Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 310 Close Combat! Head-on Confrontation!

"However, although Skt is targeting the bot lane, we should respect Vayne's bans. As for Kai'Sa's ban, it's reasonable. There are still a few strong ADCs left outside, and with Uzi's champion pool, I think there's absolutely no problem!"

Upon hearing this, the audience, who had been worried, immediately cheered.

Yes, as a player with such strong dominance in the bot lane of League of Legends, how could he be limited by his champion pool? It's more that Uzi's Kai'Sa and Vayne this season have given the audience too much confidence and created many god-like moments, leading to a misconception among the audience that they are unstable without these two champions.
But in fact, even before Kai'Sa was released in Season 7, and without Vayne being picked, her strength was already evident.

“Yes, without Kai'Sa and Vayne in this match, Skt’s bot lane actually bears a greater responsibility, because Skt has shifted its draft resources to the bot lane, so they have to do something. To be honest, this choice for the bot lane was a bit unexpected,” Miller nodded and said.

"But it's hard to say whether this choice is right or wrong before the game starts or ends. For Skt, it's a bold gamble."

The child said:
"In that case, let's see what champion RNG plans to pick to gain an advantage on the blue side. Is it Letme's Ornn, Xiaohu's Syndra, or even Xiangguo's Lee Sin?"

RNG is on the blue side in this match. As the undefeated legend of the blue side, now that Skt has generously released so many powerful heroes, RNG will definitely not hold back. It's just a matter of which one they will grab.

"Actually, I think there's no need to guess about the selection...you guys agree, right?" Miller is already a long-time RNG fan, and his expression speaks volumes.

The guy next to him, Changmao, instantly understood Miller's meaning. Although he wasn't a RNG fan, he had watched so many matches, and as a data-sensitive fan, he had some idea of ​​what RNG's first pick strategy was like in most games.

Sure enough, besides the child shouting and urging the two to reveal the result, many knowledgeable people in the audience also guessed the candidates correctly.

Without much hesitation, RNG's Letme immediately locked in the champion he boasts a terrifying 96.1% win rate this season.
Mountain Flame - Ornn.

A hero that RNG almost never loses when they pick it.

Okay, let's go.

Letme's signature weapon, Ornn!

"Wow even!"

"Ornn! It really is Letme's Ornn. With this champion, at least until 20 minutes in, I had no worries about the top lane at all."

Wawa exclaimed, "So this is the hero you're talking about! I knew it! This season, although Letme's Ornn has been mediocre in terms of win rate and KDA, his high win rate speaks for itself. And the few losses were mostly at the beginning of the Summer Split and later when RNG was practicing their lineups. In most cases, Letme's Ornn is as solid as a rock!"

Miller and Longhair didn't respond, but judging from their confident looks, the viewers in front of the screen knew just how reassuring his Orn was.

A difficult problem immediately presented itself to SKT's coaching staff.

Given that Letme's laning skill is above average and his ability to withstand pressure is top-tier, the question is: when Letme gets Ornn, and his laning skill reaches top-tier and his ability to withstand pressure reaches top-tier+, what champion can perfectly counter him?

Is it Viktor, Heimerdinger, or Veigar, who counters Ornn the most in ranked games? Or is it Veigar, who can hold his own against Ornn in matches or even slightly outrank him?
Seeing that SKT's choice was still pending, the three commentators argued for a while, quietly waiting for the outcome of SKT's strategy.

In the first game when SKT was on the red side, they gave the last counter pick to Faker. So in this game, Kkoma hesitated for a while and after consulting with everyone, he actually chose the bot lane duo first.

These are Bounty Hunter, whose pick rate has remained consistently high in ranked games due to his comet ability and high damage output, and Rakan, the most picked support champion.

It's still the same classic combination: Miss Fortune + Rakan, a very strong combination in both the early and mid-game and the late game.

Most importantly, even if this duo is at a significant disadvantage in the early game, they can easily pull off perfect teamwork in crucial team fights and turn the tide.

From Taric and Graves in Season 2, to Vayne and Annie in Season 3, Lucian and Thresh in Season 4, Mordekaiser and Leona in Season 5, Kalista and Thresh in Season 6, and Tristana and Janna in Season 7, these combinations all share a very obvious characteristic.
Even when at a disadvantage, they can be useful, and they have the ability to take over the game when they have an advantage.

