Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 231 The Inevitable Power of Water!

League of Legends: A game of mindset.

Years ago, this phrase was used to jokingly refer to people who were getting crushed or harassed online.

Moreover, most users are not opponents, but teammates. Often, when they are winning, they will get cocky and lose two team fights, and then they will give up and play recklessly.

At this point, he made a sarcastic remark: "What the hell is this mentality all about?"
But actually, this statement has become more and more reasonable with each version update.

In the fighting version, the key is to remain calm and composed, and to avoid arrogance and impatience.

The same applies to those facing adversity; once their mindset is affected, not only will their tactical execution change, but their actions will also become visibly distorted.

This four-man gank not only killed Deft, but also Mata's Alistar.

Two heads, one tower.

This advantage, which was impossible to achieve with VN, suddenly appeared.

The resulting chain reaction is also extremely terrifying!
Camille, who was having a comfortable laning phase in the top lane, found herself facing Vayne and Janna. Most importantly, Camille opted for Tiamat to play more aggressively.

In contrast, Vayne's current equipment consists of a gleaming Ruined King's Blade.

As the item that allows for the most snowballing effect, Blade of the Ruined King provides all-around bonuses, making Vayne particularly strong in 1v1 or multi-target situations.

Many casual players often think that Blade of the Ruined King is a weak item, but that's not the case.

The only active effect of Ruin: Deals 100 magic damage and steals 25% of the target's movement speed for 3 seconds.

Stealing and reducing are slightly different. Stealing 25% also means that the gap between the two people becomes 50%.

Looking at the abilities of League of Legends champions, very few champions have abilities that can slow down opponents for more than three seconds.

This little bit of movement speed can be used by skilled players to create perfect distances that leave melee fighters helpless, but it feels useless to novice players.

As expected, as soon as the two sides met, Vayne rolled right into Camille's face and forced out a three-hit combo, even bumping the tower along the way.

Unfortunately, with Janna's shield protecting them and Blade of the Ruined King's lifesteal, this trade of blows was a win-win situation.

With the duo lane on top, Lee Sin indirectly declared his dominance in the upper half of the map. Before the dragon spawned, the Rift Herald was already firmly in control.

When Lee Sin is ahead, his jungle clearing speed is incredibly fast. After clearing both upper jungle areas, the Rift Herald will spawn just in time.

Without the tower plate, the Vanguard is more useful for relieving pressure on solo lanes.

For example, Zilean, who has already been down by nearly 30 CS from Irelia, can use the Herald to help him push down the mid-lane tower and relieve the pressure on the minion wave.

Everything went as expected. Although the Korean team's lineup was strong in fighting, it was a pity that they lacked a hero who could clear lanes.

After falling into a disadvantageous position, they could only watch helplessly as the mid-lane tower was pushed down by the top lane duo who arrived in time, along with Lee Sin's Herald.

With an absolutely perfect rhythm, in just fourteen minutes, the blue team once again gained an economic advantage of 2700 gold.

This is even with the team falling behind in the mid lane.

Of course, Zilean can be built with damage items in ranked games, but in competitive games, he is mostly built with utility and cooldown reduction items.

"The South Korean team is in for a tough time. Their second dragon is a water dragon, which is practically the perfect dragon attribute for the Chinese team."

The second dragon was still a water dragon, and as the Chinese team returned home to resupply their equipment, the South Korean team had already begun to take their positions.

Of the four elemental dragons, the fire and earth dragons are the most suitable for competition.

The former, Fire Dragon, is not only favored in competitive matches but also extremely popular in casual games. Its bonuses are simple and easy to understand; every Fire Dragon you take down results in a direct boost to your stats, making it a satisfying and intuitive experience.

However, in the years since Korean-style operations have been gaining momentum, Tulong has also been very comfortable. In Korean internal competitions, there are often games where players end up with a score of 0/0/0. In these games where there is no fighting, Tulong is even more important.

Although the Korean team didn't want to give up the second dragon, as soon as they made contact, Vayne's damage output stuck to Alistar and almost killed him.

Once Alistar returned home, the Korean team's initiation tactics were largely rendered useless, forcing them to concede the second Water Dragon as well.

"The next one is another water dragon? That's outrageous!"

Peanut watched speechlessly as the marks on the dragon pit refreshed one by one, revealing the water attribute once again.

Our advantage is that we keep giving our boss wind dragons, while the opponent gets to give us water dragons whenever they want? Why don't you just give them a Baron Nashor directly?
This dragon was practically a godsend; the timing of the gank was incredibly advantageous, coinciding perfectly with the Chinese team's strong lineup.

Without Irelia's three core items, or rather, without the ability to instantly kill before Zilean can react, the team fight for the third dragon would likely crumble at the first touch.

The Chinese team's tactical approach in this game was also very clear: protect the bottom lane's development, and select two heroes in the mid and top lanes who are not easy to kill and can provide functional roles in team fights even if they fall behind in development.

