Before the battle with the Red Army, YM still had to participate in a series of commercial activities.
They filmed an entire day of commercials for their sponsor, BMW, in front of the green screen.
After the commercial, BMW left a few new models to YM to use as their transportation.
"Which one of you has a driver's license?" Lin Yan looked at the X7 in front of him in a daze.
His teammates all shook their heads. They were all internet-addicted teenagers. Usually, during the holidays, they just wanted to stay in their dorms and not go out. Where would they find the time to get a driver's license?
"You guys can get one during the off-season." Guo Hao laughed. In YM's first team, only he and White Crescent had a driver's license. "Otherwise, this car will become mine and the coach's private property."
The next day, there was still a commercial for the sponsor, Belle International, to film. Then, there was the LPL official interview team. They had to create momentum for the upcoming battle.
YM was indeed very strong now, but the LPL officials needed a challenger.
The Alliance couldn't let a single club dominate. Other than the fans of the teams, who would like to see a one-sided battle without any suspense?
Only high-intensity battles between multiple strong teams could maintain the health of the league.
Similarly, WE, who had four consecutive victories, became the target of the officials' support.
After all the commercial activities ended, YM only had two days to adjust. WE, on the other hand, had a week to rest. They didn't have a big sponsor, and the team's expenses were very tight. The largest sum of money was used to sign Red Rice.
Tiger Pounce and YM's Weibo were the first to discover this problem. In an instant, "YM's training attitude is slack, WE has a card up their sleeve and is seriously preparing for battle."
YM's official Weibo posted a sponsor's commercial. The comments below were all urging the team to train. At the same time, they also scolded YM's manager. They felt that they shouldn't have let the team accept so many commercials to avoid affecting the team's training and results.
Guo Hao felt that he was really wronged.
The small sponsor, Guo Hao, didn't care. He pushed back the dates of the commercial activities or canceled them.
The remaining two biggest sponsors, Belle International and BMW, had to film their commercials. This year, they had spent more than 30 million just to sign the four champions. Including the rent and management staff's salary, the club's annual expenses were at least 5KW. If they didn't find sponsors, where would they get the money to keep the club running?
However, the officials were very satisfied. They had created a lot of hype. When the time came, they just had to wait for a large amount of traffic to come in.
Along with the controversy over YM's training on social media, Saturday's match day quietly arrived.
In the afternoon, the YM members boarded the BMW and headed to the plaza. The special black and red paint scheme and the YM team logo on the side of the car made it easy for everyone to recognize the owner of the car.
YM's team logo was surrounded by a black dragon. It looked fancy.
YM took a photo and posted it on their official Weibo.
The number of comments instantly exceeded a thousand.
[To be honest, although it's stupid to shoot so many commercials, the BMW is still cool.]
[Ladies and gentlemen, in order to support Ran and Jack, I bought a BMW 7 Series that I've liked for a long time this afternoon.]
There was even a photo of the car purchase contract attached to the comment.
【？？？】
[Does a rich woman lack followers?
I can help carry the bags.]
[Not only do I know how to carry bags, but I can also help massage your legs. I don't want to work hard anymore!]
Knight was also in the car. As usual, he had come to watch YM's match.
This spring, the YMA team he led had performed very well in the LSPL. They had won 12 consecutive matches in four weeks. A few days ago, they had just defeated JDM with Jin Canyi and lvmao, as well as the Tianlu team with Zoom.
This seemingly dull and introverted teenager had scored 23 kills in 12 matches. Based on the number of kills alone, Knight was even scarier than Lin Yan last year.
Poor LSPL's group of old foxes. After a year, they had to face the terrifying suppression of YM's mid laner.
Recently, Knight had been pestering Lin Yan to teach him about roaming support. Knight's current ability was mainly reflected in his early and mid lane suppression ability, but his ability to defend against grabs and support awareness was not strong.
This was also a common problem for most players who had just started playing. They could play the right lane, but once they reached the mid lane, they would start to get lost. Their rough and undetailed movements and movements in the mid and late game were easy for the opponent to seize opportunities.
They were more like a piece of unpolished jade. The coaching staff needed to maintain their strengths while gradually polishing and making up for their weaknesses.
YMA's coaching staff had to manage an entire team. Obviously, they could not satisfy the thirsty Knight. Knight's left hand directly wrapped around Lin Yan.
"Let's take the first game for example …" Lin Yan did not look for other videos. He used the game between YMA and Snakes as an example.
"You killed the Snakes mid laner, then took down the blood tower in the mid lane at 11 minutes. The team's economy was 2k ahead, but after that, you frequently roamed the flanks but could not achieve any results. The rhythm was instantly broken. Until the 20th minute, you were even 1k behind. What did you guys say about this problem?"
