While the livestream chat was still arguing, the feed finally cut to the match stage at center.
Xiao Yu walked up with a microphone, smiling brightly.
Judging by her expression, she'd clearly been "served" very well by Rookie just now—she was in an extremely good mood.
"Now, please welcome TES onto the stage! Top: Zoom, Jungle: Tian, Mid: Dine, ADC: JackeyLove, Support: Mark, Head Coach: Crescent."
Amid the cheers, the players came out one after another. Luo Sheng, who walked out last, looked pretty happy too, waving to the crowd.
"White Moon really is living his best life right now—coach who's just lying back and winning. Feels like he hasn't done a thing and the team's still rolling through win after win," some audience members said sourly.
It was obvious that guy was an RNG fan.
"I actually think White Moon's recent drafting has gotten a lot better. He'll run any strategy now. Maybe he'll end up as the Chinese team's head coach."
"Then just send all of TES—have the whole roster represent China at the Asian Games."
"Hold up. There are so many positions, but mid is already basically locked in—Brother Infinite Borders is obviously the mid laner. And for ADC, who can threaten JackeyLove? No one, right? Then you'd need the matching support too, so Mark has to come along. That's three spots gone already—no objections?"
"Damn, the Summer Split isn't even over and you're already picking in the void?"
"If we're talking void picks, you RNG fans are stronger—void championships, right? Runner-up greater than champion?"
"Neither TES nor RNG has a Worlds title. What's there to fight about?"
"If you waited until after Worlds, that would be the most 'human' way to pick. But the Asian Games start in September, which is before Worlds, so once Summer Split ends the roster list is basically set."
While the audience argued below, RNG also came out under Xiao Yu's hosting.
Both teams took their seats.
The big screen switched to the draft, and the ban-pick interface appeared.
"Alright, game one officially begins. Blue side: TES. Red side: RNG."
On RNG's side, Xiaohu vigorously rubbed his palms together.
Then, with slightly trembling hands, he adjusted his glasses.
The pressure on him today was huge.
"Back to laning against Brother Infinite Borders… I don't even know what champion to pick," General Tiger sighed in team comms, sounding gloomy.
"Gonna get exploded by Brother Infinite Borders again today."
"Don't be scared, Tiger bro. Today's plan is I'm living in mid. Even if they tower dive, I'm behind you. I'm not going anywhere. Can Old Eight handle the pressure?" Wei started pumping him up.
Honestly, as long as mid doesn't collapse, they absolutely have a chance today.
Against TES, the first question is always: will mid collapse?
If mid can't hold, it's over. You may as well surrender.
"Everyone, wake up! We haven't even played yet. If you're already admitting defeat, we might as well just hand the trophy to TES. Right?" Ming shouted in comms.
"Ming's right. Even LNG managed to take a game off TES—we can do it too. Win this one, then think about winning the second. Today, we win! We'll slap them all in the face," Tabe followed up.
"Everyone pick your comfort champs and fight them head-on. We'll be fine."
…
TES opened bans by removing Kalista. That ban was basically saying: if you don't ban Zeri, TES is taking her.
RNG thought for a long time, but still didn't ban Zeri. Maybe they had more confidence in bot—so instead they banned Syndra.
In the normal meta, Syndra barely shows up in pro play. But because a top-tier Syndra player like Lin Fan exists, he directly sparked a wave in the league and made everyone think Syndra was viable.
In reality, she was a meta trap. A bunch of mid laners picked her and got no value—then lost.
If you prepare properly, even Lin Fan can't make Syndra work…
Which tells you just how weak she is in this patch.
TES's second ban was Ryze. Xiaohu took a deep breath.
The other side really wasn't giving him any way to live—why even ban Ryze?
Do you really have to respect that?
Just leave it up so I can survive lane, then play as a pseudo-tank who does a bit of damage.
As long as I don't collapse, I'll still be useful in teamfights.
But with other picks, I'm going to get beaten up in lane—this is honestly a pain.
