"What's your take?"
"We're all too young. We all thought Theshy's playstyle was pure inting, the stupidest possible choice. But judging by the show effect and the volume of bullet comments, wasn't this also the playstyle that generated the most comments? Looking at it that way, he beat us by a mile."
"..."
The worse Graves's items were, the more WBG's mid-game damage would fall off. Caitlyn was a champion with long range and early strength, no damage in the mid game, and increasing power in the late game, so she was on a downward slope during the first half.
As for Corki, they couldn't simply count on a single Yordle Snap Trap to pull off a miracle.
So what could they do?
They could only speed up Caitlyn's growth in bot lane and leave their limited resources to Caitlyn, finding some way to get him online first. But V5 understood exactly what they were thinking, so they had already set up jungle vision early and prepared an ambush for the enemy bot lane.
"What do you think? We'll draw their attention. Are you confident you can burst her down?"
Karsa glanced at Samira's items: Shieldbow, The Collector, and components for Infinity Edge. Her damage was probably enough for now. The key was that she had already passed level 11. There was a massive difference in damage between Samira's rank-one and rank-two ultimate.
"I can give it a try. I've got a feeling about this one. Let me show off, yeah?"
"It's not impossible. I'm just curious what gives you such confidence. The two and a half items in your inventory?"
"No. It's the King of Nine-Component Guns. Nothing in the world gives me even a tenth of the security it does."
"???"
There was the Jordan strategy in top lane, where space was created for the top laner to fight alone. But that didn't mean the AD carry in bot lane couldn't become an assassin-style mid laner.
Besides, once Caitlyn got caught face-to-face by another AD, wasn't she just a useless hunk of scrap?
This had potential!
While having his support scout ahead with Sweeper, Luo Zhen controlled Samira to stay hidden by the bot lane minion wave's vision and quietly slipped into the brush just in front of the enemy's second bot turret.
He was extremely familiar with this move.
In countless Qiyana and Talon mid games in Ranked Match, he often used vision block to hide in this exact spot, waiting for the enemy backline to come collect the wave before easily taking their 300 gold.
In short, it was all about exploiting an information gap.
As long as Old Man Ao showed his face in mid lane, the enemy carry would naturally head down to bot lane without any guard up to farm the wave.
This play... this play was called—
The Willing Will Take the Bait.
At that moment, at the Commentary Desk.
"Here we go! Our player AK is cooking up some entertainment again. Is he waiting to catch a big fish?"
"With Samira's items, she theoretically has a chance to solo the enemy Double C. Can WBG react in time? They can't! Rookie has shown himself, and they don't sense anything wrong at all!"
"Huan Feng, you're about to take the bait!"
Chapter 20: The 'Type Two' Youth
One day, the once-peaceful bot lane was suddenly attacked by an unidentified parasitic life-form!
"Run!"
"But..."
"Quick, find Monster Big V Heavenly Dragon's weakness."
Welcome to the next episode of LPL Ultraman: "The Ambush Specialist Arrives."
Just as the innocent-looking Huan Feng reached the second turret, set up his Q skill opening stance, and prepared to clear a wave before returning to mid lane to help his teammates defend, Luo Zhen, hidden in the brush, suddenly launched his attack.
As mentioned before, Samira's "coin toss" could stack her style rating.
That gave rise to a speedy S-rank combo for Bush Ambushes: CTRL2 + Flash + Auto Attack + W + E + Q + R.
By the time Huan Feng's Caitlyn realized she was under attack, Luo Zhen's Samira had already spun to Caitlyn's side like a top. Against an assassin-type AD capable of getting close and unleashing High Burst damage, even Sea Whip Boy could only die helplessly.
V5's AK killed WBG's Huan Feng.
A perfect Dan Sha!
When the Kill Prompt in bot lane appeared above the Rift, Coach Homme opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something. But after thinking for a moment, he ultimately closed it again.
From a coach's perspective, an AD going off alone like that was unquestionably reckless behavior. He didn't advocate it.
But the result... was unexpectedly good.
