League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 107: The BP Advantage Brought by the Hero Pool!

"Alright audience, welcome to the Hongqiao Tiandi Performing Arts Center!" Long-haired man's voice boomed as he announced, "This is the venue for the 2016 LPL Spring Playoffs Semifinals, QG vs. RNG!"

As the playoffs progressed, the commentary team expanded to three people, and today he was paired with Zhihuan and Su Xiaoyan.

At this moment, Zhihuan spoke up, "The audience should be quite familiar with the two teams in this semi-final. In the regular season, the two sides gave us a wonderful BO3 match, in which QG won 2-0."

Su Xiaoyan quickly chimed in: "But after that match, RNG went on a winning streak, winning consecutive matches in the subsequent group stage and securing their third place in the league and second place in Group B."

"Furthermore, in the quarterfinals the day before yesterday, RNG swept Snake Esports 3-0 to advance. Now that the two sides meet again, the outcome is still uncertain!"

At this moment, the camera panned to the audience, where RNG fans could be seen waving flags and cheering for the Royal Never Give Up team!

The scene then cuts back to the contestants' bench, where Xiao Hu can be seen wearing his yellow tactical goggles again, entering Vegeta mode.

Beside him, the two Korean players, Swift and Looper, were exchanging details about the upcoming match and discussing how to train Ilex.

They did indeed sweep the Snakes 3-0 the day before yesterday, but to be honest, the Snakes didn't pose any threat to them.

Although Snake Esports' top laner Flandre was last year's top laner of the year, he was no match for Looper. RNG completely outplayed Looper, both as a team and individually.

But this time, RNG dared not be careless in the slightest when facing QG.

Because they understand that Ilex and Flandre are different.

Although Ilex is just a rookie, his playstyle is so comprehensive that his top lane was never breached throughout the entire Spring Split.

This kind of person needs to be dealt with!

The camera cuts to QG's side, where Chen Dongqing, completely unaware that he is being the focus of discussion, is lying on his gaming chair chewing gum, looking quite relaxed.

"It seems like Brother Shu isn't nervous at all, this is his first playoff game." Su Xiaoyan said with a smile, "He's really a player with a big heart."

Chen Dongqing may indeed have a strong heart; he was a little nervous before going on stage, but once he was actually on stage, he didn't feel anything at all.

Nervousness and self-confidence are negatively correlated.

After the fierce battle with ROX, Chen Dongqing is now very confident in his abilities.

Even a prime Smeb couldn't get away with this, so how could Looper possibly gain an advantage?

"The players for both sides have been finalized. QG's top laner, please begin the match!"

Because QG had a higher regular season ranking, they had the right to choose sides first, and they unsurprisingly chose the blue side.

No matter when or where, the blue side always has the highest win rate in League of Legends matches.

Upon hearing the referee's voice through his headset, Chen Dongqing immediately sat up straight and clicked "Start Game!"

After a brief delay, the BP panel appeared on the stadium's big screen.

A roar of cheers erupted from the audience, and the commentator was also energized!

"Alright, we can see that both sides have completed their first bans. QG on the blue side banned Ekko, while RNG on the red side banned Alistar!"

Ekko is a champion that QG dislikes a lot recently because top lane Ekko has too strong a lane presence. Once he levels up, he can clear a wave of minions with two Qs, making it impossible for the minion wave to get in. Moreover, with his W and R abilities, it's very difficult for him to jump over minions, which greatly hinders QG's tactics. Therefore, he is usually banned.

Changmao continued watching the screen, saying, "Then, in the second ban, we can see that the blue side QG directly banned Azir, while RNG banned Graves. This is probably to prevent QG from flexing their Graves top and jungle."

Since Chen Dongqing picked Graves for top lane, this pick has become increasingly popular in matches, with many top laners frequently using it to annoy you.

The key point is that this hero is also very strong in the jungle position, so it must be banned.

"There's one spot left," banbazi asked. "Should we ban Poppy? If we ban Poppy, the enemy team will most likely ban Fiora."

Chen Dongqing didn't care: "Ban it, I'm fine with it."

In the third ban, both sides coordinated quite well, banning Poppy and Fiora one after the other.

"Alright, for the first pick, QG will still lock in Titan for flexibility!" Changmao shouted. "That's their go-to champion for the second half of the regular season! How is RNG going to counter that?"

RNG's response was to pick Maokai for top lane and Sivir for bot lane.

With Fiora banned and Gangplank nerfed, Maokai's status as a top laner has clearly been elevated to an even higher level.

"Let's pick Lucian for the bot lane first." Banbazi didn't hesitate and locked in the strong laning phase Lucian to suppress Sivir.

He then asked, "If you're going to take down the big tree, which hero do you plan to use?"

Chen Dongqing said, "That depends on what champion the mid laner is using. If it's a champion like Nautilus, I can pick Rumble to supplement the damage. If it's a champion like Rumble or Lissandra, I can pick Gnar."

Both of these are excellent choices for taking down large trees, and both are within Chen Dongqing's hero pool.

The coach nodded: "Then let's pick Rambo and keep swinging, and see how things go."

"QG has locked in Rumble again!" the commentator with long hair exclaimed. "What position is Rumble in? Are they going to flex Rumble and Nautilus together?"

QG's Titan picks were unreliable in all three lanes, and Rumble picks were unreliable in both top and bottom lanes. These two hero picks were so bad they made the commentators' CPUs burn out.

RNG was also affected by the dry-burning situation. They thought for a long time before finally picking Kindred and Bard in the last few seconds, leaving the counter pick for Xiaohu.

There was no other way; this was a last resort for them.

Bard is a champion with strong lane dominance and is not afraid of dealing with clumsy supports like Nautilus, so RNG dared to pick him directly and were not afraid of Nautilus flexing into the bot lane.

"But if that's the case," Su Xiaoyan on the commentary stage thought for a moment and said, "wouldn't it be better for QG to send Rumble up to fight Maokai, and then have Nautilus in the mid lane? That way they can pick a champion that counters Bard, making RNG's Bard pick meaningless!"

As soon as Su Xiaoyan finished speaking, QG immediately locked in Leona, who counters Bard, and Gragas, who would roam with Nautilus.

Su Xiaoyan said, "In this way, RNG will be at a disadvantage in every lane! This is obviously what QG wants to see."

As we all know, QG usually gains an advantage in the top and bottom lanes by laning, but now they have achieved lane dominance in both lanes through their draft picks, which is quite successful!

Changmao was somewhat helpless. He said, "That's just how QG's double-swing strategy is; you simply can't do it in the draft! I've spoken with coaches from many teams, and they all said that the draft pressure is the greatest when playing against QG. You simply don't know which hero to ban!"

Zhihuan added, "But RNG does have a weakness: their mid laner is the last pick. If they can secure an advantage in the mid lane, they can still continue playing thanks to their mid-jungle advantage!"

"Next, let's see what RNG's mid laner has to say."

(End of this chapter)