Chapter 152: Opening Game! Provincial Team Flash Wolves!
The next day, May 4th.
Amidst the hustle and bustle, the MSI Mid-Season Invitational, the first international competition held in China after the 2013 All-Star Game, finally began.
The competition venue was at the Jianghai Oriental Sports Center, also known as the "Crown of the Sea". When the IG team arrived at noon, they felt that the venue was quite large and could accommodate approximately 15,000 people watching at the same time.
As the host of this MSI, the LPL game was unsurprisingly scheduled as the first game, against the Flash Wolves from the Taiwanese LMS region.
Since it was the opening match, it attracted a lot of attention and many professional players were watching.
But at the same time, the pressure was also overwhelming.
The Chinese people attach great importance to "a good start" and "face". If they lose the opening game, most people will feel ashamed at home. Public opinion will probably be largely lost by then, and the spring championship just won more than ten days ago will be worth it.
“This game is important!”
During the break in the waiting room, Coach Chris called everyone to a small meeting and announced his research on the LMS region. When Li Fu occasionally looked back, his eyes fell on the direct-viewing screen of the TV on the wall.
The opening ceremony of the MSI Mid-Season Championship was being played above. The style was full of the charm of oriental ink-splashing landscape paintings. The dancers picked up their brushes and splashed ink. When the tip of the brush touched the ground, lines of ink-style brush strokes spread out in the middle of the stage, causing the audience to exclaim in amazement.
In fact, this is a special effect of floor screen technology , which integrates hardware and software to turn the stage into part of the performance effect, aiming to highlight the natural integration of the battlefield as the stage and the stage as the battlefield.
"Fuck, this funeral stage is pretty awesome."
The posture is low and the voice is small.
Apparently, he wasn't really listening to Chris's rambling.
The major world tournaments are different from the usual regional competitions. Not only are the teams unfamiliar with each other and have never played against each other, but even different regions have different understandings of the same version.
So Zizi thinks that if you want to know the opponent's strength and background, you will naturally know after fighting.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Chris's analysis is useless.
Know yourself and your enemy, and you will win every battle.
The group stage from May 4 to May 8 will be a double round-robin system, that is, each team from the six major regions will take turns playing against each other twice, and the top four will advance to the semi-finals.
Under this kind of competition system, it is beneficial to know more, and Li Fu listened quite attentively.
After the opening ceremony, Li Fu and his team were also notified to go on stage.
It's not a competition, it's just a chance to show your face first.
Today, representative teams will all make their appearances, and the commentator Ren Dong on the stage will loudly introduce each team and each player.
The first to take the stage were Team Wanwan, followed by CLG from North America, G2 from Europe, and the wildcard team. The audience in the stands gave them generous applause.
Until SKT came on stage, the applause was so loud that it felt like we were at home in Korea.
Such warm applause not only proves once again that "strength is king in e-sports", but also there were many fans of the "Big Three" at the scene who simply supported SKT because their own teams failed to enter MSI today.
If SKT wins, it will prove that LPL is a bunch of losers and no one can blame anyone else.
Sure enough, when IG took the stage, even though they were playing at home, the support was comparable to that of SKT.
It is conceivable that if it was RNG or EDG standing on the stage today, they would definitely be able to completely suppress SKT with the advantage of playing at home.
Zizi's mouth twitched, and he complained, "Brother Fu, I believe what you said last time."
"What?" Li Fu asked.
"These idiots didn't expect us to win at all." Zzitai said, "They made SKT so awesome even in our home court."
"Are you envious?" Li Fu asked with a smile.
"That's true... a little bit." Zizi scratched his head.
"It was earned by winning the championship." Li Fu said.
"……"attitude.
When they were on stage, Li Fu and Zizi were whispering to each other.
On one side of the stage, the FW Lightning team from the Taiwanese LMS region were also looking at IG, their opponent in the opening ceremony, but they did not look too nervous.
This year's Flash Wolves have MMD as top laner, Karsa as jungler, Maple as mid laner, and Breeze and SwordArt as bottom lane players.
Currently, the most outstanding players in the team are the mid and jungle. Maple in the middle lane is known as "the three great gods of robbery in Wanwan" and "the successor of Ximen", but his hero pool is much stronger than Ximen. He has played twelve mid-lane heroes in just one season.
As for the jungler Karsa.
This is a very famous jungler in the LMS who is a carnivorous jungler with a core. From FW team's 68% first blood rate, which is the best in the LMS, and the 15-minute economic difference of 1101.7, we can see how strong his ability to catch people is in the early stage. From the playoffs to the qualifiers, the fact that Nidalee was banned in 12 games in a row fully demonstrates the opponents' fear of him.
At this time, the midfielder and jungler were looking at IG and whispering to each other.
"Huh, good thing it's not RNG. I thought this year's LPL champion was RNG." Maple whispered to Karsa next to him.
Karsa groaned for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "This team can beat RNG, so they must be strong. We still have to be careful today."
"Then there's no need to worry too much."
Maple's lips curled up into a smile.
