Chapter 222: LPL’s last hope!
The game started at 6:00 a.m. Beijing time and ended at 7:45 a.m.
Including the halftime break, the BO5 lasted less than two hours, which can only mean that one team must have easily won with a score of 3 to 0.
"Let's congratulate SKT!"
"Congratulations to SKT for defeating EDG 3-0 and advancing to the semifinals."
"Alas, it's a pity for EDG. I hope they can continue to pursue their dreams next year."
Along with the very regretful voice of the LPL commentary desk, the director's camera turned to the EDG competition seat. The factory manager was seen holding his forehead with both hands and remained silent until his teammates reminded him that someone from the opposite side came to shake hands and then he took off his headphones.
It was a silent handshake until Faker's turn. The factory manager looked at the big devil who was at his peak in S6, feeling a little dazed. Then the other party suddenly smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
As if expressing his approval.
However, the approval of the opponents does not mean that domestic fans will approve of the result.
For a team with a great reputation like EDG, especially since they will face SKT, the team they defeated in last year's MSI, in the quarterfinals this year, a large part of the domestic fans were optimistic about it before the game.
But the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
After losing two games in a row, in the third game, the factory manager took out Lee Sin and finally scored 4396 damage, which was only 100 higher than the support Nami.
Although in later generations, the damage of 4396 will "seem higher and higher".
However, at this critical moment when EDG lost the game and both teams from LPL were defeated, the score of 4396 scored by the factory manager was low enough to be put on the pillar of shame.
"Waste Mingkai! Do you know how to play?"
"Is this what I've been chasing after all these years?"
"Outrageous! They said that Fatty's absence had no impact on EDG. Do you think EDG is still human now?"
"Don't chase your dreams here. This year is probably the last year for the Da Han double C in EDG. Go chase them next year."
“…”
There was a sudden barrage of curses on the Internet.
In the evening, the topic of EDG's 0-3 loss to SKT even became a hot search on Weibo, triggering an angry attack from countless LPL fans and viewers.
Even the official LPL commentator Wawa posted a Weibo post, in which he said that in e-sports, the winner is the king. It's not that they can't accept another year of LCK domination, after all, they are used to it. It's just that as commentators, if there is no LPL team in the upcoming semi-finals and finals, then their commentary will be somewhat boring.
As soon as this Weibo post came out, it immediately attracted a lot of people to like and repost it, and they also @ed IG's official Weibo. After all, IG is now the only LPL team left in the quarterfinals.
All of a sudden,
The pressure was also put on IG.
However, the night before the game, the opposing SSG team was holding a small meeting. The Samsung coach said with a relaxed expression, "SKT has already sent EDG back. Let's try our best to send IG back as well. So that we can have a companion on the way back."
"Hahaha." Everyone laughed out loud.
"That's right." Samsung's coach nodded with satisfaction. "Don't worry about the hype outside or the seed number. If you ask me, there are only two words when you come to the world competition stage: one wins and one loses. The loser gets carried away."
"That being said, we also need to pay attention to our opponents tactically."
At this point, the Samsung coach turned to the team's veteran jungler, An Zhangmen, and said seriously, "We recently received news that the swing player, Padre6, may be switched to jungle in the quarterfinals. He's the core of this team and a well-known veteran in the LPL with a wealth of experience. So, your position will be under a lot of pressure tomorrow. How are you? Are you prepared?"
A famous veteran?
When Master An heard this, he couldn't help but smile and asked, "Are you as old as me?"
The Samsung coach was stunned by the question, and after carefully recalling the information he had read, he suddenly laughed in astonishment and said, "Uh... it seems that there really isn't any."
Li Fu entered the secondary league in S2 and made his debut in LPL in S3.
What about Master An?
However, he debuted in MIG at the end of 2011 and served as the mid laner of the Blaze team.
In 2012, when Li Fu just entered the industry, An Zhanmen had already defeated the brother team MIG Frost with MIG Blaze and won the first OGN Spring Championship.
In terms of seniority, Li Fu is really not as good as Master An.
What's more, when Master An heard that Li Fu was going to return to the jungle, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.
He also switched to the jungle position from other lanes. During S3, An Zhangmen, who played the mid laner position, was also known as the No. 1 mid laner in South Korea at that time. At that time, the two best mid laners in South Korea were still An Zhangmen and Frost. In the voting for the 2013 All-Star Game, An Zhangmen became the mid laner player of the 2013 Korean All-Star team with an overwhelming advantage.
Unfortunately, that year, a man named Lee Sang-hyuk came to SKT's mid laner.
