You call this thing stable?

Karsa pulled them in and flashed, easily landing his E skill's fear effect.

369 followed up with his Counter Strike, swinging his staff.

[FirstBlood!]

First blood secured.

"Nice play, Brother Ka, perfect rhythm!"

369, having just gotten the kill, cheered loudly. Even though he was no longer on his original team, he still enjoyed the same treatment.

Ah, it felt great.

"Alright, you. If you get an advantage this game and don't make it count, you know what happens... I have your QQ password, and I doubt you want your embarrassing history broadcasted to everyone, 69."

"Can I give this kill back?"

"Sorry, too late!"

It had to be said, the team leader's Social Death Award was truly the ultimate punishment. Even the rebellious 369 didn't dare to try it.

The jungler ganked top lane. In the bot lane, RA could only hastily push a minion wave to stop losses and then head to the river to help Qiyana secure the Dragon. The current meta Dragons weren't buffed, so a jungler at level three or four could solo them, but because it was Qiyana, she needed help from the bot lane.

But with that help, Luo Zhen's lane became comfortable.

He began rapidly consuming minions to generate Gleam, and then the bot lane duo kept the minion wave firmly under the enemy tower. If nothing else, he planned to stall out at least three waves before letting them go. With Gleam in hand, he wasn't afraid of Jinx pushing the wave with her rocket form.

If you clear the wave, I'll clear the wave. If you don't, I can farm without worry.

With the minion wave like this, Qiyana without level six in the bot lane was a complete waste of time. Furthermore, because she delayed her own farm by taking the Dragon, going up now would likely mean her jungle was a mess. His team's rhythm was good, but his personal rhythm was broken.

Ever seen the canyon relativity theory?

This is it!

Chapter 7: My Gun Only Charges Forward Under One Condition

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Chapter 8: There's Something Unclean in the Canyon

"V5 and RA are about to engage in a teamfight. V5 has the terrain advantage, why aren't they initiating?"

"They conceded. They want RA to engage first. RA is engaging? They are! RA isn't scared at all."

"Here it comes, Nocturne used his ultimate. Wukong and Corki are charging in. Such perfect coordination!"

"Can RA react? Azir at this position can engage with his ultimate. Wait... where's Azir's ultimate? Where is it? Strive, what are you doing? Your teammate is being engaged on, and you're just watching! Where's your ultimate?"

With V5's dazzling ultimate abilities, the two new commentators covering the game couldn't quite follow Luo Zhen's plays. After all, from a third-party perspective, commentators sit on chairs and watch small screens on the floor, so it's normal to miss some details.

But it was precisely Azir's delayed ultimate that caused RA to completely collapse in this fight.

A 2 for 3 trade.

Except for the mid and jungle, the remaining three members were all taken down by V5, and they didn't even manage to secure the Rift Herald.

As for V5's two deaths...

The consequence of flashing in to provide crowd control was that against Leyan's Qiyana, he had no ability to resist. Luo Zhen didn't even bother to use his heal because he was certain that even if he did, he'd still be several hundred HP in debt to the opponent after Qiyana's combo.

Don't ask. The answer is just overpowered.

[Holy crap, V5's ultimates are so strong!]

[The 'turn off the lights and start a fire' comp definitely has something, but why didn't Azir use his ultimate?]

[First-person view, looks like AK CC'd him with Darkness.]

[AK's not pulling the bolt anymore when he's on stage, he's throwing flashbangs?]

From the moment his teammates decided to engage, Luo Zhen roughly understood his role. First of all, at eight minutes, Aphelios has almost no combat power. Forget about red and white weapons; even if he had five blue weapons, he could at most deal two-thirds of the enemy's HP. Aphelios, due to his strong late-game scaling, has incredibly weak early-game stats.

Given that, why should he care about his own life?

With Thresh's hooks being difficult to land due to someone blocking, but the ADC flashing and auto-attacking, you can't dodge bullets, can you?

The advantage of a three-carry lineup is that even if one lane falls, as long as the other two lanes exist, there's still hope for a comeback and cleanup. That's how IG used to play.

