"In just 24 minutes, YM easily defeated GEN!"
Remember said loudly, "Victory in the LPL, a good start in this year's World Championship!"
Xu Xiu placed his hands under his cheekbones and stared blankly at his 24-inch monitor.
The commotion of the audience was completely blocked out by the soundproof headphones.
His other four teammates had already taken off their headphones, but he still hadn't recovered from the shock.
The score screen popped up.
Below the bright red score was the kill ratio of the two sides.
YM had wildly chopped down 18 heads in 24 minutes, while GEN's kill count was … 0.
Zero kills.
Although the team had obtained an Earth Dragon, it couldn't be considered a Twinklegem Tower. However, not obtaining a single head from start to finish was definitely a great humiliation.
Xu Xiu's score was 0/10. Just from the score alone, he was the one who committed the least crime, and could even obtain SVP.
However, KDA couldn't reflect everything.
Xu Xiu knew that the problem in this game was with him.
The opposing team had 30/13 cards, and the participation rate was close to 90%. It could be said that Lin Yan's shadow was everywhere.
Drizzt would always accurately drive the tempo, going to other locations on the map to start a battle of numbers against numbers, constantly seizing the advantage for YM and rolling a snowball.
He chose Little Temptress, relying on the line to bind spirits. In the end, he didn't even get the last hit.
In the end, he forcefully held onto two pieces of equipment, but didn't dare enter the team battle. Lin Yan had a yellow card above his head, so he could defend against him alone. Xu Xiu felt that he would be instantly killed if he was stunned, so he didn't harass YM from the side.
He basically didn't do much in this game, mainly to gather ten people to start the match.
Showmaker was silent.
Although he had studied a lot of Lin Yan's match recordings, when he actually fought face to face on the field, he finally understood how terrifying his opponent was.
That kind of pressure was too strong, making him feel suffocated.
It wasn't that Lin Yan's performance in lane was terrifying. After all, this game he was using Drizzt, who wasn't good at lane fighting.
It was the tempo.
Every attack was as precise as a scalpel, cutting at GEN's weakest point. He had done a lot of things like beating a drowning dog. After Cuvee handed over Flash, Lin Yan killed this Sword Demon twice in a row.
Moreover, he had very little control over his mistakes. He did not give his opponent a chance at all.
GEN was completely dragged into Lin Yan's rhythm.
Just like a boxer in the ring, GEN's punch was blocked, and then YM took advantage of the gap before he could throw another punch. A storm of attacks directly knocked him down.
Xu Xiu could only admire Lin Yan's ability to see the big picture. His ability to observe the situation of a battle was unparalleled.
Chi Thearch glanced at the showmaker.
He didn't know how much confidence his newbie mid laner would have to face Lin Yan after the opening match.
In the YM contestant area, Lin Yan stood up and downed the water in his paper cup, smiling as he gave the camera a thumbs up.
This opening match was very easy for him. It was not difficult at all.
The Enchantress on the other side was like a wooden stake. She only knew how to stay on the sidelines to develop. He could even go to the sidelines to set the pace.
The official photographer, Ichimura, keenly captured this scene.
When the audience in the live broadcast saw YM win, they started chatting happily in the chat channel.
[It's a good start.]
[Zero kills. What a joke. LCK's third seed has a 10% discount?]
[I'm good. What if Jack kills a tower?]
[Is this the new LCK mid laner who is as famous as Chovy and Ucal?
I don't think he can do it either.]
[Brother Ran played GEN too many times. Killing the showmaker's teammates is much more exciting than killing him.]
The five YM players walked towards GEN's area. Jin Gong's face was full of smiles.
This game had given him a lot of fun. Mongoose and Lin Yan were practically living in the top lane in the early stages. They constantly created advantages for him and gave all of their kills to Jess. It was all for the sake of allowing Second Battalion Commander Piltwoff to be able to kill in one shot in the middle of the game.
"My average damage is over a thousand." Ji Mugong happily snorted. "I never thought that I would be able to deal damage to GEN."
Unless there was an even more exaggerated gap in the top lane matchup today, Jin Gong would be firmly in first place for all the statistics on the first day of the group stage.
"I even gave you a Bin Xuan in the bottom lane!" Jack started again. "How was it? I treated you well, didn't I?"
"Heh." Xiba didn't care. "I snatched the soldier based on my own abilities. What does that have to do with you?"
The few of them chatted and laughed, forming a stark contrast to the GEN players who had dark faces.
Seeing their expressions, Lin Yan decisively gave up on the idea of communicating with them. He returned to his seat, rolled up his peripherals, and got off the stage.
Winston was waiting at the entrance of the passageway. He quickly went up to welcome them.
