"Even a 20-minute 5K economic advantage can be dragged down to 50 minutes?" Xiao Tian mumbled as he chewed on a strawberry flavored QQ candy.
"The difference in vision is too big. Why did Samsung buy so many eyes?" Su Cheng panicked for no reason.
Even though they were still in the group stage, YM's coaching team had already begun studying their opponents for the knockout round. However, Samsung was a team that had qualified in the same group as YM. It was impossible for them to meet outside of the finals. Naturally, this was not the focus of the coaching team's discussion.
Their understanding of Samsung was still stuck at the time when they faced WE and Xialuo.
They defeated WE in the quarterfinals and still held on for 50 minutes against RNG. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Samsung had evolved in the knockout stage.
The RNG players didn't look happy either. They knew that today was going to be a tough battle.
During the halftime break, the YM Competition Department's WeChat chat group didn't stop for a moment.
Hao Akashi: [Is anyone watching the game?]
I Really Don't Drink Pepsi (Lin Yan): [Xiao Tian, Su Cheng, and I are watching in the room. Do you guys want to come?]
Yuki Judai (JKL): [Come come come!]
He also sent an emoji of Brother Potion rushing rushing.
| - | (Xiao Tian): [Bring your own snacks and drinks. Crab crab ^ ^]
Yuki Judai: [Okay, I know you guys have food. I'm coming to grab it.]
Before the start of the second game, the room had completely turned into YM's lounge. The players and coaches gathered together. Fortunately, the hotel room that Fist had booked was big. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to accommodate so many people.
Jack said that he wanted to grab the snacks, but he still brought a bag of snacks and AD calcium milk.
A group of people started a team-building tea party in Lin Yan's room.
In the second game, it was Samsung's turn to choose the blue side. Lin Yan and the others realized the severity of the problem.
"There aren't enough slots for RNG …" Jin Gong mumbled as he chewed on a chocolate pie produced by his country's best friend.
White Crescent and the other coaching staff could not stay idle any longer. Su Cheng held her laptop and typed in the BP data. Then, she made a summary of the BP situation since the three-star team entered the elimination round.
RNG, who was in the red team, was facing an epic challenge. Other than Callista, who had to be banned, there was still Galio and Kenan left to be restricted.
Xiao Hu Galio was really a noob. Two months ago, when he played against YM in the LPL Summer Finals, he was drooling. Coincidentally, letme didn't know how to play Kenan either. Whether it was a solo AD or a team AP, they were all terrible.
Unfortunately, these two heroes were the top three stars in the World Championship.
Kainan's strong ability to carry the lane brought out by his AD carry could allow Cuvee to display his individual abilities to the fullest. On the other hand, the reason why Crown chose Galio was to muddle along. His ability to carry the lane this year was nothing compared to the other world-class mid laners. It was normal for him to be killed in a solo.
Galio was a hero with high tankiness, easy to muddle along in lane, and strong in team battles. He was very suitable for a player like Crown who mainly relied on experience and the overall situation to complete the game.
On the intense stage of the semifinals, RNG's hero pool was finally exposed. Other than that, letme did not know Pieltwof and Second Battalion Commander Jess.
Jess, Gnar, and Kenan were popular top laners in the three versions. letme only knew one Gnar. Against a world-class top laner like Cuvee, BP was a big problem.
Faced with a choice, Firefox sent Princes, who was better at fighting in the jungle, and Gnar, who was good at Cuvee, to ban in the first round, and released Galio.
Crown never hesitated. If you gave it to me, I would choose.
"Did RNG find a way to deal with Galio?
They released him twice in a row. "Lin Yan was quite puzzled. He glanced at White Crescent.
He was still quite curious. If there was a way to deal with Galio, Lin Yan would not want to use this big meatball to play in the competition.
"I'm not sure either … Let's wait and see." White Crescent pressed down on the pen spring.
He had not found a good solution so far. Galio had become a popular hero in the competition a few months ago. If it could be dealt with so easily, the coaches of the other teams would probably be pigs.
Xiao Hu's use of Ryze to deal with Galio was quite effective in the previous round. He wanted to continue using it in this round. He wanted to use Goddess's Tear's strong lane pushing ability and his solo suppression of Galio in the mid lane to open up a gap for the team.
