League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 296 Did he get away with it again?

After the match ended, the cheers from the audience were incredibly loud.

Originally, LMS viewers only liked QG and Chen Dongqing.

But considering that Xiye solo-killed Faker and WE won against SKT, they might consider liking WE as well!

This team played really well!

Moreover, the novel tactics they displayed in this match were a real eye-opener for countless viewers!

[Turtle, incense burner!]

This incense burner seems a bit weird.

[I just took a closer look, and Kog'Maw can recover over 80 health with a single basic attack using Hurricane without any lifesteal. That's just ridiculous!]

Wow, WE was holding back! I was too quick to criticize them in the group stage, sorry.

At this moment, the chat in the LPL live stream was full of praise.

Countless people nodded in praise of WE's performance in this game, and they gave high marks to the "naked Ardent Censer" strategy.

This move was a heavy blow to SKT's bot lane, catching them completely off guard!

The SKT players returned to the rest room with their heads down, their spirits low.

They were really knocked out this time.

They didn't even know how they lost.

They knew that once Lulu made the incense burner, they never put up any real resistance again and were simply crushed by an invincible giant mouth.

But this invincible giant mouth only has one hurricane.

This is just illogical. Your Big Mouth can exert its power with just one set of equipment?

Kkoma then solemnly stated, "This incense burner is something worth studying."

LCK has also held meetings about the new version, and of course they know that Ardent Censer has been greatly buffed in this version.

Their idea was similar to LPL's initial one, except that they thought the priority of Ardent Censer could be increased.

But they never expected that the incense burner could be given such a high priority!

"Should we imitate their playstyle next time?" Mata asked from the side.

"That's hard to say." Kkoma disagreed with this line of thinking.

This was the first time they had seen this gameplay, and Kkoma didn't know if they could achieve the same results by simply copying the idea.

Furthermore, LCK players don't actually like to pick soft supports like Lulu because their support role is meant to participate in the game's tempo.

"It's up to you guys!" Kkoma said. "If you really pick a support player, you can consider giving it a try."

At this point, the SSG coach sighed, "It seems we really can't be careless. The LPL is truly an extremely creative region!"

Kkoma nodded in agreement, not denying the idea, and even wholeheartedly supporting it.

QG is already a pure inventor team, but I didn't expect them to also have WE!

Moreover, what WE has brought out this time may be more terrifying than all of QG's inventions!

At this moment, the TV screen in the lounge switched to the in-game interview segment.

In-match interviews are something that only happen in the finals of continental tournaments.

Because there are many participating teams, you can't just interview the team that wins the final match, right? So after each game, the winner will be interviewed.

The player led onto the stage by the Taiwanese female host was none other than Zero, the support player for WE.

This guy is considered the fifth oldest in WE, and he doesn't get many interview opportunities. The fact that the organizers have invited him is obviously related to the incense burner.

The Taiwanese girl, Little Bear, was quite lively. She first introduced herself to Zero, and then started asking questions.

The first question is about how you feel about winning the game.

Zero replied with a delighted expression, "This is definitely good news, because we lost to SKT in the group stage, so we've been holding back a lot of energy. This victory is very important for our entire team!"

"That was indeed a very important victory!" Little Bear nodded with a smile, then asked, "Then, my second question is, in this match, you seemed to have chosen a very strange item build, rushing Ardent Censer, and it worked very well! Could you explain this build to us?"

Zero looked troubled upon hearing the question.

The adorable bear said understandingly, "It's okay if you can't say, after all, it's your team's secret!"

"No, no," Zero said, sounding inexplicably anxious. "This strategy wasn't created by our team; it was created by Tree and shared with us. So you should ask him about it later."

Upon hearing this, the little bear opened and closed its mouth, but couldn't utter a word.

This was indeed an answer she hadn't expected.

At this moment, a murmur of discussion arose from the audience.

"Holy crap, this tactic was also created by Brother Tree?"

"Actually, thinking about it carefully, it makes a lot of sense. After all, Brother Shu is naturally very creative!"

"Ugh, how annoying! He got away with it again!"

There was also a great deal of discussion in the live broadcast rooms of major sporting events around the world.

The LPL livestream chat was flooded with comments like "Tree! It's him again!"

The LCK livestream chat was flooded with question marks.

In the English-language live stream, everything was "reasonable."

In the LCK lounge, Kkoma learned what had happened through a translator, but he still didn't know what to say.

He had just been thinking to himself, "The LPL has produced another inventor."

And now you're telling me these two are the same person?

Damn, that's even more outrageous.

How exactly does Ilex's brain work?

In the LPL lounge, everyone was looking at Chen Dongqing.

They were certainly not surprised.

Everyone was thinking: Damn, this guy really showed off again.

Chen Dongqing felt a surge of joy in his heart.

Zero is such a genuine guy!

Of course, his face was expressionless.

