Chapter 53: Whose name is engraved on SKT's Blind Monk skin?

May 8, clear.

Fourth day of the group stage.

After the Start of Summer, Shanghai's temperature shot up like a rocket, with the daytime high reaching 30 degrees.

The midday sunshine activated barbecue mode; the few-hundred-meter walk from the hotel to the venue left people drenched in sweat.

MSI matches start at 2 p. m. every day, the hottest time of the day.

"Quick, get a cup of iced kvass!"

The first thing Xu Dongmen and the others did upon entering the venue was to fill their water cups.

At this moment, the first match on the main stage was already ready.

SKT vs G2

"Right from the start, it's the main event!"

"The two regions most favored before the match are 2-4 and 1-5, both in dire straits."

Long Hair's voice came through the speakers.

The QG crew sat in the lounge, watching the tigers fight.

According to MSI format, the group stage will eliminate two teams.

The top four advance to the next round.

After once again defeating G2 yesterday, QG has already announced its advancement.

Even if G2 and SUP win all their remaining matches, their best record would be only five wins.

Besides that, the outlook for second-place CLG and FW to advance is also very bright; winning one or two more games would basically secure it.

The dangerous ones are SKT and G2!

Looking at the standings, the two teams will battle for the last qualification spot.

This direct confrontation is crucial.

"Go, G2! Whether you can take down SKT is up to you!" Da B said without hiding anything.

"SKT is still starting Blank today; are they really going down a one-way road to ruin them?" Lin Ke paid close attention to the jungler's starting situation.

"Great!"

Stain also dropped the act: "G2, fight for points—bring out the ferocity you showed against FNC!"

The entire QG team supports G2.

Of the spectators who came to watch the match today, both domestic and foreign, most also hope G2 wins.

SKT has caused painful memories for many teams; striking it down while it's weak is something everyone wants to do.

On the same stage, if we can eliminate the strongest team, it's good news for the remaining teams!

"What's going on? G2 has released Ryze?"

"Bad, Faker got the Thunder Lord!"

Before the match even started, seeing the bans and picks, Da B and the others began to wail.

G2's bans and picks ran into big trouble!

On the red side, they banned Thousand Jade and Ox Head, thinking SKT would still first grab Leopard Girl as in the past two days.

As a result, SKT's coaching staff made a change, taking Ryze first.

"The worst part is, SKT also banned Calamity."

Xu Dongmen also shook his head.

Calamity this version counters Ryze and is one of the few mids capable of killing through Ryze.

Even this move was considered; SKT's bans and picks today certainly weren't lackadaisical.

"Leopard Girl isn't being taken outside either; Blank directly uses Blind Monk to fight Male Gunner."

"Sivir plus Soraka—SKT has revealed its trump card!"

"G2's mid lane is again Emperor; Emperor vs Ryze lane isn't problematic, but it's too slow."

SKT's lineup is more aggressive.

With an aggressive lineup, they play even more actively than G2.

After selecting Blind Monk, Blank performed a strange jungle path.

Frog > Three Wolves > F4 > Red…

He didn't take the blue buff!

"What does it mean for Blind Monk to jungle like this?" Da B completely didn't understand.

"It's intentional; he's afraid Male Gunner will come invade the jungle."

Xu Dongmen tried to understand.

The two heroes' jungle clearing speeds aren't much different, but this game SKT is on the blue side; if Blind Monk clears from top to bottom taking a full clear route and fails to get the red buff potion, he'll run out.

If Male Gunner invades at this point, he can't respond at all.

In the current version, buff monsters come in families of three, and the two little monsters' early damage is not to be underestimated.

Blind Monk skipping the blue buff not only saves time but also better ensures his condition, preventing Male Gunner from sneaking in at speed 3 to catch him.

Trick certainly wasn't that aggressive, but after eating five jungle groups plus the river crab, he still proceeded as expected into SKT's jungle.

However, he didn't catch a single hair, and moreover revealed his position.

By then Blank had already taken the red buff and returned to base; before returning, he left a ward in the grass behind the red buff.

When vision spotted Male Gunner, Blind Monk had already come out to the upper jungle.

In the picture, Blank cleared the starting untaken blue buff to reach level 4, then entered G2's jungle; a Sonic Wave hit the Stone Armor Beetle over the wall, successfully avoiding vision from the top lane tri-brush.

At that moment, Duke Ekko just pushed the minion wave under the tower.

SKT's junglers teamed up to dive the tower, easily snagging first blood from G2's top laner Kikis.

"Ah, why is Bibi still under the tower with no health and not recalling?" Doinb was very anxious.

"This wave isn't his fault; it's not his problem."

Xu Dongmen shook his head; this wave seemed like a mistake, but in fact every step was within SKT's calculations.

First, at the start they formed a single-file long snake formation; the two junglers met in the upper river, confirming they both followed the standard route from top to bottom.

Blank cleared three jungle camps and then took the red buff instead of skipping F4 for maximum speed three, because he wanted to wait until three minutes.

In the current version, the Vision Ward's charge time per layer is 180–120 seconds (levels 1–18).

Because a stealth ward needed to be placed at the start, they had to wait until after three minutes for the yellow trinket's second layer to finish charging.

