Crown's expression was lonely as he shook hands with Lin Yan, who had a happy expression.
The shouts and screams below the stage had nothing to do with him. Everything belonged to the winner.
YM's flag fluttered everywhere in the Chicago theater. The few three-star flags had long disappeared without a trace.
He looked at the YM players celebrating on the side and suddenly felt his eyes sting. He couldn't help but wipe them with his hand.
"Get off the stage." The three-star coach went on stage and patted the players on the back one by one. His tone was gentle. "Adjust your emotions. Don't cry during the interview later."
"We'll use the original Centaur to play for another year. We'll be back next year." The coach's gentle tone was firm. "Believe in yourselves. You'll be stronger than you are now."
Crown carried the keyboard and mouse peripherals and walked towards the players' tunnel. He passed by the YM players who were celebrating and stared at Lin Yan with slightly red eyes.
Next year, I'll be back and take back everything I've lost.
Lin Yan was pulled to the LPL official interview. This time, the official team had changed a lot.
The interview host was no longer the female host with heavy makeup who always liked to ask Lin Yan strange questions. Instead, it was Yu Zhen, who came from China Media University and was good at bilingual interviews.
As usual, Yu Zhen first congratulated the YM team that had just won. Her first question was to ask Lin Yan how he felt after winning.
Lin Yan held the microphone and said, "The team behind the scenes has done a lot of research these days. My teammates and I have also worked hard. We're quite satisfied with the results."
"In the third game, you frequently crouched on the opposing mid laner in the support route. Is there a reason for that?" Yu Zhen asked with a smile.
"Little Murloc is a support hero, but the opposing mid laner didn't let me help my teammates," Lin Yan said matter-of-factly. "I had no choice but to kill him."
"As long as he died, I could support my teammates without worry."
Yu Zhen's eyes widened slightly. She didn't expect to hear this answer from Lin Yan.
The bullet screen also began to cause trouble.
"Ran: I like to support. The opposing team didn't let me roam, so I could only kill him."
"Crown: Motherf * cker, are you crazy?"
"One last question. What do you think of your opponent in the semifinals, ROCK Tiger?" Aftershock adjusted himself quickly and asked without changing his expression.
Lin Yan pondered for two seconds before saying, "They defeated EDG yesterday. As the number one seed of the LCK, their strength is definitely not to be underestimated. However, I think we still have a good chance of winning. At the same time, we can also avenge EDG."
"I'm a little dissatisfied with Smeb being ranked first on the official Top 20 list." Lin Yan began to spout nonsense. "Even if it wasn't Faker at the top, it should be me. His strength is far from Marin's. Ma Datou has been through a lot of military training this summer. I hope Smeb can show enough ability to withstand pressure, otherwise he will definitely surpass Ghost."
Smeb was a sunny and warm man who loved to smile. That night, when he was interviewed and found out that Lin Ran had said those provocative words, he smiled so much that his eyes narrowed into slits.
"I actually hope that they will target me. I believe that my teammates are much stronger than them. If they don't come to the top lane, I'm also very interested in letting Jin Gong experience the strength of a top LCK top laner."
On the third day of the quarterfinals, SKT versus H2K.
The biggest highlight was the rematch between Faker and Yue Lun. Last year, Yue Lun and Faker had met in the group stage of the S5 tournament. Yue Lun had suffered two crushing defeats.
This year was no exception.
Yue Lun seemed to be destined to be an unsuccessful avenger.
0: 3. The entire BO5 match lasted less than 70 minutes. Yue Lun's Clockwork Spring was stunned by Faker's Victor. He was killed five times in three matches. In the end, Sima Face reappeared. It was heartbreaking to watch, but at the same time, it made people want to laugh.
In the last BO5 match, RNG was up against the wild card ANX. Originally, from the LPL commentators to the audience, everyone thought that this would be a one-sided victory.
Even ANX did not think that they would be able to go far in a BO5 match.
However, the BO5 match was very strange.
In the first match, RNG went smoothly. Ouze used Policewoman to take down ANX's bottom lane tower in 8 minutes without anyone's help.
After that, there were frequent lane changes. ANX's ability to operate was quite average. They were dazzled by RNG's lane changing tactics. In 23 minutes, Ouze made a three-piece attack and speed combo. He killed the opponent's support with three shots. His damage was ridiculously high.
However, ANX targeted Ouze from the start of the second match. They banned all their skilled heroes and forced Ouze to use EZ.
They made it clear that they were going for the bottom lane. The jungler stayed in the bottom lane from start to finish.
However, Ouze desperately wanted to break through from the bottom lane. However, he was too impatient and attracted a gank from the jungler. In 10 minutes, he was caught at 0/3 and the bottom lane tower was taken down.
On the other hand, MLXG started to try to attack the bottom lane in the second half of the group stage. They dragged Xiao Hu, who wanted to stay in the bottom lane, into the opposite jungle.
He obviously had a more thorough understanding of the version.
However, he did not know if it was a problem with the coaching staff. Xiao Hu actually chose Vampire, a hero who did not protect the bottom lane enough in the early game.
