It was already two o 'clock in the afternoon when they arrived in Wuhan. As soon as they stepped out of the airport, they could feel the warm air.
The difference between here and Shanghai's climate was obvious. Even though it was mid-September, the afternoon temperature was still above 25 degrees Celsius. The air contained a dry heat that couldn't be dispersed.
Lin Yan held onto his suitcase and waited for the others. Many young people gathered around him. Some even raised their phones to secretly take pictures of him.
He was distressed.
Ever since he became famous, he couldn't tell why these passersby were secretly taking pictures of him.
Was it because they recognized him, or was it because he was too handsome?
Lin Yan struggled between the two answers. The three teams, along with the sparring team and the Fist staff, gathered together.
It was hard not to be recognized now.
Dozens of people gathered together. Some were even wearing team uniforms. The Shy wore classic slippers with one hand in his pocket. He looked cold and cool. His black-rimmed glasses made him easy to recognize.
The spectators who followed the League of Legends took out their phones to take pictures. There were even young people who came up to ask for autographs.
The entire team was held back.
"I said it would be better if we split up, but you guys just had to stick together …" Guo Hao sighed.
Su Xiaoluo pushed up her black-rimmed glasses. "Splitting up isn't that eye-catching."
WE's leader, Little Beast, also nodded in agreement. Bobby looked embarrassed.
He originally thought that the three teams would look more imposing and save some trouble. However, he neglected the popularity of these star players.
More importantly, there was no harm without comparison.
Originally, the three teams that participated in S7 were all extremely popular players, and this year, IG had attracted a lot of fans due to the bloodbath and fighting style. The other 10 players in the training team were all outstanding players in their respective positions, and even Wild King Eimy had quite a number of fans.
With such a contrast, the management of the three teams and Bobby's side seemed empty, with no one showing any interest.
However, only Guo Hao, Little Beast, and Bobby felt awkward. Su Xiaoluo, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief.
Most of the fans didn't have a good impression of the management of the e-sports club. Once something happened, they would take the blame. However, there weren't many people in the history of League of Legends who had the same level of reputation as Su Xiaoluo.
Back then, IG had missed out on another LPL ADC, Ouze, because they didn't reimburse their plane tickets. In this aspect, their RNG was much better. After all, he had even given them 50 yuan to buy a cup of milk tea.
Another thing was the retirement of the Ancient IG member, Scapegoat Man 0. Su Xiaoluo's promise to 'hold a retirement ceremony as an LPL player' was not realized in the end. It could be seen that Shadow was like a shadow, quietly leaving the professional scene.
Other things, such as working on Weibo, also made many people have a bad impression of this manager. Su Xiaoluo was not an internet savant, so he naturally knew how the outside world judged him. Therefore, unlike the other two managers, he was eager to be treated like an invisible person by his fans.
It took nearly half an hour for the group of celebrity players to get away. They got on three buses with LPL and Fist logos and went straight from Tianhe Airport to their accommodation – Half Island United Investment Hotel.
The distance between the two places was close to 50 kilometers. It would take about an hour for the bus to get there. Lin Yan took out an eye mask from his Disneyland blue bag. After covering his eyes, he adjusted the position of his seat to make himself more comfortable.
The week-long shooting mission made him, who was originally full of energy, a little tired. In the next half a month, Lin Yan had to nervously prepare for the World Championship. He couldn't let go of any opportunity to rest.
The bus was quiet, and Lin Yan quickly fell asleep.
When he woke up again and took off the eye mask, in addition to the bright afternoon sun in Wuhan, there was also an unusually magnificent long circular building.
The trees were lush, and the players could feel the lustrous green through the window. The circular hotel had its back to the shore of Harem Lake, facing the Yangtze River. The surrounding area was so empty that there were no tall buildings in the way.
At a glance, the lake and river were panoramic.
Many players exclaimed in admiration as they sat on the bus. They hadn't expected the hotel to be so luxurious.
"You guys have put in a lot of effort?" Lin Yan looked toward Winston.
"It's the first time it's held in the country, so everyone takes it very seriously. The higher-ups helped us contact the locals and booked a room on the fifth floor of this five-star state-owned hotel. They even gave us quite a lot of discounts," Winston said modestly. "Of course, it's because we have enough influence that we can make a name for ourselves in esports."
