You promised a top lane tutorial, but you're just using Worlds as material for your videos?

Chapter 131 Top Lane Karma, an old woman with steel bones!
"Alright, everyone, welcome to the LPL match this weekend!"

"We are about to bring you the BO3 match between IG and LGD. I am your commentator, Wawa!"

"I'm Miller, the commentator for this match!"

For the first two matches today, the official commentators were the brothers Wawa and Miller.

At this moment, the camera focused on the main stage, where the ten contestants from both sides were already seated in their seats. It was clear that the equipment had been tested and the competition was about to begin.

After reading through a series of advertisements, the commentator finally steered the conversation back to the match.

"Do you know what I'm most looking forward to in today's IG vs. LGD match?" Wawa turned to Miller.

"What is it!" Miller chimed in, perfectly timed to play the straight man.

"I'm really looking forward to the matchup between the two top laners!"

Wawa continued, "IG's top laner, Duke, is the top laner who won the World Championship last year, so his strength is beyond doubt."

"LGD's top laner, Zhou Shen, is a player who only debuted this year, but his performance since entering the professional arena has been consistently outstanding and incredibly carry-oriented. He is undoubtedly a genius top laner!"

"But I don't think the key to winning this game today will necessarily be on the top lane!" Miller had a different opinion.

"Oh?"

"You need to understand that on LGD's side, it's not just the top laner who can carry!"

"I understand, I understand!" the child nodded repeatedly.

Miller meant that there was a significant difference in skill between the two bottom lanes.

imp and PYL have been in excellent form since the start of the Spring Split, and their performance has only improved since the arrival of the Weekly Champions, showing signs of returning to their peak during S5.

IG's bot lane duo is Marge and Baolan.

To say that these two are the worst bot lane in the LPL would be an understatement.

However, this bot lane duo's skill level, if placed in the LPL, would at best be around the mid-tier level, and most of the time they would be at the lower-middle level.

Miller meant that maybe the other lanes wouldn't produce any results, but LGD's bot lane would just carry.

Before the match, most opinions believed that LGD would defeat IG.

Based on their performance in the Spring Split, IG's overall strength is definitely not as good as LGD's.

On the IG side, the mid and top lanes are Rookie and Duke, a lineup that is undoubtedly top-tier in the LPL.

Both players performed quite well.

However, the other three players – Kid (jungle), Marge (bot lane), and Baolan (bot lane) – were somewhat dragging the team down.

Anyway, many IG fans have been criticizing Kid, jokingly saying that Kid must have shielded Wang Sicong from an atomic bomb, otherwise why would Kid, who has dragged IG down from AD to jungle, still stay with IG after all these years?

And he's always a starting player, no matter what!

IG fans have long wanted to eliminate Kid, but Kid's position remains as secure as a rock.

At this moment, the commentator received a notification from the director through their headset.

"Alright, both teams are ready. The first game of the BO3 between IG and LGD is about to begin the draft phase!"

The BP interface appeared on the large screen at the scene.

Blue side IG, red side LGD.

IG, who had the right to choose sides in the first game, chose the blue side.

First round of BP.

IG banned Camille, Fiora, and Varus.

LGD banned Graves, LeBlanc, and Azir.

"Oh, IG banned Fiora and Camille right from the start!"

"No team would normally let LGD have these two heroes now. If Zhou Shen gets these two heroes, it will be very difficult for you to counter them!"

At this moment, IG revealed Jayce on the first floor of the blue team and then locked him in.

"Oh my, he picked Jayce first! Duke immediately drew his sword, he looks very confident!" Miller said.

"Of course I have to be confident!" Wawa said with a smile. "Even Duke has something to say. So what if you, Zhou, have been playing well lately? I'm the champion top laner!"

"I'm a champion top laner facing off against a rookie like you, am I not allowed to show my strength?"

"However, on the other hand," Wawa changed the subject, "IG's Jayce pick is still very likely to be a mid-top flex pick!"

"Whether he was with SKT before or is now with IG, Duke hasn't played Jayce top lane very often!"

"On the contrary, Rookie probably plays Jayce the most times among all mid laners in the LPL!"

Next, LGD selected Karma and Kha'Zix on the first and second floors of the red side.

"If IG plays the swing game, then LGD will play the swing game too!"

