V5's fake team fight and real tower push had thoroughly disgusted TES. They had genuinely thought the fight was about to break out, gathering nearby and taking up defensive positions. Then, with one glance back, the entire river fell utterly silent.
"This execution..."
"This is what you have to face when dealing with the Old Man Ao Tactic. These days, even old men aren't simple."
They could understand V5's setup.
Most likely, they were stalling for V5's golden window—the period when everyone but the support had reached their Two-Item Power Spike to Three Item Set, roughly between twenty-two and twenty-eight minutes. With their multiple damage cores, they were nearly invincible at this point.
Any later than that—
Once TES's resistance and HP items came online, V5's triple-AP composition would start to run out of steam. At that point, they could only rely on Ezreal and Gangplank for damage.
TES secured the Second Rift Herald very steadily, but used it with great caution.
It was nearly impossible to use it to take down the Mid Tower, but if they traded it for the third Elemental Dragon—that was TES's second—V5 could still accept that. Even Luo Zhen did not really want to fight this one. His Goddess stacks were looking great, but he was short on gold for Manamune. Taking a random team fight at this point would only delay his power spike.
Finally.
At twenty-four minutes, as the fourth Elemental Dragon—TES's Dragon Soul—was about to spawn, V5 finally planned to face the enemy in another team fight.
The pace of competition was just that intense, like Guangzhou Metro Line 3. Once you got on, every stop would somehow leave you in a different man's arms.
Of course, that referred to how impossible it was to predict what was about to happen.