"There'll be a big operation in two days. This year's operation isn't as simple as booking a hotel," Winston said mysteriously. The way he said "big operation" made him sound like a CSGO player.
Everyone got off the bus, carried their luggage, and entered the resplendent and luxuriously decorated hotel lobby.
"In order to make it easier for the training, our three teams and the sparring team are all on the same floor. It's best if everyone allocates their rooms according to the club."
Winston rushed back from the front desk. The two staff members next to him returned the players' ID cards and handed them their room cards.
The group swiped their room cards and pressed the elevator button to go straight to the seventh floor. This was the benefit of being the host. Winston directly snatched this lucky number.
"Our colleagues have already arranged for the computers in the training room two days ago …" Winston led them forward. "You guys can connect the peripherals and use them directly."
Although everyone was a representative team of the LPL region, the global finals was, after all, a competition by the club. Therefore, the training rooms of the three teams weren't put together like in the previous inter-continental competitions.
As usual, Lin Yan and Xiao Tian were in the same room. The two of them placed their luggage in the hotel bedroom and didn't have time to pack before leaving immediately, rushing to the training room in the middle of the floor.
Although it was called a training room, it was, in fact, a modified suite. Two rows of computers occupied the two sides of the living room, and the Summoner's Canyon whiteboard was placed in the middle.
Lin Yan went up to check the computers. The mainframe and display were all equipped according to the standards of the Fist competition. There wasn't much difference from before. The players could use them after connecting the peripherals.
The group of people from YM settled down in their seats and started a competition with the other two teams to snatch players.
Although there were many people in the training team, there were different levels of individual strength and the degree of running-in. The most suitable team to be the team's training partner was Team IG. All of their members had come to Wuhan, so one could imagine the intensity of the training competition.
The coaches of the three clubs were all fighting for the opportunity to train with IG. They couldn't wait to set up a golden house for their mistress. In the end, Bobby had to step in and set the rules.
"Every team can play at most three training matches with IG every day. The rest of the time, you guys have to find other members of the training team to practice alignment and so on …"
However, RNG's coach, Firefox, and WE's coach, Red Rice, were very dissatisfied. Three matches was too little for them.
Guo Hao took advantage of the opportunity to mediate the conflict between the coaches of the two teams to pull away IG's coach, Hanyi. With his glib tongue, he successfully made his old partner agree to play two training matches with YM.
Since S7 was held in China, Fist China naturally made the Summit of the Canyon the only designated training server for the professional players.
The original Summit of the Canyon accounts of the LPL players couldn't be used. They had to log into the official super accounts that had been adjusted to hide their points.
Lin Yan opened his phone's mailbox and looked through the emails sent by the staff of Fist China. He successfully found the account's password.
Because Fist China needed to refresh points and gold coins, a super account had to be logged in twice. Lin Yan glanced at the ID with a string of garbled characters and decisively logged out again. His brain was working quickly, thinking about what to use for his new ID.
"What do you think of my ID?" Phyllostachys Pubescens looked at the screen, pleased with himself.
Lin Yan tilted his head and looked. It was Wonderful Frog Seed who knew how to use Vine Whip.
"Are you addicted to Pokémon?"
Jack wanted to use his Korean server name, Yuki Judai, as his ID. However, when he called up, he realized that his ID had already been registered by someone else. He could only give up.
"Hurry up. Are we still teammates?" Mongoose insisted that the other six players come up with similar IDs.
Lin Yan and the others couldn't persuade him. It was just an ID anyway, so they might as well go along with Mongoose's personality.
Jack quickly snatched the Genie Turtle away. Lin Yan could only make other Pokémon.
In the end, Jin Gong successfully changed the IDs to the same series with Mongoose's help. The seven players of YM were all neatly arranged.
Jin Gong: Genie Gui who knew how to use Shadow Ball
Xiao Tian: Wonderful Frog Seed who knew how to use Vine Whip
Lin Yan: Kaga Ninja Frog who knew how to use Water Cannon
Jack: Genie Turtle who knew how to wag its tail
Lin Weixiang: Carp King who knew how to use Water Splash
Liu Qingsong: Space Ripper who knew how to use Air Slash
Prophet: Dragon who knew how to use Reverse Scales
After logging into their accounts again and refreshing their IDs and gold certificates, the few of them bought skins and runes with ease. They then opened a custom room and pulled in the IG players who had just come online.
