You Call This 'Steady'?

You Call This 'Steady'? Author: Left Pigeon

Synopsis:

"Player Luo Zhen, as one of the most dazzling ADCs of the New Generation, how do you view the AD role?"

"AD? Nine out of ten team fights, AD gets instantly deleted, yet never gives up on the idea of making a play in the next fight. AD means that no matter how fierce the enemy top-lane Big Daddy is, you still never give up on positioning for a few more Auto Attacks. AD means that even when the team is at a massive disadvantage, you still never give up on last-hitting a wave and buying one more Long Sword. AD means that even after losing nine out of ten Solo Queue games, you still believe you can carry the next one. If you ask me, an AD who doesn't dare to make plays might as well go bot lane and throw bombs."

"But your Ziggs bot lane has maintained an 87% win rate so far."

"Exactly, but that's APC. What does that have to do with the ADC you asked me about?"

"???"

Where the Dream Began

"Duo queue, duo queue, duo queue my ass! Could all you duo queue players carrying girls just roll yourselves down bot lane and play AD?"

"Pick some damn pretty-boy or pretty-girl champion and party in your own jungle, then dump all the early-game suffering on randoms, huh? Am I some purebred sucker, or some damn daycare teacher? After I painstakingly raised this useless Yuumi, I still have to watch her hang off the jungler and disgust me?"

"Can't you carry your own sister? Why are you making some scum hang off her daddy just to disgust a random like me?"

"This is so damn unbearable! What the hell am I supposed to play? Today, I'm turning straight into a demon!"

In a League of Legends livestream on Huya, Luo Zhen typed out a report essay at lightning speed while roaring curses at the top of his lungs. It wasn't that he had poor manners or anything. It was just that the negative emotions piling up inside him had accumulated too quickly for him to bear. This wasn't even the first time he had run into such a cursed duo; it was the third game in a row!

2333, he hated girls being carried so much he was gnashing his teeth. So damn real.

Classic Ezreal and Yuumi farming under the second turret.

Picking Ezreal already meant they were planning to freestyle this game. He just hadn't expected this Yuumi to be so cursed. He had never seen her get off someone even once.

Support misplays, AD pays the bill. Honestly, I've been disgusted by this kind of duo too.

Though his stream did not have many viewers, the bullet comments were incredibly active. As one of the few League of Legends streamers active late at night, Luo Zhen made money off the traffic that medium and large streamers disdained.

There was no helping it. He was poor.

If reality had not truly played a joke on him, he would never have believed that something like transmigration existed. Yet it had happened to him. It happened when he had ordered takeout and was about to watch the S11 Grand Finals. He had only gone to the bathroom because he needed to pee, but when he stepped back out, everything had changed beyond recognition.

Come on...

Transmigrating was one thing, but couldn't they at least let him find out who won S11 before sending him here?

Leaving him hanging like this was agonizing, okay?

When he had first arrived in this world, aside from a complete set of documents, he had only had two hundred yuan on him. The only reason he had survived until now was thanks to his experience as an LDL pro player in his Previous Life, plus the talent of this new body. From living in internet cafés, to boosting accounts for money, to trying out for pro teams, he had slowly made his way back onto the path of becoming a professional player.

Other people did it to become famous. He did it purely for free internet, food, and lodging.

Just then, a particularly eye-catching bullet comment floated across Luo Zhen's stream: You're better than everyone else, so why aren't you going pro and making a name for yourself? Why are you hiding here as some small streamer?

That comment instantly made Luo Zhen go full emo.

"Is there a possibility... I mean, just a possibility, that the streamer is actually a professional player? You guys just don't usually pay much attention to the LDL?"

That was one of the things that really pained him.

After living a second life and discovering that he had gained a more talented body, he had wanted to charge back into the Pro Scene, kick Black Chicken Pot with his left foot, kick JackeyLove with his right, and climb to the peak of AD. Yet reality was cruel. Even though he had practically crushed every AD in the LDL bot lane, when the All-Star Weekend New Generation Challenge came around, he still regretfully missed the event because he did not have enough votes.