Lin Yan lowered his voice so as not to wake up Jack, who was listening to music and catching up on sleep with his headphones on.
"The coach said that the blood tower in the mid lane can be taken down later." Knight looked at the replay of the game on the tablet in front of the two. "As long as the tower does not fall, the opposing mid laner will have to stand under the first tower if he wants to kill the creeps. This way, I can extend the laning period and continue to exploit the opposing mid laner's development environment."
The reason was very simple. Purely based on the development environment of the creeps, it was definitely more comfortable to be near the second tower. The probability of facing a jungler ganking was also lower. If the first tower was maintained at critical health, the opponent would definitely have to be wary of the possibility of multiple players surrounding the tower at any time.
Lin Yan nodded. "This is a way to let you continue to develop the laning strengths."
"But this method, to be honest, is more … biased towards the side lane. It's a typical pig-farming style." Lin Yan did not avoid the topic. "The mid lane tower has a very high strategic value in a game. If given the choice, 99.9% of teams would take down the mid lane tower first."
"In fact, in your situation, the best way to take down the first tower is to roam around and support." Lin Yan took out a stylus and drew on the tablet. "But you're looking for the wrong target."
"After taking down the middle tower, your priority shouldn't be the opposing side lane hero, but the jungler." Lin Yan looked at Knight's focused gaze.
"Why can't you catch the opposing side lane hero?
Because the opposing jungler SOFM can always easily insert the green jungler's accessory eye into the path you have to take to roam around and support. "
He circled two positions on the tablet. The SOFM's eyes were very deep and completely saw the path Knight would take.
"If you and the jungler chase the SOFM out of the jungle first, he won't be able to easily be the eye. He won't even be able to farm the jungle. After a few waves of counterattacks, you can help your jungler establish an advantage."
"In a professional game, as long as the jungler is not comfortable playing in the jungle, he will definitely not be able to relax online. His vision of the map is completely dark, and the opposing team will panic even without you catching him." Lin Yan patiently explained to him.
Knight nodded in understanding. His gaming talent was quite high, and he understood this simple theory as soon as he heard it.
Looking at the bright eyes behind him, Lin Yan suddenly felt a sense of accomplishment.
No wonder Su Cheng liked to be a teacher so much. The feeling of teaching students was really good.
When they arrived at the main square, the YM members finished their makeup and listened to the coach's analysis of the game in the lounge.
Due to the heavy filming schedule, YM only had a short pre-game discussion last night. The two analysts, Su Cheng and doom, had already completed their tasks. Today's work was mainly for White Crescent.
After talking about some of the details of the game, White Crescent began to discuss BP with the team.
"In the early stages of the game, our main focus is to defend against the opposing jungler. They are WE's main rhythm in the early stages. Their new support, Ben, especially likes to play supports like Lulu and Grasshopper, who have extremely high attrition abilities. His weakness is that his playstyle is biased towards roaming, and he has very little interaction with the jungler."
White Crescent sat in a chair and stared at the whiteboard in front of him. He subconsciously bit his lip as he thought about the problem. "This …"
He used a marker to write and draw on the whiteboard, listing out the BP plan.
"Red Rice should be targeting the Prophet. Can we lower the priority of the BP in the bottom lane in this game?" White Crescent turned around. "This way, we can lean towards the jungler in BP."
"Anything is fine." Jack rested his hands behind his head. His body swayed back and forth on the eSports chair. His two short legs rested on the table in front of him. His posture was extremely arrogant. "As long as we can win."
"Then let's try this out first." White Crescent closed the marker.
Fifteen minutes before the game began, the two teams waited behind the stage.
Xi Ye held a can of Wangzai milk in his hand. He kept sucking on it with a plastic tube. He had cut a bowl cut, and with his round face, he looked like a replica of Wangzai.
"Boss Su, hurry up and drink. Drinks with other brands are not allowed on stage," the WE staff member reminded him.
Seer's round eyes spun around, before she opened the paper cup that she was about to bring onto the stage. After drinking the iced water within, she poured all of the Wang Zai milk into the paper cup with the LPL logo.
"You can't tell now, right?" Xi Ye laughed proudly.
Today's pre-game process was exceptionally fast. YM didn't wait long backstage before they were introduced by the host. Before Lin Yan left, he greeted 957, who looked like the top laner of Team NB.
957, who wore glasses and had an elegant and easy-going face, had only started playing professionally after he finished university. Born in 1993, he was already 24 years old. He was two years older than Jin Gong, who looked like he had seen the vicissitudes of life. He was definitely an esports veteran.
