The moment the Crystal of OMG's base shattered, Jiang Chen jumped three feet high, took off his headphones, and hugged Lin Weixiang beside him.
Under the spotlight above the stadium, the four youth trainees hugged each other excitedly, their faces brimming with the boundless vitality of youth.
Xiaolongbao was so excited that he started shouting and yelling. He grabbed a teammate beside him and shook him with all his might.
Their expressions were as if they had just won the global finals.
"Small matter, small matter!" Big Eyebrows was puzzled by their behavior at first.
But then he remembered the excitement he felt when he won his first match in YM.
He seemed to be able to understand the thoughts of this group of young people.
"Congratulations to YM, they have won their 16th match of the regular season!"
Yu Tong was extremely shocked by the final result of this match, but she still conscientiously carried out her duties as a commentator. "Winning this match also means that YM has locked in the top spot of the western division in advance!"
Young Master Leng was numb.
In this BO3, he suppressed Jiang Chen in the middle lane, but it was still useless.
His teammates had collapsed prematurely. Other than him, there was no one else who could stand up and complete the comeback with him.
Even though there was a former champion like Lin Weixiang in this YM, it was important to note that the other four were all youth trainees!
For an LPL-level team, losing to an opponent of this level was simply unforgivable.
The audience also found it hard to believe.
When they saw the starting list yesterday, they did not have any expectations for this match. They came here today purely to watch the show.
They wanted to see what kind of good seedlings YM's youth trainees had produced.
Who would have thought that they would actually win!
[It's ridiculous. F * cking ridiculous. It's so ridiculous.]
[The youth trainees killed an LPL team. This is something I never expected.]
[My Old 59E is pissing me off. OMG, can you not mess up?
Why don't you let Young Master Leng and Little Five go? Look at the other demons and monsters. Can they play LPL?]
[Sister World was alright back then. I don't know why her standard dropped this year. Otherwise, she should have no problem playing in the youth trainees.]
[Hahahaha, YM delivered the victory to their doorstep, but OMG just didn't want it. They're really stubborn!]
In the backstage lounge, the other YM players also smiled in relief.
The results of today's competition were beyond their imagination. It was definitely an unexpected surprise.
"Not bad, not bad." Jack patted Lin Yan's shoulder. "Brother Ran, you're about one-third as good as me."
Lin Yan casually waved his hand. He glanced at his phone and saw that Su Cheng had sent him a message, informing him that he had entered the mall.
"There should be nothing left for me to do here, right?
Let's get out of here. "
"Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the mock competition," Guo Hao reminded.
Lin Yan signaled that he had heard it clearly. He picked up his bag and was about to leave.
However, a few excited youth trainees had already run backstage and grabbed him.
"Hurry up and thank Brother Ran!" Lin Weixiang said.
A few of the youth trainees thanked him sincerely.
"Don't do that." Lin Yan felt like he was some kind of club boss after being called out by this group of people in unison. He quickly said, "If you want to thank someone, thank yourselves. You guys were the ones who played the competition. I just gave you a little help."
After saying goodbye to the rookies, Lin Yan left the venue and found Su Cheng on the fifth floor of Zhengda Plaza. She was browsing through a few sports shoe and clothing brands.
"Picking out clothes?"
"The weather has been cooling recently. It's time to change some running gear." Su Cheng picked out a sports long-sleeved shirt and handed it to him. "If your body shape hasn't changed, you should be fine in this size."
Her gaze swept across a few rows of shelves. She picked out any style or color that she liked. Lin Yan was in charge of being a merciless fitting machine behind her.
In the end, the two bought a lot of things. Lin Yan carried the bags to the parking lot and put all the clothes in the trunk of the car. Then, he ran to the cinema on the eighth floor of Zhengda Plaza.
During dinner the night before, Su Cheng suddenly had the idea of going to a movie. Lin Yan thought that the two of them had not been to a cinema in a long time, so he agreed. However, when he bought the tickets, he realized that there were no good movies to watch.
The summer break was over, and the National Day holiday had not arrived. Early September was a very awkward time. There were no new movies to watch. The popular movie "I'm Not the God of Medicine" had already stopped production. The only movie that could be considered popular was "The Richest Man in Xi Hong City."
