It was close to 8: 30 PM, and the audience was still waiting at the venue to watch YM's match.
The number of viewers in the online live-stream had been at its peak for a while. Winston and Bobby felt that their performance for the second half of the year was off to a good start.
There was a reason why YM and KZ were scheduled to be the last match.
These two teams were the strongest teams in the Spring Competition of the LPL and LCK divisions, and their scores had the greatest impact on the rankings. If the other teams cooperated well, YM and KZ could even determine the first place in the group and directly advance to the finals.
If this battle between the first seeds of the two divisions was moved forward, there would be no meaning in winning or losing, and the audience wouldn't be able to feel the same sense of urgency. Such an important match would only be held at the end to leave some suspense and stimulate the audience's enthusiasm.
Moreover, both teams were currently very popular. The number of fans was right there, and they were the base of the viewing data.
Although the schedule of the Intercontinental League clearly stated the time, such as RNG versus G-Rex at 3 PM, and KT versus MAD at 4 PM …
But in reality, other than the first match, the rest of the competition didn't strictly follow this schedule.
The match started at 3 PM, and RNG took 25 minutes to tie with their opponents. Were they supposed to force a break and start the next match at 4 PM?
That was impossible.
After the post-match interview on stage, the two teams for the next match were about to go on stage to prepare.
The length of the competition was uncertain, and as the matches were stacked one after another, no one knew how much difference there would be between the start of the last match of the group stages and the estimated time of the schedule.
Sometimes, the audience would watch the matches according to the schedule, but they didn't expect that the previous teams would win too quickly, causing the matches they wanted to watch to be carried out earlier. If they were unlucky, the matches would have already ended.
After all, there were only a few audience members who used the competition notification function on the live-stream platform. Those die-hard fans would often open the live-stream in advance to take a look at the progress of the match, or simply leave it there and go about their own business, waiting for the match to start before coming back to watch.
Regardless of which method they used, they would be able to increase the viewership of the live-stream. This was what Bobby and Winston wanted to see.
Not to mention the live audience. If the match between Team Africa and G-Rex was scheduled to be the last match, the remaining 110 people would already be giving them face.
By then, the three spectator stands would be empty. Not only would the contestants feel uncomfortable, but Winston and Bobby wouldn't be able to explain it either.
As long as YM was placed last, the problem would be solved.
Even if the first five matches were all Old Eight's secret hamburgers, the audience had to endure the disgust and eat them, just to wait for YM to appear on stage.
Therefore, the moment the YM contestant stepped onto the stage, a deafening roar erupted from the three stands in the distance, filling the Dalian Central Stadium. The muffled sound of the support sticks hitting the stage was drowned out by the loud cheers!
The commotion was much greater than when they faced the Lightning Wolves in the opening match. The audience had probably waited for too long and had been tortured by Team Africa and G-Rex for too long. At this moment, they finally let out all their pent-up emotions.
The YM members waved to the audience in the stands. On the other side of the stage, the KZ members had solemn expressions.
Lin Yan sat down in the contestant area. The referee had already logged into the contestant's account. The machine had been ravaged by the previous five matches, so there shouldn't be any major problems.
After making some adjustments, he accepted the invitation to enter the custom-made room.
As soon as he entered, he saw Phyllostachys Pubescens doing some work.
YMTian: [Khannideguanjunlianne?]
Khan leaned forward, trying to decipher the meaning of the text.
It had been a while since he left LPL, and it took him a while to understand — [Khan, where's your champion face?]
Khan, who understood the message, immediately panicked and typed a bunch of words. However, the server used for international competitions couldn't send Korean at all.
He sat on the chair and scratched his head, looking as if he had degenerated into a baboon.
His standard of Chinese, which he hadn't used for a long time, had plummeted. Khan could only barely understand Chinese now, and his typing vocabulary was rather poor.
Khan silently put the matter of learning Chinese on his agenda. At the same time, he deleted all the content in the chat box and replied with a question mark.
"Hahahaha." Mongoose had always been good at disgusting people. When he saw Khan's reply, he immediately laughed out loud. He even turned to look at Khan on the other side. "He's starting to act cool. That's ridiculous."
"Why are the five brothers on the other side so tense?" Jack was also a bit puzzled. He was shaking his legs and chewing gum at the same time.
