The second day of relaxation activities, everyone from EDG came to downtown Reykjavik.
They tasted the local hot dog on the street. Su Mo thought it was just like that and not very tasty.
Then I visited a souvenir shop full of Nordic design.
Just in a record store, everyone at EDG had an unexpected encounter.
They met the members of the European LEC champions, MAD Lions, who also came out to show off.
As the new kings of Europe, the members of MAD are all flamboyant and full of artist temperament.
Their top laner Armut, a strong Turkish man with unruly long hair, his eyes instantly lit up when he saw Su Mo.
He almost rushed over, with the excitement of a fan meeting his idol, "Hello! Mo! I am Armut, your super fan!"
He said hello enthusiastically in broken Chinese.
Su Mo was a little surprised, but still responded politely: "Hello."
"I watched all your games! Your Sword Girl, your Sword Girl, they are simply art!" Armu t gestured excitedly, "Your top laner, the little mage, has subverted my knowledge! How did you come up with the idea of using that hero to play the top laner?"
Facing the enthusiasm of this "fan", Su Mo could only smile helplessly.
MAD's mid laner Humanoid, a handsome guy with blond hair and blue eyes, also came over. He looked at Su Mo with great interest: "Hello, Mo, I'm looking forward to playing against you in the main game."
In his words, there was the unique confidence and arrogance of European players.
"Welcome anytime." Su Mo's response was still simple and calm.
This chance encounter did not have the atmosphere of pre-match excitement. It was more like an offline meeting of transnational netizens.
·Armut even enthusiastically invited everyone in EDG to try the local Icelandic beer he recommended, but the accompanying Riot staff refused with a smile on the grounds that "drinking is prohibited before the game."
When we parted, Armut reluctantly shouted to Su Mo: "Mo! Come on in the group stage! I hope we can meet in the knockout round! Then, be sure to use your sword girl to line up with me!"
Looking at the retreating backs of the MAD players, Jiejie couldn't help but complain: "The Europeans are really interesting. We haven't even fought yet, so let's prepare in advance. Have you decided on the skin? "
"This is not called fun, this is called confidence." Su Mo said lightly, "They believe that they can qualify from the group stage, and they also believe that they can play against us. This mentality is worth learning."
After a brief relaxation, EDG entered the final closed preparation period before the MSI main game.
The atmosphere in the training room became serious and focused again.
The coaching staff conducted detailed analysis and review of the previously collected information and training match videos of all teams in the division.
"DK is still our biggest opponent," Abramovich circled DK's profile picture on the tactical board. "Their midfielder linkage is top-notch in the world, but the last training match also exposed their problem - too much reliance on the midfielder. As long as we can limit Canyon's rhythm, we can also If Scout can stabilize during the laning phase, we will have a great chance of winning. "
"MAD's play style is very unrestrained and full of imagination, but their operations are relatively rough and they make more mistakes. To deal with them, what we have to do is to stabilize and use our more rigorous operations to defeat them."
“C9 in North America, their core is mid laner Perkz. Perkz’s hero pool is very strange, and he often comes up with some unexpected heroes. Scout, be careful when laning against him, don’t let his “black technology” get you into his rhythm.”< br/>
The factory director added on the side: "In this version of MSI, the influence of the top lane has been weakened. But for us, this is not a problem. Because we have Brother Mo Zi."
His eyes turned to Su Mo.
"Brother Mo Zi, in the group stage, I hope you will play more... selfishly." The factory director's words were very strange, "Don't think too much about the team, just play what you want to play and do whatever feels comfortable. Your existence itself is the biggest deterrent to the opponent. As long as you have an advantage in the top lane, our other lanes will be very easy to play."
Hearing this, Su Mo raised his eyebrows: "You mean, let me play casually?"
"Yes," the factory director nodded heavily, "Just play whatever you want. Treat the group stage as your personal show."
This tactical arrangement made the other team members smile knowingly.
They know that this is a reflection of the coaching staff's absolute trust in Su Mo.
At the same time, they are also looking forward to what a devastating scene it will be when the "god" who has been freed from all restraints unleashes his talent in the world arena.
