League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 366 The Big Villain!

Chen Dongqing was too lazy to go to the venue this time. He chose to stay in the training room and watch the two coaches outwit each other and advance the draft.

The draft picks in this game are very informative.

Because a lot happened during the quarterfinals.

For example, QG broke the invincibility of the skateboard shoes, and the unexpected rise of the Zesti Leona's black technology.

After nearly a week of training, these two Korean teams must have digested and absorbed all of this knowledge.

Let's leave aside the skateboarding shoes; that's something that absolutely needs to be addressed. But whether the two primarily defensive Korean teams are willing to accept a more offensively oriented style like the Fervor of Japan is a question worth considering.

It's noticeable that SSG seems to have stopped taking Kalista seriously. In the first game's draft, Kalista was left open and locked in by SKT on the blue side!

Interestingly, SSG on the red side didn't pick any special counter-roster, but instead locked in Xayah and Janna for the bot lane as usual.

Ever since QG broke Kalista's dominance in the quarterfinals, teams have never stopped researching this champion.

After so much research, SSG has come to a conclusion—Kalista has been over-mythologized.

This hero is strong, but definitely not invincible.

At the very least, Samsung's rock-solid defense should be able to withstand Kalista's attacks.

In the late game, skateboarders actually have no advantage over hard carry AD carries!

Therefore, Samsung stuck to their usual strategy in this game: focus on helping the top lane, with the top laner split pushing to create space and the bottom lane tanking and defending the tower while waiting for team fights.

On the other hand, SKT focused on the bottom lane, centering on Kalista and maximizing the champion's strength in the early and mid-game.

The first game started quickly.

It has to be said that Kalista is indeed top-tier in the early game.

This hero was almost invincible twenty minutes ago.

Thanks to their excellent teamwork and rhythm, SKT established a 4300+ gold advantage in just fifteen minutes.

"Wow!" Even Xiangguo couldn't help but be startled. "That's pretty intense!"

"Then isn't Kalista invincible?" Uz analyzed from the side. "Who can handle her?"

At this moment, Chen Dongqing laughed and said, "You don't understand Samsung, do you? They don't need to deal with skateboard shoes at all."

No one in the world understands Samsung better than him.

While SKT was building up their bot lane advantage, SSG wasn't idle either. Cuvee's Jayce in the top lane also had a significant advantage, with his hammer relentlessly smashing into Huni's Gnar!

Cuvee has a unique characteristic: his split-pushing ability is outstanding, not much less than that of Chen Dongqing.

Because Jayce was too much of a threat, SKT had to divert their attention to deal with him on the side lanes, but they couldn't manage to take him down and could only watch him escape from their grasp every time!

After a few back-and-forth movements, the peak period for skateboard shoes has already passed by more than half.

Seeing this, Gao Dewei analyzed, "This Jayce is starting to resemble Chen Dongqing! Is he single-handedly carrying the entire SKT team?"

Chen Dongqing smiled but remained silent after hearing this.

Pulling SKT apart? Isn't that something anyone can do?

"Indeed." Banbazi squinted and saw, "If it drags on for a few more minutes, SSG might actually have a chance."

At 21 minutes, the dragon spawned, and four SKT players grouped up in the bottom half of the map.

But to everyone's surprise, SSG had no intention of taking the dragon at all. The four of them faced off in the river, made a brief gesture, and then turned and left.

When the camera cuts to the top lane, we see Cuvee hammering his hammer into the tower, easily forcing Huni to use Flash, and then destroying the second top lane tower.

After taking down the outer turret in the top lane, Cuvee moved to the bottom lane to continue pushing the lane!

At 29 minutes, SKT, who were stuck in a stalemate, thought for a long time and finally decided to force a team fight at Baron!

SSG reacted quickly; they understood that they couldn't fight head-on against a team fight with Kalista, so they had already prepared to cut their losses.

Cuvee remained unmoved in the bottom lane, continuing to push the lane, while Ruler and Crown quickly pushed the mid lane minion wave and destroyed SKT's mid lane tower!

Meanwhile, Master An and CoreJJ, armed with a full set of wards, explored their way through the jungle!

CoreJJ escorted Master An all the way to the back of the Dragon Pit. A True Sight Ward was placed inside the pit, revealing that the Dragon only had 2500 HP left!

Seeing this, Sect Leader An reacted quickly, and the prince immediately used his EQ combo to enter the dragon pit and unleash his punishment!

With 2500 punishments, Sect Leader An is on the third level.

He understood very well that with a team that also had skateboard shoes, the Baron kill threshold was much higher than usual, and a normal fight with Smite was impossible; the opponent would never give him a chance to reduce his health to 1,000.

So, you might as well just go in and take a gamble!

Just before the prince used his EQ combo to enter the dragon pit, Score simultaneously issued the finishing command in SKT's voice chat: "Jun-sik, 2500 HP left, pull out your spear!"

The 2500 spear pulls were a result that SKT had communicated beforehand, so Bang pressed E at that moment!

