[Damn, damn, damn—my Diamond Walnut—GO!!!]
[Feng-bao, my wife—go kill them!!!]
[Holy crap, there are actually people at the venue holding up walnut-themed cheering signs. My little streamer with 32,566 followers has officially taken off!!]
[ This guy doesn’t even stream and still has hundreds of thousands of people crying in a black-screen stream every day. You call that a small streamer???]
[ This guy streamed less than 50 hours in over a month, and you call him a streamer?? Even the pigeon-streamers I follow stream longer than him QAQ]
[My suggestion: just release the scrim matches so everyone can watch them!!]
[Certain “big-name stars” surnamed Xu and Qian with only tens of thousands of followers, please stop clout-chasing my little streamer. His mental is fragile—if he gets affected he’ll start shaking, thank you very much!!]
Fans watching online could barely contain their excitement either, venting their madness through the barrage comments. Because the match’s popularity was so high, besides the official broadcast there were dozens of co-streams run by pro players and streamers. At a glance, practically every notable figure in the scene was live and waiting for the match to begin. It was basically a massive HPL online gathering.
In the official stream, the commentators were the same familiar pair as always.
“Welcome, Summoners, to the official broadcast room! We’re your old friends Qing Ci and Chao Mi!” Qing Ci greeted quickly.
At the same time, commentators in over twenty languages around the world began their work, broadcasting the match to viewers in their respective regions. After this BO5, everyone would know which team from China’s formidable region would be sent as their #1 seed.
“For this BO5, both teams are using the same starting lineup as before. One thing worth mentioning is that Navic has not chosen to start Cpyhc,” Qing Ci said, turning to his partner. “Do you think there might be some special reasoning behind that?”
Well, obviously there is. Chao Mi pondered for a moment before answering: “I think it’s probably a tactical arrangement. Back in the regular season, Navic and PNG met pretty early in the bracket. At the time, Navic was in a confused phase—the team had a lot of problems, and in that BO3 against PNG, they didn’t show any real coordination.”
“Now they’ve practically been reborn compared to before. The team has found a tactical system that suits them and has kept refining it through matches. With their string of wins in the playoffs, I think the players have gained a lot of confidence. Using this system to challenge PNG should be perfectly reasonable!”
“So do you think God Yue has a chance to appear today?”
Chao Mi laughed. “That question should be directed at PNG. Substitutions usually mean they want to change tactics. If Navic keeps winning, there’s no reason for them to change anything. If PNG gets swept 0–3, then yeah… I might really not get to see God Yue in the finals.”
He paused, then added: “But honestly, with how tough PNG is, it won’t be easy for Navic to carry them out!”
Some barrage comments questioned this:
[If they lose they just swap players? Isn’t that too ridiculous? Won’t they give Fiw any room to make mistakes?]
The commentators on the main stage couldn’t see the barrage, but on the secondary stream, amateur caster Tofu was getting annoyed by the spam and explained: “It’s because the macro system Fiw excels at isn’t fundamentally different from PNG’s. Both teams are basically sprint runners. If you can’t outrun the other guy, then you just can’t outrun him. What else are you supposed to do if you don’t change players? Are you going to undergo a genetic mutation mid-match?”
“Unless Navic has some other strategy hidden for Fiw—but I think that’s unlikely. And even if they did, Moon God would definitely be the better one to execute it.”
He patiently argued with a few stubborn barrage viewers for a while.
Before long, the big screen displayed: HPL Summer Split Finals — BO5 — Game 1
“Game 1 BP has officially begun!” Chao Mi exclaimed excitedly. “As the winner’s bracket first seed, PNG gets to choose sides first. As expected, Coach Yuehuo has chosen the blue side!”
Qing Ci laughed. “When you think about it, Navic really hasn’t had it easy. They fought their way all the way up from the losers’ bracket, and when they reach the finals they still have to let someone else choose sides first! No matter which side you pick, the team with the choice definitely has the advantage—they can pick the BP style that fits their strategy better!”
“Well, performing well in the winner’s bracket should come with rewards!”
Chao Mi continued: “Of course, if Navic wins this BO5, they’ll create a brand-new legend in HPL history—Spring champions who placed outside the top 30 early in the Summer regular season, fought their way up to 7th, then came from the losers’ bracket in playoffs back to the finals and finally won the championship, becoming double champions of both Spring and Summer!”
“On the other hand, if PNG wins, they’ll become the first team in history that—within just two years of founding, with no previous major tournament experience and no veteran star players—goes undefeated from the regular season all the way to winning the finals.” He emphasized: “And I mean undefeated in series. Completely unprecedented. It’s even questionable whether anyone in the future could surpass it!”
Chao Mi concluded: “So no matter what happens today—we’re about to witness history.”
——
On stage.
