Chapter 257

The London venue is in a state of extreme jubilation, with glow sticks creating waves that rise one after another in the stands!

"Push the base! Push the base and it's a win!" Miller, at the commentary desk, sees the nexus explode and his emotions peak; his voice cracks as he roars with genuine feeling: "Three to zero!!!"

"There is no chance at all! Even with both sides swapping tactical systems, V5 remains the final winner! They are the first to advance to the winner's bracket final!"

Wawa waves his fists, his words slurring: "GEN is known as the undefeated elite kings of the LCK spring split this year, but our V5 is here to beat the elite! We are here to beat the undefeated champions!"

As soon as the nexus explodes, the director immediately shifts the camera to the players' stage on site.

The arena's spotlights are at full power, aimed at the brand-new MSI background setup in the center of the stage and the stages on both sides, making the stark contrast in emotions between the two teams clearly visible.

The entire V5 squad immediately and excitedly takes off their headsets, huddling together to embrace and laugh.

The GEN players' area, however, seems to portray a scene of all walks of life; it is completely out of place with the screaming erupting throughout the arena, and their expressions are extremely grim.

But just as the director prepares to focus the camera on the winning side, their attention is suddenly drawn to an excited figure in a V5 jersey running out from the passage in the middle of the stage with arms wide open.

Once that figure runs out, he actually—in a very smooth and natural manner—runs toward the GEN player stage on the right!

The sharp-eyed director immediately zooms in.

And Beichuan, who ran onto the stage in a state of selfless excitement, only realizes something is wrong when he reaches the middle of the player area.

Looking through the gap in the gaming chairs, this jersey... it looks different from the one he is wearing!

He looks back to the other side and happens to lock eyes with Doran, who is leaning on the edge of his seat with a sorrowful face; when Doran sees the jersey the other person is wearing, his expression instantly turns dark.

"Who is shouting?"

Peanut, who hasn't taken off his headset yet, only hears the constant shouting of "Nice! Nice!! Nice!!!" coming from directly behind him.

He turns to look and sees someone running past behind him.

"It seems to be someone from V5," Doran's voice becomes increasingly quiet until it is inaudible, but it still attracts the gaze of the entire GEN team.

This scene, which is quite entertaining, appears on the live stream and immediately makes everyone laugh.

【Holy crap! Chuan!】

【Three to zero!!! V5 is awesome!!!】

【This V5 team is just strong; they can even field six people, and there's even someone specifically responsible for fountain-diving on site after the match!】

【Strange, isn't Beichuan a jungler? Why did he pick Rakan and even use Grand Entrance?】

【Beichuan walks behind Peanut and whispers against his damp earlobe, his warm words making him instantly feel hot and unbearable: "Is that it? Is that it? Is that it? I feel like I could do it too~"】

【Iron horse leaves no trace on frost and snow, the substitute dives the fountain after the match!】

On the other side, the LCK live stream has completely exploded.

Countless trolls pouring in to add fuel to the fire are still at it, remotely detonating the emotions that had been suppressed for three games and had nowhere to vent.

【What a disgrace! Are these five GEN members Korean? I think they are just traitors sent over by the LPL! They have no shame left!】

【They are even mocking them to their faces after the match, it's humiliation! They are humiliating us!!!】

【Heh, the second seed goes home without winning a single game in an international tournament, and the first seed gets three-zeroed; they deserve to be humiliated~】

【Be optimistic, look on the bright side; at least this isn't something done by the same team, everyone being equally bad means no one is bad!】

【Where is the referee! Where is the referee! Hurry up and give this person a red card to kick him off the stage—what do you mean he was already off-stage?】

【In our game, this is called sneaking through Yinping to take Shu Han directly!】

On the V5 side, everyone watches Beichuan running over from the opposite side and laughs heartily.

"Brother Chuan, I was wondering why you hadn't come out yet; turns out you ran to the other side to last-hit~~" Xun pulls him over and teases him.

"Damn, it's all your fault for urging me over voice chat; I really just went the wrong way..."

To be fair, this really wasn't intentional on Beichuan's part.

The coach's position backstage looks at the broadcast position, which is the left side facing the camera—but anyone who has been backstage at a match knows that the entrance position is reversed; the left side on stage is actually the right side of the broadcast position.

The problem is that Beichuan didn't know that!

After all, he had never been to MSI, nor had he ever stepped onto the stage in person; he had absolutely no experience with this.

On the other side, the GEN members are demonstrating what it means to be dispirited, with not a hint of vitality in their eyes.

Watching the V5 members walking toward them, their inner thoughts are extremely complicated.

Although they are not yet eliminated after losing this match and could be said to still have a chance for a rematch, and it is still possible to get revenge on the MSI final stage.

