Chapter 110: The Black Coal Turtle Shall Bloom Once More! The [Newbie Reward]'s

Ye Bo looked at the word "Victory" on the monitor and gave a short, soft sigh.

It was over just as it had begun!

Once the equipment advantage of the AP-boosted Gragas widened, he could almost break through any formation with sheer force.

There was no need for any geometric barrel calculations to get kills; just charge up the Q, and if it landed, the whole combo would blow them up. It was a thrill of one-shotting that felt different from an assassin!

It was just a pity that because the opponent had Kindred, Ye Bo generally had to hold his R for team fights to coordinate, leaving him little opportunity to pull off too many flashy kill plays.

Beside him, Viper, who had been on a killing spree, asked with genuine concern, "Master Ye, why aren't you happy even after winning?"

"Sigh, I just didn't have my fill of fun!" Jiejie said with a grin, clearly understanding, "A Gragas that fed only got to kill them a few times. I feel like if the other side had held on for another ten minutes, Gragas could have gotten at least ten more kills!"

Having won two games in a row, even Meiko grew excited: "That was insane! That barrel blast on Renata was truly the key! If Master Ye hadn't reacted in time, it would have been hard to say."

Flandre nodded repeatedly and teased Jiejie: "That opening in the jungle, Zhao Lijie almost had his pants blown off by Kanavi! I can only say it's lucky our Master Ye is fierce enough; if that had been Rookie there, he wouldn't have been able to save you!"

Flandre almost blurted out a name, but managed to hold his tongue and just tossed out a familiar ID instead.

Jiejie took the bait naturally and joked back: "Hey, don't say that, Flandre. I feel like if that had been TheShy coordinating with Master Ye, we could have killed them all!"

"Hmph, next time I'll definitely hold back a bit!" Ye Bo puffed out his cheeks in mock anger: "But hey, I did notice some problems with us this game."

After relaxing and joking around, the group quickly put on serious faces to review the game together.

This match hadn't seemed to last long, and it could be considered smooth.

But in reality, there were several moments that could be called quite dangerous!

Clearly, EDG currently had quite a few issues, but perhaps it was because the players' raw skill was sufficient, perhaps because the opponent's ability was lacking, or perhaps because miraculous plays had turned things around.

These issues had not erupted into a real crisis.

But one could not ignore these problems just because of that.

Ye Bo did not want to wait until they actually lost a match to start reflecting on the problems discovered during a victory.

The sooner they were discovered, the sooner they could be perfected!

The moment the Nexus exploded, the official stream's chat was swept away by a torrent of messages.

"Congratulations to EDG for taking a 2-0 lead!" Jide said with high spirits: "EDG has completely crushed JDG with an extremely fierce offensive! They are only one step away from the final championship stage!"

"I think before this match officially started, few people would have expected that JDG, who had soundly defeated their opponents early in the Summer Split, would be pushed into such a desperate situation so quickly in the semifinals!"

Miller was filled with emotion: "Ye is truly the key. Although EDG's level-one team fight design was successful this game, they were actually immediately exploited by the opposing jungler, and the jungle even showed signs of collapsing early on. It was only through Ye's handling and plays that they found an opening and successfully salvaged the disadvantage for the team!"

"And Viper also stepped up in the bottom lane this game; you could say he fully realized the strategic significance of snatching away Kalista!"

Wawa was just about to respond when he received a prompt in his earpiece from the director, and his eyebrows immediately arched.

"So, after the Spring runner-up TES fell into the loser's bracket, according to the current global championship points situation for all major teams, EDG only needs to win one more small game to advance to the finals, and they will become the first team in the LPL region to lock in their spot for the World Championship ahead of schedule!"

"This next game is going to be even more of a do-or-die effort for them!"

Under the normal double-elimination format, World Championship spots wouldn't be decided this quickly.

But 2022 was a special year.

Historically, even if a Spring champion from the five major regions had slight fluctuations in their Summer performance, they never failed to make it to the World Championship.

The most famous precedent for this was the LCK's KZ team in the S8 season, and the team members like Khan, Cuz, Peanut, and Bdd were all very familiar 'Class A war criminals'.

