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

Chapter 449 Something's not right in the top and bottom lanes; Samsung has outmaneuvered us!

In the second round of bans and picks, Samsung even banned the ultimate backup for soft supports – Soraka.

Then LGD can only choose Gem for the support position.

Without much hesitation, LGD secured the gem on the fourth floor of the red side.

LGD knew Samsung wanted them to get the gem, but they had no choice but to pick this support.

Because LGD has no other better support options available.

Or rather, they exist, but they are not in LGD's hero pool.

"Instead of picking Jayce first, they chose to reserve the counter pick for Zhou Shen in the top lane!" Wawa said.

“I think it’s OK!” Miller added, “Since LGD’s support can basically only pick Taric, there’s no need to waste a counter pick. Let’s save it for the top laner.”

"Should Samsung pick Jayce for top lane? CuVee should know how to play Jayce, it just depends on whether he dares to pick him."

"Anyway, Khan got thrashed playing Jayce in front of Zhou Shen!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Samsung locked in Gnar on the fourth floor of the blue team, and then locked in Gragas on the fifth floor.

“Gnar is not easy to deal with. Jayce can fight Gnar, but I realized a problem.”

"what?"

"If we pick Jayce, LGD will basically be a melee team, because although Galio is an AP champion, his damage is very low."

"There are indeed issues in this regard; it depends on what LGD thinks about it!"

When it came to the final top lane pick, Zhou Dian actually preferred Jayce.

While this might make laning more comfortable for oneself, it also creates the problem of a "melee team" (players focused on physical damage dealing) which is somewhat irresponsible to the team.

Head coach Dgc wants to acquire Rumble.

In this game alone, Rumble is indeed a more reliable top laner choice, performs better in team fights, and has a higher theoretical win rate.

Moreover, in the first game of LGD's match against Samsung today, they let Zhou Dian play top lane by himself, focusing on the mid and jungle and then driving the side lanes, and won quite easily.

Continuing to play this way is not necessarily a bad thing.

Zhou Dian decided to pick Rumble in the top lane for this game.

The discussion between the coach and the player didn't last long. With only ten seconds left in the selection countdown, PYL locked in Rumble on the fifth floor of the red team.

"Rambo! Yes, yes!" Miller nodded repeatedly.

"Both sides should be quite satisfied with this lineup; they both got a good one."

"LGD's lineup in this game was one of the best among the remaining heroes."

The doll continued, "I think the only thing that might be a little regrettable is that everyone still didn't get to see Zhou Shen's Jayce today."

"But to be fair, Rambo is definitely a better choice than Jess in this game."

"This game is also one of the rare instances in this World Championship where Jayce was allowed to be played but neither side picked it!"

The final minute of the loading countdown ended, and the game arrived at the loading screen.

Both head coaches took off their headphones, walked towards the center of the stage, shook hands, and then entered the players' tunnel.

As soon as Dgc left, Zhou Dian regretted it a little.

Since we've already chosen Rambo, there's actually an even better option for this game.

That's Kennan!
Anyway, if you pick a champion like Kennen or Rumble, there's a high chance you'll get ganked by the enemy team.

However, at least Kennen has longer legs than Rambo and runs faster.

Furthermore, Kennen's laning ability is also stronger.

The greater the advantage in the laning phase, the more it helps alleviate the pressure of being ganked.

However, Dgc, as the head coach, has different considerations.

He doesn't play in matches, so he doesn't have a deep understanding of the pressure in lane; he's more focused on the overall game.

In his opinion, Rumble has a shorter development cycle and is less susceptible to Flash compared to Kennen, which makes him more needed in LGD's lineup in this game.

Zhou Dian was led astray by Dgc.

He was so focused on choosing between Jayce and Rumble that he overlooked Kennen.

Neither of their ideas were wrong, but from Zhou Dian's own perspective and his intuition as a top laner, he felt that Kennen was better in this game.

I haven't considered things comprehensively enough!
Ultimately, the decision on which champion to choose for LGD's top laner rests with Zhou Dian.

Even if he had insisted on playing Jayce in this game, Dgc would have agreed.

But all of this is hindsight; Rambo is a great choice, just have fun.

During the brief wait for the game to load, the live stream camera panned across the audience, who erupted in continuous cheers for LGD.

After loading, all ten heroes from both sides entered Summoner's Rift.

The second game of the best-of-five semifinal series between LGD and Samsung in S7 has officially begun.

Blue team Samsung:
Top lane Gnar, jungle Gragas, mid lane Malzahar, bot lane Varus and Janna.

Red team LGD:

Top lane Rumble, jungle Jarvan IV, mid lane Galio, bot lane Twitch and Taric.

