Chapter 157: Global Top 20

What is the Top 20?

Fu Lan Duo looked clueless, obviously unaware of this.

Liang Yan said:

"The Top 20 players for the global finals, released by Riot yesterday—you can take a look."

"Riot even does this kind of thing?!"

"It's always existed; it just wasn't this formal in previous years, so no one brought it up."

"Awesome, let me see what the hell is going on…"

Fu Lan Duo said while pulling out her phone.

"Every year's World Championship is the ultimate challenge for the best players and teams on this planet……They are the officially selected top 20 players who are about to launch an assault on the peak on the World Championship stage……Below are the rankings from 20th to 11th, fuck, this is a toxic milk list—official toxic milk?"

"You'll know once you look."

"20th place, Karsa... Who is he? He's kinda handsome. Oh, he's from Flash Wolves, the one we were grouped with—holy shit, Karsa is the X factor of the Flash Wolves team... Sounds pretty badass, is it real?"

"Based on that comment, it's true."

"19th place, Fland... Holy shit, I could make the list? No weight to this, even a trash player like me could make the list—definitely a toxic milk list."

"Let me see what rank you got..."

"Holy shit, Sofm 14th, that's kinda high, but I accept his placement here... Hey, wait, why aren't you on it? Does G2 only have one person on the list?!"

The Top 20 players announced by Riot are as follows:

20: karsa

19: Flandre

18: Crown

17: Perkz

16: Doublelift

15: Mata

14: Sofm

13: Looper

12: Meiko

11: Uzi

Indeed, Liang Yan has no ID on the list; the whole G2 team only has Perkz listed.

Fu Lan Duo looked up at Liang Yan in surprise, but then she realized—

"No way, others might be okay to say, but with your skill it's impossible not to make the list; even Riot‑certified 'Eternal Enemy of the Defense Tower' didn't make it—what a joke. You kid, you're awesome."

Fu Lan Duo burst out laughing and gave Liang Yan a thumbs‑up:

"Top 10 players, awesome!"

But Liang Yan had a different view, smiling lightly:

"Not necessarily."

"Huh?"

"In a couple days you'll see; Riot will announce the top ten then."

"I think it's impossible; you kid will definitely be in the top ten, maybe even top five—wanna make a bet?"

"Sure, what are we betting?"

"I bet you'll make the top ten; if I'm right, you treat me to Haidilao."

"Fine, but what if you're wrong?"

"Up to you."

"Up to me?"

"Eh, whatever condition you propose, it's impossible anyway."

"Alright, I'll remember that."

……

After Riot announced the bottom ten of the Top 20, European netizens were initially shocked too—the invincible "Firrrrrre" of a season actually wasn't in the Top 20?

What a joke!

Then they came up with the same thought as Fu Lan Duo just had: he must be in the top ten!

But Liang Yan had a different thought.

As for Riot's Top 20, overall the evaluation is fairly objective, but aside from the evaluation, everything else is messed up.

For example, Crown, the mid laner from Samsung, aka "Crown Bro", is ranked only 18th.

Liang Yan thinks that, although Crown Bro is making his first Worlds appearance, anyone who understands the game can tell at a glance from his match data that it's absolutely impossible to place him behind tenth.

Let alone talk about mechanics.

Crown Bro has a ten‑minute CS lead that outshines every LCK mid laner, showing his early‑lane pressure is extremely strong.

He also has a terrifying champion pool.

And his MVP count.

These data are enough to show Crown's strength.

Put simply, if you acknowledge LCK's strength, you must admit Crown is absolutely a world‑class mid laner, even said to be the LCK mid laner second only to Faker.

Riot placing him at 18th is just surreal.

Since this list can include newcomers, what it really measures is a player's impact on game situations.

No matter how you look at it, Crown shouldn't be placed here.

Therefore, based on this point, Liang Yan felt that he might actually not be on this list, and the probability was quite high.

However, the actual outcome still depends on the results announced later by the fist.

……

The next day, everyone got up early, had breakfast, and boarded the fist promotional video production team's car to set off.

The first shooting spot was the seaside; a few members of G2, under the director's command, struck various poses in front of the camera, filming a sunrise scene.

Then they rushed to the next shooting spot, the Golden Gate Bridge.

After finishing the second set of shots, the sun was high in the sky; they continued on to the third shooting location, the Palace of Fine Arts……

They were definitely tired, but squeezing in sightseeing while filming was fine; everyone's spirits were pretty good, and their task was merely to cooperate with the director in posing for shots, no lines to memorize, so it was relatively easy.

Voice-over was of course required, but they could later sit in the recording studio and read from the script, which they had written themselves—just a few lines; a little practice was enough to pass.

Naturally, more than just G2 had filming duties; all 16 participating teams worldwide had to shoot promotional videos, although some teams obviously had higher status, thus getting more screen time and longer durations.

As for the fist, producing a batch of qualified promotional videos in such a short time was naturally a heavy task, fortunately the promotional video production team consisted of more than just the G2 squad—there were several teams.

Although netizens jokingly call the fist an animation and music company delayed by games, it's not solely reliant on outsourcing—they themselves have a very strong audiovisual production team; although at this time the team's scale wasn't as huge as it would become later, it was already considerable.

In the morning they finished filming the promotional video material; in the afternoon they began voice-over work, simultaneously recording some indoor material such as competition impressions. As for the pre-match interview, that was recorded on the day of the match; after the fist reviewed it and found no issues, it was played directly before the match started.

In the evening, the fist delivered the training room key; everyone went in to have a look—environment-wise there was nothing special to say, it was just a converted hotel suite: after moving the beds out of a multi-person room, they replaced them with two rows of tables holding the equipment.

The fist was fairly thoughtful, providing a blackboard and several enlarged-to-scale maps of Summoner's Rift, plus some miscellaneous items—all for the team to hold tactical meetings.

Everyone also tested the equipment; configuration and network were completely fine, the North America and match server clients were both installed and ready to use upon logging in.

The promotional video shoot was mostly done on the first day; the next day they didn't have to get up so early, heading out at nine to film a few more groups of shots, and by eleven they had wrapped up and returned to the hotel.

After that, the team's time was freely arranged.

Ka Lao Si went out for a stroll, then arranged to return for a few practice matches.

That afternoon they got straight to it.