Chapter 23: That day, one year ago, was the LSPL Spring Finals!

"Wuxin, light the lantern!"

Mata shouted loudly, tossing out the soul-guiding lantern and simultaneously flashing to pull, aiming to bring the ADC to a safe position.

However, he was slowed by the rolling barrel.

Even after flashing, he couldn't use the lantern to pull Sivir too far away.

Every step is according to plan!

After Doinb landed, he waved his big hand and released the Ice Frost Claw, reaching toward the position of Thresh and Lunzi Ma.

The Frost Ring immobilized both, forcing Lunzi Ma to use Cleanse, and immediately followed with a Frozen Tomb to freeze them.

Doinb's skill usage was very reasonable.

The regrettable thing is that, relying solely on his damage, it's not enough to kill Sivir.

In the end, he only got Thresh's kill.

There's no way, those two are too slippery.

It's fine, killing one is a profit; the ADC losing two waves of minions is no different from dying once.

Xu Dongmen was very satisfied with this result.

Strictly speaking, this bottom lane dive was a bit forced; Mata earlier brought the ADC back to the turret, then used a ward to flush him out, directly disrupting Xu Dongmen's deployment and forcing him to initiate early.

At this moment, the bottom lane minion wave had not yet reached the tower, so UZI and Apocalypse couldn't cross the turret to help.

The 4v2 became a 2v2; being able to kill one is already pretty good.

If I had flash this wave, I might have a chance for a double kill, but it's not big, since I'm not yet level 6.

Xu Dongmen returned to the jungle to continue farming.

Just now, when he and Doinb teamed up for a gank, Mala Xiangguo ran to the upper river, ate the marked river crab, and gained the first stack of Thresh's Mark.

Next, he should go take the red buff.

Xu Dongmen anticipated the enemy jungler's path; it's already 7 minutes, and the second wave of buffs is about to respawn.

He knows, but he won't go fight Thresh; picking Gragas isn't for jungle 1v1s.

Set the pace!!

Set the pace!!!

Still set the pace!

"Ying Bi Ge, I took the blue," Xu Dongmen greeted.

It's not that he's greedy for the blue; mainly his jungle progress is behind, and he must clear the three monster camps in the upper half before he can reach level 6.

"You eat, you eat; I said earlier that as long as you play AP, I'll give you the blue. I'll have my lunchbox later, I'm not lacking blue." Doinb showed generosity.

On his first recall, he bought a Blasting Wand; having just gotten a kill bottom lane, the money for the Needlessly Large Rod is almost saved.

In the current version, Rod of Ages offers great value; not to mention Ice Witch, even Leopard Girl often builds it.

Boom—

One exploding barrel left the area blank; Titan's flash had just cooled and was forced out.

What annoyed Looper most was that, after the barrel forced out his flash, it refused to leave, instead circling from behind the tower and driving him into the bush.

Wow, losing this game is too awful; 0-1 start, and his last hits are already behind by about 20.

This wave will lose another minion wave, and even Sivir is coming up to apply pressure; Xiangguo needs to come, otherwise top lane really can't be played.

In this game, RNG's top lane is truly a sacrifice, sacrificing from the ban/pick phase onward!

On the battlefield, Mala Xiangguo arrived late in a leisurely manner, escorting the top laner back to the tower to farm.

Xu Dongmen somewhat admired this former three-star white top laner; his teleport was already ready, and as long as he returned to base to resupply and TP came out, Xu Dongmen couldn't do anything about him.

Exchanging teleport is to protect one's own development; keeping teleport is to guard the bottom lane.

Looper chose the latter; this is a model blue-collar top laner.

Not only him, but it's also a common trait among current top laners; they all lean blue-collar.

The heavy armor warrior is already a thing of the past; in fact, even in Season 5, only from May 16 to May 18 was the top lane meta, and after the Worlds' brief glory, the top lane returned to tank warfare.

The War God is just temporary; the Phantom God is the norm!

Kill kill, everything can be killed.

Thresh Thresh, nice!

AD AD, he still has flash; using flash would be pointless, let's spare his life for now.

In the headset, the roars of UZI and Apocalypse sounded, and good news arrived.

The bottom lane completed a minion wave kill.

Handsome!

Xu Dongmen's voice was excited; his joy was no less than getting a kill himself.

Since he and Doinb forcefully pushed the bottom lane, the bottom lane gap has widened.

This wave, he again forced the enemy mid and jungle to the top lane, giving the bottom lane solo space.

UZI and Apocalypse did not disappoint him, killing the flashless Thresh in one go and forcing Lunzi Ma to flash.

As a jungler, this kind of feedback is what's most needed!

I'll take the red first; after taking the red, we'll make a bottom lane play.

Xu Dongmen began planning again.

