the Abu incident, but this time the curses were accompanied by a sharper, trembling tone.

The chants of "Explode EDG!!" echoing across the screen were a collective roar of despair.

"Zhou Chu, you son of a bitch! The entire esports community is putting on a show for you, huh?!"

They threw water bottles at EDG's team bus and tore the stadium ceiling with their cheers for WE, but now they're like clowns nailed to the pillar of shame.

The shadows gathered outside the iron gate grew denser and denser.

Chris, who stayed at the club, swallowed hard.

He finally understood why Zhou Li had insisted that he stay at the club this time.

Even this master of closing doors in the esports world, now facing an angry crowd, suddenly began to doubt and feel uneasy about his own skills.

On the other side, in the EDG players' seat.

Lu Benwei said with a grin:

"Wow, Brother Zhou, I can't even imagine how angry those 60e will be once your identity as the boss is exposed!"

Zhou Li gave Lu Benwei a disapproving look.

"The match is about to begin. Don't talk about things that are unrelated to the match. Focus and concentrate!"

After he finished speaking, he raised his hand to greet the female fans in the audience, and even posed for photos with them from a distance.

Lu Benwei couldn't help but mutter.

"Brother Zhou, why are you interacting with female fans yourself?"

"I'm educating you, what does that have to do with me?"

SKT players' bench.

At this moment, everyone was discussing EDG's roster changes.

As a meticulous Korean team, they had naturally studied EDG before the World Championship.

However, Zhou Li has not played since the Spring Split, and it is rumored that he has been banned long ago, so SKT has no information about Zhou Li at all.

"Oh? Interesting, did they change the ADC player?"

SKT's ADC player Piglet gave a wicked smile, his eyes filled with disdain.

Top laner Impact DaMu joked:
"Haha, did you beat UZI so badly that he's afraid to play?"

Upon hearing Da Mu's words, Zhu Rang casually flicked his bangs.

"There's no way around it, facing me is indeed very stressful."

The support player, poohmandu, also cracked a joke:

"Don't I deserve any credit?"

OGN's summer championship win, coupled with their impressive performance throughout the group stage, has clearly boosted the confidence of SKT's bot lane duo.

"Yes! The two of us are the strongest bot lane duo in the world!"

Hearing the two boasting, Faker smiled and reminded them:
"Be careful, this guy has never played a match before. If he suddenly appears on the field, he must have something up his sleeve."

"Anyway, I've never heard of this person before. He's an unknown player. If he were really that good, he wouldn't be so low-key."

If Chinese diplomats heard Zhu Rang use the word "low-key" to describe Zhou Li, they would probably laugh themselves sick.

However, because Zhou Li had not appeared for a long time, not many people actually knew him.

At this point, both sides had entered the stage of trying to subdue each other.

SKT, playing on the blue side, first chose to ban the Renekton.

Renekton is currently a dominant force in the top lane and is also Shenchao's signature champion.

EDG, on the other hand, opted to ban Zed.

Even in Season 3, there wasn't much tactical element to the drafting and banning (BP) between professional players.

The strategy remains the same: target and block the opponent's signature heroes.

SKT quickly banned Annie and Elise in the subsequent rounds.

EDG, on the other hand, banned Shen and Zyra.

The right to choose has fallen into the hands of SKT.

Coach Dafei immediately had Da Mu pick Gragas for him on the first floor. Seeing SKT's picks, Miller said:

"Faker has played three Gragas games so far in the group stage, with a 100% win rate. Let's see how EDG will pick in the first and second rounds... Thresh! Thresh is good, no wonder EDG chose to ban Zyra. Currently, Thresh support is indeed only difficult to play against Zyra."

The doll nodded and analyzed:

"In that case, will EDG lock in their bot lane duo in their second pick? I remember Lion's Ezreal and Varus are both very good, and they can synergize well with Thresh..."

"EDG has locked in Fizz first!! Using Fizz is actually a good strategy! As long as the E skill is used well, Gragas can put a lot of pressure on Fizz."

The right to choose has returned to SKT.

On the second and third floors, SKT directly locked in a Sona and Corki bot lane combination.

"piglet also played his signature plane. During the group stage, piglet played his plane very well."

"Let's see how EDG responds! Elise! Zac! That way, they'll keep the suspense for the ADC position until the very end!"

As Zhou Li predicted, after SKT locked in Jarvan IV for the jungle position, on their fifth pick, DaMu confidently pulled out his Jax.

There's something to say about Professor Oki's weapon mastery.

However, Zhou Li already had tactics for dealing with weapons.

He just needed to hold back a bit during the group stage, and at the same time, he was also curious to see what kind of weapon Professor Ooki had.

Everyone says that Teacher Da Mu is a weapon master, wielding the Beggars' Sect's Dog-Beating Stick, smashing the royal family's championship dreams one team after another.

However, Zhou Li felt that this wasn't a big problem for their current EDG team.

Because he didn't even let the puppy play.

The puppies aren't even here, so where are you going to hit them with your dog-beating stick?

How can you hit a dog if you don't have one?

The right to choose ultimately fell into the hands of EDG.

"Let's see EDG's final pick! What champion will Lion, who's been away from the competitive scene for so long, use to announce his return?!"

On EDG's champion selection screen, Varus, Kog'Maw, Graves, Vayne, and Ezreal kept switching between champions.

When the two pigtails appeared on the character selection screen, the audience erupted in a gasp of surprise.

