Changing the players of the final line-up needed to be notified in advance, especially since Lian was involved in a fight and was severely criticized by the league. 

There was no way to conceal this kind of situation. 

When the news came out, the majority of the people rejoiced and spread the word.

[Sure enough, they are archenemies. This battle can’t be avoided hahaha.]

[Lian Ge, I’m sorry! This time I’m on Eden’s side. I’m just too curious about how strong her vision is.]

In theory, this match between both teams should accurately reflect who was stronger and who was weaker without the extreme interference of people like Cai Shen and God Pang.

The night before the game, someone had already started a betting pool on the Tieba: [Place your bets! Who will win, JK or LZ?]

Unlike the one-sided betting on PS during the relegation match, there were equal numbers of people betting on JK and LZ this time.

[LZ is an old team with great cooperation. And Eden was so out of rhythm with her own team last time, they would probably lose quickly. I bet on LZ.]

[I bet on JK. Last time during the relegation match, we betted that Missy couldn’t pull anyone with Gui Guzi, and our face was slapped swollen wuwuwuwu ^[1]呜呜呜呜: crying noises ]

[It’s been more than half a month, and Missy has been playing games with her team all the time, their cooperation should be better now, right? I’m hesitating.]

[I’ll bet on LZ. He Jian had played so many professional matches, if he can’t even beat a female rookie, then he shouldn’t bother playing anymore.]

[I heard from He Jian that Eden is not as good as him. Last time during the top match, as you all saw, it was because God Pang cut down Lian Yan first. This can be counted as a sudden death situation, it can’t prove anything. As for the five-man team match, it was also with the second team. The gap between the second team’s level and the first team’s level is so big that it doesn’t count.] 

That seemed to make sense too.

No one could convince the other, and the win rate was 50/50.     

They were just waiting for the other to lose miserably.                                                

This tense atmosphere lasted until the day of the game.

JK vs. LZ was the first match on May 9th, which was held in the stadium of City S at 3 pm. However, by 2 pm, half of the audience was already seated.

The three commentators were already in their places, chatting and livening up the mood.

“It looks like there are only this many audiences today.”

Yu Yue glanced down and thought that with such a large stadium, having half of the seats occupied was quite impressive, which was already very good.

They still sat in the order of top-jungler-mid-bot-support, and it just so happened that the youth opposite Yu Yue was He Jian.

Generally, those who play esports were not very old. After all, esports was a career that favored the youth. Those who were 21 years old, like Lu Qi, were considered close to the retirement age. There were many underage children here.

Both Ling Chen and Da Ming in JK had just become adults, and Yu Yue was only 19 years old.

But LZ was different. Their top laner, Tiger, and jungler, Pekingese ^[2]A dog breed, it’s kinda cute, were already 26 years old this year. The rest, their mid laner, Distant, bot laner, Xi Xi, and support, He Jian, were all above 23 years old. People of this age had completely grown up and their every move was filled with maturity.

Except for He Jian’s childish look when he glared at Yu Yue.

“Can you feel the malice from the opponents?” Captain Lu’s voice came through the headphones.

Da Qing: “Lower the volume, I’m almost deaf.”

“The loudest ones here should be me and Yu Yue!” Lu Qi said dissatisfiedly while lowering the volume of the headphones, “It’s better than you guys telling jokes during the game.”

During the relegation match, several warnings raised by Yu Yue were covered up by the noise of those two brothers. 

“Both of you are so good at telling jokes, why don’t you go and do stand-up comedy?”

Da Ming: “My brother thought of it, but he was afraid of stealing someone else’s job? Oh, by the way, what are you guys going to do if you don’t play esports anymore?”

Ling Chen: “Open a milk tea shop with my saved money.”

Da Ming asked again, “What about you, Little Miss?”

Yu Yue thought for a while and said, “Go back to school.”

She had deferred her studies, not dropped out.

“Wow, a university student like Qi Ge,” Da Qing clapped his hands meaningfully, “There aren’t many university students in our field.”

They did come out to throw themselves into esports at a young age.

Da Ming: “What about the other university student? What are you going to do when you stop playing professionally?”

“Play.” Lu Qi answered absent-mindedly.

At this time, the phones had come up. They did not press Lu Qi more for answers and quickly adjusted everything that needed to be adjusted.

Before the match officially starts, players could not use their phones, but there was a short period of time for them to adjust the runes and equipment. They had to hurry.

Their game accounts were also provided by the official. Looking at the account named JK-Eden, Yu Yue could not help but puff out her chest.

Yu Yue! Pride!

This was an official game account that belonged to only her!

And, the official account provided had every hero and skin, which made her envious, “I’ve wanted Sun Bin’s seasonal skin for a long time.”

“Don’t play that,” Da Ming quickly called out to stop her.

Who would dare to let Yu Yue play with a hero that came with a headwind buff!

“I’m just lamenting,” Yu Yue said. “After all, the skins for the God of Victory series are a limited edition. Even if you have money, you can’t buy it, and it will never come back.”

