The playoffs of all major divisions are in full swing.
The emergence of one team after another has made the S8 World Championship more and more popular.
LPL's Summer Finals opened grandly with much publicity.
After all, RNG had just defeated IG, which was at its peak, and the strength they showed in the semi-finals really looked like a championship.
There is no need to say more about EDG, especially after the summer finals starting list came out, and when Collier’s extremely eye-catching ID appeared on it, countless players became excited.
The battle between pigs and dogs.
Another very standard Spring Festival Gala program.
It's a pity that this e-sports Spring Festival Gala failed to satisfy the broad audience.
The version of the Summer Finals has undergone another round of changes compared to the early stages of the playoffs.
The conspiracy of Riot designers gradually emerged during this round of version changes.
First of all, Dao Mei has completed an enhancement for the first time. Of course, it is said to be an enhancement, but in fact, it is just a callback to be precise.
Not long after the Dao Mei rework, the designer realized that the damage of the new version of Dao Mei's Q minions was too high, so the damage caused by Dao Mei's Q skill to the minions was weakened to a certain extent.
Now it's just that the damage of the Q soldier has been adjusted back.
In addition, Sword Queen's E skill has been enhanced, and the critical damage of the second sword has been increased by 20% at lower levels.
This has also resulted in more top lane hero choices in the current version, and the difficulty of BP targeting the top lane as the main goal has increased a lot.
King Ning could not wait for his version to arrive. This version of Kayn has also been strengthened. The time that the E skill can stay in the wall has been increased. This does not cause substantial damage to Kayn who relies more on terrain travel.
Although it is an increase, it can be regarded as a major enhancement.
The most critical point that affects the trend of this game is the weakening of "Verus".
As one of the most popular heroes in the summer semi-finals, Uzi made a famous scene of relying on the length of his hands to pull Ah Shui.
When Li Luo faced the duel with JD.com, he also put Varus's priority at a very high level.
The changes to Varus seem very small, just changing the basic health attribute.
But what you need to know is that Varus's basic health value itself is only 549 points. Now with this cut, it has suddenly become 499 points, and his basic health value is not even 500 points.
This doubles the cost of fighting in the bottom lane.
Neither uzi nor Li Luo want to see this happen, so this hero will be abandoned by both teams.
Then here comes the problem.
Will discarding Varus have a greater impact on RNG or EDG?
The answer is obvious.
The final score of the summer split is exactly the same as the spring split.
Even JD.com scored a point in EDG's hands, but RNG failed to do so.
Is it because RNG is weaker than JD.com?
actually not.
The gap between coaches was clearly reflected in this BO5, which lasted less than two hours.
When the final came to an end, everyone in RNG returned to the lounge in disgrace.
Facing them were Sun Dayong, who looked messy-haired, and Heart, who was called "Heart Mom" by fans.
This player who once served as the backdrop for Uzi Wei En has now lost again.
Although RNG won the second seed, Heart was not happy at all.
He was restrained in every aspect during the process of BP. The feeling of being completely studied by others but not having many trump cards that he could use made Herat extremely frustrated.
Especially after finishing the last BP, his whole mind was confused.
Uzi sat on the chair, wiped the sweat from his forehead tiredly, then raised his head and glanced at Herat, and said helplessly: "We can't beat each other line to line, and we can't beat team battles."
"As soon as that lineup was selected, I didn't know how to win. The moment the final lineup was finalized, I felt that I was going to lose again."
"It feels like... we're just playing games based on our individual abilities... That's it."
Uzi's words also revealed what the other team members were thinking.
mlxg sat nearby and watched the show.
He didn't even get a shot in the finals.
Because the team failed to persist until the fifth game, he was allowed to assume the position of savior.
In this BO5, they lost miserably.
Kasa, the usual radar brother, completely shut down when facing Mingkai.
It doesn't mean that Kai is better than Casa.
In fact, in this BO5, Casa's several operations were particularly eye-catching. In contrast, Mingkai was as transparent as a transparent one. In addition to assisting his teammates in starting a group, plus some simple and unpretentious ganks in the early stage, Mingkai
All aspects of performance seem to be inferior to Casa.
