"What a pity, what a pity."
"That play was a bit reckless, but no matter, we'll just crush the next game."
Although the WE players were somewhat discouraged, their mental state remained quite good.
Moreover, none of them had a fiery temper, and their generally mild personalities naturally fostered a relaxed team atmosphere.
Breathe, in particular, kept his arm around Mole's shoulders all the way back: "Anyone can make a mistake. You played great in the first game, so don't put any pressure on yourself. I kept Bin under control the whole time, and our bot lane had an advantage too. Just relax."
"Right, they can't beat us in the laning phase. All three lanes were ahead, and SofM is just a loose cannon. Stay steady, we can win this."
Missing chimed in at the right moment.
Seeing this, WeiXiao felt quite relieved, though he then glanced at Sask's somewhat wooden expression and fell silent inwardly.
If players couldn't regulate themselves, the coach had to step in and adjust their mindsets.
Yet WeiXiao could easily predict what Sask would say. Sask had terrible empathy skills, so his approach would invariably focus on tactical theory while completely ignoring the players' mental states.
It was just his nature, impossible to change.
After a moment of thought, Sask pulled Li Yao aside.
"Any thoughts on the draft for game three?"
"You don't have any?"
Li Yao looked surprised. Although he had been dragged aside by Sask, his gaze remained fixed on the plate of chicken wings on the table... Ah, well, it seemed the loss had impacted everyone—no one even felt like eating.
"From my perspective, the reason we lost that game came down purely to execution errors. The tactics themselves were sound, so my plan is to keep the strategy as it is. As long as the players perform normally, our chances of winning are very high."
Sask stated his thoughts directly.
This was standard thinking for a conventional coach, and Sask felt his reasoning was completely rational and sound.
Still, he intended to consult Li Yao. Over this period, Sask had discovered that Li Yao's speed in picking up the current patch was frighteningly fast, and his understanding was exceptional.
Crucially, this young man possessed a remarkably flexible mind.
He could often find angles of attack that Sask never would have thought of.
After pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "Your idea is great. Of course, that's assuming Suning doesn't change their composition."
Sask was momentarily stunned, then his brow furrowed as he fell silent.
Li Yao's words served as a wake-up call.
Ever since transitioning to coaching, the most distinct and prominent feature of Sask's coaching style was... sticking to his own tactics and following his own ideas.
The advantage of such a coaching style was that it was virtually impossible to be led by the nose during the draft by the opponent's choices.
Win or lose the draft, the initiative always remained in Sask's own hands, and even if they lost, it was with a composition he had chosen himself.
Instead of being timid like some coaches, who waited to see what the enemy picked before scrambling for a counter, ultimately ending up with a Frankenstein's monster of a composition.
Naturally, every coin has two sides, and this style had an obvious drawback.
That was their relatively poor adaptability when opponents suddenly changed their compositions, giving both the players and the audience the impression of being stubborn to a fault.
Watching Sask deep in thought, Li Yao sighed inwardly. Sask's extreme style was fundamentally rooted in his lack of empathy.
A lack of empathy meant he rarely stood in his opponent's shoes to consider problems.
For a coach, this was actually quite a major flaw.
Seeing that Sask remained silent, Li Yao spoke up: "I think you could try flexing some picks. If they're smart enough, there's a high probability they'll fall right into the trap."
Sask, deep in strategizing, felt his eyes light up.
Right.
It was entirely possible the opponents would shake up their draft.
But he didn't necessarily need to change his entire composition—he just needed to approach it differently by flexing the champions within the existing draft!
He didn't need Li Yao to spell it out in detail.
With just this single sentence, Sask understood.
After a brief rest, the decisive final game of the series got underway.
The WE fans on-site had watched helplessly as a massive lead in the second game slipped away into a reverse sweep, leaving their morale half-shattered.
Moreover, they had little confidence in WE for game three.
After all, Suning was a veteran roster with a long time spent building synergy.
Their young storm of a team had far too little tournament experience. In a Bo3 or Bo5, the further it went, the more disadvantaged an inexperienced team would be.
Backstage in the lounge.
Watching Suning lock in Lee Sin on the first pick, both Li Yao and WeiXiao understood that Suning had only grabbed this Lee Sin to deny WE from taking it.
Suning was similar to the previous TT squad—Bin didn't really play Lee Sin.
So picking this champion was primarily meant for SofM.
WE locked in Udyr and Sett on their first two picks.
"Sett again."
On the Suning side, the expressions of several players noticeably relaxed.
They had planned to try a flex composition this game, which was a risky move. Therefore, during the intermission, Suning's coach and players alike had been terrified that WE might guess their intentions and proactively change things up.
Now, it seemed their worries had been entirely unnecessary.
"They've taken the bait."
Watching Suning lock in Syndra, Li Yao knew that WE's draft strategy had already succeeded by more than half.
WeiXiao cast a surprised glance at Li Yao. Since he had been busy comforting the players earlier, he hadn't known what Li Yao and Sask discussed. However, Sask had later announced the strategy in front of the team, and WeiXiao had been astonished by how nimble Sask's mind had suddenly become. Now, it seemed...
Li Yao kept bringing him more and more pleasant surprises.
Syndra possessed a range advantage over Sett, making the laning phase relatively manageable, and if played exceptionally well, she could even pressure Sett heavily into the dirt.
Provided, of course, that this Sett was actually going to the mid lane.
When the draft reached the final pick and WE locked in Zoe for Mole on the fifth pick, Suning's coach felt his brain instantly short-circuit.
