prynovel Chapter 237 28 Minutes!
Chapter 237 28 Minutes!
Chapter 237 Twenty-eight minutes!
Uzi's Lucian found an excellent position to deal damage amidst the chaos, activated his ultimate and unleashed a barrage of attacks, then used his E skill to slide forward, ready to clean up the remaining enemies.
"The puppy is in! This position is perfect! Does RNG still have a chance?!" Miller shouted.
However, just as Lucian slid to his ground...
Xiao Yan, who had been hovering on the edge of the battlefield as if he had disappeared, made a move.
He ignored Zhao Xin and Sion rushing into the crowd; his eyes were only on Lucian sliding forward.
"You still like to gamble everything in the endgame." Xiao Yan murmured to himself.
Varus draws his bow and nocks an arrow.
Without the slightest hesitation, without the slightest delay.
Big move!
The purplish-black vines, like venomous snakes emerging from their holes, cut through the chaotic crowd at an extremely tricky angle and precisely wrapped around Lucian, who had just landed!
"Hit!! Xiao Yan's ultimate move hit the puppy precisely in the chaos of battle!!"
Lucian, frozen in place, instantly became a sitting duck.
TheShy's Jayce unleashed a super-charged electric cannon.
Faker's Syndra unleashed a torrent of energy as she used her ultimate.
Even with Uzi's incredible reflexes, he couldn't make any moves when he was hard-controlled.
"Bang!"
Lucian's health bar was instantly emptied.
With Uzi's downfall, RNG's last hope was shattered.
Without their core damage dealers, RNG was utterly crushed by SKT's massive economic advantage and overwhelming equipment.
"A 5-for-0 exchange! SKT pulled off a perfect team fight!"
"One wave! SKT, with the Baron buff, has pushed straight to the high ground!"
Twenty-eight minutes.
When RNG's base crystal was reduced to ruins in a spectacular explosion, the entire BEXCO convention center fell into a brief silence.
Then erupted a thunderous roar of amazement and cheers.
There was no 4,000-minute stalemate as predicted before the game, nor was there a tense, agonizing close contest.
Twenty-eight minutes, a thoroughly satisfying, even one-sided, massacre.
"Let's congratulate SKT! They won the first game with an absolutely crushing victory!" Wawa's voice echoed throughout the stadium, filled with undisguised shock.
During the short break, the backstage lounge at Busan BEXCO Convention Center presented two completely different atmospheres.
The atmosphere in SKT's rest room was relaxed, but not arrogant. Coach kkOma was holding a tactical board and whispering something to Faker and Xiao Yan.
Meanwhile, in the RNG lounge at the other end of the corridor, the atmosphere was so heavy it seemed like water could drip from it.
The crushing defeat in the previous match, lasting only twenty-eight minutes, was undoubtedly a heavy blow to this highly motivated team. Uzi, in particular, sat in the far corner of the sofa, his hands tightly covering his face, speechless. The scenes from the last match kept replaying in his mind: every "aggressive" move he thought he had seized an opportunity ultimately turned into a deadly trap set by Xiao Yan.
"Jian Zihao." RNG's head coach Heart walked up to Uzi, patted his broad shoulder, and said in a calm and firm tone, "Raise your head."
Uzi slowly raised his head. His eyes, which were usually full of fighting spirit and aggression, were now bloodshot and filled with a rare sense of confusion.
"In the last game, you played too hastily." Heart didn't mince words and went straight to the heart of the problem. "Your courage is our RNG's sharpest spear, but Xiao Yan, that player, is too smart. He didn't choose to use a sharper spear to clash head-on with you, but instead used a ball of cotton, with countless traps, to dissipate all your strength.
"
"I know." Uzi's voice was a little hoarse as he bit his lower lip hard. "He sees right through me. He knows what I'm going to do with every step I take. That feeling—it's so frustrating."
"So, for the second game, we need to change our strategy." Heart looked around at the other team members in the rest room. "It's not just about pride; our whole team needs to change our mindset. SKT wants to play mind games with us, to capitalize on our mistakes, so we won't give them any mistakes! Tone down your aggression, slow down the pace, and we'll compete with them on macro play and late-game team fights!"
To implement this tactic, Heart made an important personnel change: replacing the aggressive jungler Mig with "Radar Bro" Karsa, who is known for his map control, counter-ganking, and vision management.
"Proud," Karsa walked over to Uzi and handed him a bottle of water. "This game, I'll be your ward in the bottom half of the map. If you don't move, I won't move either. We'll play steadily and drag the game out until after forty minutes."
Uzi took the water and gulped down a large mouthful. The icy liquid flowed down his throat, cooling his feverish brain slightly. He took a deep breath, and the confusion in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by an unprecedented calmness and forbearance.
"Okay," Uzi said in a deep voice, "This time, I will absolutely not go first."
Fifteen minutes later, both players returned to the stage.
When the camera panned across the faces of the players on both sides, the three commentators in the commentary booth immediately and keenly sensed the change in atmosphere.
"Welcome back to the S8 World Championship Group Stage! We're about to bring you the second match between RNG and SKT!" Wawa shouted. "We can see that RNG has made a roster change, with Karsa replacing Mlxg. And the expressions of the RNG players, especially Uzi's, have become very serious."
Miller nodded and analyzed, "SKT taught RNG a lesson in the last game. Xiao Yan used an extremely terrifying 'trap-style' playstyle, completely limiting Uzi's performance. RNG's substitution of Karsa has a very clear intention: to strengthen vision control in the jungle and slow down the pace of the game. In this game, RNG will definitely not be as impulsive as they were in the last game."
Guan Zeyuan chimed in, "That's right. Karsa's map control is among the best in the entire World Championship. As long as he can secure vision in the bottom half of the map, Uzi will have a much more comfortable laning phase. Next, it'll be a battle of draft picks between the two sides."
In the second game, the two sides switched sides, with SKT moving to the blue side and RNG moving to the red side.
From the very beginning of the draft phase, RNG demonstrated an extremely clear tactical intention. They didn't hesitate to ban Varus, who had performed exceptionally well in the previous game, as well as Olaf and Syndra, who had extremely strong early-game tempo-setting abilities.
SKT, on the other hand, specifically banned Uzi's Kai'Sa and Lucian, as well as Ornn, which is very crucial to RNG's system.
Ultimately, the lineups for both sides were finalized.
SKT (Blue Side): Top laner Aatrox (TheShy), Jungler Lee Sin (Peanut), Mid laner Galio (Faker), Bot laner Xayah (Xiao Yan), Support Rakan (Wolf).
RNG (Red Side): Top lane Sion (Letme), Jungle Trundle (Karsa), Mid lane Ryze (Xiaohu), Bot lane Ezreal (Uzi), Support Tahm Kench (Ming).