Chapter 129: Chaotic World Championship!

September 20, 2022, the three LPL teams set off for the airport, preparing to take the same flight to the other side of the earth.

The reason why there are only three teams is that the location of the play-in stage starting on the 30th is in Mexico City, which is not on the way to New York City for the group stage, and the fourth seed RNG had already gone to prepare for the battle early.

"Everyone check and don't leave anything behind, you can't come back once you get on the plane!"

"Mask, mask, mask!"

"From now on, as long as you go out, in places where you can breathe outdoor air, masks must be welded to your face!"

The sound of wheels colliding with steps echoed in the base, and EDG members dragged their suitcases and hurried downstairs one after another.

Arriving at the airport, the other two teams had already gathered here.

"Look! There's a big rambutan!?" Ye Bo saw a furry red giant from a distance.

"Damn, it seems to be Shui Zi Ge!?" Jie Jie squinted his eyes and approached, looking at the big head, the more he looked, the more it looked like him.

JackeyLove watched the person coming and kept staring at his top peak, and proudly shook the bright red hair in front of his forehead.

"Shui Zi Ge, when did you dye such a hair color, it's so red!" Meiko couldn't help but tease.

"For good luck, strive to get a good start!"

"But isn't red in the league generally an unlucky failure color?" Ye Bo muttered to himself: "And red may also mean ominous in old age, a sign of being covered in red hair..."

JackeyLove looked like he didn't read many novels, and didn't take Ye Bo's muttering to heart at all: "Feudal superstition is not advocated, Ye Bo, that's impossible!"

"You don't look at what draw we got, just with this group stage of ours, I don't know how to lose!"

"My favorite family motto of the Trash Talk family, we can already start studying the opponents in the knockout stage now. How about it, Factory Manager, I'll prepare to say this when I talk trash!"

Ming Kai on the side heard this familiar sentence and trembled all over, but he couldn't be happy.

Damn it, our EDG draw is the worst!

As long as you enter the S-series, you must fight T1. Is this our EDG family curse!

In fact, it is indeed the case.

Group C where TES is located is undoubtedly the luckiest. As the only "non-Korean group," the number one seed matched is a European team, and the play-in stage is also almost clearly DRX killing out to join.

In the current cognition, DRX is undoubtedly the weakest team among the four LCK representative teams.

Regardless of historical records or playoff performance, they cannot be compared with the first three!

Although JDG drew Gen. G, which is the fiercest on the surface, the other team is the bottom North American team, and the threat coefficient is obviously not as good as G2, which has caused a lot of trouble for LPL in EDG's group.

Then RNG naturally goes without saying.

Not only because the number one seed in Group D is the North American C9, which is stable and lagging behind all year round...

It is also because the founder of "1020" that RNG fans will tremble when they hear it—has already been shared by EDG!

Ye Bo stood in front of the plane, took a group photo with himself and the big plane behind him, and sent it into the {Loving Family} group to inform that he was ready to set off.

Soon, several long voice messages popped up in the group, basically all Ye Ying's nagging.

"Must wear a mask well, don't go to the street by yourself, don't go out at night, everyone there has guns, it's chaotic..."

"Ye Bo, get on the plane!"

The EDG crowd preparing to board shouted, and seeing Ye Bo standing in place, they turned around and stood waiting together.

The thoughtful Sheng Qiang Ge found that Ye Bo was listening to the voice message, and even ran over to help him carry the small bag, making it convenient for the other party to reply to the message, and Ye Bo also cast a grateful look.

"Hey, no need, Mom, I'm going to New York, not the Indian savage jungle, it's not that dangerous, don't worry, don't worry."

After replying to the message, Ye Bo followed his teammates into the cabin and found his seat.

Sitting down and adjusting his breathing, his fingers unconsciously rubbed the seat belt around his waist.

This is his first time on a plane.

Before long, a slight sense of weightlessness came.

The next moment, looking out the window, the motherland's land had begun to gradually become blurred and miniaturized.

Fortunately, after adapting, the experience of taking a plane did not have much perception, even quieter than a high-speed train, and Ye Bo quickly adapted.

He then closed his eyes, and his consciousness entered another world.

The "Summer Championship" clearly has a higher gold content than the "Regular Season MVP," and it also provided 【3 Legendary Essences】 that can be used to improve {Basic Physical Talent}.

After completely digesting and exercising the previous 2 Legendary Essences, the physical talent displayed on Ye Bo's panel has changed from {32 years old} -> {30 years old}.

