The familiar Fist logo smashed the barrier between the virtual world and reality. The special effects seemed to drag Lin Yan and Su Cheng into the virtual world.
The computer screen dimmed, and the Fist logo disappeared.
This time, the Fist company had invested a lot. Apart from the 3D camera technology from last year, they had also added a short CG animation.
"It wasn't like this when SKT won the championship two years ago, right?"
Su Cheng asked curiously. She took a plate of sliced pineapple from the coffee table in the living room and poked a piece with a plastic fork. "Open your mouth, ah …"
Lin Yan tilted his head and bit the pineapple, letting the sweet and sour taste burst out between his teeth.
"Skills are constantly evolving," he said as he swallowed the pineapple. "Teng Jing also contributed. He said that he gave Fist a suggestion and asked them to create something different for the first team to win two championships in a row."
The computer screen was still dark. They could only hear the pleasant sound of water dripping into the stream.
"Be careful!" A cold female voice echoed in the darkness. Lin Yan and his girlfriend looked at each other.
The voice made them feel like they were in a pipe.
"Baby, safety doesn't suit me at all!" Another arrogant male voice rang out.
The screen's brightness slowly increased.
Black and red feathers fluttered in the air. The agile Vastaya warrior swung her sharp feather blade forward, trying to see if there were any enemies in the darkness.
The water in the pipe was very deep, and she could not hold on. Even her feathers were stained with water droplets that stuck to her body. She looked a little disheveled.
On the other hand, the other Vastaya was very relaxed. The elegant dancer leaped about on top of the pipe, his figure nimble and elusive.
"Faster!" The dancer was still urging. "It's right in front!"
The camera shifted. Lin Yan and Su Cheng also saw the end of the pipe in front of them. There was a light coming through the seal.
The woman in the pipe knew that there were no enemies in front, but she did not put away her feather blade.
As the light grew brighter, she swung her weapon forcefully. Several feathers left the pipe along the seal. The floating black and red feathers flashed with special effects, looking somewhat like ink painting.
With a delicate shout, the feather retracted, and the enormous force it carried directly shattered the seal!
This time, without the obstruction of the seal, the light in front of the two of them bloomed completely.
"Well done, Xia!"
Dancer sped up, stirring up a mesmerizing breeze. Her feathers also fluttered in the air. Her entire body passed Dusk's body and rushed into the light!
"Luo, slow down!" Dusk couldn't keep up with her partner, and could only run out while dripping with water.
Light blossomed in her eyes, dazzling her for a moment.
Before Xia could adapt to the light, she heard an angry shout.
"Demacia, live forever!"
A majestic man wearing a black helmet and armor appeared in front of her. The tip of his black halberd was tinged with scarlet, and his aura was indomitable. His entire style of dressing was as if he had walked out of a Beijing opera.
Xia lowered her head and noticed that there was still a turbulent flow of water beneath her feet.
However, this amount of water was much more than what was in the pipeline.
The river Swift Crab in front of her was sent flying by Demacia Princes. The Inferno Dragon was still lying in the dragon pit taking a nap. Luo was as light as a swallow. She put her arms on the wings of the fire dragon and wanted to compete with this big guy to see who was more beautiful.
This was the Summoner's Canyon!
At this time, the rope was hooked on the wall, and Qing Gang Yin with short gray hair appeared in front of the audience!
She was wearing a black Han costume, and from the waist down, there was a huge and sharp Hex Technology leg blade. She looked valiant.
"Hey, this Qing Gang Yin model is good," Su Cheng took a bite of a piece of pineapple. "It's just that the top of her head looks awkward …"
Lin Yan couldn't help but laugh. "Why are there two bumps on her head? Hahahaha, is she cosplaying Tien Tian in Naruto?"
Qing Gang Yin's camera flashed by, and Vayne, wearing sunglasses, also rolled into the river. The giant crossbow behind her was dark, and the arrow seemed to want to take people's souls clean.
"What about you?"
Su Cheng glanced around. So far, only five heroes appeared in the screen. "Did you choose Fox?"
Lin Yan was also uneasy. Since he communicated with the fist artist in Los Angeles, he hadn't seen a skin manuscript, and he didn't know how they would draw his appeal.
"It's normal," he pretended to be calm. "An MVP like me is usually the last to appear."
