League of Legends: Reborn in Season 3, Tuning the Entire League

Chapter 198 A Dazzling Lineup!

After the third floor locked in the mid laner, the match entered the bot lane ban/pick phase.

This means that both players in the bottom lane choose their heroes at the same time.

The fifth-floor support position was a foregone conclusion; Xiao Duan and Moon locked onto the figure wrapped in eerie green chains almost simultaneously.

"What kind of pleasurable torture are we going to inflict!"

Thresh, the Chain Warden!
As the Chain Warden's model lit up in the character selection box, his signature deep voice boomed throughout the arena.

"Oh, both supports have coincidentally chosen Thresh; now, only the AD carry position remains." As a commentator, Bella couldn't help but feel a little nervous, and this immersive feeling undoubtedly added fuel to the already tense atmosphere.

On the fourth floor of the blue building, an explorer with blond hair followed closely behind.

"Death's Declaration has picked Ezreal!"

"No problem. This Iceborn Gauntlet and Blade of the Ruined King build can indeed enable the White Team's bot lane to form combat power earlier. Combined with Thresh's control chain, the margin for error in mid-game team fights is extremely high."

Now only the AD carry from the Black team is left.

Countless eyes shifted and turned to the blue team's seating area on the right.

In the past four matches, the Black Team's AD carry, with his strong fundamentals, laning skills, kiting ability, and teamfight damage output, has won over many players.

Some have even proclaimed Lustre as the successor to the Smile.

So, in such a desperate situation, which hero will Lustre choose?

Policewoman, Vayne, Ezreal...

One after another, AD carries who had performed brilliantly in the hands of the opposing team flashed through people's minds, but just then, a hero that was completely unexpected suddenly appeared—

Welcome to the Delai Alliance!

Glorious Executioner - Draven!

【? ? ? 】

[Draven!]

[No way, it's really Draven.]

[Holy crap, Draven and Thresh, the bot lane is under immense pressure this game.]

[But doesn't that seem a bit too aggressive? The Black team is better at mid-to-late game macro play.]

[Operations? What kind of operations are you talking about? You can't even establish a foothold against the white team in the early game, and you're still thinking about dragging it out to the late game? Dream on.]

Wow, I absolutely love blind picks! In a proper draft, you'd never see heroes like this.

[Looking at it this way, U's Lulu pick in the mid lane is quite effective, with the mid and support both protecting the AD carry.]

Come on, let's settle this in the octagon! Today, in a best-of-five series, whoever chickens out is a coward.

Amidst a flurry of bullet comments, the lineups for both sides were finally finalized.

Blue side NXG.B:

Top lane Hecarim, jungle Lee Sin, mid lane Luna, bot lane Draven + Thresh.

Purple Square NXG.W:

Top lane Riven, jungle Lee Sin, mid lane LeBlanc, bot lane Ezreal and Thresh!
"Okay, the blind pick lineups for the fifth game have been finalized for both sides." Jiang Ming, who had been slacking off for a while, finally rang out again in the stadium's sound system. He analyzed the lineups for both sides: "Except for a very few positions, both sides have picked combinations that are very suitable for the S3 version."

As mentioned before, S3 has a fast pace, and once the ball snowballs in the early game, the final outcome of the match is basically determined.

Neither team is foolish enough to pin their hopes on some vague, unrealistic idea in the decisive game.

Later?

If the early game is over, what's the point of having a late game?

"The blue team's bot lane needs no introduction. The Draven and Thresh combination is a lane bully, and there are basically no combinations that can go head-to-head with them."

"At the same time, U's Lulu pick was very clever. The presence of the two skills W and R can protect Draven's output in team fights. At the same time, because he is a mid laner, he can farm gold and his level and equipment will make him less fragile than a support."

"Secondly, there are Hecarim and Lee Sin. Their ultimate abilities are excellent tools in team fights, whether for initiating or counter-initiating. Hecarim's Shadow Strike, in particular, can effectively divide the battlefield."

After discussing the Black Team, it's time to talk about the White Team.

"Let's take a look at the lineup of the white team. Actually, after today, I believe many viewers will have a deeper understanding of the playing styles of both sides."

"Both teams favor an early-game approach, but the Black team tends to conserve some energy after building their spears, while the White team on the Purple side pursues extreme offense!"

Yes, it's no exaggeration to say it was an extreme offensive.

The strong mid-jungle duo of Lee Sin and LeBlanc goes without saying, and Riven in the top lane can also suppress Hecarim in a solo lane. The combination of Ezreal and Thresh is a death sentence, which is aimed at cooperating with teammates in team fights.

All five heroes can charge in, so there's no question of them being at a disadvantage and dragging the game into the late game.

"Of course, both teams have their own strengths and weaknesses, and in the end it depends on the players' performance on the field."

