Chapter 49: with translation of chapter title

Oriental Sports Center.

The third day's match continues.

After the civil war and the US-Korea showdown, the third match was brought by Europe and Turkey.

This time, A-P and the others finally seized the opportunity and won their first victory.

Thus, the first round of the group stage ends.

The point rankings are updated as follows:

1st, QG (5-0)

2nd, CLG (3-2)

2nd, FW (3-2)

4th, SKT (2-3)

5th, G2 (1-4)

6th, SUP (1-4)

QG won all five matches, leading the pack!

CLG and Flash Wolves tied for second, while SKT fell to fourth.

Unlike the World Championship, the MSI schedule is very tight.

During the group stage there are no rest days; as soon as the first round ends, the second round follows immediately.

Today's fourth match is also the opening game of the second round, which was already played yesterday.

Flash Wolves vs. SKT!

"Hehe, there's a good show to watch."

"Go, Electric Wolves!"

Backstage, Xu Dongmen and the others waved flags and cheered for the Flash Wolves.

This time, the Flash Wolves are on the blue side.

Kalista and Nidalee, each side picked one.

The Flash Wolves didn't take Graves, but instead first snatched Nautilus.

"The priority for Nautilus is indeed high; even SheShe's Nautilus is quite strong."

"SKT's Nautilus and Graves, it feels like Xiao Hei's condition isn't great..."

Under the broadcast camera, Blank's complexion looked somewhat unsightly.

"Could it be that he was scolded by the coach?"

Da B, who understands "where there's smoke there's fire," said: "Huh? Scolded in mid lane? No way, Faker shouldn't be that kind of person."

Xu Dongmen smiled without speaking; if the fans heard this, they'd surely tear him apart.

On stage, he sets the rhythm; he's quite skilled.

Off stage, Doinb has truly inherited Lin Ke's teachings; both are masters of setting the tempo.

"SKT's last pick was Ekko, Faker's Ekko!"

"Mid lane Ekko? It feels like mid lane Ekko is a version trap; whenever it's picked in MSI, they never win."

"No choice, the Emperor was snatched by Maple, and the Sorceress banned herself; the only mid lane champ that can counter the Emperor left is this Ekko!"

The QG members watched and analyzed.

Professional teams wanting to improve need not only more training and more matches, but also more watching, learning, and communication—to see how others play and absorb everyone's strengths.

Working behind closed doors won't make a strong team.

"Karsa picked the spider this game mainly to ensure early-game strength for the lineup."

Xu Dongmen mainly focused on the jungle position.

In this game, the two junglers made completely opposite moves at the start.

Blank followed a regular jungle route; Karsa also jungled from top to bottom, but after clearing the upper half's three monster camps and hitting level 3, he didn't continue jungling down—he instead went to the top lane to flank Duke's Nautilus.

"This..."

"The damage isn't enough; we can't even force Nautilus to flash."

"We definitely can't kill him; switching to another champ might give a chance, but killing Nautilus is definitely impossible."

Xu Dongmen shook his head straight.

Nautilus had its base magic resist increased a few patches ago and also gained scaling magic resist; that's why they didn't give it to EDG in the playoffs.

"The spider showed up in top lane, so the red buff is gone."

"Blank came straight to counter‑jungle the red, opening with three buffs."

"Nice, this Graves!"

Regarding Karsa's speedy level‑3 top‑lane gank, everyone was a bit puzzled.

In the current patch, junglers are almost all damage‑oriented, so their own development is crucial.

That's why the notion of a "golden route" exists.

Clear all first‑round jungle monsters, finish them, then talk about ganking!

Many junglers, even after clearing the first round, won't gank; most just provide vision for the weak lane and lightly counter‑jungle the strong lane.

Since the advent of the green jungle blade, early‑game gank difficulty has risen unprecedentedly.

Once a gank fails, the jungle will definitely lose something.

The risk outweighs the reward!

Karsa committed a major taboo this game—starting without the red buff greatly impacted his spider.

Not only did he lose his threat presence for a while, but his jungle development also fell behind quickly.

Although Blank was a bit lost at this MSI, the reason he was taken in by SKT at 18 years old was to be trained as a jungle core.

For a player like this, he will definitely be able to clear the jungle clearly.

Thanks to the early advantage, the Male Gun consecutively countered the spider two sets of F4.