Lin Yan typed on the keyboard. [Put in more effort. Be as bold as you can.]
Other than The Shy, who didn't understand Chinese, the other four players of IG all sent out question marks.
[Especially the top laner. Please get The Shy to be more serious.]
Lin Yan continued to type and communicate with them.
YM wanted to do some targeted training today.
White Crescent, Su Cheng, and Doom had been communicating for the past two days. They could vaguely see the standard routine of this version.
Although the position of the bottom laner had risen rapidly after the popularity of Incense Burner, it didn't mean that the bottom laner duo would dominate the game from beginning to end.
The support didn't buy anything in the early game, and the ADC used Holy Shield … All of these measures were to allow the support to make Scorching Incense Burner in advance.
This kind of situation required the support to not wander around freely during the laning period. They had to stay in the lane and fill up the gold coins provided by the Ancient Coin and Holy Shield. These two pieces of equipment could only be used with the help of minions.
Therefore, in the Incense Burner version, before the support made Scorching Incense Burner, the entire game was actually completely controlled by the jungler.
Due to the low efficiency of the support's gank, the jungler in the current professional scene would have more interaction with the top and middle solo lanes in the early game. The bottom laner duo was mainly for protection.
After the top and middle solo lanes were liberated, they could then use their leading level and economy to coordinate with the jungler to surround the opponent's bottom lane.
Simply put, there was Hammer Stone, Titan, Female Titan … Wait, no, it should be called Dawn Goddess Leona. After these kinds of hard supports were defeated by soft supports, the jungler's lane became relatively monotonous.
Originally, the jungler could cooperate with the hard support in the bottom lane to kill. They would first liberate the support and then use the jungler to deal with the other two solo lanes, or invade the jungle to restrict the opponent's jungler.
But now, more than half of this path was blocked. It was not that the jungler could not open up the situation from the bottom lane, but the risk and the benefits of this approach were no longer proportional.
In addition to the decrease in the number of support and control skills in the bottom lane, which would cause trouble for the jungler to catch the bottom lane, the current bottom lane duo's healing + barrier summoner skill combination was also quite good in terms of survival.
Another key point was the change in the strong jungler heroes. Carnivorous heroes like Blind Monk gradually disappeared, and herbivorous characters like Sister Pig rose. Herbivorous heroes were weaker in the early game, and their damage was lower. It was more difficult for them to kill the bottom lane duo with two pieces of equipment.
Most of the routes around the bottom lane in the early game were blocked, and the junglers could only attack the top and middle lanes.
Under such circumstances, the requirements for combining the top and middle lanes with the jungler became higher, and this posed a new challenge for YM.
The cooperation between the mid laner Lin Yan and Mongoose was not a problem. They had proven last year that they were not at a disadvantage when facing the world's top mid laners like SKT's Stupid Chicken + Faker.
The hidden danger was the combination of the top and bottom laners.
In Little Rascal's jungler route map, his affinity with top laner Jin Gong was the lowest. As mentioned before, affinity refers to the proportion of time spent in the same team when the two heroes were close to each other in the overall game time.
In layman terms, a low affinity with the top laner meant that the jungler rarely stayed close to the top laner.
Originally, this low number did not affect anything. YM let the top laners go, and the Siberians relied on the gold coins from the other lanes and their own ability to replenish their growth. Their finances were still higher than normal top laners.
However, in the current version of Censer, Xiao Tian and Jin Gong had to adapt to each other's presence.
In YM's opinion, relying solely on the mid laner coordination between Lin Yan and Xiao Tian in the early game, their journey to the international tournament would not be very smooth.
This was because whether it was from the perspective of BP or the tactical details of the game, a single mid laner coordination would be easily countered.
Last year, YM relied on the mid laner coordination and Four Boson to win the championship against ROX and SKT, two of the world's top teams. If they only played the mid laner coordination in the early game, their chances of winning the championship would not be high.