On the computer screen, the five heroes gathered in the river under the Summoner's Canyon looked at each other. They obviously realized that there was still one person missing.
A breathtaking black orb suddenly appeared at the edge of the camera and crossed the entire screen at a very fast speed. It passed through the body of the river crab, and when the orb was retracted, the river crab had become a dead body!
This orb snatched the wild monster from Princes' hands!
The five heroes turned their eyes and looked out of the camera.
Lin Ran took a deep breath. The fox's Orb of Deception had already filled him with anticipation.
The camera moved to the side, and the first thing that came into view was the eye-catching red dress. The style of the dress was more like the style of China's ancient witch.
The dress was slightly loose, but it couldn't cover the curves of her slim and exquisite body. Her nine fox tails merged into a large, furry tail that hung obediently behind her slender, straight legs.
Her soft, dark red hair hung over her shoulders and went up her swan-like neck. The fox's unique beard was distributed on her snow-white charming cheeks.
Two small ears broke through the dark red hair and stood on top of her head, swaying from time to time. Together with the black Deception Orb in her hand, she looked docile and obedient.
And between the two ears on the top of her head … was a squatting yellow duck!
The fist even gave the little yellow duck a close-up shot. The duck's eyes were very wide apart, and it looked quite like a certain lady's charm.
The combination of the yellow duck and the China's ancient witch costume added a different kind of silly cuteness to Ah Li. When it jumped, the yellow duck would also jump in the air and finally stop on Ah Li's head.
"Ah, this …" Su Cheng was dumbfounded.
She subconsciously tugged at her yellow duck pajamas, embarrassed.
Lin Yan smiled.
He had to call the Fist headquarters and tell them that he was very satisfied with the fox in the witch costume.
He didn't even need to look at the skill effects afterward. The model was enough. Why would he need a bicycle?
At that moment, the six heroes on the computer screen stood together and looked at the enemy Crystal in the distance.
The short CG of the champion's skin came to an end. Next was the presentation of the six skins' details and skill effects.
"Why did you really add the yellow duck?" Su Cheng asked with wide eyes.
"It's a souvenir." Lin Yan unfolded the hot towel and moved his right wrist. "I'll get something else next year."
"Ha." Su Cheng blushed and pretended to be disdainful. "You're so confident that you can win S8?"
Lin Yan ignored her and got up to pour away the cooled hot water.
When he came back, the presentation of the champion's skin hadn't ended.
Jin Gong's Qing Gang Yin Skin W [Tactical Sweep] kicked out a slow belt with a flame texture. R [Hex's Ultimatum] would show the YM icon in the center of the enchantment, and the surrounding hexagonal corners also had flame marks.
Mongoose Princes's skin looked a bit like Lu Bu's, but the tone was a lot darker. When waving the halberd, it also added a new movement.
Jack and Liu Qingsong's Charlot skins had special black feather floating special effects when casting skills. Coupled with the constant words of love, they looked like a couple.
Lin Weixiang's VN skin could only be described with four words — nothing to write home about.
This was probably the most ordinary skin in the YM champion's skin series.
Compared to the other heroes, Vayne wasn't suitable for more complicated special effects. When she opened R, a black dragon symbolizing YM appeared under her feet. When Q rolled, there were sparks all over her body …
Third Ring and E [Devil's Judgement] just changed the color.
Finally, A 'Li's special effects were quite luxurious. In addition to the Orb of Deception turning into a deep black color, E [Charm Demon] actually threw the little yellow duck on top of her head.
When she cast R [Soul Raid], because A 'Li's displacement speed was too fast, the little yellow duck would even fall on her furry tail.
In terms of detail, A 'Li was the most outstanding in this group of champion's skins. Lin Yan felt that this skin could directly raise the sales of the entire set of champion's skins. This year's skin share would definitely not be small.
In the movement of returning to the city, Lin Weixiang's Vayne shook her earthy flower hand. Jin Gong began to hit the keyboard with familiarity. Liu Qingsong, who was addicted to watching Korean groups, chose a dance.
He didn't have enough fun dancing alone. He had to pull Jack to do the same movement of returning to the city. It was a good combination.
A 'Li's movement of returning to the city looked much cuter.
When she pressed B, she, who had been working day and night, stood in place and yawned. The Orb of Deception in her hand emitted a dazzling light, forming a small projection in the air.
