Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 361 Tremble! Completely Under Control
Blue team (Suning) vs. Red team (Edg)

Top Lane: Akali vs. Shen

Jungle: Rek'Sai vs Kindred
Mid Lane: LeBlanc vs Pantheon
ADC: Tristana vs Miss Fortune
Support: Leona vs Thresh
Edg's lineup for this game was clearly a three-protect-two, pseudo-four-protect-one strategy.

While Pantheon does deal damage, he primarily uses it to intimidate the enemy and protect his own core units.

The core of the team is also very clear: Li Luo's Kindred.

now.

The audience at the scene, the viewers in the live broadcast room, and even the commentators in the commentary booth finally understood what Edg's lineup was.
It turns out that the strategy relies on the early-game characteristics of top and mid-lane heroes to create an advantage through jungle carry gameplay.

Kindred, the jungler!

Once this jungler hero was confirmed, it immediately sparked countless criticisms.

If another team were to play this lineup, everyone could accept it, but for EdgG to play it this way is simply unheard of and unprecedented; it's an extremely bizarre choice.

The game started quickly.

As the game screen loads...

The audience immediately started cheering!

"Edg! Edg! Edg!"

"Edg! Edg! Edg!"

Because Suning is a new team, and its players don't have much of a fan base.

So the cheers were overwhelmingly for Edg.

The cheers for the Suning team were barely audible.

This is a challenge for a rookie team.

The match has loaded successfully. Enter the game.

Both sides adopted a very conservative stance.

Neither Edg nor Suning intended to engage in a group battle; they instead lined up in a long, single-file formation.

Looking at the well-behaved Kindred, Wawa said, "Huh? Kindred isn't going to make a move this game? Although Kindred is weak in the jungle in the early game, she deals a lot of damage! Her damage is still terrifying, especially with the attack speed bonus from her Q skill in the early game. Clearlove has been the kind of player who likes to cause trouble in the early game lately, so this game is a bit strange."

Miller laughed and said, "That's not surprising. Kindred is strong when she just gets four stacks of her mark, or when she has two big items in the mid-game. Edgg's top and mid laners are relatively weak in the late game, so they definitely rely heavily on Kindred's strength and damage. But they would never invade the enemy jungle at level one, because the margin for error is too low."

"Then Suning's wait here was for nothing; they won't even get to see Kindred."

On the other side, Suning had clearly studied Li Luo's recent playstyle. In the early game, all four of them camped in the upper half of the blue side's jungle, leaving the support player, Snake, to guard the lower half. However, Kindred showed no intention of coming over.

Both sides farmed peacefully, starting in the lower jungle.

After clearing the blue buff, Kindred leveled up to level two and immediately headed towards the enemy's upper jungle.

"Kindred. Hey, Kindred's gone. It's starting again. The factory manager's about to start again."

"Kindred rebelling? Clearlove is a little bit ruthless!"

In the commentary booth, the three commentators, Wawa, Miller, and Ma, were being very funny, shouting in surprise, which made the audience laugh.

Inside the stadium, as the commentator finished speaking, the audience cheered.

Li Luo performed exceptionally well in the previous matches, so everyone naturally had high expectations for Kindred today.

"But wait a minute, what is Kindred doing this time? Is she going to counter-jungle or steal jungle camps?" Miller asked, puzzled. "Is this a counter-gank?"

"It depends. Suning has vision in the upper jungle, so there's a high chance Kindred will be spotted if she goes there. Besides, I think Rek'Sai isn't afraid of Kindred in the jungle this patch, right?" Wawa said hesitantly.

Before Miller could speak, Teacher Ma chimed in, "Of course we're not afraid. The excavator's damage is pretty good in the early game."

"However, it's been a long time since we've seen Kindred in a match. The last time was when Ning played Kindred and got ganked and beaten by Guohao in the jungle. I think it still depends on individual skill. Over here, wow! Kindred! Clearlove's awareness is so sharp. He jumped right off the Baron pit, avoiding the vision that Suning had placed at the river entrance and went in. Suning didn't see it this time!"

In the game, Kindred calmly arrived at the top of the Baron pit and lightly jumped down into the pit with a Q skill. In the middle of the river, a ward left by iboy was barely missed and entered the blue team's jungle.

"This place...is not visible!"

"Probably not. iboy's ward placement was perfect. But Kindred, Clearlove's game sense is truly top-notch. I feel like he's incredibly sensitive to everything on the map, as if he has everything under control."

"Only the factory manager can give us this feeling!"

