Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 225 Things are different now; we are united in our efforts!
There is no doubt that the South Korean team is very strong.

Even though RNG defeated the Korean team to win the S-series world championship in S7, they also lifted the MSI trophy in Paris once again.

But a nightmare is still a nightmare.

Despite being a two-time S-series champion in the previous era, in S10, it was still common to see people praising the "Big Turtle" (a nickname for a player) for winning the championship and attacking LPL teams as incompetent.

Some even made the bold statement that LPL is not worthy of being the number one region.

As the two were talking, Ren Dong chimed in, always keeping the conversation on a positive note.

With a loud thud, the ban/pick phase officially began for both sides.

In this version, there are far more ban slots than last year. Unlike in S7, there aren't many heroes that can significantly influence the course of the game. Naturally, the red side has a greater advantage in the ban/pick phase.

Chris, who had the right to choose sides first, picked the red side.

The blue team, the South Korean representative, banned Kai'Sa, Rakan, and Ornn in the first pick.

The red team, representing the red side, banned Kennen, Sejuani, and Galio.

From the draft phase, both sides are evenly matched, but there is no major difference in direction compared to MSI.

A few days ago, both teams were extremely casual in their draft picks and bans, and they didn't feel any pressure when facing other teams.

Today, the Korean team banned Ornn, which was undoubtedly a ban aimed at Letme.

Kai'Sa and Rakan, on the other hand, are the best way to target Li Luo's bot lane, or rather, to counter his bot lane dominance.

As the blue side, if Mr. Dai first picks Kai'Sa, the Chinese team can immediately counter-pick with a support hero like Nautilus, who synergizes well with Kai'Sa, thus putting Kai'Sa at a disadvantage.

Instead of picking Kai'Sa, it's better to ban her outright. Coach Kkoma's strategy was brilliant.

Before the start of the match, the coaching staff had analyzed the game for a long time. Uzi's playstyle in this version is actually very simple: pick strong heroes in the bottom lane, let the bottom lane farm freely, and keep helping the mid and top lanes.

Kai'Sa utilizes her early-game hero characteristics to farm safely and develop in the mid-game. In the mid-game, other lanes that are doing well will give up their resources to Kai'Sa, allowing her to quickly catch up and gain a winning advantage.

There are two approaches to breaking this strategy.

Either you engage in a gank battle with the opponent in the mid and top lanes, or you win by going head-to-head in the bottom lane.

The former, Letme's top lane and Xiaohu's mid lane, had many games where they were caught out badly, leading to RNG's collapse, but compared to Uzi's late-game surge, their actual significance was not great.

As for the latter, Uzi's online strength is already strong, and it is impossible for him to win in a head-on confrontation. Even Mr. Dai bluntly said that it is impossible, at most it is 46% chance. If Ambition exchanges ganks, the risk is very high.

The Chinese team's draft picks focused on the mid, top, and jungle positions.

Kennen, Sejuani, and Galio are all signature champions of Smeb, Ambition, and Faker.

Smeb's Kennen, in particular, was phenomenal in the LCK Spring Split, displaying overwhelming dominance.

They can build AP for team fights and AD for split pushing; basically, LCK teams rarely dare to let them go.

What would the blue team choose first?

As soon as the doll finished speaking, the Korean team immediately locked in a hero.

"--Fate is like a woven tapestry, yet it is as solid as a rock."

Taliyah, the Rock Sparrow.

Among the support heroes, he is one of the few who can play in lane.

After the damage of her Q skill was changed, Taliyah has returned to the mid lane from being sidelined in the jungle.

However, this hero is also a flexible pick, and can be assigned to Ambition to jungle.

Previously, many teams had selected him as a jungler, and he performed quite well.

"It all depends on how Coach Chris handles this."

Sure enough, the selection of the red team was also decided quickly. With two crisp gong sounds, two familiar faces appeared on the first and second floors of the red team's building.

"Ezreal! Morgana!" Miller laughed. "Since you guys aren't targeting this powerful duo, I'll just take it!"

"Neither of these champions is afraid of Taliyah's roaming, but Xiaohu also used Morgana as a flex pick at MSI before, so maybe this Morgana is prepared for the mid lane."

When Wawa subtly mentioned the previous match, a bunch of knowledgeable people immediately came out to explain it in the comments.

Since the red team has secured the bottom lane duo first, logically the blue team should postpone their top and mid lane picks.

As expected, the Korean team picked Ashe, the "scratching queen," as their second pick to counter Ezreal and Morgana.

"Deft's Ashe, in this patch, I haven't seen many players pick her."