The opposing ANX mid laner continued to use his unique hero, Ice Bird. As long as he ate the blue buff, he could easily take down the mid lane minions and firmly tie down Xiao Hu's short legged hero in the middle lane.
After the bottom lane collapsed, ANX played a familiar dominant game. They dragged RNG into the fight and successfully turned the tables.
In the third small game, RNG did not change at all. ANX copied the playstyle of the previous game and won the game.
RNG fell behind 1: 2. The situation was precarious.
Looper finally stood up. He started to ask MLXG to frequently go to the top lane to create an advantage for himself.
In the first game, Troll used his invincible solo to pull ANX's formation apart. The game was in a stalemate until 40 minutes. Looper took advantage of the Dragon and used his big stick to clear the bottom lane.
The opposing top laner, Bobby, was completely ignored by him. In the end, he single-handedly tanked ANX's three players. He used his big buff to drain Bobby's defense. With the addition of W's [Frozen Territory] to increase his attack speed, he destroyed ANX's base in front of them and dragged the game into the final game.
In the last game, Looper brought out his Rambo when Troll was temporarily locked down. After 5 minutes, he went to the middle lane and used his big move to cooperate with Xiao Hu to open up the situation.
In the end, after 50 minutes of fierce fighting, RNG won with difficulty and obtained the final ticket to the top four.
However, after this BO5, no one was optimistic about RNG's chances. This was because in the next game, they would be facing SKT, who was at the peak of their power.
The defending champions, SKT, had not lost a single small game so far. The average game time was 29 minutes. They used their lane advantage to suppress their opponents step by step, and finally won the game.
The first team in League of Legends' history to win the S Tournament twice was becoming more and more stable. They had formed a unique tactical system.
The YM members did not watch the last two matches of the top eight. They were doing targeted training to deal with ROX Tiger.
It could be said that YM adapted to the S6 World Championship very quickly. Even though there was a period of pain at the beginning, they still managed to adjust in time. After the training in Korea, their win rate in the training matches increased steadily. Their competitive condition also improved.
This version was also suitable for ROX Tiger. What was even more exaggerated was that they had a winning streak from the start to the end of the training matches. According to rumors, even SKT could not beat them.
Moreover, the best players in their team, Ueno Dagger Smeb and Little Peanut, had performed exceptionally well in this S Tournament. Little Peanut, in particular, was a perfect fit for this S Tournament's hero pool.
In the most suitable version, the strongest Korean Wild King, Panther Lady, Spider, Blind Monk, and Olaf were all Little Peanut's specialties.
Xiao Tian knew the last three heroes as well. However, he really could not use Panther Lady.
This was indeed a hidden danger.
"It's okay." Hao immediately rushed over to comfort Xiao Tian when he heard the news. "You used Panther Lady twice in the ranking matches these two days. You should have no problem using Panther Lady in a random matchup, right?"
"… Of course." Xiao Tian looked puzzled. "Ranking matches are not professional matches. I don't need my teammates to coordinate with me to play in the US server. I can kill anything I use."
"That's good." Hao patted his chest. "Lin Yan, play two matches with him. Let him use Panther Lady and let him eat all the kills. Make the record look better."
"I'll run some operations in the next two days. I guarantee that the Tigers will know that Panther Lady is also a specialty."
Lin Yan was shocked. "There's such a thing?"
Hao's words were indeed feasible. Xiao Tian had played in two professional leagues so far, the 2016 LSPL Spring Season and the 2016 LPL Summer Season.
Xiao Tian had played Panther Lady and Nanqiang in the Spring Season. After all, at that time, YM had casually killed anyone in the secondary league. In the Summer Season, the version changed, and heroes such as Excavator, Wine Barrel, Centaur, and Spider appeared on the stage. Panther Lady's appearance rate was only 8.6% in the entire summer. It was not popular at all.
In addition, in the current World Championship version, Panther Lady's strength caused all the opponents in the mock competition to be banned. Xiao Tian did not give himself away at all.
In other words, other than YM himself and the few opponents in the Summer Season, no one knew that Xiao Tian's jungler was very powerful.
Xiao Tian excitedly led Lin Yan to start grinding for points in the server.
The quality of this server was really not high. The biggest challengers were the opposing pro players.
Xiao Tian and Lin Yan queued for the whole night. The two of them moved the jungler coordination in the professional arena to the ranking match. The opposing jungler could not withstand the attacks at all.
Phyllostachys Pubescens took five games of Panther Lady. With Lin Yan's help, he was able to get more than ten kills in each game. He only died once or twice, and his KDA was very high.
Hao did not know where he got the UC editor from. The next day, this news spread everywhere — shocking!
Xiao Tian's Panther Lady was hot. He actually killed the King of the American server like a pig. Little Peanut's position as the Wild King was in danger!
This shocking news was even translated into Korean by Brother Siba when he woke up early to take a dump and posted on the Korean Internet.
For a time, this kind of news, both real and fake, spread everywhere. Lin Yan could not help but admire Hao. This person was good at operating tactics.