After a few words of congratulations, he got down to business. "Jin Gong, you have an interview on the main stage. Brother Ran, you're from LPL. There's no need for a translator …"
The group went their separate ways.
LPL's post-match interview location was set at a more conspicuous location. There were lights around, and a few cameras were on standby. Aftershock was holding a microphone and waiting for him.
Lin Yan greeted her and then started talking to the host about the interview.
"I might have to ask about the Bomber's bottom lane later … Is it convenient for you to answer?" Aftershock asked in advance to prevent any accidents from happening during the interview.
Lin Yan agreed without much hesitation. "You can say it. It's not a problem."
Since they had already chosen it, YM didn't want to keep it a secret.
Of course, Red Mi wasn't so generous as to share the Bomber's system for free.
His real goal was to stir up the waters of the group stage.
YM was the first to show off their new strategy. Would the other teams follow suit?
It wasn't realistic to not spend time researching it. If you didn't use it, others would. Especially now that YM's Bomber's system was extremely effective, even if the teams didn't use it themselves, they had to know how to deal with it.
Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.
For example, if a strong team faced a weak team, under normal circumstances, they would have a 70% chance of winning. However, once the other team used the Bomber's system, the strong team might be ambushed successfully and lose the match because they didn't know where the Bomber's system was.
It should be known that the strong teams were most afraid of variables.
They weren't afraid of weak teams playing against them by the book, because as long as everything went according to the preset settings, the weak team's chances of winning would become very low.
Variables meant that they couldn't be controlled, and would greatly affect their chances of winning.
As everyone knew, the group stage was very tight. There were only eight days in total. Aside from the official matches, interviews, and promotional videos that had to be done, there was very little time left for the teams to adjust.
Spending a lot of effort to imitate the Bomber's system, in the end, the results that each team would achieve would definitely be different.
The effect it would bring was that the strength of the teams would become chaotic in the current version.
Especially in the second round of the group stage, each team would have to play three matches in one day to determine their chances of advancing.
The Bomber's system that YM brought out today would undoubtedly make many teams very nervous.
If this system suddenly appeared and dragged down the team's points in the group stage, they would have to use some of their tactical reserves in the second round in order to maintain their ranking.
When the time came, YM could also steal a few sets to use in the knockout round.
Red Rice's Abacus was very good at scheming.
After Lin Yan said that he was ready, Yu Zhen invited him to stand next to him and smiled at the camera. "Good afternoon, everyone!"
"It's an honor to have Brother Ran here for our post-match interview … Let's say hello to the audience first."
After the routine self-introduction, Yu Zhen immediately asked the first question. "How do you feel now that you won your first victory in this year's global finals?"
"Very happy," Lin Yan answered without hesitation. "Standing on this stage again after a year, the familiar feeling is back."
"Familiar feeling …" Yu Zhen smiled. "Then Brother Ran, this is your first time competing in Pusan. Are you satisfied with the accommodation and training environment?"
"The hotel's conditions are not as good as the S7 international competition, but after getting used to it, it's okay," Lin Yan added. "It's not that bad."
Hearing this, the audience in the broadcast room began to work again.
[Low EQ: What a garbage hotel.
High EQ: This hotel is not bad.]
[Is Pusan okay?]
[I read on Weibo that the hotel's air conditioner is always broken. It's really ridiculous.]
[Fist, what kind of hotel did you book?]
Yu Zhen threw out the question that he was most concerned about. "Today, we found out that YM also used the new Explosive Man system. Can you tell us why you chose this system?"
"It's mainly because it's more compatible with the current version," Lin Yan responded. "Because there are more AD midlaners in the mid and top swing positions. Characters like Swordsister, Sword Demon, and Yasso are more popular. Who are we going to find to fill in the missing AP?"
"Right now, hard supports with crowd control are more popular. Mage supports like Ella can't come out, so we can only look for junglers and bottom laners," he said. "And now, among the junglers, Spider can't play. Wine Barrel is the only one who can play, and he's on the edge of T1. He's not particularly strong."
"There's no way to fill in the jungler support, so we have to let the ADC choose the mage. Compared to other mages, Explosive Man's ability to cooperate with the team is better, so we chose him."
Lin Yan did not go into detail about Explosive Man's abilities. He could only say that he knew what he knew, and there was nothing he could do if he didn't.
Giggs' strength lay in his ability to safely and quickly clear the enemy's line. Although he did not have line control in the early stages of the game, he could quickly clear the minions and not let the line control drag him and the team down.
A large number of AoE skills gave him an advantage in pulling the enemy's line before the start of the team battle. When the team was at a disadvantage, he could also defend the line. Even when faced with the Dragon's buff, Explosive Man had a good ability to clear the minions.
