You Call This 'Steady'?

It might have seemed a little unnecessary.

But if he guessed right, it could prove far more useful than he imagined.

Sure enough, WBG's jungler and support had placed a lane ward near bot, lying in wait in the brush before V5's second turret and at Frog Consort's camp just over the wall, waiting for Ezreal to emerge.

The spectators watching from outside were completely dumbfounded by the moves from both sides.

Were they using X-ray vision?

Holy shit, how did he predict that? He could dodge that too?

To this day, we still had no idea how many things AK had running on his computer.

I didn't know about anything else, but I knew he'd be amazing at Nasus. He was way too damn steady!

WBG couldn't wait for the ADC to come back to lane forever, but Huan Feng had to recall after pushing the wave. They had already calculated this play: as long as their jungler and support could force the enemy ADC's Flash, then when he came back to lane next time, if his support still wasn't there, they could dive Ezreal again and mindlessly fatten themselves up in bot lane.

Except...

"Why hasn't their Ezreal come out after so long?"

"Maybe he doesn't have enough gold? Could he be waiting for a 150-gold potion?" Huan Feng sounded uncertain too. With how long they had waited, he should have had enough time not only to reach their ambush spot, but to walk straight back to bot lane.

"Could they have vision here?"

"Impossible. Where would they get so much vision for the jungle this early? Even if they did, I refuse to believe he wouldn't be tempted by such a huge wave." Huan Feng's tone was firm. No ADC could possibly ignore such a massive wave unless the other side had genuinely quit drugs.

However...

In the final 0.5 seconds before his recall finished, the Ezreal whom their jungler and support had been patiently waiting for suddenly and inexplicably appeared behind him.

Was it an illusion?

How could it be?

That Ezreal should have finally waited for enough money in fountain and just left base. How could he possibly be behind him?

Huan Feng comforted himself that way, but when he successfully returned to base and saw an Ezreal icon on the Minimap where he had just recalled from, the brains of WBG's bot lane, jungler, and support nearly crashed at the same time.

Why the hell was this Ezreal there?!

If they were talking about lost minions, Ezreal had indeed lost some. But because there was a Siege Minion, it wasn't too much.

Yet compared to the time WBG had spent waiting to ambush him and send him home, this Ezreal had made a massive profit. More importantly, he had now successfully circled back under his own turret with both Flash and E skill available. How were the two of them supposed to kill him now?

Tower dive?

Wasn't that complete nonsense?

"Good lord... WBG's bot lane has completely Collapsed this time."

Even Wawa, who was casting the match, couldn't help feeling sorry for WBG. Three people had slow-pushed the wave, skipped jungle camps, and delayed their recalls, all in hopes of completely crushing the enemy bot lane with this play.

In the end, the enemy ADC didn't Collapse. They had Collapsed from waiting for an ambush instead. Wasn't WBG's Early Game Tempo completely ruined?

"Speaking of that, something just came to mind. After the Demacia Cup ended, I chatted with TES's bot laner JKL. We happened to talk about V5's AK. Do you know what he told me?"

"What did he say?"

"He said V5's bot lane ADC put enormous pressure on him. Not the pressure brought by a rookie's mechanics or aggression, but during lane, he felt as if he were laning against a turret, because the enemy bot lane was simply too Steady."

"Uh..."

Tower ADC. That was the evaluation every ADC Luo Zhen had faced gave him. Of course, Huan Feng didn't know that. His relationship with Deng Huang, JKL, and LWX could only be described as acquaintances who nodded when they met. An ADC who had embarrassed himself in the World Championship finals because of his centipede nemesis could never enter JKL's circle.

But LWX and JKL were different. They genuinely had each other on WeChat, and both were champion ADCs. After JKL saw LWX's shadow in Luo Zhen during the Demacia Cup, he contacted him through WeChat on the night the matches ended.

As for what they did, who knew? Maybe the loser ate shit.

When Luo Zhen returned to bot lane and only saw the enemy support come back much later, still at Level 3, he finally couldn't hold back and burst into laughter.

"Look at their support's level. I knew that bastard had to be waiting in the jungle to ambush me."

"Damn, you really guessed it."

Karsa also felt that Luo Zhen's Sixth Sense was ridiculously strong. Rakan's level revealed plenty, but after Luo Zhen suspected the enemy might be camping him, Karsa had directly invaded the Upper Jungle. From the camps that still hadn't been cleared, he could roughly tell that Luo Zhen's Sixth Sense had been right again. The enemy jungler really did seem to be bot.

