After winning against EDG, DT lost to TES and VG with records of 1:2 and 0:2.
1W2L in large games and 3W4L in small games. DT’s start was not ideal, and it was barely in the top ten.
In view of the continuous expansion of LPL seats, the playoff spots for the eight teams have become slightly crowded.
Therefore, after careful consideration this year, LPL officials decided to expand the playoff quota to the top ten in the regular season.
The number of playoff rounds will be increased, and a double-elimination format will be adopted in the semi-finals.
The more complex and intense double-elimination competition system reduces the possibility of upsets to a certain extent and increases the gold content of the championship.
However, in Zhuge Liang's view, some details of the new competition system still lack consideration, which is not very user-friendly.
For example, the team that reaches the semi-finals has two lives, but the winner of the semi-finals only has one life, and the team that loses in the finals can only be ranked second.
Moreover, challengers who come up from the loser group do not have to bear any price, which is really unfair to the winner group.
Under Zhuge Liang's instruction, DT Club united with several other clubs to report the situation to LPL.
However, it is indeed difficult to determine the specific limit of compensation.
Some people suggested that the loser of the group who comes up will lose the round directly.
But early experience and lessons have proven that this competition system is very boring to the audience.
It was obviously a BO5, but a certain team suffered a defeat before even playing, which had a huge impact on the entire game.
Some people also suggested that the winning group should have priority in selecting sides in the final.
The problem is that the current version of the blue side has a huge advantage. Except for some teams who like to choose the red side or have special arrangements, generally speaking, teams with priority in choosing sides almost default to the blue side.
This is also directly reflected in the winning rate. The winning rate of the blue side is significantly higher than that of the red side.
Giving the winning group priority in selecting sides in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th games would be too detrimental to the losing group, but if it only gives priority to selecting sides in the first game, it would be unfair to the winning group.
An even more outrageous suggestion is that I hope the lower bracket and the finals will be held on the same day.
Just kidding, the BO10 tragedy of the Snakes back then is still fresh in my mind. If the official does it again, the fans will blow it up until everyone is gone?
Besides, with such a tight schedule, even if the players can withstand it, can the audience withstand it? Will the ratings and attendance be affected?
Finally, after consultation, LPL officials accepted the DT Club’s proposal.
Adjust the schedule to shorten the interval between the lower bracket and the finals, placing them on Saturday and Sunday respectively, that is, one round will be played every other day.
In addition, the final BO5 will still proceed as usual.
In this way, the time left for the losers group to prepare becomes tight without putting too much physical burden on them.
The most important thing is that there are no messy subsidies in the finals, which is relatively fair and more acceptable to the audience.
Once the competition system was announced, although there were still some criticisms from some viewers, overall it was quite acceptable.
……
The DT team is stuck on the edge of the playoffs and may fall out of the top ten at any time, which can't help but make fans sweat.
In these troubled times, there was a sudden spread on the Internet about Faker taking a girl to play in the dark side.
Some self-media posted screenshots of his performance, which showed that Faker's Chinese server account had played several games with a diamond player.
Subsequently, an article was attached, analyzing the ID, avatar and commonly used heroes of this diamond player one by one, and determining that the possibility of this player being a girl is extremely high.
At the end of the article, the article implicitly linked DT's recent poor record with this incident, implying that Faker became addicted to women after coming to LPL, and the persona SKT had previously established completely collapsed.
As soon as the news spread, there was an outcry online.
"I'm a casual fan of Faker. I can only say I'm a little disappointed. After all, the team's performance is so poor and it's almost impossible to even make it to the playoffs. If you don't take the time to train, you're still going to lead a girl to cheat!"
"Losing the game is not Brother Li's fault, so what's the point of blaming the blame? Besides, looking at the time of the screenshot, it's clearly a private period outside of training time. So what if I'm cheating with a girl?"
"Haha, you still have a filial son to help with the washing? Korean aids are all the same. They just waste money, fuck fans, beat them badly, and have fans to comfort them. It's really cool!"
"Having been shaved off by Wolong's team for two consecutive years, and joining this year after being unable to beat him, Faker's spirit has long since dissipated. He came to LPL just to retire."
"It's S9 now, are there still crazy fans who believe in the characters hyped by LCK?"
"Hey, could it be that Brother Li hooked up with a wealthy female fan?"
"At Faker's age, it's normal to fall in love. I just hope that the other person won't be that weird internet celebrity."
"Let's make a bold assumption, could this girl who has a bad relationship with me be a certain LPL host?"
"The melon-eating party said that we should let the bullets fly for a while and not express personal opinions."
"Don't rush to complain, can you just wait for the official explanation from DT Club?"
……
That night, DT Club released an official blog.
The content is not an explanation of rumors on the Internet, but a piece of news that seems unrelated at first glance.
At this juncture, DT Club officially announced the signing of a free agent, and stated that this player will appear in DT's last game against AHQ before the Spring Festival!
For a time, netizens were all confused by this confusing operation of DT.
"DT hired a temporary worker? They made an official announcement in the middle of the night and said they signed a free agent, but they didn't mention anything about their name, ID, or photo?"
"Now is the time when the lineup is getting used to each other, so what's the point of suddenly having to make substitutions?"
"The five players now are very good. I can't accept whoever replaces them!"
"Suddenly a possibility occurred to me. Could it be that the person you said you were playing against with Brother Li was actually a new player?"
"I don't believe that DT operations don't know the rhythm of the Internet. At this time, there are sudden and unrelated developments, which definitely have profound meaning!"
"It should be right. After all, Brother Li doesn't seem to be the type who would take the initiative to pick up girls, otherwise he definitely wouldn't be single today."
"Suppose the person who is playing in the dual queue with Brother Li is a new player, but the diamond rank is too weak, right? And why is it a match, not a ranked or training match?"
"Good guy, you're not going to parachute a related account, are you?"
Despite the fuss made by netizens, DT Club did not reply.
Until a few days later, on the eve of the game between DT and AHQ.
As expected, a strange ID appeared on the pre-match poster released by the DT Club.
DT丶Venus!
Looking at the position marked on the poster, this player is still playing in the top unit.
"Damn, are you making a mistake? When iboy is sick, he doesn't find a substitute, but young Bin is so fierce but he has to be replaced?"
"It's real, the connections brought by Bing Jing!"
"Venus, Venus? Turtle, isn't it really a female player?"
"Let me put it here, if DT really wants to use female players to tie up Brother Li for hype, he will be a black man for the rest of his life!"
"Shadow! Please ask the Alliance to investigate thoroughly!"