But as the first seed, as the sole seedling bearing the final hope of the entire region, and having been expected by everyone before the match to engage in a fierce battle with V5—the result is that they contributed these three incredibly ugly games!

The blow this deals to their own morale and that of the regional audience is hard to describe in words.

Doran, whose mentality is extremely poor, looks like he is slumped over in his chair at this moment.

Although he didn't seem to have any major mistakes in these three games, in reality, if you focus on the top lane, you would find that Doran gave away small opportunities for no reason in almost every game; he is definitely a hidden war criminal.

It's just that there were more conspicuous existences among the others, which made him look slightly less miserable.

Peanut next to him still has a relatively normal expression, his mind just constantly replaying the "Nice, nice, nice" that came from behind him just now.

Still, as the saying goes, compared to Peanut's life of Waterloos, this loss doesn't even count as particularly slippery.

By comparison.

Chovy's expression is clearly off when he sees Ye Bo coming over to shake hands!

Although Tristana didn't look as miserable as the Ryze in the second game.

This was the result after his mentality had nearly collapsed and he had the counter-pick.

Just like that, several bizarre operations in the match kept flashing back in Chovy's mind... especially the humiliation of the Azir pushing him into the corner where he couldn't move, and being solo-killed while being pinned against the wall in front of everyone!

Thinking of this, he suddenly feels a tightness in his throat, and the nausea surging up from his chest becomes increasingly intense!

He hurriedly and subconsciously raises his left hand to cover his mouth to suppress it.

This scene happens to be seen by Ye Bo, who walks over with his hand out ready for a fist bump; seeing Chovy reach out again, he can't help but shrink back a little.

This left hand is no good!

Chovy also knows his left hand is a bit unclean, so he hurriedly retracts it and switches back to his right hand to fist bump the other person.

And Ye Bo comes to his old teammate Viper and gives him a warm hug.

Viper manages to squeeze out a bit of a smile in response: "You're too strong; you were really scary when you were on the other side."

Ye Bo knows it's not appropriate for him to say anything comforting at this time, so he just makes a high-spirited gesture of encouragement: "Keep it up! We might still see each other in the finals!"

The smile Viper squeezes out becomes increasingly stiff.

Until he fist bumps and separates from another old teammate, Flandre, and after turning around, it instantly disappears completely.

From Viper's perspective, the "key commands" that led to the collapse of the situation in two consecutive games seem to have been made by himself.

In the first game, he ordered the support to gank mid, only to be killed. In the third game, after the dragon was stolen, he ordered a push mid, only to be wiped out!

Only after experiencing it personally does he finally fully understand the weight Ye Bo carried in the team last year, as well as the "responsibility" he silently shouldered.

Commanding is really not that simple.

A good commander can play a role in turning the tide and changing everything.

A bad commander will very directly lead everyone into a ditch, or even directly lead them to lose a game!

It can only be said that after so many years at EDG, Viper still doesn't know the LPL well enough.

After all, there is a team in the LPL commanded by an ADC big brother, which is professionally dedicated to making big moves and only pulling off stinky ones!

Actually, there are precedents.

Walking at the end, Deft also nods to Score, who has also arrived on stage with a gloomy face.

The other party also barely adjusts his expression to respond.

Deft debuted in the same period as Score, and Score was also Deft's first teammate after he returned to the LCK from EDG.

If one speaks of the KT of the S8 season, they were also seen as the "most hopeful to win the championship" LCK team, but unfortunately, they were defeated 3-2 by that year's champion IG, falling on the road to chasing their dreams.

Time flies, and the old teammates who debuted in the same period are still fighting on the field, still constantly moving forward to pursue that dream from the past.

Looking at Score himself, he has long since retired behind the scenes, and now can only stand behind the team facing him to point out the country.

The sentiment doesn't last long.

Score regains his composure, his eyes becoming sharp again as he stares at the five backs in front of him.

The match ends, and the Copper Box Arena is bustling with activity, with no one leaving.

The V5 members receive interview invitations from different regions, while Ye Bo and Beryl remain on the main stage to accept invitations.

During the wait, the local London-accented English commentators are still on stage giving post-match commentary as a bridge.

Ye Bo looks at one of the commentators who seems a bit familiar, tilts his head curiously, and asks: "Brother Yuanshen, can you understand what they are saying?"

Beryl's undergraduate education plays a huge role, and he translates using broken Chinese.

One of the three official commentators at the London venue is Froskurinn, nicknamed Cat, a foreign female host who used to work at the LPL English desk and became famous for her white-haired look, which resembled the original art of Riven.

