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

Chapter 411 Do you want to win or do you want to have fun? I want both!
"Alright, let's look at the draft! The draft for both teams has already begun!" Miller shouted.

C9 is the blue team, and LGD is the red team.

First round of BP.

C9 banned LeBlanc, Rek'Sai, and Kog'Maw.

LGD banned Janna, Galio, and Kalista.

“C9’s first three bans were essentially bans targeting LGD’s hero pool,” Miller said.

Doll nodded: "Kog'Maw is indeed Imp's signature champion, but I feel that banning Rek'Sai wasn't so much to target the jungler, but more to ban the top laner!"

"If Eimy gets the excavator, he'll definitely dig all sorts of tunnels to flank and catch people on the top lane. Impact is probably afraid he won't be able to withstand it."

C9's top laner Impact is nicknamed "Teacher DaMu" in the LPL, or simply "DaMu".

The nickname comes from the fact that Impact looks quite similar to the famous adult film actor Tony Takagi.

DaMu is the S3 champion top laner, the owner of the Jax skin, and a veteran player.

However, Impact's peak was basically in Season 3, and after moving to North America, his performance declined considerably.

Although he has been able to participate in the World Championships in recent years, his current playstyle is basically to play it safe in lane and wait for team fights.

To be honest, Da Mu was a little intimidated by Zhou Dian in this match.

Although the two had never faced each other before, Impact's assessment of Zhou Dian was that he was very capable.

Not only is he highly capable, but he also likes to ask others for help.

Unfortunately, LGD's jungler, Eimy, is a jungler who really likes to gank and doesn't really like to farm in the jungle.

This is bullying older people!

Impact was indeed a little worried that he wouldn't be able to withstand LGD's top and jungle attacks in this game.

However, Impact is quite confident in his years of experience playing top lane and his ability to withstand pressure.

After the first round of bans, C9, the blue team, immediately picked Xayah on the first floor.

"I thought C9 would first pick Rakan, but now LGD can get Rakan!"

Miller continued, "This Rakan is very comfortable. We all know that for LGD, it's best to pick a support who can initiate team fights."

"Because compared to other teams, LGD's top laner often takes on more damage output, so the task of initiating team fights naturally falls more on the support and jungler."

League of Legends is, after all, a team game, and no one can be perfect in every aspect.

If you do a lot in one area, you will inevitably do less in another.

Then the teammates have to make up for the shortcomings in these areas.

That's what makes a great team, not just everyone doing their own thing.

After hearing Miller's explanation, many viewers thought about it carefully and realized that it made sense.

Both Eimy and PYL are junglers and supports who love to gank and control the pace of the game, and are very good at initiating fights.

For Zhou Dian, his teammates at LGD are actually quite suitable for him.

If you encounter a jungler and support in the LPL who generally prefer controlling map resources and vision control, and instead of playing a tank in the weekly rankings, you pick a squishy damage-dealing top laner, you might end up being an orphan in the top lane.

Teammates support each other and there is no situation where "I am the only one carrying the team".

It's just that some people shine brighter because of their position, the hero they choose, their tactical role, and so on, while their teammates' contributions are not as noticeable.

However, once they figured out the crux of the problem, RNG fans immediately understood.

LGD has this type of jungler and support, but RNG has a much better one, right?

A post immediately popped up in RNG's Weibo super topic.

What level could RNG reach if Letme were replaced by Zhou Dian?

Some RNG fans believe that RNG is an upgraded version of LGD in all four positions: mid, bot, jungle, and support.

If we replace the top laner with Zhou Dian, they'd be taking off like crazy!
Many RNG fans couldn't help but sigh, "They're both top laners, so why is there such a big difference between them?"

However, this topic was only discussed for a few minutes before it was ended by a single reply—

"If Letme were replaced by Zhou Dian, it would be a game-winning shot, but unfortunately, we can't!"

As soon as this reply was posted, the comments section was filled with "Lu Benwei is awesome," and no one was having a serious discussion anymore.

However, if Zhou Dian himself sees this topic...

His opinion is definitely that Letme is more suitable for the top lane position for RNG than him.

After all, Imp often has to play the role of a dog and suffer injustice in matches, but would Uzi be willing to do that?
That's difficult!
Back to BP.

After C9 secured Xayah, LGD picked Rakan and Jarvan IV on the first and second floors of the red side respectively.

"Prince Loga, your team fight initiation ability is off the charts!" the doll exclaimed excitedly.

"Then C9's support needs to pick a protective champion!" Miller added.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than C9 picked Lulu on the second floor of the blue team, and then Syndra on the third floor.

At this moment, in the LGD team's voice chat...

"What should we build on the third floor? AD or mid? My Lucian can beat Syndra," Wei Shen asked.

The top laner is a given; when LGD is on the red side, the fifth counter pick is basically reserved for Zhou Dian.

