You Call This 'Steady'?

Very quickly, both sides entered the draft phase.

First Ban Phase:

IG: Jinx, Caitlyn, Azir

V5: Gwen, Renekton, Viktor

Then came the First Pick Phase:

IG: Twisted Fate (first pick) + Moon Man + Titan

V5: Zeri, Thresh (first two picks) + Lee Sin

The Aphelios-Thresh combo definitely had to be broken up. As long as they split it, whatever support Aphelios got would feel worse than their setup. Defensive Support might work, but Defensive Support would struggle to cooperate with Twisted Fate in mid.

Incidentally, the match against IG had already reached February 13, while Zeri had only appeared on the competitive stage on February 10. Zeri had not been nerfed at all during this period. If she was left open and someone knew how to play her, she was practically invincible, so naturally she changed the priority of the first three picks and bans.

As for why IG did not ban her?

Because no one would have expected an AD to dare bring her out at this point. It was too early. Anyone who had learned her at this stage was keeping her hidden away as a trump card.

Second Ban Phase: Camille, Xin Zhao, Corki, LeBlanc

Clearly, V5 intended to play around the lower half of the map this game. They were prepared to give up the Upper Area and let 369 be Scum. That was the healthy tactical approach—not endlessly playing whatever you were good at, but comparing yourself against the opponent, identifying their weakness, and targeting it.

With the fourth pick, Rookie continued with his sleep-deprived Poppy.

One benefit of following the meta was that it gave a team extremely high draft Fault Tolerance. That was what most LPL coaches did: blindly pick Meta Heroes. After all, their players had played those Heroes to death, and the strengths and weaknesses were familiar. It all came down to their performance on stage.

A truly outstanding coach, however, would build on that foundation by making his own players comfortable while making the opposing coach miserable.

Now that IG's Aphelios-Thresh combo had been split apart, and the three mid lane Scum picks—Corki, Azir, and Viktor—had all been banned, Twisted Fate looked like an all-purpose system Hero. Yet the enemy had completely overlooked something vital for a Mid Lane: lane priority.

Having Yue Kai use Twisted Fate to shove Rookie's lane was like taking a six-yuan starter-spender lineup in Esports Manager and confidently challenging some mega-whale's fully maxed lineup one-on-one. People would laugh their heads off if they heard it.

With their final two picks, IG took Jarvan IV and Kennen to round out their engage and AP damage.

Generally, when completing a competitive composition, you first considered which lane you wanted to attack around, then contested Meta Heroes and selected the Carry Positions. After that, you had to consider the composition's overall logic. V5's Big Carry was their Double C, but sleep-deprived Poppy leaned toward ganks and diving into the enemy formation. Lee Sin was fierce early and could protect the AD later on. With the support's protection on top of that, it was enough. Which meant V5 still needed a durable pick that could provide vision.

Mud Truck 369 had not played in a long time. Ornn would feel a little off on the current 369 as well. That made the remaining choice simple.

His brows furrowed.

Magma Beast!

And thus:

IG: Top Laner Kennen, Jungler Jarvan IV, Mid Lane Twisted Fate, Bot Lane Aphelios + Titan

V5: Top Lane Malphite, Jungler Lee Sin, Mid Lane sleep-deprived Poppy, Bot Lane Zeri + Thresh

If anyone said Hong Mi had not deliberately used IG as a punching bag for Luo Zhen to vent on, nobody on V5 would believe it. Everyone knew their AD had been beaten senseless by JKL some time ago and had been looking for someone to take his frustration out on.

And now, this was perfect.

Against IG, both carries could vent their anger together. Hong Mi almost wanted to thank Su X Luo in person.

Really, you had come at exactly the right time!~

"This game, we play around bot. Xiao Zhen, go all out. No problem with that, right?" Hong Mi put away his notebook, draped both hands over the Double C's shoulders, and asked the team with a smile.

"Of course not. This game, I'm fucking camping bot!"

Evasion could be hit with guaranteed strikes, and invincibility could be pierced, but that was fine. Karsa said he could just go straight for Purifying Defense this game!

Just fucking do it!

Karsa's Jungle Path this game was rather unusual. He chose to start solo at Red Buff, then planned to hit Level 3 quickly and immediately gank bot. To keep his route from being discovered, he even had Rookie guard the jungle entrance so the enemy would not have a chance to place vision.

Luo Zhen, meanwhile, went straight to lane, intending to claim the bot lane brush first and see whether he could chip away at some HP.

In the past,

no matter which bot lane Luo Zhen faced, he always maintained a relatively calm mindset, because he was a man with the four great virtues of the new era.

