Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 271 Mental Breakdown! Yasuo's Subtlety!
After using the wind wall to mess with Ap's mentality, Li Luo didn't greedily continue to harass him. He stood firmly next to the minions, letting the Wanderer knock off his shield, and then used the shield's value to protect himself as he leisurely retreated.

If he dares to go straight up and last-hit the backline minions, Ryze can use his W skill to counterattack, and with the speed boost from Phase Boots, he'll lose at least a third of his health.

The very first details of the laning phase already contain several psychological games and an understanding of the minion waves.

The audience and commentators off the field could hardly feel this deep level of competition; they could only see Yasuo acting like a fool, using his Wind Wall to mess with people's mentality.

But when both of them reached level two, and Yasuo's Wind Wall was off cooldown again, the same thing happened again, and Ryze lost two more minions.

At the same moment, Yasuo also revealed his dog tag.

However, it's not RNG's team logo, but G2's black and white devil logo.

"???"

"There's a mole inside. Terminate the deal."

"Holy crap, this Yasuo is really messing with people's mentality."

"RNG is betting on the outside, this team logo is the signal, bros, let's go to RNG's forum!"

Seeing Ah P pacing back and forth looking uneasy, a burst of laughter erupted from the crowd.

As a result, LCK viewers' liking for Yasuo has increased significantly.

Humorous and witty players seem to have a magical power, attracting countless fans no matter which region they are in.

In the previous game, Ap might have been more interested in exchanging icons with Yasuo, but in this game, he was a bit anxious and even had the idea of ​​recklessly going in and being aggressive.

They used the same trick again, letting the Wanderer destroy their own white shield, then using the shield to retreat, watching as their own minions were drawn to attack the Wanderer.

In an unavoidable moment, a violent urge to attack surged within Li Luo.

Perhaps even the wanderer himself didn't realize that, although the number of minions on the field was equal.

However, due to the rogue's consecutive attacks that drew the enemy's aggro, the red team had one melee minion and three ranged minions, while the blue team had two melee minions and two ranged minions.

With more durable and higher damage-resistant melee minions, the minion wave only needs one more wave to push significantly towards the red team's tower.

"Anger really does make people lose their minds. If it were the first game, Perkz might have noticed this detail, but this game, starting with a Sapphire Crystal, you have absolutely no offensive attributes in the early game."

As Li Luo pondered and observed the various attributes of the Wanderer, he had roughly guessed how the Wanderer's talents would be bestowed.

The Wizardry tree uses Phase Boots, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, and Gathering Storm, while the Domination tree uses dual life steal.

The standard early-game development runes, with Transcendence and Gathering Storm, inevitably result in a lack of damage output for Ryze in the early game.

This is a unique playstyle in the Eu region that differs from other regions. Based on the current understanding of the Eu team, the champion Ryze is very weak in the early game, and no matter how strong the runes and starting items are, it is impossible to beat the opponent.

Therefore, it's better to choose growth talents and development items that offer higher returns in the mid-to-late game.

but--
Is Ryze really weak in the early laning phase?
Li Luo could not deny it.

In his opinion, the current version of Ryze has laning ability that is no less than that of Ryze in Season 6, and is even stronger than that of Ryze in Season 7.

In the S7 World Championship, Rogue played a total of 28 games, averaging a KDA of 3.28, but his win rate was a pitiful 32%.

The fact that so many teams still pick Ryze with such a low win rate is enough to demonstrate the laning ability of this champion in Season 7.

In S8, during the World Championship Play-In Stage, Ryze played 10 times, averaging a KDA of 4.82 and a win rate of 80%.

Even in the main tournament, with 17 appearances, his win rate was 48%, which is not much different from the win rate of Ryze in S6, which was just over 50%.

If it's a version without the tower plate, then Eu's understanding of the Rogue is indeed correct.

Unfortunately, with the addition of the tower plate mechanic in S9, Ryze's appearances in the S9 World Championship were very few.

Moreover, since the Spring Split in various major regions, Rogue has gradually disappeared from the mid lane position in the Summer Split.

It wasn't until S9 when Xiaohu went against the meta and picked Ryze, unleashing his full potential in damage output, that everyone realized the problem with Ryze.

At 3 minutes and 04 seconds, after both players reached level three, the minion wave suddenly stopped at an awkward position in front of the red side tower.

At this moment, Yasuo stood on the flank of the minion wave, looking like he was ready to fight anyone who dared to come up to him.

Realizing that he was likely to be rolled over by Nunu with a snowball, Ap quickly retreated.

