You Call This 'Steady'?

To sum it up, this was a hero built around Basic Mastery. Precisely because of that, this kind of ADC was actually harder to play well than other ADCs, because it relied heavily on a player's fundamentals.

And Luo Zhen's strength just happened to be Basic Mastery.

Machine Gun auto attacks, pulling out Cannon Form at maximum range for First Pick, switching back to Machine Gun for a shot at Leona, then predicting with W skill—that was practically Luo Zhen's laning poke routine. As for whether the W would land?

Two words: luck of the draw.

The basic combo might have been pretty trash, but it was useful.

It was like those highlight reels people watched every day. Lee Sin players always loved dashing around with all sorts of flashy nonsense, using the most complicated mechanics to deal the least damage, but in reality?

Lee Sin's most useful, highest-success-rate move was Flash R.

With mild pressure applied to both mid and bot, Karsa had a much easier time in the jungle. Trundle grabbed his club and directly chose to gank bot at level three, ready to put on a legendary Stick Hero debut.

Of course, ever since the start of the game, his attention had never really left Ah Shui in bot lane.

After all...

The Ice Wolf Tribe was canine, and Shiba Inus were canine too.

If they wanted to catch the future or something, they had to leave it to the enemy's canine representative to do it ().

Men Were Like This

"Give us an opening in bot. Put on a little act."

A level-three bot gank from Trundle was not incomprehensible. Any normal team would more or less be on guard against it, but fortunately for them this round, TES's support was Zhuo.

Because it was Brother Zhuo, there was a chance the river would have no wards.

And because it was Brother Zhuo, Karsa felt that as long as they acted convincingly enough, the enemy might genuinely take the bait.

Why was he so certain? Because they had coaches and analysts.

Normal viewers watching a match could only remember the highlight moments, but an Assistant Coach and the Analysis Team watched matches as if they had to write an entire thesis on you. Their research was absurdly detailed. With Zhuo's vision weakness being so obvious, V5's Analysis Team was not stupid. A little deduction, and the Vision Score data was right there.

Of course, there was another reason. In the previous two games, Karsa had focused his ganks on top lane. Suddenly coming bot this time was like suddenly figuring out three shallow thrusts and one deep thrust in the middle of a late-night workout, leaving you enlightened.

So speed alone was useless in battle. You also needed force.

And now, Karsa was about to give TES bot lane some force.

"I'm here. Watch me."

The best acting was actually not acting at all. Luo Zhen knew that JKL had already been a pro for three years and was an old hand. Trying to show off acting skills in front of him would be like watching Jay Chou play basketball—you thought you looked cool, but every flaw was exposed.

So he simply stopped pretending. Hey, come if you wanted to come. He would lane however he normally laned.

It had to be said.

Luo Zhen's thinking was correct. Looking at Jinx's nearly unchanged CS Rhythm throughout, JKL actually believed that nobody had come to bot. Zhuo was even more convinced, having searched for an engage opportunity from start to finish.

Then, once the jungler was in position, PPGOD's movement tilted slightly out of place.

The chance was here!

Having seized the timing, Zhuo decisively fired an Apex Blade straight at Luo Zhen's Jinx.

"Huh, I hit him!"

Just as Zhuo was overjoyed and about to share the delight of this engage with his ADC, he suddenly realized... his own ADC seemed to have run away?

What was going on?

When he turned back, he saw that an extra figure had somehow appeared in bot lane.

Trundle had arrived!

A pillar blocked the path and slowed him, Thresh rooted and slowed him, and Jinx added E skill Landmines from the side.

For a hard support like Leona, once she misread the situation and rashly went in with E, getting caught led to only one outcome: sudden death.

V5's AK killed TES's Zhuo

Under the three-man assault, Luo Zhen safely claimed the kill. With the First Blood gold, once he recalled and came back out, he would be able to maintain even stronger pressure on TES bot lane.

"Nice, Brother Ka. That play probably scared their support half to death."

"No, no, I didn't expect bot lane to really have no wards. You two did a great job pressuring bot."

"Do that a few more times and their support might literally shit himself. If that happens, we've definitely won today's match."

"Why?" Rookie asked somewhat doubtfully.

"Because shitting yourself and getting it in your pants is terrifying. The hot stream splits along the underwear and flows down your thighs. If you're wearing tight underwear, it can even act as a filter." After saying that, Luo Zhen suddenly felt that Team Voice had gone quiet.

When he turned his head, he saw his teammates on both sides looking at him strangely.