On one hand, the team has a low margin for error, with only Draven as a late-game damage dealer; on the other hand, the team lacks a true frontline and cannot withstand Draven's high damage, relying on equipment upgrades to gain combat power, resulting in immense pressure in early-game clashes.

Jiang Ming checked the time and decided to stop after his own COS Black and White Team's coach, who was just a tool on the field, left.

The director's camera panned to the audience.

"NXG, keep it up!"

"NXG, keep it up!"

"NXG, keep it up!"

Amidst a series of two short cheers followed by a long one, the game finished loading, and Summoner's Rift was projected onto the main stage's large screen.

The game officially begins!
……

"Defensive positioning!"

"Level 1 Regiment, charge! Charge! Charge!"

Upon entering the game, heroes spawn in the fountain, and the two sides' drastically different commands echo in the voice channel.

The white team chose to avoid combat at level one, while the black team grouped up and began their invasion.

Looking at the starkly different moves of the blue and purple teams on the field, Jiang Ming explained:
"The level 1 team fight strength on both sides is actually about the same. Whether it's Hecarim's full stacked Q area damage or Ezreal's full passive, both sides have points that can provide combat power."

"The blue team definitely wants to give Draven a kill in the early game. After all, with his passive ability, Draven's snowball effect after getting first blood is much better than other heroes. At the very least, they have to invade the purple team's jungle, set up some vision in advance, and scout the location of Spicy Pot's jungler."

As seen from the sidelines, the White Team didn't want to engage. After all, if the kill gold went to Draven, even a one-for-one trade would be a loss for their team, so naturally they would avoid the fight if possible.

Leave two random wards in the jungle to scout the opponent's situation. The top and jungle lanes should be swapped. Similarly, place two wards in the blue side's upper jungle to check the order of jungle clearing.

However, this also makes it inevitable that the unpredictable and reckless playstyle of Mala Xiangguo in the early stages will be blocked.

After circling the blue buff area, placing wards outside the walls of the wolves and blue buff areas to prevent Ezreal and Thresh from switching lanes, the five members of the black team had no choice but to leave, despite their reluctance. Then, the minions spawned, and the heroes on all three lanes returned to their respective lanes.

The viewers in the live stream subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

It's good that a fight didn't break out. If a level 1 team fight had broken out and one side had gotten too many kills, the outcome of the match would have been a foregone conclusion, which would have been a real shame.

It's still more exciting to start on equal footing and rely on individual player skill and teamwork.

The director first focused the camera on the road ahead.

At level 1, Centaur uses Q to prepare to use Rampage's passive to attack minions and stack his passive.

Jiang Hong, having stacked three passive stacks, emerged from the bushes with his sword. He couldn't let Rengar stack up the cooldown of his Q skill, because if the opponent had both minions and a short-cooldown skill, it would be difficult for them to lane once they reached level two and had W.

Zhu Xiaolong sighed inwardly; it really wasn't easy to get something out of Nexus.

QA scraped a layer of minions, saw that the opponent had three stacks of passive, and did not continue forward.

Going all-in at once is definitely not going to work. Even if you have the dual combat power summoner spells of Ghost and Ignite, you still have to decisively avoid the sharp edge of Rui Mengmeng with her big red potion before your Q is stacked up.

Seeing that Centaur had turned around to create distance, Riven didn't pursue him further and instead landed an auto-attack on the minion wave.

Riven is the kind of hero who needs to use a combo and wait for the cooldown of her skills repeatedly. She is actually at a disadvantage when facing heroes whose skills include "spin" and "burn" skills or heroes with extremely high basic attack damage who can fight you when you want to fight and catch up with you during the skill cooldown when you retreat.

Coincidentally, Hecarim's Q, W, and E skills all fit the above description: QW's spinning attack and burn recovery, and E's speed boost for chasing. If Riven wants to gain an advantage in the laning phase, she must always remain rational.

The game of the top lane requires consideration from various angles, including level 1 trades, stealing minions, and back-and-forth maneuvering. A slight misstep can result in feeding kills to the enemy.

After exchanging skills in the top lane, they started a mind-reading duel mode, and the director quickly began moving the camera around.

The two in the mid lane are nothing to watch. LeBlanc versus Lulu, even if Zhao Hao has great skill, he'll have to be patient at level one.

He can't just casually stomp on minions and poke like he can against other heroes. If he's not careful, he'll get hexed and then get a full QAEA combo.

If you don't manage to poke well in the early game, it's incredibly difficult to suppress a Lulu who has both a shield and crowd control later on.

However, Lulu couldn't put much pressure on LeBlanc online, partly due to the hero's attributes, and partly due to U's playstyle.

The purpose of the Black Team picking Lulu in the mid lane was more to limit the team's poke damage and the mid-jungle synergy with Spicy Pot, so as not to be led by the nose like in the previous two games.

