Chapter 245-Version targeting, three-core tactics!
After the entire Olympic Games were over, everyone who had made an appointment in advance gathered at the Rio airport and prepared to return home together.

The athletes' flight back home was arranged by the General Administration of Sport of China. The entire plane was filled with national athletes. It was arranged long ago, so there was no need for them to buy tickets themselves.

Moreover, they are all first class, so you don’t need to pay extra for an upgrade, nor do you have to take advantage of the situation.

Brazil is far away from China, and there are no direct flights. It takes at least thirty hours to return home.

It is impossible to spend all thirty hours sleeping. If you don't do something, you will be bored to death. So after the plane flew steadily, Yuan Shen went to the restaurant to meet with other players and chat.

As for men, the topics of conversation always revolve around women, career and games.

Just as everyone was rushing to drive, Mingkai, who was browsing his phone, suddenly said, "Go to the official League of Legends app and check it out. Riot has just announced the update for the next version. This change is a bit disturbing. I feel like the entire game ecosystem will be affected."

"Manager, is it that exaggerated?" Uzi asked in surprise.

"It's not an exaggeration at all, No, you can see for yourself."

As he said this, Mingkai handed over his phone. Uzi glanced at it and immediately caught the key words.

"The first blood mechanism of the defense tower?"

coming!
Yuan Shen thought.

The first-blood mechanism for the defense tower, which we have been looking forward to for half a year, is finally here.

If we say that the changes that had the greatest impact on the World Championship in last year's S5 were the launch of Big Nine, Bloodthirster, and Black Cleaver, and the rework of several heavy-armored warrior heroes.

Well, the changes that have had the biggest impact on the World Championship in this year's S6 are the increase in AP damage in version 6.9 and the emergence of the first blood tower mechanism in version 6.15.

Yuan Shen took out his mobile phone, opened the app, and looked at the version update announcement.

The blood tower mechanism, as the name suggests, the first defense tower to be pushed down will receive a reward similar to the first blood.

In previous versions, destroying a defense tower would gain 275 economic points, which would be evenly distributed among the hero units around the defense tower.

Equivalent to the income per person.

The first blood tower will provide an additional bounty of 400 yuan.

In other words, the hero who takes down the first blood tower will get 675 economic points, which is not a very high reward for the entire team. However, the hero who destroys the defense tower can get a high bounty, which will make it easier for the hero who is strong in the line to gain an advantage.

At the same time, in previous versions, the three outer towers all had a damage reduction mechanism, and the outer towers had a 35% damage reduction before seven minutes of game time.

The damage reduction mechanism has existed for a long time. It was originally set up by Riot designers in order to balance the overly powerful Poke speed-pushing system of the LCK teams.

In version 6.15, the damage reduction mechanism of the defense tower was also changed. The duration was changed from seven minutes to five minutes, and the reduction effect was increased from 35% to 50%.

The most important change is at the end. Only the outer towers in the top and middle lanes have damage reduction. The outer tower in the bottom lane has had its damage reduction mechanism removed, making it very fragile.

What does this change mean?
mean……

The duo didn't dare leave the bottom lane.

The line-changing tactic is likely to become completely extinct, and even the unpopular tactic of double-center will become extinct.

The reason is simple. The first blood tower becomes so valuable, and the bottom tower becomes so fragile. If the duo dares to switch to the top or middle lane, it is equivalent to giving up the bottom lane tower and giving the opponent 600 yuan for free.

The disappearance of the line-changing tactics is only the most direct impact.

With professional players' keen sense of versions, everyone immediately noticed the deeper impact.

In professional games, the lane-swapping tactic allows heroes with weak laning to develop more steadily in the early stages, but at the same time it forces junglers to have difficulty finding opportunities in the early stages. After the lane-swapping tactic is curbed, junglers with strong combat effectiveness and strong invasiveness in the early stages will become more popular.

The status of carnivorous junglers has been raised again, this is one of them.

At the same time, the first blood tower will become the focus of the early competition between the two teams, and the place where the first blood tower is most likely to be born is undoubtedly the bottom lane outer tower that does not have damage reduction.

