LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 516: Level 1 is given away, right?

As a team that achieved a world-class record in its debut in the top league, it's perfectly reasonable for them to be arrogant at this point.

However, GRF is not doing so right now, not because they are being low-key, but because EDG's performance has caught their attention.

Realizing that there were even stronger competitors, GRF could no longer ignore everything.

They still need to focus on the game.

As head coach, cvMax desperately hopes that RNG can come up with something new in the second game, at least to ensure that the game doesn't become one-sided after just over 20 minutes, making the match boring.

Yes, if a match is just one team stomping on the other.

Such a competition is likely not worth studying.

That means I wasted my time watching it today.

After all, you can't expect to find a flaw in a one-sided game, can you? That's just nitpicking. You don't know if you can find anything, but it will definitely be very small.

They have no value that can be exploited.

Watching the game like this only serves to boost the opponent's morale, show them just how strong they are, and intimidate your own people; it has no other purpose.

The only research value that can be made is in the draft phase, which can barely help us understand the opponent's hero selection habits.

If things go wrong, BP might not have much research value anymore.

As the second game began, cvMax realized that his idea was too naive.

The biggest difference between the two sides and the first game is that there is no difference.

Despite choosing the red side, RNG still failed to achieve what they wanted, both in the draft phase and in the actual gameplay.

Returning to the early game, EDG once again fielded a lineup that was no different from their previous ones: a tanky champion capable of pushing lanes in the top lane, and a jungler who was strong in the early game.

Ornn was exactly what RNG expected, but the jungle position was a bit of a challenge for them.

Heart never expected that Lin Ruo would so forcefully pick the Rek'Sai, a champion that wasn't very common at the time, and who was definitely a top-tier jungler in the early game.

Meanwhile, the mid-lane vampire might be suppressed in the front.

EDG's bot lane duo of Varus and Braum is also very strategic in its laning phase.

This is somewhat different from the team's previous strategy of focusing on the bottom lane to withstand pressure while attacking the mid and top lanes. It's clear that Lin Ruo is planning to roam the entire map this time.

This left mlxg feeling somewhat powerless in the early game, even when he picked Olaf.

After all, lane control is closely related to ganking. If the team can't guarantee lane control, even if Olaf is strong, he'll still be a bit clueless.

Therefore, Irelia is the best counter RNG can use to synergize with Olaf in the mid lane; at least in terms of mid-jungle duo, they are completely superior.

However, Lin Ruo broke the deadlock right at the start of the game by grabbing the middle lane with a two-level attack.

Can an excavator grab two objects at once? This seems absolutely unbelievable to many people.

The W skill is a must-learn, as it allows you to switch forms and engage enemies. Therefore, you must either give up the Q or E skill, either by lacking damage or by losing a dash.

Lin Ruo chose the latter.

Irelia herself doesn't have much mobility, so he's missing out on mobility.

Anyway, there's still the option of a quick top.

When facing a champion like Irelia who is pushing the lane, all he needs to do is trade flashes.

The rest, vampires can do too.

Because Vladimir has an E-Flash combo that can slow down enemies, when the back lane is cut off, if Xiaohu's Irelia, who is pushing the lane in front of the tower, tries to enter the river and move towards the upper half of the map by flashing in exchange for flash, it is already destined that she has no way to survive.

Scout, who was pinned under the tower, used his E to flash over the wall and rush into the river. After successfully slowing down Irelia, her death was inevitable.

Irelia died early in the game, and RNG's mid-lane strategy collapsed immediately.

It's not that we can't fight later, it's just that the one who gets the kill is a vampire.

This means that if Irelia wants to exert pressure again, the time she can use will be very short.

Once Vladimir reaches level 6, he might be able to clear waves and provide support faster than Irelia, thus limiting the advantages Irelia can utilize in the early game.

Thanks to its strong sustain, Vladimir is actually not afraid of Irelia's direct damage as it levels up, especially given its current advanced state.