Ten heroes emerged from the fountains at both ends of Summoner's Rift and quickly dispersed.

"Many viewers may be wondering what our thoughts are now?"

As soon as the game started, the content from the doll's mouth hadn't yet been incorporated into the game itself.

He continued, "We don't have any specific plans right now, we just hope LGD plays well in every game!"

That's what they say, but it's really just a lie.

Yesterday, after RNG was eliminated in the semifinals, just half an hour ago, LGD, the only LPL team still in this World Championship, won the first game of the semifinals with overwhelming force.

From players and staff to commentators and ordinary viewers, most of them are probably already imagining the scenario of LPL teams entering the S7 finals.

Doll and Miller were no exception.

How difficult it is to truly let go of all irrelevant thoughts!
Back to the game.

Following the previous game where Anzhangmen gave up first blood in a level 1 team fight, causing a major collapse in his momentum.

Both sides behaved themselves in this game, and neither dared to recklessly group up and invade the other's jungle.

Both sides positioned themselves with their backs to their own jungle, lined up along the river – the safest defensive stance at the start of the game.

"I'm not too worried about Zhou Shen's ability to withstand pressure against Gnar in the top lane," Wawa said. "Shen did an excellent job of withstanding pressure in the last game!"

"However, it is very rare for Zhou to have to withstand pressure in the top lane for two consecutive games in LGD's matches."

"Actually, the key to Rumble versus Gnar is vision. As long as Rumble doesn't get caught out, he'll be fine. The real problem is getting caught out!" Miller added.

"As for Zhou Shen's continuous pressure, as long as the team can win, I think he should be happy to do so."

Zhou Dian was certainly happy to do so; otherwise, he wouldn't have pulled out a Doran's Shield.

This kind of thing was extremely rare to see on him in the past.

Two games have already been played today.

On the other hand, the opposing Gnar also started with Doran's Shield this game.

On the surface, Cuvee building a Doran's Shield doesn't seem to indicate he has much ambition for his Rumble.

But that's not actually the case; there's a reason why Gnar would start with Doran's Shield.

Although Gnar has a long reach, it's not too long, making him vulnerable to being caught and attacked by Rumble in the front.

If Gnar starts with a Doran's Blade, and Rumble manages to get a chance to reduce Gnar's health, then Rumble will be able to pressure Gnar. Zhou Dian usually plays Rumble in ranked games and when he encounters Gnar, if Gnar starts with a Doran's Blade, he can basically crush them all.

However, Gnar building Doran's Shield is different.

Rumble's early-game damage wasn't enough to bring down Doran's Aegis Gnar's health.

As long as Gnar can maintain his health, his advantage of having a longer range than Rumble can continue to be utilized.

Just by hitting hard, one attack at a time, you can put pressure on Rambo.

It doesn't matter if Doran's Blade has a few points of attack power; it's all about taking it slow and steady.

Just looking at the starting items, Culling in the previous game and Doran's Shield in this game, it's clear that Cuvee has a pretty good understanding of the game.

As for the other players, Wei Shen seems to have gained confidence from the last game, as he started with a Killing Ring again for Galio in this game.

Zhou Dian got a Doran's Shield in the first two games, while Wei Shen got a Kill Ring in the first two games.

The "inflation" index of starting items for solo laners has been conserved.

If one becomes cowardly, the other will inevitably become arrogant!
Both AD carries started with Relic Shield, returning to the Ardent Censer meta, which is the most common starting item for ADCs in the bot lane.

This strategy, known as "Able the A-Walking Monster," was first developed in the Korean server after the Ardent Censer received a major buff.

With ADCs starting with Relic Shield and two support items, enchanter supports can rush Ardent Censer much earlier.

Then the ADC just kept shooting randomly.

In a sense, this version of ADC is more like a support for a support role.

When Able first developed this strategy, he dominated high-elo Korean players, leading many to accuse him of using a script.

In the previous game, the reason why both ADCs started with the normal Doran's set items was mainly because LGD's bot lane picked Xayah and Rakan.

If you get the Xayah and Rakan combo, you're definitely going to try and dominate the laning phase.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste?

That's why imp chose to start with a Doran's Blade, maximizing the oppressive power of Xayah and Rakan.

Ruler knew that facing the Xayah and Rakan combo would be too much of a challenge, and fearing that Relic Shield wouldn't be enough to withstand the pressure, he opted for Doran's Shield as his starting item.

The two ADCs on both sides of this game, Varus and Twitch, are both heroes whose performance changes dramatically after the support gets Ardent Censer, so naturally they both started with support items.

A little over a minute into the game, imp's Twitch activated his Q to become invisible, crossed the lower river, and wandered around between the three-star red buff and the F6 camp.

