That night, the first round of LPL's mock competition in Kaohsiung officially began.
After dinner, the YM players sat down and logged into the account provided by Fist. Kasala entered the battle room.
The three YM coaches were still discussing the mock competition's BP and tactical arrangements in a low voice.
The celebrity players did not leave any space for them. They slid their gaming chairs and sat behind the YM players, surrounding the area.
"Excuse me, excuse me …" Su Cheng turned around and felt that she had nowhere to go.
Lin Yan reacted immediately. "Why are you guys crowding around me?
The projector will show the spectator's view … "
"No way, I want to see your first-person view." Xi Ye did not want to leave.
The group of players nodded.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Originally, everyone studied the recording to see the spectator's view. Now that they finally had the chance to see Lin Yan's first-person view, how could they give it up?
"Cheng Zi, sit here. There's no need to stand even if you're not using BP." Lin Yan moved the keyboard from the gaming chair beside him.
Su Cheng grabbed Lin Yan's arm and used her thin body to maneuver among the pro players. She successfully sat on the chair beside Lin Yan.
Xiao Hu looked at Su Cheng and then at Lin Yan. He suddenly smiled evilly. Together with his face, he looked quite funny.
"Let's use Lightning Wolf's wild support duo system in this round. Let's see if we can win in a head-on clash." White Crescent came over to communicate with the players.
The players did not have any objections.
Lightning Wolf's and Kasala's wild support duo was unique. They were invincible in the Bend area. They had even defeated SKT with this system.
However, mock competitions were actually to test the lineup and hone their playstyle. If they did not use the opponent's system, how would they know how to defeat their opponent?
Lightning Wolf thought the same.
Their coach, Steak, was even more decisive in the mock competition. He sent Galio, Rock Sparrow, Lucian, Cards, and Little Temptress into the ban position.
It was very targeted.
The pro players behind him weren't surprised.
This type of 5BAN mid laner was very rare in official competitions, but it was very common in mock competitions.
Lightning Wolf was obviously trying to tell YM not to choose a mid laner who could forcefully take the roaming lane.
Everyone played the jungle and support combo, and the mid lane was the main tank. It was fair.
Lin Yan saw that the Lightning Wolves were targeting him, so he didn't try to use any Black Tech anymore. He just used the Victor and stayed in the mid lane to develop.
The training match lasted for ten minutes.
Xi Ye and Xiao Hu looked serious. Broiler looked pensive.
On the other side, Maple Spring had a score of 000 and 92 last hits. On the other hand, Lin Yan had a score of 001 and 105 last hits.
It had to be known that from the time the first wave of minions gathered in the middle lane at 1 minute 38 seconds until 10 minutes, there were a total of 17 waves of minions.
(The eighteenth wave was 10 minutes and 08 seconds of artillery)
There were 5 sports cars in the 17 waves of minions, and the total number of minions was 6 * 17 + 5 = 107.
On the basis that both of them had returned to the city once, Maple's last hit count was acceptable.
But Lin Yan's last hits clearly exceeded the expectations of this group of celebrity players.
He didn't eat any of the monsters. In the middle, he even pushed to the river to help Xiao Tian kill Casa.
Under these circumstances, he only dropped two minions in 10 minutes.
Xiao Hu and Xi Ye looked at each other. They had the same thought — this kid was terrifying!
As pro players, they knew how terrifying this last hit count was.
The difference between him and Maple's 13 last hits, when converted to gold coins, was close to a player's head.
In just ten minutes, it was already quite scary to be able to achieve this kind of economic disparity just by relying on reinforcements.
They were very confused.
People weren't last hit machines. It was impossible to not drop a single hit for a long time.
Moreover, returning to the city and roaming all needed time … How did Lin Yan only drop two minions?
Broiler, who was stronger, saw the details of Lin Yan's lane play clearly.
Dean Chicken discovered the truth.
Lin Yan's lane play wasn't as fierce as his and Scout's. Instead, it was more like Li Xianghe's current style — steady in lane play, but there were many small details.
