The time came to six o'clock in the evening in New York on October 23, and the lights of the Madison Square Garden venue were shining.
Unlike the quarter-finals and even group stage old venues that are often a century old, although Madison Square Garden was built in 1879, it has been torn down and rebuilt many times in the next hundred years. Therefore, the fourth generation of Madison Square Garden currently in use is different from the early one.
The stadium is not the same building at all, it is already a very modern sports stadium.
The entire venue has a square layout, and the seats for 20,000 people are almost unoccupied, which can be said to be overcrowded.
Although the North American Light C9 quarterfinals were eliminated early, it did not affect the enthusiasm of the audience.
On one side is the mighty LCK, the successor to the S4 World Championship, and on the other side is the king of the LPL, who has won the MSI twice in a row, and the leading player Mika is an unprecedented female e-sports genius from Tokyo.
With such a high topicality, it is the largest e-sports stage in LoL every year, and it is in a big city like New York. How can it attract so few viewers!
The four large screens in the center of the venue played the pre-match trailers of the two teams, accompanied by recorded speeches by the players.
The audience responded with cheers from time to time!
Finally, the North American host with a beard and a sturdy figure appeared on the stage holding a microphone and an inscription board, and his masculine English resounded.
"...let us welcome edg from the lpl division!!!"
I couldn’t understand what the host was saying, but when I heard the two cadences of English letters lpl and edg, the factory director knew it was his team’s turn.
He quickly urged, "Come on stage, come on stage!"
Six players and coaches slowly appeared on stage one after another.
Because the stage is a square, the ssg team has been lined up on the right edge. The edg team then walks to the left side and faces the audience, standing back to back with their opponents.
Then the host loudly shouted the names of the contestants one by one, and at the same time, the lights and cameras were directed to the corresponding contestants.
The audience's cheers increased significantly when they shouted "Ambiting" on the back.
When we got to edg, the cheers reached another level, until the name of player mika appeared, reaching the peak.
Although they are both strong teams, the gap in popularity is still huge!
Today's EDG is probably only half a step behind SKT who achieved the Triple Crown, and with the bonus of being a female player, Miha's popularity in North America can even surpass Faker!
At this time, in the LPL broadcast room, the screen had just turned to the three commentators who had completed their self-introductions. Remember, Zeyuan and Su Xiaoyan.
Remember to speak with a Taiwanese accent, "Wow, everyone must have heard the cheers just now. Such an enthusiastic audience can be called half of EDG's home court!"
"There's no way, Mika's popularity is too high!" Zeyuan said with a smile, "It's Varus and Old Man Time who compete in the quarterfinals, it's so popular!"
"Now everyone is looking forward to what kind of strange heroes Mika will come up with in the future!" Su Xiaoyan said with a smile.
"Okay, without further ado, we will know soon what tactics Mika has prepared for the subsequent games, and how much preparations the Samsung mid laner Crown Brother has made for today!" He remembered, "The game is about to start, Ze
Yuan, why don’t you explain the side selection situation of both sides before the game."
Zeyuan nodded, "Okay! In the previous coin toss to choose sides, the ssg team won. They got the priority to choose sides in games 1, 3, and 5. In the first game that is about to start, the Samsung team has no intention.
The field chose the blue side."
I remember to quickly explain the difference between the red and blue sides, "Well, because the red side has Leopard Girl, a hero who must be banned no matter what, BP is indeed at a disadvantage. But we have all seen the game between the top eight and roxtigers, and the hero pool of edg is not
problem, so you don’t have to worry too much!”
The live broadcast camera turned back to the stadium again, and at the same time, the BP interface appeared on both sides.
The blue side ssg disables Jace, Syndra and Ice.
Red square EDG bans Leopard Girl, Olaf and Lady Spear.
"Ryze Dragon King was released just like the quarterfinals, but EDG disabled Olaf?" Su Xiaoyan, who had taken enough BP notes on this game before the game, was a little confused.
Zeyuan said, "It should be jungler Olaf who is afraid of ambition, but by banning the counter hero, Samsung can steal the blind monk!"
The commentator obviously only saw the first level of intention.
In this World Championship, Factory Director’s blind monk’s performance in the group stage was so eye-catching that many people didn’t notice Leader An’s blind monk.
——Having become a jungler halfway through, he is not familiar with Lee Sin. Although he has not reached the point where he is very familiar with S7, and he has used it in the group stage and performed well, but he does not feel comfortable using this hero.
The priority is not high.
Therefore, EDG banning Olaf is tantamount to setting a test for Leader An as a test!
Sure enough, ssg grabbed the wandering mage Ryze with the first hand!
The commentator analyzed, "SSG learned the lesson of ROX in the quarter-finals and snatched Ryze first. In this way, what hero will Mika use to deal with it? Dragon King, or Varus?"
The red side's first two hands are mostly used to grab the OP hero, and it's not yet time to choose the counter position for Mika.
"Want to choose the blind monk?" Abu asked on the voice channel.
"Wait a minute! I bet ambition still doesn't want to choose the blind monk!" the factory director said.
"Then take the lane first." The BP was fully prepared before the game. This situation was also simulated, and Abramovich immediately agreed.
The bottom lane Han Bing and the female gun are banned, leaving Jhin and Zyra.
However, Zyrajin's cooperation is not particularly strong. He was suppressed for three games in the Deft quarter-finals. He has no place to use his energy, and he doesn't want to continue to suffer online!
So in order to increase the early matchup of the duo, the coach made a wave of his hand and directly locked the policewoman and Zyra with his first two hands, giving the ruler and corejj strength!
Go to SSG second or third hand.
Leader An can't stand it. Edg looks down on him too much. If he doesn't snatch the blind monk away, the factory director will really think that he doesn't know how to play!
"Get me the Blind Sin. I want to see what Edg thinks. Besides Spider Excavator, what other heroes can the director get?"
"good."
With the coach's permission, ssg selected jungler Lee Sin and adc Jhin.
On edg's side, the director really didn't have anything new. The third hand quickly locked down the excavator, while the fourth hand left Mei Xia to choose the mid laner.
Just like what Abramovich said before the game, SSG is the challenger now, so Meixia is not in a hurry to get the trump card in the first game.
Soon, a ferocious dragon head appeared in the selection box.
Starforged Dragon King Aurelion Thor!
It was the hero that Kuro used to fight against her in the quarterfinals!
Zeyuan smiled and said, "It is indeed the Dragon King. I have made a guess before! Mika stole a trick from kuro. She wants to teach Kuro, who lost to her in the quarterfinals, how to use the Dragon King to defeat Ryze!"
Su Xiaoyan analyzed, "Dragon King has the advantage of pushing the lane in the early stage, but the damage in the later stage is not as good as Ryze. EDG cannot delay this round."
"It's the same situation as the roxtigers in the last round. We can't let Ryze develop later!" I remember that I remember the previous round clearly.
The audience in the field cheered loudly at this moment.
The barrage in the live broadcast room is endless.
[Just the one who stole it! Mika’s Sharingan is becoming more and more proficient! 】
[The hero who is defeated by a player is called stealing? This is called loot!]
[There is a saying, Mika played Dragon King in the MSI Mid-Season Cup, and it was obviously Kuro who stole Mika!]
…
Then they went to SSG to select players. When they saw Mika's Dragon King, they immediately recalled the match between edg and rox in the quarterfinals a week ago, and they made a decisive decision to get a lineup that could drag them down!
So ssg, in the last two hands, the top laner immediately locked up Poppy, who was difficult to defeat.
At the same time, he assisted in identifying Karma, who was most likely to get mixed up against the policewoman and Zyra.
At this point, bp proceeds to the end.
Only the counter position of edg's fifth move is left.
Considering that this game was centered on the bottom lane, mouse no longer picked an eye-catching hero, but just selected a troll that could restrain Bobitandu.
The lineups of both sides are all confirmed.
Blue side SSG, top laner Poppy, jungler Lee Sin, mid laner Ryze, adc Jhin and auxiliary Karma.
Red side edg, top laner Troll, jungler excavator, mid laner Dragon King, adc policewoman and support Zyra.