Dgc naturally understood what Wei Shen meant: he was afraid that if they didn't pick Lucian now, C9 would ban him in the second round.

“Let’s take Lucian first!” Dgc said.

Therefore, Wei Shen locked Lucian on the third floor of the red team.

Seeing that LGD had picked Lucian for mid lane, C9's top laner Impact breathed a slight sigh of relief.

If the mid laner picks an AD champion, then the top laner's options become much fewer.

In professional competitions, teams with cleaver-like tactics are relatively rare.

Zhou Dian's Fiora and Camille picks, which are so terrifying to look at, are probably not going to be picked this game.

The first round of ban/pick is over, and we move on to the second round.

LGD banned Gragas and Ezreal.

C9 banned Rumble and Spider.

"LGD banned Ezreal, a jungler that has been quite popular recently, and banned two jungler champions in total."

Miller continued, "C9's two bans were very targeted; they definitely made things difficult for LGD."

“Yes!” Wawa nodded. “Indeed, the problem of the physical damage-heavy team brought by the mid-laner Lucian is a bit difficult to handle.”

"It feels like LGD sacrificed their top lane pick in order to make their mid laner's laning phase more comfortable!"

“I don’t think this is a good option!” Miller shook his head.

C9's two bans really hit LGD's sore spots.

When the mid laner is playing an AD champion, Rumble is undoubtedly the most suitable top laner.

Banning Elise also served as a countermeasure against LGD's flex pick strategy, allowing them to swap Jarvan IV to the top lane and then pick Elise as jungler, thus avoiding the problem of a purely physical damage-heavy team.

Since the start of the Summer Split, Zhou Dian's Prince has been a formidable force, a fact well-known to all.

With just a few version changes, top lane Jarvan IV has basically disappeared from the scene, and very few people play him anymore.

This ban on Spider also serves as a precaution against the possibility of Jarvan IV being played top lane.

In the second round, LGD got to pick first.

LGD locked in Varus on the fourth floor of the red side.

C9 secured Shen and Graves on the fourth and fifth floors of the blue team, respectively.

"Now let's see what LGD's final top lane pick will be," Miller said.

"Is Zhou really going to pick Maokai or Cho'Gath? Although he plays both of those champions pretty well."

"Is Zhou Shen really going to play three tank heroes in a row right from the start of this World Championship?!"

Currently, the most suitable AP top laners seem to be Cho'Gath and Maokai.

DaMu played a little trick here, skipping both the big bug and the big tree, and directly picking Shen.

I'm leaving both Cho'Gath and Maokai to you, giving you more options. Will you choose or not? On the LGD players' side, Dgc didn't ask Zhou Dian whether to choose Cho'Gath or Maokai. He rarely interfered with the top laner's champion selection, and he trusted Zhou Dian completely.

In the commentary box.

Seeing that the red team hadn't revealed their hero on the fifth floor yet, Miller couldn't help but say, "Looks like they're still hesitating. I reckon Zhou Shen doesn't really want to pick Cho'Gath or Maokai in this game."

Before the words were even finished, a hero appeared on the fifth floor of LGD, and was then quickly locked down.

The Guardian of the Future – Jess.

"Wow, Jayce!" Miller exclaimed. "This is Zhou Shen's signature champion. He used Jayce in his first LPL regular season game."

"I remember it very clearly, that match was against RNG!"

"Zhou Shen is so brave! But this makes LGD a pure melee team, and I'm still a little worried."

At this moment, Wawa said, "The lineup has already been chosen. Now all we can do is trust the players. Zhou Shen dared to pick Jayce at this time, so he must have a lot of confidence!"

After the draft phase ended, the two head coaches came to the center of the stage to shake hands and exchange greetings.

They then turned and walked into the players' tunnel.

At this moment, the game entered the loading screen on the large screen at the venue.

Blue square C9.

Top lane: Shen; Jungle: Graves; Mid lane: Syndra; Bot lane: Xayah and Lulu.

LGD (Red Team)

Top lane Jayce, jungle Jarvan IV, mid lane Lucian, bot lane Varus and Garen.

At this moment, the live broadcast camera quickly scanned the faces of both players.

Both players looked relaxed, chatting and laughing, and exchanging ideas with their teammates.

Only Daiki's expression tightened a bit.

He's definitely going to suffer if he plays against Jayce!
Not only is the laning phase difficult, but their own jungler is also a Graves.

However, he doesn't mind suffering a bit.

LGD picked a physical damage team, which greatly increased C9's win rate in this game. It's not a big deal that he sacrificed a little gaming experience.

After all, for a professional player, winning the game is the most important thing.

"This kid is still too young. He only cares about having fun. What's the use? Can he win? It's going to be very difficult!" Da Mu thought to himself.

However, Da Mu underestimated Zhou Dian in this respect.

He has always been a player who puts victory first.

