Playing Lucian-Nami in the early game meant the team needed a late-game carry. Lucian also had short range and struggled to clear waves, so Azir could solve that problem nicely.
TES's side was simple: Viktor plus Jayce.
There was no choice; there were no champions left. Qing Tian's champion pool was Xin Zhao, Lee Sin, and Renekton. He couldn't exactly pull out Xin Zhao against V5's flexible composition, so he could only choose from the second-tier options, Jayce and Jax. As for why not Jax, if you didn't understand how to play that thing, he really gave off a foul stench.
Rich's choice was even simpler: keep playing Gwen.
Thus:
TES: Top Lane Jayce, Jungle Viego, Mid Lane Viktor, Bot Lane Tristana + Alistar
V5: Top Laner Gwen, Jungle Xin Zhao, Mid Lane Azir, Bot Lane Lucian-Nami
When V5's Composition was once again fully revealed, everyone realized Hong Mi had casually given the composition a double-circle trait again. On the surface, this damn composition seemed to lack a frontline, but as long as they kited well, those double circles were far more useful than any frontline.
"This is the last game. All I can do is make the composition relatively comfortable. The rest is up to you." Hong Mi closed his notebook. At this point, all he could do was trust them.
"Steady, Coach. This composition looks pretty damn nice." Brother Ka was an old hand too. At a glance, he could tell their composition was better than the enemy's. As long as they handled the laning phase properly and didn't make mistakes, their odds of winning should be solid.
"What about Xiao Zhen? No problem, right?"
"Ah, I'm fine." Luo Zhen flexed his right wrist, his smile brighter than it had ever been. "Coach, just hold down the left mouse button."
"Leave the rest to AK!"
Who Killed Whom?
Ever since the Demacia Cup, Hong Mi had been setting traps for his opponents.
Jhin, Ziggs, even Jinx—those champions really were part of Luo Zhen's champion pool, exactly as the records showed. But there was one thing the records got wrong: the very first line on Luo Zhen's profile—LDL bot laner who could massacre everyone.
What did "massacre everyone" mean?
Did Jinx and Caitlyn, those version-defining big carries, bullying opponents in CS count as massacring everyone?
Did Ziggs and Senna using their specialized system to build up team advantages count as massacring everyone?
Neither did.
True massacring began by utterly demolishing the enemy from the laning phase. So which champions could do that?
Lucian, Kalista, Draven, Samira.
No one noticed the weight behind those words except Hong Mi. Not only had he noticed them, he had even built a trap around them. Until the moment he shook Bai Seyueya's hand, Bai Seyueya still couldn't understand why Hong Mi's smile was so subtle.
By the time he realized something was wrong, he had already stepped straight into the trap Hong Mi had woven for him.
TES jungler Tian would face immense pressure this game. Jayce in top lane needed protection, and Tristana-Alistar against Lucian-Nami in bot lane needed protection too. But if he truly had to compare them, he still leaned toward protecting top lane. After all, JKL was in bot lane, so he naturally trusted that even if bot fell behind, it wouldn't collapse too badly.
V5 was the opposite. V5's early-game focus should have been bot lane.
Even so, Karsa still chose to path from bot to top. He also chose to trust bot lane, but he trusted even more that the enemy would tower dive Gwen at Level 3. If this world had things like stand-ins, Karsa's stand-in would undoubtedly be a giant Radar.
And at that moment, right at the start of the game, his Radar was already sounding a warning.
It was another opening where the junglers didn't clash in the early jungle. Returning to bot lane, Luo Zhen and PPGOD started fighting the enemy for Level 2 the moment they arrived.
Lucian-Nami had an easy time against Alistar-Tristana early on. This needed to be made clear again: before Level 6, Alistar was practically useless. Although his Q, W, and E were all Control Skills and his passive could restore HP, he had one fatal weakness that severely held him back—no AOE and no mobility.
His Q and W were both single-target skills, his E needed time before it took effect, and this type of hard-engage support usually had to stand in front of the AD carry to protect them while they farmed. The problem was obvious. He couldn't help his AD clear waves and contest levels, nor was he tanky enough to withstand Lucian-Nami's early damage. If the WQ Combo or Q-Flash was dodged—or even if it landed but his own AD got caught in Nami's bubble—then that Alistar charging in could only become a beef dinner.
Simply put, it was easy to go in and never come back.
Those famous scenes at the World Championship where Tristana-Alistar killed Lucian-Nami in lane three times in a row could only be called Little Lu Bu's special trick. After all, not everyone could suppress themselves and use only thirty percent of their strength like he did.
