Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 228 The power of the variant's split-zone strategy is first revealed!
The scene was exactly as the two commentators described; it was indeed like that.

When it comes to overall command, as long as he dares to step up, his teammates at RNG will definitely entrust their backs to him. Even if Clearlove is replaced as the jungler this game, they have no complaints.

Just as Xiaohu diligently practiced heroes he wasn't good at to compensate for the team's draft disadvantage, everyone was working hard to contribute to the team. In order to win the game, everyone made efforts and changes.

Why do you say that China only excels in ADCs, and that the LPL can't produce good top laners or mid laners?

In the previous life, starting from S8, LPL's top and mid laners were fully activated and played better year after year!

This also demonstrates how much Li Luo's understanding of the game version and era, as well as his grasp of psychology, can help professional players.

"The Baron Nashor timer is about to end, but the current gold difference between the two sides is mainly concentrated on Irelia and Ezreal. Given the strength of these two champions in the mid-to-late game, our win rate is at least 70%!"

During his commentary on CCTV, Miller spoke rather subtly, but in his mind, the chances of winning this round were basically 95%.

Simply put, the lineup on the right is too useless.

Even for the South Korean team, known for their excellent macro-management skills in disadvantageous situations, it would be extremely difficult to pull off a spectacular comeback with such limited control.

To put it simply, the essence of the Korean team's strategy is to manipulate the minion waves to create an advantage for their carry.

Unfortunately, none of the three heroes in the top, mid, and bottom lanes are burst damage dealers, making it too difficult to deal with them in a losing game!
"Compared to the Chinese team's three-man support for their two cores, the Korean team's lineup was more disorganized, and once Morgana's Crucible was completed, their only initiation tool was essentially rendered useless."

In other words, this South Korean team lineup is easily bogged down, its resources slowly eroded, its economy widened, and it eventually dies a slow death.

Of course, not only the commentators knew this, but both teams were also fully aware of their own strengths and weaknesses from the very beginning.

In a clash between top teams, how could they possibly play around with lineups randomly?
With Shen as a champion, almost every team knows to play the 4+1 strategy, which puts fundamental pressure on the opponent's defense.

Without the Captain or Taliyah, the blue team's lineup struggles to defend their towers.

But this time, we could actually go even further.

Don't forget, Xiaohu's mid-lane Irelia has Teleport!
The 41-minute band immediately evolved into the 131-minute band.

Irelia is brought in to fight against Gangplank, Shen is brought in the bottom lane to ensure survivability and timely support, and the remaining three are Jarvan IV, Ezreal, and Morgana in the middle.

With three lanes pushing forward, the pressure immediately increased even without the Baron buff.

"This"

The immense pressure from the three lanes instantly threw the Korean team into disarray.

Keep in mind that Taliyah can quickly clear the first wave of minions with her skills, but when the second wave arrives, the passive terrain effect of her Q skill hasn't refreshed yet, making it much harder to clear the minions.

As for the top lane captain, he should be even more worried about a well-farmed Irelia suddenly lashing out and hurting people.

The 4-1 split push works because top laner Shen can use his ultimate (R) to support teammates and play solo lanes. In fact, Shen with his ultimate is even better at protecting his teammates.

For 131 to be valid, the conditions are quite demanding. The most basic condition is that the extra 1 must also have the ability to quickly support the battlefield.

In addition, what is even more difficult to achieve is...

The three players on the front lines must have a way to withstand the enemy's initiation. This condition has stumped most lineups that can use the 131 formation.

However, the three champions Jarvan IV, Morgana, and Ezreal can meet this demanding condition.

Prince has the ability to initiate team fights, counter-attack, and escape with mobility skills. Morgana also has the ability to protect, counter-attack, and initiate with crowd control.

As for Ezreal, he has flexible movement, the Archangel's Shield to protect him, and extremely high damage.

Unless you can instantly kill Ezreal, you can easily handle 3v3, or even 3v4.

In a team fight lasting ten seconds, these three sneaky players, even if you manage to engage, the Prince's ultimate and Morgana's ultimate will at least delay you for five or six seconds.

It will take at least five seconds for EZ to deal with it.

In the late game, both Irelia and Shen are fast tower pushers. They can take down your tower in five seconds, let alone ten seconds, if there are minions around!
Even if we get held back by three more people, the top and bottom lane inhibitors won't be a problem.

When the next wave arrives, with minion pressure on both the top and bottom lanes, it's practically absurd for the blue team to group up against the red team, who have the Baron buff.

"When it comes to applying pressure to the opponent from a position of advantage, the factory manager is a professional!"