"A feces-filtering scholar, huh? I'm starting to get curious. Why do you always know such bizarre things?"

"Maybe because... I pay more attention to international news?"

"???"

No matter what, this GANK had already yielded a decent reward. Starting from that kill, the early-game GANK setup for both junglers was officially established.

As everyone knew, junglers tried not to reveal their position early game whenever possible.

Trundle's level-three bot gank had succeeded, but the moment the enemy jungler saw him show up bot, he immediately rushed without stopping toward his Upper Jungle. That was called Stop Loss.

At that point, if you returned top and had no camps to farm, you could only invade the enemy bot side as well. The situation immediately became clear.

Trundle would focus on protecting the lower half, while Viego would focus on ganking the Upper Area.

TES's support Leona had her Roam Ability directly crippled. She even had to consider whether enemies were nearby before using E to fight. Likewise, Rich's Gwen in top lane had to be ready for a one-versus-two at all times. It would come down to which Side Lane failed to withstand the enemy's GANK rhythm first and collapsed.

For Luo Zhen, he suddenly had Offensive Pressure.

With the jungler's protection, he had to use this absolutely safe window to Push Lane, poke for health, and take Tower Plates. An ADC's Laning Phase task had always been this simple: if the jungler was there, push; if the jungler was not there, play even or defend. JKL clearly understood that too, so Jhin began frequently using skills to Clear Wave.

I know I can't stop you from pushing the wave into tower, but I'll delay you for as long as I can.

Looking at the Wave Management of the Three Lanes, bot lane was the lane that best suited operational needs. Whether bot pushed or not always served the team's needs at different stages.

But the more that was the case, the less Luo Zhen wanted the jungler to frequently help bot. He knew that his advantage was that the enemy might think the jungler was coming, not that the jungler was actually there. If the jungler really stayed bot all the time, the enemy would instead find many ways to counter Brother Ka's rhythm.

Using a tiger's might through a fox was the most perfect response for a rookie in this situation.

"Brother Ka, don't help me. Go help Brother Yijin more. I'll just wait for the big shots to carry me."

"Huh? But I'm not under much pressure." Rookie looked surprised.

"Come on, Brother Yijin, I understand. You're already a mature Big Brother. There are some assignments you can't avoid, and I can understand that. Otherwise, with your skill, you definitely would've rubbed Knight into the ground already."

"???"

"Men are like this. Stop for one day, and your gaming mechanics visibly improve. Stop for two days, and you're reborn and slaughter everyone. Stop for a week, and invincibility is so, so lonely~ Invincibility is so very lonely~" Luo Zhen paused after saying that, then reorganized his words. "The Demacia Cup schedule is so packed, Brother Yijin, you definitely haven't recovered yet. But it's okay, Brother Ka will help you."

His speech left everyone caught between laughter and tears.

Although they understood the implication behind what he said, this... seemed like a stretch.

"But you—"

"Us young people have plenty of energy. To their bot duo, we're making them Old Man Ao. Right, Diao Shen?"

"Ah, right, right, right—ah, no, no no no! You're the one making old men suffer."

The chaotic Team Voice did not make the other teammates dislike him. On the contrary, Luo Zhen's joking and humility made Karsa and Rookie think of a former teammate.

Yes, the one in the enemy bot lane.

The same self-sacrifice, the same lively atmosphere. The difference was that the one on the other side had already matured, while their own was only a newly sprouted bud.

Thinking of that, Karsa and Rookie exchanged a look.

No extra words were needed. Each understood what the other was trying to say.

Their momentum began to ignite from there.

Heaven to the Left, Hell to the Right

"Coach, I have a question." In the lounge, XLB watched his teammates lightly pressure TES bot lane on the big screen and asked in confusion, "Little Zhen is clearly a rookie who just debuted and hasn't undergone much professional training. Even with resources tilted toward him and a Hero advantage, he shouldn't be able to create pressure so quickly, right? But this..."

As a jungler, he truly could not understand why Luo Zhen's change had become so great in such a short time.

The opponent was JKL, not LNG's Deng Huang. It should not have been like this.

"It's very simple." Hong Mi organized his thoughts before speaking. "Because you play jungle, version compatibility and jungle thinking are the most important things to you, while form and feel are secondary. But ADC is different. Top bot laners must constantly fight each other. If you don't fight, your fundamentals will decline. The more you fight, the more your coordination and mechanics improve. Ah Shui has just returned from vacation, so it's normal that his form hasn't caught up yet."

Professional players generally did not play League of Legends during their vacations.

