"Congratulations to YM!"
Mille said loudly. At the same time, dry ice erupted from both sides of the stage. The spotlights on the dome intertwined and finally converged on the YM players' seats.
"They swept RNG 3-0 and advanced to the 2018 LPL Summer Finals!" Doll also raised her voice to echo.
However, the two commentators' voices did not drown out the passionate cheers of the YM fans in the audience. Many people stood up and cheered for the home team they supported!
"Before the game, I didn't expect such a result." Mille shook his head and sighed. "We thought that YM would win today, but the 3-0 result was really unexpected..."
Many YM fans also felt that it was unbelievable. They knew how strong RNG was. Although they supported YM, most people did not think that they could finish the game in three games.
Before the game, the majority of the audience predicted that RNG would win one or two games.
They did not expect YM to rise and fall with such swift movements that it only took them two hours to defeat their strong opponent, RNG.
The comments on the bullet screen exploded instantly.
[YM's condition is too ridiculous!]
[Now that only IG is left, why do I feel like YM will win the championship again this year?]
[Isn't this necessary?
The fifth LPL trophy in team history, won't it be a sure thing?]
[Are you looking down on IG?
Team Polar is very strong, okay? Don't open the champagne before the game starts. Those who take loans will not have a good ending.]
Ouze took off his headphones. His face was still red, but his eyes were out of focus. He looked a little lost.
His teammates did not protect him.
Policewoman, who had just completed the three-piece set, did not even have time to warm up her Infinity Blade before she was sent directly into the spring.
"Mine, mine..." Letme rubbed his forehead, his expression full of regret.
His last team battle could be said to have no effect at all.
The first combo [Summoning of the Molten God] did hit the three members of YM, but after the King of Nightmares turned off the lights, his ultimate skill lost its deterrence. Realizing that Orne was standing at the side, YM charged forward even more recklessly.
Even after Ouze's Policewoman was killed, Yan Junze's HP was still full.
After the death of the Policewoman, a pure tank Sheepsmith was nothing more than a toy for YM. It had no combat ability at all.
On the other hand, the YM contestants were hugging each other excitedly.
The director added a line of words on the screen — YM has become the first LPL team to enter the global finals!
"World competition, world competition!"
Jin Gong muttered these words in half-baked Chinese.
Even though this was the third consecutive year that they had entered the World Championship, this year's World Championship was obviously more important to them.
Mille followed the camera and saw the reactions of the YM players. He did not forget to explain, "Four of the YM players are only one step away from winning three consecutive championships!"
"And this year will be their best chance!"
Three consecutive championships, no matter which sport it was in, was a performance of absolute dominance.
If they missed it, they would have to wait another four years. Esports players could not maintain their strength for such a long time.
In other words, this year's World Championship would be the only chance for the YM players who were determined to achieve three consecutive championships.
"Go shake hands!" Lin Yan said to his teammates after celebrating for a while.
When he crossed the stage with his arm around the Shiba Inu's shoulder, he did not forget to wave to Su Cheng's parents. After receiving the two's reply, Lin Yan refocused his attention on the RNG player in front of him.
"Good luck!" He patted Yan Junze's shoulder in exchange for a helpless smile.
After RNG lost this match, the best they could achieve was third place in the Summer Championship.
IG, who had already entered the finals, was guaranteed to have a second place in their hands. This would allow them to gain as many as 90 points. Both teams would have the same number of points.
According to the principle of priority in the Summer Championship, IG's ranking would be higher than RNG's and second only to YM's.
In other words, the summer tournament held in Nanjing three days later would not affect the qualifiers for the international tournament. It would only determine the seeding order. Whoever won the championship would become the first seed of the LPL, and the loser would become the second seed of the division with the highest points in the year other than the summer tournament champion.
RNG had to play in the Bubble Championship no matter what.
It could only be said that they met YM in advance, which prevented RNG from gaining enough points. If they were in the other half of the Summer Championship, they might have been able to advance to the World Championship.
Of course, RNG would defend in the final stage of the Bubble Championship. As long as they won a BO5, the team could directly advance to the S8 World Championship.
From this point of view, it was not particularly difficult.
Ouze was still dizzy and did not know what to do. He shook hands with the five YM players one by one and slumped back into his chair.
Lin Yan hammered Shi Senming's chest one last time and teased him a little. He then left the RNG player's seat and stood in the middle of the stage.
The five players put their arms around each other's shoulders and thanked the audience. As expected, they received thunderous applause!
"Brother Ran, you're going to be interviewed later. Prepare in advance!"
When Lin Yan returned to his seat, he received a notice from the staff.
While waiting at the backstage entrance, he saw the post-match output panel on the TV screen.
Because they had been celebrating after winning the game, Lin Yan had not seen the damage chart. Now, he looked at it curiously.