“Wind, I’m thinking we let Fiw have the ‘Stone Sentinel’ in Game 1. What do you think?”
Chen Chen explained the BP plan and asked his mid laner for his opinion. “Lime’s carry potential is really strong. We’ll focus our first-round BP on targeting him—ban marksmen and strong peel supports to put pressure on their bot lane.”
This was also a small trap Chen Chen prepared for Navic. Normally, the core carry of a specific composition shouldn’t be forced to bear pressure during BP. When a team realizes their carry position is being targeted in bans, they’ll usually spend their valuable early pick to secure that hero as soon as possible.
But the heroes that fit the composition, the meta, and the player are limited. That meant Zou Jiayou would either reveal his marksman pick early or delay it and risk being left with whatever scraps PNG left behind. Since he was currently Navic’s primary carry, the second scenario was unlikely. That gave PNG strategic initiative in the bot lane.
Of course, the cost of targeting in BP was that some heroes Navic really wanted would be left open—like the mid-lane Stone Sentinel. Chen Chen believed the trade-off was reasonable.
“The essence of BP is trade-offs and balance.”
Tofu said on the secondary stream while gulping down soda. “It’s not like you can ban a hundred heroes. You ban the bigger threats and leave the smaller ones open. That’s also why pro players need deep hero pools—if your pool is too shallow, it’s very easy to drain it dry!”
[BP has already gotten tense. Who understands this feeling?]
[When I see the countdown almost over, and my team still hasn’t banned anyone, I get really scared they’re hesitating or have some concerns…]
[Fast-acting heart pills on sale, 30% off! Bosses who need them can contact me on WeChat]
[ You’re already selling these now? That’s ridiculous!]
Sui Ning also heard Chen Chen’s question. He knew this wasn’t one of those deliberate “testing the player” questions—this was a real discussion. So he spoke his mind without hesitation: “That works. In this game, we can put a frontline on the top lane. I’ll bring Fiw down to the bot side—there’s no way their marksman will get online.”
“6666—”
“‘Bring Fiw down to bot,’ damn, our Wind really talks wild on stage!”
With the boss having spoken, Lin Zhaoxu finally felt a little reassured. “Baby, you said it yourself, okay? If you don’t come bot lane, I’ll throw a tantrum.”
Sui Ning: “…Okay.”
Very soon, PNG on blue side made the first ban. Chen Chen placed it on the support Shadow Hawk. Navic’s first ban was much more standard—removing the mid-lane Stellar Sprite as usual.
“This once again shows the value of Wind as a player,” Chao Mi said. “Aeria is extremely troublesome for Navic. They can’t leave her open, but banning her basically means they start the draft one ban down, making it much harder for them to run alternative strategies.”
PNG bans: Support Scythe of Calamity, marksman Void Ranger
Navic bans: Jungle Shadow of Vengeance, Jungle Dragon Monk
“PNG has placed all three of their first bans on the bot lane—removing two high-win-rate supports and taking away Lime’s most carry-heavy marksman, Void Ranger. That makes it very obvious they want to first-pick White Bird for bot lane!”
Qing Ci raised his eyebrows in surprise. “But Navic targeting the jungle position is a little unexpected. They’re not planning to keep limiting Wind?”
Chao Mi frowned thoughtfully. “I think Navic might be thinking that since they’re already planning to give Fiw Stone Sentinel, the hero isn’t really about laning anyway. He basically loses lane against everyone regardless, so banning strong opposing mid-laners doesn’t mean much anymore.”
In other words: If you can’t win lane anyway… you might as well stop caring.
Coach Pan Pan’s plan for Xiang Jin was simple— it didn’t matter if he couldn’t win lane, as long as his roaming was fast. Stone Sentinel’s ultimate could teleport across half the map to a teammate, giving it extremely strong support potential.
“Sentinel itself is a tank-mage,” Qing Ci added with concern. “Its starting HP is 1.7 times that of a normal squishy mage. It’ll be very hard for Wind to kill him!”
“Now the problem is thrown back to PNG. If they want a similarly roam-focused mid-laner, they have to consider whether they’re attacking the enemy’s strength with their own weakness! But if they pick an assassin, fighting Sentinel might just be scratching him all game!”
“When you think about it, maybe a scaling control mage would be good. Wind’s Soulreaper King is also excellent!”
During the pick phase, PNG indeed locked in marksman White Bird with their first pick.
Despite having an extremely high pick rate, White Bird still had an absurd 55.7% win rate this Summer Split—making it the most reliable marksman in the current competitive meta. Considering the expected intensity of the bot-lane matchup, picking it was perfectly reasonable.
As expected, Navic responded with Stone Sentinel and the support Spirit of the Forest.