Master An thought, let’s wait for a year.
Unexpectedly, the following year, at the OGN Masters, new mid laners such as Dade, Pawn and Rookie flourished in the mid lane, making An feel that his presence in the mid lane was so inappropriate. Under the heavy pressure, his VDE Leblanc made a major mistake, and "five kills in one second" became a laughing stock for a time.
Just like Ryu that year.
But Ryu chose to leave his hometown.
But Master An chose to play as a jungler.
It was this change in position that made him realize the huge gap between different positions. It is extremely difficult for a professional player to truly master one position to perfection in his lifetime.
Not to mention playing two positions at the same time.
Therefore, after knowing that Li Fu had returned to the jungle position from the top unit in the quarterfinals, Master An didn't agree with it in his heart - he felt that the other party was no longer a pure jungler.
Just ask?
And an impure jungler.
What reason does he have to be afraid of the other party?
"Don't worry coach, they're not the only veterans."
"That's right, our jungler is much older than the opponent."
"We must kick all LPL teams out of the semifinals!"
“…”
Amid the crowd's cheering, the originally quiet pre-match meeting was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.
The next day, October 15th.
As the only LPL team in this World Championship, even though the time difference between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres made the broadcast time of this quarterfinal match not so smooth, the league event live broadcast room on major platforms still became the live broadcast with the most online viewers at 6 o'clock in the country.
Outside the Chicago Theatre.
From the moment the IG team got off the van and walked through the player passage, they encountered a large number of spectators and fans cheering for them, including many familiar faces from yesterday's EDG game.
They say the fastest way to end a relationship is to find a new love.
Obviously, after EDG suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of SKT yesterday, a considerable number of fans did not have time to grieve over EDG's elimination, and they made support items overnight and joined IG.
Looking at the excited crowd outside, the others seemed quite happy, but Ah Xun suddenly shrank his head. Li Fu couldn't help but ask curiously, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Ah Xun laughed dryly. "I was just browsing the forum last night and found that RNG and EDG were put on the front page and punished. I just thought... those who punished them must have been their fans in the first place."
"That's probably true. The deeper the love, the deeper the hatred." Li Fu said with a smile.
"What if..."
Bang!
Rookie, who was walking in front, turned around and slapped Axun on the forehead.
"Can you please stop talking nonsense?"
"I mean just in case."
"What if?"
"Okay, okay, then you can be my poison milk."
"That's more like it."
…
The next period of time.
Enter, go on stage, and take a seat.
Debug the device.
At this time, the camera on the big screen turned to the commentary booth.
"Hello everyone, welcome to the 2016 League of Legends Finals quarterfinals. I'm commentator Wawa."
"Hello everyone, I'm the commentator Miller."
"To be honest, I think everyone had , but the result is really unfortunate. Currently, RNG and EDG have been eliminated, leaving only IG."
"Yes, but what I want to say is that after EDG was eliminated by SKT last night, I saw some very bad voices on the Internet, such as asking the players to retire... To be honest, I don't think it's necessary. The players definitely want to win, but sometimes there is nothing you can do if you are not as skilled as others. You can only practice more."
"That's right. If you say you'll retire before the game if you can't win, like in IG's game today, then I feel like the players have too much on their shoulders and it's hard for them to play well. Just like the last game yesterday, when Zz1tai played Lee Sin, to be honest, I felt like Zz1tai's mentality was totally messed up in that game."
"Well, so we can't say that we have no pressure at all against the LPL team today, but we can't aim too high and lock in the championship directly. Let's put it this way, reaching the semi-finals, reaching the semi-finals is... well, it can't be considered a win, but it's still an improvement over last year."
"It is also worth mentioning that in today's semi-finals, IG chose to change its lineup, and Fu Ge returned to the jungle position again. Haha, I guess IG also thinks that an MSI champion FMVP jungler can help the team do more."
“…”
As the commentator on the stage was speaking, the players on both sides of the stage were ready, and the BP for the quarterfinals, which was also the quarter-finals, officially began.
In the first game, IG got the right to choose the blue side, and both sides banned three heroes at the beginning.
Blue side IG: Alistar, Braum, Poppy.
Red side SSG: Vampire, Clockwork, Lucian.
"The male gun is not banned, do you want to take the male gun?"
"You can take it, shake it."
"OK."
Coach Chris asked, Li Fu nodded, and IG directly locked onto Graves in the first move.
The Samsung coach on the other side took a look and didn't show much surprise. He said directly, "Whether he plays Graves top or jungle, we will play top and jungle."
