Chapter 148

Although LMS has always claimed to be one of the five major regions, it's actually just the netizens' self-indulgence; the official side has never acknowledged this, otherwise LMS's Worlds slot count wouldn't be only two but three like the four major regions.

However, when discussing historical Worlds performance, LMS is still qualified.

The four major regions plus LMS together take up 14 slots, leaving the last two slots to be shared by all wildcard regions; the event that decides which teams get these two slots is called the International Wildcard Qualifier, IWCQ, which has already been finished.

As of September 6, the day G2 officially went on break, all regions' S6 slots had been fully allocated.

First up is the highly anticipated LCK region.

The First Seed is LCK's summer champion ROX, whose full name is ROXTigers, thus also called the Tiger team.

ROX team logo

ROX was also last year's Worlds runner-up; this year, while keeping last year's runner-up roster, they brought in the rookie jungler Peanut (Xiao Huasheng) who debuted last year, and successfully won the summer title, which is also Xiao Huasheng's first championship.

At sixteen, he was like a little bandit.

Speaking of ROX and Xiao Huasheng, there is also a moving story: basically, an unsponsored team picked up an overlooked player, and they helped each other reach the summit together.

This year's ROX is full of determination, coming with the vigor to win the championship.

Although Xiao Huasheng has only been on the team for a year, he is already regarded as ROX's soul; if ROX is a fierce beast, then Xiao Huasheng is its claw and fang.

At this time, Xiao Huasheng's playstyle is very similar to Liang Yan's; both are aggressive, carnivorous types.

Therefore, European netizens who often watch LCK matches like to compare the two, whose styles are similar; fans think Liang Yan is stronger, while some neutral netizens and G2 anti-fans think Xiao Huasheng is more fierce.

The two sides holding these views often argue online; as Worlds approaches, the frequency of arguments increases, tempers flare, and some even go from online insults to offline duels, with video proof—this really happens.

Liang Yan, fearing trouble, recently began promoting concepts like "scheming" and "cultivation" during his streams—sounding mysteriously Eastern—just to keep fans from actually arranging offline duels.

However, deep down Liang Yan also longs to face Xiao Huasheng, not for any other reason than to see just how strong Xiao Huasheng at his peak really is.

What's more interesting is that both are 18 years old this year.

The other two LCK teams that earned slots are very familiar to viewers worldwide.

One is last year's Worlds champion SKT, led by Faker.

The other is the legendary LCK team Samsung, SSG, which underwent a merger and reorganization in the S5 season and finally rose again this year.

To secure LCK's last slot, SSG truly endured hardships; no one expected that after being swept 3-0 by KT in the playoffs, SSG would display shocking resilience in the gauntlet, and in the deciding game 5 of the Bo5, trailing 1-2, they won two straight games to force a full five-game series and defeat KT; even the rookie debutant Ruler senior earned his first Worlds ticket.

Poor KT, after losing that Bo5, was dubbed "ticket scalper kid" by LCK netizens; despite reaching the LCK finals two years in a row, they still fell short of Worlds, which is pitiful.

ROX, SKT, SSG.

These three top LCK teams are also the squads that worldwide netizens, aside from the LPL region, consider most likely to win the championship.

However, in the eyes of LPL netizens, LPL's three teams this year are also formidable.

The teams that secured the LPL's three slots are:

First Seed, EDG

Second Seed, RNG

Third Seed, Snake

No need to elaborate on EDG and RNG; as LPL's traditional powerhouses, these two teams naturally have the loudest championship chants, and their fans constantly wage pig‑dog wars online.

Moreover, aside from these two teams, Snake, making its first Worlds appearance, is likewise anticipated by many LPL fans, because players who understand the game well can see that Snake's playstyle is clearly different from other teams'.

From playoffs to gauntlet, Snake's repertoire is almost an entirely different set compared to other LPL teams; some say this is because Snake's jungle champion pool is too unique, but whether that's true remains unknown.

Moreover, since G2 visited before the playoffs, claiming it was to exchange with Snake, and with the subsequent events, Snake gained some fame abroad and also garnered a few die‑hard fans in the LPL.

But Snake is truly poor; according to insider leaks from a fan leader, Snake will only bring seven personnel to S6 to cut travel expenses.

Five starters, one substitute, plus a coach—an extremely lean seven‑person roster.

Not only is the manager not going, but even the team leader and translator are not being brought along.

When Liang Yan saw the related news, he was a bit worried that Snake might not even find the venue, so he messaged Fu Lan Duo to ask, and received a reply that left him stunned.

【We do have a team leader】

【Who?】

【It's you.】

You little brat, trying to mooch off me?!

But can Liang Yan refuse?

Liang Yan thought about it seriously, and in the end could only let out a long sigh:

Really fucking can't bear it.

Speaking of which, Snake is actually a team that Liang Yan personally sent into S6.

Karma has already caught up.

Moreover, Liang Yan really wanted to see how far this rag-tag team could go, so he was actually happy to help Snake within his ability.

Europe's last spot was also confirmed yesterday.

As expected, in the final bubble match, SPY defeated UOL and secured Europe's Third Seed spot.

Thus, the three teams competing from the Europe Region have been confirmed, namely:

First Seed, G2

Second Seed, H2K

Third Seed, SPY

North America was the last region to confirm its third spot, having only finished the bubble match yesterday; the three competing teams are:

First Seed, TSM

Second Seed, CLG

Third Seed, C9

Originally, many North American netizens favored CLG, given their MSI runner-up finish, but in the end TSM won the summer championship, which can be seen as the king's return.

As for the remaining four competing teams from the LMS Region and the IWCQ Region, they are:

LMS First Seed, FW

LMS Second Seed, AHQ

Wild Card First Seed, INTZ

Wild Card Second Seed, ANX

At this time, the two wild-card teams had not yet attracted much attention; when people from the four major regions looked at them, it was almost like the attitude of city folk looking down on countryside folk.

Even LMS looks down on wild cards.

No one would have thought that these inconspicuous minor roles would actually become an extremely strong disruptive force on the S6 World Championship stage.