"I was watching the game from below the stage," Guan Daxiao muttered to himself.

It's worth noting that Deft's Ashe was ridiculed by many when he first developed the Comet build.

The fact that he chose this hero also shows that he really wanted to win.

In fact, that is exactly the case.

After repeatedly watching MSI videos, Deft realized just how important the bot lane position is in the competition among top teams.

Although I don't enjoy playing these utility ADCs, this is more than just a game.

This is an international competition concerning national honor, and he is one of the athletes representing the South Korean team.

He didn't want to lose, at least not as badly as other Korean ADCs.

Why are LPL ADCs so popular? Actually, after the S10 World Championship started, many people already had the answer.

There's no other reason than that if you're not strong enough, you'll get beaten up.

While 369 was undoubtedly glorious in S10, who remembers that 369's Gangplank was completely dominated by TheShy's Ryze, unable to even release his barrel?

In weight training and competitive sports, as long as there is a master in front who can guide everyone, the level of others will improve by leaps and bounds.

Deft himself knows that he is already the top ADC in LCK, and if he wants to grow and become even better, he can only go up against Uzi.

Seventeen hours of training every day, high-intensity, grueling training—his wrist ached for the first time since returning to LCK. He wanted to win the match, even if it was just a small one.

Since Ashe has no mobility skill, the Korean team gave Tahm Kench their third pick, as a choice to protect Ashe and provide a frontline.

After the first three picks, the South Korean team's lineup strategy became very clear.

Taliyah and Tahm Kench are two champions with very strong roaming and support capabilities. When paired with Ashe's ultimate, which can practically cover half the map, they can provide support in the jungle.

It's quite obvious that Taliyah's position is already clear: mid-lane Taliyah, Faker's Taliyah.

In the first game, the Korean team clearly intended to play a roaming and support style, suppressing the Chinese team's jungle and thus dominating the side lanes.

"We need a mid laner who can push against Taliyah, and that mid laner also needs to have mobility."

Chris pondered for a moment, then said slowly. Xiaohu nodded; the third pick was his position. Without hesitation, he locked in a hero that was already very popular in the current version.

Blade Dancer - Irelia.

Even before the Spring Split finals, Li Luo had already told Xiaohu to practice this hero. A month later, with Xiaohu's talent, he was sure to master this hero.

Furthermore, Irelia is a relatively strong counter to short-range mid laners like Taliyah in lane.

In this game, Faker not only has to guard against the jungler's ganks, but also faces the threat of being killed by Irelia.

Both sides traded blows, their strategies were clear, and the lineups were quickly finalized.

Blue team (South Korea) vs. Red team (China)
Top unit: Captain vs. Shen

Jungle: Rek'Sai vs. Jarvan IV
Mid Lane: Taliyah vs. Irelia

ADC: Ashe vs Ezreal
Support: Tahm Kench vs. Morgana

Ezreal started with Kleptomancy, Doran's Blade, and a potion.

Because it's a hybrid build, supplementing AP damage, Chris has more freedom in choosing heroes for his team composition. He's not constrained by having Irelia in the mid lane and needing to build an AP champion in the top lane.

As for Ezreal versus Ashe, the matchup is only evenly matched. However, in previous matches, Li Luo noticed that Mr. Dai's laning skills have clearly changed compared to when he was in the LPL.

The laning phase has become more stable and detailed, but correspondingly, the fierce and aggressive fighting spirit has been lost.

Deft might be the cornerstone of a team now, but it's practically impossible for him to become the savior of a team.

However, in the knockout stage, because the opponents were too weak, no one played seriously. It is unknown how much skill they actually used or what strategies they didn't employ.

However, S8 was no longer Deft's peak.

Ezreal has a relatively difficult time fighting Ashe before he levels up.

Ashe's wave clear speed is very fast due to the large area of ​​effect of her W skill, while Ezreal only has one Q skill to clear the wave. This imbalance results in Ashe being pressured on the minion wave and finding it difficult to gain an advantage in the early game.

Unless Ezreal lands all his skills to deal full damage, trading blows will definitely be a loss. Even if you manage to break even based on individual skill, you won't actually gain anything because Ezreal is relatively mana-hungry in the early game.

This requires some tricks.

As mentioned before, Ezreal is very weak at level 1, and when facing a strong level 1 champion like Ashe, he often chooses to give up the lane.

Similarly, the North Korean pilot knew he was going to do this, so he didn't advance to farm minions at all. He just wanted to control the minion wave in the middle, wait for the second wave to arrive, get to level two first, and then chase after Ezreal and Morgana with a level advantage.

Li Luo's goal was to force Hanbing to push the lane into the tower.