In the game, Kindred had arrived at the blue buff, but instead of ambushing anyone, she started attacking the blue buff directly.

"This factory manager is too daring! Is the excavator coming over? Huh? After clearing the F6, the excavator actually turned around and went to attack the Krugs. It looks like Kindred is going to steal that blue buff for nothing!"

"The factory manager anticipated SofM's jungle route; my god, this is a clear advantage in awareness!"

"Kindred is about to activate her three buffs!"

To gain an early advantage as a jungler, the key is undoubtedly planning the jungle route.

In the current version, the Stone Golem provides the most experience, and the River Crab is a must-contest objective, so a good jungler will plan their jungle route in advance.

For excavators, the key is how to generate effective compressive force.

The excavator's power spike begins at level 3, so players who play the excavator need to level up to level 3 quickly. The key to whether you can steal the excavator's jungle camps lies in whether you can guess his route to quickly reach level 3.

In this game, Li Luo boldly predicted that SofM's first target would definitely be the bottom lane.

To turn the tide, the excavator must capitalize on his level 3 gank. In this game, if he chooses red buff, Krugs, and Raptors, then the first level 3 gank will obviously be placed in the mid lane.

Unfortunately, it's still too difficult for a LeBlanc to kill Pantheon with the help of a Rek'Sai. If you're not careful, Kindred will catch you off guard.

As for the route of starting with the excavator at red buff, farming F6, and getting the blue buff, that's even more unreliable.

Akali in the top lane has no skills to gank with Rek'Sai in the early game. She has neither control nor damage, so why would she go to gank Shen?

Li Luo took a gamble!
The result was obvious: he made the right bet!

Furthermore, Edg also obtained an important piece of information: the jungle gank route for the excavator.

"The puppy might be on the bottom lane."

As soon as Li Luo finished speaking, Zaozi gave a muffled reply. However, as expected of Zaozi's many years of experience, after receiving the reminder, the female gunner did not retreat abnormally and continued to fight aggressively, seeking to exchange blows.

This deceptive nature led Sofm, who was attacking the stone golem, to nod and prepare to start catching it.

However, the poor excavator had no idea that its upper section was about to be completely cleaned up.

"Huh? Edg has already signaled in the bottom lane. Looks like SofM was predicted. This is really damaging; it's like losing half of the jungle right from the start!"

In the game, the excavator was still foolishly standing behind the wall in the bottom lane, waiting for Miss Fortune to come up so he could use his E to dash out, flash to knock her up, and coordinate with his teammates to kill her.

However, the cunning female gunner always stayed at the wall's maximum distance, giving Sofm the illusion that you could catch her, as long as you tried hard enough.

Five seconds, ten seconds, twenty seconds have passed!

We absolutely cannot delay any longer!

Seeing this, sofm decisively instructed Snake to take control of Miss Fortune first!

The Japanese heroine's positioning was extremely tight, making it almost impossible for Zaozi to dodge her EQ attack. This is also where SofM's cleverness lies: he remains calm in the face of adversity and knows how to maximize his success rate.

But at that moment, the instant Snake used E to move in, he saw Thresh next to Miss Fortune use his Q skill, which landed directly on Leona's face.

He pulled the Japanese woman down from the air!
My leg is broken!
The snake looked utterly astonished.

"Wow!!! Meiko!! Meiko actually used a predicted Q skill this time, directly interrupting Leona's E skill!"

The commentator also exclaimed in surprise.

That scene was incredibly impressive because, from God's perspective, Thresh made the first move, and then the next second Leona used her E skill to fly up and land on the hook.

We've met!
However, the commentators didn't have time to elaborate on just how terrifying this wave was, because the battle had already begun.

The instant she hooked the Leona, Meiko immediately used her W skill.

The level 2 Thresh didn't learn the E skill at all, but instead learned the W skill!

Just a second before the excavator emerged and flashed to lift Miss Fortune, Miss Fortune lit her lantern and leisurely escaped.

Neither of them used Flash throughout the entire match!
"Holy crap! Those two cunning old foxes knew you were hiding there and deliberately lured us in!"

At this moment, the snake was fully aware that its thoughts had been completely read.

In such a highly anticipated competition, Meiko's hook was destined to become a classic, and he would become the backdrop for that classic moment.

"Wow, Edg's bot lane duo were amazing this time! Even though they knew SofM was camping there, their performance was incredible. No wonder they are among the top professional players in the league!" Miller had just finished speaking when he started shouting again.