The next second, the red team SSG's first and second floors also locked onto two heroes.
Crocodile + Leopard Woman.
Next, the two sides exchanged their selections, and the final lineup soon emerged.
IG on the blue side: top lane Rumble, jungle Graves, mid lane Tsar, bottom lane Jinx and Thresh.
Red side SSG: Crocodile on top, Nidalee on jungle, Varus in the middle, Ashe and Madison on bottom lane.
When this lineup was released, the commentators on the LPL stage were shocked.
"Mid lane Varus? Does Crown still have this hero pool?"
"There were quite a few Varus mid laners in the LCK Summer Split, but Crown actually picked it relatively rarely. It seems like he was preparing specifically for this World Championship."
"It seems that SSG came prepared today as well. They showed off the real stuff right away."
"Yes, but you know what? SSG's lineup has Crocodile for charging, Varus for control, and Ashe makes up for the lack of jungler and support control. The most important thing is, with Nidalee, Varus, and Ashe, SSG's first game of the BO5 today is actually a Poke lineup."
"Yes, in comparison, IG's lineup is actually quite conventional, but Brother Fu got his best Graves this time, and although it seems that this is also in SSG's plan, the specific outcome will depend on the performance of both sides in this game."
At this point, BP is completed and the game loading is finished.
The competition will officially begin soon.
"The pace of the early game lies in the jungle. Both junglers are veterans of our alliance. I believe that the audience is familiar with Fu Ge and An Zhangmen. However, if a jungler wants to do something right at the beginning, he needs some level 1 design. A well-designed level 1 invasion can easily silence the enemy jungler or even make him invisible. So what do you think of this game?"
"Eh? IG seems to have some real talent here. Look, they didn't form a long line at the beginning of the game. Instead, they formed a group of five to siege the bottom lane ward."
"But SSG was very alert. Ruler used a trinket ward to place a grass in front of the tower. Fu Ge's Graves, who was walking in the front, was discovered. He crouched in the grass for a few seconds."
"Eh? Why do I feel like Brother Fu did it on purpose?"
In the big screen game footage, Li Fu should have seen the fleeting fake eye when he entered the grass, but he didn't see it at all. He squatted in the grass and glanced at the two people under the opposite tower. Then he didn't return to the city on the spot, but walked back directly.
"Whether it was intentional or not, Brother Fu is walking back instead of returning to the city, which obviously means he wants to start from the red zone in the lower half. This is equivalent to exposing his jungle route in advance."
"Yes, we can see that Sect Leader An has already taken up his position in the lower half of the area. He wants to confront Brother Fu and also farm from the bottom up."
"But wait! Brother Fu didn't go to the red buff. He came to the river in the upper half and squatted down, as if he was staring at the opposite jungle area."
"Wait, but Samsung's top laner Crocodile is hiding in the red buff grass in the upper half. If we go straight over, then An Zhanmen can also go counter-IG in the lower half, or just defend the jungle with his teammates. It doesn't seem like a good deal."
"No! Brother Fu didn't move, he was waiting!"
Time passes by every second.
1 minute and 30 seconds into the game, the troop lines in the middle lane of both sides have already intersected, and the troop lines in the top lane are between the first and second towers. At this point in time, the start of the game on both sides is basically settled.
But just at this moment,
A variable has appeared!
"Prepare to freeze your hands!" said Li Fu.
IG's two mid laners quickly followed Li Fu, and the three of them pressed towards SSG's upper zone together, directly forcing back the crocodile when the wild monsters refreshed, and deliberately invading Samsung's red zone.
"Hiss! That's a bit cruel!"
"Yes, it seems that Master An, who started with blue in the lower half, was tricked by Brother Fu."
"That's right. Earlier, Graves showed up in the bottom lane, and it was hard to imagine that he would go to counter the red buff. Now, even if we see him, it's too late to switch to the jungle or to protect the red buff."
The top, mid and jungle players of IG came out together.
Samsung's jungler An Zhangmen has already started jungling in the lower half of the map. Although Crocodile is unwilling to do so, the jungler is not coming and the soldiers in the top lane are about to merge, so he can only go back to the line first.
In this way, Li Fu's male gun successfully counter-red and started the game.
Red + F4, after two waves of jungle clearing, Li Fu did not return to his own upper area.
The Outlaw swung his black robe and floated across the middle lane, attacking Crown's Varus with a single shot, gaining the experience of two soldiers, and then returned to defend his own red zone.
"Wow! Brother Fu is quite cruel!