In order to get the first blood tower, the bottom lane duo will probably be more inclined to choose a combination with strong laning ability.

The focus of team game will be on the bottom lane.

The core of the game returns to the bottom lane, this is the second.

Finally, for the top laner, it is not a good thing to destroy the opponent's defense tower too early.

The top lane is very long, and it is difficult to have enough time to return to the safety of the tower during a fight, and it is also easier to encounter a gank from the jungler.

Once you push down the opponent's defense tower, you will have to go deep into the enemy's hinterland to fight against the opponent, which will not only make it more difficult to suppress or kill the opponent, but also increase your chances of encountering ganks. Therefore, pushing down the defense tower too early will do more harm than good to the top laner.

Even if you get the first blood from the defensive tower, it cannot make up for the losses caused by it.

Even if they have to fight for the first blood tower, they will not fight in the top lane, and the junglers of both sides will not pay too much attention to the top lane in the early stage.

The third is that the status of the top team has declined again.

"Oh my god, this is too extreme." Tian Ye secretly clicked his tongue. Once the 6.15 changes come out, I'm afraid all teams will fight hard in the early stages.

The early advantages can be easily transformed into victory.

The stronger the offensive power of a team in the early stage, the more likely it is to become the winner of the game and the darling of the version.

This year's game will be dominated by offense.

The stronger the offensiveness, the more advantages you can establish in the early stages.

and……

This weakens the team status of the top laner in disguise? ?
Mingkai frowned and found that things were not simple.

In this year's version, the top laner no longer has the absolute dominance like last year. The rise of the three mythical gods in the top lane in S6 means that the top laner plays a more functional role.

During the Spring Split, TheShy was the only player in all major regions who still insisted on using a carry-type top laner.

Moreover, since version 6.9, he has taken a different approach and moved AP magic heroes such as Ryze, Kennen, and Vampire to the top lane, which has worked wonders.

Of course, this is inseparable from Yuan Shen.

And TheShy is also very suitable for this kind of offensive top laner.

In this Olympics, Yuan Shen's dominance in the top lane made Riot's designers realize this again.

The strength of the top laner still seems a bit high.

It must be weakened.

Their original intention of strengthening AP heroes was to enhance the mid laner and increase the early confrontation between the mid and jungle.

However, Yuan Shen's action left the Riot designer confused.

The carry-type top laner in the S6 version is not considered a reverse version, but it is only at the T2 level.

The reason why TheShy was able to play carry heroes during the spring season, in addition to his unique personal strength, was also inseparable from the help provided by his teammates.

For example, Yuan Shen likes to be caught in the top lane throughout the spring season.

Xiao Ming in the bottom lane sometimes gives up heroes like Jyra and chooses tank heroes like Alistar and Titan to play the support position to make up for the defects of the team lineup after the top laner chooses an output hero.

Even Rookie in the middle lane will choose heroes like Titan and Dragon King to enhance the early-stage confrontation ability and protect his teammates by himself during their transition to the mid-to-late stages.

But now, the emergence of the first blood tower mechanism has completely changed the trend of the version into one where carnivorous junglers are king and the bottom lane is the core in the early stage.

IG's playing style, or the style shown by the LPL team in this Olympics, has been weakened again.

accidental?

Or does Riot Games really want to target the championship team to death?

Mingkai secretly leaned towards the latter.

The obstacles that the championship team faces in wanting to continue winning come not only from the research of other teams and the laziness of the players after becoming champions, but also from various temptations of fame and fortune, as well as version targeting from Riot Games.

Therefore, winning two consecutive championships is as difficult as climbing to the sky, and only winning three consecutive championships can be called a legendary dynasty and be praised so much that the game will be shut down.

Historically, SKT also fell on the road to three consecutive championships. It was just one step away, but it seemed like an insurmountable chasm.

The IG team won the Grand Slam. Including the LPL league championship and the German Cup championship, IG has won five championships in a row.

Two of them are world competitions.

