Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 201 Assassin’s Mystery Xia
It's obvious to the naked eye that RNG's laning ability is stronger than SKT's in the bottom lane.

However, in the game LoL, sometimes being strong in lane doesn't necessarily guarantee an advantage.

Once the opposing team uses their numerical advantage to gain an equipment advantage, they can snowball and turn the tables on you based on the game's stats. Their high damage output makes any skillful maneuvering useless.

It's like some silver players going to solo against platinum and diamond players. After winning, they feel that they are fully capable of that skill level, but their teammates are too bad or for other reasons, so they are just overlooked.

But that's a bit of an oversimplification. How do you know the opponent is a player skilled in laning?
A player's rank reflects more than just laning ability; it also reflects their roaming and support, awareness and teamwork, champion pool depth, mentality, and many other factors combined to determine their true rank.

"RNG's bot lane is being targeted again."

Watching the five players gank, and how Uzi managed to trade kills with Bang's Ezreal in a last-ditch effort, Wawa said helplessly.

"Yes, actually when Xiaohu and Letme were in the top lane, RNG's top and mid laners didn't put much pressure on the opponent's laning phase. Moreover, ganking the bot lane was a system that RNG was very good at last season. We often saw that with the help of the top, mid, and jungle, Uzi could confidently suppress the opponent. I didn't expect that in this game, SKT's mid and jungle had too much control."

Miller thought for a moment and then gave a comprehensive answer.

"RNG's early-game ganking strategy puts immense pressure on vision control if you try to gank bot lane in the mid-game. It's easy for them to go bot lane while Skt goes top, thus negating the early-game advantage in top lane."

There is one thing that needs to be distinguished.

The gank-bot lane composition that RNG frequently used in S7 was, strictly speaking, not the four-protect-one strategy that everyone talks about.

Instead, they expand the team's economic advantage by "capturing" subordinates.

It's like when everyone else is clueless about what to do, the RNG team members have a clear idea: just gank bot lane and that's it.

It could even be said that this is an act of simultaneously taking action against those in power and giving back to the economy.

Sometimes, while you're holding on, Nakano will inexplicably take off.

Like the FPX team that Doinb later played for, Doinb's ganking style was somewhat similar to RNG's "four-protect-one" strategy.

However, Lwx often couldn't step up like Uzi and overshadow the others, so the "four protect one" strategy never came into play.

The mid and jungle players constantly gank the bottom lane, while the bottom lane picks heroes that are relatively weak in the early and mid-game but strong in the late game. Once they gain an advantage in the bottom lane, the mid and jungle players will gain lane priority and help relieve the pressure on the bottom lane.

This playstyle can easily force a weak ADC in the early to mid-game to transition into the late game.

The idea that ganking the bottom lane in the mid-jungle duo equals a four-protect-one strategy is clearly wrong.

Take this game as an example. If Faker's Galio in the mid lane has a chance to get a kill, he will absolutely not give it to Bang in the bot lane. Galio and the Sejuani who come to help will accept it without hesitation.

Once Galio and Sejuani become tanky enough, Ezreal, who is strong in the mid-game, can have a better output environment than the enemy ADC even if he doesn't have a good early game.

In this environment, after a few team fights, the ADC's equipment will far surpass that of the enemy ADC, allowing them to control the entire game.

Besides, it's a champion like Ezreal. Just get some assists and tower gold, don't miss any minions, and you don't need to be super fed. Two items are enough to make you very strong.

In team fights, their situation is definitely much better than that of the enemy's ADC who is frequently targeted.

Conversely, if RNG manages to gank bot lane this game, it will create a huge problem.

Once a kill occurs, Syndra in the mid lane wants it, Lee Sin in the jungle wants it, and Xayah wants it. All three need gold and need to farm, so the distribution issue is very obvious.

However, this problem doesn't exist when ganking the top lane. Letme in the top lane is thrilled as long as he gets an assist, and it's not a big deal even if the minion wave is eaten.

Syndra is blind, anyone can have her head.

This is why RNG has been consistently training their players on the road.

There's no other reason than a conflict of interest.

The different offensive focuses on the two sides also mean that—
"I'm dead again."

Khan said calmly.

Because behind the top lane tower, Lee Sin and Syndra came together again, and even their own minion wave was wiped out by Syndra's gank and explosion.

Both strategies involve targeting the side lanes to create openings, but there's a reason why "mid and jungle gank top" instead of "mid and jungle gank bottom."

Because there are more people in the bottom lane, and more crowd control and escape skills, players like Ezreal and Tahm Kench are very difficult to catch. If the output point is not coordinated well, or the damage is not evenly distributed, the skills will be used up and the person will not be caught, and the advantage will be lost.

