Chapter 359: Predicting the Top 20 Champions? A Miracle in the Canyon!

The National Day holiday has ended.

The V5 team members boarded their flight, heading to the host city of this year’s World Championship: Seoul, South Korea.

And it was precisely today that the S13 World Championship patch was finally launched.

"Master Ye, Brother Genshin, will there be any major changes in this patch?"

He Youjun had chartered the entire business class. Xun, in the seat in front, was counting on his fingers while repeating the patch notes he had just heard from the back, then turned his head to ask.

"There should be," Ye Bo said, appearing to be deep in thought as well.

Although V5 fans inevitably complain, their first reaction upon seeing patch notes is always, "They’re targeting V5!"

But the players themselves don't actually think that way.

After all, champions are nerfed because the designers believe their power level is too high—and if they happen to frequently land on the V5 members' heads, it only goes to show that their speed in "grasping the patch" and "adapting to the patch" is very fast.

When it comes down to it, the assassins Ye Bo shone with during the Summer Finals, the mid-lane Ruined King he used previously, and even his most famous—though not necessarily overpowered—Akali, were not nerfed.

If they were truly "targeting" them, these would have been the first to go!

And whether it was Statikk Shiv, K'Sante, Sion, or Varus, these were all common top-tier picks throughout the first half of the year and the Summer Split.

K'Sante in particular had almost dominated an entire season, and after undergoing multiple nerfs, it still had no effect.

The designers couldn't take it anymore and finally brought down the heavy blade!

The Q3-Flash mechanic was directly removed, the W charge could no longer have its direction adjusted after casting, and the ultimate could no longer be manually canceled once activated—it had to be forced to wait until the duration expired to automatically cancel.

Although some stats were returned, it was obvious even to the naked eye how much "dumber" it had become!

The skill ceiling had definitely been lowered significantly!

"Sion and K'Sante were heavily slashed, Jax and Renekton weren't nerfed, but Aatrox and Gwen were actually buffed..."

"If that's the case, the top-lane landscape should change drastically."

Ye Bo looked at the many champions in the update announcement and fell into deep thought.

Champion strength: it isn't necessarily just champions who receive direct buffs that are considered "buffed."

Champions that counter you getting nerfed is also a buff.

If everyone else gets buffed and you don't, that's a nerf; if everyone else gets nerfed and you don't, that's a buff!

That’s the theory of Canyon Relativity.

So, every time there is a major patch change, one might try to dig up some obscure champions who might be playable or even very strong in the current meta.

Ye Bo turned to look at Li Xuanjun, who was leaning against the window without speaking: "Gun-ge, have you been practicing Gwen and Rumble lately?"

Li Xuanjun nodded immediately: "You told me to practice them before, so I've been practicing them all along."

Beryl, meanwhile, noticed a change that didn't seem very eye-catching: "I feel like this defense tower buff is weird."

Ye Bo nodded as well: "I noticed that too."

"But I feel like the impact is negligible; I even feel like it's something we can take advantage of."

The timing of the patch update was awkward, with only a few days left before the upcoming Play-Ins.

This type of update strategy is intended to test each team's foundation and true ability.

Therefore, all current guesses can only be guesses, difficult to prove in practice; one must wait for the Play-Ins to begin to catch a glimpse of the truth.

The group finished their brief meeting.

The cabin soon returned to a relaxed atmosphere.

Ye Bo watched the clouds outside the window for a while before taking out his phone to connect to the business class Wi-Fi.

He logged onto the internet to search for the official Riot Games Twitter, originally wanting to see the reactions of foreign fans, but didn't expect to see his own team's name the moment he clicked on the homepage.

[Regarding LPL first seed Victory5, once again embarking on the challenge of the "Golden Road" representing the LPL region, do you think they can succeed?]

In the tweet, which included a poll, they listed a review of teams in League of Legends' ten-year history that had "technically" embarked on the journey of the Golden Road—

S5 SKT: Spring and Summer champions, World champions, missing only the final game of the MSI finals;

S6 SKT: Spring champions, MSI + World champions, missing only the LCK Summer championship;

S8 RNG: Spring and Summer champions, MSI champions, World Championship quarterfinals;

S9 G2: Spring and Summer champions, MSI champions, World Championship runners-up, missing only the World Championship title;

S13 V5: Spring and Summer champions, MSI champions, missing only the World Championship (?)

Looking back at the entire 13-year history—not counting this year's V5, there were actually only 4 teams that could be considered to have stepped onto this path!

Even EDG, who won back-to-back titles in S11 and S12, couldn't use the words "missing only" because they lacked the Spring and MSI trophies, and thus weren't considered to have challenged this achievement.

This shows just how harsh and difficult this path is.

And the "voting ratio" from the anonymous users below was also very "real," highlighting a clear bias that didn't even need guessing.

Those voting "Yes" accounted for 43.96%.

Those voting "No" accounted for 25.38%.

Those voting "Don't want them to succeed, but they might" accounted for 30.66%.

The comment section of the tweet was also very lively.

[Aigoo! Even a dynasty as strong as S5 SKT couldn't complete the Golden Road, guess at which stage of the World Championship V5 will fall?]

[I guess the quarterfinals, getting knocked out by G2 just like S8 RNG! Isn't 10.20 supposed to be the quarterfinals this year? And it's being held in Korea this year, everything lines up—G2 is going to have a dynasty this year!]

[Unfair! It's seriously unfair! I highly suspect that Riot changed the format this year just to favor V5. Since they changed the format, even if they really win, it shouldn't count!]

[Stop being a barber shop, the Korean fans are making such a fuss.]

[Type 1 if you believe V5 can win the championship! Gouge your eyes out if you don't!]

[Does no one think my WBG will win? Did someone forget that Busan is the blessed land for the Incheon people in the "All-God" team? Just waiting for TheShy to return to his peak and lead the team as the fourth seed to kill their way to Busan and take the championship!]

[Didn't you see the latest post? I can only say that even Riot has already predicted V5 will win!]

Due to the World Championship reform this year, the "Group Stage" used for twelve years has been reformed into a "Swiss Stage," so the draw order of the previous A, B, C, and D groups no longer exists.

The rule of the Swiss Stage is that teams with the same win-loss record are drawn each round, so the group stage seeding must wait until the results of the Play-Ins come out in a few days.

And because of the success of the format used at MSI, Riot also optimized the Swiss Stage for the World Championship.

As for whether this brand-new format will bring brand-new challenges.

Ye Bo also felt a sense of inexplicable anticipation.

He saw the last post and subconsciously clicked refresh.

————The official Riot Twitter had just posted a new post!

"Brothers, look at the official Riot Twitter! There's new content!"

Without a group stage draw show for promotion, the official Riot Twitter simply started the annual World Championship tradition.

[2023 World Championship Top 20 Players]

"Where am I! Where am I!" Xun saw it and hurriedly scrolled down.

"Don't rush, not seeing you just means your ranking is high," Li Xuanjun said with a smile, and soon scrolled to himself.

"I actually ranked 12th? Riot is really giving me face!"