But only Casa, who was facing him, understood that he was disgusted by this BO5.
With both his top and middle lanes struggling to withstand pressure, and his bottom lane trying his best to maintain balance at best, Casa's space as a jungler is much smaller than Mingkai's.
There is also a reason why EDG allowed Mingkai to start in the finals.
Just because Casa is a very standard "formula" jungler.
The formulaic jungler means that Casa will not make too extraordinary moves during the game.
All of Casa's decisions in the game will be made around a scope that forms a closed loop.
In this case, as long as someone can figure out where Casa's closed-loop range is, they can grasp the lifeblood of Casa.
Mingkai did it.
This is what he's best at doing.
When his teammates give him enough space, Mingkai can rest assured to use his brain.
He is getting old and his skills have declined.
But my brain is not rusty.
On the contrary, the older a person gets, the more evil he becomes.
During this period, Mingkai seemed to have entered a special state of excitement. He was like a dead tree entangled with countless vines. It was sprouting and turning green little by little, but people outside could only see the vines.
You can't see the dead trees inside.
These vines are the entire EDG team.
The LPL finals have come to an end.
EDG once again dominated the entire summer split with near-invincibility.
Their next target is South Korea, the host of this year's S-Games.
The domestic third seed was quickly established.
Although they fell into the bubble game, this version seems to have strengthened IG.
IG crushed JD.com in a nearly crushing manner and successfully advanced to the World Championship.
It is worth mentioning that in this year’s World Championship, the LPL’s third seed does not need to participate in Riot’s play-in tournament.
Because, LPL was the champion last year.
The treatment that this Korean team has always enjoyed is now in the LPL, which IG personally won last year.
This also became an interesting conversation among the audience before the draw ceremony of the S competition.
On the other hand, GEN, the third seed in the LCK region, has to enter the bubble tournament and compete with the third seeds from various regions and even teams from the wild card region. After winning, they can officially enter the group stage.
This means that before the start of this World Championship, LPL has transformed into the first division!
…
On the day of the draw.
Everyone in EDG was sitting around the training room, with melon seeds and drinks ready, waiting for the lottery ceremony that was about to begin.
"There will be no time difference if the competition is held in South Korea, which I feel is pretty good."
Xiaotian picked his own feet without any image, and said while picking them.
"Putting aside other aspects, I still enjoy playing in South Korea."
Meiko leaned on the chair and said leisurely: "The pin over there is low, training and competition should be pretty fun, especially someone with a cheating reaction speed. If the pin is so low, will they report you to ban?
Right? Right, Lao Li?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
Li Luo was speechless: "I am more concerned about who will draw lots this time."
"I remember she was a princess, right? She used to belong to my godfather."
Xiaotian said thoughtfully, and then suddenly stopped picking his feet: "I am from the old godfather, damn, I remember that our EDG's fortune-telling has been very good in previous S games, maybe this time...
"
"Brother Gongzi, take off your socks and stuff them into his mouth. I don't want to hear him beeping."
The elementary school student spoke directly in standard Chinese with a strange taste.
"OKOK."
Jin Gong moved his chair forward with a smile on his face, and at the same time stretched out his hand as big as a cattail leaf towards Xiaotian.
"Oh, get out of here."
Xiaotian looked disgusted.
"The drawing of lots has begun."
Abu's words interrupted everyone's fun.
The training room was quiet for a while, and everyone was staring at the bucket in the hand of Flame, the drawee.
According to the rules, the No. 1 seeds from four of the five major regions will be placed in the four groups from Group A to Group D.
The last one to be eliminated was naturally North America, which had relatively poor results in previous S competitions.
Because of this, the No. 1 seed in North America will inevitably bump into the No. 1 seeds in other groups in a certain group.
There are only four groups, so this is inevitable.
As the lottery began, the first four lottery spots also appeared in the group pool one after another.
EDG, ranked in Group A.
This is also quite funny, because EDG has been in Group A in most of the previous S competitions, and they seem to have formed some special connection with Group A.