IG's biggest carry has always been Yuan Shen. Last year, Yuan Shen encountered the best era and the best version for him.

However, this year's various disguised weakening and targeting are undoubtedly also aimed at him.

Although Yuan Shen has switched to being a jungler, his performance in the All-Star Game and the Olympics undoubtedly proved one thing.

That is, the top lane position still has the dominant ability to carry the game.

but……

What does the weakening of top laner have to do with Yuan Shen?

TheShy and Zzitai were the ones who suffered. After returning to China, Yuan Shen patted his butt and went back to playing jungle.

This is really speechless.

Riot is going to weaken the top laner because of a jungler.

Who can I talk to to explain this?

Judging from Riot's trend of targeting championship teams, Mingkai has no doubt... If IG really achieves a second consecutive championship this year, there will definitely be an extremely distorted version next year. In that version, the carry ability of the top laner may become the lowest in history.

"Well, let's go back and discuss it carefully." Mingkai thought secretly.

The changes in 6.15 are not bad news.

In addition to the first blood tower mechanism, a new hero will also appear in version 6.15.

Rage Knight Kled.

The 132nd hero in the League, the official recommended position is top fighter.

We need to study this hero carefully. If this hero is strong enough, it may become another powerful weapon for EDG.

As for whether Flandre can master this hero...this question does not exist at all.

Just practice cooking more.

You'll learn it eventually.

To this day, no one doubts Yuan Shen's talent and hero pool.

I finally spent the 30-hour flight sleeping.

After getting off the plane, everyone will go their separate ways and continue to play for their own teams.

Several athletes participating in this Olympics felt that they had learned a lot and deepened their understanding of each other.

After waving goodbye and getting in the car, Mingkai said quietly: "RNG will be a strong opponent in our league!"

"Yeah." Tian Ye nodded. "When we were playing in the finals, I always felt that Uzi's mentality was not as impatient as before. He always made some... unreasonable mistakes in the key games before. But in this Olympics, he was very stable from beginning to end."

"The championship curse has been broken. I can feel that after winning, his mentality has become more stable. And Xiangguo... Damn, I told him some counter-camping ideas and understanding of eye positions, but it didn't work out." Mingkai suddenly felt that he had been a little too worried and thought too much before.

"Wusuowei, we are all brothers."

Yuan Shen threw his backpack behind him with one hand and raised his eyebrows.

"Are you ready for the arrival of the IG dynasty? You little brothers!"

"Fuck you, it's RNG that should be worried about. We are not in the same group as you."

Tian Ye cursed with a smile.

If we were to say who has made the most progress during this period, it would definitely be Shi Senming.

Among the ten-person roster, Xiao Ming has the best personality and is worthy of the title of e-sports socialite.

He also exchanged a lot of ideas on playing strategies with Xiao Ming, and the two had a very good relationship.

"It's not certain. I have confidence against IG this time."

Xiang Guo is very confident.

Because of the Olympics, three IG players did not participate in the summer season.

There were problems in the coordination between TheShy and Rookie.

Plus the version change...

Who knows, they might really be able to overthrow IG!

This time he also learned a lot from Yuan Shen and Ming Kai, and was preparing to deal with them in turn.

"Tsk... Does this count as self-defeating? Cultivating a powerful opponent?" Ming Kai didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

“The intensity of the division has increased, which is a good thing.”

Yuan Shen had a different opinion, saying, "Only a strong competitor can urge us not to relax and to keep working hard. If a region always has only one voice, I think it will be doomed... Look at the LMS region, recently only the voice of the FW team has been heard. But is it really because FW is too strong?"

Mingkai was thoughtful.

He has paid attention to Flash Wolves' Karsa and feels that this player can take over his position.

But to say that FW is that strong, it’s not that bad.

There are no tigers in the mountains, and the monkeys are kings.

The competitiveness of the competition area is still very important.

The size of the fish pond and the intensity of natural selection inherently determine what kind of fish can be raised in the pond and the upper limit of the team's strength.

"By the way, IG is playing pretty well this season even without you guys," Tian Ye said.