"Should we go in, or wait a little longer?"
"Don't rush. You need to have enough faith in me. Let's wait for Level 3."
"You can actually hold it in?"
"Of course. I used the breaks between five games to fully confirm my advantage over JKL: my hair is longer than his!"
"???"
As everyone knew, the longer your hair was, the stronger your Combat Power. Look at Super Saiyan Goku, and then the ominous old-age form with rainbow-colored yellow hair growing all over his body. Every evolution made his hair more luxuriant. That already proved how much hair affected strength.
What?
Saitama?
He was bald outright. JKL wasn't bald, so it wasn't a big problem.
In fact, since ancient times, all major anime had basically promoted the idea that the stranger your form was, the stronger you became.
Like Dragon Ball—delinquent hairstyles; Naruto—colored contacts, tattoos, and street punks; One Piece—perverts, or rather, transforming forms; Reaper—spirited young men; Black Blue—black hair in every color imaginable.
Based on all that alone, he had already confirmed the fact that he was stronger than the enemy.
Of course, that was all bullshit. It wasn't that he didn't want to go in; he had to first know the jungler's position. Otherwise, if he charged in and Viego came running down from the river, that would be fucking awful.
As for how to find him?
Simple. Leave it to mid-jungle.
Azir would definitely have Lane Control over Viktor early on, so Rookie could push up and ward at F6 as a point of reference. Then the jungler could determine whether to go for a Level 3 or Level 4 clear based on top lane's HP. Jayce would definitely have Lane Control and Pressure HP against Gwen early. If Jayce looked like he was stacking a wave to push under tower, then the jungler was definitely coming top to tower dive, and bot lane could push.
If Jayce looked like he was holding the wave steady without pushing, then Luo Zhen and PPGOD would need to play a little more cautiously.
As for whether Qing Tian might be acting, well, there was no need to worry at all.
Because he didn't have the ability.
TES had already suffered from the information gap against a top laner who had massacred everyone in the LDL. It was like that guy hailed as the last man of South Korea who was actually American—taking advantage of people who didn't know the scene.
Very soon, they saw Jayce begin stacking the wave.
To be safe, the support went to ward the river too. Okay, bot lane hit Level 3. They could directly start looking for an opportunity to fight!
At this point, the director deliberately focused everyone's attention on top lane.
Gwen absolutely couldn't be allowed to farm comfortably.
This had been TES's established game plan from before the match even started. V5's composition had double circles. Since Xin Zhao was the jungler, and Karsa was an old hand, it would be difficult for them to limit Xin Zhao's growth, so they could let that go.
But if Gwen developed normally too, they would be extremely passive when it came to mid-game team fight kiting.
Therefore, tower diving had been TES's planned strategy from the start.
Jayce applied pressure from the moment he reached lane, stacked the wave and pushed it under tower, then waited for the jungler to come dive. For most top lane Players, this was practically standard in every Ranked Match.
Of course, they weren't putting themselves in the shoes of the top laner waiting for his jungler to dive.
They were putting themselves in the shoes of the one waiting to be dove.
The enemy's intention to tower dive had become increasingly obvious. Rich's movement began to look visibly restless, but... he was acting.
Because Karsa was in the brush behind him, across from Malphite.
Your acting was bad, Qing Tian, because you were a genuine player who came up from the LDL. My acting was good, Rich thought, because I really was a Triple Crown Champion next door. I had long since become an acting ape. TES couldn't tell, so the moment the wave entered the tower, Xiao Tian's Viego emerged right on cue.
They wanted to dive!
"Here they come!"
The instant Viego charged his W skill and made the first move, a golden edge struck from the Vision Fog not far behind Gwen, arriving later but landing first.
W Wind Slash Electric Stab
The moment Tian saw the mark appear on him, he instinctively used Flash toward the outside of the tower.
There's an ambush!
Seeing that mark, how could he not realize that the enemy had seen through their plan to tower dive at Level 3?
But even if they saw through it, were they really that confident in their bot lane?
Their bot laner was JKL!
Just as both sides stood staring at each other from outside the tower's Attack Range, an exceptionally conspicuous Kill Prompt suddenly lit up on the screen.
V5's AK killed TES's Zhuo
First Blood!
The kill had come from bot lane.
