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

Chapter 508 A Twist of Fate: The Champion Support's Decisive First Move!

The Rift Herald had only reached the middle of the mid lane when it was stopped by the LGD players, slowing its pace.

At this rate, even the Rift Herald won't have a guaranteed hit.

Huni's troll emerged directly from the river bush on the right side of the mid lane.

A pillar of ice (E) bursts out from between Malzahar and Varus, who are attacking the Rift Herald.

Malzahar has a passive immunity shield and was not affected by Trundle's E skill slow.

However, Varus' movement speed was drastically reduced after being hit by the troll's pillar.

Taking advantage of Varus being slowed down, Gragas used his E skill to charge in and simultaneously threw an Explosive Barrel (R) behind Varus.

At the same time, Wolf's Leona also unleashed a Solar Flare (R) at Varus's feet.

imp's performance in this game was undoubtedly excellent.

While the barrel was still being rammed by the flesh bomb, Varus released the Chains of Corruption (R), which struck the barrel squarely and imprisoned it.

As Varus unleashed his ultimate ability, he also used Flash.

A flash of yellow light appeared, and Varus teleported to the side just as Gragas' ultimate was about to hit him.

This flash allowed him to dodge both Gragas' and Leona's ultimate abilities.

The next moment, Sejuani used her Iceborn Gauntlet (Q) to lunge forward and unleash her ultimate ability on Gragas.

At the same time, Zhou Dian also pressed the teleport button on the blue team's minions in the mid-lane battlefield.

With Mercury's Treads on him, Gragas quickly broke free from Varus's ultimate's immobilization.

Then, just as Sejuani's ultimate was about to hit him, he used Flash.

Perhaps Blank pressed Flash too hastily and too aggressively, because the direction of Gragas' Flash was the same as the direction Sejuani threw her ultimate.

The Gragas who flashed away was still hit squarely by Sejuani's ultimate and frozen in place.

Pig Girl took the lead and charged straight at the barrel.

However, Eimy clearly overestimated Sejuani's tankiness, especially when the enemy team had Troll Warlord.

The troll unleashed his ultimate ability on Sejuani, and in less than two seconds, Sejuani, focused down by all five members of SKT, had her health reduced to almost zero.

Lulu gave Wild Growth (R) to Sejuani, whose size suddenly increased, causing Leona and Troll Warlord to fly away.

However, even with Lulu's ultimate, Sejuani only lasted half a second longer before being killed.

The kill was secured by Leona's Ignite.

However, Sejuani's death was worthwhile.

After being knocked up by Lulu's ultimate, the troll was then followed up by the Q skill of the giant Cho'Gath who had just teleported and landed.

Then he was silenced by Cho'Gath's W skill, and Malzahar immediately pinned the Troll to the ground with Hades' Grip (R).

Huni frantically pressed Flash, but he just couldn't use it.

The troll was also focused down by four LGD players, and its health dropped rapidly.

A Varus with a fully stacked Guinsoo's Rageblade deals ridiculously high damage.

In just over a second, the troll's health was reduced to only a few hundred points, and it was devoured by the giant worm's ultimate ability.

The big bug got the big kill on the troll, and at the same time, it stacked another layer on its ultimate.

Meanwhile, Righteous Glory on the giant bug had been activated. After devouring the troll, it charged towards the SKT team with the acceleration provided by Righteous Glory.

However, the remaining four members of SKT also retreated very quickly.

The SKT players knew very well that after the death of the Troll Warlord, who had the best development and strongest fighting power in the entire game, the remaining players were no match for LGD in a 4v4 battle.

So, after taking Sejuani's head, they started to retreat.

Two seconds later, the Righteous Glory slowing aura on the big bug erupted, slowing only Tristana.

Even so, it was only because Tristana turned around and used her ultimate skill to push Varus, who was in a berserk output state, away that he was slowed down by Righteous Glory.

Slowing down the cannon is useless; the cannon can use Rocket Jump (W) to jump a long distance away.

Meanwhile, Tristana also benefited from Karma's E skill's speed boost.

They couldn't keep Xiaopao at all.

Zhou Dian rushed to the front and chased for a few more steps, but found that he could no longer catch up with the SKT players, so he stopped chasing.

In the commentary box.

"This time, both sides traded top and jungle positions!" Miller exclaimed.

"However, SKT's most fed Troll Warlord died, and LGD disrupted SKT's momentum again!"

“Look at LGD’s lineup, they’re really strong when they group up,” PDD added. “imp’s Varus can put a lot of pressure on the front line in the mid-game, it’s really amazing.”

