You call this thing stable?

A Round of Picks:

WBG: Rakan (First Pick) + Xayah, Corki

V5: EZ + Leona (First Two Picks) + Azir

Second Round Bans: Gnar, Trundle, Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV

At pick four, V5 locked in Poppy.

Coach Homme knew that the opposing Sofm had assassins in his champion pool, like Talon, but he wasn't in a hurry. This Poppy pick could perfectly solve the problem of the enemy's engage; Rakan charging in alone wouldn't be enough.

WBG started to struggle. Considering Trundle was already banned, they brought out a Viego + Sion combination for their last two picks.

"They're here!"

Seeing the opponent's final two picks locked in, the V5 members instantly felt relieved.

From a team fighting perspective, the enemy's lineup was indeed solid, but in a competition, we need to understand one thing: a solid lineup only raises the floor of your win rate. However, if the lineup doesn't match the team's playstyle, it will actually lower the ceiling.

And V5 got the lineup they liked best at this stage.

The final pick: Jayce locked in!

Jayce, Azir, EZ – three poke threats. The noble, prestigious team would grace the LPL battlefield once again today.

And so, the lineups were set.

WBG: Top Sion, Jungle Viego, Mid Corki, Bot Xayah + Rakan

V5: Top Jayce, Jungle Poppy, Mid Azir, Bot EZ + Leona

"This game, we aim to win in the mid-game and end it quickly," Coach Homme said, closing his notebook after adjusting the BP. His expression was serious as he instructed his team.

"Especially you, Xiao Zhen. The jungler will basically live in the top lane this game, and the support will roam. So your job remains the same: stay alive."

With a three-poke composition, any single gun misfiring would lead to a mid-game damage deficit. Karsa's radar allowed him to reliably protect two lanes, but it couldn't let him protect three teammates simultaneously.

Luo Zhen would once again have to make sacrifices.

"Understood, Coach. When it comes to being a coward, I'm a professional," Luo Zhen said with a smile, feeling no pressure. After all, AD players are all too familiar with EZ; they're all signature move experts.

"Thank you for your hard work."

Once all instructions were given, as they were about to head off stage, Coach Homme ruffled a few players' hair and told them, "Remember, when making any choice, think clearly about why you are fighting this game!"

"For the delicious soup!"

"For virility!"

"For kidney health!"

"For greater good!"

"Charge! Brothers!"

The game began.

As soon as the game started, four V5 members – mid, jungle, support, and top – gathered to invade the enemy's bottom jungle and place wards. One ward was placed at F6, with a feint towards the red buff, while another was placed in the bush above the Dragon pit. These two wards, combined with vision in the river once the mid laner hit level three, would essentially lock down Sofm's early farming route.

The reason for placing wards like this was simple: WBG's early game top, mid, and jungle were too weak.

Corki couldn't push against Azir in the early game, and Sion couldn't fight against long-range champions. With both top and mid lanes being suppressed, Viego had no way to deal with Poppy. His only way to farm would be to start in the top jungle and then farm downwards.

But their bot lane was EZ + Leona, who weren't afraid of your ganks at all.

Thus, at the start of this game, Sofm was almost forced to play with his cards face up.

The early laning phase was relatively simple. The Xayah + Rakan combination was indeed strong for engaging, but that was solely emphasizing level six. If Rakan dared to randomly W in before level six, Leona could easily give him a crowd control, taking away more than half his health in an instant.

Strangers always misunderstood the champion EZ.

They thought this champion was just a placeholder, useless except for hiding behind minions and teammates, throwing Qs.

But for top-tier players, EZ was a rare early-game strong ADC. An EZ with a fully stacked passive even had the possibility of a 1v2 in the bot lane.

It was like Nezha from "A Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes."

Just looking at his head, you might think he was a little girl easy to bully, but if you actually attacked, the 'Goliath Barbie' would show you what cruelty was.

Chapter 22: Grew Up Together

There wasn't much to explain about playing EZ in the bot lane.

When playing League of Legends, any player in the AD carry role would eventually end up playing EZ, the "cancer" pick. The only thing to pay attention to was to try and stack the passive during the laning phase to maintain combat effectiveness. After all, while you could say his AQA combo was strong when his attack speed ramped up, if you said he was weak, as long as minions blocked your Q, and you hadn't stacked attack speed with auto-attacks, then he was indeed truly weak.