"The factory manager is so cunning! I knew he hadn't marked it at the start of the game, was he just waiting for this moment?"

"Kindred marked Tristana, and Suning was completely dumbfounded. They didn't know that Kindred was farming in their own top jungle at this moment. Instead, they thought that Kindred was about to rush to the bottom lane to start a 3v3. That was great awareness!"

This scene not only left Wawa and Miller stunned, but even Teacher Ma was taken aback, seemingly unaware that professional players could play like this.

Kindred's mark was placed at just the right time, precisely when the jungler was clearing the lane from Red Buff, Wolves, Blue Buff, and Gromp!
It was precisely at this time that Su Ning's three men became suspicious, wondering whether Qianjue was actually there or not.

Not a minute more, not a minute less.

"Wow, that's terrifying! Even though the factory manager wasn't in the bottom lane, just one marker was enough to scare the excavator so much that he can't recall immediately."

"They're too confident. Everyone at Edg is so confident right now. Look at them, it's like they've already written the script... uh, I mean they have a plan in mind." Realizing she had misspoke, Wawa quickly corrected herself.

"In professional matches, once the opponent guesses your jungle strategy, it's too disruptive to the team's rhythm. There's a story about Clearlove watching replays for two days straight before a match to study the players' habits. It seems that Clearlove hasn't neglected his skills at all; on the contrary, he's thoroughly studied SofM!"

At the start of the game, although Edg didn't get any kills, two consecutive amazing plays immediately brought the atmosphere to a climax!
"The previous Meiko's prediction of the Q skill was also very impressive, directly interrupting Leona's E skill and preventing Leona from flashing to Q Miss Fortune to lock her down immediately."

"Otherwise, even if Thresh interrupted Leona with his E skill, Uzi's Miss Fortune would at least have to use Flash, and there's a high probability she'd be dead."

The doll still had an exaggerated expression on its face.

"After that, the excavator wasted almost a minute, and Kindred got the top half of the excavator's jungle, leaving only one wolf. Furthermore, Kindred's first river crab spawned in the top lane. That's too much of a blow!"

In the game, Sofm, realizing the ingenuity of Edg's move, immediately understood and couldn't help but feel annoyed.

At this point, he only had two options: either try to enter Edg's lower jungle to see if he could find resources to heal, or go back to base and farm his own upper jungle.

Once the conflicting thoughts arose, SofM subconsciously chose the second path. He is a map-controlling jungler, but not an aggressive jungler.

If he goes to Edg's bottom jungle and there are no jungle monsters there, then he'll be doubly thwarted, and he'll be sleepwalking through the game.

Left with no other option, the excavator decided to go home.

"Wow, this is a great start, bro," Wawa laughed.

"That felt so good, so good, so good! Edg's handling of this play didn't seem like that of a new team at all. Instead, it was like a group of seasoned veterans who had won championships coming to crush their opponents. Both Meiko's plays and Clearlove's mind games were terrifying."

"The factory manager's jungling awareness is absolutely top-notch. The two are now four camps behind each other. In seven minutes, the excavator will definitely die if it encounters Kindred," Teacher Ma said confidently.

"Huh, why is it seven minutes?" the doll asked, puzzled.

"Given Kindred's current jungle clearing speed and gold, he'll be able to get his jungle item around the 10-minute mark, at which point SofM will be guaranteed to die if he gets near him."

Miller, who was standing nearby, thought for a moment and was about to help Teacher Ma smooth things over when he was drawn back to the screen.

"If we take the red buff, Kindred can go back to base to farm and level up. Hmm? What's Kindred doing? Aren't you going back to base?"

In the game, Kindred took down the Rift Scuttler, then used the same trick again, jumping into the Baron pit to finish off her own red buff. She then had both red and blue buffs on her, and her health was very good.

Instead of going home as the commentator predicted, it turned around and flipped down from the Big Dragon Pit, circling back into the riverbed.

"This"

Everyone outside was stunned: "Kindred is going to gank top again?? Can they even kill her? Akali's health has been reduced, but she shouldn't be able to get overtaken. Even though Kindred is level four now, her damage combined with Shen's is definitely not enough!"

On the field, the top laner was constantly under pressure from Flandre.

But Bin's Akali had Doran's Shield, so her recovery ability was decent. She kept her health above half thanks to her W skill, making it impossible for her to be caught and killed.

"No way? Is the factory manager planning to launch a counterattack against the excavators?"

"Why should I? Why should SofM do what you want?"

(End of this chapter)