Moreover, Explosive Man had a teleport in the bottom lane. Not only could he fill in the line, but he could also be used to support his teammates when necessary. In addition, the R [Scientific Hell Cannon] also had a long-range casting function, so he could participate in the battle in other areas for a short time.
Most importantly, he was extremely fast at taking down towers.
Although Giggs' attack speed was slow, ever since Fist took care of mages, heroes with twice the magic power than attack power could enjoy a 50% AP bonus when attacking towers. Explosive Man relied on this mechanic and passive [Trigger Trigger], coupled with W [Fixed Point Blast] to be quite strong at taking down towers.
Explosive Man's strength in this aspect was reflected incisively and vividly when he took down Canyon Vanguard.
Canyon Vanguard could knock down close to half the health of a tower, and W [Fixed Point Blast] could directly blow up a tower with less than 25% health.
This meant that as long as he touched the turret twice, he could summon Vanguard to destroy it.
This was a strength that no other archer or mage had.
The faster he took down towers, the more efficient the team would be at rolling the snowball.
In all aspects, Giggs was the perfect bottom lane tool.
At the end of the day, the position of the ADC today was too low.
If it was last year's World Championship where the ADC took on 35% of the team's DPS, then solo characters like Sword Demon and Swordmistress would not be able to play at all.
Now, the situation was reversed.
The bottom lane had to sacrifice themselves for the top, middle, and jungle. In order to choose physical damage for the top and middle lanes, they had to bear the responsibility of replenishing the magic damage.
After the interview, Lin Yan thanked the staff, returned the microphone, and rushed to the team's lounge.
In the first round of the group stage, there were six games a day, which meant that 12 teams had to finish their first World Championship today.
Lin Yan, like the other teammates, wanted to hurry back to the hotel after the game and was too lazy to stay at the venue.
"There's a promotional video to be shot at noon tomorrow, and after the game against MAD tonight, there will be two domestic e-sports media interviews …" Guo Hao went through the itinerary one by one, arranging these activities properly so that they would not affect the team's normal training and rest.
After all, it was not the first time they had played in the World Championship, and Guo Hao was very familiar with this aspect of work.
Lin Yan boarded the bus, turned on his phone, and began to reply to messages.
His girlfriend, who was in China, had also watched the opening battle. She repeatedly praised his card proficiency on WeChat.
After settling the messages of his friends and family, Lin Yan was still a short distance away from the hotel. On a whim, he began to browse through the e-sports forums.
Originally, he just wanted to see how the netizens were praising him, but a post attracted his attention — Korean Internet Hot Topic: YM and GEN's Opening Match.
Lin Yan clicked on it.
Everyone was criticizing GEN, and the translation was elegant. It was still that familiar feeling.
[I'm dying of laughter. GEN beat SKT just to give away points?
What a disgrace to the Republic of Korea.]
[There's also LZ and Griffin. They fell at GEN's feet in the bubble match … Now that I think about it, they really killed LCK's hope in China. It's like a civil war.]
[Before the match, I thought that GEN would not be able to beat YM. After all, their strength was there, and it was understandable that they lost the match. But why did they lose?
You're being chased around and beaten up. Can you be a little more courageous?]
[In Pusan, they were beaten 18: 0 in the opening match. Tell me, how do you explain that?
How shameless!]
[Next, TL will lose. After TL loses, they will lose to MAD. No one will lose after that.]
This post made Lin Yan laugh. He directly shared it in the YM Competition Training Department's group chat for the other teammates to enjoy.
After returning to the hotel, the YM team rushed to the restaurant for dinner.
The match started at five o 'clock in the afternoon in Korea. Although the opening match ended quickly, the post-match interview took up a lot of time. It was seven o' clock in the evening when they returned to the hotel.
It was dinner time.
Lin Yan took a beef burger, some fries, and juice, and returned to his seat to watch the match.
The match between TL and MAD in the same group was coming to an end. Teacher Omi's condition was quite stable. As a veteran, he was still able to shine in the LCS division. He maintained a decent standard in the international tournament and could be called a kind Korean helper.
In 35 minutes, TL finally defeated the second seed in the Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan division, adding a victory to the North American team.
After dinner, Lin Yan and his teammates went upstairs to the training room. Group A had just finished the first day of the match. Group B and Group B were still in the Pusan Convention and Exhibition Center and could not have a practice match.
Therefore, Red Rice made an appointment with Group D team FNC, who did not have a match on the first day. The first seeds of the two divisions would have a BO5 practice match in the evening.