The game progressed very smoothly. Ryze's suppression of Galio in the early stages was quite obvious. With the lane control in the mid lane, Saucepan used his familiar hunger strike playstyle and controlled Wine Barrel to go on a rampage in Sect Leader An's jungle. Ouze in the bottom lane quietly pressed down nearly 40 BP in 15 minutes.
There was a difference of 5.5K in economy between the two sides in 17 minutes. The difference was even greater than the previous round.
The live audience felt that RNG was definitely going to win. As long as they won this round, RNG would lock in the match point!
They were even more motivated. Screams and cheers rose and fell one after another.
However, something unexpected happened.
"RNG's team wants to take this Canyon Vanguard, and Sect Leader An is hiding in the grass by the river!" Ouze Yuan's excited voice echoed in the Oriental Sports Center. "He's going to make a move on Ouze!"
In the shadows, Pig Girl threw out her Arctic Lasso and hit Ouze's Little Cannon at close range!
The next moment, Galio's big move appeared with Pig Girl as the center!
"Crown cooperated with Sect Leader An and took out Ouze in one shot!"
Xiao Ming did everything he could and was unable to save Ouze. Instead, he got himself killed.
With the duo dead, RNG naturally did not have the capital to take control of Canyon Vanguard. They could only obediently let Sect Leader An take it.
This Vanguard was used by An Bi to push up the first tower and open up a gap for Cup.
The economy gap narrowed rapidly. The situation slowly became more balanced. Three Stars began their operations.
Far away in the Beijing Olympic Village Hotel, the YM team gasped.
"Are they crazy?" Liu Qingsong was dumbfounded.
Three Stars support Corejj had three True Eyes in his backpack!
Three True Eyes were worth 225 gold coins. For a support in the current version of the game, this was quite an exorbitant amount.
Sect Leader An and Cuvee both had two True Eyes on them. Even Chi Di, who wasn't in a good financial situation, had bought two!
In one trip back to the city, five people had bought 11 True Eyes!
The room was filled with whispers of discussion. Pro players were extremely sensitive to this extraordinary amount of True Eyes.
"A total of 825 gold coins …" Su Cheng frowned. "Can Three Stars earn it back?"
Even though they had a lot of True Eyes on their backs, in order to limit Korean operations a few years ago, Fist stipulated that each hero could only leave one True Eye in Summoner's Canyon. If another True Eye was inserted, the previous True Eye would disappear.
This way, unless they were cheating, a team could only have five True Eyes on the map at the same time.
RNG also had one True Eye each. This could be said to be the standard operation of a pro team. After returning to the city to buy equipment, they would definitely spend some money on True Eyes.
It seemed that both teams only had five True Eyes on the map at the same time. Three Stars' True Eyes strategy seemed to be useless.
However, Lin Yan immediately realized the strength of Three Stars' strategy.
Around 22 minutes later, the two teams started a tug-of-war near the Dragon's Pit.
No one wanted to give up their vision of the upper river. Both True Eyes and Fake Eyes poured down as if they were free.
In just half a minute, RNG's two Cs had used up all their True Eyes. Vision Modification was not very useful in this battle of vision. On the other hand, Letme was still dealing with Cup's solo carry in the bottom lane and couldn't make it to the top lane in time.
As a result, only two RNG players had True Eyes.
They had to take on the important task of fighting for vision with the four SSG players.
How could they win?
RNG didn't have a big advantage. Even if they had a 10,000 lead, they didn't dare to look into the bushes. The death of S5's Child God of Wandering, Jinx, was still vivid in their minds.
Furthermore, Corejj was using a Roh in this game.
Who would want to learn EDG?
All of RNG's True Eyes were wiped out in an instant. Fake Eyes had little effect in the face of this sea of True Eyes. They were inserted in the True Eyes' range and only had a brief moment of vision. It was completely useless.
"RNG's vision is terrible." Su Xiaoyan's voice was as calm as ever. "They only have two Fake Eyes at the edge of the river. The rest of their True Eyes have been wiped out by Three Stars …"
Ze Yuan was very excited. "SSG has completely locked down the vision around the Dragon's Pit. The four True Eyes have played a huge role!"
