Chapter 881

Yes, G2 is intentionally playing this way.

Adding this wave to the previous one, Liang Yan confirmed this fact.

Liang Yan felt relieved.

It seems that after the previous round's match against SSG, Tang Anna has realized the problem— they can no longer rely on Perkz to hard carry and win games; playing like this in Bo1 can win, but if they keep playing like this in Bo5, they will absolutely not win.

Even setting aside mental pressure and player stamina, a player's ability has limits, and Perkz cannot carry every time.

Put simply, if a team has to rely on one or two players to carry every game, this behavior is no different from gambling and will absolutely not go far.

A player's ceiling is prepared for critical moments, not to bail out the team— this is the correct way to use a star player. Liang Yan has always coached VG this way, including when he was with G2 last year, training the team similarly, so even after he left, G2 still maintained a very high competitive level.

However, the biggest problem G2 now faces is that after Liang Yan left, G2's overall strength has indeed declined significantly; this wasn't noticeable during the European league, where G2 remained dominant, but in international tournaments, G2's weaknesses have been exposed.

Specifically, in the previous round's match against SSG, G2 could no longer win with normal play; Perkz keenly sensed the game's direction and thus relied on his individual ability to force a win.

Perkz won that fight, which is good— it proves his top-tier individual skill.

But G2's head coach Tang Anna realized the problem with this playstyle, knowing G2 cannot evolve toward the mistaken direction of Perkz solo carrying, so she promptly made adjustments.

To correct an excess, one must overcorrect— G2's adjustment was very strong, which is why we now see this seemingly inexplicable game.

Liang Yan can see that Tang Anna is trying to build confidence in the duo lane.

Whether it's forcing ducks onto shelves or unleashing subjective initiative, in short, Tang Anna hopes to influence the duo lane through this sacrifice of the jungle and mid lane, so they can take on the responsibility required of the duo lane in the current version.

Needless to say, Tang Anna is truly smart and an excellent coach.

As for whether it works, we'll have to keep watching.

But for this game alone, G2 basically has no chance. Moreover, the situation from the previous round's encounter cannot happen again, because neither Perkz's hero pick this game nor G2's lineup this game can support it.

That is to say, G2 is definitely going to lose.

This is the cost the adjustment must pay. Tang Anna really has guts.

Liang Yan admires her in his heart, while also feeling some pity for her.

……

Around thirty minutes in, G2 suffered defeat.

"Congratulations to SSG!" Guan Zeyuan beamed, his face full of unreserved joy, loudly announcing SSG's victory in this game. Many thought Guan Zeyuan was a SSG champion fan, only becoming a fan after SSG's S7 championship win, but that's not true— he's been a SSG fan since two or three years ago. In his own words, he first liked the player Crown Prince, then the team captain Ambition, then Ruler, and eventually grew to love the whole team through loving the house and thus the crow. This is understandable— SSG has experienced peak, trough, and resurgence, and their team spirit is worth many people learning from.

"Nice, now it's exciting!" Wawa also watched the lively scene without caring about the fuss, her face full of excitement.

"Now it's getting interesting!" Rita also looked expectant, "B Group and D Group are done, Dragon Pearl and VG have advanced to the quarterfinals draw in Pool One. If we qualify as second place, we'll have a…… uh, two-thirds chance of drawing them. Theoretically, no one would want to meet these two top seeds in the quarterfinals, so whether we can qualify as group leaders is still very important— whether it's G2 or SSG, we'll definitely try our best to achieve that!"

"That is to say, it's time to play our trump card!"

"Very likely!"

"Oh no, being led on by Teacher Ze Yuan and Teacher Rita like this, I can't help but look forward to it! So let's take a short break, the exciting part will be back soon!"

……

Yes, C Group needs a tiebreaker.

C Group's qualification spot was already certain, but the two top teams are tied 5-1, and ranking cannot be determined by head-to-head results.

Therefore, a tiebreaker is needed to decide the final standings.

One match decides everything.

A few minutes later, the tiebreaker started directly.

What relieved Liang Yan was that Tang Anna didn't get so heated as to say "even if we give up first place to awaken the duo lane"— that kind of warrior's self-amputation…

No.

Based on Liang Yan's understanding of Tang Anna, perhaps she really would do that.

But she might have been stopped by Ka Lao Si and others.

In this game, G2 played normally.

That is, Perkz carried when he should, without holding back.

Moreover, G2 had good luck, won the coin toss, gained priority side selection for this tiebreaker, and ultimately picked a very good lineup.

Blue Side G2: Top Lane Jesse, Jungle Leopard Woman, Mid Lane Gaillard, Bot Lane Kog'Maw + Alistar.

In this version, the Leopard Woman jungle has two playstyles: one is Wildcore jungle, the other is Support jungle. Given that G2 picked this lineup, it's clear this Leopard Woman is not going the Wildcore route, but purely a Support playstyle.

No one knows this is actually a new system co-developed by VG and G2, whose core idea is to liberate the support, letting the jungle take responsibility for the Incense Burner Monster; moreover, the Leopard Woman has extremely high jungle clearing efficiency and develops very fast— even after finishing three jungle knives and then buying the Incense Burner, she won't be much later than a normal support buying the Incense Burner.

Therefore, this lineup's strongest point is when both dual carries and the jungle have completed two-item sets. At that time, Jesse with Youmuu's Ghostblade + Black Cleaver or Edge of Night, Leopard Woman with Sigil of the Witch + Incense Burner, Kog'Maw with Yang Dao + Hurricane, output will be extremely terrifying, while Alistar can be called the hardest frontline among supports, plus Gaillard's super strong W-flash engage, this lineup's combat power between 23 minutes and thirty minutes will be very fearsome.

(Note: 23 minutes is the time when carries normally develop to complete two-item sets + level 2 shoes, 30 minutes is when the big core completes three-item sets, also known as the mid-late game watershed.)

As for Red Side SSG's lineup: Top Lane Nasal, Jungle Pig Girl, Mid Lane Ryze, Bot Lane Weiluosi + Karlma.

SSG didn't play their trump card, but picked a very stable lineup. In fact, one could say this SSG lineup is actually one of the answers in the S7 version— it has a solid frontline, strong teamfight initiation, fast support, mid-late game split-push potential, and the indispensable Incense Burner Monster; more importantly, this lineup's overall combat power transitions very smoothly across all stages, without having any easily exploitable weak periods.

Moreover, the lane phase is not weak.

Even judging by Liang Yan's standards, this lineup can also be called perfect.