Chapter 223

At the Europe commentary desk, the four hosts chatted and laughed cheerfully, full of lively energy.

ohno~~~, Zven, this brat, he deliberately leaves a bit of HP unhealed so the turret kills more minions, he's so nasty~

hiahiahiahia~

Fortunately, the righteous soldiers won't stop; they finally managed to push down this turret!

Ah, Deficio, I heard you, did you say 'fortunately' correctly?

Hmm, what's up?

No…… I feel that if you were standing from the RNG fans' standpoint, saying that would probably sound quite heartbreaking……

So what then?

Deficio said,

I'm not an RNG supporter. I actually have a fan badge certification——!

A ten-year G2 fan, showing up uninvited.

Drakos stole Deficio's line, making Deficio yell angrily, while the other two commentators also chuckled hiahia, laughing sinisterly.

The chat comments were also a scene of joy, the whole livestream brimming with a cheerful atmosphere.

In contrast, the LPL livestream not only had far fewer chat comments, but also amidst a gloomy atmosphere, mixed with the mischievous gloom stirred up by jesters and EDG fans:

【Is this jungler even human?】

【After spending so much money to buy that Korean import, this is his performance… sigh, feels like we'll have to rely on ourselves from now on】

【We're gonna lose, we're gonna lose~】

【I'm an RNG fan, I'm about to cry from fright, waa waa waa……】

【Can you stop messing around, cnm?】

【They're all traitors, RNG losing to the EU‑NA team makes them naturally happy, hehe】

【No, nobody said RNG already lost—do RNG fans admit they've lost? Isn't the plan to win two games in a row?】

【Scared! Got my citizenship revoked again!】

【When EDG was about to lose, you weren't saying this】

【I want to say, G2 has actually always had Jiao Shen in mid lane, and Jiao Shen is a mid‑lane import… so my point is, G2 might be considered the LPL's fourth seed?】

At the moment the red side's next turret fell, the gold deficit, which had been under two thousand just over a minute ago, instantly broke past the five‑thousand mark.

This happened just past eleven minutes.

The remaining time was an agonizing ordeal for every RNG fan.

The LPL commentators had nothing left to say but a few stock phrases—'hold on', 'stall for late game', 'wait for Uzi's ADC three‑item set'… and so on, repeating them over and over until they had nothing else to add.

The atmosphere in the livestream began to turn dull and oppressive.

As a professional commentator with ambition, Guan Zeyuan felt he had to step up now—even if he'd get criticized—he couldn't tolerate his own livestream going silent, so a spark hit him and he started to lighten the mood:

"By the way, I don't know if you two have noticed a strange phenomenon."

"What."

Wawa responded listlessly.

"Put it this way: the three teams already confirmed for the semifinals—Samsung, ROX, SKT—are all LCK squads, right? Besides that, have you noticed another phenomenon?"

Guan Zeyuan deliberately held back, teasing everyone's curiosity.

Wawa showed a bit of interest, thinking seriously; beside her, Miller also got curious, frowning as he pondered. Then Wawa shook her head:

"No."

Guan Zeyuan then grinned and started counting on his fingers:

"Samsung, second place in Group D."

"SKT, second place in Group B."

"In this match currently underway, G2… although the second game hasn't ended yet, we have to admit G2's strength is indeed strong—otherwise they wouldn't have pushed RNG to this point, right—and G2 is also second place in Group A."

Wawa suddenly realized:

"They're all second place!"

"Exactly, what a strange thing: in this year's World Championship, the teams that finished second in their groups actually look stronger than the group winners!"

"So why is that?"

"Um, I think……"

Guan Zeyuan said, hesitating a moment, then turned to the camera:

"I don't know if I can say this, but if I shouldn't, please cue the director——I'm thinking, could there be such a possibility:"

"Someone is fixing the score."

"Ah?!"

Wawa and Miller both widened their eyes.

"This…… impossible?"

"Exactly, the key is there's no reason to do that—what benefit is there in finishing second?"

Guan Zeyuan gave a wicked smile, was about to throw in a hindsight comment for further analysis, when the backstage director's voice suddenly crackled in his earpiece; he immediately feigned a cough, swallowed his words, and then said:

"I don't even know what good it would do; I just said it offhand, joking with everyone to liven up the atmosphere, haha."

The two were instantly speechless.

He glanced at the big screen; the leopard woman, having respawned and left base, finally reached his lower half of the map, turned a full circle, found it empty, gained nothing, and had to turn back and run toward Shang Ban Qu.

Before the distant upper second tower, only a single group of Stone Armor Beetles waited for him.

The red buff was taken by Uzi.

F4 gave Xiaohu some extra farm to catch up.

It wasn't that Looper kindly left this set of Stone Armor Beetles for the hot pot; Looper had already gone to Xia Lu...

The whole Ye Qu only had this one group of monsters.

12 minutes, 35 kills, level 7 Leopard Woman, simply, hearing it makes one's heart ache, seeing it brings tears.

Wawa and Miller felt their throats tighten, as if having a heart attack, unable to speak, so the atmosphere in the live broadcast room became oppressive again.

Guan Zeyuan stepped forward again:

"Over five thousand gold difference, this situation already feels quite difficult..."

"If it really doesn't work..."

"Why don't we treat G2 to a hot pot?"

This is like, a pregnant woman goes into the delivery room, and out comes a child asking:

"Save the doctor or save the nurse?"

Wawa instantly lost composure, pfft, then let out a laugh like ten years of asthma.

Miller was struck dumb, like being charred outside but raw inside; he gaped at Guan Zeyuan, and after a moment realized Guan Zeyuan was referring to the joke that, in this year's Shanghai MSI group stage, SKT had hot pot and then lost four games in a row. He burst out laughing and crying, then said:

"Not bro, Mei Guo doesn't have hot pot; even if we flew a fighter jet to deliver food, tens of thousands of kilometers away, the pot base would probably be cold."

"Chicago has hot pot restaurants; I found one last night."

"……Other hot pot places don't have that tradition, would that work? Moreover, Jiao Shen has a Chinese baby's physique, so he probably has eaten a lot of hot pot."

"Let's add some more ingredients to it."

"???"

"No no no, don't misunderstand, I mean…… add more chili, hehehe."