Chapter 732: Warfire Rampant

After two days, the player who envied Liang Yan, having won the regular-season MVP, spoke without restraint in a livestream and got drenched in abuse by fan-circle fans, actually posted another Weibo:

【Spit it out, just spray me. I will keep my word—if he lifts the cup at Bird's Nest, I will kneel and sing 'Conquer'! But if he fails to do so, even not making it to Bird's Nest, then however you guys spray me today, I will spray back the same way!】

Liang Yan was urged by livestream chat friends to look at this Weibo; after reading it, he sighed, and on the spot added that person's Weibo to his blacklist.

Of course, he also didn't express any opinion.

Given Liang Yan's understanding of him, making him kneel and sing "Conquer" is absolutely impossible; it would be more painful than killing him, so whatever he says now is just saving face and being stubborn—meaningless.

"From now on, please don't mention this person in my livestream again, okay, folks?"

Liang Yan rarely makes any demands of his livestream fans, and this is truly the first time he has genuinely disliked someone from the bottom of his heart.

……

The 2017 summer regular season ended just like that.

VG's record in big matches was 16-0, without any doubt they entered the playoffs as the B group's top seed, thereby gaining a playoff advantage seed, allowing them to skip the first two rounds' tug-of-war and directly secure a semifinal seat to watch from the opposite bank.

The full regular-season standings are as follows:

Group A:

EDG, 12-4;

WE, 11-5;

IG, 10-6;

IM, 5-11;

LGD, 4-12;

DAN, 2-14;

Group B:

VG, 16-0;

RNG, 11-5;

OMG, 8-8;

NB, 7-9;

JDG, 7-9;

SNG, 3-13;

From the standings it is clear that, aside from VG's obvious dominance, Group B's overall strength is clearly greater than Group A's, because Group A's total win-loss is 44-52 while Group B's is 52-44, showing that Group B gained more points in cross-group matches, so many netizens have started complaining again about the imbalance of group strengths.

But the regular season is over, the final rankings are set in stone, and no matter how netizens argue, the officials cannot possibly respond.

The top four teams in each group qualify for the playoffs.

This year's playoff format is the same as last year's, using a single-elimination bracket; from the quarterfinals to the finals, a stage format is employed, with the two group tops advancing directly to the semifinals, the group seconds switching groups to guard the six-strong stage, and the group third and fourth placed teams following the pattern of A third vs B fourth starting from the first round of the knockout stage, making the playoff matchups clear at a glance.

Upper half:

IG vs NB → winner vs RNG → winner vs EDG → winner advances to the finals.

Lower half:

OMG vs IM → winner vs WE → winner vs VG → winner advances to the finals.

With this format, if a team could fight from the first round all the way to the finals and ultimately win the championship, they would naturally achieve a legend, though the hope is extremely slim, especially since this year's LPL still has a super big boss……

Seeing this playoff schedule, WE fans feel a breathless pain.

During the spring season, three teams teamed up in the final stretch of the regular season to put on a big show; the result was that WE's acting was inferior, and even joining forces with EDG they couldn't overcome QG, who played a mid-laner sickness evasion trick to send them to VG's godhood ceremony banquet, sacrificing themselves to achieve VG's first summit.

In the summer season, not being placed in the same group as VG was a relief, and everything had been fine up to that point, but as the regular season neared its end things started to feel off, and ultimately EDG's one move "Chronos Retreat" stole the group's first place, so the playoffs again put them in the same group as VG……

For the person who earnestly wants his self-built club to bring honor once, the Human Emperor Sky, this truly is 'sitting at home, misfortune falls from the sky'; one can only lament life's impermanence, just like the big intestine wrapping the small intestine, and I don't even know when that day leaked.

On the day the regular season ended, Sky called the WE alliance division manager, his voice hoarse like that of an elderly person:

"Stop fighting; let everyone just play casually in the playoffs, save your strength for the promotion series, the championship can be forgone, but we must definitely contend for the S7 slot!"

As a founding figure of Chinese esports, how could his Human Emperor's team be absent from the global finals held in China!

Sky had even planned it out; if it really isn't possible, then he'll use some means, even if it means spending money to buy it, he must get that S7 slot!

As for how to buy it, the Human Emperor has cultivated deep connections in the circle for years, naturally having his own channels, and he will do it flawlessly, so that neither Riot nor the outside world notices any abnormality.

……

Following past practice, to let everyone adapt to the cross-version changes from regular season to playoffs, there is usually a one-week offseason after the regular season ends; but this year, because an Intercontinental Tournament was inserted mid-season, the summer season's schedule became especially tight, and also to give their own team more time to prepare for the global finals, therefore this year's playoffs came especially early.

Two days after the regular season ended, the LPL playoffs commenced.

On the first day's first match, IG faced NB. In this Bo5, IG's top lane newcomer Theshy exploded with power, taking two Jayce lanes and crushing the opponent whose long-faced Korean aid appearance gave rise to a Korean-aid style ID, but who is actually a veteran top laner Skye who has been grinding in the LPL for two or three years and can only linger in mid-to-low tier teams, helping the team easily win two games.

In game three, NB's mindset had already collapsed, and Rookie then stepped up……

Like tearing through rotten stalks, IG swept NB 3-0.

Later that day, the second quarterfinal match saw OMG versus IM; although not as one-sided as IG's earlier demolition of NB, it was still a clear class difference, with OMG taking IM 3-1 without surprise or danger.

After the first round concluded, the next day the six-strong stage kicked off in full swing.

The opening match was IG vs RNG, with the Worlds ticket incentive before them; both teams gave their all, from pick-ban to combat each having their own tricks and strategies, a Bo5 that was earth-shakingly exciting, ultimately only decided in the final game, with viewers exclaiming that the ticket price was cheap.

——RNG narrowly edged out IG 3-2 to advance to the upper-half final.

After this match, Ning's Weibo was predictably flooded by VG fans.

With such a tough mouth, how come he himself can't even make it to the LPL semifinals?

Ning didn't respond, merely shutting his door and hiding in his dorm, scrubbing the skin off his favorite pair of shoes.

Liang Yan also didn't add insult to injury or anything like that.

Although he doesn't like Ning, he bears no grudge, just like encountering a puddle of mud on the road—he simply turns and goes around it; why bother with it?

Instead, he feels pity for Rouji and Theshy; this year's IG is likely to miss out on Worlds again.