The commentators reacted immediately: “Navic is clearly trying to relieve pressure on bot lane. Picking the support first is a solid choice—Spirit of the Forest works well! Their third pick should still be an marksman for Lime. If they wait until the second round, there won’t be many hyper-carry options left! They can observe PNG’s second and third picks, especially what they choose for mid lane!”
If Sui Ning picked an assassin, then Zou Jiayou definitely couldn’t stubbornly pick something like Frost Archer, a late-game hyper-carry with zero self-defense.
But Navic noticed something unusual—PNG’s 2–3 pick took a long time to lock in. The delay made Navic raise their guard.
“Why don’t I pick top first?” Wei Ye suggested. “Let Wind hide his pick a bit. I can take Treant—whatever they pick, I’m fine.”
Chen Chen frowned deeply. After thinking for a long time, he shook his head. “No. Pan Pan isn’t an idiot. If we push mid and jungle into the second round, they’ll definitely guess we’re planning to take Fan’en and Fanlei.”
Navic pressuring the jungle bans was also sending a signal— trying to force PNG to pick their jungler early. But what Chen Chen couldn’t determine was whether that signal itself was a trap.
In the end, Sui Ning’s support of the coaching staff’s BP plan helped Chen Chen make up his mind.
PNG picks: Jungle Shadowbane, Mid Specter of Shadow
The familiar figure appeared in the AR projection inside the arena, and the crowd instantly erupted with excited shouts.
“WIND——!!!”
“Feng-bao!! Finally he can play Fan’en again—!!!”
Alongside Fan’en, the mid-lane Specter of Shadow, the broadcast also displayed its seasonal draft statistics. Among 48 teams in the entire league, only PNG used this hero—yet it still contributed 2.7% of the total ban rate across the league. That alone showed how long fans had been waiting to see it again on stage.
“Ohhhh!!! Fan’en and Fanlei—long time no see!” the commentators exclaimed. “An excellent mid-jungle duo!”
“Although their long-distance support speed isn’t as fast as Sentinel’s, the brothers are incredibly strong in small skirmishes. They’re not afraid of laning fights or jungle brawls!”
Chao Mi pumped his fist excitedly. “This was exactly the concern we mentioned earlier. PNG’s mid pick couldn’t just be something that ‘keeps up.’ Sentinel has engage, protection, and crowd control—it’s extremely strong in 3v3 fights or four-man bot dives. If you pick an ordinary mid laner, even if you arrive in time, you might still lose the fight! But now it seems our worries were unnecessary—PNG clearly came prepared with a counter strategy!”
[OOOOOOHHHH!!!! It’s happening!!]
[HOLY—almost choked on my instant noodles. Never thought Feng-bao’s Fan’en would get unlocked again!!]
[It’s been so long since we saw Feng-bao’s multi-line control with Fan’en. The play against FR where he controlled six shadows at once, swapped positions, and turned a low-HP counter-kill still hasn’t been replicated QuQ]
[The guy who got a niche hero nerfed just by playing it… and you think he’s joking? (smirk)]
[Thank you, Navic. Because of you, the four seasons feel warm~~]
[I’m dying laughing at Fan’en’s ban rate. PNG literally raised that hero single-handedly!!]
[ Don’t laugh too early. Ever since Feng-bao made that ghost hero popular, its ranking scores on the national server are insanely high now…]
[Even Fanlei has become super competitive. Solo-queue Fanlei players like me who have no friends don’t even dare dream about the leaderboard.]
[To be precise, ever since Feng-bao started hard-carrying in the league, the ranking scores for every hero he’s played have become ridiculously competitive. The score that used to be enough for Rank 1 now barely touches the top 100…]
[Aeria’s score requirement for Top 10 is the highest among all heroes. Can we talk about that? QAQ]
[ Top 10 isn’t important. The Rank 1 guy with 29,700 points using the ID Fenglan is the real menace. That brat secretly climbed rating on his streamer account again without streaming!! Rank 2 is only a bit over 25,000!! (angry)]
As the barrage chat drifted off-topic, some sharp-eyed fans hidden among them had already started praying for Navic: Brothers who dared to leave Fan’en open—may you travel safely! If you also release that other one, you’ll be our fathers for life! Wishing your entire family happiness!
On the other side, Coach Pan Pan showed no surprise at PNG’s picks. He turned to reassure his players. “Don’t panic. We’ve already practiced this situation!”
His gaze settled on Xiang Jin. “The biggest weakness of their combo is that it needs a longer development time. Fan’en’s power spike comes later than Sentinel’s. Fiw, this is your opportunity—you must control the tempo well!”
Xiang Jin took a deep breath and nodded firmly. “I will!”
Navic had done special training during scrims against many teams, including practice matches where the opponents intentionally played Vann–Vanrei. Back then, Xiang Jin hadn’t felt much pressure. But the Grand Finals was never a place for empty reputations. This time, he was truly facing the founder-level player of that strategy.
