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

Chapter 81 Kong Yiji's AD! (Ten updates, please vote!)

Xu Jing's face flushed red, veins bulging on his forehead, and he slammed his hand on the armrest of his gaming chair with a deafening roar: "Stop talking nonsense! What kind of solo kill is that between me and Zhu Rang? You top laners just don't know anything—in the game between the bottom lane, if you include the support, can it be considered a solo kill?" Then came a string of obscure and difficult-to-understand terms, such as "luring movement," "baiting key skills," and "health management to trade for the dragon, creating opportunities for the support to get kills," which made the other three burst into laughter.

Pang Ran adjusted his headphones, hovering two fingers over the Flash button in a delicate, orchid-like gesture: "Taking a Q in lane is supposed to be done with decorum. AD ​​carries should have the physique to absorb skills. Taking a Q is like an ancient scholar receiving an imperial edict; you have to position yourself correctly and perform the grand ceremony of three kneelings and nine kowtows—that's called strategic damage absorption! You laymen only see it as instant death, but you don't know that when our AD took the Q, the jungler was counter-ganking, and as the support, I was keeping track of the time. The mid laner flashed the signal three times. There's so much strategic knowledge involved here!"

The good-natured Stone muttered, "But you're still behind with 0/5 last hits!"

Xu Jing immediately straightened up and slammed the Coke can on the table: "Backward? This is lane control! Can lane control be called backward?" He then muttered, "Lane control. For an AD player, lane control is called letting the enemy push, understand?" Everyone suppressed their laughter and turned their heads away. He then faced the AI ​​training screen alone and used the mouse to draw the unfinished minion wave in the fountain.

"NXG members, please enter the room!"

The referee's words interrupted the NXG players' idiotic behavior.

Since the two sides didn't have much interaction, Song Yuan and the others didn't intend to greet their opponents in the chat channel.

After a few minutes of preparation time, the room disappeared, and the draft mode's ban/pick page appeared in front of the team members.

Off-field, the commentators for the second game changed from Wawa and Xiaolou to Miller and Su Xiaoyan. The Haier Brothers, who are more memorable to players in later generations, had not actually become a fixed duo.

"Alright, everyone, what you are watching now is the second match of the first day of the LPL between Royal Club and NXG."

"The players on both sides are..." As one of the few female commentators in the e-sports circle, she has a solid foundation with her academic background and can easily recall the IDs of the players on both sides and some common information. "It is worth mentioning that Royal Club reported to the league before the start of the match today that their top laner, godlike, also serves as the team's coach."

"Cough cough!" Miller, sitting next to him, looked a little distraught.

Beautiful lady, how do you manage to talk about Shenchao's suit outfit with such a serious face and without smiling? Teach me!
Knowing he lacked the skill, Miller quickly changed the subject to the draft phase, "We see the players are ready, let's begin the draft. NXG is on the blue side in this game, while Royal Club is on the purple side..."

"NXG's first move was to ban Thresh. It's no wonder they're JM. Since Thresh was released, he's become a must-play for support players because he combines shields, crowd control, and initiation. Royal Club's UZI is a very important carry for the team, so banning the support is equivalent to banning him."

After some hesitation, Tabe decided against releasing Zed.

As a professional team, they have the right to review the recordings of previous matches through official channels. Although NXG's JM didn't play, Yihan's Zed performance in the mid lane was not bad. Letting him play would undoubtedly increase the difficulty of the game for the bot lane.

“Royal Family banned Zed from NXG.” Su Xiaoyan reacted quickly. “Ever since JM popularized this champion in ranked games, Zed’s pick rate has been very high in both professional and casual games. At the same time, due to his unique assassination mechanism, teams that focus on the bottom lane often consider limiting him.”

The damage output of Zed and many other assassins in the current version is completely excessive. With items like Brutalizer, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Blade of the Ruined King, or Black Cleaver, a level 6 hero with full health is a kill threshold, and squishy champions in the bot lane simply cannot withstand it.

In particular, the economic development speed of a solo lane is faster than that of a duo lane. The S3 version is no longer the era when the bot lane was the king.

Jiang Ming gave his second ban to Tabe's Annie.

As the man who brought Riot's darling from mid lane to support, Tabe has a very deep understanding of this champion. His strong engage ability, combined with UZI, makes it easy to open up the game in lane or team fights. In Season 3, if you want to play macro-oriented, you have to press these stat monsters or champions with too much uncertainty.

Offstage, Su Xiaoyan and Miller continued their commentary, "After Annie, Royal Never Give Up continues to ban... Ahri!"

