When the two qualifying teams from Group A were finalized, the draw ceremony for the knockout rounds soon began.
During the chat, Watanabe and Miller looked solemn after receiving the prompt from the director, and then Watanabe said: "The lottery ceremony should be about to begin."
"Yes."
Miller nodded: "There is actually only one specific knockout rule, and that is that teams in the same group in the group stage will not be divided into the same half. This means that if teams in the same group in the group stage want to compete in the knockout stage,
If we meet again, we will have to wait until the finals."
"In addition, the division protection system does not apply to the knockout rules, which means that there is a possibility of civil war between the major divisions."
After adding, Wawa showed a smile: "It is worth mentioning that among the eight teams in the knockout round of this world championship, our LPL team that entered the top eight surpassed the LCK for the first time, and only two teams from the LCK entered.
In the knockout rounds, we have three teams. From a probability perspective, our division will have a greater chance of taking a step forward."
"Of course, the details still depend on everyone's performance in the knockout rounds."
As Wawa finished speaking, Riot officials officially started the draw.
The two seed pools correspond to the No. 1 seed and No. 2 seed in each of the four groups.
At the same time, the major teams were also watching this ceremony in each other's lounges or temporary training rooms that related to their fate in this world championship.
What is more interesting is that all three European teams participating this time have entered the quarterfinals.
This means that among the top eight teams, not only the number of LPL teams exceeds that of LCK, but also Europe.
FNC, VIT, G2, Europe told everyone with their strength that they should not be underestimated this time.
The first draw was the KT team from the LCK.
According to the rules of the draw, the four No. 1 seeds will first determine each other's half.
When KT was drawn, two of the remaining three teams except EDG were all tight.
Although EDG has never had a formal face-to-face confrontation with KT, there has been a lot of friction between Li Luo and deft.
Both sides know each other's strength relatively well.
Now that EDG is no longer where Wu Xia Amon once was, it can be said that the two teams are in a state of "mutual fear".
The next second, a familiar black lottery came into view.
In the EDG backstage lounge, Abramovich raised his eyebrows: "Sure enough, we are on the same level as KT."
"The probability of drawing this kind of lottery is 50-50. Just hit whoever you draw. It doesn't matter. If I draw AFS, I won't be willing to fight."
Li Luo smiled and said.
He said this not because he thought AFS was better than KT.
EDG had played against AFS during the intercontinental competition, and Li Luo had no idea whether this team was strong or not.
Compared to AFS, Li Luo wants to face KT more. The reason lies in the different styles between teams.
Teams like AFS can only operate against them, and the players actually don't have much passion for playing in such games.
KT is different. As a famous fighting team in LCK this year, Li Luo really wants to go head-to-head with them.
Of course, the premise is that KT can really enter the semi-finals.
The first half has been finalized, and there is no doubt about the second half.
AFS and IG teams are in the same group.
When all the No. 1 seeds are settled, the real tense moment for the major teams will come.
With the appearance of the first lottery, the VIT team logo appeared in the hands of the lottery drawee.
In front of the commentary table, Wawa's brows widened: "The second seed in Group A, due to the half-district rules, VIT cannot be placed in the top half, so his opponent will be AFS in the second half."
"Yes, VIT performed well in the group stage, and their style is also very aggressive. It's actually hard to say against AFS."
For Wawa and Miller, they would be happy to see a wild guy like VIT, who is full of uncertainties, encounter the Korean team.
Think about last year's European Rabbitohs, who almost overthrew SKT.
Then came the second lottery.
FNC from Europe.
According to the rules and order, the opponent FNC will face in the knockout round is the KT team.
Next comes the third draw.
At this time, Wawa and Miller frowned again.
According to this situation, there is no way to avoid civil war.
And because of the rules, it can be said that RNG’s opponent has been determined.
It’s last year’s world champion, IG.
After all, there is no way RNG can be in the same half zone as KT, and it is already a certainty to be paired with IG.