"Draven? Are we really going to play this? I feel like Lion is just up to his old tricks again..."

"Hey! It's locked!! EDG has locked in Draven!! What's going on?!"

The baby stared wide-eyed, his face filled with disbelief.

Miller couldn't help but exclaim:

"Draven?! That's a bit... a bit too audacious!"

Draven, the Glorious Executioner.

Since its release in June 2012, this hero has attracted the attention of many players due to its unique axe-catching mechanism and extremely violent output.

However, it is precisely because of his axe-catching mechanism that he becomes a very awkward presence even in ranked matches with random players.

Despite his popularity, he is not commonly seen in actual matches and is considered an unpopular AD carry.

Draven is rarely seen in ranked matches.

Not to mention in professional competitions.

Putting aside Draven himself, he is a champion with no mobility and short range.

Its inherent hero passive ability dictates that this is a hero who greatly needs to snowball.

Once targeted, it's highly likely that one could lose their voice for the entire match.

In short, this is a high-risk, high-reward hero.

However, in professional matches, Draven's risks far outweigh his rewards.

From the commentary booth, Miller began:

"I once heard a saying that when a professional player picks Draven in a match, there are only two possibilities."

The doll asked:
"What two possibilities?"

"One possibility is that this professional player is a Draven specialist."

The first possibility was quickly dismissed by the doll.

"Before this, I don't think I'd ever seen Lion play Draven, including when he reached the top spot on both servers, he hadn't played a single game of Draven."

Miller couldn't help but smile wryly and said:

"Then it can only be the second possibility."

"He didn't even consider the other side as a human being."

The doll paused for a moment, then laughed awkwardly.

"To be honest, if it were any other player sitting here today, I would have to argue with you a bit. But if it's Lion, I feel like what you said is actually quite true."

Amid Miller and Wawa's banter, the lineups for both sides were finalized.

Blue side: SKT Esports Club VS Red side: EDG Esports Club.

Top Lane: (Impact) Jax vs. (Godlike) Lu Benwei (a player's nickname)

Jungle: (bengi) Jarvan IV VS (clearlove) Elise.

Mid lane: (faker) Gragas VS (white) Fizz.

ADC: (piglet) Airplane VS (lion) Draven.

Support: (PoohMandu) Sona VS (Fzzf) Thresh.

SKT players' bench.

When EDG locked in Draven at the last moment, Piglet's wicked smile froze on his lips.

He felt a tremendous sense of humiliation.

As a professional ADC player, he naturally knows how to play Draven.

However, even when facing opponents who are slightly weaker than himself, Zhu Rang does not dare to bring out this hero in the game.

However, this unknown kid on the other side actually pulled out Draven!

"Haha, don't be angry, piglet. Maybe the other side is a Draven pro?"

The pig was so angry that it gritted its teeth.

"No matter who he is, since he dares to confidently bring out Draven, he should be prepared to embarrass himself."

Pig couldn't help but look at the stupid chicken.

"Benji, find an opportunity to gank for me early on. If I can kill him once, I can keep killing him."

Upon hearing Piglet's words, the idiot chicken didn't show much expression on its face, simply nodding and saying:
"I'll look for opportunities."

At this moment, Chinese and South Korean netizens in the live broadcast room stood on the same side, a rare occurrence.

They are fiercely criticizing Zhou Li's excessive arrogance.

Zhou Chu is putting on an act again.

[Pretending even at the World Championship, aren't they afraid of a disaster?]

[Zhou Shu is the owner of EDG. He's just here for fun, so he can do whatever he wants.]

【Don't take up our WE's spot!】

[Stop yelling, you 60e fans. I'm genuinely afraid you'll all get your faces slapped in the face.]

[No way, no way, there really are people who idolize that beast Zhou Chu?]

[This is hilarious, it's not even human.]

If EDG's lineup can win, I'll take the game.

At this point, both sides had entered the game.

As soon as the game started, both sides rushed towards the other side's lower jungle almost simultaneously!
"We see that both sides seem to want to engage in a level 1 team fight! Indeed, it's the group stage, and for both teams that aren't under much pressure to advance, they probably want to take this opportunity to test each other's strength."

The ten people who had emerged from the spring quickly met at the mouth of the river.

Seeing Thresh leading the charge, SKT's first reaction was to spread out and create space.

But at this moment, in EDG's voice chat, Zhou Li had already taken on the role of a tenor conductor!

"Curly Hair! Flash and hook him!!"

Curly's sudden appearance was actually partly due to being scared.

His Thresh suddenly threw out his hook, aiming directly at Sona, who was originally positioned further back but had been exposed due to the scattered positioning of the SKT players.

PoohMandu's eyelids twitched wildly.

Experience told him that it was unrealistic to try to dodge the hook by moving around, so he had no choice but to use Flash.

Faker threw his barrel, slowing Thresh down.

SKT followed up with damage, seemingly trying to catch the overly aggressive Thresh.

Shenchao's Zac chose to step up, relying on his passive ability to stand at the very front.

Behind him, Draven's throwing axe was already spinning.

Although the weapon master of Ooki turned on the electric fan and rushed over, the entanglement between the two was pulled apart.

The two supports swapped Flashes.

EDG and SKT ended this level 1 team fight with a degree of restraint.

Meanwhile, the EDG players were on the bench.

A smile had already appeared on Zhou Li's face.

"Brothers, we've collected the points."

(End of this chapter)