With a lead of nearly 20 jungle CS, Blank crafted a Warrior jungle knife at the 10‑minute mark!

"With the Male Gun's development, the game is already over for Dongmen to play."

Da B timely started to suck up.

The Warrior jungle knife at 10 minutes is indeed not bad.

Blank began to give back to the team, securing the first dragon of the game.

Flash Wolves chose to exchange Vanguards, but this patch's Vanguard stats are useless; even if taken, they cannot summon a Vanguard to crash towers.

"The bot lane CS is also starting to pull ahead."

Uzi's gaze remained fixed on the top rival.

Both sides' bot lanes are hard supports this game, with no early gap opened.

But by the time the game reached 12 minutes, Bang's Lucian had a double‑digit CS lead.

12 minutes, 120 CS — even with the time.

The AD sees CS, while the jungler sees lane pressure.

"Both mid and bot lanes have been pushed; this game the Spider is hard to make use of." Xu Dongmen calmly analyzed the situation.

After Bang's Lucian equipped, bot lane pressure was completely under SKT's control.

At the same time, Faker in mid lane also began to counter‑pressure the Emperor.

Flash Wolves lost their lower jungle, and were flooded with vision.

If this script continues, SKT will soon be able to take down the next turret, shift to top lane, and kick off a snowball.

However, plans often fail to keep up with changes, and at the crucial moment Blank once again dropped the chain.

This guy, while waiting for the enemy red buff to respawn, went straight E into the spider's face and got hit by a cocoon, then his point‑blank Q also missed.

That was an empty cast that didn't even deal the first tick of damage!

"This Male Gun…"

Xu Dongmen saw this play and couldn't help but scratch his head.

Warrior jungle knife vs Echo

The Male Gun had an extra longsword and vision advantage, yet in a 1v1 he was utterly beaten by the Spider.

Blank gave up first blood.

Familiar green flooded the stage, Flash Wolves seized the initiative!

If it were just the Male Gun feeding himself, it would be fine, but to save him SKT spent the top laner's Maokai TP, the mid laner Ekko's Flash, the bot laner Lucian's Heal, and Blitzcrank's double summon.

SKT is off again!

Next, Bang was caught and killed in bot lane, and the Spider took the kill.

"Flash Wolves' lineup has strong mid‑game snowball potential; once Ezreal's two‑item core is complete, they can chase down SKT."

"Kassa is also steady; starting with his second item he turns tanky, and in team fights he acts as a disturbance alongside Poppy and Nautilus, creating an output environment for the Emperor and Ezreal."

"The Male Gun died again…"

3‑1, 4‑1, the kill gap kept widening.

When the kill score reached 7‑2, Flash Wolves won a team fight and smoothly took Baron.

Next, the only one who hadn't died yet, Ekko, was also caught by three Flash Wolves in top lane.

Along with Faker's fall, SKT once again lost the advantage.

"Flash Wolves are so stable; even if the enemy's two cores die, they won't go all‑in — they'll still need to break your three lanes before returning to base to resupply."

"Top‑tier torment!"

"Kill the heart, SKT's lineup can't clear the wave, so they just straight‑pushed."

"Defeat collapsed like a mountain!"

Before countless super minions, there is no miracle to speak of.

The 40‑minute‑long match was won by Flash Wolves led by Karsa.

The broadcast cut to the scene, where the FW five, with "Wolf" printed in earthy Chinese characters on their chests, celebrated with a high‑five.

After this match, their record became 4‑2, once again leaving CLG behind and ranking sole second.

The camera switched to the SKT players' bench.

Faker twisted his neck, his eyes firm.

Beside him, Blank, making his first appearance at an international tournament, looked ashen, his complexion worse than that of a critically ill patient.

SKT, 2‑4!

If this were the World Championship, they could already have booked their return flights.

After the match, Reddit, PTT, and Tieba all went into overdrive.

Korea's largest LoL community, DCinside, even saw everyone level up three ranks!

If, after losing three in a row to CLG, everyone was just joking around with memes, then after the second game in which Flash Wolves gave them a double kill, earning them a fourth straight loss, some people began to worry whether SKT could make it out of groups.

As the world's number‑one team, SKT, who were pre‑tournament favorites to be champions, surely wouldn't fail to even make it to the knockout stage, would they?

Whether genuine fans or bandwagoners, at this moment viewers worldwide felt the same thing.

No way — could it really be that the tide is turning?