Chapter 166: This time, let's see what else they can use to win!

The next day, the entire EDG team set off for the airport early.

They were heading to the site of the final showdown: San Francisco, California.

Although there was a week-long gap between the semifinals and the finals, this was, after all, the annual ultimate focal point for League of Legends fans worldwide.

There would be quite a few promotional and filming sessions before the match that required the cooperation of both teams, which could also be treated as a break to adjust their state of mind.

According to the experience of the EDG members, in the week leading up to the final showdown, the effect of temporarily increasing training volume would not be very significant; it would depend more on the mentality and performance of the players from both sides on the stage.

If the atmosphere were made too tense, the players' mentalities would be more easily affected, which would ultimately lead to abnormal performance on the stage.

After all, by this time, the teams that had made it this far had basically explored the World Championship version to the limit, and it was hard to have any more key breakthroughs.

However, there was one person who didn't think so.

He had even just finished a ranked training match right before boarding the plane.

Feeling the white noise of the tinnitus at high altitude, Ye Bo felt his focus had increased significantly; if it weren't for the poor internet speed at high altitude, he would have loved to play a match on his laptop immediately.

This wasn't because of anything else.

It was simply that for Ye Bo himself, roaming in the Summoner's Rift was his most relaxed state.

Now on the plane, Ye Bo, feeling a bit idle, suddenly noticed that Li Xuanjun, who was sitting beside him, had been shaking his leg the whole time.

"What's wrong, Saint Gun Brother? Are you nervous?" Ye Bo asked curiously. "You're an old married couple with this stage, yet you still get nervous?"

Li Xuanjun couldn't help but laugh at this strange description: "How are we an old married couple? This is only my second time in the World Championship, okay? Just one more time than you!"

"But buddy isn't nervous, I'm star-struck!"

He opened his team uniform to show the lining inside, which was a jersey with the number 30 hanging on the chest, and chatted excitedly with Ye Bo about the venue where they would be playing the finals.

The venue for this World Championship final was the Chase Center in San Francisco, which was the home court of the Warriors.

"You like basketball too? You have such broad hobbies~"

As roommates, Ye Bo naturally knew many of his interests, including anime, celebrity fandom, and cooking.

"Playing games every day will make you depressed; you have to find some fun to relax~" After Li Xuanjun finished speaking, he suddenly thought of something and became a bit curious.

"Speaking of which, Master Ye, it seems I've never discovered any other hobbies of yours. Every day, besides training, it's just training... Honestly, don't you get bored?"

"Not at all. I don't train every day either. A lot of the time, I'm just playing games~"

Ye Bo answered very naturally, as if it were a matter of course.

"How could I get bored? I've always liked playing League of Legends. The first computer game I played when I was eight was this one. I've been playing for ten years now, and the more I play, the more addicted I get!"

"And before, playing games was just playing games. Now that I have the chance to be a professional player, I can turn the thing I love most into something more meaningful. I really cherish this opportunity, and I feel like this game has become even more fun."

"I feel like I can definitely play for another twenty years~~"

The two of them seemed to have opened up.

However, as they chatted, Li Xuanjun's mood kept fluctuating.

His professional career could already be considered very "inspirational," and being able to persist for so many years clearly meant he was someone who loved this game very much.

But to be honest.

In recent years, especially after winning the championship last year, Li Xuanjun had become a bit "weary."

What he hadn't told the others was that he had already made up his mind that regardless of the final result this year, he planned to take a year off next year and then see whether or not to retire.

On one hand, it was his hand injury.

On the other hand, he was indeed a bit tired and wanted to change his environment and direction.

Yet, it was during this time spent with Ye Bo that Li Xuanjun could always feel it with absolute clarity.

The other person's love, which could never be half-fake and seemed to be overflowing, as well as that yearning for the stage and that fiery motivation that seemed like it would never be extinguished.

Frankly speaking, the reason Li Xuanjun was able to practice Yone was because he was greatly influenced by the other person, spontaneously wanting to take all his rest time to double his training.

