You've only been playing for half a year, and you've already reached the finals?

Chapter 111 Does reaching the semi-finals mean success?

"It's locked! Little Fei has locked in Draven too!"

The three commentators stared wide-eyed in astonishment, and the live stream chat exploded with comments.

【? ? ? 】

【Huh? You actually dared to choose that?】

Wow, is this really that exciting?

Putting everything else aside, Xiaofei really gets into games! He's aggressive and daring, and his hero selection is ridiculously fierce!

[Pick it! Draven can carry this game, I'll just go for it.]

[Draven on the first floor, does he really think he's JackeyLove?]

[A classic Watergate tactic, Mr. Dai did it this way in the group stage, and ended up being called a Muggle.]

[Could you please stop yelling? Is choosing a hero a reason to yell? Do I need to write an application to you?]

"Whoa!" Green Hair was still imitating the cheers of the audience below the stage, and laughed: "The live stream chat must be full of question marks right now."

"What a question mark." Zoom chuckled, "Ming Jing is pulling out new heroes way too fast."

Unbeknownst to many, Mingjing has become the AD carry with the widest champion pool in this year's World Championship.

Jinx, Aphelios, Caitlyn, Kalista, Ziggs, Senna, Jhin
This Draven is the eighth one.

But what you might find hard to believe is that, apart from Jinx, Caitlyn, and Jhin, the other five were all trained in less than a month during the World Championship.

I've mastered five heroes in less than a month!
Seeing this, you can understand why Mingjing was able to go from zero to the global finals in just six months.

There's really nothing else to it, it's all talent!

Zoom realized that the gap between people is truly vast, especially considering that he has practiced his entire life without mastering a single weapon.

Meanwhile, the TES players were also a bit confused, not understanding what had happened.

"I'm a little annoyed by Draven's choice of the white crescent moon. It's a bit unsettling."

But it must be said that this Draven pick was indeed deadly.

The three heroes they banned at the start of the game were all banned in order to pick Draven!
But to their utter surprise, JD.com managed to snatch Draven away!

They could have relied on Caitlyn and Senna to counter Draven, but they banned them all, which put them in an awkward position.

"Wait, does he even know Draven?" the prophet couldn't help but ask. "Is he just forcing a ban by picking him?"

"Don't treat them like idiots." JackeyLove shook his head. "He definitely will!"

"So what should we use to fight?" White Crescent asked. "EZ?"

There aren't many strong lane-control heroes left. After thinking it over, the only viable options are Varus and a combination like Ezreal and Karma.

Varus will be hacked to bits by Draven, so the latter is the only option.

EZ Karma can indeed counter Draven, but it requires a high level of skill from the jungler. This combination involves pushing lanes and harassing before towers, making them vulnerable to ganks. The jungler must be prepared to counter-gank.

“Then let’s go with Ezreal and Karma,” JackeyLove said. “I trust JackeyLove.”

White Crescent nodded, choosing to lock in Karma and Ornn first, and then wait for the third pick to take Ezreal.

Without a strong support in the bot lane, it's difficult to pick pure jungle carries like Graves or Nidalee in the jungle. Therefore, White Crescent isn't in a hurry to pick one; he can wait until the second round to pick a jungler like Jarvan IV who can initiate team fights.

TES maintained the same strategy in this game: the top and jungle positions were sacrificed to ensure the mid and bot lanes played comfortably.

Redmi understood this strategy and locked in Nidalee and Pantheon in their second and third picks respectively. TES then picked Ezreal as their third pick, advancing to the second round of drafting.

"There were some significant changes in the bans for both sides in the second round. JD Gaming banned Jarvan IV and Sylas!"

Needless to say, Prince is definitely the hero that Top Esports wants to pick. Sylas is one of Knight's signature heroes, and he's also good at countering Orianna. Banning him will protect Yagao.

Meanwhile, TES, on the other red side, banned Sion and Zoe.

There's not much to say about these two bans; it's just that there's not much to ban. After all, JDG's key bot and jungle players are already locked in, so what they pick for mid and top isn't really important. Just ban their signature champions.

Furthermore, in their fourth pick, they locked in Lee Sin, or gave the Counter pick to the left-hand player.

Looking at TES's lineup, Hongmi decided to leave the choice to Yagao: "What should we pick for mid lane? Orianna again?"

But the toothpaste squinted slightly and said, "The spring isn't working well."

Orianna is indeed a powerful late-game champion, but her self-defense capabilities are too poor, making her a relatively passive champion.

TES's decision to release this hero clearly indicates they are confident in their ability to handle it.

