League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 149 The Semifinals Begin! (Bonus Chapter, Happy New Year's Eve, brothers!)

In the following days, QG continued to have a very high frequency of scrimmages.

Besides ROX, who have always been based at the base, Coach Banbazi has also found another team.

EDG.

Surprisingly, EDG's break was extremely short, only half a month, and they have already returned to their normal training routine.

Without hesitation, let's arrange a training match.

Clearlove: "Bro, we specially brought the team back to keep you company because we were worried you wouldn't have any opponents for practice matches. Aren't you touched?"

Seeing the factory manager's eagerness to take credit, Uzi immediately curled his lip. He was about to type something when Chen Dongqing stopped him.

"It's alright, just go along with it," Chen Dongqing said meaningfully. "What if we piss them off and they refuse to fight us?"

Thinking of this, Uzi agreed and casually typed out a meaningless "666".

It has to be said that training with EDG was indeed the most effective, even better than training with ROX.

Regardless of whether they are stronger than ROX, EDG's team style is more similar to SKT's. Both are Korean-style macro play, focusing on mid-jungle synergy, and both have strong bot lane carries.

With the system helping him practice heroes and EDG providing top-tier coaching, Chen Dongqing practiced some new heroes over the past few days, and time passed by day by day.

The semi-finals officially started on May 13th.

Chen Dongqing sat on the bus, idly flipping through posts.

Today's semi-final opponent is FW, so the pressure isn't too heavy.

The fact that Flash Wolves managed to finish third in their group despite defeating SKT twice demonstrates how much they struggled against other teams.

Aside from local Taiwanese fans, viewers worldwide felt the outcome of the match was a foregone conclusion, especially those in the LPL region, who were already celebrating with champagne.

The higher you're praised, the harder you fall. Don't be fooled by the fans celebrating now and taking out loans to advance; if they lose the game, the backlash will be much more severe, and they might never be able to hold their heads high again.

Of course, this won't happen.

The bus had already stopped, so Chen Dongqing simply turned off his phone and walked into the venue.

"Welcome everyone to the semifinals of the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational!!" Longhair, sitting in the center of the commentary booth, began to warm up the audience.

Generally speaking, the commentary team for world-class events is a bit larger, divided into a commentary booth and a talking booth. This is a shot of the commentary booth, with Abu and Clearlove sitting on either side of Changmao, analyzing the situation of the two teams.

As a Taiwanese, Changmao naturally began to analyze the strength of the Flash Wolves team: "Actually, the Flash Wolves team has a unique style in this MSI. They have the best mid-jungle duo in the LMS, Maple and Karsa. The two need to be responsible for the early game tempo and the late game carry in the team. As long as their mid-jungle duo can get ahead, their overall strength is actually quite formidable."

Abu added, "Unfortunately, the Flash Wolves don't seem to have learned the 4-1 split push strategy that their regional predecessors, TPA, relied on to win the championship, which is something we excel at, so we might have an advantage in that aspect."

The results of the two group stage matches proved that their mid-jungle synergy, on which they relied for survival, was completely unable to break through the blockade of Doinb and Xiangguo, while top laner Mimi Dan was completely outmatched by Chen Dongqing.

In comparison, QG and Flash Wolves can be said to have a tactical advantage against each other.

Although some things can't be said outright, Abu's point was that the overall gap between the two teams was obvious, and he believed that QG would win easily. Clearlove echoed his agreement.

Immediately afterwards, at the call of the host Ren Dong, the contestants from both sides entered the arena in an orderly manner.

Ren Dong first introduced the Flash Wolves team, and then when he started shouting, "Next up is our QG team, let's welcome QGilex!" the audience erupted in a loud cheer!

After his incredible performance in the group stage, Chen Dongqing has now completely entered the sight of LOL players all over the world. Everyone now recognizes this top laner with a unique personal style and almost abnormal strength!

So much so that many foreign spectators in the audience were applauding loudly – ​​they didn’t mind supporting QG before their own region’s team took the stage.

Meanwhile, the FW team members looked at this cheer with slight envy.

Flash Wolves have only won the LMS regional championship for the first time this year and are just beginning to show their potential, so they are not even the most popular team in the LMS.

So they had never heard such a loud cheer before. The entire stadium was packed, and most of the cheers were directed at one team and one player.

On the other hand, Chen Dongqing was slightly dissatisfied with the sudden increase in the number of voices.

The cheers weren't as loud as they were during the LPL finals.

He raised his hands, waving his arms with each step forward, accompanied by a confident smile, exuding high spirits, and the cheers from the audience below the stage clearly rose to another level!

At the stage entrance, watching Chen Dongqing's smug back as he posed for a drink, several of QG's teammates curled their lips in disapproval.

Damn it, this guy got to show off again.

As a top laner, being the first player to appear on the team certainly attracts a lot of attention.

Soon, both teams took their seats, and while the players were setting up their equipment and joining the room, the camera switched to the commentary booth.

The commentator this time was undoubtedly Wawa Miller.

"Alright, welcome to the Oriental Sports Center. After a year, our LPL team is once again standing on the MSI knockout stage! And this time, the team has changed from EDG to the young QG! I believe they will not let us down this time either!"

On the field, both players were already in their rooms preparing to continue, and the referees on both sides were communicating through headsets to confirm the players' preparation status.

