Chapter 21: with translation of chapter title

Qi Zhong Tennis Center

LPL -> LPL

As the tennis venue with the largest scale in Asia and ranked third in the world.

World Football

The venue is top‑notch, and they also invited Duan Xuan, host of the 'Heavenly Football' program, as the MC.

Xu Dongmen

Starting in 2015, three consecutive LPL finals were held in a ten‑thousand‑person venue, an unprecedented feat in domestic esports history.

Madlife -> Madlife

Backstage, Xu Dongmen and the others arrived at the venue two hours early and waited in the lounge.

While waiting, everyone pulled out their phones to watch the LCK final.

On the same day, the LCK final begins one hour earlier.

"Holy crap, the LCK opening ceremony is so fancy!"

"After all, as the birthplace of girl groups, Koreans are really strong in this aspect of performance."

"All the LCK teams are here; that's Madlife and Score, right?"

In the picture, over 40 players from the eight LCK teams are split into two camps, one row on the left and one row on the right.

In front of them sits the LCK's vase‑shaped trophy.

On either side of the trophy, Madlife and Score clasp their hands together, acting as guardians.

As the music begins, over 40 players simultaneously gaze at the trophy, their eyes filled with longing.

As the lights shift, against the backdrop of the eight teams, the members of the two finalist teams appear one after another.

Smeb -> Smeb

The eight teams that didn't reach the finals and their player representatives stand in the center of the stage, while the finalists are positioned facing each other on the four sides of the stage.

Top lane versus top lane, mid versus mid, jungle versus jungle, bot lane versus bot lane…

As the light column falls, Faker and the others appear one by one before the camera.

HUYATigers -> HUYATigers

The QG crowd is full of envy; in terms of scale and spectacle, LCK falls far short of LPL, yet they always manage to make something impressive out of limited resources.

People often say the strength gap between LPL and LCK teams is large, but actually the behind‑the‑scenes soft power gap is even larger.

"Brothers, have you noticed that SKT's lineup looks just like the one we used against EDG in the semifinals!" Doinb exclaimed in surprise.

In the first game of the SKT vs. ROX final, they fielded a lineup that felt familiar.

Titan Bullhead

Lulu turned into Time, Braum became Tham.

The lineup they used against EDG in the fourth game was similar in effect.

Time

"Do you know what's the most outrageous? The Huya team also ran a three‑marksman comp like EDG—male gun, airplane, EZ—exactly the same as ours that day!" Uzi still vividly remembers.

The Huya team he mentioned is actually ROX; when the team was first founded it was sponsored by Huya and called HUYATigers, later they also used the names GETigers, Tigers, and KOOTigers, etc.

Only this year did they change the name to ROXTigers.

Old players like Stain habitually call them the Huya team.

In their first game against SKT, ROX fielded a three‑marksman system, supplemented by Titan and Bullhead as the two front‑liners.

"They wouldn't be scrimmaging against EDG, would they?" Xu Dongmen had good reason to suspect.

Not only does the lineup closely resemble their match against EDG, but the plot is also extremely similar.

In the first match between SKT and ROX, Blank's Thresh became the most eye-catching early-game player.

On his first engagement, he got first blood on Kuro; a few minutes later, he also caught and killed Smeb.

At 7:40 into the game, Thresh had a 2-0 start.

Peanut couldn't handle him at all.

Even worse, ROX lost their mid outer turret at 10 minutes, and by 14 minutes their mid inner turret was also in jeopardy.

Kuro faced too much lane pressure and couldn't play mid at all!

At 22 minutes, the gold gap exceeded 10,000.

It was practically like playing against a bot!

"Holy crap, Blank, after not seeing him for a year, he's gotten so much stronger!" Doinb exclaimed in surprise.

Blank debuted a year ago in the LSPL; QG was also there, and he even won the championship that season.

As for Blank, nicknamed Little Black, Da B was quite familiar with him.

"How is it that whoever goes to SKT becomes stronger? Even Duke on top lane is like that; this team has a problem, really." Uzi said he couldn't understand.