If it were the old "playing dumb" card, then Clockwork would definitely have chosen it without hesitation.

But now it's burning toothpaste!

"Give me Tsar," Toothpaste said directly. "If I pick Tsar, I can push the lane."

Both the Tsar and Clockwork are traditional mages, making the Tsar a more aggressive choice.

Redmi smiled and said, "The Tsar is indeed quite good."

After a brief discussion, JDG locked in Azir and Shen as their last two picks, while TES locked in Ekko for the mid lane as their last pick to counter them. The lineups for both sides were finalized!

JDG (Blue Side): Top lane Shen, Jungle Nidalee, Mid lane Azir, Bot lane Draven and Pantheon.

Red side TES: Top lane Ornn, jungle Lee Sin, mid lane Ekko, bot lane Ezreal and Karma.

Redmi took one last look at the lineups on both sides and nodded in satisfaction.

Clearly, the draft picks were executed quite perfectly.

In the early game, there's Draven and Nidalee; in the late game, there's Azir. Moreover, all three lanes have crowd control, giving Nidalee plenty of room to maneuver!
In contrast, the opposing team's lineup is much weaker, lacking a stable carry in the late game and stable control in the early game, and lacking the ability to quickly gain an advantage.

If we were to rate the team compositions, our own team would get 95 points, while the opponent's would only get 80 at most.

Of course, this rating is based on the premise that Draven can play to his advantage as expected.

Hongmi patted Mingjing on the shoulder, "It should be fine, right?"

"Don't worry," Ming Jing said confidently, "there won't be any problems."

Redmi didn't say much, but simply took off his headset and went to the center of the stage to give a fist bump.

Redmi has noticed Mingjing's recent diligent practice.

He knew that Mingjing had put in a lot of effort to conquer Draven, the hero.

Redmi believes in Mingjing's abilities.

The camera watched as both coaches punched each other and left the court, and the third round entered its final loading phase.

Taking advantage of this moment, the director switched to pre-recorded player interviews.

The first to appear was TES's mid laner, Knight.

"What are your goals for this World Championship?" Zuo Shou's Mandarin was noticeably unclear. "This is my first time entering the World Championship, so reaching the semi-finals would be a success. I just need to play to my strength."

At first glance, this question doesn't seem like a problem. To put it in terms of high emotional intelligence, it means being down-to-earth and taking things one step at a time.

The director quickly switched to Ming Jing's answer to the same question.

"Goal? Of course, it's the championship." Ming Jing grinned and answered without hesitation, "If it weren't for the championship, I wouldn't have come here."

The confidence and spirit of a young genius almost overflow the screen, and it is extremely convincing.

Because everyone knows that Mingjing is telling the truth.

Because Mingjing was equally talented in his studies.

As the best-of-five series reached its climax, countless viewers were eagerly anticipating it.

Let's see what surprises Mingjing's confident Draven pick will bring them!
The Battle of Tianwang Mountain has officially begun!
This time, the jungler started in the top half of the map, so Mingjing used the red buff and the stone beetle to accumulate axes in advance and complete the double axe gank.

On the other side, TES's duo took a more direct approach, with EZ going to lane with a minion and starting to stack his passive by Q on minions.

JackeyLove didn't pick Ezreal just to farm in lane.

EZ, with his passive fully stacked at level 1, is no less powerful than Draven, especially with Karma supporting him.

He doesn't want an evenly matched contest; he wants absolute dominance!
Meanwhile, Mingjing sensed JackeyLove's determination and pursed his lips slightly, but he didn't panic.

Trying to suppress me?

That might be a bit difficult.

The EZ-Karma combo is highly dependent on skill accuracy.

Karma at level 1 is strong with her first RQ combo, and usually you need to hit both the enemy and the creeps with your Q for the best effect.

Once Ming Jing grasped the opponent's intentions, baiting them into using their moves would be incredibly easy. He wielded his double axes, stood behind the ranged minions, and unleashed a basic attack on one of them.

"Sprinkle and sprinkle."

At this moment, Karma used her RQ combo on the ranged minions, hoping to use the AOE effect of her Q skill to hit Draven!

Ming Jing watched this scene with a cold smile.

Sure enough, people without talent have such simple and transparent thinking.

Ming Jing had anticipated this RQ, as his basic attack was just a feint. Draven sheathed his sword and turned around, just outside the skill's range.

Although Karma's RQ combo didn't miss, it still managed to push the lane. But that wasn't enough. Without the threat of RQ, Mingjing had nothing to fear!

