Everyone fell silent when they heard that.
Lin Yan was the first to speak. "… Can you translate it properly?"
Red Rice would never say something like 'the big one is coming'. Jiang Chenglu must have added that in his translation.
Jiang Chenglu laughed awkwardly and gestured for Red Rice to continue.
"Let's talk about the changes to the heroes first …" Red Rice was very worried. He had read all the changes as soon as the beta server was released, and the reality was indeed more serious than he had imagined. "I've made a PowerPoint presentation. Take a look at it."
He projected the computer screen in front of everyone.
"The first one to bear the brunt of it is the new Swordsister who shined in the mid-season competition," Red Rice said while Jiang Chenglu translated. "Due to her strong performance, the designer team did not hesitate to make a move on Irelia."
Lin Yan was used to it.
What a joke. Although Chun Li, the culprit behind the crazy weakening of Swordsister, had left, this concept was deeply rooted in the minds of the designer team.
Eating, sleeping, and dealing with Swordsister was a designer's daily life.
The players were already used to it.
"I've taken a screenshot of Swordsister's specific update. You can take a look …"
Red Rice clicked the mouse and made the slide jump back by one page.
Lin Yan opened the Fanta that he took out from the fridge. Carbonated gas gushed out and made a soft sizzling sound.
He stared at the slide for a while. This time, Swordsister's changes were quite large.
First, there was the passive [Ionian Zeal]. In the current version, Swordsister provided an AP attribute bonus damage for every stack. After four stacks, she would receive a buff that increased her attack speed.
In the test server, Swordsister's passive increased her attack speed for every stack. After five stacks, she would receive bonus damage for a normal attack. It was equivalent to reversing the two attributes.
"The key is that the passive increased the upper limit by one stack." Lin Yan frowned. "Which genius designer came up with this idea …"
Lin Weixiang also chimed in. "The paratroopers were changed. Originally, when the three melee soldiers in the first wave were all critically injured, the three Q's would kill the minions, and the hero would receive a full passive. They could cross the line of soldiers and chase after them. After the change, the passive wasn't full. Isn't this disgusting?"
He could be considered Saber Sister's brother, so his opinion on this matter was clear and logical.
"It's because she was too strong in her previous level that we had to nerf her," Red Rice said. "Back then, when I went out with the Corruption Potion, even a Tank Warrior couldn't win against Swordmaiden, let alone a Mage in the middle lane."
He used the laser pointer to draw a circle on W's [Volley Dance]. "Furthermore, W's damage reduction only applies to physical damage. It's obvious that they don't want Dagger Sis to continue dominating the middle lane."
Since the mid-season matches, Irelia's dominance in the middle lane was obvious to everyone.
From Zooey to Enchantress to the other sorcerers, none of them were a match for Knife Girl.
Heroes with displacement abilities were still fine. As long as they dodged the E [Twin Winged Blades] and the R [Vanguard Blade], they would be able to keep their lives. As for traditional Mages without displacement abilities, as long as they were outside the range of the Defense Tower, they would have to use Flash once. If they were stunned a second time, they could only wait for death.
Even the mid laner Swordfiend, who was agitated by Lin Yan, was countered by Knife Girl. Once Atokus fought Irelia face to face, he had no chance of winning.
With Knife Girl's overly agile body and powerful early game combat ability, other than Happyboy who could deal with her, there was almost no natural enemy in the middle lane.
Now that the damage reduction of Volley Dance had been reduced, the Mages at least had some ability to fight back against Irelia.
"But isn't the nerf a little too harsh?"
Lin Yan saw the final change to the R [Vanguard Blade] and finally couldn't help but say, "They don't want Knife Girl to play at all!"
Originally, when the Blade Will was thrown at the enemy hero, the blade wall formed would have a disarm effect. As long as the enemy hero passed through it, they would not be able to use normal attacks or special effects.
