Chapter 214: Into the semi-finals! Playoff melee! Top ten selections

There is still some time from the end of the regular season to the start of the playoffs, and the playoff teams are preparing intensively.

There is no change in the system this year, and the "double-loss" system enabled last year is still used.

But it is clear.

This year's playoffs are vastly different from every previous season!

Just because of the birth of this year's global BP, the power will increase geometrically in the BO5 events that will only appear in the playoff stage!

Even if it is a 3-0 game, at least 10 brand new heroes and combinations will appear, and finally there may be 30-40 more heroes.

This is undoubtedly a huge test for everyone.

And as the number one in the regular season, V5, and the number two, JDG—will directly wear resurrection armor in the semi-final round, waiting for the challengers to come.

The other teams are sorted according to points.

However, it is a bit "pity."

In the semi-final draw of the playoffs, BLG was not drawn into the same half as V5, but was drawn into the bottom half where JDG is located.

And the top half where V5 is located has strong teams like TES and WBG.

V5 base.

Ye Bo stood skillfully in front of the small blackboard, BeryL was gnawing on an ice cream next to him.

"The version 13.5 updated today is the version used for the playoffs."

"This is also the last version of our Spring Split this year, the changes are quite big, and I and Yuanshen-ge picked a few key points first."

"First is the rework of Yuumi and Azir."

The coaching staff assistant pressed the PPT play button at the right time—that was the data collected by the two, integrated by the coaching staff.

"This! It's simply a big piece of orangutan!" BeryL, who was gnawing on ice cream, couldn't help but clap to celebrate.

Even if he found the fun of Yuumi after coming to V5, he still unconditionally agreed with the rework of this hero.

This time it is still a large-scale rework of all skills!

The most criticized thing about Yuumi before was that the "hero's lower limit" was really too outrageous.

To describe it not too exaggeratedly, the game gap played by professional players and gold players will not have a huge essential gap!

The core is the effect of W increasing percentage {adaptive power}.

So this rework directly deleted this effect!

Not only that, the ultimate's control is gone, becoming pure milk volume.

And to limit Yuumi's previous frequent replacement of mounts, which was really unfriendly to ranked AD players—the passive was changed to a "Best Friend Value" mechanism that needs to be superimposed, which is almost tied to the ADC...

At first glance, most people would definitely think that this hero is scrapped and dogs don't play.

However, BeryL has a different understanding.

Seeing the rework mechanism of the new version of Yuumi, and the current somewhat wrong values, he vaguely realized that the heroes that can link with it might instead get higher strength than before...

This is also a routine often used by Riot designers.

Slap a mouth, afraid that players will explode, hurry to give a big sweet date to coax, and then slowly boil the frog in warm water to cut...

"Speaking of Yuumi's rework, Meiko-ge lost a lot!"

Ye Bo thought of the biggest victim of Yuumi's rework.

It's not because of the skin sales problem after the rework, after all, it has been two years, the sales explosion period has passed and the impact will not be too big.

It's because of the egg of Yuumi's ultimate.

Originally, Yuumi's ultimate Final Chapter would cast "7" ripples, and each ripple would move one step toward the "mountain peak."

Until the seventh ripple was shot, a summoner trophy would appear at the end.

This is a color egg linkage made according to the journey of Meiko winning the championship in the 7 years from 15-21, which is a very characteristic and beautiful meaning design.

The problem is... the new version of Yuumi's ultimate only has 5 hits!

Not only are there two fewer steps, but even the summoner trophy effect that would appear at the end is gone.

Those who don't know would think that the championship was stripped!

And these are actually another layer of "meaning" of championship skins—this is a unique footprint left in the canyon, dedicated to one person, surrounding everything related to him.

Thinking of this, Ye Bo couldn't help but look forward to his skin more.

The subsequent focus is the mid-term rework of Azir, mainly focusing on adjusting the "hero curve."

The designer almost completely cut off Azir's early combat power, but accelerated the molding speed, equivalent to becoming a choice with more distinct characteristics rather than "all-around."

