At noon the next day, YM woke up one after another and rushed downstairs for lunch.
Since YM Team Two lost the relegation match, the team members were now on vacation. Some of the kids went home to rest, while a few stayed in the base, using Chubby's place as a free internet cafe.
Since they were on different floors, Lin Yan rarely saw them. It was only today that he noticed these kids who were younger than him.
A dozen or so people sat around a long table. The manager of Team Two had asked for leave to go home. Hao took care of the kids in every possible way.
"Zhuo Ding, don't just eat. Eat more."
"… Okay."
The skinny boy with black-rimmed glasses curled up in the corner of the table. He was somewhat introverted, but when he heard Hao's words, he quickly responded.
"Lin Yan, this is Team Two's substitute mid laner, Zhuo Ding. Little Ma just poached him from the internet cafe tournament. He's a genius who uses his left hand to hold the mouse. He'll be able to play in next year's spring tournament."
Hao turned to Zhuo Ding and said, "You should learn from him when you're free. I don't think I need to tell you how strong Lin Yan is, right?"
"… Brother Ran, nice to meet you." The boy named Zhuo Ding nodded blankly. "Please, please teach me."
At this moment, Lin Ran felt like he was a gangster in a Hong Kong film who forced people to worship him.
He felt uncomfortable.
JKL laughed. "You're really using your left hand to hold the mouse?
What about the keyboard? Isn't that crossing your hands? "
Zhuo Ding whispered, "So that's how I play. When I came here, I realized that the mouse and keyboard can be swapped."
"You're too naive, aren't you?" Phyllostachys Pubescens couldn't help but tease him. It was rare to see someone like this.
This sentence made Zhuo Ding's thin shoulders tighten even more.
After lunch, the team members entered the team training room.
Manager Hao moved a chair to sit down and talk, but he felt that it wasn't dignified enough, so he sat on the armrest of the gaming chair.
"For the next week, turn off Weibo, Tieba, Hupu … on your phones. It's best if you uninstall them," he emphasized. "Especially Jack. Don't look at those things every day. It's not good for your mentality."
"Understood." JKL took a deep breath.
Even though he had a strong resistance to pressure, it wasn't a good thing to spend too much time in the gaming toilet. After all, frequent urination was also an illness.
"Let's watch the semi-finals at 5 pm today. If you have any questions, just ask," Hao said. "Before that, there's a B5 training match against the LCK team."
"Hit who?
SKT? "Xiao Ming was excited.
"Where are we going to find SKT for you?" Hao sneered. "It's already good enough that Samsung is here. They only agreed to test the waters after seeing that we've won all the way to the finals."
Everyone in YM was silent.
The loss of the S5 finals and S6 MSI caused LPL's position in the five major leagues to plummet.
LCK, who had won the S-League championship for three years in a row, did not bother to play mock competitions with LPL. Usually, only teams like EDG and RNG, who had participated in international competitions, could occasionally arrange a match or two.
After calculating the time, he logged into the Korean server account and entered the password to enter the custom-made room.
The opponent's top laner, Cuvee, was very friendly. He even learned a Chinese phrase, [Dajiahao], and typed it into the chat.
After the greetings, it was time for a B5.
Lin Yan faced Crown, who was known as Brother Crown. In him, Lin Yan saw the steadiness of VGEasyhoon. Victor stayed in the mid lane until the end of time, looking like he would not leave the mid lane until he had obtained three pieces of equipment.
Lin Yan tried to suppress Crown in the first round. He chose Jayce, but he realized that he had underestimated Crown's ability to blend into the mid lane.
He would not have any evil intentions if he could not kill the minions. He would try his best to maintain a healthy amount of health in the mid lane. If he was suppressed by Lin Yan, he would not retaliate.
It was Lin Yan's first time seeing such a cowardly mid laner. Even Easyhoon would retaliate with two skills when he was on top of him.
Crown's mind was very clear. Before the first wave, he was suppressed by Lin Yan for 15 hits, but it was not a big deal.
After he upgraded the Hex Core Prototype, his E [Death Ray]'s ability to clear the lane became stronger and stronger. He did not clash head-on with Lin Yan at all.
Lin Yan could only quickly push the lane and roam when he encountered such a mid laner.
However, SSG's jungler, Ambition, was also a genius. Against YM, he made a surprising move and chose the quick-lane route. He cleared all six jungles at home and then returned to the city to get Green Jungler and Eye of Truth.
He cooperated with support coreJJ to completely light up the bottom half of the jungles, not giving Lin Yan and Xiao Tian a chance to go to the bottom lane.
The opponent's vision control was too good. Lin Yan and Xiao Tian could only try to force the mid and early laners to fight.