Irelia's body was relatively fragile, and she had to rely on her face to deal damage. Her team battle ability was not considered strong in a casual game where teamwork and communication were not smooth. In a professional game, if there was no huge economic advantage, a frontal attack to the back row would be suicide. If the opponent controlled the damage and poured it in, Knife Girl would not even have the ability to resist and would instantly melt and die.
Previously, by relying on the disarm effect of the R [Vanguard Blade] and the W [Volley Dance], she could avoid a lot of damage and barely survive in a team battle.
If this change to the test server was implemented, Knife Girl's position in the professional game would plummet. Lin Yan was anxious.
Red Rice heard his mid laner's slightly anxious words and felt helpless. "Now, Fists is a little crazy. Once the strategy used by our YM is effective, it's a direct hit."
At this point, he clicked the mouse again and cut the slide back by one page.
"For example, the mid laner Parker you used before has been weakened in today's test server changes. Q [Bone Piercing Spike]'s instant release no longer deals AoE damage, and the passive [Luck of Drowning]'s HP recovery percentage has been reduced."
The Water Demon Parker projected on the screen still looked fierce and powerful, but when Lin Yan saw the series of changes, he knew that he had no chance of hitting the unit.
In the next image that Red Rice changed, Rock Sparrow was also hit. The passive [Floating Stone Rush]'s movement speed bonus was cut, and Q [Stone Penetration]'s early cooldown was increased by two seconds.
Phyllostachys Pubescens spread out his hands, his face full of grief and indignation. "How are we going to play if this continues?"
Fighting Rock Sparrow was the first time he used it, but after that, it was not used frequently in YM's lineup. The main reason was that the team needed Mongoose to lead the rhythm in the early game. It was a little late to wait for Talia to show her strength at level 6.
There was no way Fists did not know this information.
Even so, the design team did not let go of Little Sparrow, who was flying against the wind. This hit basically made her bid farewell to the ranks of the T1 junglers.
After all, in the professional arena, two of the most important early game abilities of junglers — mobility and farming efficiency — were weakened. This hero's priority naturally fell.
Lin Yan saw Rock Sparrow's passive attack and suddenly had a premonition. "… Sword Demon won't be weakened too, right?"
Red Rice nodded, and Jiang Chenglu began to translate again.
"Congratulations, you guessed right, but there's no reward."
The next slide was Yatokus's changes.
In addition to the 30 HP reduction, Q's [Dark Blade]'s damage percentage to minions was also reduced from 65-100% to 50-100% based on the level.
"This is the early lane pushing speed of Sword Demon," Lin Yan analyzed calmly with his hand on his forehead. "Fists wants to weaken his strength in the middle lane."
In the newly reworked version, Yatokus's lane pushing ability was simply abnormal to the extreme. As long as the three Q skills hit the edge of the blade, no hero in the entire League of Legends could push the lane faster than him.
In Summoner's Canyon, the middle lane had the highest requirement of lane control among the three lanes.
Because the middle lane had the strongest influence on the overall situation, whether or not one could control the lane control directly affected the speed of jungle reinforcements. It was also closely related to whether or not the jungler could safely develop and invade.
And Sword Demon, who had not been weakened, undoubtedly had this ability.
Moreover, Yatokus's passive skills had lifesteal regeneration, and he himself was a hero with no mana bar. He could easily use his health to trade lane control in the middle lane.
There was nothing wrong with stabbing him with a knife now.
However, when he saw the next change, Lin Yan could not keep calm.
"… Cancel the charging mechanism of E [Shadow Charge]?
Are you serious? "
He was full of profanities and did not know if he should say them.
Red Rice obviously would not, and there was no need to lie to him.
"Now the cooldown time of Shadow Charge has been greatly reduced, but after the charging is canceled, it will be difficult to use the E skill twice during Q [Dark Blade]'s early game."
This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of Sword Demon's early game combo attacks by several levels.
Originally, after Shadow Charge was charged twice, Q1E + W + Q2 + Q3E and a passive [Death-Granting Blade Energy], this set of damage in the early game could completely kill the weak, but now it was not possible.
