Chapter 431: The Mysterious KT

Tabe said that KT was KTFMagicNs, which ranked third in the LCK regular season, i. e., the later KTRolster. KT was the LCK team that had the most practice matches with VG this season, with total duration estimated at nearly a hundred hours.

The reason they scheduled so many practice matches with KT is mainly because Mata, who previously served in VG, is now in KT, and through Mata's introduction the two teams quickly hooked up; moreover, Pawn and Deft, who were with EDG last year, are also on this team, so the team itself is relatively close to the LPL.

On the way back to Ji Di in the car, Liang Yan realized that today there happened to be a KT match.

The LCK playoffs had already begun at the start of this month, but the first match wasn't a real playoff; it was a playoff ticket match, because the format is Bo3 rather than Bo5, so it should actually be called a playoff bubble match.

The LCK playoff qualification rules are unusual: besides the playoff slots being especially few—only four playoff slots, among the ten teams only the top three in the regular season can lock in a playoff slot, and the last slot must be decided via the bubble match, which is the match played last week.

Moreover, in the LCK regular season, each advancement in rank reduces the number of playoff rounds one must play by one, and the regular-season champion advances directly to the finals. Compared to the LPL, it's obvious that the LCK's rules make the regular-season competition much more intense.

Today's match, then, is between KT, the third-place team in the LCK regular season, and the bubble match winner, MVP.

Liang Yan returned to Ji Di, sat down at his seat, turned on his computer to search for the LCK playoff match results, and his eyes lit up when he saw the score.

KT 3:0 MVP

"Huh?"

Tabe happened to walk past behind Liang Yan, saw the image on Liang Yan's computer screen, looked surprised, stopped, and started chatting with Liang Yan.

"KT is pretty strong; did they make it to the semifinals?"

Liang Yan pulled up the schedule and nodded, saying:

"The next match is against SSG."

Tabe became interested, pushed a chair over, sat down, and began chatting with Liang Yan.

"Do you think KT can make it to the finals?"

"Hard to say."

Liang Yan replied, while flipping through KT's battle report.

None of the three games were outright stomps, but they went smoothly; the longest game didn't even reach forty minutes, which is still relatively rare in LCK matches where mistakes are very few.

Tabe also noticed this detail; upon closer inspection of KT's lineup, he was even more surprised.

"KT's lineup in these three games is somewhat like our playstyle—no, wait, it really feels similar: Prince with Orianna and Lethal Tempo Varus, Titan plus Vi with Green Steel Shadow Enchantress Lu Xi An… sigh, it seems they've picked up the essence!"

Liang Yan didn't speak, just nodded while looking at KT's detailed battle report.

Without a doubt, KT didn't have all those practice matches with VG for nothing; they truly learned something from VG—something not belonging to the LCK.

Although VG didn't learn anything from KT, they still verified many tactics by facing this strong opponent. Both sides got what they needed.

Tabe again said:

"I heard from Long Ge earlier that we also had practice matches with MVP, right?"

"Yeah, we played for two days, maybe around ten matches."

"How strong are they?"

"Um…"

Liang Yan thought for a moment and gave a fair assessment:

"You can't absolutely call them a weak team; although they have no star players, their playstyle is very cohesive—any individual player taken out is just average, but together they're more than the sum of their parts; if they were in the LPL, they'd have a good chance to reach the finals."

Tabe heard this, his eyes widened slightly:

"They're this strong and still lost 0-3 to KT, so KT…"

"It's still hard to say now, but they should be able to beat SSG and make it to the finals."

"Hehe, SSG—KT seems to have a good edge against SSG."

"Yeah, but only in the playoffs."

"Hahaha…"

Liang Yan although remembers that the champion of this LCK spring split is SKT, but aside from SSG he doesn't recall which other teams participated in the playoffs, nor their exact placements, so he now has to guess.

However, since KT managed a 3-0 victory over MVP, Liang Yan mentally raised his estimation of KT, raising their ceiling to the finals; as for whether they can dethrone SKT and rewrite LCK history, that's still uncertain and will depend on the next round's matchup.

As for why VG is paying attention to the LCK playoffs:

Obviously, it's for MSI.

Now even the LPL, which has the longest schedule, is less than a week away from its playoffs, and the MSI, to be held after all regions finish their playoffs, is not far off.

……

The next day, the LCK playoff semifinals began, with KT facing SSG.

KT's performance shocked everyone—they actually swept SSG 3-0 again, causing an uproar among global LoL fans, with LPL netizens especially up in arms.

【What's going on, how is KT this strong?!】

【The fat general, even though he's maladapted to the LPL, can still lead EDG to an MSI title; back in the LCK he's fully revived, and even Faker has to make way for him!】

【EDG letting Pawn and Deft go might become the biggest blunder in team history!】

【I'm curious—last year's EDG clearly had those two strong Korean imports, so how did they end up performing so poorly in the Worlds?】

【Mata's performance is also excellent—can only say RNG really doesn't know how to use people!】

【Witness history—KT's first championship is about to be born!】

【KT is too strong! Feels like they've already locked in this year's MSI title!】

Liang Yan was also very surprised; although he was optimistic about KT, he never expected them to perform this well. That's SSG, after all—they shut them out in the semifinals!

As for the idea that SSG was bought off and intentionally threw the match, that's absolutely impossible; not to mention SSG's backing is far stronger than KT's, and SSG is the top Korean conglomerate, Samsung, which certainly isn't short of money; speaking only of SSG's desire for the championship, it's even stronger than KT's.

Since the Samsung blue-white merger and the departure of the Samsung Ten, SSG has still not won any title; whether it's Ambition or Ruler, they urgently need to win a meaningful championship to prove they are the legitimate heirs of Samsung.

KT managed to win this hard-fought match, and with a stunning 3-0 record, we have to say that this team's strength needs to be reevaluated.

Could it be that the perennial runner-up KT is really going to win its first-ever championship?

Liang Yan also couldn't see clearly for a moment.

That evening, Tabe again chatted with Liang Yan about KT's match, and Tabe remarked:

"Two straight 3-0s, it feels like KT is really going to lock up the LCK spring crown."