The actual controllers behind the Thorn Birds are the two giant Buddhas, Ed Zhu and the Principal, so the treatment and funding during the expedition are naturally quite good.
In order to avoid encountering a series of problems such as network, food, and daily life during the MSI competition, the temporary base of the Thorn Birds was already being arranged when the Thorn Birds entered the finals.
Even though there are only a few days of competition in Vietnam, the various measures of the temporary training residence are not far behind those of domestic clubs. The whole thing highlights that one is rich and one does not compromise.
The qualifying round will be held in Ho Chi Minh City, while the group stage will be held at the Vietnam National Convention Center in Hanoi.
The itinerary of everyone in the Thorn Birds has been arranged for a long time. Two days before the qualifying round, the club has booked a hotel near the GG venue, where the competition will be held, so that the players can relax first. After all, everyone in the Thorn Birds has been there since the end of the spring finals. Fake.
The purpose is to take advantage of this opportunity to arrive in Vietnam early to adapt and then put the vacation together.
The players, including Li Luo, are quite satisfied with the club's arrangements. Most people like novel things.
Normally, everyone is used to staying in Shanghai, and they don’t know where to go after a holiday. Moreover, they will become lazy after staying home for a long time. Without a girlfriend, they can’t even leave the house. In the end, they found out that even though the club had a holiday, they still stayed there. Play games in the base.
It’s different now that I’m in Vietnam, at least everything around me is newer.
After the players of the Thorn Birds arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, they went out for a walk under the guidance of the tour guide hired by the club. It was not until the start of the qualifying round in the evening that the players of the Thorn Birds returned as a group.
When Zhu Kai saw the players coming back, he waved a stack of tickets in his hand and said, "Would you like to watch the game live? The club will reimburse you."
"I don't want to move. I'm exhausted this afternoon."
Xiangguo collapsed on the gaming chair like a puddle of mud. Those who didn't know thought he had gone to some extraordinary place. "Young people should behave like young people. Besides, the clubs buy infield tickets, which are very expensive. It will be wasted if you don't go to see them."
Zhu Kai chuckled and continued his lobbying. "How much does one cost?"
Brother Holy Spear is curious.
Hearing this, Zhu Kai stretched out his hand and made a sign of the cross: "One hundred thousand yuan, a full one hundred thousand yuan, we can watch all the games that day." As soon as these words came out, everyone was stunned for a moment, but after a brief circle in their brains, even Mo Mo Feite himself also raised his hand disdainfully.
They had just gone shopping in the afternoon and had a certain understanding of Vietnam's currency. What Zhu Kai said was so bluffing, a whole hundred thousand yuan.
In general, one hundred thousand Vietnamese dong is only equivalent to more than 20 soft girl coins.
At this moment, Xiye clapped her fingers and seemed to think of something: "I seem to have seen before that the front row tickets for the group stage are 200,000 Vietnamese dong. So after all, it only costs more than fifty yuan?"
This low ticket price made all the Thorn Birds players look at each other. After thinking about it, everyone decided to go and have a look.
The reason why we booked a hotel for two days in Ho Chi Minh City was, on the one hand, to allow the players to take two days off and relax. On the other hand, it is to feel the atmosphere of the League of Legends competition in Vietnam, and also to observe the level of the qualifying teams.
Three teams will compete in the qualifying round to advance to the group stage.
There are only three teams that do not need to enter the playoffs, the Thorn Birds from the LPL, SKT from the LCK, and G2 from the EU European Division.
In other words, even the champion of this year's North American LCS Spring Split, or the Flash Wolves who were once a regular at the World Championship, will have to compete in the play-in rounds.
The Thorn Birds' primary concern is also these teams that have had great success.
Although there are only a few participating teams in MSI, those who can enter here are all the leaders in their respective divisions.
Although the gold content of the championship in this event is not as good as that of the World Finals, the threshold is higher than that of the World Finals. After all, there can only be one team in one division.
The Thorn Birds team stayed in Ho Chi Minh City for a total of four days.
It was not until the end of the qualifying round that everyone in the Thorn Birds
Went to the temporary base in Hanoi City and started training before the game.
Generally speaking, the Thorn Birds have plenty of time. The group stage of the qualifying round ends on May 4, the knockout stage of the qualifying round begins on May 7, and May 10 is the first day of the group stage.
According to the schedule, the Thorn Birds will play in the third small game on the first day of the group stage.