A rich tactical reserve was a quality that the top teams had to have, and adapting to the new version was a must.
Teams that could enter the international finals were more or less skilled. As long as they dared to go against the new version, even world-class teams could become mediocre teams in the blink of an eye. S5's Optimistic Team and S6's EDG had fully proved this point.
White Crescent's biggest advantage over RNG's coach, Firefox, was that he was not as stubborn. This was also his way of establishing himself in YM.
The mid laner coordination was a must, and using IG as a whetstone was definitely a good choice. IG's current focus was the mid laner and mid laner. To be honest, they were very suitable for the early game of this year's international tournament.
Other than the mid laner and mid laner, the support, Bao Lan, also had a unique understanding of dodging. He just happened to meet the requirements of this version of the game — as long as he did not die.
If it was Edisi, his son might really be able to take off from Wuhu.
The problem lay with the ADC, which had always been IG's weak point.
West's performance in the regular season was considered average. He even had the intention of competing with Esports' Yuan Shao for the number one ADC in IG history. However, once it came to the playoffs and bubble matches, the BUFF left behind by IG's God of Order would be triggered.
Even though West's performance in the key game was not as disastrous as the senior's face in the bushes, it was hard to call it average. The famous scene of Flash with a big mouth being killed by five people in one shot was still popular on the forums. He was even crowned as West King.
However, how West King played now had nothing to do with YM. Lin Yan and the rest of the team members were practicing the mid laner coordination in the early game. This included how to resist pressure after choosing a weak combination, as well as how to establish an advantage after choosing a strong combination.
This practice lasted until 7 pm. Red Rice and Firefox were just short of breaking down the door and snatching the players.
Guo Hao decisively sent the IG players to the other two teams to enjoy. Red Rice and Firefox were arguing about who IG should serve first. Broiler escaped first under Winston's lead.
Red Rice mumbled in Korean. WE's translator, Jun Ri, asked the staff member beside him with a northeastern accent, "What's the situation?"
"Drawing lots. Rookie is tonight's drawing guest," the female staff member with long hair replied.
Firefox nodded in understanding. These days, he had been busy dealing with preparations for the IG and had no impression of the drawing guest at all.
"F * ck …" Red Rice was furious when he heard the news. He had lost another two to three hours of Broiler's time.
He glanced at YM's training room and saw Guo Hao talking to White Crescent happily. He knew that these two scoundrels definitely knew about Broiler's drawing of lots.
Guo Hao sneezed from the curse. He rubbed his nose and prepared to take some medicine at night as a precaution. At this juncture, his cold and fever did not affect him much. However, if he passed it to his teammates, then it would be a big problem.
He secretly noted it down and continued to stare at his teammates' screens. Lin Yan and the rest were preparing to greet the other members of the training team.
Bobby was very considerate in this regard. He brought two people with him for each position. In addition to IG, there were three players for each position. On one hand, it allowed the three teams to find training opponents and avoid conflicts. On the other hand, it also allowed the training partners to have a variety of styles, making it easier to adjust their training partners according to their imaginary opponents.
Lin Yan was facing two midlaners, Zhuo Ding and Doinb. Although Golden Left Hand had learned a move from Lin Yan, his goal was not the same as Lin Yan's.
He simply wanted to establish an advantage by roaming because it was too difficult to crush his opponents in a single match. Most of these advantages were concentrated on himself, allowing him to quickly widen the economic gap between him and his midlaner.
Zhuo Ding's current style was very clear. He suppressed his opponents as much as possible in the early game and roamed to expand his economic advantage in the middle game. He collected kills everywhere to make luxurious equipment in advance. In the team battle, he relied on his mechanical and equipment advantages to complete the harvest.
Golden Left Hand was a typical resource-eating monster. He had no problem being the team's DPS boss after consuming resources. However, he was not good at assisting his teammates. It was easy to get lost in the game.
The other midlaner in the training team, Doinb, had a much more successful transformation in this regard. He was originally a middle-finger-type midlaner who consumed resources and had explosive DPS. However, after following Lin Yan around the field in the Spring Season, he began to experiment with more diverse midlaners.