And Ye Bo clearly has also begun to have some faint "feelings."

How to say this feeling... it's not that kind of very obvious improvement like faster reaction.

Similar to more energetic? Healthier body? Stronger immunity?

Anyway, when running in the morning, it's really not that breathless.

There is indeed a feeling of becoming "younger"!

However, it is clear that this youth does not refer to the change in age.

After all, Ye Bo is only 18 years old. If he really waits to become a dozen years younger according to this literal meaning... wouldn't it become the physique of a baby!

This result also confirmed his previous conjecture. Due to the dislocation of the system, the 【Repair】 originally for Old Deng Bo applied to himself, which is very likely to become the effect of 【Evolution】!

As for the specific effect, perhaps like the function description, it needs to wait until the physical talent reaches the full value before the {Depth Upper Limit of Specialized Ability} improvement can be opened.

And the training method is very simple—it is actually various basic skills of League of Legends.

For example, Ye Bo's previous two trainings were "Using basic attacks to last-hit 10,000 minions" and "Using pure movement to dodge skills 10,000 times" in a special trial field.

The special trial field is like a ping-pong machine, there will be minion waves constantly, and there will be AI heroes that automatically change and cast skills from all angles...

The good news is that this training mode does not occupy the {Trial Field} duration, and can be paused and continued at any time.

This is very convenient for Ye Bo.

The flight to New York takes a full dozen hours. The surrounding discussion was very lively at the beginning, but soon fell into silence, and everyone chose to use sleep to pass the time.

13 hours flew by in a blink of an eye.

When the timer set by Ye Bo arrived, and he automatically detached from the virtual space.

What came into view was big heads staring at him...

"Damn, there's a monster!"

Red-haired monster JackeyLove opened his mouth and said: "Ye Bo, I thought it was made up on the internet, it turns out you really sleepwalk?"

"I said it, what sleepwalking, our Ye Bo is training even while sleeping!" Jie Jie on the side said with a smile.

"Believe, believe, I believe, I believe~"

Although the progress of the training mode is not as intense as the trial field, it is not enough for Ye Bo to suddenly shout "Double Sword Slash!", but slight hand twitching is unavoidable.

The EDG crowd is naturally used to it.

However, others found it very fresh, and many came to visit during the flight.

"Let's go, let's go, off the plane."

"Everyone pay attention, try not to have close contact with foreigners, especially those who are no longer wearing masks."

Nowadays, the number of international flights has generally dropped to freezing point, but the number of passengers is still not small, and many students are still going to the United States to study.

And the attitude of foreign countries towards prevention and control is completely different from that of the country. Those who can survive are basically "Yang-resistant bodies" who no longer wear masks.

Fortunately, LPL players are in business class, and they can avoid contact as much as possible when getting off the plane.

The crowd separated by team like running away from poison, and boarded the bus printed with the Riot logo respectively.

"After arriving at the hotel, you must first undergo quarantine," the accompanying Riot staff urged: "We will distribute three meals a day to the door of each room, and you need to be tested every day..."

This World Championship is held in the hometown of Riot official, so the conditions in all aspects are relatively perfect, and the hotel location is also in the center of New York City.

Ye Bo took photos of the itinerary as soon as he landed and sent it to the WeChat group to let his family rest assured.

Then he opened the window slightly to let in some air, looking at the foreign scenery outside, somewhat distracted.

His World Championship journey that he has been thinking about.

From this moment on, it is finally officially embarking on the journey!

"S-series! I'm coming!"

"... Wait, what is this smell, so stinky!"

"Damn, didn't they say the air in New York is sweet? I don't know, I thought this was India, it's simply stinkier than Sheng Qiang Ge's feet!"

"Get out! But it's really a bit stinky, what is it?"

Ye Bo hurriedly closed the window and waited for a while before the strange smell dissipated.

It was Ming Kai who had been to the United States who explained to everyone that it was because since 2021, "leaves" in New York State had been legalized...

Ye Bo, who went abroad for the first time, only felt that he had a new understanding of this place after asking what "leaves" were.

Originally, he was prepared to go shopping if there was a chance after the match, but now he completely dispelled the idea.

However, in order not to let his mother worry, Ye Bo specifically avoided those areas when filming the street scenery along the way.

Arriving at the hotel booked by the official, each player was separated for single-person quarantine, and the team manager Ming Kai was responsible for sending everyone into the room one by one.

