Chapter 284: I'm Guilty! A Huge Wave of Public Opinion! The Journey to the Asian Games?

The heat surrounding the LPL opening match was extremely high.

And the day immediately following the LPL opening match, the LCK opening match also kicked off.

The LCK opening day featured all the top-tier teams, with the first match being GEN, who had just returned home after a loss at MSI, facing off against Hanwha, who hadn't made it to MSI.

————In fact, right after MSI ended, quite a few Korean fans claimed that if Hanwha had gone instead, the result definitely would have been different!

A classic case of "the one who didn't go is always the best."

Of course, Hanwha was composed of last year's runner-up top and mid laners, plus Canyon who had fled from DK to join forces, so in terms of "international" performance, they were indeed stronger than GEN, who consistently choked internationally.

However, what truly sparked intense discussion was what both teams used in the first game.

Chovy used the Statikk Shiv LeBlanc that had caused such a huge stir just yesterday, and Viper also used Statikk Shiv Kai'Sa.

Meanwhile, their opponent Canyon also used the new champion Naafiri, though in the jungle position.

The final result was that GEN returned to the league and instantly felt like they were back on their home turf, steadily defeating Hanwha 2-1.

It was just that the bullet comments in the domestic broadcast stream were full of mockery and teasing.

【What a fast theft!】

【But I have to say, Chovy practices things really fast. If you told me Canyon had practiced the dog in advance, I'd believe it, but this LeBlanc was definitely stolen yesterday, right? It only came out yesterday and he already knows how to play it today?】

【This is talent. Look at some others, they can't even practice an Azir in several seasons!】

【You fanboys, that's enough. Are you the only ones allowed to discover things? Can't others discover it themselves? It just so happened that the LPL played first!】

【KRD (Korean fanboys) are panicking. Didn't you see the OP videos? You were playing normally the day before, and suddenly you're grinding it for a dozen games in one day—can you still make excuses for that?】

【Heh, so only Ye Bo can practice secretly in private, and others can't, right!】

To be fair.

At the very least, the playstyles of Statikk Shiv LeBlanc and Statikk Shiv Kai'Sa were indeed learned overnight by the neighboring region.

There are quite a few channels on Bilibili dedicated to spectating the ranked training of various professional players, and the daily matches of top-tier pros basically always have people watching.

And the game accounts of several top-tier LCK mid laners did indeed suddenly start showing continuous games of Statikk Shiv LeBlanc and mid-lane Naafiri starting yesterday afternoon, which was a very obvious phenomenon.

As for Ye Bo.

After winning his first World Championship, Ye Bo unlocked the "Trial Grounds Time+" feature, which allows him to spend ten times the Counter-Attack Points to open up extra time in the trial grounds.

He certainly can't afford to use it for normal training, but it comes in handy when he needs to blitz-practice new champions.

So when Ye Bo suddenly picked Naafiri on stage, but no training records could be found in his ranked history, there was once a rumor that 【This proves that Ye's real training is all done secretly in private; the rank records he shows are all a front! He's still lying!】

But at the end of the day.

Actually, there's nothing to say about regions learning from each other.

Professional players are "supposed" to learn from one another, and no one can rely solely on an "information gap" to win matches.

Ultimately, it comes down to the players' true strength.

Professional players and team analysts are human too; it's impossible for them to uncover everything worth developing the moment a new patch drops, and there will always be omissions.

But the biggest difference between a professional and a high-ranked casual player is actually "learning speed"—this can also be considered the most fundamental talent of becoming a professional player.

Of course.

So-called "talent" has many layers.

For example, Chovy has always been called a talented player, and one manifestation of this is that one has almost never heard of him having any champion or system he "can't play"; he can play anything.

Comparing this to LPL mid laners, if nothing else, just the Azir alone has always been a lagging point!

Before Ye Bo appeared, even Knight, who was always seen as the "Number One Mid in the Country," had an Azir that was a piece of trash!

Then there's Ye Bo.

Even when Old Man Bo was just starting his professional career, he was able to quickly transition from an assassin specialist to a supportive, "coasting" mid laner in a short time.

Being able to master any type of champion is also a different kind of talent.

"Master Ye, what do you think of Canyon's jungle Naafiri in the first game?"

Xun, lost in thought, sought advice from Ye Bo, who had already been dubbed the "Dog King" on the forums.

After thinking for a moment, Ye Bo analyzed earnestly: "It feels decent. Actually, Naafiri's laning against many champions is still not great, and this W still lacks a bit of gap-closing ability, but in the jungle, its fighting ability should be able to be fully unleashed!"

Although Ye Bo knows Naafiri quite well, he isn't a jungle player after all, and his understanding of the jungle position certainly can't compare to a proper jungle player.

