Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 248 Those who learn from me will live, those who imitate me will die.
Ezreal's consecutive deaths, along with the chain reaction of Karthus' ultimate, instantly tore apart the seemingly unbreakable IG top, mid, and jungle duo.

Gnar in the top lane and Jayce in the mid lane were both hit by Karthus's ultimate while they were still level 5.

Furthermore, this R also conveyed a dangerous message!

Xiangguo's Karthus isn't just acrobatics, it's a signature move.

Now, with a jungler even stronger than the solo laner eyeing the game, TheShy's Gnar no longer dared to aggressively pressure him.

After pushing the top lane, Gnar chose to return home.

In the past, RNG would probably have stopped short of making a move.

After all, we have a clear advantage in the early game, so we just need to play it safe.

But this time was different. With Gnar recalling and neither of the top laners having Teleport, Letme muttered, "This is too reckless," while quickly pushing the lane.

After pushing the lane, Pyke recalled to base and immediately bought something that shouldn't be in a top lane champion's item inventory—
Five-speed shoes!

When the bright yellow shoes appeared in Pyke's equipment inventory, the three commentators were stunned.

"Is this Pyke top laner going to follow the Rammus playstyle from before, using Boots of Mobility and W to quickly return to lane?"

Wang Duoduo's eyes widened, her tone revealing no trace of surprise.

Jayce, who was fighting with Swain in the mid lane and was forced to retreat by Karthus's ultimate, and Graves, who was still farming jungle camps after dying once, showed no intention of ganking. Seeing Jayce go back to base, Swain also chose to go back to base to update his equipment and replenish his health.

In this situation, the safest, most scientific, and most rhythm-appropriate choice is for everyone to return to lane and use Karthus's advantage to find opportunities.

But under the watchful eyes of everyone, RNG chose the most risky way to break through.

Pyke, with his Boots of Speed, showed no intention of going to the top lane, acting as if he were the bottom lane support, and headed straight for the bottom lane. Similarly, Swain, after replenishing his equipment, also went to the bottom lane.

With four players trying to gank two others without the jungler's involvement, regardless of whether the tower dive will succeed, the time spent on the tower dive itself severely disrupts the team's rhythm.

As the saying goes, "To injure the enemy by a thousand, you will lose eight hundred of your own," but RNG's move is clearly a case of losing twelve thousand of their own. With no one to lane against Gnar and Jayce, each of them will have to take down at least two or three tower plates.

If they fail, all their previous advantages will be lost.
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Hey, who plays games like this?
Pdd opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, he saw Raven and Pyke already diving the tower.

Ignoring everything and completely disregarding Alistar's presence, Swain activated his ultimate (R) and emerged from behind the tower, precisely hitting Alistar with his E and pulling him back.

Good heavens, Alistar is level 5 and Ezreal is level 4. Baolan wants to use his ultimate to counter-attack, but he hasn't leveled up his ultimate yet.

At this point, without R, Alistar is not much more vulnerable than Ezreal.

As the crow tanked the first tower shot and retreated to the outside with low health, Xiaoming's Galio immediately began the second wave of tower tanking. The strategy was clear, the division of labor was well-defined, and the teamwork was excellent.

Although Ah Shui and Bao Lan wanted to make a play, Galio's taunt prevented them from making any moves. They could only watch helplessly as the full-health Pyke entered the fray, easily taking down both of them with two consecutive slashes.

Ezreal died again, his third death in five minutes, and Alistar used both of his summoner spells.

"Mine, mine!"

TheShy spoke in broken Chinese.

"No, it's not your fault, it's just that the other team's rhythm was too strange."

During Rookie's journey to the mid lane, he witnessed the entire bot lane's actions. With such an encirclement, even he himself had no way to resist.

Looking at the bot lane's Pyke who was already recalling, and the top lane's Gnar who had started taking tower plates, Rookie breathed a sigh of relief.

Given Gnar's wave clear speed, if Pyke recalls to base and then goes back to lane, he'll be at a 100% loss of two tower plates.

In other words, if Pyke hadn't successfully tower-dived, he would have essentially created a powerful enemy.

If you manage to dive the tower and get taken down, you'll be at a huge disadvantage.

That's a ghost.
RNG was strong before, but their strength was "reasonable" and "traceable".

When did the play become so irrational and unpredictable?
Is this some kind of ranked game? Just go all in?
Six minutes into the game, all five members of IG were completely bewildered.

It is precisely because all teams, including IG, have thoroughly studied RNG's playstyle that they are now at a loss, completely unable to predict what the opponent will do next.

Back online, Pyke, having secured a kill, built Tiamat and was finally able to fight back against Gnar's push.

"If I had to describe RNG's gank in two words, I could only say—awesome."