"Good job!"
Shiba Inu was still clapping his hands and cheering. "Quickly remove the strength of the mid and top lanes, or else Edisi will not be able to play!"
Lin Yan mercilessly poured cold water on him. "Give up. Do you think that by removing these solo lane heroes, the strength of the bottom lane will be restored?
Dream on! "
"Ran is right." Red Rice agreed with Lin Yan. "These hero nerfs will not affect the focus of the game at all. The influence of the top lane on the overall situation will not be eliminated."
"With Sword Demon and Swordsister weakened, Zooey and Little Temptress may be the ones to rise. The changes to the heroes with fists are nothing more than changes to the top lane's food chain and strong characters. It has nothing to do with the bottom lane."
"As long as the two key resources, River Crab and Canyon Vanguard, are not changed, the top lane's dominance will not be shaken."
Red Rice adjusted his glasses. "In fact, from the looks of it, the general direction of the S8 version has been set. The top lane is the most important. The archer is currently a pendant. Whether it can become a qualified C position again is still up for discussion …"
It had to be said that after the failed version changes last year, Fist had learned a lot this year.
YM used to focus on the Nakano Combo and the bottom lane, but now they were trying to shift the focus of the situation to the top lane. It was obvious that they wanted to use Jin Gong, who had not participated in the early game, as a breakthrough point.
Other than that, they were constantly nerfing the heroes and strategies used by YM to reduce their strength through this method.
This was the most reliable way to nerf them. S7's strange Burning Censer trick would not affect the designer's nerf plan.
"Fist is targeting us too much. Every slash is aimed at our vitals!"
Liu Qingsong was also very unhappy. Now that the support positioning had been changed, it was very awkward for him to play.
The hero changes in Red Rice's powerpoint came to an end. Everyone present could see that Fist's changes this time were crazy.
Originally, the designer had only made some minor adjustments to YM's tactics. Only heroes that were too strong would receive a nerf package.
Now it was clear that they were targeting YM. As long as you used any hero well, they would give you a slash.
After this round of nerfs, all of YM's tactical reserves in the early stages of the summer competition were useless.
"How many practice matches do we need to practice a set of tactical systems to achieve a prototype? Fist can easily change a few lines of code. How many days of hard work will go down the drain!"
Even if five Lin Yan came over, they would not be able to withstand it. The speed of practice and analysis would never be faster than the speed of change.
This was the biggest problem YM faced.
Thinking of this, everyone in the training room fell into anxious contemplation.
They were thinking about how many tactics and heroes they were good at to be able to withstand Fist's nerfs.
Red Rice stood in the center, taking in the reactions of his teammates. He scratched his head in slight distress.
He and Gou Ba looked at each other. The panic they felt when they saw the changes to the test uniforms this evening came back to them.
In terms of work experience and experience, the two of them were much better than the six YM players.
However, this situation was also their knowledge blind spot.
In the S4 season, Red Rice had followed Edgar and brought Samsung White to the top of the international stage. However, this short-lived team was disbanded before they could even make a move. All five members of the team had gone to LPL in search of high-paying jobs, and the designer's plans for SSW had been terminated before they could even be released.
In the following years, Red Rice's results in LPL were not bad. As a coach, he was outstanding. However, the teams he chose to join were not top teams. Even WE, who had the best results, did not make it to the finals of the world championship.
This kind of result naturally would not attract Fist's continuous nerfs.
The same was true for Gou Ba. The strongest team he had played for over the years was RNG. However, S7's RNG relied on the Hunger Strike playstyle. They were one of the beneficiaries of the patch and were not targeted at all.
All in all, although the two members of the YM coaching team were quite capable, this kind of terrifying continuous weakening was unprecedented.
Guo Hao, who had been sitting in the corner since the start of the meeting, suddenly cleared his throat.
"Um … Let me say a few words."