Countless spears tore through the dragon's body at the same time, and its health rapidly dropped to below one thousand!

Just before Score's Smite was about to strike, a beam of white light pierced right through it!

The dragon's health bar vanished instantly!

"The Red Army has captured Baron Nash!"

"We got it!" From the commentary booth, Guan Zeyuan's voice was almost heart-wrenching: "Sect Leader An has secured the Dragon!"

Although Master An was controlled after stealing the dragon and was instantly killed, his dragon was worth a fortune!

In the middle and bottom lanes, SSG, who were pushing towers, received the Baron buff and pushed forward, directly taking down SKT's two second towers in the middle and bottom lanes!

SSG instantly caught up economically!

"Huh?" In the training room, the QG team members were dumbfounded.

After securing the Baron buff and catching up in gold, the game reached exactly thirty minutes.

The skateboard shoes are starting to lose their effectiveness; now it's time for Chidisa to shine.

Meanwhile, Cuvee on the flank remained fierce, completely overwhelming Huni!

The situation suddenly reversed at this moment.

After a fierce battle lasting 36 minutes, SSG successfully turned the tide!

"Huh?" Xiangguo was a little surprised. "They managed to turn this around? Samsung's defense is really freakish."

No wonder they're a team that lasted forty minutes in two consecutive games against QG.

Moreover, everyone in QG could see that Samsung's defensive capabilities had improved significantly compared to the group stage!

Keep in mind that Samsung used Kalista in this game!

They didn't use any special tricks; they simply relied on solid operations and defense to easily stop the skate shoes!

That's really impressive.

In the second game, Samsung, who had the right to choose sides, took the initiative to choose the red side, once again at the cost of giving up Kalista, in order to give Cuvee a comfortable gaming environment.

SKT clearly wasn't convinced and picked skate shoes again.

But SSG showed them with their actions that skateboard shoes were no match for them.

This time, SKT's early game advantage was even smaller than in the previous game. This time, they only had a 2,000 gold lead after 20 minutes, and they didn't even have the chance to force a team fight at Baron.

With almost no pressure, SSG easily dragged the game to 40 minutes, and then, thanks to Ambition's Jarvan IV's EQR combo that killed three enemies, plus Ruler's Xayah's RE burst AOE, they won the game again!

Uzi, watching the screen, chuckled, "Faker's mentality is probably about to collapse."

In the video, Faker still doesn't show much expression, just his lips are pursed tightly, as if he never has any exaggerated expressions.

But this person was clearly putting on a brave face, because his flushed face betrayed his true emotions.

"It's normal to get angry," Xiangguo joked from the side. "He always considered us his rivals, and all he thought about every day was how to win the finals. But in the semifinals, he was swept 2-0. Nobody can withstand that."

Chen Dongqing took a sip of his sugary drink, lost in thought.

SKT had an advantage in two consecutive games, but were ultimately reverse-swept. What if SKT is at a disadvantage?

The third game began quickly.

As expected, this time, the disadvantage came.

This time, it's still SKT in blue and SSG in red.

SKT still won the skate shoes first.

Although Kalista lost two games, the early-game advantage of this champion is still very real, and SKT doesn't want to let it go.

This time, however, SKT made a slight adjustment to their strategy. Instead of focusing on the bottom lane, they concentrated on the top lane, letting Kalista play by herself.

But this time, even the only initial advantage was gone.

Faker picked Ryze for mid lane, but was completely dominated by Crown's Malzahar, with both mid laners going invisible.

But clearly, Crown's ability to keep Faker hidden is already a huge profit!

Without mid-lane priority, Score's jungle rhythm couldn't be established for a while, and he was directly defended by Ambition!

On the bottom lane, Ruler's Varus was at a disadvantage in the laning phase, but his CS was not suppressed, and he didn't even lose much health.

After ten minutes, the score was 0-0, and the game was deadlocked!

At twelve minutes, Ambition, along with Cuvee, pulled off a miraculous gank in the mid lane, forcibly killing Faker, who had Flash available!

Fifteen minutes later, Ambition ganked bot lane again, using Varus's ultimate to lock down Wolf and kill him. Meanwhile, SKT's top and jungle followed suit, ganking mid lane and killing Crown once more.

Seventeen minutes in, Crown had his ultimate ability and went to the top lane to kill Huni again.

At 18 minutes, Ambition ganked top lane but was counter-ganked by Score, resulting in a one-for-one trade between the two junglers.

Upon seeing this, Chen Dongqing already sensed that something was amiss.

Although the first eight minutes were quite bloody, with six kills quickly going around.

But there was one person who never died and was always a beneficiary.

That's right, it's Cuvee!

Cuvee's Kennen in this game, while playing passively, inexplicably got a perfect 2-0-1 start, quickly building up his three core items: Force Staff, Liandry's Torment, and Sorcerer's Shoes.