"This Karma could be played mid or support. Wei Shen's playstyle has changed recently, so there's a good chance he'll play Karma mid in this game!"

Subsequently, IG secured Gragas and Ezreal on the second and third floors of the blue side.

"IG is really going all out with their swing style!"

"This Gragas pick has two possibilities: top lane or jungle!"

As for choosing EZ for the marksman position, it's not simply to let the bot lane carry the game.

The main reason is that Ezreal is one of Marge's specialties, and he usually performs quite well when he gets Ezreal.

In the final pick of the first round of ban/pick, LGD chose Ashe on the third floor of the red side.

We've moved on to the second round of draft picks.

LGD banned Lulu and Nami.

IG banned Taliyah and Cassiopeia.

"LGD ignored IG's previous picks in the mid, top, and jungle positions and directly banned two supports!"

"IG banned two mid-lane Cassiopeia champions, but it's more likely they banned Zhou Shen's top-lane Cassiopeia!"

"Now, many other teams are picking Lucian in the top lane in matches, but Zhou Shen is still the only one to play Cassiopeia in the top lane in a competitive game!"

In the second round of player selection, it was the red team's turn to choose first.

LGD locked down Malzahar on the fourth floor of the red team.

"Grasshopper!"

"It should be support Malzahar, there are very few people playing mid Malzahar these days!"

"In that case, LGD will have Karma mid, and they still haven't picked their last top laner, so they're keeping the counter pick for the top lane!"

Next, IG picked Tahm Kench and Kennen on the fourth and fifth floors of the blue side.

"Support Tahm Kench! That's a pretty good counter to Ashe's ultimate!"

"The EZ-Tahm Kench bot lane duo is a pretty classic example of a lane-farming and farming combination!"

"Then IG's last pick was Kennen, so IG's lineup should be Kennen top, Jayce mid, and Gragas jungle."

"Now we'll see what LGD picks for their final move, and which champion Zhou Shen will choose to counter Duke's Kennen!"

“Actually, I think Lucian is capable!” the doll said.

“I don’t think Lucian is a good choice!” Miller shook his head. “Kennen is also a long-range champion, even longer than Lucian. If you pick Lucian against Kennen, Lucian’s laning advantage won’t be as effective!”

At this moment, in the LGD players' seat.

Zhou Dian turned to GodV and said, "What do you say, GodV? Do you want to go and play with Rookie?"

"Huh? How do I play Karma?" GodV shrugged and laughed. Hearing this, Zhou Dian said, "Give me Karma, and you get a mid-lane champion that counters Jayce on the fifth floor!"

"Huh? Karma top lane?" Before GodV could even speak, Dgc almost jumped up.

"Great job, Xu-ge! Karma can easily beat Kennen!"

Zhou Dian continued, "You give me Karma to play top lane, and we can counter her in the mid and top lanes, wouldn't that be great!"

"They like to sway, don't they? Let's see who can sway better!"

Dgc nodded.

Actually, he didn't know whether Karma was good or bad against Kennen, but since Xiao Zhou said it was easy, then it was easy.

I don't care who's controlling Kennen!
So what if he's a champion top laner?
Can you beat my brother Zhou?
Anyway, Dgc already blindly trusts Zhou Dian.

"Okay, let's practice with Rookie then!"

GodV turned to PYL, "Ping, get me Syndra!"

Despite the change in roles, GodV hasn't abandoned the heroes he used to know; he still practices them regularly.

In LGD's current matches, it's not that Wei Shen has to play a utility mid-laner every game; it's just that he can pick and play the role when the team needs him.

Having a deep hero pool is always beneficial; you never know when you might need it.

As the champion selection countdown was about to end, LGD revealed Syndra on the fifth floor of the red side and quickly locked her in.

Syndra's lock-on immediately sparked a buzz of discussion among the audience.

In the live broadcast room, a large number of question marks floated across the screen.

Syndra top lane? Can this champion be played in the top lane?

Like many viewers, Wawa was puzzled by LGD's last pick, Syndra.

"They definitely can't win; it shouldn't be Syndra top lane!" Miller quickly realized.

"I think Karma should go top. Karma at least has the speed boost from her E skill, while Syndra is too easy to gank in top lane!"

At this point, the two teams quickly swapped heroes, and all the heroes landed in their designated positions.

Karma, on the other hand, stayed on the first floor of the red team the whole time and never moved.

