LOL: What does "mid-lane hybrid expert" mean?

After their boss, Edward Zhu, hosted a celebratory banquet, the EDG team slowly walked back to their hotel under the Changsha night sky.

Abu asked everyone for their opinions on whether to stay and sightsee for the next two days or go back to the base for a vacation. Without a doubt, everyone chose the latter.

After several days of intense competition, everyone's only thought right now is to get a good night's sleep, the kind where you turn off your phone and sleep until you're completely exhausted.

therefore.

Three days after the Demacia Cup ended, the EDG team returned to their headquarters in Shanghai.

However, to Li Yi's surprise,

A familiar stranger has joined the base.

Scout!

"Huh? Didn't they say he wouldn't be back for a few days after the Summer Split starts?" Iboy, the youngest member of the team, spoke first, known for his straightforwardness.

Meiko, standing nearby, tried to understand Scout's thoughts: "How should I put it... if you have a lot of work pressure, you can't really take a vacation in peace. You might as well come back to jail sooner."

That's the truth.

Li Yi thought back for a moment.

Scout chose to leave the LCK because he could only be a substitute for SKT for life, and he didn't want to waste his prime years on the bench. Therefore, he chose to come to EDG, a strong LPL team, to prove his worth and get more opportunities to appear in international competitions.

But if coming to the LPL means facing rotation, it's better to go back to your hometown and be the carry of a mid-to-lower tier team, at least you'll have "high pay, little work, and close to home".

Of course.

Although Li Yi and Scout were genuinely competing for the job, there was no "enemies meeting with intense hatred" scene when they met.

We're all adults here.

Besides, this is EDG.

Aside from Meiko's undisputed starting position as support, no one in the other four positions dares to claim they are guaranteed a spot.

Abu and the coaching staff have always adhered to the principle of "whoever is in the best form plays," rotating players in scrims and deciding who gets to play based on their win rate. This is one of the reasons why EDG players always complain about the pressure they face; after all, if you relax, someone will kick you in the butt.

But that's what I'm saying.

It's rare to see a relationship like Sunny Day and Big Yellow's, where they call each other brothers. Li Yi wasn't planning on becoming good buddies with Scout, so they simply introduced themselves and shook hands.

On the field, everyone relies on their own abilities; off the field, everyone maintains dignity.

This is enough.

After all, this guy is the type to borrow money from acquaintances, and the amounts are often quite substantial...

  

Although Li Yi had some savings, they were all hard-earned money from begging for favors in the live stream, and he dared not let the Thief Saint squander them.

Just as everyone started taking keyboards and mice out of their suitcases and preparing to set up their workstations.

Abu suddenly slapped his forehead, as if he had just remembered something important: "Oh, and I should mention something else, it seems like we don't have enough space in our main training room."

Since Li Yi was previously sitting in Scout's seat, now that Scout has returned to the team, someone has to move to the training room next door.

"Then I'll go."

Li Yi put away his peripherals and spoke somewhat nonchalantly.

Anyway, we'll still play scrims together, and we'll hold debriefing meetings together. It's basically just a different place where we usually play ranked games.

"Seriously, Yi-ge? You're such a team on the field, why are you also such a team off the field? Let's just draw lots together."

"The training room is right next door. From what you've been saying, it sounds like I've been sent to the water dungeon." Li Yi shrugged. "Besides, I might be streaming sometimes, so this will save you guys from being bothered."

Of course, the most important thing is that you can now secretly use your teammates' funny jokes...

"It's settled then. You'll have another day off today. Training matches will start tomorrow afternoon. Li Yi, you'll play in the first few matches."

-----------------

The training room next door wasn't as deserted as Li Yi had imagined.

Upon opening the door, I discovered that Coach Nofe and several analysts' equipment had already taken up a corner.

After all, a professional coaching team's daily work also involves playing games to figure out the version and watching videos to scrutinize details, rather than using their phones to grab large coupons on food delivery apps.

Li Yi had prepared himself to face four white walls alone, but after looking around, he found it surprisingly nice.

Facing south with windows, it actually gets better sunlight than the original training room... but why does this layout look so familiar?

Li Yi then remembered seeing it in a documentary a few years later.

This seems to be the training room EDG used in their previous life when they won the S11 World Championship. Later, in 24, the Valorant division moved here and also won a World Championship.

"Not bad, it's a place with excellent feng shui."

After plugging in his equipment, before starting ranked games, Li Yi, adhering to the idea that "sharpening the axe before chopping wood is never a delay," reviewed the changes made in the Summer Split version.

The 7.11 version will be used starting from the first week of the Summer Split.

This version has made significant changes to the jungle ecosystem. Runic Echoes, which is suitable for AP jungle carry champions, has been nerfed, while the tank jungle item Cinderhulk has not only been reduced in price but also had its bonus health increased.

In addition, Bambi's Cinder cost has been reduced from 1100 to 900, and the passive Sacrifice effect has doubled its damage to monsters and minions.

This means that tank junglers, who were previously slow to farm and difficult to build their core items, can now get their items and engage in battle much earlier. Peanut, the carnivorous jungler king of the Spring Split, has also become a farm-only jungler due to the changes to the jungle environment.

As for the mid lane, the changes are not too significant.

Galio has firmly established himself as a top-tier mid-laner thanks to the changes to tank items.

Malzahar has also received a minor rework – his W ability, Void Swarm, which previously charged automatically over time, now charges every time the ability is cast, and the target acquisition mechanism has been optimized.

Simply put, it means getting a wheelchair.

In addition, there is another hero who has undergone significant changes, namely Corki, the Valiant Bombardier.

The designers changed his passive damage ratio from 5:5 for AP to 8:2 for AD, thus bringing this awkward hero back to the mid lane.

In addition, the missile pack mechanism is very suitable for the current version of the Vanguard team, so Li Yi decided to prioritize mastering this hero.

The last mid-lane hero that's relatively overpowered.

It's Lucian, EDG's favorite champion.

Due to the rise of tank champions, Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver have become popular items again.

Lucian, with his passive dual-gun mechanic, became the perfect master of these two items.

The percentage damage from Blade of the Ruined King allows Black Cleaver to stack armor penetration, enabling Lucian to reach full stacks of Black Cleaver within a second. This transforms him from a carry reliant on critical strike items into a mid-lane marksman whose impact is maximized in mid-game team fights.

EDG was mocked for "three kneelings with Lucian" in the World Championship group stage. Besides the coaching staff ignoring the version and not knowing how to adapt, a big reason was that Scout's performance with Lucian in the LPL league was just too outstanding.

The classic battle was the Summer Finals against RNG, where Xiaohu's Orianna was directly outmatched by Scout's Lucian.

"This hero is a bit difficult to master. Besides having an advantage in the laning phase, it also relies heavily on positioning in mid-game team fights."

"I need to find a real expert to learn from..."

Thinking about this...

Li Yi opened the simulation training in the system and changed his practice target from Faker (ultimate form) to Scout (S7 Summer Split version).