Chapter 32: Teammates got caught, but I'm still laughing while brushing!

May 5, the tenth day of the fourth lunar month.

Beginning of Summer!

At the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, 15,000 spectators from all over gathered together to witness the opening of the new MSI.

As the music started, a promotional video was first played on the big screen, with all six participating regions personified by Riot and presented to the global audience in the form of totems.

Warrior, wolf pack, archer, cheetah, king, and divine dragon!

The camera panned to the four-sided stage, where two white-clad martial monks wielded giant brushes, flashing and dodging across the ground screen, their strokes like dragons and snakes, displaying Chinese kung fu while also writing the two characters 'Shanghai'.

Below the large regular-script characters, a row of 'WELCOME' appeared.

East meets West!

"Boom, boom, boom, boom..."

Amidst the dense, solemn drumbeats, all six teams made their appearance.

In this MSI, each participating team not only has an avatar, but also its own exclusive color and BGM.

Together with the blue ocean, under the cooperation of harmony and violin, the first half had an extremely strong rhythm, and the latter part even sounded the lingering erhu, as the North American warriors CLG roared onto the battlefield!

Purple mist filled the venue, wolves surrounded, G2!

As the host, QG naturally became that touch of Chinese red.

The totem of the LPL in this MSI is precisely a soaring red dragon!

In terms of the entrance music, the extremely Chinese-flavored pentatonic scale begins with a marching army scene, troops atop a giant dragon spewing fire, the melody rising and falling in layers, symbolizing the dragon growing braver with each battle, invincible.

Artistic yet not losing realism, splendid yet not appearing frivolous.

Combining Chinese style with high technology, it can be called the most perfect opening ceremony in MSI history.

On overseas streaming platforms, someone has already been reminded of the opening ceremony of the 08 Beijing Olympics.

All we can say is that foreigners still see too little of it.

Speaking of which, who could have imagined that the lofty director of the Olympic opening ceremony would, a few years later, come running panting to film a League of Legends TV drama?

It is said to be an esports-themed project; Xu Dongmen feels he must seize the opportunity well, so he can later contribute some material to Director Zhang.

Maybe he could even squeeze in a role and show his face in the drama then.

"LPL Champion, Qiao Gu Gaming!"

As Xu Dongmen and the others made their final appearance, the atmosphere was pushed to a climax.

As the host, QG naturally shouldered the responsibility of the opening match.

The opponent is the CLG team from the North American region, which Riot embodies as the '【Indomitable Warrior】'.

Right from the start, it's a China–US showdown.

On the commentator's bench, Changmao and Joker had already begun pre-match analysis, with two special guests sitting beside them: one is the currently popular female streamer Miss, the other is IG boss Wang Sicong.

The commentator's seat is no less impressive; in the absence of the regular commentator Doll Miller, they sent out two heavyweight guests.

EDG head coach Ab and Remember from the LMS region; for both of them, this is their first time stepping onto the LPL Chinese commentary desk.

Just from the commentator guest lineup, one can see how highly the officials regard this MSI!

The S5 loss half a year ago was truly disastrous; whether it's the region, the audience, or even the sponsors, they all urgently need a splendid scoreboard to boost morale.

"The match has begun; in the opening game, QG is on the blue side."

"This MSI is using patch 6.8; of course, the newly reworked gem is, by convention, still banned in this MSI."

"Compared to the playoffs, the current version has almost all popular heroes weakened, including Ekko, Thresh, and the male gunner."

QG right off the bat put Soraka on the ban list.

Unlike the Koreans and Chinese who chase the meta, Europeans and Americans always like to play weird stuff, and the nurse Soraka is one of them.

CLG's support player Aphromoo really likes to play Soraka.

How good he is is hard to say, but at least we know that in the North American spring finals, TSM banned him five times in a row on Soraka, never letting him play it once.

Even the North American cult gives him that face; why would he need to risk himself?

"Dongmen player, do you think we should ban jungle this round?" Cui Jiaolian asked.

"Soraka, Riz, there is still one ban slot left."

"If the enemy also didn't ban jungle, and if neither side bans it, it's essentially jungle wide open; if it's wide open, there's a high chance each side will get one of the leopard girl, Thresh."

Xu Dongmen thought for a moment, then said, "How about this: we ban one and snatch one."

Cui Jiaolian nodded without hesitation: "OK, which one do you want?"

"The leopard girl, I'll take the leopard girl." Xu Dongmen said without a second thought.

Ban Thresh, grab the leopard girl!

QG instantly locked Nidalee on the first pick, and the crowd gasped.

In the semifinals against EDG, Xu Dongmen had snatched a leopard girl but lost, and then in the finals versus RNG he never got another chance to take it.

Today's snatch is clearly to prove himself.

CLG secured the tree Bard, which is their top laner's signature champion.

"If the enemy picks Bard, then we'll go Lucian and Braum!" UZI spoke up.

The current version of Lucian-Braum is almost equivalent to the later Luna.

"Oh my, the enemy brought out the female sheriff?" Da B looked astonished.

"Don't underestimate the opponent; Stixxay's female sheriff is quite famous in their region." Xu Dongmen issued a warning.

The stain waved his hand: "No problem, worst case we just peacefully last-hit; do I even fear him?"

UZI paid the price for his contempt.

As soon as the bottom lane started, Lucian at level 1 was already hit with a heal.

The female sheriff plus Bard's double long-range firepower is astonishing; Aphromoo this game also brought Lightning, this guy even flashed with Ignite to try to kill, fortunately the damage fell just short.

Wuzhi also has a big heart, he stubbornly kept the Kirin Arm without flashing, the cost is that at level 1 he must return to town to replenish his state.

The bot lane matchup hadn't even started before it ended!

"First, stabilize, play slowly, don't rush." Xu Dongmen responded.

After Nerf to Leopard Woman, although jungle clearing is more efficient, the side effect is also obvious: early jungle clearing is too damaging, after clearing the first round one must return to town to resupply.

Moreover, with the bot lane minion wave piled up in front of the tower, he didn't even dare to take the river crab, for fear that when taking the enemy's crab, the enemy jungler would steal a chicken.

After Xu Dongmen finished clearing the first round, he couldn't go to the bot lane; after resupplying his equipment and heading out, he went up again.

The time has come to test UZI's stress resistance!

When it rains, it pours; after Xmithie's male gun finished clearing the first round, he still came to the bot lane to apply pressure, or rather to protect the female sheriff pushing the lane.

In this match, Xu Dongmen hasn't shown up on the map yet, and CLG doesn't know whether he will come to the bot lane.

After counter-ganking for a while, seeing that Leopard Woman wasn't there, the three members of CLG attempted a tower dive in the bot lane.

Wuzhi, after all, is Wuzhi; he gave the opponent no chance to pressure the health bar, at the start of the fight he decisively flashed to dodge Bard's Q, keeping his condition very good.

This is the veteran AD's experience!

As long as one's own health line is high enough, plus the Doomsday anti-theft door, if the enemy wants to tower dive they have to weigh it.

Who made it that CLG's bottom lane, jungle, and support trio lack crowd control?

Xmithie could only withdraw resentfully.

"Brothers, this wave we don't lose."

Xu Dongmen cheered on the bot lane from afar; at this point he had turned into a jaguar charging into the enemy's jungle, feasting heartily in the camp of Sharpbeak Birds and Stonearmor Beetles.

Jungler's motto:

When a teammate gets killed, I run and watch.

When a teammate gets caught, I laugh and farm.

Wuzhi, the losses you suffered, bro, I'll make them up for you by farming in the jungle.