And in this chat with Ye Bo, he couldn't help but recall the day he first stepped onto the stage.

The intention to retire that had already sprouted seemed to dissipate in a trance.

"Master Ye, I'm serious," Li Xuanjun said with a sudden sense of emotion. "If we don't win the championship this time, I'm sure you will definitely win it in the future, and definitely more than one!"

"These are what you deserve... If even you can't do it, I really can't imagine who else could."

"Don't worry, I'll try my best not to drag you down!"

Ye Bo didn't catch the weight of the other's words.

He just chuckled and waved his hand: "It's not that exaggerated~"

"And there's no such thing as what's deserved. Everyone is very strong, so at the very least, we have to put in enough effort to be worthy of what we want... I'm not talking chicken soup, my mom used to tell me this every day. This is at most called listening to mom!"

Li Xuanjun feigned a laugh and scolded: "Damn, you mama's boy."

Ye Bo immediately made a boxing gesture with his fists bumping together: "That~ must~ be~ me~!"

After saying that, Ye Bo stretched his arm over the airline seat, breaking the rules, and gave the other's shoulder a firm hug.

"And Saint Gun Brother, what you just said is wrong. I've never thought that we wouldn't win the championship this time."

"I have four world champions carrying me. If we still can't win the championship, then I'd be too bad!"

Li Xuanjun suddenly felt his eyes getting a bit watery.

In fact, Ye Bo's performance had long since needed no further words; it was truly there for all to see.

How could he not hear it? It was obvious that Ye Bo had also belatedly heard the lack of confidence in his words just now and said that on purpose.

After all, in this S12 World Championship, Kingen had completely crushed Zeus, who was previously considered the strongest, in five consecutive laning matchups, and was also one of the absolute key figures in DRX's legendary victory in that match, which indeed put quite a bit of pressure on Li Xuanjun.

He struggled to climb over the seatbelt, turned his head, and said in a low voice.

"It's not four world champions carrying you."

"It's you, carrying four world champions."

"Hey~ Saint Gun Brother, if you're going to brag for me like that, then in the finals, I'll have to help you ruthlessly sanction Kingen..."

At this moment, Jiejie, who was sitting in the front seat, leaned his head over.

Looking at the two of them hugging each other in a strange posture, his expression was a bit weird: "What are you two doing? Master Ye, are you bullying my Saint Gun Brother!"

"Saint Gun Brother said I'm a mama's boy, I'm showing him Headbutt!"

"No, actually we were talking bad about you. Master Ye said you little melon, don't even think about stealing his FMVP, get ready to be the fourth uncle!"

"Fourth uncle is so boring. You guys say, should I change my ID next season to Jiejie7? Does that count as directly ascending to the throne as Seventh Uncle... Forget it, it doesn't feel very auspicious."

"Zhao Lijie, you little bastard, you're implying I'm old again!!!" A loud shout came from the front seat.

The flight time from Atlanta to California was not long.

After about three hours, everyone had arrived in San Francisco.

Although everyone had already been hit by the bug, because of the importance of the matter, they didn't stop at all after landing to appreciate the local culture and customs, and immediately went to the hotel to carry out intensive preparations and today's normal training.

There was no need to specially increase the training volume, but normal daily training still had to be maintained.

Of course, now that the time had come, there were no more scrims to play, and both teams could only conduct their own internal training.

After all, all the other teams were already on vacation, and no one would deliberately keep their whole team to accompany you for training. In the end, there is a distinction between regions and teams themselves.

Of course, there was another reason why no team would accompany them for training at this time: the risk of "leaks."

If they finished playing with you today, and tomorrow in the finals the opponent suddenly pulled out a "targeted" design, or simply copied your design—who could say for sure then whether it was a leak or something they researched themselves!

If something like that really happened, it would be impossible to explain.

