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

Chapter 431 Level 1 Tower Dive: Darius's IQ Drops by 100% After Bloodrage?

The hallucinogen stopped talking.

Right now, the audience is cheering for Darius's appearance.

He couldn't very well play the "rational neutral" role and spoil everyone's fun.

As for how effective this Darius pick will be, we'll find out soon enough!

After both sides had chosen their opponents, the live stream camera switched and focused on Khan's face.

The director of this broadcast also likes to stir things up.

Upon realizing he was about to face Darius in lane with Maokai, Khan's expression was filled with a faint sadness.

To put it simply, it's an expression that looks like someone is constipated.

Before even starting the game, I was already wearing the mask of pain.

At this moment, the two coaches had not yet come off the stage to shake hands; they were making their final instructions before leaving the stage.

When Dragon Ball coach Kim Jung-soo saw the "pain mask" on Khan's face, he tentatively asked, "How about we switch Ueno?"

Before Khan could speak, jungler Cuzz shook his head repeatedly, "I can't play, I can't play Maokai jungle!"

Khan was clearly still rational. He shook his head and said, "Even if I play Jarvan IV top lane, I still can't beat Darius. If I don't switch, I'll suffer. If I switch, both of us will suffer. Let me suffer alone in the top lane!"

Upon hearing Khan's words, Kim nodded.

"That's settled then, Donghe. Just stay calm this game, our team fights will be easy."

Although Kim Jong-un's methods are often criticized, his skill level is at least better than some LPL coaches who only know how to order takeout.

He also knew that the intensity of the fight in the upper jungle was not on the same level as that of LGD's Darius and Sejuani top and jungle.

If the top and jungle heroes were swapped, it would only ruin the jungler's game as well.

He just had his old habit of being sarcastic and asked a question offhand.

After speaking, Jin Zhu took off his noise-canceling headphones, walked towards the center of the stage, shook hands with Dgc, and then his large body swayed as he entered the contestant tunnel.

The game screen on the big screen at the venue also showed the loading screen.

In the commentary box.

The moment the loading screen appeared on the big screen, PDD chuckled, "I saw it! Darius switched from Teleport to Ghost at the last minute. Khan's Maokai is going to be in big trouble, really badly!"

Sao Zhu's weird laugh was so "infectious" that Guan Zeyuan also chuckled and said, "The camera just now focused on Khan, and he looked like he was in a lot of pain."

"Hehe, how could it not be painful? Just thinking about this top lane matchup makes my scalp tingle, let alone the person he's going up to fight," PDD said.

When the director just focused on Khan, he saw not only the commentators and audience at the scene, but also the millions of online viewers in the official live broadcast room.

Immediately, the official live stream chat room was flooded with comments.

【Wait, how is this Maokai supposed to fight Darius?!】

My conclusion is, it's unwinnable!

[It's already 15 PM, this top lane is unplayable. Surrender now and end the agony!]

[Those who like to play champions like Maokai (a champion that doesn't contribute much to the team's performance) should be taught a lesson with Darius!]

[Look at your face! That's how Darius is!]

[So impatient? You must get wrecked by Darius a lot, right?]

[So fond of fantasizing? That's Darius for you!]

[I'm fantasizing? Let's have a one-on-one fight! Let's see who's just daydreaming!]

[I'm getting anxious, Darius is like this!]

[Your mother XXXXXX]

【.】

The topic in the comments section quickly veered off course and started arguing for no apparent reason.

Of course, this is the norm in any live stream with a large audience.

After a while, the loading screen will finish, and the match will officially begin normally.

"Alright, everyone, the second game of the quarterfinal BO5 between Longzhu and LGD in the S7 World Championship has officially begun!"

As Guan Zeyuan finished speaking, the loading screen ended, and the ten heroes from both sides entered Summoner's Rift.

Blue Dragon Ball:
Top lane Maokai, jungle Jarvan IV, mid lane Orianna, bot lane Varus and Lulu.

Red team LGD:

Top lane Darius, jungle Sejuani, mid lane Taliyah, bot lane Tristana and Taric.

Upon entering the game, the five Dragon Ball players lined up along the river, setting up their defensive positions at the start.

On LGD's side, Darius positioned himself between his own F6 and red buff to defend, while the other four players grouped up and invaded Longzhu's lower jungle.

However, Pray was quite alert, and Varus, who was originally standing in the blue side's bottom lane tri-bush, quickly retreated.

If they retreat even a little too slowly, they will be caught by LGD's mid, bottom, jungle, and support players.

The four LGD players strolled around the red zone of Dragon Ball.

However, there was no intention to forcibly reverse the Dragon Ball red buff; a trinket ward was left at the Dragon Ball red buff location before leaving.

Next, the keystone talents of both sides appeared at the bottom of the big screen.

