You’re Beautiful When You Smile

As the commentators chattered along, the second match between ZGDX and YQCB officially  started after three minutes.

The first thing YQCB did was to ban Kindred, Ashe, and Leblanc.
Aside from Leblanc who was always banned, the others were all the champions ZGDX had used in the last match– –Banning Kindred was certainly because of that team fight in the last match and YQCB would deny ZGDX from having their Kindred and Janna combination again.
As for Ashe, though Pope had used Sivir’s shield to block Ashe’s ultimate in the last match, there were times during the last match where she still caused a lot of headaches for YQCB…… 

— –It was a common scene during this season’s competition matches to see ZGDX use Ashe at bot and see her work with their mid by shooting an arrow to ambush the enemy mid, giving their mid a kill and letting them steal the enemy’s blue buff.

On the ZGDX side, with YQCB having first choice in the pick phase, ZGDX banned Vladimir, knowing that Tong Yao wouldn’t want to take it again, and then banned Jhin, followed by Sivir.

YQCB picked Ezreal as their first champion.
Ezreal was the most popular ad champion; no matter how strong or weak the ad was, it was always a good choice to pick Ezreal.
YQCB’s pick was expected.

When it was ZDGX’s turn to pick, they also locked down a champion for their AD at bot, Kog’Maw.
Then Little Fatty took Taric after some consideration.

Afterwards YQCB picked Rek’Sai and Braum.

YQCB’s jungler, Xbang, and support, Liangsheng, were very good at playing these two champions.

ZGDX players started to discuss the lineup of their opposition.
It looked like YQCB was missing some DPS so far, but all the other champions they took were all quite tanky and Ezreal was a champion who could run very fast……It seemed that YQCB was saying to ZGDX: We know you’re strong in the lanes, then we won’t fight with you while laning.
We’ll take these all-rounded champions to piss you off.

“Then, Tong Yao might as well take an assassin champion.”

“What do I take, Trundle? With their line up now, a normal assassin can’t cut to the flank……You better think of someone who can break their formation.”

“I have a feeling that they’re going to take Ekko.
Ahhhhh, all meat plus Ekko.”

During their lively discussion, Tong Yao had kept quiet.
She fixed her eyes on her own team’s lineup, then checked the enemy’s, suddenly she spoke after thinking it over thoroughly: “What I want to say is that Ai Jia is such a steady player and Azir would be the best match for him– –If he takes Azir later, don’t you guys feel this ban & pick phase looks rather familiar?”

The exchanges in the earphones abruptly quieted down after Tong Yao spoke– –Even Lu Sicheng, who was lazily stretching his long legs out and playing with his fingers, paused after hearing Tong Yao.
He turned to take a look at his girl, turned to look at the computer screen, then his eyes brightened up and he sat up in his chair.

It was Tong Yao’s turn to pick now.

She went ahead and picked Yasuo.

Yasuo was a famous orphan champion in the Chinese servers who rarely appeared in competitions because it took a very skilled player to handle Yasuo well and in many cases, those who couldn’t play Yasuo well would harm their own teammates.
The audience was in a commotion.
Even the commentators were confused: “What’s going on?” “She’s taking Yasuo, it can’t be?”– —

From the corner of her eye, Tong Yao saw the YQCB players were also stretching their necks to look over at her team as if trying to figure what her team was up to……

Contrary to those reactions, Lu Sicheng started to laugh while fixing his eyes on the computer.
Then with Little Fatty, Old Cat and Old K looking at each other not knowing what was going on, he simply said: “Just take it.”

Tong Yao locked down Yasuo.

YQCB then took Trundle and Azir.