Movement Practice

Uzi asked over voice chat, looking utterly baffled, "Why did we pick Xerath? We don't have any crowd control. Won't it be a little hard for me to play Yunara?"

Lin Heng looked calm but excited as he said, "Brother Dog, don't worry. This game, I'll show you what a good farming environment looks like."

"..."

Lin Heng hadn't picked Xerath without a thought. He had merely suggested that a long-range support with strong poke could make laning miserable for the two short-range champions on the other side.

Coach Danny had immediately agreed and asked, "How about Xerath? Can you play him?"

Lin Heng proudly declared that there were no champions he couldn't play, only ones the coach didn't dare pick.

When Coach Danny heard that, he said to pick him! Anyone who wouldn't pick him didn't have balls!

When it came to picking weird champions, Lin Heng and Danny were kindred spirits who understood each other perfectly.

The Xerath pick had both of them excited.

The final lineups were locked in:

Invictus Gaming: Ornn, Jarvan IV, Orianna, Yunara, Xerath.

BLG: Rek'Sai, Qiyana, Akali, Corki, Neeko.

Invictus Gaming's overall lineup was actually very solid. It would be easy to win the game by kiting in mid- and late-game teamfights. If they had picked a more reliable support last, things would have been even more comfortable.

But BLG's lineup was betting everything on the early and mid game. With the double-assassin combination of Akali and Qiyana and the high-burst bot lane of Corki and Neeko, they were practically unbeatable in early skirmishes.

If Invictus Gaming so much as dared to look into the jungle early on, they would blow up.

And Qiyana had been picked specifically to target bot lane. Neeko could turn into a cannon minion and tank the turret, Corki already dealt high damage, and with Qiyana's reliable crowd control and burst damage on top of that, diving a Yunara or Orianna early would be easy.

But that was also the real reason Lin Heng had chosen Xerath.

He knew perfectly well that, never mind Viper and On, even if they brought in the more cautious bot-lane pair of huanfeng and Meiko, they would still shove the wave hard and attack bot lane this game.

So they had to have the means to push the wave in the bot-lane matchup.

Of course, BLG understood that perfectly. They had banned Sivir and Varus to prevent Invictus Gaming from being able to push bot lane.

During the game's loading screen, at BLG's base.

"This support plays even weirder stuff than you do," Xun said to On.

"He really does. But it's a scrim, so he can play whatever he wants," On replied.

"What do you think? Is this matchup easy?" Xun continued.

"It depends on who lands their skills. It's the same idea as Karma, Neeko, or Lux, just with slightly less reliable crowd control." As one of the LPL's top supports, On basically knew how to deal with even unusual picks.

While the two chatted casually, Bin sat up straight and rubbed his hands together.

He had made a fool of himself on Rek'Sai at Worlds, earning himself the title "Cave-Traveling Bin."

He had to practice Rek'Sai and prove himself onstage once the competition began!

Once they entered the game, neither side had any intention of invading the jungle, as neither lineup had a clear advantage in a level-one clash.

Before the minion waves met, each side placed a ward at the other's Raptors to track the enemy jungler's movements, then began laning normally.

On was absolutely right. The bot-lane matchup this game came down almost entirely to the supports' skillshot accuracy.

The strength of Neeko and Corki lay in Neeko's ability to whittle down health. In the first few levels, anyone below half health was almost within Corki's kill range.

So during the laning phase, Neeko only had to land two or three Qs to lower the health of one of Invictus Gaming's bot-lane duo. After that, landing her E would almost certainly secure a kill.

Normally onstage, once a player had actually lowered an opponent into kill range, the professional on the other side wouldn't give them the distance or opportunity to land an E.

But the pressure of having to dodge would make losing minions and gold almost inevitable for the opponent. Diving the turret with the jungler afterward was what this bot-lane duo was meant to accomplish.

As the minion waves met in bot lane, Neeko, as expected, went into the first brush on Red Side's half to try to Q the two opponents as they came to lane.

Xerath walked forward boldly, then suddenly stopped just before he came into range and dropped a W on Neeko's head in the brush.

On, who had been concentrating on hitting both opponents with his Q, was struck dead center by the W.

Xerath's W had a range of 1,000 units, while Neeko's Q had a range of 800.

Knowing full well that Neeko would be poking from that brush, Xerath predicted her position and dropped a W on her head.

A hit from the center of Xerath's W dealt more than fifty extra damage at level one, but more importantly, the slow was stronger: 25% at the edge and 60% in the center.

The moment Neeko was hit by Xerath's W, her movement speed dropped sharply. Yunara took advantage of the slow to step forward and threw out her W to follow up with another slow.

Neeko's usual plan was to take control of the opponent's first brush, throw out a Q to poke, and leave.

After all, she had crossed the minion wave to get there. Now slowed in the first brush, she saw the two coming straight at her and panicked, throwing out a Q. But Xerath used Heal for the speed boost and dodged it by moving left.

At the same time, Xerath also boosted Yunara's movement speed, allowing her to chase Neeko and auto-attack her.

Yunara's W slowed by 99% for one second. On top of the slow from Xerath's W, how could Neeko get away?

Since Neeko had crossed the minion wave, Corki could only provide a little cover.

The level-one exchange finally ended with Neeko having used Heal and lost nearly half her health.

Neeko's Q had a nine-second cooldown early on, while Xerath's W had a fourteen-second cooldown, so even after losing half her health, Neeko could still hold the middle brush.

But the health trade had indeed bought Yunara precious time to farm.

BLG's bot-lane duo worked hard to reach level two first, while Xerath stood not far from the brush, using Mental Attack by scratching his head nonstop.

"Holy crap, this guy really messes around even more than you do!"

Xun, who was watching the bot-lane matchup as he cleared the jungle, burst out laughing when he saw Xerath scratching his head nonstop.

On was amused too. Professional players varied in their mental resilience, but most could laugh off such a low-level attempt at getting into their heads. To them, it was more like an interaction.

Unless, of course, you tilted someone first and then did that. In that case, probably not many could take it.

Having come off worse in the last exchange, On moved around in the middle brush while looking for a chance to poke with his Q.

On came out of the brush and cleverly feinted one way before throwing his Q at Yunara. It also damaged the minions beside her, speeding up their push for level two.

But Xerath had the same idea and dropped a W straight onto Corki's head. The exchange made both of them laugh.

Viper had taken Q this game, so he pushed the wave noticeably faster than Yunara. The edges of both of Neeko's Qs had also hit minions, so they reliably reached level two first.

But even though they had reached level two first, Invictus Gaming's bot-lane duo only backed off a little. With Neeko at half health, BLG certainly didn't dare go all in.

As both sides reached levels two and three, the real movement practice began.