One of them was lane swapping.
Lin Yan's play wasn't fierce, but it didn't mean that he would only last hit from a distance like Master Hou or the former EDG mid laner U Gus.
He was very particular about swapping.
In this game, Lin Yan would always take advantage of his own minions' low HP to move forward and threaten them, forcing them into a dilemma between last hit and swapping.
This was actually a very simple lane play. Most casual players would do this.
But Lin Yan was different from others.
He moved forward, but his position was always between the melee and ranged soldiers.
He didn't use his main E, Death Ray. Instead, he used his level two Q, Siphon Energy, and swapped with his opponent at the maximum distance.
Although Victor's Q had an additional attack effect, its range was completely different from a normal attack. It was 600 yards!
On the other side, Clockwork's normal attack range was only 525 yards. Lin Yan took advantage of this 75-yard distance to disgust his opponent.
Clockwork's normal attacks couldn't touch him at all. He didn't want Lin Yan to freeload, so he could only fight back with skills.
If Clockwork only used his Q, Command: Attack, the damage would only be able to break Lin Yan's Siphon Energy Shield. Swapping would definitely be a loss.
But if he gave up his Q and W, he could use the speed reduction to rush forward and deal thunder damage with a normal attack.
This was a small gain. The Lightning Wolf mid laner, Maple, did the same. But there was another problem.
Because Lin Yan had been standing in the middle of the minions, Clockwork's Q and W were AoE skills. Not only would it deplete Lin Yan's HP, but it would also deplete the minions' HP.
Lin Yan's Q, Siphon Energy, was a single target attack. It would only attract the minions' aggro.
Under this situation, the minions naturally moved towards Lin Yan.
And then Xiao Tian came.
This was the tacit understanding that Lin Yan and Xiao Tian had developed after living together for a year and a half. The two of them could be said to be telepathic. They knew what to do in the position of the minions. If the mid lane was pushed out, Xiao Tian would invade the jungle. If the mid lane was close to YM's tower, he would annoy the opposing mid laner.
This idea originated from Factory Director, Child Wandering God, and Dumb Chicken, the three representatives of the father's jungler. They usually liked to play like this to ensure that their father had a comfortable life.
This was Xiao Tian's advantage. He distributed his "skill points" to each basic skill. He could change them according to Lin Yan's thoughts.
At this time, Wolf King Casa obviously didn't know much about the father's style. When he saw the mid lane minions pushing forward, his first reaction was to invade Xiao Tian's jungle.
He rushed to the mid lane after his mid laner was attacked by YM's jungler.
But at this time, Maple had already been forced out of the experience zone by YM's jungler. He even missed two or three last hits.
This rhythm repeated twice, and Maple's people couldn't take it anymore.
As soon as the minions were pushed out, a Phyllostachys Pubescens rushed over and used a series of unreasonable skills to forcefully whittle down his health. If the minions weren't pushed out, Lin Yan's attacks became more and more unscrupulous. Xiao Tian's invasions also became more and more fierce.
Under this kind of Nakano Conjoined Twins playstyle, Lin Yan and Maple's last hits naturally widened the gap.
After seeing Lin Yan's matchup Broiler, the second small detail he noticed was the return to the city.
His matchup ability was one of the best in the world, so he naturally knew that there were two choices for the mid laner to return to the city. One was to deal with the wave of minions in front of the Turret Cannon, and the other was to take the initiative to push the Turret Cannon.
This way, they could perfectly take advantage of the Turret Cannon's thick HP to resist the attacks of the opponent's heroes and minions. This made the opponent unable to push the minions into the tower perfectly. This way, their losses would be minimized.
This kind of return timing was only to minimize their losses as much as possible. Because of the influence of the return time and the position of the minions, in most cases, the player would still lose three melee minions.
(Everyone should understand this principle.)
Lin Yan didn't miss out on any of the minions' experience. He used a more ingenious method — the Turret Cannon's push back.
The wave of ordinary minions that reached the middle lane in 8 minutes and 08 seconds was perfectly used by Lin Yan.