Hearing this, Miller nodded. "I think his damage output alone is higher than that of Sona and Tristana combined!"

"Huni, that troll, no matter how well-farmed he is, it's useless if he comes into team fights. He simply can't withstand the damage from Malzahar and Varus," Remember said.
"Moreover, with the high kill threshold brought by the big bug's ultimate, the troll is even less able to withstand it."

I remember this statement was very true. Whenever Huni's Troll Warlord came to team fight, his nearly 3,000 gold lead over Cho'Gath rendered him completely useless.

In large-scale 5v5 team fights, what does it matter if the Troll Warlord has a one-item advantage over the Cho'Gath?

In team fights, nothing beats Cho'Gath!
Huni was clearly let down by SKT's shot-calling in this play.

The troll should have continued pushing lanes instead of coming to mid.

However, SKT felt that it would be a waste not to even try and hit the Rift Herald after finally getting it.

So they forcibly summoned Huni to come and escort the vanguard with the main force.

If it's just this level, then it's fine; at most, the troll will waste a little time pushing lanes.

But everything changed after the troll unleashed that pillar of ice.

Huni used this E skill simply to force LGD's two carries to position themselves.

I wanted to work with my teammates to force LGD back to their towers so that the vanguard could reach LGD's mid tower and break through.

As a result, after seeing Varus slowed down by Trundle's E skill, Blank's Gragas actually rushed in and started to engage.

It's unclear whether Blank saw this as an opportunity and initiated the team fight himself, or whether Wolf or Faker directed it.

As Gragas used his E to engage, Leona also unleashed her ultimate on Varus from behind.

In any case, Huni was actually quite innocent in this situation.

This wave was initiated by the team's command to bring him to the mid lane, and the team fight was also started by his teammates.

Then he became the one who was sacrificed and exchanged heads with his opponent.

The problem is that he's the fattest person on the field right now, and he's also a huge head.

Trading one for one with a Sejuani who wasn't particularly important at the moment, what a loss!

Moreover, the troll's huge head was eaten by the giant worm.

As a result, the gap between the top laners on both sides in terms of split-push performance has been narrowed significantly again.

Ultimately, it comes down to Huni not having enough say within the team.

When the team commander told Huni's Troll to go to the mid lane, Huni himself probably didn't want to go, but he went anyway.

If this were to happen to LGD, Zhou Dian would be playing the Troll Warlord right now.

If PYL asked him to go to the mid lane to meet up with his teammates and escort the Rift Herald, he definitely wouldn't go.

Not only would he not go, but he would also warn his teammates not to engage in reckless team fights or cause trouble, saying that it didn't matter whether they triggered the Rift Herald or not. However, after spending a year with SKT, Huni had become accustomed to following orders in everything he did.

The "geographical advantage" is not on Huni's side!

The so-called "right time, right place, and right people" refer to three factors for professional League of Legends players. "Right time" refers to the right version of the game, "right place" refers to their tactical position within the team, and "right people" naturally refers to the individual skill of the players.

Players who truly carry their teams to great achievements usually possess all three of these qualities.

For some less skilled players, all they need is the right timing and a few good teammates to achieve something.

Of course, this is not a long-term solution. As the competition goes on, all the slackers will be exposed.

After a long competition, it becomes obvious who carries and who flops.

Therefore, those players who know when to quit while they're ahead are the truly smart ones.

Back to the game.

Since SKT failed to trigger the Rift Herald, LGD's mid-lane tower remained with just over half its health, standing firm as a rock.

The game time had now passed 20 minutes, and the Baron Nashor had spawned.

After being resurrected, the troll still headed straight for the bottom lane to push the lane.

On LGD's side, Zhou Dian's Cho'Gath didn't teleport at this moment and started moving with the main force.

Wei Shen's Malzahar will go to the bottom lane to guard the Troll lane.

The match seemed to have returned to the same rhythm as the first two games.

At this rate, SKT is bound to lose!

Although SKT still had a nearly 2,000 gold lead at this point, they were in an advantageous position overall.

However, the game's rhythm slowly started to go wrong.

The SKT players are already aware of this problem.

Once this is realized, changes are inevitable.

No matter what, this is the final of the World Championship. SKT, as one of the finalists, is still a top team despite the various problems within the team.

After losing the first two games of a best-of-five series, a top team must have identified many of its own problems and then made changes.

The biggest change SKT made in this game was, of course, in the support position. They abandoned Ardent Censer and picked a hard support that is rarely seen these days – Leona.

