You Call This 'Steady'?

"Say something. If you don't, I'm hanging up, you fucking idiot."

"Hang up my ass. You said you'd call me when the match started, but they've already played two games! Where the hell was your phone?"

"Oh, I forgot." On the other end of the line, Si Shao carefully checked in the mirror to make sure his face mask was properly pressed down. Only after confirming there were no issues did he slowly return to his room with his phone, lean back in his chair, and yawn. "I heard you gave V5's new ADC some special coaching two days ago? Doesn't look like it did much."

"Huh, did I? What did he play in the first two games?"

"Ziggs and Jhin."

"Oh, then that's normal. We didn't even play those two things during those days. Wait, no—you're not even with FPX anymore. How did you know I gave him special coaching?" Though they were on different teams, the two had been bot lane partners for years. There was always the tacit understanding of an old married couple in their conversations. That was also why LWX only dared call Si Shao from his hotel room—there were simply too many fans outside who shipped them.

"Don't worry about that. Just tell me what exactly you taught him."

"Tch, nothing much. Honestly, at first I only went to scrim with him because I wanted to mess with Xiao Tian. But then he never said he was tired, and I couldn't bring myself to stop, so we ended up playing for an entire day and night."

"And then?"

"Then we both fell asleep while playing."

"Damn. So what was the result?"

"The result?" Apparently recalling something amusing, Da Congming raised an eyebrow. Even his expression seemed to brighten as he smiled mysteriously. "The result might exceed your expectations."

Whose General Is This? Why Is He So Fierce?

In the third game, when both sides returned to the stage, V5 was on Blue Side. After losing the previous game, they decisively chose to switch things up now that they had priority in side selection.

First Ban Phase:

V5: Lee Sin, LeBlanc, Syndra

TES: Corki, Caitlyn, Poppy

V5's avoid-and-poke composition had put considerable psychological pressure on TES over the first two games. With this crucial Match Point Game in the third round, Bai Seyueya no longer wanted to give himself any room for error.

Ban them. Just hard-ban them. Shut down their avoid-and-trade-for-resources system and force them to play a Lane Matchup against us.

First Pick Phase:

V5: Thresh (first pick), Jinx, Azir

TES: Leona, Jhin (First Two Picks), Viego

At this point, it was still an issue with the players' Champion Pools. TES during the Demacia Cup retained a strange problem: no one could really initiate. Qing Tian could certainly engage, but he had Counter Pick this game, and there was no guarantee the champion picked for him would have initiation tools. Xiao Tian's form was also rather unstable, so they had to give him a familiar Viego, Jarvan IV, or Lee Sin. Considering those junglers were frequent visitors to the Ban Slots, the only option was to pick engage through support.

Once the support was already Leona, the ADC couldn't exactly pick a hypercarry as well. So TES took Jhin. In the actual Demacia Cup, Bai Seyueya really had pulled out Moon Man plus Leona.

Second Ban Phase: Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV, Xin Zhao, Aatrox

There wasn't much to say. They just targeted each other.

For their Fourth Pick, TES took Zoe.

V5 had already picked two late-game Big Carries in their first three picks, and those late-game carries could not threaten Zoe during the early and mid game. If Zoe developed well in mid, she could even turn around and threaten the enemy's two late-game Big Carries.

She didn't even need kills. If one hit before a Team fight left someone at low HP, they had already won half the fight.

For their final two picks, V5 revealed Trundle and Gwen.

Seeing that, TES immediately selected Kennen as their final Counter Pick. Dive into their formation and give them some Electric Therapy—were they scared or not?

And with that—

V5: Top Laner Gwen, jungler Trundle, Mid Laner Azir, bot lane Jinx plus Thresh

TES: Top Laner Kennen, jungler Viego, mid lane Zoe, bot lane Jhin plus Leona

Looking at the compositions, TES had Offensive Pressure and very strong early-game fighting power. V5, meanwhile, would only fear one Heavenly Thunder after thirty minutes, but Map Resources in the early game were basically a pipe dream. Even taking a glance at them would be wishful thinking.

Compared to the first two games, the third felt as though the players on both sides had swapped team names. The contrast was immense.

This composition could practically be called Hong Mi's first attempt since the Demacia Cup to build around the Double C's late game. Yet he looked extremely confident. Even when the draft ended and it was time for the handshake, his face remained full of smiles.

Whatever else one might say about the two coaches, their expression management was at least impeccable.

One looked refreshed by a spring breeze, while the other beamed brightly. When they met in the center of the stage to shake hands, they even bowed to each other, looking like a pair determined to make peace and prosper together.

As for what they thought inside...

Hong Mi: "That little bastard actually has something in his drafting. He didn't lose his mind this game."