The Dragon's Pit was surrounded by darkness. RNG didn't dare to barge in. The four of them fought for a while and realized that Three Stars hadn't appeared in their vision for a while.
"Ouze's Vision Modification has successfully illuminated the Dragon's Pit!"
Along with the commentator's voice, the Three Stars in the Dragon's Pit appeared. They were ganging up on the Dragon!
Letme immediately used Teleport, but the 4.5 seconds of Teleport's channeling time made it impossible for RNG to wait for him to land. Looking at the rapidly decreasing HP of the Dragon, they hurriedly rushed in.
However, the vision provided by the Vision Modification had been blocked by the True Eyes. They had no idea where the Three Stars were!
Corejj's Roh sped up and appeared from the shadow of the Dragon's Pit, stirring up an intoxicating breeze.
W [Grand Entrance] and R [Fleeting Moment] had successfully charmed the three RNG players!
The next moment, Pigsy also used her ultimate skill and smashed it on the face of Spicy Saucepan!
"Crown Galio's ultimate skill has landed. Perfect control," Ze Yuan said quickly. His eyes were shining when he saw Crown's amazing performance. "RNG's formation is about to be broken!"
Ouze was busy dealing with the Three Stars Nakano in front of him, but he exposed his position to Chi Emperor.
The mouse he controlled did not stop for a moment and went all out!
Along with the mouse's arrogant laughter, a poisonous arrow pierced through the bodies of the RNG players and dealt high damage!
When letme landed, all four of his teammates were at critical health and were still being hunted down by the Three Stars.
There was very little that an average top laner could do in this kind of situation. He could only retreat and run away.
"One for four!
The Three Stars used Roh's life in exchange for the heads of the four RNG heroes! "
Only letme managed to escape. SSG did not chase after him and turned around to remove the Dragon.
"Damn …" Shiba Inu was stunned. The French bread in his hand was no longer fragrant. "The Three Stars' move is quite impressive."
Investing in vision cost SSG 825 gold coins for 11 True Eyes and earned SSG 1500 gold coins for killing Baron Nash, the economy from killing the four RNG heroes, and the Dragon's buff.
They made a lot of money.
"The economy gap is directly leveled. Who can withstand this?" Everyone in YM was shocked.
"Is there such a trick?" Lin Yan murmured. He stared at the screen and let Lin Weixiang take the chips from his hand.
The Three Stars' performance was not over yet. When letme teleported, Cuvee did not move at all. He took the opportunity to use the Dragon's buff to take down two of YM's defense towers.
When the Dragon's buff ended, the Three Stars successfully overtook YM's economy.
Once they were at a disadvantage, it was even harder for RNG to defend against the Three Stars' attacks.
The True Eyes rolled forward bit by bit. Sect Leader An's group was quite stable when playing with the advantage. They relied on their vision advantage to find the best opportunity to outnumber the enemy and did not easily initiate a ten-man team battle.
Spicy Saucepan's face was visibly irritated. He could not find an opportunity to initiate a team battle and could only let his opponent slowly erode his vision.
At the 33rd minute, he finally could not help but initiate a team battle. However, he was counterattacked by the Three Stars.
3 for 5. The two survivors from the Three Stars rushed to RNG's high ground and ended the game!
This loss was like a bucket of cold water splashed in the face. The cheers in the Oriental Sports Center dropped by an octave.
If the first match only made the audience feel slightly depressed, then the third match made them completely flustered.
Letme used a substitute ban to bring out Gnar. However, he was killed by Sect Leader An at level 3 and died again when he teleported online.
Although Saucepan tried to stop his loss at the first moment and successfully controlled Princes to get a double kill, letme, who died twice in a row, was about to collapse.
Cuvee's Shen used his advantage to the extreme. He used the cooldown of Emperor's Flash and E [Light Jump] to complete a wave of solo kills!
"It's gone. How can this 03 Gnar still play with a hammer?" Jack stuffed a French bun into his mouth.
Not only the pro players, but even the commentators could see that Gnar was no longer of any use.