It was not because he was not strong enough. It was because hardly anyone even knew he existed.

After all... who the hell watched the LDL?

"Do you think the streamer doesn't want to play in the LPL? No, it's that the streamer simply doesn't have the chance, okay? If any club manager had the eye to recognize talent, then with the streamer's skill and EQ, wouldn't I be the undisputed second male lead of the Esports Circle?"

Luo Zhen stubbornly kept up appearances as he decisively queued for another Ranked Match.

Strictly speaking, the team he was on at the moment should have been V5's Second Team. In his eyes, it was a team that had almost completely given up. Last season, it had been filled entirely with Newborns to make up the numbers, and had set an unprecedented record of going an entire season without a single win.

Really.

More than once, he had wondered whether the club would be unable to bear their record and promote him to Team One, giving him some kind of script where he was called upon in a crisis and descended as the Savior. But as fewer and fewer matches remained, Luo Zhen's hopes gradually came to nothing, and he eventually chose to start Tanking.

Fine, tank it. With his current form, he could still earn some easy money for a few more years and save up a little. Then he could go out and start some small business or something. There might still be a turning point.

As his thoughts wandered, his next Ranked Match soon arrived.

Because this was Summoner's Rift Peak, there were always account buyers and girl-carrying duos mixed in thanks to National Server characteristics. For a player like Luo Zhen, who was trying to Rank Up at the start of the season, teammates like these were enough to give him a massive headache.

And unfortunately, he once again saw several extremely familiar champion pre-selections in the match:

Top lane Smelly Graves, jungle Merciful Lee Sin, mid lane Innocent Ahri, support Sucker Pyke. If he picked a Happy Yasuo bot lane, they could form an invincible ranked squad, complete with everything from burial to cremation. Sadly, he could not pick it.

As everyone knew, professional players had corresponding rank requirements every month.

To others, they were just points that did not really matter. But to Luo Zhen, they were his life!

"Alright, alright. Since you're all regular viewers, I won't say too much. Same old rule: step one for Solo Queue AD, check your support's match history."

Luo Zhen expertly opened Wegame and pasted in his support's ID. Perhaps even heaven could not bear to watch his misery anymore, because this game's Pyke support unexpectedly turned out to be a player who actually mained support and was climbing rank.

Mm, not bad luck.

"See? I told you Solo Queue AD players never had terrible luck. You guys are just too unwilling to trust your random supports. You have to understand that in bot lane, AD and support work closely together. If we don't even have basic trust, how can we possibly play the game well?"

As soon as he finished speaking, two sharp lock-in sounds rang out in succession. On the enemy first and second picks, Lucian-Nami was swiftly locked in. Looking back at his own random support, however, the player still had Pyke pre-selected.

He had the calm composure of someone watching flowers bloom and fall before his courtyard, untouched by praise or disgrace.

Luo Zhen started to panic.

"Don't panic, don't panic. This support must be a Pyke One-trick Ace. We have to give him enough trust. What if every hook lands?"

The moment he finished speaking, when it was the enemy team's turn to pick again, Red Side's third and fourth picks were instantly locked in:

Volibear and Akali, the tower-diving duo.

Luo Zhen: ...

Stream viewers: ...

The V5 manager who had just entered Luo Zhen's stream: ...

Seriously, with the enemy composition like this, if this damn random support still insisted on picking Pyke, then no matter what, he was dodging the game.

He wanted to Rank Up, not go to his grave! Was this enemy composition something an ADC could deal with?

If Pyke really came out against that lineup, anything he played bot lane would just be feeding.

Lucian-Nami was already somewhat invincible in this patch, because all the champions good into them had been nerfed. Ashe did not suit the tempo, Caitlyn had been nerfed back down, Senna-Tahm had been weakened, Kalista could not be picked, Tristana had been nerfed, Samira had been cut down. The long-range early-game picks could not be played, and the high-burst picks had been nerfed out. Of the ADCs left, only Aphelios and Miss Fortune were still reasonably effective.

