The regular season's third round schedule spanned a total of five weeks. Two weeks had already passed, and the six teams in Group S had faced each other with mixed results.
Tianhuan: 2:1 against Jingzhe, 2:0 against Huowen. Wins: 2. Net Points: 3.
Beimu: 2:1 against Yueying, 2:0 against Binghun. Wins: 2. Net Points: 3.
These two teams were tied for first place.
Jingzhe: 2:1 against Huowen, 1:2 against Tianhuan. Wins: 1. Net Points: 0.
Binghun: 2:1 against Yueying, 0:2 against Beimu. Wins: 1. Net Points: -1.
These two teams both had a record of 1 win and 1 loss.
Yueying had lost two consecutive matches, Net Points: -2.
Huowen had also lost two consecutive matches, Net Points: -3.
Looking at the current rankings, Tianhuan had a very high probability of entering the Winners Bracket (top four).
This season, Yueying was relegated from Group S in the second stage because Xie Weiyu and Xu Zhuo hadn't had enough time to synergize. Although they fought their way back into Group S, the rhythm issues in their top and bot lanes had not been completely resolved.
Ye Shaoyang had a good relationship with Xie Weiyu. He knew that Xiao Yu was actually very hardworking and practiced constantly in private. However, the other teams in Group S were equally hardworking. Yueying's current performance meant their chances of entering the Winners Bracket were slim.
The Losers Bracket wasn't devoid of hope, either. In the history of the professional league, many teams had charged into the grand finals from the Losers Bracket. There was also a two-month adjustment period after the regular season ended, so everything remained unknown.
Huowen's current results were poor. As a team biased towards a mid-core strategy, Zhou Jiawen was targeted too heavily. If their mid-jungle synergy couldn't get off the ground, their rhythm would collapse.
In the third week, the Group S schedule featured Tianhuan vs. Binghun, Beimu vs. Jingzhe, and Yueying vs. Huowen.
If Tianhuan could secure a win against Binghun, that would be a 3-match winning streak. Even if they lost the next two consecutive matches, they would still securely enter the Winners Bracket. The playoffs used an elimination format, and teams in the Winners Bracket effectively had two lives, giving them a greater chance at the trophy.
The next afternoon, Coach Lin gathered the team members for a meeting. "Binghun is the champion team from last season. Although they are currently ranked fourth in Group S, the team's strength is still there, especially their team fighting, which is extremely strong."
Ye Shaoyang had personally gone to the venue to watch the grand finals last season. Binghun's team fight coordination was indeed seamless; the five of them were like a single twisted rope. When one initiated, the others followed immediately, dismantling their opponents like chopping melons and vegetables in the blink of an eye.
Binghun's captain, Chen Qianhua, was also from the Star City Youth Training Base and was the only Beta captain in the league. He was currently the strongest support player in the China region, with formidable macro awareness.
Coach Lin said, "Binghun's strength lies in team fights, but their weaknesses are also obvious. Their early laning phase isn't dominant. Their marksman and mid laner aren't considered star players, and their individual mechanics have a gap compared to top-tier carries. This is also why their performance this season hasn't been as outstanding as in S9."
Chi Shuo analyzed, "Their team fight strategies have been thoroughly researched by all the major teams. Before a team fight starts, opponents crush one of their lanes so they can't drag the game to the ultra-late stage."
Ye Shaoyang said, "In the match between Beimu and Binghun the day before yesterday, I think we can borrow their approach. Fight them directly in the early game, preventing Binghun's carries from farming up. Try to force small skirmishes of 3 or 4 people, avoiding full 5-man team fights."
Binghun was strongest as a 5-man unit.
However, they might not win small-scale skirmishes. For example, in the classic 2v2 mid-jungle skirmish, Tianhuan's Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were almost invincible existences. Even Huowen's mid-jungle duo was destroyed by them. If Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang went 2v2 against Binghun's mid-jungle, their winning odds would definitely be high.
In a 4v4 bot lane fight involving mid, jungle, marksman, and support, the winner was unknown.
But in a direct 5v5, Tianhuan was prone to losing.
Binghun was a typical team-fight oriented team. In 5v5s, it was like their five brainwaves were synchronized. Issues like disjointed coordination, common in other teams, never appeared for Binghun.