He used up all his mana, and the big move [Chaotic Storm] combined with E [Death Ray] quickly pushed the minions into the middle tower of the Lightning Wolf.
Lin Yan, who ate the minions, took two steps back and made Maple lose sight. He returned to the city to upgrade the Hex Technology Core, then bought Straw Sandals and Explosive Wand and quickly rushed to the front line.
Heroes with Straw Sandals only needed 25 seconds to reach the middle route from the spring.
(Actual Observation)
At this time, the wave of Turret Cannon soldiers had reached the middle lane in 8 minutes and 38 seconds.
Because Lin Yan had quickly pushed a wave of minions forward, when the Turret Cannon soldiers reached the middle lane, the previous wave of minions was still under the Lightning Wolf.
Under the triple attack of the opponent's heroes, minions, and the tower, the YM side's minions were quickly depleted.
Only then did the Turret Cannon soldiers from both sides gather in front of the Lightning Wolf.
This was two seconds later than the expected gathering time, and because the Lightning Wolf Cannon soldiers had already launched a horizontal attack formation, the YM side's Turret Cannon soldiers did not have a target to focus fire on.
Without the minions being focused fire, the YM side's minions were evenly distributed, and the Lightning Wolf minions could not be quickly depleted.
Therefore, when Lin Yan came online, he would not lose minions at all.
(What I wrote is quite easy to understand, right? It's also a small trick that I figured out myself to push back and not lose minions. I saw that those UP Masters who made videos of minions didn't notice this detail …)
As for the two minions that were missed, one was a mistake by Lin Yan himself, and the other was lost when supporting Xiao Tian.
The other 105 minions were all taken by Lin Yan.
Broiler went through these key details in his mind and felt that Lin Yan was a monster.
He thought that he could do all of this when he was prepared and highly focused.
However, Lin Yan had been giving commands while finishing off the minions. He often disappeared in the middle lane after pushing the minions, trying to put some pressure on the opponents on the flanks. Sometimes, he would switch the screen to observe his teammates on the other lanes, and even take time to record the Summoner's skill cooldowns.
Lin Yan, who was in charge of all the work, looked relaxed. He arranged everything as if he was taking a stroll in the park.
Broiler finally realized how terrifying Lin Yan was. Originally, he could only see Lin Yan's operation from the God's perspective, so it was not intuitive. Now that he had switched to the first-person view, he discovered many details that he had overlooked before.
Broiler felt that he could suppress Lin Yan in the lane, but in terms of the role of the team, he was not as good as Lin Yan.
Was this the strength of a world champion?
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. The feeling of being surpassed was uncomfortable.
Broiler gave up on watching the practice match and turned on a computer to practice.
Just as he left, a wave of battle broke out at Canyon Vanguard. The Lightning Wolves' formation was loose, and Xiao Tian seized the opportunity to force a team battle.
Although it was not yet time for Victor to unleash his power, Lin Yan relied on the extra Exploding Magic Staff to dominate the battle, taking three kills and leading the team to a three for five trade.
YM took the opportunity to take down Canyon Vanguard and took advantage of the time when the Lightning Wolves were all killed to summon Canyon Vanguard to push down the two defense towers in the middle lane.
Casa decisively typed GG, indicating that the practice match was over.
"Are we still playing?" Lin Yan asked White Crescent as he logged out of the game.
White Crescent saw that Jack and Xiao Tian were yawning and thought for a moment. "Let's call it a day. Everyone woke up pretty early, so they're probably not in a good condition."
"The next round is a practice match between RNG and Samsung. You guys can log in first." The one who spoke was RNG's head coach, Firefox.
The chairs behind Lin Yan rattled as the pro players ran behind RNG's seats to watch.
The four LPL head coaches were analyzing the video of YM's practice match.
White Crescent took the opportunity to seriously learn.
His overall ability was not bad among the LPL coaches, but compared to a top coach like Red Rice, he was still lacking by quite a bit.
Red Rice was very surprised by White Crescent's humility.