Yasuo followed closely, pushing Ryze out of the experience zone before finally stopping.

then
Yasuo stopped moving.

It was as if he was AFK in place, standing between the creep wave and the minion wave.

"???"

Ah P was getting restless.

If he can't get past this position, let alone finish off enemies, even gaining experience will be extremely difficult.

This method of blocking minion waves only has a one percent chance of happening in the mid lane. As the shortest lane, it is very difficult to suppress the enemy mid laner to the point that they cannot get experience.

Ap glanced at Jankos on the map, who was engrossed in farming the jungle and clearing the wolves, and swallowed his words, ultimately not uttering the words, "I'm here to help you."

A mid-laner was pressured so much at level three that he couldn't get any experience.

What would you lose if you forced yourself to eat it?
As a veteran mid-laner and a seasoned wanderer, Perkz clearly knew what was going to happen next.

However, Li Luo clearly had a much longer-term vision than Ah P.

"Taliyah's jungle clearing speed is fast, but definitely not as fast as Nunu's. As long as there's a time difference, he'll never expect Taliyah to still be farming blue buff, and Nunu can gank and counter-gank first."

As a mid laner, knowing when to play aggressively and when to rely on your team's jungler for support is a must. Knowing when to gank and when to be aggressive is always the first thing an experienced mid laner needs to master.

Of course, Ap would never have known that the mid laner's laning phase was already over after he broke Yasuo's shield twice with his auto-attacks.

After checking the time, Taliyah's position, and the coach's video replay after the previous game, Perkz ultimately decided to go all in on the last match.

Even if you can't last-hit minions or gain experience, you must push the minion wave to the tower and recall to secure a fair laning phase. Experience is more important to mid-laners than kills or item advantages, especially for champions like Ryze whose strength increases linearly with skill level upgrades; every level of damage is crucial.

"At worst, I'll just go home. A Yasuo can't one-shot me from full health in the early game, and besides, I still have Teleport, so I won't lose much."

Thinking this through, Ap gritted his teeth and went up, preparing to use the spread effect of EQ to push the lane.

The instant he entered the attack range, just as Ryze's E skill spread across the minions and Yasuo, preparing to unleash his Q, Li Luo also made his move.
Wind Barrier (W) —
The familiar recipe, the familiar taste, and of course, the G2 team logo lit up.

Using his W skill to immobilize Yasuo, Ryze circled around to land a basic attack that triggered Phase Boots. Incidentally, because W refreshed Q's cooldown, Ryze still relentlessly tried to push the lane.

At this moment, Yasuo also came close, and the two exchanged blows with basic attacks at close range. Because he was using Phase Boots and scaling runes, Ap, who thought it wouldn't hurt much, still greatly underestimated Yasuo's damage.

Unlike Blue Crystal, Extraction provides only slightly less attack power than Doran's Blade.

While pressing the tonic in the crystal bottle, A continued to pull A away.

While he wanted to retreat, he also wanted to draw the minions' hatred to Yasuo.

In the current trade, Yasuo is the one who benefits.

But as long as the minions' aggro is concentrated on you, not only will the minion wave push into the tower, but if you teleport over there, you'll have a huge advantage.

Conversely, due to the lack of TP and consumables, Yasuo will have a significant disadvantage in terms of health compared to Ryze later on.

"I'm here, let's go for it, kill him directly!" Unlike Shoe King, who was oblivious to everything else and focused only on his studies, Jankos, who was farming in the jungle, was not oblivious to the world around him.

Upon seeing the predicament of mid laner Perkz, G2's two core players reacted instantly.

The blue buff stopped farming, and using the jungle walls for speed boost, Taliyah had already made her way over.

Upon hearing this, the wandering creature, which was still retreating, subtly changed its retreat path and moved towards the riverbed grass in the upper part of the area.

Li Luo naturally noticed these subtle changes in movement, which clearly indicated that someone was behind the wanderer, which was why he was so fearless.

Of course, anyone can have this kind of attention to detail after the game. Even a bronze or silver player can talk a good game about it during the post-game analysis, as if they know everything and could do it themselves.

However, in actual laning phases, the ability to perceive the opponent's intentions in a short span of time through a slight change in their movement is something that only renowned top professional players can accomplish.

Sure enough, just as Yasuo chased the enemy to the bushes, a sudden rock appeared at his feet.

Rock Burst (W)——
The rocks rose up from the ground, as if trying to lift Yasuo into their arms.

However, just as Ap had predicted, even though the rock spike was released in a blind spot, Uzi was still able to react in time and forcefully turn his head to dodge it.