This was also an old movie that had been in theaters for a month. The two of them had just made it on the last day before production stopped. The people who should have watched it had already seen it. There were not many people in the theater, so the two of them almost booked the entire theater.
The overall comedy effect of the movie was not bad, especially when Big Genius appeared. It really made Lin Yan laugh.
"Cheng Zi, look. Doesn't this person's eyebrows look like Lin Weixiang's?"
Su Cheng was holding a bucket of popcorn. Her mouth was bulging like a little hamster. When she heard this and looked at the screen, her shoulders began to shake regularly.
She turned her head and whispered in Lin Yan's ear, "Now that you mention it, you're right … But it's only the eyebrows that are similar. The difference in their facial features is quite big."
"I feel that compared to their appearance, their demeanor and logic are the most similar."
The two of them looked at each other tacitly and laughed out loud.
Lin Ran even purposely went online to find a photo of Big Conspire and a famous scene. He posted it in the YM Competition Department's group chat, and it immediately attracted Liu Qingsong's attention. Young Master Tear began to show off his skills, photoshopping Big Conspire's quotes onto Lin Weixiang's various photos of him smiling foolishly.
Big Eyebrows was not a lamb to be slaughtered and bullied. He took out the sketch that Liu Qingsong's fans had drawn for him on the day of the EDG match. His steel needle-like bangs covered half of his face, making him look quite funny.
Lin Yan, the culprit who started the incident, did not know. He put away his phone and watched the entire movie. When the movie ended, it was already 9: 30 pm.
"What are we eating later?" Su Cheng finished the orange juice she bought from the theater counter.
Lin Yan saw that she was thirsty and handed her the remaining half bottle of orange juice in his hand.
"Hotpot or barbecue?" He did not have an idea.
"No, no, it's too late. It's not good for the body to eat these." Su Cheng immediately rejected.
Lin Yan gave up thinking. "Then what should we do?"
"Don't take the elevator. Let's go down the escalator and find a simple restaurant." Su Cheng held his arm.
Teppanyaki, Korean barbecue … She hurried past restaurant after restaurant.
"Do you want to eat noodles?" Lin Ran stared at a restaurant on the fifth floor to get some noodles.
"That's fine." His girlfriend did not raise any objections.
Lin Yan walked in and took the menu. Only then did he realize that half of the main dishes were beef noodles.
"Oh," Su Cheng raised her delicate eyebrows. "Can you eat it?"
Lin Yan shook his head like a rattle-drum. "Beef noodles definitely won't do."
It was not that he believed in superstitions, but there were several strange incidents in the history of League of Legends that had something to do with this kind of food. It was hard not to believe.
"How about we go to another restaurant?" Su Cheng got up and was about to leave.
"It's okay. Let's go to this one. It's already so late. It'll be more troublesome if we go to another restaurant … Don't they have things like mixed rice?" Lin Yan used his phone to order a braised pork rice and a soft-boiled egg.
Su Cheng was relieved and ordered a vegetable oil mixed noodles.
When the dishes were served, Lin Yan realized that the bowls in this restaurant were ridiculously big.
"This is enough to stuff two Jack's heads into." Lin Yan felt that his analogy was not exaggerated at all.
Su Cheng froze when she heard this. She lowered her head and laughed.
The two of them felt that their stomachs were about full. They took the elevator to the parking lot and drove all the way to Tongji Beiyuan.
It took them more than forty minutes to drive from the bustling Lujiazui to Yangpu District. When they arrived at the neighborhood, it was already eleven o 'clock at night.
Su Cheng wanted to buy some grapes while her boyfriend was parking the car, but she left resentfully after five minutes.
"We came back too late. The fruit store is closed." She muttered.
Seeing Lin Yan take out all the clothes and shoes he bought that afternoon from the trunk, Su Cheng hurriedly took a few to lighten his load.
The two of them carried the shopping bags in one hand and held each other tightly with the other hand as they walked slowly toward the residential building.
During this time, Su Cheng was even playful. She swung the arm that was holding her boyfriend's and raised it high in the air until it was level with her shoulder. Then, she slammed it down.
This was repeated several times, causing Lin Ran to be at a loss.
