Chapter 128: Nightmare-tier

The eve of the long-awaited draw ceremony.

Most players participating in the World Championship have already returned to their bases to begin preparations.

However, because the World Championship patch has not yet been released, everyone's training during this period is still just maintaining stability on the old patch, and research and development cannot be started in advance.

This is also a major characteristic of every World Championship.

Many viewers might think that there is at least a month between the playoffs and the World Championship, so even if there are heroes in the new patch that one doesn't know, they should have been practiced and mastered by now.

But the reality is not like that.

In fact, the World Championship patch will not be officially finalized and released until September 21st.

And the first match of the World Championship will start on September 30th.

This means that, in reality, all teams only have about a short week to get to grips with the new patch.

This is why, every year when the World Championship arrives, it seems that many new understandings and playstyles, or so-called "dark horses," always emerge.

It is because those teams are able to continuously evolve within the World Championship patch, develop step by step, and finally master the patch, allowing them to stay ahead of others.

As the most heavyweight competition, the S-series tests not only the players' paper strength, but also the overall strength of the team.

Fortunately, during this agonizing waiting time, LPL viewers also waited for something fresh.

The "Summer Microphone," which had been urged for a long time on the EDG official Weibo, was officially released!

"Brothers, everyone go help retweet the new video on the official Weibo. Ye Bo, you just retweet it on Bilibili~" Ming Kai poked his head into the training room and shouted.

"Alright, wait until we finish this match. Brother Shengqiang Ge, you're going to die again."

Before Ye Bo's voice fell, the Yone on the screen used the second stage of the E skill to cancel the control of Aatrox's Infernal Chains, simultaneously changing position with a lateral three-stage Mortal Steel to move forward, slicing Aatrox in half with one blade.

Brother Shengqiang Ge helplessly clicked to exit the game: "Ye Bo's laning is really fierce. It's a good thing you're not playing top lane."

"It's mainly because Yone is easier to play against Aatrox. However, next time if you see Yone wanting to cancel control, you can try this..."

Because there was no training match scheduled for today, Ye Bo suggested practicing laning with Brother Shengqiang Ge.

The jungle is mainly about fighting jungle monsters, and the bottom lane has two people who can look after each other; generally, if one side doesn't want to fight, it's hard for a fight to break out.

Only the top lane and mid lane are the positions that are relatively most similar and emphasize laning the most.

"Oh," Brother Shengqiang Ge restarted a custom game to try, revealing a sudden realization.

"But it's okay, it seems like not many people play Yone top lane..."

During the bubble match stage of major regions, Aatrox, a hero who was originally lukewarm, suddenly seemed to return to the public eye overnight, even showing considerable team fight strength.

Simply put, a well-played Aatrox can almost achieve the team fight effect of an "AD Kainan."

Not the kind of AD Kainan that builds Wit's End and lacks wisdom.

It refers to the light fighter Aatrox that builds Eclipse in terms of creating team fight AOE. Once the three-stage Q lands, it is easy to deal explosive AOE damage!

And the reason for such a change is what was mentioned earlier—as time accumulates to the end of the patch, everyone's understanding of the patch will constantly iterate and evolve to a deeper level.

From the summer season, top laners were either team-fight utility tools or heroes like Gnar and Kainan who bet on mid-game team fights.

To the bubble matches, top laners in major regions began to become the mainstream of a series of light output fighters like Aatrox, Renekton, Camille, Jax, Gangplank, Fiora, etc.!

Tank heroes basically only have the three phantom gods: Ornn, Gragas, and Sejuani.

The reason for this is also because major teams finally discovered.

In the durability patch, the cost-effectiveness of tankiness in all positions has been greatly lowered. Instead, a multi-core 3C lineup is easier to exert power in the mid-game and win.

Then why didn't EDG, which was invincible in the playoffs, encounter this problem?

The reason is obviously visible at a glance.

It is because EDG's dual carries are stable enough, and the mid laner can even often deal a terrifying output share approaching 40%!

