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

Chapter 483 Who exactly is the LCK team?!
Zhou Dian pressed the Tab key to check the current equipment of both sides.

It was discovered that Faker's Cassiopeia had built a Quicksilver Sash.

Zhou Dian felt much more at ease now, feeling that his chances of winning this game had increased even more.

The Mercury Belt for the Snake Woman was released a bit too hastily.

The Mercury Belt was released before the Time Staff was even completed, which severely slowed down the development of the Time Staff.

The Staff of Time is the most powerful item you get the earlier you acquire it.

It seems Faker is eager to turn the tide in his one-on-one match against Malzahar.

But it didn't help at all!

You produced the mercury ribbon?
Okay, then I won't criticize you.

You still have four teammates, and none of them have gotten Mercury's Treads yet.

At 14 minutes and 50 seconds into the game, LGD pushed the mid and bottom lanes again, and Eimy's Zac started to fight the Rift Herald.

SKT was held back by the minion wave, and LGD successfully secured the Rift Herald.

Meanwhile, Zhou Dian also went home and made cloth armor shoes and tattered armor.

After AD Kennen gets his Blade of the Ruined King, if he meets Gnar again, Gnar will likely suffer greatly.

Huni saw that Kennen had acquired Blade of the Ruined King and didn't dare to approach him. Before he had even finished pushing the minion wave, he ran away as soon as he saw Kennen coming.

As Gnar fled, Zhou Dian controlled Kennen to give chase.

They chased Gnar all the way to the vicinity of the second turret in the top lane before turning back to clear the wave.

The reason Zhou Dian dared to chase so deep was because Zac had already released the Rift Herald in the mid lane, and the rest of SKT were defending in the mid lane. At this time, no one would come to support Gnar.

The Rift Herald charged in, and imp's Xayah followed up with two more auto-attacks. SKT's mid-lane tower, which was only at half health, was taken down by LGD.

In the commentary box.

"LGD's operation in this game was perfect, without a single flaw!" Miller exclaimed.

"Yes, the current LGD feels very different from the LGD during the group stage a month ago." PDD nodded.

"When the S-series first started, LGD often relied on fighting to open up the game, but now their strategy feels almost flawless."

There's a saying that's true: the S-series is all about how well each team can learn and improve.

One very important aspect of this is the communication between teams from different regions.

This communication channel mostly consists of training matches.

Although LGD has played against all three LCK teams participating in this World Championship, they did so at different stages of the S-series.

Therefore, LGD has played many scrimmages with LCK teams.

I did learn a lot.

Including playing scrims with teams from Europe and North America, we also learned some of their ever-evolving player selection strategies.

On the contrary, the scrims with LPL teams didn't yield much benefit.

The main reason is that everyone is quite familiar with each other, having played against each other too many times in the league.

Especially the scrims against RNG before the semifinals, he was basically just there to be RNG's practice partner.

How does RNG play games?

That's something you could guess even with your eyes closed.

They'll just stick to playing against Uzi. What can they possibly gain from training with them?

However, RNG had no choice; the other players were unreliable, so they could only rely on Uzi to carry.

Besides, what if you don't play around Uz's team?

Then everyone should stop playing!
Getting back to the main topic, let's return to the game.

The situation on the field remained "stable," and no first blood had yet been drawn.

After LGD released the Rift Herald and destroyed SKT's mid-lane tower, they left their bot lane duo in the mid-lane, while Malzahar moved to the bot lane to push the lane.

Following the same old strategy, after gaining minion wave advantage in the mid and bottom lanes and vision advantage in the lower river, Zac took the lead in taking the dragon.

This is a calculated move; SKT knows what you're doing, but there's nothing they can do to stop you.

At 17 minutes and 25 seconds into the game, Zac soloed the Earth Dragon.

LGD secured their second dragon of the game, bringing their total to two Earth Dragons.

In the commentary box.

"Great job! LGD has taken the Earth Dragon again!" Miller exclaimed.

“SKT can’t get here at all, there’s no vision at all. With LGD having two Earth Dragons, SKT will be under a lot of pressure at Baron!” PDD added.

“Indeed, the pressure from the grasshopper is immense when there’s no one in sight,” Ji De said.

"Right now, only the Cassiopeia has the Mercury Belt. If anyone else gets hit by the grasshopper's R, they're basically done for."

Miller continued, "Although LGD's economic advantage is still only a little over 2,000 gold, their advantage in this game is already quite significant, and this situation will be very difficult for SKT to win."

SKT's difficulty lies not only in the current situation, but also in the next dragon, which is an earth dragon!

