Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 285 Reverse Thinking: The Beginning of Art

The first game was just like any other match between two teams in the LPL league, with little difference in outcome and process. Without a doubt, it was an unequal match in terms of both tactics and individual lanes.

After losing a game in bo5, Doinb seemed somewhat lost.

After dominating the LSPL league, he developed his own unique system after entering the LPL, and few could rival him under this system.

Of the three LPL teams participating in the tournament, Rw has already upset one of them, crushing IG in the quarterfinals. Whether in online battles or strategic exchanges, Rw has performed exceptionally well.
This result made him wonder if RNG or RW, who came from the same region, might be able to make a comeback?
Because RNG only has one strong lane out of five players, it's not that great, is it?
As for the 3-0 victory over G2, that was just bullying weak teams; anyone can do that.
However, after actually playing against him, he realized that he was a "noob" in his own eyes.

This game was truly the worst RW has ever suffered since the S8 World Championship. Before RW could even begin their signature macro play, a mistake in the bottom lane ended the game. From the 15-minute mark until the end, they were completely crushed by RNG in every way imaginable, and their confidence was shattered.

In terms of operation, awareness, tactics, and strategy, RNG achieved a clean and overwhelming victory, as if it were a dimensional reduction attack. RW's tactics were completely ineffective.

When the Rw team returned to the rest room, before his teammates and coach could even speak, Ma Ge took the initiative to say:

"This was my fault, I couldn't beat him."

Xayah and Rakan have a 70/30 chance against Ezreal and Bard. In the current version, it is even widely believed that Xayah and Rakan can completely dominate the opposing combination.

Firstly, the double Tear of the Goddess build for Ezreal in the World Championship version has been changed by the official team. Secondly, before Ezreal's items are fully completed, he mainly plays poke in lane and his head-on combat ability is very weak.

However, he was killed so badly by an Ezreal, causing his jungler and top lane teammates to collapse along with him.

Although Ma Ge is not one to smile easily, he will readily admit his mistakes when they are made. He is also skilled, otherwise he wouldn't have such a good reputation in professional teams.

"Let's give the bot lane a utility bot lane again next game. We'll focus on the top, mid, and jungle; we can sacrifice ourselves for that."

When it comes to taking on the role of a "Honest Hero," Brother Ma shows no embarrassment whatsoever.

He realized that his skill level was clearly inferior to Uzi's, and if it were a 1v1 game, he would probably still choose to go head-to-head in the next match.

But now, he has four teammates who need to win. One can't be so selfish; he should choose someone who follows the team's requirements to go down and withstand the pressure.

If they can actually win against RNG, most people will quickly forget the fact that Smlz was brutally beaten by Uzi today.

Audiences won't remember the Muggle behavior of successful people.

very realistic.

But that's esports—the winner takes all. As long as you win, you're the undisputed champion, and no one can question that, even if your role in the team is that of the most hated "freeloader."

“Old thief, I’m glad you think that way. It’s okay, we still have two more games in the best-of-five series. So, in the next game, we’ll play the same strategy we’re most familiar with from the scrims.” Rw’s coach, Steak, began to lay out the tactics.

Although Rw's overall team strength is weaker than Rng's, Rng's only ability to single-handedly change the course of a battle is in the bottom lane. Even if there are differences in the other lanes, they are only minor.

Since they couldn't win in a head-on confrontation in the bottom lane, they decided to play their best game: disrupting the opponent's rhythm and tactical arrangements. This has always been a favorite tactic of players like Doinb who like to use unconventional methods.

The second game started quickly.

The red and blue teams switched sides, with Rng going to the red side and Rw going to the blue side.

In the first game, Rw was crushed, but the audience supporting Rw did not become depressed. On the contrary, they became even more excited. The advantage of internal matches is the good viewing atmosphere. As the second game's ban/pick screen lit up, a huge wave of excitement surged in the audience, with cheers rising in waves.

Rw learned their lesson this time and used their three ban slots to ban Ornn, Aatrox, and Akali.

RNG's three bans were for Jhin, Taliyah, and Morgana.

That's right, after banning three top lane champions, Rw pulled off another unexpected move just like RNG.

You like not banning Xayah and Rakan, right? Okay, then you can have Xayah and Rakan. These two champions are out again.

"This draft pick... it's just like the one RW used against IG in the quarterfinals. RW has once again unleashed the OP bot lane combo of this patch," Wawa said.

