Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 283, Section 280: The True Protagonist

As for the audience, most of them had already guessed what would happen when they saw Xiaohu get crushed by Faker in the previous game.

Even the commentators made predictions before the match.

"If this is the current situation, is it possible that Shimamura would go to the mid lane to face off against Faker, and Xiaohu would go to lane against Doran?"

"Wouldn't it be a more reasonable arrangement to have Shimamura, who is in top form, go head-to-head with Faker, who is in top form?"

Then, as expected, in the third game, everyone could tell from the draft that Shimamura Yuna had gone to the mid lane again.

Generally speaking, the WBG team doesn't play Azir.

If the opponent has Tsar, then Tsar will be banned to prevent them from picking him.

Even if they manage to grab the Tsar first, they generally won't play it.

Firstly, the Azir's power spike comes late, requiring teammates to help him drag the game into the late game.

Secondly, this hero requires a lot of strategic thinking and skillful execution.

Some players may practice their whole lives and still not be able to achieve that same feel.

As a veteran mid-laner, Xiaohu should be able to play Azir without any problems.

But it has its uses.
To be honest, they don't make up the majority.

Especially when facing a Tier 1 opponent, this Tsar looks like he's showing off his limited skills.

In many people's minds, this is a character with a very LCK-like style.

It's something the LPL can't understand.

Only LCK players can truly understand it.

In the first two games, WBG basically followed the principle of "ban if you don't know how to play", and always kept the hero Azir in the ban list.

However, in this game, they directly released the Tsar on the blue side.

And they even chose it themselves.

Once this decision was made, the audience knew what was going on.

WBG is going to play Tsar himself.

Moreover, it's not for Xiaohu to play with.

Instead, it was for Shimamura Yuna to play.

Sure enough, when the heroes were finally chosen, everyone knew what was going on when they saw Sion vs. Ornn in the top lane and Azir vs. Annie in the mid lane.

She was definitely Shimamura Yuna's tsar.

It absolutely could not be Xiaohu.
Sure enough, in the last second, the top and mid lanes were swapped.

This situation did not surprise anyone.

After all, the tactics had already been tested with the CFO, so everyone was mentally prepared.

Rather than saying "Holy crap, why did Shimamura choose the Tsar?", people are more likely to express a sense of anticipation.

For example, when Longshen was commentating on the match with the screen off, he said something like this.

"Shimamura's Azir? Interesting. So, if Shimamura's Azir were to face T1's awakened Faker, who would be the better player?"

"Faker has played mid lane his whole life, while Shimamura isn't even a mid laner. If these two were to meet, who would be stronger?"

"I am actually a little bit curious."

He wasn't the only one curious.

It's something that audiences all over the world are very curious about.

This is a head-to-head battle between the undisputed old GOAT and the new GOAT that everyone is eagerly anticipating ascending to the throne.

So, who is truly superior?
It was actually predictable that Shimamura Yuna would choose the Tsar in the T1 lineup.

When WBG unusually chose the blue side and didn't ban Azir, their decision was practically obvious, requiring no further thought.

But in the end, they did not take any proactive measures against it.

The reason is
"It's ridiculous that a top laner can easily dominate Azir just by switching to mid lane."

With a lack of scrim data and official match data, T1 is really unwilling to give up an extra ban slot for this.

Ultimately, WBG only used this hero once against CFO, and only managed to stomp a noob.

You think you can fool me with this "smashing noobs" trick? That's a bit far-fetched, isn't it?

In short, after careful consideration, T1 stubbornly released the Tsar.

WBG, of course, has to do the same.

The game starts soon.

Shimamura Yuna's portrayal of the Tsar is actually not very proficient.

She only knows the most basic operations.

For example, you can release sand soldiers to poke people, or use your Q skill to clear the minion wave.

Her understanding of the hero was only superficial.

All I can say is that using skills won't overload me, that's about it.

But in Shimamura's view, this level of understanding is more than enough.

In fact, she never really understood why so many people said this hero was difficult.

She didn't understand what made being a hero so difficult.

Isn't this just a ranged magic archer in essence?
Isn't this just an APC standing in the mid lane farming?
Why not just farm money and then deal damage?
What is the fundamental difference between this kind of thing and other heroes of the same type?
In fact, this character's damage output logic is much simpler than that of most other mage-centric heroes.

No special operation is required.

Use QW to deal damage, E to dash, and R to initiate team fights or protect yourself.

That's it.

This is simply a character that can be played by pressing W and right-clicking. If someone else were to express this understanding on a forum, they would definitely be questioned.

However, she is Shimamura Yuna.

She also put immense pressure on the T1 team during the game using her own understanding.

