Axes that never stopped flying!

Soon, the pick-and-ban phase was over.

EDG, on red side, had Maokai top, Cassiopeia mid, Gragas jungle, Ezreal ADC, and Braum support.

IG, on blue side, had Rumble top, Syndra mid, Jarvan IV jungle, Draven ADC, and Alistar support.

The loading screen ended, and both teams entered the game.

As before, since this was a scrim, neither team really considered a level-one fight.

Both sides simply placed defensive wards, then headed straight to lane to wait for the minions to spawn.

IBoy gripped his mouse, his gaze utterly focused. This game, he would redeem himself!

He had even picked Ezreal. Surely he couldn't get crushed now?

As long as he held his own in lane and stopped Draven from snowballing, Draven would naturally fall off in the mid-to-late game.

On the screen.

Both sides arrived in lane at the same time and began laning.

Lu Chen's Draven had timed things perfectly, arriving with two spinning axes ready before he started auto-attacking the minions.

Because of Draven's unique axe-catching mechanic, his opponent wasn't frantically weaving around in place like last game. He was simply moving from side to side.

Seeing this, iBoy and meiko both let out almost imperceptible sighs of relief. The pressure instantly eased considerably.

That bizarre movement had really left a deep impression on them.

"Wait, this guy's axe control looks a little too good..."

As they continued laning, meiko noticed something was off.

The enemy Draven's two axes seemed to stay in the air forever!

And every landing spot was exactly along the path he was moving!

There was a saying that summed it up perfectly.

A beginner Draven followed his axes.

An advanced Draven made his axes follow him.

A top-tier Draven's axes never stopped flying!

And this opponent had clearly mastered the champion. Against a Draven like this, trading damage was practically impossible. They could only rely on spacing.

Fortunately, iBoy was playing Ezreal this time. Unlike last game, he didn't have to rely solely on auto-attacks to last-hit. Whenever a minion was in a risky spot, he secured it with Q.

Although he inevitably missed some CS, at least his health remained high.

For the first two minutes, both sides remained relatively peaceful.

Then Draven's side hit level two first, forcing iBoy and meiko to retreat and use Ezreal's Q to last-hit.

Under Lu Chen's direction, Baolan's Alistar was already pushing forward without hesitation. Even if it cost him health, he would block Ezreal's Q and deny him CS.

"So annoying..." iBoy's face darkened, his eyes filled with pent-up frustration.

He had actually joined EDG back in Season 6 and made a name for himself as a prodigy ADC on their youth team.

But it was only during this offseason that he had officially become a starter on EDG's main roster.

Still, their scrims over the past month had gone very well. At the very least, their bot lane had never been crushed.

Even against RNG, he had been able to trade blows with Uzi!

Until today!

For the first time, he truly understood what it meant to suffer.

Neither WE nor RNG had managed to put him under this kind of pressure, yet IG had sprung it on him out of nowhere.

It dealt a blow to iBoy's already somewhat shaky mentality.

Beside him, meiko noticed something was wrong and reassured him, "Don't rush. As long as we don't give them an opening this game, they'll definitely lose."

Clearlove's voice chimed in too. "I'll gank as soon as I finish this blue buff. If he wants to shove, let him."

IBoy let out a long breath and nodded. "Okay. Let's play it safe."

After that, they played defensively. Even if it meant losing experience and CS, they waited for the wave to push into them before taking anything.

That stretch of less than a minute was absolutely the longest minute iBoy had experienced since turning pro.

Every second felt like a year!

Fortunately, Clearlove's Gragas finally came through, circling into blue side's tri-brush to flank IG's bot lane from behind.

"What do we do? Should I bait them?" Baolan asked hurriedly.

"Don't panic." Lu Chen's eyes actually brightened at the sight of the two buffs on Gragas. "Fight. Go straight for Gragas!"

At that moment.

EDG were communicating at the same time.

The instant Clearlove entered the enemy's vision, he shouted, "Go! I'll engage on the ADC!"

"Okay!"

IBoy and meiko answered immediately.

After closing in, Gragas used E, thrusting his enormous belly forward as he charged.

Clearlove watched Draven with intense concentration. Just as I thought.

The moment his Gragas used E, Draven abruptly made a right-angle turn. If he continued charging like this, he really would miss.

The next instant, Clearlove pressed D!

E-Flash!

A burst of golden light flashed where he stood.

Gragas's bulky body vanished into thin air, suddenly appearing at the spot Draven had moved to!

"I got him!..."

Clearlove was just about to shout when his pupils abruptly contracted, leaving him speechless.

Because on the screen.

A golden light had also appeared where Draven had been standing...

Flash!

Gragas's E-Flash had only hit a ranged minion left behind!

"What the hell!"

Clearlove couldn't stop himself from shouting, his expression beginning to twist.

He could dodge Gragas's E-Flash too?!

Why don't you just fly into the sky while you're at it?!

"Nice Flash, Chen!"

Just then, under Lu Chen's direction, Baolan's Alistar used a W-Q combo to knock Gragas into the air.

The two spinning axes in Draven's hands whirled as he hurled them viciously at Gragas!

One hit, two hits...

"Don't panic, I'm coming!" Behind them, iBoy's Ezreal grew anxious. He used E to jump right into Draven's face and fired his Q.

However.

Of course, Lu Chen wasn't going to stand still and trade autos. As he attacked Gragas, he kept activating W to speed up and reposition!

Not only did he dodge Ezreal's Q, he also dodged a Q from meiko's Braum!

This was what made Draven so terrifying.

As long as he caught an axe, he could reset W's cooldown, constantly boosting his attack speed and movement speed!

You couldn't beat him in a fight, and you couldn't escape him either. It was enough to make anyone despair!

The scene suddenly became comical. It looked as though Ezreal had jumped into Draven's face with E, then started standing still and auto-attacking.

Meanwhile, Draven couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge him. He just chased Gragas and beat him mercilessly!

"Can we still kill him...?" IBoy instinctively swallowed as his skill missed.

They didn't have enough damage anymore.

There was no chance of killing this Draven now.

Sweat was beading on Clearlove's forehead as he steered Gragas back. "Save me first!"

He had both buffs on him!

meiko's Braum jumped to Gragas with W, giving him a little armor and magic resistance, then immediately cast Exhaust on Draven.

He was only level two and hadn't learned E yet, so he couldn't raise his shield. He could only rely on Exhaust to limit Draven's damage.

IBoy hurriedly used Heal too, restoring Gragas's health and speeding him up.

However.

At that moment, Baolan also used Exhaust, casting it straight onto Gragas and slowing him to a crawl.

One axe, two axes...

Under the despairing gazes of EDG's players, Gragas's health bar kept falling.

Clearlove gritted his teeth, practically smashing his E key to pieces. Yet the five seconds left on its cooldown felt as long as a year.

There was no helping it. Most champions' mobility skills had terrifyingly long cooldowns in the early game.

Ezreal, for example, had a cooldown of over twenty seconds on his rank-one E!

Gragas's E wasn't quite as outrageous as twenty seconds, but its cooldown was still well over ten seconds.

And that was more than enough time for Draven and Alistar to finish him off.

First blood!

The cold system announcement rang out all the same.

IG West has slain EDG Clearlove7!