Shen finished off the side lane. Gnar could only stay at the bottom of the tower due to his poor equipment. Sect Leader An used the top lane advantage to successfully take down the vanguard in the canyon and then helped Cuvee to take down the top tower.
RNG's strategy was completely messed up. They originally wanted to let Ouze play in the team battle with rats. This way, Saucepan could better grab the two solo lanes. This was also in line with RNG's overall strategy this year.
However, the early collapse of Gnar made Spicy Saucepan not dare to stay in the top lane. He forced his way to the bottom lane and wanted to fatten up Ouze.
However, RNG's duo chose rats and Lulu as their jungler ability was quite average. They tried to gank several times but failed.
The Three Stars who had the advantage were even more skillful with True Eyes. They took out all their extra money to buy True Eyes.
The director watched carefully and even gave a close-up of Ruler Emperor's economy panel. Big Mouth still had 290 gold coins left after buying the sheep knife. He could have waited for 5 seconds at the spring to buy a pair of straw sandals to maximize his economy.
However, Emperor Chi went crazy and directly stuffed three True Eyes into his inventory!
"This group of idiots is crazy …" Liu Qingsong admitted that even if he was the support in the game, he wouldn't be able to do such a crazy thing in the early game.
True Eyes were inserted into the small dragon pit and the vanguard in the canyon, lighting up the two most important neutral resources on the map. At the same time, they also blocked Saucepan's position!
The core of the hunger strike style was to use the opponent's time to do more things. However, they couldn't control the two key neutral resources. They wanted to catch people, but the path was full of True Eyes.
How could they play?
Although Saucepan could replenish his economy by removing True Eyes, he was originally a jungler who played hunger strike style. Even if he ate, he wouldn't be able to make much use of his economy.
While he was at his wits' end, the YM coaching team in Beijing frowned. They drew out Sect Leader An's and Corejj's route on the Summoner's Canyon map, trying to find some similarities.
Samsung's performance in the semifinals was undeniably strong. Compared to the hesitation in the group stage, they were like two different teams.
RNG's defeat in the third game was too fast. Crown's Galio was like a stone door blocking Ouze's path, restricting him to death.
The excitement in the stadium quickly cooled down. The audience in the stands looked up at the big screen. Cuvee, who looked a little simple and honest, faced the audience with his arms crossed in front of his chest, pretending to be cold.
In this game, he played cautiously and made a + 5500 economy difference. His score was 443. Although his damage ratio was only 22.08%, the effect he played was obvious to all.
"It can only be said that Cuvee played his own strong individual skills incisively and vividly today," Zeyuan said on the commentary platform. "In addition to his best Yodeler, Shen is also one of his unique skills. He is quite proficient in it. In this year's summer tournament …"
However, the focus of the bullet screen wasn't on Shen.
[Galio played three consecutive games in a row. The RNG coaching team knows me well!]
[Haven't you had enough of Execution Xia's lesson? He said he banned Galio, so why did he let go of Firefox?]
[Did this coach buy some Korean food?]
Lin Yan said that Galio in the three Summer Finals games had traumatized the Royal fans too much. Their scalps went numb when they saw Galio's Hard Bear Glare circle.
When the fans saw that Crown had taken Galio without any pressure in the first three games, they were immediately dissatisfied with Firefox.
"This is RNG's way of dealing with Galio?" Lin Yan sat on the bed and stretched out his long legs. "It's not that great?"
Looking at these three games, RNG was indeed prepared for Galio.
During the laning phase, Xiao Hu got a hero like Ryze who could control the right to push the lane. He put pressure on Crown in the middle lane so that he couldn't easily support his teammates. During the laning phase, Ryze could also control the advantage and initiative, suppressing Galio until he couldn't breathe.
And during the most crucial team battle, RNG would choose a backhand formation to try to reduce the threat of Galio's big move after it landed, or to get rid of Galio in the early stages.
In theory, they could restrict the Colossus of Justice.
But that was only in theory.
In real combat, there were several times more factors to consider than tactical arrangements, and there were all kinds of variables that could affect the game.
