Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 360 Wild Core? Wolves and Sheep!

"Both teams are in position, and the 2019 Demacia Cup final is about to begin. Are you ready, audience members in the stadium and those watching on your screens?"

In Uzi's timeline, Ren Dong, the Undying Grip, hadn't yet been caught drunk driving and was dismissed. However, in Clearlove's timeline, Ren Dong had already been removed from his post back in April.

Now, Liu Hang, whom everyone jokingly calls "the wedding planner," has taken his place.

Liu Hang's hosting style had a bit of a "roaring emperor" feel to it, and the audience responded with enthusiastic cheers and applause.

"Alright, let's hand over the hosting duties back to the inside!"

"The factory manager recently played Kindred, Graves, and Nidalee on his main account, and his stats were pretty good."

Suning's current coach, formerly the Flash Wolves' head coach Chashao, stood behind the Suning players with a small notebook in hand and said:

"SofM, you understand the new version's aggressive junglers, do you want to put some restrictions on Clearlove?"

Kindred, Graves, and Nidalee?

The three slightly unfamiliar hero names on the field made Sofm a little distracted.

If I remember correctly, the last time he picked Graves was back in Season 8 when he was at SS.
Yes, it's been so long since Graves last stepped onto the court that he's almost forgotten how unfamiliar it has been with him.

Before Sofm could say anything, Snake chimed in with a laugh, "There's no need to make a fuss. The meta this patch is still dominated by champions like Elise, Lee Sin, Gragas, and Rek'Sai. Besides, given Clearlove's style, if he were to play those champions, would the team be able to coordinate?"

"Mingkai probably doesn't play these heroes much. I also remember he hasn't played them in a long time. It would be best to ban Elise; his Elise performance has been exceptionally good lately, making her difficult to counter."

After thinking for a moment, iboy said uncertainly.

According to the version progression, before the Spring Split playoffs, that is, before the third jungle buff was implemented, the mainstream heroes were indeed still those few.

Blind Man, Excavator, Gragas, Olaf, Elise, and Sett (updated in February).

These heroes all share a common characteristic: they can compensate for the shortcomings of a team composition to a certain extent.

However, aggressive jungle carry champions like Kindred, Graves, and Nidalee are very dependent on farming and tempo, and are easily controlled by these early-game strong junglers. Therefore, LPL junglers generally do not like to use these champions.

Only use it as a jack-of-all-trades when there are absolutely no other heroes available.

Over time, even the coaches became unclear about the effectiveness of these heroes.

However, the jungler Elise is someone who must now show respect to Clearlove.

Riot Games has no plans to nerf Elise, as the champion is quite polarized and there isn't a situation where the balance is affected by her mechanics and attributes.

On the contrary, there are rumors that Gragas, a popular champion in the competition these days, is going to be nerfed.

The Demacia Cup currently used in the Chinese server is version 9.23 Elemental Dragons, but the Korean server has already updated to version 9.24b.

The game introduced Aphelios, a ADC that can be described as a game-changer, in patch 9.24, and the minor buffs to Graves in patch 9.24b have not yet been implemented in the Demacia Cup on the Chinese server.

With the commentator's analysis, the match officially began.

In this match, Edg had a higher score than Suning, so they got the first choice of sides.

Basically, all teams will choose the blue side in the current version because they can get the meta heroes first.

however.

Edg chose the red side right from the start of this game.

"Giving up the first side selection right just to reserve a counter pick for the team's star player, Edg's strategy is indeed a bit daring. I just don't know who they'll give that counter pick to," Ma exclaimed, but he could also roughly understand Edg's approach.

Edg's players in the three lanes and one jungle lane are currently stronger than Suning's.

Therefore, gaining the first move and securing the meta hero is not very meaningful. Instead, keeping the counter pick is more likely to ensure that Edg has a significant advantage in one lane.

Using this advantage to influence other lanes and thus drive the game's pace is much more advantageous than the blue side securing the meta hero.

"As expected, Chashao is an experienced coach. Seeing Abu's choice, he respected Edg's players in the blue side's ban picks, banning Clearlove's Elise, Scout's Twisted Fate which he's been playing a lot lately, and Uzi's Caitlyn."

“Edg also knew what Chashao was thinking, so they banned iboy’s Senna, bin’s Irelia, and sofm’s Jarvan IV,” Miller said.

