The moment he finished speaking, the Hongqiao World Performing Arts Center erupted in cheers and chants—
"EDG! Let's go!"
"EDG! Victory!"
"Brother Cheng Zi, go get 'em!!"
"Carry your debut, Brother Cheng Zi!!"
The deafening noise made Xu Cheng feel extremely uncomfortable as he put on his noise-canceling headphones, but it also filled him with a strange excitement and thrill—
Perhaps even he hadn't realized it.
From the moment he stepped onto the stage, the part of him that came alive in a crowd had been awakened.
"Haha, this is nothing! You missed the good old days. Last year, for example... our cheering section was ten times louder than this!"
Factory Director laughed, then started crying.
"Hey, let's not talk about that. Cheng Zi, pay extra attention this game. They've got Jayce and Jarvan IV, so they're definitely going to keep coming after you early..."
Meiko, who was leading the team, spoke to Xu Cheng.
EDG's lineup for this game was Fiora in the top lane, Sejuani in the jungle, Syndra in the mid lane, and Xayah plus Alistar in the bottom lane.
DAN's lineup was Jayce in the top lane, Jarvan IV in the jungle, Ahri in the mid lane, and Tristana plus Thresh in the bottom lane.
It was easy to tell that EDG seemed a little uncertain about their draft this game.
Fiora was an obvious early-game strong point. Once they picked her, the jungler had to play around her; otherwise, the enemy would camp her and crush her.
And if Fiora fell behind, it would be very difficult for EDG to win with this lineup.
DAN, on the other hand, had picked a fast-paced, early-to-mid-game attack composition. Their top, mid, and jungle could coordinate almost perfectly, and Tristana gave them at least some insurance for the late game.
In short, as the commentators had said before the match, this was an extremely rare "top-lane decisive battle" in the LPL Region.
Whoever took down the other team's top laner would win the game.
As both teams moved into lane as usual, the director's camera focused on rookie Murder, and Miller remarked casually:
"Clearly, DAN made a very smart top-lane pick this game. Jayce has no trouble laning against Fiora early on. If he plays it well, he can even gain an advantage."
"That means EDG can't just pour all their resources into Fiora early..."
It was actually difficult to say definitively which champion was stronger in a Jayce-versus-Fiora matchup. It all came down to the players' mechanics.
But in practice, Jayce had an advantage early on thanks to his longer range.
Fiora couldn't even things up until level six.
Until then, unless the enemy Jayce had rocks in his head and failed to use his range to kite her—letting Fiora get close and repeatedly hit her vitals—she'd usually get hammered in the early game.
Just like right now.
Not long after the top laners arrived in lane, DAN's top laner, Mo Yu, controlled Jayce and brazenly used his range advantage to poke Fiora.
Xu Cheng had no choice but to retreat, but his opponent stayed right on his heels.
"That's rough. Murder shouldn't have been so aggressive there. He walked up too far as soon as he got to lane, and Jayce was bound to take advantage and poke him."
Seeing this, Wa Wa couldn't help asking, "Is he nervous because it's his first game onstage?"
As soon as he said that, Xu Cheng—having just let Jayce hit him twice and successfully lured him into a relatively deep position—didn't even blink. He immediately turned around and lunged diagonally with Q.
Whoosh—thud!
He barely managed to hit the vital on Jayce's flank.
"Oh?"
Mo Yu wasn't pleased.
"You're actually going to Q me? Then you're not getting away."
Jayce had an early advantage over Fiora for more than just his range. There was another important factor—
He started the game with three abilities: his ultimate and the Q abilities for both forms. That gave him one more ability's worth of damage than Fiora!
Mo Yu saw Fiora beside him after she hit the vital and promptly fired off his Q, launching a small projectile.
Xu Cheng wasn't the least bit rattled. Almost the instant Jayce started his Q, Fiora—having just hit the vital—immediately turned and sidestepped to the left.
Barely a step away!
Whoosh!
Jayce's bright blue projectile grazed Fiora's white cape and sailed past—missing.
Fiora dodged Jayce's cannon-form Q with a sidestep!
?!
"Whoa, he's got some moves!"
Mo Yu let out a cry of surprise, still completely unaware of how serious things were about to get.
Seeing that his Q had missed and Fiora was right beside him, he first landed an auto attack, then almost instinctively switched to hammer form and slammed her with Q.
Thud! Fiora's health dropped, and Jayce moved in to keep attacking.
But Xu Cheng had already taken a step back.
With the speed boost from hitting the vital with Q, along with his base movement speed, he managed to just barely step out of Jayce's attack range after taking one auto attack.
Mo Yu's second attack was interrupted. Seeing Fiora run off without looking back, he decided not to chase.
He was just about to turn around when Xu Cheng's Fiora turned back for the third time and followed him for a few steps. Once Q came off cooldown, she lunged diagonally again and hit another vital!
This time, Mo Yu had neither hammer-form nor cannon-form Q available. He could only land one auto attack before Fiora used the same trick to escape his range.
"Damn, this guy's kiting me?!"
By now, Mo Yu had realized something was wrong.
In two short trades, Fiora had healed off her vitals and gained movement speed, taking almost no damage. Meanwhile, he'd lost two-fifths of his health!
More importantly, his hammer-form Q was on cooldown, and his cannon-form Q had been dodged!
If Jayce's cannon-form Q had hit Fiora earlier, this would be an entirely different situation.
He was losing!
Mo Yu turned and tried to run. This time, he really meant it.
But he'd gotten careless, and Xu Cheng had deliberately lured him in too far. Now that he'd realized what was happening and wanted to retreat, it wasn't going to be that easy.
Seeing that Jayce's health was low enough, Xu Cheng stopped holding back. Fiora stayed on his heels, attacking as she chased.
Once Q came off cooldown, she lunged forward again, sticking to him completely!
Thud, thud, thud!
Since the fight began, Fiora had hit three or four vitals in a row. Jayce was now on the verge of death.
"I'm done."
Mo Yu took both hands off his keyboard.
Thud!
A moment later, Fiora landed the final blow.
Jayce fell to the ground, unwilling to accept defeat.
He wasn't all that far from his own turret, but with Flash so important onstage—and the minion wave not yet in lane—Mo Yu ultimately hadn't pressed it.
[EDG Murder has slain DAN Mo Yu!]
[First Blood!]
"First Blood! He got it! Fiora killed Jayce with auto attacks—that was a solo kill!!"
"What happened?! The game just started! The minion wave isn't even here yet, so how did we get a solo kill in the top lane?!"
"Whoa...!"
As the announcement rang out, the audience and commentators were all stunned.
The director's camera had been on the top lane, so they'd watched the whole thing unfold.
But that was exactly why they were so dumbfounded.
This... didn't make sense. Wasn't Jayce supposed to have the advantage over Fiora early on?
So how did he get solo killed instead?
Thanks to [The One Who Loves Ancient Style Most][Zero-Degree Muxi][Once Only, No Waiting After Expiration][Milk Candy Pastry Heart][Reader2021][The Talkative Crow] and the other generous readers for the Qidian Coins!
Thanks, everyone, for all your votes!
Also, please don't leave this story sitting in your library without reading it! Sob... It's really not easy for this author to earn a living. I'm already building up a stockpile of chapters, and once the new-book period is over, I'll post more! A lot more! As many as I can! Please, my dear readers! o(╥﹏╥)o
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