"Good play, Xiao Zhen, good play."

After happily pocketing several kills and assists, Karsa and the others were ecstatic. Rookie felt like coming to V5 was like returning to his old home, the one from years ago.

Top lane pressure, jungle protecting top lane farm, bot lane sacrificing for other lanes, and occasionally stepping up to take over the game when needed.

Got it, this is IG().

Seeing his top, mid, and jungle teammates beaming with joy, Luo Zhen felt a bit hurt but didn't say anything. The main reason was that he didn't have his ultimate this fight.

If he had thrown out his ultimate, he could have gotten at least three assists.

But because he wasn't level six yet, at level five, he could only choose to flash and CC, getting only one assist before dying. It could be said that in this teamfight, he was probably the only unlucky one on V5 who lost out. Even PPGOD was smart enough to throw out his ultimate before dying, directly getting two assists from this play.

"It's okay, as long as giegie is happy, what about this Rift Herald..."

"Give it to 369. You'll have to endure for now, or go eat some jungle monsters in the bottom half."

Although rationality told him that it was more cost-effective to feed the top lane with the Rift Herald first, when Luo Zhen actually saw his top and jungle happily feasting on the opponent's tower plates, he couldn't help but feel envious.

Then, he was instantly killed again.

Since Karsa went to the top lane to place the Rift Herald, the second Elemental Dragon in the bot lane naturally couldn't be defended. Luo Zhen was also forced to suffer, because after the second dragon, the terrain triggered by the canyon was the new elemental dragon, Chemtech Dragon – camouflage.

Understand.

Imagine the feeling when you're repositioning in your own jungle and suddenly run into a heavily farmed Qiyana.

Seriously, if you encounter this in ranked, you'll be so scared you'll want to throw your mouse.

Wall slam, Q skill cast, Jinx from afar adds her ultimate, dash in with E, then another Q.

"Boom~"

[Double Kill!]

Until the screen went dark, Luo Zhen couldn't understand what he did wrong, why he had to suffer this pain for no reason.

[WTF, so clean!]

[Le Ye's Qiyana is as ruthless as ever.]

[To be honest, this terrain is really OP for assassins.]

[It really is a terrifying game, you get instantly killed on sight, and the Dragon Soul effect is also super strong. How do designers make games like this?]

In the early stages of the S12 season, this new Dragon Soul terrain came too suddenly, so suddenly that the various teams couldn't update their defensive habits immediately. Moreover, the traditional warding methods from previous metas were useless in this terrain.

This was an opportunity for Qiyana, and also a torment for both teams' carries.

Because they were now afraid to venture into the jungle rashly, fearing they might encounter something unclean in the canyon.

"This damn terrain is so annoying."

After dying twice in a row, by the time it was time to choose a mythic item, Luo Zhen didn't hesitate to pick up Gale Force.

Don't ask why, it's for survival.

Aphelios's build idea is simple: mythic item is Hextech Repeater, set is MP set, with an amulet of bleeding with abnormal effects is better. This way, both damage and sustain are covered. If there are too many assassins, you can also build Maw of Malmortius, combined with Galeforce, just charge forward mindlessly.

Of course, the above is just me talking nonsense.

In practice, Galeforce is a more useful defensive item for most ADCs than Immortal Shieldbow. The key is not healing, but the dash.

Many ADCs' thinking is stuck on the idea that as long as they are alive, they can deal damage, but they fail to understand what "being alive" means.

The fundamental damage of an ADC comes from dealing enough damage. If you've dealt your damage, you can die however you want. In a teamfight, if you're too scared to even auto-attack, and your teammates are all dead with only you left, how can you deal damage? At that point, if the opponents want to dive you, it's like cutting vegetables. If your teammates engage, you must follow up with damage, hitting whoever you can. You can't just give up dealing damage because the opponent has a Wukong or a Malphite ultimate, right?

Remember.

When you are facing a threat, the enemy ADC is also facing a threat. It all depends on who can eliminate the threat first. If an ADC wants to survive, they must kill the enemy first, using damage to protect themselves.