"This game really isn't Peanut's fault; mid lane got cleared in ten-something minutes, how is the jungle supposed to play?" Xu Dongmen, taking the jungler's perspective, defended Peanut.

Blank played well this game, but to be honest, it's mostly due to the mid lane gap.

Aside from the two early ganks, Thresh didn't have much else to show for it; his jungle clear count had been behind, only reaching two stacks at 15 minutes.

Of course, this game was a lane phase; neither side swapped halves, so getting stacks wasn't that easy.

"The jungle is actually fine; the key is the lanes—you're getting pressured by thirty to forty creeps on each lane, how are we supposed to play?"

"SKT this season seemed to be fourth in the regular season? They beat KT and the Flying Team to reach the finals, and in game four they had to play the first seed—it's really hard to understand."

"There's nothing we can do; who let him be called SKT?"

"………"

The first match between SKT and ROX ended at 28 minutes.

ROX only managed to get a single kill in the whole match, almost being shut out.

At the same time, Xu Dongmen and the others also received notice; the venue was already mostly ready, it was their turn to go on stage.

If we say LCK's opening ceremony is king-tier, LPL at most is only silver.

Host Duan Xuan called out names one by one; the two teams came to the center of the stage to make their appearance, and the scheduling and use of camera and lighting were worse than LCK's by a hundred eighty thousand li.

Just forced the players to strike a pose!

"Wow, so many people, this venue is really huge."

After their appearance, Xu Dongmen stood on the stage and looked around; the venue was a sea of people.

A venue of fifteen thousand people, attendance rate over 80%!

The LPL's production crew isn't great, but the huge audience size makes up for it—this is a natural advantage of the region.

Don't look at Xu Dongmen's rich experience, but this is still his first time competing on such a big stage; to be honest, he was still a little nervous when he just went on stage, and his walking posture wasn't very natural.

After all, it's the LPL finals!

Ah~

After entering the player booth, Xu Dongmen sat in the gaming chair and exhaled a long breath to calm his surging emotions.

The next second, his whole demeanor changed.

Heart as pure as ice, not startled even if the heavens fall.

The big-match player marker has triggered again!

【The match currently underway is the 2016 LPL Spring Season Finals】

【The importance rating of this match is A】

【The host can exert 200% of their strength】

…………

Before the match began, the venue's big screen played the spring finals promotional video.

The result of Xu Dongmen and the others filming all day was presented before an audience of tens of millions.

Called a promotional video, but it's actually just trash talk.

The two teams' players aren't familiar with each other, and being new-generation teams, when they trash talk there's basically no psychological pressure.

V: "I think Looper's laning ability is quite average, nothing scary."

Looper: "Compared to me, V player has no advantages; my champion pool is deeper than his, and I play better than him."

The camera switched to the mid lane.

Da B, skinny as a utility pole, appeared before the camera: "In the semifinals, Xiaohu single-killed Xiye, but if they meet me, I think it'll be the opposite. I know they'll definitely ban my champion in the finals, but it doesn't matter—now Jingu is no longer what it was in the regular season; I've evolved!"

Xiaohu gave a gay smile, speaking with a voice like a male duck, and said: "Sure, then we'll see each other at the match."

Next, the bot lane also traded trash talk, with Mata even dredging up the old almanac from the S4 World Finals.

The jungler position made the final appearance!

Compared to this position, the previous ones are all juniors.

MLXG went on a tirade: "I think XDM's jungling level is just average, definitely can't compare to me; what level? Probably LSPL level... To be honest, I don't know why so many people hype him; if this counts as a genius jungler, then I think LPL has at least 12 genius junglers, oh sorry, actually 13, and one who loves lolis."

Xu Dongmen said unhurriedly: "My style is quite similar to Spicy Hot Pot's; we both like to invade and put pressure on the enemy jungler. The difference is that he shares a brain with Mata, while I have my own."

Spicy Hot Pot's eyes were sharp: "Saying too much nonsense is useless; this championship we RNG have locked down; in the finals we'll win 3-0, not losing a single game."

Xu Dongmen smiled: "I've recently been watching other regions' finals, researching MSI's opponents…"

…………