"They're probably nervous. After all, it's a crucial match that will determine whether or not his brothers in the same division will fight tomorrow." Lin Yan casually voiced his guess.
Just as he said, in the backstage LCK lounge, the players and coaches of the three Korean teams gathered together and stared intently at the television screen.
The outcome of this final match was really important to them.
The schedule of the Intercontinental Championship was very tight. There were two consecutive best-of-five matches over the weekend. Whether or not they could directly advance to the finals and wait for the exhausted challengers depended on this match.
At this time, after the broadcast of Intel's "The World Is Focused on You" and Lin Yan's BMW commercial, the signal was reconnected to the commentator's seat.
"Welcome back to the live broadcast of the 2018 Asian Championship …" Remember and Zeyuan appeared in the center of the camera. The two had already commentated the two games in the second half, but they were still full of energy. "Next up is the showdown between YM and KZ!"
"Without further ado, the BP segment has begun!" Zeyuan's voice was very loud. "KZ has the blue side advantage. He first banned Hammer Stone when he came up!"
This was Liu Qingsong's signature hero. His ability to cooperate with teammates to kill over the tower or support the battlefield was very strong. KZ didn't want to release this hero.
"YM banned Yasso. This is indeed a problem …" Remember frowned. His eyes didn't stop at the game, but focused on the overall situation.
Happywind relied on the modified version of Infinity Blade. His strength as a mid laner was not low, especially after junglers like Rock Sparrow, Wine Barrel, and Qing Gang Ying began to appear in the professional scene. Yasso's position was rising day by day.
As long as he had a jungler with a knock-up ability, Happywind, who had reached level 6, would not be afraid of any jungler combination. His Gale's Breath could refresh passive shields and provide critical hits with additional armor piercing effects. He was invincible in small team battles.
It was obvious that Yasso was a headache for YM. They had to sacrifice a ban every time.
Although Lin Yan had raised Happywind's win rate to 50% in the Korean server rankings, he had never used it in an official match. Other than a few die-hard fans who said "Brother Ran will definitely be Yasso. It's all because Red Rice didn't let him use it", everyone else assumed that Lin Yan would not be this hero.
Even though Remember didn't mention this problem, Ze Yuan knew what Remember's second brother was thinking, not to mention his brain. He immediately followed the topic.
"From the looks of it, Fist has no intention of weakening Yasso until the beta version 8.14. It's estimated that he will continue to be strong for a while. The key is that he has the upper hand against popular mid laners like Swordsister and Enchantress. This is indeed a bit ridiculous."
The second ban, KZ banned Lu Xian, which led to Ze Yuan's comment.
"KZ's thinking for this game is very clear. First it was Hammer Stone, and now it's Lu Xian. They want to prevent YM from getting a strong duo!"
Head Coach Hirai was in a suit, pacing behind the players with a notebook in his hand.
He and his colleagues from the other three teams discussed for an entire afternoon and finally agreed on the BP strategy for the ending game.
That was to cut off the connection between YM's bottom laner duo and the top, middle, and jungler.
After all, YM was extremely good at working with the middle and jungler duo. They could open up the situation through sharp attacks in the early stages of the game, liberate the key rhythm points in turn, and then quickly snowball and expand the advantage to all five players.
Hirai wanted Liu Qingsong and Jack to stay in the bottom lane and play by themselves, simplifying the game into a contest between the top, middle, and jungler.
KZ was not targeting anyone. He felt that IG was the only team that was worthy of competing with him.
After seeing that YM banned Rock Sparrow, Hirai banned Law. While destroying the legendary combination of Phoenix, he also did not let Liu Qingsong get a strong hero with the ability to start a team first.
"In the end, YM restricted Qing Gang Yin." He remembered noticing that an unexpected hero was released. "Yatoku was not blocked!"
After LPL's crazy performance of Sword Demon on the first day of the game, Yatoku was firmly in the ban position in the previous five games. No team wanted to release this blood-sucking monster.
This game was an exception.
Since the other party dared to release it, Hirai had no reason not to choose. He decisively killed Sword Demon.
Red Rice returned the favor to Knife Girl and Wine Barrel, making it impossible to figure out the situation of Irelia's lane.
