Chapter 361: Swiss Stage Thriller Groups! Rigged or a Gauntlet?

The opening ceremony ended, but the scene remained incredibly heated for a long while.

Standing at the entrance to the backstage area, Ye Bo listened quietly through the gap in the curtain to his name being called out from the high stage, unable to help but feel his heart surge with the infectious atmosphere of the venue.

The lights began to rise, and the host walked onto the stage.

"Summoners here at the venue and in the online streams, good afternoon! Welcome to Seoul!"

It was not hard to recognize the booming voice of the familiar "Roaring Emperor": "The spectacular opening ceremony has concluded. Before the first match of the Play-Ins begins, let us first invite the defending champions to return the trophy!"

Everyone turned their attention toward the entrance.

Jiejie walked onto the stage from the exit holding the trophy, though his expression looked rather unhappy—after all, EDG hadn't even made it to the World Championship this year, and having to return alone to represent the team for this segment was somewhat painful.

Earlier, after EDG confirmed they would miss the S13 World Championship, Meiko had joined the club in releasing a departure announcement, leaving the EDG he had stayed with for eight years.

According to informants from the "Anti-League" restroom, he had likely received an invitation from Guo Hao and was preparing to head to TES next season to form the "Brother and Sister" duo from "The Tracker's Love."

This resulted in Jiejie being the only one remaining at EDG, with no one to accompany him.

It wasn't as if they could call Uzi!

Come to think of it, this wasn't the first time a former World Championship-winning team failed to make it to Worlds yet still had to return the trophy—FPX did the same thing two years ago at S10, successfully making Khan the only "negative-one-title top laner" in history.

But just then, screams suddenly erupted from all around the venue.

It turned out the Riot official broadcast director had suddenly made a move, giving a full half of the screen time to Ye Bo, who was quietly observing from the backstage entrance!

Even though he had gone to another team and it wasn't appropriate for him to take the stage.

But with the two of them standing apart on the giant screen, it really did look like a "cyber trophy return"!

Ye Bo was slightly stunned to see his own face on the giant screen, then waved at the camera.

Because of the buildup from the promotional video, the audience, already hyped up, was ignited instantly, and soon a tsunami-like chant of "Ye! Ye! Ye!" came from outside.

However.

This scene was clearly somewhat awkward for the local South Korean audience and the Roaring Emperor standing on stage.

After all, the "Ascension" theme song MV that had just played was indeed an explosive, nostalgic hit in the eyes of the international and LPL audiences.

But for them—that was all their own "history of humiliation" from last year!

The Roaring Emperor could only sink his Qi into his dantian and force his megaphone to drown out the noise: "After a year of fierce fighting, we have finally arrived at the Play-In stage. Eight teams are about to give their all to compete for the precious spots in the Swiss Stage!"

"For our opening match, it will be the LCK fourth seed DK against the LPL fourth seed WBG!"

"Let us invite the players from both sides to the stage!"

After all, it was only the Play-Ins, so there was no grand entrance ceremony.

Both teams walked out from the tunnel together, and the fans of both sides at the venue were roaring at the top of their lungs to compete in volume.

Although the DK fans were certainly no match for this WBG squad, the South Korean fans, holding back a belly full of frustration, insisted on reclaiming some ground here, and their desperate shouting actually faintly held off the cheers from the domestic WBG fans.

The first Play-In match officially began.

Everyone's attention was drawn back to the Summoner's Rift.

The match between WBG and DK was undoubtedly the most suspenseful of the Play-Ins and served as the reference point for all main-stage teams to understand the "meta."

"K'Sante isn't played much anymore, Neeko support was nerfed but still banned, and the bot lane is still dominated by double marksmen."

Ye Bo watched the draft and pondered.

"For now, it looks like there aren't many changes in other positions. The main change is in the top lane; they are indeed basically all fighter-carry types. Everyone has realized this."

"Of course, we can't rule out that some are hiding things, since it's only the Play-Ins."

BeryL mumbled while sucking on a popsicle: "The lineup looks alright. Feels like DK is a bit hard to mess with~"

Flandre teased him happily: "Although I also hope WBG can win, Brother BeryL, why don't you even believe in Brother Xu?"

"Hey, that guy said he prepared a secret weapon and said he'd come to the quarterfinals to kick my butt!" BeryL shook his head: "But I feel like he won't make it to the quarterfinals~~"

Actually, you couldn't blame BeryL for not being optimistic about his brother.

In all fairness.

If you only look at the roster, besides Xu Xiu, everyone on DK was a rookie in the "youth storm." Making it to the World Championship this year could already be considered a quite unexpected achievement.