"Alright, let's take a look at the foundational talents of both sides. They're both pretty standard!" Guan Zeyuan said.

"The only difference is between the top laners. Maokai didn't take Grasp of the Undying, but instead chose Courage of the Colossus."

PDD chimed in, "The Undying Grasp on Maokai is useless; he simply doesn't dare to go up and attack the Undying Grasp!"

"Let's look at Darius's side. Zhou Shen is using Fervor of Battle in this game. It seems like many Darius players in solo queue use Wind Rider?" Guan Zeyuan continued.

“Wind Riders are purely a noob-stomping playstyle; their lane dominance isn’t strong enough,” PDD immediately said.

"Zhou Shen has already brought Sprint this game, and with the addition of Fervor of Battle, Maokai definitely won't dare to move an inch in lane. If he gets caught, he'll get a brutal beating."

PDD seemed to be in high spirits and continued, "Look at Zhou Shen, he didn't even choose the classic Long Sword and Green Bottle as his starting items. He started with a Doran's Blade. The meaning is very clear!"

"That means Maokai won't be able to farm in the laning phase this game. With that Doran's Blade, it's clear he's going to take on two opponents at once. If your Jarvan IV comes to gank, he'll take you down too!"

"Zeyuan, let's make a bet!"

"What bet?"

"Let's bet on how many CS the top laner will gain in the first ten minutes. Whoever guesses closest wins, and the loser treats us to dinner after the game."

"I bet Zhou Shen will get at least thirty CS in ten minutes!"

By saying this, Guan Zeyuan was clearly acknowledging PDD's bet.

A 30-CS lead in a single lane within ten minutes is quite impressive in professional matches.

Moreover, this is the quarterfinals of the S-series.

PDD chuckled and said, "Zeyuan, you've definitely lost. I bet at least fifty dollars."

Seeing that the conversation between the two seemed to be getting more and more like a comedy routine, Zhihuan quickly changed the subject and brought the two back to the game itself.

Wild monsters refresh.

Cuzz's Jarvan IV started with the red buff, with his bot lane duo helping him clear the jungle.

Logically, since their top laner is Maokai, the jungler should be farming from top to bottom to protect the bot lane carry.

However, considering Khan's disastrous tower dive in the previous game, and the fact that Khan is facing a severely disadvantaged top lane matchup this game, Cuzz could only farm from the bottom up, hoping to protect the top laner in the early game.

Eimy's Sejuani started with the F6 camp, while the mid-laner Taliyah helped with the jungle clearing.

Wei Shen's Taliyah brought Teleport in this game, making up for the fact that Darius in the top lane didn't bring Teleport.

In this game, BDD chose a Flash and Cleanse build for his mid-lane Orianna because he was wary of Sejuani's ganks.

Therefore, Taliyah doesn't face much laning pressure with Teleport.

In the bottom lane, since they didn't need to help the jungler clear the jungle, LGD's bottom lane duo didn't hide and went to lane early to secure the lane.

Seeing that Tristana and Taric were showing up in the bottom lane and Taliyah's mana was not full, Longzhu realized that Sejuani had started with the F6 camp.

Khan breathed a sigh of relief upon learning this news.

Since the pig girl was farming from top to bottom, the first few minutes of the game, which were usually the most difficult for him, weren't so hard to get through.

On the top lane, the first wave of minions converged.

Zhou Dian's Darius did not cross the minion wave to the front bush to suppress Maokai, but instead stood normally in the middle.

Khan believes this is likely due to fear of the prince's early-game ganks.

Because pushing past the enemy's lane and pressuring them will easily cause the minion wave to push forward.

Prince starts by farming upwards, while Sejuani starts by farming downwards, so it's reasonable that Darius wouldn't dare to push the lane.

This made Khan breathe a sigh of relief.

It seems Darius didn't dare to go all out in the first few minutes?
With that slight lapse in concentration, Khan inexplicably learned the Q skill at level one, instead of the E skill to throw saplings.

Khan mainly wanted to finish off a few more enemies.

Throwing saplings at the minion wave from a large tree to farm last hits makes it easier to push the minion wave forward.

Darius is wary of ganks and dares not push the lane, so Maokai is even less likely to push the lane.

After the top lane minions met, neither of the top laners immediately went forward to attack the minions.

Instead, they wait for the minions to attack each other and naturally lose health.

After both sides' front-line minions were left with low health, Zhou Dian controlled Darius to move forward and auto-attack three of the blue team's low-health front-line minions.

Khan was quite patient.

After Darius finished off his own three front-line minions, the red team's three front-line minions were left with only a sliver of health. Only then did he control Maokai to move forward and use Thorn Smash (Q) to barely finish off the three front-line minions.

The timing was perfect; any slower and all three of the red team's front-line troops would have been dead, and none of them would have been able to be picked off.

