Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 267 Instantly Picking Yasuo, How Bizarre!
"Welcome to Busan! This is the live broadcast of the 2018 World Championship Quarterfinals. Hello everyone, I'm Wawa, Miller, and Shenchao, the commentators for this match."

Viewers who had been waiting in the live stream for a long time saw the director finally switch the screen to the live scene, and after the boring commercials ended, they all started spamming "RNG, keep going!"

"Today, the three of us will be providing commentary on the matches between RNG and G2." As usual, after introducing themselves, the three commentators began to discuss the match.

"Rw has already taken the lead by defeating IG and entered the semifinals. The winner of the next match will face Rw at the same time next week," Wawa said first.

"To be honest, Rw's 3-0 victory over IG was something none of us expected before the match. Of course, Doinb's overwhelming teamfight participation rate of 89%, 92%, and 95% in the three games also showed the world the unique strength of Rw."

After briefly discussing some of Rw's statistics from the last match, even the commentators, who had watched the game countless times, were still somewhat shocked.

Who would have thought that a newly formed team like Rw could defeat a veteran powerhouse in such a decisive and efficient manner?

"Yes, I wonder which game the puppy will pull out his 'special skill' in today." Shenchao smiled and changed the subject, but then he heard crazy screams from the audience.

The three looked toward the center of the stage and saw that RNG and G2 had begun to enter.

"Alright, both teams have started entering the arena. I don't think I need to say much about RNG's strength; they haven't disappointed us once this year, and I don't think they will today either! As for G2, given their performance in the league and RW's explosive showing, I feel like RNG needs to pay close attention to G2's mid and jungle today!"

"That's right, when talking about G2, we have to mention FNC. There are rumors that both teams practiced a lot of unconventional strategies before the match. I wonder if we'll see them today!"

While the players were on stage and before the draft phase began, the group briefly analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. After much discussion, they decided to trust RNG's strength.

Most of the discussion focused on which game RNG would pick Yasuo.

After receiving the message from the director at the front, Wawa stopped talking and said, "Okay, we have received the message from the front. Both sides' players are ready. Let's move on to the second best-of-five match of the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Championship!"

"Our RNG will face off against Eu's G2!"

The music from BP started playing simultaneously with the cheers and shouts of encouragement from the audience, and the live stream screen switched to the BP interface.

In this match, RNG was on the blue side and G2 was on the red side.

For both RNG and G2, RNG has already revealed too much in the year of S8, including the match videos of RNG, which G2's analysis team has analyzed countless times.

The group stage of the World Championship is usually a time to explore the game's meta and playstyles. It's only in the quarterfinals that players gradually reveal their strategies.

Nevertheless, G2, with their experience, banned Ornn and Kai'Sa, and after a moment's hesitation, gave the last ban to Xiangguo's Sejuani in the jungle position.

RNG, on the other hand, seemed to ban them instantly, with almost no time to think, directly banning three supports: Tahm Kench, Morgana, and Rakan.

"Huh? RNG's ban picks were so clean and decisive? They didn't even target G2's mid and jungle? You know, Jankos and Perkz have a great synergy. G2 also knew Uzi might pick Yasuo, which everyone voted for, so they didn't ban him either. The two sides started their battle right from the start with the ban picks in the first game."

Seeing the intense tension between the two sides from the very beginning, the three commentators became excited.

"RNG's bans are actually fine, considering G2's champion pool is... well, it's kind of weird. They're basically the kind of champions that are hard to counter. Let's see how both sides pick."

Before he could finish speaking, the commentator stammered as if he had been choked.

RNG, playing on the blue side, didn't hesitate at all and immediately picked a champion that everyone hates in ranked games—Yasuo.

When Yasuo's slightly weathered portrait appeared in the champion selection screen, before anyone could even send a sarcastic comment, RNG had already made their choice.

"Death is like the wind, always with me"

"They've really locked it in! This is a direct psychological blow to G2 from RNG."

"My God, Chris, no, this puppy is too bold! This is the quarterfinals of the World Championship!"

The previously noisy arena suddenly paused after Yasuo was picked and locked in instantly, then erupted into thunderous cheers.

Bp interface.

After RNG confidently locked in Yasuo on the first floor, G2 was stunned for a moment, and then Perkz burst out laughing.

G2 picked Tristana and Galio on the first and second floors, directly revealing their pre-match strategy against RNG's Yasuo pick.

These are two heroes who are relatively strong in lane and can effectively counter Yasuo in team fights, both in the early and mid-to-late game.

These two choices show that G2 is still very wary of RNG, and this counter-pick is excellent.