"This is actually a trap. Because both of these heroes are banned by default, many teams, even though they can't let Xayah and Rakan go, haven't practiced them much in terms of proficiency and tactical system. Normally, even in ranked games, this combination is hard to get. Rw has indeed figured out RNG's strategy and won't waste ban slots on this combination," Coach Ma explained with a frown.

There's one more thing that the Grand Marshal didn't mention.

That is, as the blue side, we already have limited ban slots. If we want to pick them, we can't pick Xayah and Rakan together. Since the red side dares not to ban them, then the blue side might as well not ban them either.

Of course, the opposing team dared to let Xayah and Rakan pass, which shows they were confident. It was a psychological battle between the two sides. You think I'm on the second level? Actually, I'm on the fifth level!

This unknown is the most terrifying thing.

The strength of the Xayah and Rakan duo is both a source of hope for weaker teams to defeat stronger ones and a hindrance in matches between strong teams.

During the quarterfinals, IG was outmaneuvered by Rw. Unable to make any progress in the top lane, they tried to open up the bottom lane with a system they weren't very familiar with, which led to their defeat.

"Xayah and Rakan are definitely higher priority than Kai'Sa and Nautilus. As for this champion, Uzi knows how to use him. I just don't know if RNG has practiced any Xayah and Rakan-centric strategies recently," Miller added.

"Huh? Rw, on the blue side, has directly locked in the champion Nautilus. Of course, this Nautilus might be given to the bot lane or it might be flexibly put in the mid lane for Doinb to play."

At this moment, the RNG team was also discussing it in their voice chat.

"Should we take Xayah and Rakan? Or should we just take Kai'Sa and Leona?" Chris asked.

"Xia, Rakan, and Leona are a bit of a match for us. Xiaoming hasn't played Leona in a long time," Xiaohu said.

“Okay, Xayah and Rakan it is then,” Chris nodded.

The three LPL teams actually don't quite know how to play Leona.

Because Leona is chosen to focus on tempo, team fights are initiated by her crowd control. Consequently, the outcome of the game also falls into the hands of the support, who needs to become the tempo driver and enable the entire team to function effectively.

This is different from the usual style of the LPL.

The most important reason lies in... the choice of the captain to lead!
If the team captain or commander is a support player, and the support player makes a decision that allows the team to engage, then as soon as the attack is initiated, the entire team will rush in.

Conversely, if the assistant is not the commander, then the first problem to solve is communication.

Anyone who has listened to the hero microphone knows that once there's a sign of a team fight, the voice chat becomes a complete mess, and you can only get a general idea.

By Season 8, League of Legends was no longer a game with individual heroism like in Seasons 3 and 4; it was now more about teamwork and collaboration.

Even in the top lane meta of S5 and the enchanter support meta of S7, teams still need to protect, support, and allocate resources. A team that relies on only one person simply cannot go far.

Soon, RNG locked in the Xayah and Rakan combo on the first and second floors.

Rw seemed to have anticipated this, immediately locking in the Kai'Sa and Alistar combination. Rng, on the other hand, added Galio as their third pick to guard against any potential engage composition from Rw.

Every draft and ban phase for professional esports teams involves psychological warfare and adaptability. It's not uncommon for a strong team to lose to a weak team and suffer a complete defeat due to a single draft mistake.

Both teams laid traps and made preparations again in the fourth and fifth picks, and began their final selections.

RNG picked Gragas as their fourth pick, for crowd control and AP lane control, leaving their last counter pick for the top laner targeted by the ban.

Rw quickly locked in their fourth and fifth picks: Spider and Captain.

It was RNG's turn to make their fifth pick, but the red team's fifth pick remained undecided.

"Little dog, are you really going to take it like that?" Letme asked, looking horrified.

"Are you really going to play this hero? Although we did pretty well in scrims, this is the semifinals! Is it really okay?" Xiangguo asked in surprise.

"Looking at the opposing team's lineup, I feel that it's quite suitable for that hero to perform well."

Li Luo explained:
"Furthermore, since Rw dared to let us have Xayah and Rakan, with three top laners, they're definitely going to make a move. Regular champion picks are easy for them to outmaneuver."

After some discussion, the final decision was left to Chris.

After giving Li Luo and Letme a long look, Chris nodded.

"Then let's choose!"

When the portrait of RNG's last hero appeared before the audience, the venue erupted in cheers.
-
Sion, the Undead War God!

"RNG's traditional skill is back again! Four-protect-one is truly amazing!"

"Haha, the Xayah and Rakan combo isn't enough, let's add a Galio + Veteran Sniper combo to protect the engage, that's amazing!"