"Let us first welcome Team YM …" The female host smiled professionally and read out the IDs of Jin Gong and Xiao Tian.
Then, she was supposed to introduce Lin Yan, but unexpectedly, the female host looked at him meaningfully and jumped directly to Jack and the Prophet.
？？？
Lin Yan looked confused. He raised his hand halfway and was forced to put it down. Xiao Tian laughed mercilessly.
The scene was slightly awkward.
After introducing the Prophet's ID, Yu Zhen paused for two seconds. "And … YM's mid laner, Ran!"
Lin Yan didn't know why he was last, but he still waved his arm to greet the audience.
At this time, there were scattered humming sounds from below the stage. Then, many audience members joined them. Everyone's humming sounds gathered together and spread to every corner of the stadium.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you …"
Lin Yan was stunned. It was as if there was a warm current passing through his heart.
"Lin Yan, happy 18th birthday!" The audience members below the stage put their hands to their mouths and shouted loudly.
Behind them, a staff member pushed out a cart with a cake. On the cake, there was a little person wearing a black and red team uniform, holding a trophy with the words "YM Ran" printed on the back.
The background music of the stadium also changed from the original rhythmic electronic sound to a birthday song.
Yu Zhen walked to Lin Yan's side and gave Lin Yan his birthday wishes.
The big screen behind him began to play a video.
Lin Yan's teammates appeared one by one and gave him their birthday wishes, including Shi Senming, Hanyi, and the analyst who had already left the team.
Lin Yan didn't expect the LPL officials to remember his birthday and give him a surprise.
He looked at Phyllostachys Pubescens. When the team members were introduced, Mongoose was still smiling. It was obvious that he knew the officials' plan in advance, but he still embarrassed himself.
Lin Yan waved his hand and Xiao Tian obediently leaned over.
"Just you wait," he said in a fierce voice. "If you can get more than 100 last hits in today's best-of-three, my surname isn't Lin!"
Xiao Tian shuddered.
Yu Shuang smiled and handed the microphone in her hand to Lin Yan.
Lin Yan's expression changed quickly. He took the microphone and said, "… This is the first time I've celebrated my birthday on the field. Thank you for everyone's wishes."
He was a little touched by the hundreds of audience members singing a birthday song for him.
"There will be many more times in the future!
We'll always be with you! "Some audience members held up a banner with the words" Happy Birthday Lin Yan "and shouted.
Lin Yan bowed to the audience and took a knife to symbolically cut the cake. Then, he walked to the player area with his teammates.
There were still five minutes before the start of the match when the WE players went on stage. Lin Yan's birthday celebration didn't delay the match.
The LPL officials had obviously learned their lesson from the 2015 Summer League. At that time, they forcefully delayed the match for Factory Director's birthday and were scolded like a sieve.
"Welcome to the live broadcast of the LPL Spring League …" The commentary partners for the battle of the spotlight were still Doll and Mille. "The two of us wish Ran a happy 18th birthday."
"He's finally an adult. He can go to an internet cafe to play in the future," Doll joked.
The audience in the live broadcast room also spontaneously sent all kinds of birthday wishes.
With Gao Dewei's semi-retirement, the only Chinese mid laners left in the LPL were Lin Yan, Xi Ye, and Xiao Hu.
Seer and Little Tiger's current strength was passable, but their results were lacking. Lin Ran's unquestionable performance in the CHF, coupled with his MVP performance as the first CHF champion of the S CHF, had caused him to be well received by the passersby.
Even so, it still caused a lot of controversy on the internet.
[Celebrating a player's birthday during a match again?
Isn't it good to focus on the match?]
[You're just going to scold him?
Can't you celebrate his birthday before the match?
It didn't delay the match. What are you yelling for?]
[Hehe, YM is an old marketing team. They shoot commercials before the match. Today, LPL is celebrating his birthday. Those who know, they're just creating a god.]
[What the f * ck?
If you win the S6 championship, I'll create one for you too. No one cares if you have a birthday party before the match.]
[Ignore him. If you don't support YM, are you going to create a god for a relegation team?
He's probably useless even if you don't give him a chance.]
[I'm waiting to see how YM loses this match. Do they really think they can beat WE if they don't train hard?]
Accompanied by a crisp sound, the BP image appeared on the stadium's big screen.
"WE has the priority to pick the side. They chose the red side in the first match. YM banned the blue side first!"
After the rework, Rengar, relied on his excellent ambush mechanism, strong 1v1 ability, and the AoE ability of Q to secure his position as the jungle's overlord.