"Can't you be more mature like me?" He lectured his girlfriend.
"Tsk …" Su Cheng snorted. "I came to watch you play for the first time during winter break in 2016. At that time, I stepped on your shadow. You cooperated obediently. Now you've changed?"
The more she swung, the more energetic she became. She wanted to raise her arm to the sky.
"Okay, okay, okay …" Lin Yan didn't know what to do with her.
When the two of them walked downstairs, Su Cheng suddenly thought of something.
"By the way, did you offend my dad in the past two days?"
"What are you talking about?" Lin Yan was very dissatisfied. "I've always been on good terms with Uncle Su."
"Then why has he been saying that he wants to talk to you face to face recently? And I can tell from his tone that he's gritting his teeth."
Lin Yan frowned. He felt that something was wrong.
His curiosity made him take out his phone and open WeChat. He wanted to find out what was going on.
Lin Yan didn't dare to ask Su Hongmin directly. He always knew that if he knew his enemy, he would never be defeated. If he went to Su Cheng's father in confusion, there would be a certain gap between the two of them. It would be very disadvantageous for him.
Lin Yan happened to see that Lin Mingdong had just posted on his WeChat ten minutes ago. "Hello everyone, I'm off work." Lin Yan knew that his father hadn't gone to bed yet.
He should be the most likely person to know about it.
Coca-Cola, salty and spicy tofu pudding, sweet rice dumplings and sweet mooncakes: [Dad, what happened?]
He repeated what Su Cheng said just now.
He soon received a reply: [Nothing. It's about you and Chengzi getting married.]
Lin Yan was relieved when he saw this. He pointed his phone at his girlfriend.
"Ah, this …" Su Cheng subconsciously ran her fingers through her hair. Then, she pretended to be calm. "I thought it was something big."
Through her black hair, Lin Ran could see his girlfriend's flushed red ears.
He didn't expose her. Instead, he held Su Cheng's soft hand. "Have you thought about it?"
His girlfriend was full of thoughts, so she didn't hear Lin Yan's words clearly. She looked up and made a nasal sound. "Huh?"
"Let's get married on February 24, 2020."
Lin Yan said solemnly.
On that day, he would be 22 years old. He had just reached the legal age for marriage.
Su Cheng looked at him with her bright eyes.
The dim yellow light from the street lamps above was combined with the bright moonlight. Two long shadows were elongated on the ground.
The evening breeze of early autumn blew on the two of them. There was still some residual warmth from the summer night.
She could hear her own heartbeat, and a strange feeling spread from her chest to every corner of her body, making her feel confused and bewildered.
"… Okay."
Su Cheng made a promise.
"Let's go home!" Lin Yan hugged her and ran forward.
Su Cheng stepped forward with her slender legs and stepped on the shadow behind her boyfriend.
When she saw Lin Ran suddenly stop in his tracks, she could no longer control the smile on her face and melted her feelings into her smile.
"Hahahaha, you're so childish, Lin Yan!"
…
"Blank has been instakilled!"
Ze Yuan's loud shout came from the speakers.
On the computer screen, the players of SKT were fleeing in panic. However, they were chased by Griffin's team. One by one, they fell one step away from their own fountain.
"Griffin has taken down SKT twice this season. They're going to kick this LCK six-time champion out of the playoffs!"
Amidst Ze Yuan's excited commentary, Griffin's team and the super soldiers swarmed forward and flattened SKT's main Crystal!
The time stopped at 37 minutes and 57 seconds.
The match ended.
"In today's regular season finale, SKT was unable to break through Griffin's defense. They ended up in sixth place with a record of 9 wins and 9 losses. They're not qualified for the playoffs. This also means that their summer tournament is over!"
Hao Kai, who was beside him, also looked reluctant. "This is the first time SKT has missed the LCK playoffs since its inception. Even when S4 was in decline, they had never failed like this. The problems within the team are too big!"
On the screen, Li Xianghe lowered his head helplessly.
After the match, his Zooey had a record of 8 kills, 3 deaths, and 4 assists. However, he still couldn't lead the team to victory.
After returning from the Asian Games, Li Xianghe tried his best to lead the team into the playoffs.
