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

Chapter 429 Is this Zhou a monster? (Happy Lunar New Year's Eve to all readers!)
On the main battlefield, the Dragon Ball members couldn't return to the city, and they couldn't launch a counterattack.

Left with no other choice, I had to resort to a clumsy method.

Come back!
When the Dragon Balls returned to their high ground from their own blue zone, one of the turrets had already been destroyed by the Barbarian.

The remaining one also lost half its health.

As soon as the Dragon Balls returned to the high ground, Zhou Dian did not hesitate to control the Barbarians to escape.

Even with only half its health remaining, the turret wasn't dismantled.

Previously, when Tryndamere was killing Jayce under the bottom lane inhibitor turret, he killed Jayce in a few hits without even using his ultimate, thanks to Ghost.

At this point, there's still a powerful move available. If you want to unleash your ultimate attack, you can forcibly dismantle the remaining tooth tower of the Dragon Ball.

But in doing so, the barbarians would inevitably be killed.

Firstly, Zhou Dian didn't want to give up this big kill.

Secondly, with Barbarian dead and Jayce resurrected, Dragon Ball will definitely go all out to fight Baron Nashor in a five-on-four situation.

Having reached this point, Zhou Dian only wants to secure a victory and is unwilling to take any risks that might lead to an unexpected outcome.

Taking risks is something the disadvantaged party should do; the advantageous party has no need to take risks.

When Dragon Ball saw the barbarian run away without saying a word, they immediately panicked.

Our bottom lane was completely destroyed, and one and a half of our inhibitor turrets were also taken down. How could we swallow this insult?

Chase!
However, after a brief entanglement near the Dragon Pit, the Dragon Ball members used a lot of their summoner spells and chased for a while, but still couldn't stop the Barbarian.

They then realized that the entire team had been driven mad by the barbarians.

To chase after someone at a time like this—such a basic mistake!

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the sound effect of the dragon being killed was heard.

While the Dragon Ball players were returning home to catch the Barbarian, the other four LGD players simultaneously turned around and took down the Baron.

Once this dragon falls, Dragon Ball has no chance of turning the tide in this game.

With the Baron buff, Tryndamere can push whichever lane he wants.

Faced with such a agonizing situation, many teams will choose to force a push when the opponent advances.

If you win, keep fighting.

If you can't beat Lagou, you're doomed. The sooner you die, the sooner you're reborn. Let's finish the next round quickly.

However, the Dragon Ball team is quite tolerant, they just keep dragging it out!

Since death was inevitable anyway, Dragon Ball didn't choose to seek it out; instead, he chose to wait for it.

If we drag this out, our opponent might make a mistake and give up.
As for LGD, since their opponents have chosen to wait for death, then so be it!

While pushing forward with the Baron buff, LGD players did not do anything risky, such as tower diving.

Using the Barbarian's strong crowd control, LGD destroyed the remaining two lanes of Dragon Ball's high ground when the Baron buff ended, and retreated calmly.

In the commentary box.

PDD scratched the back of his head, "Hey~ Dragon Ball isn't activated yet? All three lanes are broken!"

"The economic gap is too big; even if we used Dragon Balls, we definitely wouldn't be able to beat them," Guan Zeyuan added.

"This is a death sentence, this is so agonizing. I feel like Dragon Ball will only ruin their mentality if this drags on," PDD said.

"When I was playing professionally, if I encountered a game like this, I would just charge in, help the opponent, and end the game as soon as possible to start the next one!"

With all three lanes breached, almost everyone in Dragon Ball is now defending their base against super minions, meaning they're definitely not getting any jungle resources outside.

A few minutes later, the second Baron Nashor spawned in this game.

LGD players had been waiting in the Baron pit, and as soon as Baron spawned, they immediately took it down.

At this point, the bottom lane crystal, which was the first to be destroyed by Dragon Ball, had already revived.

LGD pushed down the bottom lane and destroyed Longzhu's bottom lane crystal once again.

With super minions pushing forward on three lanes, all carrying the Baron buff, LGD didn't even need to lift a finger; the minion waves were enough to destroy Longzhu's base.

Of course, Zhou Dian and his teammates weren't that frustrated; they just watched the super minions demolish the structures.

So the LGD players rushed forward.

At this point, the enemy threatened the base crystal, and only then did Dragon Ball dare to fight back, which was indeed a bit cowardly.

Whether you're a coward or not doesn't affect the outcome of the game; it just means you'll lose a few minutes later.