The moment PNG locked in their heroes, Xiang Jin stared at the two familiar portraits on the screen. For no clear reason, his throat suddenly felt burningly dry, like it was on fire. The air around him seemed unbearably hot, and his breathing gradually quickened.
He didn’t realize anything was wrong—he just desperately wanted water. Behind him, Pan Pan noticed his nervousness immediately and kept massaging his shoulders, trying to help him relax. “It’s fine. Just treat it like a scrim!”
At the end of the first BP round, Zou Jiayou secured marksman Gunslinger Caitlyn, ensuring Navic would have strong bot lane presence and skirmishing power in the early and mid game.
Chao Mi commented, “Lime’s choice is fairly standard. Actually, there are heroes better in both offense and defense. If they wanted stronger late-game carry potential, Soul-Piercing Spear or Night Stalker would both be good picks. If survival was the priority, Explorer would be better than Sheriff.”
“But the strengths and weaknesses of those heroes are too obvious. Since this is Game 1, Navic choosing stability in bot lane is perfectly reasonable—they want to play safe and run their macro game first.”
In the second ban phase, PNG began putting pressure on the jungle, hoping Navic would suffer from their earlier decisions. In the first round, Navic had heavily targeted Ji Yunyu’s jungle pool, but they hadn’t picked a jungler for Pei Xingyi yet. That meant in the second round, Pei Xingyi would have to pick under pressure. Pan Pan wasn’t stupid. He immediately turned the pressure onto PNG’s support pick instead.
“In comparison, PNG is actually the one losing out here.”
Tofu analyzed on the secondary stream based on years of watching pro matches. “They made such a big deal earlier just to protect their bot lane. If Erllit can’t get good support, even with White Bird boosting the marksman’s strength, it might not be enough! Especially against Li + Nx, the strongest bot lane in the country. I’m not trying to disrespect Son Xu here, but he really needs to watch out this game—his lane might just collapse naturally!”
“Natural collapse” meant losing the 2v2 lane purely from skill difference, without any outside interference. Tofu wasn’t saying this out of nowhere—Lin Zhaoxu had once been mentally crushed by Zou Jiayou in lane before.
“So the strategic value of Navic targeting the support is greater than PNG targeting the jungle. Does that make sense?” Tofu said. “So now the pressure is on PNG’s mid-jungle. If bot lane wants to open the game, it’ll depend entirely on them!”
[? As if that isn’t the case every game anyway (smirk)]
[Marksmen are just little kids. Can they even play without their dads? Without their dads?]
[Marksman? Just a teamfight tool that gets deleted instantly! LOL]
[Sigh… Fan’en can’t carry early. Son, try harder!! At least don’t collapse before 10 minutes!!]
In the end, PNG’s top lane secured Verdant Treant, a hero Wei Ye had already mastered. The support, however, had to settle for Storm Goddess, a protective support with weaker engage potential. This was definitely not their ideal choice.
Meanwhile, under heavy pressure, Navic’s top and jungle ended up with Wildfang (top) and Lost Ninja (jungle)—the latter being a fourth-tier fallback pick forced by the draft.
With both team compositions finalized, Chao Mi couldn’t help but sigh. “As expected of the finals—the two sides were already fighting fiercely in the BP phase! Neither side wanted to give the other any advantage! The final result is that both lineups have obvious weaknesses somewhere. Someone on each team has to pay the price for the draft pressure!”
“This is the tactical clash of top-tier teams!”
Qing Ci agreed. “That’s right! But when PNG and Navic faced several key decision points, both chose relatively safe options. I think the coaches in Game 1 were still a bit conservative—they weren’t quite willing to pick heroes with very strong ‘unique characteristics.’”
Even so, that bit of caution didn’t reduce the audience’s excitement. Fans waved massive cheering props and shouted at the top of their lungs:
“Navic Navic—let’s go!!”
“PNG, let’s go—!!”
“PNG—PNG—charge!!”
Soon, the referees reminded the coaches to leave the stage.
Pan Pan had confidence in most of his players—but he was still worried about Xiang Jin. He kept turning back to remind him: “Don’t panic—absolutely don’t panic! Play your own rhythm. Don’t let them lead you around by the nose—”
Referee #1 smiled politely. “Coach, it’s time to leave the stage.”
The same thing was happening on PNG’s side. Chen Chen, like a stubborn ghost that wouldn’t let go, clung to the back of Lin Zhaoxu’s chair, repeating instructions again and again: “You’ve laned against Li plenty of times. Just stay steady, understand? Don’t expose your movement habits so easily. Listen to Cheng Su in fights. Don’t do anything reckless—”
Referee #2 also put on a professional smile. “Coach, time’s up.”
The two coaches were reluctantly dragged to the center of the stage and quickly shook hands before leaving.
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