"Of course. They have no idea how formidable I am. Whenever I encounter a difficult situation like this, I miss Growth, Life, and Happiness so much. Also, I am the Mother of Dragons—don't forget my treasures!"

"???"

The Moment I Picked Up My Calculator

After Luo Zhen successfully stood WBG up on their long-planned interception, WBG's tempo had already begun to collapse.

Top lane saw a Three-man dive on top that killed Theshy's Sion, while Jayce happily took Tower Plates and rapidly built up his gold lead. In mid, Azir used his range to pressure Corki, turning Angel's fake Earthbound Spirit passive into the real thing. And in bot, they simply had no answer for Ezreal.

Push Lane? Sure.

Tower Plates? He could take them.

But if they wanted to pressure his HP and then Tower dive him? Sorry, he wouldn't give them even the slightest chance.

As the saying went, a man had gold beneath his knees, and when forced by circumstances, he could go against his heart. When faced with something beyond his expectations, Luo Zhen's response was to play scared when he needed to.

Of course, he was already being quite restrained.

If he were as shameless as that person and played Armor-piercing EZ, then even in a 1v3, he wouldn't fear them at all. Unfortunately, he couldn't play that build this match, because he had to contribute part of the POKE damage.

"I'm back~"

After taking a sightseeing trip around top lane, Leona finally returned to bot lane this time. With Leona guarding beside him, Luo Zhen could finally lower his guard a little and slowly move away from the wall toward Mid Lane.

Unlike Rookie's reliably recurring illness of hugging walls, Luo Zhen had also found his own absolute domain during his LPL career.

That was right: walls.

Perhaps it was the invisible buff brought by his long career as Old Six, but as long as he tucked himself beside a wall now, he felt that his skill-shot accuracy became absurdly good. His strength was unknowable; near a wall, he became stronger.

"You're back? That's perfect. Help me hold the wave, and I'll recall again to update my items."

"Huh? What can you even buy at this point? Boots?" PPGOD sounded surprised. "You don't have much gold on you. Are you going home for something big?"

"No, the Shy Blade."

After soloing bot for so long, his experience had pulled far ahead of the other three players in bot lane. He had no concerns about experience, but Leona had roamed all the way top and barely gained any experience, so her level had gradually fallen behind the enemy support's.

Then Leona could catch up first, while he went back to update his farming items.

Boots for Movement Speed and dodging Rakan's W, Shy Blade for rapid farming and gold growth, and a Control Ward—the Core Item of a Steady Style ADC.

As for Tear of the Goddess?

He had bought it as part of his starting items. In the New Mythic Gear version, Ezreal rarely started without Tear of the Goddess.

Then he would just stall and see whether the enemy went for the Rift Herald fight.

If their bot lane went to the Rift Herald fight, V5 would take it. Xayah Rakan without Level 6 was useless after roaming up, and since WBG's Top Mid Jungle already couldn't win, if they dared contest, V5 dared wipe them out.

What if they didn't go?

Didn't go?

Then V5 would still have their support move toward Rift Herald while protecting it and continuing to catch Theshy, making him truly feel the blessings of his old teammates while completely crushing WBG's Frontline. Once Sion's growth got blown apart and he couldn't become tanky, V5's triple-POKE composition would become WBG's Nightmare, the kind that could never be saved.

At seven and a half minutes, WBG gave up contesting Rift Herald, but Sofm stole the Elemental Dragon in the lower jungle. It was effectively a Resource Exchange.

Just after nine minutes, Mid-Jungle made another Three-man dive on top. Sion died.

At ten minutes and thirty seconds, the jungler dropped Rift Herald mid to force WBG's main force back toward mid and relieve pressure in bot. At this point, V5's outer bottom lane turret still had three Tower Plates.

At fourteen minutes, Ezreal finally died under another WBG siege, and V5's outer bottom lane turret officially fell.

And during those nearly eight minutes, Luo Zhen only did one thing: free up his support and defend bot alone.

It might not have looked special. After all, he was playing Ezreal and only needed to make sure he didn't die. But everything became frightening when compared. Both sides were facing multiple people pressuring a side lane, losing turrets, and giving up gold. Yet Theshy's scoreline on the other side had already reached 0/4, even heading toward 0/5.

