Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 208, Section 205: Akali!
[Awesome, you said you wouldn't go live, but you're here now that you're about to win.]

[Never go live in your life! Never go live in your life! You MUST end the broadcast immediately! Don't come here!]

That means we have to come! That means we absolutely have to come!

[Waaaaah, old man, I was so scared! You're finally here. I didn't dare watch the game without you.]

Despite some people questioning her on the basis of the Nine Principles, asking why she broke her promise and why she didn't come earlier.

However, this kind of questioning is only useful for full-time streamers.

Full-time streamers need to be trustworthy to their viewers and explain their schedules to them.

For full-time streamers, a part of their lives belongs to their viewers.

But for someone like Akari Kujo who's just dabbling in this, she doesn't need to offer much explanation to the audience.

Her willingness to come is an extra bonus for the audience.

It's not a big deal that she didn't come.

It will just be a bit disappointing for the audience.

After all, no matter what.
'The old man is still a student, preparing for his next academic year.'

Once you think about this, even the most disgruntled fans can't bring themselves to criticize you much.

not to mention.
"Sorry, sorry. Something came up. As I said, I'm still in school, and I took the day off to watch the game with everyone."

"I hope everyone can be more understanding, okay? KissKiss!"

Akari Kujo didn't argue or stick to her guns when she came on stage.

Instead, he slid down to his knees and apologized to everyone in a very cute way.

Well, since you've already apologized, what else is there to say?

Then I'll just forgive him and that'll be the end of it!
As a result, the rumors about the nine wise men breaking their promises and not coming soon disappeared.

The trend of comments has changed.

[I'll let you off the hook since Shimamura-nee just won; it's not because the old man's cute antics are adorable.]

[This old man is way better at promoting than Yuna-nee; if it were a real live stream, he'd easily outperform Shimamura-nee.]

[When Sister Yuna was live streaming, she disappeared for half a month without saying a word, working one day and resting the next without giving the audience any explanation. Her daily live streaming time was short and she was practically slacking off. She really wasn't as hardworking as the old man, was she?]

That's really true.

Soon, seeing that she had almost managed to confuse the rhythm of the comments, Akari Kujo breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, I started chatting with everyone.

"Okay! Although we're a little late, it's alright. Because at this moment, in this situation..."

"After experiencing the frustration of losing the first three games and the suffocating feeling of winning, our Shimamura has finally launched a beautiful counterattack!"

"The invincible Fiona has left Doran speechless! Under Shimamura's leadership, the entire CFO team has reached a new level of momentum!"

"Then let's witness together this greatest comeback ever!"

She spoke with great passion and fervor.

The tone of voice is also quite effective at evoking emotions.

However, when someone who could understand Japanese translated her words into the live stream, everyone suddenly couldn't understand them at all.

【Wait, didn't you say you didn't watch it? You secretly watched it when it wasn't broadcast?】

[Didn't you just say you were too busy to watch? How come I know the details of this competition perfectly?]

[Get lost! The person in front of you is sneaking a peek instead of watching with the rest of us, huh?]

Old man, I'm heartbroken.

Realizing she had been exposed, she coughed twice, somewhat embarrassed.

"Um... cough cough, I was actually busy and didn't watch it. These lines were told to me by the Bilibili operations manager."

"How could I possibly have time to watch it? If I had time, why wouldn't I watch it with everyone? Right?"

She smoothly shifted the blame to Bilibili's operations team.

However, no one believed it at all.

It's a very simple thing.

The way you were so excited just now didn't look like you were reciting lines at all.

It looks like a genuine expression of emotion.

Such a genuine expression of emotion—if you insist that Bilibili's operations team told you to say it, who would believe you?
However, at this point, even if they know that Kujo Akari is just fooling them, it doesn't matter anymore.

Again.

You're not a full-time streamer, and you're so cute.

Then just act cute, and this matter will be over.

Right now, everyone's attention is mostly focused on the match, on how Shimamura Yuna can turn the tide against T1.

Regardless of the reason why Akari Kujo didn't come to the live stream.

Regardless of why she had been secretly watching the game earlier.

