Was he hacking?

"Holy shit... was he hacking?"

Though none of them said it aloud, that was clearly what Clearlove, iBoy, and meiko were thinking.

Their eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.

If they hadn't known how unlikely it was, they would have stormed into the IG clubhouse and searched West's computer for a USB drive!

What kind of god-tier juking was that?!

Even more unbelievable was that the person pulling off those moves was West!

The very same West they had picked on relentlessly in the previous game!

But whatever the EDG players thought, it changed nothing.

The situation in bot lane had completely fallen apart.

Although Sejuani and Rakan survived, both were left so low that they had to recall. Clearlove's tempo had taken a serious hit.

Meanwhile, over on IG's side...

"NICE! NICE, C God!"

Ning Wang shouted excitedly as he ran straight into EDG's bottom jungle without a care and stole Clearlove's red buff.

He had been bracing himself for the news that their bot lane had given up first blood to the enemy gank.

Instead, in the blink of an eye, it was the enemy bot lane that had given up first blood!

The surprise came so suddenly that he could barely process it.

Still laning in mid, Rookie laughed and called out, "That's our Lu Chen! You actually turned that around and got a kill?"

That play had practically blown up the enemy's bot lane and jungle together.

Their jungler wasn't too badly off; he had only lost a round of tempo.

But their bot lane, especially their ADC, was truly suffering.

They had already been getting pressured, and now they had died as well.

When they returned, they found that the wave was still pushing back toward IG!

Caitlyn and Alistar held the wave firmly in front of the red side's outer turret, leaving them too scared even to walk up for last hits!

Most terrifying of all, Lu Chen was directing Baolan while continuing to dominate the lane.

Where to ward, when to stand where-his instructions were detailed down to the last inch.

At first, iBoy refused to accept it and got meiko to make a few plays with him.

But after being repeatedly outspaced and shot until his health bar practically evaporated, cold sweat began to bead on iBoy's forehead.

He felt a terrifying pressure from the opposing ADC unlike anything he had ever experienced.

In this player's hands, Caitlyn's 650-range advantage was being pushed almost to its absolute limit!

After getting shot down to low health yet again and being forced to recall, iBoy's eyes were bloodshot. "That's West? That's really West?!"

meiko was just as shell-shocked. "I dunno..."

IBoy didn't believe it for a second, his expression thunderous. "They definitely swapped players! There's no way West plays like this!"

Only five minutes in, the difference in their CS had already reached twenty, along with an entire level!

That was extremely rare in professional play. Calling it a blown-open lane wouldn't have been an exaggeration!

Next...

With absolute lane priority in bot, IG easily secured the first dragon-and it was an Infernal Drake, no less.

At the ten-minute mark...

An announcement sounded: "Your team has destroyed a turret!"

Every player immediately turned their attention to bot lane.

Sure enough...

Caitlyn had comfortably taken the first turret, and she had even collected all its gold herself.

When the turret was about to fall, Baolan's Alistar had already left.

EDG's bot duo, meanwhile, had been shot back to base when the previous wave crashed into their turret. They hadn't even been able to defend it.

Although they hadn't given up another kill, the gap between the two ADCs had already grown to over forty CS!

That was mainly because Lu Chen wasn't just farming minions. Whenever he had a spare moment, he also took Ning Wang's Gromp and wolves.

As he farmed them, Ning Wang even laughed cheerfully. "Take them, take whatever you want. You're carrying this game anyway. I'm a tank; all that gold wouldn't do me much good."

If West had received that kind of treatment, he probably would have been moved to tears...

In short, the two ADCs were no longer anywhere near the same level of development.

Caitlyn was ridiculously fed and almost had her Infinity Edge, while Xayah had only a pair of Berserker's Greaves.

At this point, they could play as though EDG didn't even have an ADC.

The gold difference had shot straight past 3,000!

After that...

Rookie's Corki swapped to bot lane to keep farming.

Caitlyn and Alistar moved to mid, where they treated Scout's Lucian to a little show called "range oppression."

"What kind of monster is this?" Scout muttered, bewildered by the repeated shots.

Lucian's range was short to begin with. Normally, against Caitlyn, he could still fight back with a burst combo.

But against Lu Chen's monstrously fed Caitlyn, who was so far ahead of the curve, there was simply no way to play.

"Don't panic. I'm here. Let's gank him," Clearlove said as his Sejuani arrived with her sweeper running.

Their bot-lane Xayah was already useless, leaving mid-lane Lucian as their only carry with decent farm. They absolutely couldn't let him fall apart too.

Clearlove stared intently at the screen. The moment Caitlyn stepped forward, he decisively hurled his ultimate from out of vision!

"Now's the time! Kill the ADC!"

The chain of Glacial Prison flew straight toward Caitlyn's face!

Scout's Lucian seized the opportunity as well, dashing forward.

But then...

At that very instant, a golden light flashed, and Caitlyn abruptly appeared diagonally behind her previous position.

Flash!

Sejuani's ultimate sailed through empty air and slammed into vacant ground!

Clearlove's pupils contracted. "It missed?!"

He was absolutely certain he had been out of vision!

He had kept his sweeper running on the way over, taken an extremely cautious route, and chosen a particularly tricky angle.

Did that mean the enemy Caitlyn had dodged an ultimate from fog of war on pure reaction alone?!

Seriously, was he hacking?!

At that moment...

Baolan finally reacted. Following Lu Chen's instructions, he sent Alistar forward and knocked Lucian up with a W-Q combo. Together with Caitlyn's trap and Q, they burst Lucian down in just three seconds!

Clearlove's Sejuani had barely emerged from the corner before she had to slink away again.

"Fuck, he could even react to...

"...that?" Scout stared woodenly at his gray screen and leaned back in his chair, looking ready to give up.

After that play, EDG's position had completely collapsed.

The game had essentially entered garbage time.

At eleven minutes, Caitlyn and Alistar joined Zac to take the Rift Herald.

At twelve minutes, they secured the second dragon.

At thirteen minutes, they destroyed the mid outer turret.

At fifteen minutes, they recalled to buy items, rotated top, and took both the outer and inner turrets in succession.

From there, they swept forward unstoppable. The gold gap kept widening, and in just five minutes, every EDG outer turret was gone, while their jungle had been stripped completely clean!

They could concede it. They could concede all of it.

The gold gap snowballed, racing toward the ten-thousand mark.

At twenty minutes, just as Baron spawned, EDG typed "GG" in [All] chat, and both sides tacitly agreed to leave the game.

Rookie, Ning Wang, and the others exchanged glances, still feeling as though they hadn't had enough.

This game had been every bit as satisfying as the previous one had been frustrating.

Not far away...

Coach Mafa and manager Su Xiaoluo, who had been watching, exchanged a glance as well. Both saw excitement and elation in the other's eyes.

They had struck gold!

"Forget fifty percent. This has to be a hundred percent of his ability, right?" Su Xiaoluo murmured, looking at Lu Chen's back.