Not just the coach—the players' minds went blank as well.
"Oh boy, a flex! WE's draft here shows a lot of imagination!"
At the caster desk, Guan Zeyuan, leading the broadcast for this match, was extremely surprised: "In that case, Bin is going to have a miserable time."
Suning's top laner, Bin, hadn't had a smooth run in the first two games, so he had been looking to establish dominance in this match.
Coupled with the fact that they always assumed WE's fifth pick was reserved for a counter-pick in the top lane, and with the WE composition lacking AP damage, WE's fifth pick would most likely be a choice between Akali and Gwen.
Operating on the logic of outranging a short-ranged champion, Bin had locked in Jayce.
Jayce indeed had an easy time dealing with Sett in a 1v1 side lane.
In professional play, however, he had to factor the enemy jungler into the equation.
WE's jungler had picked Udyr, after all. If that thing sprinted out of the jungle—let alone stunning him, even just landing a slow would allow Sett's Facebreaker to easily close the distance and twist his head right off.
Unless... he didn't pressure Sett in lane.
Which brought up the question: if you pick Jayce and don't apply pressure in the laning phase, what was the point of picking him in the first place?
WE's flex completely neutralized half of Suning's top-lane draft!
Within Suning's roster, Bin was the undisputed core.
With their core rendered useless, the outcome of this match was entirely predictable.
WE takes the home arena victory, defeating Suning 2 to 1!
The fans at the venue erupted into celebration, flooding the official Weibo comments section with generous praise for Sask.
"The most successful coach acquisition, legendary, needless to say!"
"As expected, a coach who can turn V5 into a powerhouse actually knows what he's doing."
"I just knew Sask had a unique tactical bone in his body."
"That final God-tier draft was genuinely OK, and the players executed well too, though Mole still needs to fix his habits—way too inconsistent."
"Every time I watch WE play, it feels like riding a rollercoaster."
"We beat the World Runners-up—can I actually start hoping for Worlds tickets this year?"
...
WE's victory sparked massive discussions online.
As a legacy club, even though WE's current roster consisted entirely of young rookies who had emerged over the past two years, their fan base was massive.
Though the veteran "60E" fans weren't always vocal, they had secretly been longing for the day WE would once again rise to become the wildly popular powerhouse they were during the inaugural LPL season.
That night.
At home.
"Sweating bullets now, little brother?"
WeiXiao said cheerfully. Having moved in these circles for so many years, WeiXiao understood internet fans inside out. They could elevate you to the heavens over a single win, only to cast you back down over a single failure.
After this Bo3 series, Sask was quietly on the cusp of being hyped as a top-three domestic coach, and if he won against another powerhouse next, he'd probably be gunning for the number one spot.
"I couldn't care less. No matter how hard they praise me, is the club going to give me a raise?"
Sask remained thoroughly carefree.
Li Yao sat quietly to one side, watching the two of them.
Sask coming over was no surprise, but with WeiXiao tagging along as well, his intuition told him these two were up to something.
And it probably involved him.
Noticing WeiXiao signaling to him, Sask came to his senses and cut straight to the point with blunt honesty: "Right, Li Yao, as we discussed before—giving you ten days to adapt to the ranked patch—the time is pretty much up now. I have two suggestions, have a listen and consider them."
"Alright."
Seeing Li Yao nod, Sask continued: "The first suggestion is to enter the youth academy. Once you join the youth academy, the club has a complete training regimen running until the end of the year. If you perform exceptionally well in the academy team, you can be promoted to the LDL as a starter, or put on the transfer market to see if any other teams need you."
"As for the second suggestion, it's to join the WE main roster as a substitute. After all, you haven't played for three years, and many of the current meta champions are new releases from those three years. If you want to play professionally, you'll have to put in far more effort than anyone else to master these champions."
"If you choose to join the main roster, your routine will mostly consist of grinding ranked queue, and you'll follow along during team reviews and training sessions to absorb experience. Of course, I'll be upfront with you: given WE's current situation, you probably won't get any opportunities to play in scrims."
"When this split ends and the winter transfer window opens, we'll look at the club's situation and your own wishes. If you want to start in the LPL by then, the club will also recommend you to other teams, and you can go directly for tryouts. Passing or failing will entirely depend on your own skill."
Hearing the conditions Sask laid out, Li Yao fell into deep thought.
He understood clearly: regardless of which suggestion he chose, he would at least have to develop until the winter transfer window this year.
Of course, Li Yao could also choose nothing and simply grind his ranked MMR up to the Korean server standards demanded by major clubs, then pick one to try out for.
Yet, just as Li Yao had thought over the past couple of days, he wasn't in a desperate rush to immediately step onto the stage and play matches.
If he joined the youth academy, according to Sask, he would have to undergo systematic training schedules just like the other academy players. While Li Yao didn't know the exact details of the youth training program, he could be certain it wouldn't just consist of spamming solo queue.
By comparison, becoming a substitute for the WE main roster meant his primary task would be playing ranked every day, eating at the base when mealtime rolled around. The atmosphere at the base wasn't lonely, and the internet speed was blazing fast.
When the winter transfer window rolled around, even if he truly needed to transfer to another team, having "LPL main roster substitute" on his resume would at least count as valid experience.
Thinking this over, Li Yao had already made his choice in his heart.
Although Sask had mentioned he likely wouldn't get scrim time by joining the main roster,
who could predict what the future held?