If he really wanted to fight them, he had to pick the right combo.

Fortunately, the random support had some brains. Knowing that forcing Pyke bot lane would be pure Jail Time, he changed his pre-selected Pyke to one of the classic bot-lane supports, Titan, in the final seconds.

Though this was not as useful against the enemy combo as Lulu, it was still far better than Pyke.

Now that the game was playable again, Luo Zhen needed to consider what champion he could pick.

"Against a cancer combo like Lucian-Nami, with Titan, it can only be this one, right?" After a brief hesitation, he moved his mouse over a certain hero in the AD column, then...

Whoever calls the cold night, I shall end his life—Kalista. TGP 100% win rate, S1 rank-one talent adapted!

See? Wasn't That Easy?

At the other side of the city.

Inside V5 Team's meeting room, a group of people stared intently at a computer screen. Among them sat one particularly special person: Rookie.

On the other end of the screen was Luo Zhen's livestream as his game loaded.

As a team that had suffered sixteen consecutive losses across the Spring and Summer Splits, V5 had undoubtedly endured relentless ridicule from all sides over the past year. Of the five players brought in last year to fill the roster, only the support remained with the team as a lonely old man. The rest had all been let go.

They had thought this year would be another year of Tanking and waiting to die, but it was as though they had finally earned their bounty after losing sixteen games in a row. Their luck began to turn around.

They picked up Rookie in mid, and he brought Rich along. For jungle, they found Karsa, whom no one else wanted. Now, the entire team only lacked an AD.

At first, they had considered poaching Xiao Yan, TES's substitute, just to make do. But while they were discussing that move, the Second Team coach suddenly mentioned Luo Zhen.

Then everyone looked at the numbers.

Holy shit, what kind of monster was this?

He was slaughtering everyone in the LDL bot lane. When had their Second Team produced such a Ruthless Person?

Thus,

The coaches and analysts all turned their gazes toward the Second Team coach, their intent to hold him accountable obvious.

"You had a player like this, so why the fuck didn't you tell us earlier?"

Feeling the terrifying stares filling the room, the Second Team coach felt aggrieved. "I did tell you. But last year's results were so bad, and the team atmosphere got so chaotic that I got messed up too. No matter what I said, none of you listened. Whatever I said, none of you gave me feedback. I didn't know what to do. My heart just kept trembling. It had been trembling for a long time for no reason, and then I just became numb."

"..."

Although his words sounded strangely familiar, they understood what he meant. Throughout the previous year, V5 headquarters had kept its attention on Honor of Kings and barely cared about League of Legends. Then Honor of Kings Collapsed, the LPL suffered sixteen straight losses, and the entire Esports Circle was filled with people mocking them. It really had shattered their mentalities.

"So what do you think of this AD?" The V5 manager turned back toward Rookie. They did indeed lack an AD at this stage, but the team's true tactical core would still revolve around its two veteran Mid-Jungle players. As the mid laner, Rookie's opinion was especially critical.

For a moment, everyone in the room focused on Rookie. With his relatively shy personality, being watched so intensely made his scalp prickle somewhat. But considering that this concerned his future teammate, he decided to observe a little longer first.

"I might need to watch a little more."

"Alright, but let me be upfront with you. We don't actually have many options left for you to choose from. It's basically a choice between two candidates now. If we want to sign that person, then even the best option can only be him."

After picking up three massive bargains in a row, V5's available salary budget was already low.

Picking up another famous AD on the cheap was obviously impossible. And if they bought Xiao Yan, the Coaching Team would face enormous budget pressure, because no matter how poor Xiao Yan was, he was still a well-known AD player. But now, this suddenly discovered Second Team AD had rekindled their hopes.