And Sun Bin’s ‘Fairy King’ skin was so damn sweet!

“If you really like it, I’ll lend you my account to play later. Don’t bring it out now,” Lu Qi adjusted his own runes and put his phone back in place, and the support frame disappeared from the table. “Listen to my commands later during the match.”

“I promise I’ll listen to the captain’s command. I will never go west when the captain says to go east!”

Lu Qi nodded his head in satisfaction.

Compared with the light-hearted atmosphere of JK, LZ’s was significantly heavier.

Jungler Pekingese could not help but ask his captain, “How’s Eden like?”

“Average,” He Jian replied.

After a pause, He Jian said again, “Don’t be nervous, we can definitely beat them.”

“Really?” Pekingese doubted and shrunk his head back.

“We’ve been playing for so long together, are we still afraid of an inexperienced young girl?”

“She’s pretty strong, don’t underestimate her, Tiger,” said the mid-laner, Distant. “The enemy team has Lu Qi, so basically I can’t make a breakthrough for us in the mid-lane. I can only try to hold the mid-lane turret. The rest is up to you guys.”

The trauma of being killed by Lu Qi’s frequent tower dives was still deeply ingrained in him.

During the regular season, each team played against each other at least once. They won that time thanks to Captain He Jian’s forced demolition of JK’s vision, taking the support as a breakthrough point.

However, based on the last encounter with Eden, it seemed that this time it would not be as easy as before to break through the support’s line of vision.

The match began soon after, with both teams rolling the dice to determine who would go first. LZ won and got to ban and pick first.

JK’s team members gave their own captain a disdainful look, “Where did you come from? So unlucky.”

“Let them go first, to avoid us being accused of bullying,” Lu Qi said, taking a sip of water and screwing the cap back on before placing it under his seat.

He looked calm and unhurried, not feeling that he was unlucky at all.

At this point, the LZ team had already begun the banning phase.

Without a doubt, Lu Qi’s Shangguan Wan’er was the first to be banned.

Lu Qi raised his eyebrows.

Commentator A: “Alright! We see that Brother Qi Ge’s signature champion has been banned again. To be honest, it’s not surprising. After all, there are very few mid laners who aren’t afraid to face Qi Ge’s Wan’er. Those who dare to release her are all reckless.”

Commentator B: “The second hero to be banned is Sun Bin! Why is it Sun Bin?”

“Sun Bin isn’t weak, his second skill can heal and accelerate cooldowns, and his ultimate can silence. It’s pretty nasty,” Commentator C said. “Have you noticed that LZ rarely uses the newly released heroes, and usually sticks to old heroes?”

Commentator A said: “Old heroes are not weak either. On JK’s side, Garo was banned! Wu Zetian was also banned! We can understand Wu Zetian, all three skills have control effects, which is pretty annoying. But Garo — — Why? LZ picked Zhang Fei first!”

“Can JK be considered to have dropped a stone on themselves? Zhang Fei’s shield when he uses his ultimate is too thick. You need a hero with true damage to counter him or use Garo to fight him. Now JK has banned Garo, if they don’t have a hero with true damage, how are they going to deal with LZ?”

Da Qing picked Ukyo Tachibana.

This was a very versatile hero, who could clear lanes and farm quickly in the top lane, jungle, and gank effectively, and could do damage when placed in the bottom lane.

LZ frowned. They did not know who would use this hero.

But one thing was clear. If Ukyo went to the top lane, the support would definitely choose a tanky hero, otherwise, JK would not be able to withstand the damage during team fights.

“Pick Li Bai,” He Jian said.

When Li Bai was selected, the commentator booth became even more confused, “Li Bai. Is LZ planning to play a jungler core? Li Bai is very dependent on gold.”

Commentator B still gave LZ some face and quickly came out to smooth things over, “But as far as I know, Li Bai is the signature hero of LZ’s player, Pekingese. He’s the first player in the history of KPL to get a penta kill with Li Bai.”

“Yes, yes, LZ played old heroes very well, often giving people a sense of surprise,” Commentator C also agreed. “Many times I feel like we adore the flashy new heroes too much. Look, the old heroes are also very strong.”

After picking Li Bai, they immediately picked Xiao Qiao.

Ling Chen glanced at LZ’s heroes and said, “Li Bai must be the jungler, Xiao Qiao is in the mid-lane, and Zhang Fei might be the support or top-lane. What should we pick?”

“How about this game you sacrifice yourself?” Da Ming said. “Give the gold to Qi Ge.”

“No, they know that Qi Ge is strong, he might be targeted by them in the mid lane,” Da Qing disagreed, “If we let Qi Ge carry, the price might be too huge.”

“I will carry!” Da Ming immediately raised his hand. “I can carry!”

Da Qing: “You want to play marksman, right?”

Da Ming: “……”

He wanted to, but he was afraid of being targeted by the enemy team.

“Pick Chang’e,” Lu Qi suddenly spoke up, “Ling Chen, you pick a jungler who doesn’t need the blue buff, and give the gold to Da Qing and me.”