With the first wave of damage from the double penetration, Cuvee pushed the lane into the tower, started with an electrified auto-attack, and unleashed a full combo of skills, instantly killing Huni once again!

3-0-1!

It's hard to say which side's carries are stronger in this match, but the difference in strength between the top laners is obvious!

After Cuvee broke through in the top lane, Samsung entered a favorable situation. The team then launched their signature suffocating vision control, continuously expanding their advantage!

Admittedly, their vision setup may have flaws, but these flaws are too well hidden for SKT to find—SKT has never taken Samsung seriously, so why would they specifically research such things?

Ultimately, Samsung used vision control to catch Score in the jungle, and then the five of them pushed down the mid lane with a numerical advantage, easily winning the game!

"Three-nil! Three-nil!" Guan Zeyuan's heart was pounding faster than ever before. He raised his arms and shouted, "SSG has created a miracle once again against all odds! They defeated SKT three-nil and advanced to the finals!"

Samsung's victory was indeed unexpected by everyone.

Before the match, even SSG's own Guan Zeyuan had to act as a rational observer, believing that SKT had a higher chance of winning.

After all, SSG's double defeat to QG in the group stage was a major setback, making it hard to be optimistic about their chances.

But who would have thought that this team would sweep SKT 3-0 and become the first team to advance to the Bird's Nest!

The camera then focused on the two players. Faker's expression was completely off; he sat in front of his chair, staring blankly at the screen.

SKT's goal from beginning to end has always been the finals, QG, and the championship.

Who would have thought they would fall in the semifinals, and lose so badly?

What's even more painful is that in this BO3 series, the two teams showed a huge gap in their operational skills. Faker felt that even if they played two more games, SKT would definitely lose!

But how could such a team be defeated twice by QG in the group stage? Just how strong must QG be?

SSGQG

Faker kept thinking about those two names, pondering for a long time. Master An stood up, his face full of disbelief.

During the group stage, Master An had already vaguely sensed that they were very strong, but this thought quickly vanished after being defeated twice by QG.

Since then, the entire SSG team has never let up, constantly striving forward and refining and improving their tactics.

But the knockout stage has proven that they are really strong, far stronger than we imagined!

The reason QG defeated them twice was simply because QG was too overpowered, while they hadn't yet reached their peak strength at that time!

But now, things might be different!

In the post-match interview, host Yu Shuang naturally asked Master An about his expectations for the final and who he hoped would be his opponent.

Master An smiled and said, "Ah, QG is the opponent who defeated us twice in the group stage. I really hope to face them again and give them another 3-0 victory!"

As expected, Master An's words were met with a chorus of boos from the home crowd.

But Master An had anticipated this, so he remained calm, waved to the audience, and left.

Backstage, Chen Dongqing looked at the scene before him and couldn't help but rub his chin.

Why does it feel like all the top teams in the world want to challenge them?

Currently, FPX and SSG, the only remaining teams in the World Championship, both consider QG as their sole hypothetical enemy.

Hoping to prove their worth by defeating QG?

Chen Dongqing couldn't help but smile.

Last year, the whole world hoped QG would win; this year, the whole world hopes QG will win.

Chen Dongqing doesn't mind playing a major villain!

Another day has passed, and it's now October 29th.

It's still the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center.

All 18,000 spectators have now entered the venue, filling it to capacity!

As the countdown on the screen reached its end, host Lin Yuanhua quickly took to the stage and began calling for the contestants from both sides to come up.

Let's welcome QiaoGu!

"Let's welcome FunPlus Phoenix!"

The audience erupted in cheers!

This is their ultimate showdown in the LPL!

Both contestants took turns going on stage and stood with their arms crossed. Then, guided by Ren Dong, they returned to their seats to make final preparations.

During this time, the director switched to previously recorded interview clips.

Doinb appeared on screen, facing the camera with a serious expression: "Since the gauntlet, FPX has defeated many opponents who have beaten us before, such as WE and EDG. I believe EDG won't be the last."

"QG's players are all my old teammates, so I know them quite well and I'm very confident."

Both FPX and QG have a considerable number of fans, and there is even a high degree of overlap between them. As soon as Doinb said this, the chat room immediately erupted in discussion.

[Just playing against EDG, and you've gotten all confident?]

[Is beating EDG in the quarterfinals just a basic requirement?]

[So this is the day you've been waiting for since you left QG, Big B!]

[Feel free to make any threats, if FPX beats me today, I'll eat shit on my head!]

At this moment, the camera suddenly shifted again, and Chen Dongqing's words appeared on the screen. He said with a smile, "After today's match is over, Doinb will know that his so-called understanding of QG is just the tip of the iceberg."

"QG could beat FPX before, and they can do it again today."

In an instant, thunderous applause erupted, and the live chat was flooded with comments praising the performance.

Although it's an internal battle between two LPL teams, overall, most LPL viewers will definitely favor QG, that's for sure.

The interview was short, and soon the camera switched back to the scene.

At this point, both players were ready.

BP begins!

(End of this chapter)