Without the protection of the mid lane, mlxg was already facing the danger of being pushed back to the top and bottom lanes, and naturally he was at a disadvantage in the jungle battle with the enemy jungler.

RNG's rhythm suddenly disappeared, and the game was practically over within the first 3 minutes.

RNG wasn't without a chance, but against Lin Ruo, who was best able to capitalize on their advantages, all their chances seemed extremely slim.

The result of the second game was exactly as expected.

EDG easily secured match point in the Summer Finals, and are now just one game away from victory.

Returning to the stage, the RNG team's mentality wasn't exactly terrible, but rather they exuded a deep sense of powerlessness.

If they can't beat them, they can't beat them; they don't have any good solutions.

"Come on, we've already secured the second seed for the World Championship based on our points, so don't put too much pressure on yourselves."

Xiaoming is probably the player with the best mentality in the RNG team. The only way he can think of to deal with EDG is that the neighboring GRF team has a chance.

In any case, they really can't beat any of the LPL teams. It's like they've been figured out from top to bottom, and they can be crushed with a single blow.

He looks exactly like EDG's son.

However, even a son has dignity. RNG is going all out in this game, even if they can't win, they have to win back some face.

Otherwise, it would be one thing to be swept 3-0, but to be completely crushed in 20 minutes in every game would break the LPL's worst record in the finals.

It's like every time I make it to the finals, it's like I'm adding a mark to my name on the list of shame. How could getting second place be so tragic?

"Alright everyone, the ban/pick phase for the third game has begun." Miller, having received a notification from the director, looked at the ban/pick panel displayed on the big screen and quickly began to follow along.

"We'll see if EDG can decisively win 3-0 and lift the Silver Dragon Cup for the eighth time, or if RNG can pull one back and force a fourth game. We'll have to wait and see!"

The voice just fell.

Wawa, who was standing nearby, chimed in with great interest: "RNG on the blue side banned Camille right away. It seems they've completely learned from the first game's lesson and think it's better to just ban her."

Next, I pressed all the buttons on Bull Head Gallo.

RNG has a very clear strategy: they definitely can't ban all the active champions in the jungle position, so they'll ban the support in the bottom lane, since active champions in that position are much easier to ban.

With Alistar and Rakan down to almost nothing, at least it weakens EDG's ability to initiate team fights.

After Urgot on the red side was eliminated, EDG didn't make things much better for RNG.

"If they're going to focus on the bottom lane, then we'll focus on the bottom lane too. Going back to the third game, RNG definitely wants to pick up the bottom lane-centric playstyle again."

On the EDG players' bench, Lin Ruo, who had offered his advice, confidently took a sip of water, as if no one understood his idol better than him.

When RNG was in the most critical situation, they always chose a carry champion for UZI to protect and play. In that case, they just needed to focus on the bottom lane and disrupt the opponent's strategy by picking different champions.

"Varus and Kai'Sa were also banned. Wow, EDG has completely banned all the playable bot laners."

Miller was a little surprised and could only sigh that EDG's approach to the draft was truly decisive.

The strategy RNG will follow can probably be clearly judged from their first two support bans.

Therefore, it's impossible for RNG's bot lane duo to get a comfortable pick just because they're on the blue side.

"Let's pick Aatrox for the top lane first; we definitely can't let the enemy team have him."

Heart, who was originally planning to prioritize the bot lane, had to return to the top lane to protect Letme, giving him a champion like Aatrox, hoping he could pull off some amazing feats.

However, Letme was a little panicked at this moment because Irelia was still outside. If the enemy top laner picked Irelia, it goes without saying who would be more effective in team fights.

However, it's absolutely impossible for Letme not to panic when it comes to the laning phase.

It's really tough for Aatrox to fight Irelia.

Fortunately, EDG doesn't seem to have any plans to lock in Irelia, and has decided on the top and jungle duo of Akali and Ryze for the first and second positions.