Xun was already eager to try: "Then teach me! I want to practice it so I can use it when I play against Chuan-ge! Chuan-ge definitely won't know how to play this!"

"Sure, let's wait until we finish watching the next game."

"There's nothing to watch in the next game, right? T1 is playing this team called what, LSB? Isn't this just a slaughter?"

Unexpectedly, Xun's words became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

T1, facing LSB, a team in the lower-middle of the league, actually seemed to struggle immensely. Their rhythm was bizarre and their play was stumbling; there wasn't even a hint of a "strong team bullying a weak one" feeling!

It looked even more grueling than the clash of titans between GEN and Hanwha in the previous match!

In it, Faker also picked Statikk Shiv LeBlanc.

But as his signature champion, the gap between his performance in this game and Chovy's, who had just left the stage, was extremely obvious.

Several of his plays were even distorted, his KDA was even negative, and in the end, he almost threw the game due to his own operational errors!

"For real!? How did they almost lose!?" Xun widened his eyes in surprise: "LSB is this strong!?"

Beryl, who hadn't stopped eating in the base, mumbled with a pudding in his mouth: "T1, what the h#% happened to them."

"How are they even worse than their MSI form? It feels like the whole team isn't using their brains... They won't fail to make it to Worlds, will they?"

"Sigh, if we don't beat T1 at Worlds, it won't be fun to play~"

"Holy crap, God Beryl, you're being too humble!"

Ye Bo was also thinking about something.

The MSI patch was indeed extremely ill-suited for T1, and coupled with the mid laner's terrible form, their cold-upset early exit could barely be considered reasonable.

But the mid-season new patch—according to V5's understanding, T1 should be a perfect fit for it!

First of all, Faker's contribution to the team isn't primarily reflected in "roaming," so the changes to minion waves don't have a huge impact on them.

On the contrary, because the roaming attribute is weakened and the importance of laning in all three lanes is increased, it should be a huge buff for a team like T1, where all three lanes are strong!

Especially the top lane!

As the world-recognized strongest new-generation top laner, Zeus is best known for his {laning ability}.

Even though the team got such poor results at MSI, he was still able to break out from the pack of veteran LCK top laners and secure a precious spot on the Asian Games roster.

It's enough to see that Zeus must have shown excellent performance in the selection trials!

And when Ye Bo and Beryl saw this mid-season new patch that would inevitably carry through to the future World Championship, they actually listed T1 as their "number one opponent" right away, precisely because they were wary of their laning ability in the top and bottom lanes.

But their opening match today looked quite different from what they had imagined.

However, the observant Ye Bo seemed to notice something.

Lee Sang-hyeok on the camera seemed to frequently show a somewhat pained expression several times during the match...

"Stomach hurts. Master Ye, I'm going to take a dump first, then come back to practice the dog!"

Xun trotted toward the restroom.

Ye Bo also boredly opened his phone to surf the web.

Unsurprisingly, T1, who had just narrowly avoided a massive upset, immediately occupied the front-page topics.

【Don't know, so I'm asking: T1 can't even beat a roadside team like LSB anymore? If the opponent hadn't thrown at the end, they would've actually lost, right!】

【If you ask me, Big Lee Dog, please don't cling on and refuse to leave. Retire quickly. Don't ruin your legacy; you're still the greatest of all time. Don't hold back the four little ones anymore!】

【Old and not dying is a thief! They played like sh*t at MSI. With that Nautilus and Neeko, T1 purely lost the game because of him alone! Is he worthy of the four little ones' performance!】

【Truly the only weak link on the whole team! Completely rotten! So bad yet still clinging on, I don't know what he's self-righteously moved about!】

【A classic case of using one game to deny everything. Too toxic. Can even the ID "Faker" be flamed like this?】

【So what? If you play like trash, you can't be criticized? Tell me, did they lose MSI because he was the only one dragging them down! Being stomped by Ye repeatedly is one thing, but even Poby can stomp him! I think if he keeps clinging on, he'll be more of a filial son at Worlds than Doran!】

Ye Bo frowned as he looked at the flood of malicious comments.

Although Faker has many fans, in the current situation, it is indeed difficult to defend him.

Last year's Worlds saw them upset by DRX, MSI was a super embarrassing first-round exit, and now they almost lost their first Summer Split match to a bottom-tier team... Even the fans are finding it hard to fight back against the wind right now.

However, in Ye Bo's heart, he has always regarded him as an opponent worthy of respect.

Seeing that the posters in this thread were clearly fans of someone else, obviously holding a grudge and taking this opportunity to vent their emotions by stomping on him while he was down, he chose to quickly scroll down.

Besides the topics about the latest matches, the most common posts on the forum were still discussions about yesterday's opening match.