When it was RNG's turn, their second and third picks were Gragas and Sion.

G2 countered by picking Akali, a champion known for her high damage output.

"Wow, RNG's lineup... Sion should be in mid lane? Gragas support? Is RNG afraid of a Yasuo/Sion melee team, so they picked Gragas to supplement AP damage?" Miller guessed uncertainly upon seeing this pick, "That's so aggressive!"

RNG's first three picks were indeed very aggressive. In this game, they had AD carries in the top and bottom lanes and were short of AP carries, so they directly picked Gragas as support.

With three heroes capable of initiating team fights, this draft was undoubtedly more aggressive than the group stage, and subsequent drafts certainly reflected this.

The second round of bans began, and after it ended, G2 was the first to get the top laner they wanted - Aatrox.

In their first four picks, G2 secured Aatrox, Akali, Tristana, and Galio, a perfect combination of front-line and back-line champions, as well as both initiating and counter-initiating strategies.

In contrast, RNG continued their unconventional approach with their fourth and fifth picks, introducing a jungler that hadn't been seen in competitive play since the rework.
Snow Twins - Nunu.

In professional leagues, the three most important aspects for junglers are ganking ability, jungle fighting ability, and team fight initiation ability.

For example, champions like Lee Sin, Rek'Sai, and Jarvan IV, who are strong in the jungle and have great ganking ability, meet the standards of professional matches, but their weakness is that they are not strong in the late game.

Champions like Zac and Sejuani, who are very tanky in the late game and have strong initiation capabilities, also meet the standards of professional leagues.

There are also several special junglers, such as Kindred, who has a special ability that can be provided by her ultimate, making her a high-damage hero in the late game, essentially a carry.

Players like Graves and Red Kai are like that.

On the surface, Nunu has ganking and teamfight initiation capabilities, but these are not obvious and the effects are not good.

Because Nunu's W skill, Snowball, is unreliable for both ganking and initiating team fights, and it can also be interrupted.

Compared to Zac and Sejuani's teamfight initiation, there's a clear gap. A champion that's weak in the jungle, lacks ganking ability, can't initiate teamfights, and isn't strong in the late game is naturally not chosen by any team.

From patch 8.17 to patch 8.19 at Worlds, not a single team paid any attention to this champion, not even in the group stage.

In their fifth pick, RNG secured a tanky champion that was a strong counter to Aatrox – Twisted Treant.

With RNG's fifth pick completed, G2 quickly completed their fifth pick as well, adding Lee Sin to enhance their mid-jungle fighting capabilities.

Rng (Blue Side) vs G2 (Red Side)

Top Lane: Maokai vs. Aatrox
Jungle: Nunu vs Lee Sin
Mid Lane: Sion vs Akali

ADC: Yasuo vs Tristana
Support: Gragas vs Galio. As soon as this lineup was confirmed, everyone felt a sense of familiarity.

Rng's flavor is too strong!

Isn't this just the same four-protect-one strategy that RNG is tired of playing? They've just replaced the ADC with Yasuo.

"It feels like RNG gave Uzi a Yasuo to play a four-protect-one strategy with this lineup; the whole team seems to rely solely on Yasuo for damage output..."

"Overall, RNG is very strong in small-scale team fights in the early to mid-game. In this early-game-oriented meta, gaining an early to mid-game advantage doesn't guarantee a win, but if Yasuo can get ahead, the game is still very suspenseful."

The two teams have very different lineups. Compared to RNG's four-protect-one strategy, G2's lineup is all-out attack.

The team has five players with considerable damage output, especially Akali and Lee Sin's level 6 burst damage, which is hard to withstand.

As the game began loading, cheers and shouts from both teams filled the air.

"The lineups for both sides are finalized, and the match is about to begin. RNG kept their word in the quarterfinals and picked Yasuo, the champion everyone voted for, in the first game. Will Uzi's Yasuo dominate the Rift, or will G2's bot lane defeat Yasuo? Let's enter Summoner's Rift together!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the game officially started on the big screen in the venue. Both sides quickly bought their equipment and waited for the restrictions to be lifted before rushing to their positions.

“Rng!! Rng!!”

"Go RNG! Yasuo, charge!"

"G2!!!"

As the most anticipated match in the quarterfinals, the audience's emotions were stirred up as soon as the first game started. Amidst cheers, the quarterfinals of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship officially began!
At the start of the game, both sides behaved normally and didn't seem to have any intention of engaging in a level 1 team fight.

From a distance, when Ah P and Li Luo saw it—
brush!
At almost the same moment, both of them lit up their team logos.
-
The G2 team logo is black and white, revealing a red devil's eye.
-
The RNG team logo is a simple R with black and yellow accents.

