Chapter 744: No Need to Be So Hard on Yourself

Backstage at the arena.

I reminded you before the match, didn't I? Don't go up against him—he's the FMVP, you can't beat him...

This isn't the lounge; when everyone was leaving the stage, Homme stood in the doorway, stopped Condi, and took him aside for a private talk.

Facing the coach's reproach, Condi looked aggrieved: 'I know I've been keeping it in mind, but I didn't go up against him—I just looked at the board and thought he might gank, so isn't my past counter‑jungling okay?'

Homme sighed: 'Don't be stubborn—what else is this if not mind games? The moment you start guessing his thoughts, you've fallen into his trap!'

Condi fell silent for two seconds: 'So I'm not allowed to think at all? Pretend he doesn't exist? Then how am I supposed to play?'

Homme patted Condi's shoulder and said earnestly: 'Haven't I taught you how to play against the Old Godfather? Do today exactly as you would against him.'

The Old Godfather's jungler is Eimy, the LPL Wild King.

……

After finishing the private talk with Condi, Homme returned to the lounge and discussed things again with the team.

'Do we still want to use the Incense Burner system, or can we even use it against VG? Everyone, share your thoughts and talk about your ideas.'

The boss was watching right there; no one wanted to be the first to speak up, because if we used the Incense Burner system again in the second game and lost, someone would have to take responsibility.

Everyone looked at each other, but nobody dared to speak first.

Seeing this, Homme directly called out: 'Come on, Changyu, you speak first.'

957's real name is Ke Changyu; at first hearing the name sounds like someone from the Northeast, near Korea, but 957 is actually from Zhejiang, and because he wears glasses, he has a bit more of a Jiangnan literati air. He looked up at Homme, thought a moment, and said frankly: 'I think the lineup is fine—we just didn't play well.'

Where didn't we play well? That was obvious. So Homme didn't press further, otherwise it would look like he was stirring up trouble among the teammates; he nodded and then asked Xi Ye.

Xi Ye's opinion was pretty much the same as 957's.

Asking the others yielded the same opinion.

After going around the circle, Homme pondered for a moment and then decided: 'All right, since everyone thinks the Incense Burner system is fine, let's try it again!'

At that point Sky didn't just say 'do your best'; instead he encouraged: 'Come on, brothers—even if it's just for a better spot in the promotion series, let's push a little harder and try to climb up a bit!'

The atmosphere in the lounge grew solemn, with a faint hint of determination.

……

In the VG lounge, however, it was all laughter and cheer.

'Win two more games and the ticket is practically in the bag—give it your all, guys!'

'It won't take two games—one is enough; a 2‑0 score would make the other side surrender outright.'

'Don't get ahead of yourself, Qiang Ge—just a moment ago there was a game where they came back from 0‑2 to 3‑2.'

'Can it be the same?'

'We're not RNG—if WE could really make us lose 0‑2 and then come back to win 3‑2, we wouldn't need to embarrass ourselves at S7 anyway…'

'All right, all right.'

Gao Jun waved his hand, cut off the chatter, glanced at Zhu Xiaolong, and said: 'Stop fooling around, everyone—listen to what the coach has to say.'

The noise died down, and Zhu Xiaolong opened the notebook on his lap.

'In the last game, Bull Head with the Incense Burner worked pretty well, but I think it's a gimmick with little practical use. We could try it in a Worlds group stage if we get the chance, but here we won't consider it a regular pick. For the next game's bans and picks, I'm thinking like this: the enemy might still run the Incense Burner system, so we'll use that as a premise when we plan our next BP.'

Zhu Xiaolong finished speaking and looked toward Liang Yan.

Liang Yan nodded: 'No problem.'

Zhu Xiaolong then lowered his gaze to the notebook: 'So, if they ban Varus, our first‑phase BP will focus on top, mid, and jungle; if they don't ban Varus, we'll prioritize taking Varus…'

In the next game, the starting Gangzi suddenly raised his hand, laughing: 'Hey coach, let me play a round of skate shoes~'

'Skate shoes?'

Zhu Xiaolong blinked, then instinctively glanced at Liang Yan.

Liang Yan looked at Gangzi, smiled, and said: 'Go ahead and play it—there's no hiding it anyway.'

Gangzi: 'Wuhu~~~ I'm taking off!!'

……

But before he could even take off, he crashed.

Game 2 bans: WE on the blue side banned skate shoes in the first round.

This wasn't because Homme suddenly realized skate shoes were the true meta pick—if they were, he wouldn't have banned them on the blue side. He did it out of caution, fearing VG might pull out an even more aggressive early‑game lineup than last time, so he proactively banned skate shoes. Looking back with hindsight, his BP was terrible, but given the meta understanding at the time, his decision wasn't actually wrong.

'I Giao!'

Gangzi loudly complained in his team's voice chat,

'How come he bans it the moment I want to play it? I can't take it, guys.'

Everyone burst out laughing. They had all thought that if Gangzi got Kalista, this game would be a 'Gangzi fiesta,' but WE banned skate shoes, the fiesta was gone, and so they all started to schadenfreude.

The rest of the bans and picks proceeded without incident.

After bans, WE first‑picked Big Tree; VG double‑locked Prince and Clockwork; WE followed with a double‑lock on the bottom lane duo; VG's final pick of the first round was Varus…

All in all, WE made some tweaks to their lineup from the previous game, adding more proactive playmaking potential, but the foundation remained the Incense Burner system.

VG, to complete the Prince‑Clockwork system, abandoned the Poke composition and instead also ran an Incense Burner setup—at least on paper. However, since VG's ADC is Varus and the player is Gangzi, it's hard to say whether they will actually build the Incense Burner.

The detailed bans and picks for both sides in Game 2 are as follows:

WE, blue side

bans: Snake Woman, Kalista, Galio; Rambo, Blue Steel Shadow

top lane: 957, Kled

jungle: Condi, Big Tree

mid lane: Xi Ye, Plane

bottom lane: Mystic, Big Mouth

support: Ben, Lulu

VG, Red Side

ban: Xia, Lu Xi An, EZ; Syndra, Rock Sparrow

Top Lane: Flandre, Crocodile

Jungle: Firrrrrre, Prince

Zhong Lu: Easyhoon, Clockwork

Xia Lu: Kryst4l, Varus

Support: Caveman, Luo

Interestingly, VG's first round of bans seemed to ban three AD champions, but in fact only Xia was a ban targeting the AD position; the other two, Lu Xi An was targeting Zhong Lu, and EZ was targeting Jungle.