As for why you needed to stack the passive.

It was like asking if you were afraid of violence.

If you had no ability to resist, you would definitely be afraid of violence. But if you had the ability to resist, like having eight-pack abs during your student years or a law degree after graduation, then the person afraid of violence would transform from you to someone else.

In essence, it's one sentence: nowadays, if you try to reason with the opponent, they'll play rough; but if you play tough with them, they'll immediately start reasoning with you. That's how you have to handle it!

In the early game, Luo Zhen had a range advantage over the opponent (525 vs. 500), so he started pressuring them in the bot lane for the first two levels.

While last-hitting minions, he would occasionally stack his attack speed.

Although this meant they couldn't quickly hit level two, once Leona landed her stun at level two, he could immediately E in and start dealing point-blank damage. WBG also understood the power spike of the enemy bot lane, so after successfully hitting level two, they didn't try to engage aggressively and simply maintained a relatively safe damage output position.

Seeing this, Luo Zhen immediately felt that it was no longer interesting.

Of course, it wasn't just him; the director off-stage would also shift the camera elsewhere due to the opponent's intention to avoid conflict.

There's a good saying in The King's Avatar: How many viewers can understand your high-level tactics, and how many people can grasp the technical skill in your complex coordination? Players like to watch a 1v3 in a challenge match or a comeback in a team match.

As for the small thoughts and minor gambles during the laning phase.

Honestly, unless you're learning techniques from a first-person perspective, hardly anyone pays attention.

Since the bot lane couldn't kick off for the time being, the top lane naturally became the center of everyone's attention, because it was 369 against TheShy.

Sion against Jayce, the early game is almost a trade of HP for lane priority. Even though Jayce's base attack damage has been nerfed to 58, the rule of long-range champions dominating short-range ones still remains unchanged. 369's goal this game is very clear: to push relentlessly.

Karsa has made it clear that he will camp the top lane this game, and Rookie in the mid lane is confident that he can roam faster than Angel. I still remember that during his peak near-shame, he once made 369 so depressed that he had to see a doctor. Now, isn't this an opportunity for revenge?

What else is there to think about?

Just go for it!

Apply pressure in the top lane, apply pressure in the mid lane, and the jungler directly invades the jungle to find Viego's position. In the early game, WBG will naturally be under pressure in the bot lane.

Looking at the lineup, the offensive pressure is on V5's side.

But judging by the tempo of these past few minutes, if Huan Feng and ON in the bot lane want to help their teammates, there's only one way: make noise in the bot lane, forcing the enemy bot lane to call for their jungler to defend.

However, Huan Feng is finding it difficult to exert pressure right now.

Xayah is an ADC with strong self-preservation abilities. In the future, when lethality items become popular, she might also be an ADC with strong laning capabilities. But as it stands now, in this meta where traditional builds are still mainstream, if you expect a Level 3 Xayah to put significant pressure on an enemy EZ, you can only hope the EZ makes a huge mistake, otherwise, don't even think about it.

Of course, there's another possibility: the player controlling Xayah has an explosive performance.

In professional matches, it's not uncommon for some professional players to win their lanes by outplaying their opponents through sheer skill. For example, the most famous match of 957's Jarvan IV against Jax is still a classic display of intricate details to this day.

Huan Feng initially intended to try that. In the second game, he had already exploded like that once, and he thought it should be no problem to continue that form and crush the opponent.

But...

When the game reached the third match, and the opponent picked EZ, he suddenly remembered a certain evaluation of Luo Zhen circulating online.

His non-targeted skill accuracy is incredibly high!

Yes.

Why did he suddenly remember this?

Because he was now genuinely experiencing it in the laning phase. Within just a few minutes of laning, the enemy EZ, relying solely on his Q skill and occasional auto-attacks, had already forced him to use his potions.

"Is this guy a professional FPS player?" Huan Feng couldn't help but complain.

Although he had Leona, his support, who could occasionally Q the enemy to heal him, frequently getting hit by skills like this would severely damage his confidence in his positioning.

"Is there a possibility... that you're right?"

"???"

As a support player, ON, despite being a rookie, has quite a wide social circle.

