You Call This 'Steady'?

"That's your problem. Aren't they doing the Q-sniping dance? Where's your Q?"

"You're the one playing dual pistols, aren't you? Can't you kill them either?" PPGOD was unconvinced. He had already landed his Q on the enemy Alistar. Why was this damn ADC so greedy that he expected him to hit the enemy ADC too?

"That's because I didn't switch into combat mode. You might not believe me, but I happen to be proficient in the Mozambique shooting method. Give me a chance, and I'll be the next Yan Shuangying."

"???"

Luo Zhen's temporary retreat was for the advantage of his teammates across the entire map. The great god had spent an entire year in S8 proving that having only one fed lane was useless. If the other lanes couldn't step up, they would still lose the fights they were supposed to lose. Only when everyone could stand up would the entire composition be able to fight in the early, mid, and late game.

This game.

He was responsible for holding up their early Combat Power. Once they dragged it into the mid game, Gwen would get her items and Azir would complete his Three Item Set. Then they could start blasting away.

At that point, Luo Zhen could toss down his cards and shout, "The gathered Stellaris shall bind our bonds together, racing toward the future alongside our wishes! Become the shining path of light! Triangular Acceleration Synchronization! Descend, Cosmic Radiance Dragon!"

Wouldn't that be way cooler?

TES had clearly planned to focus on the Laning Phase, yet things had gone off track from the very beginning. Brother Zhuo's mistake had certainly played a part, but...

JKL frowned as he carefully recalled the enemy Lucian's skill accuracy.

Weren't those skill shots a little too precise?

From the first game of the BO5 onward, TES's tactics had revolved around one thing: using Lane Control to transition into Resource Fights, thereby avoiding the weakness of having no initiation tools. Bai Seyueya knew perfectly well that TES lacked engage. He just had several top-tier players in hand, allowing him to divert attention away from that flaw through conflict.

But what if you lost Lane Control?

The mid lane could push in, and the bot lane would definitely get pushed in if the jungler didn't come. As long as Gwen farmed peacefully in the top lane, Jayce wouldn't dare defend against her Split Push later on.

Not only would the 4-1 setup come online, they could also control the lanes. More importantly, V5's Composition was even better at Kiting through minion waves, because Azir had the Solar Disk. The enemy wasn't that easy to engage on.

By the time Bai Seyueya realized it, he had already stepped into the hellish blueprint Hong Mi had woven for him.

He seemed to see a man holding a hand of cards, smiling as he stood before him and said:

"Choose. In the hell of suffering and pain."

Champion ADC's Top-Tier Treatment

"AK's Q skill accuracy in bot lane is really high. Looks like he's practiced it."

"Not just that. He's seized every opportunity really well. I'm a little curious—is he really a rookie ADC?"

"JKL hasn't missed too many Last Hits, but Tian's Viego has stayed in bot lane for too long. Gwen's having far too comfortable a time farming top."

"All I can say is that V5 Bot Lane really played well this game. They gave the enemy no openings while applying maximum pressure."

As time passed, the gap between the two bot lanes became increasingly obvious, so obvious that even the commentators were starting to struggle to explain it away.

Same old story. It wasn't that JKL wasn't good—it was that Zhuo was too good.

With the Lucian-Nami combo, Lucian could freely choose when to dash in and Deal Damage. At worst, Nami still had her Q bubble for a counterattack. But with Tristana Alistar, would Tristana dare to use her W skill to Riding Face before Alistar went in?

If he did, then JKL had definitely lost his mind.

They had emphasized countless times that in bot-lane matchups, the support's performance mattered most of the time. If your support played like some god-demon romance, it didn't matter who you brought in as ADC. JKL was facing exactly that situation right now.

He was starting to get anxious.

In theory, Alistar's W skill had a cast range of 650, while Lucian only had a range of 500. If Lucian was close enough to auto Alistar, Alistar's W should definitely land. But the issue was the earlier First Blood. Against a Lucian who was ahead by a Long Sword, Zhuo didn't dare go in without the jungler nearby. He even maintained Y-axis positioning with JKL.

That was deadly.

If the bot laner and support disagreed, their Combat Power would be greatly reduced. That was why it was so difficult for Pro AD players to choose supports. When LWX picked a support, he flipped through six or seven candidates like he was selecting a consort before finally choosing Hang.

And JKL?