Without the rock splinter, the rock splinter emerged from the top of the grass, pressed against the wall, and with a wave of its hands, released its power once more.

Scattering Stones (E) —
Ah P, who had turned to run away, was now ready to fight back as his E skill was off cooldown.

In that instant, Li Luo made an extremely bold move.

Instead of predicting and blowing away the enemy with the wind that had already accumulated two layers, the player used the EQ flash on the rogue to instantly knock up the Taliyah who was still firing.

Taliyah was immediately launched into the air by Yasuo's whirlwind, inadvertently dodging Ap's Q skill.

"So decisive!" Jankos looked at the knock-up status that was already attached to him and Yasuo's downward figure, thinking that this gank was going to fail, but it was still good to force Yasuo to use Flash.

As long as Yasuo presses his E skill again, he can pass through the Taliyah standing next to the wall and return to the path between the bushes and the F6 camp, thus leaving safely.

however.

Yasuo, however, showed no intention of leaving. Instead, he immediately used auto-attacks to apply Ignite and counter-attack.

Although Taliyah wasn't at full health, Yasuo's extremely long Q skill cooldown in the early game made it impossible for him to chase down and kill Taliyah. Uzi's reason for doing this was simple—
Oops!

Jankos frantically clicked Flash, trying to create distance as quickly as possible, but it was still too late.

From the moment she was knocked away, a happy snowman pushing a snowball emerged from the opposite river. Just as Taliyah was about to land, the snowball was pushed directly onto her, causing high damage and knocking her away again.

Yasuo is level 4, Nunu is level 4, Ryze is level 3, and Taliyah is level 3.

At such an unequal level, Nunu dealt damage that was incomprehensible to Nunu once again. After Taliyah used Flash to escape, Nunu also used Flash, using his E skill to slow and root the enemy, thus giving the kill to Yasuo who was chasing after him.

Taliyah flashed in the direction that Yasuo was expected to E towards, which was a dead end for the blue team hero.

After assessing the situation and realizing he couldn't provide support, Ah P, his face ashen, could only silently head down the tower.

"Wow, Xiaotian's counter-gank was brilliant!" Wawa exclaimed sincerely.
"After Xiaotian finished clearing the river crab, he just sat there trying to use his speed boost to gank mid lane, but he didn't move for almost ten seconds. He didn't come even when Yasuo and Ryze started fighting. He probably anticipated that Jankos would come to mid lane to support, and he pulled off a surprise attack."

"Yes, if Jankos hadn't come, even if Xiaotian pushed the ball, it would have been difficult to push against Ryze who had Flash. Instead, Jankos was the one who got hit."

Hearing Miller's words, Shenchao also smiled and said:
"Unlike Xiangguo's aggressive ganking style, Xiaotian's Nunu taught G2's coach another lesson. Of course, the reason why Xiaotian's Nunu clears the jungle faster than Jankos' Taliyah is also a point that caught G2 off guard. To be fair, the damage and control of both players were perfectly coordinated in this wave, with not a single bit wasted."

If Xiaotian appeared even a second earlier or later, it would alert Jankos, and without the damage from the snowball, it wouldn't be enough to kill Taliyah.

Similarly, the speed at which the Yeti are cleared from the Red Golem F6 is also an extremely important point.

"Xiaotian's counter-gank awareness was excellent, but it was only icing on the cake. What truly changed the mid-lane situation was Uzi's Yasuo. I really can't believe that after Uzi came to the mid-lane, he could handle the minion wave so delicately and beautifully with Yasuo in the quarterfinals. This is amazing."

Shenchao was also puzzled.

Damn it, he was teammates with Uzi when he was a professional player, but Uzi wasn't this ridiculously strong back then. This is just too unreasonable.
If Uzi had been this good back then, he could have won even if he was just AFK under the tower with Renekton, right?

The commentator's astonishment naturally caused a great stir in the live stream chat:
"Login from another location! This is Langziyan's personal show!"

"To be honest, this move was so easy anyone could do it. Me? I could do it too, okay? What's so hard about EQ flash? It's basic stuff, isn't it?"

"The person who said I could do it too, you'll never learn how to handle the minion wave in the mid lane, right?"

"Suggesting a urine test for Jian Zihao? Is this supposed to be 'Happy Yasuo'? Is this what you call acting in your streams all the time? Bros, I've reported the stream, wasn't I right?!"

"Riot designers: In order to balance the ecosystem and bug-prone experience during the S8 World Championship, we have made a temporary decision to remove the player Uzi to ensure the fairness of the game."

(End of this chapter)