But there's only one goal on the top lane, so everyone just throws out all their firepower without any discussion.

However, compared to opening a breakthrough in the top lane, catching the enemy in the bottom lane would be more beneficial. Not only could you get two kills, but you could also secure the dragon, freeing up the bottom lane to push towers elsewhere, or freeing up the support to roam with the jungler and create opportunities.

The jungler and mid laner flanked him, and since the bugger didn't have a teleport, after supporting the bottom lane, he was attacked again by three big men when he returned to lane.

As the minion wave pushed into the tower, Ornn initiated with his ultimate, landing a precise ram's head and sealing Khan's death.

The blind man groped his way in the air and kicked the wall. Syndra pushed him until he was stunned, then unleashed a torrent of energy, firing several shots that instantly killed the giant bug.

In this kind of game, Syndra, who gets two kills early on, is already driven to take off.

It's not just about the kills; you also have to consider the experience advantage. Syndra not only got kills but also gained free lane experience.

On the way back to the mid lane, they also got a blue buff.

While Faker's Galio only had a small Hextech Gunblade, Syndra already had Luden's Echo and was even one level ahead in experience.

If we hadn't gotten a kill just now, the gap between the two would be even greater now.

Of course, Faker's Galio has basically lost his chance to lane now, and can only use his skills to farm from a distance.

However, RNG's reckless ganking of the top lane still came at a considerable cost.

SKT capitalized on the momentum and successfully secured the first dragon, but fortunately it was a wind dragon, so the lane buff wasn't significant.

However, Ezreal in the bottom lane has caught up to 5 CS behind, and even has a tendency to overtake him.

In the last 5v2 gank by SKT, they not only secured kills but also reduced the bottom lane turret's health to less than half.

If you continue to control the minion wave as it pushes into the tower, it's easy for Ezreal to steal the tower within a minute or two.

With Xayah having a kill, the gold difference between the two ADCs wasn't noticeably large.

However, once this tower is destroyed, Ezreal's economy will surpass Xayah's, allowing him to enter his power spike much faster.

RNG has an advantage in the top lane, a mid lane, and a slight advantage in the jungle; the bottom lane is currently even.

Overall, the economic gap remains within 2000 points of Skt's lead.
but.

"At this point in the game, despite SKT having such a significant early-game advantage, their gold lead hasn't widened and they're actually being suppressed. This is going to be a tough challenge for SKT's lineup in the mid-game."

"Yes, both Xayah and Syndra are difficult to deal with in the mid-game. Let's see how SKT handles them."

Several Korean commentators looked at the two sides, who had fallen silent again, and said helplessly.

During the draft phase, the commentators emphasized this issue more than once.

Top lane Cho'Gath, mid lane Galio, jungle Sejuani – if this kind of ban/pick strategy wasn't SKT or coach Kkoma, it would probably have been met with a barrage of criticism on any other team.

While Galio is an AP champion, he can't compensate for the role of a mid-lane mage at all. Moreover, Faker's Galio is geared towards supporting the front line. SKT's lineup can be viewed as a tank team with no damage output whatsoever, and the core champion of this tank team is an ADC, Ezreal, who isn't strong in the late game.

On the other hand, RNG has a three-core lineup: Syndra in the mid lane, Xayah in the bot lane, and Lee Sin in the jungle. The team fights get stronger as time goes on.

If an early-game lineup and a late-game three-core lineup are at a disadvantage in development, what is it if not a collapse?
However, SKT is no pushover either; the legacy of the Royal Dynasty determines SKT's minimum performance level.

Sejuani, whose level and equipment were not yet up to par, started clearing jungle camps faster and roamed to the mid lane.

Xiaohu's Syndra was preparing to push and leave as before, but Faker's Galio, who is usually timid, suddenly used his E to move in. The sudden change made Xiaohu's E slow down by a second.

Sejuani immediately flanked from the flank. With Galio's control and Sejuani's control, even if Xiaohu had Cleanse, he would still be doomed if he was overwhelmed by the dragon.

"Nice, nice, bot lane, bot lane"

Seeing Blank obediently give him the kill, Li smiled and directed Blank to go bottom, and the two of them ganked again.

"My level was too low before, which was a bit frustrating. Now that I've leveled up, I can finally fight and gank."

Xiao Hei smiled with relief, and the two seemed to have returned to their old, seamless teamwork.

Galio + Sejuani is a classic mid-jungle synergy combination.

It is especially effective against traditional mages in the mid lane.