Then there are the nerfs to values of some version popular heroes: Dragon King

"This change to Rumble might also need some attention."

"Hey Master Ye, do you think there's anything to the buffs for these assassins like Zed, Talon, Qiyana, and Fizz?"

"Hard to say for now, maybe there is~"

Interpreting the patch is one thing.

But the specific performance will have to wait until the playoffs start to be verified on the field.

V5 is waiting directly in the semifinals, having nearly a week more than the earliest teams, and they can also fine-tune their BP strategy in real-time based on the performance of the preceding teams.

This can also be considered one of the advantages for the regular season winners.

After chatting, everyone went straight to starting a few practice matches on the spot to explore the content they had just discussed.

They didn't prepare to finish and rest until late at night.

However, just as they stood up.

Everyone saw He Youjun standing at the entrance of the training room, sitting on a small stool waiting, holding a stack of things in his hands as if he were waiting for them.

"Oh, Boss He? Why didn't you make a sound? Have you been waiting long?" Brother Shengqiang Ge, who was quite socially adept, stepped forward to greet him.

"Not long, not long, it doesn't matter, your training is the most important!"

He Youjun had actually been waiting for quite a while.

But he was all smiles right now, and one look told you he was in an excellent mood.

He couldn't help but be happy.

He had invested such a huge price this year, so of course he had high expectations for the team's results, but he really hadn't expected this outcome!

Winning the regular season championship with an undefeated record is already a highly topical and legendary thing for V5, a team that once created a 0-16 winless season.

Not to mention that they even broke the global league record!

That European and American FPS giant that had been negotiating a merger with He Youjun finally loosened up for the first time tonight, indicating that the matter of "whose team name to change" could be discussed further, unlike the tough attitude they had before.

It was clearly this dazzling performance in the regular season that won him the critical right to speak.

Thinking of this, He Youjun felt incredibly fortunate for the decision he made back then.

Keeping Ye Bo at all costs and building the team around him was absolutely the wisest investment he had ever made!

"We swept the regular season awards this year! Everyone is really just too amazing!"

"After the Spring Finals are over, everyone should have a good rest and relax, fly anywhere in the country, and the club will reimburse everything!"

Brother Shengqiang Ge teased: "Boss, you're really popping the champagne early. The playoffs haven't even started yet, and you're already thinking about the Spring Finals~"

Xun, on the other hand, jumped up excitedly: "Great!!"

Ye Bo also joked: "Now I have no choice but to win!"

The bot lane duo was clearly also very happy.

Since returning after the New Year, everyone had been in a highly tense state, all working hard for that common goal, so hearing this good news was naturally worth being happy about.

However, He Youjun came not only to connect with them because of the multiple happy events, but also for an important matter.

He handed a stack of beautifully crafted ballot forms to everyone.

"Top Ten... Players?"

He Youjun nodded and explained: "Yeah, this year is the tenth anniversary of our LPL region, and Riot officials have put together a big event—the Top Ten Players will even have skins!"

Everyone knew that S13 was the tenth anniversary of the LPL region; after all, even the league's region logo had been changed to the {10} dragon logo, which was also the theme of this year's promotion.

But they really didn't know about the skins!

"Prestige skins... This name sounds a bit strange."

"Oh, so it's just a chroma~~~"

Hearing that it wasn't an independent skin.

It was just taking one of the skins for the player's most iconic hero and making a chroma color swap, which made everyone feel a bit more balanced.

After all, it takes hard work and fighting for the championship to get a skin; if one could be voted in inexplicably, both those who got skins and those who didn't would definitely be a bit unhappy.

Of course.

For some people who really wanted a skin but had almost no chance of getting one, yet were very likely to be "voted" in, that was pure profit.

A solo championship is still a championship!

Let's see who dares to say a chroma skin isn't a skin!!

But since it involved the "true supreme honor" custom skins in league events, even a chroma was quite sensitive.

So this vote was considered fair and transparent to avoid criticism.