Xiaohu was thinking hard about what he should pick for lane.
Lin Fan's pressure was just too heavy.
The last time he felt like this was back in S7, facing Faker at his peak.
Back then, he only dared to let his opponent have Galio—he wasn't confident against anything else.
So Feng-ge took the blame for him.
It wasn't that they didn't want to ban Galio. It's that if Faker played anything else, mid literally couldn't lane.
And now it was the same. With Ryze gone, he genuinely didn't know how to deal with Lin Fan's ocean of champions.
His whole head felt dizzy.
"RNG's second ban is Yone. They probably want to avoid TES scaling into the mid-to-late game and applying 4-1 split push pressure. This is also the first time TES has showcased their late-game tactical ability in Summer Split, and that's why I say this team is getting stronger and stronger," XiaoSan said seriously while watching the screen.
Everyone nodded without thinking.
That was true.
It also helped patch a weakness: when opponents played 4-1 split push comps, Zoom couldn't always hold. They had to send Lin Fan to match the split.
But at least it was an adaptation—against a 4-1 split push, they wouldn't be left with zero answers.
The downside was that mid picks had to be delayed.
If you pick Syndra, you simply can't go split.
If the enemy has a Fiora, how is Syndra supposed to duel Fiora?
No matter how good your mechanics are, you can't make up for the difference in champion kits.
Some champions can split; others simply can't. They have to teamfight.
TES's final ban was Lissandra.
Lissandra is actually pretty solid. If you aren't confident in your laning, you can pick her and force a one-for-one with her ultimate.
As for Galio, they could totally let Xiaohu have it—mainly because the champion is kind of clunky and easy to deal with.
If RNG really let Xiaohu pick Galio, then mid would just turn into a killing field.
"Let's see RNG's last ban. Are they banning Zeri? I think they should—Zeri's buffed this patch and she impacts bot lane a lot."
"Sylas? RNG's being cautious. Sylas got a tiny buff, and they still ban him. I used to think it wouldn't be necessary…"
"And this champ depends more on team comps. If they ban him, maybe their comp is scared of having key ultimates stolen?" XiaoSan said quietly.
"Yeah, possible."
"Then we'll see what TES takes—Zeri right away, or what."
"Locked. Priority Zeri."
"After two rounds of buffs, Zeri has a lot of room to perform in bot."
"If that's the case, RNG should probably take Yuumi. Her shields got buffed too, bot lane will transition comfortably. And if you have Yuumi, Zeri's late-game ceiling is huge…"
"But there aren't many other champs that pair well. Let's see what RNG wants—do they give it to TES, or steal it?"
RNG barely hesitated and instantly locked Aphelios and Renata.
"They gave Yuumi over and took Aphelios plus Renata. Looks like they came prepared. Purely in lane, this duo wants to play toward teamfights later."
Mainly because Wei planned to focus on mid. In that case, they wanted TES's bot lane to not be an insanely strong lane-dominant pairing.
If it's Zeri plus Yuumi, GALA's farming pressure won't be that high. Those two champions are too weak at setting up with the jungler, so Tian probably won't gank bot.
That's just how League of Legends is—you can't have everything.
Life is the same.
If you want to protect one part, you'll inevitably lose something else.
RNG could only let TES have Zeri plus Yuumi.
At least bot lane wouldn't be too scary. The rest would depend on teamfight execution.
Luo Sheng's brows knit slightly. He hadn't expected RNG to actually hand Yuumi to him.
He'd assumed they'd force-pick Yuumi and run something like Sivir plus Yuumi.
But if they were giving it away, he'd take it.
After locking Yuumi, he thought for a moment and picked Tian's Viego.
RNG immediately answered with Kennen.
Both sides entered the second ban phase.
TES didn't hesitate—straight into jungle bans. Wukong and Vi were banned.
Those two are huge threats to Zeri—especially Vi. That point-and-click lockdown creates massive pressure.
