Chapter 380

At noon, the final suspense of the Swiss Stage was about to be revealed.

And compared to LNG and DK, who both drew 'relatively weak teams.'

WBG's subsequent draw luck was truly poor—they actually drew the strongest team in the 1-2 pool outside of the LPL and LCK: 【TL】!

You have to know, this TL was no longer the North American team led by Doublelift a few years ago; it had now completely rebuilt its roster.

It was a 'blood transfusion' in the true sense!

Just because the current TL was a pure, as pure as can be, 'All-Korean Team'!

The top laner was SKT's first-generation top laner Impact, and the support was Gen. G's first-generation champion CoreJJ. These two were also 'local players' holding American green cards—just like the shooter Yeon, who was 'Korean-American,' and didn't occupy a foreign player slot.

This was also due to the 'custom rules' Riot specifically set for them because the North American region had had no achievements for nearly a decade.

Other regions look at either the place of debut or the place of registration; only North America uniquely looks at: 'real-time nationality.'

And the players occupying foreign player slots were the mid laner Haeri and the jungler Pyosik.

That's right.

It was exactly that jungler from last year's runner-up DRX, and also the former teammate of V5's bot lane duo!

At the same time, TL's head coach was even the former SKT top laner, the first FMVP top laner in S-series history: Marin!

This 'All-Korean Team' had six people from top to bottom, all flowing with pure Korean blood, and even had 'four S-series champions' sitting in charge.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them the LCK's {fifth seed}!

If it wasn't for their bad draw luck, drawing T1 in the first round, they might not have fallen to the 1-2 situation.

"Can you do it, Xiaohu..." TheShy looked at the WBG members walking onto the stage, looking even more nervous than if he were playing himself.

Ye Bo, beside him, was also sweating for them.

It's not that everyone didn't believe in them.

It was mainly because when TL played T1 in the first game, they fought for nearly 40 minutes, and even led in score until the end of the match, only losing to T1 in the final 'regrettable loss' due to a small mistake.

Compared to WBG's 1-14 near-shutout yesterday, it was really hard not to worry.

Fortunately, League of Legends has never been a simple size-comparison of {A beats B, B beats C, then A must beat C}; in fact, it's completely unrelated.

Facts proved that V5's training for WBG over the past few days had been effective!

"Pyosik still wants to gank mid... but Xiaohu is going to make a play!!"

"Xiaohu completed a counter-kill under the tower! No, it seems to be a double kill!!"

"Don't mistake the tiger for Hello Kitty just because he's not roaring! Xiaohu stood up this game! He's a completely different person from his laning style of the past two days!"

"Is this still Xiaohu!?"

Pyosik wanted to make a move on mid but failed, and had originally intended to give up.

But Xiaohu actually made an 'abnormal' performance—he actually took the initiative to turn back and 'lure' them while at very low health!

If it were him from a few days ago, who prioritized self-preservation and stability above all else, one could say he would never have had such a performance.

But he actually did it!

And the good news from the mid lane, although it didn't seem to widen the gold gap, the situation was clearly starting to look different.

This was also a place 'ignored' by many people.

Sometimes you feel that playing aggressively is hard to get a kill, so it's better to just play safe and farm → but many times, once your opponent finds you are aggressive enough, they will inadvertently become cautious, or even timid.

It is precisely this indirect influence effect.

That often transforms into the key to victory at critical nodes!

"Hong Chang-hyeon is still like this after all..." Beryl sighed and shook his head as he looked at his former teammate.

Pyosik was a very 'brainless' jungler when he was at DRX last year, relying heavily on the support's command and remote control.

Now that he's in the big brother position at TL, without anyone to give him advice, he easily gets lost once he can't get into his own rhythm.

And these—were also the countermeasures Beryl taught the WBG members yesterday.

There was no way around it.

Although everyone was teammates before, Beryl now felt that he was an LPL player after all...

【I told you P-kid was the burden of last year's S-series, DRX's only Round of 16 preparation is about to be born~~~】

【Wait, no? Is the rumor that Master Ye gave Xiaohu special training true? How did he really change! Is this really Xiaohu!】

【Evolution of the Tiger: Amoeba → Earthworm → Emerging into a fly!】

【Where are those who said WBG would kneel when they saw a Korean team before the match? Stand up for me!】

【^^, beating a skin-wearing fifth seed is making a fuss, wait until you draw DK at 2-2 and you'll be honest.】

Although they defeated TL, the expressions of everyone on WBG didn't relax.

They all knew that the real tough battle might still be ahead.

And when the second round of draws took place, LNG and G2 were drawn apart, proceeding to the final natural allocation of matchups.

Both WBG and DK felt a thud in their hearts.

"The final natural matchup is formed: WBG vs. DK!"

"The final seat in the quarterfinals, the last round of the duel between the fourth seeds of the two major regions! Let us wait and see tomorrow!"

That night.

Ye Bo conducted another 'special training' for Xiaohu.

"ShowMaker's laning style is a bit different from other LCK mid laners..." Ye Bo pondered the memory of the match against DK in his mind: "Right!"

"He's a bit like you from before, Brother Hu!"

"."

Xiaohu didn't know if the other person was scolding him.

But, because DK had just beaten WBG in the Play-ins not long ago, and it was even a big win.

At this moment, Xiaohu clearly didn't have much confidence.

And in Ye Bo's view, the most important point to let Xiaohu exert his proper strength was to make him maintain confidence and believe that the opponent wasn't that powerful.

Ye Bo thought of a 'Psychological Suggestion Method.'

"Brother Hu, imagine it, imagine substituting yourself as Faker, and then playing against the 'Xiaohu' on the other side! — Trust me, ShowMaker is really about the same as you right now!"

Xiaohu obediently closed his eyes.

But after just a while, he shook his head blankly: "It won't work, I can't imagine it at all, I can't substitute myself!"

"Then, can you imagine substituting yourself as me?" Ye Bo continued to offer advice.

After hearing this, Xiaohu closed his eyes again, and then shook his head even faster.

"I can't substitute that either. As soon as I close my eyes, I only substitute into the scene of me laning against you."

Ye Bo felt it was a bit troublesome.

He brainstormed in his mind.

If mid laners all leave him with such memories, is there a possibility?

"I've got it!" Ye Bo had a sudden flash of inspiration.

"You can try substituting the perspective of Uzi!"

"Imagine, now you are Uzi, and the ShowMaker sitting opposite tomorrow is 'Xiaohu'..."

Don't say it.

This really works!

Compared to Lee Sang-hyeok and Ye Bo, who have no intersection in daily life and only have various 'painful memories' of matchups on the field—Uzi is Xiaohu's old teammate of many years, and Xiaohu is incredibly familiar with him.

It's all about the sense of substitution!

The better news is that although the two are teammates, and not in the same position, there really is a bit of a 'suppression' psychological effect...

【The Last Day of the Swiss Stage】

LNG and G2 in the front both defeated C9 and MAD, the two European and American teams, without any surprises, advancing to the quarterfinals first.

And for the final closing match, which was also the ownership of the last quarterfinal seat.

Everyone in the venue was full of anticipation.