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

I got the counter pick in Chapter 544. Will my teammates blame me if I don't carry?
Faced with White Crescent's blatant attack in the very first game, RNG's head coach, Steak, could only smile to himself.

I spent a week studying TES replays, and this is the kind of open-ended strategy you give me?

That's a huge underestimation of my steak!
Yes, Zhou Shen, playing on the red side, single-handedly carried the team by taking the counter position; this was indeed a calculated move.

Many teams have such poor top lane rosters that they have no way to counter this tactic.

However, Zhou Shen has been using this tactic for several years, and many coaches have tried to find ways to counter it.

Your white crescent moon means you think I, Steak, am a complete fool, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Do you still look down on Langx and think Zhou Dian can easily beat him?

"Hmm, it seems Langx really isn't a match for Zhou Shen!" Steak thought to himself.

But Steak also felt that Langx, the top laner, was not bad either. Since he was countered by the weekly champion, he definitely couldn't beat him and would get crushed.

But if they don't get countered, or if Langx can counter Zhou Dian in his hero selection, then it's basically impossible for them to get crushed by Zhou Dian!

That's what the steak thinks, anyway.

As for TES, they have an absolute counter-pick position on the fifth floor of the red side.
Who said the red team can always counter the fifth floor?

Regarding how to avoid being countered by Zhou Dian on the red side and then getting completely destroyed.

This was a solution that the LPL had for several years.

That means the blue team will directly choose a mid-jungle duo in their hero selection.

In both the mid and top lane positions, select heroes that are viable in both the current version.

If your red team picks a top laner as their last pick, and that counters one of my top laners, then I'll take the other one and move the original top laner to the mid lane.

You can't just pick a champion that completely counters both my mid and top laners, can you?
Even if such a thing exists, it's mostly those weird heroes who are only good at laning but not at winning the game; at best, they can only stomp noobs!

But are we RNG players bad?
That can't be right!

After a moment of reflection, Steak felt much more at ease and realized that he needed to teach White Crescent a lesson in this round.

Let the white crescent moon see what BP really means!

You were practically invisible when you were a professional player, how can you compare to me, Steak, a top-tier top laner in my prime who retired and became a coach?

The first round of business negotiations proceeded relatively quickly.

Both sides adopted a fairly conventional approach in the first round of draft picks, using the same tactics they frequently employed during the regular season.

Both teams selected the jungler, support, and bottom lane positions in the first round.

The mid lane and top lane positions were left for the second round of selection.

In the second round of bans, RNG banned one of their signature heroes from Knight and one of Zhou Dian's signature heroes.

TES, on the other hand, directly banned two tank top laners.

Upon seeing TES's bans in the second round, Steak immediately snorted coldly in his heart.

You've wasted those two ban slots!
From the very beginning, I had no intention of giving Langx a tank hero in this game.

How can you have a flexible mid and top lane duo if you pick a tank top laner?
Tank heroes will get beaten up no matter where they're placed!
Steak thought that even though TES's strongest points were the mid and top lanes, it was necessary to go head-to-head with the opponent's strongest players in the first game of a BO5.

In the first game of a BO5 series, you need to be able to suppress your opponent's strongest point.

Then the opponent will have a very difficult time in the draft phase in the remaining games, and the probability of our side winning the game will increase significantly.

It can only be said that this is a typical case of "only seeing the thief eating meat, but not seeing the thief getting beaten".

He only saw the benefits of playing this way.

But they forgot that playing like this could very well result in losing the game for free.

A best-of-five series is a best-of-five series, and you can't give up on any game you win easily.

In the second round of champion selection, TES first locked in Irelia on the fourth floor of the red side.

When Irelia was first reworked last year, most people still habitually picked her as a top laner.

And it's actually quite good.

However, after several nerfs, Irelia lost her stats and gradually became unable to survive in the top lane.

On the road, it's often a matter of pure strength, or rather, stats.

Without numerical values, no matter how good your mechanics are, it's hard to survive in the top lane.

In situations like this, people often try using top lane champions that have been nerfed and whose stats are insufficient in the mid lane.

And you know what? It often works on the first try.

Those heroes who have great mechanics but lack stats and can't survive in the top lane.

When I ran to the mid lane, I saw that the squishy mages there had even fewer stats!

Laning against mages is so easy, you can just bully them!
In such situations, the advantages of the mechanism become apparent.

Irelia is a typical example of this.

This season, Irelia has been frequently played in the mid lane, and it's rare to see her used in the top lane.