Bai Seyueya: "That old guy's drafting is as steady as ever. So steady it makes people sick."

Well, that was what pro coaches were like.

Their job was to scheme, dig traps, and design all kinds of drafts to make the other side step into pits. They were both old foxes with centuries of experience. If they could truly make money together in harmony, the first thing they would lose would be their jobs.

As they entered the Rift, both teams lined up across the map. Rookie, however, specifically guarded the area beside his own F6 pit, watching for an enemy mid laner ward.

This game, Trundle's focus was jungle aggression—meaning he would be farming, just in the enemy jungle. Karsa needed to keep track of Viego's position, invade to farm and suppress the enemy's development, and reduce the pressure the opposing jungler could put on his lanes. So he absolutely could not let the other side see where he started.

This time, Trundle's invade was very safe.

Azir would definitely have Lane Control over Zoe early on. If a fight broke out in the lower half of the map and both sides rotated, Thresh's lantern would certainly arrive faster than Leona. Their safety margin was instantly maxed out.

Of course, this was a match. In a Ranked Match, it was best not to trust your bot lane that much.

Thinking about it that way, Trundle's task this game was actually very simple. He had to shoulder the burden of pressuring the enemy early, becoming the team's Brave Hero—in short, the Stick Hero.

As for whether this Stick Hero wielded a poison stick or a fire stick depended entirely on whether the enemy Female Hero was a Nun or a Princess—Nasus.

"Xiao Zhen, just do your thing this game. We'll cover everything else for you." Before the jungle camps had even spawned, Karsa was already making promises to Luo Zhen.

It made sense. Mid had early Lane Control, the jungler was strong in early fights—protecting bot lane would be easy, wouldn't it? Karsa was especially cocky this game.

"Alright, then I'm counting on Brother Ka and Brother Yijin. If I can't carry this game, I'll drink FuyanJie and get my stomach pumped."

"FuyanJie? Do you even know what the fuck you're saying?" PPGOD could no longer listen. He had heard of people drinking Dongfang Shuye, and he had heard of people eating Surströmming, but someone opening his mouth and talking about chugging FuyanJie was a first for him.

Whose General Is This? Why Is He So Fierce?

"I do. That stuff has a faint blend of mint and Chinese medicine. The flavor is pure, and it even leaves a sweet aftertaste. More importantly, if you chug some FuyanJie, even the king of Nightclub drinking will call you brother."

The other four members of V5: ???

When the minion waves finally met, Luo Zhen's test had arrived.

In the first two games, he had either avoided fighting or played a Functional AD against a hypercarry ADC. But in the third game, their roles had switched. If JKL still suppressed him this game, then he would truly become a joke.

Since that was the case... it was time to get serious.

As his resolve took shape, Luo Zhen's state gradually began to change. Before long, JKL on the other side of the lane sharply sensed the change coming from Luo Zhen. He understood that change all too well, because he had walked this path himself.

"Has he... crossed the threshold?"

Luo Zhen's transformation was not easy for viewers watching from God's perspective to notice. There would be no scene where he kited so perfectly that his opponent could not Basic Attack, nor any bug-like display of skills landing with one hundred percent accuracy. It was simply a feeling: whether it was his positioning in the Laning Phase, his Last Hitting, or his poking, everything seemed more natural than in the previous two games.

Watching the scene on the big screen, Hong Mi's smile never faded.

He had arrived—the door from LDL into the LPL!

There was actually a seemingly transparent membrane between the LPL and LDL. Yet breaking through that restraint often required paying an enormous price, such as failure and time.

The gap between them was even equivalent to the gap between amateur and professional play.

LPL professional players—even VG, the weakest team in the LPL back then, could stomp everyone after being relegated to the LDL, get promoted back up, and then continue getting stomped by LPL teams. LDL players could slaughter their opponents in the so-called City Championship just as easily. And City Championship players were entirely different from high-ranked Streamers.

It was like joining a new company right after graduation.

During the first few months, the knowledge you absorbed made every day feel full. You improved every day, but the process also felt stifling, because you would make mistakes, get scolded, and suffer all kinds of grievances over work errors.

But once you endured those three months and gradually became familiar with the job, you would find your work growing easier by the day.

After working for several years, you might even understand the job inside and out. Everything related to it would come naturally, and eventually, you would become the emperor of slacking off.

And the turning point for all those changes—

Was the "door."

Seize the Future

Jinx and Thresh versus Jhin and Leona was a matchup where, so long as their own support did not lose his mind, they had no need to worry about getting forcibly engaged on. Unless Leona used Flash Q—but if the enemy dared to do that, their bot lane would most likely be doomed.

Because Jhin lacked sustained damage, the only way to gain an advantage was through the two ADCs outplaying each other.

And that was where the problem lay.