Shenchao was stunned when he saw Colonel Ki pop up and give RNG a 59% win rate in just six minutes.

"Two tower plates in the top lane, one tower plate in the mid lane, each plate costs 120 gold, so three times that's 360 gold. But viewers shouldn't forget that if Pyke can use his R skill to kill an enemy champion, he not only gets the gold himself, but also shares the same amount of gold with his assisting teammates."

"In other words, a kill is worth 300 gold to other players, but if Pyke uses his ultimate to finish off the enemy, that kill will suddenly become worth 600 gold!"

Wang Duoduo passionately started doing math problems on the commentary stage. Before long, he was talking about the relativity of the Rift. In this wave, RNG not only didn't lose out by losing tower plates, but actually made a huge profit.

This is completely contrary to the official intention—to use the tower as the core to compete for resources.

Two minutes later, Karthus' ultimate was off cooldown again, and together with Pyke whose ultimate was also ready, they ganked mid and used Swain to tank the tower and kill Jayce.

Gnar in the top lane watched helplessly as Pyke, wearing Boots of Speed, with the red rune for increased out-of-combat speed, and using a Rift Scuttler for a speed boost, arrived in the mid lane like lightning and killed Jayce in just a few seconds.

This time, IG reacted quickly, with Graves counter-ganking nearby, but RNG's burst damage was simply unreasonable, leaving Graves with a desolate figure.

Pyke's roaming can provide his teammates with 300 gold if he catches someone. Compared to the top lane's first tower, RNG's roaming not only puts psychological pressure on the other members of IG, but also makes TheShy in the top lane feel uncomfortable as he develops.

It's true that he's strong in lane, but now Letme has just picked Pyke, and you can't even see anyone in lane. He's just letting you push the tower, and his Gnar is completely useless.

Another minute and a half later, Karthus hadn't even finished using his ultimate, and Pyke, who had gone back to base, headed back to the bottom lane, ignoring Swain as well. He abandoned a wave of minions in the mid lane and ran to the bottom lane to tower dive with Swain.

Having suffered several setbacks in a row, the IG duo reacted quickly this time. The top laner, Gnar, teleported down, and Graves also emerged from behind.

A small-scale 4v4 team fight ensued.

In the end, the two sides traded 3 for 3, with Sivir and Ezreal both surviving with their backs to the turret.

But Pyke's triple kill means RNG got six kills in this wave.

"Damn it, what kind of person is he? How disgusting!" Bao Lan cursed angrily.

What made him even more furious was that as Karthus's ultimate ability came off cooldown, the remaining Ezreal was also taken down by Sivir, and the bottom lane's first turret was also devoured by Sivir. The gold from both turret plates and the first turret kill went to the ADC. Again, as I said before...

While economic leadership is important, it is only meaningful if the economy is concentrated in a leading position.

In this wave, Sivir got 600 gold from two of Pyke's three kills, and also took two tower plates and a first tower. Her development was no worse than someone who was far ahead.

The team members each have a 200 RMB lead, while the center position has a 1000 RMB lead. Economically, they may be the same, but their impact is worlds apart.

Pyke's significance lies in this: he can consume resources while simultaneously supporting his teammates, using battles to sustain the team. If IG is defeated by Pyke, it will be a huge loss for them.

After returning home, Pyke bought Youmuu's Ghostblade to increase his roaming speed, Swain bought Hextech Gunblade, and Sivir bought Infinity Edge and Berserker's Greaves.

Bao Lan looked up at the time and everything went black.

10 minutes of endless time? Let's add what can be called the most luxurious item in the early game - attack speed boots.

Can this kind of "Wheel Mom" ​​still be called "Wheel Mom"? Can it still be considered a functional ADC? Soon, Baolan tasted the bitterness.

Whoosh! Pfft!
Alistar didn't expect that Sivir, who had been harassing Ezreal, would choose to use her Q skill on him. He accidentally took a full Q and three bounce Ws from Alistar, and his health suddenly dropped by three-fifths.

"???"

The Minotaur, who was at full health, instantly became a low-health Minotaur. Baolan repeatedly marked his own health with several question marks and sent the message three times in the chat box:

Tauren Chieftain - Health 38%.

Alistar retreated, and RNG's bot lane duo, having gained an advantage, began to constantly dictate the pace of the game. After Alistar recalled to base, they took the opportunity to destroy the top lane turret as well.

With the Rift Herald secured, their economic advantage grew increasingly exaggerated, reaching a 7,000 gold lead in just fifteen minutes.

Compared to his teammates' outstanding performance, Li Luo's performance in this game was somewhat invisible. He simply controlled the lane steadily and farmed, relying on his solid fundamentals to gain a 40-CS lead over the opponent's Ezreal, which was also the highest in the game.