Draven pushes forward with a minion, crossing the line and advancing!

Karma isn't the only one whose abilities rely heavily on skill accuracy; Ezreal does too.

EZ's passive lasts for 6 seconds, while his level 1 Q has a cooldown of 5.5 seconds!
In other words, if EZ's Q misses, his passive will be interrupted!

Therefore, Mingjing deliberately controlled the landing point of the axe to be outside the minion wave, in order to bait EZ into using his Q.

If this EZ dares to use Q on the spot where his axe will land, then the laning phase is over.

But JackeyLove was clearly much smarter and more rational than the Prophet. He couldn't gamble the outcome of the lane on this elusive Q. Seeing that Karma's Q had missed, he gave up on the idea of ​​harassing her and decided to use Q on minions to reach level two first!

Ming Jing was not surprised by this.

If JackeyLove were that easily fooled, he wouldn't deserve to have come this far.

But the problem is minor and still under control.

Mingjing also prioritizes level 2 with A-rank soldiers, quickly stacking passive layers by picking up axes and last-hitting minions.

Although TES's bot lane has two ranged champions who can constantly farm minions, JDG is not weak either. Draven's level 2 speed is quite efficient, and Pantheon also has Relic Shield, which can kill minions.

Soon, the second wave of minions appeared, and Green Hair immediately stepped forward, using the three beans he had saved up to instantly kill all three melee minions.

The upgraded light rose up on both pairs of players almost simultaneously!

Seeing that he had failed to secure second place, JackeyLove quickly pinged the signal and signaled the Seer to retreat in the voice chat.

But the prophet didn't quite understand this.

At this moment, the two sides are still hundreds of yards apart, which is obviously EZ Karma's comfort zone. Is there any need to retreat?
But JDG's bot lane duo quickly provided an answer.

Just before picking up the axe, Ming Jing activated his W skill [Blood Dash] to quickly close the distance!
Draven's W provides a 50% movement speed bonus and a 20% attack speed bonus for 1.5 seconds at level 1. Although the cooldown is as high as 12 seconds, it can be refreshed by picking up an axe, which is precisely where the difficulty of this hero lies.

A newbie Draven player, his axes all fall off during team fights, and he can't even maintain his W buff. His damage is even lower than Ashe's.

But a skilled Draven player can consistently land two or even three axe blows, with the W buff active throughout, theoretically making his DPS comparable to any hero!

Green Hair quickly followed up, Pantheon flashed and used W, covering a distance of hundreds of yards, heading straight for Karma!

W stuns the enemy, three quick auto-attacks trigger Press the Attack, and then Draven's two throwing axes come flying at you!

To ensure laning strength, Mingjing specifically brought the Conqueror item in this game.

How high is the burst damage of Conqueror Draven plus Aghanim's Scepter Pantheon?

Kalmar right now is the best example.

With two flying axe strikes, Karma was reduced to half health in almost a single exchange!

At this point, JackeyLove also had a clear idea. He knew that there was no point in fighting Pantheon, so he targeted Draven and used an AQ combo.

Or has Q been released?
Ming Jing saw the Q and, just as the axe was about to land, he decisively moved sideways to dodge it!
Although the cost was that I picked up one less axe, it was completely unnecessary.

Because he never intended to pick up that axe in the first place.

Karma had also woken up from her stun state, and her ultimate ability was ready. As soon as she woke up, she immediately used her RQ combo to attack Mingjing!

This is exactly what Ming Jing was waiting for!
He walked straight towards Karma's RQ, and decisively used Flash the moment the skill was about to hit him!

With a lightning-fast dash, Mingjing flashed through Karma's RQ combo and got close. Only then did Mingjing press his Q skill, summoning another Spinning Axe and throwing it at Karma's head!
Draven + Pantheon's burst damage is undeniable. In just a few hits, the Prophet's health bar plummeted to almost nothing!
The prophet dared not hold back his skills at this point and immediately used Flash to escape.

But Mingjing picked up the flying axe, activated W acceleration again, and another flying axe flew straight towards him!

Unfortunately, Karma shielded herself, preventing the axe from securing the kill.

Moreover, thanks to the speed boost from the shield, Karma has already returned to the tower, seemingly on the verge of escaping!
Fortunately, Green Hair's piercing spear arrived just in time, and with a charged Q critical strike, Karma's health bar was almost empty!
"First blood!"

This is simply the limitation of a duo lane. Even if one person understands it, it won't work if the other person doesn't. In that case, the lane will still break.

If TES used toothpaste as their breakthrough point in the previous game...