Then the team in the same group as EDG can only be... G2.
The third seed from Europe.
"It's a good sign, damn."
In the EDG lounge, meiko's eyes lit up.
There is no need for a civil war to kill brothers. If you advance to the top four, you will encounter the team that is recognized as the weakest among the four second-seeded teams outside the field. There is no doubt that this is the top draw.
Li Luo took a look at his teammates and found that even coach Abramovich was very satisfied with the lottery. Everyone seemed quite happy.
It's just that because EDG players are relatively introverted, they didn't show much.
Seeing this situation, Li Luo couldn't help but sigh.
Only those who have been involved can understand the mood when RNG, which was the number one seed before the rebirth, drew G2.
Regardless of memory factors, this is a top-notch lottery.
Although G2 was massacred by IG with a score of 3-0, G2 is not weak, especially in the S8 version, their top, middle and jungle are strong, and they can also mess with people's mentality.
Such a team of rogues fell into their hands...
Tsk tsk.
Li Luo touched his chin in deep thought.
"In this case, IG and RNG are going to have a civil war. I remember IG suffered a lot at the hands of RNG this year. Although IG is often at full strength, IG is indeed suffering all the time."
Mingkai thought for a while and said: "RNG still has some restraint on IG on a certain level, but... the current version of the World Championship... to be honest, it's hard to say."
Of course, professional players will not look at every game from the perspective of ordinary passers-by.
For professional players, judging who is stronger or weaker between two teams has little to do with the historical records of both teams. The key lies in the team's recent state.
Even if a team loses, there are different ways of losing.
Some teams lose games because of the ups and downs of a certain player's personal status or miscalculation of the BP strategy.
There are also teams that have a lineup that is similar in strength to their opponents but still lose the game.
There are even more teams that are clearly in the lead in terms of numbers, but their economy just can’t catch up. In the mid-term, the players always feel that there will be endless lines of troops to deal with, and they are always working hard for the lines of troops. When they don’t pay attention to a certain line of troops, they will
I found that the defense tower on that road was inexplicably consumed by soldiers.
Therefore, including Li Luo, everyone will be more optimistic about IG in this civil war.
It's just that the perspectives and ways of viewing the issue are different between the audience and the players. When the civil war was finalized, fans of both sides still had "unfriendly exchanges" and even "mutual insults" on the Internet.
EDG's pace is relatively slow. In the next few days, except for spending a little time traveling to Gwangju, the next competition venue, EDG can concentrate on training most of the time.
The personal ranking training environment in the Korean server is still harsh. EDG has also reported this problem to the officials. On the surface, the official response was quite positive, and they immediately banned several outrageous tricks.
But the chaos in rank has not diminished.
When the EDG players responded again, the person in charge of the Korean LOL branch was obviously a little impatient. He said, "I have already taken action. What else do you want? If you are not satisfied with this, then what will happen to them?"
There's nothing I can do about it".
Fortunately, EDG won the group stage, and their reputation as a strong team throughout the year has been there, and the training matches are also fully scheduled.
Of course, most of the games in the training matches were played against his two brothers. Despite the quarrels among fans on the Internet, in private the players would go out to have a party and improve their food.
Time flies and it’s the eve of the knockout rounds.
The match between EDG and G2 was scheduled for the third day.
The first day of the knockout round is the showdown between AFS and VIT.
The next day was the LPL civil war.
The last day is the showdown between KT and FNC.
When Li Luo has nothing to do, he will look at the work in the European and American divisions to soothe his mood.
Compared with the atmosphere in Europe and the United States, the atmosphere in the domestic e-sports circle seems a bit too serious.
Europe's three knockout teams have been trending on Twitter recently.
In the eyes of some domestic viewers, they may feel ridiculed and think they are pretending.
But for European spectators, they have no ill intentions, they are just used to it. The cultural differences between regions highlight the difference in mentality between them and Asian spectators when facing competitive events.