And without scrims, Ye Bo dove into the game footage of the DRX and T1 semifinals, trying to find some clues that could be utilized.

It is worth mentioning that the original head coach Maokai had returned with the team, taking over Mingkai's original work and serving as Ye Bo's assistant to help organize data.

But the title was not changed back by the official, and the head coach in charge was still Mingkai.

And the draft was still Ye Bo's responsibility!

This point was also proposed by Maokai himself. After all, he had been hit by the bug just as the group stage ended, and the symptoms and aftereffects were surprisingly severe. He only recovered just before the semifinals and had completely fallen behind the progress.

If he were forced to return to the position of head coach, it would mean Ye Bo would have to spend a lot of time giving him special "make-up lessons."

That would obviously be a bit like painting a snake and adding feet—a superfluous act.

Although this would inevitably lead to some criticism regarding his leadership honors after the match, as an EDG veteran, Maokai had made the wisest choice for the team.

Training continued until ten o'clock in the evening.

Everyone went back to rest, and Ye Bo, who had been looking at footage and using his brain all day, only felt dizzy.

He prepared to take a short break before starting his "second stage" of training.

During the day, Ye Bo had been doing "Paper Training," and only after 12 midnight would he conduct the second stage of "Practical Training."

This was also to maximize the reasonable use of time!

However, while waiting for the daily reset cooldown to finish...

Ye Bo first placed the thick stack of handwritten papers in his hand by the bedside and took out his phone, preparing to relax his brain first.

Opening Bilibili, the homepage's precise recommendation was the title—【God of Sylas steals Kakashi! Ye's perverted Sylas understanding shows multiple black-tech skills! All commentators exclaim: He is simply a genius!】

The beginning of the video was the familiar duck-like voice.

"It's bad, although the early game was played very well, this Sylas of Yei can't suppress Chovy at all. When I was drafting, I said how could you pick Sylas to counter Azir!" Xika shouted and yelled.

"Looking at it this way, Yei's champion pool might have a problem..." Sun Yalong wanted to follow up with an analysis, but suddenly changed to a roar.

"Holy crap! Ye, what the hell are you doing!!!"

Kid's voice was even more urgent: "My god, Sylas E's forward in the air, steals the ultimate, and completes a thousand-mile return push back into the tower! Damn, this operation is too perverted!"

"God Ye!!!"

Xika instinctively started hyping: "It's really not me blowing smoke, everyone says Zeka is a Sylas master, but compared to God Ye, there's no comparison at all! He was crushed by Fly!"

"That's different! That's different!" Sun Yalong precisely followed up with a combo: "Who is Fly? Who is Chovy! The people they played against are different, you can't just say he's stronger!"

The number of bullet comments was incomparably huge, almost filling the entire screen.

【Classic: When losing, call him Yei; when winning, call him God Ye!】

【Sun Ye is still trolling here. The day Da Fei left, his mouth was crooked from laughing, and he's still trolling here!】

【Chovy and Taishou are just the same kind of trash, they really can't be compared, no problem with that point, wow.】

【Kid is truly unfilial; he doesn't even mention Mother Ji or Father Shy when he talks now. He only recognizes Uncle Ye when he's out, right!】

【No choice, only those with championship trophies are the boss; those who can't make it to the World Championship aren't familiar, wow~】

The scene shifts, and in Uzi's livestream room, he stands up directly in excitement, holding a Geodude high with force and shouting.

"My god! Sylas can actually save Kalista like this!!!"

"No! This is what you call 'protecting the one'! I'm telling the truth, this is what you call 'protecting the one'!"

"Brothers, I'm not joking, wow. If Ye had debuted a few years earlier and been on the same team as the main streamer, the main streamer would have had a championship long ago!"

Ye Bo looked at this comment, originally thinking the other party was joking and mocking himself.

But looking at the other party's eyes... how come it feels like he really has some thoughts.

And the Doinb who appeared immediately after had an even more exaggerated expression.

"Oh my god! What is Chovy doing! How can this Ryze farm like this!"