"This is the super account for the US server distributed by Riot. You can use this for training recently. Remember to adjust the jet lag first and make up for sleep to ensure your state, this is the most important!"

"If you have any questions, call me, I'm next door."

Ye Bo nodded, took the peripherals from the other party, turned and entered the room to start a 7-day quarantine.

The room is not small, there is a computer with good configuration, and there is nothing special besides that, which is enough for e-sports players.

But Ye Bo was not prepared to sleep.

The training mode on the plane just now was considered to have supplemented sleep. At this time, he was full of energy, directly logged into the US server account given by the official, and prepared to warm up for a few games first.

And the "jet lag" problem that gives many players a headache, for Ye Bo, can also be said to be a non-existent problem.

As long as you catch the time slightly and enter the {Trial Field} to catch a bug at the time of jet lag, you can correct the jet lag...

The days of the World Championship are getting closer.

Before the play-in stage starts, fans can only find news on social media to understand the preparation situation of each team and their personal safety.

And soon the players' accounts were dug out by UP owners and fans to observe the players' training status.

【Faker is still fierce! 79% win rate in US server Grandmaster 436 points, it's almost Challenger in just a few days, is it really "as weak as a Master"?】

【If you want to talk about ranking up, you have to look at my ChineseKungFu, 80% win rate 636 points Challenger! Should be the highest ranked among all super accounts, right? Already 77th!】

【Hehe, isn't Ye Bo just relying on the number of games, playing dozens more games than my Faker, if I played that many games, I would have been Challenger long ago!】

【Didn't you take math class? The gold content of more games and higher win rate, can't you calculate it?】

【Can only say don't be too optimistic, Maokai can't move after landing, EDG is missing a coach, I see how you play this game!】

【I reasonably suspect that this is an excuse EDG found in advance for the death group 16-strong elimination, otherwise why wouldn't my TES brother be Yang? Could it be because brother dyed red hair!】

【Hehe, don't think about using Yang as an excuse! Who hasn't had Yang! I'll just see which B will be eliminated in the top 16 this year!】

Just the second day after landing in the United States, coach Maokai confirmed that he was positive, and directly had a high fever of 39.6 degrees and was bedridden.

It had to be that the rest of the EDG crowd were quarantined in time and did not get hit.

But those who understand, understand.

Missing a coach doesn't have much impact on EDG now.

Time came to the 30th, and all professional players' US server accounts basically began to enter sleep time.

The reason is nothing else—because starting today, the 【Play-in Stage】 is officially launched!

All players also began to conduct some tournament training matches and reduce ranking training.

And as the outpost of the World Championship.

Undoubtedly, the play-in stage will be the place where all teams verify their understanding of the latest World Championship patch from the air!

"Xiao~Hu~!"

"This solo kill is a big deal, Xiao Hu's LeBlanc feels like he hasn't woken up."

"Zeka's Akali has something..."

The most worthy of attention in the play-in stage is undoubtedly DRX and RNG, the battle between the fourth seeds of the China and Korea regions.

Coincidentally, these two teams happened to be assigned to the same group and had to fight head-on!

It's a pity that RNG failed to defeat the opponent. The two sides fought for 42 minutes, and finally DRX showed stronger competitive performance.

"Still don't say, this patch seems to be quite suitable for Alpaca and the others," Meiko muttered to himself.

"Zeri was directly cut to the point where it couldn't be played, Twitch was also cut, now Caitlyn and Ashe are very strong, these are Alpaca's specialties."

In fact, in the patch after the playoff patch, Zeri had already been greatly weakened, but it was not highlighted because the bubble match used the patch.

And the last straw that caused Zeri to completely slump was because the paired Lulu was also greatly weakened, resulting in only a Yuumi combination left, and it is difficult to choose in BP.

Plus the strengthening of a group of heroes such as Caitlyn, Ashe, Miss Fortune, Ezreal, etc.

Naturally, it led to the infinite reduction of Zeri's selection rate.

"But looking at it this way, Wukong is indeed not very good, Maokai's small rework is really a bit fierce..." Jie Jie paid more attention to the changes in the jungle position.

"Hmm, every position has quite a lot of changes. My mid lane seems to have the fewest; aside from Viktor, it seems to still be those same few key picks."

With the coach absent, the coach of the neighboring TES team, Crescent, volunteered to come over to EDG to help with coaching.

But he was immediately and decisively declined by everyone on EDG.

At this moment, Ye Bo, holding a small notebook, was busy recording BP matters.