"I checked the internet in China this week, and they all said that IG won the Spring Split because of fierce internal conflicts between the junglers and support of RNG, and that the bottom lane was too weak, not because they were that strong."
"Ah, you got in so quickly." Karsa was a little surprised.
"Of course, my grandpa is a scout!" Maple raised his head proudly.
The two spoke in low voices and no one else heard them, but when the director's camera was focused on it, the corners of Maple's mouth curled up wildly, which made people inexplicably feel uncomfortable.
After the representative teams of the six major regions came on stage and were introduced, the other four teams left from the player channel. The remaining two teams, IG and Flash Wolves, entered the soundproof competition rooms on both sides of the stage and began to prepare for today's opening game.
In the live broadcast rooms of the MSI Mid-Season Championship on major platforms, after the signal stream was connected, the on-site images were quickly broadcast live in real time to countless viewers, and the barrage of comments began to roll wildly.
"The mid laner of Team Wanwan has such a pretentious smile, damn it!"
"IG should fight for their reputation. Even if they lose the wild card, they can't lose to Wanwan!"
"I'm afraid that the LPL classic will repeat itself, with the civil war being fierce as a tiger and the foreign war being cowardly as a mouse."
"That's your EDG, don't bring up IG, okay?"
"I laughed so hard! Isn't IG the same as last year? They were beaten by European and American losers."
“Huni: Half of my worth is due to my attitude.”
“…”
In the LPL commentary booth, Miller and Changmao were responsible for commentating today's opening game.
Outside the venue, there were three guest commentators sitting in the commentary booth, namely Ruofeng, Mingkai and Miss. Miss sat in the middle, with Big Nose and Factory Manager on each side.
The camera was now focused on the commentary booth, where two commentators greeted the camera with a smile on their faces.
"Hello everyone, this is the MSI Mid-Season Invitational. I am the commentator Miller."
"Hello everyone, I am the commentator Changmao."
"Okay, today's opening match is between our LPL region and the LMS region. In this match, our IG won the coin toss and got the right to choose the side. They chose the blue side."
"That's right, let's take a look at the ban positions of both sides."
"Oh, IG banned Lee Sin, Nidalee, and Azar respectively. It seems that they also did some research on this year's Flash Wolves team before the game and knew that Flash Wolves also played mid and jungle."
"That's right, and Flash Wolves seemed to be well prepared as well. They banned Graves, Gragas, and Clockwork with three heroes respectively."
"Eh? Graves was banned? Haha, did you notice that Fu Ge's Graves had a 0% ban rate throughout the entire LPL Spring Season? I didn't expect that he would be banned in the first game of the World Championship."
"After all, the coach of Flash Wolves would have banned Graves if he had paid a little attention to the situation in the LPL region after seeing the pentakill in the Spring Finals. Graves is now considered as Fu Ge's signature."
"So what does the blue team IG say about the first hand?"
"Hey! A Centaur! Brother Fu's Galloping Pony, this is a non-standard hero in this version."
"Yes, but the difference in the world championship lies in the diversity of the understanding of the version in each major region. Centaur jungle actually appeared in the European and American spring season, so Flash Wolves didn't seem very surprised."
"That's right. What did Flash Wolves do with their first two picks? What was the first pick? Oh! With Azar banned, they directly picked Jayce! They want to take the lane."
"Yes, and their second pick was the Cannonball. The LMS region's understanding of bottom lane heroes is indeed a little different from ours."
“…”
On one side of the stage, in the IG competition seat.
"Damn! Team Wanwan is so arrogant?" He seemed a little unhappy.
"What do you play?" Coach Chris asked Rookie.
Rookie hesitated for two seconds. Although he knew that the opponent would definitely have a backhand if he chose Jayce first, he still said, "I'll take Ekko. It's good for pushing the line in the early stage, and I can poke him in the mid-to-late stage."
Coach Chris thought about it and nodded, "Ike is fine."
Next, the BP on the field was carried out in an orderly manner between the two sides.
Soon, all the ten-handed heroes on both sides were locked.
IG on the blue side: Fiora on top, Centaur on jungle, Ekko in the middle, Caitlyn and Thresh on bottom.
Red side FW: Poppy on top, Jarvan IV in the jungle, Jayce in the middle, Tristana and Nautilus in the bottom lane.
As soon as the lineup was chosen, the SKT players who were watching the game and studying their opponents in the backstage waiting room began to comment.
Bang got a piece of sugar cane from somewhere and chewed it while commenting, "I feel that FW's lineup is more solid this time. They played Jayce in the early game and Tristana in the late game. The jungler and support were also very flexible in starting teamfights. I think FW's lineup is more reasonable."
"So do you think FW can win?" Wolf asked.
"I just don't think IG has any chance of winning in the bottom lane." Bang shrugged, spat out a mouthful of sugar cane and continued, "If the shortcomings cannot be made up, problems will arise sooner or later."
“Didn’t they beat Mata’s bottom lane?” The rookie jungler Blank, known as the ‘Black Pearl’, couldn’t help but stick his head out to ask.
