LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 512 The Game of Entrapment

This time, it's clear that they'll be even more successful in seizing the opportunity.

The version changes have led to significant changes in the top lane meta compared to the regular season.

The fundamental issue remains unchanged: the current top lane meta is still dominated by tanks, and the nerfs to Aatrox seem to have reinforced this trend.

However, as the era of tanks intensifies, various natural enemies have also emerged in version updates.

This is why studying BP is so important.

Many teams have carry potential in the top lane, so playing tanky champions all the time is obviously a significant nerf. Therefore, it is necessary to use aggressive champions to break the balance in the top lane.

The captain is nothing special anymore.

With the buff to Irelia, a new early-game tank-killing champion has emerged.

Correspondingly, this also adds the condition for Fiora's re-entry.

However, neither of these two heroes is the main focus. In the current version, Urgot is the most mainstream choice when dealing with Sion and Ornn, who are ubiquitous in the top lane.

Yes, after last year's rework failing to make a significant impact, Urgot has finally found his best opportunity to shine this year.

With its ranged poke ability and shield mechanism, it can effectively suppress melee heroes like tanks in lane.

In particular, its high burst damage and ability to finish off enemies, which makes it effective against tanks, has made it a new favorite among top laners. Its ultimate skill's "execution" mechanism poses a great threat to low-health targets, and its lane dominance is particularly impressive.

It doesn't matter if you're a meat or not, as long as your health reaches that range.

The ultimate move kills everyone equally.

Which meat wouldn't be shocking?

Therefore, since entering the playoffs, Urgot has become the true answer in the top lane even faster than the buffed Irelia.

Many players might hesitate to play Irelia because they think they're not skilled enough, but Urgot, who is both tanky and deals high damage, is someone everyone wants to play.

If you don't play, aren't you just making things difficult for yourself?

This also brought a slight improvement to Letme, whose hands were clearly shaking: "Brothers, remember to pick Urgot for me, then I won't have such a hard time in the top lane."

Urgot is tanky and deals high damage, so even if Lin Ruo tries to gank him, he won't be easily killed.

Because RNG, who gained priority by flipping a coin, chose the blue side in the first game, it was inevitable that EDG would take down Urgot, who was strong in this version, as long as they didn't make any mistakes in the first three picks.

Whether or not it will be banned depends on EDG's decision.

During a break from testing the equipment, Mingkai was discussing with the others whether or not to press Urgot.

Lin Ruo's choice in this regard is no.

Urgot is strong against tanks, so why don't we just avoid picking tanks in the top lane? That way we won't fall into the draft trap.

As mentioned before, GimGoon's extensive champion pool gives the team a lot of options.

Even on the red side, they don't need to bear the disadvantages in the draft phase at the start of the game just because of the version.

In the commentary booth, the Haier Brothers, the same regular duo, were still responsible for commentating on today's final.

The two chatted for a while before the director reminded them that the business pairing was about to begin, and a loud cheer erupted from the audience.

On the central large screen.

When you switch out of the BP interface, the first three selections have already been completed on both sides.

RNG, on the blue side, banned Aatrox and LeBlanc in their first two picks.

Although this version of Aatrox has been nerfed, he is still one of the strongest champions. It's just that there is now an even more sought-after champion, Urgot.

In RNG's draft strategy, the top laner either plays Urgot or a tank to minimize opportunities for the opponent.

Therefore, there is no need for Aatrox to remain on the field.

Needless to say, LeBlanc is another example; RNG is still too afraid of EDG getting this kind of early-game tempo.

It is necessary to take precautions.

On the EDG side, based on RNG's playstyle during the regular season, they also turned off the selection for several corresponding positions.

Given that RNG will most likely lock Urgot first, the draft phase is actually very effective in targeting specific champions.

First of all, you don't need to press any buttons for the top lane hero.

With too many jungle and mid lane champions, focusing on RNG's core bot lane pick is undoubtedly the best option.

Lo and Tam.

By removing the two most commonly used hard supports for the bot lane, RNG's pool of available champions for the bot lane has been reduced.

“RNG’s third ban pick was Gangplank for the top lane, which actually sets the stage for Urgot’s laning phase.”

Miller saw it very clearly, so what he was even more eager to know was whether EDG would pick Urgot as their last pick.

The answer is naturally no.

EDG proactively banned Sejuani.