However, the first wave was a wind dragon. Brother Crown only tried to steal it with E, but it did not matter if he did not succeed. He turned around and left.
Without a chance in the bottom half, Lin Yan and Xiao Tian could only try the top lane.
On the other hand, Cuvee in the top lane chose Nar to deal with Jin Gong's captain. He did not push the lane in the early game and kept the minions in the middle. It was obvious that he did not want to fight with Jin Gong.
If they wanted to drag it out, they would drag it out.
SSG was a standard Korean operation team.
Other than Cuvee, SSG's individual strength was not considered strong in LCK. However, the players would spend a lot of money to buy Eye of Truth. As long as there was an equipment slot, they would definitely buy two Eyes of Truth.
They were used to using their top lane to drag the enemy while their vision was lit up. They used their numbers and information gap to win the team fight.
After being dragged out by SSG for 30 minutes, YM managed to get two wind dragons and one earth dragon. The three dragons were of no help in the team fight.
Lin Yan managed to get four sets, but Victor's development was not bad either. As time passed, Lin Yan's Jayz was suppressed by Victor.
The four players in front of SSG took the opportunity to push forward, using their vision to catch YM off guard.
On the other hand, Sect Leader An's Prince finally caught hold of the fallen JKL. Without any hesitation, he used EQ and R. Even though JKL reacted quickly and used [Blink] to retreat, Ruler Han Bing's [Cloud Piercing Arrow] still stunned JKL.
JKL was controlled, and the team fight erupted.
Core JKL displayed extraordinary support skills. He appeared behind the wall like a ghost, and Bull's Head flashed over the wall to send two players flying. He then used his R to get immune to crowd-control and used his horn to send JKL into the midst of SSG's players.
Without key damage dealers in the mid and late game, YM had no way of contending with SSG. Crown and Ruler did amazing damage in the team fight.
Xiao Ming was the only one who survived this round. He could not stop SSG's advance at all. The other five players typed GG and exited the game.
YM, who had lost the first round, quickly adjusted. Since Lin Yan could not open up the game through the mid and early game, he would use farming heroes to stall for time with Crown.
Both sides quickly turned from a spear and shield battle into a long and stinky tug-of-war. The next four rounds of the match lasted around 45 minutes.
This type of late game game was very particular about the game of vision, the exchange of resources, and the formation of the team fight.
Unlike in the mid and early game where one side lost a wave of momentum and could fight back in the next round, in a 35 minute game, the death of one hero could decide the outcome of the game.
In the end, YM relied on Lin Yan's perfect three rounds and Tsar's perfect performance to defeat this mid-ranked team in the LCK rankings with a score of 3: 2.
Lin Yan was not happy. He felt that SSG did not reveal any tactics. From the beginning to the end, it was just a set of ideas — dragging out the late game and playing the game like it was a formula.
After five rounds, everyone was exhausted.
"Oh my god, why am I so tired?" After the last round, Xiao Ming hurriedly climbed out of his chair and began to jump up and down.
"Are these people bladder monsters?
I'm speechless. Disgusting. "
Xiao Tian held his waist and ran to the bathroom. He was used to drinking water before a match. He could not handle the forty to fifty minute long game.
"Let's watch the match, let's watch the match." Jin Gong leaned back in his chair.
What a joke. He was also a bladder monster back in the day.
These young people were still too naive.
Lin Yan rubbed his sore wrists and turned to face the center of the training room.
Hanyi and the analysts were projecting the live broadcast of the semi-finals onto the big screen in the training room. Hao went to call up the few kids from the second team who were willing to watch the game together.
Because the B5 training match had dragged on for too long, the first round of the BP had already ended by the time the YM players were watching the live broadcast. The first round of the semi-finals had just been loaded onto the Summoner's Canyon interface.
Lin Yan looked at the lineups of both sides.
EDG on the blue side: Captain, Spider, Card, Ice, Tam.
RNG on the red side: Ike, Wine Barrel, Ice Maiden, Policewoman, Boulogne.
"What did the RNG pick?" Lin Yan did not understand the situation. "Captain, Card, and Ice are all released?"
"EDG's lineup is very similar to the one we used against WE."
JKL came back looking comfortable after releasing the water. He ran back to lie on the chair and put his legs on the armrest in an extremely inelegant manner.
"This is the answer to the version, okay?
What about RNG with Renaissance in between? "
Xiao Tian's slender eyes narrowed. If one did not look carefully, they would think that he was resting with his eyes closed.
"Brother Hanyi, turn off the commentator. It's noisy and can't get to the point. I'm dying of anxiety."
