You call this thing stable?

To summarize, this is a hero that relies on basic mastery. Because of this, it's actually harder for an AD like this to play well compared to other ADCs, as it heavily relies on the player's fundamentals.

Coincidentally, Luo Zhen's strength lies precisely in his basic mastery.

Machine gun auto-attacks, then a shot from the cannon form at max range, switching back to the machine gun to hit Leona, followed by a W skill prediction – this is almost Luo Zhen's entire laning poke combo. As for whether the W hits?

Two words: whoever it hits.

While the basic combo might be weak, the basic combo is effective.

It's like watching highlight reels where the Lee Sin players are always flitting around with flashy movements, using the most complicated operations to deal the least damage. But in reality, Lee Sin's most useful and highest success rate operation is Flash + R.

With mild pressure applied in both the mid and bot lanes, Karsa in the jungle was having a comfortable time. Trundle, brandishing his club, chose to GANK bot lane at level three, preparing to perform a legendary feat from the "Stick Hero's" repertoire.

Of course, his attention had actually been on Ah Shui in the bot lane since the start of the game.

After all...

The Ice Wolf Tribe is of the canine family, and Shiba Inus are also canines.

To catch the future, you need to let the representative of the opposing canine family do it ( ).

Chapter 48: Men are like this

"Bot lane, give me a chance, let me act a little."

Ganking bot at level three is understandable on Trundle. Normal teams would be somewhat prepared for this, but this round, they were lucky because TES's support was Zhuo.

Because it was Brother Zhuo, there was a chance the river wouldn't be warded.

And also because it was Brother Zhuo, Karsa felt that if they acted convincingly enough this time, the opponents might actually fall for it.

As for why he was so sure? Because they had coaches and analysts.

Normal players only remember the highlight moments when watching a match, but assistant coaches and analysis teams watch matches as if they're writing a thesis on the subject. They study every detail. Zhuo's obvious vision deficiency was something the V5 analysis team, not being fools, could easily deduce from the vision score data.

Of course, there was another reason: Karsa's GANK focus had been on the top lane for the past two games. This sudden shift to bot lane was like suddenly understanding "three shallow one deep" during late-night exercise – you have an epiphany.

So, it turns out speed alone isn't enough in combat; you also need power.

Now, Karsa was starting to bring the power to TES's bot lane.

"They're here, watch me."

The best acting is actually not acting at all. Luo Zhen knew that JKL had been a veteran pro for three years. Trying to act in front of him would be like watching Jay Chou play basketball – you think you look cool, but you're full of flaws.

So, he decided to stop pretending. "Yep, you come if you want, I'll play lane as usual."

It has to be said.

Luo Zhen's strategy was correct. Seeing Jinx's farming rhythm barely change throughout, JKL actually believed that no one was coming to bot lane. And Zhuo, who had been looking for an opportunity to initiate the fight the entire time.

Then, when the jungler was in position, PPGOD's positioning shifted slightly.

The opportunity had arrived!

Seizing the moment, Zhuo decisively used Apex Blade, targeting Luo Zhen's Jinx.

"Huh, I hit!"

Just as Zhuo was overjoyed and about to share the excitement of initiating with his ADC, he suddenly realized... his ADC seemed to have run off?

What was going on?

He turned back and saw that someone had appeared in the bot lane at some point.

Trundle had arrived!

The pillar blocked the path and slowed them, Thresh's hook immobilized and slowed them, and Jinx added a Thresh mine with her E skill.

For a tanky support like Leona, if she misjudges the situation and E's in recklessly, there's only one outcome when caught: death.

[V5's AK killed TES's Zhuo]

Under the three-person assault, the kill was safely secured by Luo Zhen. With this first blood, he would be able to maintain better pressure on TES's bot lane after returning home and coming back out.

"Nice one, Brother Ka, you probably scared their support to death that play."

"No, no, I didn't expect bot lane to really be unwarded. You guys did a good job pressuring bot."

"If we do a few more plays like that, their support might just shit his pants from fear. If that happens, we'll definitely win today."

"Why?" Rookie asked, sounding confused.

"Because shitting your pants is terrifying. The warm current flows down your thighs along the split in your underwear. If it's tight underwear, the underwear can even act as a filter." After saying that, Luo Zhen suddenly felt the team voice chat go quiet.

He turned and saw his teammates looking at him strangely.

"Fecal filter scholar, huh? I'm starting to wonder why you always have such peculiar knowledge about bizarre things."