As soon as Maokai used his Q skill, Khan didn't even look at the result before immediately maneuvering Maokai to turn around and retreat.

Maokai against Darius, he got three last hits right away, it was an absolutely perfect start!
Just after the tree's Q skill was used, Khan suddenly heard a strange noise in his headphones.

He recognized the sound all too well; it was the sound effect when sprinting was activated.

Darius's movement speed increased dramatically, and he lunged towards the tree!

What the hell?
I only managed to land a few hits before you used Sprint to attack me?
Khan was startled and quickly retreated.

However, since the distance between the two wasn't far to begin with, and they were trying to finish off the three minions, Darius quickly closed in.

The observers reacted quickly, immediately switching the camera to the top lane after Darius activated Ghost.

"Hey, what's going on? He's using Sprint at level one and chasing after me to attack? I saw this in the last game!" PDD shouted from the commentary booth.

"At this distance, it feels like we're about to be hit by a flash of lightning."

The tree was caught up by Darius when it was still a few steps away from its own defensive turret.

Darius swung his axe at the tree, and Khan didn't dare to fight back. The tree kept running towards the tower.

Darius was about to chop down the tree again with his axe.

This is where a psychological game comes in.

Darius definitely can't kill the tree this time.

However, if Darius triggers Bloodrage at level 1, the health loss will be too great, and how can you continue the laning phase?
Most importantly, Khan then remembered his Jayce from the previous game, where he was brutally killed by Tryndamere at level one and subsequently suffered a tower dive.

The thought of being hit by Darius's Bloodrage and trembling under the tower with half health, followed by the terrifying scene of the enemy Sejuani appearing from behind the tower, is unbearable.

Khan was terrified!

The tree has already been hit by Darius's auto-attack. Judging from Darius's all-out attack stance, he must have learned Crippling Strike (W) at level one.

If Darius lands another AW, and you're severely slowed down, it'll be too late to flash. You'll definitely be chased down and auto-attacked until you're about to bleed.

Looks like I can't hold on with my Flash!
All I can say is that Darius's timing was incredibly precise; his ability to seize opportunities is just too strong.

Various thoughts flashed through my mind, but only a very short time had passed in the game.

Darius's second auto-attack landed on Maokai.

The moment the basic attack landed on the tree, a flash of yellow light appeared, and the tree used Flash to create distance.

Flash was used very quickly. Even if Darius could reset his auto-attack with an auto-attack followed by W, the pre-cast animation of Crippling Strike (W) is quite long, so he definitely wouldn't be able to follow up.

"Wow, those two slashes scared the tree into using Flash. This trade of Sprint for Flash is a win!" PDD exclaimed.

Everyone shared PDD's thought at that moment: after using Sprint to trade for Flash, this wave was over.

But Zhou Dian even used sprint, so once he makes a move, he won't just stop there!
He hasn't learned any skills yet in this game with Darius.

The moment the tree flashed away, Zhou Dian instantly learned the E skill, Ruthless Iron Hand.

Khan reacted quickly. As soon as the tree flashed away, he noticed that Darius did not have the skill effect after activating the W skill, and he immediately felt that something was wrong.

But the tree has already been handed over, and Khan is powerless to do anything about what happens next.

So, he teleported to the edge of the turret's range and was about to step into the tree under the turret when a large axe reached out from behind him and pulled him back.

It was Darius's merciless iron hand!
"He actually learned E at level one! If Da Shu is pulled back, he's going to be in big trouble!" PDD exclaimed in surprise.

After learning level 1 E, Darius's passive skill grants him 15% armor penetration, making his axes hurt more when they hit trees.

Khan had no choice but to continue maneuvering the tree down the tower.

The tree was not far from the tower, but it was slowed down for one second after being pulled back.

I probably won't die this time, but I'll definitely lose a lot of health from the Blood Rage.

Sure enough, just as the tree reached its own top tower again, Darius managed to trigger Bloodrage.

However, the next moment, the tree, with less than half its health remaining, stepped into the range of the defensive tower.

The slight sense of security that Khan had just felt vanished the moment he saw Darius follow the tree into the upper tower of Dragon Ball.

This guy's gone mad! He's gone mad!
Is this a forced replacement?

is it necessary?

Khan quickly knocked the blood vial off the tree and simultaneously manipulated the tree to run forward as fast as he could.

Running away is definitely out of the question; Darius's Ghost effect is still active.

After Bloodrage is activated, Darius's damage increases dramatically, and a single auto-attack can take away a significant portion of Maokai's health.

"What do you mean by that? Darius just unleashed Bloodrage!" PDD exclaimed. "Holy crap, he chased him all the way into the tower!"

"Huh? Still chasing him?!" Guan Zeyuan was dumbfounded. "Does Darius's IQ really drop by 100% after Bloodrage? Even Zhou Shen is no exception?"

(End of this chapter)