Faker sensed it not long after the game started.

Compared to Kotori, Shimamura Yuna is a person who is almost without any flaws.

During the laning phase, Xiaohu's sense of distance can cause him to make some mistakes.

These weaknesses will be exploited by Faker, who will use them as opportunities to exert pressure and dominate in lane.

However, Shimamura Yuna is actually a robot-like player.

She just kept last-hitting minions, pushing the lane, and playing the game in the most efficient way possible.

She won't miss a step.

She won't go offside.

She won't do anything unnecessary.

Even though Faker kept trying to figure out this player, he simply couldn't do it.

The most distinctive characteristic of Shimamura Yuna is her absolute focus during the laning phase.

League of Legends is essentially a laning game.

Players with an advantage in the laning phase can initiate attacks to support their teammates.

Players who have an advantage in the laning phase can develop at a faster pace.

Having an advantage in the laning phase almost equates to a complete advantage in the overall tempo.

This is why any team with Shimamura Yuna experiences a dramatic improvement.

On one hand, Shimamura Yuna has a strong late-game carry potential and strong team fight damage output. As long as she plays a core carry, she can reliably provide the team with a late-game guarantee, so the team doesn't have to worry about the "future".

As the saying goes, some heroes automatically give a team an economic advantage once they are picked.

When Shimamura Yuna selects these heroes, her lead is not just a little bit.

Her positioning and damage output awareness in team fights are the strongest seventh item.

But it's more than that.

If that's all there is to it, then Shimamura Yuna is just a mediocre, heavy-core type of player.

Another unique strength of hers is her almost 100% line optimization rate.

Although it's also because they always get preferential treatment in business planning.

However, so far this year, in all the matches Shimamura Yuna has played, she has almost never been completely outmatched in lane.

In over 6% of the matches, she was able to gain a significant lead in her matchup.

In the remaining games, she was able to maintain a near-equal position.

She can dominate the opponent by playing lane-dominant champions.

Even if you're playing a character who's at a disadvantage in the early game, you can still manage to force a draw by using skillful maneuvers.

In other words, she is almost an absolute top-tier player.

In a game where having an advantage in lane significantly increases the chances of winning, this quality is her greatest strength.

After the game ended, many T1 fans were excited, believing that "Faker is back, even if Shimamura comes to the mid lane, it won't work."

But now, they've realized it.

Even if Faker is facing Shimamura Yuna, it won't work.
Faker, who had dominated Xiaohu with a brilliant performance in the previous game, couldn't gain any advantage in this game.

Has Faker woken up?
Compared to before, his condition has indeed improved significantly.

While he's not quite at his peak yet, he's definitely broken free from his former arrogance.

However, it makes almost no sense.

Everyone could sense that the person with the protagonist's aura and invincible status in this World Championship was none other than Shimamura Yuna.

Even Faker couldn't break through Shimamura Yuna's unbreakable online dominance.

After acquiring the Tsar character, T1 was almost completely unable to disrupt Shimamura Yuna's game plan.

On the contrary, it was on the road
It was clearly Xiaohu, the mid-laner, who was substituted in to play alongside Dolan's lousy character.

But surprisingly, Dolan couldn't even outdo Tiger.

As the game progressed, T1 realized that the situation was getting increasingly unfavorable.

In any game where the player doesn't gain an advantage in the early game, Shimamura Yuna's development isn't disrupted, and the overall economy is even, the outcome will inevitably be a stalemate for ten or twenty minutes, followed by a devastating team fight where WBG snowballs their way to victory.

The T1 coaching staff watched too many of WBG's videos, and there were basically no differences between them.

This team's pace is actually quite slow.

The teams fighting them were essentially left to watch helplessly as a seemingly harmless monster slowly grew stronger.
Knowing full well that this monster will destroy everything once it grows up, they are unable to take any effective countermeasures before it happens.

Oner wanted to gank, but couldn't find any good opportunities.

He teamed up with Keria in the jungle and support role, and paid a heavy price to try and kill Shimamura Yuna. However, because they were too hasty and too forceful, Shimamura Yuna ended up trading one of her lives for two kills.

Meanwhile, because Shimamura Yuna switched to the mid lane, even the most basic strategy of swapping lanes to limit the top laners on both sides was ineffective in this game.

To the surprise of all the viewers, one thing was discovered.
As a top laner, Shimamura Yuna became even harder to target after switching to the mid lane than when she was in the top lane.

And so, that question that makes you want to ask arises again.

"Is this person really a top laner?"

She doesn't play like a top laner, her champion pool isn't like a top laner's, and she doesn't even play top lane at all.

Is she really still a top laner?
(End of this chapter)