Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 33 The Limitations of Fasting in the Jungle

He was able to pull off these iconic solo kills, to the point that he was able to suppress Faker.

There are two reasons for this. First, Xiaohu has not yet been poisoned by Hart, and at this time, Xiaohu still has the spirit of dominating high-ranked games.

While Hart's utility-focused playstyle may have been beneficial for RNG in the short term, in the long run, it has eroded the confidence of several players.

Secondly, there's the inexperienced Xiangguo, whose terrifying suppressive power is undeniable.

Xiaohu and Xiangguo complement each other. Pwan, the general in the S4 World Championship, has very similar data to Xiaohu in the S6 Spring Split.

They all have extremely high assist and kill counts, while their average CS per minute is not high. Their economy is mainly achieved through roaming and securing kills, resulting in a nearly 30% damage output share and top-ranking damage per minute.

This data perfectly matches the requirements for mid-lane champions in Samsung White mode.

Therefore, during the S6 period, Xiaohu's ability to support and roam was greatly improved. Many people believe that Xiaohu only started playing support roles after Uzi joined.

He started playing some support roles, but actually, back in Season 6, Xiaohu was already inclined to play support roles, but the player he supported was Xiangguo.

At the same time, Xiaohu inherited Pawn's steady performance, boasting an extremely low average number of deaths per game in every S-series tournament.
S6, 2.4
S7, 1.1
S8, 1.9
S9, 1.7
Even when S9 was on the verge of collapse, Xiaohu still maintained an extremely low average number of deaths per game of 1.7.

Samsung White's playstyle was unique in S4, but after S6 and S7, the entire Korean team's playstyle began to lean towards this kind of ganking and vision control.

In a team, the damage output in the early and mid-game is definitely concentrated in the top and mid lanes, but Letme in the top lane is often a support hero.

Therefore, the entire output task in the early and mid-game fell on Xiaohu's shoulders, and Xiaohu's potential was quickly squeezed out at this time.

In S6 and S7, Xiaohu was able to hold his own against any talented or established mid-laner.

But when it comes to Xiaohu's dominance, aside from being able to suppress team mid laners like Yagao, suppressing Knight and Chicken would be extremely difficult.

After collecting and reviewing the GIFs of Xiaohu's solo kills, it turns out that many of them weren't solo kills in the online arena, but rather he got snowballed by Xiangguo in the early game.

Use these economic advantages to create equipment advantages and use them to kill the opponent.

IG, the S8 world champions, have a very distinct team style, whether it's TheShy in the top lane, Rookie in the mid lane, or Ning in the jungle.

These three people had only one thought: to kill!
No matter what your tactics, positioning, or advanced operational methods are!
Does IG reason with you? No!
They completely crushed their opponents online; there was absolutely no strategy involved.

However, TheShy's approach completely deviates from the Samsung White model, which is also the approach that many Korean teams hate the most. How can a player who doesn't listen to instructions and doesn't play strategically be a good player?

Competitions are not ranked games. Even if you are strong for a while, someone will always find your weaknesses and exploit them. Only steady and reliable operation is the key to long-term victory.

Xiaohu's advantage lies in his consistency; he is basically one of the most consistent mid-laners in the LPL.

If you're going to say, "You can completely dominate Xiaohu online," or "You can call a jungler to keep ganking him."

Sorry, Xiaohu won't give the other side that chance.

Because Xiaohu in this state is a typical SSW Samsung White mid laner.

Xiaohu was indeed impressive in S6, but at that time, the biggest contributors to RNG were mlxg and Mata. It's just that the top laner and AD were more of a utility player in the current meta.

Later in the Summer Split, after the jungle meta changed, Xiaohu immediately became two levels weaker. And why did RNG buy Uzi, and why was Wuxin suddenly pushed out of the top tier by Uzi?

Besides Wuxin being mediocre, Xiaohu and mlxg also lack the ability to carry the team and set the pace for a huge victory.

Uzi's skill level at the time was, if not exceptional, at least that of a veteran.

It can free up Mata and relieve some of Xiaohu's output pressure, while Wuxin is obviously too much of a utility character.

RNG consistently relied on a mid-jungle core strategy throughout S6, but it was too one-dimensional. Furthermore, Xiaohu and mlxg hadn't reached their full potential. If RNG hadn't acquired Uzi in time, they wouldn't have even made it to the quarterfinals in S6.

In S7, Xiaohu failed to break through his own limitations, while mlxg grew into a jungler who starved himself.

In S7's RNG, mlxg was definitely the one who made the most contributions, while Xiaohu was just average, neither very strong nor very weak.

Because of Uzi's performance in S7 and Xiaohu's actual skill level, RNG began to change their strategy in S8, and Hart decided to focus on the AD carry as the core.

Xiaohu's role is just to be a tool; it's all up to Uzi to carry the game.