QG and Flash Wolves are both teams of the same language and culture, but at this moment, the players on both sides did not communicate, and there was not even the usual "nihao".

But this is not hard to understand, since when the two sides come to the field, they are opponents.

After both teams had confirmed their participation, the match officially began!

"Alright, the match has officially begun! Because QG had a higher group stage ranking, they should have the first choice of sides!"

"But this time, they've gone against the grain and actively chosen a position for the red team! What does Coach Mi think about this?" the commentator shouted from the commentary booth.

Miller smiled slightly and said, "This isn't hard to understand, is it? After all, with Tree Bro as their top laner, QG on the red side is very strong. Obviously, QG wants to break through Flash Wolves today by focusing on the top lane!"

This is scientific.

As they were talking, FW banned Rumble as their first pick, while QG unsurprisingly banned Poppy.

"I wonder if FW has figured out a way to counter Fizz, Riven, and Jayce," Miller said with a smile. "If they can't solve that, then Maokai and Ekko can't be picked, and Poppy is a common ban pick for QG. MMD might be facing a situation where they have no heroes to play."

Poppy was already gone, so FW didn't hesitate to ban Fiora, and then QG countered by banning Nidalee.

"So, as a last resort, Flash Wolves banned Alistar! QG also made a slight change, banning LeBlanc! There's some story behind these two bans!"

There's really no particular reasoning behind this LeBlanc champion; the coach simply didn't know what to ban.

There isn't much to worry about when facing Flash Wolves. QG's players can easily counter Flash Wolves' strengths.

Following their first pick, Flash Wolves chose Deepsea Titan.

Obviously, without even thinking, this thing is most likely meant for the top lane.

After all, Poppy is banned now, Maokai will be destroyed by Fizz, Ekko will be crushed by Riven and Jayce, and the three top lane gods can't pull out any champions against QG. As a result, MMD's already shallow champion pool has been compressed infinitely, and after searching back and forth several times, they finally found a Titan.

In fact, QG could have easily replaced LeBlanc with Nautilus in the final ban, which would have been a decisive blow to MMD, but they didn't do that.

Because this was a trap they set for Flash Wolves.

Flash Wolves have now picked Titan as their first pick, so they have completed their first step.

First, they needed to determine if Titan was really a top laner, so they decided to stick to the same strategy and picked Ryze and Graves in succession.

This is a classic mid-jungle duo for EDG, and Ryze has shown signs of increasing usage at this year's MSI. Doinb also has some experience with the champion, so QG can obviously bring him out to play.

Immediately afterwards, Flash Wolves also made their move, locking in Azir and Kindred. The outcome for both sides' mid and jungle was basically the same: a mid laner who pushed the lane and a jungler who was an AD carry.

Without hesitation, banbazi locked in Sivir and Karma for the bottom lane. The two heroes were invincible in pushing the lane, and at the same time, they could use shields and double speed boosts to avoid Nautilus's mindless lock-on ultimate to initiate team fights.

This is their second step.

These two hero picks will force Titan to abandon the support role and go to the top lane.

At the same time, both of these heroes possess group speed-up abilities, which can bring about a qualitative change to a sluggish hero.

Flash Wolves also made a swift move, targeting Ezreal and Braum, making the bot lane a fierce battle.

The moment Braum was chosen, Flash Wolves were already completely trapped.

With this, Banbazi's draft and ban phase design was complete.

This draft strategy was originally intended for EDG, but they didn't end up using it. However, it's perfect for Flash Wolves now!

"Alright, the final counter pick still went to Tree!" Wawa glanced at Flash Wolves' lineup and analyzed, "Logically speaking, FW's top laner is Nautilus, so let's see what champion Tree will pick to counter Nautilus!"

"Our team has Sivir and Karma, and the enemy team has Nautilus," Banbazi said with a laugh. "You know what Chen Dongqing is like, right?"

"Got it, got it, got it!" Chen Dongqing exclaimed excitedly, licking his lips. "I'm really craving to chop, let's go!"

"Alright, QG has picked their last pick." Wawa looked at the screen, his spirits lifting: "Darius! That's interesting!"

"Darius against Nautilus, and the team also has Sivir and Karma, both with speed boosts! I've seen this before! QG did the same thing against EDG in the regular season!" Miller laughed and continued:

"QG came prepared! They probably anticipated that the blue side's Flash Wolves would build Titan, so they prepared this draft!"

Blue side FW: Top lane Nautilus, Jungle Kindred, Mid lane Azir, Bot lane Ezreal and Braum.

Red team QG: Top lane Darius, Jungle Graves, Mid lane Ryze, Bot lane Sivir and Karma.

I haven't been updating as much these past couple of days, which has slowed down the pace a bit, so I'm adding an extra chapter today for New Year's Eve, with two chapters totaling over 10,000 words.

By the way, let me explain to you guys that I modified the competition format in the book so that QG and SKT would meet in the finals.

This kind of schedule will make the plot better and the book easier to write.

If the finals were against CLG, how would I write about the finals and the awards ceremony? It wouldn't look good if it started strong but ended weakly, so I made some changes.

This change actually has no impact on the plot, so please understand, guys~

This semi-final match won't be too long; I'll finish it in a chapter of six or seven thousand words tomorrow.

The next update will be on Chinese New Year's Day!

See you next year, brothers!

PS: Thank you to "身经百毒中毒就死" for the 100 Qidian coins!

(End of this chapter)