To be precise, not only is ig uncomfortable, but edg and rng are also uncomfortable with each other.
The most intuitive manifestation of this discomfort is in training matches.
The three LPL teams can't get an appointment with the Korean team.
Even the teams in different groups could not get an appointment. The lck team refused their appointment for various reasons.
You can get some appointments with European and American teams, but the ones who are comfortable in this regard are edg and rng.
Both of their teams have invited tsm, who is invincible in training matches, but ig cannot invite them to play training matches because they are in the same group as tsm.
Therefore, the quality of ig's recent training matches is not high. Although the winning rate is good, this is not what Li Luo wants.
The three teams in lck seem to be holding back their energy and plan to shine in this S-series event held in China.
In this situation, there wasn't much Li Luo could do.
Before the rebirth, the three LPL participating teams all had full IG as their training team.
But now there is no one to train them.
All the players in the WE team have been on vacation, and adc's brother-in-law has returned to South Korea. Under this situation, they can't even get together, let alone a sparring partner.
If you randomly replace them with an ADC, it will not achieve any sparring effect.
Under this situation, Li Luo can only hope that the team can adapt to the version in the short six best-of-one games in the group stage.
To be precise, they even have to adapt as much as possible in the first three games, that is, the first round of the group stage.
Although the schedule of the group stage is not long, there are many tricks in it.
The first round is a stage of testing each other.
There are many teams that achieved a good record in the first round, but were subsequently figured out by other teams, leading to direct withdrawal in the second round and getting lost in the version.
As the No. 1 seed in the LPL division, ig has attracted a lot of attention in the industry recently. Various analysis posts have appeared both domestically and internationally.
There are good and bad aspects to these analyses.
And as Riot Games successively announced what they considered to be the top 20 players in this year's World Championship, the topic of the ig team also reached its peak in an instant.
"Top20, tsm North American senior brother."
"Top19, a junior from edg."
"top18,rng, mlxg."
"top17,c9,zven."
"top16, ssg, leader An."
"top15, Flash Wolf, Snake."
"top14,rnguzi."
“top13, ssg crown brother.”
“top12,ig,the shy.”
“top11,skt ,bang.”
"top10,tsm Pilsen."
"top9,ig,shine."
"top8,ssg,cuvee."
“top7,skt wolf.”
"top6,ssg,bdd."
"top5,ig,rookie."
“top4,lz,khan.”
“top3, lz,gorilla.”
“top2,lz, pray.”
"top1,skt,faker."
Among the 20 players on the list, lpl is included in six seats.
ig occupies three seats.
Among the three seats occupied by ig, Riot Games respectively gave reasons why they chose to include the three ig players in that seat.
top12, the shy: As a rookie, he has a unique understanding of warrior top lane heroes. His existence has changed the tactical ecology of the ig team, and will also make the selection of heroes for top units in this world championship easier. Even more interesting, if the number of deaths due to ganks during the laning phase can be reduced, I believe the shy’s ranking will rise to a higher level.
top9, Shine: It was very difficult for us to make this decision. As a new player, Shine's excellence is obvious to all. From the microphones in the game, it is not difficult to find that Shine's existence has turned ig, who originally had a messy playing style, into a good player in training. He is a solid soldier and we would like to give him a higher ranking, but he is too young and lacks competition experience. He needs to prove himself with his performance in the World Championship.
top5, rookie: Rookie player won the LCK Summer Split in 2014, but due to the competition system, his KTA failed to enter the World Championship that year. This neglected player has always performed very well in LPL. He The ferocious suppression ability is obvious to all. Having him is equivalent to owning a sharp knife for IG. After two years, Rookie returns to the World Championship again and hopes to give us a better performance.
When the list was completely revealed, the reactions in the circles in each competition area were different.
But there is no doubt that the controversy is very great.
Domestic Tieba forums have been flooded with comments recently.
"It's outrageous. This poisonous milk ranking is outrageous. Shine is ranked ninth in FMVP in the summer playoffs?"
"Haha, I think ninth place is already high. He can actually be ranked in front of Bang, who has won two world championships. Isn't it funny?"
"I think SSG's Ruler is pretty strong, why isn't it on the list?"
"Everyone can just take a look at the poisonous milk list created by fist. Except for Faker, this poisonous milk list is not very accurate."
"The shy is ranked high. He is so easy to be caught and killed, and he is not very good at playing tank heroes. How can he be ranked 12th?"