If you pair Sejuani with Urgot, this top-jungle duo is obviously too strong and durable.

With the first three bans completed, RNG quickly finalized their first pick, locking in Urgot as planned before the match.

This is a choice that most people could have predicted.

As long as EDG doesn't make a move, RNG will definitely take it without hesitation.

At this moment, Letem rubbed his hands together, already looking forward to the match.

If he actually gets to play Urgot, who's been dominating tanks in ranked games these past few days, he'll be in for a treat.

However, the next second when he saw EDG pull out that familiar lineup, Letem's smile suddenly turned sour.

"Camille and Shen, they're always calling for support and ganking, right? I have to say, this playstyle is quite effective in many situations."

Miller, in the commentary booth, gave his assessment, and the doll next to him nodded in agreement.

There's a saying that goes, "Whether a lineup that can initiate team fights is a good lineup or not is another matter, but it's definitely not a bad lineup."

Moreover, for EDG, who are already proficient in this lineup and playstyle, it is definitely a good lineup given their existing familiarity with it.

"Shen can't play that role; he can only play a support role."

Heart stroked his chin. "Once we've got this figured out, we can make some plays in the bottom lane."

If you like playing Shen with roaming abilities, then it's not unreasonable for us to go for a lane matchup.

In the current bot lane, the strongest laner is definitely not a regular AD carry. Varus might be an exception, but with Rakan and Tahm Kench being banned, you can't really pick a soft support just to lane.

This is obviously unrealistic.

In this regard, RNG's version solution to counter EDG's roaming was the Alistar and Swain combination.

That's right, it's the same bot lane duo that defeated the South Korean team at the Asian Games.

Uzi, who has always preferred playing core champions, has also started to accept this mage lineup after the Asian Games. There's no particular reason; it's just really strong. It also allows the team to have more diverse playstyles, instead of relying solely on him in most of this year's matches.

When the commentators saw that the crow had been chosen, the Haier Brothers in the commentary booth were actually a little surprised, but they were fine with it when they thought about the Asian Games.

"It seems the puppy has tasted success, as he actually picked Swain in this game. This bot lane duo is definitely quite strong."

They're so strong that even if the jungler came, they probably wouldn't be able to kill either of them.

So, in order to give the jungler a chance to gank and kill, EDG did not follow their previous "laissez-faire" approach by picking Ezreal or similar champions for iboy.

Instead, he deftly picked up Miss Fortune on the third floor, a bot lane AD carry whose early-game damage is quite high.

Miller felt that this was a huge gamble. Although the female gunner could provide multiple times the damage, the drawback was also quite obvious: she had no mobility skills.

Then you'll have to face several tanky heroes from RNG with crowd control abilities, and getting caught out makes it easy to die.

However, this has always been the case in games: risk and reward go hand in hand.

EDG is interested in the potential profits, but also wants to mitigate the risks.

The two sides quickly entered the second round of bans, with RNG banning Gnar and Taliyah.

They don't think Camille is necessarily a jungler. When facing Urgot, Camille seems to be better suited for the top lane, so it's only natural to ban Taliyah.

However, RNG is clearly overthinking this, as EDG has absolutely no intention of having Camille play top lane.

After removing Kindred jungler, who would hinder Camille's entry into the fight, and Akali, who might be chosen to counter Miss Fortune.

EDG quickly locked down Irelia on the fourth floor.

With this Irelia pick, she definitely had a fighting chance against Urgot in the laning phase, but RNG inevitably had some doubts, namely that Irelia seems to be playing mid lane more often now.

So, is the opponent using it to play the top lane?
RNG, disregarding all other considerations, directly locked in the Ryze and Gragas mid-jungle duo, leaving the position selection flexibility to EDG.

"Gragas plus Ryze, that's a practical combination."

Miller, with his extensive experience, had a sudden realization; the strengths and weaknesses of RNG's lineup were crystal clear to him.

The advantage is that it is really strong in team fights in the mid-game, with almost every position being able to tank, deal damage, and control.

The disadvantages are also obvious: there are too many magic damage dealers like Gragas, Swain, and Ryze, making them easy targets in terms of item builds.

In such cases where the advantages and disadvantages are obvious, it depends on which aspect can be better utilized within the game.

When EDG made their final pick, they saw that Ryze was in the mid lane, so they immediately locked Irelia in the mid lane to make things as uncomfortable as possible for Ryze.