Now, he could be both a core player and an auxiliary midlaner. Lulu and Karma were also considered unique in the current LPL. The main reason why Jingdong's results were poor was because their teammates were too weak.
The training plan that Lin Yan had arranged for himself was very simple. He would suppress Zhuo Ding in lane matches and roam and team battles to suppress Doinb. He would be in good condition.
When it was eight o 'clock in the evening, all the team members logged out of the game and stopped training.
Guo Hao distributed the takeout. White Crescent used the equipment to project the image of Fist's official live broadcast on the training room's screen.
"The 2017 International Finals' qualifiers and group stage draw is about to begin." Ren Dong, the Indestructible Grip, stood in the studio facing the camera. His voice was full of passion as usual. Sitting beside him were the designer of Fist, Chun Li, and the commentator.
"Summoners, are you ready?"
"Let's welcome the two guests for this draw ceremony!"
Ning Wang's favorite AmazingJ and Broiler, who had been competing with YM since the secondary league, combed their hair to look like adults and appeared in front of all the audience with their arms around each other's shoulders.
"This is what an ogre mage should be like." Phyllostachys Pubescens still remembered Jack's cold joke from the other day. "You can tell just by looking at their bodies."
Still, no one paid attention to his cold joke.
The first round of the qualifiers was the draw. The third seeds from the four regions of Korea's LCK (SSG), Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan's LMS (HKA), North America's NA.LCS (C9), and Europe's EU.LCS (FNC) were divided into four groups.
"The qualifiers aren't that interesting …" Jack laid down his gaming chair and directly laid down like a bed. His two feet were propped up on the armrest of the chair, his posture extremely arrogant. "Can these teams still lose?"
"That's hard to say. I think the strength of the teams in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan is too stratified. Their third seed can easily fail. Last year, ANX was able to enter the top 8 …" Lin Yan said this, but his eyes were still fixed on the phone screen as he chatted with Su Cheng.
"Hey, isn't that Tabe?" Jack rubbed his chin and looked at the screen. Lin Yan heard this familiar name and raised his head to take a look.
It really was Tabe.
This old support who relied on support Annie to shine and win second place with Royal Family in S3 went through a lot of twists and turns to sit on the commentary platform. After the S5 leak incident, he went to IG to be a firefighter for half a year, and together with the Rain Emperor, he was beaten up by the powerhouses of LPL.
He finally realized that his career as a player should be over. Lin Yan heard that after Tabe left IG, he went to the outer division to get a teaching position. He didn't expect that he would actually become the head coach of HKA in the Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan division.
After the third seeds of the four divisions were drawn, the eight champions of the wild card divisions, Turkey, Oceania, and Japan divisions, were evenly divided into four groups and lined up below the four teams of the main divisions.
If nothing unexpected happened, this group of explosive experts who had a crushing record in the wild card division would be crazily trampled by this group of third seeds who had fought their way out of the bubble competition in 10 days.
The difference between the wild card division and the five main divisions was like heaven and earth. There was a huge gap in strength, and in most cases, they didn't even have the qualifications to stop them.
"The draw for the qualifiers has come to an end. Next, let's invite AmazingJ to continue and draw the four seeded teams of the group stage!"
AmazingJ looked a little nervous. He rubbed his hands and walked up to the glass basin containing the four opaque black balls.
He would decide the groups of LPL's first seed YM, LCK's first seed LZ, EU.LCS1's first seed G2, and LMS 'first seed Lightning Wolves. Among the five main divisions, North America had been disqualified from the first seeded pool due to their poor performance in the mid-season tournament. Their summer champions, TSM, could only wait for their fate in the second seeded pool.
His chubby little hand stirred in the basin for a while, and AJ pulled out the first ball.
The moment he opened it, he couldn't help but laugh.
YM！
A black and red dragon appeared on the big screen behind AJ. After circling twice, the black dragon turned into YM's icon and was embedded in the position directly below Group A.
Following that, the official live stream broadcast YM's highlights this year.
Lin Yan's Yellow Chicken Sand Burial annihilation of G2 in the mid-season tournament, Little Pao's single-handedly killing of Lucian in the semifinals of the summer tournament, and Gario's three matches in the finals were all recorded. There was also Jin Gong's Kenji's sneak attack, Liu Qingsong's Hammer Stone's prediction hook, Jack's pentakill performance, and Mongoose's ferocious Spider Queen …
There were also scenes of them winning the championship again and again.