That is why the problem of insufficient damage has never been exposed.

Of course, EDG naturally will not let itself fall behind the patch.

So during this time when the World Championship patch has not been determined, Brother Shengqiang Ge is also practicing these heroes he used less before, and at the same time, everyone is practicing new systems and lineups according to the changing environment.

"Wow, a 20-minute microphone! Did they take out all our inventory for the year to edit?" After retweeting on Weibo, Jie Jie clicked to watch and sighed.

"Not a year, it's just the summer season," said Meiko, who had already started watching the beginning on the other side.

Ye Bo also opened Bilibili on his own.

He doesn't like using Weibo, so he has never created an account.

And although EDG was somewhat inconvenient when promoting, every time they @ someone, they could only @ an ID that wouldn't light up, but surprisingly, no one ever came to find Ye Bo and insisted that he create a Weibo to use...

Search for EDG's official Bilibili account.

At a glance, there is a freshly uploaded video.

"Let's Go! | EDG 'Hard to Forbid Words' S12 Summer Season Collection"

Just a few minutes after going online, the view count has already exceeded ten thousand!

And just as Ye Bo clicked into the video, he was hit by the sound of his own voice at the opening.

"Speak!"

It was Ye Bo loudly testing the microphone.

"Hello, hello, can you hear me?" Meiko responded gently.

"Top laner, speak!" Ye Bo shouted again.

"Hello, hello?" A faint voice came out.

"Brother Shengqiang Ge's voice seems a bit small, is he too far from the microphone?"

"I've already put it in my mouth."

【Team bully confirmed!】

【Speak! Top laner, speak! (Cold face)】

【Suspected internal recording of the Equilibrium Network invading the team's brain channel exposed...】

The beginning of the video does not start from the first match of the summer season.

But exactly from Ye Bo's first LPL match in his life, against LNG.

EDG had two key figures knocked away by Poppy's flash behind the wall, but the Yone in front of the Dragon Pit still resolutely held his sword forward.

"Sell me to protect Yone! He can't die, that's a thousand gold!"

"Don't rush, don't rush, pull into the dragon pit first, hold Poppy back! Brother Shengqiang Ge, save your skills and watch me!"

"I should be able to make a play!"

The "Human Wind Direction Change" back-flash, the Fate Sealed slicing through the barrier of space, tore a gap in the encirclement and swept four people.

Cooperating with Slicing Maelstrom to create a miracle team fight belonging to EDG!

Months later, when the audience saw this play again, they could still instantly recall the shock of witnessing it for the first time.

【This is a rookie in his first debut match!】 (Like)

The scene changes to Taliyah's roaming mid-laner connecting three lanes, everyone chatting and laughing in the voice chat, the atmosphere is harmonious.

Immediately after, it comes to Zoe's "bizarre" and absolutely stunning "Ten Thousand Mile E" level-one design.

"It feels like they really will fall for it, damn, it really interrupted!"

"Awesome, Bo!"

"I just said there's no problem~ No one understands TheShy better than me!"

Then in the next match, SofM and TheShy turned around to make a comeback.

An unexpected Anivia top lane, backhanded pressure on the top lane, giving the same opening set.

But at this time, a voice full of security still came.

"It's okay, Brother Shengqiang Ge, leave this match to us!"

"No time to explain, brothers, I have an idea, later like this, like this... pay attention to my position!"

"OK!"

The "Mid-air Delay" swing flash Akshan, using his body as bait, hooked three key people!

Because this microphone is self-made by EDG, there is also a lot of internal material.

For example, there is a recorded video inside the base at that time.

It is everyone communicating about the issue of "command authority."

Ming Kai's bowl cut appeared on the big screen, the barrage that was originally full of 66666 instantly evolved into 777777.

"Little Ye Bo, I think you can command more bravely in the future, use your ideas boldly, I really feel you are made for this!"

"I agree, Ye Bo's command is really better than mine, sometimes I will be too focused on laning, and flexibility is not very good."