109 active players, 65 retired players, 79 candidates, 51 club management and coaches, 9 commentators, 5 media representatives, 5 league management—each person gets one vote.

As for the fan vote, it was only through four channels: Hupu, Weibo, Zhang Alliance, and Esports Manager, with 1 vote per person per channel.

That is to say.

Out of a total of 323 votes, the fan vote accounted for a mere 1%!

This time it was completely about not comparing fan numbers; the players' own votes and internal personnel occupied the bulk.

And the 79 candidates were all names that LPL audiences had been familiar with over the past ten years.

For example, the old WE era's Misaya, Curl, and Misaya, as well as PDD, Godlike, Sicca, XiaoXiao, Zzitai, and even the old Korean imports who were no longer here like Duke, Insec, Mata, Pawn, and Imp.

"Huh? I'm actually on it too!"

Seeing his own name among the candidates, Ye Bo was truly a bit surprised.

Because looking at the list of candidates, he felt that as a rookie who had only been playing professionally for less than a year, he seemed a bit out of place with the "Top Ten Players" theme.

Even Bin wasn't on this candidate list!

But fortunately, since he couldn't vote for himself anyway, Ye Bo didn't need to dwell on this.

"Clearlove must be checked! And Brother Shengqiang Ge, Viper... Hey, let's check Jie Shao too, let him get another skin by tagging along!"

"Alpaca, you're here too! Then these ten aren't just randomly thrown together~"

Ye Bo quickly checked off his few must-have answers.

As the first two-time championship team in the region, it was obviously impossible for no one from EDG to be on the list—this was also one of the reasons Ye Bo was on the list.

Of course, the real reason was that Ye Bo's performance could only be described as "phenomenal."

Both on and off the field, that was the case!

His name was also personally added by Tengjing boss Jin Yibo.

"Master Ye, let me copy yours!"

BeryL leaned over to look at Ye Bo's list.

After all, he really wasn't very familiar with the LPL, and he had no interaction with those ancient Korean imports.

He checked them off one by one: "Brother Shengqiang Ge, Hyuk-kyu, Clearlove, Barrier, Viper, Meiko, TheShy, JKL, Rookie."

"Wait, it seems I'm still missing one."

Ye Bo counted and found there were only 9, all of whom were the ones he was most familiar with.

"Oh! Almost forgot him!"

After everyone finished filling out their ballots, they said goodnight to each other and returned to their rooms to rest.

To be honest.

Although he knew his teammates would definitely vote for him, Ye Bo wasn't sure if he had a chance to be selected.

After all, this was an internal vote, and it had nothing to do with popularity.

The ten spots were still very tight; just the starters who brought the S-championship to the LPL region numbered 16 people, not to mention the substitutes, and quite a few who didn't have a championship...

However, Ye Bo hoped in his heart that he could be selected.

It wasn't for the title of Top Ten Player—it was mainly for that "Prestige" skin.

To others, it might just be a chroma skin.

To Ye Bo, that was an extra "outfit"!

Back in the room.

Ye Bo opened his phone while washing up and going to the bathroom.

Seeing the trending news pushed to the top of the forum, he finally understood what He Youjun, who had just come to "report the good news," meant by them "sweeping" the awards.

The voting results for the Spring Regular Season had been released.

First Team: Flandre, Kanavi, Ye, Deft, BeryL.

Second Team: 369, Xun, Knight, Ruler, Missing.

Third Team: TheShy, Barrier, Scout, Elk, ON.

Except for Xun, all of V5 dominated the First Team!

And even Xun was ranked in the Second Team, surpassing the two championship junglers Barrier and Tian!

If it weren't for Kanavi's truly eye-catching data performance, they might have even swept the First Team to set a record!

There was even an award that made people laugh and cry.

"Spring Best Rookie"—BeryL!

This award was a bit of a bug.

All along, the Best Rookie was based on "joining the LPL," and Viper had also received this award before.

However, when Viper came back then, he didn't actually have any major achievements, and Griffin only dominated the league.

Yet this winner of one championship and two runner-ups actually received the LPL's new season "Best Rookie"!