A little over thirty minutes into the game, in front of the blue team's fountain, ignoring the attacks from the Dragon Ball players, the five LGD players forcibly destroyed the Dragon Ball's base crystal.

The idea of ​​getting an extra kill and then rushing back to the fountain is meaningless.

Although you can't see or touch a person's character, you still have to pay attention to it!

The moment the Dragon Ball base crystal exploded, Guan Zeyuan excitedly shouted: "Congratulations to LGD for taking the lead in this quarterfinal match against LCK's number one seed, Dragon Ball, and temporarily leading with a score of 1-0."

“This is a pretty comfortable start!” Zhihuan added.

"That was awesome!" PDD pushed up his glasses. "This first game was a complete stomp!"

“These guys from Dragon Ball, especially this ‘Han Yi Shang’ Khan, are completely being played by us.”

However, although Longzhu lost the first game of the BO5, the aura surrounding them as the LCK's number one seed and the top favorite to win this World Championship has not completely dissipated.

Despite the presence of many LPL viewers, the commentators on the field still dared not underestimate Longzhu, believing that LGD would face a tough battle in the next few games.

In fact, the quarterfinals have reached their final day today.

In the match between LGD and Longzhu, aside from viewers from the LPL and LCK regions, neutral viewers from other regions generally supported LGD.

There's no other reason than that if LGD loses today, then three of the four semifinalists will be Korean teams.

In this situation, the appeal of the upcoming semi-finals and finals will undoubtedly be greatly reduced for neutral viewers.

If LGD wins today, there will be two teams from the LPL and two teams from the LCK in the semifinals.

The upcoming semifinals will feature LPL and LCK teams battling it out in pairs – that'll be so exciting!
The live stream camera then switched back to the stage.

After the first game ended, the players took off their headphones, got up from their seats, and walked backstage.

The expressions of the two players at this moment formed a stark contrast.

The five LGD players were chatting and laughing, especially Eimy, who was arm in arm with Zhou Dian, looking particularly excited.

For a jungler, it felt incredibly satisfying to relentlessly gank a particular position in the previous match.

Winning against your opponent after military training is doubly satisfying.

The five members of Dragon Ball walked quickly backstage without saying a word.

They all had blank expressions, and it was impossible to tell what they were thinking.

However, Khan, who was walking at the back, had a noticeably vacant and unfocused look in his eyes.

It seems they were truly stunned by the barbarians' attacks!

The big screen at the venue is replaying some highlights from the game that just started.

However, he didn't get many shots on camera.

There weren't many team fights between the two sides in this game, and there weren't many kills.

Then, the MVP of the first game was displayed on the big screen. "The MVP of the first game goes to Zhou, our Zhou God's Barbarian," Guan Zeyuan announced loudly.

“Well deserved, but the other four LGD players also played very well in this game. Their 4-1 split push strategy was executed perfectly, and they didn’t make any mistakes throughout the entire game, which is quite rare,” PDD added.

"Alright, let's take a short break and then bring you the second game of the match!"

After LGD won the first game of the BO5 series, online platforms were buzzing with discussion about the match.

LGD's decisive victory in the first game was incredibly exciting for LPL viewers.

At least, after winning the first game, LGD's chances of winning the match and advancing to the semifinals have greatly increased.

Of course, this only increases hope; many viewers still feel that the current situation is not optimistic enough.

After all, WE's example from yesterday is right before our eyes.

WE played Samsung in a best-of-five series yesterday, and they also crushed Samsung in the first game, with the game lasting even less than the one against LGD just now.

As a result, WE lost the last three games completely and couldn't find any chance to beat Samsung.

WE was able to win a game against Samsung mainly because Samsung allowed Xayah and Rakan to be picked.

LGD's victory in that game was largely due to their draft picks.

At least this brute move really outmaneuvered Khan.

But if Khan picks Jayce again in the second game, Tryndamere will definitely be banned. What should we do then?

This is also a significant difference between playing BO1 and BO5.

In a best-of-one match, try a dirty trick and win if you win.

However, if you win a game with a clever strategy in a best-of-five series, the opponent might ban it for you in the next game.

It's not impossible to win a best-of-five series using strategies, but you need to have a lot of effective strategies.

Generally speaking, this is difficult to do.

From the perspective of the LGD team as a whole, they don't really have that many strategies.

However, Zhou Dian has plenty of ways to deal with Khan.

Guangzhou, the backstage area of ​​the quarterfinals of the 17 World Championship.

Dragon Ball team rest area.

