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

Chapter 549 It's a disaster! TES easily defeats RNG in the first game of the semifinals!

According to Langx's prediction, it was unlikely that Xx would come to the top lane to tower dive.

He just harassed Uzi twice in the bottom lane and only recently recalled to base!
How could they have arrived so quickly!

However, the slightly abnormal behavior of the Irelia just now, and the red minions that were about to surge into their own defensive tower.

Everything was telling Langx that the enemy top laner wanted to tower dive him.

With only half health remaining, the Irelia can't possibly kill him by herself.

That leaves only one possibility: the jungler has also come!

The moment Langx realized he was about to be tower dived, his first reaction was to physically block the minion wave to prevent TES's minions from entering the tower.

But he immediately dismissed the idea.

This minion wave can't be blocked!

The crocodile currently has no skills, and its health bar is only half full.

If you go up there and tank this wave of minions right in front of Irelia, you can keep the minions outside the tower.

The only outcome for that crocodile was to be solo-killed by Irelia outside the tower.

Because Irelia didn't use her E skill just now.

A crocodile without any skills dares to tank the minion wave, but if he gets hit by Irelia's E, he'll get a solo kill.

Therefore, Langx had no choice but to push the minion wave into the tower at this point.

Then, relying on the defensive towers, see if you can survive the upcoming tower dive, or at least take down one of them.

The next second, the red team's TES minions pushed into RNG's top tower.

However, TES's jungler did not appear behind RNG's top tower at the same time.

At this moment, Xx was desperately rushing up the road.

After Xx replenished his equipment at the start of the game, he didn't do anything else but take the shortest route directly to the tri-bush behind RNG's top tower.

Once he left home, his goal was very clear.

The goal is to go to the top lane and take down the crocodile.

No matter how fast they rushed, when TES's top lane minions were just pushed into RNG's top tower, Xx was still one step away from entering the tri-bush behind RNG's top tower to block the crocodile's retreat.

From the perspective of the audience and commentators, who were watching from God's point of view, the crocodile walked directly into the bushes behind it.

If Langx immediately leaves the area of ​​his own first tower and runs backwards without taking a single detour, he has a good chance of breaking through Xx's flanking blockade, successfully reaching the second tower's self-isolated bushes, and then surviving.

However, the contestants are not in God's-eye view; they have to make their own decisions about everything.

Langx did not see Xx appear the moment the red team's minions entered the tower.

At this point, Langx inevitably developed a sense of wishful thinking.

To stay or to leave?
Since TES' jungler didn't appear behind the tower immediately, could it be that he didn't come to the top lane to dive my tower?
If they really don't come, retreating to the self-isolation bushes would be a huge waste of a wave of minions.

What's the difference between this and being dead?
However, judging from the way Irelia relentlessly pushed the lane into the tower, TES's jungler will most likely dive the tower.

However, Zhou Dian is also known for his habit of pretending to be his own jungler during matches.

After playing for so long, all top laners now know that Zhou Dian is very good at leveraging the strength of his teammates, not just junglers.

If any teammate isn't in the opponent's vision for even a little while, Zhou Dian often creates the illusion that that teammate has come to the top lane.

Honestly, too many people have been scared by Zhou Dian's move.

Moreover, the truth and the falsehood are so numerous that it's impossible to guard against them all.

You can't believe it, and you can't not believe it!
A lot of information flashed through Langx's mind in an instant.

Then, he made a decision that he would later deeply regret.

Since the crocodile still has the ward with the trinket, don't rush to retreat to the stun bush. First, place the ward in the triangular bush behind the first tower and see how things go.

Langx immediately maneuvered the crocodile diagonally downwards, reaching the wall above the triangular grass, and inserted the ornament eye from the crocodile into the triangular grass beside it.

The moment I placed the ward and lit up the bush, I saw Xx walk into the triangular bush.

Xx just arrived too!

But by gouging out Xx's eye, the crocodile essentially delivered himself right into Xx's hands.

Without hesitation, Xx decisively took the initiative.

Langx was startled by the sudden appearance of the enemy jungler.

Even though he had tried his best to position himself while playing a Renekton who had no Flash or E.

However, he still couldn't dodge Xx's first-strike control skill.

The crocodile was caught red-handed!

Zhou Dian quickly maneuvered Irelia to take two steps forward, then Irelia unleashed Twin Blades (E), hitting Renekton at the perfect angle and extending Renekton's crowd control.