Seeing the prince repeatedly use the QE combo to unleash Dragon Strike, causing Deft's Ashe to twitch and dodge in fear, Li Luo couldn't help but laugh.

The immense offensive pressure from three lanes not only tested the South Korean team psychologically, but also raised questions about their stamina and focus.

In this sweltering heat, having to deal with such disgusting procrastination tactics would have driven most people crazy.

While defending the mid lane, we're ready to take down the towers on the other two lanes at any time. With Irelia's attack speed buff and Shen's shield, a wave of minions pushing into the tower can at least chip away at its health two or three times.

While defending the side lanes, the mid lane was being harassed by a sneaky Ezreal who, protected by Morgana's E skill shield, came up to chip away at their health.

The team couldn't get into a fight due to the ice, clearing mobs was difficult, the toad was just standing by, and the excavator was wandering around under the high ground tower.

In just one minute, three waves of minions were released, and the top lane high ground turret was the first to be destroyed by Irelia. She even brought the Captain to low health, forcing him to hastily flash back to the fountain.

Order picking?

It's simply unrealistic to focus solely on Irelia in a solo lane.

This is why Irelia, who shone at the beginning of the Summer Split, was nerfed four times before the finals.

When playing a 131 composition, vision can only be focused on protecting the three players in the middle, while the other two players on the side lanes have no vision protection.

Similarly, if the other side is determined, it is easy to kill the unprotected person.

However, the champion Irelia completely broke this rule.

刀妹1V2，1v3，要比1V1还强！

It sounds incredible that a hero can fight multiple opponents and still be stronger than in a 1v1 situation.

But that's the truth. The newly reworked Irelia, before being nerfed, is just that brainless.

The W skill's dual physical and magical damage reduction, and the R skill's disarm, make this hero a perfect champion capable of taking on multiple opponents at once.

Of course, the biggest reason why Irelia is a viable champion is her strong solo lane fighting ability.

Another annoying thing about the Chinese team's lineup is that Shen can support Irelia!
Vision? Control? Burst damage?

Sorry, I'm not afraid of anything!
Two, three, with Shen's R skill, I'm going to counterattack. Four, five, I'm not running away, I'll play with you guys. Unless they change Irelia's currently invincible W skill damage reduction and R skill disarm, it's very difficult for a team composition without point-and-click crowd control to deal with this champion!
Therefore, as long as you give vision to the three people in the middle lane and ensure that the most important three can continuously put pressure on the opponent, you're all set!
"A perfect kiting composition, with Irelia and Shen on the team, is like a steel blade that keeps sucking blood from the Korean team's marrow. It's terrifying. Is this the ultimate move for the Korean team?"

A meticulously prepared lineup left the Korean team, still stuck in a meta focused on macro-management, completely dumbfounded!
You want to play the operations game with me? Then I'll play the strategy game with you, and fight it out.

To break the deadlock, you have to resort to violence and fight to the death to find a chance to turn the tide.

Otherwise, relying on the South Korean team's old skills to seize more opportunities is simply impossible.

Of course, Kkoma wasn't stupid; he didn't realize the strength of the Chinese team. In fact, if the Korean team's lineup had been effective in the early game, it would have been difficult for the Chinese team to achieve this.

There's no other reason than that if you can't beat our people with your own force, it's absurd for you to want to drag this into things.

The problem is that neither Taliyah nor Gangplank has the crowd control abilities of champions like Camille or Fiora. They're okay at defending towers and team fights, but they're really weak in 1v1.

boom! boom!
The inhibitor crystals on both the top and bottom lanes have been destroyed!
The mid-lane high ground turret has fallen!
But just as the five South Korean players gathered in the middle lane, ready to fight to the death, the five Chinese players retreated.

They withdrew decisively, leaving nothing but resources in the wilderness.

This feeling of punching cotton, so light and airy, made the five members of the South Korean team extremely uncomfortable!

Similarly, they have to fight for the Baron Nashor next time, no matter what. If the Chinese team gets the Baron, they will lose all chance of winning.

A blue ornamental eye descended from the sky, illuminating the five people fighting in the dragon pit.

Magic Crystal Arrow (R)

Deft's ice attack was the first to strike, but unfortunately, Shen took the crystal arrow with his bare body.

Even this seemingly powerful ultimate skill couldn't break through the shield.

Taliyah used her ultimate to block the path, attempting to divide the battlefield, while Tahm Kench drove Gangplank around from behind.

The Korean team played this team fight beautifully; Faker separated Irelia and Morgana, who had no Flash, from the other side of the wall.