Three huge bargains, one Raw Material, one veteran support. They could use the remaining money to go all-in on a renowned coach. Wouldn't V5's Composition take off this year?

Although they had quietly made the decision to promote Luo Zhen to Team One, since he was a player they had only just discovered, they still wanted to see his actual in-game level.

Meanwhile.

Once the Ranked Match entered the game, Luo Zhen did not hesitate before jamming a spear viciously into Titan's head.

It was his passive. This thing was best used immediately at the start. If they bound it in the jungle later, they could easily run into an enemy invade. Their composition this game was already terrifyingly messy. If the enemy got First Blood too, they might as well not play.

While adjusting his position, he took advantage of the gap before the minion waves arrived to chat nonsense with the bullet comments again.

"Honestly, I have no idea why so many masochists come watch my stream in the middle of the night."

"Coming here at night to learn AD? Is AD even that fun in this patch? If you don't believe me, try filling in Solo Queue. Eight out of ten games, you'll get assigned this role. You're just a pure sucker."

"In normal ranked games, you'll most often encounter Requiem covering the entire map, wild Rengars roaming around, mushrooms growing across parts of the terrain, weather changing from sunny to Giant Starfall, and Nocturne turning off the lights whenever he feels like it. All underage ADCs should not even leave the fountain without their support daddy or mommy accompanying them."

"Huh? You're asking why I play AD? I'll see later if I get the chance to tell you properly."

At level one, Luo Zhen's side did not help their jungler start his camp. Instead, he and his support arrived at the minion wave early to prepare to seize experience. In the nearly two months since the World Championship, many ways to counter Lucian-Nami had been developed. There was the Alistar-Tristana used by the Wildcard Region, the Kalista-Titan he had picked this game, or Moon Man and Lulu for scaling into the late game. Of course, the best choice was definitely to just pair two Warriors or two mages.

But that was not important.

The moment he reached lane, Luo Zhen immediately controlled Kalista and began hopping around. Circling the half-ring near the river, he Auto Attacked minions while constantly jumping back and forth.

"Don't say the streamer never gives you useful stuff. Watch carefully. This is how you play this combo against Lucian-Nami."

Up, down, up, down, up.

When Luo Zhen controlled Kalista for the fifth time with her facing downward, seemingly about to jump back toward the minions, Lucian raised his dual pistols and Body Piercing Holy Light shot forth. But this time, the Kalista in Luo Zhen's hands did not simply jump downward like before. Instead, she lunged forward. At the same moment Lucian raised his hand to cast his Q skill, an Auto Attack fiercely pierced into Nami, the enemy support.

Bone Plating triggered.

When an AD was paired with a melee hard-engage support against the enemy bot-lane combo, they had to pay attention to whether the enemy support had Bone Plating. If they did, then if you could break it with an Auto Attack, you absolutely had to break it with an Auto Attack. It helped with future trades. It was a small detail worth noting.

At that moment, Luo Zhen began pinging the enemy AD's position. Titan understood immediately and pushed forward almost at the same time as his AD.

"Against Lucian-Nami, the most important thing is baiting the Q. If you dodge it, you can fight this wave. If you can't dodge it, then absolutely don't get carried away." As he spoke, the Kalista under his control had already jumped in front of Lucian, and Exhaust was applied.

"Whoosh~"

This was, after all, a high-ranked match on Summoner's Rift Peak. Although there were plenty of actors and girl-carrying fanatics, there were also plenty of genuine experts. Within 0.5 seconds of Exhaust being applied, the opponent had already used Cleanse to remove it.

Then both supports arrived, each casting Ignite onto the enemy AD's head.

The strength of Lucian-Nami lay in the fact that if Lucian landed Q and went in at level two with E, they could reliably trigger Electrocute and Press the Attack, nearly achieving a level-two kill. At level three, their Fault Tolerance was even higher.

So here was the question.

If you already knew they were insanely strong at levels two and three, why not look for a chance to trade with them at level one?

It was just like watching anime.