Namely:

Self-discipline: faithfully tanking and slacking off every day

Tolerance: yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right about everything

Politeness: I'm really going to thank you for that

Thoughtfulness: what should I eat today?

But now, he only wanted to crush the enemy—or be crushed by them.

When you brought out a new Hero you had practiced for a long time, it gave you the pride of showing off a new toy. Never underestimate the playful mentality of boys. Back in middle and high school, some people would feel completely refreshed and full of motivation just from getting a haircut—or even trimming their nails.

It was only that, gradually... that childish delight disappeared.

"Diao Shen, whether we can smash through them depends on your hooks." As he spoke, Luo Zhen casually pinged the enemy Bot Lane Combo.

No matter how skilled you were, you still feared a cleaver. Luo Zhen did not feel there was any difficulty in facing some unknown enemy bot lane, but that depended on his support being useful. If Thresh could not start the fight, it was not like he, an AD, could stand at the very front and Tower dive by himself.

"Is there a possibility—just a possibility—that Titan's Q can hook a wall and cancel the crowd control from my hook?"

"Huh? Is that how it works?"

"Isn't that how it works?"

"Oh, then you're so bad."

???

"Fuck me!"

His fists were clenched. PPGOD said his fists were hard.

Damn it. He was not some elite support. Even if you brought over the top LPL supports, they would not dare guarantee that every hook would feel good, all right?

However, the enemy bot lane had clearly anticipated V5 waiting in the brush. They stuck close to the upper side and kept moving back and forth, making fake dodging motions.

Seeing this, Luo Zhen and PPGOD stopped pretending as well. They stepped out of the brush and began spamming emotes at each other.

And so, countless viewers noticed something.

Before the minion wave had even arrived, the two Bot Lane Combos were already dancing wildly above and below each other while flashing emotes. Both hook supports stood completely still, with absolutely no desire to throw a hook.

It had arrived—the highest etiquette among Players.

Like a Western duel: knife fights in CF, stock-car one-on-ones in QQ Speed, frying-pan duels in Battle Royale, trading Flashes in League of Legends, or fistfights in Apex. No excessive words were needed. As long as the atmosphere, the opponent, and the setting were right, it was time to compare etiquette and raw skill.

Besides, Chinese people almost always believed in Courtesy Before Force.

This courtesy,

he would offer first!

The First Person to Eat Crab

"Zeri, huh? This should be Zeri's first time appearing on the LPL stage, right?" Cat Emperor asked Dàxiào beside him uncertainly. As a commentator who was not especially well received by viewers, he had cast far fewer matches than Guān Dàxiào.

"Right, this should be the first time. I just didn't expect AK to be the fastest one to bring out this Hero. All I can say is, the Young General is bold."

To some extent, the first person to pick Zeri was the first person to Eat Crab. As for whether he could eat that crab properly or choke on it, that depended entirely on the player's performance. At least, with her being brought out after such a short time, Dàxiào was not particularly optimistic.

Still, the Show Effect was absolutely maxed out.

Here we go, here we go. The players' opening etiquette is flashing Dog emotes at each other, huh?

This fucking Hero's damage is genuinely impossible to understand. Other people make her look insanely strong, but when I play her, it's like Scratching Damage.

Ashe, Kalista, and Zeri—I hereby call them the three SPA legends: "scraping, cupping, and acupuncture."

To be fair, she's pretty fun when she starts sliding around. Just a little hard on the hands.

Zeri's role was actually similar to Kalista and Draven, because they were all ADs whose playstyles ran contrary to traditional AD gameplay.

Since her Auto Attack had a shorter range of 500 than her Q skill's 800 range, and a fully charged Auto Attack also slowed for one second, when this Hero had first come out, many people used Q to chase, reposition, and Last Hit. Their Auto Attacks were used purely for the slow effect.

As for her actual playstyle, before Zeri was changed in version 12.14, let's put it this way:

Suppose Xin Zhao's stepping style was: A, move, A, move, A, move.

Then Zeri's style was: A, move, Q, move, A, move, Q, move. Remember, the A, move, and Q here were three separate actions, and it was AQ rather than QA.

That was because Zeri's attack windup was extremely short, but her Recovery Animation after attacking was very long. It was especially obvious at low attack speed. If you greedily tried to Auto Attack after Q, you would be unable to move. The Q skill was a spell, so its casting animation could not be changed. For Basic Attacks, the windup could not be altered either. Forcing it would only cause missed attacks. The Recovery Animation, however, could be canceled, whether by Ground Slam or using a skill.