"They really gave Letme another Ornn?" Doll was stunned.

"It doesn't seem like I made a mistake because of a shaky hand, or I just picked randomly. The referee didn't call a timeout either," Miller said with a wry smile.

"That's not very wise. It's easy for anyone to beat Gangplank against a veteran like Rw. Rw's Titan + Elise + Gangplank is clearly a top-mid-jungle composition. Can Letme withstand the pressure with Sion this game?"

Letme's proficiency with Sion is quite high.

Even among all top laners in the entire LPL region, Letme is arguably top-tier when it comes to champions that can withstand pressure.

However, Sion has a fatal flaw -
Pushing the lane fast makes you vulnerable to being caught!

As long as you stand in the minion wave and harass Sion, because both his Q and E skills deal AoE damage, it's easy for Sion to push the minion wave to the enemy tower. Of course, if the jungler comes to gank at this point, Sion will basically be a cash cow.

Both sides entered the loading screen, and the lineups were determined.

Rw (Blue Side) vs Rng (Red Side)

Top Lane: Captain vs. Sion
Jungle: Elise vs Gragas
Mid-lane: Titan vs Galio

ADC: Kai'Sa vs Xayah

Support: Alistar vs. Rakan

This familiar four-protect-one lineup, once it's used, leaves only one core focus of the game!
All the audience members spontaneously began cheering for Uzi, and even the Rw supporters applauded.

Today, the "four-protect-one" strategy is no longer a tactic that everyone criticizes whenever it's mentioned. Instead, it's the only strategy that has helped the LPL region win the championship. Picking it means that RNG is taking it seriously!

The screen flickers, quickly entering the game screen. Both sides buy their starting equipment and rush to the river to meet.

In this game, RNG had a lot of control, so they were very likely to be interested in engaging in a level 1 team fight. However, Rw was not afraid either, relying on their Alistar and Nautilus, and also thinking that they would not lose out in a level 1 team fight.

"Should we have a fight here? RNG went to the top jungle, and Rw came to defend their red buff. Although both sides have a lot of crowd control, they lack sustained damage and chasing power in the level 1 team fight!"

"Huh, is RNG really going to swap jungle camps with RW? It looks like RW is also planning to exchange jungle camps with RNG."

With the vision set up by A-Guang, all five RNG players took their positions and activated their scanners to clear the Captain's wards. After much deliberation, Rw opted to swap jungle camps.

Subconsciously, Rw believed that this was RNG's way of protecting the top lane, because if the spider could farm smoothly all the way up, it would be easy for it to coordinate with Doinb to launch a three-protect-one top lane strategy in the early game.

Forcing the spider to take the blue buff can easily avoid the early game development problems of experienced players.

"My god, after placing the wards, Letme's Sion chose to go straight back to base and head towards the red side's blue buff. No way, this works?" Wawa looked at the old driver swaying back to base on the screen with a surprised expression, as if he remembered a trick from a low-elo game.

In games where there is no awareness of ward placement, Sion can use his passive to steal jungle camps at level 1, easily taking away the enemy's blue buff and gromp.

But now, RNG is actually going to use this kind of trick that everyone knows in low-level games to pull off in a world championship?
"RNG is too daring! I can't believe it. If they clear this jungle and the Spider comes up empty-handed, she'll be devastated!"

Even Da Sima, who often plays in the Silver and Gold ranks, was stunned. He felt both that RNG was too bold and that he sympathized with Haro's tragic experience.

Without the blue buff and the Gromp, the spider's ganking time will be delayed by at least two to three minutes.

You can't exactly have a level 3 Spider gank a level 6 Sion, can you?
In the eyes of tens of millions of viewers around the world, once the buff refreshed, Letme skillfully started to pull the blue buff and begin the fight.

While attacking, he pulled the toad towards the area where it hadn't spawned yet. Once the toad appeared, the previously killed Sion swung his fists, first smashing the blue buff to death, then holding onto the toad until he was almost dead, and respawned in the fountain.

A-Guang, who had already started farming minions in the top lane, didn't see the old driver come online at first and thought he was helping the jungler.

But when he saw a red whirlwind light up on the minion, a bad feeling arose in his heart.

"No way, officer?"

Sion, with the blue buff, appeared on the minion wave, acting like he was the boss and pushing straight behind it.

"Haro, you've run out of mana!"

"what?"

"I meant you've run out of mana!"

After repeating this several times, the Rw players were stunned when they shifted their vision to the top lane.
(End of this chapter)