He had no choice. Either Lan Ge, Brother Zhuo, or Yuyanjia. It was enough to make him break down.

For a champion ADC to fall to this state, there was probably no second example in the entire world.

"Let's play bot a little safer. Once their jungler shows on vision, we go in. Let's try to pin down their bot lane in one go."

"No problem!"

PPGOD answered readily. He had keenly sensed that this game was different from the previous four. Of course, he also understood Luo Zhen's fears.

Looking over TES's historical record.

It wasn't that they had never fought from an early deficit. But every time they fell behind, they somehow always managed to claw it all back through a few bursts of tempo, like they had hacks enabled. The absurdity of it was second only to IG back then.

So the bot duo were completely in sync. They couldn't give the enemy any opportunity.

If the enemy had three stages of battle aura, they would send a Battle Emperor to wipe him out.

If the enemy started as Caterpie, they would blast him with Caterpie's ultimate evolution, Rayquaza.

If the enemy wanted to take off, they would immediately call Groudon to fire the Blade of the Cliff.

They swore to turn the enemy's "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river" into "What a terrible birth. Don't bully the poor youth, don't bully the poor middle-aged man, don't bully the poor old man, respect the dead, the coffin lid is shaking, the grave robbers are crying, Reborn: My Mom Is Zheng Shuang."

Of course, they still had to fight the tempo fights they were supposed to fight.

For example, the Herald Tempo at eight minutes.

In terms of Top Mid Jungle, V5 side definitely couldn't match the enemy in a Rift Herald fight. But with Lucian-Nami added in bot lane, the situation flipped in a full 5v5. V5 side thought, Lucian-Nami has an early advantage and is so strong. Of course we want it. TES, meanwhile, thought, We've got Jayce top and Tristana ADC. We have damage and poke. Are we really just giving you this Herald?

Thus, both sides tacitly decided to Team Fight around the Rift Herald.

It was worth mentioning that because of V5 side's early advantage, Xiao Tian spent more time guarding Tristana in bot lane while he collected waves. As a result, despite being stronger in the Upper Area, TES seized river vision first during this Herald Tempo. That was fatal.

If you wanted to reclaim river vision, you had to group up, slow-push, and clear wards. Then you couldn't manage the mid wave.

My Lucian clears mid and heads back. Both sides still have half the river vision, but because my mid wave has pushed over, your Viktor definitely loses an entire wave of minions, and your tower HP suffers too.

That was macro.

"How much more do you need?"

"A few minions. I'm going top to take them. Don't start yet."

After glancing at his experience bar, Luo Zhen decisively headed alone toward top lane. At the same time, Karsa wasn't in any hurry to start the Rift Herald, while Rich had just finished buying items and waited at base for the team fight to begin.

Only when Luo Zhen signaled that they could take the fight did Gwen finally use her Teleport.

"V5 are moving, but the enemy has Jayce. Can they start this fight?"

"Gwen Teleports in. V5 want to fight!"

"Viego and Tristana are itching to move. TES don't want to give this up either."

"What about the carries on both sides? Eh!? Lucian's level six?"

Just as the Herald dropped to half HP and Jayce fired another cannon shot for decent damage, Zhuo's Alistar entered first. He immediately used Flash into the WQ Combo, knocking up both V5's Gwen and Xin Zhao at once. It looked like a very good engage.

Just as Tristana and Viktor prepared to Follow Up with their Damage, Luo Zhen's Lucian finally arrived at the battlefield and opened with Holy Lance Wash Face.

"Atatatatata~"

The sudden Ultimate to the face scattered TES's formation slightly. No matter how hard they thought about it, they couldn't understand how Lucian, who had clearly just been level five, had suddenly reached six after only a brief encounter.

And during the moment TES members were dumbfounded and dodging, Rookie's Azir charged in with EQ and pulled off a smooth emperor drift.

Well, he had only pushed Jayce, but that wasn't a problem.

He hadn't gone in to push all five people away.

He was... creating terrain!

That Ultimate cut diagonally across the point where TES's Double C wanted to enter. It was a fairly solid terrain barrier that directly blocked nearly half the river.

"Wait, this position!!!"

The Sailor combination immediately sounded the alarm. On the surface, that Ultimate could at most delay their entrance by one or two seconds. But the problem was... with those one or two seconds, Alistar's Control Time from his engage would already be over.