"Ye's Ziggs is indeed powerful, duck, but how should I put it, I think the way Chovy is playing this Ryze is truly problematic!"

He tilted his head to look at the bullet comments, seeing a pile of mocking voices.

Most were comments like "If the streamer is so powerful, why is he at home?" or "Isn't the streamer's Ryze the one that let his own jungler starve to death in the jungle?"

He hurriedly and skillfully changed the subject.

"Ye is truly a little genius, to think he could pull off such an operation!"

"Oh, no, I mean Ye is a little genius, I don't mean Tian is a little genius, oh, don't stir up trouble for the streamer every day, wow."

And in this video, there was actually a clip of the broadcast footage from the competition venue.

It locked onto the audience seats at the venue, where the five members of DRX were sitting in the front row watching the match.

When EDG pulled off a brilliant play and a key decision, one of the DRX bot lane duo covered his mouth and cheered in excitement, while the other couldn't help but clap and applaud.

However.

When the camera cut to the other three, their expressions were one more solemn than the next.

【Mr. Deft really wants EDG to win, won't he be cursed as a traitor for this?】

【Don't force the hype, maybe they are just happy because they think EDG is easier to beat—fun fact, DRX has never beaten GEN in their team history! If they really make it to the finals, they might as well just forfeit!】

【People without friends are like this; they are clearly genuinely happy, okay? Even if losing to old teammates is indeed the best ending!】

【Putting myself in Mr. Deft's shoes, seeing former old teammates win the championship, would he regret leaving the LPL back then? Fate is truly ironic; after returning to the LCK, the LPL region ended up winning more championships. He was clearly always pursuing moving forward, but ended up walking further and further away. If this kind of thing happened to anyone, they would feel heartbroken, right?】

【Why do I see Zeka's hands shaking, 0. ?】

【Stop putting pressure on them for no reason. It wasn't easy for EDG to get to this step. Wasn't DRX's performance in the semifinals obvious enough? They really aren't bad, and maybe they are still evolving!】

Ye Bo finished watching the video, turned back to the homepage, and subconsciously clicked on the 999+ private messages.

He discovered that many, many people had sent him private messages.

Quite a few were new followers from the semifinals, but among them were also many familiar faces, all cheering him on.

"Auntie Brother is amazing! Quarterfinals! I knew back then that you would definitely make it!"

"Auntie Brother is awesome! Made it to the semifinals!!!"

"Auntie Brother, keep it up in the finals! We are waiting for the skin we said we'd wait for back then! I will definitely max out my grandma's social security card to buy it!"

Ye Bo saw several familiar IDs, as well as that nickname he had even forgotten himself.

In a trance, his eyes seemed to recall the appearance of when he was still livestreaming at home, and for a moment, he felt quite emotional.

Although he longed for the competition stage at the time, he also couldn't have imagined that, as if it were just the turn of a moment ago—he had actually reached this step.

But what was the same was.

Whether it was the him livestreaming back then, or the him now, he was very happy.

Because he was doing what he wanted to do and what he loved.

He replied to these private messages one by one, replying for nearly two hours, until it was nearly 12 o'clock before he finished.

It was just as he had said in the post-match interview yesterday.

Ye Bo now seemed to be living not just for himself, but also for these fans who liked him, and the audience who had expectations for them.

For his own dreams, for the fans' expectations, to let the audience see them "win satisfyingly," and to practice the meaning of ten years of hard work off-stage.

These were all his infinite motivation.

At twelve o'clock, Ye Bo picked up the stack of manuscript paper at his side and read it through again.

Then he stepped into the trial ground to verify the gains he had made today through experiments.

All the way until the next morning.

When Ye Bo suddenly opened his eyes wide.

The spirited light in his eyes seemed to interweave with the scorching sun spilling into the room, acting out the curtain of the real world.

Old man, I told you there was still time.

"This time, let's see what they can use to win!"

(End of chapter)