Compared to WBG, which had TheShy and Xiaohu, as well as the Asian Games duo who had just returned with gold medals, the roster was definitely much weaker.

But unexpectedly.

The development of the opening match exceeded everyone's expectations.

WBG looked as if they had "synergy" problems; for the first two games, everyone was dizzy and disoriented. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought this was the team that had just made it to Worlds.

TheShy was outstanding in his daring to engage and die, directly being "tethered" by "Little Zeus" Siwoo, who was a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger, even managing a solo kill in the matchup.

Xiaohu and Weiwei's mid-jungle duo were locked in an endless struggle with Xu Xiu and the rookie Lucid, unable to break free.

These were still minor problems.

The most important thing was that WBG's most stable and relied-upon bot lane carry seemed to have "lost their way" this game, being suppressed throughout the entire match by the rookie duo Peyz and Delight!

In the end, WBG lost the opening match, drawing a wave of indignation in the chat.

[Brother Xu is not a district! He is the S10 World Championship mid laner! According to the Incheon and Iceland people, he is a Shanghainese!]

[Did no one notice Pi Hu? May I ask what he did this game! Truly, the less ability, the less responsibility, right?]

[Fruit fly larvae can't fly over the sewer, E. coli can't swim over the petri dish, who has the heart to blame them?]

[Character Index: Xiaohu, amoeba, capable of simple biological activities.]

[Can only say this game once again proved the value of the Asian Games mid laner; he can even win a gold medal with this bot lane!]

[Is there a possibility that Gala and Crisp haven't recovered yet, still thinking they are sitting next to Master Ye, and are playing without their brains, resulting in them playing themselves dizzy!]

This time, there really was a "Conan" in the chat.

WBG playing like this in the first game, besides the fact that its members were all a bit "neurotic," was mainly because the bot lane duo hadn't recovered.

The Asian Games gold medal was not without a "price." After all, it took up a whole month of training time. The last time these five played a match together was already two months ago!

WBG even had to play the Play-Ins a week early—meaning after returning, they only had a little over a week to adjust.

It was reasonable that the bot lane duo hadn't adjusted from the "brainless habit" they developed during the month of training camp.

The bottom lane duo hadn't adjusted from the "brain-dead habit" they'd developed during the month of training camp, so it was reasonable to reason with them.

The chat was also frantically attacking Xiaohu, who looked very "invisible" the whole game, criticizing him for becoming a classic "soft-legged shrimp" as soon as he reached Worlds, with some even worrying if they would be eliminated in the top 16.

"Not a big problem, isn't there a double-elimination bracket? Feels like there's no pressure~" Xun was leisurely pedaling his gaming chair nearby.

"Unless they lose to GAM, and what sane person would lose to—ah!!"

A loud crash suddenly came from nearby, causing everyone to look over instantly.

A figure had already rolled onto the floor with their chair, looking disheveled and grimacing, clutching their butt and head in pain.

It felt as if they had been struck by divine retribution!

Everyone rushed over to help.

Beichuan couldn't help but laugh as he teased: "Hey, Brother Xun, take it easy. If you want to sit in the starting lineup based on your own strength, you don't need to hurt yourself to let a brother take your spot... I'll just buy you two bowls of beef noodles~"

Beichuan couldn't help but chuckle as he teased, "Hey, Brother Xun, take it easy. I want to earn a starting spot with my own strength, but there's no need to hurt yourself if you really want to give me your seat. I'll just order you two bowls of beef noodles~"

The Play-In schedule was tight, starting back-to-back, and would be completed in just four days.

Unfortunately, the "Vietnam War veteran" that everyone expected to "make history" did not appear.

Although GAM was certainly not weak among the many wildcard regions, for the two major regions of LPL and LCK, this team was like the "eunuch chamber" of the international stage every year.

Losing one game was no different from being castrated upon entering the palace.

—After all, once you lose a game, unless you obtain the latest "Bodhi's remains" to regrow a severed limb, you will never be able to shake the "eunuch" label for the rest of your life!

And just when everyone thought the overall situation of the Play-Ins was settled and the subsequent matches had lost their suspense and were meaningless.

And just when everyone thought the overall situation of the play-in stage was settled and the subsequent matches had lost their suspense and were no longer interesting.

The most exciting and impressive match of the Play-Ins, and also the one that created history for another team.

Was actually the loser's bracket final between France's BDS and Taiwan's PSG!

With "Maple" and former EDG champion substitute Junjia leading the way, PSG, as the last remaining hope of the Taiwan region, had already killed the series 2-0, with huge advantages in both consecutive games.

Anyone looking at it would have thought victory was in their grasp.

Anyone looking at it would think victory was already in their grasp.