In the rainy season of May in Lucheng, the light rain that has lasted for three days has diluted the heat caused by the sudden rise in temperature some time ago, Xu Qingru was awakened by a sound of mobile phone vibration in his deep sleep, reached out and turned off the mobile phone alarm clock next to his pillow, and his consciousness gradually woke up from the deep sleep of the nap.

She sat up in a daze, then picked up her phone and looked at the time, 1:32 p.m., there was still an hour before the afternoon class, and the three roommates were still taking a nap.

She got out of bed lightly, went into the bathroom to wash, and when she came out again, her face was no longer lazy when she first woke up, and she was refreshed, she sat down at the desk under the bed, opened the water cup that she had poured before going to bed, and drank a few sips, and then stood up again, looked at the class schedule, and then came back to sit down, found the afternoon textbook, and opened the afternoon class that sat there to preview the afternoon's lessons.

This is a habit she has developed since junior high school, and it has not changed over the years, more than ten minutes, briefly flipping through it, she already knows the content of the afternoon class, got up and washed an apple and came back, and her roommates began to wake up one after another, after freshening up, some changed clothes, and some made up.

Xu Qingru ate apples, took off her nightdress, changed into the long skirt she wore in the morning, cut her hair, and sat and waited for her roommates to finish dressing up and go to the teaching building together.

When they arrived at the lecture hall, there were still more than ten minutes before the class time of half past two, and there were not many people in the classroom, so she and Shao Dan sat down in the second row, then turned on the mobile phone, first picked up the message and replied, chatted with Zhang Qianqian who was far away in Jiangcheng, and cut the software to see if there was any news of concern.

Then in Weibo, I saw the latest itinerary news released by SKY: all arrived at San Francisco International Airport, and thanked the official staff who came to pick up the airport, as well as Jiang Qianyu.

In the photo below, Lin Xuan and other SKY members are wearing team uniforms, pulling a national flag, and making a silly victory gesture towards the camera, and in the second photo, Jiang Qianyu wearing a simple white T-shirt is particularly dazzling.

"It's been so early?"

Although she pays attention to sky, she can barely be called a fan, but she doesn't pay as much attention to these as real fans, and after learning about MSI, she also knows that the LPL division doesn't need to start playing from the play-in tournament, and there are eleven days before the start of the main event, so I really didn't expect sky to go so early.

But soon, she thought of another possibility that had passed so early, clicked out of the picture, held her chin in her hand, and sat there in a daze.

There are countless events happening in this world every second, and if in such a grand pattern, sky's trip to North America is undoubtedly not worth mentioning, but if you narrow down and narrow it down, and come to the esports circle, probably and then to the LPL, there will still be some people who will notice, and even more, have some small effects on a small number of people, such as mood.

For example, look forward to it, discuss it, or watch it.

Before that, for the MSI trip to sky or the LPL division it represents, a relatively unified opinion has been basically formed on the Internet, and quarrels are naturally inevitable, but even neutral viewers or fans who maintain sky will never expect them to win the championship, and they don't even dare to have much hope for the finals. ”

Last year, the team representing the LPL region in MSI was TL, and when everyone didn't dare to expect them to beat Carne, they also lived up to expectations, and they were swept out of the North American TNE team with a score of 1:3 in the semifinals, and they didn't even see Crane.

Although TL was weak in the previous foreign war, there was no lack of scolding, but many viewers always had expectations, after all, in terms of results, TL is still the strongest team in the LPL, but every time it goes to the World Championship, it is not satisfactory...... In the midst of criticism and scolding, there are always people who help them "explain" and "support the field", such as "playing too many games in a row is too tiring", "players are not suitable when they go abroad", "jet lag, physical discomfort, poor diet" and so on.

There are also calls for "give the club time to improve", "don't put too much pressure on the players", and "expect too much......