Normally, the biggest version changes occurred during the end-of-year season transition; even if there were changes mid-season, they were only medium-sized and rarely had a fundamental impact.

But S12 was the first time in history that a disruptive change, no less significant than a map update, had been implemented mid-season!

It was that damned durability update.

This resulted in the S12 Spring and Summer seasons being like two different games; both the commonly used champions and tactical trends had changed completely.

Take RNG for example.

A dignified Spring champion, a ruler of absolute dominance, the MSI champion that defeated T1.

Yet when they arrived at the Summer Split, not only did they barely scrape into the playoffs, but now they had already fallen to the point of waiting for the regional qualifiers!

World Championship points had always placed more weight on the Summer Split; the Spring championship was only worth a mere 90 points, about the same as a third-place finish in the Summer.

This meant that if they lost one more match in the qualifiers, RNG might miss out on this S12 entirely.

One reason for this was the swap between top laners Bin and Breathe, but more importantly, the durability patch directly crippled the arm of the hard-engage king Ming, and indirectly affected Xiaohu's 'Pokeball' champion pool.

Also affected were the Spring regular season first-place V5, WBG, LNG, and the original EDG.

And JDG's Spring ranking had been right next to EDG's.

Although they had been on a roll in the Summer regular season, their regular season ranking was only a ticket to the playoffs and a 'Guardian Angel'—it provided no World Championship points.

So it was equivalent to EDG inexplicably having several fewer points-based competitors; as long as they made it to the finals and secured at least runner-up, their accumulated points would at least guarantee them the second seed!

After the review ended, the EDG players also learned this news from the coaching staff who walked in.

Except for Ye Bo, the others weren't too excited.

Ye Bo was visibly and noticeably exhilarated!

Whenever he thought about the task the system had issued after the "Newbie Tutorial Phase," he felt the scope was simply ridiculously large when he first saw it.

He even felt a bit dazed at this moment.

Before he knew it, that stage he had dreamed of and hoped for, that incredible flight of stairs, was now only a step away!

Of course.

Just securing a spot in the World Championship was still quite far from Ye Bo's goal.

After all, the task description at the time was: 【Win the Summer Championship and enter the World Championship as the first seed】.

Ye Bo composed himself; he had to focus on the present first and win this match properly.

And claim the rewards for this game while he was at it.

There were three options again, with categories similar to the time with Scout and Uzi.

Special training to retain the on-the-spot proficiency of both his and his opponent's champions, and special training to master level-seven {conceptual understanding} of Gragas.

It was just that the name of the final specialized training seemed a bit strange.

"... hat is 【Shield of Goryeo】?"

Although Ye Bo was very curious about this nickname he had never heard of, based on the literal meaning, he could probably guess it might be helpful in some aspect.

There was nothing to hesitate about; he had no use for Gnar or top lane techniques.

The newly acquired level-seven understanding of Gragas was the most practical; he quite liked this champion, and it fit EDG's Yasuo system very well.

As a continuous stream of knowledge surged into his mind, Ye Bo had already instantly imagined and associated several possible miraculous operational scenarios, and he suddenly felt his hands itching to play...

In the room next door, JDG's room.

Homme's expression was heavy.

Yagao squinted his eyes, half-slumped against the back of his chair, his elbow resting on the armrest of the gaming chair as he leaned to one side; the smell of smoke radiating from him clearly indicated he had taken a "recharge" break as soon as the match ended.

Kanavi beside him was equally unhappy.

In the first two games, across the top, mid, and bottom lanes, they hadn't won a single lane in terms of laning phase alone; he, as the jungler, simply didn't know how he was supposed to play!

Homme noticed the players' poor mental state and gave a light cough to begin psychological counseling.

"Don't be anxious, everyone. EDG did play well in these two games, but they actually exposed quite a bit of information to us!"

Yagao, having recovered a bit of spirit, was still able to be optimistic in his misery and teased himself: "Like the fact that I can't win my lane against the opponent?"

Upon hearing this, Homme didn't comfort him, but instead nodded directly.

"Yes, our laning strength is just not strong; you could even say we are at the bottom among the top four teams."

