Watching the Southeast Asian team pull off their signature jungle plays, which frequently caused UT to stumble, Coach Zhang couldn’t help but feel nervous, “Should we ban his Graves?”
Shi Quan shook his head, “We can handle his Graves. It’s his Kindred that we absolutely cannot let him have.”
GTF’s jungler was renowned for his proficiency with three assassin junglers: Kindred, Evelynn, and Kha’Zix. Almost every team, including DT, would ban these three champions when facing him.
Banning Graves would mean that one of these three champions would have to be left open. Even Shi Quan was unsure of the consequences that would follow.
The big screen continued to broadcast the match between GTF and UT. As the game progressed into the late stages, no one on UT could deal with GTF’s Graves, and they eventually lost the match in frustration.
With this loss, UT’s record dropped to 3-3, placing them third in their group, while GTF’s victory brought their score to 3-2. If GTF wins their next match, UT will be directly eliminated!
In other words, the Korean team might face the risk of being eliminated for the first time!
Such an outcome would be a significant embarrassment for a major region like Korea, especially since UT was their second-seeded team. If they crashed out in the group stage, it would be a year-long laughingstock for the outside world.
As soon as this conclusion was drawn, the Korean forums exploded instantly.
Some extreme fans even threatened that if UT dared to get eliminated, they would harass them into retiring on the spot.
Seeing UT crash so easily made Coach Zhang nervous again, “Are we really not banning Graves? I think we can leave Kha’Zix open.”
Shi Quan insisted, “No, don’t ban him. Leave it open.”
Lin Lan agreed with Shi Quan, recalling how in a past world tournament, a team left those three champions open for the enemy, resulting in all three lanes getting decimated with no chance for a late game.
At least by leaving Graves open, there’s still a chance to fight in the late game.
It was soon DT’s turn to play. They got up, gathered their things, and took to the stage. The high-frequency schedule of the knockout rounds kept everyone’s hearts and hands in the game.
Both teams took their seats. As expected, DT banned the three assassin junglers, securing Jarvan IV first to steady their nerves.
GTF indeed picked Graves, preparing for a jungle-centric composition. There’s an effective strategy to counter this lineup: play an early to mid-game composition.
Without hesitation, Shi Quan commanded, “Give Xiaolin Akali, and give Xiao Xu Urgot.”
As soon as these three champions were picked, there were exclamations from the audience. Even the Korean commentators on stage couldn’t help but ask three times, “What? Are they sure? Really?”
The domestic commentators were even more excited, “Oh, is DT going big this game?! Honestly, anyone who sees this combination would feel weak in the knees!”
Whether it was Urgot’s control or Jarvan IV’s ultimate, once they locked someone down, with Akali’s damage and Lin Lan’s speed, it was guaranteed to be a 100% instant kill!
Without crowd control, Graves would seem particularly cumbersome in the early to mid-game. He wouldn’t be able to help any lane, and it would even be questionable if he could farm effectively…
GTF, feeling wary, picked Ornn for the top lane to stabilize the mid-game and added Tristana for their AD to play a more kite-based strategy.
DT picked Kai’Sa and Taric to ensure their mid-game resilience.
From the draft, both teams seemed evenly matched.
However, in terms of individual player skill, DT was actually overwhelmingly superior to GTF.
As soon as the game started, Xiao Shengjing chose to reach level 3 quickly and then invaded the enemy jungle. The opponent, having no other option, had to trade jungles with him. When he moved to the bottom jungle, Jiang Jin was there to guard it, so the enemy jungler couldn’t be too aggressive and had to settle for the scraps. This back-and-forth led to the enemy’s rhythm slowly being dictated by Xiao Shengjing.
The domestic broadcast commentators asserted, “I feel like Graves won’t be able to dominate this game like he did the last one. His rhythm is a bit disrupted. However, to be fair, his Graves was really well-played last game. DT must have studied it and figured out a counter-strategy, which seems to be working to some extent!”
The Korean commentators, who previously downplayed DT, now couldn’t stop praising them, repeatedly saying, “DT is so strong” and “DT is playing so well”, as if they were afraid DT might lose and cause UT to be eliminated.
This dramatic change in tone had netizens laughing hysterically: [Korean commentators are being this real?]
[Haha, I’m dying of laughter. They switched sides so quickly.]
[The commentators are working so hard to avoid jinxing DT on stage.]
[First time aligning with the LCK.]
[This is hilarious and so true.]
And indeed, DT did not disappoint, advancing triumphantly as expected.
Xiao Shengjing firmly controlled the game’s rhythm with Graves, moving from clearing the jungle to ganking mid-lane, then from mid-lane to top lane. The under-farmed Graves could only deal some AOE damage throughout the game but couldn’t do much else. He watched as his teammates gradually fell into disadvantageous positions, unable to exert any dominating influence.