These selection results naturally triggered quite a bit of public controversy.

【As expected of our LPL, even a top-three support in history can only be the Best Rookie when they come here!】

【To be fair, isn't it ridiculous that the Genshin player and Alpaca could make the First Team? What eye-catching plays have they had? They're just tagging along with Ye! V5 is definitely the Crown Prince team!】

【Anyone who can say that is a god. I can only say go watch the voice comms for the role of the Genshin player!】

【Didn't you see Alpaca's season data chart? AD gold per minute is last, AD damage per minute is first! What more eye-catching plays do you need?】

【Heh, and you say my junior is a thief, if anyone is a thief it's the batch! He got beaten up by Bin and still made the First Team! I'm not convinced!】

【Who is Bin? And even if he really stole a First Team spot, why didn't I see him in the top three teams~~~】

【It makes no sense, Weibo is sixth in the regular season, BLG is third, yet TS can make the team, and BLG only has the bot lane, you are all targeting my Banlangen!】

A chaotic battle of various fan bases, clearly many people were not very satisfied with the rankings.

But no matter how they argued, no matter which fan base it was...

The mid lane was the only corner that had no controversy.

News about the "Top Ten Player Skins" soon spread on the forums.

This instantly ignited the discussion.

【Hehe, isn't this just the dumplings made for this vinegar? I won't say who the event was opened for!】

【That's right—it was opened for my Master Ye! What can you do about the face of the national mid lane!】

【Already looking forward to the skin-stealing segment, my suggestion is... just use the FPX-Lwx chroma! It will definitely sell out!】

【Congratulations to the following ten unlucky eggs for getting the Top Ten True Vegetable skins!】

【I feel like the LCK won't be convinced, they didn't get skins for their tenth anniversary last year, I can already imagine the comments on the Korean web.】

【If you're not convinced, hold it in! If you have the ability, go win it at the S-championship this year.】

【Hahahaha, won't Song Bin be triggered? He didn't even make the Third Team—but his own bot lane rookie did; he's been a pro for three years and doesn't even have candidate qualifications—but Ye does! It's all a comparison!】

Seeing the last comment.

And thinking of Chen Zebin's personality, Ye Bo's mouth couldn't help but twitch.

"I feel like he's really going to be anxious."

Ye Bo clearly understood Chen Zebin a little.

That night, Chen Zebin, who surfed and found these two lists, tossed and turned in bed all night.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got!!!

Although BLG did start the Spring Split badly, they were clearly so strong in the latter half, why!

Chen Zebin secretly made up his mind.

He must prove himself in the playoffs!

Tossing and turning, unable to sleep, he lay in bed thinking of trash talk, trying every way to save face.

A week passed quickly.

The LPL Spring Playoffs officially began!

First were the peripheral teams.

But perhaps due to the exploration of the new patch and the discomfort of the first BO5, many unexpected matches occurred.

For example, TES, which was highly anticipated in the upper bracket—not only was it locked in a stalemate with TT, but it was also almost beaten by OMG twice, nearly going home directly!

In the end, they relied on 369 and Rookie exploding for one game to barely win 3-2.

Guo Hao and a group of TES executives were frantically taking heart-saving pills backstage, barely managing to hold on to the top six.

However.

The personnel genius Guo Hao noticed this OMG mid laner and felt his performance was quite stable.

And when TES faced the top six WBG.

Unsurprisingly, they were swept!

WBG, jokingly called the "All-God Team," still had some ups and downs, but their state adjustment was clearly better than TES, taking down TES 3-1 in a process that wasn't particularly pretty.

"TES's state really feels very wrong!" Miller was a bit worried.

"Up to now, several major galaxy battleships have found the playstyle that suits them best, even WBG already has a systematic content, only TES is still playing very strangely..."

TES spent quite a bit of money this year.

The 369 they bought after being robbed by Bai Xing, and Rookie was also slaughtered by Guo Hao at a high price from WBG's hands.

With this kind of investment, if this is the only performance, and they can't even make the top four in the playoffs, none of them can explain it!