The agreed starting time was eight o 'clock. Lin Yan saw that it would start in less than half an hour. This time was definitely not enough for a ranking match. He could only watch the game and videos on the computer.
The next match was G2 against FW.
Ah P appeared again. His hairline was getting higher and higher, and he was becoming more and more optimistic.
The BP had already started, and he was still talking and laughing with his own jungler, Jankos. It seemed that he did not care about FW at all.
Perkz took out his own Little Temptress and faced Fengtang's Zooey head-on.
Lin Yan thought that this would be the stage for the mid laners of both sides, but the top laners were the first to report a victory.
G2's top laner, Wunder, who was using Swordmistress, took down Hanabi's captain at level three!
From the perspective of the camera, Hanabi's player was a little confused. He scratched his head, not understanding the situation.
When he went online again, Wunder controlled the minions in front of his tower. The captain could no longer play.
As long as he dared to attack, Wunder would definitely use the minions with low health as a springboard and use Blade Impact to forcefully exchange health with him.
"This Swordmistress is going all out!" Jin Gong, who was standing behind Lin Yan, noticed the two Doran Swords lying in Wunder's equipment slot.
The equipment of the Doran series was taken out for the sake of matchmaking. Its basic attributes were quite attractive, but the disadvantage was that it could not be combined with other equipment. If he sold it, he would lose a lot of money. Normally, it would be enough to buy one when he went out.
Wunder's decision to drop such equipment clearly showed that he was betting on the matchup.
"The captain can only call for a jungler. Otherwise, the minions will be stuck here for a minute or two. He will be very uncomfortable." Lin Yan glanced at the small map. "Then, if Jankos comes to the top lane now …"
Jankos had a keen sense of smell. His Olaf was originally farming from top to bottom, but when he saw that the minions in the top lane were in his favor, he decisively gave up on a group of Stone Beetles at the bottom and turned to rush up.
Olaf's farming speed was so fast that it took him less than three minutes and twenty seconds to reach the top half of the map.
This happened to meet the FW jungler who was farming from bottom to top.
"He got it!"
The double Doran Swordmistress was very strong at this time. Although the FW jungler Troll was also very strong, he was obviously no match for the G2 jungler.
Erilya took the lead to kill Troll. After getting the red buff from the opponent's jungler, she used Triumph to recover some health and continued to chase after Hanabi's captain.
Jankos was even more ruthless. He controlled Olaf to flash and use [Countercurrent Throw] to keep the enemy!
After Hanabi used Flash, she twisted left and right, but was still hit by Olaf's axe. In the end, Jankos blocked the tower and Wunder entered the tower to kill the opponent easily.
"That's it." Lin Yan felt that the Lightning Wolves were doomed. "G2 seems to be doing well this year."
Jin Gong agreed. "This Wunder looks good. They are still very competitive in the middle and jungle."
Jack went to the bathroom to lie down. When he came back, he heard his teammates discussing G2. He immediately smiled and said, "Haven't you thought of one possibility?"
"Could it be that the Lightning Wolves are too weak?" He spread his hands. "After all, Group B is recognized as a weak team."
Before the game, it was widely believed that only RNG could play in Group B. Lightning Wolves in the LMS division, PVB in the Vietnam division, and G2, the third seed of the European and American competition.
It was obvious that they were extremely weak.
"There's nothing wrong with you saying that."
Lin Ran thought about it and felt that it made sense. G2 could crush the Lightning Wolves. They could only be stronger than FW in a head-on battle.
The next match was RNG against PVB. However, YM had to play in a mock competition, so Lin Yan did not continue watching. He only glanced at the results of the competition when he was free.
RNG won easily. Ouze's Kesha dominated the competition with 11 kills.
Group C, on the other hand, was a massacre. KT faced G-REX and displayed the strength of the first seed of LCK. They crushed their opponents in just 21 minutes.
VIT against 100T. It was a highly anticipated battle between Europe and America.
100T's lineup this year was not bad. The top laner was Ssumday, one of the top four top laners in Korea. The mid laner was a heavyweight and was well-known in the League of Legends.
Ryu。
Lin Yan was a little disappointed that Yue Lun was not in the same group as him. After all, they were the older generation of esports players. It would be great if they could meet each other like in S6.
In this match, the mid laner of Little Bees, Jiizuke, brought out his unique skill, Ike. Despite being at a disadvantage in the early stages, he kept soloing the side lanes in the middle stages.
Ryz was the only soloist in the entire 100T team. The Rune Mage was completely passive against Ike. He could not seize the opportunity to attack the Assassin. He could only wait for the opponent to find him before he could counterattack.
However, Jiizuke only focused on pushing towers. He did not care about anything else. When he was attacked and his life was in danger, he would immediately heal himself.
