Founder of the Jungle-Support Revolution

This game, Lin Heng stuck to one objective: funneling resources into Rookie.

From the moment he started laning mid with Kai'Sa, Lin Heng's Taliyah frequently went missing, making Weibo Gaming's players on both side lanes too afraid to push beyond their towers.

A full set of movement-speed items, combined with her ultimate, gave Taliyah tremendous mobility.

In particular, whoever was trading wave clears with Sylas, whether Ahri or K'Sante, could easily be caught and killed by the well-fed Sylas, backed up by Taliyah's and Pantheon's ultimates.

Even staying under a tower wasn't safe enough. The trio's crowd control chained together too well, and they had more than enough damage.

With a large enough gold lead, teamfights over objectives in the mid and late game became very simple.

Sylas, who had built his items incredibly quickly in the early game, stole Alistar's ultimate in the late game. Combined with the slow from Rumble's ultimate and Taliyah's ultimate splitting up the battlefield, he charged straight into Weibo Gaming's backline, and Weibo Gaming was immediately destroyed.

And whenever Weibo Gaming's Wukong, Ahri, K'Sante, or Alistar tried to force an engage on IG's Kai'Sa or Rumble, a field of Unraveled Earth was always there to stun them in place as soon as they used their mobility skills.

In the final push, as IG advanced onto the high ground with Baron buff, Erha flashed in with a Q and knocked up TheShy's Rumble, who was positioned a little too aggressively. But before Erha could use W to knock him back, Taliyah used her E-W combo to throw him back and stun him in place.

Weibo Gaming was miserable, unable to get a teamfight started. Wukong followed up with an E-Flash engage, but Taliyah used her ultimate to cut Varus off behind the tower. Then they turned up the heat, wrapped things up, and ended the game.

Even as the game drew to a close, the two commentators onstage still couldn't get enough.

"Rookie's Sylas is so much fun to watch. I want to send him five yuan on WeChat and ask him to let me play," Guan Zeyuan said with a laugh.

"Definitely. The main thing is that Ahri's and Alistar's ultimates were both top-tier. And he had such a comfortable early game that his items came online way too fast," 957 added.

"Well, what could they do? They got completely outdrafted. IG picked Taliyah early, and who would've expected her to be support, with Sylas coming out as the fifth pick?" Guan Zeyuan said.

"Coach Danny really does like pulling out a few strange picks. They're impossible to guard against. And Lin Heng's performance on support Taliyah this game was top-tier too. No matter how the coach flexes the draft, the players still have to execute what he picks."

"Absolutely. All I can say is, the first of [God Danny's Nine Trials]—support Taliyah—was passed perfectly."

"Nice! Nice!" Danny greeted the returning players at the entrance to their lounge.

Only when Lin Heng, who was bringing up the rear, reached him did he excitedly give him an exaggerated high five, then smack him on the butt.

"Holy crap, I'm getting the same treatment as Brother Hu." Lin Heng joked as he walked into the players' lounge.

"Well played!" Danny gave everyone a thumbs-up.

The outcome of this game had been all but decided before the fifteen-minute mark. IG's strategy appeared to focus on the top half of the map, so Ning practically lived in top lane. That allowed TheShy to dominate his lane comfortably without worrying too much about enemy ganks.

Weibo Gaming, meanwhile, had wanted to focus on the bottom half, but the advantage Lin Heng's Taliyah created early on made bot lane very difficult to attack.

Although they still forced their jungler to help set Kai'Sa back a few times, Taliyah had helped out in the jungle and mid lane twice in succession during the early game, putting Sylas and Pantheon far ahead.

Because of Pantheon's ultimate, Weibo Gaming had to know exactly where Ning was before attempting a tower dive, or things could blow up in their faces.

As a result, the team had almost no weak points this game. Even Kai'Sa, the AD carry who had a mediocre early game, dove straight into the backline alongside Sylas and Pantheon in teamfights, and she was hard to shut down.

Since this was their debut, everyone played the first game seriously and steadily. Even TheShy, who often made aggressive plays, was frighteningly consistent.

"How was it? We've been playing scrims lately. Did it feel different actually sitting onstage?" Rather than discuss the draft for the second game, Danny asked everyone how they felt about their debut.

"Weibo Gaming just rebuilt their roster, so they're a little unstable too. They actually made quite a few mistakes. We played better than they did today," Rookie, the captain, said first.

"Mm." TheShy nodded silently.

"Elk plays aggressively. If we can punish his mistakes more, he could be a point of attack," Uzi suggested.

"Brother Dog, I bet other people used to plan the same thing against you," Lin Heng teased after hearing Uzi's suggestion.

"Yeah. I wanted to carry too badly. Sometimes you have to learn to trust your teammates. If you trust them, you won't be so impatient, and you won't leave so many openings." Uzi sounded a little thoughtful, as if recalling the past.

"Then you'd better not trust them. Back then, your teammates only knew how to eat oranges under the tower," Ning couldn't help remarking.

Uzi, who had just been speaking so thoughtfully, nearly sprayed out the water he had just taken into his mouth when he heard Ning.

TheShy seemed to understand the remark and laughed happily beside them, never considering that he was the one responsible for beating the other side so badly that they ate oranges under the tower.

The break wasn't long, and soon the second game began. The players took their seats onstage, and the commentators began introducing the pregame information.

"Weibo Gaming chose Red Side and will draft first in the Ban and Pick phase for game two. Since this is the second game of a best-of-three, there are still quite a few strong champions available, like Yunara, Ambessa, Jayce, and even Zika's Renekton," Guan Zeyuan explained the current situation to the viewers.

"Yes, but three mid-lane champions were burned in the first game. Now we'll see whether any of Ryze, Bunny, and Syndra get through in the second," 957 added, then went on to mention the substitution for this game.

"IG also brought Little Wei in for this game. This should be a healthy rotation, since Ning's performance in the last game wasn't a problem. This substitution should be based on strategy."

"Right. Although we were quite worried about how Ning and Uzi would perform after so long away from competition, watching their first game put me at ease. At the very least, they're still competitive," Guan Zeyuan commented.

"Do you think bringing Wei in could mean they want to play through a carry jungler this game? Wei did play quite a few carry junglers later on last year," 957 speculated.

"Maybe they brought Wei in to have a friendly interaction with his old teammate." Guan Zeyuan himself nearly cracked up after saying that.

The chat instantly exploded.

[Breaking!]

[Founder of the Jungle-Support Revolution.]

[Brother Cuo, we Wei'd.]

[Xun was right!!!]

[EXO forever!!!]

[Hey, EXO fan, your Big Brother Zhao is already sitting on the other side.]

[As everyone knows, the E is silent.]