"Having said that, there are only three top laners in the top 20, and all three are Koreans. When will our local top laners stand up?"
There are controversies in domestic forums.
What's more, it's in other competition regions.
Have arrived at the skt training room where Jiangcheng trains.
"Junzhi, have you noticed the ranking list given by Riot Games? That rookie player is still ranked above you."
Wolf gnawed on the bread and said vaguely.
Bang, who was playing in the rankings, glanced at him casually: "I see, I never pay much attention to this kind of list. In 2015, I was ranked 19th on the list. I was the champion that year. In 2016, I was ranked sixth and we were still champions, without any reference value."
"That's right. For us, whose goal this year is to be the sprint champion, these rankings are meaningless. They may not even be able to meet us in the knockout rounds."
"I remember that guy Chengxun was interviewed once before. Not long ago, that guy was very crazy."
The wolf who swallowed the last bite of bread seemed to have thought of something and spoke.
What he calls Chengxun is huni.
"What he needs now is not to belittle his opponents in interviews, but to train well. Don't you think he is too unstable? He can occasionally give you outstanding performances, but most of the time he just gives up."
bang shrugged his shoulders and said.
"You're right. Alas, I've eaten and drank enough. I heard there's a good restaurant nearby. Let's go try it tonight?"
…
As the topic that stood at the forefront of the wave of closures, the home team ig team still did not respond much to the outside reaction.
IG had arrived in Jiangcheng ten days ago. The club, which was not short of money, had spent a lot of money on their domestic expedition. They rented a large flat near the Jiangcheng Sports Center for the players to train and live.
You can even play badminton in the huge living room.
"Brother Luo, this fist's ranking is obviously lower than yours."
Prince Ning took advantage of the gap in the queue to browse the web page and complained.
“Will those at the top be paid more?”
Li Luofan looked at the small notebook in his hand and said expressionlessly.
"That shouldn't happen..."
"What does it have to do with me? Let the heroes who are training me finish their training?"
"This...not yet."
"Then practice more."
Li Luo glanced at him: "Although this list is a bit like a poisonous list, but they haven't even made it into the top 20, why don't you go to the World Championships and slap them in the face with your size 45 shoe soles?"
Prince Ning remained silent.
Of course he was not convinced.
He ranks 31st among all players.
He is the lowest among the three lpl junglers.
There are even two European and American junglers ranked higher than him.
Although Prince Ning didn't say it, he secretly remembered it in his heart.
This is what Li Luo taught him a few days ago.
King Ning felt that what Li Luo said made sense. He should not be so proud, and should be humble enough to accept criticism and lessons from others.
Then... remember all these people who criticized and taught you, and write it down silently in a small notebook.
Well, yes, that’s it!
…
Soon, the qualifying rounds began.
IG people only watched two or three of them and stopped studying them.
Players make mistakes too frequently. For example, North America's third seed C9 and LPL's third seed RNG can't be said to be indiscriminate killings among teams in this kind of qualifying competition. It's a one-sided massacre!
In addition, European FNC also performed well. Although 1907 Fenerbahce from Turkey is not as dominant as the other three teams in the major competition area, they played more anxiously, but their resilience is still worthy of respect.
.
As expected, the team that had a good life in their early days ended up with a record of zero gold and a miserable exit with no results.
With the emergence of these four teams, the four vacancies in the four major groups of abcd were filled one by one.
Group a:ig,ahq,tsm,fnc.
Group b: lz, msf, imt, fb.
Group c:g2,ssg,gam,rng.
Group d:fw,skt,edg,c9.
When the dust settled on this list, these four groups were clearly divided into two halves.
Group AB is nicknamed the no-suspense zone.
lz will definitely qualify. In foreign voting lists, 99% of people think lz can qualify, and 86% of people think lz can qualify as the No. 1 seed.
Another team known as ig is highly controversial, but at least 70% of people think that ig can also appear.
However, it is worth mentioning that the number of people who believed that ig could be ranked first in the group only accounted for 30% of the total votes.
This is a foreign list, and domestic audiences cannot participate in voting.
It can be seen that the outer divisions are not optimistic about the No. 1 seeded LPL team.
Groups c and d are called death groups.
The voting for both groups was very confusing.
Every audience has their own different opinions. Based on paper strength alone, it is difficult for the audience to judge which four teams from these two groups will stand out.