The finals stadium was full. A 'Li and Princes stood together to welcome the cheers of the audience.
The projection of the Orb of Deception disappeared. A 'Li looked around but didn't find the person she was looking for. She suddenly became listless. The nine furry tails behind her spread out and wrapped around A' Li like a round fan.
Then, she sat on the ground in a duck sitting position. The little yellow duck on her head was as dejected as A 'Li.
Under the strong request of Phyllostachys Pubescens, he had a special effect of returning to the city that was linked with Lin Yan. When Princes returned to the city, he waved his halberd to force the enemy back. The tip of the halberd was still stained with blood. He sat on the ground, exhausted. He took out a miniature version of the Orb of Deception from his armor. The projection was also the moment when he and A 'Li won the championship.
The image gradually dimmed, and the final conclusion appeared in the center of the screen. "This is a tribute to YM's victory in the 2017 International Finals."
"Tsk," Su Cheng commented sourly after watching the entire video. "What are you two doing?"
"When you went to Fist's headquarters, you two didn't perform such an awkward movement of returning to the city on the spot, right?"
Lin Yan quickly denied. "How could that be? Little Rascal and I suggested that we take a picture of the two of us when we returned to the city, but Fist vetoed it. They only proposed this plan."
In the group chat of YM's competition training department, several members had seen the promotional video of the champion's skin. At this time, they were chatting enthusiastically.
Yuki Judai: [Bro, the special effect of this skin is average. Brother Ran's fox is cuter. It's just that the movement of returning to the city is awkward, right?]
Lin Weixiang sent a "I came here first" emoji pack. Obviously, he was very dissatisfied with Jack and Liu Qingsong's Charlot skin.
Honest Jin Gong sent two red packets in the group. He felt that Qing Gang Yin's skin was very much to his liking. He didn't care about other people's thoughts. When he chose Camille, the Xiba people didn't think about increasing sales.
After all, everyone knew that Qing Gang Yin only had the source code for the skin.
Phyllostachys Pubescens was quite happy. He bullied the water dispenser administrator Lin Weixiang in the group. He stored a bunch of strange pictures in his mobile phone, which came in handy.
At the same time, the discussion about YM's champion's skin in the major e-sports forums continued to surge.
[I'm going to blow up this fox's skin!]
[Although it's so tightly dressed, it's much more beautiful than the idol singer who exposed her legs.]
[Why do I feel that this fox looks like Iris?
Dark red hair, little yellow duck, and witch costume?
All the essentials are complete.]
[This witch costume is domestic, and it's different from Japan … But it doesn't prevent me from scolding Jiangnan's old thieves.]
[We have to kill a wave of Jiangnan's old thieves here, right?]
[Champion Naughty Fox doesn't want to make a move?
Brother Ran's signature is really good. YM is unique.]
It was worth mentioning that for this champion's skin, Fist specially arranged for the players' signature version. The whole process of them signing their IDs was recorded in the movement of returning to the city. It was also a memorable innovation.
Because of the short time, the players did not have time to practice more, and they submitted their signatures to Fist.
When the champion's skin came out, all the audience could see the gap.
Xiao Tian's signature was the most standard. Although it was not particularly outstanding, it was not ugly. Jin Gong and Liu Qingsong's combined signatures looked quite good.
Lin Weixiang's signature was more complicated. The three letters LWX were not beautiful when they were signed separately. He also chose to combine the letters LW in one go, and the last one was a success.
But inexplicably, his signature was not as smooth as Kawasaki's. It was even worse than the team's starter, Jack Edisi. Although Shiba Inu's signature was rigid, the letter arrangement was very compact, and the whole signature looked very tall and straight.
According to Jack Edisi's words, even the champion's AD had a gap.
Lin Yan's signature was also much more mellow and mature. His R wrapped around the letters A and N, and there was even a small flame at the end. It looked very pleasing to the eye.
"My signature, oh … it's a little handsome." Lin Yan was very pleased.
"That's enough." Su Cheng rolled her eyes at him and applied toner on her face. "Quickly turn off the lights and go to sleep. You still have to go back to the base tomorrow."
…
The physical examination report would only be out after 12 days, and the champion's skin had not been officially released yet. The livestream that they had agreed on with Winston had to wait until the end of the spring competition.