See? I told you. If you didn't go bot, your bot lane definitely couldn't withstand JKL's pressure, Xiao Tian laughed inwardly. He was preparing to stall the enemy jungler a little longer, but soon, he began to realize something was wrong.
Wait...
That prompt just now.
Who killed whom?
Switching to Combat Form
???
What happened? What happened? What happened?
Where was the director's camera? Fuck, save us with the camera!
All that could be said was that the director should pay attention to when to cut in next time.
The top lane 2v2 had done nothing but trade Flashes, so it wasn't very entertaining. But bot lane had suddenly produced a kill, making it immediately worth watching. The LPL director hurriedly switched the camera back. Lucian and Nami still had fairly healthy HP, but Alistar had suddenly died.
What... was going on?
Only when the replay appeared on the big screen did everyone finally understand what had happened.
It was actually very simple. V5's bot lane hit Level 3 first and immediately went up to pressure Alistar with a full combo. That was normal. Once they found the enemy jungler's movement, going aggressive at Level 3 was basic bot lane play, and it generally couldn't kill anyone.
The problem was right there.
If Alistar had directly knocked Lucian away with W, used his full combo, or simply walked back under tower, there would have been no problem. But for some reason, Brother Zhuo paused for a moment right after getting hit.
That one moment allowed PPGOD's bubble to hit him afterward.
Seeing that, Luo Zhen immediately put Ignite on him and began dealing damage.
In an early-game bot lane matchup, any carry getting hit by Control Skills was deadly. A skill like Bubble could easily provide 1.5 seconds of Control Time, and in the early game, 1.5 seconds was enough for a bot lane combo to unleash most of its burst.
By the time Alistar regained control of his body and prepared to run.
Everything was already too late.
Perfectly dumping all their damage onto him sent Zhuo straight back to his fountain, and First Blood was secured.
At that moment, not only could Bullet Comments not understand Brother Zhuo's thought process, even JKL began questioning his life. He thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out. His thoughts drifted through the universe, contemplating the nature of the world and humanity's final destination. Then an idea flashed through his mind, and he unconsciously spoke a language he didn't understand. He could only repeat it again and again so he wouldn't forget it. The words sounded like Chinese, but also Tibetan. Google recognized four words: "born of a beast."
Bot lane was done for!
"Wow, Zhuo really shouldn't have made that mistake. If he had done literally anything there, he would have escaped, but he did absolutely nothing."
"JKL is in a really bad spot now. Lucian-Nami got First Blood, and bot lane is completely impossible to lane now."
The Commentator sighed as they watched the situation. A full five-game BO5 really tested the players' mental fortitude and the coaches' ability. Since this was the Demacia Cup, coaching ability wasn't visible yet; these were all New Teams that had only recently come together.
But mental fortitude was completely on display.
Seriously, if you couldn't play a support like Alistar, you might as well lock Leona.
But you picked him, brought him out, and then played terribly. That was honestly screwing over your teammates.
Early Lucian-Nami differed from other bot lane combos. If Caitlyn or Jinx got First Blood, you could still play cautiously in lane. At worst, you wouldn't dare trade HP much and would give up a little Lane Control. But if Lucian got an advantage, then it wasn't a question of whether you could trade HP.
The moment he found an opportunity, he could E in and directly beat you down to low HP.
The pressure immediately returned to Xiao Tian. He had originally planned to play around the Upper Area and give Jayce a good early development environment, but bot lane had started sending distress signals. With First Blood's gold and item advantage, it was hard to say whether the enemy jungler would simply start tower diving bot for more kills. TES couldn't accept Tristana collapsing early.
What could they do?
They could only have the jungler come bot to Protect Bot Lane and let them farm under tower when the enemy bot lane stacked a wave and pushed it in.
But that meant TES's Upper Area would fall apart.
Viktor didn't dare cross the river, while Jayce could only watch Gwen happily farm waves in frustration. Jayce especially needed to first build an HP advantage, then an item advantage. Once both sides hit Level 6 without the gap widening, Jayce's lane would become Hard to Play.
A single move affected the whole board. That was professional play.
"What a pity. We can't force pressure bot like in the LDL and directly smash them apart." Luo Zhen sighed as he watched the enemy jungler disappear from the map, then retreated with his support. He wasn't in a hurry, because Lucian-Nami remained strong until thirty minutes. He merely regretted that his chance for revenge had disappeared just like that.
"This is already pretty good. At least you created this tempo, so Brother Ka can make things happen elsewhere. Besides, it's a little difficult to kill Tristana in lane anyway."
Before you continue