Chapter 60: Jinx Has Been Released!

Back in the EDG lounge, Lu Zidang had just pushed open the door when Clearlove abruptly leaped up and pulled him into a bear hug, saying excitedly, "Great job, Zidang!!"

"Brilliant! Your performance this game was simply flawless!!"

Lu Zidang looked a bit at a loss, while Chen Dong gave him a reassuring look, as if to say, *It's fine, just bear with him.*

From behind, 369 quickly chimed in, "Coach Mingkai, am I not brilliant too?"

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Your performance this game completely exceeded my expectations! All of you were brilliant. Every single one of you made me proud in this opening game tonight."

Clearlove quickly let go of Lu Zidang. Now that he was EDG's coach, he had to take good care of every player's emotional state.

"If we're talking about being flashy, it has to be Zidang. At most, the rest of us just had a tiny little bit of flair!" Meiko smiled and corrected.

"We already have match point in our hands. The pressure is going to shift entirely over to FPX now, but we can't get arrogant. Everyone take a good rest and get ready to face FPX's frantic counterattack in a bit!" Chen Dong interjected from the side.

The intermission passed quickly, and during this time, various trending search terms regarding the LPL Spring Split opening match kept popping up without interruption on the hot search lists:

"Lu Zidang Penta Kill"
"Lu Zidang's smile is too healing"
"GimGoon was given respect"
"New EDG"
"All-Chinese EDG is so strong"
"Clearlove Coach"
"FPX whole team are comedians"

...and so on, nearly ten keywords in total.

Over on Tieba, with the conclusion of the first game of the LPL Spring Split regular season, various esports veterans began engaging in hindsight analysis:

*Spring Grass Doesn't Grow Wild*: "GimGoon proved one thing to us tonight: actually, level 1 Gangplank still can't beat Jax (doge)."

*Esports Cannon Ghost Foot Seven*: "The gap in strength is just too vast. EDG's roster this year is fiercely strong. They out-farmed every single lane. I originally thought Doinb this bastard would at least be able to suppress Knight in the mid lane... but in the end, this kid didn't roam around at all."

"I just want to know, who dares to let Jhin out against EDG from now on?"

*Floor 1*: "By your logic, there are 5 bans in total during draft phase, so every match played just adds another ban slot?"

*Floor 2*: "Hard to say. Even if Lu Zidang has proficiency in 5 ADCs all as high as Jhin, there's no way he's going to expose all of them, right?"

*Floor 3*: "To be honest, I'm already starting to look forward to a 5-ban marksman phase in a professional match."

...

The intermission flashed by in the blink of an eye. Soon, the second game of tonight's Spring Split opening match—namely, the match point game—was about to begin!

On the FPX side, Coach Steak was giving the players a mental massage: "Listen to me, guys, the first game is in the past. Don't dwell on it! Right now, let's just treat this as a Bo1."

"My draft this time will target EDG's bot lane duo and then give the first-pick priority to Doinb. Any problems?"

Everyone replied in unison: "Ok!!"

Doinb's face was plastered with a smile: "Thanks to Coach Steak for valuing me so much. Rest assured, this game I will definitely secure a laning advantage in the mid lane, then radiate pressure across the map and carry my brothers to victory!"

"Yeah. Alright, let's get ready to take the stage!" With a wave of Steak's large hand, the entire FPX squad once again walked up to the competition booths.

Because EDG had drawn the blue side in the previous game, it was naturally FPX's turn to have the priority selection side.

The draft had already begun!

The popularity value on the official LPL live broadcast was climbing crazily. Compared to last year, the number of viewers this year was noticeably higher by a huge margin.

This—this was the influence generated after iG won the championship. All teams, including the LPL organizers and Riot Games, could reap the benefits from it!

Esports had already entered every household. Watching LPL matches had also become an indispensable habit in many people's daily lives!

In the chat barrage, fans of both sides were frantically cheering and rooting for their favorite teams.

At the analyst desk—Doll started off by asking, "How do you think FPX will draft this game?"

Mikael analyzed, "First of all, this Jhin is absolutely, under no circumstances, going to be let through to Lu Zidang again! I'm certain of that. Secondly, Jinx, who was on the ban list last game, should be let out."

"After all, FPX has zero reason to keep both ADCs locked in the bans. Furthermore, what's certain is that 369's Jax will also go straight to the ban list!"

"I feel like FPX has it pretty rough. That's already taken up two ban slots, and Meiko's Nautilus needs to be addressed too, right?" PDD chimed in.

"Perhaps it could also be drafting as banning. Who's to say their LWX can't play Jhin either..." Doll said.

Mikael shook his head upon hearing this: "I can play Jhin too. But the issue is whether you can pull off Lu Zidang's kind of impact—that's the crux of the problem. It's not the champion that's strong, but the person wielding it."

"In the current patch, the Virtuoso isn't considered all that strong. You can only say that Lu Zidang genuinely spent time practicing this champion hard!"

Just as the analysts predicted, FPX indeed handed Jax, Jhin, and Nautilus over to the ban phase, while allocating the first-pick selection to Doinb.

"It still has to be Doinb!" Mikael sighed.

This was a universally acknowledged fact. If anyone could stand up for FPX right now, besides GimGoon, it was only Doinb.

GimGoon had already been given the counter-pick position in the last game, but his performance was truly indescribable; obviously, FPX wouldn't give him that chance again this game.

They directly had him pick a tank top laner to simply absorb pressure in the top lane!

"Holy cow!!" Upon seeing that FPX had actually let Jinx through, Clearlove couldn't help but get excited: "Help Zidang lock in Jinx (the Loose Cannon)!"

Everyone on EDG was also dumbfounded by FPX's draft strategy. Why on earth did they think Lu Zidang was worse at Jinx than Jhin? Where did that illusion come from?

Did they not watch that peak Korean server rank match where he even defeated Uzi's Vayne?

At that moment, the venue instantly grew stirred up because many viewers had watched that peak-tier rank match, and the replay of that match on Bilibili had already surpassed 4 million views.

It could be called the most classic LOL match video of recent times.

Quite a few hardcore FPX fans at the venue directly started cursing out loud:

"Let me modify the line about the Virtuoso from the last game: the FPX coaching staff possesses a unique kind of beauty—the aesthetic of missing brainstems."

"Why couldn't they just draft to deny instead? Can't LWX play Jinx?"

"I have a feeling Doinb has no chance this game. Just watch, I'm guessing this match will end even faster than the last one!"

Ultimately, both teams' compositions were locked in:

EDG Red Side—
Top: Gangplank
Mid: Syndra
Jungler: Lee Sin
Bot: Jinx + Alistar

FPX Blue Side—
Top: Ornn
Mid: Zoe
Jungler: Xin Zhao
Bot: Ashe + Thresh

At the analyst desk, Mikael's voice raised in pitch: "Both team compositions are locked in! We are about to enter the second game of tonight's opening match!"

"Can FPX claw back a game? Let's wait and see!!"

*(Third chapter, completed. Sorry, I fell asleep while writing in the middle... Otherwise, I should have been able to write at least 5 chapters. Let me adjust, and I'll continue tomorrow with a baseline of 3 chapters, striving for more updates. Thank you all for the gifts! Asking for some free little gifts~ Thank you everyone.)*