Taking this initiative, by the time they reached the third dragon at 19 minutes, and Vayne had just acquired her three core items, it was simply unstoppable.

In less than 20 minutes, even though Camille got First Blood, she didn't have the resources to split push with Ornn.

Once team fights break out, the Chinese team has a front line, protection, initiation, and counter-attack capabilities, making it one of the most perfect lineups in the mid-game.

"Let's drag this out. If we can drag it out to 35 minutes, we'll win."

After finishing F6, Brother Li said solemnly.

He clearly noticed the weakness of the Korean team's lineup, which focused solely on late-game dominance and tried to gain an advantage in the early game with Irelia and Camille. However, the Chinese team countered this with their Zilean pick.

This was something no one had anticipated before the game started.

The three water dragons cast a big question mark over the South Korean team's performance in the mid-to-late stages.

With the support of the three Water Dragons, and the movement speed boosts from Zilean and Janna, the Chinese team is virtually invincible in terms of attrition power.

Although we will still be hampered by the Korean team in head-on team fights and split pushing, as long as we can take down Baron, none of these will be a problem.

"Smeb, build some tank items. We can't afford to give up the next dragon."

Yes, even if it's tough, the Korean team has to take on the next team fight.

As the game entered a period of rapid development, the South Korean team, with its strong tactical execution, rarely had the opportunity to engage in fights if it wanted to play defensively.

But everyone knew that this wave of attacks was not far off, and the Water Dragon was about to be born.

Both sides were well aware of this, and using it as a signal, after dealing with the minion waves, they returned to base to replenish their equipment and health.

In this game, the Korean team didn't have a tank in the strict sense, so after Blade of the Ruined King and Guinsoo's Rageblade, Li Luo chose Mercury's Treads as his third item to increase his survivability in team fights.

While mercury blades are extremely useful, they don't actually offer much in terms of a direct increase in combat power.

Especially for attack speed-based builds like Li Luo's, the damage increase from Quicksilver Sash is negligible. However, Jinx only has an Infinity Edge and a Zeal, making it too difficult to counter Ornn who already has Sunfire Cape and Ninja Tabi.

Jinx needs at least three items to pose a threat to Ornn.

At this point in time, it was far from the time when Irelia and Camille would be able to exert their power. To be more precise, the entire Korean team's lineup had not yet entered its power spike in team fights.

However, the threat posed by the Three Water Dragons was too great, so they had no choice but to fight even if they didn't want to.

The Korean team began aggressively controlling vision in the lower half of the map, with everyone equipped with control wards. The Chinese team also tightly controlled the upper half of the map, with all ten players clustered in the small river, fearing that the enemy would instantly kill the dragon.

Unfortunately, the buffs from the two water dragons made the Korean team's attrition damage a joke; only Jinx's W skill and Olaf's Q skill dealt negligible damage.

"Wow, neither team here wants to initiate. Our carry, Vayne, has built Mercury's Treads, but if Camille, Irelia, and Olaf were to launch a self-destruct attack, it would be quite difficult to fight them."

"Yes, neither side wants to give up the dragon, but neither dares to engage in a team fight either. The two teams are now locked in a stalemate!"

The two commentators stared intently at the turbulent events unfolding on the screen, afraid of missing a single detail of the team's attack.

Ren Dong nodded repeatedly from the side. Although he couldn't get a word in edgewise, his understanding of the game made it clear that this was not just a battle for the small dragon, but also a fight for control of the big dragon.

Time was still dragging on; the small dragon spawned at 19 minutes and 22 seconds, but no one dared to touch it until the large dragon spawned.

"Hey, the puppy has given up on harassing and started pushing the mid lane. Similarly, Deft's Jinx is pushing the bot lane. Both sides are letting their ADCs farm, while the others are still entangled around the dragon pit."

As if they had reached an agreement, the two ADCs started clearing the lane at the same time. Unfortunately, after a wave of minions pushed forward, the blue team's minions were taking down the second mid-lane tower, while the red team's minions were lingering under the first tower.

The minions don't push towers very fast, but little by little, they add up. If this stalemate continues, once the second tower falls, without vision of the mid-lane tower, even if they lose the dragon, the Chinese team can easily establish vision around the Baron and continue to chip away at its health.

Mata realized this and, as expected, called for Deft to group up and start pulling the dragon, preparing to fight for Smite when the dragon was low on health.

This was the reason why neither side wanted to start the dragon race.

Olaf is only level 10, but the factory manager's Lee Sin is a full level 12. Comparing the two, Lee Sin's Smite damage is higher.

This means that the South Korean team is at a natural disadvantage when it comes to penalties.

Furthermore, due to the water dragon, whichever side activates the dragon first will be slowed down and have no movement speed, making them vulnerable to the opponent's control skills and potentially losing the entire game.

"I've opened it, I can't wait any longer!"