Wolf laughed when he heard this, "When your brother Mata played against IG, he was just short of a one-handed support. There was discord within the team. Do you still expect his bottom lane to win?"
Bengi also smiled and said, "But this week I saw the news from LPL, it is said that Uzi will most likely join RNG next season, what do you think, Junzhi, do you feel any pressure?"
Hearing Bengi's teasing, Bang also laughed, shrugged and said nothing.
As for the man from SKT who was called the Big Devil, he didn't say a word the whole time, but just kept his eyes fixed on a figure in the game screen.
After coming to Jianghai, he heard that LPL had a player who was as "focused" as him.
Padre6.
To be honest, ever since he became a legend in S3, whether he likes it or not, Faker has been living in a life of being repeatedly mentioned and compared with others over the years, and he has long been accustomed to such a life.
But in the past, most of the comparisons Faker heard were about talent and strength. For example, if a top laner killed him once in a certain competition, it would immediately announce to the world that a new generation of talented mid laner who was no less talented than Faker had emerged.
A player who is as "focused" as him.
This is the first time Faker has heard of a comparison from this perspective.
Are you focused?
He chewed the word in his mouth.
To be honest, Faker doesn't feel that he is very focused.
All along, he just tried his best to do what a professional player should do.
For example, training, self-discipline, and dedication.
It’s just that many people don’t do this, so he appears to be very “focused”.
Thinking of this, Faker's gaze fell on the man in the soundproof competition room again.
Are you focused?
But if you want to make a name for yourself on the world stage,
Just focus like me,
But it is far from enough!
…
At this time, the MSI opening game is on stage.
The game loading was complete and players from both sides entered the Summoner's Rift.
As soon as the game started, both sides stood in a long snake formation.
The two teams came from different divisions and this was the first time they faced each other, so they were very cautious at the beginning of the first level and did not make too many radical moves.
No, not at all.
At 0:54 in the game, Flash Wolves jungler Karsa operated the excavator and, with the help of his own top laner Poppy, crossed the river and placed a ward through the wall at IG's blue buff camp in the upper half.
"Fuck, Brother Fu, the opposing jungler wants to mess with you." He said while standing guard in the bushes next to the blue buff.
"Do you need help?" Rookie gave feedback immediately.
Li Fu thought for a moment and then shook his head, "No, I'll open it in the lower half."
Next, the vision provided by Karsa's ward at the beginning and the time when IG's bottom lane duo came online generally gave Flash Wolves a message, that is, Li Fu's team would take the jungle route in the bottom half of the game.
However, the effect of this information had not yet been reflected, as Flash Wolves' bottom lane seized the disadvantage of IG's bottom lane being online at night and took the initiative directly and decisively.
In the game screen on the big screen, after Flash Wolves' Tristana killed three ranged soldiers in the first wave of soldiers, Titan, who was hiding in the bushes, seized the opportunity when Xiao Shiguang's policewoman wanted to use Q to kill the low-health Bin in the back row, and directly used a hook.
This is, Tristana gets the last hit and grabs the second one, followed by damage.
As soon as Titan saw the headphones, he immediately ignited them.
The policewoman was accidentally hooked by Titan and was stunned by a basic attack.
At this time, Tristana used E to output, and the level 1 policewoman's health was directly reduced by half.
In this wave, you can just walk away. Even if Tristana hits you in the face, you will definitely not die.
After all, the defense tower is so close, it is impossible for the opponent to just jump over the tower, that is not very realistic.
But for the AD hero in the bottom lane who needs to develop, being knocked out of all health and hanging around under the tower at level 1 is no different from being dead.
So Xiaoshiguang’s move was decisive.
Seeing that Tristana had upgraded his health to level 2 with W and was about to use W rocket jump to hit him in the face, he simply flashed to the bottom of the tower to leave no chance for the opponent to lower his health.
At this time, the soldiers in the bottom lane pushed down towards the IG tower.
Although Xiao Shiguang's decisive flash won him the opportunity to make up for the damage in the tower, the right to the bottom lane was lost to IG from the very beginning of the game.
For a moment, the barrage of comments in the MSI event live broadcast rooms on major platforms was suddenly flooded.
"What the hell? Can you be inferior to a provincial team in the bottom lane?"
"Oh my god, IG's bottom lane is inferior to everyone, right?"
"Damn it, if this were Mata, he would definitely take over the bottom lane."
"Deft came over and the bottom lane was completely wiped out."
“…”
In the live broadcast room, some people were expressing regret, some were mocking, and some were fishing.
But at the same time, in the SKT waiting room where people were watching the game backstage, the rookie jungler Blank swallowed his saliva and exchanged glances with the support senior Wolf.
He laughed dryly and said hesitantly, "It seems that there are quite a lot of conflicts within Mata's team."
Xiao Hei's words were actually quite implicit.
The meaning is very clear - if there weren't so many conflicts within the team, how could RNG lose to IG with such a bottom lane?