Upon seeing this hero, the audience immediately began to discuss it.

[Oh, what a pity, the royal family actually banned Ahri.]

What's wrong with Ahri? I feel like this hero is terrible in the mid lane. Not only are her skills hard to land, but the damage also feels incredibly weak.

[Hey bro, you haven't watched JM's livestream, have you?]

[Ahri with the Blazing Inferno can one-shot anyone; do you know the highlights of her top-tier gameplay?]

Ahri's Q skill clears waves incredibly fast with two hits, and her E skill, in the hands of a skilled player, provides terrifying crowd control. With Deathfire Grasp, her burst damage leaves little time to react. As JM put it, Riot Games will definitely nerf her later.

Su Xiaoyan added her comment, "Yes, another mid-lane hero popularized by JM, Ahri with Deathfire Touch is especially favored by OGN players, particularly in Korean ranked games."

With an effective skill range of over a thousand yards, plus the existence of her ultimate, Ahri's output environment in team fights is actually excellent. Coupled with her terrifying roaming and assassination capabilities, she truly embodies the word "demon." Originally, her damage output could be somewhat limited, but after Jiang Ming invented the Deathfire build, the last weakness was made up. She can be considered another "mother-level" existence emerging in the mid lane in the new season.

"Wow, what a big deal, Qiangzi! Royal Club has banned two mid-laners in a row."

"That's normal!" Wu Zhiqiang rubbed his shoulders, doing his final relaxation before the match. "Didn't Ming say in the scrims that S3 is a mid-jungle meta? It's perfectly normal for the draft to focus on the mid lane. Believe me or not, the purple side will ban Lee Sin next."

On the third floor, after NXG gave the last pick to the crocodile, just as Wu Zhiqiang said, Royal Club did not hesitate to send Lee Sin to the ban list.

"What will Stone help you get, Olaf, Hecarim, Elise, or Xin Zhao?" Song Yuan asked. "Or maybe play with Bear, damn the power of a bear!!"

As the number of matches increases, it's now an open secret that NXG's blue side will default to picking the jungler on the first pick.

"You bumpkin, Udyr should be the one shouting 'Bear's strength,' right?"

"Um... Olaf, I guess. The enemy jungler is a pro at Elise. If I don't pick her, he'll most likely take Elise, and my Olaf will have a good mid-game."

The most composed person, Shi Tou, thought for a moment and then turned to Jiang Ming for his opinion.

Jiang Ming nodded to indicate his agreement!

"NXG first picked Olaf for the jungle position... but we can't rule out the possibility of him going top. Royal Club, on the other hand, locked in Caitlyn and Janna."

Su Xiaoyan said in a deep voice, "The purple team has a very strong laning combination!"

"The combination of Caitlyn and Janna is a perfect match. Caitlyn's long range in the early game allows her to maximize the damage taken by the opposing duo, while Janna provides excellent protection and her shield also increases attack power. It's like adding wings to a tiger," Miller added.

To ensure he wouldn't be completely out of the loop when commentating on the game, he watched a lot of professional players' live streams.

[Okay, okay, the commentators are watching JM's stream too, right? JM just talked about the female police officer/female duo the day before yesterday.]

[He's practically the Confucius of esports, everyone's seen JM's tutorial videos.]

[(Laughing and crying) Ever since JM explained the synergy between these two heroes, I've basically never seen any other combination in ranked games.] [Don't just talk about pick rate, just look at how strong the pressure is with Caitlyn and Janna. My Janna has a slow, knock-up, heal, and knockback, and if you take Exhaust as a summoner spell, mid-lane assassins will kneel down and sing "Conquer!"]

[It seems that Royal Club is trying to break through in the laning phase by relying on individual skill.]

Now everyone in the national server knows that if you want to beat NXG, trying to outmaneuver them with tactics and team fights is just crazy.

[Invincible in team battles?]

Jiang Ming wasn't surprised at all by the bot lane duo that Royal Club had chosen.

Not to mention that Caitlyn and Janna are already a classic duo that has emerged in League of Legends ranked games, and given Tabe's promotional explanations of Caitlyn tactics in his livestreams to advance the understanding of tactics in the region, it's normal for Royal Club, with Tabe on board, to consider it.

Coincidentally, in head-to-head battles during Season 3, the blonde-haired guy paired with a poke-type support was not afraid of any so-called strong laning combinations.

"EZ, Zyra!"

Although her powerful poke damage comes at the cost of being one of the most squishy champions in the entire league at max level, it's no exaggeration to say that Thornheart is currently the top support champion in the bot lane.