"KZ chose Zooey and Twilight's Eye, so the lane is basically set. Khan used Sword Demon to take the top lane, and this Shen is given to Garrella!"
Hirai's move was to steal a substitute for a ban, supporting Shen in the bottom lane. Not only did he have the first move, but he could also use the R [Secret Ultimate!
Mercy Soul Fall] to support his teammates from a distance.
"They're betting heavily on the top lane." Red Rice poked his chin with the pen in his hand. While thinking, he asked the team members, "Jin Gong, I'll give Knife Girl to you, and then we'll give Liu Qingsong Bull's Head. How about we leave the double C for last?"
Naturally, the Xiba team had no objections.
Although Sword Demon was very strong now, Knife Girl, who was previously remade, was not inferior.
Now, these two heroes were absolute supermodels. Moreover, Irelia could be considered as a counter to Yatoku. It was just that Knife Girl was strong in the middle lane, while Sword Demon was strong in the team battle.
After Lin Yan helped his teammates lock down Bull's Head, the second round of BP officially began.
Red Rice blocked Troll and Nanqiang in the jungler position, wanting to limit Little Peanut's hero pool. Hiari chose to ban Enchantress and Nightmare. Both positions were given to Lin Yan. They didn't want him to get a mid laner hero that could suppress Zooey, and they wanted to protect KZ's strength in the jungle as much as possible.
"Take Tristana first." Red Rice walked over and patted Jimukong on the shoulder. "You have to sacrifice yourself in this round."
The Xiba people sighed.
When Little Cannon was chosen, he could roughly guess that Red Rice wanted to avoid the top lane and focus the team's resources on Tristana, who was very good at pushing towers.
However, his ability to withstand pressure in the past two years allowed him to quickly adjust.
"Don't worry, leave the top lane to me!" Jin Gong patted his chest and promised.
"KZ got Verus and the jungler Olaf in the fourth and fifth picks!"
Remember glanced at the other party's lineup and couldn't help but click his tongue in praise. "With Sword Demon, Zooey, and Shen, the early and mid-laners of the three lanes are quite strong!"
"Now it's up to Brother Ran to take." Ze Yuan wasn't surprised by Liu Qingsong's selection of Lulu, so he directly ignored it and continued to speculate. "The problem is that most of the mid laners have been banned. There's basically no one who can suppress Zooey in the middle lane … Do you think it'll be the mid laner Little Cannon?"
"You don't say, it's really possible!" Remember recalled Lin Yan's performance in the mid laner Little Cannon, and couldn't help but light up.
But before he could continue to analyze, he saw Lulu's appearance change in Liu Qingsong's hero selection frame!
The purple-skinned garlic cutie had turned into a bald head!
His face was ugly and ferocious. His lower jaw had completely disappeared, revealing sharp teeth. Coupled with the cold light in his eyes, he looked chilling.
The bone-piercing nail in his right hand looked extremely sharp. From the rolling bubbles around him, it could be inferred that he was lurking at the bottom of the sea. He looked like a water ghost.
The spectators in the stands were extremely excited. This excitement completely erupted the moment Liu Qingsong locked onto the hero!
At this moment, the Dalian Central Stadium was filled with people!
"Parker?!"
Ze Yuan's eyes widened, revealing a shocked expression. The unusually obvious wrinkles on his head made him look like he had aged ten years. "How is YM going to split up?"
Remember also opened his mouth in disbelief. Fortunately, his years of commentating allowed him to speak smoothly. "This can't be Parker + Bull's Head, right?
That's … mid laner Parker! "
Hiari tilted his head.
His face was full of confusion.
This is the key game that determines the ticket to the finals. Is this how you play?
The reaction in the bullet screen was even more intense.
【？？？
Are they going to do something new again?]
[They should at least do something in the mortal world, right?
Is mid laner Parker something that humans can come up with?]
[What's wrong with mid laner Parker?
I use it all the time. Isn't it awesome to have five consecutive kills in a team battle?]
[Oh, KZ are all pigs?
They let you have five consecutive kills, right?]
In the ranking competition, the players could not achieve a high degree of cooperation. Once a weak HP was stolen by Parker, the power of the water ghost would be revealed after the refresh of the ultimate move.
In the professional arena where cooperation and coordination were at the peak, the professional players had ten thousand ways to avoid Parker's ultimate move.