The summer season schedule favors IG, EDG, RNG, WE, and LGD, and many schedules have been moved to the second half.

Even so, there are still many games to play in the first half.

Without its three core carries, IG's performance surprisingly did not decline.

The two Cs are all new players, and they have taken up the responsibility. So far, their points have not fallen out of the top five in the league. You know, compared with other teams, IG played fewer games in the first half of the season. In this case, they can still be in the top five, which proves that their winning rate is very high. And the winning rate is...

"A complete victory?" Yuan Shen was a little surprised.

"Yes."

Xiao Ming smiled and said, "We played mostly weak teams in the lower middle of the league, so it's not surprising that we won. The schedule was very favorable for us. The only difficult teams in the first half were LGD and RNG. Those two games were very difficult, but we were lucky and managed to win."

"Gao Zhenning played well. Xiao Shiguang and Shekeke in the bottom lane were able to hold their own against RNG without Uzi."

"Today's young people..."

Mingkai shook his head with emotion.

He is 23 years old this year
At this age, in traditional sports competitions, this is undoubtedly the golden age, but in the field of e-sports, this is undoubtedly a veteran.

The only advantage that e-sports veterans have over newcomers is competition experience.

Veteran mentality?
nonexistent.

Some veterans are too cautious and easily miss opportunities. In fact, they are not as good as the newcomers who are fearless. The speed of operation and reaction, the concentration for a long time, the speed of practicing new heroes and new routines are not something that can be compensated by the so-called veteran experience.

On the contrary, as we age, our abilities in these areas will slowly and inevitably decline.

Once e-sports players are over 22 years old, their reaction speed starts to decline.

Not to mention concentration, many players have a deep understanding of this. When they were sixteen or seventeen years old and in high school, they could play for three days and three nights with full of energy. But after a few years, they would lose concentration late at night and could not maintain concentration for long.

As people get older, their ability to adapt to and accept new things, that is, their learning ability, will gradually decline.

When a new hero comes out, the new generation of geniuses can master it after playing a dozen games and are able to carry the game. However, the veterans may play for ten days or half a month and still feel unsure. What can they compare with?

The Yangtze River's waves behind push the waves in front, and the waves in front die on the beach... This is absolutely true.

In this case, if the veterans want to maintain their form, they need a lot of training.

Compared with the young people who have emerged recently, Mingkai feels that he is becoming more and more powerless. He secretly glances at Yuan Shen and Xiang Guo. An idea he had considered before can't help but pop up again at this moment...

The current LPL is different from before.

In the past, he could call the shots and dominate the region.

But last year there were Taobao Quan and Xiang Guo, and this year there are a group of newcomers such as Yuan Shen and Kangdi.

When they were playing in the Olympics, two new players, Ning and Sofm, emerged.

The jungle position is becoming increasingly difficult.

After taking a thirty-hour long-distance flight, everyone was a little tired. They didn't talk much along the way and soon returned to IG's base.

Inside the hall, Rookie and the others had already received the news and had been waiting for a long time.

TheShy and Ning helped with the luggage, while Rookie had been looking at Yuan Shen quietly since he entered the door.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Yuan Shen asked curiously.

"This time you met two mid laners, Wei Shen and Xiye. Do you think they are more suitable for you than me?" Rookie asked expressionlessly.

"How is that possible?" Yuan Shen felt very strange.

"Lao Song, I'm the top laner, not the jungler, you need to understand this clearly!"

"Oh...yeah, that's fine then."

Rookie laughed, his eyes narrowed into slits.

"Your performance was very strong! Solo!"

TheShy had just finished moving his luggage when he came over and looked at Yuan Shen with shining eyes.

"What's the point of Solo? Can't we just play the stance?"

Yuan Shen sighed.

very tired.

He is just a jungler!

After the rest, all the club members went out for a dinner to celebrate Yuan Shen, Jack and Xiao Ming winning the Olympic gold medals.

Having just experienced a big competition, Yuan Shen would like to rest for a while if possible, but unfortunately, the summer season has entered the second half, and they have a lot of games to play and prepare for, and they also have to make up for the team training that they missed before.

