France, Paris, Arc de Triomphe International Hotel.
Nine o'clock in the morning.
In the huge restaurant, a group of Chinese people wearing black team uniforms with the three-masted sailing team emblem printed on their backs were gathered around the table, eating a breakfast that was completely different from the diners next to them.
The blond foreigners at the next table were munching on bread and drinking coffee, and quietly discussed the origins of this group of people.
Zhang Xiaowen was holding half of a fried dough stick in one hand, holding the straw of soy milk in his mouth, and holding his cell phone in the other hand, constantly scrolling through the photo album, which contained some photos around Paris.
After the lottery ceremony was completed in Berlin, the four promoted teams took the same plane and flew directly from Berlin Airport to Paris.
The day after it landed, Riot Games officials arranged to shoot a promotional video for the knockout rounds.
The filming locations were chosen in relatively well-known areas of Paris such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Seine River.
It can be regarded as taking advantage of this MSI event to once again showcase the local customs and customs of Paris.
"Hey, perkz asked you to take a photo yesterday, why did you ignore him?" Xiaotian on the side came over and put the soup dumpling on Zhang Xiaowen's plate into his mouth.
"What? Does this Ma Lou want to take a photo with me? I saw him smiling and thought he was here to mock me again." Zhang Xiaowen looked confused.
"It's okay, he just knew that you couldn't understand English, so he came to tease you on purpose." Su Chen said calmly.
"No wonder he kept chatting with me yesterday. Mr. Que is here to disgust people, right?" Zhang Xiaowen angrily stuffed the remaining half of the fried dough stick into his mouth.
Su Chen put down the coffee saucer and rubbed his temples.
After he finished shooting the promotional video yesterday, he and Meng Ma studied the BP together until twelve o'clock in the evening.
As a result, before I could even close my eyes, I received several more phone calls from China, all of which were also greetings from people in the industry.
I didn't sleep until after one o'clock in the morning.
Looking at the dense red dots on WeChat, Director, Letme, Uzi, Ah Shui, 957, all are information about LPL players.
Su Chen couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Two days after the group stage schedule ends.
The ym players have actually calmed down and just think of continuing to play a new round of the series.
On the contrary, the domestic reaction was much more intense.
After all, a record of nine wins and one loss is indeed outstanding.
If they hadn't lost the last game against Flash Wolves, then ym might have won the group stage and qualified.
You know, although edg also won the group stage in 2015, the group stage that year was a B01 single round-robin and only played a total of eight games.
What's more, the EDG team back then, with its Galaxy Battleship configuration of fat general in the middle, jungle director, and AD alpaca, was much better on paper than this year's YM team.
That year, edg also defeated Lee Sang-hyeok and his skt, who were in the ascendant, and won the first MSI championship.
However, no one expected that this would also be the last afterglow of the LPL division in international competitions.
Half a year later in the S5 Global Finals, edg was cleanly taken away by fnc 3-0 in the quarterfinals.
The night the Galacticos crashed into the Wembley Arena in England.
The lpl's championship dream was shattered.
Since then, there have been three years of dark years ruled by lck.
Fortunately, YM finally reached the MSI semi-finals this year.
Although the resumes of the players are far less brilliant than the overall runner-up Edg who had 18 consecutive wins in the regular season.
However, it's a good thing to qualify, and ym's condition in the group stage is also very good.
More importantly, neither Faker nor SKT will be present at this year's MSI.
Although Samsung is also very strong, it is still different from the invincible feeling of SKT.
This also gave the audience a little hope.
If you can't keep it together, ym will be a dark horse all the way and become an MSI champion?
After breakfast, Meng Ma also briefly arranged the plan for today.
"Okay, after everyone has breakfast, we will take a break in the morning and play a few rounds of rank to keep up our game. We will have another meeting at noon to go over some key points."
"The opening ceremony of the competition will start at six o'clock in the afternoon in Paris. Everyone can rest and relax in the afternoon. We will just leave for the venue at five o'clock."
"Everyone, just relax and play as if it's the regular season." Xiao Ma also specifically emphasized.
After breakfast.
The whole ym team also returned to the private room of the hotel.
In a large presidential suite, all the furniture had been cleared away, and a row of computers were neatly placed inside. The configuration was no different from that at the YM base.
Su Chen walked to his seat and couldn't help but sigh when he saw the familiar objects on the table.
Logically speaking, a five-star hotel is unlikely to accept renovations to the interior of the room.