Now, none of that matters.

The important thing is
Now, everyone is looking forward to the CFO's victory and to the heroic story of Shimamura Yuna.

"Let us all witness this! The greatest comeback ever!!"

The number of viewers in the live stream skyrocketed.

The number of captains is increasing at a restrained but somewhat uncontrollable pace.

Now, everyone is eagerly anticipating it.

On the field, Shimamura Yuna had no idea what was happening off the field.

She was unaware that Akari Kujo had started a live stream at this time, nor did she know that her account had received rice (a virtual currency).

At this moment, emboldened by their previous victory, the other teammates are in high spirits.

But she was the complete opposite.

She feels like she's in a rather empty state right now.

just like.
It seemed as if she felt she had completely understood everything.

She feels that the current situation is stored in her database, including opponents, teammates, and herself.

Everything is running and being processed at high speed in the brain.

She was thinking about the opponent's possible tactics and their possible drafting patterns.

She felt as if the whole world had slowed down.
She felt as if she were omnipotent.

In this feeling of being detached from the world, the competition officially began.

The ban/pick phase for both sides was determined in two rounds of bans.

Yuna Shimamura doesn't pay much attention to what other people are like.

Whether it's the mid laner or the jungler, whether it's the opponent or yourself, looking at these things doesn't really make much sense.

Because she knew that the entire team was actually just revolving around her.

You need to break through your own limitations to lead your teammates to victory.

Only by making breakthroughs yourself can your teammates gain an advantage.

She had already mentally given up on relying on her teammates, even though their condition was improving.

She wanted to completely control the game. And the coach, of course, granted her wish, reserving a counter pick for her.

However, this Counter bit was ultimately not used.

It seems that T1 felt that it was useless for their top laner to play anything, as Doran couldn't contain Shimamura Yuna no matter what he played, so they gave up on having Doran contain Shimamura Yuna.

Instead, they directly chose to pick the champion Gnar.

The meaning is very simple.

Let Doran play slowly with his long reach, last-hitting minions, focusing on immortality and never dying.

In professional matches, it's very difficult to find a champion that can effectively counter Gnar.

As a warrior character who can provide control and burst damage in team fights, as well as tank damage and withstand lane pressure, the long range of the normal Gnar form is the character's greatest asset.

Long range means a fairly safe distance for last-hitting minions and a relatively safe way to harass the enemy.

When your stats aren't high enough, you might find yourself unable to defeat anyone.

On the other hand, even if the stats aren't high enough, the long reach often makes it easy to finish off enemies or stay in lane.

T1 giving Dolan the first pick of this character is basically a way of helping Dolan concede defeat.

'You played terribly, just pick Gnar to fill in.'

Of course, that being able to pick Gnar in the fifth game is quite a novel thing in itself.

While this character may not be among the highest priority top laners, their overall performance is certainly among the stronger ones.

It's a character that's unlikely to appear in the first game, has a higher probability of appearing in the second game, and after that, it's either picked or banned.

The reason why this hero was still on the field in the fifth game is actually quite simple.

When facing an opponent like Shimamura Yuna, the hero selection in the match is usually very extreme.

Either you're an extreme turtle, making sure nothing goes wrong on the top lane.

Either it's extreme suppression, trying to make Shimamura Yuna uncomfortable by using some stat-heavy monsters.

Some standard utility fighters, especially Gnar who doesn't have particularly high early-game laning stats, are less likely to appear in matches against Shimamura Yuna.

It will only be picked in the fifth game when there are really no other heroes left to choose from.

The CFO side is too lazy to ban it either.

According to Shimamura Yuna
"There aren't any heroes that are currently available that I'm particularly afraid of, so I don't really care what they pick for top lane."

Then, when the opponent picked Gnar, Shimamura Yuna was not nervous.

Ultimately, Gnar's characteristics are quite simple, and his strengths and weaknesses in matchups are easy to predict.

His advantage lies in the fact that, as a long-range hero, he naturally has an advantage against some clumsy warriors.

This is the same logic behind the development of most AD and mage classes.