"I think it's okay too, actually for our team, the support's roaming can be slightly reduced..."

"Okay, I will work hard!"

The audience also realized from here.

It turns out that the transition of EDG's command authority had already begun after those four matches ended.

That is to say, this rookie only used four matches to convince his four teammates.

And since then, EDG's situation began to completely turn around.

Embarking on a summer season that returned to the peak once again!

Xayah's Bladecaller forcibly constructs space for mid-jungle counter-kills.

The desperate fighter's Goredrinker Celestial resolves the fatal crisis in the bottom lane.

The Phantom's back-slash overturns the desperate situation of being dived in the top lane!

Watching and watching, some video viewers began to discover... why does one person appear so frequently?

It can't even be simply said to be high, it can be said that in the vast majority of famous scenes, he is present, and even is one of the main characters!

This is indeed not the bias of the EDG staff editing the video.

In fact, the staff also found out halfway through editing that it seems the mid laner's share is too large?

Making it seem like others are not prominent enough.

But the staff tried hard to find material, only to find that brilliant highlight shots are hard to bypass the mid laner's figure.

The bottom lane's ultimate carry Twitch, the top lane's Camille that saw through vision and solo-killed Bin, the jungler's key wave of ultimate vision bypassing, the support Amumu's spiritual roaming...

More or less all have connections!

How to bypass? Really can't bypass!

Of course, during this period, EDG also had brief failures.

And in the internal recording, Ye Bo, as the person in charge of command, never avoided problems, and even actively took on the key to the problems.

"Sorry everyone, this match is my problem, I'm still a bit addicted to laning, I feel playing Karma can't play laning like this..."

"My bad, my bad, sorry, I made a mistake, this position is too good, I really couldn't help but want to push..."

"It's okay, it's okay, this wave is my command problem."

Every time, everyone gave encouragement and tolerance in the voice chat.

After all, everyone knows that such a small mistake in the ever-changing situation is actually not worth mentioning at all, and can definitely be considered negligible.

But Ye Bo himself takes these problems very seriously every time, and will soon change them and constantly improve himself.

Perhaps, it is precisely such changes that allowed Ye Bo to grow step by step to the present.

And in the final match of the regular season, against former teammate Scout of BLG.

The scene of Akshan using the sand wall to face-to-face E solo-kill, Ye Bo's words that were not broadcast at the time, once again triggered a "blow up" carnival.

"I really wanted to return, he wouldn't let me return, I could only kill him."

"Nice, brothers~~"

"Entering the playoffs!"

The twenty-minute video, thanks to the continuous highlight-level brilliant operation clips, can be called full of excitement.

Even Ye Bo himself watched it with great interest, and it was almost at the end in a short while.

And finally, naturally, it is the doubt that everyone is most curious about and pays most attention to in the summer championship finals.

"Deceiving Vision" and "Mystery of the Fruit"

"Because Fiddlesticks' E will fear jungle monsters when used for the first time, if it doesn't fear..."

"This one, this is a detail of the Blast Cone..."

When the footage of these two voice clips was released.

The reaction of all the audience was actually similar to the reaction of the EDG members who heard these things around them for the first time.

The barrage instantly exploded into a ball.

【???????????】

【Ah? Ah!? Ah???】

【Ah, no, brother, there were all kinds of guesses on the internet before, some even guessed that Ye Bo was calculating Zeri's exit path and time in his heart, even game theory was involved, and the result you tell me is the fruit's smoke!?】

【Is Ye Bo's nickname Iron Pestle? Anything can be pondered so finely!】

【League of Legends is free for him to play, it's a huge loss, suggest charging by the minute.】

【To be honest, these things look like they are not difficult, but it is obvious that they all require a lot of time and energy... Does he have no amateur life?】

【What you love is your life! There are really not many players like this.】

In fact, there were quite a few guesses on the internet about that play before, guessing everything.

Because there was no precursor at all, although some people must have discovered the small details of the fruit, they generally would not specifically think about it.