And in this environment, an article quietly came out.
This article is written by Montecristo, a famous Korean blowing and English flow commentator.
It covers his own predictions and opinions on this World Championship, as well as interviews with many professional players.
The title of this article completely ignited the anger of lpl viewers.
"Is this the weakest year in the LPL division?"
This is a summary of the title.
Although there is a question mark, the irony is self-evident.
The most important thing is that whether the publication date of this article is intentional or not, if it is synchronized to the capital time from Europe and the United States, it happens to be October 1st.
"On October 1, 2015, a team from the lpl division launched a surrender at the Pullman venue in Paris."
"Facing them is the FNC team from Europe."
"What's interesting is that this year the two teams are in the same group again. FNC, who came out of the playoffs, is looking for the next stone to sharpen their swords."
"In addition to the tsm team, there is another team that also comes from the group that year, and the personnel of this team have not undergone any major changes."
"What I didn't expect was that the ig team, which was unfortunately eliminated at the Pullman venue, would be able to enter the World Championship as the No. 1 seed this year. Their luck and strength are worthy of praise."
"I interviewed several players from that year and asked them to express their opinions on this year's LPL division."
"I took the lead in interviewing Huni. He was in the FNC team that year, but now he is in SKT, and Ou Cheng is the only one left in FNC."
"Huni said: I feel very sorry for ig back then, because I don't think that ig's strength has reached the standard to enter the world championship. Especially when I played Raven and completed the counterattack on the first tower, I felt that this
The ig is so weak."
"Of course, I don't rule out that that game will be my illusion, so I really hope that ig can enter the knockout round, and then be lucky enough to draw us. I want to play Raven again (laughs)."
…
"Fuck, how can this bitch be so good at pretending?"
Prince Ning was so angry when he saw this.
"Isn't this bad?"
Li Luo glanced at him: "You have to thank Ge Zi. He gave this guy enough confidence. Now this guy is obviously a little drifting. If his performance in the World Championship is OK, then everything is easy to say. If he doesn't perform well,
He may be sprayed back to the European and American competitions."
"I have an impression of this explanation."
Rookie said thoughtfully.
He has seen too many similar articles recently.
This one just seems a little more extreme.
This feeling of being obviously very angry but currently having no ability to refute made Rookie feel a little angry in his heart.
"The game is about to start in four days. Stay calm. Our first game in four days will be against FNC. We want to win. Not only do we have to win, but we also have to win cleanly."
Mafa walked up and said.
He is worried that ig players will have mental problems due to recent public opinions.
The playing style of ig is relatively easy to get into.
It would really be a laughing stock if someone dug a trap and ambushed him because he was too angry and took the bait again.
"Where are you just now? Have you forgotten what FNC's adc said two days ago during the post-match interview at the end of the qualifying round?"
Li Luo's words made everyone in IG look a little weird.
Indeed, most of the media these days just focus on the old events of that year.
There is very little content targeting other ig players.
Except for Li Luo.
As an FMVP in the summer finals, Li Luo's performance was too dazzling. After Riot Games made a splash in the ranking of the top 20 players, the ADCs in each major region who were not on the list all looked down upon Li Luo more or less.
FNC's adc Ou Cheng was already considered the more reserved among these people during the interview.
Li Luo remembers it very clearly. When Ou Cheng was asked what he thought of Li Luo at that time, Ou Cheng bluntly said that he once thought he was a dazzling genius adc, but after the World Championships, he realized that the world was too broad.
Already.
On the surface, these words did not sound like they were directed at Li Luo.
But the hidden meaning is known to everyone.
In addition, Bang from the SKT team also commented on the LPL finals. According to Bang, the BP done by the EDG team was too childish. He couldn't understand why EDG kept trying to kill Li Luo's joker.
Another adc player who expressed the same opinion as Bang is c9's cross-dressing master adc. He also believes that the fortune teller is not qualified to be banned in this version. Even if he plays well, can he be successful?
Li Luo saw all these, but Li Luo didn't react at all.
Li Luo has always believed that practice is the only criterion for testing truth.
He has no control over how others view him, and has no time to care.
He just needs to do what he should do, and that's enough.
…
And under such an undercurrent, the group stage of the 2017 League of Legends Global Finals finally kicked off at the Seoul Stadium.
Under the arrangement of the competition organizing committee, the game between rng and g2 was arranged in the first game.