The difference is that, among ranged champions, Gnar has mobility, tankiness and crowd control after transforming, which means he has both the laning ability of a ranged champion and the tankiness and utility of a fighter.

This gives him a stronger ability to avoid ganks than other traditional ranged champions in the long minion wave environment of the top lane.

Unlike other long-range champions who have the classic problem of being picked for the top lane, he doesn't push the lane too far, which makes him pointless to pick and makes him vulnerable to ganks if he pushes too far.

He has a higher tolerance for error.

It can be said that this is a character that combines the advantages of both long-range and short-range characters.

However, this character is certainly not perfect.

His question was very simple.

Firstly, the early game stats are low, making it incomparable to top laners like Kalista and Lucian at their peak who could dominate short-range AD carries.

Secondly, his long reach is compared to tanks and warriors with short reach, not to other AD carries.

The saying goes, "An inch longer, an inch stronger."

If you're not long enough, then you need to be tough enough to withstand a beating.

For other long-range AD champions, Gnar is a pure "toilet" champion with short range, low damage, and low squishiness.

Classic champions like Lucian and Jayce can dominate Gnar in lane.

However, the current version is different.

After countless modifications and nerfs, it's now quite difficult for Lucian to appear in solo lanes, and he faces more practical challenges.

As for Jayce, he was already worn down in the earlier games and can no longer be selected.

It's fair to say that T1's coaching staff chose this role because they knew that there weren't any heroes in the current hero pool that could pose a significant threat to Gnar.

but
This is obviously not a problem for Shimamura Yuna.

Her defining characteristic is that she can't pull out any regular heroes, but she has a whole bunch of weird and wonderful ones.

When you enter the game, you're assigned to the top lane, and you can find the hero in the mid lane section. That's her characteristic.

The later the match goes, the greater the advantage of Shimamura Yuna's hero pool becomes.

One by one, the usual strong characters are banned and worn down, and this is when both sides have to show off their best skills.

Yuna Shimamura enjoys this kind of segment.

After careful consideration, Shimamura Yuna concluded that the characters that could be used to counter Gnar are:
Akali.

She didn't actually know how this character fared against Gnar in the statistics.

This is because this character was essentially banished from the top lane by Riot Games a long time ago.

The changes over the years have basically been aimed at depriving this champion of the ability to switch between top and mid lanes, and Riot Games has succeeded in doing so.

Nowadays, even in casual games, Akali is rarely played in the top lane; it's mostly played in the mid lane.

Then let alone the competition.

Yuna Shimamura herself hasn't played Akali in a long time, almost several months.

But now, with Jayce out of the picture, she still needs to choose a character who can reliably suppress Gnar, and this is the first one that comes to her mind.

She knew that if she opened OP.GG now, she would see how terrible Akali's choice to go for it was.

You might even find that Akali doesn't have the advantage if you search for head-to-head matchups between Gnar and Akali.

After all, this character was removed from the top lane after being modified, so there must be a reason why she can no longer stay in the top lane.

However, at this moment, we should trust the data and the environment more than we trust the data.

She prefers to trust her own abilities, her skill level, and her intuition.

She thinks Gnar is good against Akali, so he must be good against her.

Yes, that must be it!
When Shimamura Yuna first picked this character, since it wasn't the last pick, no one thought it was for the top lane; they all assumed it was for the mid lane, thinking that Shimamura Yuna was saving it for last and checking all the enemy team compositions before choosing a hero.

However, when the CFO finally picked the Alternate Painter as the mid-laner, everyone realized that this character was definitely not meant to be a mid-laner.

After all, it can't be a top laner with an alternate artist, right?
The commentator on stage was slightly surprised.

"Is it Akali top lane? There are really not many in the current version."

"Sigh, but it seems there's some truth to the Akali vs. Gnar thing, that's for sure."

It wasn't until Akali was moved to the top lane that everyone finally confirmed it.

That's right, there's no error.

It's Akali, played by Yuna Shimamura.

That's her Flying Thunder God!
Another rare but threatening hero!

"Oh my god, Shimamura-nee! How can Shimamura-nee's hero pool be so unfathomable! How can Shimamura-nee play everything!"

(End of this chapter)