Chapter 802 Advancing to the K Cup Finals

After the interview, the KT team took the bus back to the base without any interest in staying to watch the evening game.

Today is Christmas, and the guys who had just finished the game worked hard to decorate and held a small Christmas party.

The two waves of the top six were all played in one day. The four teams that have confirmed their advancement to the semi-finals of this year's K Cup are KT, DWG, NS, and GEN·G.

The predecessor of NS is the DYN team that just came up from the secondary league in the summer season this year. It was renamed after being acquired by the Korean food industry giant Nongshim Group.

It has to be said that the boss of DYN is lucky. He just caught the last train of the league and sold a LCK quota at a good price.

It is worth mentioning that after DWG obtained the sponsorship of Kia Group, it also announced two days ago that they will officially change their name to DWG·KIA next season.

Many people originally thought that DWG, as the team second only to KT in LCK this year, would find it difficult for the club to maintain the original lineup after the players have played their worth and waited until the contract expired. They may not be able to renew the contract with the outstanding players in the team with high salary.

But it is different after getting the title sponsorship from Kia.

Title sponsors are different from general sponsors. The investment of title sponsors will be greater, and in DWG's official announcement, Kia will assist the club in brand management and operation.

Of course, despite the investment from Kia, DWG did not choose to keep Nugu.

Having money does not mean you have to spend it recklessly. How much is Lin Cheng's contract? If Nugu stayed in LCK, it would be impossible for him to get such an exaggerated contract as LPL.

In addition to Nongshim and Kia, another large group that entered LCK in a high-profile manner is KB Kookmin Bank. They reached a cooperation agreement with Sandbox, and SB will be renamed LSB next season.

The impact of the alliance process of LCK this year is indeed great.

Many large Korean companies began to invest with confidence and compete to enter the market. Even many companies that did not acquire LCK seats have reached sponsorship agreements with clubs.

With more sponsors, clubs naturally have money to buy players, and the treatment of players will also rise accordingly.

The most bizarre transfer market this year is Hanwha. The headquarters increased investment after the league was launched, but the Hanwha club took the money but couldn't buy anyone. It's really embarrassing.

With so many big moves from all parties, it's no wonder that KT will spend so much money this year.

After two consecutive years of failure, KT had already given up hope on the road of spending money to achieve results, but Lin Cheng's sudden birth gave KT's top management a glimmer of hope.

They dream of competing with their arch-rival T1 in the League of Legends event. The brand value created by T1 is enough to make all clubs jealous.

Even though T1 didn't make it to the World Championship last year, the sponsorship they received was still far more than other clubs. Although this is inseparable from the operation of T1's top management, it is mainly because of T1's brand value.

Therefore, KT headquarters is determined to keep the team's flag bearer Lin Cheng at all costs, vigorously recruiting players to ensure results while also increasing commercial development efforts to speed up the pace of catching up with their arch-rivals.

Aside from the topic, KT just advanced to the semi-finals of the Kespa Cup, and faced NS.

Compared with the summer season when it was still called DYN, NS's lineup has changed a lot. Only the Storm three-time champion Rih and the bottom AD player Deokdam are still in the team.

Nongshim introduced the black emperor Blank who returned from Japan as the jungler, the rookie Bay as the mid laner, and Kellin as the support.

Judging from the previous K Cup games, Nongshim's signings this year are actually quite practical.

Except that Bay looks a bit lame, Xiao Hei Meng's return to the peak has a bit of the flavor of Xiao Dai. Although Kellin did not compete with Lai Fu when he was in GEN·G, he was actually more spiritual than Lai Fu when he was stable.

Of course, he was more aggressive than Lai Fu when he was giving up.

Since the departure of the champion support CoreJJ, the players in the support position of GEN·G are all those guys who are sometimes good and sometimes bad, and Samsung's iron fan Guan Zeyuan has complained about this a lot.

In addition to the performance of the new jungler and support, Deokdam himself has a strong carry ability. This NS only lost one small game to DWG in the previous K Cup.

Of course, although NS showed a good state, most people thought that KT, whose state had obviously improved in the previous round, would easily defeat the opponent.

However, the fact is not so.

In the semi-finals of wave 5, KT encountered a tough battle right from the start.

And Xiao Hei, who returned to LCK, was simply amazing. In the early stage, Xiao Hei's Rock Bird was very insidious in the jungle to catch the opportunity of Peanut to use his skills to kill the jungler, and then he caught the effect in three lanes in succession, making KT unable to get up the rhythm.

Not only KT viewers couldn't believe it, even T1 fans couldn't accept it.

Xiao Hei has changed. Is this still the Black Emperor who made SKT explode in three lanes with reverse GANK?

In the first game, under Xiao Hei's perfect rhythm, NS tenaciously defeated KT.

The second game was still tense, but because KT's lineup had no coordination ability, they finally lost the game again.

After losing two games in a row, KT suddenly seemed to wake up.

In the following games, KT's players began to exert their strength.

The Japanese signature Sword Demon was repeatedly beaten by Lin Cheng in the top lane, and good news kept coming from the top lane.

Chovy even let the new mid laner Bay experience his terrifying suppression power in the middle lane, and he also completed a series of single kills like Lin Cheng encouraged him.

Peanut also stood up. Facing the bloody explosion of Xiao Hei who squeezed him to the bench, he no longer chose the jungle core brush and directly ate the meaty blind monk and chased the opponent in the jungle.

Mr. Dai and Xiao Death in the bottom lane were a bit interesting. They first killed the opponent in the line, and then suddenly gave up for no reason, and refused to take advantage and let the opponent catch up with their development.

In the end, after adjusting, KT chased three games in a row, won the game by letting 2 come back 3, and advanced to the Kespa Cup finals.

KT fans are now both looking forward to and worried about.

The expectation is because KT completed the 2 come back 3 very tenaciously, which shows their resilience and makes fans believe that KT will get better and better in the future as Lin Cheng said.

But worry is inevitable.

Compared with the last generation of KT's overwhelming victory, this KT's operational decision-making seems very confusing. There are indeed some beautiful decisions to pull out the tower and change the line, but there are also some brain hemorrhages like the gourd baby saving his grandfather.

Fans of other teams are gloating. KT's dominance is gone, and their chance has come.

In fact, in the post-match review, KT's players also found the team's problems. They are now mainly not unified in their thoughts. It is difficult for the five people to react tacitly in the first time when the battle situation changes rapidly.

Due to the different styles of the teams they belonged to before, the players' playing styles are different, and the players' judgments on the situation may not be the same, which leads to frequent disconnection.

This situation can only be improved through a lot of running-in. Fortunately, they still have a lot of time.

Lin Cheng firmly believes that KT is still invincible.