Coach Lin looked at Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo. "You are right. The coaching staff has carefully researched and summarized over a dozen of Binghun's matches this season. We discovered a pattern—the average duration of matches Binghun wins is 25 minutes. The average duration of matches they lose is only 20 minutes. A 5-minute difference is enough to explain the problem."
"In other words, if Binghun drags the game to the late stage around 25 minutes, they basically win, with a win rate over 80%. But if opponents don't let them drag it out, using a fast pace to crush a lane and ending the game before 20 minutes, they are prone to losing. This team is very strong in the late game, but weak in the early game."
Teams with such a distinct style were actually easy to target.
Last season, Binghun brought out a particularly novel Spirit Rabbit support system in the grand finals, catching their opponents off guard and entering the World Championship as China's number one seed. This season, their Spirit Rabbit had become a permanent resident on the ban list.
Ye Shaoyang asked, "Do we need to ban the Spirit Rabbit against Binghun?"
Coach Lin said, "That's exactly what I wanted to discuss with everyone." He paused, then joked, "Shaoyang, you aren't going to use 'walk the opponent's path so the opponent has nowhere to go' again, are you?"
Ye Shaoyang coughed lightly. "That won't work this time. The Spirit Rabbit system is very unique and requires long-term practice. We haven't practiced this system at all. One week isn't enough to learn it from scratch. If we let Qu Jiang play Spirit Rabbit…"
Qu Jiang said confidently, "I can cause all three lanes to collapse."
Everyone: "…"
Then better not pick it!
The Spirit Rabbit was a support with a very unique mechanic. Its ultimate, "Cunning Rabbit Has Three Burrows," allowed it to create three rabbit holes on the map and instantly teleport teammates to them. Binghun's Spirit Rabbit system was essentially a tactic combining macro management and guerrilla warfare. As a support with extremely strong macro awareness, Chen Qianhua used the Spirit Rabbit to dictate the rhythm across the entire map, summoning teammates to frantically push towers.
Opponents would fall into the awkward situation of "wanting to fight them but unable to find them," being controlled by the enemy everywhere.
This system was indeed very hard to crack.
Coach Lin asked, "Do you think the Spirit Rabbit support needs to be banned?"
Ye Shaoyang said, "I don't think it's necessary. It's still the group stage of the regular season; losing once or twice doesn't matter. Why not let their strong system through and treat it as accumulating match experience?"
Chi Shuo agreed, "I think so too. Binghun's Spirit Rabbit system has been banned for a whole season, but actually, the macro playstyle of this system is very flexible. Clashing with them on the field will allow us to learn some experience from them." He looked at Qu Jiang. "Especially Qu Jiang, you can learn a bit from Xiao Chen's support thinking."
Qu Jiang nodded seriously. "Mn, I've watched a lot of Captain Chen's match recordings. His investigation of ward placement and grasp of team fight timing are indeed very insightful."
Hearing the team members say this, Coach Lin smiled with relief. "It's best if you think this way. In the future, if we go to the World Championship, we will encounter more formidable enemies. Training our troops in advance is a good thing."
This sentence made everyone's chests feel slightly warm, as if the stage of the World Championship was beckoning to them.
—Yes, Tianhuan's goal this season was set on the World Championship!
One must have a long-term vision!
In the group stage, desperately banning domestic teams' strong systems just to win was unnecessary. If you ban someone's strongest lineup, even if you win, can you guarantee you won't encounter it again in the future?
There are so many lineup systems in this game; you can't ban them all.
Conversely, if they fought against Binghun's Spirit Rabbit system this time, wouldn't Tianhuan have experience and know how to crack it if they encountered teams from other countries using this kind of macro, guerrilla warfare playstyle in the World Championship later?
The players and coaches exchanged glances and reached a consensus.
Coach Lin looked at Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing, smiling as he said, "This season, in almost every match, I've banned hard-engage supports just to reduce pressure on the bot lane. However, against Binghun, I won't ban the support position anymore. I will let all of Captain Chen's supports through. The pressure on your bot lane will be immense. Is that okay?"
Qu Jiang braced himself and said, "No problem. I'll try my best to protect Little Xing."
Cheng Xing scratched his head and said, "Then I… I'll try my best to stay alive?"
Laughter rang out in the conference room.
