At 3:30 in the afternoon, Lin Cheng followed his teammates on the team bus and headed straight to the competition venue.
Seoul, Jongno-gu.
Due to the epidemic, the flow of people in Jongno District, which used to be lively, has been much smaller. Although many young and handsome people are obsessed with it, the elders and aunties have responded to the government's call and reduced unnecessary travel.
After getting off the bus, Lin Cheng followed his teammates out of the parking lot and hurried to the Grand Seoul Building next to it. The entire building is a large comprehensive shopping mall, and LOL PARK is located on the third floor of the building.
Lin Cheng only had time to raise his head and glance at the sharp-edged building before following the team members towards the entrance.
LOL PARK is a professional League of Legends arena that Riot Games officially invested in and built in 2017. It was opened as an LCK competition venue last season.
There are professional Riot Internet cafes, Riot peripheral exhibition halls, coffee lounges, and some shops selling food, game peripherals and team peripherals in the surrounding area.
Usually, the ticket price for on-site viewing at LOL PARK is 9,000 Korean won, which is about 55 yuan per person.
Of course, it is impossible to buy tickets now, but the stores selling related peripheral products are still open, and Lin Cheng saw the Faker figure displayed in the store window at a glance.
Now is not the time to hang around outside. The entire KT team, wearing masks, hurried past the corridor covered with player posters on the walls and headed straight for the lounge.
Lin Cheng couldn't help but glance at the posters printed on the walls of the corridor one by one.
This is the LCK legend hall. The corridor is divided into many sections, and every few meters there is a huge poster of a legendary LCK player.
CT, who has retired long ago and has become one of the most professional commentators in South Korea.
One shot blasted out four PDD Shy.
Madlife, the god of support.
Ambition, the only unyielding fighter who succeeded in revenge against Brother Li.
SKT's top five-man team Faker, Marin, Bengi, Bang, Wolf.
There are also Deft, Kuro, Peanut, Score, Mata, Pray, Smeb.
There are sixteen players in total, all of whom are players who performed at a dominant level in the LCK during their peak years.
There are many players who have played for KT, including retired Mata, Smeb and old team leader Score, as well as Mr. Dai who is still fighting in DRX.
Of course, there is also the current KT mid laner Kuro.
Although Kuro's performance in KT this year was average, Kuro was still very strong during the ROX Tigers period.
Back then, the phrase "Kuro is the king where Faker is not" was both a helplessness and an affirmation of Kuro.
The wall after the sixteen players is blank, waiting for the new dominant players to carve their own posters on it.
Seeing Lin Cheng staring blankly at a blank wall behind the Smeb poster, Kuro couldn't help but pull him.
"Come on, let's go to the lounge first."
Lin Cheng suddenly pointed to the blank wall, "Hey! What do you think, after this year is over, how about hanging my poster here?"
Kuro's eyes widened with a ghostly expression on his face.
This wall can be engraved with names not just by winning the LCK championship.
When he followed the ROX Tigers players to win the championship in the LCK in the S6 Summer Split with an almost crazy performance, he left his name here. In this way, ROX Tigers' support Gorilla was not able to leave his name on it.
Lin Cheng is a new top laner who has never played before. Why do you say this?
The point is, KT is still at the bottom, so it’s a bit outrageous to expect to win the championship, right?
"Well~~~ Come on, I'm optimistic about you."
Regarding Lin Cheng's blind confidence, Kuro didn't say anything to attack him. He just gave a few words of encouragement and then turned around and walked into the lounge.
Lin Cheng didn't mind the obviously perfunctory attitude of his teammates. He shrugged and followed into the lounge with his bag on his back.
The lounge is very spacious. In addition to tables, chairs and sofas for players to rest on, there is also a shelf in the corner specially placed for snacks for players to take. A screen is hung on the wall to broadcast live footage inside the venue in real time.
"Okay, let's take a rest and wait for the game to start."
It was still early before the start of the game, and the on-site staff on the screen were still setting up broadcast equipment. Lin Cheng lost interest after taking a quick look at it, and took out his mobile phone to browse the Korean website forum.
The forum is very lively today.
"Oh! It's another day to beat up good friends. The T1 team member said that he can relax by playing KT."
"Inheriting SKT's glorious tradition starts with beating KT."
"I wonder if Cheng will play today? I just want to see how good this Chinese top laner is."
"Although there is a high probability that you will lose if you don't make it, let's take a look at the performance."
"No way? Do you actually believe in the new top laner?"
"Those stupid fans of KT really think that Chinese top laner is their savior? It's so funny."
"Last year, KT's management also spent half of their time asking retired AD AD to come back to put out the fire. It was laughable to see the level of people."
······
According to LCK's official pre-match support rate statistics, the support rate for both sides in today's first game reached a terrifying 9:1.
Of course, SKT is 9 and KT is 1.
This statistic includes not only Korean viewers, but also overseas viewers’ votes. SKT’s overseas fans naturally crush KT.
You know, KT has been a team for so many years, and even though it has been very competitive in the LCK, the last time it made an impression in the world championship was in S8, but that year KT became the background for IG to win the championship.
Push forward two years and KT will be even worse.
S6 worked hard to qualify for the bubble tournament, but ended up running into Samsung, the king of the bubble tournament. Unfortunately, they failed to qualify.
When S7 failed to qualify in theory, KT was stabbed several times by SKT. Finally, they went to play the bubble game and met Samsung again. As a result, they were swept out of the bubble game again by the God of War.
Speaking of which, KT was really miserable. The news agency war was going to be sanctioned by SKT. In the bubble games, they always encountered a cheating Samsung. After finally forming a Galaxy Battleship, they met KZ, which was very popular in Korea.
Finally, in the S8 Summer Split, KZ became profitable. KT won the league championship and went to the World Championship. As a result, it became the background of IG.
In addition, when KT was at its peak, Yue Lun was stunned by Faker, who had just debuted. He was beaten by SKT more than once...
All things considered, the "background plate" label on KT's body is more powerful than the nails on the coffin board.
Under such circumstances, KT's overseas fan base is naturally far different from Triple Crown winner SKT, so it is normal for such a disparity in support rates.
"Sure enough, KT has never been the favored side."
Lin Cheng couldn't help but muttered that KT turned into a power bank every time they played against SKT. This season they are still at the bottom of the league. It is normal for others not to be optimistic about KT.
Lin Cheng thought to himself: If domestic statistics were included, it would definitely be even more amazing, right?
However, what Lin Cheng didn't know was.
This time, according to Huya's pre-match statistics, KT's support rate was actually higher than SKT.
The reason was attributed to Lin Cheng.
LCK's first Chinese foreign aid, many LPL viewers are curious about Lin Cheng's performance.
In addition to the fans of the Big Devil and the remaining fans of SKT, many neutral viewers voted for KT. After all, Lin Cheng is still half one of his own.
Because Lin Cheng casually said "I'm already warming up" in Aiming's live broadcast room the night before yesterday, this sentence was spread by netizens, causing many domestic viewers to think that Lin Cheng would be KT's starting top laner today.
Therefore, countless spectators were waiting early in Huya’s official LCK live broadcast room.
Most people have only heard of Lin Cheng's name and ID, and haven't even taken a look at his videos. They are still very curious about Lin Cheng's strength.
Whether it’s a mule or a horse, it must be taken out for a walk.