· On the last night before the start of MSI, it started to snow lightly in Reykjavik.
The team members ended the training early and were required to take a mandatory rest.
Su Mo did not stay in the room. He went to the outdoor terrace on the top floor of the hotel alone.
Snowflakes fell silently, and the city lights in the distance looked a little hazy in the wind and snow.
The phone vibrated, and it was a message from Qin Lan who was far away in China:
"Is it cold in Iceland? Don’t forget, the eyes of the world are watching you. Go win that trophy for your future empire. Laying the first foundation stone. "
Su Mo looked at this message, feeling a little helpless. Why did this woman keep thinking about him...
He put away his phone and looked up at the night sky shrouded in aurora and wind and snow.
Empire? cornerstone?
The only thing he is thinking about now is the game starting tomorrow.
ˆaker, Perkz, Armut...faces filled with fighting spirit flashed through his mind.
Challengers from all over the world have gathered here.
And he, as the man on the throne, has been waiting for a long time.
"Come on," he whispered to himself, facing the wind and snow in the sky, exhaling a white breath.
"Let me see how much you...want to win."
The 2021 MSI Mid-Season Championship officially kicked off at the futuristic indoor stadium in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.
Different from previous years, this year's MSI did not have any audience due to the global epidemic, and the huge venue seemed a bit empty.
But this has not affected the enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of e-sports enthusiasts around the world.
Across the screen, countless eyes gathered here, waiting for this collision of the world's top teams that was a year late.
This MSI competition system is divided into three stages:
Group stage: 11 champion teams from major competition regions around the world are divided into three groups for a double round-robin BO1 points competition. The top two in each group advance.
Contest match: The 6 teams that advanced from the group stage will compete in a double round-robin BO1 points match again.
Knockout round: The top four teams in the competition advance to a BO5 single-elimination knockout match to determine the final championship.
The participating teams are star-studded:
LPL Representative: EDG - S10 World Champion, the new king of the LPL Spring Split, and the defending champion with unrivaled dominance.
LCK (Korea Division) Representative: DK (DWG KIA) - S10 World Runner-up, the absolute dominant player in the LCK Spring Split, known as the "strongest challenger".
LEC (European Division) Representative: MAD Lions - the new king of Europe, with a wild and unconstrained style of play, full of passion and imagination.
LCS (North American Division) Representative: Cloud9 - the North American fantasy god, the legendary mid laner Perkz joined, and his strength is unfathomable.
PCS (Southeast Asia Division) Representative: PSG Talon - the overlord of Southeast Asia, a dark horse whose strength cannot be underestimated.
And various champions from the Association of Independent Nations (UOL), Latin America (INF), Turkey (IW), Brazil (PNG), Japan (DFM), and Oceania (PGG).
Commentators and analysts around the world gave EDG and DK the highest praise before the game.
They are considered to be the only S-level team, and because EDG has Su Mo, a "god" that cannot be measured by statistics, they have narrowly surpassed DK in terms of winning odds, becoming the nominal number one in the world.
On the first day of the group stage, EDG’s first match was against Pentanet.GG (PGG), the champion from the Oceania LCO division.
Facing such a relatively weak "wild card" team, everyone believed that EDG would win easily in the most conventional and stable way. However, when the BP interface appeared, audiences around the world were dumbfounded.
In the counter position of EDG on the fifth floor, after Su Mo banned three regular top laners, he showed a hero that made Miller and Wawa in the commentary box fall into a long silence.
Devil clown, Shaco!
"I...did I see it wrong?" Miller rubbed his eyes, "It's... the top laner AP clown?!"
"Brother Mozi, is this... crazy?!" Wawa exclaimed directly, "Playing like this in the first game of the group stage? This is not taking the opponent seriously at all! This is no longer a job, this is adding salt to the opponent's wound!"
The barrage in the live broadcast room exploded instantly.