Lin Yan ended his vacation and returned to the base to train with his team members. He first studied his opponents for the playoffs.
At this time, the spring competition was reignited, and the first match was between WE and RNG.
This season, the Red and White Army's performance was rather average. Brother-in-law, who had dyed his hair, was in a bad condition. Kandi became more and more addicted to fighting, and the dark circles under her eyes were comparable to that of a panda. Even 957, who had always been elegant and easy-going, was in a bad condition.
When White Crescent went up for BP, he was depressed. He had originally thought that he had found a rather good job after leaving YM, and that there was still hope for him to fight for another year in the international competition with this group of team members.
However, he had never expected that the strength of his team members would deteriorate so quickly.
Age became the biggest problem that limited WE 2.0.
95725 years old. Kandi, Ben, and Brother-in-law were all 23 years old. Xi Ye, who had been in the WE club since he was a child, was the youngest among them, only 21 years old.
Time was merciless, and it had left indelible marks on them, who had been in the League of Legends for many years.
Different from Dota, League of Legends had an extremely strict age requirement. This caused LOL players to have the lowest average age in the entire esports circle.
Reaction speed, understanding ability, adaptability to new versions … these burdens created unparalleled pressure on the veterans.
In the same version of the hero, a 17 year old player dared to compete after practicing 20 games, relying on his super reaction speed and skill level to perform well. A 23 year old veteran might not be able to achieve this effect even if he practiced 50 games in a night.
Fist's frequent version updates, while increasing their competitiveness, were also overdrafting the careers of these veterans. With every version update, they had to adapt to new strong heroes, new systems, and new tactics.
Even the famous champions, Marin and Bengi, who were popular in the esports circle, were not particularly old in their last championship year. Big Head Ma won S5 at the age of 24, and Dumb Chicken at the age of 22.
After that, although they still shone brightly in the League, they did not win any international or league titles. Even entering the playoffs became an extravagant hope. Dumb Chicken even led VG to the second level of the league.
The characteristics of the game were one thing, but the competition system of the esports platform also excluded veterans.
A very typical example. League of Legends was one of the few esports competitions in the world that could establish a league system, and Dota was a standard cup competition.
Regardless of which was better or worse between the two competition systems, just based on the requirements for the players, the league required more stability from the players and teams due to the long span of time and the change of versions.
On the other hand, the cup competition only played one version, and the time was much shorter. It also had an elimination attribute. Whoever could find and adapt to the version first would be the final winner. This competition system pursued the depth of understanding of the version.
It was obvious that the league was more suitable for new players because the cost of trial and error was low, the competition system was extremely long, and there were many opportunities to improve.
On the other hand, the cup competition was more suitable for veterans. They were very strong in studying a single version within a set time, and their understanding of the game would crush the newcomers.
The LOL esports competition implemented the league system in the division, and the cup system in the international competition was implemented. It was a combination of the two.
However, the problem was that in order to be able to play in large-scale cup competitions like the S World Championship and MSI Mid-Season Championship, you first had to stand out in the league in your division.
This naturally led to the professional teams of League of Legends placing more emphasis on nurturing the newcomers.
Now, the youth training of the professional teams didn't even need the 18 year old kids from the year 2000. The age limit was lowered to the year 2002 or even 2003 in order to fight for the future.
Although veterans were experienced and their mentality and performance were more stable, it was easy for them to be destroyed by the changes of the version in the long league.
Veterans who were like fish in water in the previous version would immediately fall into a period of pain once their heroes were nerfed. It was very likely that they wouldn't be able to recover from the setback.
And now, the WE team led by White Crescent was being tortured by the problem of age.
Although LOL had entered cup competition mode since the playoffs, everyone only played the version 8.6. Logically speaking, it was more advantageous for the older team like WE, but the mentality of the previous players had already collapsed.
They couldn't understand how they could fall from the level of the S7 World Championship to the edge of the playoffs in an instant.
The problem was that the players could feel that either the coaching team was dragging them down, or that they had simply become noobs.
The WE team members could only find the reason from themselves. They couldn't find a reason to push the blame. This was very difficult for most people to accept.
And White Crescent wasn't a coach who was good at enlightening the players. Although he was very good at turning a bunch of bad cards into an above average level, that was all he could do.
It was simply impossible for him to take WE further.