"There is no need to avoid this point at all. We have never relied on laning to win games, as you all know."

Among the top four, BLG's Scout and Bin were both laning experts, TES's Knight was recognized as the "number one domestic mid laner," plus JKL who also emphasized laning.

And EDG's Ye Bo and Viper went without saying.

Looking at JDG, the three carries of Hope, Yagao, and 369—not a single one left an impression on the public for their "laning."

So Homme was really not wrong to say that.

But he immediately changed the subject, his tone appearing incomparably firm: "But does that mean we have no chance of winning? Absolutely not!"

"Recognizing our own flaws early is actually beneficial; it's better than discovering them after going to the World Championship."

"Besides, we still have a few cards up our sleeves; we haven't used our full strength yet."

Homme's voice seemed filled with confidence.

After comforting them, he began to explain his thoughts for the next match.

"This EDG, after changing their mid laner, clearly knows where their strengths lie. We cannot engage in direct confrontation with them too early; we must play to our own strong lanes."

"And what are our strong lanes?"

"Top and Jungle!"

Homme cheered his players on: "Kanavi's decision-making and handling in the last game were already very successful; this is exactly the area we are most proficient in."

"As long as we can stabilize the tempo in the early game and slow down the match, that is our comfort zone!"

Whether it was in the last game, facing a three-man dive while at a huge disadvantage and still managing not to die, or finding the opportunity to turn the tide in the final team fight, everything proved this point.

Compared to even-steven team fights and mid-game macro, JDG believed they were not inferior to any team in the LPL!

They were able to get the 'Guardian Angel' and the first-place points in the regular season by relying on this level of macro and team fighting!

"We have already come back from 0-2 to win 3-2 once before. Next game, on the blue side, we will..."

"Welcome back to the live broadcast of the 2022 LPL Summer Winner's Bracket Semifinals!"

Wawa, seeing EDG leading 2-0 and having a chance to get off work early, immediately raised his voice a few notches: "EDG currently holds three match points; victory is practically within reach. As long as they can grasp it and hold their breath, they might just kill off this match!"

Miller played the straight man in sync: "But we cannot underestimate JDG. Although they seem to have stumbled more in the playoffs compared to their regular season selves, it's actually possible they are hiding their strategies! After all, until the last game, JDG was still using the tactics we are most familiar with."

"The pick and ban has already begun!"

"JDG is on the blue side for the third game, and they still start by banning Ye's Akali, while EDG counters by banning Wukong!"

Coming to the third game, both sides basically had a good idea of each other's preparations for this best-of-five.

Unless someone was prepared to bring out something brand new, the intent behind most of the bans could be seen at a glance.

Therefore, with the Monkey already banned by the red side, JDG still chose to ban Poppy themselves; this clearly looked like they were wary of some champion they wanted to pick.

But there are many champions that annoy Poppy, so this point alone didn't reveal the full picture.

First round of bans—

JDG: Akali, Poppy, Zoe

EDG: Monkey, Skater Shoes, Galio

"The bans from both sides haven't changed much; JDG should be looking to show their hand and grab Sylas first, no problem there!"

Yagao has no holes in his champion pool, so he can naturally play Sylas as well.

And Zoe clearly counters Sylas in lane, which was also the case in that game Ye Bo played.

In that game, Ye Bo first ganked the top lane at level three, then at level six coordinated with his support to pull off a miraculous kill over four walls, followed by a combo of consecutive tower dives, which was how he rolled a snowball for Zoe that was impossible to recover from.

Besides Zoe, among the current popular champions, there aren't many that truly counter Sylas.

TES base.

As the TES players who would likely be facing one of these two potential opponents, they were also studying the draft of both sides.

"Knight, what else is good against Sylas?" JKL looked at Knight, who was also very proficient with Sylas.

"Uh, I don't know, I feel like my Sylas can play into anything." Knight mumbled while eating.

Crescent benefited a lot from these two games: "If we have to play JDG again, Knight, you can't pick champions like Taliyah or Azir anymore; you have to go after Yagao!"

"I've finally figured it out: only by taking down Yagao can we take down Kanavi; going directly into the jungle is too difficult, our previous approach had major issues."

