The Reason for Picking Taliyah

The level-two skirmish was still underway, and Guan Zeyuan was still casting it passionately from the desk.

"Uzi played that really carefully too. He seemed to know Alistar was going to come in with his two-skill combo, so he cast W while he was being knocked back, making up for a little of the damage-dealing time he lost to the knockback.

"Alistar's in a really awkward spot here. He got stunned in midair and couldn't get his Q off, but he sent himself right into the blue side's minion wave. He's taking minion damage now, and it hurts! And that headbutt also knocked Varus out of range to auto-attack the two Invictus Gaming players.

"The stun wears off, Alistar gets hit with Plasma, and he's about to lose a big chunk of health. He immediately uses Heal for the speed boost to retreat, but Taliyah's standing on Worked Ground. She throws a big rock to slow him, then uses Heal to speed Kai'Sa up. Alistar's going to have to Flash!

"Alistar uses Flash to get back to safety. Invictus Gaming came out ahead there, and they're not chasing."

After rapidly casting everything that had happened, Guan Zeyuan drew a deep breath. 957 filled the gap by reviewing the play.

"So that's what Taliyah's for. As long as she has Unraveled Earth, Alistar can never land his combo on her or Kai'Sa. He lost a huge chunk of health at level two, so Varus's early advantage is gone. Alistar has to go back now, and when the jungler clears toward bot, there won't be much of a chance to gank either."

Guan Zeyuan continued, "The main thing is, he had Alistar completely figured out. He knew the other side would use the combo on Kai'Sa at level two, and he was really focused. Alistar's engage was actually very deceptive: he went in while Varus was last-hitting. Even though pro players can tell he's about to hit level two by counting the minions, he went in about 0.3 seconds early, which could easily catch someone off guard. But that Unraveled Earth was insane. He had Erha completely figured out.

"And that headbutt knocked Kai'Sa away too, leaving Varus unable to deal any damage at first. All he could do was throw out an E-Q for a bit of damage, while Kai'Sa could keep chasing Alistar and auto-attacking him.

"Erha probably didn't expect it either. When do you ever see a champion like this in a level-two laning fight?"

"Right. They gave up some of Varus's advantage in the first few levels there, but it's still playable. Alistar can look for an opportunity nearby while Elk's Varus pokes first. Once he's whittled down Kai'Sa's health, they can look for an engage," 957 added.

In Invictus Gaming's team voice chat, Uzi praised him. "Great reaction there. Nice, nice. Laning's going to be really comfortable after that."

Seeing the two bot-laners gain an advantage in lane, their teammates started encouraging them too.

The chat was now full of [Effective research].

But plenty of viewers were also spamming [Useless late game], [False alarm], and the like.

The value of the Taliyah pick had shown itself immediately, and most people thought her main purpose was to counter Alistar.

But after bot lane pushed the wave and found a timing to recall first, the viewers held their breath again.

After buying a pair of basic boots, Taliyah headed straight for mid. Xiaohu knew for certain that the jungler, Ning, was clearing from bot to top, so he'd placed his ward in the top river brush.

Taliyah hugged the wall of the lower jungle all the way, using her passive, [Rock Surfing], to close in on mid quickly.

"Is he going after Xiaohu too? Ahri's laning against Sylas, and she's had a very comfortable first few levels. She didn't quite expect the support Taliyah to come over. Taliyah's coming around behind her from a really unexpected angle."

"Sylas has a third of his health left, while Ahri still has half, so she's pushed up pretty far."

"Can they get a Flash?"

"Taliyah appears behind her, Sylas goes in, E-W-E! Ahri immediately Flashes to dodge Sylas's chain at point-blank range! Very decisive!"

"Ah!"

"An anticipatory Seismic Shove and Unraveled Earth! Ahri Flashed, but Taliyah's Seismic Shove knocks her back and stuns her! Sylas is decisive too: he Flashes in and uses Q-A-A-A, getting all three passive stacks off. With Taliyah's Q on top of that, Ahri can't get away! They let Sylas have the kill. Something's not right!"

"Joker!!! What are you doing???"

"Viewers, look at the time. We're just over three minutes in, and through his judgment and mechanics, Taliyah has forced out both the enemy support's and mid-laner's Flashes and given mid-lane Sylas first blood on Ahri."

"This Taliyah is everywhere!"

"All right, never mind anything else, I'm apologizing. I was wrong to question whether this support Taliyah pick was useful. He's playing Taliyah like Bard! But I bet ninety percent of the viewers never expected him to play her like this."

"Look, after helping Rookie get the kill in mid, he immediately hugs the wall back toward bot so his AD carry doesn't have to take pressure alone. And look, he also took [Waterwalking] and [Celerity] in his secondary rune tree. With his passive on top of that, he's running incredibly fast! What an understanding of the game!"

As Guan Zeyuan finished his passionate cast, the chat began scrolling frantically.

[Sorry!]

[Apologize!]

[Game knowledge!]

[Dr. J!]

[Invincible research!]

[God J!]

Opinions in the streamers' channels also began to turn around rapidly. Zz1tai scratched his head as he watched Taliyah arrive back in bot lane after the gank.

"Can you fucking play Taliyah like that? What kind of game knowledge is this? If I were playing AD and someone told me they were giving me support Taliyah, I'd smack them over the head with a club. You can pick her in a pro match and get results like that?"

That was esports. No matter what honors you'd won, even if you were a six-time champion, even if you were the LPL's first champion, hailed as forever exempt from flame.

When you truly played like absolute trash in any match, all you had to do was look at chat to see whether they'd tear into you.

But no matter how stubborn you'd been, what huge mistakes you'd made, or what scandals and dirt you had on or off the field, when you could consistently slaughter your opponents in matches,

There would always be great scholars to defend you.

In short, in esports, being bad was the original sin.

At this moment, the chat was almost entirely full of praise for the rookie. The LPL desperately needed fresh blood, and when a newcomer could step up, most viewers were excited.

And something even more exciting was still to come.

Only now did Taliyah truly show why she'd been picked. She didn't concern herself with laning in bot. After six minutes, Unsealed Spellbook came online, and Taliyah used the Ghost, Teleport, Exhaust, and other spells she swapped in with it to roam and make plays nonstop.

His item build was also very interesting. He didn't choose many ability power items. After buying Tear of the Goddess, he went straight for Rylai's Crystal Scepter, followed by Shurelya's Battlesong, Imperial Mandate, Mikael's Blessing, and other dirt-cheap support items with cooldown reduction and movement speed.

That was because he didn't need to deal damage in this game at all. The lineup already had four carries.

All he had to do was team up with any one of Pantheon, Sylas, or Kai'Sa to gank a side lane, and he could have a huge impact.