The next day after returning to China, Yuan Shen and the other two officially resumed training.

The results of the training match that day were a bit dismal.

The opponent in the training match is EDG's second team.

No, to be more precise, it is the former EDG second team, now officially renamed as IM team, which is newly promoted in the LPL Summer Season.

As a team that just came up from LSPL, IM's strength has exceeded many people's expectations. Now it ranks second in Group B, higher than EDG.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that EDG still has a lot of games to play.

But this undoubtedly proves that the strength of IM team is at the top of the league.

To put it in a nutshell, the style of the IM team is a replica of the EDG team in the S5 Spring Season.

Stability, development, operation, team battles... Top laner AmazingJ is also an expert at playing the big tree.

The result of the BO5 training match with IM team was a narrow victory with three wins and two losses.

Even in the winning game, there were many small mistakes that should not have happened.

If this record were known to fans outside, they would definitely shout that the championship curse has appeared.

Even though IM is very strong and is at the top of the league, the expectations on IG are too high. You are the world champions, you have been winning since last spring, you carry the hopes of countless fans, and you are the undefeated LPL overlord team.

In the eyes of many fans, easily crushing the opponent 3-0 every time without losing a single game is the performance that IG should have.

The greater the expectations, the higher the demands, and the greater the disappointment and anger when you fail.

Historically, the reason why LGD was criticized so harshly in the S5 period was because they carried huge expectations. They were the No. seed team representing the LPL.

But in reality, the players are not machines, their performance fluctuates, and it is normal for them to lose games.

What is important is whether you can adjust your state after failure and correct your mistakes and weaknesses.

After the game, IG members summarized today's training match performance and believed that there were two problems in total.

First, we haven’t played together for a while, and the team members haven’t been able to get used to each other.

This problem is actually easy to solve.

The tacit understanding and coordination between the team members have just become unfamiliar, but not completely lost. By maintaining high-intensity training, they will soon be able to get back to their previous state.

But the second problem is a bit more serious.

IG's previous playing style is somewhat unsuitable for this version.

In this version, things must revolve around the bottom lane, and the jungler must choose a hero with strong carnivorous characteristics, otherwise he will lose the initiative in the early stage.

As a result, the heroes that junglers and top laners can choose from are very limited.

IG's best strategy of swinging BP is likely to lose its effectiveness.

Moreover, once the jungler chooses strong heroes such as Lee Sin, Elise, Graves, Kindred, etc., the team will lack front row and control, which must be supplemented by the top or mid laner.

Generally speaking, it is not enough to just assist a front row.

This is not consistent with the positioning of TheShy and Rookie in the team.

Of course, Zzitai can be put on the field. He can also play heroes like Maokai and Troll to provide enough output space for the double C.

There is nothing wrong with playing like this, IG is still a strong team, but compared with its previous unique level, its dominance will be greatly reduced.

After all, IG in the spring season was most famous for its system of Karma or Lulu in the mid lane and two shooters in the top and jungle.

IG can play with three or even four cores.

But not anymore.

As the pace of the game accelerates, it is even more necessary for the carry position to set the pace in the early stages and accumulate economic advantages.

It is difficult to see a multi-core lineup like before.

Moreover, for TheShy, if he is forced to play a functional top lane role due to the version, it is natural that his carry ability will decline.

How to solve this team system problem is IG’s next top priority.

Inside the IG training room, everyone looked at Yuan Shen with puzzled eyes.

The reason for this expression was that the suggestion on the team system that Yuan Shen had just put forward was really confusing.

"Let's fight harder?"

Fu Manduo looked puzzled, "What do you mean?"

If other professional players tried to interfere with the team's tactical system, Fumanduo would most likely not take it seriously.

Because not every professional player can create corresponding tactics based on the current version of the ecological environment. In fact, the vast majority of professional players do not play games with their brains, but with the skills and instincts honed by thousands of games.

It's like a certain bald One Punch Man, whose strength is invincible, but if you ask him why he is so strong, he has no way of summarizing a systematic theory.