But Luo Zhen was different. Because he was poor, because LDL only paid a few thousand yuan a month, even during breaks he desperately pushed his Ranked Match score for that slim chance of entering the LPL.

That created a difference in form, not to mention Xiang Zhangmen's later power-transmission technique.

And besides...

"Ah Shui is actually a very smart player. During S11, he keenly noticed that bot lane had less fighting under the current version's rhythm. Once the returns from fighting decreased, he shifted his attention elsewhere. On top of that, his compatibility with the Support Role was not very high to begin with, so you can see that Ah Shui now coordinates with his support in lane basically the way strangers would coordinate, using a team-oriented approach to sync with the rhythm."

Because he had God's perspective, Hong Mi could easily see the enemy's condition.

It wasn't that JKL did not want to win lane. Rather, his style had not fully shifted back after the version changes, and his support's style conflicted with his own. That was why less than a tenth of his true strength was showing.

To emphasize once more:

In bot-lane matchups, the ADC was only the floor. The support was the ceiling.

Unless the ADC entered Burst State, in most bot-lane matchups, if your support was bad, then your duo was bad.

"But aren't Little Zhen and PPGOD also a bot lane duo that just came together?"

"Yes, but Little Zhen is also very smart. From beginning to end, they have never truly fought the enemy bot lane head-on even once. They have been constantly borrowing momentum."

Solo-killing your lane opponent, crushing everyone on debut, carrying the whole game as a rookie—that was the script of superpower esports.

Of course, Money Power esports worked too, and that was actually closer to reality. Just look at celebrity showmatches. You didn't even need to play; one glance at the lineup told you it was an Eight-Two Split—eight actors, two bosses, one game.

To defeat stronger opponents in real life, you needed calmness, steadiness, and teammates creating opportunities for you.

It wasn't that you had an advantage but did not dare fight. It was that you truly could not be sure whether, if you charged in on impulse, the enemy jungler would suddenly jump out from behind them. If you got caught even once, all the early-game effort would go down the drain.

And so, over the next few minutes—

PPGOD would occasionally throw his lantern backward and step forward, faking out Leona. But in reality, Trundle was frequently appearing mid to help Rookie build an advantage. Zhuo wanted to fight, but JKL stopped him every time.

They did not dare gamble.

They knew exactly where their own jungler was, but they could roughly see where the enemy jungler was too. This Trundle was practically running between mid and bot. They could not tell whether he was actually absent or playing Wolf is Coming. If TES bot lane got into trouble one more time, they would completely lose the ability to fight V5 bot lane.

Of course, there was a price.

Rich's Gwen in top lane was also in terrible shape. If Viego and Kennen's combined GANK success rate had not been so low, allowing Rich to escape at low health several times, V5's top lane might have already exploded in the early game.

Of course, it was already half-exploded now.

Both sides traded blows and applied pressure to the other's Side Lane. Several minutes later, when JKL saw that V5 bot lane was still maintaining such high-level restraint, he finally understood what the enemy's improvement was about.

He could tell with his ass whose handiwork this steady yet aggressive Laning Phase style was.

It was Lee, Da Congming!

"Niezamadi, they said he was Little Uzi, then they said he was Little JKL. After laning against him for half the game, I find out he's actually Little LWX. What the hell does the Tieba Intelligence Bureau even do? Are they just bullshitting me all day?" JKL could no longer hold it in.

If he had fucking known that this guy was LWX's direct disciple, he would have gone Full Power and fought them from the start.

There was already a gap even between champion ADCs when playing against LWX. If he lost to a disciple raised by LWX, where would he put his old face afterward?

"What LWX?" Xiao Tian, who was farming jungle camps, instinctively froze upon hearing the name. Then he quickly reacted. There was no LWX in V5, so had he just misheard?

"I'm talking about their ADC. He's improved this much, so it probably has something to do with your old teammate."

"Huh???"

Although everyone on V5 was fired up, honestly speaking, with this kind of Late Game Lineup, no matter how spirited they were early game, they still could not fight at the times they were not meant to fight. When the Rift Herald fight tempo point arrived, V5 could only watch helplessly as the enemy grouped up to take Rift Herald, while their ADC stayed alone in bot to eat Tower Plates and the others went over to harass.

They would not engage. They would just drag it out.

The later you took Rift Herald, the more I developed. As long as my Double C came online, this game could be taken over directly.

Before then, they just had to hold on.

After giving up Rift Herald, greedily taking plates, and farming for several more minutes, Luo Zhen finally had enough gold at eleven and a half minutes to buy his first Mythic Gear.