Under the nearly full home court of lpl, the players of the g2 team walked onto the stage waving their arms.
Li Luo looked at the high-spirited Ah P in the field and felt quite emotional.
At this time, Ah P was still a little P.
The g2 at this time is not the same team as in the s8 season.
Although they are the number one seed in the EU division, they have attracted much attention and are also favored by many people.
But according to the tactical drills done by Li Luo and mafa before this game, g2's chance of winning against rng is not high.
Today's ig game is at 6:30 in the evening.
There are still three hours until their game.
ig still has time to observe the BP of other participating teams.
As for rng and g2, who are playing for the first time, while they have gained the first wave of traffic, they will also become the guinea pigs in the eyes of all teams.
Every move of their BP is likely to affect the BP trend of other teams in today's subsequent games.
Li Luo frowned slightly when he saw Xia Hou being directly pressed down on the first floor of the blue rng.
RNG's BP strategy seems to have not changed from my impression before rebirth.
As the opponent, G2 was very focused on knocking down Kalista on the fixed ban and Uzi's Big Mouth.
As the opening battle, the lineup chosen by g2 was quite conventional.
But rng chose a somewhat weird chopper team.
While the top laner chose Big Tree, Xiaohu's mid laner chose Jess, who favored early and mid-game poke.
In this first round, rng seems to be planning to play in the way they think is easiest to win the game.
"Uzi's rat has something to say. To be honest, I feel that G2's bottom lane is not very resistant. If their small cannon is not effective when paired with Lulu, when the rat rises up and cooperates with Feng Nu's shield, the output will be a bit exaggerated.
of."
Prince Ning commented at the beginning.
During the S4 period, Uzi often chose heroes like Mouse in the competition field. This is definitely one of Uzi's signature heroes.
Although Xiangguo chose Pig Girl, his playing style of Pig Girl is obviously different from others.
The mid laner Ryze chosen by g2 was a bit too slow. Under Zhumei's strong gank in the early stage, Xiangguo suppressed the early rhythm of g2's jungle digger.
Using a pig girl to crush an excavator is a very exaggerated thing in a competition.
In the end, Uzi's Mouse successfully won the game with a score of 9/0 thanks to the Incense Burner Monster.
rng, who had a big lead by a large margin, completed their debut.
Mafa and Li Luo were discussing and recording something.
The subsequent games were not as they expected. The Censer Monster has become the top priority in the current version. They have hardly seen any team release Kalista, nor have they seen any team choose to start a team with a hard attack.
auxiliary.
5:30 p.m.
Finally it was Group A's turn to compete.
However, there was an upset in the first game of Group A.
After a 45-minute stalemate with the ahq team, TSM, the No. 1 seed in North America, was deceived by ahq's wave of forcing the Ancient Dragon. As a result, TSM, which originally had a small advantage, was wiped out in one wave.
ahq scored the first point in Group A and temporarily ranked first in Group A.
Seeing the base crystal explode, Mafa stood up and clapped his hands: "It's our turn."
"Um."
igEveryone stood up one after another.
Li Luo carefully observed the status of his teammates.
Except for Baolan who looked a little nervous and awkward, Li Luo felt that his worries about the other people in ig seemed to be unnecessary.
Prince Ning was still shaking his legs before he stood up, looking carefree.
Rookie, who has already participated in the World Championship once, is not nervous at the moment. Whenever nervous emotions are about to emerge in his mind, a figure will fill his mind instead of this emotion.
Rookie knows that this time he does not need to become the dean like in s5.
Among his teammates, everyone can tell everything, and there is also a secret king.
In this case, what does he have to fear?
As for the shy...
Li Luo looked at the shy's casual look and was speechless.
At this moment, even he himself felt a faint surge of adrenaline.
But the newcomer, the shy, didn’t react at all.
nervous?
Maybe he doesn't even know what nervousness is.
This is also another combat advantage that Li Luo feels the ig team has.
The characters of the players determine their mentality.
And this mentality will also affect their on-the-spot performance on the competition field.
"This game is against fnc... we want to win, we must win."
Everyone folded their hands together, Li Luo looked around and said word by word: "My requirements for today's game are only four words, focus and concentration."
"ig, just do it!"
"Dry!"
The skirts of clothes danced, and as the music and drumbeats from the scene sounded, the ig players stepped onto the stage.
Today is their first game of the World Championship.