Displacement skills, flash, stopwatch, resurrection armor …
It was simply a dream to have five consecutive kills.
The LPL lounge backstage was also in an uproar. They all knew how difficult Parker's situation in the professional arena was.
"What's going on?" Doinb was anxious.
He really wanted to win.
"Don't worry, don't worry." The bandit crossed his legs. With the tactical goggles on, he looked like he was strategizing. Even his voice was slow. "We have to believe in Brother Ran. He's the pride of the Chinese!"
"Every time he uses black technology, the unlucky one is always the other side. Don't worry." Mi De Hu looked calm on the surface, but his heart was filled with hatred.
He himself was the victim of those black technologies. He had been disgusted time and time again.
However, this sentence was a reassuring pill for those who were still worried about him.
Everyone realized that this was indeed the case.
Other than a few rookies, everyone had been in the league for a few years. They had also fought against YM. They were more or less afraid of being dominated by Lin Yan.
Thinking of this, they calmed down and turned to look at the KZ players under the camera with eyes full of pity.
The players present could even hear Ze Yuan and Remember's commentary on the TV screen.
"… This is the first time Blood Port Ghost Shadow has appeared as a mid in the professional arena since he entered League of Legends!"
Ze Yuan adjusted his emotions and decisively returned to his work mode. "However, I often see mid laner Parker in random matches."
Remember frowned. "But ranked matches are completely different from professional matches. Passer-by battles break out very frequently. Parker's [Hatred of the Gushing Springs] can be put to good use. He can continuously kill heroes to provide additional income for his teammates. It's different in the professional matches. The difference in bloodshed is too great!"
That was indeed the case. Even a pure team like IG could not compare to ranked matches in terms of kills per match.
The lack of battles meant that it was difficult for Parker's Hatred of the Gushing Spring to kill anyone. Once the economy of both sides could not be pulled apart, Parker's team battle environment would be very worrying in the later stages of the match.
Commentators were always like this. One played the good cop, while the other played the bad cop. Ze Yuan immediately opened his mouth.
"However, Parker's ability is very high. Brother Ran's ability is unquestionable. I think he might be able to maximize Parker's potential …"
On the LCK commentary platform next door, Madlife was still expressing his opinion.
"Let's take a look at the lineups of both sides …"
The caster had already displayed the split between the two sides on the big screen.
KZ on the blue side: top laner Sword Demon, jungler Olaf, mid laner Zooey, bottom laner Verus + Shen.
YM on the red side: top laner Swordsister, jungler Wine Barrel, mid laner Parker, bottom laner Little Pao + Bull's Head.
Madlife continued, "KZ's lineups are clearly much stronger, especially in the mid lane."
He acknowledged Lin Yan's ability, but he truly felt that Parker's choice was terrible.
"Parker's weak early laner ability is very weak. Against Zooey, it might even be difficult for him to finish her off. He might even drag down the jungler Tian … Although many mid laner heroes have been banned before, there is still Malzahar to choose from."
As an older generation esports player in LCK, he had more or less been influenced by the style of this division.
Steady.
If Crown were here, he would definitely agree with his opinion.
Wasn't this Zooey arranged by Grasshopper?
It was exciting to play Zerg with a thousand-year-old Tianshan Maiden!
Lin Ran swapped Hero from Liu Qingsong's hands and quickly changed his runes.
"YM, do your best!!"
Through the soundproof headphones, the fans in the stands could be heard shouting loudly.
With someone taking the lead, the rest of the audience instantly perked up and started cheering for the home team they supported!
Then, the few KZ fans started shouting as well.
YM's fans used their volume to crush their opponents for a minute. Suddenly, a male voice shouted:
"Old Godfather, do your best!!"
The voice was extremely loud and there was a burst of laughter in the stands.
YM's players also vaguely heard this unusual cheer.
"Why are there Old Godfather's fans here?" Xiao Tian complained with a smile.
"Nonsense," Lin Yan retorted. "They're obviously cheering for me."
The other four players were dumbfounded.
"Old Godfather = Water Ghost = Parker. Is there something wrong with that?" Lin Yan laid out his own logic.
"Let's show them the power of Water Ghost!" He was quite excited.
Jack wanted to say something, but he didn't dare say it out loud.