He had always believed that as long as the team made it into the playoffs, SKT would still be able to show their past glory.
With a record of 9 wins and 9 losses, their winning rate was barely 50%. According to LCK's rules, only the top five teams in the league could make it into the playoffs.
SKT was only one win away from the fifth place team, Africa.
They only needed to defeat Griffin to make it into the playoffs.
The result was obvious. They didn't succeed.
SKT, the former overlord of the LCK dynasty, fell at the last step.
"Then we can only see Faker in the bubble tournament." Hao Kai's tone was regretful. "SKT only placed fourth in the spring tournament, so they didn't get many points …"
Ze Yuan continued, stating the cruelest reality. "That's right. Due to Griffin's sudden rise this summer, SKT is destined to climb up from the last step of the bubble tournament."
"They can only become the third seed if they win three consecutive BO5 matches in the bubble tournament."
If it was the pinnacle of SKT, the audience wouldn't be worried at all. They would kill anyone who stood in their way.
However, the current team gave the fans a feeling of hopelessness.
The wolf-stick duo looked at each other. In the end, they stood up and prepared to shake hands with each other without saying a word.
On the other hand, the new team, Griffin, and the others were overjoyed.
This final match was extremely important to them.
There were only ten teams in the LCK. The regular season consisted of 18 BO3 matches in a double loop. Griffin was ranked fourth with 12 wins and 5 losses. However, after defeating SKT with a score of 2-0, the Korean league became a spectacle that would last forever.
KT, Griffin, Dragon Ball, and GEN.G all had 13 wins and 5 losses.
In terms of overall points, these four teams were tied for first place.
In the end, KT was ranked first due to their small number of matches, while the new team, Griffin, was ranked second. KZ and GEN.G were ranked third and fourth respectively.
According to LCK's rules, the second place team in the regular season only needed to play two BO5 matches in the playoffs. At the very least, they could get third place.
Griffin's mid laner, Super Blue Cat, was grinning from ear to ear. In this match, he had forced Faker to stay in the middle lane, preventing his opponent from roaming around to establish an advantage.
On the other hand, the jungler, Tarzan, had single-handedly crushed SKT's Little Black.
In a sense, it was considered a success for him to stall Faker.
'So what if we don't have any points in the Spring Season?
It won't be difficult for Griffin to enter the international tournament! '
Lin Yan sat on the ergonomic chair, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at the monitor.
He knew that it would be very difficult for him to see Li Xianghe on the stage of the S8 World Championship. Unless the team suddenly went berserk, there was no chance at all.
Lin Ran had mixed feelings in his heart.
Pity, regret … but most of all, disappointment.
In all the international tournaments that he had participated in, Faker's shadow was always there.
If he did not encounter Li Xianghe in S8 this time, Lin Yan would feel uneasy.
"Lin Yan, the takeout is here, come out and eat!"
Su Cheng's voice came from outside the room.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!"
He collected his emotions, patted his butt, and ran out of the room.
…
Lin Yan spent his one-week holiday at home. Every day, he ate and slept until he was full. His days were relaxed and comfortable.
However, it was still rather boring.
After entering the third year of university, Su Cheng's workload had increased by several notches.
She had to prepare for her professional classes in advance, prepare for the exchange, TOEFL, and GRE. All of this came crashing down on her. She could only be described as extremely busy.
She could only spare some time to accompany him every night.
September 10th, the last day of the holiday.
Lin Yan returned to the YM Club.
While he was on vacation, YM sent four youth trainees and Lin Weixiang to Chongqing for a decisive battle with Team Snake.
Snake was a classic example of a strong start and a weak finish.
This was not just because they performed well in the first half of the regular season, but started to suck up in the second half.
It was the same in the game.
In the early and middle stages of the game, Snakes would often use their strong laning ability and jungling to create an advantage for themselves. However, in the middle and late stages of the game, they would start to fall ill.
At the end of the day, there were still certain problems with their operations and team battles.
However, this was exactly the same as YM's youth version.
The young trainees also typically only knew how to lane and not team battles.
The two teams engaged in a bloody battle in the early stages.
However, in the end, 369 still lost to the veteran Spear Bro.