However, Zhou Dian is also someone who treats people differently based on their status.

It was only because he was facing off against an older player like Da Mu that he decisively chose both game experience and victory – he wanted it all!

Amidst the deafening cheers of the audience, the scene of Summoner's Rift appeared on the large screen at the venue.

The first round of the group stage match between LGD and C9 has begun.

In this game, LGD did not choose to line up in a defensive formation along the river at the start, but instead grouped up with all five players and headed straight for C9's red zone.

At level one, LGD's lineup is undoubtedly much stronger.

I searched all over C9's red buff area but couldn't find Graves. C9's jungler was pretty quick to escape.

Graves is a pretty strong champion when you farm him.

So LGD wanted to annoy him at the start of the game and disrupt his jungle farming rhythm, but they didn't succeed.

It's a bit of a pity.

After wandering around the C9 red zone, the LGD players retreated, realizing there was no need to waste time there.

At this point, PYL's scanning device came in handy.

C9's jungler Contractz placed a ward at the narrow pass leading to the river behind his own red buff camp at the start of the game, which was cleared by LGD.

Therefore, C9 was unaware that LGD had already retreated.

Contractz clearly didn't want his jungle clearing rhythm to be interrupted and wanted to start with red buff as originally planned.

It's just that we don't know if the three junglers on LGD's side are still lurking in their own jungle.

So he had no choice but to call over his bot lane duo to help with clearing the jungle.

In the original plan, Contractz intended for his Graves to solo the red buff.

First of all, Graves can clear jungle camps without taking damage, so solo play doesn't have much of an impact.

Secondly, he started soloing so that his own bot lane could get to lane and gain lane priority earlier.

C9's mid and top laners are at a disadvantage in the early game, and they definitely don't have lane priority.

Therefore, from the perspective of hero comparison, Xayah and Lulu are the only ones who are not at a disadvantage in lane, so securing lane priority is very important.

This also allows Graves, a jungler without crowd control abilities, to have more initiative.

But now that the bot lane is helping Graves clear the jungle, it's going to be harder for them to secure lane priority.

The buff monsters spawned, and C9's jungler, support, and bottom laner started fighting.

Contractz glanced at the minimap and saw that Varus and Rakan had appeared on the bottom lane.

That's too ruthless. They actually let the prince go solo, while Varus and Rakan went straight to push the lane.

After Graves finished clearing the red buff, Contractz quickly switched screens to check the top and mid lanes.

The enemy's level 1 Jayce and Lucian are already pushing past the minion wave.

fxxk!

Without lane priority in all three lanes, how can the jungler play?
In the commentary box.

"Let's take a look at the talents of both sides; they're both fairly average."

Miller continued, "Then it's time for our classic moment again, Jayce's starting items are indeed a longsword and a refillable potion."

"All I can say is that this is very 'Zhou Shen' (a famous Chinese player). This is an extremely greedy starting item, which really tests the player's laning ability."

"Actually, we all know that Shen is a champion whose laning ability is not weak."

In the game, C9's jungler was worried about his blue buff area being invaded, so after clearing the red buff, he went straight to his own blue buff.

Seeing Graves's actions, Wawa immediately exclaimed, "Wow, this Graves is choosing to take two buffs first; this usually means he's about to make a move!"

C9's jungler Contractz definitely wanted to stir things up.

He thought that LGD had disrupted his early jungle clearing rhythm, forcing him to take two buffs first, so he decided to annoy LGD's top laner first.

This play doesn't guarantee a kill on Jayce or forcing him to use Flash, since Graves lacks crowd control and isn't good at keeping enemies in place.

We need to at least drastically reduce Jayce's health.

This will make Shen's laning phase much more comfortable.

You like going out with a longsword and a green potion, right?
You like playing a long-range champion who can push through minion waves and harass people, right?
Fine, you just wait!

At 2 minutes and 47 seconds into the game, Graves finished off the blue buff, entered the river, and headed straight for the top lane.

At this moment, Jayce was positioned very far forward.

C9's jungler planned to flank Jayce from the red side's top lane tri-bush, get behind him, and deliver a powerful blow from behind.

Impact has already told him that Jayce has been harassing his laner ever since he came online and hasn't left the lane. There shouldn't be any wards in the river.

So the Graves confidently and boldly went around to the back.

In the commentary box.

"Wow, this Graves is definitely up to something!" Wawa exclaimed. "But it seems like he's been spotted! Zhou Shen should be on alert."

Zhou Dian's Jayce went to lane along the river. Before going to lane, he placed a trinket ward in the river between the top lane bush and the Baron pit.

When the Graves was caught by this vision, the ward's duration had exactly two seconds left.

In those two seconds, they also clearly saw the Graves's plan to flank from behind the triangular bush.

Then, the eye disappeared automatically when the time was up.

(End of this chapter)