In the previous semifinals between TES and JDG, they still stuck to their old tactics.

The first game was a successful Draven system that took off after a level three four-man dive on the bot lane.

The second game was Knight's Ahri suppressing Yagao's Taliyah in lane, also focusing on the bot lane rhythm, eventually dragged by the mid-jungle into a 51-minute bladder-testing game, though it did allow JKL's Zeri to set a historic record of 92, 00 damage.

But starting from the third game, Crescent mistakenly thought he could win by relying on the bot lane and began to execute the tactic unswervingly.

He consecutively picked Galio once and Taliyah twice for Knight.

The result was Knight starting to go invisible, and JKL getting caught by the opposing mid-jungle like a little pig.

Until they were reverse-swept!

But at this moment, EDG's successful experience gave them inspiration; actually, the way to defeat JDG seems quite simple!

Just let their superior bot lane play their own lane.

Letting the mid lane gain a positional advantage to curb the core jungle rhythm is the key; JDG's situation will be like an idling engine, it will develop problems on its own!

Of course, Yagao is a top-tier mid laner after all, and his style is extremely steady and seasoned; it's hard for an average person to make a breakthrough against him.

But TES clearly believed.

Since Ye Bo can do it, then Knight should be able to as well!

"Holy crap, going straight for LeBlanc?" JKL exclaimed while looking at the live stream screen.

The red side picked the Lucian-Nami combo in the first two slots, because Sylas has a hard time stealing skills from this combo, and it's a strong early-game aggressive combo that can be picked relatively brainlessly.

Clearly, EDG was prepared to carry this aggression to the end in this best-of-five without exposing more things.

The blue side picked the ultimate defensive combo of Sivir + Lulu in the second and third slots to resist the pressure in the bot lane.

And coming to the third-slot draft game, with the jungler and top laner needing to be picked first, Ye Bo took the initiative to take on the sacrificial draft slot of picking early.

But LeBlanc isn't necessarily good against Sylas, at most it's a 50-50 matchup.

The reason is simple: LeBlanc is too squishy, and her core damage skill, W, requires stepping into the enemy's face, which makes it easy to get hit by Sylas's E-W combo.

If both sides trade skills, LeBlanc is guaranteed to lose out on health.

But Ye Bo was very confident in himself; after two games of laning against Yagao, he had roughly figured out the opponent's raw laning strength.

"LeBlanc!" Jiejie shouted excitedly: "It's finally here! Ye's second signature, LeBlanc!"

"Though it's called his second signature, Ye's LeBlanc pick rate isn't actually that high, also because LeBlanc's strength is limited in this version, and the durability update has had quite an impact on her."

Miller also started reminiscing: "But don't forget, the first 'legendary match moment' Ye ever produced was on LeBlanc!"

Wawa quickly chimed in: "Yes, yes, yes! This one has an 'urban legend' attached to it; I still have fresh memories of that '1 vs 9' LeBlanc game."

In the secondary stream, Chu Jun let out a howl and started the nostalgia segment again.

"It's coming! The Black Coal Turtle will bloom once again!"

"I've always wanted to see Master Ye play this, but I just couldn't!"

"Guys, you don't know, back in the day, this LeBlanc shattered the esports dreams of so many people in the training camp! When I met Master Ye in the training camp, I knew at a glance that this guy would definitely be an ultimate beast in the future!"

Chu Jun kept his mouth shut about 369 and focused on hyping up Ye Bo.

Highlighting an unjust colossus.

"This mid lane matchup is going to be good; if you pick LeBlanc, you're not going to play the game peacefully, especially since this is Master Ye's LeBlanc!"

"This is a real urban legend!"

In the second round of bans, both sides targeted each other's top and jungle champion pools.

JDG: Xin Zhao, Ornn

EDG: Gnar, Vi

EDG picked Gragas as a flex pick to be picked early, leaving the counter-pick slot for the jungler.

And coming to the blue side.

JDG pulled out a pick that was beyond everyone's expectations.

"Bel'Veth!?"

"JDG has made their move; Kanavi is one of the very few players in the LPL who has used this champion, they have big preparations for this game!"