His damage output was not particularly high, mainly because most of the time, he was pushing the lane and Ice Maiden without any pressure to develop. In the middle and late game, he also rushed into the backline to do single point damage.
The king of traditional damage, Jack, also pulled his hips in this game. In the early game, he was crushed by Ouze. In the team battle, he relied on Chiwil's Roar to increase his teammates' speed. His damage output basically depended on W [Eject] and Q [Whirling Blade].
The real king of damage was Jimu Gong, who quietly made a fortune.
The whole game took 26 minutes, and he successfully dealt 24396 damage. His average damage was close to 1,000.
The host, Yu Zhen, was still leaning over the table, using a pen to write on his hand card, thinking about interview questions.
Lin Yan obtained a rare moment of silence.
However, he did not relax after a game. Instead, he habitually maintained a tense state. His brain was spinning rapidly, thinking about today's game.
It had to be said that Jin Gong's performance was very eye-catching. A large part of the reason was attributed to the cornerstone rune, [Steal Omen].
In the last two games, he was a classic long hand against short hand. In the lane period, he was able to earn a financial advantage of close to 1,000 gold coins by using [Steal Omen].
What did 1,000 gold coins mean?
Three heads and five minions!
Lin Yan felt that if [Steal Omen] was not weakened, this world championship would be the end of the blue collar top laners.
Take the most typical LPL blue collar top laner, Letme, for example. When using a 4 to 1 system, RNG would definitely choose to let him go.
And once the opponent chose to use a long hand hero with [Steal Omen] to suppress him, Letme would fall into endless torture.
The mid to late game team battle had not even begun, and his opponent's economy was already 1,000 dollars behind!
This could buy a Giant's Belt!
One had to know that this did not include the other defense towers, heads, and other economy.
As long as a normal top laner used a long hand hero with [Steal Omen], he could get up to 1,000 dollars in front of a short hand top laner.
This simply did not give the LPL blue collar top laners who were used to using bulky heroes to resist pressure in lane and wait for the team battle to play.
If this trend continued, Jin Gong would also be at a disadvantage. Although he used a lot of long hand heroes, YM's offensive system in this area was still not perfect.
Moreover, the long hand suppression effect of the Xi Ba players was not as good as pure top laners like The Sh and Khan. This was a personal style problem that could not be changed in a short period of time.
Lin Yan was thinking about what to discuss with Red Rice and the team members when he returned to the backstage lounge later when he saw Yu Zhen stand up and hand over the card.
"Okay, Brother Ran, take a look at these questions. Is there anything that needs to be changed?"
Lin Yan took a look and felt that there were no major problems. He nodded and followed behind Yu Zhen, waiting for instructions to go on stage.
As usual, the audience welcomed him with warm applause.
Yu Zhen smiled at the audience. "Today, it is also an honor to invite Brother Ran to accept our post-match interview …"
Lin Yan held the microphone and greeted the audience before preparing to answer the host's first question.
"Today's semi-final against RNG went very smoothly. Did Brother Ran and the other members of YM think about this before the match?"
Lin Yan politely looked at the host before replying with a serious expression. "No, we were prepared for a hard battle ahead of time."
This was the truth.
He, his teammates, and the rest of the coaches all had the same thoughts as the two commentators.
They thought that today would be a hard battle, but they never thought that RNG would be so confused in terms of tactics.
In Lin Yan's eyes, RNG's semi-final match was the epitome of their entire summer.
At the beginning of the summer tournament, RNG wanted to follow the version and focus on mid laners. They wanted to copy S7's playstyle and let Spicy Saucepan lead the pace of the top half.
However, the difference was that the hero pools of Letme and Xiao Hu couldn't keep up with the version.
What was different from S7 was that there were many swaying characters in the top and mid lane.
Sword Demon, Saber Sis, Akali, Crab, Crow … …
Even Yasso could be swayed.
But RNG only had Crab and Crow's proficiency in the top half of the heroes.
If they wanted to force their way into the top half, Letme and Annul had to train their hero pools.
Not to mention whether they could keep up with the version's pace and grasp all the strong characters, just based on the time they spent practicing, RNG would have to go through a period of pain. No one knew if this period would last a month or two and there was no guarantee.
The summer tournament was directly related to a spot in the world tournament. If they lost, it was very likely that they would have to say goodbye to the S8 season. Coach Heart wanted to keep the team's results, copying RNG's spring playstyle and letting Ouze carry the team's flag.
This was indeed effective. RNG's members were very familiar with this four guarantee system and could use it as soon as they took it out. Their results were also guaranteed.
But the problem was that going against the version didn't have a good result.
RNG's members and coaches weren't inexperienced newcomers, so they naturally understood this logic.
In the end, Heart didn't want to go against the version, but he also didn't want to give up his results.
He was caught in a dilemma.
Originally, Heart wanted to play like his own jungle Spicy Saucepan and take it all.