Holy crap, it really is Karma top lane!

You'll never guess who Zhou Shen chooses!

[I think Duke is in trouble!]

[Duke: Don't come any closer!]

How can you send voice messages?

[Why is Zhou Shen up to his old tricks again!]

[If you don't produce something impressive, can you really call yourself the Master of Single-Handed Battle?]

[How can this be called a "troll pick"? Top lane Karma has always been a viable playstyle!]

"No way? How come it's always been like this? I've never seen it before."

【That's because you're inexperienced. Top lane Karma is rare, but you can still occasionally see her in solo queue.】

Indeed, a top lane Karma built tank items is incredibly annoying. I've encountered it in ranked games. This guy has a nickname: "[Iron-Bodied Old Woman]".

[A steel-willed old woman? Hahaha, who the hell came up with that name? Interesting!]

[IG had Jayce and Gragas, they swayed around for ages, but in the end LGD still managed to sway them into a winning position!]

With the champion pool of LGD's players, no LPL team could possibly outplay them!

[So being the head coach of LGD is too easy, I feel like I could do it too!]

【.】

The viewers in the live broadcast also expressed many opinions about Zhou Dian's top lane Karma.

After the draft phase was completed and some final instructions were given, both head coaches came to the center of the stage.

After shaking hands, the two coaches turned and walked into the players' tunnel.

On the large screen at the venue, the game entered the loading screen.

Blue side IG: Top lane Kennen, Jungle Gragas, Mid lane Jayce, Bot lane Ezreal and Tahm Kench.

Red side LGD: Top lane Karma, Jungle Kha'Zix, Mid lane Syndra, Bot lane Ashe and Malzahar.

The IG players' bench while waiting for the game to load.

Kid turned to Duke and said, "Duke, it's okay if we lose this game, just don't get solo killed, or we'll be publicly executed!"

Upon hearing this, Duke looked completely bewildered. "Public execution? What do you mean, Ge Yan (Kid's real name)?"

Although Duke is learning Chinese, his current level is limited to communicating about simple game content.

Another thing is that I learned a few swear words.

He knew nothing else.

Seeing that Duke didn't understand, Kid wanted to rephrase his words to Rookie, and then have Rookie translate them into Korean and say them to Duke.

However, after some thoughts swirled in his mind, Kid realized that with his limited knowledge (he hadn't even graduated from elementary school), he couldn't seem to come up with any concise words to express his ideas.

Forget it, I won’t say anymore!

"Duke plays so well in games, he shouldn't get crushed and have his body turned into a video and humiliated, right?" Kid thought to himself.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh~~~
Accompanied by sound effects, ten heroes from both sides landed in the fountains at either end of Summoner's Rift.

As an aerial view of Summoner's Rift appeared on the big screen, fans of both teams began cheering for their favorites.

The final overhead shot swept past Xiaolongkeng.

There was a green mark on the pit wall.

This indicates that the first dragon in this game will be a water dragon.

Based on the current attributes of the dragons, the water dragon, as the first dragon, is the most valuable to contend for.

The earlier you get it, the more comfortable the matchups will be for all three lanes.

After the footage of Xiaolongkeng was shown, the view on the large screen at the scene returned to the regular observer interface.

All ten heroes in this game had already purchased their starting items, emerged from the fountain, and positioned themselves on both sides of the river at the start of the game.

50 seconds into the game, IG's Gragas and Kennen crossed the river together, passed through the intersection in front of F6, and entered LGD's red buff area.

After placing his wards in front of LGD's F6 camp, Gragas retreated with Kennen.

The ward Kid placed was mainly to monitor the situation of the red team's F6 camp after the start of the game, so as to better determine Eimy's Kha'Zix jungle route.

Eimy, who had been standing at the entrance to the red buff area, saw IG's top and jungle coming over, and Zhou Dian immediately controlled Karma, who was standing in the river, to move forward and enter IG's blue buff area.

After placing his ward in front of IG's blue buff, Zhou Dian quickly withdrew from IG's blue buff area.

Top lane Karma is a utility champion who disrupts the game, so naturally, she should be played as a team player.

In this game, Zhou Dian isn't the main carry, so there's no need to save that trinket ward at the start to prevent ganks.

Moreover, warding isn't the only way to prevent ganks.

A good top laner relies mostly on awareness to avoid ganks.

(End of this chapter)