The time for Blind Monk to clear four jungle camps and recall is 3 minutes 03 seconds.

The charge finished just in time!

"G2 knows Blind Monk is clearing from top to bottom, so they'll subconsciously think both sides' jungle progress is synchronized."

"Plus, the marksman went into SKT's jungle and saw with his own eyes that the red buff and F4 were gone, further confirming Blind Monk had cleared a full route."

"That's why Bibi, even though he had TP to recall and resupply, insisted on greedily taking this wave, because from his perspective the enemy jungler should have just finished clearing the Stoneplate Crab, just like Trick had just finished the Marsh Frog… In this game, both bottom lanes started by eating a jungle monster before heading to lane."

Xu Dongmen mentally replayed the whole sequence.

Guessing the opponent's psychology and analyzing their jungle route is an essential skill for pro players, especially junglers.

"If I had to say, the marksman had the biggest problem this wave."

"Given SKT's play-it-safe mindset, if they hadn't seen Tick appear in the bottom half via vision, they likely wouldn't have dared to dive, because if they were counter‑ganked, they'd be the ones blown up."

Xu Dongmen's incisive analysis drew cheers from his teammates.

Da B even had an expression of utter admiration.

Without a brain, you really can't play jungle!

By contrast, Xu Dongmen admired SKT's coaching staff.

After so many games in the group stage, Blank almost always had a different jungle opening and design each game.

In the game they faced each other, the enemy Nidalee's early invade of the blue buff almost let him pull off a successful steal.

Such jungle opening designs, if seen once or twice, could be called a player's own whimsy, but to pull them off every game without repetition, there must be a strong coaching staff behind the scenes.

The depth of their tactical reserves is astonishing!

"The top lane gap has opened up—by seven minutes they're down about twenty CS." V took a deep breath.

If Xu Dongmen was seeing the jungle rhythm, what he saw was the gap in top‑lane lane‑phase ability.

Before Blank came to top lane, Duke had already established a lane advantage, which was also the most crucial step of the whole play.

If they couldn't push the top lane wave, they couldn't lower Bibi's health, and even if the jungler came, there wouldn't be much they could do.

"AP's Emperor isn't putting any pressure on Faker!" Doinb stared intently at mid lane.

Mid lane CS was even on both sides, but Ryze didn't even need to use Teleport on his first recall to keep lane, showing how easy the matchup was.

"If this mid‑lane fight kicks off, the Emperor will be knocked back!"

"But Faker messed up—he used his W too early, overlapping with Blind Monk's ultimate crowd‑control timing!"

"Perkz's ultimate shoved two away, he flashed to escape, and survived!"

Da B's voice was loud.

Everyone says Faker's Ryze is so strong, so strong, but from this wave it's really not that impressive!

I could go top and do just as well!

"But SKT still had a second wave—Duke arrived, and the Emperor died."

Perkz died while pushing the lane.

He held off Blank, but couldn't stop Duke, who had looped all the way around the map.

"Haha, Faker didn't even get an assist this wave!" Da B always finds an angle.

At the 9:30 mark, the mana‑hungry jungler Trick finally made a proactive move.

After the Emperor poked Ryze low, Trick's marksman with all abilities flashed forward to add damage.

But the result was that he flashed into Ryze's face and took a rune snare, then got pummeled by the turret.

Buzz buzz buzz~

Most importantly, Faker still stacked his passive this wave and quickly refreshed a second W, letting the marksman tank three turret hits in a row!

Trick went all‑in hoping to trade, but at the crucial moment a green energy descended from the sky—Wofl's Soraka unleashed her ultimate.

"Bad!"

"Let Faker show off!"

"One‑vs‑two, trade one for one—can you go up and handle this wave, little goldfish?"

"Mine… mine…"

Just like yesterday's match against QG, in this crucial game versus SKT, G2 also managed to throw it away in only ten minutes.

The top lane got crushed, the jungler was just wandering around, and the bottom lane had no carry potential.

The only lane that could carry, mid, was still an unstable burst‑damage champion.

"G2 is done for!"

"After this game, SKT locked up a top‑four spot—I said they couldn't possibly fail to qualify."

"What a shame!"

Everyone sighed in regret, unable to snuff out their strongest rival in its cradle, which really made it hard to feel happy.

The key point is, they clearly had the chance to do it!

Including Doinb and UZI, at this moment they all deeply felt a line that often appears in wuxia‑xianxia dramas.

——Letting the tiger go back to the mountain, future troubles endless.

When everyone was sighing at SKT's tough luck, Lin Ke silently took out his phone.

【Winning against G2 is no big deal; EU is the weakest of the five major regions.】

【In my view, Blank's blind monk is far inferior to yours, and the mid-jungle synergy with Xianghe is worlds apart.】

【You can do it again, but not a third or fourth time!】

【If I were the SKT chairman, I would have long thrown this black coal to Africa to play in the mud.】

【Bengi player, may I ask if you've offended Kkoma? Not letting you play when you were playing Leopard Girl Thresh was already forgivable, but now even when you play the blind monk you're not even allowed to start?】

【If you don't believe it, go ask outside on the street: in all of Shanghai Bund, who doesn't know whose name is engraved on the SKT blind monk skin?】