Seeing NXG's player selections on the second and third floors, Su Xiaoyan felt quite emotional. A gaming team with a coach and one without a coach are indeed two completely different things.

Even though the blue side is the first to pick a hero, JM's drafting always manages to get the heroes he wants while avoiding being overly targeted by the purple side, who picks second.

With Olaf on the first floor and Olaf flexing in the top and jungle, if you pick your bot lane duo first, then reveal your cards and follow up. In this way, Royal's third and fourth floors will have to expose two of their mid, top, and jungle heroes. With the counters swapped, the purple side's remaining fifth-floor counter position feels insignificant.

"With Spider and Fizz, the purple team has reserved the counter pick for the top laner. Judging from the current lineup, Royal Club is betting on early-game fighting."

It was a very rational choice. Knowing that Royal Club's strategy of switching lanes and their teamwork was not as good as NXG's, and that they couldn't improve in a short time, they simply went for an early-game fighting lineup. As the saying goes, even a novice can defeat a master. Tabe's plan was to crush your laner during the laning phase. Even if you had good luck in the mid-game, their chances of winning were still greater.

Of course, there is another reason...

For these proud professional players, getting them, who are used to fighting and clashing, to accept the "soft" operation and development team-based tactics is a difficult task. They have to be truly defeated a few times before they are convinced. Most of them are only outwardly compliant but inwardly resentful.

"Weapons, barrels of wine!"

NXG quickly finalized the last two moves.

The moment Jiang Ming saw the combination of the little fish and the spider, he immediately understood Tabe's thoughts.

Although Little Fish also enjoys the benefits of assassins in Season 3, its limited wave clear ability makes it a very awkward situation as more teams become adept at managing minion waves.

Compared to Gragas, who has excellent wave clear, some teamfight initiation ability, and built-in sustain, Fizz is not a popular pick in competitive play.

As an assassin mage, he didn't really become popular in professional matches until the Cinderhulk patch. He would put on a full tank build and go to the top lane to bully tanks, which was a truly hilarious joke.

Picking Gragas allows you to control the lane by taking down Fizz in the mid lane. Once you have an advantage in the mid and jungle, the other lanes won't be too difficult to play.

As for the top lane's Jax, it's the latest tactical system that Jiang Ming has been practicing with the team recently. As a team that focuses on macro-management, how could they not know such a classic killer move as the 4-1 split push?

When it comes to the best team to practice the 4-1 split push strategy, which team in the entire LPL can compare to Royal Club with UZI?

"Wow, a weapon master?"

"NXG has picked a top laner that's been rare lately," Miller exclaimed in surprise.

Both those at the scene and the viewers in the live broadcast room were overjoyed.

As a veteran champion who has been active in the game since its launch, the story of the dodge weapon has been circulating among players. Coupled with the legend of the Grandmaster at Arms taking on five opponents at once with a Hextech Gunblade in the later stages of the game, many people regard him as an absolute icon.

Unfortunately, the version of the game's nerfs were getting more and more painful, and Master Jia could only watch helplessly as the top lane became a zoo-like paradise.

Does NXG's sudden selection prove that it can be used?

Learn, learn, learn! Put out your notes, copy the game and understand it, brothers!

It must be said that players in the early days of the game were simple and adorable. They would regard any hero that professional players or even high-ranking players had used as a treasure, hoping to thoroughly study it and use it to dominate in ranked matches and climb the ranks.

The exchange of pick rights meant that the royal family's final choice didn't waste too much time.

Have you ever seen a Yordle that you have to look up to?

Rambo, piloting a dilapidated mech, appears in the selection box.

— Rambo, the mechanical enemy!
"Rambo!!!" Miller gasped. "Wow, is the royal family really going to take it?"

"In the end, they locked it in. It seems that Royal Club still wants to strengthen the lane matchup. Rumble pushes the lane faster and can indeed suppress Jax's development very well."

Su Xiaoyan analyzed calmly.

Can it suppress Jax's development?
Some spectators who had watched the preseason games shook their heads, not forgetting how NXG had handled LGD's Rumble.

However, since it's already locked, let's first see how the royal family plays in the game.

The lineups for both sides have been finalized.

Blue side NXG: Top lane Jax, Jungle Olaf, Mid lane Gragas, Bot lane Ezreal + Zyra!
The red team, Royal Club, consists of: Rumble (top), Elise (jungle), Fizz (mid), and Caitlyn and Janna (bot).

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(End of this chapter)