The already quiet YM training room was now filled with only Guo Hao's voice echoing in it.
"This isn't the first time Fist has been targeting us." He stood up so that everyone could see him. "This time, it's a lot stronger than before.
"We've already won the championship twice in a row. This road is getting harder and harder. I think everyone knows that every year's season is like a tall mountain, and only the person who climbs to the top can win the Summoner's Trophy."
"Two years ago, YM climbed this mountain very smoothly. In 2016, the audience's attention was focused on SKT and ROX. The team only managed to win two sets of BO5s. In 2017, YM had a very high starting point. Whether it was the team's teamwork or individual strength, they were very strong. Fist's several changes were not able to stop us. In the world championship, we easily won the championship …"
Guo Hao's voice was very persuasive. His eloquence was much higher than the average esports player. In the past two years, he had used his silver tongue to coax countless high-priced sponsorship contracts.
"We should be prepared. S8 will definitely be the most difficult year for YM to defend their title. There will be countless difficulties and obstacles. Now, a huge rock has suddenly been placed on our fist — it is this collective nerf that is blocking our path to the top of the mountain."
Guo Hao guided them patiently. "But in reality, it's not a big deal. Because of the accumulation from the past two years, everyone's climbing speed is fast enough. Our progress and climbing experience are far ahead of the other teams by a large margin.
"Perhaps our climbing speed this year will not be as fast as last year, but there's no need to be too impatient. Climbing to the top of the mountain to win is not about reaching the finish line as fast as possible." He paused here and looked at the players who were deep in thought. "As long as we're faster than the other teams, YM will win.
"There's still three months until the world championship. We have plenty of time to deal with this rock."
With that last sentence, Lin Yan was also reflecting on himself.
The team had set the tone too high. Winning the championship was already here.
The players seemed to still be immersed in the unparalleled glory of 15 wins and 0 losses in the S7 World Championship. Even their expectations of themselves were becoming stricter.
Having high expectations was not a bad thing, but sometimes, having high expectations would only become a burden.
It was already not easy to be one step ahead of the other teams to reach the top of the mountain under the immense pressure of Fist. Why did they have to be so far ahead of the other teams?
The other YM players also came to their senses. Their slightly shaken hearts became much more firm in an instant.
Red Mi, who was listening to Jiang Chenglu's translation, let out a long sigh.
During the transfer period after the end of the S7 season, he had experienced Guo Hao's ability. This guy's skill in the youth training lottery was average, but he was very willing to spend money. He had a strong drive and was good with words.
To a certain extent, he and Jack were the same kind of people. They were both good at motivating others.
"Next, we're going to replay the Intercontinental Championship final match between YM and SKT." Gouba opened the video.
Red Mi sipped a mouthful of strong tea. "Let's not talk about above average for this match …"
"We'll focus on the bottom lane."
…
The crisp sound of the bell filled every inch of the classroom through the loudspeaker.
"Stop writing, stop writing!" The teacher standing on the podium shouted. "No more questions!"
The sound of papers being flipped could be heard in the classroom. The invigilator sitting at the back quickly collected everyone's papers and calculations.
Su Cheng closed her Bailo pen. Her gaze swept across her paper, and then she let the teacher take it away.
After the two invigilators finished checking the papers, they signaled for all the candidates to leave the classroom.
"Cheng, how did you do in the exam?" Si Jiayan ran over to him.
"It was okay. I wasn't sure about the last question of the second last major question."
Su Cheng's answer seemed ambiguous, but Si Jiayan was overjoyed.
Last time, when she had asked her roommate how many marks she had gotten, Su Cheng had also said that she wasn't sure about the answer to the fill-in-the-blank question.
At that time, Si Jiayan had thought that Su Cheng hadn't done well, and had comforted her for a long time.
In the end, when the results were out, Su Cheng had deducted marks for the fill-in-the-blank question.
From then on, Si Jiayan had learned her lesson.