In other words, for Players accustomed to pressing A and then left-clicking an enemy, this Hero would be a disaster, because they had to force themselves to right-click targets when playing Zeri.

Doesn't that sound complicated?

It was supposed to sound complicated. This Hero was simple for those who truly understood her, but for those who did not, either do not play her at all, or just max W and poke from range. There was no need to force yourself to adapt to a Hero.

If you absolutely insisted on playing her, then change your keybinds. Set A to smart-cast Basic Attack, or enable auto attack and bind it to left-click, so you could reduce one click. The downside was that you would no longer see the attack-range circle, so you had to judge whether the enemy was within range yourself.

By this point, I believe you had learned the most basic Zeri playstyle. Today's homework was to queue up, pick Zeri, and casually lane against a pro player. ()

Of course, it also depended on some other factors.

Just as every person could only experience their peak state in different aspects at the appropriate age, such as:

Peak energy: elementary school

Peak stamina: middle school

Peak intelligence: high school

Peak appetite: university

Your mechanical peak was from middle school through university. Once you entered the workforce, I suggested just maxing W and becoming a mobile artillery platform, because your hands would not be able to keep up.

Originally, IG's New Bot Lane, AHN and LUCAS, had thought that facing a rookie AD would be much less stressful. Sure, he was an AD who had received Xiang Zhangmen's teachings, but compared to the top ADs themselves, the pressure should have been far lower. Not to mention that the enemy AD had been known for being steady ever since his debut.

But...

The instant the minion waves met, AHN immediately felt the terrifying pressure from the enemy AD in every possible way.

His fundamentals were unbelievably solid, his Distance Control was absurdly precise, and from the very moment he reached lane, he was already using an AQ rhythm to trade fiercely. You called this steady?

"Holy shit, do you have to play this aggressively?"

Even PPGOD beside him was stunned by Luo Zhen's mechanics. He knew Luo Zhen had fire in his heart, but he had not known that his heart was full of fucking fire. He opened with AQ trades to maximize the return. Was he not worried that his hands would give out?

"Don't worry about it. Reality has proven that even with nonstop firing, you need to fire sixty-one consecutive shots before you die, and the limit varies depending on each person's physique. I'm only playing AD right now, so the problem is even smaller!" Luo Zhen stared closely at every movement the enemy AD made while unleashing the webnovel-exclusive secret art—rapid-fire divine speech—at his own support.

"Wait... what reality show was that from?"

"Legal Report."

"???"

This match was different from the previous ones. The coach had openly stated that the strategy would revolve around bot lane, and Jungler Karsa had said he would path toward bot at level three. Luo Zhen therefore had no need to worry about whether pressing forward would leave him without vision.

Besides, the deeper he pressed, the less certain the enemy would be whether the jungler was nearby, which would make them hesitate.

Of course, this was also worth mentioning.

Zeri's AQAQ was highly dependent on the timing of her QA casts. It was rather mystical and unusual, requiring a certain sensitivity to rhythm to master. But do not worry. Next, allow me to formally introduce a game that could train your rhythm: MuseDash!

In just three short days, it could help you grasp the rhythm required to master Zeri's AQ playstyle. ()

Known as the Mount Myōboku of gaming, mastering Immortal Mode was just around the corner!

When Luo Zhen finally encountered a bot lane that was not, strictly speaking, LPL level, the urge to stomp noobs buried in his DNA finally awakened. He kited to adjust his position, charged an Auto Attack to slow them, stayed near walls to ensure his safety, then relied on the relatively secure environment to brutally suppress the enemy's farm.

Oh, right.

Zeri was rather special. Her Q was basically an Auto Attack, her W was Lux's Ultimate Light, and her E was Bard's E. So as long as she was near a wall, Zeri could have an excellent damage-dealing environment.

The moment he started suppressing them, the pressure became instantly apparent.

What a ruthless Zeri. She had completely changed her Playstyle.

He was so fierce, as though he were venting something. He was too violent.

AK seemed to be improving so quickly. Other rookie ADs did not improve this fast. Could Xiang Zhangmen have secretly given him extra lessons again?

Is there a possibility—just a possibility—that this rabid Dog-like lane pressure was taught by JKL?

He was clearly only a rookie, yet behind him seemed to lurk the playstyles of several different players.

That feeling that someone was backing him, but you could not guess who it was, was like the Soviet Union decades ago: your names were unknown, but your achievements would live forever.

Of course, no matter how fierce he was, it only counted if he won the game.

Otherwise, it would become like Japan: your names had not even been written yet, and your achievements had been fabricated out of thin air.