The combination of Miss Fortune and Rakan isn't exactly a top-tier combination, but it's not exactly weak either.

Seeing this, RNG also discussed it for a while and chose to help Xiaohu get Syndra on the second floor, and then help Xiangguo get Lee Sin on the third floor.

SKT also secured their third pick, a Tier 1 jungler champion – Elise.

With this, the first round of hero selection in the match point game has ended, and the lineup preferences of the two teams in this epic battle have basically been determined.

RNG's lineup of Ornn, Lee Sin, and Syndra is, as always, a signature RNG offensive composition, without any surprises or unexpected elements, but its stability is very reassuring.

SKT's Miss Fortune and Rakan are more suited to fighting in the early and mid-game, but become weaker in the late game.

That's fine. After all, SKT is the number one seed from the LCK region. They are a team that mainly focuses on mid-game macro play and are slightly lacking in handling late-game miracle team fights. So there's nothing wrong with their draft.

However, Skt's three picks, no matter how you look at them, didn't give off a feeling of "I'm going all out with a special move." Instead, they seemed to be playing whatever players wanted in ranked games, which had very little synergy with his playstyle.

"Wow, RNG has brought out their signature moves, but SKT seems a bit strange!"

Miller couldn't help but say, "There's nothing wrong with the champion Elise, but the problem is that this is SKT's do-or-die game in the World Championship. If you pick Elise and lose momentum in the early game in this kind of match, Elise will only be a champion that can be used to throw out E and try your luck. Isn't that a bit too risky?"

"Yes, if you cover up the SKT team name and look at the lineup, the first three picks are no different from those in high-elo solo queue games. What... what are SKT up to?" Wawa said with a sigh.

If we were to rank Blank's champion pool, Spider would undoubtedly be among the top three champions he's most confident with throughout his career.

With a career record of 24 appearances and a win rate of 79.2%, this choice would have been perfectly fine if it hadn't been made in the last game of a major tournament.

Anyone who frequently watches LPL and LCK matches should know this.

Before leaving the team, Bengi called Blank aside and said, "I'm going to the LPL to make some money. I'm just worried about you before I go. To carry on the glory of the B-surname jungler, all you need to do is this..."

In the first half of the 2017 LCK Summer Split, when Xiaohai achieved an undefeated record, people remembered Benji, the former benchwarmer, and hurriedly asked him what his secrets were.

The silly chicken smiled slightly: "Guaranteed win, no losses, a sure victory."

However, judging from the World Championship data, Bengi is actually stronger than Peanut in three main areas:
Counter-jungling rate
-
Eye scan rate (false eye removal rate) -
True eyes per minute
而这些个数据在前期（15min）的时候笨鸡更是高的可怕，前15分钟平均下12个眼（10假眼2真眼），同时也能够清掉对面平均5-6个眼。与此同时彼时的世界第一打野小花生，前期用更高的一血率和更多的gank换来了9-10个眼数和3-4个清眼数，同时15分钟内平均比Bengi少吃两组野怪。

Clearly, this is due to the different styles of the two teams.

What about Blank?
Blank is a very unique player. On the one hand, his jungle clearing efficiency is comparable to Bengi's, and his jungle clear count in 15 minutes is 1-2 sets higher than Peanut's. On the other hand, his counter-jungling rate is 7 percentage points lower than Bengi's, which means that he is the jungler who is farming his own jungle the most.

However, Blank, who is good at farming jungle camps, has similar warding stats to Peanut. Whether it's warding efficiency per minute or the number of wards placed in the early game, the advantage of placing fewer wards is that you can do more things in lane. However, his first kill rate is less than half of Peanut's. Despite having a considerable participation in team fights, he not only has fewer kills and assists, but also dies more often.

For junglers at that time, getting a few more assists in team fights wasn't difficult. Blank was able to achieve the same number of deaths per thousand damage taken as Peanut by farming more jungle camps. Without considering the characteristics of the champion, it can be basically assumed that this person was just there to feed in team fights.