The commentators for this match were Su Xiaoyan, Guan Zeyuan, and Long-hair. There was indeed a problem.
Hanyi did not need him to tell her to turn it on. The coach could not stand it either.
Lin Yan crossed his arms in front of his chest. He did not understand RNG's thinking. Policewoman's system had not been used since the 6.15 update. The last time it was used was in the second round of the RNG.
With the addition of the first blood tower, the damage reduction of the bottom lane's tower was also removed. In theory, the bottom lane's defense tower would be more fragile. At first glance, it seemed that a hero like Policewoman would be more likely to roll and push the tower.
But in reality, this was not the case.
The rise of a top lane like Shen proved that the main battlefield in the early game was gradually shifting to the bottom lane. Nakano even treated the bottom lane as his home and would come over to take a look when he had nothing to do.
Policewoman did have the advantage in the early game when pushing the tower, but what about the small-scale team battle?
Not to mention the T1 level Ice and Ember, even the previous Sewer Verus was stronger than Policewoman.
As long as they won a small-scale team battle, the winning side could easily destroy the bottom lane's defense tower without any damage reduction.
In other words, as long as they lost a team battle, Policewoman's accumulated health advantage in the early game would be gone.
And once Policewoman's tower was destroyed, she would be invisible in the middle of the game. It would be difficult for her to provide help to the team.
Therefore, YM gave up on Policewoman. Ice, Ember, and Verus were their first choice for the AD position.
Now, there was a big problem with RNG's thinking.
Moreover, they had chosen three APs in the mid and jungle. If Policewoman was killed in the early game, then EDG's frontline would have magic resistance equipment in the middle of the game. RNG would not be able to do anything at all.
And a small decision made by EDG in the early game caused RNG's rhythm to be broken instantly.
The two EDG bottom lane players rushed to the top lane early and began to push. Ouze and Mata were a step slower, and the other side got to level two first. The minions were also pushed in.
Meiko very cleverly inserted an accessory eye where RNG's blue buff was and showed MLXG who was eating blue.
It was very harmful for the jungler to be exposed in the early game. MLXG did not realize the seriousness of the problem.
"You guys have to be careful in the bottom lane. Don't push the lane too far. Meiko's vision has no cost at all." Hanyi and the analysts took notes in their notebooks while reminding the team members, "The looper is going to be gone."
Lin Yan nodded and agreed with Hanyi's point of view.
Zhuo Ding on the side asked hesitantly, "That … Why is the looper going to be gone?"
"Pay attention to Factory Director's equipment. He started with Talisman and a red buff. He used the extra money to buy a True Eye." Lin Yan pointed out to Zhuo Ding, "Meiko inserted the position of the Spicy Saucepan. What will Factory Director do at this time?"
Zhuo Ding looked at Factory Director who was eating the red buff in the bottom lane and said without hesitation, "I'll definitely go fight the Wine Barrel of the Spicy Saucepan. Level three spiders can't casually fight the Wine Barrel. The bottom lane is still pushing the lane. No matter what, he can provide support first."
"Wrong, wrong, wrong!"
Lin Yan laughed out loud, "You still don't understand how good Zhuge Mingkai is. Brother Hanyi, please pause for a moment."
Hanyi clicked the mouse to pause the screen. In his opinion, the looper was doomed. There would not be any useful information in the next two minutes.
"Think about it from another perspective. You're Factory Director now."
Lin Ran didn't mind imparting some knowledge on the battlefield to his little brother.
"You can invade the jungle, but what can you do?
At most, you can make the Spicy Saucepan give you a flash. "
"What if you take advantage of this time to control the River Crab in the top lane and insert the True Eye in the top lane to ensure your vision?"
Lin Yan said, "Look at the top lane looper pushing the creeps. He has to push the creeps. Otherwise, if he gets blocked by the captain, he won't be able to play for the next three minutes."
"EDG will definitely not let the looper push the creeps so easily. As long as the True Eye confirms that the Wine Barrel is not in the top lane, the looper will definitely die. There's no way he can survive."
"Then, my spider will go and grab the bottom lane. If I get a summoner's skill, it'll be worth it. That way, the RNG Policewoman won't dare to push the creeps blindly."
"If both the top and bottom lanes are activated at the same time, MLXG will be like a headless fly in the early stage. They won't be able to take care of both." Lin Yan's mouth was a little dry. "Jack, open the fridge and get me a drink."
He looked at the iced cola that Jack tossed to him. He hesitated for a moment and rejected the pleasure.
"Just get me a bottle of water. I don't want to drink cola."
At this time, Zhuo Ding roughly glanced at the OB screen. As a young prodigy, he immediately understood.
