Chapter 59: The World is Just a Massive Amateur Production!

"BLQG has quite a clear vision here; it looks like they are setting up for an ultimate-heavy team-fight composition."

Putting aside the actual credibility of Joker, who bore the title of WE's coach, his analysis of team compositions was at least considerably better than that of WaWa, who mostly served as a hype man beside him.

"Jarvan IV plus Zyra plus Kennen—three champions centered around ultimate abilities. If executed well in team fights, it's very easy to pull off world-shattering combos."

"Indeed. NXG's picks are quite standard by comparison. It seems JM has a lot of confidence in his players' individual skills."

Confidence?
Trusting the players?
That was nothing more than an excuse for the coaching staff's incompetence to some extent.

The champions Jiang Ming picked for his players would never lead to situations where they were completely outmatched in lane, helpless in team fights, forced into a high-risk early-game all-in, or mindlessly turtling in the late game, leaving everything to be salvaged purely by individual heroics.

First was the top-side combination of Renekton and Lee Sin. If the enemy jungler Jarvan IV provided even slightly better protection, or if the top-lane Kennen had a slightly sharper anti-gank awareness, the electric mouse's scoreline would be heading straight toward an inting disaster.

Meanwhile, in the mid-jungle department, Orianna's laning capability in the first few levels was far from weak and could establish smooth synergy with Lee Sin.

Not to mention that in late-game team fights, they still had the classic "Ball Delivery" tactic up their sleeve.

Although the bot-lane pairing of Varus and Janna would struggle to gain an advantage against Caitlyn and Zyra, maintaining stability in the laning phase was absolute zero problem.

Conversely, when a team has three champions heavily reliant on their ultimate abilities, just imagine what methods a stronger opponent would use to punish you.

Oh, and it wasn't just three. As the final pick in the fifth slot designated for countering, BLQG spent a long time agonizing over it before pulling out a meta-defying Twisted Fate—a seemingly appealing choice that could fly bot at level six to help Caitlyn rapid-push towers, and later assist Kennen in side-lane splits.

One could only say that WE's World Championship victory still exerted far too deep an influence on domestic players.

For a long time, whether a mid-laner had a hidden-card Twisted Fate in their champion pool could even serve as a standard to measure that player's true caliber.

The prerequisite for picking Twisted Fate to fly bot was that once you arrived, coordinating with Caitlyn and Zyra, you actually had to have the capability to instantly burst down NXG's Varus through Janna's protection.

Otherwise, the moment Orianna rotated in time or Lee Sin—whose early-game combat prowess was off the charts—pulled off a successful counter-gank, Twisted Fate's level-six flight would simply amount to hurting others just as much as oneself.

With the selection of the purple side's fifth-slot hero, both drafts were finalized.

Blue Side NXG: Top Renekton, Jungle Lee Sin, Mid Orianna, Bot Varus plus Janna.
Purple Side BLQG: Top Kennen, Jungle Jarvan IV, Mid Twisted Fate, Bot Caitlyn plus Zyra.

"Play brilliantly. This opening match is your best opportunity to make a name for yourselves."

With the compositions locked in, Jiang Ming didn't have much else to instruct, offering only his customary words of encouragement to the players.

"Hehe, don't worry, Brother Ming. I'll strive to smash the enemy top lane this game," Song Yuan said, patting his chest with absolute confidence.

The other four also nodded one after another.

If they were to slump against a mid-to-lower tier team like BLQG, it would simply be an insult to the hellish training regimen they had endured recently.

"Woohoo, JM!"
"Let's go, NXG!"
"Super handsome!"
"Rooting for you guys!"

As they left the competition stage, in the absence of any organized cheering, Jiang Ming and his NXG team unexpectedly received support from a section of the live audience.

With the opposing team having no coach to participate in the handshake ritual, Jiang Ming simply stood at the tunnel entrance and gave a thumbs-up toward the audience seating.

Unlike the introverted group of gaming addicts within the industry, Jiang Ming, having lived two lives and spent over a year streaming, naturally knew how to interact with fans.

...

"Move out fast. Old Song, scout the upper river first; don't let them ward our blue buff quadrant."
"Let's push up slightly at level one and see if we can bait out some summoner spells."

Following a brief loading screen, Summoner's Rift materialized before them. Having undergone professional training in both purchasing starting items and achieving fast fountain exit times, the five members of NXG moved with swift precision, their onscreen champions appearing to step out in absolute synchronization.

As the team's shotcaller, Pang Ran methodically pinged various points on the map.

At the caster desk.

WaWa and Joker, who had done their homework beforehand, locked their gazes firmly upon the NXG side.

"Alright, everyone, welcome back to our live match. Both teams have now officially begun the first game of this series—Blue Side NXG, Purple Side BLQG."

"Before the match officially gets underway, may we ask the audience here to give a round of cheers and applause for our two teams?"

Though their verbal delivery still retained a distinct awkwardness, WaWa, deeply aware of his own strengths and weaknesses after being tempered through numerous City Hero tournaments, had already begun consciously developing in the direction of a crowd-controlling shoutcaster.

"Wahoo!"
Clap! Clap! Clap!

Clearly, it wasn't just the casters who lacked experience; the vast majority of the live audience had very little exposure to esports tournaments as well.

Unable to fully let loose while simultaneously wishing to avoid dead air for the casters on stage, the high-pitched cheers of one or two extroverted college students, coupled with scattered applause, served as the inauguration of the domestic LPL professional stage.

Oh, and one must also add the inexperienced LPL broadcast director to that list.

Because even after the match finished loading and the champions had been walking toward their lanes for quite some time, the player matchups across the five positions still hadn't been swapped into their correct places.

(An old antique I managed to find—the OB page from the preseason back then; it really was an amateurish operation.)

On the big screen's observer view at this exact moment:

NXG's mid-laner Orianna was still in the first slot, support Pang Ran's Zyra had run up to the second slot, and then the jungle Lee Sin ended up matching up against the opposing purple-side mid-laner.

"In terms of movement speed out of the fountain, NXG has a slight lead. However, the BLQG team has set up straight in a firing-line formation; a level-one skirmish should be hard to trigger."

"Indeed. As League of Legends has developed into its third season, actual full-scale level-one fights have become quite rare on the professional stage."

"We see in the upper section, Jarvan's standard manages to flush out Renekton from the brush."

"Yes, Jarvan's standard is one of the few skills in the early game of League of Legends that can grant vision," Joker didn't forget to flaunt his game knowledge.

"On the right, BLQG's Kennen starts with a Doran's Blade, whereas Renekton brings a Red Elixir along with a stealth ward and a health potion."

"From the qualifiers onward, this NXG team has consistently been among all professional squads the one most fond of investing heavily in vision economy."

"Hey, look at the movements of a few champions in the blue side's lower quadrant. BLQG's ward in the river brush hasn't spotted the several NXG champions invading from the lower half."

BLQG's Caitlyn stood alone in the river, and the absolute moment she caught sight of the four NXG champions, she scrambled back toward safety.

Shi Zhenyu attempted to unleash a Sonic Wave.

Puff!

It hit!

"Oh! Sonic Wave directly connects with Caitlyn! BLQG's AD player's positioning was a bit careless there!"

"Wow, NXG's bot lane is extremely decisive! Support Janna flashes to apply Exhaust, Varus follows up with a flash and his E skill, and Caitlyn burns her flash belatedly to try and run, but it feels like the damage is already enough!"