It was the goddess of dawn who guided the next crucial moment.

Half a minute later, LGD's bot lane duo cleared the mid lane minion wave and entered the top river, where they set up vision near the Baron pit with their jungler, Sejuani.

Although the Baron Nashor pit has just spawned, vision control around it has become a top priority for both sides.

At this point, both sides had approximately four people moving back and forth around the Dragon Pit.

Only Malzahar and Troll Warlord were pushing the bottom lane, but both of them had Teleport.

After setting up vision in the upper river, LGD's jungler, support, and bottom laner prepared to retreat back to their own upper jungle via the narrow pass behind the blue buff.

At this moment, SKT's support Leona walked from SKT's red buff area into the top river.

After the two sides met, the first thing Wolf's Leona did was to place a ward in front of Varus.

imp hadn't quite figured out what it meant for Leona to throw a ward when they met.

But the next moment, he found out.

Leona flashed right in front of Varus and stunned him with a Dawnbreaker (Q).

A red teleportation vortex suddenly appeared on the ward that Leona had placed in front of Varus.

It was the troll's teleportation!
Wolf seized this fleeting opportunity, wanting to break the game's increasingly slow pace.

The Cho'Gath and Karma, who were clearing lanes, also rushed to the scene in the river immediately.

After Leona stunned Varus with her Q skill, she immediately followed up with her ultimate.

The center of the solar flare (R) is directly above Verus.

Then Zenith Blade (E) pointed upwards again.

This Flash-QRE combo leaves Varus with absolutely no chance of survival.

Don't even mention that Varus's Flash hasn't been fully active yet.

Even if he had Flash, imp wouldn't have had a chance to use it.

The little cannon that came from the middle lane immediately used Rocket Jump (W) to jump up.

Then Explosive Spark (E) is applied to Varus, and he begins to unleash a barrage of attacks on Varus, who is caught in a chain of crowd control effects.

However, PYL immediately used Lulu's ultimate on Varus.

With Lulu's ultimate ability, Varus can hold on thanks to the damage output of SKT's bot lane duo alone.

After breaking free from Leona's control, Varus used Corruption Chains (R) to imprison Tristana and began trading blows with her.

With Guinsoo's Rageblade, Varus's damage output is indeed much higher than Tristana's.

Varus landed two basic attacks followed by a combo of abilities, taking away three-quarters of Tristana's health.

But just then, a Bursting Barrel (R) flew from behind Varus, blasting him against the wall beside him, rendering him unable to move.

At the same time, Karma's RQ fell at Varus's feet.

The troll that teleported down also used a Pillar of Frost (E) to strike Varus from behind.

Varus was targeted and his remaining half-health was instantly wiped out, with Bang's Tristana securing the kill.

At this moment, Wei Shen's Malzahar had already teleported to the scene of the team fight.

As soon as Malzahar landed, imp's Varus was killed.

I don't know if Wei Shen didn't realize it or what.

Instead of making a run for it, Malzahar unleashed a powerful attack on the troll.

Amidst the chaos, Malzahar's passive shield was whittled away the moment he landed after teleporting.

Then, less than a second after Hades Grasp (R) had suppressed the troll, Malzahar was stunned by the belly rammed by the barrel in front of him.

Seeing this, Zhou Dian's Cho'Gath could only turn around and use his Q skill to help, then quickly made his escape.

There's nothing that can be done; it's beyond saving!
Because he was in an open river, after being hit by the Barrel's Human Bomb (E), Wei Shen knew he couldn't escape and didn't bother to use Flash.

Malzahar took a few steps forward before being chased down and killed by the SKT team, with Tristana also securing the kill.

This little cannon got a double kill!

For LGD, losing two kills wasn't the most critical issue.

The most crucial point is that the Baron Nashor has already spawned, and with both carries dead, the Baron Nashor is basically gone.

On the SKT side, after killing Malzahar, they did not immediately go for Baron, but instead turned around and chased Sejuani into LGD's blue buff area.

Although going to fight Baron Nashor now is quite a sure thing.

However, if you can kill Sejuani first, then going for the fight would undoubtedly be more secure.

Leona aimed her Zenith Blade (E) at Sejuani, and Eimy quickly flashed.

Sejuani used Flash to dodge Leona's E skill and escaped back to the mid lane, avoiding being stuck.

Leona missed her E skill, realizing she couldn't catch Sejuani. SKT's top, bottom, and support trio who were chasing Sejuani also stopped chasing her.

(End of this chapter)