"Sejuani with Bel'Veth, this combo seems to have some merit..."

With the match progressing to the third game, everyone had pretty much figured out the bottom line.

If they were to hide their cards any longer, they would really have to hide them until the World Championship—and it might not even be this year's World Championship.

And this choice did indeed catch EDG off guard.

They knew Kanavi could play this champion, but the opponent was known for their champion pool, and throughout the summer season, they had only played it two or three times, so it hadn't really attracted much attention.

But one could imagine that anything picked at this moment on the edge of a 0-2 cliff would certainly not be simple!

"What should I pick against this thing?" Jiejie scratched his head.

Maokai was also in a bit of a bind: "If all else fails, let's stick with Viego; it should be fine when paired with LeBlanc, though it might not be great in a 1v1."

Ye Bo also frowned and muttered.

"They banned Xin Zhao but didn't ban Viego; it feels like they intentionally left Viego open."

The opponent's lineup looked extremely solid, and they had a champion whose information was relatively unknown.

But as the red side responding to the draft, EDG didn't seem to have many options for a counter-measure.

However, at this moment, Ye Bo suddenly thought of something.

"Wait a second, wait a second, let me think..."

What Ye Bo remembered were the two mission rewards he received when he first completed the "Reach the Top of the Ladder" mission.

【Champion Skill Crash Course Card】: (Provides the "skills" for level five basic proficiency in one champion)

As a reward for what was basically a "newbie mission," the use of this thing was obvious—it wasn't very significant.

That was why Ye Bo had always left it in the corner.

After all, it didn't take much time for him to practice a champion to level five, and the so-called "crash course" effect seemed to only be auxiliary training for his understanding, which was truly weak.

But now... Ye Bo seemed to have found a use for this 【Newbie Mission Reward】!

After quickly selecting the target, the knowledge and understanding of a level five Bel'Veth flooded into Ye Bo's consciousness.

And Ye Bo quickly deliberated in his mind, colliding his thoughts against the icons of various junglers, combined with the team compositions.

"Pick Trundle!"

In the final seconds of the draft, Meiko heard the call and didn't hesitate, quickly finding the Trundle icon in the search box.

Both lineups were confirmed.

《Blue Side: JDG || Red Side: EDG》

【Top: Sejuani vs Gragas】

【Jungle: Bel'Veth vs Trundle】

【Mid: Sylas vs LeBlanc】

【ADC: Sivir vs Lucian】

【Support: Lulu vs Nami】

Seeing this pick, which was also not very popular, Homme felt a bit confused.

Trundle jungle is basically only played in professional matches; he is quite rare in solo queue regardless of the position.

And as for what he had to do with the new champion Bel'Veth, that was even more unknown.

Homme didn't take it too much to heart.

Instead, when he saw the opponent's LeBlanc pick, he silently clenched his fists, his palms even becoming slightly damp.

The biggest variable in this game was the mid lane, and this was a point they couldn't avoid in the draft.

If they just wanted to simply stabilize the lane, the easiest way was to pick a champion like Azir or Taliyah for Yagao, which had already been verified in the previous game as something that could be done.

But the price of this was that the mid lane's early-game combat power would be too weak, which would make playing in the jungle extremely uncomfortable, and this was something JDG couldn't accept.

Plus, with the ban slots being tight, the best way to deal with Sylas was to grab him on the blue side.

As for whether it can produce results, no one knows.

If the feasibility of Sylas being picked first can be verified, then in the next game, when JDG is on the red side, they will still have a backup plan, and perhaps they will truly have a chance to break the deadlock in the draft and fight for a glimmer of hope once again!

But if they cannot.

Ye Bo simply loosened his wrists and leveled his mindset to welcome this crucial match of his semifinals.

And before taking off his headset and walking out, Maokai gave a special instruction.

"Everyone, keep it up! They are likely preparing to pull out some tricks too, so we must strive our best to take this game from them!"

"Everyone, try to control your mistakes and pay attention to listening to Ye Bo's commands."

Amidst the cheers of the masses, the Summoner's Rift descended once again!

(End of chapter)