The bottom lane turret is already low on health; as long as we come again for a kill under the turret, raise the pace, this match is basically secured.

But RNG is after all not an ordinary team; having suffered previous losses, this time Sivir just disappeared from mid lane, and the bottom lane became alert.

The bottom lane's vigilance is strong, and the mid/jungle support speed also suddenly increased!

Thresh and LeBlanc have both come; this wave can't be tower-dived.

Xu Dongmen thought it over and decided to let Doinb go back to mid lane to farm first, and bottom lane should not force a turret dive for now.

After Zyra reached a certain level, she already had some wave‑clear ability.

In this situation, forcing a turret destroy easily leads to trouble.

Of course, the pressure that should be applied still needs to be given; Xu Dongmen never left the bottom side, and Doinb would always head toward bottom lane right after pushing the wave.

What is a strong team?

A strong team can quickly organize the next wave of offense even after an engagement hits a wall, through constant pulling and pressuring, forcing the opponent into mistakes.

Take the mid‑lane little tiger as an example; as a Deceiver, if he stays in lane all the time it's hard to find an opening.

Once he starts roaming back and forth on the map to support, there's an opening.

On the battlefield, QG's mid‑lane and jungle were camping in the river chokepoint and caught Lulu heading toward bottom lane.

"Kneel!"

Doinb initiated his ultimate, Xu Dongmen followed up with a body slam, and Lulu was instantly knocked into a clone.

She was invisible, yet unable to move.

Both her real and illusionary forms were bound in place by the Ice Ring!

Boom—

Snow beer cans littered the ground, Xu Dongmen finished with his ultimate, successfully taking Lulu's head.

Poor Tiger General, he even flashed to his death!

When mid lane fell, the bottom lane turret collapsed on its own.

Just over ten minutes in, the gold difference reached 4K.

Across top, mid, and bottom lanes, each player was ahead by exactly 1k.

Outstanding—equal share for all!

By contrast, the jungle's lane lead was actually the smallest; Kai'Sa cleared a lot of jungle this game, and her jungle clear count stayed ahead of the wine barrel from start to finish.

But it doesn't matter; even if the gold lead were reversed, it's no big deal—Xu Dongmen just needs to make it rain to feed his teammates.

On this game he took the wine barrel, and his main thing is laying down the pace!

At 13 minutes, the duo that had swapped to top lane helped destroy the first top turret.

Two minutes later, pressure was applied to mid lane and the mid turret fell.

At 16 minutes, Xu Dongmen caught Thresh placing wards in the jungle and hooked him in with a belly flop.

Spicy Hot Pot arrived, sprouting a Sheep Spirit's Blessing under Mata's feet and saving him.

However, this move only let Mata live two seconds longer.

Boom—

The exploding wine barrel traced an arc and detonated inside the blessing circle.

Thresh was blown into Kai'Sa's ultimate, turning back into a lamb awaiting slaughter!

【QG, XDM (wine barrel) killed RNG, Mata (Soul Jailer)】

"So beautiful!"

"What a delight to watch that snowball roll!"

"I said it before—trust Dongmen!"

Backstage, QG's coaching staff were thrilled, as if drinking sweet rain.

It's no surprise this lineup could gain an early edge; what amazed them was the nonstop wave of pace from start to finish.

Just past 20 minutes, the victory was sealed!

"I was originally most worried that this lineup has too much AP, with only Lucian as AD on the whole team; once the enemy builds magic resist, our power curve will plummet straight down, making it hard in late‑game team fights to focus‑fire and kill anyone." Cui Jiaolian gave an objective assessment.

Pu Longyun agreed: "Exactly—we don't even need to wait for the third item; the enemy's mid and jungle can get magic resist on their second item, Kai'Sa's Bloodthirster, Lulu's Redemption, and as soon as those two pieces appear we'll instantly fall behind."

Lucian isn't a primary AD carry, and top‑lane Ekko mainly deals AP damage.

In the coaches' view, picking the wine barrel and Ice Woman for mid‑jungle was a huge risk.

If it weren't Xu Dongmen, they would never dare to pull out a jungle wine barrel.

Xu Dongmen's perfect pacing meant the game was already decided before RNG's jungle could pull out their second item.

Just past 20 minutes, the gold difference neared 10,000.

The advantage was comparable to SKT's first game against ROX.

In the end, the match ended at 29 minutes, with QG securing the first point.

"Dongmen, you brought the pace insanely awesome this game!"

"Spicy Hot Pot had zero presence!"

As soon as Xu Dongmen sat down, Lin Ke ran over to massage his shoulders and back, while the team captain also handed him fruit—fit for an emperor.

Previously, QG usually gave this treatment to Swift.

Xu Dongmen also figured out why Swift could be the team tyrant—when even the top boss showers you with flattery, who wouldn't get conceited?