The white crescent pegasus meteor-like BP strategy in the spring competition made him feel defeated for the first time. Now, YM's strategy regarding the Canyon Vanguard was something that he couldn't find a solution to until now.
He thought that a Big Tree would finally grow in the LPL, where local coaches were extremely scarce.
But the more he thought about it, the angrier Red Rice became.
You're already at this level, and you're still asking me such a simple question?
You're not here to test me, right?
Red Rice naturally did not want to admit defeat. He had to prove his ability to White Crescent.
He treated White Crescent's questions as a test and explained them in detail.
White Crescent felt like he had received a treasure. He held the notebook full of knowledge and planned to go back to his room at night to slowly study it. He did not expect Red Rice to be so open and honest.
It looked like Bobby's conversation with the various managers before he left was effective, White Crescent thought happily.
Lin Yan looked at Su Cheng. She was copying the notes that White Crescent stole and was planning to keep a copy for herself.
Her loose short-sleeved shirt and cropped pants could not hide her slender waist and long legs. Lin Yan only felt that it was pleasing to the eye.
Su Cheng turned on the photocopier and returned the hot notebook to White Crescent.
She noticed that Lin Yan was staring at her. "What are you looking at me for?"
"You look good. It's easy on the eyes," Lin Yan muttered softly.
Most of the people in the training room had gone to watch the RNG training match. There was only one Phyllostachys Pubescens beside him.
"What are you talking about …" Su Cheng's face turned red. She patted Lin Yan's head with the copied notes.
Xiao Tian yawned. His eyes were still bloodshot.
It looked like Kayako's terrifying experience last night had left an indelible impression on him.
The entire Chinese RNG team's voice chat was extremely noisy. Every time they fought, they would shout a sentence, afraid that their teammates would not hear them.
"ADADAD!" Ouze's shout echoed in the 300-square-meter training room. "Kill Ruler Emperor! Kill Ruler Emperor!"
"Look at me!
Shi Senming, pay attention to my position! "Spicy Saucepan, who looked thinner than Xiao Tian, shouted loudly.
"Nice!!!" The five RNG players roared excitedly.
This shout sent Little Sleepyhead away. He was obviously frightened. His body trembled violently as he clutched his chest and lay on his back on the gaming chair.
Firefox, who was wearing the same type of tactical goggles as Xiao Hu, was very satisfied with his team.
This season's RNG team had become more mature under his guidance. They easily won the match against Samsung.
Bobby, who came to inspect at night, saw the results of the training match on the whiteboard. He clenched his fists excitedly.
They had won all four matches in the LPL training match. It was obvious that they were in high spirits.
For the next two days, the four LPL teams had the same schedule.
Every day, they would gather in the training room at 11 am sharp. They would use their accounts to warm up.
Lunch time was between 12 am and 12: 30 am. Those who wanted to take a break could go back to their rooms. The rest of the people would continue to practice.
At 2 pm, the four teams would start their training match at the same time. It would be best if they could get an appointment with LCK. If they couldn't, they would find Lightning Wolves or AHQ. If they couldn't, they could also practice in groups of two.
After the five training matches, it was time for dinner and the four coaches to review.
Because there were many training matches, White Crescent and the others could only carefully select the most representative videos for analysis and summary.
At 10 pm, the review would end, and then it would be time for the ranking matches.
Lin Yan would play three ranking matches by himself. Then, he would wash up and go to bed.
In reality, the other players' biological clocks were all set to sleep at 2 am.
However, Lin Yan couldn't.
His biological clock was already fixed. It wouldn't be good to forcefully change it in such a short time.
However, even though there was a long waiting time for those who had to wake up early, Lin Ran was still able to complete the minimum amount of seven matches a day.
This boring and mechanical training lasted until July 6th.
In the afternoon, everyone took a bus to the venue of the 2017 Asia Tournament — the Kaohsiung Exhibition Hall.
"F * ck …" Xiao Tian subconsciously exclaimed. Then, his voice quickly died down.