The Dragon Ball team members and coaching staff huddled together, their expressions serious, discussing strategies for the second game of the upcoming BO5 series.

Khan sat alone on the outermost edge, not participating in the discussion, his head down, covering his head, seemingly doing nothing.

It seems like they were stunned by the first game and haven't recovered yet.

At this moment, Dragon Ball's head coach, Kim Jung-joo, known as "Fatty Kim," laboriously turned his large body and patted Khan on the shoulder, who was looking down.

"What are you thinking? It's just one loss. There are still four games left in a best-of-five series. You brat, get your act together!"

Kim Jong-un also knew that Khan had indeed been dealt a bad blow in that round.

He doesn't want a game that's already ended to affect the players' performance in the next game.

Seeing Khan raise his head, Kim continued, "The second game is LGD's turn to choose sides. Based on past matches, they probably won't choose the blue side, which is more advantageous in the draft, but will choose the red side instead."

Khan's eyes darted around, as if he understood what the coach was trying to say.

Kim continued, "If LGD chooses the red side in the second game, do you think Tryndamere should be banned?"

Khan understood what the coach meant; he was being asked if he could handle the Barbarians.

Speaking specifically about facing Tryndamere, Khan can certainly pick a number of heroes to deal with him.

However, Khan knew there was a second meaning behind the coach's words: Can your Jayce really play against Tryndamere?

A hero like Barbarian is definitely not going to be picked first!
However, if LGD chooses the red side in the second game, they can still save their top laner for the last pick.

The World Championship has been going on for more than 20 days, and Jayce is currently a very high priority champion in the top lane.

If your top laner is good at playing Jayce, and Jayce happens to be playing elsewhere, they will almost certainly pick Jayce.

Of course, Jayce is usually banned.

Given the first game, if LGD chooses the red side in the second game, they probably still won't ban Jayce.

Kim's meaning was clearly that if the opponent let Jayce go, they would take him.

However, he didn't want to waste a valuable ban slot on a hero like Tryndamere.

In the first game, Khan played Jayce and got completely destroyed by Tryndamere, possibly because he was caught off guard.

If we encounter this again, being prepared should prevent us from suffering a significant loss.

Khan thought about it for a moment, then shook his head sharply. "No, there's no need to waste a ban slot on Tryndamere."

"I knew it. With your abilities, you've already figured out a way to deal with Tryndamere." Fatty Jin's face lit up with joy.

“No, Coach Kim!” Khan said slowly, “I mean, I don’t want to play Jayce in the second game!”

Upon hearing this, Fatty Jin's expression suddenly froze.

"Why? We can just ban Tryndamere!"

“It’s not something that can be solved by banning Tryndamere.” Khan shook his head again. “Zhou knows Jayce too well. As long as he picks top laner as a last resort, he can definitely pick other champions to counter Jayce besides Tryndamere.”

"I have a very strong feeling that if I pick Jayce first in the next game, even if Tryndamere is banned, the next game will definitely not be much better than the first game."

Seeing the unease and lack of confidence on Khan's face, Kim sighed inwardly.

Aside from those training matches, the two sides have only played one official match together.

The opponent actually managed to make his star top laner lose confidence.

He had already overestimated the threat level of LGD's top laner, but now it seems that this Zhou is even more terrifying than he thought.

"In the second game, if we pick a top laner first, you should pick a tank hero, play it safe and wait for team fights. In the second game, we'll change our strategy and focus on the bottom half of the map!" Fatty Kim said to Khan.

Hearing this, Khan breathed a sigh of relief, and his expression visibly relaxed.

Seeing this, Fatty Jin sighed inwardly.

Kim Jong-un never thought Khan was any less skilled than any other top laner.

But he also understood that Khan's mentality wasn't top-notch enough, and he couldn't withstand the pressure at crucial moments.

This is indeed a major factor limiting Khan's further progress.

However, he also believes that even if Khan's mentality is not top-notch, he is more than capable of playing the top lane in any situation.

There are still some differences between top lane and dual carry.

To put it bluntly, in his view, the top lane position naturally has less influence in the game than the two carries.

Past LCK Summer Split matches, including the previous World Championship group stage, have proven this point.

But today Khan's opponent is no weaker than him in terms of strength, and their mentality is completely different.

This resulted in a huge gap in the two players' influence in the gaming world.

Jin Pangzi studied many of Zhou Dian's match videos, plus that unexpected Barbarian game from just now.

He only wanted to ask one question: "Is this Zhou a monster?"

(End of this chapter)