Some people scolded, but there were always people who praised it, and after this incident, for a long time, the entire network was only scolded, and there were all kinds of ridicule such as "always refresh the lower limit", "only unthinkable and can't do it", "reverse breakthrough yourself" and so on, many fans saw it and watched the screen disconnect from the network.

The Fish and Dragon team "lay down" and received a large number of fans, and since then the popularity has really been able to compete with TL, the "Phantom God of Civil War", and even overwhelm it in some time periods.

It's hard to change people's stereotypes, either time accumulates, or the impact is big enough, Sky beat the Ichthyosaurs in the finals, without any fancy water, but the strength of the Ichthyosaurs team is also obvious to all, in this case, to represent the entire region in the mid-season tournament...... Most viewers are still more inclined to the Fish and Dragon Clan.

After all, after the rise of the Ichthyosaurus team, the overall state has been maintained very well, and Sky ...... In the eyes of many people, it is still a "newly promoted LDL team", and after eight consecutive defeats in the early part of the regular season, the entire LPL is the first, even if they win consecutive games to win the championship, it is difficult for people to have enough trust.

In various forums, there are many people who have made "detailed", "fair" and "reliable" comparison charts, there is no doubt that the entire sky six people, plus the coaching staff, except for the lower road can fight, everyone else is vulnerable, not to mention compared with STR, even Europe and the United States can't fight.

Some people also released screenshots of the recent RANK training of the sky players, or some GIFs in the OB live broadcast, and most of the subsequent comments were:

"I can't play well on the top order, and I still want to practice Carry heroes"

"I don't plan to watch this MSI, if I do, it's to see how the LCK beats the world to continue to win the championship"

"Don't talk about people like that, Sky has killed Cui Mingxiu alone, and it is estimated that he wants to regain the name of the world's No. 1 top single (manual dog head)"

"I'm afraid I'm not living in a dream"

"Bury Friendly Soldiers"

"Even Yasuo took it out in the middle road, and it is estimated that he was killed by the Demon King and abandoned the treatment"

"Xiaoxue's hammer stone is a bit of a dish."

"Okay, no MSI this year"

……

After a period of consecutive wins, especially after winning four championships in the playoffs, sky's popularity and attention have still been greatly improved, plus the original fan base, in fact, the popularity is not low in the entire LPL, but regardless of new fans and old fans, they also have no confidence in sky's MSI this time, and they don't have much confidence when they refute it.

The attention to MSI is naturally not limited to the audience, but also in the circle, for example, the commentator Fang Kai was "forced to have no choice" by the barrage in the live broadcast before sky's departure, so he had to talk about the situation of MSI this time, and then he gave the rankings of various positions in his mind.

Among the five positions, all five STR people ranked first except for playing in the field, among which Cui Mingxiu was commented on by him, saying that "a single line crushes anyone else", and sky's ranking, except for Lin Xuan and Jiang Yingxue, who were ranked second in the lower lane, everyone else only had one sentence "There is no need to mention it, it all depends on whether the brother-in-law can develop".

He was originally for the sake of popularity, so he was naturally biased, and Zhang Fei and Wang Fei also posted on Weibo during the play-in tournament, expressing their views on this MSI, compared with the ranking in Fang Kai's heart, there is not much change in the ranking of STR, but in the mid-laner ranking, BGM's mid-laner Next is placed in the first place, and An Chengye is placed in the second place.

In sky's ranking, Zhang Fei and Wang Fei put the sky bottom lane combination first, and added the sentence "In terms of the performance of this region and the role of their respective teams, sky is definitely the first", and STR's bottom lane combination was placed second.

In addition, in the jungler ranking, Zhang Fei put Liu Handong in third, Wang Fei put him in fourth, and explained, "If you give Jinu (Liu Handong ID) room to play, I feel that he is not weaker than any jungler, if it is not easy to get up, the ranking in my heart is even higher."

This basically represents the level of strength that most viewers have for sky in this MSI.