A deep voice narration sounded in the lounge.
"After defeating SKT and winning the Summoner's Trophy for the 2016 International Finals, YM has been on a winning streak. They have maintained their strong stance and won both the LPL's Spring and Summer Championships, as well as the mid-season tournament and the Asia League Championship. Without a doubt, YM will be the hot favorite to win this year's International Finals!"
Following that, AJ drew the remaining three balls. LZ was in Group B, G2 was in Group C, and the remaining Lightning Wolves was in Group D.
After drawing the first seed pool, AJ's mission was considered complete. The next lot drawing was handed over to the other guest, Broiler.
"The main thing is to look at the two teams in Group A …" As the time approached, Guo Hao could not help but feel a little nervous.
Broiler, with his chubby cheeks full of collagen, walked onto the stage with a shy and honest smile on his face. His next mission was of utmost importance — to draw the eight teams in the second seed pool and decide the fate of all the teams in the group stage of the international tournament.
Among them were the second and third seeds of the LPL, RNG and WE, the second seed of the Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, AHQ, the second seed of the European region, MSF, SKT, the first and second seeds of the Korean region, TSM and IMT, as well as the first seed of the Vietnamese region, GAM.
Drawing a good lot could change one's fate, but if one drew a bad lot, then one could only wait to die.
Broiler took out a black ball and opened it in front of the camera. The moment he saw the team's logo, he smiled.
TSM。
"The big brother of North America is here!"
Ren Dong announced loudly in the studio, "The champions of North America's summer tournament, TSM, will be in the same group as our first seed of the LPL, YM!"
Guo Hao let out a sigh of relief. This opponent did not seem too strong to him. YM would be able to defeat them easily.
…
IMT, AHQ, and MSF were assigned accordingly. After going around in circles, Broiler would draw YM's last opponent.
"This isn't good news," Ren Dong frowned as he sat in the studio. "WE and RNG were not drawn. According to the rules of the same region and same group, they won't be in Group A with YM …"
"YM only has two opponents left, GAM of the Vietnamese region and SKT of the Korean region." Chun Li, the game designer who had been invited, nodded and pointed out the facts.
"Let's see which team Broiler will draw!"
As Ren Dong shouted, Broiler took out the black ball and opened it!
This time, his smile was even brighter than before.
YM's training room was filled with laughter. Cheers and applause echoed in the enclosed room!
Guo Hao's mouth was crooked from laughing. A group of players and managers high-fived each other in celebration.
"GAM!" Ren Dong clenched his fist. "YM really got a good draw!"
The bullet screen was stacked on top of each other, filling up the live broadcast room!
[Woah ~ What a handsome Broiler!]
[I have a question. Why did he say it was a good draw?]
[The big brother's face must be cracking from laughing this time, right?
Their chances of winning are quite high!]
[Then it's over. The weak teams are all in YM. What about the other two LPL teams?]
After that, Broiler drew RNG and WE. Everyone knew that the last black ball was SKT. After the routine analysis, the groups were clear.
Group A: YM, TSM, GAM
Group B: LZ, IMT, RNG
Group C: G2, AHQ, WE
Group D: FW, MSF, SKT
"The last spot in each group will be determined after the end of the qualifiers," Ren Dong explained to the audience. "But for now, YM's chances of winning are very high. Other than their strength, their opponents' skills are not that high."
"It's the same for WE. G2 and AHQ are not very strong teams. If the guys from WE work harder, they'll be able to win first place in the group!" Ren Dong, Ren Dong, and Chunli were still analyzing their chances of winning.
"RNG will have a harder time. Team Longzhu defeated SKT to win the championship this summer. That was the first time Faker saw an opponent lift the trophy in the finals of a domestic league. There's no doubt about their strength!"
Once the results of the groups were out, some were happy, while others were sad.
Lin Yan and his teammates had no time to think about it. The two opponents had been determined, and they had to train hard for the group stage in half a month.
Heroes vying for supremacy, the strength of each battle team would be revealed in half a month's time!