【? ? ? ? ? ? 】
【I am reporting that someone is playing a human-machine game here! 】
【I feel sorry for PGG's top laner. The game hasn't even started yet, but my mentality has already collapsed. 】
【Is this God? Play as a match in the World Championship, love it! 】
In the PGG battle booth, their top laner BioPanther, a very honest-looking Australian guy, looked at the clown opposite with a weird smile on his face, confusion written all over his face.
The game begins.
Su Mo became BioPanther’s nightmare during the laning phase.
· Clown highlights one word - cheap.
He uses the invisibility of the Q skill to appear in your face from time to time, throws an E skill [Double-Sided Poison Blade] to slow you down, and then leaves without looking back.
You are so angry that you want to chase him, but you don’t know when a box has been placed in the grass waiting for you.
You think he is being naughty under the tower, but in fact he has become invisible and harassed you in the middle.
After the sixth level, it gets even worse.
True and false clones are hard to guard against.
PGG's jungler came to catch him once, but all his big moves were handed over to the fake body, and Su Mo easily counterattacked with the help of the defense tower.
Throughout the whole game, the other four members of EDG didn't even exert much effort. They just watched Su Mo messing around with his opponents on the top lane.
The mentality of the whole PGG team was completely destroyed by Su Mo's elusive harassment and unpredictable magic box.
Twenty minutes later, the game ended in a funny team battle.
· The five PGG players chased EDG's remaining health, but ended up rushing into the "Magic Box Formation" that Su Mo had set up in advance. They were continuously frightened to death, and performed a wave of "Calabash Baby Saves Grandpa"-style group annihilation.
EDG easily won their first victory.
After the game, Su Mo's Joker won the MVP without any suspense with a perfect KDA of 5-0-11.
When his avatar appeared on the MVP interface, commentators around the world fell into a state of dumbfounding.
The LEC commentator spread his hands in the studio and smiled helplessly: "Well, I think we now understand the meaning of what player Mo said at the departure ceremony. He did not come back to compete, he came back to inspect his territory. And today, he told PGG that their land was not clean enough."
This "clown drama" completely kicked off EDG's "performance" in the MSI group stage.
Facing against Japanese DFM, Su Mo took out the top laner Teemo and tortured the opponent's top laner until he only managed 30 kills in 12 minutes.
Against UOL of the Independent League of Nations, he chose top laner Pike again, roamed the whole court, and cooperated with his teammates to end the game in 15 minutes.
EDG, in an almost playful way, won all six games, ranked first in the group, and advanced to the competition without any suspense.
Su Mo’s whole life has made audiences all over the world love and hate him. EDG’s game has also become the highest-rated event at this MSI.
People are no longer looking forward to how EDG will win, but are looking forward to what weird heroes that man will come up with today to ravage his opponents.
After EDG easily advanced from the group stage with a complete victory record, the battle for the competition followed.
The six teams that advanced are EDG, DK, MAD, C9, PSG and UOL.
Each team is the king of their respective divisions, and the real competition has just begun now.
On the first day of the competition, the focus of the battle is the much-anticipated "China-South Korea showdown" - EDG vs DK.
This game is regarded as "a preview of the MSI Finals" by all media and players around the world.
One is the defending old god, and the other is the strongest challenger.
John Aaker's declaration of "Let's see if God bleeds" added a lot of gunpowder to this duel.
Before the game started, the director's camera scanned the faces of the players from both teams one by one.
· On DK's side, the team members looked solemn and their eyes were as sharp as knives. Aker pursed his lips tightly, his face full of desire to challenge.
On EDG's side, the atmosphere is much more relaxed.
Jiejie even made a face at the camera, while Su Mo leaned on the e-sports chair and closed his eyes to rest, as if what was about to begin was not a battle of the century, but an ordinary qualifying match.
Such a huge contrast, LPL commentator Miller couldn't help but sigh: "This is EDG, this is the confidence that player Mo brings to the team! If the sky is falling, he will hold it up, we just need to believe!"
BP begins.
DK is on the blue side. This time, their coach Kkoma did not madly target Su Mo's hero pool like RNG did.
They banned Lilia, Thresh and Aphelios, all of which were signature heroes targeting other EDG players.