Everyone thought more about things like "prediction," "conjecture," or even simple "gambling."

And the answer revealed this time, except for a small number of netizens who bet right, the vast majority of people were shocked.

The barrage spontaneously brushed the nickname 【DoctorYe】 that Ye Bo has among foreign netizens.

Soon the video reached the final segment.

The scene of the EDG crowd lifting the Silver Dragon Cup appeared again, and this scene also became the perfect {To Be Continued} ending freeze-frame image of this video.

After watching the video, Ye Bo subconsciously scrolled down to the comment section.

In the 20+ minutes of watching the video, the number of comments on Bilibili alone has already exceeded the 5k mark, and the number of concurrent viewers is over 10000+.

The comment section is very lively, with all kinds of things being said.

【World Championship, charge! Everyone raise your hands and lend your energy to EDG!】

【Ye is really EDG's new crown prince, right? Even lifting the cup, he has to be the first!】

【Ah? Just with this performance in the summer season, only let him lift the cup first? Others at the celebration banquet don't dare to move their chopsticks first!】

【Damn, people are just good brothers who want to let the little rookie brother feel the beautiful moment, and you still have to guess, do you have no friends in reality?】

【Watching the documentary, you can also see that the relationship is good, but the carry is also really carry, especially in the finals, I thought it was Brother Shengqiang Ge and Jie Jie returning to last year's peak, it turns out there is still a big hand behind them!】

【It's really hard to imagine, a pure rookie joining a championship team, and in the end, this rookie is leading four world champions! Even the protagonist of a cool novel isn't as cool as him!】

Looking at the rainbow farts in the comment section, Ye Bo felt quite happy at first.

However, when he saw the back, he found that there were many malicious people who wanted to step on one and lift another to provoke the relationship between teammates, so he couldn't help but look at the next door with some worry.

As a result, he saw Brother Shengqiang Ge next to him seemingly writing hard on his phone screen protector.

【Ye Bo is a god! But I think Brother Shengqiang Ge also played well, better than the jungler!】

"Hey, these people, what do you mean I've already become the shape of the factory manager!"

Jie Jie said indignantly, looking around to confirm that Ming Kai was not there, before continuing to shout: "Who are you scolding! Who are you scolding!"

"Wait, why is there a comment saying Brother Shengqiang Ge is better than the jungler? EDG-Flandre!"

"Damn, forgot to switch accounts."

September 12th, the draw day for the S12 World Championship arrived.

Ming Kai arranged everything in advance: "The camera is on, everyone pay a little attention, the official will take the footage to edit later."

This is a routine program for participating teams in the World Championship every year.

Every year when looking at the grouping situation, there are always a few fun-loving people who reveal their true colors, and even unintentional jokes can create explosive program effects.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the Riot Games logo appeared on the broadcast screen.

The draw location is at the Riot headquarters in the United States, Los Angeles, California, a very hot place.

"Welcome! Summoners from all over the world!"

"After a year of war and competition, the World Championship teams from the five major regions and the wildcard camp have all been released, let us get to know them!"

Team logos, familiar or unfamiliar, appeared one by one.

Whenever the narrator read out a team, the live broadcast screen would give the corresponding summer season highlights.

"Next is! From the LPL region, the number one seed EDG!"

The cheers in the Shanghai venue rose, and Ye Bo and his teammates lifted the Silver Dragon Cup together under the golden rain!

Subsequently, TES, JDG, and RNG teams appeared one after another.

The S12 tournament rules have not changed, still the original "seed pool" matching grouping system.

Although the epidemic prevention and control abroad is relatively not so strict, there are also many traffic restrictions, so this year's first round of the draw ceremony did not invite famous players to draw as in previous years, only simple staff carried it out.

"We are in Group A!"

Seeing the number one pool draw representing himself being pulled out, although there was no result presented at all, Ye Bo was still very excited.

Soon, the four number one pool teams were placed in the first position of the four groups.

Next, we will wait for the challengers from other regions!