Then, Crocodile was ganged up on and beaten by Xx and Zhou Dian.

Even right under their own defensive tower, they would quickly perish!
After killing the crocodile, Xx calmly walked outside the turret.

Killing this half-health, skill-less crocodile was effortless; Xx only took two hits from the tower and was out of danger.

Langx's Renekton, who had only been solo-killed by Irelia at level one for a few minutes, was now tower-dived and killed by TES's top and jungle duo.

Langx was so reluctant to give up that huge wave of minions under the tower, but in the end, he was unable to get them.

And he even gave away his own life!

In the commentary box.

"Wolf Walk, why are you still putting up wards? Just leave!" Miller said. "This hesitation has landed you in jail!"

"I think it's normal for Wolf not to want to leave directly!" Wawa added, "Such a large wave of minions, no one would be willing to give it up!"

"But now, not only is Wolf unable to get this wave of minions, he's also lost his life!"

Miller shrugged and continued, "That kill went to Irelia again. Renekton is practically useless now!"

At this moment, in the lower left corner of the large screen at the venue, in the live camera footage of the RNG players.

Langx looked regretful, grimacing, and was already quite like the Pain Mask!

Langx knew, of course, that after being messed with like this, his crocodile was practically useless.

Basically, there is no chance of turning things around.

An experienced top laner would definitely be thinking about playing it safe in the laning phase and trying to get some help from their teammates to see if they can salvage the situation.

If all else fails, just give up. It's only the first game of a best-of-five series, we can get our revenge later.

However, after experiencing two heavy blows in a short period of time, Wolf was clearly a bit confused and didn't know what to do next.

Langx felt immense pressure hearing his teammates' comforting words, such as "It's okay, it's okay!" and "Stay calm, we can win this game."

Instead, it made me even more confused and helpless.

Given Langx's current mental state, the outcome of playing a 0-2 Renekton against a 2-0 Irelia is predictable.

It's going to collapse!
It collapsed completely!
With the crocodile being quickly overwhelmed by attacks and ganks, and Irelia being a very skilled champion capable of taking on multiple opponents, the situation became even more dire.

This resulted in Karsa not daring to go top lane to gank Irelia for the rest of the game. Not to mention Uzi kept urging Karsa to go bot lane.

Even without the pressure from Uzi, Karsa wouldn't go to the top lane alone in this situation.

Karsa felt that as long as Irelia had her ultimate ability, he and Langx would be double-killed by Zhou Dian in a 1v2 situation.

If he wants to catch crocodiles, he has to bring Xiao Hu and Nakano along.

Then, the mid, top, and jungle players had to use a "Three Heroes vs. Lu Bu" strategy to defeat Irelia.

just
It's highly unlikely that Karsa will be able to take Xiaohu to catch him.

Throughout the laning phase, Xiaohu's Vladimir was constantly suppressed by Knight in the mid lane and couldn't move.

Langx in the top lane was clearly losing the game; everyone saw it and knew that Langx was in a terrible state.

However, Xiaohu's vampire performance was actually quite poor in this game.

Xiaohu wasn't solo killed by Knight in this game, and his CS wasn't too far behind either, only about 20 CS behind.

Where did it collapse?

The health of RNG's first tower collapsed. In a situation where both sides were simply laning and there was basically no interference from others, the tower's health was already less than a quarter of its original value after just over ten minutes.

In this game, Xiaohu almost replicated the quarterfinals of the S6 World Championship, when RNG faced SKT. Xiaohu's Vladimir was completely outmatched by Faker's Viktor in the laning phase, and within ten minutes, they took down RNG's mid-lane tower.

It's important to know that in League of Legends, the mid-lane turret is basically the defensive turret that has the biggest impact on the game's outcome.

It even surpasses the ivory tower!

After all, when your ivory tower is torn down, it often means that you are already at a huge disadvantage and not far from death.

Whether or not the central tower is destroyed can often directly lead to a side turning from a disadvantage to an advantage, or vice versa.

The strategic importance of the Central Tower is beyond doubt.

Therefore, the central tower is usually the last one to be destroyed among the three towers.

Even in casual games, it's rare to see a mid-lane player push down the enemy's mid-lane tower purely through lane dominance.

In a competition, this is even rarer.