He originally thought that even if the venue couldn't be compared to the Staples Center and the Olympic Stadium in Rio, it would at least be the most luxurious venue in the area.
Who would have thought …
"This venue is so shabby?" Xiao Tian mumbled. "Even the Children's Palace in my hometown is bigger than this place!"
"To be honest, it's about the same size as the Zhengda Square where we hold our regular matches … It's really shabby." Lin Yan looked sideways. He could easily see the entire venue through the window.
It was small, very small.
Lin Yan felt that this venue wasn't even as big as his high school's gymnasium. It wasn't even as big as the Jingan Sports Center where he had fought in the Pro League.
"Hao, will the finals be held in this venue?" Jack asked.
Guo Hao, who was sitting in the front row, looked at the schedule in his hand. "If I'm not mistaken, the Intercontinental Tournament will be held in this venue."
"This … can seat two thousand people?" Liu Qingsong was also shocked.
"Be content. The LOL scene here in Wan Wan is really not good," Guo Hao explained. "They don't even have a decent sponsor for the tournament."
"Do you think that there are LPL leagues everywhere?"
"Don't tell me that they're going to ruin their own tournaments?" Lin Yan joked.
"You don't say, it's possible." Xiao Tian was still brooding about the venue.
At two o 'clock in the afternoon, the Intercontinental Tournament officially began.
The venue was indeed very small. Outside the stage, there were many fans sitting there with light sticks in their hands.
The host team, LMS, was the first to take the stage. They received enthusiastic cheers from the home crowd.
The members of Lightning Wolves, AHQ, JTeam, and Machi took the stage.
From Lin Yan's point of view, only the first two teams posed a threat.
The last two teams were simply point-giveaways.
The second team to take the stage was LCK. The moment SKT took the stage, the audience burst into thunderous applause!
"The venue is small, but the audience is still very enthusiastic." Xiao Tian, who was waiting for his turn, laughed. He was looking forward to the match. "Our cheers later should be quite spectacular, right?"
The female host on the stage stretched out her voice. "Next, let us welcome 216's global champion, the winner of the 2017 Mid-Season Championship, YM!"
Lin Yan led the team members behind him onto the stage and waved to the audience.
However, to everyone's surprise.
The two thousand audience members did not say anything.
Most of them looked on coldly from the sidelines.
Only a small group of audience members held up YM's support signs to cheer them on.
It was written in simplified Chinese. It was obvious that they were either Chinese exchange students or were temporarily staying in Wan Wan for work reasons.
Jack and Xiao Tian, who were full of smiles, felt very awkward. They were as helpless and pitiful as The Clown.
They looked at each other and quickly retracted their hands.
"What's the meaning of 'oh'?" Xiao Tian did not understand.
"For some reason that everyone knows, they don't like us," Lin Yan said unhappily. "It's so disgusting."
The seven members of YM and the coach were as black as charcoal.
After so many things had happened, the female host's face turned ugly. The three other LPL teams that she introduced were met with the same cold reception as YM.
The applause in the stadium was sparse. After the recording equipment processed it and transmitted it back through the live broadcast equipment, there was basically no sound.
The audience in the live broadcast room felt that something was amiss.
[What's going on?
Not clapping to welcome them?]
[Are they really looking down on LPL?]
[Are the people of Kaohsiung all retarded orphans, Little Loudspeaker?]
After the opening ceremony, the YM team members sat in their seats, waiting for the match to begin.
The rules of the Intercontinental Championship were simple and clear.
In the two-day group stage, each team would fight two matches against the same ranked team from the other two divisions.
For example, YM's opening match would be against the first seeded team, Lightning Wolves.
"The audience likes to sit still, right?
We'll satisfy them later and turn this place into a library! "Lin Yan said fiercely.
Last night, he had wanted to leave some face for Lightning Wolves in the opening match and not hit them too hard.
He did not expect the audience to disagree.
Lin Yan was an understanding person, so he naturally had to satisfy them.
This suggestion was unanimously approved by his other teammates!