The competing teams will be one of the three teams that emerge from the play-in rounds.
Currently, two teams have emerged from the finals, namely Flash Wolves and TL. Flash Wolf is a stable and abusive player.
TL is no less generous.
In Li Luo's view, Vietnam's PVB team has a good chance of winning in the knockout round.
As Li Luo expected, Vietnam performed brilliantly in B05, defeating its opponent 3-0 and advancing to the group stage.
There are no groups in the group stage. Each team will play against other teams twice, which means each team will play 10 B01s.
The first match of the group stage of this MSI event was the former dynasty SKT team facing G2 from Europe. Although it was a BO1, this game undoubtedly cheered up all members of the Thorn Birds team.
If the Thorn Birds were asked to rank the teams they are paying attention to, then the top two are undoubtedly SKT and G2.
In Li Luo's impression, SKT lost to G2 in this BO1 where SKT wanted to prove that they had broken through the trough. And it also made Ah P shine in the limelight.
But this time, that time.
When they transferred at the beginning of the year, when Bang and Olf did not go to North America but chose to stay with the team for another year, Li Luo vaguely realized that the two-time world finals champion A was in After two years of silence, he has the ambition to win the championship again.
The trajectory of human destiny is actually very strange.
One decision may lead to a reversal of a person's life.
Li Luo didn't know whether it was because of his appearance that Bang gave up the idea of going to North America, but since Bang dared to make such a choice, Li Luo would undoubtedly look upon him favorably.
Facts have also proved that Bang's status remains quite stable, and SKT's current team can indeed create a good space for Bang to perform.
It was different from Li Luo's impression of the SKT lineup during the S9 season before their rebirth.
At that time, SKT introduced Teddy, the former captain of the Airplane team, and he and he formed a two-man lane partner.
But since S4, his performance in world events has been quite controversial.
And Teddy also exposed himself as a soft-footed shrimp in the competition during the battle with G2 at that time. Bang is different.
His mentality dictates that Bang's performance will not fluctuate much when facing a big competition. Moreover, Bang’s experience in world competitions is too stable.
MSI champion? He's already taken it.
Faced with the various mocking G2 on Twitter before the game, SKT was obviously a little angry. However, it must be mentioned that the G2 team has always maintained their brave style in player selection.
With the top and jungle combination of Jess and Spider, the European team faced the strongest player in the LCK, SKT, and dared to directly choose them. This attitude of "even if I lose, I have to stand and lose" is extremely popular in League of Legends circles around the world.
SKT chose their favorite lineup in the league, using Faker's mid laner Tsar to provide cover and choose Lid's signature hero Lee Sin, while top laner Khan chose Crocodile, striving to win in the lane. This period in turn put pressure on Jace.
On the auxiliary side, Olf was selected as the Bull Head, and paired with Bang's Ezreal to take the bottom lane.
If this lineup was in the LPL division, it would definitely be criticized by countless netizens. The combination of a bull head and Ezreal is too abstract.
Especially when facing Xia Luo.
However, the SKT team banged Zerrell again.
This time it showed the charm of Ezreal in the LCK division.
Both sides were developing smoothly in the early stage, but when the game time came to 10 minutes, Lid's blind monk made a wonderful move, touched his eyes, adjusted his angle, and kicked Luo back.
His kick was incomparable. After adjusting the angle, Xia's trajectory was on the path that Luo would take when he was kicked.
Ap's reaction speed was very fast, and he immediately followed up with his ultimate move, but when he made the barb, Ezreal jumped away to avoid it. Although Niutou was charged, Olf was able to use his ultimate move instantly at the moment he was charged. Control, follow up with a backhand and forward with a Q-dodge to reach Ah P first, and cooperate with the blind monk to quickly kill Xia.
SKT took down Xiaolong with this wave of kills in the bottom lane.
However, the 2-0 head-to-head ratio lasted until 15 minutes before being broken.
On the road, Under had a chance to kill alone. After consuming enough of the crocodile's health, Under attacked under the tower. However, Khan proved to the world that as long as it is not the final, you can trust Khan at other times.
Facing Jace's Q skill in melee mode, the crocodile flashed in reverse to avoid the damage of the hammer, and then bit Jace with his backhand.
Jace, who was carrying a combo, was in the situation where the AOE damage in hammer form affected the crocodile, but the defense tower and the crocodile's control teamed up to complete the counterattack.