Smeb's Captain also showed the deeper meaning behind his choice of this hero, with cannons raining down from the sky, slowing down the three separated players.

The main battle instantly turned into a 3v5 situation for Shen, Jarvan IV, and Ezreal.

"Wow! This was Faker's initiation and Smeb's ultimate!"

Seeing the beautiful team fight opening, the Korean commentators seemed to taste the dawn of victory, and they all started howling like ghosts.

Unfortunately, Ezreal's damage instantly silenced the excited commentators, who sounded as if their mouths were taped shut.

EWQ, a standard combo with Hextech Gunblade, becomes a death trap when Ezreal has nearly 750 AP.

Deft, who was focused on outputting damage, was happily spamming Ice Blast one second, and the next second he was a corpse lying on the ground.

3V5 instantly became 3V4.

But just as both sides were locked in a fierce battle, bad news came from the mid-lane crystal, making the Korean team even more anxious!
Their mid-lane inhibitor has been destroyed!

Ezreal is a hybrid champion; his fighting power increases as the game progresses, especially when the team composition lacks AP champions.

"Deft got instantly killed again!"

The two commentators in the Chinese commentary booth were so excited that they stood up, roaring and pounding the table.

Inside Shanghai's Zhengda Plaza, spectators who were still watching the IG opening ceremony match suddenly roared out, even though their bladders were still developing.

The commentator, Duoduo, was completely bewildered, unable to understand what had happened to make these people so excited!
Even through headphones and in a soundproof room, the ten people sitting inside, focused on the game, could hear the cheers from outside that were so loud they could practically shake the stadium upside down.

But they all knew in their hearts that these cheers were for the "Chinese" team thousands of miles away.

Without the Frostbite, Captain Taliyah's damage was completely insufficient to kill the tanky Jarvan IV.

The factory manager calmly executed a move, using his ultimate (R) to trap the captain, who had no Flash, inside the circle, and then used his E and Q abilities to cover Ezreal's damage output.

Taliyah's W is too slow for top players to react to!
Moreover, even an elderly person could easily dodge Taliyah's moves under such a high level of concentration.

When the prince launched the Taliyah into the air, before the toad could even protect it, a massive amount of damage had already been inflicted on Taliyah's fragile body.

With both carries dead, only the Captain, Excavator, and Toad remain, leaving them with almost no damage output.

The outcome was inevitable. After struggling for several tens of minutes, the South Korean team still failed to turn the tide, and couldn't even put up a counterattack.

This is a devastating blow to one's mindset!

Including Brother Li, the five of them slumped onto the benches, their foreheads covered in sweat, whether from exhaustion or from too much pressure, it was hard to tell!
They lost the game under the watchful eyes of millions of South Korean viewers!

This is a much bigger blow and much more painful than losing the MSI.

In the first game of a best-of-five series, there is still a chance.

But the only thing they couldn't understand was...
Why did we lose this game without any chance to fight back? We didn't even have a chance to start building our strategy. We were thrown into a huge disadvantage that we couldn't turn the tide because of a random fight.

When did LPL players become this strong?

A big question mark appeared in everyone's mind.

With three lanes of minions advancing towards the high ground, and the arrival of the five Chinese players a few seconds later, the first game was won!
"Wow, Uzi's not playing too well today, but thanks for carrying me to another win, bro."

Having won the first game, the factory manager, with a score of 3-0-14, was in a great mood and took advantage of Li Luo without even cracking a smile.

"No way, bro. I'm telling you, why don't you look into transferring and come to RNG for the Summer Split? We'll carry you to the S8 championship this year, wouldn't that be great!"

For once, the factory manager thought about it for a moment, but then smiled and refused!
"What are you talking about?" The factory manager smiled broadly, put his hand on Xiao Hu's shoulder, and said in a seemingly casual tone, "I, Ming Kai, am the kind of person who can't win a championship, so I come here to lie down and claim it?"

"Don't forget, I took the S7 Summer Split championship from you last year! Are you that confident?"

"Damn!" Xiao Hu laughed and cursed after being prompted by the factory manager's suggestion.

The reason RNG lost to EDG in last year's summer split was mainly due to Clearlove's poor performance. If he hadn't been out of sorts, RNG wouldn't have lost that best-of-five series.

Amidst their banter, there was no awkwardness between the two teams. The competition venue was very hot, and during the break after the first match, the group couldn't wait to return to the air-conditioned room to relax.

The first game of the best-of-five finals had a huge impact, not only overshadowing the popularity of the LPL Summer Split opening match, but also generating numerous posts discussing the first game on online forums.

(End of this chapter)