"Ah …" He had a look of understanding on his face.
Hanyi clicked the play button. Lin Yan had wasted nearly a minute just now. As soon as the live broadcast was connected, he saw that the Factory Director's spider had finished the River Crab in the top lane.
Then, he inserted the Eye of Truth into the RNG's F4 bushes. This was the path that the Wine Barrel had to take to get to the top lane. This eye locked onto the position of the Wine Barrel — Magical Swamp Frog or EDG's F4.
Then, the Factory Director rushed to the mid lane and used W [Self-Destructing Spider] to force out Xiao Hu's Ice Maiden's E skill.
This wave seemed to be catching the Ice Maiden, but in reality, it was helping Scout push the creeps.
After pushing the creeps, the Factory Director went back to eat F4 and chased away the MLXG invading the jungle. Scout pushed the mid lane creeps and used his vision advantage to rush to the top lane.
Mouse, who was known as the light of the top lane, was swapping health with the looper Ike. The looper wanted to push the creeps quickly, while Ah Guang wanted to keep him.
In the end, before the looper could push the creeps in, his junior's card came from the triangular bushes behind him.
A yellow card and an all-purpose card, Garp's attack was thunderous and directly took the kill.
More importantly, the creeps were still blocked in front of the tower by the captain, so the looper had to be dealt with by the TP.
The Factory Director's follow-up actions were just as Lin Yan expected. After eating F4, he went to the bottom lane to gank.
Xiao Hu and Li Sanzhuo were forced to give up their TP, Meiko quickly put her good friend Deft into her mouth and decisively retreated, and Ice Maiden could only cancel her TP.
"See?
This is a murder caused by an eye position. "Lin Yan guessed all of this correctly, but his face was expressionless." RNG's double TP did nothing in the early stage, so EDG definitely won't give them a chance. In the middle of the game, the game will be over. "
"Wow …" Zhuo Ding, who had only played small games in internet cafes, had never seen such a professional spoiler play. He looked at Lin Yan with starry eyes.
"Brother Ran has such a strong view of the big picture." He had turned into Lin Yan's fanboy.
"Basic play, basic play." Lin Yan waved his hand dismissively.
The looper who was TP to the line dealt with this wave of creeps in time, but he was still suppressed by Ah Guang's captain by 10 hits. On the other hand, RNG lost two TP's in just over four minutes, and their early rhythm was completely broken.
Without the double TP's, RNG could only continue to develop, but EDG's early attack was not over yet.
Tam went to 6 and took Factory Director's Spider with [Abyss Dive] to circle around the back. Deft's Ice Magic Crystal Arrow hit Boulogne, and the captain's [Cannon Barrage] came down, and the card also flew to Ouze's side.
At this moment, EDG gathered four people at the bottom lane, and with the captain's big move, Ouze could not escape and died at the bottom lane together with MATA.
The scout's creeps were not very good, so he could only go back to fill in the gaps. EDG wiped out half of the bottom lane's health, and gathered four people again to attack the bottom lane in 12 minutes.
MATA helped to block the arrow and died again. Ouze could only retreat and let EDG take the tower.
"This is similar to our playstyle, which is to crazily attack the bottom lane and snowball," JKL said, scratching his head.
"RNG is gone," Lin Yan said, "This Policewoman is going to start her scraping performance later."
Hanyi and the analyst beside her were still meticulously recording EDG's every eye position.
The game was fixed at the 31st minute. Looper tried his best to support, but it did not work. Vegehu, who was wearing tactical goggles, also did not stand up to lead his teammates to victory.
In the second BP segment, EDG released Ember on the red side, but RNG did not fight for it. Lin Yan realized that something was wrong.
Wasn't RNG's priority too low for Ember?
In the game, Factory Director's wave of smart red, F4, and Triple Wolf's speed three hit Xiao Hu, successfully killing Vegehu and dragging MLXG down.
When Lin Ran saw this scene, he was certain that their opponent on the 26th was EDG. Han Yi and the analysts did not even bother to calculate the RNG field of view. They only cared about recording the timing of EDG's tempo in their notebooks.
The old-fashioned BP strategy and old-fashioned tactical style put RNG in a completely passive state in this semi-final. The factory director completely disrupted MLXG's rhythm as if he was saying, "A small leak doesn't count".
It was worth mentioning that in the third game, Deft also chose Verus, the sewer hero from before the semi-finals, to fight against Ice. This made Lin Yan even more certain that EDG's understanding of this version was the same as theirs.
It was also a 3-0, but EDG easily defeated RNG.
Lin Yan was looking forward to the finals a week later.