"No way, SKT vs. Huya Team's second game isn't even over yet?" UZI glanced at the LCK.

At that point, SKT and ROX's second game had reached 35 minutes, SKT had lost a lane's inhibitor, and their gold was behind by 8,000.

"ROX has a huge advantage!"

"Another Ezreal‑plane poke comp, and they pulled it off this game."

"In this version the plane is a bit OP—basic attack deals 110% damage, half AP half AD, and after three items it's stronger than many primary AD carries."

"Hard to say, but SKT just killed Smeb and Little Peanut, giving them a chance to force Baron!"

"We have to fight either way, but the plane has an explosive pack!"

"Holy shit, Kuro!"

"………"

Before Xu Dongmen and the others returned to the stage, the second match between SKT and ROX also had a result, with ROX winning back one game.

After all, they were first in the regular season, so their strength is still there.

In the LCK spring finals, a suspense arose.

Coincidentally, the LPL spring finals also staged almost the same plot.

In the second match, RNG rallied to tie the score.

"Dongmen is being targeted, RNG has started jungle‑support coordination!"

"Mata's laning isn't as strong as before, but his roaming and vision are still maxed out; our jungle is totally under RNG vision, so wherever the jungler goes, he's seen crystal clear."

"Honestly, we lost this game because of early‑game coordination; Dongmen is having a really rough time."

"Besides that, Xiaohu's plane is also pretty strong; we should keep banning it next game."

"…………"

"1‑1!"

"The match is tied, so the BO5 becomes a BO3."

"As expected of a final, both teams' offensive pacing is very smooth; as long as they get an early lead, they can snowball it!"

"One game lasted 29 minutes, the other 31 minutes; both can be called stomps."

"Before the match we said, unlike EDG, which focuses on counter‑attacking defense, both QG and RNG are offense‑oriented teams, with greater aggression than defense; thus when they gain an advantage they often win outright, and when they're behind they rarely can drag it out long."

"On the commentator's desk, Chang Mao and others began to summarize."

"QG and RNG share many similarities; aside from playstyle, the relationship between the two teams goes way back, even traceable to the LSPL."

"Although RNG is under the Royal Clan, they are not the same team as Royal SHR, nor are they the S5‑era KING and GT; they are actually VGP, the runner‑up of the 2015 LSPL spring season."

"In that season, both the LSPL champion and runner‑up could qualify directly for the LPL."

"The runner‑up VGP entered the LPL and was renamed RNG, with Xiaohu and Mlxg as the team's core."

"The champion was none other than QG!"

"A year ago's LSPL spring final opponents are facing each other again today in the LPL final—can you believe this storyline?"

"That day last year was truly unimaginable… although RNG merely borrowed VGP's slot, with the roster completely overhauled from top to bottom, QG is still the same QG!"

"This is practically fate's arrangement; I dare say such a situation has no precedent in the past and is unlikely to recur in the future."

"Joker exclaimed with feeling."

"In league history, LSPL promotion teams have always been synonymous with bottom‑dwellers; take WEA, YG, EPA, UP—they could be kings in the LPSL, but as soon as they entered the LPL they all turned into salted fish."

"Even with a rare creature like Snake, reaching the semifinals is already the limit."

"Represented by QG, the up‑and‑coming promotion teams have been lifted to an entirely new height."

"This ragtag little team definitely has a meme!"

"Xu Dongmen, you call the shots in your jungle!"

"Jian Zihan is the world's number one AD!"

"Come on, Jin Gu Gu!"

"The camera cuts to the player tunnel; both teams' players return to the stage and are greeted enthusiastically by the live audience."

"From the spectators' point of view, this mutual‑slugfest isn't the most exciting, but at least it avoids one side being swept 3‑0."

"Being able to watch more than three games already makes the ticket worth it."

"At a glance, most of the audience downstairs have empty hands, with only a small proportion holding cheering items."

"Most of them are neutral spectators!"

"After all, they are both new‑generation teams; it's normal that their fan base can't compare with old‑guard clubs like EDG and WE."

"It's not that they have no fans, but rather they lack dedicated team fans!"

"But there's one thing we must make clear: although both teams have only played one year in the LPL, they already have brilliant records!"

"RNG inherited the old Royal Clan—never mind that—while QG, as a team that only entered the public eye in the S5 season, made the finals on their first LPL appearance last summer, missing just a bit to achieve an LSPL‑to‑LPL back‑to‑back championship; this is their second time reaching the finals."

"Making it to the finals two years in a row—before this, only EDG and OMG in LPL had managed that."

"Respect!"

"Whether it's RNG or QG, no matter what, after today's final the LPL will crown a new king!"

"Next, we return the match to the commentators."