So, if the team's lineup is all about charging forward, you must find a way to charge forward with your teammates.

The core idea can be summarized in one sentence:

Whoever charges at the front is the front line; whoever stays at the back is the back line.

Chapter 9: The Silent Brother 9

With the help of his teammates and the feeding from the Rift Herald, 369's Jax became more and more invincible.

Then came V5's classic 4-1 split push strategy, directly letting 369 split push top.

The reason why TES's 369 couldn't play this style was largely because Knight in the mid lane was an earthbound spirit. If the mid laner was replaced by someone with strong roaming ability, and vision was set up around the top lane, the former TES top laner could have mastered the 4-1 split push strategy.

However, he couldn't change.

If Knight could change this habit, he wouldn't be Knight. It's like if Teacher Da B suddenly stopped roaming and focused on laning, playing champions like LeBlanc or Syndra, you wouldn't be surprised. You'd think he was possessed and suggest he be sliced up (lol).

But this is V5.

What Knight couldn't do, Rookie could.

So, with vision set up and the formation spread out, Jax could have a royal rumble with the enemy top laner in the top lane. Moreover, thanks to Counter Strike, 369 didn't have to worry about being ambushed by Qiyana in this terrain. If the opponent dared to come, 369 could even fight them.

"Be careful, 369, run immediately or use your E skill the moment you see Qiyana." As if the pre-game instructions weren't enough, Karsa kept emphasizing 369's safety after implementing the 4-1 strategy.

"Alright, alright, I'm really kiting, believe me, look at the mini-map."

"It's just that you don't play Jax much, I'm afraid you'll suddenly get rusty."

"Kidding, Jax is my signature move, how could I not play him much? You're just hating."

With a 3/0 top lane Jax, 369's confidence began to swell unprecedentedly. Even though he feared Karsa's nagging, with his record, as long as he didn't mess up, he could brag all he wanted!

"Signature move, huh? Alright, let me test you. What's Jax's ultimate called? Don't look at the skill description, tell me in three seconds!"

"Jax? Easy, Grandmaster's Might!" 369 said with immense pride, even repeating himself: "Jax's ultimate is called Grandmaster's Might, isn't this an entry-level question? Can you give me something more challenging?"

Then, everyone fell silent.

"Um... Brother 9, if I may be so bold, how many games have you played Jax?" Luo Zhen hesitated for a moment before cautiously asking.

"A few hundred games, why?"

"No, a few hundred games is actually a lot. But I've only played less than a hundred. I also know that Jax's ultimate is called 'Grandmaster's Might'." As soon as he said this, the V5 team's voice chat erupted in laughter.

Seeing 369's dejected and silent look, Luo Zhen quickly added, "It's okay, Brother 9. The great Go player Ke Jie once said that people can suffer from intermittent amnesia. This wave isn't your fault."

"Really? He said that?"

"He didn't, but after our match today, I'll send a Super Chat to his stream and have him read it out. Consider it pre-payment."

"..."

V5's lineup style dictated that they had to wait for everyone's ultimate abilities to be on cooldown before initiating any plays. Jax's invincibility in the 4-1 split push strategy effectively alleviated the awkwardness during their ultimate cooldown periods.

"If my ultimate is up, I'll engage in a teamfight for an objective. If it's down, I'll help the side lane establish vision for Jax to split push."

With Nocturne's ultimate, RA couldn't dodge V5's engages at all.

How could RA withstand V5's macro play? They didn't even have star players on their team, and their coach was also unknown. Aside from Leyan occasionally picking off enemies in the jungle to create small leads, RA could barely initiate any significant plays.

Simply put, their mid-game macro play was terrible.

Oh, it wasn't entirely nonexistent.

At least they secured the first two Elemental Dragons. But just as they were about to claim the third, a sudden shift occurred.

As the canyon "ding" sounded.

A layer of "Chakra Cloak" suddenly appeared on RA's various turrets and major neutral objectives on the map.

Their strategic points had been triggered!?

[???]

[No, RA is leading by 3000 gold. Why would the bounty points trigger?]