"They can even pick Akali first on the other side." Letme was a little bewildered when he saw this pick. In his opinion, EDG really wanted to make a strong push in the early to mid-game.

Especially in team fights 15 minutes later, they absolutely didn't want to give them any good treatment.

You want to rush things again, don't you?

While Akali definitely can't outpace Aatrox in lane, things might be different in a fight.

Whether she can solo kill him is hard to say, but if the jungler comes to gank, Akali with her ultimate can definitely take down two-thirds of Aatrox's health by herself.

Letme has to be on guard; no matter what jungler Akali is paired with, her damage output will always be guaranteed in the top lane.

His sword demon form is hard to withstand.

"Look at RNG's choices, they locked in Gragas first, and oh, the third-floor position was undoubtedly Xayah."

The moment Miller saw Akali emerge, he almost guessed RNG's bot lane pick: Xayah, an ADC who could both carry and dodge engages, was clearly the best choice.

UZI might not have been able to play Xayah in the past, but now it's one of his specialties. EDG, knowing full well what was going on, picked Braum in the next pick, to preemptively ban him, who is currently Xayah's best support partner besides Rakan, without a doubt.
At this point, the only hard supports that RNG can still face are Shen and Tahm Kench.

Both sides entered the second round of bans.

EDG's thinking was that Shen could be kept, while Tahm Kench could be banned, which meant RNG basically had no hard supports to choose from.

Next, they banned Sejuani to prevent RNG from flexing their jungler Gragas to support, thus creating a more cohesive team fight composition.

RNG didn't stop there either, decisively choosing to remove Jarvan IV as a form of retaliation, followed by Lucian, the ADC who is the most effective counter to Xayah in lane.

In the second round of selection, EDG, on the red side, didn't hesitate to pick Xin Zhao, focusing on coordinating with Akali to disrupt the enemy team and initiate fights.

This combination is so dominant in the early to mid-game, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they're invincible in the mid-top lane clashes.

Letme's expression darkened again at this point; he had reason to believe that the opposing team was targeting him.

If Xin Zhao and Akali get caught, even two Flashes wouldn't be enough for them to escape.

It was this lineup that prompted RNG to consider changing their strategy, for the simple reason that Xayah might not be able to survive in the game.

They either need to increase their damage output options or increase their backline protection options, and Kindred is undoubtedly the best choice, as she has both an ultimate ability to protect the backline and sufficient damage output.

After Kindred was locked in, RNG added another hero to their last pick – Lulu, a hero that's almost no one expected.

Although RNG often picks Lulu as a support when in doubt, the question is, if Lulu is picked in the fifth pick in this draft, what about the mid lane?

"Is the enemy team planning to have Aatrox go mid, Gragas go top, and Lulu go support?"

Tianye made a very objective assessment of RNG's lineup flexibility, but subsequent events proved that his assessment was not entirely correct.

Because RNG chose to have Gragas support while Lulu went to lane in the mid lane, this was a blatant 1-protect-2 strategy.

It's a win-win situation: Lulu's unique abilities provide Xayah with a powerful damage boost in the mid-game, while her early-game fighting strength helps Kindred solidify her jungle position.

The team's need for magic damage output was also taken into account.

In the commentary booth, Wawa's eyes lit up with admiration: "RNG's Lulu pick is really good. It has indeed greatly improved the strength of the mid and jungle, and protecting Xayah is no problem."

Imagine when Xin Zhao and Akali dive in, Lulu has her ultimate to protect her teammates and knock up the enemy, and she also has her Polymorph ability to render the enemy helpless.

It does indeed play a significant role in dealing with charging formations.

In the early game, he switched to the mid lane and easily suppressed Ryze in lane. It can be said that he has done everything he could, which has revitalized RNG's somewhat chaotic lineup.

Miller, who completely agreed, suddenly felt that this game was going to be tough. At least in terms of lineup, RNG seemed to have a better chance, and their ability to deal with the charge was like a forged iron wall.