RNG kept targeting mid.
They even banned Viktor—a safe scaling laner.
"Is Xiaohu under that much pressure?" JackeyLove said.
"Obviously. Who doesn't feel pressure against Fan-ge? If you can't beat him, you can't beat him. Just reduce as many outside factors as possible," Mark said.
"This game they'll try their best to stabilize mid. But we already locked Zeri plus Yuumi bot, so let's just scale with them," Luo Sheng said after seeing RNG's fourth pick lock Sejuani.
"We can…" Lin Fan wanted to play more around mid-jungle after seeing Sejuani, but since Luo Sheng said it, following him was fine.
Sejuani doesn't apply that much early pressure anyway. Playing for mid-to-late was fine.
But with Viktor and Azir gone, if you still want to scale, then you basically have to pick Corki.
He'd told everyone before that he wanted to play Corki. Picking it again after one match wasn't a problem.
But ever since Corki's damage became 80% magic, if you still build him as physical, Maw of Malmortius and Force of Nature hard-counter you.
Physical Corki isn't impossible, but it delays your power spike a lot. The instant burst can even be higher than AP.
But once the enemy builds Maw… that burst-high is gone.
So the current mainstream build is still Luden's Tempest plus Manamune and Shadowflame, paired with Sorcerer's Shoes. Three items and your damage is maxed out.
One small rocket can take half an ADC's HP. A big rocket is outright apocalyptic.
And when you have The Package… you look even more like Rumble than Rumble does.
"Corki? This is Brother Infinite Borders' first time on Corki… holy shit, is he 'playing with rockets' in public now? As expected of Brother Infinite Borders—so perverted. I love it."
"TES's comp… is so late-game. Corki and Zeri—if this drags out, RNG might actually win."
"White Moon is messing around again. Can you just draft properly for once? Always doing weird stuff."
"Man. If Xiaohu whips out LeBlanc here, wouldn't he just slaughter? There's no champion that can actually restrict LeBlanc."
The last pick for Zoom was top-lane Gnar.
The amount of CC in this comp was pitiful. The only small CC was Viego's W—everything else was ultimates…
You can only say: it depends on execution.
But RNG thought about their last pick for forever.
Only when the countdown hit single digits did they lock Orianna in the fifth slot.
The moment that champion appeared, the entire chat exploded. The arena started buzzing too—because to everyone, it made no sense at all!
"Is the pressure really that high?"
"What's going on with Xiaohu?"
"TES's comp is basically screaming 'we don't respect you.' They got counterpick, they saw how squishy RNG is—if you won't pick Akali, fine, but you're not even picking LeBlanc?"
"I'm dizzy. In what universe do you pick Orianna here? Your engage is entirely on jungler and Kennen. If they get kited out, you're just dead."
"Is this really General Tiger? If you hide the ID, I'd think it was a Shit hand. At least a Shit hand would dare to gamble in champ select instead of choosing surrender at minute zero."
"Orianna is such a baffling pick… I can't understand it. All I can say is I don't understand. What is Tabe doing? Aren't these picks decided by the coaches? What does it have to do with the players?"
"If Tabe doesn't have game understanding, I suggest he step down. Don't squat on the head coach spot."
"Damn. It used to be Spring Tiger Emperor, Summer Tiger Trash. Now it's Summer Tiger Coward—won't even draw his sword?"
RNG fans completely lost it. They wished they could storm the stage and pick for Xiaohu themselves.
This was clearly a dream game for LeBlanc, a dream game for Akali—and yet somehow they picked Orianna…
No matter how furious the fans were, once the champion was locked, it was set.
Both sides started swapping champions, and the comps were officially finalized.
Blue side TES:
Top: Gnar
Jungle: Viego
Mid: Corki
Bot: Zeri + Yuumi
Red side RNG:
Top: Kennen
Jungle: Sejuani
Mid: Orianna
Bot: Aphelios + Renata
Both coaches walked to center stage and shook hands.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup