Chapter 488: The Eastern Devil Heads to the Knockout Round
May 8th and 9th.
The final two rounds of the qualifying competition began.
Vietnam EVS will face Flash Wolves FW, who were demoted to a lower tier due to their poor performance in the World Championship and need to go through a BO5 round of selection.
The Turkish SUP played against the PGM which was doing well... that is, the renamed RPG.
The Vietnamese brothers fought with great ferocity.
Worthy of the title of bandit.
But speaking objectively, as a former wildcard region, even though the strength of Vietnamese players has improved significantly in recent years, there is still a clear gap compared to the top five leagues.
FW defeated them 3-1.
The Turkish SUP and Xiao Ri Zi PGM are truly fighting a fight of insane...
Because the mid laners and supports of these two teams are Korean players.
The top laner, jungler, and AD are all locals.
During the game, the Korean mid laner carried the game like crazy, and the Korean support tried his best to fight for vision.
Fancy head-delivering operations were carried out in other locations.
Is there someone squatting on your eyes?
That's all child's play!
In full view of everyone, the jungler Xiao Ri Zi demonstrated a magical act of scanning the street and ignoring two eye positions in the bushes, allowing the audience to relive the classic scene of e-sports that does not require vision.
But the Turkish player played even more outrageously. He played Kog'Maw in the AD position for three games and had explosive output in almost every team fight.
final.
PGM defeated Türkiye SUP with a score of 3-2 and got the last ticket to the group stage.
May 11th.
The group stage officially begins.
Compared with the S series, the rules of the MSI Mid-Season Championship are simple and crude.
The six teams will play a double round-robin in the same group, and the top four teams in points will advance.
What is different from the previous ones is that this year a "ordering dishes" session has been added.
The specific rule is that the team that comes first in the group can choose a team from the third or fourth place as its opponent in the knockout round.
The second place in the group will not be targeted, but can only play against the team left after the first pick, which will be relatively more difficult and risky.
The two stronger teams obviously want to compete for this privilege.
The two weaker teams need to perform well to avoid being picked by the team ranked first.
This rule has largely avoided the tanking behavior that occasionally occurred in previous MSIs, and has increased the intensity of the competition to a certain extent.
5 p.m.
Aerial views of Berlin were shown on the big screen.
It then transitions to a promotional video that features contestants and exciting footage.
Among them is the LPL champion EDG, which upgraded from a civil war phantom to a world championship phantom.
They emerged as a dark horse last summer but unfortunately failed. This year, they are fighting for honor again for the LCK champion KZ.
The value of the championship has always been questioned, and we are looking forward to the LCS.EU champion FNC proving their strength.
The LCS.NA champion TL has been silent for a long time and wants to make a splash.
There is the anti-Han Qixia LMS champion FW.
And... the absolute overlord of Xiaorizi Island, LJL champion PGM.
The short film, which combines several pictures of all the teams winning the championship in the competition area, looks a bit shoddy no matter how you look at it.
Fortunately, as the official studio of LCS, the interior view is pretty good.
The walls of the venue were hung with LCD displays for querying information, a giant sculpture of Baron Nash was placed on the edge of the stage, and there was an exhibition wall made up of various figures, medals, team uniforms and peripherals of star players, which saved a lot of impression points.
"Good afternoon, fellow summoners!"
"Welcome to the 2018 MSI Mid-Season Championship, I am Wang Duoduo!"
"I'm Kris!"
At the Chinese commentary desk, Wang Duoduo, who has a solid command of lines, appeared in front of the camera with a newcomer.
"We are broadcasting live for you from the LCS studio in Berlin. Today is the first day of the group stage and EDG has two games to play."
"The first game is the opening match against FNC."
"The second game will be at 10pm , against PGM from LJL."
Wang Duoduo recited the words fluently without even looking at the inscription card: "I think both games are worth watching. FNC represents the highest level in Europe, and LJL has the strength of the top four in Asia."
"Fuck the top four in Asia..."
"LPL, LCK, LMS and Xiaoshi, there are only these four regions."
"Only the champions can go to MSI. Wait for the Intercontinental Championship and you'll see there are many teams that can beat them."
"Trivia: LJL is not part of the Asian region, it has to compete in Pacific Rim."
"Fuck, that's so boring!"
"Cherish it, this may be the last time you see Xiao Ri this year."
The barrage of comments flashed across the screen.
On the main stage.
Following the host's introduction, the contestants walked out one by one from the prismatic passage, waved to the audience, and entered their assigned seats.
FNC is at home and the first game starts on the blue side.
At the beginning, he banned Irelia, Aatrox, and Ornn, showing enough respect to Xing Dao.
EDG's approach was simple and straightforward. They banned Syndra and Kassadin, two mid laners who had been strengthened in version 8.9. For the last spot, they chose Zoe, who was used the most by Caps in the spring season.
"Ban the mid laner?"
"It has no effect on Caps!"
On the English commentary desk, Vedius was very confident: "Compared to those players who boast about their deep hero pool just because they know three or five heroes, Caps is truly unfathomable."
"Caps used a total of 13 heroes in the Spring Split, and had a 100% win rate on 9 of them."
"The remaining four have winning rates of 50%, 66.7%, 75%, and 75% respectively."
"It's unrealistic to limit Caps by banning people!"
"But Syndra, Kassadin, and Zoe are indeed relatively difficult heroes to deal with." Mao Mao's opinion is relatively neutral: "Now there is an interesting thing, that is, FNC released General's Yasuo."
As soon as the words fell.
Exclamations rang out in the audience.
The reason is...FNC grabbed Yasuo on the first floor without hesitation.
“Oh!”
"Caps is going to use Yasuo?!"
"It's too risky..."
"It's right to take risks when playing against a strong team like EDG. If you don't have the courage, you will have absolutely no chance of winning."
"Believe in Caps, believe in FNC."
“…”
The European audience at home started discussing the situation.
FNC's subsequent choices were equally strong, with Sion in the top lane, Troll in the jungle, and Varus + Braum in the bottom lane, which were both strong and had sufficient control.
After some discussion, EDG gave up the idea of letting Zed fight with him.
After all, even during his heyday, Zzitai might not have been able to defeat Caps today. Now that he has reached a stage where his muscles are no longer a factor, it is definitely not shameful for him to temporarily avoid the spotlight.
In the end, the lineup was Fizz on top, Scorpion on jungle, Crow in the middle, and Kassadin and Tamer on bottom lane.
Maokai walked to the center of the venue, shook hands with the FNC coach and left the field. The monitor in front of the player jumped to the loading interface .
Soon, ten heroes entered Summoner's Rift.
At 1 minute and 5 seconds, the entire army attacked.
When the soldiers came to the front and fought each other with swords, shields and staffs, an expected scene appeared.
— —Fizz, who is positioned as the top laner, has the talent of Electrocute and two summoner skills of Flash + Ignite. He came to the middle lane with a trident in his hand and stared at Caps' Yasuo from a distance!