"Maybe because... I follow international news more closely?"

"???"

Regardless, this GANK had yielded good results, and it was from this kill that the game officially set the early-game GANK layout for both junglers.

As everyone knows, junglers try their best not to expose their position in the early game.

This Trundle gank bot at level three was successful, but the moment the enemy jungler saw you show up bot, he immediately started heading towards your top jungle without stopping. That's what you call cutting your losses.

At this point, if you have no jungle camps to farm top, you can only invade the enemy's bot jungle. The situation immediately became clear.

Trundle would focus on protecting the bottom half of the map, while Viego would focus on ganking the top half.

TES's Leona support had her roaming ability completely nullified. She even had to consider if enemies were nearby before using her E to engage. Similarly, Rich's Gwen top had to be prepared to fight 1v2 at all times. It was a race to see which side lane would crack first under the pressure of the enemy's gank rhythm.

For Luo Zhen, he suddenly felt offensive pressure.

Because the jungler was looking out for him, he had to take advantage of this period of absolute safety to push the wave, poke, and take tower plates. An ADC's job during the laning phase has always been this simple: push when the jungler is present, and auto-attack or defend when they're not. JKL clearly understood this, and Jhin began frequently using his abilities to clear the wave.

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

Judging by the understanding of the minion waves across the three lanes, the bot lane was the most suitable for macro play. This was because whether to push the bot lane wave or not was always dictated by the team's needs at different stages of the game.

However, the more this was the case, the less Luo Zhen wanted the jungler to frequently help bot. He knew his advantage lay in the possibility of the jungler coming, not the jungler actually being there. If the jungler stayed bot all the time, it would actually give the opponents many ways to counter Brother Ka's rhythm.

Borrowing power was the most perfect response for a rookie in this situation.

"Brother Ka, you don't need to help me. Go help Brother Yijin more. I'll just rely on you veterans to carry me."

"Huh? But I'm not under much pressure," Rookie said, sounding surprised.

"Don't say that. I understand Brother Yijin. You're already a mature big brother. There are some things you can't avoid, and I understand that. Otherwise, with your skill, you would have definitely crushed Knight long ago."

"????"

"Men are like this. Take a day off, and your gameplay clearly improves. Take two days, and you're transformed, dominating everywhere. Take a week, and 'Invincible, how lonely am I, how lonely am I~'. Invincible, how lonely am I~" Luo Zhen paused after speaking, then organized his thoughts: "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 entire speech left everyone speechless and amused.

Although they understood the underlying meaning behind his words, this... seemed a bit too far-fetched.

"But you..."

"We youngsters are full of energy. For the enemy bot lane duo, we're the ones wearing them out, the old men. You know what I mean, Diao Shen."

"Ah, right, right, right. Ah, no, no, no, no, you're the one wearing out the old men."

The chaotic team voice chat didn't annoy the others. On the contrary, Luo Zhen's playful banter and deference made Karsa and Rookie recall one of their former teammates.

Yes, the one on the enemy bot lane.

The same self-sacrifice, the same atmosphere-lifting presence. The difference was that the opponent had matured, while their own had just begun to sprout.

Thinking of this, Karsa and Rookie exchanged glances.

Without needing many words, they understood what the other was trying to convey.

The momentum began to ignite from here.

Chapter 49: Heaven is to the Left, Hell is to the Right

"Coach, I have a question." In the lounge, XLB looked at his teammate, who was slightly pressuring TES's bot lane on the big screen, and asked with confusion, "Xiao Zhen is a rookie debut, and he hasn't had much professional training. Even with resource allocation and hero advantage, he shouldn't be able to exert this much pressure so quickly. But this..."

As a jungler, he truly couldn't understand why Luo Zhen's changes were so significant in such a short period.

The opponent was JKL, not LNG's Deng Huang. It shouldn't be like this.

"It's very simple," Coach Homme said, organizing his thoughts. "Because you play jungle, version fit and jungle strategy are the most important things for you. Form and feel are secondary. But it's different for ADCs. Top-tier bot lanes are always about confrontation. If you don't confront, your fundamentals will regress. The more you confront, the more your synergy and skills will improve. Ah Shui just returned from vacation, so it's normal for his form to not be fully back yet."

Professional players usually don't play League of Legends during their vacations.

But Luo Zhen was different. Because he was poor, and because the LDL only paid a few thousand yuan a month, he kept grinding his rank score even during the holidays, chasing that sliver of hope to enter the LPL.