Pretending to be an expert.jpg

Linko, standing at the front, smiled and said, "Anyway, we won the first match smoothly. Well done!"

The WE players finally showed satisfied smiles.

To face SKT again in the finals and win is a scenario that WE could only dream of.

They wanted to prove with their strength that they were no worse than the second seed from the LCK!

Of course, they were satisfied, but they still had to be humble in their words.

Xi Ye sipped his Want Want milk and said cheerfully, "It's all thanks to Brother Shu's great strategy! The incense burner alone was enough to crush the opponent!"

"What's going on?" Chen Dongqing said with a smile, "You already had a huge advantage before the incense burner, so dragging it out to the later stages was a sure way to win. I even think you took the incense burner too early."

Xiye had already killed Faker to 0-2 before the Ardent Censer was even available, and the bot lane was still a late-game combination like Kog'Maw and Lulu.

Even without the Ardent Censer to speed things up, and even if the game drags on until the fourth item is completed in over thirty minutes, WE will still win.

Hearing Chen Dongqing's praise, the WE team was even happier.

Everyone had smiles on their faces and were very optimistic about the outcome of this intercontinental tournament.

WE took the first game, but QG can win another one.

Even if FPX and EDG lose both games, QG can still play a fifth game if the score is tied 2-2.

Wouldn't this BO5 series be a sure win?

Thinking of this, everyone felt much less pressure.

"Who will play in the second game?" Banbazi asked from the front. "LCK lost a game, and they will most likely face a strong team to catch up in this match. We have to take it seriously."

"Who else could it be?" Chen Dongqing said with a smile from the back seat, "In the second match, it's QG going up. Who's supporting us and who's opposing us?"

Looking around, of course no one had any objections.

After LCK lost the game, QG was the perfect team to suppress their comeback attempt.

Soon, staff came over to inquire about the teams that would be playing in the second LPL match.

Banbazi reported QG's name, and after the staff reported it, they quickly relayed the LCK's selection.

"The team playing in the second LCK match is: LZ."

Upon hearing this answer, everyone in the LPL rest room was immediately taken aback.

Three o'clock in the afternoon.

The second game of the finals has officially begun.

The result of this match was still the same as that of the two commentators, Wawa and Miller. The brothers were responsible for the commentary of the first two matches, while the later matches would be handed over to Guan Zeyuan and Ji De.

"Alright, the two teams for the second match have taken the stage!" Wawa announced. "We can see that the teams entering the second match are QG and LZ!"

Seeing this matchup, Miller's tone couldn't help but carry a hint of worry: "This is a bit worrying. I didn't expect LCK to dare to send out their fourth seed after losing the first game!"

At this moment, in the LCK backstage lounge, Kkoma saw that the LPL team coming on stage was indeed QG, and he had a smile on his face.

Most people believe that after losing a game, you must be on high alert and aggressively try to catch up.

But this time they did the opposite, deliberately playing against the weakest team after losing, and sure enough, they were matched against the strongest team in the LPL!

Since the fourth seed is likely to lose to QG anyway, why not let them lose?

Without QG and WE, the remaining two LPL teams are not very strong.

Next, all KT and SSG need to do is play well to drag the game into a fifth game!

As for how to win the fifth game, we'll talk about that in the fifth game.

On stage, the five members of LZ were there with the intention of losing the game. It was a case of losing a small profit and winning a huge profit. They felt no pressure at all, and all five of them had smiling expressions.

Chen Dongqing looked at the five people from LZ opposite him, feeling helpless.

That's some serious underhanded tactics, LCK.

He took one last look at Khan's smiling face before sitting down in his seat.

In this round, they were placed on the red side, a position they chose voluntarily.

In this version, the win rates for the red and blue sides are close to balanced.

In fact, the reason is very simple.

The advantage of the blue side is that they can directly pick the meta heroes.

However, this first-mover advantage is usually used to secure the jungler or solo lane, and rarely used to secure the bot lane.

After all, the bottom lane is a duo lane, and it's difficult to lane against both sides if one hero is strong in the current meta.

This version of the red side has two advantages.

Firstly, you can easily secure a suitable bottom lane combination in the first or second round, without fear of being cut off.

The second is having the tenth counter position.

These two benefits are undoubtedly quite fitting for the version.

For example, a team like WE can openly lock in Kog'Maw and Lulu on the first or second pick, and then give the counter pick to Xiye on the tenth pick to ensure mid lane priority.

This way, a solid defensive formation can be formed in the lower half of the area.

Of course, each team has a different approach to drafting and banning (BP), and QG also has its own solution.

The two sides went back and forth, and the business plan progressed very quickly.

"We can see that the blue team's hero banning strategy was very decisive, quickly banning Jayce, Fiora, and Caitlyn. It seems they had already made the decision."

"On the other side, QG didn't think too much and chose to ban Poppy, Galio, and Rek'Sai!"

