League: Educating LPL is my duty.

September 1, Beijing Wukesong Arena.

As the venue for the Summer Split finals, the Wukesong Arena was packed to capacity today, with people crowding both inside and outside the arena.

The final between EDG and RNG was essentially a fateful showdown for the LPL at that time.

As the two teams with the most fans and the highest popularity, the fans supporting these two teams almost make up half of the LPL.

Many people are eagerly anticipating which team will win the championship today and, as the number one seed, make a run for this year's World Championship.

However, at the same time, many people are also considering whether Li Chen will make an appearance today.

Fans of RNG and EDG are particularly concerned about this.

At 3:30 p.m., the opening ceremony of the finals officially began, and today's host was Pete Joo.

Li Chen sat in the backstage dressing room, next to Zet and Ai Luoli. All three of them came as substitutes today, so they were not among the contestants who appeared at the opening ceremony.

As the opening ceremony concluded, the starting players from both teams entered their seats, ready to begin the first match, and the power of the game shifted from the host to the commentators.

"Good afternoon to all Summoners in Beijing and watching on screen! Welcome to the 2017 League of Legends Pro League... Who will be the number one seed? Hello everyone, I'm your commentator Miller for today!"

"I am Guan Zeyuan!"

"I'm Rita!"

After introducing themselves, Miller started to warm things up, and the group began to talk about some of the games the two teams had played from the summer regular season to the playoffs.

"Actually, looking at the summer regular season, the two teams have had their wins and losses, with both small and large game scores tied. So I feel that the result of today's final is still very suspenseful, and both teams have a good chance of becoming the number one seed to enter the World Championship."

After hearing Miller's evaluation, Guan Zeyuan nodded slightly and said, "As the two top teams in our region, their strength is obvious to all. However, I was still a little surprised when I saw EDG's starting lineup."

"It's actually quite normal, because in the last match of the regular season, the two teams faced off with their current lineups, but RNG ultimately won 2-0, so many people thought that C-God would start today," Rita directly pointed out.

The director was also very astute. At the beginning of the show, many viewers were shouting Li Chen's ID and nickname, so the director seized on this hot topic and suddenly gave a shot of the EDG rest room.

In the video, Li Chen is seen lounging on the sofa with his legs crossed, holding his phone, and occasionally flashing a smile.

[It's really like Riyue Shopping; their business is getting more and more decadent.]

[A warm, doting smile on her face; I wonder what's making her so happy.]

Why not let the center (C) play? Hasn't EDG lost enough?

Come on, EDG made it to the finals even without him, didn't they?

Exactly, it's like he's some kind of useful person.

Amidst heated online discussions, the competition officially began.

In the first game, both sides seemed to be in a probing phase, and their selections were relatively conservative, continuing their previous strategies.

Furthermore, during the player selection, RNG once again picked Ezreal, a champion they had used once in the regular season. With Corki banned, Xiaohu in the mid lane picked Syndra, a lane bully, to suppress Scout's roaming.

EDG picked Jarvan IV as their jungler, while Scout chose Cassiopeia in the mid lane as a counter to Syndra.

Cassiopeia's R-Flash mechanic hasn't been removed yet, so if Syndra gets hit by it, she's basically doomed.

The character selection process ended quickly, and the loading screen appeared.

EDG (Blue Team):

Top laner - Shen

Jungler - Prince

Mid Lane - Cassiopeia

ad——Little Cannon

Support - Lulu

Red Team:

Top Lane - Cho'Gath

Jungler - Gragas

Mid Lane - Syndra

ad——Little Yellow Hair

Support - Alistar

Looking at the lineups of both sides, Miller commented, "It feels like RNG has prepared a lot for this match. They even abandoned the Ardent Censer meta and used Alistar, a hard support. Is this the first time a hard support has been picked in the bot lane since the Ardent Censer meta began?"

"I feel this choice is very creative. After all, Ezreal doesn't benefit much from Ardent Censer. If you let RNG's bot lane pick Ezreal and Alistar, EDG's bot lane will be under a lot of pressure. Once Ezreal gets farmed up, it will be difficult for EDG to engage in team fights in the mid-game." Guan Zeyuan is quite optimistic about RNG's choice.

The match began, and both sides started their jungle clears as usual. Spicy Hot Pot started with the red buff in the top half of the map, just like in the first game of the last match of the regular season.

However, this time the factory manager brought his brain to the game, choosing to go straight to the top lane to take the blue buff after clearing the red buff at the start, and then gank the top lane at level two.

RNG didn't expect Clearlove to come up with such a surprise move, and Lightmi ultimately couldn't escape, obediently giving up the first blood.

Having gained an early advantage, many thought EDG was about to take off, but what happened next was quite different.

The Ezreal and Alistar combination in the bottom lane put a lot of pressure on EDG in the early game, especially with Gragas showing up in the bottom half of the map, EDG's bottom lane almost lost the right to farm minions.

Although no one died, Uzi's CS (creep score) had already started to take the lead.

At the six-minute mark, the common problem of bottom lane support champions reappeared: they couldn't get a solo kill in lane.

Alistar and Gragas started roaming and successfully caught Scout in the mid lane, but they had no way to deal with Ezreal in the bot lane.

Even after Uzi used his Q skill a few times, Meiko and Iboy couldn't withstand it and couldn't even control the minion wave.

In the backstage lounge, Li Chen shook his head as soon as he saw this: "This game is over. When Ezreal and Syndra reach their power spike, team fights will basically be one-sided."

Abu remained silent, staring at the screen, seemingly lost in thought.

The subsequent plot development was basically in line with Li Chen's prediction. Ezreal got Manamune and Sheen at 13 minutes, and his damage was on a completely different level from Tristana's.

A team fight broke out in the top lane, and RNG won by trading one for three and taking the Rift Herald.

Seventeen minutes later, another fight broke out at the dragon pit, where Xiaohu's Syndra pushed three enemies, sending four EDG players back to their fountain once again.

With an economic advantage, RNG didn't give EDG a chance to drag things out, because once they reached the late game, Tristana and Lulu's damage output would be far higher than Ezreal's.

Finally, at the 36-minute mark, RNG, with the Baron buff, forcefully tower-dived onto the high ground. The huge economic gap left EDG with almost no chance to fight back.

Miller watched as EDG's crystal shattered and exclaimed, "Congratulations to RNG for winning the first game of this Summer Split finals! They're currently leading EDG 1-0. Their strategy of abandoning Ardent Censer in the bot lane and using a tanky support like Alistar has proven very effective!"

"EDG actually gained an advantage in the top lane at one point, but unfortunately they couldn't find a breakthrough. In the end, RNG snowballed their lead with their bot lane advantage. I feel like EDG needs to think of a way to deal with this," Rita said meaningfully.

Is that all? Is that all EDG is capable of?

[I'll give you a score: 3-0 to end the game!]

[C, where are you? Are you dead? If not, bring them up!]

[It's time to let C play, what is EDG thinking?]

[What's the point of having a C-level issue if it causes so much trouble?]