After all, the mid lane is shorter and located in the center of the map, making it much easier for the mid laner to return to their lane quickly and for the jungler to help defend the lane compared to the side lanes.

Therefore, Xiaohu almost lost his mid tower to Knight in ten minutes of pure laning, and was undoubtedly suppressed very badly.

It's no exaggeration to say that RNG's mid lane collapsed in this game.

It's just that it wasn't as glaringly bad as Langx's collapse in the top lane.

Of course, Xiaohu played Vladimir, a champion that is relatively weak in the laning phase, while Knight played Corki.

After all, the plane is a marksman hero, and its tower-pushing speed is not slow in the early game.

This situation, however dire, can at least offer some justification for Xiaohu's actions.

However, in the quarterfinals of the S6 World Championship, the same Vladimir, who had just been reworked and was not weak in the laning phase, was completely outrageous when Faker used a mage champion who could barely scratch the tower in the early game to take down the mid tower in pure lane.

Let's get back to this game.

RNG's top and mid laners both collapsed in this game!
The early-game focused crocodile strategy collapsed, and the late-game focused vampire strategy also collapsed.

After the laning phase ended and into the mid-game, RNG only had Uzi left, whose development wasn't particularly advanced.

Even though Uzi didn't pick a pure carry AD carry with explosive late-game damage but a long development period, he did pick a marksman with decent fighting power in the mid-game.

However, it is difficult for ADCs to take over the game in the mid-game.

TES's top, mid, and jungle, with their huge advantage, pushed forward, and RNG's defense was as flimsy as paper, unable to protect Uzi at all.

Zhou Dian's Irelia, with a huge advantage, was like a dragon swimming through the crowd.

Moreover, even if TES doesn't rush Uzi, both sides will still set up their formations to attack the front line.

Uzi's damage output is nowhere near that of Knight's plane.

Both being marksman heroes, the mid-lane Corki has better equipment and a higher level, which results in Knight's ability to deal damage while stationary being far superior to Uzi's.

In fact, RNG's fate was sealed when both Renekton and Vladimir collapsed during the laning phase.

A crocodile that loses its lane is completely useless in the mid-to-late game.

A Vladimir who has lost the laning phase will have negligible damage output in the mid-game.

RNG crumbled easily in the mid-game and couldn't survive until the late game when Vladimir took over the match.

In less than 30 minutes of gameplay, TES destroyed RNG's base crystal.

On the large screen at the scene, when the blue team's base crystal exploded.

"So, let's congratulate Top Esports on taking the first game in this Summer Split semifinal against RNG, and temporarily leading RNG 1-0!" Wawa said loudly.

"Yes, congratulations TES!" Miller added.

The live stream camera panned across the players' seats on both sides, and both players had already gotten up from their seats and were walking towards the players' tunnel.

At this moment, everyone in RNG wore a serious expression.

Uz, who was walking at the front, had a tense face and looked a little angry.

Langx, who was walking at the very back, had his head down, so it was difficult to see the expression on his face.

Although losing the first game in a best-of-five series is not a very serious problem.

However, RNG made it too easy for TES to win the first game.

This is definitely a very bad phenomenon.

Whether RNG hasn't found their rhythm yet or TES is in great form, it's very disadvantageous for RNG.

RNG needs to adjust their form as soon as possible and must win the second game.

Otherwise, in a best-of-five series, if you fall behind 0-2 right from the start, under immense psychological pressure, it will be very difficult to come back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2.

Otherwise, a comeback from 0-2 down to 3-2 is something that might only happen once a whole year in a single region!

Moreover, it's debatable whether RNG's raw strength is as strong as TES's.

If RNG really falls behind TES 0-2, then all viewers except RNG fans will condemn RNG to death.

On the other side of the player tunnel, the TES team members wore happy expressions.

On the way back to the lounge, the group chatted animatedly about their first game victory.

For the other TES players, apart from Ben who is slightly more experienced and has played in the World Championship once, the others are all new and inexperienced players with very little professional experience.

It's understandable that these players were excited after winning the first game of the semifinals.

After all, winning this first game means that TES is one step closer to winning today's Summer Split semi-final against RNG.

This means that TES is one step closer to the S9 World Championship.

Which League of Legends pro player doesn't want to try their luck at the World Championship and show off their skills to the world?

Especially for players who have never been to the World Championship, the S-series has an extraordinary appeal!

(End of this chapter)