Without Caitlyn's long range, Corki alone couldn't handle both wave clear and poke. Facing V5's All-Out Assault composition, WBG naturally backed down. After all, even when V5 charged in before, they had been charging at two targets at once, splitting their attention.
But now, the enemy only needed to engage on him.
Who the hell could take that?
So WBG chose to give up. V5 took the opportunity to destroy WBG's second mid turret. Once that turret fell, WBG's jungle vision was completely lost, and they were about to face a jungle governed by the Dark Forest Law.
A quick-witted ambush had produced an effect that even macro play couldn't achieve.
To a coach like Hong Mi, who valued stability, it felt like using Chinese characters to mark English pronunciation when learning new English vocabulary as a student. The English teacher would be furious upon discovering it, yet would also realize it actually worked quite well.
It was just awkward.
Dan Sha!
Deng Huang, Ah Shui, Xiang Zhangmen, and Huan Feng—four established ADs had already fallen to AK's blade, and Big Brother's march continued!
Xiang Zhangmen probably didn't count. At most, Xiang Zhangmen had been feeding him moves; he had personally trained this disciple, after all.
Got it. This was LWX Borrowing a Knife to Kill Someone.
This entertaining scene immediately delighted all the Amusement Seekers watching the match. After taking down the enemy second mid turret, the V5 group didn't bother being polite. They went straight for Baron Nashor, bullying WBG's shorthanded lineup by using Baron to force a fight.
WBG instantly couldn't hold it together.
If they went over, the enemy's five-man engage composition could start a fight at any second, and WBG couldn't beat them while down a man.
But if they didn't go, once V5 took Baron, the game was basically over.
This was the problem with a mid-game carry dying. Not every team was like Mr. Dai's, already accustomed to their AD reliably inting once in the mid game and therefore prepared in advance. WBG had never expected Huan Feng to suffer Sudden Death, so their minds were now a complete mess.
In the end, they chose to contest it.
They were dead either way, so they might as well come out and gamble. What if he successfully flanked them and entered the Dragon pit to steal it?
Then Vex's Doom 'n Gloom arrived.
As the only Poppy in the Poppy family who specialized in magic, Vex's special strength lay in her powerful roaming and GANK ability. Of course... that also included bursting people down.
Just how terrifying was a massively fed Vex at this point?
Even against WBG's tankiest jungler, Trundle, her W-E-Q combo upon landing instantly blew away more than half his HP.
Before WBG could even spread out into a defensive formation, 369, who had been waiting in the jungle for ages, had already charged out. When they looked up again, the sky was filled with thunder!
That's right.
V5 had never intended to start Baron this time.
For a team that valued steady play like Hong Mi's, if the whole team really rushed Baron, there could only be two situations: either they were at such a massive disadvantage that they had to force a rush in search of a comeback, or they were basically certain the enemy was tied down by the minion waves and couldn't interfere, allowing them to take Baron peacefully.
In a situation like this, where the enemy could clearly come out and V5 already held a huge lead.
Rush Baron at full force?
Wouldn't that just be making themselves suffer for nothing? They weren't EDG. They wouldn't make the mistake of constantly giving the enemy chances to come back.
Once 369's crowd control landed, the V5 group hurriedly followed up. This time, they had no intention of giving WBG any room to recover. They chased down WBG's remnants all the way to the enemy fountain.
Then, after wiping out the enemy team, they started hacking away at the turrets and Nexus right in front of WBG's faces.
It looked like they were making the WBG group buy rice cakes.
One slash made Jack Ma weep, two slashes broke Jianlin's heart, three slashes made Huateng kneel, four slashes forced Qiangdong to confess, five slashes made Gates cripple himself, six slashes shattered Earth, seven slashes collapsed the universe, eight slashes reunited them in heaven.
As for whether there were Zombies after the eighth slash, I couldn't say...
With the final Auto Attack falling.
1:0
The resurgent V5 once again slew their formidable foe WBG and claimed victory in the first game of the BO3!
"Yoshi! Another 1:0 win!"
Luo Zhen, who had been thinking nonstop about tonight's kidney tonic soup, cheered as usual. New players were like that—when they first entered the LPL, every match seemed to stir their passion.
"Steady yourself. The cameras are watching."