At the same time, she is also well-known as the most "red-blooded and orthodox" "LPL shill" and "Dog shill" in the foreign region!

One can tell a thing or two from the post-match commentary.

Cat shakes her tattooed arms and says bluntly: "So crazy! V5 is too strong; I think this team absolutely has the possibility of succeeding EDG as the new face of the LPL!"

"Especially in my opinion, Ye is already a local player who can rival Uzi as the greatest in the LPL! He is simply even more terrifying than Uzi was at his peak!"

The neutral commentator next to her, Piers, starts trolling: "Oh, you know, I've always been a fan of Ye; he is incredibly strong!"

"As for the other old champions, I wish them good luck."

But another bearded commentator who supports the LCK region is very dissatisfied with the two's remarks, especially the such fawning over the "culprit" Ye.

He can't help but subconsciously retort: "You can't say it like that; Uzi has the only Asian Games championship in the world right now—you know, there have been 12 S championships, but only one Asian Games championship! I don't think Ye is there yet!"

Piers continues to troll: "No no no, I don't think so; just tell me... does the Asian Games have skins?"

Cat stops refuting when she hears the former praising her idol, just following up: "But I think Ye will definitely represent CN in the Asian Games in the second half of the year; that is worth looking forward to!"

The bearded man continues to refute: "Hmph, don't be happy too early; when it comes to heritage, the LCK region is deeper; the Asian Games is not a competition between one team..."

"Besides, the outcome of this MSI is still undecided; GEN is clearly in extremely poor form today, and I am still very optimistic that GEN can adjust and fight their way back to the finals!"

(Fountain-Diving on Site! "I Thought We Were Playing a Bo3"?)

"Jingdong, the most competitive team in the losers' bracket, has already lost to them before; would they lose if they fought again? I don't think so."

Speaking of the LCK, the cat continued to mock with a smile: "If historical matchups could be used as a reference, then there would be no need to play the MSI. In the past five years, the LPL has won four MSI championships; the MSI is their home turf!"

The bearded man looked disdainful: "Heh, then let's just wait and see."

Listening to Beryl's relay, Ye Bo could barely keep a straight face.

"How come there are so many trolls abroad too?"

Since there were quite a few segments at the venue today, the interview process on the main stage was actually very simple.

Ye Bo was mainly asked some questions about in-game mechanics, and he still "smuggled in his own agenda" by promoting the highlight videos of his own team.

As for Beryl, he was asked some questions about the overall situation.

For example, his thoughts on this match.

He was also very humble, answering in slightly stumbling Chinese: "This best-of-three, we did quite well, there were good parts and also shortcomings; overall, there are still many areas that can be improved."

The translator translated the sentence as usual, but it ended up leaving the host at the venue stunned.

"B, best-of-three?"

"Oh, oh, oh, best-of-five, sorry, my Chinese is not very good, hehe."

Actually, it was mainly because this was the first time the MSI used this {all best-of-five} double-elimination format; otherwise, this stage of the MSI had indeed always been a best-of-three segment in the past.

Subsequently, Ye Bo and Beryl also answered some interesting questions about the internal affairs of the team, such as the answer regarding command authority, which they both answered candidly.

It's just that the two men's candor had a bit of a "difference in perspective."

Ye Bo said: "We generally command together; we don't necessarily listen to anyone in particular. This is more conducive to checking for gaps and reducing vision blind spots."

Beryl answered: "It's mainly me. Usually, when Master Ye is operating, I am the one commanding. When our opinions are the same, I am also the one commanding. Only when our opinions differ is he the one commanding."

【To summarize: Listen to me when there's nothing going on, listen to him when there's trouble!】

【The aggression of this Genshin player is truly boundless: "I thought we were playing a best-of-three?"】

【Oh my, this best-of-three is not bad; it seems V5 never even thought that Gen. could win a single game!】

【Never expected that the Genshin brother was the real king of trash talk! Think about how someone racks their brains to squeeze out a few farts in the BB space every time they win a match, but the result is not as good as someone else's casual, talented performance—it makes me want to laugh~~~】

【The farce has completely ended!】

【Don't be in a rush, the farce is over, the comedy is about to begin. Jingdong, give it your all! Send Gen. to catch up with T1's flight!】

Besides the fixed matchup of V5 against the winner of the 2-0 lower bracket, G2, where the final 3-0 winner will go straight to the final stage of the tournament.

The remaining teams need to continue to compete for seats.

Of course, everyone knows the suspense of the other teams' confrontations; only the match between Jingdong, who just sent T1 away, and Gen. , who was just knocked down, will be the most important focal point of the battle.

Very obviously.

The showdown in the lower bracket is even more brutal, and it is even highly likely that it will create new history again.

(End of this chapter)