The Korean team’s summer champion this year is the KT team.
deft seems to have entered a state of obsession after the setback in the Asian Games.
He performed brilliantly in the playoffs, and the setback in the Asian Games not only did not let him show any signs of decline, but instead made him a more stable output machine for the team.
KT realized their dream of winning the championship and won the No. 1 seed in the LCK.
Standing in Group C is the FW team.
The evergreen Flash Wolves entered the S-League again with first place in the division. Such spirit alone is enough to be praised.
Group D is the old giant FNC. They reversed their decline in the summer split and climbed to the top. After a long time, they once again advanced to the World Championship as the number one seed.
The grouping of the No. 1 seeds in each division does not attract much attention. There are only four pits in total. The difference lies in who chooses to squat in which one.
The key is to start by looking at the configuration of this pit.
One lottery after another emerged from the lottery pool.
The first team to appear in Group A is the VIT team.
VIT, the second seeded team in Europe.
At this time, they were also sitting in front of the screen, nervously watching the live broadcast of the lottery.
When they noticed that they were assigned to Group A, the players looked dull at first, and then someone started shouting OMG, and then all kinds of elegant words with Fake's name were heard one after another in the training room.
EDG is one of the favorites to win this year's S tournament, and they also have Shine, the ad god of death, who is popular in Europe, so if they can be happy being assigned here, they will be damned.
However, after the short period of sadness, they quickly adjusted their emotions and looked at the next opponent with expectant faces.
Although it is a bad thing to have an extremely scary strong team in the group, from another perspective, as long as they are in the second echelon of the group, this will actually be a good thing.
If EDG can beat all the teams in the group, then the other three teams will all have a chance.
This is somewhat similar to multiple-choice questions. The probability of getting the answer right for a multiple-choice question with four answers is always worse than for a multiple-choice question with three answers.
A moment later, the second unlucky team in Group A...oh, the second team with dreams appeared.
MAD.
From the Wanwan team.
As the second seed, they became the third member of Group A.
Everyone in EDG who was watching the lottery ceremony already felt confident when they saw this.
Now in Group A, there are players from the LPL region, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
In other words, the last place that can be competed for through the playoffs can only come from North America, South Korea, and wild cards.
"It could be C9, it could be GEN. The probability of a wild card is low."
Abu said thoughtfully.
It's not that he looks down on the wild card teams.
If we analyze it from the most objective perspective, everyone already knows the team among the wild cards that can finally qualify.
Even if there is a possibility of an upset, the probability of an upset is really low.
There are currently four teams from the five major regions in the wild card.
They are GEN from South Korea.
C9 in North America.
Europe's G2.
and the third seed in Southeast Asia, GRX from Hong Kong.
If you think about it, the probability of these four teams entering the group stage will be higher.
As for the other teams...
We can only rely on upsets to find the slightest chance of qualifying.
I have to admit that upsets are possible in the arena.
But in terms of the play-in format, unless you continue to be upset and continue to be upset, it will be very difficult.
"If it's C9, it's better. If it's GEN...then our situation in Group A is a bit complicated."
Li Luo said thoughtfully.
This pick isn't very good for their EDG, but it's not too bad either.
At least compared to the other two brother teams in the LPL, it's really not that bad.
Judging from the first three moves, EDG at least maintained their signing.
But RNG and IG are not so lucky on the surface.
The first is RNG.
As the second seed, they were assigned to Group B.
The three teams in Group B are now the No. 1 seed KT from South Korea, the No. 1 seed TL from North America, and RNG.
This means that if RNG wants to qualify, it will have to face two No. 1 seed teams at the same time.
If G2 eventually goes to Group B...
Li Luo thought for a while.
Good guy, I’m afraid the program’s effect is not going to be full.
IG was assigned to Group D, which looked pretty good, at least compared to RNG.
They did not hit the Korean team in the first three games.
In the same group are FNC, the number one seed from Europe, and PVB from Vietnam.
The reason why PVB does not need to enter the play-in round is because they got the best result in the wild card division in MSI.
The strength appears to be relatively low.
But they are also likely to encounter GEN in the finals.
There is no doubt that RNG once again fell into the death group.
