Chapter 787: Bubble Match Ends

On the second day of the sixth‑anniversary celebration, at 7 p. m., the first match of the LPL bubble match kicked off at the Wukesong Arena.

The opposing sides were WE and IG.

Bo5, single‑elimination format.

The winner advances to the next round to challenge the final hegemon RNG.

When the WE players set out from the hotel, Sky saw them off.

"Just do your best, don't feel pressured..." He paused, looking at these youngsters in their team jerseys, forced a smile, "Go in light, go."

The WE team manager was quite surprised: "Boss, you... aren't going?"

Usually, for any crucial match, Sky would definitely lead the team out, but today this Bo5, which decides who gets the S7 tickets, the boss actually didn't go with them?

Sky smiled and shook his head: "I still have something to do, so I'm not going."

Everyone, full of doubts, got on the bus and departed.

Sky watched the bus pull away, the smile on his face long gone, his heart filled with unease and sorrow, feeling like Prince Dan of Yan seeing off Jing Ke at the Yi River.

——Old Wang refused Sky, the other side guessed the purpose of his call, and even didn't want to meet him. Evidently, the other side wasn't short of money and also wanted a ticket.

Two hours later, the first LPL bubble match ended.

IG 3:1 WE.

The netizens of the LMS region who had watched two bubble matches in a day commented: 【Damn, LPL also has its own ticket‑buying kid!】

On LPL's online platforms, there was also a chorus of sighs.

【WE still didn't make it to Worlds, what a pity】

【I heard Sky didn't even go to the venue; he must have predicted this already】

【WE has been pretty good these two years, a shame they always fall short at the end】

【Congrats IG, third seed, go!】

【What are you thinking? Talk after you beat the final boss RNG!】

【Barring surprises, the third seed should be RNG】

Liang Yan lay on the hotel bed watching the LPL bubble match on his phone; after it ended, he couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

WE, as expected, still fell behind.

As for the result of tomorrow's final bubble match, Liang Yan had already predicted it.

After bolstering their top lane and jungle, IG is indeed strong, but still lacking something.

……

September 3rd, Liang Yan woke up to receive a piece of good news.

The Brazil Region winter season finals kicked off late last night, and the final result was CNB defeating strong team oNe 3‑2 to win the championship, simultaneously earning a ticket to the S7 qualifiers.

Tabe, who had contacted CNB the most via email, was the first in the VG team group to forward the good news posted by CNB team boss Luonaerduo on Twitter.

Everyone was astonished, and voice messages popped up one after another in the team chat.

"Holy shit, they really won the championship?"

"Damn impressive, I remember they didn't even make the playoffs in their summer split (equivalent to other regions' spring split)? Is that the team?"

"Yes, they were a weak team in the Wildcard Region before."

"They've improved a lot."

"Ma Ge, can it get any bigger than ours? Hahaha~"

"Xiao Duan's started floating again, huh."

"Gotta float~ gotta float~ gotta sigh‑float~~ I loop around the mountainside, rain patters~~"

"Gotta float~ gotta float~ gotta sigh‑float~~ Now entering the tunnel, wind whispers softly!"

"If you've got the copyright, you two can sing; otherwise I'm reporting you."

"You're illiterate, I suggest you buy a copy of the copyright law and study it—report your sister!"

All in all, everyone was pretty happy.

Although only Zhu Xiaolong and Tabe had been constantly advising CNB, most of those present had visited CNB only once, and Liang Yan had attended that session just once.

But overall, CNB is considered a friendly team in the eyes of the VG members; since they can make it to Worlds, VG naturally feels happy for them.

Liang Yan got up relatively late today; after waking, he lay in bed chatting with a bunch of goofballs for a while, finished his personal hygiene only after ten o'clock, dressed, headed out, wandered to the Surpass Team's training room—teammates were absent, but two staff members began dismantling equipment, apparently after checking with Zhou Dong that the room wouldn't be needed today.

Just as he was thinking that, Zhou Dong's voice came from behind.

"Yo? You're also snoring? What a coincidence."

Liang Yan turned around and saw Zhou Dong wearing his usual baseball cap and black mask; recalling that just earlier in the group chat Xiao Duan and Gangzi had been singing each other's songs, Liang Yan felt a bit subtle.

Besides Zhou Dong, there were a few attendants; JT coach Weil was naturally among them and also greeted Liang Yan.

Zhou Dong glanced into the training room and explained to Liang Yan: "We have a match this afternoon, so we don't need the training room today; I've had them come tidy up a bit." After saying that, he laughed and patted Liang Yan's arm: "How about we grab lunch together at noon?"

"Everyone together?" Liang Yan asked. Having spent the whole previous afternoon side‑by‑side gaming, Liang Yan and Zhou Dong could barely be considered acquaintances.

"I haven't asked yet, but that's fine." Zhou Dong nodded with a smile, obviously he hadn't intended to invite anyone else when he spoke earlier.

Liang Yan understood: "Never mind, everyone probably has their own things to do, especially Yu Shuang‑jie; I get the feeling she's already picking out clothes and getting ready to do her makeup."

"Alright, see you backstage this afternoon."

"See you this afternoon."

Zhou Dong bumped Liang Yan's left chest with his fist, waved his hand, and led the group away.

……

At 2 p. m., the final event of the sixth‑anniversary celebration kicked off.

A person in charge of Riot's China Region product department took the stage first to hold a product launch, announcing a large batch of updates to League of Legends‑related content, from skins and champion reworks to competition format reforms, chattering on for over ten minutes.

Then host Zhu Zhen came up and conducted the usual on‑site raffle, with prizes including gaming peripherals, game skins, and Q coins, etc.; winning any one of them would be worth the ticket price.

Next, the cheer squad took the stage, with the two teams' girl dancers wearing outfits bearing the IG and RNG team logos, warming up the crowd with a dance before the bubble match began.

The legs look pretty good.

……

At 3 p. m., the bubble match officially began.

IG started strong, taking a game in under 30 minutes. But as Liang Yan expected, RNG ended up laughing last; after losing the first game, RNG won three in a row, narrowly clinching the last S7 ticket for the LPL region.

【All dispersed, the three LPL spots are set.】

【How come it's EDG and RNG again?】

【I really don't want to see EDG and RNG give away points year after year, but the others are just incompetent.】

【IG will be fine; JackeyLove will be playing next year, so we can look forward to it.】

Moreover, since the LPL has the most teams of any region worldwide and the longest summer schedule, the bubble match naturally ends last; thus, the S7 ticket that RNG obtained is actually the only one left in the world.

By now, all S7 tickets from every region worldwide have been assigned.