Little Dragon Castle was also completely dominated by the Vietnamese Sofm in terms of tempo.
They could not even find a single opportunity throughout the entire game. They were crushed by Snakes in the laning phase.
The two games only took an hour before YM lost, giving them their third loss in the regular season. It also announced the end of the regular season for the team.
"Is this our lowest win rate in the regular season since the team was founded?"
Jack put his feet on the stool and swayed. This posture highlighted his domineering, cool, and arrogant attitude.
"I think so." Lin Yan was not too sure. "I remember that we lost two games in the summer of '17, right?"
This time, YM won 16 big games and lost 3 small games. Their win rate was 80.5%.
Gou Ba, who had just walked over with a stack of A4 papers, replied, "I've seen the data. It's indeed the worst regular season record in history."
He pretended to be dissatisfied. "You guys don't give us any face. Red Rice and I worked so hard, and in the end, you guys only got these results?"
"That's your problem!"
Jack laughed. "If we could train this group of young trainees to beat Snakes, wouldn't our win rate go up?"
"Are you dreaming?"
Gou Ba laughed. "It's only a week. If I could train this group of young trainees who have never played a professional game before, wouldn't my salary increase tenfold?"
Jiang Chen laughed as well. "We'll be satisfied if we can beat OMG. It's only normal if we lose …"
"If we win two games in a row, how can we still be called young trainees?"
The few of them laughed and chatted for a while. They only stopped when Red Rice entered the training room.
"It's been a week. I think everyone should have rested enough …" Red Rice placed her hands on her hips.
"If we can make it to the end of the playoffs this time, there'll probably be a week left for the holidays."
There were a total of 14 teams in the LPL. With the home-and-away system, they had to travel back and forth. Coupled with the continental competition and the Asian Games, they had wasted a lot of time. As a result, they were the last team in the five divisions to finish the regular season.
For example, in the Korean LCK league, they were already in the semifinals. Griffin and Team Africa had to fight for a ticket to the finals to face off against KT.
As for the LPL, the playoffs would only start the next day.
"Our official training match will have to wait until tomorrow night." The manager, Guo Hao, took out a stack of itineraries and handed them out. "Because tomorrow afternoon, the league will have a promotional video and promotional photo shoot for the playoffs."
Lin Yan took a look at it. He had to admit that YM was a big company now. The professionalism of the staff had also increased.
In his itinerary, he had indicated the specific time, content, and personnel in charge of contact.
Everything was arranged clearly for Lin Yan so that he could prepare in advance. He did not have to spend any extra effort and focus on training.
"Before we start the training match, I want to show everyone the general situation of Version 8.16 of the playoffs."
Red Mi was already prepared. He projected his computer screen onto the screen through the projector.
"It's worth mentioning that there aren't a lot of changes this time, and it's not targeted at us." Gouba's tone had a hint of joy. "It turns out that our Murong Fu theory of esports is quite successful."
Everyone in YM's training department laughed.
The four youth trainees did not know what to do. They did not understand why they were laughing.
However, they were afraid that they would appear unsociable, so they also laughed along.
However, their acting skills were too bad. Lin Weixiang, who was sitting next to them, immediately saw through the hypocrisy in their smiles.
Da Mei quickly explained Lin Yan's theory to them.
"I see!"
369 was shocked. "I was wondering why the team lost twice in a row. So it was Brother Ran's doing?"
Lin Yan was quite proud of himself.
Fist was indeed in a difficult position.
If they had been fooled by YM before, they would have been fooled.
When the design team saw YM's extremely strong performance in the Asian Games, they realized that they had been fooled.
As for Version 8.16, the design team had discussed many times how to weaken YM. However, in the end, they could not come up with a practical and effective method.
YM's method of giving someone a taste of their own medicine was to use other teams as a shield.
We used extreme offense in IG, and we used extreme operation in BLG.
Their attitude was very clear: if you have the ability, then go ahead.
After all, YM was not the one who got hurt in the end.
The designers were not fools. Naturally, they could guess YM's intentions.
However, the problem was that they could not solve it.
In the entire Version 8.15, YM only played the game against EDG.
The first game was a merciless crushing game. The strategy used was also very ordinary. There was no way to tell.