But the other side of taking it all was not taking it all.
For the entire summer, RNG had been jumping around between the version and the system that suited them, not knowing what they wanted to do.
This semi-final was the same. At the beginning, Heart wanted to protect Ouze to win, but unfortunately, he didn't succeed. In the second round, he decisively changed his strategy and focused on the mid laner.
He didn't expect YM to not be afraid at all. They deliberately released version T1's top laner Crab and then successfully used top laner Lucian to break it.
Now that RNG had reached the final step, they could only pass the ball to Ouze.
The reverse version of Policewoman's speed pushing system had good results in the early stages, but in the middle, Lin Yan seized two opportunities to delay the pace of the push. When YM equipped it, this version of Policewoman Caitlin couldn't stop YM's brainless rush at all. In the end, they could only swallow the bitter fruit and bid farewell to the playoffs stage.
It could only be said that there was something wrong with RNG's thinking. They couldn't figure out how to proceed.
Aftershock looked at the card in his hand and asked the second question. "In the final two days, YM will face IG. This is the first time the team will meet them in the finals. Brother Ran, do you have anything to say?"
Lin Yan thought for a moment and answered, "The challengers in the finals are different every year, but YM will always be there. I think that's the best answer."
The sound of celebration and screams were endless. Lin Yan's answer sounded full of confidence.
The atmosphere in the live broadcast of the competition was also affected by this sentence. The audience that was originally discussing other things all turned their attention to him.
[Crazy Flame is here!]
[Isn't this the truth?
Let's have a team in the country topple YM first.]
[This year's IG has a chance. I think they're very likely to be champions. Maybe they can win the first LPL championship in the history of the team.]
[What do you mean by 'champions'?
The face of the last champion is still in KZ. They just got beaten up in the mid-season competition.]
[It's different from RNG. I believe in IG's strength. I've never seen IG play so crazily.]
After answering the question, Lin Yan returned the microphone and quickly ran back to the backstage lounge.
After the post-match interview, Lin Yan signed his name on dozens of posters sent by the staff before regaining his freedom.
He said goodbye to Guo Hao and handed his backpack to his roommate, Mongoose. He ran to Su Cheng's parents for a simple meal.
Su Hongmin was very satisfied with Lin Yan's performance today. He originally wanted to talk about their future marriage today. However, when he heard from his daughter that the wedding date had been set, he immediately felt much better.
Lin Yan made his parents-in-law happy. When he left, he even reported to Su Cheng. After receiving a round of praise from his girlfriend, he returned to the hotel to rest.
When he came out of the shower, he saw Phyllostachys Pubescens lying on the bed, holding his phone and watching the match.
"Which match is this?" Lin Yan turned on the hairdryer and asked casually.
In the background noise, he heard Mongoose reply loudly, "KT vs Griffin!"
"LCK finals?" Lin Yan finally reacted.
After receiving an affirmative answer, Lin Yan quickly took out his tablet and planned to watch the live broadcast.
The LCK finals and LPL semifinals started at around the same time. However, Lin Yan finished the match in three matches and the LCK finals were still undecided.
KT 2: 2 Griffin.
"This Griffin is so strong!"
Mongoose exclaimed behind him. "This is also their first season in the top league …"
"It's a bit like us?" Lin Yan laughed.
In 2016, he and YM also struggled in the secondary league in the spring. In the summer, they won the league championship against EDG and made it to the S6 global finals.
It seemed that the new LCK team, Griffin, was indeed somewhat similar to YM.
After they entered the top league in the summer, they obtained an impressive record of second place in the league. Now, they had successfully made it to the finals and were competing with KT for the first seed.
"If Griffin loses this match, they won't be able to make it to S8 with their points advantage, right?" Lin Yan was still staring at the situation on his tablet as he spoke.
"I don't think so … I heard from Jin Gong that team Africa has the second highest points."
When the two of them said this, they realized the problem that they had neglected before.
The champions of the spring tournament, KZ.
Because the two of them had been training and preparing for their own team's playoffs, they did not pay much attention to the LCK competition.
They quickly looked at the previous match situation.
Only then did they realize that KZ had been defeated by Team Africa in the second round of the playoffs. Their total points from the spring and summer tournaments were only 130 points, while Team Africa, who had stopped at third place in the summer tournament, also had 130 points.
The familiar rule of having the same number of points appeared again. Team Africa had used their advantage in the summer tournament to successfully squeeze KZ out of the top spot.
If KT won the championship, Team Africa would directly advance to the international tournament. Meanwhile, KZ would gather with Griffin and SKT in the bubble match and engage in a fierce battle.
"This AMD blue cat is not bad!" Lin Yan dried his hair and glanced at the middle lane. "176 damage in 15 minutes?"
"That's more than one damage per second. The key thing is that other than the blue buff, he doesn't seem to be killing monsters." He felt that this person was ridiculous.