Seeing that TES picked Irelia on the fourth floor of the red side, Steak also felt that this Irelia should basically be the mid laner.

Besides the fact that Irelia's pick rate in the mid lane is now much higher than in the top lane.

Also, because the fifth floor of TES was still empty at that time.

He subconsciously believed that Zhou Dian would definitely use his hero as the last move.

Subsequently, RNG picked Renekton and Vladimir on the fourth and fifth floors of the blue side.

The logic behind Steak's selection process is also very clear.

These two heroes are strong in the early and mid-game, and strong in the mid and late game, so they won't have a common period of weakness.

They can play both mid and top lane in the current version.

Moreover, the steak wasn't really ready to wag at this point.

He prefers to simply let the crocodile go.

Irelia has a hard time countering Renekton. With Renekton's presence, TES will definitely be playing Irelia mid in this game.

It just so happens that the player on the left is also playing Irelia in the mid lane quite well.

Send the vampire to the mid lane to face Irelia.

Although the vampire can't beat Irelia in the early game, he has a Blood Pool and sustain, making him one of the mages who can hold his own against Irelia in lane.

If the vampire doesn't face much pressure in lane, he can farm well in the mid lane.

A well-developed vampire is more powerful in team fights than two Irelias!

Just thinking about the vampire's explosive damage in mid-to-late game team fights makes Steak want to hum a little!

As for Renekton, are there any top laners who can pressure Renekton in lane these days?

Unless a marksman top laner is chosen.

But is this thing actually useful now?
Moreover, it's generally hard to say that marksmen can consistently outplay Renekton, unless it's Lucian.

When Steak saw that he had banned Lucian in the second round, he immediately felt that he had indeed been prescient, having even anticipated this move.

At this moment, on the TES players' bench.

When RNG picked up the Renekton and Vladimir on the fourth and fifth floors, the TES players immediately understood RNG's intentions.

The white crescent moon immediately frowned slightly.

I guess I was a bit too reckless playing this mid-lane Irelia!

Although Zuo's mid-lane Irelia is very strong, it's highly likely that he won't be able to suppress Xiaohu's Vladimir's development in the mid-lane.

If they can't limit Vladimir's development, TES will have a very difficult time in team fights this game. If they don't want to engage in team fights, they should let Zhou Dian split push.

However, heroes who can split push have a hard time laning against Renekton.

If you pick a long-range top laner to pressure Renekton, he basically won't have much split-pushing ability, and you'll end up in team fights anyway.

In team fights, they can't beat a well-developed vampire.

Okay, it's a vicious cycle!

Just as White Crescent was wondering what to do and was about to ask Zhou Dian for his opinion.

Zhou Dian had already spoken up: "Knight, Irelia, go top lane. You pick a champion that's good against Vladimir!"

Zhou Dian also immediately saw through RNG's lineup for this game, the key being the development progress of Vladimir.

The faster the vampire develops, the greater the probability that RNG will win this game.

"Ah," Knight seemed a little surprised.

Wasn't it you who got the Conte position?

Why did I get the special seat?!
I got a counter role this game. Will my teammates blame me if I don't carry?
"Wouldn't it be dangerous to fight a crocodile?"

Before White Crescent could finish speaking, Xx said, "It's okay, I'll go help Brother Zhou more in the front, and it'll be easier for Irelia to fight the Renekton in the middle!"

“It’s okay, no need to come all the way to help me in the top lane, I can take on the crocodile!” Zhou Dian said.

Since Zhou Dian expressed his confidence, his teammates naturally trusted him greatly and didn't say anything more about the topic.

"Knight, have you decided what to pick for mid lane?" Ben, the support, urged, as the fifth pick's time was running out.

"Uh, me."

Seeing Knight's hesitation, White Crescent immediately waved her hand and made the decision for him.

"Let's go with the plane!"

"Let's go by plane then!" Knight nodded immediately. It was good that he didn't have to make the decision himself.

Moreover, Corki is one of the mid-lane champions he's quite confident with in this version.

Upon hearing this, Ben quickly located the plane and locked it.

In the current version, mid-lane Corki is considered a very good choice for playing mid-lane Vladimir.

With a long range and decent damage, it can suppress Vladimir in lane.

With the ability to roam like a dynamite pack, it can also target the fact that Vladimir never leaves his lane in the early to mid-game, and relentlessly harass his teammates in the side lane.

Moreover, once the plane has a full three-piece set, its damage output is quite explosive because the damage is mixed.

Although its damage output is not as good as a vampire with the same equipment.

However, if the Corki is laning against Vladimir, the Corki will often have better items than Vladimir in the mid-game.