If LGD gets the three Earth Dragons, then the game is over, SKT can just give up.

The three earth dragons provide an extremely exaggerated boost to jungle clearing speed.

Not to mention that LGD essentially had two marksmen in this game.

If LGD had three Earth Dragons, they could take down Baron Nashor right under SKT's nose, as long as SKT was five steps away from the Baron pit.

Therefore, SKT must fight for the next dragon; they can't let it slip away again.

However, with SKT's lineup, without the equipment advantage derived from an economic advantage, they are likely to lose to LGD in team fights right now.

After taking down the second Earth Dragon, LGD moved their bot lane duo to the top lane and pushed down SKT's top tower, which was already below half health.

Upon seeing Xayah and Janna appear in the top lane, Peanut immediately entered LGD's bottom jungle and stole LGD's red buff.

For LGD, it's just a red buff, so they'll just give it to them!

Anyway, there's no fighting right now, so it doesn't matter whether there's a red buff or not. A red buff isn't worth as much as a turret.

Peanut's Gragas continued to linger in LGD's lower jungle after stealing LGD's red buff.

The purpose was to cover Cassiopeia, who was pushing down LGD's bottom tower.

However, since LGD's first tower has relatively good health, Cassiopeia cannot push down the tower with just the wave of red minions under the tower at this moment.

We have to wait for the next wave of minions to arrive before we can push through and destroy it.

At this time, LGD demonstrated extremely precise operational capabilities.

Malzahar was defending the mid lane alone. Facing the push from SKT's bot lane duo, Malzahar's wave clear ability was more than enough for him to defend alone.

Xayah and Janna, who had just destroyed SKT's top tower, showed no intention of retreating and pushed towards SKT's second top tower with the blue team's minion wave.

Eimy's Zac headed straight for the top lane, his goal being to cover his bot lane duo.

Zhou Dian's Kennen simply stayed inside his own bottom second tower, showing no intention of going out, let alone defending the bottom tower.

Zhou Dian stayed in the back, watching the Cassiopeia tower.

This choice was undoubtedly the right one!

On the surface, only Cassiopeia is pushing the tower, but Gragas is constantly lingering nearby. If Kennen goes up to defend the tower, he will inevitably be tower-dived by LGD's mid and jungle.

Even with his back to the turret, an AD Kennen without magic resistance would struggle to withstand the combined onslaught of Cassiopeia and Gragas, leaving him with virtually no chance to make any plays.

After all, this game wasn't about playing champions like Fiora or Camille.

Thus, the situation became one where LGD's bot lane duo destroyed SKT's second top turret, while SKT's mid laner destroyed LGD's bottom turret. Both top laners could only watch from the back, unable to go forward to defend their turrets.

SKT originally thought that Xayah and Janna would retreat after pushing down their second top turret.

Then Cassiopeia can continue to take down LGD's next tower in the bottom lane, thus gaining a tower advantage.

However, after Xayah and Janna pushed down SKT's second top tower, reducing its health by more than half, they did not retreat but waited outside the tower for the next wave of minions to arrive.

The intention is obvious: to take down your second tower in one fell swoop.

On SKT's side, the bot lane duo hurriedly recalled to base and headed towards the top lane.

Just as Varus and Lulu stepped off the top lane inhibitor, LGD's mid and jungle players had already arrived at the top lane.

Meanwhile, LGD's minion wave reached SKT's top second tower.

This defensive tower is definitely not going to hold.

Taking advantage of their numerical superiority and the absence of SKT's crucial mid and jungle players, LGD forcefully took down SKT's second top tower before retreating.

When SKT's second top turret exploded, Cassiopeia finally took down LGD's bottom turret in the bottom lane.

For both sides, this lane swap operation can be seen as offsetting the loss of the top and bottom lane towers.

Ultimately, LGD traded a red buff for SKT's second top lane turret.

SKT really lost out!
Peanut never expected that by taking advantage of the large number of teammates around him to steal a red buff, he would end up stealing his own second top tower.

For a moment, Peanut was a little confused.

With this level of operational capability, who the hell is the real LCK team?!
But actually, there's nothing wrong with him opposing LGD's red buff.

The mistake was that after stealing the red buff, they just loitered around the area, thinking they could ambush Kennen who was defending the next tower.

As a result, naturally, he squatted there for nothing!

With this kind of passive waiting strategy, how could Zhou Dian possibly blindly rush headlong into something?

Could it be that they misjudged Letme during the semi-finals?
After Peanut finishes countering the red buff, he should immediately go help Faker's Cassiopeia push the tower, take down LGD's next tower as soon as possible, and then the two of them should recall to the top lane.