EDG's aggressive approach was clearly a gamble; if they had failed in a team fight, it would have been disastrous.

With the Bounty Hunter position confirmed for EDG on the fifth floor, the draft phase officially ended for both sides.

"Blue side RNG, top lane Aatrox, jungle Kindred, mid lane Lulu, bot lane duo Xayah and Gragas."

"EDG on the red side: top lane Akali, jungle Xin Zhao, mid lane Ryze, and bot lane duo Miss Fortune and Braum."

While Miller was introducing the lineup, the five members of EDG, who were loading the interface, were already passionately discussing in the voice chat.

Lin Ruo, as the commander, said without hesitation: "Let's invade directly at level 1. We can't let the other side get away with it. We have to let them know from the beginning how aggressive our lineup is."

"With me as Braum, of course it's fine. It would be best if the invasion could disrupt Kindred's rhythm." Tianye chimed in from the side. Braum is indeed an unshakable dominant force in level 1 team fights.

Scout had even planned out his actions: "I'll level up my W skill and see if I can use Flash to control the enemy."

The system notification sounded.

As soon as all ten players from both sides entered Summoner's Rift, EDG's grouping up as a team caused the cheers in the Nanjing Gymnasium to be unstoppable.

It seems that slowing down the intrusion is tantamount to giving the other side a free pass.

From God's perspective, apart from GimGoon's Akali scouting vision at the top jungle river entrance in place of Lin Ruo, the remaining four EDG players were all concentrated at the bottom river jungle entrance.

There's not much to say; the moment we met, it was a barrage of barbs and insults.

Lin Ruo, who was playing Zhao Xin and wielding his spear, walked to the entrance of the jungle and saw the approaching Gragas. Without saying a word, she learned the E skill and stabbed him in the back.

The presence of the Gragas here indicates that RNG is also guarding against their invasion. In that case, there's no need to feign an attack and wait for a later invasion; it's time to charge in and finish the job.

Meanwhile, mlxg, who was crouching in the F6 bush, did not expect EDG to invade so blatantly. He was worried that Zhao Xin would knock him up and then Braum would use his Q to stack the passive stun. Xiaoming had no choice but to learn the E skill, Big Belly, to jump away.

The first wave of clashes between the two sides has now ended.

"Lin Ruo has already learned E, so he doesn't want to engage in any peaceful development at all."

Miller could tell that Lin Ruo and Zhao Xin dared to take the initiative to learn E as soon as they met, which meant that they would not give up until they achieved something in this invasion.

Because learning E makes it easier to stab people, while learning Q for hacking only makes you vulnerable to being kited. This is purely a fighting style.

EDG's subsequent actions confirmed this, with the three junglers driving straight in and reaching the bush next to the red buff area, openly indicating their intention to take the red monster.

In the mid lane, after spotting Lulu's position, Scout cleverly used his low health to block the lane and keep his opponent in place, forcing Lulu to engage him in the first wave of lane battles later.

Considering Lulu's considerable damage in the early game, especially at level 1, trading her for Ryze would be a win-win situation.

Once Xiaohu stays in the game, the EDG players who were invading earlier will naturally become even more unscrupulous.

Zhao Xin, taking the lead, activated his scanner and entered the bushes to the side of the red monster. With Braum behind him, Xayah had no room to stay and could only move towards the stone beetle area for the time being.

At this moment, mlxg and Xiaoming finally arrived from behind, crouching in the bushes on their own side, and then watched helplessly as Zhao Xin completely treated the blue side's jungle as his own home.

He casually poked the newly refreshed red buff, then lured it to a bush on the side where there was no vision, and the three of them started ganging up on it.

Within seconds, the red buff was reduced to nearly half health, making mlxg, who was hiding in the bushes with no vision, extremely eager to try his luck.

If we let them go, what's the point of playing this game? Zhao Xin will be swarming us like crazy.

Let's do it then, but we need to call in reinforcements first.