Unfortunately, in terms of individual skill, both Jiang Hong in the top lane and Zhao Hao in the mid lane are ahead of their teammates in the top and mid lanes.

The mid laners were doing well in the early levels, peacefully farming and developing their minions. However, the bot lane was a different story. After helping the jungler at the start of the game, Qin Huan, who was holding back his double axes, was extremely aggressive, immediately hitting EZ with an axe upon seeing him.

Death's Declaration was indifferent. He turned around and dodged a probing E from Xiao Duan's Thresh. Anyway, he had been suppressed by Qin Guangguang in the bottom lane more than once or twice. As long as he was not killed and the turret was not pushed down too quickly in the early game, it would be a great victory for him to withstand the pressure.

Go ahead and pressure me. What can you do to me, an Ezreal, so much that I can't farm minions?

"One side has the advantage in the top lane, the other in the bottom lane, and the mid lane is currently tied..."

"Looks like we'll need a jungler to break the deadlock."

As the commentators said, both sides made attempts in the top, middle, and bottom lanes, but each attempt was limited.

At 2 minutes and 30 seconds, Hecarim, with his Q fully stacked, initiated a 1v1 with Riven in the top lane. Jiang Hong's precise positioning and timing were excellent. After landing two Qs, he stepped back and used W to control Hecarim. At the same time, his third Q knocked up and interrupted Zhu Xiaolong's auto-attack, resulting in a small advantage in the trade.

However, with Hecarim's W ability, both sides can accept the outcome unless it's a one-shot kill.

In the mid lane, Zhao Hao, at level two, showed off some skillful maneuvers. Instead of learning the Q skill at level two, he baited Lulu into initiating an auto-attack and used [Shadow Step] to step into the minion wave. At the same time, he chained the minion with the E skill, and then, in the polymorph state, the little animal narrowly dodged a [Shining Spear] attack, gaining a slight advantage.

Seven minutes into the game, Han Jun and Mala Xiangguo arrived at the bottom lane at the same time.

It can be said that both sides have very similar goals and ideas.

Draven's passive ability, which has been stacked for a long time, urgently needs to be activated. Similarly, the purple team also needs to find a way to kill Draven once and force out his passive ability.

"They might be on the other side!"

Moon frowned and said, "If we get counter-ganked, we're very likely to blow up."

"But we have to fight. If we wait any longer, the first dragon will set up its formation, and with Lulu there, it will be harder for us to kill Draven."

Spicy Hot Pot pressed himself against the wall step by step. He knew very well that with heroes like Thresh and Lulu on the team, their top, mid, and jungle wouldn't be able to take down Draven as easily as they had imagined in the upcoming team fights. And if the enemy managed to get a kill in a team fight, it would be a huge sum of money. At that time, once there was a gap in equipment, the disadvantage of their lack of a front line would be magnified infinitely when the Black Team attacked Draven.

"I can get there first."

In the end, Zhao Hao's reminder calmed the anxiety of his bot lane duo.

"coming!"

"A stalemate occurred in the middle of the minion wave, with both Lee Sins camping there, waiting to see who would give in first."

"We were aware that both AD carries were positioning themselves very carefully."

"Drink!"

A white beam of light shot out from the grass and struck Qin Huan's Draven squarely.

Mala Xiangguo didn't hesitate and immediately activated his second-stage Q kick.

"Xiao Duan!" Qin Huan called out.

Xiao Duan's Thresh immediately flashed into the middle of the flight paths of his own AD and the purple team's jungler.

Swish!
[A pendulum of doom!]

The spicy stir-fry was shot down from mid-air.

Qin Huan's eyes lit up as he activated [Bloody Dash]. His attack speed and movement speed increased dramatically, and he swung both axes at the jungler in front of him.

laugh!laugh!
Each axe could draw blood from the hero's body.

Crunch!

However, just as Xiao Duan was about to make a move, Moon's Thresh from the purple team attacked simultaneously, using his Q skill Death Sentence to predictively bind the support.

He didn't try to control Lustre's Draven. The opponent flashed into his position, so there was no need to waste a control ability. In fact, given the opponent's reaction, he might not even need to use Flash.

Controlling the support and focusing fire on the AD carry is the same.

Death's Declaration (W) is thrown forward, applying an attack speed buff to Thresh and Lee Sin from a tricky angle.

"Let's see the real technology!"

pat!

[Mystic Shot] A beam of light flies out, accurately hitting Draven and reducing his health by a small amount.

Mala Xiangguo used his double E skill at lightning speed to slow the enemy down, then flashed back at lightning speed.

Just then, Han Jun's Lee Sin emerged from the shadows, followed by Lulu and LeBlanc, the two inseparable mid-laners.

(End of this chapter)