Ye Bo sat up straight unconsciously, full of expectations for his first World Championship group stage opponent!

The staff in the screen came to the second glass basin, stirred it wantonly for a moment, and pulled out a number two pool ball again.

Unfolding it slowly with suspense, at the edge of the egg, it seemed to be a "red" team logo.

This color made the EDG crowd almost instantly think of a number two pool team!

"Damn! No way!?"

"Right from the start!?"

"JDG? Oh, that's fine."

The principle of avoiding the same region takes effect at this time.

There will not be two teams from the same region in the group stage. JDG, which should have gone to Group A, was forced to postpone one position due to the existence of EDG, and went to Group B where the Korean number one seed Gen. G is located.

"Is it our turn this time?"

Ye Bo just had the same association with his teammates, but he was not as nervous as his teammates.

On the contrary, when he saw that the team logo was not the team he imagined, he was slightly disappointed.

And when the staff pulled out a ball from the number two pool again and unfolded it, a strange mysterious smile suddenly appeared on his face.

The ribbon unfolded.

Ye Bo even dragged his small chair forward a step.

It was still a red edge, but this time, there was a pair of golden wings on the outside, and three dazzling golden stars.

"Damn!" Ming Kai, who reacted extremely quickly, triggered his instinct and was the first to hold his head with both hands: "Don't mess around!?"

The EDG training room also fell into silence in an instant.

Because the team represented by this logo is the only three-time championship team in the World Championship so far—T1!

Because T1 was defeated by Gen. G in the summer finals and failed to win the summer championship, it was classified into the number two pool.

But everyone knows that this is definitely the bloodiest shark in the number two pool!

No one dares to underestimate this team, especially T1 in the World Championship.

Just one point is enough to prove—to this day, as long as they enter the World Championship, T1 will definitely qualify as the first in the group, and the worst result is the semi-finals.

In particular, this team can be called a "nightmare-level" opponent for EDG; many of the most infamous moments in the team's history were dealt by their hands.

When this draw position was settled, the EDG crowd and the live broadcast audience were a bit unwilling to pay attention to the subsequent draw positions for a while.

【It's over! It's all over!】

【Ho ho, this time the old captive has been caught, EDG won't come again with a full victory in the summer season and then the quarter-finals? Pay tribute to the predecessors!】

【What's over, didn't RNG just beat T1 in MSI? It's like they really can't win.】

【RNG? RNG is not in this pool now! Ran to sit at a table with the wildcard, times have changed!】

【EDG fans say, if it's still Little Fly hitting Big Fly, that's really over, but now we have Mid Fly! Don't rush, don't rush!】

【Wait a minute, according to this evolutionary path, if Mid Fly beats Big Fly, does it mean it will evolve into: Super Big Fly?】

On the other side, the T1 club is naturally also watching this key draw ceremony.

When they drew EDG, the faces of the four little ones were all happy.

The reason is nothing else, because they know their "restraint" against this team in team history, and they are indeed quite confident in themselves.

On the contrary, it is the European and American teams that are always considered to have slightly inferior strength. T1 often encounters overturning when playing against them, which is more unpredictable.

And the only one whose expression did not have much joy was Li Li Xianghe.

He looked at the black and white team logo in the screen, and couldn't help but think of the person who had interacted with him before and even said "see you at the World Championship" to him.

Didn't expect it to come true so soon?

Frankly speaking.

If it were the EDG of the past, Li Li Xianghe really wouldn't have so many thoughts—after all, he really hadn't lost much.

But if it is the EDG of now...

The final grouping situation is out—

Group A: EDG, T1, G2

Group B: Gen. G, JDG, 100T

Group C: RGE, TES, GAM

Group D: C9, CFO, DK

And in the EDG base on the other side.

Ye Bo was not only not depressed, but radiant, his eyes becoming more and more fiery.

Who said it's not optimistic?

Before fighting, who is not optimistic is hard to say!

The determination of the grouping situation is destined to set off a huge wave on major social media!

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 129 =====