Revisiting old places, Manila.

ESL once again returns this tournament to Manila, which is still the familiar Mall of Asia.

This is actually a blessed place for me. I first joined VGJ to play professionally. At that time, I was plagued by injuries and almost missed the first bus of my professional league. In the end, I was lucky enough to enter. I passed five levels and defeated six generals with my teammates.

In front of the powerful LGD from the same sect.

In the final battle against the base, my Medusa made a mistake and Rubick stole the ultimate move. Unfortunately, I lost to LGD and ranked sixth.

Sixth place is enough for a new team, but this time we are back with a new look, and sixth place is no longer enough to satisfy our appetite.

With so many strong teams not coming, it shouldn’t be too much to take first place this time and put them in shock.

…

We arrived at the team hotel together with LFY, and Wings arrived a little later.

I am relatively familiar with several members of LFY, and I won’t go into details about No. 1 Mo. He is a newcomer in the eyes of others, but I know his strength.

Position 2 Super, known as "Bao Zi", also known as "Yue Ru", debuted in the DOTA1 era in the early years, one of the nine-time champions of DK, Ti4VG runner-up mid laner, stable style, very team-oriented, in the mid lane position

He is often not well-known because he is not elegant or showy enough, but this cannot hide that he is one of the best mid laners in the country.

The third position me, also known as "Jianlai", is a new mid laner who entered Ti in 2014. After about two years of polishing, he moved to CDEC as the third position. His playing style is extremely fierce, and he can compete with EHOME's old eleven.

, now transferred to LFY.

Position 4 Yao, an old teammate of DDC, is also a veteran of the D1 era. He was an old LGD mid laner and later switched to third position. His entire career has been tied to LGD. This time he joined LFY and switched to position 4 again.

Well, DDC, let’s not talk about it, we are old acquaintances, and we will meet on the field in the future.

At the hotel, we met the five LFY people.

Everywhere I go, I see familiar leather shoes and I immediately say hello: "Hey, what a coincidence?"

Liang Fafa laughed and joked: "Why, come and steal my Mercedes-Benz? Can your legs reach the brakes?"

"No. 5 wants to win MVP? Wake up, brother."

"Then you, the free-for-nothing No. 3, can drive? I guess you can just play with your big butt and open it up."

Yang and DDC, who hadn't seen each other for a long time, got into trouble again. Although they changed teams, the old team dynamics were still there.

I caught up with Mo and Du Peng, whom I hadn’t seen for a long time.

"Are you nervous about playing offline for the first time?"

"Well, it's a bit exciting." Du Peng was also a little emotional. Originally, he and I were just alumni of the same school, but now we were going to meet in an international competition. The excitement on his face started from the moment he saw the shopping mall.

It never stopped, it looked very much like me back then, maybe this was just a newborn calf.

"How does it feel on the team?"

"Okay, it's good. The big brothers take good care of me. But... I feel like sometimes I can't get a word in."

I nodded and understood what he meant: "You are the number one position of the team, the absolute core. When you can and cannot play, or how to play to make yourself comfortable, you have to say it. Don't tell them just because they are senior.

Don’t dare to say it, otherwise it will be difficult for you to walk on the road ahead.”

"Yeah." Du Peng nodded as if he understood.

Considering his personality and age, it may take some time to get to this point.

I patted his shoulder: "Take your time."

Du Peng nodded humbly and suddenly realized something was wrong: "Aren't you about the same age as me? Why do you talk like a thirty-year-old uncle?"

…

Soon after, the groups came out.

Group A: Liquid, Wings, TNC, LFY, MVP, X.

Group B: PS, Seatic, DC, VP, coL.

Group A has different strengths and weaknesses, with some being particularly strong, such as Wings, Liquid, and TNC, which are the only group in the group. Group B is relatively average in strength, with almost no weak teams except coL.

The ESL competition format is like this. The 12 teams are divided into two groups. A mixed BO2 will be held within the group. A win will earn one point. In the end, each team will eliminate the bottom two teams. The remaining 8 teams will be divided into two groups AB for a BO3 double-elimination system.

The winners of the last two groups and the winners of the losers advance to the semi-finals.

The final four are a single-elimination elimination system, that is, there is no loser group, the losers go home directly, and the winning two teams play in the BO5 finals.

In the end, the final MVP will be determined through online voting and expert review, and the reward will naturally be a Mercedes-Benz.

The first BO2 opponent on the first day is our old friend, Fnatic led by Priest.

It's a coincidence that just after xNova was recruited by Leather Shoes and I, she was about to go to war with her former teammates. It's exciting to think about it.

…

Leather Shoes looked at the schedule and said, "F, the Tigers are going to start the game."

I turned around and asked, "I heard that the pastor and his team have changed again?"

Fy nodded: "ACE didn't do well in the trial and was kicked out. Midone went to Secret. FNC's mid laner was replaced by a Southeast Asian passer-by, let's call it inyourdream. Then Mushi switched to the big brother. The fourth position was a Korean, Febby, DJ.

It’s five.”

"DJ turned five?" I was stunned when I heard it. DJ is one of the best position 4 players in the world, and he actually turned five. It seems that good fifth positions are also a scarce resource abroad.

The leather-shoes guy was lying on the sofa and said, "Hey, I feel like this competition is boring. There are no strong teams here. It's still a bit challenging to play Wings."

"Don't be too arrogant, I think we should pay attention to this VP." The current version has a faster pace, and there is a market for VP's fierce tanking style.

"How is the domestic league going now?"

AME happened to be watching the live broadcast: "VG won all six games in the only bracket, EHOME, LGD in the second bracket, and the worst was Newbee, who just beat IG.V."

"It shouldn't be. Brother Chen and U9's hard skills seem to be pretty good, but they are so hip?"

I don't think so: "It may be a matter of lineup adjustment. After all, the team has replaced two big brothers at the first and second positions. If we can still maintain the peak, then it can only be said that 345 is too strong."

The new season has just begun, and the new team has plenty of time to adjust. There will always be opportunities to prove themselves in subsequent competitions.

Brother Wei sat silently in his seat. He was testing the ward position and field of vision of certain maps in stand-alone mode, as well as the time and direction of each lane. I could see it all.

Since Brother Wei joined PS, the outside world is generally not optimistic about him, so he has been under tremendous pressure. Therefore, tomorrow's game is not only a good opportunity to prove the strength of our new team, but also a touchstone for xNova itself.

…

Time passed slowly and ESL Manila officially started.

Opening match: LFY vs.

As recognized as the weakest teams among the twelve teams, LFY and

Mo made his debut in the professional game, playing Void. He was a bit slow at first, and his last-hitting skills were average, but in the mid-term, veterans led the team in fights to help him. In the end, BKB had four big void shields, and his teammates received perfect bos, and X had a wave of five.

The group was wiped out and there was no way to buy a living.

Void scored 17/1/12, winning the game with perfect statistics.

I felt a lot while watching the whole game.
Chapter completed!