With better equipment, the plane's team fight damage output is often comparable to that of the vampire.

All things considered, the plane is probably the best choice for playing mid-lane Vladimir in the current version.

Many teams, after picking Vladimir, will often choose to send Vladimir to the top lane to farm if they see the opponent picks Corki.

However, in this game, when Zhou Dian chose to pick Irelia top lane, essentially handing himself over to Renekton, RNG definitely wouldn't switch Vladimir to top lane and Renekton to mid lane, thus wasting such an early-game opportunity to suppress Zhou Dian.

Furthermore, while Irelia doesn't have a good chance of pressuring Vladimir in the mid lane, it's a completely different story in the top lane.

The top lane is too long, and with Irelia's Q and E skills combined for chasing, Vladimir can easily be chased down and killed by Irelia if he's not careful.

In the commentary box.

"RNG has a top and mid duo that can switch, so Zhou Shen is in a tough spot to pick a champion this game!"

As soon as Miller finished speaking, TES displayed their plane on the fifth floor of the red team and immediately locked it.

"Huh? On the plane?" Doll was a little surprised.

"Corki top lane is also fine, right? The LCK has had Corki top lane several times, and Corki can dominate both Vladimir and Renekton!" Miller added. "Besides, Zhou Shen is a pioneer when it comes to playing marksman top lane!"

Because TES's top laner is Zhou Dian, both commentators' first reaction was that the top laner would be Feiji.

However, although Wawa and Miller's understanding of the game is average, they haven't just been slackers all these years.

The two of them easily discerned some of the more obvious and readily apparent details.

That is, if the plane had played mid lane normally in this game, TES's lineup would have been completely revitalized against RNG's lineup.

Of course, the premise is that the top lane Irelia's early-game disadvantage against Renekton must not cause any problems in the laning phase.

“I think this mid-range version of the plane is better!” said the doll.

“It is indeed better!” Miller nodded. “But in that case, Zhou Shen will have to use Irelia to fight Renekton!”

"This lane matchup is going to be tough!" Miller said, shaking his head again.

"It's not easy to beat them, but Zhou Shen is always different, right?" Wawa said with a smile.

At this point, the heroes on both sides have finished exchanging positions.

On the blue side, RNG, the Renekton was placed in the top lane and the Vladimir in the mid lane.

The most reasonable top-middle dividing line.

On the red side, TES, Irelia was placed in the top lane and Corki in the mid lane.

This is also the most reasonable upper-middle dividing line.

Since both sides are using a double flex pick of mid and top laners, and both sides have chosen what they consider to be the most reasonable mid and top lane splits.

The outcome of that match will be decided in the end.

Just look at the mechanics of the mid and top laners on both sides to see if they're tough enough.

On one side are Langx and Xiaohu, and on the other side are Zhou Dian and Knight.

When it comes to skillful maneuvering, most viewers, including the two commentators on stage, naturally tend to believe that the latter is more skilled.

On the large screen at the venue, the game had already entered the loading screen.

Both head coaches took off their headphones, closed their laptops, and walked toward the center of the stage.

After shaking hands, Steak and White Crescent turned and walked off the stage.

As he walked, Steak glanced at the RNG players' bench one last time.

At this moment, his mind was filled with complicated thoughts.

He originally used a double swing move in the middle and upper regions, which was considered to break Zhou Dian's red team's fifth-floor counter.

Unexpectedly, TES was able to counter his moves in a short time, directly giving the last counter pick to the mid laner, thus breaking his mid-top duo's flexibility.

No, TES hasn't broken their own mid-top duo swing strategy either!
Didn't Irelia go to the top lane and get fed to Renekton?
But why do I always have this ominous feeling?
Lost in thought, Steak missed a step while going down the stairs and almost fell off the stage.

Fortunately, his 300-pound weight is solid enough and his center of gravity is low enough.

After a slight stumble, he managed to regain his balance and did not fall.

However, it also startled the steak.

He quickly shook his head, trying to shake off the distracting thoughts and ominous premonitions in his mind.

"I hope I'm just overthinking it!"

After loading, the ten heroes from both sides landed in the fountains at opposite ends of Summoner's Rift.

Before the OB interface officially appeared, cheers and encouragement from both sides' fans rang out in the audience.

The venue was packed today, and it was full of fans who came to support the two teams. There were hardly any casual passersby who were just there for the spectacle.

Therefore, under the leadership of the fan leader, the cheers and shouts from both sides were quite synchronized and very loud!
(End of this chapter)