In S9, because Uzi failed in S8, Xiaohu got another chance to show himself. And then what?

Uzi still has to carry the team alone. When Uzi is off, he just can't save the team, so everyone else completely ignores him.

In the best-of-five series between S8 and G2, Perkz would ban champions like Syndra in the first game to prevent Xiaohu from dominating him.

But once they actually played, Perkz realized Xiaohu wasn't up to par and couldn't put any pressure on him. For the next four rounds, he ignored Xiaohu and just banned utility champions. Perkz knew that Hart's draft strategy focused on the bot lane, and throughout the entire match, the entire RNG team was dedicated to supporting the bot lane. So why would they bother targeting the mid laner?

I know your coach won't pick any lane-dominant champions for you, so of course I won't ban your dominant mid laner.

Therefore, many players who watch the game in their spare time feel that Xiaohu disappears when he encounters a team with strong top and mid laners.

That's because others have figured out Hart's series of draft picks, which are all about forcibly protecting Uzi and sacrificing the laning pressure of the top, mid, and jungle lanes.

Even G2's pre-match interviews made it very clear.

RNG's strategy is to exploit fights in the bottom lane, creating a 5v5 team fight in the early game, and then using Uzi's skill to gain an advantage.

This allows the advantage to be spread throughout the entire team.

Therefore, any team that focuses on the top, mid, and jungle in S8 will have no problem facing RNG.

The bot lane in Season 8 is no longer like many previous versions, where the ADC had extreme dominance and could engage in team fights without much thought once the ADC was fully developed.

After S8, Xiaohu realized this problem. Simply supporting the bottom lane was not advisable. Listening to Heart's advice would only lead to certain death.

So RNG's entire management team did one thing: fire Hart.

At this point, Xiaohu gradually shifted from playing a support role in team fights to playing a support role.

Like the S9 champion team FPX, Xiaohu consciously moved towards a support role in the early stages of S9, no longer playing a mere utility player in lane.

Instead, they focused more on wandering branches.

Roaming ability is actually a very complex thing and it's hard to sum it up in a few words, but simply put, it's about being able to support your teammates without losing gold.

Doinb's style involves picking some extremely unconventional mid-lane champions, but he often achieves remarkable results because of his exceptional awareness of supporting his teammates.

However, Xiaohu has no experience as an orphanage director, so how could he develop this ability? Of course, he couldn't.

Looking at Langx in the top lane, he was originally a carry-type top laner, but he was transformed into a utility top laner under the influence of RNG's style, which was shaped by Hart. Hart deserves a lot of credit for this.

So the entire S9 team relied on Uzi to get into the World Championship, but apart from Uzi, neither the top nor the mid laner found their place.

From then on, the top sixteen teams went home, their future uncertain.

RNG's best record in S7 was largely due to Xiangguo's performance.

During the Summer Split of S7, Xiangguo developed a unique system that differed from other teams but was particularly suitable for RNG.

This is the well-known "starvation jungler"!
His strategy is simple: gank lanes aggressively in the early game to establish a terrifying advantage, and then focus on farming and developing his own resources.

The reason why Xiangguo was able to shine in the starvation strategy in S7, but returned to mediocrity in S8 and S9, is still due to the abnormal version of S7.

In several tweaks in Season 7, the jungle item Cinderhulk gained 15% bonus health and 300 HP.

This buff made tank junglers incredibly powerful, forcing warrior junglers out of the meta.

Even the formidable Camille couldn't stop the rise of tanks and was forced out of the jungle.

Secondly, the experience compensation mechanism, which previously granted 30 experience points per monster per level for lagging behind, has been changed to granting 50 experience points per monster per level for lagging behind.

When you fall too far behind in level, you will receive more experience bonuses, which will prevent Xiangguo from falling too far behind.

In this version, everyone is building tanky junglers. Every jungler needs to build tanky items so that they won't get solo killed even if they are suppressed in the jungle, thus affecting the overall game.

In this situation, Xiangguo will have the time and opportunity to gank, so Xiaohu will try some late-game carry champions in the second half of S7, the most typical example being Corki.

Since the start of the S7 Summer Split, Xiaohu has been frequently hitting high-scoring games, with an explosive win rate and record.

Xiaohu's ability to survive the early to mid-game development phase is due to Xiangguo's use of the "starvation jungler" strategy, which helps the mid and bot lanes accumulate sufficient advantages in the early game.

At the same time, the plane's explosive charge allows Xiaohu to develop his support skills and then make some impressive team fight performances.

Therefore, in Season 7, Xiaohu's champion picks had a particularly high presence when carrying the team.

In the best-of-five series against WE, Xiaohu earned MVP in three out of five games, and in those three games, he achieved an astonishing damage output percentage of 36%, 37%, and 46%.

It's worth noting that Xiaohu was on the same team as Uzi at the time, and his impressive stats are proof enough that he has remarkable damage output.

(End of this chapter)