Guo Hao was worried.

He didn't know where the problem was, whether it was the coach or what...

On the other side.

Daeny was actually worried too.

WBG didn't have many smiles when the whole team stepped down; everyone was clearly not complacent because of this victory.

Because everyone knew clearly that they could win this game not because they played well, but because the opponent played too poorly!

The winning process was even described as "ugly"!

And Daeny's mind was clearly clearer than Guo Hao's, vaguely sensing the problems existing in their two teams.

The "Compatibility" problem!

Daeny believed that Rookie simply didn't suit this TES.

The reason was that Rookie and 369 both belonged to blue-collar players, difficult to shoulder the heavy responsibility of a main carry, but the ADC's playstyle was too unstable to support the four-protect-one system.

At the same time, for his own WBG.

If WBG wanted to focus on the upper half of the map, like BLG—because the bot lane Gala also had to eat resource allocation, the mid laner must have a team-oriented mid laner to share the pressure.

Daeny actually approved of Rookie.

It's just that Rookie paired with Weiwei had a very strange chemistry, with absolutely no chemical reaction!

Rookie could play any type of hero, but his most proficient playstyle had to be paired with a relatively strong jungle to play out, but Weiwei was clearly not in this category.

And the other substitute jungler in the team, Karsa, had always played mid-jungle synergy protecting the mid lane during their V5 days, which was incompatible with the current WBG's need for both top and bottom to be prioritized.

The only way seemed to be letting Rookie play a team-oriented style.

Daeny had tried it, but that wasn't the opponent's most proficient point after all, and he would become a bit mediocre, which in turn led to insufficient mid-jungle confrontation intensity.

In short, it was blocked at both ends.

Regarding team-oriented playstyles, Daeny believed that the best active executors were Yagao and Rookie.

"Ah, shit."

Daeny pinched his temples with a headache, cursing WBG's Manager Shi in his heart, simply stupid!

He vaguely felt that his team's state shouldn't go far.

Sure enough.

In the semifinals, WBG faced V5.

After a spring split, the confrontation contributed a situation even more one-sided than the opening match!

"Congratulations to V5 for defeating WBG 3-0 again! They are the first to advance to the winner's bracket semifinals!"

"Next, let's see who the challenger in the lower bracket is. BLG first won a big victory over LNG and swept them all the way up, and now they are challenging JDG again. The two sides were locked in a stalemate in the regular season!"

"It is worth mentioning that JDG seems to have changed its tactical strategy in the playoff stage."

"In short, I look forward to this battle of the kings allowing us to see a wonderful game!"

Daeny was rubbing his curly hair backstage.

He knew very well that V5's evolution speed this season was far above theirs, and this outcome was within reason.

Although there was still the loser's bracket to play.

But the two teams in the lower bracket were very strong, and Daeny felt that the spring journey was nearing its end, and he had already started thinking about the team's situation and direction for the second half of the year.

And the development of the lower bracket was also a bit unexpected.

JDG's first playoff match, a set of system playstyles newly developed in the 13.5 patch, didn't seem to be that easy to use when facing BLG—because it wasn't designed for them in the first place.

He didn't expect that he wanted to train troops, but ended up overturning the car!

The energetic Bin was like he had eaten gunpowder, wishing he could shove the gaming chair into 369's nostrils in the top lane!

Wei also carried out Tabe's precise thinking, just protecting the top lane to the death, and confronting the Kindred head-on.

At the beginning, in JDG's priority side selection, BLG successfully completed a red-breaking-blue, directly establishing a huge advantage.

In the end, BLG experienced a passionate battle.

Defeating JDG 3-2!

"Congratulations to BLG!"

"This battle of the kings is really intense! Both sides went back and forth, and BLG successfully pulled one back!"

"However, JDG fans don't need to worry, the double-elimination format has a fault tolerance rate, and they will also face WBG in the loser's bracket next."

"Looking forward to the upcoming LPL winner's bracket semifinals—V5 vs. BLG!"

(End of chapter)