Seeing that the water dragon's health had dropped to one-third, Letme let out a low growl, and a red ram's head appeared on the horizon.

Ornn's ultimate was at an extremely tricky angle, aimed directly at Alistar's position, immediately thwarting Alistar's attempt to interrupt.

Unfortunately, the two sides were still too far apart. Although the second part of the ram's head hit Olaf who was taking the dragon, Olaf was not knocked up because of the presence of his ultimate. Instead, Smeb's E skill was interrupted.

good chance!
The factory manager, blind, emerged from the side, his meaning clear: the dragon could be given up, but the head had to be taken.

Compared to securing the third dragon, winning this team fight and taking down the Baron is clearly more important.

Despite having a Bloodthirster item, Camille in a losing game couldn't withstand the damage from a level 12 Lee Sin. The moment she was sent into the Chinese team's midst, she became the first one to be melted.

However, the blind man, who was the one who went in to initiate the team fight, also fell to the ground. He was revived by Shi Guang's ultimate skill and did not die for the time being.

As I said before, it's far from the time for the Korean team to exert their strength. If it weren't for the third dragon, both sides would still be farming under their towers.

Camille's unexpected death caused a collapse, but the mechanics of this champion are what they are. Once the time is right and she has the right items, she becomes incredibly powerful when she goes solo. In a team fight, Camille can easily cut down a key player and kill them instantly.

While the opposing team used all their skills on Lee Sin, Li Luo seized the opportunity to precisely enter the fray, flashed to dodge Irelia's ultimate skill, activated his ultimate, and rolled directly towards the blue team's backline.

The biggest standard for judging whether a Vayne player is good or not is how well they use their Q skill to become invisible.

Most of the time, skilled Vayne players use the one second of invisibility from their Q skill to adjust their positioning and make their output environment more comfortable.

However, in low to mid-tier games, it's common to see Vayne getting focused down and killed before she can land a second Q, even though her positioning isn't ideal, in her greed for damage output.

The minotaur instantly activated his scan, trying to find Vayne's location. A red scan beam appeared, and the instant he saw her, a crossbow bolt struck him, pinning Deft to the dragon wall.

The first basic attack hit, and the sudden damage left the fragile Jinx completely powerless to resist.

Just as Vayne was about to unleash her third ring, Mata quickly used his W skill to knock Vayne into the air, sending her right into Olaf's face.

"We've been tricked!" Mata and Deft exclaimed simultaneously, realizing the situation.

Flash to dodge Irelia's ultimate, while simultaneously approaching Jinx, using her only crowd control ability, and striking a pose like an assassin Vayne, ready to kill, but in reality, her position is always diagonally opposite Alistar.

Vayne needs Alistar to knock him into the dragon pit; his target remains the water dragon!
AQ instantly struck, pinning Olaf to the ground. At the same time, the fallen blind man stood up, and the two focused their attacks on Olaf.

The Time Traveler and Ornn stepped forward simultaneously and engaged in a fierce battle with Faker's Irelia.

Olaf's health plummeted, and he panicked for a moment. Looking at the dragon's health, he tentatively used his Smite.

At the same time, the E skill was also used!
However, the factory manager's experience and wealth, coupled with the lack of pressure that losing the dragon would mean certain death, meant that he only used Smite when the dragon had 96 health left, thus taking down the third dragon.

In the past, everyone thought that the SKT team that defeated RNG could become the first team in League of Legends history to win three consecutive championships.

But the fact that they were swept 3-0 in the finals broke the hearts of many SKT fans, and they couldn't recover until S8.

Moreover, due to the commentators' pacing at the time, and the fact that SKT's core player was Bang, everyone focused their attention on Bang's mistakes, thus shifting the blame to the Ue and Jungle players.

But after MSI and Bang faced off, Li Luo discovered that this was not actually the case.

Bang in S7, although not at his peak, can still be considered a world-class ADC, even a tier above Deft now.

As a recognized bot ADC, even the slightest mistake will be magnified infinitely.

The real problem was the breakdown of the triangle involving Peanut, Faker, and Huni, which was the true reason for Skt's loss.

Let's leave Huni aside for now. After all, since S7, this player, who was strong at stomping weaker opponents and could easily defeat top laners, has shown just how bad he really is after leaving for Fox in the LCS North America, just by looking at his series of terrible performances.

The main reason is that Faker and Peanut's tactical styles clashed severely.

In a sense, what SKT needed at the time was a jungler who was good at vision control, map control, and protecting the development of lane heroes, like Clearlove.

SKT's three lanes weren't bad at the start of S7, so when Peanut, who was known for his aggressive and daring style, joined SKT, he was impacted by Faker's style and, under the coach's guidance, gradually became the "farming kid" that everyone knows.

This playstyle continued into Season 10 and still couldn't be changed.

Therefore, if the player fails to gain an advantage in this round, they will naturally make frequent mistakes.

(End of this chapter)