"DK's BP has changed!" Miller immediately saw the clues. "They are releasing Mo's hero. Knowing that Mo's hero pool is deep, they simply target others."
DK grabbed the opportunity and locked Rambo in the jungle position!
"It's Canyon's signature Rambo!" Watanaru exclaimed, "This is his champion skin hero in the S10 World Championship! DK showed off their killer moves as soon as they came up!"
EDG, on the first and second hand, took Kai'Sa and Niutou, and chose a bottom lane combination for Viper and Meiko that can attack, retreat and defend.
DK’s second and third moves locked mid laner Victor and auxiliary Luo.
It’s EDG’s turn to be the third player, who is also the top unit.
"What will you choose? DK released Jace, released Gnar..." Miller spoke quickly.
Su Mo's profile picture lit up, and a hero was marked by him.
Fist of Shadow, Akali!
"It's Akali!" Miller's voice suddenly rose, "Facing DK's mid-term explosive lineup, player Mo chose Akali! An assassin with unlimited possibilities who can create miracles!"
In the end, when DK's fifth floor locked top laner Gragas to counter Akali, the lineups of both sides were determined.
This is a duel between spear and shield, a battle between rhythm and development!
The game begins!
Everyone thought that the focus of this game would be the mid-lane duel between Aker and Scout, or the jungle game between Canyon and Jiejie.
However, Su Mo told the whole world with his actions that as long as he is on the court, he is the only focus.
Level 3, Su Mo's Akali took advantage of the empty chance of Khan's E skill from the wine barrel. An E skill was accurately hung on the body of the wine barrel, and then the second stage of E flew up. A set of smooth QAQA directly knocked out half of the health of the wine barrel, forcing a flash.
Level 6, Canyon's Rambo came to the top lane, trying to cooperate with Khan to jump over the tower and kill Akali.
However, when Su Mo saw Rambo appear, he did not retreat but advanced!
He directly activated his ultimate move [, and the first movement avoided the central area of Rambo's ultimate move [Constant Temperature Burning], and then put down his W skill [My Flow Mystery·Xia Formation], and he fought with the two of them in the smoke screen to the extreme!
In the end, he used his E skill and the second stage of his ultimate to kill, and took Khan's wine barrel away at the bottom of the tower, and escaped.
Su Mo's operation has made the entire DK team feel a chill.
This person's reaction and decision-making are completely unreasonable!
The turning point of the game occurred in the 14-minute Canyon Pioneer team battle.
The two sides were fighting in the river, and DK took advantage of the AOE advantages of Victor and Rambo to occupy a favorable terrain.
Just when everyone thought EDG would choose to retreat, Su Mo's Akali entered the battlefield from an angle that no one expected!
He did not choose to cut through DK's back row, but used the cover of smoke bombs to sneak around to the flank of DK's formation.
His target is the aker who has been looking for opportunities!
Viktor, the first player, has moved extremely carefully. He always maintains a safe distance from his teammates.
However, at the moment when he released the Q skill to consume, Su Mo moved!
R Flash!
Akali's figure, as if teleporting, carrying a deadly killing intent, instantly spanned half the screen and appeared on Victor's face!
Equip E skill [Falcon Dance]!
The second stage R takes action to receive QA!
The screen instantly turned gray!
"Single kill!!!" Miller had already stood up from his seat, "Mo's Akali, in the five-person team battle, accurately found the person who challenged God, and then... cut him off his horse with her own hands! This is the response! This is a warning from God!"
Aker was killed, and DK's formation collapsed instantly.
· EDG played a perfect 0-for-3, not only winning the Rift Herald, but also knocking down DK's middle tower.
The rhythm of the game was completely reversed by this shocking wave of assassinations!
In DK's battle seat, Aker looked at his gray screen, clenched his fists tightly, and veins popped out on the back of his hands.
For the first time, he felt the powerlessness called "despair".
All his operations and all his predictions seemed so ridiculous in front of that ghostly figure.
God is not only capable of bleeding.
God can also kill people.
In the end, this much-anticipated final preview ended with EDG's victory in the 28th minute. (End of chapter)