"It's fine, let them watch. Showing off has a Cooldown. I've figured it out: during the Regular Season, I'll celebrate when it's time to celebrate. When the big moments come, then I'll put on a show for the audience. That way, I can show my growth while building up my swagger. It's a fucking win-win!"
"???"
If modern young people had five major types—the Buddhist type, the Confucian type, the Legalist type, the immortal type, and the Type Two type—then Luo Zhen's behavior in team voice chat was unmistakably Type Two.
Or, more accurately: idiot type!
It was worth mentioning that SN was still very strong during this period of the Spring Split Regular Season. In the Original World, Huan Feng had even been nominated as the AD most likely to represent the LPL in Jakarta. Then came the Summer Split... those who knew, knew.
After Huan Feng suddenly exploded in the second game, the match was pushed to a third game once again.
This time, Hong Mi finally couldn't hold back any longer and prepared to target the bot lane Champion Pool.
"Ban out ADs and leave bot lane on its own. No problem, Xiao Zhen?" Sensing everyone's anger at not being able to drink their kidney tonic soup immediately, Hong Mi steadied himself before asking Luo Zhen with an expression of utmost kindness.
"Uphold a loyal heart and maintain humble restraint." Luo Zhen bowed slightly, indicating that he had absolutely no problem with it.
"In that case... let the slaughter begin!"
Chapter 21: For the Greater Good
When the match reached the third game of the BO3, the audience felt they had gotten their money's worth.
The first two games had brought the audience plenty of surprises. Whether it was V5's All-Out Assault composition in the first game or the individual skill explosion from WBG's players in the second, both suggested that today's match might be one of the most exciting in recent days.
V5 and WBG both felt so strong. No wonder they're the new season's Galactic Battleships.
Huan Feng's performance explosion in the second game was a little too outrageous. Compared to him, AK didn't seem to make much noise in the second game.
How was he supposed to play? Karsa was always top lane, Sofm was always bot lane. Even if you put Uzi in bot lane, he'd be finished.
The main issue was that Rookie and Karsa's State Fluctuations were too baffling. When the two veterans were on, they slaughtered everyone. When they weren't, they got lost all over the map. Don't tell me WBG was going to Old Man Ao V5 to victory in the BO3?
Same as always, V5's weakness lay in their players' form.
Their foundation was definitely solid, and everyone knew what they were capable of at their peaks. The only problem was that their State Fluctuations were particularly severe, making them hard to pin down. Even if they threw this situation to Hong Mi, he couldn't produce any miracle cure in a short time.
So what could they do?
Put the focus back on bot lane again?
If this had been S7 or S8 RNG, perhaps they would have done exactly that. But this was Hong Mi. He would rather lose this game than let Mid-Top-Jungle restore their form with their own hands. He absolutely couldn't allow his players to develop the mentality of avoiding responsibility for the team whenever they were out of form.
Don't ask. That's just the stubbornness of a top-tier coach!
Until the third game.
When the audience, commentators, and opponents all saw the mental state of V5's members before they went onstage for game three, everything changed.
Momentum was a mysterious thing.
During the Demacia Cup finals, V5 had possessed a kind of momentum called resilience.
Now, V5 possessed a different kind of momentum in this third game.
This time, it was killing intent!
"What's going on with V5?" WBG's coach stared in disbelief.
He knew that when a BO3 reached its crucial game, coaches would definitely give their players some motivational talk. But in the Regular Season, they usually wouldn't make it this exaggerated. After all, hype also had a Cooldown. No one could stay in a Burst State forever.
But the fucking Regular Season had only just begun. Why were they entering Burst State now?
Had they triggered some V5 taboo?
While they were completely unable to make sense of it, the third game's draft began.
First Ban Phase: WBG: LeBlanc, Lee Sin, Lucian V5: Caitlyn, Jinx, Moon Man
V5 directly used three bans on Big Carries, forcing WBG to pick either a utility AD or a tempo AD to fight V5 head-on. It wasn't because they feared the enemy AD. Rather, once any of those three champions were picked, the match would generally drag beyond thirty minutes, and that was far too long.
Before you continue