WE chose to block off the Ice. Ever since YM's opening match, when Jack's Ice completely blocked off Ning's position, no team had let her out when they faced YM.
"YM's second ban was given to Malzahar. In this version, Grasshopper is mainly used as a support. After reaching S6, his ability to coordinate with junglers is extremely strong. His big move can instantly kill a hero. Furthermore, this Grasshopper is quite proficient in using it.
After that, WE banned Sindra and Enchantress.
YM's third ban was given to Mystic's Big Mouth. The Big Mouth system that WE practiced this year was quite effective. This hero's strong mid-game power coupled with WE's Iron Bucket Formation often had the effect of reversing the situation.
"This way, Qing Gang Yin will be released. Let's see if YM chooses it …" Doll looked at the BP image. "This hero was heavily slashed in Version 7.3. He was released a few times in the past two weeks. The strong hero mechanics are there, and the selection is not bad."
"However, the numerical problems affect the laning. In the past two days, the coaches of the various teams have noticed that Shen and Crocodile are quite comfortable facing Qing Gang Yin. They can basically suppress him at will," Mille explained.
YM didn't hesitate and decisively took down Blind Monk. They carried out White Crescent's idea of injecting the BP advantage into the jungler.
WE's first and second hand didn't use Qing Gang Yin. Instead, they used the combination of Shen and Mantis.
It wasn't that 957 didn't know how to play Qing Gang Yin, but WE didn't allow it.
Qing Gang Yin was a soloist and was a typical hero that needed to be strategically tilted.
957 played a blue-collar role in the team. He was basically a tank hero that took on the role of starting the team. Condi basically ignored him during the laning period.
This was an open scheme that White Crescent had thought of long ago. As long as WE chose the red side, they wouldn't have enough bans to face YM in the first round. They would definitely release a few strong heroes, and Qing Gang Yin was one of them.
They chose Qing Gang Yin for Xiba's Jin Gong and then locked Lucian.
White Crescent originally wanted to use Lucian as a mid-bottom double C to give Red Rice a difficult problem.
However, Red Rice's reaction was extremely fast. He picked Hammer Stone last in the first round.
Then, in the second round of bans, he locked out the two heroes, Ella and Fire Man.
Although S6's Fire Man's Xiao Ming left the team, Red Rice still banned him just in case. Then, in the second round, Xi Ye picked Karma first.
White Crescent's face instantly darkened.
The problem was obvious.
Karma, Grasshopper, Ella, Fire Man … There was basically no AP support. If he wanted to force Lucian to Lin Yan, then YM could only use a rookie team lineup. In the later stages of the team battle, it was very likely that they wouldn't be able to deal with 957's Shen.
Now, he could only give Lucian to Jack. However, Hammer Stone, who was the most compatible with Lucian in the professional scene, had already been picked by WE in the first round.
The other compatible Lucian, Boulogne, was too passive in the bottom lane. He couldn't get lane control at all. It didn't fit the bottom lane of this version.
In other words, even if Lucian was given to Jack, there was a high probability that he wouldn't have much of an advantage in the bottom lane.
It was a loss no matter what.
White Crescent knew that he had taken it for granted. He originally planned to dig a hole for WE, but he didn't expect Red Rice to move the stars and make him, the one who dug the hole, lie in the hole.
This Red Rice was so strong?
White Crescent didn't expect the opposing coach to make a perfect response in such a short time.
Either he had foreseen this and prepared for it in advance, or he had a strong ability to adapt on the spot.
No matter what the reason was, it showed Red Rice's excellent coaching skills. White Crescent was very impressed.
"Is Lulu and Clockwork okay?" White Crescent asked his team members.
"… Ryze. Their lineup doesn't have a burst damage output. Ryze is very easy to play." Lin Yan thought for a moment and replied.
White Crescent thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. This way, YM would change their lineup. Qing Gang Yin + Ryze would obviously play a 131 point push.
"WE's last choice is to give Mystic Policewoman. They still have to rely on Brother-in-law to play the late game team battle that they are good at!"
The lineups of both sides were confirmed.
Blue side YM: Top Lane Qing Gang Yin, Jungler Blind Monk, Mid Lane Ryze, Bottom Lane Lucian + Lulu.
Red side WE: Top Lane Shen, Jungler Mantis, Mid Lane Karma, Bottom Lane Policewoman + Hammer Stone.
The popularity of the live broadcast quickly increased. Many viewers rushed in to watch this focal battle. There were passersby who just wanted to see the exciting game, fans who supported both teams, and many people who wanted to see how YM would lose this game.
A tall tree attracts the wind. There were always people who didn't like a team, and they didn't even need any reason.