Everyone knew that in the bot lane matchup, the support's role was crucial. Sometimes, blocking a key ultimate could save the marksman's life; and a perfectly timed engage by the support could assist the marksman in securing kills.
Therefore, with Coach Lin releasing Captain Chen's strong supports, Cheng Xing's survival environment would be exceptionally difficult.
Ye Shaoyang patted Cheng Xing on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, we will help the bot lane more. Against Binghun, we definitely have to play around the bot lane and not let their support roam frequently."
Binghun's support roaming was very uncomfortable to deal with. Chen Qianhua was like a pair of eyes observing the whole situation. He would clearly know the movements of the opposing jungler and mid laner, reporting positions to teammates to prevent ganks in advance.
With such a support present, junglers often returned empty-handed from ganks.
In the early game, the support roamed to clear vision and prevent teammates from being ganked. In the late game, they grouped up to crush the opponent in one wave—this was Binghun's common routine.
If Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang wanted to gank, there were two ways.
The first was to use stealth heroes so Binghun's support couldn't see them. The second was to use heroes that could cross terrain barriers, launching surprise attacks from ultra-long distances where Binghun had no vision.
The two exchanged a glance and said in tacit agreement, "The dual-fly combo?"
Coach Lin nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes! We also think the dual-fly combination is very suitable for fighting Binghun! However, Binghun might ban the dual-fly combo. After all, your international server aliases have been exposed."
Chi Shuo said, "Binghun won't necessarily ban the dual-fly combo. Personally, I think they are more likely to ban stealth junglers like Stealth Rogue or Blood-Clad Assassin, or ban the Shadow Warlock, a stealth mage assassin."
Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, "If they ban the dual-fly combo, I actually have another idea."
His teammates all turned to look at him. Cheng Xing said excitedly, "Brother Yang, tell us quickly! I think your ideas are always super interesting!"
Ye Shaoyang said, "Binghun is relatively weak in the early game, right? There's a lineup that is particularly strong in the early game—have you forgotten?"
Chi Shuo understood instantly. "The Bounty Hunter system?"
Ye Shaoyang nodded. "Right. The game where Jingzhe defeated us—we can also take that and use it!"
Coach Lin looked at Ye Shaoyang with complex emotions.
—Learning from opponents and applying what you learn; this is a necessary quality for a strong team.
In the last match against Huowen, Tianhuan learned Huowen's Positional Warfare system and improved it with excellent results.
Against Binghun, they could also learn Jingzhe's Bounty Hunter system and improve upon it!
Professional leagues were just like this: learning from each other's strengths, summarizing experiences, and slowly progressing.
Tianhuan had researched many mid-jungle synergy routines themselves, but they could also learn the strengths of other teams. If this continued, Tianhuan's lineup systems would become more and more diverse.
In the future, when facing powerful enemies in the World Championship, they would be able to adapt to changing circumstances and find countermeasures at the fastest speed!
Lin Feng said excitedly, "Okay, it's settled then! For the several plans against Binghun, I will write out the hero configurations now. Everyone, hurry up and practice."
Seven days passed quickly.
The venue for the third week's match was arranged in Binghe City. It was already early June, and the average temperature in this northern city famous for its snow scenes was around 22 degrees Celsius—a very comfortable climate.
When everyone arrived at the hotel, they happened to run into Team Binghun.
Chen Qianhua walked over proactively, smiling as he greeted them. "Chi Shuo, what a coincidence."
Chi Shuo nodded at him. "Mn, we just arrived."
Chen Qianhua looked at Ye Shaoyang, his gaze very gentle. "Lieyang, hello."
Meeting him up close, Ye Shaoyang found that this Beta captain had a very gentle smile and spoke with great grace. The four Alpha players of Team Binghun were respectful towards him. It seemed Captain Chen was indeed a player with great personal charisma.
From being on the verge of disbandment in the S8 season to counter-attacking all the way to win the domestic championship in S9…
Chen Qianhua had already become a legend in the league.
Deep down, Ye Shaoyang admired this player who had turned the tide immensely. He said politely, "Hello, Captain Chen."
Chen Qianhua joked, "Can you kill me a few times less in tomorrow's match?"
Ye Shaoyang said, "You can choose an especially tanky support, then I won't be able to hurt you!"
Although he appreciated this gentle captain, on the competition field, he would not show mercy to anyone.