"Let's see if Suning will pick Akali first."

“Speaking of which, Suning’s top laner has been getting better and better lately. His aggressive top lane has achieved good results in the Korean server, especially his Irelia, which is known as the ‘Korean One-Cut’ in the Korean server. I often see Bin’s performance in the observer perspectives of various streamers. It seems that Abu did some research before making this ban,” Wawa added.

As of today, Abin has reached the top ten in the Korean server solo queue through his own skill.

Furthermore, this top ten ranking is highly prestigious. You can see it by simply looking at the match history. In his hero selection, there wasn't a single game where he played a "noob" hero, which is enough to demonstrate his formidable strength.

As expected, Suning, playing on the blue side, picked Akali first.

Akali has been nerfed in recent patches and is not as strong as before, but she is still undoubtedly a Tier 1 champion in competitive play.

The Demacia Cup and Kespa Cup, held in winter, are generally a test for professional teams to adapt to the new season environment.

Because usually, a month after the World Championship ends, Riot's designers begin to announce major changes to the new season's version.

Therefore, the Demacia Cup and KeSPA Cup held during the preseason reflect the understanding and opinions of each team on the new version at the beginning of the season.

The most significant commonality between the professional leagues of China and South Korea this time is the blocking and contest for Akali in the draft phase.

In the KeSPA Cup, Akali appeared 7 times in 73 games, with a usage rate of 9%, but her ban rate reached an astonishing 90.3%, meaning Akali was consistently banned in 65 games.

The Demacia Cup is even more exaggerated. So far, in 44 games, Akali has appeared three times, with a 6% appearance rate, and has been banned 41 times, with a 95% ban rate.

The selection of this version's heroes immediately exposed Suning's draft strategy for this game.

Ordinary people might not think that Akali alone can determine the course of a team composition.

However, the fact that Akali has become so popular also reflects the current meta's team composition strategies.

For example, the plating system introduced in Season 9 made it difficult for some champions, such as top laner Mundo, who performed poorly in the laning phase, to be picked.

After all, nobody wants to let the opponent gain an economic advantage by using tower plating during the laning phase.

In addition, there were changes to runes, such as the removal of true damage from the new Conqueror rune, which directly resulted in Pantheon, who had a 100% ban rate in the S9 World Championship, being easily allowed to play in the Demacia Cup.

This preseason update places a greater emphasis on early-game tempo compared to previous seasons. In fact, since Season 8, the designers have been continuously speeding up the game's pace.

Viewers prefer matches with frequent and intense team fights rather than early-game farming and late-game macro-management, which has brought Akali into the spotlight of professional players among all champions.

In League of Legends, early-game champions are those who can deal high damage without relying on items.

Akali's high kill potential and mobility at level six give her a significant advantage in the first dragon team fight in the current patch.

Therefore, Suning's selection of this hero clearly indicates their intention to establish an early-game tempo and capitalize on the dragon.

If Edg wants to counter this, they need to start by picking champions that can suppress Akali in lane, or they can use a softer approach, avoiding early fights and waiting for team fights in the mid-to-late game.

Both sides prepared extensively for this final match, locking in their heroes without hesitation.

Suning's decision to snatch Akali was also part of Abu's plan.

Edg quickly followed up with a counter-attack.

On the second pick, he helped Zaozi pick Miss Fortune, one of the two current champions in the Demacia Cup, and helped Meiko pick Thresh, a support champion with protective control.

The decision to take down the bottom lane first immediately drew eager anticipation from the commentators and viewers.

In the Edg team, the counter-pick position will only be given to three people: Uzi, Scout, and Clearlove.

Now that Zaozi has secured the hero, everyone is 80% certain that the counter-pick will go to Clearlove.

Suning's second and third picks were more stable, choosing Tristana to deal with the pressure in the lane, while pairing her with Leona to counter Miss Fortune in team fights.

At this point, Suning's intentions in the first three moves became even clearer.

Absolutely dominant in the early game. Whether it's Akali, Tristana, or SwordArt's Leona, these three champions are practically invincible in fights before ten minutes, dealing incredibly high damage while keeping pace with the enemy's economic curve.

"I feel like we have to get Pantheon for Scout. Suning's lineup is too aggressive. If the mid laner can't provide timely support in the early game, it will be difficult to win in lane," Miller analyzed with a frown.

