Chapter 104: Touring the River, Enjoying the Scenery, Playing Mahjong

In the semifinals on August 20, H2K lost to SPY, which many people called a 'fake strong team'; although they lost 2-3, and actually fumbled the fifth game.

However, in a single-elimination bracket they only had one chance, and H2K failed to seize it, so the final stage was completely out of reach for them.

What awaited H2K was the third-place match.

Now H2K's sole remaining goal is to win the third-place match, secure third place, obtain a better slot in the qualifier, and then compete for an S6 ticket.

Of course there is another possibility:

First, if G2 wins the championship they lock in the first seed.

Then, if H2K wins the third-place match, they would obtain second seed qualification by having the highest annual S-series points, thus avoiding the perilous qualifier.

So, on the day the G2 vs. UOL match kicked off, H2K fans unusually began cheering for G2 online, and beneath Ka Lao Si's tweet posting the Bo5 starting lineup were filled with H2K fans shouting 'Come on!'

This made G2 fans delighted, briefly giving the impression that the two teams were one family.

Moreover, Tang Anna's name appeared for the first time on G2's starting roster.

【Analyst: AnaTang】

She will appear on stage as an assistant coach, conducting the ban/pick together with Ka Lao Si.

However, during the introduction segment, the host will only announce the head coach's name; the assistant coach does not need to appear.

The venue for the semifinals remained Europe's home ground—the Berlin Arena.

So even after being away from the stage for over twenty days, Liang Yan felt that familiarity return instantly upon taking his seat.

At this point G2's popularity is incomparable to when Liang Yan first joined the team.

This rookie team that shone in the Spring Season, after winning the Spring Season gathered a large fanbase, but after stumbling at MSI, G2's unstable support dwindled by eighty percent; yet as they performed even better in the Summer Season than in the Spring, many of those fans returned.

To be fair, Liang Yan deserves the lion's share of credit for this.

Because logically, before G2 achieved certain international results, Europeans would never believe in G2 again.

But Liang Yan's performance of crushing the Korean server in streams and long-time domination of its top rank still gave fans some hope.

A European... uh, European player! Despite high latency, he took on top pros on the Korean server; at the same time, as a newcomer he won the Europe Regular Season Best Player award at the start of his career—such a player surely wouldn't falter in major tournaments, right?

Thus, the returning fans are actually confident not in G2 but in Liang Yan.

In other words, these fans are not team supporters but player devotees.

Like an older brother and a spinning top.

After the players took their seats, the broadcast switched to the commentator desk.

The three commentators, the most popular in Europe, all wore formal attire, smiled, and sat seriously at the commentator desk; they are:

Quickshot

Deficio

Sjokz

Quickshot spoke first:

"After much anticipation, G2 has finally returned to our view after over a month's absence! Hello to everyone watching live and on screen, good evening!"

Deficio: "Good evening!"

Sjokz: "Good evening!"

"Do you two understand the meaning of my first line?"

Deficio laughed and shook his head.

Sjokz said: "It sounds like an Eastern ancient poem."

"That's right; it's a line by the famous ancient Chinese poet Bai Juyi. Actually the next line is 'holding the pipa half‑covered.' Together these two lines mean 'after the spectators have waited a long time, they finally see the appearance of their target, yet the target does not reveal its full self.' Do you two know who I'm referring to?"

"Could it not be G2?"

"Is it Firrrrrre?"

"No no no, you're all wrong."

"What?"

"Then who exactly are you talking about?"

"Haha, let me keep you in suspense for a moment. Smart viewers should have guessed it already, but we'll hold the answer until after the ban/pick begins. For now, let's talk about today's match. Can you two give a score prediction for this game?"

"Seven‑three."

Deficio said without hesitation.

Sjokz glanced at Deficio, shook her head, and said:

"Deficio, you're too conservative; know that in the regular season UOL never managed to take a single game from G2. My prediction is eight‑two, and I expect the final score to be three‑to‑one."

Quickshot, smiling at Sjokz after she finished, then said calmly:

"What if I say five‑five?"

The two commentators were stunned on the spot.

The venue immediately erupted in commotion.

In the livestream chat, a screenful of question marks instantly appeared, and besides the question marks, netizens' doubts became even more direct:

"【Five‑five? Are you joking?】"

"【Quickshot must have water in his brain, or else he's just sucking up to the crowd.】"

"【Although I'm a UOL fan, I also think UOL couldn't have such a high win rate—at most forty percent.】"

"【G2 in‑house battles are unbeatable.】"

Quickshot would give such an outlandish prediction; of course he partly did it for show effect, but mainly because he truly thinks that.

Quickshot then said slowly:

"You might think I'm just staging a show, but I want to say: no, I genuinely believe UOL has a fifty percent chance. Do you know why?"

"Because G2 hasn't played a match in a long time."

They even went to China to play for a week! This shows they have a contemptuous attitude toward their opponents...

Sjokz interjected: "Wait, they didn't go to China just for tourism, did they? Carlos said on Twitter that they went to play a friendly match against Snake..."

Do you believe it?

Quickshot smiled and cut off Sjokz,

According to reliable sources, during G2's week in China, they actually only went to Snake's base once, and stayed there for less than an hour.

Practice matches? I ask, how many practice matches can you play in one hour!!

Well, they did indeed play practice matches for an hour, so what was our invincible G2 doing during the rest of the time?

Touring the river, sightseeing, even playing mahjong!