However, it is said that everything became simpler after Mr. Pei offered the other party an irresistible price.
Even the waiter in the lobby, who was wearing a suit and leather shoes, held his head high and looked very unruly, immediately became amiable and approachable after meeting ym and his group.
The winner of the MSI group stage is worth around $500,000.
Converted into RMB, that's more than three million.
Su Chen did some rough calculations, and after deducting all kinds of expenses during the ten days he came to Berlin, there didn't seem to be much left.
This is still on the premise of winning the championship.
If you are the runner-up, the prize money will be only half.
No matter how you think about it, it may be a losing business.
But later, Xiao Ma also said that if YM can win the MSI championship this time, he should get a lot of commercial endorsement contracts after returning to China.
It is said that pdd has not been idle these days and has made appointments with many big brands in China.
Each deal is an endorsement contract worth tens of millions.
It all depends on what grade ym can get in the end.
Only then did Su Chen realize. No wonder Mr. Pei was so willing to spend money.
It turned out that what we were looking at was the longer-term benefits.
Perhaps only with such careful consideration can one stand in his position.
After turning on the computer, Su Chen logged into his European server account and started lol ranking.
Because it is an official account from Riot Games, the rank is directly up to the strongest king.
Su Chen watched the video while patiently waiting for the qualifying time.
Soon, a successful matching prompt popped up.
After entering the room, the IDs of five players also popped up in the chat room.
"ym bovy joined the room".
Seeing this prompt, Su Chen turned his head and glanced behind him. Sure enough, the same bp screen was displayed on bovy's computer.
"We're lined up together." bovy also took off his headphones and responded.
Originally, he was going to queue up with Zhang Xiaowen, but after breakfast, Zhang Xiaowen went to the toilet to squat, and when he didn't come back, bovy opened the queue on his own.
"There are a little few people in this European server. We are the first ones in line." Xiaotian, who was still waiting, simply ran behind bovy and watched.
During the ban period, the other three teammates also recognized Su Chen's ID and greeted him cordially in the chat room.
Such words as "g2 will crush ym tonight", "p will beat his left hand to tears", "3:0 will take you away", Su Chen was also a little funny.
Nowadays, Europe is the home ground of g2. Basically, the players in the European server also support g2.
However, even though he said it harshly.
You still have to eat it.
The auxiliary player on the first floor took the initiative to help Su Chen get the Qinggang Shadow and expressed his hope to watch it live.
Su Chen also replied OK.
The selections on both sides alternate back and forth.
Soon, it was bovy's turn on the fourth floor to select people.
As usual, when he was about to take an ez, Su Chen suddenly said.
"Why don't you try a game of Kai'Sa?"
Bovy, who was about to lock the hero, was stunned for a moment.
"Ka'Sa... I'm not playing well." He said frankly.
"It's okay, this is ranking and not a competition. What's more, if you don't play, if we face each other in the next game, you won't know how to deal with it, right?" Su Chen said.
"Then... okay." bovy hesitated for a moment, but agreed.
After the lineups of both sides were locked, the game started quickly.
In this game, Su Chen and bovy are both on the blue side.
After entering the canyon, Su Chen controlled the Qinggang Shadow and got stuck in the triangular grass on the upper road, then cut the camera to the lower road.
Bovy's Kai'Sa took a look in the grass on the bottom lane and then came to the red buff.
It’s not a problem to arrange the level 1 wards like this.
After all, it can prevent the opposite duo from squatting in the grass.
But actually, it would be better to let the assistant do this eye position.
The ward that goes out at the ad level can be kept in the hand. It can also be used to prevent the opponent's field of view during the duel. There are still many ways to use it.
Su Chen remembered that when he was playing in a duo queue with Uzi and Ah Shui, their eyes would definitely not do this.
This is the difference in play style.
In ym, bovy has always been a style that strives for stability and avoids fighting if there are no fights in the bottom lane.
Su Chen remembered that he had suggested that bovy should be more aggressive during the training match.
However, in subsequent games, it was also proven that his abilities were indeed limited.
Some operations, for top ADs, are as simple as drinking water.
But if it were anyone else, they might not be able to play it.
This is the result of a combination of talent, mentality, and reaction.
Soon, the wild monsters were refreshed, the troop line reached three lanes, and the game officially started.
The top laner on the red side chose Akali, flash ignition, and electrocution. It looked like he had learned how Su Chen played in the tsm game a few days ago.