As soon as the minion waves collided, he landed a precise Q skill on Ashe, and then made a move to auto-attack.

Sure enough, Mr. Dai couldn't stand it after being messed with like that, and immediately used his W skill. It was at that moment that Li Luo canceled his basic attack.

Although Ashe's W arrow hit Ezreal, the remaining arrows all hit the minions.

Under Li Luo's guidance, they managed to hit most of the minions, causing the lane to be pushed.

"Damn, that's too cunning."

Deft then realized he had fallen into a trap; the minion wave was now inevitably going to push towards the red team's tower.

Next, as long as Ezreal finishes off the enemy minions and has his Q skill available, Ashe can pressure Ezreal's power spike in the early game, which will basically be neutralized by the first small detail.

With no news from the jungler, Ashe, who was pushing the lane into the tower, couldn't be kept around to harass, so she could only watch Ezreal farm.

In the mid lane, however, Li Ge played exceptionally aggressively.

Taliyah is one of the mages with extremely strong dueling capabilities in the first three levels. With the continuous damage from her Q skill, few heroes can withstand her.

Xiaohu's Irelia was struggling before getting any items, but thankfully he started with a Corrupting Potion and took Biscuit Delivery. Thanks to the healing from his Q skill, he was able to stay in lane.

Irelia has been a popular champion in competitive play for a long time since MSI.

The reason for this is the developmental curve that does not conform to common sense.

Before being nerfed, Irelia's 300 gold items were essentially equivalent to items costing 450-500 gold.

The curves may not seem to show much difference, but once the economy develops to the point of having two or three major items, it will almost be a full major item more than the opposing hero.

Brother Li knew this, so he called very quickly.

To master a hero, talent is not enough; personality compatibility is also crucial.

After gaining lane priority at level 3, Taliyah immediately disappeared from the lane and, together with Ambition's Rek'Sai, launched the first wave of invasion.

Excavator is already a counter to Jarvan IV, and with Taliyah added, Clearlove's Jarvan IV faces immense pressure in the jungle.

Fortunately, the factory manager is an experienced jungler, and he directly chose to start with double buffs and farm small jungle monsters, causing the two's initial decision to take the blue buff to fail.

As soon as the prince and the excavator slowed down, the captain on the top lane immediately started to feel uncomfortable.

Letme wasn't intimidated by Smeb's matchup, especially since Shen had an early advantage in the laning phase against Gangplank.

Letme and Smeb swapped auto-attacks. Shen predicted the attack and used his E to taunt Gangplank. Gangplank immediately used his E to prepare for a counterattack, but Shen used his W to block the auto-attack, putting Gangplank at a slight disadvantage.

The moment the circle disappeared, the captain immediately fired at Shen, but the shot was blocked by Shen's Q skill shield.

Letme executed the first wave of subtle maneuvering perfectly, showing no fear of Smeb.

However, as time goes by, the two of them will enter a period of stagnation.

Anyone who likes playing top lane knows that the time between the first ward disappearing and the second ward being put back in is a time when the jungler can easily target and gank you.

Both the prince and the excavator sensed the opportunity and set off on their journeys.

From God's perspective, it's clear that the actions of the factory manager and the mastermind are mirror images. Both of them finished clearing a set of jungle monsters, sneaked behind the minion wave, and followed the minion wave, trying to hide in the bushes to ambush the enemy.

The factory manager isn't the type of jungler who actively attacks; similarly, neither is Anzhangmen.

Both sides could clearly feel the opponent's murderous intent, and a glance at the mid and bottom lane minions would give them a clue that the enemy jungler might be right behind them.

But neither side is willing to back down voluntarily. If the captain wants to gain an advantage in the top lane, he must have 1050 gold on his first back. Once he gets the Sheen, the captain's damage in the early game will undergo a qualitative change.

Therefore, even if his health isn't very high and there's an excavator lurking behind him, the captain still stays in lane to last-hit minions.

The first wave of competition was a battle of momentum.

Whoever loses heart first will lose the advantage and be suppressed for at least three to five minutes.

As for Taliyah and Irelia in the mid lane, they both tacitly stopped trading blows and started clearing the wave quickly. They also positioned themselves high up, so that if a fight broke out, they would prevent the other from providing support.

Taliyah's passive grants a speed boost when walking close to walls, but Faker brought Cleanse in this game to ensure his survival in the mid lane and to counter control champions like Morgana and Shen in the mid-to-late game.

Irelia does indeed have TP, so if a fight breaks out in the top lane, she will arrive in the top lane before Taliyah.

(End of this chapter)