In fact, Suning's choice was, in his opinion, a very poor strategy.

Given EDG's current strong laning ability, the best approach would be to use a softer approach to overcome their weaknesses in the laning phase and focus on controlling the tempo.

It is common knowledge that any hero with a strong laning phase is indisputably labeled as easy to gank.

If you want to exert pressure in the lane, you have to push the lane. If you push the lane, you will be ganked by other lanes. Does Suning really have such confidence that SofM can suppress Clearlove in the jungle?

Seeing that Miller remained silent, Teacher Ma on the other side began to analyze the situation in a rather serious manner:
"I think Edg should consider a support-oriented strategy. Picking Pantheon and giving Shen to the top lane would make Suning more cautious in team fights during the early and mid-game. Otherwise, in small-scale skirmishes, without support, Suning could easily dive the tower."

As soon as Teacher Ma finished speaking, Abu arranged for Scout to select Pantheon.

The first three picks for both sides are officially determined, and the subsequent two bans begin.

Suning gave Lee Sin and Taliyah, while Edg gave Vladimir and Gragas.

As expected, Edg picked Shen for their top laner Flandre, following Ma's advice, to counter Suning's strong laning phase with a global pick.

Under these restrictions, Edg turned their jungler position into a counter-role, leaving the problem to Chashao.

Shen has an absolute advantage in lane against Akali, not only in terms of support speed, but also in terms of lane dominance. Shen can suppress Akali so much in the early game when Akali is low on energy that she can't even function properly.

However, Pantheon in the mid lane can also gain an advantage in the laning phase. Because of the mid lane, Akali is very easy to gank. With Pantheon's strong crowd control, Akali going mid is not a good choice.

In this situation, Chashao could only choose the combination of Rek'Sai and LeBlanc for the mid and jungle positions, and put Akali in the top lane.

Jungle Excavator!
This hero has very few natural counters in the jungle role; once picked, he is virtually uncounterable.

Taliyah and Gragas are quite easy to counter, but unfortunately they were both banned.

In professional esports, the excavator is like a quality inspector for a professional jungler.

Whether a player can operate an excavator or get destroyed by one demonstrates their skill level.

This hero is the kind that can be strong from the early game to the late game.

Once these two heroes were confirmed, Suning's lineup was finalized.

The option now falls to Edg's fifth move.

Everyone knows that Clearlove's champion pool is unfathomable. Most importantly, Clearlove has been in hot form recently and dares to pick any champion in ranked games!

"Wolf: Holding your soul. Lamb: Living together with you."

A chilling whisper rang out, and when Kindred's image was locked, the scene erupted in uproar.

"My God!! It's Kindred!" The doll never expected it to be this hero.

Kindred is too weak in the early game against a powerful excavator!

"It really is Kindred. I also played Kindred in my live stream yesterday. In this version, it's very strong after getting the mark," Teacher Ma offered a different opinion from the side.

"As everyone knows, many critical strike items were changed during the 9.23 patch. Now, the Fighter's Gloves have been removed, and the Critical Strike Cloak's critical strike chance has been increased."

"Many people complain that this change is a nerf to heroes who need critical strikes, but that's not the case. You can observe the upgrade path of Stormrazor, Kindred's most relied-upon item in the early game. In the change, Stormrazor has changed from B.F. Sword + Long Sword + Kircheis Shard + 850 gold to B.F. Sword + Cloak of Agility + Kircheis Shard + 400 gold."

"Not only that, the increased damage and enhanced slowing effect of Stormrazor perfectly match the attributes Kindred needs, and even Rapid Firecannon has increased early-game damage."

Players who think Kindred is still weak probably haven't observed the recent Korean server updates and aren't used to the new item builds.

Teacher Ma's insightful remarks left the two commentators beside him completely stunned, and even the live stream chat was filled with discussions.

"I don't understand this Kindred pick?"

"No way, they've already picked this lineup, and Clearlove is picking Kindred? Isn't that obviously going for a jungle carry strategy?"

"Wow, Clearlove is playing jungle carry? I remember the last time was in Season 1, what year was it? This is ridiculous!"

"This trash hero has such low damage in the early game, how can he even beat the Rek'Sai?"

(End of this chapter)