Chapter 68: with translation of chapter title

Brothers, tonight I'll give everyone a day off, take a break.

That night, Xu Dongmen and the others got a night off.

Although called a day off, they were actually just staying in the hotel training room, only they could play other games, watch movies to relax a bit.

According to the schedule, the semifinals will start in four days.

Compared to last year's one‑weekend dragon mode, this year's preparation time is much more ample.

The tense nerves can temporarily relax.

That night, Xu Dongmen roamed the game for a few hours, doing some trivial mischief.

Running red lights, going to dance halls, honking at scantily clad girls on the street and such.

The others were similar: UZI was playing Counter Strike, Tianzai Mojie and V were playing some casual card games.

Only the stimulated Da B dove headfirst into rank after coming back, madly practicing heroes.

This is also something admirable: this guy's devotion to LOL is almost pathological; he seems never to get tired of it.

"Brothers, the Chinese server seems to be undergoing maintenance tonight," Doinb sent a reminder.

"Really? I didn't even notice."

V immediately checked the update notice: "Dear summoner: we will conduct a full‑region shutdown from 5:00 to 11:00 a. m. on May 10, 2016… It's almost midnight now, i. e., a few hours from now."

"Welcome to 6.9, the mid‑season version update……"

Tianzai Mojie also took a quick look amidst his busyness.

Just like the preseason, the mid‑season update is also a major version.

Vampire, Snake Woman, Grasshopper, Crow and other mage‑tanks received a minor rework.

The lost chapters, Hextech Belt, Hextech GLP-800 and other new equipment went live.

The update contents span dozens of pages.

"No need to waste time on this; we can look after MSI ends."

UZI was playing a shooter game, completely uninterested in the new patch.

Anyway, the upcoming matches are still on 6.8, so 6.9 isn't relevant to them.

That said, when they played rank the next day, everyone still couldn't resist trying these new things.

Human curiosity!

"The Chinese server is slow; the Korean server updated long ago."

"Right, this time SKT apparently didn't play on the Chinese server; the super accounts we sent them weren't used much."

"They're playing on the Korean server; we specially assigned people to track their rank situation."

Updating early has its benefits; updating late also has its value.

For the teams participating in this MSI, the Chinese server is more valuable than the Korean server.

Although for pro players the match is still on version n, while rank is played on n+1 and n+2, that has always been the norm.

But being able to keep rank in sync with the match is greatly beneficial for maintaining form.

This time SKT suffered a shocking four‑game losing streak, and some outsiders think it's because they don't play on the Chinese server.

Apart from SKT, all other teams are ranking on the Chinese server.

In other words, teams like QG have reaped the server bonus.

But with the Chinese server's official launch of 6.9, now in sync with the Korean server, that bonus will disappear.

This has also become a worry for many LPL fans.

Without the bonus, can we still beat SKT?

………

"Everyone get ready; after dinner we'll scrim against Flash Wolves."

The scrim with FW starts at 2 p. m.

Both sides deliberately agreed to train on the match server.

The Chinese server's newly launched version updated a huge amount of content, especially the jungle, directly affecting game pacing.

The ancient dragon is a thing of the past; elemental drakes are now live!

Wind, fire, water, and earth officially arrived in the rift.

This is completely contrary to the current match, greatly reducing the training value.

At this point, the match server becomes especially important.

5 wins, 3 losses.

After an afternoon of scrims against the Flash Wolves, the result showed QG holding the advantage.

After dinner, they rested an hour, then resumed fighting.

This time, the opponent is SKT.

Compared to the previous few days of scrims, SKT's state has greatly improved.

QG fell into a disadvantage; the scrim result was 3 wins, 5 losses.

"Zhengjun, they are getting better and better."

Pu Longyun reviewed the footage and summed up this scrim against SKT: "Our only advantage is the jungle position, but after the group stage ended, Blank player also began adapting to this intensity, and Dongmen's lane advantage isn't as big as we imagined."

"Another important point: the scrims were played rather casually, with little macro play, usually ending in about 20 minutes, rarely exceeding 30 minutes."

Coach Cui added: "Given SKT's teamfighting and late‑game macro, the longer the game drags on, the lower our win rate will become."

"The key is that SKT's mid‑lane hero pool is too deep; whatever we can play, they can also play."

Pu Longyun pointed out the core problem.

Faker used a total of 17 champions in the spring split.

The hero pool is so deep that no second one can be found in the whole world.

The title of Demon King is not unearned.

"It's good that our semifinal opponent is CLG; we still have a chance to improve."

"Now we really have to pin our hopes on FW, although we all know it's tough."

"But we must admit that FW indeed counters SKT to some extent."

………

"Dongmen, is the new version fun?"

"It's fun."

Xu Dongmen sat in front of the screen, frantically operating; he is the person who has played the most ranked matches on the team since the new version launched.

Who doesn't like freshness?

"I also played a match just now and lasted over forty minutes; wow, that newly released ancient dragon is so strong it scared me to death."

Doinb, while reminiscing, turned his head to look at Xu Dongmen's screen: "Ah, jungle Zed? Dongmen, you're..."

"Let's try it out for research; it feels not bad."

Xu Dongmen gave a hehe laugh.

In the new version, Mercury was nerfed and can no longer remove debuff effects.

This is an indirect buff for champions like Zed, Fiora, and Trundle.

"But the coach said we'd better not play too much of the new version, lest it affect our feel and judgment, especially in mid lane."

Da B wore an innocent expression; the mid-season version update has the biggest impact on mid-lane ecology.

He played a few ranked matches, and mid lane was full of the newly remade tank mages.

The training value is almost zero.

"It's fine, I'm just playing casually."

Xu Dongmen also knows this; he plays obscure heroes in ranked that are unusable in competition, purely for fun.

The way to keep feel is still through practice matches!

More than them, Flash Wolves need practice matches; after the group stage ended, the two teams cooperated and formed a fixed sparring partnership.

Both sides gave their all, helping each other improve.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

By the time it was the day before the semifinals, that very day the esports world broke a major news story.

——SKT jungler Bengi reported to Riot that someone was violating the spirit of sportsmanship, repeatedly stirring up trouble between him and his team.

Undoubtedly, this person is Lin Ke.

His remarks on KakaoTalk have all become ironclad evidence.

"He actually reported me? No, aren't my statements factual?"

Lin Ke wore an expression of disbelief.

As the LPL's instigator king, this is still his first slip-up.

"I just can't understand why he would report me; I said these things for his own good, didn't I?"

Lin Ke was caught off guard.

That night, Riot issued a announcement, warning him and the QG club.

There is also a substantive penalty: revoking Lin Ke's work pass, prohibiting him from entering the backstage during MSI and contacting other players.

And as this announcement was released and the news confirmed, the Sino-Korean esports circle exploded simultaneously.

That night, public opinion was fierce!