The game was in a stalemate for 25 minutes. He managed to flatten all the high ground.
Then, the 100T panicked. They took this opportunity to cripple VIT's ADC. They immediately went for the main dragon, trying to force Ike to go over to them.
However, an accident happened.
Jiizuke had left a True Eye in the opponent's jungles after destroying the crystals along the way.
100T made a huge mistake in order to set up Dragon's vision.
They did not clear the enemy's vision in their own jungle. Instead, they allowed Jiizuke to easily teleport over and lead Super Soldier straight in.
Meanwhile, the other three teammates used their lives to interfere with 100T's teleport back to the city, leaving them all in Dragon's Pit.
Ike was extremely efficient at dismantling towers. With the help of Super Soldier, he finally managed to knock out the main Crystal with Z-Resonance just as 100T rushed back!
Even Lin Ran, who was tired and ready to rest, was excited by the rare scene of someone sneaking into his house.
The European viewers were even more enraged. They kept mocking the North Americans in the live stream. The EU and NA comments were spammed in the chat.
This battle between Europe and America was one of the more entertaining matches. After all, all the other matches were one-sided.
However, by the next day, everyone had forgotten about this match.
The crazy Team D had arrived.
FNC, IG, C9, and AFs.
This was the group with the most similar strengths. Before the match, everyone thought that this group would be locked in a stalemate.
It turned out to be true.
The first match was between FNC and IG.
Both sides started a chaotic battle at the start of the match. The top half of the map was a mess. Ou Cheng and Old Thief Sima in the bottom lane were still developing steadily. They played as if they were solo players.
In 15 minutes, both sides had a total of 25 kills. IG had a slight advantage.
At this time, The Shy stepped up and took over the game. His Jayz was extremely suppressive. Moreover, his positioning was extremely aggressive. Even if the opponents grouped together, he would still charge straight at them.
FNC was dumbfounded.
At first, they thought that there was someone behind them and that The Shy had come out as bait. However, after a long time, they did not see anyone else from IG.
Hai Sang flew into a rage out of humiliation.
There's actually someone who can act better than me?
Aren't you just sending yourself to death!
He controlled his RW to drive from the shadows to The Shy!
Jiang Chenglu, who had no one behind him, did not expect the opponent to dare to fight back. Without any teammates behind him to help him, he lost his life.
However, after reviving, he continued to play like this.
This time, Hai Sang directly used W to [Grand Entrance] to lure him.
Lin Yan, who was sitting backstage, saw this scene and knew that the fish had taken the bait.
This time, behind Jiang Chenglu were the other four teammates from IG!
"The Shy activated his stopwatch to avoid a wave of explosive damage. Sapphire's Bull's Head used WQ twice … Ning Wang's Qing Gang Ying used EE to dodge three people!"
Broiler's Galio spread his wings and made a heroic entrance!
FNC's formation was instantly broken. The surviving The Shy followed his teammates and started to charge.
After a wave of team battles, IG used the bait tactic to wipe out FNC.
Now that the match was at 28 minutes, the resurrection time of the C position was 40 seconds. IG did not even bother to fight Dragon. They just went over and flattened them.
As for group D, AFs and C9 went back and forth.
C9 probably got inspiration from the mock competition and stole RNG's strategy of turning off the lights and letting the sheep loose.
AFs wanted to rely on the individual ability of their top laner, Kiin, to open up the situation.
The early stage of this match was a battle of spears and shields.
It had to be said that C9's strategy was very successful.
They took advantage of Team Africa's weak ability to close out the game and used a mid and late stage lineup to drag them down.
Although the economic gap was maintained at around 5k, Team Africa was not able to turn this advantage into a victory.
They pushed all the way to the high ground and gave C9's crossdresser a super soldier to develop.
The match dragged on until 45 minutes. C9 relied on Aoun's passive equipment buff to let Sneaky's godly equipment Kesha use Akashic Rainstorm to end the match.
The Korean audience was very disappointed.
Out of the three LCK teams, only KT, one of the favorites to win the championship, had won.
They could not accept this.
"Let's go, let's go. Get ready to go!" Guo Hao saw that the C9 members were getting up to shake hands with Team Africa and hurriedly reminded them.
Lin Yan rushed onto the stage with his peripherals. The next match would be between YM and TL.
Senior Brother was full of confidence. YM had defeated GEN in the opening match yesterday. TL's current situation was very optimistic.
They just needed to squeeze out GEN and enter the top eight.
If they could rely on some small tricks to steal a match from YM, then it would be even easier.
Thinking of this, Eldest Senior Brother laughed out loud.