If LGD insists on pushing SKT's top second tower, then SKT will actually have a numerical advantage, as Gragas can mindlessly keep enemies in place.

Going shopping there won't work!

In the commentary box.

"It feels like SKT has fallen into LGD's rhythm this game!" Miller said.

"If LGD continues to avoid fights like this, SKT will have a very difficult time in the late game!"

"Yes, what does LGD want right now?"

Remember to ask and answer your own question: "After I destroyed your top lane second tower and lit up your entire red buff area, Baron Nashor has already spawned. LGD is trying to subdue their enemy without a fight!"

"Use your vision and the advantage you've built up with the Earth Dragon to secure this Baron Nashor."

“Indeed, LGD’s jungler and support did an excellent job in terms of vision control in this game!” PDD added.

Miller nodded. "It feels like LGD has made a huge improvement in vision control since the semi-final against Samsung!"

"LGD's vision control strategy can be summed up in one word—money talks!" PDD continued. "It emphasizes not caring about the cost; we buy control wards however we want!"

"It's actually pretty scary. Everyone gets two Control Wards when they go home. Look, Zach has two more Control Wards on him!"

"Samsung's strategy of buying up so many wards is really effective, but now they're ours, hehe~~"

PDD finished his sentence with his signature weird laugh, which sounded a bit like a pig squeal.

At this moment, the number of true sight wards on both sides' equipment screens showed an extremely exaggerated contrast.

8 versus 2.

LGD has 8, SKT has 2.

All five SKT players were now fully equipped!

Of course, it's a bunch of random pieces filling up the equipment slots with god-tier gear.

The reusable potions on all five people were still there, taking up one inventory slot.

What Bang had on him wasn't a reusable potion, but a blood vial.

It should still be the health potion you bought when you left the game.

On LGD's side, apart from the support Janna, everyone else had already sold their health potions.

At this point, each person has extra slots with real wards.

Although it was just a trivial detail, it reflected the importance both sides placed on vision.

In fact, investing in real money is a very cost-effective thing.

For example, with 1,000 yuan, you can buy more than a dozen true sight wards.

On average, each person gets three more true sight wards, which could potentially help them regain a significant amount of vision.

As for buying equipment, with 200 yuan per person out of 1,000 yuan, it's not enough to buy anything.

Unless you're hoarding critical items like Endless Edge or the Hat.

Otherwise, buying real eyes is definitely the most cost-effective investment.

However, those players in casual games who buy a control ward but don't place it for ages, and then sell it at a loss, are investment geniuses, so we won't discuss them.

Of course, SKT has been trying to find solutions despite their disadvantage.

They were well aware that their disadvantages were not significant.

If we seize just one opportunity, we can completely turn the situation around.

On the surface, things seemed calm, with no first blood yet after just over 20 minutes, but in reality, both sides were walking a tightrope, and one wrong step could send them plummeting into an abyss.

But at this point, the top laner, who seemed to have been detached from the overall game, began to have a significant impact on the situation.

Because the strength of the single-target burst damage was not up to par, Zhou Dian's AD Kennen started to give SKT a headache.

A little over 23 minutes into the game, LGD's four players made their first attempt to take down Baron Nashor.

Of course, this time they only fought for less than two seconds before retreating.

Even though SKT's players hadn't arrived at the Baron pit yet.

I wouldn't take even the slightest risk; if I'm going to play, I'm going to play it safe!

The LGD players who left the Dragon Pit did not walk out of the river.

Only imp's Xayah came to the mid lane and cleared the minion wave.

Just as Xayah cleared the mid lane minion wave, LGD's mid and jungle duo turned around and started fighting Baron Nashor.

With the support of the two earth dragons, the dragon's health dropped rapidly.

SKT naturally noticed that something was wrong as well.

Peanut's barrels reached the back of the Dragon Pit, and he threw a rolling barrel (Q) down, revealing the Dragon's vision.

The dragon's health was down to just over half, and it was dropping rapidly in large increments.

LGD is clearly determined to fight to the bitter end!

The situation, which had been seemingly quiet for more than 20 minutes, was finally about to undergo some decisive changes.

Peanut knew he couldn't wait any longer; the enemy team had Janna, and if he waited any longer, he wouldn't even be able to get into the Dragon Pit.

Gragas threw his ultimate ability directly into the Dragon Pit, and at the same time, he used his Body Slam (E) to enter the Dragon Pit, which landed right on Janna, who was placing wards on the Dragon Pit.

However, when the barrel went down into the dragon pit, the dragon still had more than a thousand health points, not yet at the point where it needed to use Smite.

(End of this chapter)