Chapter 27: The Playoff Final Four Are Set, and Chen Yan Delivers a Scathing Take on the Big Three
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Chen Yan’s call with Abu ended unpleasantly.
At the EDG base, Abu rubbed his head after hanging up.
Chen Yan’s final remark had hit him like a critical strike.
Yet when he thought back over the LPL teams’ results these past few years, he found himself unable to refute it.
He did not really care what became of the LPL, but EDG…
Perhaps Chen Yan was right. Were they not clowns as well?
“What happened? Xiaoyan isn’t coming back?” Clearlove asked from nearby.
Abu nodded. “There’s nothing I can do about him. I think he’s hit his rebellious phase.”
“Everyone has their own ambitions. There’s nothing wrong with streaming, really.”
At that moment, Clearlove suddenly thought of Misaya.
The WE captain who had run all over the place seeking sponsors when he first entered the scene had ultimately been unable to withstand reality and gone off to sell meat floss cakes.
And looking at things now, it was difficult to say that Misaya had made the wrong choice.
“I don’t want to force him either, but it would be such a waste not to use his talent for professional play.”
After a pause, Abu continued, “I came across clips from his stream. Setting aside the antics, his analysis of the OMG match was extremely professional.
“That shows he has an exceptional ability to read the game. On top of that, he’s still young, and his mechanics are at their peak.
“With proper training, he could become another top-tier mid laner—and his potential might even exceed Scout’s.”
Clearlove had not expected Abu to rate Chen Yan so highly, and he fell silent for a moment.
But Chen Yan clearly had no intention of returning.
Even though EDG had a contract with him, it was nothing more than an utterly ordinary rookie contract. To Chen Yan, whose streaming career was flourishing, it held no threat whatsoever.
Abu understood that as well, which was why he had never brought up the contract.
The two exchanged a glance, then shook their heads.
For now, there was essentially no hope of getting Chen Yan back to the base.
“Oh, right, Mingkai. You’d better be careful.”
“Careful of what?”
Abu told Clearlove about Chen Yan’s stream and his bet with Icon.
Clearlove instinctively covered his crotch, his face turning green.
“That guy!”
…
As for Chen Yan—
Abu’s invitation to return to the base was merely a minor interlude in his eyes.
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It was not that he was unwilling to contribute to the LPL. As someone who had traveled back in time, he simply felt that the LPL was not worth it.
A region plagued by prostitution, abortions, Texas poker, and match-fixing—what claim did it have to a championship?
A region with three titles that could not even produce ten legitimate identification cards—what right did it have to call itself the strongest region?
A region that became arrogant after every victory, loudly declaring that SKT would lose to TT and fail to make the playoffs if they came to the LPL, only to launch endless witch hunts and recycle rotten jokes after every defeat—how could such a region possibly make it to the very end?
Since everything was already this rotten, it might as well rot a little further.
Making money was the proper path.
Dreams were too luxurious.
…
The days that followed were exceedingly comfortable for Chen Yan.
Once the attention died down, his stream’s popularity fell considerably, but it was still far higher than before.
More importantly, he was receiving more gifts, and his income was no longer quite so strained.
After Chen Yan turned him down, Abu did not contact him again.
After all, the spring split had reached its crucial stage, and EDG was under enormous pressure to stabilize its position.
However, after Scout returned to the starting lineup, he became much more disciplined, and EDG had secured several easy victories in recent matches.
In this state of affairs, Chen Yan was like a shooting star across the professional scene.
After shining brilliantly, he was gradually forgotten by everyone.
…
“Congratulations to EDG! A three-to-zero victory over NB!”
During the playoffs, the moment EDG defeated NB, Chen Yan sprang to his feet.
“Good lord, EDG’s suppression is incredible!”
“Anchor, stop forcing that smile. If you want to cry, just cry.”
“That substitute mid laner still can’t get onstage.”
“They’re playing up there while you can only shout from below. That’s the difference.”
“It’s been proven: Scout really is EDG’s crown prince.”
Chen Yan’s relationship with EDG was somewhat delicate.
He benefited from EDG’s popularity, yet he himself could not get onto the stage.
In the eyes of outsiders, Chen Yan was being suppressed by Scout to the point that he could never play.
As a result, whenever Chen Yan commentated on an EDG match, the chat would mercilessly tease him.
Chen Yan did not care. Instead, he said with a grin, “Damn, you saw through me. We’re all friends here, so I’ll let you in on the truth: I’m dying to play.
“But with EDG in its current state, I should get my chance very soon.”
???
The moment Chen Yan said this, the chat exploded with question marks.
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EDG was currently unstoppable, yet Chen Yan was saying that EDG was going to lose?
“Don’t be so bitter, anchor.”
Some EDG fans even cursed Chen Yan out as a clown.
Chen Yan offered no explanation and immediately began reviewing the match.
As his stream’s popularity climbed, Chen Yan pointed directly at EDG’s mistakes.
“Their tempo is far too poor. Clearlove’s return has improved EDG’s ability to control the map, but their tempo still isn’t tight enough.”
“Look here. Clearlove is playing Graves, yet he spends the entire game farming—and his creep score in the jungle is still lower than the enemy jungler’s. They’re only getting away with it because the opponent is weak. Against a strong team, EDG would completely collapse.”
“And this play here. Scout engaged on his own, and his teammates couldn’t follow up at all, which gave away the dragon. It didn’t have much impact, but is this really the sort of mistake a strong team should be making?”
“As for Mouse, there are problems with his laning. Apply even a little pressure and he starts missing an alarming number of last hits. Go look at Letme on RNG next door. See how he plays the weak side properly. The difference is obvious.”
“I won’t even talk about the bottom lane. They’re just riding the team’s momentum. The moment the team falls behind, they disappear completely.”
“To sum it up: bullying weak teams is easy; beating strong teams is difficult.”
These outrageous remarks instantly threw the stream into chaos.
But this was simply Chen Yan’s style of analysis. Whichever team he was discussing, he spoke without restraint.
Before long, his comments reached Abu as well.
“What do you think?” Abu turned to NoFe.
NoFe nodded. “He isn’t wrong. We do have those problems. But there’s nothing we can do about it. Clearlove’s style is too conservative, and his champion pool leans too heavily toward scaling picks, while Scout is too independent…”
The team’s overall strength was, ironically, EDG’s smallest problem at present.
The main issue was that the players lacked sufficient chemistry. Their approaches frequently clashed, leading to mistake after mistake during matches and leaving them unable to close games out.
“We’ll most likely face RNG next. What do you think our odds of beating them are?”
NoFe replied, “Forty-sixty. Forty for us, sixty for RNG.”
Once upon a time, EDG had handled RNG with ease.
Now, EDG had instead become the weaker side.
Thinking of this, Abu could not help sighing.
…
The playoffs continued in full swing, and the situation gradually became clearer.
The four leading LPL teams were WE, EDG, RNG, and OMG.
WE would face OMG, while EDG would face RNG.
Whoever won those two matches would advance to the finals. The losers would fight for third and fourth place.
Before the matches had even begun, everyone was already discussing who would claim the championship.
Just then, the title of Chen Yan’s stream was changed to:
“Rush In! A Top World-Class Mid Laner Reviews the Big Three!”
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