Reality proved that even if they dealt with Galio's best in the first game, Crown used W Blink to help the team recover from their disadvantage, dragging it out until 50 minutes.
Firefox, who was on the edge of the cliff, finally stopped being stubborn. In the fourth game, he took the initiative to send Galio to the ban position on the red side, letting everyone breathe a big sigh of relief.
The audience felt that RNG was enlightened, and Lin Yan and the others' goal was even clearer. They would ban Galio to see what new system RNG and Samsung would come up with.
After all, they were sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight. The more tactics these two teams revealed, the easier YM's finals would be.
RNG on the red side sent Callista and Galio to the ban position one after another. The remaining ban positions were very tight.
If they blocked Kenan, they would be giving Gnar to Samsung.
Edgar naturally accepted it with a smile, and he wasn't surprised that RNG banned Galio.
After entering the knockout stage, Samsung under his command was the most obscure team. Not many people paid attention to them, but this also gave Samsung a chance to amaze the world.
He had researched more than one tactic in this knockout stage.
Crown had picked Malzahar in the third game of the first round, and RNG didn't hesitate at all to pick Policewoman from Pisheng!
Policewoman's speed push!
RNG realized that they couldn't deal with Samsung's Eye of Truth. They felt that they hadn't pressured their opponents enough in the early game, which gave SSG the chance to save up a lot of money to buy Eye of Truth.
This time, they used Policewoman's speed push. They were clearly taking advantage of the fact that Samsung wasn't strong enough in the early game. They used Policewoman's long arms to pressure Samsung to death!
As expected, the scenario went smoothly. Saucepan frequently squatted down to help Ouze open up the situation, and RNG successfully took down Samsung's bottom lane's first blood tower in nine minutes!
"Ruler Emperor is a bit of a weirdo … How come he's being pushed so hard against Ouze?" Lin Yan frowned. "He's even worse than Jack."
"I …" Jack didn't expect Lin Yan to belittle him, but when he thought about it, he didn't have the confidence to argue. He grabbed a vacuum-packed sausage and tore into it.
In Summoner's Canyon, Ouze quickly changed lanes and used Policewoman's advantage to control the vanguard.
Everything was going smoothly.
Twenty minutes later, SSG's second tower was taken down, and their economy dropped by ten thousand!
RNG's fans, who had been on the brink of despair in the previous round, saw a ray of hope again, and the cheers that came out of their throats shook the heavens!
Even the roar of Baron Nash's death couldn't cover up their majestic momentum!
Ouze, who had made three critical hits in twenty-three minutes, scored four kills in front of Samsung's Spring Water, and the match entered the final round!
Lin Yan's room was steaming hot, and the smell of mutton filled the air.
They had been watching since the afternoon, and they were starving, so they ordered hotpot and cooked the mutton while watching the match.
People in Beijing liked to eat copper pots, and Lin Ran was particular about doing as the Romans did. After paying the deposit, he ordered a copper pot and sent it over. The sesame paste and chives were fragrant.
The BO5 battle song started, and Jin Gong picked up a large piece of mutton and dipped it in a storm of seasoning.
"Who do you think will win?"
Jack's face was red from the heat. He took off his team jacket and accidentally pulled up his shirt to reveal a swimming ring.
Since the start of the international competition, he had visibly gained weight. In terms of weight, he was about the same as Lin Weixiang, who was ten centimeters taller than him.
Da Mei touched the Shiba Inu's stomach and almost got bitten.
"I think … RNG?" Lin Yan wasn't sure. "They're on the blue side in the last round, so BP is a lot easier."
"I think so too." Guo Hao put another plate of mutton into the pot. "Samsung only has an advantage in the top lane, but they're being suppressed by Ouze the whole time in the bottom lane."
While they were discussing, the final round had begun!
It was almost nine o 'clock in the evening, and the semi-finals had been going on for five hours. However, the audience's enthusiasm didn't show any signs of waning. They were still cheering for their RNG team.
The stubborn Edgar banned Ouze's Policewoman, who performed well in the last round.
As usual, Crown chose Malzahar for this match. After being silent for four matches, he finally shone brightly.