In fact, the most social role in the league is the support. Whenever teams gather, the supports from each team seem like social butterflies, constantly moving between players, forming incredibly close bonds.

It was during a casual chat that he actually heard that the enemy ADC had undergone specialized training for his non-targeted skills.

However, he couldn't guess the specifics...

Well, because Luo Zhen wouldn't reveal it to others.

He was indeed a player who was obsessed with FPS games before his transmigration. He had played all the major FPS games, not to mention he had grown up playing many FPS games since childhood, such as Diggers and Mirror 2.

Yes, grown up with them in every sense of the word, which is why his aim is as steady as it is now.

It wasn't until he saw the enemy jungler appear in the bottom jungle through vision that Luo Zhen reluctantly gave up his pressure and retreated.

But... even so, it was enough.

"Alright, go roam. I'm recalling."

The next minion wave had a caster minion, which would allow him to minimize unnecessary experience loss when returning to lane after recalling, whether it was to defend against a push or to tank tower damage from an incoming push. So, he might as well recall.

With EZ, no matter what, he needs to get Sheen as soon as he has enough money.

It's the same principle: if you have enough money to get Sheen against EZ in the early game, get Sheen without hesitation; only when you don't have enough for Sheen will you consider other items, because the damage difference is truly significant.

Also, during the time he took to recall and return to lane, it was enough for the support to go cause some trouble.

Don't just talk about supports "walking dogs."

Sometimes, when the ADC asks the support to roam, it feels like raising a traveling frog.

It was the moment the support left and went to the mid lane that an extremely familiar feeling once again enveloped Luo Zhen's body, causing him to involuntarily immerse himself.

Here it comes, this feeling.

A state that countless seniors have discussed privately.

When the support abandons the ADC, and the ADC is alone, facing the threat of two opponents, the top-tier ADCs will automatically trigger a bodily memory, entering a special state with maximum anti-gank capabilities.

[Its name is—Orphan Domain!]

Chapter 23: Who Exactly Fell Behind?

As an ADC, besides calculating the threat from the opponent's laner, you also need to consider the threat from the enemy jungler.

This recall was initiated by the enemy's knowledge of our recall. It's known that our jungler went top, our support went mid, the enemy jungler invaded our bottom jungle, and the enemy support was nowhere to be seen in lane, leaving only the enemy ADC slowly pushing the wave in the bot lane.

This leaves two possibilities.

One is that Rakan also went mid to support, preventing our mid laner, the earthbound spirit, from being taken down by V5's jungle and support in a pincer movement.

The other possibility is that they're coming for him.

As everyone knows, V5's attention is mostly focused on the top lane right now. Since they can't win or push effectively in a 3v3, WBG must find other breakthroughs. The Elemental Dragon is too slow, and the bot lane's tower-pushing tempo isn't working. So, are there any other methods to force the enemy jungler to fall back?

Yes, by crushing your bot lane.

Luo Zhen, emerging from his base, immediately noticed something was wrong on the minimap. Logically, the bot lane, having discovered his MISS, should have quickly pushed and recalled, or simply let the wave crash and recalled together. But their slow push... that's a bit telling.

"I feel like the enemy might be planning to ambush me on my way back to bot lane," he realized something was off and retreated a few steps back to the fountain to buy a Control Ward before leaving base again.

With Viego and Rakan, theoretically, they could at least force him to use his summoner spells and E. Once his skills are all used up, and his position is already close to his own bot tower, then when the enemy ADC pushes the wave into the tower, it would be a three-man dive, and he would likely be doomed.

"Do you need me to fall back?"

PPGOD was already moving further away, targeting the top lane. He also sensed that the enemy had noticed his roaming. So, he decided to stop pretending and just pushed his way towards the top lane.

A two-man dive against an experienced player is difficult, but a three-man dive? That's easy pickings.

"No, I just feel like it's a possibility. But I have a way to gain experience, so you don't need to worry about me."

Since his goal this game is to not die, any action involving risk must be avoided.

In that case, he'll just flank.

Entering the jungle, taking the main road, and sensing potential danger in the bot lane, Luo Zhen directly controlled EZ to flank from his own jungle towards the river, then proceeded down from the river, hugging the wall.

This time, he planned to circle around behind the enemy minion wave and return to his tower.