The same applies to this game, except the breakthrough point is the Seer.

"Beautiful!" exclaimed the commentators. "JD.com's bot lane duo was so decisive! They both used Flash at the same time! They secured a kill in lane at level two!"

"Good!" Ming Jing was not bothered by the loss of kills at all, and quickly switched his target to EZ.

JackeyLove was completely numb. "Just leave already! You might not understand Draven, but I do!"

But now, facing a situation where he was outnumbered two to one, he had no choice but to quickly retreat back to the tower.

Fortunately, he retreated in time, only taking two basic attacks from Draven, and his health is still good.

However, under these circumstances, whether his blood volume is healthy or not is no longer important.
"Well..." Colonel Guan couldn't help but frown. "Although Karma respawns quickly in the early game and can return to lane before the third wave of minions pushes into the tower, if the bot lane is at such a big disadvantage, won't they get ganked?"

Remember went a step further, turning his attention to the minimap: "Kanavi's Nidalee is already speeding towards the bottom lane, he's given up on a quick level 4! JD Gaming wants to tower dive!"

Kanavi had just cleared the three camps in the top half of the jungle, but he unusually bypassed the F6 camp and started attacking the red buff. This unusual route was obviously due to the lane kill in the bottom lane, which changed his strategy.

Of course, he didn't forget to pull the F6 and Red Buff together, then used his W to pounce on all the jungle monsters and used Hunter's Talisman to fully restore his health.

After clearing the red buff, Kanavi didn't waste any time and headed straight for the bottom half of TES's map.

Countless viewers were quite surprised when they saw this scene.

I thought the bottom lane would be a back-and-forth showdown, but it turned out to be one-sided from the start.
Could they really have dove the tower at level three?

JackeyLove's two games with Draven have never seen such a rapid pace!

Soon, Draven and Pantheon pushed three waves of minions into the tower, and Karma also re-entered the lane at that time.

Karsa's Lee Sin was also released at the same time.

Karsa originally planned to counter-gank in the bot lane, but before he even finished clearing the jungle, the counter-gank turned into a tower dive defense.

He played very cautiously this time, not even daring to let the duo laner sell first, but instead going straight to the lane, trying to force the enemy's bottom jungler to retreat.

But JDG doesn't care about all that.

It should go further!
Karma is only level two now, and it's known that she has learned QE. TES's bot lane and jungle trio can't even put together a single crowd control ability. What's there to be afraid of?

"Kill Karma!" Ming Jing didn't hold back and launched a powerful attack on the weak point.

Green-haired Pantheon plopped down on him and launched a powerful attack.

Kanavi's Leopard immediately followed up with a javelin.

Mingjing also activated W, and with the support of Hail of Blades, he used AAQA to launch three flying axes at Karma!

This is Draven's high-difficulty technique. After all, the throwing axes return to his hand slowly. When the attack speed is sufficient, the attack frequency will be greater than the throwing axes return speed. At this time, you can press Q again to form a three-axe state with two throwing axes in hand and one throwing axe in the air.

If the attack speed were even faster and the controls were good enough, it could even be four attacks in a row!

Even though Karsa managed to block the javelin with his own body, he was powerless to help Draven with his three throwing axes.

Pantheon followed up with an AQ, and in just one exchange, Karma's health dropped to one-third!

At this moment, Kanavi's Nidalee transformed into a cheetah and pounced, unleashing a WEQ combo that instantly killed Karma!

Ezreal and Lee Sin, standing to the side, were completely powerless to stop it all.

"The prophet is dead again! Green-haired Pantheon uses E to escape the tower! Is there a chance to trade kills? Pantheon doesn't have Flash!"

Karsa was thinking the same thing. He used his Q [Sonic Wave] to firmly attach to Pantheon, and when Pantheon's E duration ended, he used [Echo Slam] to chase after him, following the turret's barrage!

But don't forget, Ming Jing is still there.

With Mingjing's talent, it's impossible for the blind monk to just fly over like that!
The Blind Monk was knocked back by the axe halfway through his journey after the Blind Monk was thrown out of his hand!

"Interrupted!" Ji De cried out in anguish from the commentary booth, "Xiao Fei's reaction was too fast!"

As Karsa's fellow countryman, I naturally hoped that Karsa could get the kill and turn the tide, but things didn't go as planned.

Green Hair still had a third of his health left, but Lee Sin's second Q was interrupted, and EZ alone didn't have the ability to finish off this person, so he had to give up!
JDG's jungler, bot laner, and jungler duo banded together and left the field, strutting away!

(End of this chapter)