Now that Su Cheng had said that she wasn't sure about the answer to the last minor question, it meant that there were no problems with the rest.
"Quick, check your answers with me!" Her eyes lit up as she hurriedly asked.
Whether or not she could pass the Real Variable Functions exam was very important to Si Jiayan. If she failed, her GPA this year would be very bad. At that time, her postgraduate studies would be in danger.
Su Cheng went to the front of the podium and took her backpack. While stuffing her pencil case and cup of water into it, she checked her answers with her roommate.
The classroom was bustling with people. The students who had just finished their exams were very excited. A few boys were discussing the strength of the World Cup semi-finals.
"Phew … I'm steady!"
Si Jiayan had checked three uncertain questions in a row. She felt that she had a chance of passing, and her smile was as bright as the sun.
"How about you sleep in the dorm tonight?" She intimately held onto Su Cheng's arm and invited her to stay for the night.
Su Cheng considered for a moment, "… That's fine. Tomorrow, do you want to accompany me to look at houses?"
Her current rental contract was going to expire at the end of July. Su Cheng wanted to find another place to stay in Tongji Bei Park.
Fortunately, there were a lot of houses in the district. She easily found three or four houses.
The main reason was that the houses there weren't easy to sell. Many locals who had a few houses in their hands chose to rent them out to students from nearby universities.
"Let's go eat barbecue tonight. The four of us can have a good gathering!"
Although the other two roommates had different habits and hobbies, so they didn't play together, their relationship could be considered harmonious. When necessary, they would still participate in the dorm building activities.
Su Cheng gladly agreed. She planned to put her backpack back in the dorm first.
After the four of them gathered, they went straight to Central International, which was near Jiangwan Stadium.
The whole journey was only a little more than a kilometer. If they walked there, it would only take 20 minutes.
On the way, they chatted and laughed. University life after the exams were over was wonderful. It was relaxing and comfortable.
When they passed by the bus stop, Si Jiayan suddenly saw LPL's advertisement on the billboard.
"Cheng Zi, look, it's your boyfriend!" She seemed to have discovered a new continent.
Su Cheng's attention was attracted by the advertisement. She and her two roommates were discussing the specialization in the fall.
She turned her head to look. Lin Yan's bust in the team uniform took up most of the space on the billboard. He still looked handsome even after being magnified several times. Below him was the LPL ticket window and the location to watch the competition.
Su Cheng jogged over. She turned on the camera on her phone so that she was in the same frame as her boyfriend in the billboard. Then she pressed the shutter button.
She had been studying for exams recently. When she saw the LPL advertisement, she remembered that there was an YM competition today.
She went to a barbecue restaurant called "Mutton Skewers from a Long Time Ago" on the fourth floor of the Central International building. After sitting down, Su Cheng hurriedly opened the live broadcast room.
The time was just right.
"Welcome back to the 2018 League of Legends Summer Season Tournament!" A familiar voice appeared again. "Hello everyone, I'm Remember!"
"Hello everyone, I'm Ze Yuan."
After the two commentators introduced themselves and the advertisement, they brought the topic back on track.
"Today is also the first appearance of the four LPL teams after the end of the Intercontinental Championship. Earlier, IG crushed their former rival, WE. The recent situation of this ancient powerhouse team is indeed not optimistic. After several personnel changes, their record is still hovering around the middle of the League of Legends!"
It had to be said that Red Mi was a little evil.
After leaving VG and WE, the results of his old teams in the coming year all fell off a cliff.
Some people said that he could see the upper limit of a team. If he felt that there was no value in training them, he would immediately leave.
Some people said that he was just lucky to be at the peak of his team's career.
The benevolent see benevolence, and the wise see wisdom.
However, the changes that Red Mi brought to the team were obvious to all.
"In the upcoming match, RW Team, who shone brightly in the Intercontinental Championship, will be facing off against YM, the overlord of the league!"
As soon as Ze Yuan finished speaking, the BP panel appeared in front of Su Cheng's eyes!