0: 3, the red and white team WE was cleanly swept out of the S7 World Championship by their good brother RNG.
White Crescent, who was sitting on the sofa in the backstage lounge, helplessly held his forehead as he watched his team members being brutally beaten by RNG.
He had to think of a way to deal with this during the off-season. Otherwise, WE 2.0 might not be able to enter the World Championship this year.
And on the second day of the playoffs, TOP faced BLG.
It was worth mentioning that BLG changed their midlaner in the second half of the spring season.
Mole, nicknamed Little Northeast, entered the professional scene. This rising star showed amazing talent in the second half of the regular season. He could be called the rising star of the LPL midlaner unit.
But in front of Zhuo Ding, Little Northeast's performance was quite average. It could even be said that he was terrible.
The ADC tester Golden Horn didn't have an advantage against Old Dream and ppgod. The top laner AJ couldn't gain an advantage against Snorlax Zoom even after using all his strength. He was even killed once because he was too aggressive.
"Congratulations to TOP!
You defeated BLG with a 3: 1 and successfully advanced to the top six of the spring season! "
Lin Yan wasn't surprised by this result. TOP wasn't weak this spring. But for Zhuo Ding and this team, the challenge was still to come.
Three days later, TOP challenged RW.
RW acted out of the norm. Hanyi didn't choose the blue team, which was the most popular in the version. Instead, he chose to attack the red team.
The whole BP concept wasn't complicated. The red team chose the counter position for Doinb so that he could get the hero he wanted to suppress Zhuo Ding.
The team's strategy leaned towards a four and two.
Hanyi copied the system he implemented in YM to RW.
The top laner was called Little Jin Gong. Other than the Smile of Light, he also had a skill in resisting pressure. After all, he had also honed it in EDG.
The jungler was only a turtle's head away from Xiao Tian. It could be said that he was a high imitation of Putian.
The mid laner, Doinb, used to be an old dean. Now, his roaming ability was quite developed.
Other than the hero pool, the mechanics, the support roaming ability, and the commanding ability in team battles … and the fact that he didn't know Zoe, Doinb was already comparable to Lin Yan.
The bottom laner, Asura + Prophet, this duo's performance was quite good. Although Prophet didn't have such strong roaming ability and a big chrysanthemum view, he was still considered average.
It could be said that Zhuo Ding was facing another S6 version of YM.
"Is Brother Han playing YM's copy?"
Jack poured the remains of Crispy Noodles Raccoon into his mouth and lay on the chair in an extremely domineering and cool posture.
This BO5 would determine YM's opponent in the semi-finals, so the training department attached great importance to it. After several players finished the training match, Red Rice directly projected the live broadcast of the match on the screen in the middle of the training room. The entire training department was watching.
It had to be said that the match was quite close. In the first game, the economic gap between the two sides was only about 2K until the 25th minute. Under the premise that each side had a dragon, it could almost be said to be a tie.
However, in the 28-minute Dragon team battle, Zoom Demon God's Descent, Time + Zhongya + Landry's Torture, and the three-piece Raven set completely destroyed RW!
After the match, Ah Guang put on a painful mask. His captain was suppressed from the beginning to the end. If it weren't for the other players' advantage, RW probably wouldn't have lasted until the 28-minute mark.
"Why are they all playing Captain?" Shiba Inu shook his hind legs. "They don't really think they're as strong as Jin Gong … right, Brother Xiba?"
This sentence made Jin Gong feel comfortable. Jack looked at Jin Gong's smile and knew that tonight's fried rice supper was settled.
Hanyi also realized this problem.
Not every top laner was called Building Block Tribute. Playing Captain and Jungler could still deal damage in the mid-game.
He quickly changed his strategy and played Ah Guang's Ancestral Big Tree.
"But this way, RW's Four Bets will be difficult to execute." Gouba, who was watching the live broadcast of the match, was quite dissatisfied with Hanyi's BP.
Red Rice crossed his legs and drank coffee. He nodded in agreement with his analyst's opinion.
"Why?"
Xiao Tian played the role of a curious child. "Because they chose Big Tree, will Sorrow be released and lead TOP's entire tactical focus to tilt downwards?"
"That's one of the reasons." Gouba had a good relationship with his team members after the spring tournament. He was lively in front of acquaintances. "There's another, more important reason."
"Doinb's hero pool is very strange."