This is the drawback of Graves.
When faced with an aggressive early to mid-game team, Graves is rendered helpless.
GTF had no choice but to drag the game into the late stages. Against DT’s strong offensive, they found themselves constantly patching one hole while another appeared, resulting in numerous vulnerabilities.
In the mid-game, GTF launched a fierce assault.
However, DT didn’t linger in the fight, instead choosing to minimize losses and regroup. After replenishing their items, they launched a relentless push.
The match ended in less than 25 minutes, and by the end, GTF’s Graves still hadn’t caught up in farm, leaving their entire lineup without a comeback point.
With this victory, DT secured a perfect 6-0 record, while GTF’s score dropped to 3-3.
Korean netizens felt a mix of joy and bitterness. They were happy that DT gave UT a chance for a tiebreaker but bitter because DT’s easy win over GTF highlighted the significant gap between DT and UT.
Historically, the Korean and LPL regions have been fierce rivals. Although Korea has generally been stronger, the need to acknowledge that LPL has caught up is hard for them to accept.
Moreover, their first seed YK had just achieved an undefeated record. Before they could even celebrate for two days, DT matched that feat, despite being placed in the group of death. Now, all the attention would shift back to DT.
But more importantly, can UT win the tiebreaker?
If UT can’t even make it out of the group stage and falls in the top 16, it would be more humiliating than ever.
After all, UT is their region’s second seed!
The first seed from LPL has already secured a 6-0 record to advance, and even their second seed reversed their fortunes to go 5-1. Meanwhile, Korea’s second seed is still struggling to secure a spot…
Korean netizens didn’t hold back in their mockery: [Does UT even deserve to be the second seed? What a joke.]
[Utterly embarrassing, we’re a laughingstock abroad.]
[UT? Sounds like a joke.]
[Just forfeit the tiebreaker. The disgrace is already too much whether they win or not.]
[Kicked out of the group stage? Might as well disband on the spot.]
[We weren’t expecting you to achieve anything anyway.]
[Just get out of the way and stop hindering HAH.]
At the start of the tiebreaker, UT’s players were in very poor form, and their mindset was incredibly unstable. Their picks and bans phase seemed like they were sleepwalking, and they even let Kindred through to the opposing team.
Lin Lan hit the nail on the head: “UT never expected to lose to GTF; they didn’t prepare any strategy for this match.”
Indeed, GTF wasn’t a strong team, at least not stronger than UT, so UT had focused all their attention on their quarterfinals opponent. They didn’t expect GTF to go all out and turn the tables.
Everyone was in the lounge watching the tiebreaker together. Lu Shi was the most vocal among them. He disliked how Koreans bullied Shi Quan, so he had a poor impression of Korean teams.
He kept saying, “UT dares to play like this? Aren’t they afraid of being exposed?”
And sure enough, UT was exposed. They lost two players before the team fight even began.
He took a sip of water and continued, “UT doesn’t need to sneak this drake; if they’re discovered, it’ll be a huge loss.”
Sure enough, UT was discovered, lost two players, and gave up the drake.
Then, while eating a cookie, he saw UT attempting Baron and said, “GTF isn’t going to contest this?”
And indeed, GTF stole the Baron from UT…
At this point, everyone couldn’t help but look at Lu Shi. Even Lin Lan was shocked, “Lu Shi, is your mouth blessed or something?”
Lu Shi: “Huh? No, of course not.”
Jiang Jin hesitated before asking, “When we were playing, were you cursing the opponents like this too?”
Lu Shi proudly replied, “Absolutely! I’m your strongest supporter. While you fight on stage, I’m here cheering you on, cursing the opponents to their doom!”
Coach Zhang nodded in confirmation, “In the last game against GTF, Lu Shi’s words were spot on. Everything he said came true.”
The two substitutes beside him nodded vigorously, confirming the story.
Recalling the past, Lin Lan realized that Lu Shi’s predictions always seemed to come true. He suddenly took Lu Shi more seriously, “Damn, Lu Shi, you’re this amazing?”
“Is this the legendary magical attack?”
“And the penetrating kind.”
“Hahahaha, this is killing me…”
The lounge erupted in laughter, everyone jokingly pleading, “Lu Shi, please keep blessing us until the finals.”
“Please.”
“It’s really important to us!”
As the tiebreaker reached its conclusion, UT fought desperately, withstanding wave after wave of attacks, but ultimately lost due to a small mistake.
After the match ended, the five UT players were so drained that they didn’t even have the strength to stand up.
They never expected that after so much anticipation and preparation for the world tournament, it would end in such an absurd way…
The livestream chat exploded instantly. UT’s unexpected exit left everyone feeling bittersweet. While mocking Korea, fans from other regions also began to worry about their own teams’ chances.
Especially LPL’s YTF.
[The D-group knockout matches are tomorrow. Can YTF hold on?]
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