Blank in 2016 was an odd jungler who tried to play Peanut's style of thinking like Bengi, but his mechanics were really not as good, so he was criticized in the LCK that year no less than that guy who once played a level 4 Pantheon against a level 6 Kha'Zix.

But after S7, Blank underwent a huge transformation:

First, there's Peanut and his weakest point: lower eyelid size. In this year, Blank's terrifying lower eyelid size, just in the early game of False Iris, was almost 2 more than in the World Championship.

And once he sends out his aggressive jungler Lee Sin or Elise, his counter-jungling rate is terrifyingly high, at 35%.

This means that in two out of the five jungle camps, Blank ate the opponent's jungle camps.

Of course, Peanut, who was criticized for buying a seaside house undercover in S10, is still the jungler with better-looking statistics in this year's competition. Of course, we can also say that there are many things that cannot be reflected in the data.

For example, one of Xiao Hei's own quotes is very classic:
I believe that for a team as excellent as SKT, this information cannot be shared. There is no reason why only I know these things, or that he remembers them more thoroughly and understands them more deeply than others.

That's why the three commentators were so surprised when the spider was brought out, after considering the deeper issues involved.

Since S8, Blank has drastically changed his style in order to fit in with SKT, often making confusing plays in matches, a situation that has persisted to this day.

At this moment, with Skt in dire straits, blank pulled out the Spider again to save the day. How could this not make those who frequently watch the game sigh with emotion?
"It really feels like SKT is going all out," Wawa remarked, looking at the determined expressions on the faces of the SKT members.

"By getting this far, both players have reached their peak performance. In this final match, the only thing to do is to leave no regrets. I hope they can both give their best. Let's see what Skt chooses for the second round of bans!"

"RNG chose to continue picking off Khan's champions in the second round to expand their laning advantage in the top lane, namely Sion and Fiora."

"So SKT also chose to continue restricting the bot lane, banning Uzi's Ezreal and Xayah, which seems to be to help relieve the bot lane's laning pressure."

At this point, Longhair took a breath and continued:

"Well, I think I understand this pick now. Skt sacrificed a ban to prevent their bot lane from collapsing too early. At the same time, they put all the pressure on their mid, top, and jungle. As long as Skt's mid, top, and jungle can withstand the pressure with their skills, then Skt can definitely win!"

At that moment, upon hearing Changmao's words, everyone understood. Without needing to say more, a strangely serious atmosphere had already unconsciously permeated the entire venue.

"Let's see how SKT picks their fourth pick. Will they give the counter pick to Khan or Faker? It doesn't really matter, since RNG has already picked their top, mid, and jungle lanes. Let's see what they choose."

"Huh, as expected, they still reserved the counter pick for Faker, and this one is for Khan."

"Sea Beast Priest - Illaoi!"

The fourth pick further confirmed Skt's idea: to rely on the players' individual abilities to forcefully offset the disadvantages in tactics and bans.

It's RNG's turn to pick their champions now. If they can't break the deadlock with their last two picks, then the key to winning the game will completely come down to a battle of skill between the two teams.

Let's see what surprises RNG's final bot lane duo will bring us!

"Wow!!!!"

Before Wawa could finish speaking, RNG's bot lane suddenly and unexpectedly selected two heroes that no one had anticipated.

"My God, it's this duo!"

"Well, Skt is now fighting a do-or-die battle!"

The three commentators made no attempt to hide their shock, staring at the two fiercely imposing hero icons on the screen and exclaiming in astonishment.

As the director's camera panned, it was clearly...

Honorable Executioner - Draven!
Thresh, the Chain Warden!

Watching this duo, who didn't appear often but whose every appearance was a massacre, audiences worldwide knew one thing—
The real battle has now begun!

"Thresh and Draven, oh my god, in such a crucial game, RNG still picked this bot lane duo. Now, does Skt still have the confidence to help their bot lane overcome their disadvantage by banning them?"

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Look at Faker's pick; his fifth pick was Irelia, a strong laner."

With the lineups finalized, the epic showdown is about to begin.
Rng (Blue Side) vs Skt (Red Side)

Top Lane: Ornn vs. Illaoi

Jungle: Lee Sin vs. Elise
Mid Lane: Syndra vs. Irelia

ADC: Draven vs Miss Fortune
Support: Thresh vs. Rakan

(End of this chapter)