"Yes, I cleared the other side's red area, and then walked to my own lower area right under the other side's nose. This is to tell the other side, Master An, that this land is still contracted by me, so don't come here."
"Master An is a bit angry. After he finishes clearing the lower half of the zone, he can either force an invasion or go to his own upper half to eat some of Brother Fu's leftovers. But if he invades, can a Nidalee who starts with blue be able to beat a Graves who starts with red?"
"I think it's a bit shaky. And there's a detail here. Brother Fu normally can't reach level 3 with red + F4 + F4. But you see, Brother Fu just passed by the middle lane to declare his sovereignty and also gained experience. He directly reached level 3. The hero Graves doesn't do much damage in the jungle, so Nidalee is just here to get beaten."
"Hey! Look! Sect Leader An is also very experienced. He seemed to have foreseen this and decided to hold back for now. After clearing the lower half, he went straight to his own upper half to eat the stone man."
"But wait! What does Brother Fu mean? He doesn't play red?"
In the game footage on the big screen, after Li Fu's male gun cleared the second wave of F4, he suddenly turned around, did not hit the red buff, and walked towards his own upper half of the area with a gun.
What kind of arbitrary jungle clearing method is this?
Are you a disciple of the jungle king Eimy?
Everyone in the audience looked at it.
However, from the perspective of the contestant given by the director's camera, Li Fu showed a sweet smile at the corner of his mouth.
At this moment, Miller suddenly clapped his hands and said, "We've fallen into a trap!"
This is very abrupt!
No need for anyone to be stunned!
Wawa asked beside him, "What trap did you fall into?"
"Hey, Master An has fallen into the trap this time. He went to the upper half of the area, which is exactly what Brother Fu wanted to force him to do with his series of obvious moves just now."
At this point, Miller spread his hands and said, "Let me ask you, there is only one group of stone men left in the upper half of SSG. What will Master An do after he kills the stone men?"
"Control the crab? Counter the jungle?" Wawa was stunned.
The next second, he suddenly realized that both answers were wrong.
Because Li Fu just gave SSG a "wrong message" - he was farming his second red in the bottom half, so when the jungler was not on the top lane, Master An's most likely choice at this time was naturally to gank them.
In the top lane, Save's Rumble fought against the crocodile, and he pushed the line quite hard in the early stage.
For Master An, this is an opportunity to give it a try.
But Li Fu completely grasped An Zhangmen's psychology. At 3 minutes and 34 seconds into the game, An Zhangmen communicated with Cuvee on the top lane and said that the opposite Rambo could be killed. Then Cuvee decisively E'd over the line of soldiers and exchanged blood with Save.
Save is definitely not a coward!
Just do it!
When the health of the two top laners was less than a quarter, Master An's Nidalee appeared. She blocked Save's movement with a bush mark and stabbed him to death or injure him.
Swish!
The air around Rambo suddenly twisted!
Save decisively use flash!
Samsung's top laners Crocodile and Nidalee immediately followed suit!
If you use flash, I will definitely kill you!
Unexpectedly, at this moment, a male gun with double buffs appeared in the shadow of the grass in the river.
A smoke bomb instantly turns off the lights for two people!
"Let you chase the nest!"
Save, who was halfway through the run and had little health left, turned back and used a red warm fire to roast him!
However, he knew that his health was too low and he would be easily replaced if he didn't move. As soon as the opponent released a smoke bomb, he immediately turned around and continued to run. He was just trying to play a trick on you!
Bang!
Li Fu came up with an EQA and directly killed the low-health crocodile.
"IG-Padre6 killed SSG-Cuvee!"
"First Blood!"
As soon as the Leopard Girl, the leader of the An Sect who had not yet woken up, turned her head, the barrel of the man's gun was stuffed into her mouth.
???
At this moment,
Sect Leader An was confused.
Didn’t you go to the lower zone to farm red?
Why are you in the top lane at this time? If you had told me earlier that you wanted to come to the top lane, I would have gone to counter your buff.
At this time, how could Master An not know that he was being set up?
But it was too late to say anything.
The double-buffed male gun, with both flash and slow, faced a Nidalee deep in the ground with about three-quarters of her health left and no flash yet...
Li Fu fired one shot at a time, waited until his E was used to reload and fired another shot, and finally chased to the front of the tower and killed the enemy with a Q. Master An tried to heal himself but couldn't even do it!
"IG-Padre6 killed SSG-Ambition!"
"Double Kill!"
Damn it!
Sect Leader An was so angry that his chest heaved violently!
Are you all veterans?
Why did you get a double kill at the start?