On top of that, there was the matter of Xiang Zhangmen's power transfer technique.

And...

"Ah Shui is actually a very smart player. During S11, he keenly noticed that the meta rhythm at the time involved reducing confrontation in the bot lane. With less return from confrontation, he shifted his focus elsewhere. Furthermore, his compatibility with the support role wasn't high to begin with, so you'll see Ah Shui now cooperating with his support in a way that resembles strangers coordinating in lane, and coordinating the rhythm as a team."

With a god's perspective, Coach Homme could easily see the opponents' form.

It wasn't that JKL didn't want to win lane, but rather that his playstyle hadn't fully adapted to the version changes, and his support's style conflicted with his own, leading to him only performing at less than 10% of his true strength.

He emphasized again:

In a bot lane matchup, the ADC is only the floor, while the support is the ceiling.

Unless the ADC has an explosive performance, in most bot lane matchups, if your support is weak, your combination is simply not viable.

"But Xiao Zhen and PPGOD also just teamed up, didn't they?"

"Yes, but because Xiao Zhen is also very smart, they never truly engaged in a direct fight with the enemy bot lane. Instead, they were constantly leveraging the situation."

Dominating the lane, crushing opponents in their debut, and carrying the entire game as a rookie – that's the script for superpower esports.

Of course, money power esports works too, and it's actually more fitting for reality. Look at that celebrity exhibition match; I could tell the outcome was an 8-2 split (eight actors, two bosses, playing one game) just by looking at the lineup.

True reality requires calmness, steadiness, and waiting for teammates to create opportunities to overcome the odds.

It's not that they don't dare to fight when they have an advantage, but rather that they can't be sure if the enemy jungler will suddenly pop out from behind their opponents if they get reckless. Any single mistake would render all their early efforts futile.

Thus, for the next few minutes.

PPGOD would occasionally throw a lantern back and feint a Leona engage, but in reality, Trundle was frequently appearing in the mid lane to help Rookie gain an advantage. Zhuo wanted to fight, but JKL kept stopping him every time.

They didn't dare to gamble.

They knew where their jungler was, but they also understood where the enemy jungler was. Trundle was practically running between mid and bot. You couldn't tell if the enemy was genuinely absent or just playing the "boy who cried wolf" game. Once TES's bot lane made another mistake, they would be completely unable to contend with V5's bot lane.

Of course, there was a price to pay.

Top laner Rich's Gwen was also in a terrible state at this moment. If it weren't for the low GANK success rate of the Viego + Kennen combination, which allowed Rich to escape several times while low on health, V5's top lane might have exploded early on.

Of course, it was already half-exploded now.

The two sides went back and forth, applying pressure to each other's side lanes. A few minutes later, seeing that V5's bot lane was still maintaining a considerable level of restraint, JKL finally understood what their progress was all about.

He knew with his rear end who was responsible for this playstyle of being steady yet aggressive in lane.

It's you, Da Congming!

"Damn it, you said you were Little Uzi, then you said you were Little JKL, but after half a laning phase, I find out you're actually Little LWX. What's the Tieba Intelligence Bureau even doing? They're just messing with me, right?" JKL couldn't hold back.

If he had known earlier that you were LWX's direct disciple, he would have gone all out to fight you from the start.

Fighting LWX already showed a gap between champion ADCs. If he were to lose to a disciple trained by LWX, where would he put his old face after that?

"What LWX?" Xiao Tian, who was farming in the jungle, subconsciously paused when he heard the name. He quickly realized that LWX wasn't even on V5, so was he hallucinating?

"I mean their AD. This guy's improvement is so significant, it's probably related to your old teammate."

"Huh???"

Although V5's entire team was full of fighting spirit, to be fair, with this kind of double late-game lineup, no matter how high their morale was in the early game, they would still lose at the points where they were supposed to lose. When it came to the Rift Herald team fight timing, V5 could only watch helplessly as the enemy grouped up to take the Rift Herald, and then let the ADC alone farm tower plates in the bot lane while the others went to harass.

No initiating fights, just dragging it out.

If you take the Rift Herald a bit later, I'll farm a bit more. As long as my dual carries come online, this game can be directly taken over.

Until then, just stall.

After giving up the Rift Herald, eating plenty of tower plates, and farming for a few more minutes, at eleven and a half minutes, Luo Zhen finally had enough money to get his first mythic item.