They Had to Contest This Fight

Sure enough, Takuya soon invaded Tarzan's jungle. He took the mark and cleared every camp, leaving Tarzan miserable. Tarzan was supposed to be invading Kindred's jungle, but Kindred's teammates could push their lanes and rotate first. His own teammates couldn't reach the jungle in time to help. He couldn't beat Kindred one-on-one, either, so he had to run whenever he saw him—and if he was too slow, Kindred could catch him.

That created a vicious cycle: Kindred kept growing stronger while Nidalee fell further and further behind.

Kindred secured jungle objectives almost at will: the second Elemental Dragon, the Voidgrubs, and the Rift Herald.

"The third Elemental Dragon is about to spawn. It would put NIP on soul point, so AL has to contest this one! They can't give up another!" Guan Zeyuan said. "And it's Infernal Dragon Soul this game. If AL doesn't fight for it, they'll be under enormous pressure against an NIP team on soul point."

"Right. Whatever happens, they have to give it a try. They can't just give up another Elemental Dragon," Miller agreed. Guan Zeyuan had it exactly right.

Takuya struck the Elemental Dragon first and pulled it into the river. AL caught a brief glimpse of it through a blue trinket ward and knew it had been aggroed. They grouped up and edged down from the raptor camp toward the river, advancing cautiously. They couldn't afford to break formation and give NIP's Alistar an opening.

Leona led the way. She was the only sturdy one on AL's side. Jayce hadn't built tank items; Flandre had gone for lethality, since Jayce was a key part of their poke composition. With Nidalee rendered useless, AL had to rely on Flandre's Jayce and Ezreal in the bot lane for poke damage.

As they approached, Jayce and