Don't ask, asking is talent.

But there are a few professional players who play games with their brains.

This type of player often serves as the team's commander. They can fully understand the tactical significance of the lineup arranged by the coach, can calmly judge the situation, and make the most appropriate command. They are rare generals.

The most typical examples are Mingkai and Doinb.

In a sense, both of them lack talent, but they make up for it with their brains.

The operation seems mediocre and without any highlights, but the team's status is at two extremes when he is with and without him.

In a professional team, the coaching staff and analysts are the commander, the team commander is the general, and the rest of the players are the soldiers.

In Fu Manduo's opinion, Yuan Shen is obviously a national treasure-level player who has both extraordinary talent and brains.

There is another such player, and that is Faker.

Especially some advanced understanding of the version, sometimes even he is deeply inspired. Many of IG's current routines are derived from some concepts proposed by Yuan Shen.

Therefore, everyone in IG attaches great importance to his suggestions.

"What do you think of the style of play we had in the fourth game of the finals against the Korean team?" Yuan Shen asked back.
"Very aggressive, like our LPL style in S3 and S4."

Ziti commented objectively: "However, the reason we played so smoothly in the fourth game was mainly because our opponent didn't expect us to change our style so much and caught us by surprise... If we play again, the effect won't be so good. Besides, our error rate is also very high with that style of play, and it's easy for the opponent to seize the opportunity."

The LPL region in S3 and S4 was a place that loved fighting and cutting the Gordian knot.

This posture is all too familiar.

Although they won against Europe and the United States, they were defeated miserably by South Korea.

Because of the rigorous operating system of the LCK team, they are best at waiting for the opponent to make mistakes and then seize the mistakes to launch an attack.

The high error rate...is the most obvious flaw of the LPL style of play.

When playing games in China, you may still be able to play after making a mistake because the opponent will also make mistakes.

But when facing the South Korean team, it is very likely that if they make a mistake once, the situation will snowball until they are crushed to death.

"Yes, that style of play entails a higher risk."

Yuan Shen nodded, he did not deny it.

"But the advantages are also obvious. This style of play has a very strong offensive power. After achieving ideal results in the early stage, through a large amount of kill economy, it can even meet the resource needs of the three-core strategy. All three lanes can stand out in team battles and carry and take over the game."

In other words, as long as you can gain an advantage in the early stage with fierce offensive power, the mid-term team battle will be unstoppable.

Hearing this, everyone was obviously interested, and Fu Manduo said, "Tell me about it in detail."

"My idea is this. In fact, we have used this style of play before. It's just that we only use this lineup when the opponent is weaker, such as five Yodels and no front row..."

Yuan Shen laughed. When they played against some weak teams before, they did have an all-out attack strategy. In one game, they even flattened the opponent's crystal in just 17 minutes.

“In fact, the two are very similar, but also different, because this new style of play requires all five of us to be online, not afraid of operations, and have the confidence to operate.

No matter how strong the opponent is, we are the most extreme and sharpest attacking spearhead, and we will pierce through any opposing team no matter what they are. "

After the meeting was summarized and everyone listened to Yuan Shen’s general ideas, they expressed their willingness to try this new style of play.

This is the benefit of having a voice.

If Yuan Shen had not stayed in IG and moved to another team, perhaps he would still be the core carry of the team, but he would never have been treated as well as he was in IG. The entire team was even willing to try a new style of system for his idea.

Changing style is riskier than replacing core players.

Replacing core players is like changing the engine of a car. If the engine is of high quality and has good adaptability, it can be completely replaced and take over seamlessly.

But changing the style means building a new car from scratch.

All I can say is that this is the result of a long period of getting along and the trust that has accumulated over time.

If it were any other team, it would be impossible.

However, changes to the team system cannot be accomplished overnight, and the specific details need to be improved step by step.

Yuan Shen's initial idea requires the coaching staff and the entire team to work together to improve, study and adapt.

This is only how IG can play. If it were EDG, they wouldn't be able to play like this no matter how much they practiced.

Unless you replace the jungler...

(End of this chapter)