With this choice made, the original poster (OP) on the first floor has almost no other options left.

They quickly snatched Zach away.

With excavators banned, Zac is the best option.

These heroes with long-range mobility are practically the bane of ADCs and enchanter supports.

With the Ardent Censer strategy already confirmed in the LPL, this Zac is actually a pretty good solution.

On the QG player bench, Banbazi, watching this scene, asked, "So, what's the bot lane pick? Are you sure you don't want to pick Xayah and Rakan?"

Uzbekistan resolutely shook his head and refused.

Before the Ardent Censer was introduced, Xayah and Rakan were a true Tier 0 bot lane duo, and Uzi put in a tremendous amount of effort to practice for them.

But times have changed now.

Luo is not easy to obtain from the incense burner, so let's postpone it for now.

"So what do you want to play?" Banbazi asked, "Lulu the Big Mouth?"

"Lulu is too slow." Uzi shook his head again and said, "Let's hurry up and kill her this round, and give Dragon Ball a good beating."

"OK, I understand." Banbazi immediately understood what Uzi was planning.

After the Ardent Censer strategy was developed, QG had a combination that maximized the laning strength of the bottom lane and was also incredibly compatible with Ardent Censer.

The key is.

This combination isn't afraid of Zach.

First and second floors, skateboard shoes and Janna, lock on!

Chen Dongqing lay on the chair, looking at the group, and couldn't help but grin.

As someone who understands the future, he knew that this bot lane duo was the strongest combination during the S7 World Championship.

Let's not even talk about Skateboard Shoes. He was never released during the entire S7 World Championship, making him the undisputed strongest AD carry of the patch.

The reason is simple: this version of Kalista is still at its peak, with an attack range of 550, and she also synergizes well with Ardent Censer and Runaan's Hurricane, making her a very competent AD carry.

Most importantly, Kalista's ultimate ability can protect Ardent Censer monsters from being activated, thus ensuring a stable Ardent Censer buff, something other AD carries cannot do.

As for Janna, there's no need to elaborate further. This champion's ability to avoid being engaged has always been top-notch, and the attack damage bonus effect of her E skill is something that other supports don't have.

In team fights, a single ultimate skill combined with an incense burner can have an explosive effect.

In the S7 World Championship, Janna, like Kalista, was a must-ban or must-pick support champion.

Both of these combinations are incredibly strong in lane, making them a powerful duo.

Chen Dongqing looked at the two Xuanming elders opposite him with a hint of pity.

He couldn't even imagine what kind of effect this combination would produce when paired with a top-tier incense burner.

At this moment, Banbazi turned his attention to Chen Dongqing and asked if he had any ideas on which hero to choose.

Chen Dongqing did not give an answer; he was not in a hurry to identify the hero.

It doesn't really matter what he plays; he's holding onto the counter pick and mainly depends on what Khan on the other side says.

His current hero pool is such that he can always pick a suitable hero no matter what the opponent chooses.

Khan acted quickly, locking onto a crocodile on the fourth floor.

With this, it's almost obvious what Chen Dongqing will choose.

Quinn, locked!

With this, the lineups for both sides are finalized.

Blue team (LZ): Top lane Renekton, Jungle Zac, Mid lane Taliyah, Bot lane Xayah and Rakan.

Red team QG: Top lane Quinn, Jungle Gragas, Mid lane Orianna, Bot lane Kalista and Janna.

"In terms of team composition, LZ's side is definitely stronger!" Miller analyzed, "Because they have more crowd control, can initiate team fights, and can also secure lane priority in the mid lane."

"But our lineup isn't weak either!" Wawa's words were full of confidence. "Top laner Maokai has a consistent advantage with his counter picks, and he even brought Cleanse this game to enhance his laning ability. Meanwhile, the bot lane Kalista and Janna are invincible in lane. That's enough!"

Yes, that's enough.

In QG, when Chen Dongqing and Uzi can both gain an advantage in the laning phase, they have never lost a match.

While the commentators were analyzing the lineups, the two coaches had already shaken hands in the middle lane.

The coach of Dragon Ball was actually quite famous in later generations. He was Kim Jung-soo, who managed the players almost abnormally and once benched TheShy in the quarterfinals of S8.

Banbazi wasn't familiar with the other person, so the two didn't talk much before parting ways in the backstage passage.

The live stream camera circled the stands in the stadium, then circled the players' seats on both sides, and then quickly switched to Summoner's Rift!

The second game has officially begun!

Seeing Uzi return and even win the game was quite touching.

Surprisingly, Uzbekistan is still maintaining a good level of performance at this point.

I watched Uzbekistan's match all afternoon, so I didn't have much time to write. That's all for now.

Let's finish this match with a big chapter tomorrow.

If it's not over by tomorrow, you can start criticizing me!

(End of this chapter)