After killing Jace alone, Khan's crocodile was suddenly out of control. After killing Jace again with a wave of gank by the blind monk, the Rift Herald hit again and exploded on the road.
With a huge advantage, the unreasonable Khan pushed the crocodile under the second tower. At this time, an embarrassing situation appeared. The spider came over and cooperated with Jess to catch this meaty, explosive and tall crocodile.
Ryze drove over to catch him, but Khan used a feint to escape with two E-connections in a row.
Although G2 has successfully counterattacked since then, SKT has always kept G2 at a loss due to its sophisticated operations.
When the game time came to 33 minutes, G2, who had an economic gap of 10,000, made a desperate move but was beaten two for four by SKT. G2, who was left with only ad defending, was unable to recover and was bulldozed by SKT. SKT won its first victory.
Everyone looked at Thorn Bird very seriously.
Although there were only twelve heads in the game, it was undeniable that from a professional perspective, the quality of this game was very high.
"SKT's operation is as usual... No, it should be said that lid is better than the previous two years. The blind man still has something to say." Xiangguo stared at the screen, looking very interested.
Lid was very interested in the fragrant pot when we started with Lid's whimsical perspective.
Although lid has played in the LPL before and the two sides have played against each other, lid has obviously improved after joining SKT. "I just don't know if his blind one-ban rhythm is still that good."
Liu Qingsong said with a smile that he was blind and was famous for being blind.
He also didn't quite understand why G2 had so many ban positions for Khan when facing SKT, but was unwilling to allocate one to lid.
"To be honest, this Khan is a bit fierce. I feel like I can't beat him in 1v1. He is very proficient as a crocodile. And when I watched K's review, I felt that there are many heroes who are strong like him. Captain Jace is his unique skill. Come on, there are weapons."
Brother Holy Spear shook his head: "It's difficult."
"The bottom lane is actually quite stable. I feel that Bang's condition is much better than last year." Liu Qingsong also said thoughtfully.
"To be honest, I don't see anything in this."
When it was Xiye's turn to express her opinion, Xiye shrugged. This is his truth.
From the perspective of a mid-level unit, Xiye felt that the faker's performance could at best give it a passing grade.
On the contrary, aps was flying around trying to lead the team's rhythm, but G2's jungler Jankos seemed to have drunk fake wine, and Lid's blind man kicked all over his head.
Of course, one game means nothing.
select
The mistakes made by the players are all minor problems. As long as the overall rhythm of the team is stable, then the growth curve of this team will be benign.
Xiao Dongbei, who came to Vietnam as a substitute, also expressed his own views. "It doesn't feel like it's very powerful."
Xiao Dongbei said very straightforwardly.
After everyone finished expressing their opinions, their eyes focused on Li Luo. The same goes for Zhu Kai.
Li Luo pondered for two seconds, then went to the whiteboard and drew a circle on Faker's profile picture. Once the circle was drawn, Zhu Kai understood.
faker.
The undisputed first core of this SKT dynasty.
It can be said that the reason why SKT is SKT is because there is a person named faker in the SKT team.
Even though in theory, the relationship between the club and the players is mutually beneficial, this man is an exception. Just because South Korea pays enough attention to the e-sports industry, faker's status can be imagined.
But is Faker's state really excellent?
Every professional player has his downturns. faker is no exception.
However, if Li Luo is to judge, the real downturn in faker's career is actually S9.
Not only in this game, but also in the LCK league dominated by SKT, it is not difficult to see that Faker is now more and more inclined to play the kind of big core who can protect the team in the later stage, rather than playing heroes in the lane. It’s not about playing heroes with rhythm.
This is actually a very unfavorable signal for the individual players.
On the surface, the reason why he chooses a core hero is because he believes in Faker's back-up ability.
In fact... is there a possibility that it is because at this moment, including Faker, everyone feels that in this version, in addition to ensuring their team-fighting ability in the later stage, other aspects... Aren't they all that good anymore?
Of course, Faker at this time is far from reaching the team's shortcomings, and his career status has just ushered in his own period of fluctuation.
But don't forget, how much water a barrel can hold depends on the shortest piece of wood. Li Luo didn't say much, because it was meaningless to say more at this time.
After all, the butterfly effect has already occurred, and Li Luo cannot guarantee 100% whether Faker is hiding or whether SKT is hiding. What they have to do is to get over this situation first.
Flash Wolf. An old rival.