On May 19th, the knockout round of the play-in tournament ended, in addition to the LCK regional champion STR, LCS (EU) regional champion BGM, and LPL regional champion SKY who directly advanced to the main competition, the other three regional champion teams were also determined, namely LMS regional champion TPA, LCS (NA) champion ATM and EVOS (Vietnam) regional champion LVT.

The next day, the official release of the rankings of the six teams in this year's MSI Mid-Season Championship was released.

Unlike the World Finals, the official MSI player rankings are based on position, not the "Top 20" of the National Congress.

On the road: STR, ATM, BGM, TPA, LVT, SKY

Jungler: TPA, LVT, STR, BGM, SKY (Jinu), ATM, SKY (Zheng)

Mid lane: BGM, STR, ATM, TPA, SKY, LVT

Down: SKY, STR, BGM, ATM, TPA, LVT

Auxiliary: STR, SKY, ATM, BGM, TPA, LVT

This list is somewhat unexpected, because only two of the five STR players are ranked first, but in the subsequent explanations and previews, it is not shy that STR is still the strongest team in this MSI, and it is not easy for other teams to prevent them from continuing to win the championship on behalf of the LCK region.

Among the six teams, SKY and LCT are both newcomers, but SKY has won two consecutive MSI championships, so in the official list, it has also taken a lot of effort to write about SKY, especially for Lin Xuan:

"SKY was once the most powerful team in the world, and their bottom laner Chen Muyu has single-handedly revolutionized the position of ADC, and is also the undoubted core and carry point of the entire team.

The LPL region has always been rich in top ADCs, but unfortunately, since Chen Muyu's retirement, there doesn't seem to be such an amazing ADC player in the LPL, but now we seem to see such a possibility again.

The 20-year-old was present at last year's World Finals as a promotion substitute and was a support player for Loong's second team, and when the main AD player was unable to play due to illness, he was called upon to deliver an almost game-changing performance, and this year he led his team to the top flight and won the championship, and he came to us again.

We have reason to expect from him. ”

Jiang Yingxue has also attracted attention because of her identity as "the only female player in this MSI", and the official report seems to be a little unprofessional, when mentioning her, she deliberately used "amazingly beautiful girl" to introduce her, but the subsequent comments praised her performance in the spring game: "With the operation and awareness that is not inferior to any male player, and with the tacit cooperation and impeccable operation with First, she has defeated almost all the opponents in this division."

At two o'clock in the afternoon of May 22 local time, the MSI main event kicked off at the Bill Graham Municipal Auditorium in San Francisco, and the competition officially began at three o'clock.

The schedule has already been announced:

The first NA champion ATM faced the Vietnamese champion LVT.

In the second match, the EU champion BGM faced the LCK champion STR.

In the third match, the LPL champion SKY faced the LMS champion TPA.

In the fourth match, the NA champion AMT took on the LMS champion TPA.

In the fifth match, BGM, the champion of the EU region, faced LVT, the champion of the Vietnam region.

In the sixth match, the LPL champion SKY faced the LCK champion STR.

……

Because of the time difference, it was not yet five o'clock in the morning in China when sky played the first game, and most of the LPL viewers were still asleep, so except for a few people who set an alarm clock and got up early to watch the game, most people did not go to watch the first compatriot battle between SKY and TPA.

The second game, which is the high-profile battle between SKY and STR, has arrived at more than 8 o'clock in the evening local time, and it is morning in China, and many people have already woken up and turned on their mobile phones even if they haven't gotten up.

Therefore, most of the viewers who followed the MSI competition, no matter what kind of mentality and original intention, witnessed this "battle of the gods" that pushed the quality and excitement of the entire MSI competition to the peak.

Of course, there is also an episode about one of the key participants: outside of training, he makes the first visit in memory as a prospective son-in-law, targeting future father-in-law who has already met and has the same bizarre experience, and the eldest sister-in-law who has met for a long time but has not been on good terms.