For any other ADC, this would be a satisfactory result, but the audience and fans obviously had much higher expectations for Uzi, with people constantly commenting in the chat: "Looking forward to Uzi's return to the scene."

What exactly makes a contestant who can be considered "excellent" in the eyes of the audience?
This issue has been a topic of endless debate among fans ever since professional matches emerged from League of Legends.

But everyone shares a common understanding:

Being able to step up when the team needs you, to save the world when the audience needs you, and to make the game exciting and unpredictable is enough.

Li Luo didn't feel anything about sacrificing for the team.

In their past lives, Uzi carried the team every game, leading the remaining RNG players to believe that as long as they played passively and didn't make mistakes in crucial moments, they could win. Although no one said it aloud, they all had this thought in their hearts.

Of course, a player who only cares about himself and not the team will not go far. Sometimes serving the team is also a way to win the game. You don’t necessarily have to carry the team yourself to win.

The reason he picked Sivir was to ensure the mobility of this lineup, allowing the team's two heavy mage tanks and the short-range Karthus to be more agile.

However, if you can end the game with a significant advantage in the early to mid-game, you'll save a lot of effort and won't have to wait for team fights, which is like dancing on a knife's edge.

The laning phase wasn't too stressful, allowing Li Luo to farm safely and develop his character while also keeping an eye on the overall game situation.

"The new system's tactics seem pretty good so far," Li Luo thought with satisfaction.

Anyone with a discerning eye could sense a change in RNG during this match; at least their ferocity had increased significantly.

RNG did not give up on macro play, but instead used it to attack. They placed all their wards as offensive wards, and as soon as an important resource point spawned, they were ready to trade kills with you, showing no fear of death.

Sometimes, even when there's absolutely no need to fight, they force an opportunity to do so.

Choose a hero with strong fighting ability in the early and mid-game to fight the opponent.

Perhaps RNG cannot completely defeat RNG in every wave, but as the number of waves increases, thanks to Pyke's R skill, the equipment of all five players is upgraded at a terrifying speed.

It doesn't matter if they swap kills; every time Xiangguo plays Karthus, he gets to profit from the kills, which is a huge win for Karthus.

With the gold from securing too many kills, RNG's lineup quickly entered its power spike in the early to mid-game. They could make plays around Baron Nashor as soon as it spawned, and had many opportunities to end the game in one fell swoop during the mid-game.

This approach was relatively novel in S8, but it became a go-to strategy for many teams in S10.

By relying on the jungler and support to roam in the early and mid-game, they secured the dragon early and, around the 20-minute mark, used their early and mid-game lineup to take the dragon soul, thus laying the foundation for victory.

RNG is now doing the same thing, except they've changed their target from the Dragon Soul to the Baron.

This playstyle would be familiar to any professional player or coach from S10.

It was a slight adjustment to the system that IG relied on to win the S8 championship.

The winning team's playing style is always studied, learned, and imitated by clubs all over the world.

From S3 to S10, this was no exception, because winning the championship proved the feasibility of this tactic.

IG's playstyle shocked the world and opened the door to a new world for other LPL teams.

Therefore, starting from Season 9, LPL teams have more or less begun to follow suit, focusing on the top and mid lanes as the core, and cooperating with the jungler to open up the game.

Those who learn from me live, those who resemble me die.

Innovate by standing on the shoulders of giants, rather than choosing to become another giant.

Based on the IG team's experience, FPXS9 developed an even more abnormal support-jungle-mid roaming strategy, bringing IG's tactics to their extreme and cutting off the potential for other LPL teams to develop this strategy.

In S10, it was precisely because this strategy had reached its limit that LPL teams resorted to their old methods and ultimately fell to the Korean teams.

Historically, in S9, even EDG transformed into a team that focused on the top, mid, and jungle, allocating a lot of resources to the top lane.
Of course, RNG was the only team in the entire LPL that relied on its bot lane and jungle as its core to make it to the World Championship before finally falling.

The allocation of resources and the adjustment of tactics are things that are difficult to describe once you remove the visual appeal.

Viewers who frequently watch the games are keenly aware of RNG's changes, but they can't pinpoint the source of these changes.

It seems like overnight, the entire RNG team became unfamiliar.

The official version of the tower plating that was only available in Season 9 has been brought over to the present, and Li Luo went all the way and also brought over the gameplay from Season 9, which has led to the current strange situation.

Although the current advantage is due to Pyke's aggressive resource grabbing, the emergence of the three-core system is an inevitable trend in the development of League of Legends' tactical system.

The censorship has gone crazy! Comments and posts have mysteriously disappeared!
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(End of this chapter)