If they didn't farm their own monsters, they would only be able to send out 28 waves of troops per 15 minutes, which was 177 troops.
What did it mean that AMD had dealt 176 damage?
Excluding the two blue buffs and eight additional troops, AMD had missed a total of nine minions!
AMD had gone back to the city to replenish their supplies. Many people couldn't replenish so many soldiers even if they used custom builds. This person was able to replenish so many soldiers in a high-pressure environment like the LCK finals. He was a monster!
Lin Yan looked at his UCAL and realized that he, who was also known as the top rookie in the LCK in recent years, had dealt 140 damage.
To be honest, 140 damage in 15 minutes was already the standard of a professional player.
However, AMD had dealt 37 more damage than him.
In other words, it was about 700 gold coins, which was the difference of two kills.
Lin Ran could only use the word 'terrifying' to describe the fact that he was able to achieve such a level of lead with just one last hit.
"Look at them, and then look at yourself!"
Phyllostachys Pubescens said in a disappointed tone. "If they want to play a magic core, they have to eat my minions to grow. AMD can deal with so many troops in the lane!"
"What's there to look at?" Lin Yan was unhappy when he heard this. He immediately looked for AMD's cat biscuits. "Did you see them provide support?"
"I'm going to set the pace, okay?
If I help you get benefits, then I'll take two groups of minions as protection fees. That's reasonable, okay? "he said matter-of-factly.
Mongoose snorted and did not say anything.
Although he said this, Lin Yan still admired AMD's basic skills.
There were many things to consider in a professional match. Occasionally, you would have to face gank from the enemy team, as well as small-scale team battles.
Lin Yan watched for a while. Although AMD did not take the initiative to do anything, they would still fight in the jungle. It was just that their speed was slower.
Taking these factors into consideration, if they wanted to maintain their record of 176 damage in 15 minutes, AMD had to make sure that they did not leak any troops.
"If Griffin can get into S8, it'll be fun to fight against them …" Lin Yan was looking forward to it.
Although they had many mock matches with LCK's upstart, this was still different from an official match.
However, things did not go as planned. In the end, Griffin could not keep his cool and made a mistake.
For a new team, this was understandable. However, the experienced KT immediately seized the opportunity and launched a frenzied attack!
Smeb's Hairy Crab was used to great effect. He valiantly led his teammates to take down the Dragon. Then, he took down the enemy's three lanes of high ground and slowly widened the economic gap between them!
Both sides started a team battle at the entrance of the high ground. Smeb controlled Urgart to use [Fear Beyond Death] to accurately pierce through AMD, who was at the back of Griffin's line of defense. He grabbed him, who was at low health, and Sword and Tarzan, who were in front of him. Then, he used the shield that was refreshed by W to kill them!
This move was so smooth that Lin Yan thought that Smeb had returned to his peak condition.
The audience in the Nexus Arena, the venue for the finals, was also excited. Even the sound recording equipment could not block out their passionate cheers!
KT cleanly and cleanly took down the enemy's base in one wave!
At the moment when Griffin's main Crystal shattered, Ucal was still talking to the old captain, Score. Mr. Dai also raised the corner of his mouth slightly. Mata was smiling like a big quail.
The mistake of "why didn't you ban Callista" in the S7 bubble competition would not happen again.
This year, they would participate in the World Finals held in Korea as the first seed!
"The champion of the 2018 LCK Summer Tournament is — — KT Rolster!" Roaring King, who was wearing a suit, stretched out his arm and led the audience to shout KT's name.
Smeb put his hands on his hips and looked up at the sky. His eyes were wet.
The dazzling lights on the stage were like bright fireworks soaring into the sky.
Two years ago, the lights at Madison Square Garden were just as dazzling.
However, that was YM that won all five rounds, and he was just a loser.
Today, the fireworks finally bloomed for him.
His former teammates had scattered like stars in the sky, but Smeb's anger for revenge had never been extinguished.
Before today's final match, he had received news that YM had entered the World Finals.
Thinking of this, Smeb's fighting spirit was ignited.
After not seeing each other for two years, were YM ready for this World Finals?
Lin Yan did not know all of this. The morning after the semifinals, he flew to Nanjing with his teammates.
The schedule was very tight.
It was still the same reason. The regular season was too long. Due to the Intercontinental Championship, the Asian Games, and other factors that delayed the end of the regular season, the schedule for the playoffs was very tight.
If it was last year, the finals would have already been finished by this time. Even the final qualifiers for the bubble competition had already been decided.
Teng Jing had no choice but to make the schedule tight.
This meant that YM did not have much time to prepare.
After arriving in Nanjing, they still had to shoot promotional videos, trash talk, and rehearse for the opening ceremony.
Training time was basically squeezed out at night after returning to the hotel.
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was September 17th.
The finals were here!