The Summer Split began!

At last.

The next day arrived.

The S7 Summer Split officially kicked off!

The opening match was a marquee showdown, a grudge match between old rivals: RNG versus OMG!

Kangba and Guoba in particular were flooded with new posts, all analyzing the two teams' chances of winning.

Of course, far more people were backing RNG.

Overall, everyone felt there was little chance of an upset; RNG should take this one.

After all, OMG had long since fallen from grace. They were a far cry from their S3 and S4 selves and had even failed to reach the World Championship for several years running.

Back in the days of the Dark Forces, there had been the sweep of Samsung White Shield, the comeback with their Nexus at fifty health, the nation's guardian Kha'Zix fighting to the bitter end, and the Lightning King's Flash ambush...

Those former glories had gradually faded into the past.

Then came S5: Uzi's tears onstage, the bitter falling-out between mid and jungle, and the newly assembled Galaxy Battleship crashing before it could even set sail.

By now, only mid laner Icon and ADC Smlz were left holding OMG together...

Meanwhile.

Inside the IG clubhouse, Lu Chen, Rookie, and even JackeyLove had all gathered to watch the opening match.

Strictly speaking, this should have been the coaches' and analysts' job.

But this was the first match of the Summer Split, after all. Watching a little more would help the players get back into form.

"Who do you guys think will win?" JackeyLove asked quietly.

"RNG, obviously," Ning Wang said casually, without a second thought. "They were the Spring Split runners-up, after all."

Rookie considered it too. "Yeah, RNG's lineup looks really strong this year."

Their twin stars, Xiaohu and Mlxg, had already led the team to an LPL Spring Split title back in S6 and made appearances at MSI and the World Championship.

OMG, on the other hand, only had Smlz putting up truly impressive performances, and he could hardly carry the whole team alone.

Even on paper, there was a massive gap between their lineups.

"What about you, Chen?" JackeyLove turned toward Lu Chen, curiosity and anticipation in his eyes.

"Me?" A faint smile tugged at Lu Chen's lips. "I think OMG will win."

"Huh?" JackeyLove froze, his eyes full of surprise.

Lu Chen chuckled at his expression. "Just call it superstition. I think RNG is destined for this setback."

JackeyLove scratched his head without saying anything, privately grumbling, Chen really has it in for his old team.

Soon.

The match began.

RNG and OMG entered the pick-and-ban phase, and deafening cheers rang through the arena.

The spectators seemed determined to unleash all the passion they had bottled up for over a month, screaming themselves hoarse.

But an official announcement dampened many people's enthusiasm.

RNG's starting ADC was not Uzi, but Wuxin.

Before long, the game began.

Four and a half minutes in, OMG's jungler World6 caught Mlxg with a countergank in mid and secured first blood.

At five and a half minutes, OMG's bot lane scored a kill in lane, taking down Ming.

At twelve minutes, OMG's top laner and jungler teamed up to dive and kill Letme. With support from mid laner Icon, they also killed Mlxg when he arrived.

At twenty-nine minutes, OMG grouped up and took Baron Nashor.

At thirty minutes, their support Brand locked down Wuxin at the mid inhibitor turret and killed him with a full combo.

With that, the game ended.

Even then, everyone still thought RNG could reverse-sweep the series. Their strength was there, after all.

And events seemed to bear that out. In game two, RNG exerted pressure right from the start, at one point taking a 4-0 lead in kills.

Strangely, though, they could never widen the gold gap. At most, it was only one or two thousand!

The difference in bot-lane CS was simply too large. Smlz's ability to farm and scale was proving difficult for RNG to handle.

OMG kept clawing their way back, grouping up and playing the map. At thirty-eight minutes, four of them fought at dragon while their mid laner Ekko pushed a lane and ended the game in one go.

2-0!

The first match of the Summer Split ended with OMG sweeping RNG!

The arena instantly fell silent. Many RNG fans could hardly believe it, with only a small contingent of 59E fans cheering.

The internet erupted!

The famous Kangba and Guoba forums were boiling over.

"Why didn't they put Uzi in!? This is RNG!? How much were they looking down on OMG?"

"That's it? All that hype about RNG, and this is what we get? A clean sweep?"

"Doomsday for Royal Fans, a carnival for 59E!"

"Pure ADC gap. Smlz practically crushed Wuxin in lane."

"Let's be reasonable. If RNG had fielded Uzi, OMG couldn't have won."

"RNG lost, but Uzi didn't."

"Uzi has a hand injury. He can't play every game."

"Then I have to ask: if Uzi needs someone to rotate with him, why did RNG let C God go? Do they think Wuxin is better than C God?"

"Lmao, let your precious C God play a match first, then talk."

"So why is RNG versus IG scheduled so far down the line? I really want to watch it!"

Somehow, as the discussion went on, it ended up dragging Lu Chen into it.

That was a little ridiculous.

Over at IG.

When the result came in, JackeyLove stared at Lu Chen with wide eyes. "Chen, you're a prophet! How did you even guess that?"

Lu Chen shrugged and gave a meaningful smile. "I told you. You have to believe in superstition."

After watching that match, the players stopped spectating and headed to the training room.

Su Xiaoluo had arranged two best-of-three scrim sets for them, against Snake Esports and DAN.

Yes, the very DAN that had ruined Spirit Stone Road's dan.

Once the scrims began, Su Xiaoluo and Mafa sat down in the spectator seats, ready to note the players' problems.

Both teams were pretty solid.

Snake Esports in particular had players like Crystal and Flandre, whose abilities were not to be underestimated.

Yet a few hours later, Su Xiaoluo and Mafa were both bewildered.

"How... how are we winning this easily?"

Mafa also frowned as he looked at the notebook in his hands. He had only recorded a handful of issues: "The enemy bot lane always collapses too quickly

..."

That was right.

IG kept winning, and every game was a stomp!

Across two Best of Three sets and six consecutive scrim games, they hadn't lost once!

These were scrims, after all. The point was practice rather than winning or losing, so a best of three meant playing all three games. There was no stopping at 2-0.

In other words, Snake Esports and DAN had each been brutally thrashed three times!

Every game, before twenty minutes had even passed, they began typing GG in [All] chat and simply left the game.

Su Xiaoluo and Mafa might have been baffled, but the players on those two teams were even more shell-shocked!

"Holy fucking shit, what kind of monster is that guy?" Crystal slumped in his gaming chair as though paralyzed, wailing, "I only took one offseason off from playing matches. Have I really gotten this bad?"

It was the first time he had ever been beaten so badly!

He was getting schooled on both sides of every matchup and couldn't even hold steady through the laning phase!

Beside him, Flandre rubbed his nose. "Their ADC is that C God everyone's talking about online? He really is that insane?"

Their mid laner, Zz1tai, looked utterly dazed. He still hadn't recovered. "He... their ADC came to my lane at ten minutes and sent me back to base with two shots. How am I supposed to play this game?"

DAN's ADC, Qiuqiu, had been beaten so badly that he was practically delirious.

After all three scrim games, there was no need to identify his problems. He felt like every part of him had been a problem from beginning to end!

For a moment, Qiuqiu even wondered whether he was unsuited to playing ADC. Maybe... he should try switching to support?