On October 19th, they took a plane to New York. On the 24th, they would play in the semifinals with the Tigers at the famous Madison Square Garden.
After landing and checking into the hotel, YM did not have a training mission that day. Instead, they held a video conference to explain the information of their opponents and the problems to pay attention to.
After the main analyst returned, Su Cheng, who was mainly responsible for the data analysis of BP, was the first to speak.
"If we want to find the weakest point among the five members of the Tigers, it would be Kuro in the middle lane. What we have to pay attention to is his hero pool. Starcaster Dragon King can be said to be his strongest hero.
"So far, Kuro's Starcaster Dragon King has a career win rate of 85.7%. This hero can greatly liberate the jungle after pushing the lane and help Little Peanut invade the jungle.
"Moreover, Kuro likes to kill the opposing F4 after pushing the lane." Su Cheng opened her book and said, "Of course, two days ago, Lin Yan countered Crown, who wanted to use this trick. Now, we're not sure if Kuro's Dragon King will still use this trick."
"But if we're on the blue side, we don't have to be wary of this character …" Su Cheng continued.
"Why?" Hao asked casually. He was willing to be a curious baby.
Su Cheng replied, "If we're on the blue side, the pressure on the Tigers' BP on the red side will be too great. They won't be able to ban heroes like Sindra, Ella, Pyro, and Panther Lady, not to mention Jayce, who is very good at restraining Dragon King."
"More importantly, Lin Yan and Jin Gong both know how to use this hero. It can be used as a swing or against Starcaster Dragon King. If the Tigers let Jayce choose Dragon King, they will be giving up the initiative in the top and middle lanes."
Hao finally understood.
"Another thing to note is that the Tigers are quite fond of Policewoman, the fast lane hero. Pray has used Policewoman in five of the 11 games so far. The Tigers have won all five games. When they use the combination of Policewoman and Ella Karma, the probability of pushing down a blood tower is 100%. They have never failed."
Su Cheng had obviously done a lot of homework. She had thoroughly studied the heroes that the five members of the Tigers were good at using, the relationship between mutual restraint, and some small tricks.
Then, the main analyst analyzed the layout in the game, mainly the layout of the first team and the vision near the dragon pit.
"The Tigers like to use the advantage of being in the bottom lane to control the resources of the dragon. This is very similar to us," the main analyst said. "If nothing goes wrong, we will inevitably have a team battle at the first or second dragon."
"Shi Senming and Gao Tianliang, you two pay attention to staggered back to the city. Once the Tigers find out that you two are returning together, they will definitely take the opportunity to steal the dragon. Even if we have an advantage in the bottom lane, we won't be able to fight a team battle."
"I repeat, the dragon is very important in this version. It is a strategic resource point that must be fought for. If we lose the dragon, the opponent will have an extra six minutes to breathe. During this time, they can give up the river view and develop at will because the neutral resources have disappeared. There is no need to fight a team battle."
Mongoose and Ming nodded.
"Is there anything else you want to say?"
Hanyi closed the notebook. "If there is nothing else, we will adjourn the meeting. Wait for me to distribute the training plan. Everyone will strictly follow the plan."
On the screen, Su Cheng raised her arm.
"Go ahead." Hanyi nodded.
Su Cheng coughed twice and turned the notebook to another page.
"I found a detail when I was reviewing the game two days ago. When the Tigers bottom lane gets Policewoman, they like to insert a line eye on the first lane. This makes it easier for the Policewoman and the long-handed support to consume the minions before the minions arrive."
"The time for this eye to be inserted is about 40 seconds. Then, another person's accessory eye will be inserted at two minutes and ten seconds to prevent the level three jungler from catching it."
"They've calculated the timing of their eye positions. Because the first person inserted the eye accessory at around 40 seconds, the cooldown time would be about 3 minutes and 10 seconds. At this time, the second eye accessory that was inserted at 2 minutes and 10 seconds will disappear."
"This way, they can ensure that there is no gap in the bottom lane's vision in the early stage."
Su Cheng said softly, "It looks like the setup of the vision is perfect, but there are still loopholes."
"Because the vision needs to be set up by people, Xiao Tian, you can go to the bottom lane at three minutes and ten seconds. Remember to circle around the bushes. The other side will definitely have to fill in the eyes. This is a great opportunity. If we can get the first blood, this Policewoman will be half useless in the early stage."
After hearing this, Hanyi's eyes lit up. He quickly asked, "You also calculated the habits of the eyes when the Tigers get different heroes?"
Su Cheng shook her head. "Policewoman is the only hero because the Tigers use this hero too many times. The usage of the other heroes is too low and the sample is insufficient. The statistics are not convincing."
"That's enough!"
Hanyi was very excited. "With this information, our BP for the first game will be much easier!"
The main analyst was also very surprised. "We used to analyze the players' personal data. We observed the players' vision habits from the overall perspective. We rarely analyzed the statistics from the heroes they get. This is too much work. Moreover, the habits of the players are often different under different hero combinations."
"But the Tigers are an exception when they get Policewoman." Su Cheng laughed.