In this open area of ​​the jungle, only Janna was standing there, so Twitch came out and poked Janna twice.

As soon as the rat raised its hand, Janna shielded herself, and the amount of health lost was negligible.

It's clear that Samsung's support player CoreJJ is currently in excellent form.

However, in this area, Samsung only has Janna in position.

LGD's mid, bot, and support immediately grouped up and entered Samsung's jungle. Then PYL placed the trinket ward on Taric into Samsung's red buff camp.

It's still necessary to keep an eye on where Master An started his expansion.

At 1 minute and 40 seconds into the game, the buff monsters spawn.

Both junglers opted to start with the buff in the upper jungle, with the top laner helping to clear the jungle.

Both teams went straight to the bottom lane.

However, on Samsung's side, Varus and Janna started pushing the lane right away.

LGD's bot lane duo of Twitch and Taric could only watch helplessly as Samsung's bot lane duo pushed the lane.

The rat only managed to land one last hit before being hammered and losing a third of its health.

This bot lane duo is too difficult to lane against; their early game strength is on a completely different level from Samsung's bot lane.

The scariest thing is that its late-game strength isn't necessarily comparable to that of Varus and Janna.

PYL already sensed it as soon as they went online.

I've really ruined my chances with this gem.

We've fallen for Samsung's trap!
They're focusing too much on team fights.

Gem is indeed very strong in team fights, but if you can't even survive the laning phase, there's no room for you to make a difference in team fights.

Samsung's Gem in the last game is a case in point.

The economic gap is too large, so Gem's ultimate ability is completely ineffective, and teammates who initiate the attack can't even wait for Gem's ultimate to land.

Before the second wave of minions even arrived in the bottom lane, Samsung's bottom lane duo had already pushed the minion wave all the way to LGD's bottom tower.

This is so uncomfortable!
"I really should have picked a support who's strong in lane; it's okay if their impact in team fights is smaller," PYL thought.

On the other side, Eimy's Prince went straight to his own bottom jungle after taking down the red buff.

However, without killing any jungle monsters, they entered the lower river through the narrow passage behind the blue buff.

The prince then moved forward, entering Samsung's lower jungle and reaching Samsung's F6 camp.

At the narrow pass where the prince just entered the Samsung jungle, there was a ward left by Malzahar before he came online, and it hasn't disappeared yet.

Samsung has discovered that the prince has entered their jungle.

Eimy dared to enter Samsung's jungle because Malzahar couldn't push Galio away earlier.

At this moment in the mid lane, Wei Shen had already pushed the minion wave to the front of the three-star mid tower, ready to support Prince at any time.

The mid-jungle duo of Prince Galio is not afraid of three-star teams in 2v2 situations.

However, after CoreJJ discovered that the Prince had entered his own jungle, the level 1 Janna immediately left the bottom lane and rushed up the river.

The reason Janna was able to move was that the first wave of minions in the bottom lane went into LGD's tower.

At this point, Janna leaves the bottom lane, so she doesn't need to worry about Varus's safety, nor will she lose much experience.

It was a wave of movement that came at no cost.

When Eimy's Prince reached the front of the 3-star F6 camp, Gragas, who had finished clearing the blue buff and the three wolves, had already walked into the bush next to the F6 camp.

Eimy placed a ward and saw Gragas in the bush, and then Jarvan IV took two of Gragas's abilities.

Just as Eimy was having the idea to counterattack, PYL was already yelling "Janna is going!" in the LGD team voice chat.

It's a two-on-three situation, especially in the enemy's jungle; they definitely can't win.

Eimy decided to return to where he was, and the prince used a double EQ combo to retreat to the narrow pass by the river, where he ran into Janna.

This came way too fast!

Eimy complained incessantly.

He quickly changed direction and steered the prince down.

Fortunately, there was an explosive fruit behind the small dragon pit, and the prince quickly stepped on the explosive fruit and bounced into the small dragon pit.

The Gragas didn't learn his E skill in the first two levels, so he couldn't keep the Prince in place and could only watch helplessly as the Prince escaped.

Enraged, Master An immediately used Rolling Barrel (Q) to throw the dragon into the pit, waking it up.

The prince, who had just walked up to the little dragon, was instead pushed out of the dragon pit by the startled dragon.

Gragas's Q was tantamount to sending the prince on his way.

The first dragon in this game was an earth dragon.

The prince, who was at half health when he entered the dragon pit, was nearly killed by the earth dragon's breath attack.

The Earth Dragon truly lives up to its reputation as the dragon with the highest attack power among all elemental dragons.

The prince ran back to his own jungle and started farming the blue buff.

(End of this chapter)