The second game was against the little Ice Mage.
Could it be that this strategy was changed again?
The designers thought that this strategy had not taken shape yet. They could not tell whether it was strong or weak in just one or two games.
Therefore, they did not make any moves. They only made some minor adjustments to the version.
Anyway, they were using Version 8.19 this time, so they had three chances to make adjustments.
Red Mi first showed the first change to the team members.
"Akali bore the brunt of this version and was slashed several times."
This OP hero had reached the epic level in Version 8.15, having a 100% BP rate.
This was the treatment that only S7 Callista and S6 World Leopard Girl had.
This kind of ridiculously strong hero, their fists naturally wouldn't let her be arrogant for long.
"The main thing that was weakened this time was the W Cloud Array. The blocking effect against towers has been cut off."
"Good slash!"
Jack said, "This thing really is disgusting. She can even jump over your tower with full health, there's no gaming experience at all!"
It could be said that the one who started this nerf was Lin Yan.
He had used Akali for the first time in the Asian Games. He had made Fengtang's Malzahar dizzy under the tower and had even jumped over the tower with full health.
He had used the Cloud Array's blocking effect. Lin Yan honestly felt that this mechanism was unreasonable.
"Other than that, the Q Cold Shadow's damage reduction and the R [My Style's Secret Mystery!
The cooldown of the Chaotic Killing from the Outside and the Inside] has become one hundred and sixty seconds. "
Seeing the data that Red Mi gave him, Lin Yan knit his brows, "This slash is a bit fierce."
If he didn't bring the Ultimate Hunter, Akali's early attacks would be weakened by quite a bit.
"This is fierce?"
Jack was Edisi, so he was very disgusted by this kind of AP Assassin, "I feel that the Q180 recovery effect should be cut. With this kind of recovery, the lane is too shameless."
"The R skill's stun effect should also be removed, otherwise the brittle armor won't be able to resist at all ….."
He kept talking, "It's best if the big move can only be used on heroes, otherwise they're too flexible and can't be caught."
"Good fellow." Lin Yan looked at him, "You're speaking so clearly, why don't you become a fist designer?"
Jin Gong also said, "You might as well just delete this hero!"
Red Mi tapped the table to have them focus.
"The second change worth paying attention to is Cheyenne ….."
He pulled out another image.
Fist felt that Cheyenne was being replaced by Aun in the tank, so they simply increased Cheyenne's stats.
From his base HP to his skills' base damage, Cheyenne's stats had been increased.
"Is this a game designer teaching you how to play?" Liu Qingsong gave a laugh, "With this kind of increase, top laner Cheyenne will appear again."
Lin Yan nodded, "It's a good thing they kept their rationality and didn't increase the E [Killer's Roar]'s damage, otherwise the mid laner would be this thing again."
He didn't like Cheyenne's mid laner very much.
Although it was all the rage in the spring tournament, this hero was too closed off in the mid lane. If the other side chose this hero, it would be hard for Lin Yan to gain an advantage in the lane.
"The last thing to pay attention to ….." Red Mi clicked the mouse.
An unpopular hero that they had rarely seen before appeared on the screen.
Fearless Chariot Urgat!
"Crab?!"
Everyone shouted at the same time.
"That's right, Crab ….." Jiang Chenglu translated his head coach's words.
"This hero has been redone for a while now, but no one asked about it. Fist also increased the stats this time. It looks like it's going to be like Zhao Xin and enter the pro scene."
The previous version of Crab was still the bottom lane. Its big move was Heaven and Earth Great Shift, swapping positions with the opposing hero.
After the rework, it became [Fear Beyond Death]. Its special effect was very flashy.
But no one used it.
Fist was going to teach the pro players again.
With all the stats increased, there would be no need to worry about no one using it.
The pro players also had to practice hard.
"Cheyenne is okay, but Lin Yan and Jin Gong have to practice quickly about Crab." Red Mi gave a death order, "You'd better be able to use it in the semi-finals."
"I have a feeling that Urgat will definitely be a key point."
He was very certain.
Lin Yan and Jin Gong also indicated that they understood.
YM Club returned to the right track, and the bloody playoffs officially began!