Almost without passing any resolution, everyone seemed to just take it for granted, naturally defaulting to this "substitute coach."

For the Worlds patch, Maokai received a small rework and has already become a must-ban or must-pick choice.

Conversely, Monkey King, who dominated the Summer Split, had many of his base stats slashed. Coupled with major buffs to heroes like Graves, Lee Sin, and Hecarim, his pick rate has plummeted just like Zeri's.

As everyone expected, the changes on the eve of the World Championship have indeed caused the environment to undergo a earth-shaking transformation!

And in the early stages of the patch.

Everyone's understanding of the patch clearly hasn't created too large of a gap yet.

"Actually, I feel like RNG having three people test positive has a pretty big impact. I hope it doesn't affect them in the group stage."

Standing by to assist Ye Bo and acting as a "coaching assistant," Clearlove couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for his old rivals.

After all, they had heard that as soon as RNG landed in Mexico City, three people tested positive on the spot.

Immediately after.

On October 5th, the National Day holiday, something even more terrifying happened.

This finally made everyone take the "impact of testing positive" more seriously.

Because RNG actually lost a game to DFM in the Play-Ins!

They successfully broke the historical record of LPL against LJL, honorably becoming the first LPL team in history to lose to the Japanese region!

This loss, which absolutely exceeded everyone's expectations, stirred up a wave of pessimism online.

【It's over, it's over! Looking at it this way, the LPL is definitely finished this year!】

【Huh? I thought it was RNG winning 3-1? Why does it look like DFM won 3-1?】

【You really have the nerve, losing even to the Japanese? Who else can you lose to next? Are you going to lose to Vietnam too? You really have no shame left!】

【Don't troll, RNG can only go to Group D, they can't lose to Vietnam, at most they'll lose to North America!】

【Report! Latest news says DK also has people who caught it. RNG's luck is too good, damn it!】

【Got it, got it! It's all strategy. Get it over with first so you won't catch it later. When the match is halfway through, transform into a roaring deity and output directly into their faces. Guaranteed win method for the second round!】

Although there was the turmoil of losing to the Japanese team.

However, the competitiveness of the Play-Ins is truly not high, and it is obvious that there is a gap in strength between the two sides, so the final spots for the group stage were not affected.

The four teams that fought their way out of the group stage were also assigned to four different groups according to the regional avoidance principle.

The final group stage groupings were released one after another————

Group A: EDG, T1, G2, DFM

Group B: Gen. G, JDG, 100T, FNC

Group C: RGE, TES, GAM, DRX

Group D: C9, CFO, DK, RNG

Three days later.

New York City, Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.

"Audience friends from all over the world! Now, please use your most enthusiastic applause to welcome the champions of the previous 2021 World Championship to return the trophy!"

"Let us shout their names together: Edward Gaming!"

The bearded host on site shouted at the top of his lungs.

This is a staple of the opening ceremony every year, having the previous year's champions return the trophy in person.

The significance of the ceremony is perhaps to tell everyone: there is no eternal champion; only by constantly moving forward and improving, and becoming the strongest of each year, are you qualified to lift this trophy again or for the first time.

Of course, not all championship teams can perform this ceremony "in person."

For example, S10's FPX, because they failed to make it to the World Championship, the trophy was ultimately returned by staff members.

The five people standing in the player tunnel walked out together, with Ye Bo standing in the middle, holding the base of the Summoner's Cup.

In the S12 season, the Summoner's Cup, which had been passed down for 11 years, also underwent a "rework," with its style and design completely changed.

So, this was actually the first time everyone on EDG had seen this Summoner's Cup.

This brand-new Summoner's Cup also had a very fitting and profound slogan————

"Open, a New Era!"

The spotlights of the venue flashed wantonly on the trophy, the silver light shining and incredibly eye-catching!

After returning the Summoner's Cup, the five EDG members did not leave the stage, but stood quietly by the trophy to wait.

And Ye Bo, who was within arm's reach, just like all the players and spectators around him, was staring intently at this symbol of the highest honor in Summoner's Rift.

The other four were also unable to resist glancing at the trophy from time to time.

Everyone's eyes were incredibly fiery.

"In the coming month, top teams from all over the world will engage in fierce battles on Summoner's Rift. Only the final winner will be able to successfully chase the stars and lift the throne!"

"Then let us wait and see which eight powerhouses will stand out in the group stage!"

"First to appear are our defending champions! EDG!"

(End of chapter)