As for the top lane position, it's clear that a mage-type pick is needed.

The versatile vampire becomes the most suitable answer at present. Although he will be pushed back by Urgot's suppression, his Q skill's lifesteal and W skill's blood shield make him too strong in lane to cause other unexpected situations.

Once the final vampire was locked in, the lineups for both sides were finalized.

In the commentary booth, Wawa perked up and repeated the script: "Blue side RNG, top lane Urgot, jungle Gragas, mid lane Ryze, bot lane duo Swain and Alistar."

"Red team EDG, top lane Vladimir, jungle Camille, mid lane Irelia, bot lane duo Miss Fortune and Shen."

"Alright everyone, the lineups for both sides have been finalized. Let's move on to the first game of the Summer Finals!"

The words fell.

A massive wave of cheers swept through the Nanjing Gymnasium, filling the entire stadium with shouts of support for EDG.

RNG fans, who can shout with overwhelming force against other teams' fans, were inevitably stifled in the cradle this time.

Outside the game, they are no match for EDG at all; as for inside the game...

Wait and see.

As the arrival signal sounded, all ten players from both sides quickly entered Summoner's Rift and began coordinating their jungle clearing efforts, with almost no action taken in the early game.

Because he wanted to help the top laner, Casarte chose to farm from the bottom lane without hesitation.

It seems that neither going up nor down is very suitable for Lin Ruo's side, as it is obvious that both the top and bottom lanes will be subject to some passive suppression in the early game.

In this situation, starting with red buff and prioritizing jungle farming is definitely the right approach.

If Lin Ruo really has to catch people in the front, the mid lane is the best breakthrough point.

After activating both the red and blue buffs, Camille appeared along the river on the path next to F6.

Lin Ruo was trying to gank mid at level two to make Ryze's early game development as difficult as possible.

However, Xiaohu seems to have secured his place in the Asian Games, and he is now putting this style into practice in the LPL as well. He keeps his positioning high throughout the game and doesn't give Lin Ruo many opportunities when she is farming.

The apprentice will starve the master.

Turning around, Lin Ruo manipulated Camille to take a different approach and chose to invade the jungle, first taking down the F6 camp, and then going down to kill the Krugs.

Then we returned to the city.

Karsa, who ceded the lower half of the jungle, probably didn't expect Camille to invade his jungle and take down the two camps that were most damaging to him.

But let's think about it from a different perspective.

His gank in the top lane basically helped Urgot establish complete vision control. Camille probably knew that it was already difficult to gank with Vladimir, and now that there was vision, it would be even harder to go up.

Of course, this is the conclusion he could draw after knowing the truth; Karsa is not sure if Camille has cleared his lower jungle.

After his quest in the top lane, his primary task was to invade and find Camille to see if she had finished farming down below and come back up.

The fact is that Lin Ruo did indeed come up.

After invading the blue side's lower jungle, Lin Ruo recalled to base and decisively bought two control wards, with the aim of pushing back the vision in the top lane.

He can refrain from arresting anyone, but he must regain control of the area; he can't let Urgot bully his own vampires without feeling guilty.

And there are also jungle monsters in your own lower jungle area to farm.

Therefore, resources like stone beetles are gone once they're gone.

As long as you establish vision, you've succeeded; catching people can be done later.

Later, when Karsa, who had been driven out of the jungle, returned to base to replenish his supplies and arrived in the lower jungle, Lin Ruo had already arrived in the lower half of the jungle.

Instead of farming the wolves or the toads, Lin Ruo, having some ideas, went directly to the river area and placed a control ward in the small bush in the center.

He's about to start entrapment operations.

How to fish? The answer is right before your eyes.

When Gragas discovers that the lower jungle has been cleared, the first thing he should do is go into the river to check, and then confirm that the Rift Scuttler is still alive.

Karsa naturally assumed that Camille was probably still farming her own jungle and hadn't had time to go into the river to take the crab, so he should take this opportunity to kill the crab.

If someone enters the river with such thoughts, they will be like a lamb entering a tiger's den.

Because Lin Ruoqing's position was currently in the river, concealing his figure within the wall separating the dragon pit from the viewpoint of the small grass bushes.

With the help of his True Eyes, he could see what was happening outside the Dragon Pit, but those outside could not see where he was.

(End of this chapter)