Just like G2 mid laner Ah P, he shouted to EDG from a distance before the game started. He did not directly provoke EDG and said something like asking EDG to clean their necks, but cleverly told EDG that they would at least win in BO5.
Get a small point, so that you can prove in a deeper level that the European division is greater than the LCK.
The other two European teams are also making insinuations and mocking the LCK.
The LCK viewers were almost furious about this, but there was nothing they could do about it.
They can only endure the matter of "the number of teams entering the knockout rounds" and then pour their anger on GEN.
There are endless abuses against GEN on the forum, and various posters are also abuzz. Some people even posted the sentence when GEN lost the first game, "We will not lose a game from now on, with a record of 5/1." After qualifying in the group stage, "P" became LGD's team logo, making LGD famous internationally.
The great god who has switched to fighting chicken has also been liked by countless people. He has the power to reverse the situation and has become a joke among the audience recently.
Under the cultural integration of multiple competition areas, the knockout rounds officially kicked off.
AFS is holding back their energy and has long since stated righteously in the media that they will get off work early with a score of 3-0 and win VIT without losing a game.
This is a battle of dignity for the second seed in LCK!
However, when the knockout rounds officially started, the result of the collision between the two teams surprised countless people.
"My dear, I feel like this team has become stronger again after entering the knockout rounds."
In EDG's temporary training room, Xiaotian sat on a chair and said dumbfounded.
Following his gaze, he saw that the score between the two sides on the field had suddenly become 2-0.
In the first game, VIT almost tyrannized AFS, playing an exaggerated head-to-head ratio. The economic gap between the two sides at the end of the game also reached a terrifying 15,000.
Just this one move made the official LCK commentators scream.
In the second game, the two sides were very anxious, but VIT's fast-paced attack, which killed the master with random punches, still made it difficult for AFS to parry. In the mid-term, AFS had a chance to reverse the disadvantage, but their disadvantage of not being aggressive enough was fully exposed.
If VIT gives them a little more time to operate properly in the mid-term, then AFS seems to have a chance.
But VIT really doesn’t give you a chance!
Forget about the Korean audience.
Even the European audiences were dumbfounded.
Is this still the powerful Korean region they know?
Li Luo could only say that this kind of result was unexpected and reasonable.
The AFS team relies heavily on the rhythm of jungler Sprite.
But the two Little Sprites fell into the fast-paced attack of VIT's jungler. VIT had obviously studied them thoroughly, so they used fast-paced jungle and gave the jungler a very high priority.
AFS mid laner Kuro likes to play a mid laner with a high growth rate, but he is defeated by VIT's assassin mid laner Tian.
Everyone in KT who was at the temporary base was extremely stressed when they saw this situation.
When did their LCK division in the Republic of Korea have such pressure?
Originally, according to their script, AFS defeated VIT 3-0, and then killed either IG or RNG to advance directly to the finals. KT overturned EDG in the top half, and finally the two Korean teams Successfully joined the LCK finals.
As a result, AFS told them, wake up, this beautiful dream has just begun and seems to be coming to an end.
In Li Luo's impression, although the team AFS encountered before the rebirth was not VIT, it was still a European and American team.
C9 from North America also defeated AFS with a 3-0 record. It shocked countless people and made C9 the real light of North America.
Judging from the result of this game, Li Luo may even be a little worried about KT.
You must know that FNC was defeated 3-0 at the beginning, and AFS was defeated 3-0 by C9.
Listing down the relationship between victory and defeat, KT...it's hard to say.
However, AFS did not lose as badly as Li Luo had imagined. In the third game, they made a comeback, and at the same time, in the fourth game, they once again crushed the LCK fans who had just raised their hopes.
VIT, a team that was eliminated from the group before Li Luo was reborn, miraculously advanced to the semi-finals!
The showdown between IG and RNG has undoubtedly become the highlight of the world's attention.
Especially fans in the LPL division, after seeing this grouping, a bold idea suddenly came to their minds.