During the short break between the regular season and the playoffs, Gouba didn't rest. He fully displayed his dedication to his job and stayed in the YM Club to analyze the data of each imaginary opponent.
Speaking of Doinb, Gouba had all kinds of data at his fingertips.
"He's very good at mid to late game core heroes like Victor, Ryze, and Kassadin. He's also very good at mid to late game heroes like Titan and Rambo who tend to push and wander."
"But there's one thing." Gouba took the opportunity to chat with his teammates before the second game began. "He doesn't play the support type of mage who doesn't have the first move."
After this, everyone, including Lin Yan, fell into deep thought. They tried to search their memories of RW and Doinb.
In the end, they found that it was true.
Gouba took in everyone's thoughtful expressions and continued, "The iconic hero is Rock Sparrow. Talia is also an extreme wander support hero, but she's more like a secondary control character for the team after her teammates force out the summoner's skills.
"This hero isn't difficult to control. Just like cards, as long as you understand the concept of 'support', you can get the hang of it quite quickly.
"But Doinb has only used Talia once in his career. Unfortunately, he lost that game."
Red Rice had a look of approval on his face. He mumbled a bunch of Korean to Jiang Chenglu.
"Your data analysis is very thorough. If we add Zooey, it's like we've grasped two of RW's weaknesses," Jiang Chenglu translated honestly. "I feel that if we face RW in the semifinals, we won't need to prepare at all."
When the players heard this, they understood why RW wasn't able to go for a 4/2.
It was still the same reason. In League of Legends, due to the existence of balance, it was impossible to have a hero with both late game damage and stable control.
Take cards for example. In the early game, yellow cards were stable, but in the mid to late game, Drizzt would be quite weak without a passive and a big move.
On the other hand, Doinb was used to using Mages and Warriors who had control and the ability to enter the game, which led to such heroes not having high damage output in the late game.
If Ah Guang chose a tank for the top laner, the pressure of damage output would be all on the jungler and the ADC Asura.
Among them, the jungler was still Ah Dou who couldn't be helped. With his limited personal ability, it was useless for him to use an output type jungler.
In the end, RW's lineup could easily evolve into a 4/1 Asura.
In the second round of BP, Hanyi also saw the signs. In the end, he could only wind up Doinb and try to drag the late game.
The result was exactly what TOP wanted.
They were afraid that RW would go for a 4/2. As long as Doinb stayed in the mid lane and didn't move, Zhuo Ding could try to suppress him with his personal ability.
In the end, Zoom's Qing Gang Ying stood up again. He single-handedly pushed RW's bottom lane Crystal. Then, TOP took advantage of the super soldier advantage in the bottom lane to switch to the Dragon's pit and force RW to fight.
In the end, after 33 minutes of fierce fighting, TOP won again.
"Today, RW is in a bad state, and TOP is only one step away from the semifinals. They are very likely to rewrite their club's highest score in history!" Zeyuan said.
The moment he opened his mouth, it directly affected the situation.
Trailing 0: 2, RW calmly fought back. Doinb was also a person who had been through storms and waves, so his mentality was relatively calm.
In this game, Hanyi implemented Mouse's BP idea of using an output hero and let Doinb choose the meat tank Cheyenne to lead the rhythm.
In only 25 minutes, TOP fell at the feet of Cheyenne, who was crazily pushing the line.
In the fourth game, RW repeated the same trick and continued to mid lane Cheyenne. It was an autistic style, running away after pushing the line and not facing the opponent.
This made Zhuo Ding's face red, but there was no other way. Sindra's set of skills couldn't beat Cheyenne.
At 35 minutes, Doinb teleported behind and used a big move to drive into TOP's two tanks, destroying the game in an instant!
After being chased for two games in a row, TOP, who originally had a great advantage, lost their minds.
Although Bobby banned Cheyenne, Doinb took out a single Lulu and continued to play in an autistic style. He didn't face Zhuo Ding directly and went to roam after pushing the minions.
It was really disgusting!
Zhuo Ding was helpless. Although he had evolved some roaming skills, he was still some distance away from mastering them. He was still not as good as Doinb.
"3: 2!" Zeyuan shouted, "We have witnessed the first game in this year's Spring Competition where two players chase three players!"
"RW's journey as a thief continues. In two days, they will face the defending champion YM!"