As the two immediately clashed, the audience and commentators sensed a tense atmosphere and a sense of impending doom, and whistles and shouts rang out from the crowd.

G2's adcHjarnan seemed to disagree as well, taking Perkz's spot and pressing a team logo.

In the bottom right corner of the camera, at this moment, Ap, Hjarnan, and G2's support player, Wadi, all laughed together.

But the smile only lasted for less than two seconds before it froze.

From G2's perspective, the previously amicable RNG team seemed to be provoked by the flashing of their team logo and suddenly surged forward.

And as a snowman pushing a large snowball with extremely fast movement speed rushed up from behind, Hjarnan panicked and tried to flash over the blue buff wall, but he failed!
He flashed and crashed into the wall with a thud. Before he could even cry out, he was pushed up by a snowman behind him with a big snowball.

When Hjarnan tried to use W to get over the wall, Gragas swiftly used E to interrupt the jump, followed by Yasuo's Q.

Rng.Uzi killed G2 Hjarnan
first blood.

"My God, Xiangguo successfully ambushed G2 by taking advantage of the Home Guardian speed-up effect that went live at night. G2 suffered a huge psychological loss this time, especially Hjarnan. I bet he's about to cry."

Use Homeguard to go online at night, and then decide whether to engage in a level 1 team fight if conditions allow. After buying your equipment, stay at home for a while first, because Nunu pushes the ball too fast and your teammates won't be able to keep up.

Standing at home allows Nunu to maintain the Homeguard's speed boost. When the time is right, Nunu can use his W skill's speed boost in conjunction with Homeguard to reach the red team's blue buff wall in 3.5 seconds.

Nunu's level 1 W skill, when fully charged twice, can deal 240 + 2.0 AP damage.

This terrifying damage, if you don't have a concept of it, can be understood as a level 1 push being able to instantly kill a ranged unit.

A hero who can reliably kill ranged minions from level one is someone that very few heroes can withstand.

With an additional 1.25 seconds of control time, pushing someone to their death is practically guaranteed.

This is the mid-lane Nunu build that was extremely popular in S10, but Li Luo brought it to S8 ahead of time, catching G2 off guard.

Having learned their lesson after suffering a major setback in the first team fight, G2 dared not act recklessly this time and instead went to their lanes cautiously.

The online matchup has begun.

Despite not having a flash, Hjarnan still pushed forward aggressively.

The strength of the first-level cannon is well-known.

On the other hand, Yasuo, who has leveled up his E skill at level 1, is alright in the mid lane, but in the bot lane, he is truly "a death that comes like the wind and is always by my side".

Even if E gets into the arms of the two, and manages to get first blood and a speed-boosting sword at level one, he still has no tankiness.

It's common sense for bot lane ADCs to take advantage of Yasuo's lack of level and inability to synergize with Gragas before he can exert pressure.

In casual games, there are quite a few people who use Yasuo in the bot lane, and pairing him with Alistar or Gragas often leads to unexpected victories.

However, it is only when Yasuo reaches level three and uses his W skill to block damage from the ADC and support skills, thus blocking the damage from ranged minions, that he enters his first power spike in the bot lane.

Taking advantage of the gap while last-hitting minions, Tristana subtly moved to close the distance with Yasuo.

This is the correct way to play.

The instant the cannon's basic attack landed, Li Luo slightly moved the mouse, controlling Yasuo to move closer as well.

Normally, Tristana needs to break Yasuo's shield with basic attacks before she can harass him.

A player who plays Yasuo in a "dumb goose" style will often lose a third of his health due to his weakness at level one, and then enter a long period of suppression.

However, due to Li Luo's anticipatory movement, the two heroes simultaneously approached each other.

The distance suddenly came within Yasuo's E range.

A quick E skill, Step Slash, brought her to Tristana's side. She skillfully used an auto-attack to cancel the E skill's animation and then launched a basic attack.

At the same moment, Tristana's basic attack also landed on Yasuo, but unfortunately, the damage didn't even break Yasuo's shield.

Because of the shield, Tristana, who doesn't have the E skill, didn't dare to linger in the fight and had to use the W skill to jump back, taking another auto-attack along the way.

"This guy."

Hjarnan was secretly alarmed.

He's played Yasuo in ranked games and also laned against Tristana, but when it comes to the level of detail, he couldn't pull off something like that last play.

A glimpse of the whole picture
Before Hjarnan could even process where he had lost, he saw Nunu, who had used Flash at level one, reappear in his field of vision, pushing a blue snowball.

"Damn it, he's here again!"

(End of this chapter)