"I'm here, let's try to steal it and not give it to them." After Xiaohu in the mid lane completely suppressed Ryze back to his own half of the map with the help of the first wave of minions, he immediately rushed into the river towards the red buff area.

He knew in his heart that without Lulu, they couldn't win this level 1 team fight.

A fake ward was placed in the bush, and RNG, who hadn't dared to place a ward because Zhao Xin had activated his scanner, were now able to see what was happening in the bush as the Gragas pushed forward.

The two sides then engaged in a back-and-forth battle over the red buff hidden in the bushes.

"Spread out, spread out, don't reduce the enemy's health to half." The red monster's health dropped to about half, and seeing Kindred and Gragas charging in and dropping their snipers, Lin Ruo hurriedly gave instructions.

He knew RNG wanted to challenge him to a penalty, but Lin Ruo chose to refuse.

As the three EDG players stopped attacking and retreated, they were no longer the target of the red monster's attack. At this moment, mlxg, who was preparing to steal the dragon, was in the red monster's attack range.

EDG has already stopped using A, but he belatedly realized he's still using A.

The red monster, which had initially been pulled away to recover health, immediately turned on him and chased after Kindred. mlxg, who was too close, was hit about four times and had no choice but to retreat and use a small potion.

Just then, seeing that Lulu was about to come up, and EDG seemed to be thinking of retreating again, Xiaoming, who was hovering between the walls, suddenly used Gragas' E-Flash to rush up unexpectedly.

With his large belly, Xiaoming directly blocked Zhao Xin and the female gunner, igniting an attack that locked onto the squishier female gunner. Xiaoming, who thought he was very decisive, then realized that he seemed to have lost his footing in this move.

Because Kindred was still being chased by the red buff, even Uzi, who was coming up to deal damage, deliberately paused, waiting for the red buff to be pulled away and turn back into the pit before the two of them caught up.

The speed was noticeably slower, resulting in the failure to connect with the first wave of damage.

iboy doesn't even need to use Flash or Heal to pull away when his health is around half.

Where is Lulu?
Xiaoming, who had pinned all his hopes on Lulu, observed the river position. Scout Ryze deliberately slowed down Lulu's support speed by using Flash and W to bind her, and then started harassing her.

Little Tiger's ambitions lie elsewhere; he can only endure torment along the way.

When Scout noticed that Lulu was about to turn back, he stopped harassing her.

He didn't have Flash, but Lulu did. Given Lulu's level 1 damage, he could actually be solo killed, so Scout didn't dare to really chase after Lulu.

A delay of more than three seconds is enough, because within those three seconds, EDG easily secured the first blood.

On the front lines, once Miss Fortune pulls away, it basically means that RNG's surprise attack has no effect at all. At this point, Gragas, who is in front and has no Flash, becomes the target of focused fire.

Xiao Ming wanted to turn around and use Xayah's healing to speed up his retreat and create space, but as Tianye Braum's Flash Q successfully hit, the Gragas, who was completely unable to move in the narrow space, was immediately stabbed in the buttocks by Zhao Xin's E.

As a professional support player, how could Xiaoming not know about Braum's ability to keep enemies in place?

The slow effect from his Q skill's ice block is nothing compared to his passive ability.

What passive?
Braum's attacks will apply the Concussive Blast effect to the target. Once the first stack of Concussive Blast is applied, allied basic attacks will also stack Concussive Blast on the target. After the effect reaches 4 stacks, the target will be stunned and take magic damage.

Right now, the one attacking him at point-blank range is Lin Ruo's Zhao Xin.

With a simple two stabs, followed by a basic attack from the female gunner who turned around, the barrel was immediately immobilized in place.

At level 1, facing a three-man attack, Xiao Ming, burning and suffering all over, had no idea that he had any chance of escaping, because he was stabbed to death by Zhao Xin the next second.

First blood.

The moment the first kill was achieved, Xiao Hu, who had just arrived at his position, immediately turned his gun around and ran away.

Fight? What's the point of fighting!
(End of this chapter)