Malzahar couldn't be controlled before level 6, so Xiao Hu suppressed him fiercely. However, Sect Leader An and Crown seized this opportunity.
Samsung's Nakano took the lead and launched a surprise attack on Xiao Hu!
"Cancel your account!"
Su Xiaoyan looked at Xiao Hu on the screen, who was stuck by Sect Leader An's red buff. She finally couldn't control the anxiety in her heart, and her usually calm voice changed.
"Sect Leader An, use Xiao Hu's Blink and use a normal attack to kill him!" Just like his partner, Ze Yuan was also trying to control his emotions.
However, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hold back his laughter.
Saucepan didn't stay idle either, and went to the top lane to force out Cuvee's Blink.
Ouze and Xiao Ming were still suppressing each other, which made Chi Emperor very uncomfortable.
However, at the six minute mark, Crown went to the back and surrounded RNG's bottom lane.
Grip of the Underworld!
After 2.5 seconds of suppression, Ouze didn't even have a chance to react and died on the spot.
"Now Brother Crown can't be controlled by RNG anymore … As long as Malzahar uses his big move, he'll have a chance to gank him!"
At the eight minute mark, Sect Leader An brought Crown to the bottom lane again.
Ouze didn't have any room to maneuver and died again.
Ouze couldn't handle Grasshopper's strong control in the early game, and he couldn't use Quicksilver Ribbon first. He died every time Crown used his big move.
Ouze always had a bad mentality in the final game. After dying three times in a row, he entered Guan Yu mode again, and his face was as red as a monkey's butt.
However, this time, he was caught before he could say, "My second brother is invincible."
"This is difficult …" Lin Yan didn't feel any regret. He picked up a piece of tofu with his chopsticks and placed it in a bowl to cool it down.
The familiar True Sea of Eyes, Samsung's vision was slowly eroding, cutting off RNG's hope of victory!
At the twenty-first minute, Crown used his big move to suppress Saucepan, who was forced to come to the jungle to set up his vision, and cooperated with his teammates to kill him.
Baron Nash screamed and fell to the ground helplessly.
Samsung successfully took away the Dragon's buff!
RNG wanted to fight to the death, but Samsung didn't give them a chance to fight head-on. They used the information provided by their vision to outnumber them.
The live audience fell into a dead silence. Many emotional fans were still sobbing softly.
At the thirty-sixth minute, RNG's three routes were all destroyed, but Samsung steadily returned to the city to resupply. They only dared to fight after taking down the Dragon!
The nearly twenty thousand economic gap left RNG powerless. They could only watch as their base was destroyed!
The dry ice mist erupted again, and the spotlights flashed above the heads of Samsung!
The five members hugged each other and cried. They had gone through untold hardships and finally made it to the finals!
Ze Yuan took a deep breath. His face was as red as Ouze's, but it was only because of excitement. "Congratulations to Samsung, they have won the last entry ticket to the Bird's Nest!"
"On the fourth of November, they will fight YM for the championship!"
The RNG fans in the live audience couldn't accept this fact. The victory in the first game had blinded their eyes. Heaven was torn apart and they fell to hell in an instant.
Samsung was far stronger than they had imagined.
The LPL finals against the Bird's Nest was just a dream.
On the other side, the LCK commentators were already boiling. Roaring Emperor's nasal voice was thicker than ever.
"Congratulations, SSG!
Maybe you were unknown before, but after crossing this mountain, they will hear your story. No matter how the story ends, Samsung, the last hope of LCK, the last pride of Korea, Samsung, go! "
Of course, this wasn't the original sentence, but the Korean language was broad and profound.
Roaring Emperor's voice moved countless Korean netizens.
The RNG fans could only pack up and leave the arena. They enviously watched their opponents enjoy the spotlight, flowers, and applause.
That night, Fist's officials released the finals poster.
In the picture, Lin Yan and Crown stood side by side with their arms crossed. The eye-catching Bird's Nest was right behind them!
The poster was released, the finals' promotional video was filmed, the pre-match interview was done …
At the same time, they couldn't abandon the most important training.
Lin Yan and the others were so busy that they didn't leave the ground.
Time passed quickly. The fourth of November finally arrived!