More frighteningly, it wasn't the scoreline of a turret-destroying Sion inting for towers. It was purely the result of being Tower dived again and again.

All that could be said was that Sofm's old habit had returned.

With his Early Game Tempo going poorly, Sofm had once again become a jungler who only knew how to farm jungle camps, making the WBG fans below the stage rage.

Save top lane! Save it, Sofm!!!

If not for Sofm, the LPL jungle would have been an endless night for all eternity. Jungle is here!

What the hell was this game? The mid laner was an Earthbound Spirit in mid, the jungler was farming WeChat steps in the jungle, and the support and ADC were two-versus-one in bot, yet they only broke the enemy Bot Outer Tower at fourteen minutes?

This State Banquet was anything but Plain Water; multiple WBG chefs were cooking.

Of course, if you believed that just from seeing this, then it only meant you hadn't played enough Apex.

The true meaning of EZ soloing bot lane was this: act alone, flank from behind, divide the enemy's attention, burn their ammunition, and render great service, while his teammates merely picked up a few kills, that was all.

It wasn't until both sides left the Laning Phase at fifteen minutes and entered the Kiting phase that countless viewers finally understood the point of V5 focusing top lane.

Their firepower was too fierce!

Ezreal's QW, Jayce's EQ, and Azir's Sand Soldier Q—standing in mid gave them direct triple-layered fire suppression. Visually, it was like Lord picked Yuan Shao, then his two loyal ministers, Guo Jia and Xun Yu, frantically handed cards to Lord.

"Alright, brothers, hit them hard with this firepower! Blast the hell out of them!"

Luo Zhen was gradually becoming berserk.

Playing scared in the early game had been a tactical necessity. Just as Laozi had not written the Tao Te Ching willingly, but had been detained by Yin Xi, the official of Hangu Pass, and forced to write it, he had no choice.

But once the hardest stretch had passed, he had to return to being unruly and proud. Otherwise, people would think he had no temper.

"Hahaha, I can feel Xiao Zhen's anger. It's fine, bro. I'll blast them for you!"

The massively fed 369 found an angle and switched directly into Cannon Form for an EQ. The fierce artillery blast passed right through the Soldiers, heading straight for WBG's Corki.

"Boom~"

That shot, combined with the POKE damage from before, instantly blasted WBG's Corki down to low health.

Angel couldn't take it anymore. He decisively used W to retreat and prepared to recall. Considering V5 still had Ezreal's ultimate, he hesitated slightly before finding a relatively safe position to begin recalling.

Except...

In V5 team voice chat at that moment:

"Xiao Zhen, what do you think?"

"No problem. I've already locked onto his position." As Luo Zhen silently counted the recall timer, he looked toward the enemy fountain at their base and began finding an angle. He spoke with resounding conviction: "The moment I picked up my calculator, I will shatter the darkness with lightning!"

"Thirty-six formations unified, disperse the great path of peace."

"Go! 100,000 Volts!!!"

A Good Meal

"V5's POKE firepower is so fierce. WBG looks like they can barely withstand it."

"Hong Mi's favorite POKE composition this season. It seems he has developed it into one of the team's standard tactics."

"That shot! Nice, 369 directly blasted Angel to low health with that shot. Can they do anything around Angel recalling?"

"Wait, AK seems to have an idea. Huh... this ultimate!?"

When countless viewers watched Ezreal draw his bow to full tension, line up the angle, and fire his ultimate, their spirits trembled.

Was it coming?

Would V5's new ADC's absurd Non-directional Skill accuracy appear once again at this very moment!?

The golden Piercing Barrage shot violently toward WBG base. This time, Luo Zhen had deliberately chosen a trajectory through the jungle, maximizing the chance of avoiding detection and preventing the enemy from reacting early. During the few seconds after it launched, every V5 player almost simultaneously stopped what they were doing and turned their cameras toward the flying Piercing Barrage.

Would it hit?

3000 range...

2000 range...

1000 range...

Just as Angel's low-health Corki pressed B and returned to fountain, opening his eyes, a Piercing Barrage as large as a Moon Fang Heaven Piercer appeared before him and swallowed him whole.

The ultimate prediction succeeded!

666666

Aimbot. That had to be aimbot. Where were the referees? Referees, do something, damn it!