It's just that when Akali was choosing a player, she probably wanted to join the Fairyland, but when the countdown came, she found that she was facing the Qinggang movie queen of "ym jkd".
Dolan immediately took out the red shield potion and repaired his sword.
At level four, hit the road and get first blood.
The green steel shadow with residual blood stepped on Akali's body and returned to the spring.
While waiting for the status to recover and go online, Su Chen also cut the screen to look at the bottom lane lane.
Bovy's Kai'Sa brings support Braum, and the combination with Xia Lulu on the opposite side makes up for the knife peacefully.
The Xayah on the opposite side was probably a youth training player or something like that. She played very fiercely and her position was very deep. She managed to gain Kai'Sa's HP several times by pulling her.
However, bovy played in a calm and steady manner and had no intention of competing with the opponent Xia.
However, Bronn obviously didn't think so.
While catching Lulu to do some eye-catching, Bron flashed directly to his face and threw Q [Winter's Bite], then hung the ignition on Xia's body.
However, bovy's choice was to replace the artillery carriage and send a retreat signal, signaling Bronn to retreat.
Su Chen's brows jumped when he saw it.
Zuo Zuo and Xiao Tian, who were watching the battle, immediately commented.
"Why don't you keep up with me this time? I can't kill you passively." Xiaotian said strangely.
"Lulu came back and flashed to put up a shield. Xia still has healing, but I can't kill him either. It's pointless." bovy shook his head.
"You must be all in for this wave. Braum has already used double moves. You click twice to passively immobilize him. After Xia dodges, you follow. The new wave of soldiers has not arrived yet. You w【
Search for the enemy in the void] Save it for the last blow, it will definitely kill you." Left hand said immediately.
"Then if w is empty, wouldn't it be a big loss if I surrendered and didn't kill anyone?" bovy sounded a little unhappy.
The left hand was about to say, "How could it be empty at such a close distance?", but was stopped by Su Chen.
"Okay, you two go to training quickly. We are not playing ad positions. It is normal to have different ideas."
"Uh, okay." When the two of them saw Su Chen say this, they also turned off their mouth-strong king mode and returned to their respective positions.
Su Chen shook his head, and after killing Akali on the opposite side of the tower, he began to think about the upcoming knockout match.
Originally, ym did not choose the fourth-placed TSM, but took the initiative to pick the third-placed G2 to play. On the one hand, both sides relied on the midfield and top jungle, and on the other hand, they did not have enough confidence in the bottom lane.
After the entire group stage, judging from Meng Ma's words, bovy is considered to be in stable condition.
Stable means that he has not suffered from any serious illness.
But, on the other hand, this also means that it is difficult for you to expect anything else from him.
If you can't get Kai'Sa and Xayah in the bottom lane, then you can't get them.
It doesn’t mean that you just have to practice hard.
The discussion between the three of them just now made Su Chen completely give up the idea of letting bovy take Kai'Sa in the game.
Anyway, when playing g2, both sides of the bot lane are facing each other.
The battlefield is in the upper half.
When we actually meet with Samsung, how to deal with the ruler in the bottom lane will be YM's key issue.
Thinking of this, he inexplicably missed the experience of playing double queue with Uzi and Ah Shui.
Ah Shui's Draven and Uzi's vn often followed him in this kind of 2-on-5 operation.
As soon as his Qinggang Shadow kicks into the crowd, these two will definitely follow.
Uzi Needless to say, flash is usually used to kill people and is rarely used to escape.
As for Ah Shui, as long as he can do enough damage in a team battle, it doesn't matter if he gets killed n times.
In team battles, there are many things that the adc can do that neither the mid laner nor the jungler can replace.
However, comparing bovy with these two is still unrealistic.
The reason why he cannot become a top AD may not only be because of his limited talent, but also because he lacks a big heart for new operations.
There are many players like him in the lpl.
Sometimes, you don’t take action until you know you can do it.
But you must first have the courage to take that step before you can see the results.
Su Chen shook his head and put the distracting thoughts behind his mind.
In the 25th minute, Su Chen controlled Qinggang Ying to go around and start a team fight. After killing Da Hexia on the opposite side and Victor in the middle, he destroyed the team in a wave.
The game is also won.
Before the crystal exploded, Su Chen took a look at bovy's Kai'Sa's record, which was 1-1-6, which was considered quite satisfactory.
However, compared with the 11-5-9 data of Kasumi on the opposite side, his presence is obviously much weaker.
"You played well." Su Chen put on the headphones again and started the next round of ranking.