R Moonlight Guardian

W Threaded Arrow

When V5's top and jungle both activated their survival skills alongside Azir's Ultimate, TES finally realized in shock that those three skills... completely covered the river's width.

They seemed to have nowhere to Deal Damage!

The three survival skills could only maintain a safe Damage Environment for around two or three seconds. But for Lucian-Nami, two or three seconds was enough for Luo Zhen to unleash his entire first round of damage.

E Tidal Blessing

E Ruthless Pursuit

With such perfect terrain and skill separation, this was practically the Damage Environment every ADC dreamed of.

So Luo Zhen went in.

At that moment.

Urgent Army advanced first, cutting down generals, capturing cities, and defeating armies again!

"When blades meet, none of you will be left intact."

"Kill them!"

Surround the Point, Strike the Reinforcements, Win Through Strategy

"Here it comes—Lucian's Damage Environment."

"AK is going in again. It feels like TES are about to have a huge problem head-on!"

The double circles and Soldier wall almost completely shut out any chance for the enemy to enter and Deal Damage. TES's Backline couldn't get in, while their Frontline couldn't retreat. The original 5v5 gradually became a 5v3, a trap-the-dog-behind-closed-doors situation.

TES lost again.

It was a three-for-zero, and they even lost the Rift Herald. Looking across all five games, this was practically the only game where TES failed to secure an early advantage.

So the question was, why hadn't they gained an early advantage this game?

Everyone on TES began to fall into deep thought.

TES, done for!

They had dominated for four whole games, but couldn't suppress them in the final one?

All that could be said was that Bai Seyueya wanted too badly to recreate the Famous Scene from the World Championship. Unfortunately, the enemy wasn't Little Lu Bu. He wasn't buying that trick.

They should replace this support and top laner already. Watching them was genuinely irritating.

At this point, TES fans undoubtedly outnumbered V5 fans several times over. That was even putting it generously, because normally V5 should have had no fans at all. V5 side didn't stand on ceremony. After securing the Herald, they immediately released it mid, taking advantage of TES having fewer people to chip away at the tower HP first.

From a tactical standpoint, how quickly V5 could end the game really depended on how early they could take down this Mid Outer Tower.

Where was the breakthrough point in TES's Composition?

It wasn't Zhuo. Zhuo could only be a breakthrough point during the Laning Phase, not a breakthrough point for the entire game.

Their real breakthrough point was top lane.

For a full two years, ever since the Sailor combination was formed, TES had always been weak in the top-lane position. Especially when it came to Split Push, none of TES's top laners had ever truly understood how to play it.

In other words, their understanding of using minion waves to transition into Resource Fights wasn't deep. They were only strong in lane, relying on raw laning strength to force those transitions.

Okay, once that was understood, countering TES became easy.

Without Baron Nashor, play 4-1. With Baron Nashor, play 1-3-1. Gwen could Split Push, fight, and escape alone. But TES only had one person who could stop Gwen: Jayce. And Jayce didn't dare chase too deeply, because he could easily get caught.

But if Jayce went over, you couldn't beat me in the front-facing 4v4.

If you wanted to force a 5v4 Team Fight, oh, sorry. My Azir had the Solar Disk and his Ultimate, while support Nami also had an Ultimate specifically for counter-engage. With two counter-engage tools here, how were you going to start on us?

Alistar flanking from behind?

V5's Composition gave them an innate invincible position when Kiting in a 4-1 setup. But if they wanted to amplify that advantage, they had to destroy the enemy Mid Outer Tower and push the Frontline forward.

The deeper mid could push, the deeper the side lanes could push as well.

They affected each other, creating a positive cycle.

At this moment, V5 were like the Mongol armies of old. Not only did they refuse to launch a direct offensive, they instead relied on macro to slowly devour their opponent.

What you imagined Mongol armies to be: unrivaled mounted archery.

What Mongol armies actually were: stacking armor. Stacking armor like crazy.

Then those who could shoot better than them weren't as tanky, while those tankier than them couldn't shoot as well. Dialectically invincible.

Bai Seyueya was already gritting his teeth beneath the stage. They had clearly reached the final game. By his reasoning, both sides should have already revealed all their Trump cards, with no Black Technology left. But damn it, Hong Mi was playing dirty—like an arms research institute selling weapons. Selling one generation, using one generation themselves, keeping one prototype generation, and one generation on PowerPoint slides, while the prototype was actually already sitting in the research institute, only to be brought out at the crucial moment.