Chapter 437: Placement Match Turbulence (Part 1)

In the livestream room, Liang Yan stared blankly at the camera for a moment, then used his fingers to tidy his bangs before turning on the microphone:

"Long time no see, I haven't streamed in a while, huh? My hair's grown out."

"Sorry, sorry, it's indeed been a while, but I've really been busy..."

"Busy with what? This brother asked well, I originally didn't want to show off, but not answering a question would be impolite, and I'm a polite person... cough!"

"——busy thrashing all kinds of pro kids in the scrims."

As soon as he said that, the screen filled with 666.

Some old fans stayed calm, waiting for the bullet comments peak to pass before leisurely posting "basic ops, no 6", or asking who he played against in the scrims.

Such things obviously can't be said in the livestream.

Liang Yan pretended not to see those bullet comments asking who his opponent was, and chuckled:

"How's it been? Haven't seen you in a few days—do you think I've gotten more handsome?"

The bullet comments exploded again:

【Pah!】

【Shameless】

【I'm really begging you……】

【Brother, you smell so good~】

【Me me me! I think the streamer has always been the most handsome!】

【Sis misses you to death, wuwuwu, come over and let me hug you~】

【??? Does this streamer really have female fans?】

【How long can you stream today?】

Liang Yan saw the last bullet comment, thought for a moment, and replied:

"I've finished the scrims, I can stream for a while—let's play a few games on the Summit of the Canyon, aim for Diamond II, try to finish the placement matches today, though I probably can't finish in one go; tonight we can watch the matches together, then I'll play a bit more after."

The bullet comments followed his topic and started discussing:

【Wuhu, I love watching matches with the streamer the most!】

【What's there to watch in the matches? Just clueless newbies pecking at each other】

【Streamer, streamer, can you teach how to jungle with Galio?】

【You don't stream when there's no playoffs, but you start streaming when the playoffs begin—does that mean everything's ready except for winning the championship?】

"What the heck is jungling with Galio? Really won't get reported?"

【Just reveal your identity, who'd dare report you→_→】

【Spread the word, Jiao Shen got reported for playing Summit of the Canyon!】

【Spread the word, Jiao Shen got reported and banned for feeding while playing Summit of the Canyon!】

Liang Yan ignored those meme bullet comments, thought it over carefully, and finally shook his head:

"Jungling with Galio really doesn't work; other champs are fine, but taking double buffs and the frog is too painful. Although you can jungle with a fasting build, the problem is by the time you finish one buff, others are already level three, so the jungle gets counter-jungled and then mid lane collapses."

"Starting the jungle can let teammates help; I'm just giving an example, get the gist."

After streaming for over two hours, having lunch, then streaming another two or three hours in the afternoon, the LPL livestream began its push, meaning the playoffs were about to start.

Due to the tight schedule, there were two Bo5 matches that day; the first playoff Bo5 was opened by IM and QG from the R Half Zone, both teams ranked third and fourth in their respective groups, they fought to a fifth game, and IM ultimately won 3-2.

QG was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, regrettably; after the match, Doinb sat in his chair covering his face and crying, though it's unclear how much of that was acting.

The second match was WE versus OMG from the V Half Zone, WE third in Group B, OMG fourth in Group A, just as mainstream predictions suggested, this game could be considered one of the least suspenseful Bo5s of the playoffs, and the result matched public expectations: WE swept OMG 3-0 to advance.

When the match ended, it was close to nine in the evening.

Thus, the first day's schedule of the LPL Spring Playoffs concluded, with QG and OMG eliminated, while IM and WE advanced to the second round.

Liang Yan streamed while bringing fans to watch three matches, spent the rest of the time in ranked queue, streamed until around eleven p. m., totaling over ten hours; excluding the match broadcasts, the remaining time was just enough to finish ten placement matches, ultimately placing him in Diamond I.

The viewers in the livestream were all stunned.

【What? Diamond I?! Isn't the highest you can place in placement matches only Platinum?】

【Holy crap, finishing placement matches and landing straight in Diamond I—scary!】

【I also had a ten-win streak… Gold II】

【Feels like some privilege was turned on; normally impossible to place this high】

【A super account, right?】

【Even a super account isn't that exaggerated—I saw Uzi with nine wins and one loss only hit Gold II!】

【Uzi that low?】

【I think he lost that game because his mindset exploded after being messed with by an actor… he gave away a lot of kills】

【Malaxiangguo also had ten wins in a row, likewise Diamond III】

【Xi Ye ten wins in a row, Diamond II!】

【The placement system on the Summit of the Canyon feels different from other regions】

【Did the admins manually fill in the scores?】

【Reported! Totally unfair!】

Including the foreign viewers on Mouse Platform, they were equally surprised by Liang Yan's placement result, apparently also never having seen someone finish placement matches and land straight in Diamond.

As for this, Liang Yan wasn't particularly surprised.

The official rules for placement matches on the Summit of the Canyon already state clearly that the highest you can place is Diamond I.

Although placement matches measure a account's contribution per game not by KDA, if the KDA is exaggerated enough it can still raise the placement ceiling considerably; while Liang Yan's average KDA over his ten placement matches isn't said to be exaggerated, it's still of a sky‑breaking level.

"Mission accomplished; from now on, chances to play on the Summit of the Canyon will be scarce—just play a game now and then to avoid dropping rank."

Liang Yan stretched out a big yawn, chatted a few more lines, then cut the stream.

Although LPL claims that Canyon Peak is a super server specially created for professional players and experts, and perhaps the initial environment was indeed not bad, but everyone knows the atmosphere of the national server; once these professional players leave, it will surely become a muddy pond overrun by production crews.

Liang Yan may not fear the production crew, but he really doesn't want to play in such an environment, so from now on he'll probably just maintain his rank on the Canyon Peak account so it doesn't drop below Diamond II, and the rest of his ranked play time will still mainly be on Han Fu.

However, the Canyon Peak placement matches that Liang Yan didn't care about at all, but some people took it extremely seriously.

When Liang Yan went offline, Uzi was also preparing to go offline; just as he was about to cut the stream, he suddenly saw a bullet comment that made him stop his action.

"What? Jiao Shen has ten straight wins to Diamond I?"

Uzi stared for a moment, then exclaimed:

"No way, it must be fake?! They're all super accounts—how could the gap be this big? I only lost one game!"

"Really? Really Diamond I?"

"Holy shit, then I can only say that super accounts also have differences."

Then marketing accounts clipped and spread it all over the place, and with some people fanning the flames, what was originally just a small matter actually shot up to the top five on Weibo's hot search.

Then the narrative gradually shifted to claims like 'Jiao Shen got a super-super account,' 'designers modified the code in the backend,' and 'Jiao Shen's rank was manually filled,' and so on.

By then, Liang Yan had already gone to sleep.