Expecting a Jhin to kite a Jinx was actually incredibly stupid. Jhin's CS Rhythm did not allow it. If he spent time spacing around his bullets, he would inevitably lose one or two minions from a wave because the bullets would not cycle back in time.

Jinx, by contrast, had no such concern. She could Basic Attack whenever she wanted without risking missed CS.

Even more deadly, Jinx's Cannon Form gained seventy-five range at level one on top of her base 525 range, reaching 600.

Under equal conditions, how much range did Jhin have in lane? 550.

The most obvious difference between an LPL ADC and an LDL ADC was this: as long as there was a fifty-range gap, and your support could not pressure me, no matter who you were playing, I could use those fifty units to kite you and gain something from you. The only question was how many times I could profit based on the opposing ADC's skill.

Luo Zhen's sudden evolution instantly piled all the pressure onto JKL.

He had anticipated this day, but he thought it would come at least a few months later—after the other side had thoroughly taken a professional beating and if his support had still not improved. But why had it come so quickly?

He had crossed the LPL threshold after just one Demacia Cup. Was this bastard using cheats?

At that moment, LWX, watching the scene from a distant hotel room, could finally no longer restrain himself and burst out laughing.

That was right. He truly had no way to provide a player with the broad, directional changes a coach could offer. But as a champion ADC, spending a day and a night guiding a talented ADC across the threshold of the LPL was not impossible.

"If TES loses and they find out you were the one causing trouble, you'd better think carefully about whether you can beat TES's Qing Tian." By now, Si Shao understood exactly what this bastard meant by exceeding expectations. Even he could not help feeling shocked when he saw Luo Zhen gain even the slightest HP advantage with Jinx.

"It's fine. I'll have Hang go downstairs and lock the door. He won't be able to come up."

"Chris, right? Do you know the last Streamer who said that got banned?"

"What the hell am I afraid of? Worst case, the moment he comes, I lie down. I'll enjoy myself first this time."

As the distance became clearer and the rhythm became more defined, Luo Zhen, whose laning instincts had become increasingly sharp while holding an advantage, could not help recalling the hellish training Xiang Zhangmen had prepared for him a few days ago.

At first, he had never realized he had so many flaws in lane.

Ineffective Kiting, meaningless predictions, even his CS Rhythm constantly falling apart on its own—all of it was keenly spotted by Xiang Zhangmen, who then grabbed him and beat him senseless.

That day and night was a Nocturne Luo Zhen never wanted to remember again.

But it had brought him plenty of benefits as well.

As the training intensified, he could feel his obvious improvement every moment. Remember: Take a Beating, then let it sink in again and again. In the end, his emotions gradually shifted from hurried to calm, from excitement to composure, from scattered awareness to focused concentration.

It was like people escaping workplace disputes into their cars in an underground garage, turning on music and closing their eyes. For a moment, they completely abandoned the pressure of work, studies, and life, slowly emptying their minds of everything.

Then, in a daze—

An ancient door appeared before him. He needed no key, because his pass was the bruises all over his body from Xiang Zhangmen's merciless drilling. The instant he set foot here, the door had already opened for him.

Luo Zhen stepped through.

"Holy shit, how did you change this much?" Even PPGOD beside him was stunned. His Distance Control, his control over HP trades—his ADC had become vastly stronger compared to the previous game.

"Hmph. Other people say thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—don't bully the poor young man. What kind of talent do I have? I only need thirty minutes!"

"You're talking so big, but aren't you just bullying a Jhin?"

"Mind your own business. It's not like I held a knife to his throat and forced him to pick Jhin. Just keep an eye on Leona for me."

Luo Zhen shouted back, but his actions also helped PPGOD maintain pressure.

Although Zhuo's Leona was one of the few supports he could bring out without embarrassment, his laning details were far too poor. Luo Zhen could often find opportunities to hit him with an AQA combo.

This was worth mentioning: there were three particularly practical techniques for playing Jinx.

First: Take Heal.

Because Jinx had short legs and no mobility, she relied heavily on her passive's movement speed in Team fights. So she had to trigger it somehow. She could trigger it with her ultimate, with W, or, if all else failed, with Heal. In short, she had to start running first. Especially against compositions with lots of divers, run, stay alive, and only then would she have a chance to deal damage.

Second: AQA.

After using a Machine Gun Basic Attack, switching to Cannon Form for another Basic Attack, then switching back to the Machine Gun, she could quickly chain into a second Basic Attack.

Third: W in Machine Gun form was faster than W in Cannon Form, because W benefited from the Machine Gun form's attack speed bonus.

The rest was almost entirely useless. As for Q skill techniques like double-switching or single-switching, a capable ADC could kite you until your gun got stuck and made you miserable, so they were not recommended.