Once Galio and Sejuani get their items in the mid-game, their control and tankiness make them hard to beat in 2v2, let alone pick off isolated targets.

With such tight control, if you don't notice it immediately, you can easily be caught and killed.

For example, in this wave, Galio initiates with E, then taunts with W. Even if Syndra uses Evolve to remove it, without Flash, she will be frozen by Sejuani's R. So even if you have damage output, it's very difficult to deal any damage.

A forced gank is the most deadly.

The weakened Galio has significantly reduced his power in the mid-to-late game, but this means the designers will have to balance the game and strengthen Galio's early-to-mid game capabilities.

From this point of view, League of Legends is still a very balanced game.

As soon as SKT's mid and jungle left, Xiaohu immediately guessed that Faker and Black were going to the bottom lane.

"They've gone down, Xiangguo, hurry up and go down too. If it's not possible, just give up the first tower."

Xiao Hu said anxiously into his headset.

"Need not"

Seeing that Xiaohu had marked Sejuani without her ultimate and Galio without Flash, Li Luo smiled and said directly:

"If they dare to come this time, they'd better not leave."

Li Luo's period of dormancy was not in vain. Now he has a greatsword and a serrated dagger in hand, and to some extent, his damage output is even more exaggerated than Syndra's.

Xayah's assassin gear.

Greatsword + Serrated Dagger.

After the S8 MSI in later generations, there will be a version that becomes extremely popular, but after the designers quickly nerfed the damage of W and E, it will disappear from the world again.

This timeframe was so short that many people had barely heard about it before the version was updated and changed.

It was this same set of equipment that was brought back to Kai'Sa in Season 10, allowing for faster Q skill evolution, increased combat power, and higher damage in the early and mid-game.

He's going to play Xayah as an assassin this game.

In casual games, especially tank-heavy games, Xayah usually builds standard crit items, relying on her survivability and feathers to deal damage to the front line, acting as a utility player for the team.

As for Xayah, she has never played a single game in professional matches.

Again, the tolerance rate is too low.

Even the popular BF Sword Sawtooth Evolution Q Kai'Sa in ranked games is hard to pick in competitive matches, and most games that do get picked will end in a loss.

The pace of professional matches is completely different from that of ranked games.

In ranked games, because kills occur very frequently, if you get a few kills, the enemy can also get a few unless they are at a significant disadvantage, which means that your advantage offsets your disadvantage.

However, in matches, it often happens that one person gets two or three kills and then takes off, gaining a significant equipment advantage over the opponent.

For example, if Xayah has a comfortable early game and is protected by Janna, this build can take down a Manamune Ezreal in just a few seconds.

Such a bizarre Xayah playstyle has never appeared in the competition before. Due to preconceived notions and Li Luo's restraint in not making a move, Bang didn't know how high Xayah's damage output actually was.

So, in this scenario, the jungler and mid laner didn't have many skills, and they wanted to gank the bottom lane.

Just like other ADCs, even if you're fed, if four of us come over, you'll have to obediently back off.

However, when Faker's Galio arrived in the bottom lane, Xayah and Janna under the tower remained completely calm and made no move.

He was as calm as if he had a thousand troops standing behind him.

If Brother Li were well-versed in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he would definitely shout "Empty City Stratagem!"
"Is this some kind of inhumane thing to do?"

Seeing that Li Ge and Xiao Hei came down, Uzi still hadn't left. Bang pouted, and suddenly got a little angry.

Even Wolf felt a sense of being looked down upon.

What are you trying to prove with this Xayah build? Serrated Dagger? Huh? You even equipped the wrong item?

This is outrageous; no one would tolerate it.

Four people came to block the bottom lane, and before the blind man even arrived, you guys didn't leave but were still slowly clearing the minions.

Isn't this just directly telling the other side, "We're not afraid of you, come at us, you trash?"

Despite his anger, after pinging that Xia had R, Bang didn't get carried away and immediately went for it.

"Want to come?"

"Wait for Blank to flank first, no rush, go up and trade blows first."

Bang is still hesitant. He's not at his peak right now, and he's a bit intimidated to face a peak Uzi.

Upon hearing Li Ge's words, Bang decisively used his E ability to engage in a trade of blows with Xayah.

In the rhythm of the game, at this point in time, before the two sides have broken out into combat, Bang really doesn't know how high the damage is.

Professional players' so-called "damage calculation" is mostly based on their experience and intuition in ranked games.

If someone could tell a player's damage output just by looking at their gear, aside from a few exceptional players in ranked games, they would be extremely rare in the professional scene.

(End of this chapter)