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

Chapter 261 What's with all the fancy stuff?
“Ding ding. Ding.”

A continuous stream of signals rang in Ming Jing's ears. His teammates rushed out of the fountain to take defensive positions at the start of the game, while also discussing their opening strategy.

In a situation where a short-ranged champion can't gain lane priority quickly against a long-ranged champion in the top lane, JieJie will naturally have to farm in the bottom lane, relying on the strength of Miss Fortune and Nautilus to make plays.

“I’ve chosen Hextech Flash this game,” Meiko said. “So, I’ll go trade Flash with him at level two, and then you can look for an opportunity to gank?”

“No problem.” Jie Jie nodded. “That’s what I thought too.”

Ruler played Varus this game, one of the easiest AD carries to gank. As long as he doesn't have Flash, he's a walking ATM.

Of course, GEN isn't stupid either. With Ruler without Flash, they'll definitely set up heavy defenses in the bottom lane. Then it'll be a battle of raw strength between the two sides.

Mingjing listened to the conversation between the underlings without saying anything, but simply picked up LeBlanc and went online with the minions.

This LeBlanc vs. Lissandra matchup is theoretically a disadvantageous one, but Mingjing is not flustered at all.

Before encountering a stronger Ice Maiden, every LeBlanc player would think that LeBlanc is not afraid of Ice Maiden.

That's exactly what Chovy was thinking, which is why she dared to boldly steal the Demoness in her duel with Mingjing.

The result was quite humorous: Ice Maiden was banned by HLE in the next game.

Mingjing shared the same thought.

However, he has not yet met an Ice Maiden who can teach him.

As soon as he went live, Mingjing adopted a rather aggressive stance, separating himself from the minions and inviting the Ice Maiden to exchange blows.

Crystal Maiden's Q skill is excellent for both pushing lanes and harassing, but its weakness is also obvious: its initial range is very short, and it only increases its range after shattering upon hitting a unit.

Therefore, when facing Lissandra, you only need to control the distance of your Q skill and try to ensure that there are no minions between you and Lissandra.

In this way, it doesn't matter if she gets hit by skills. First, if Lissandra's Q doesn't hit the minions, her wave clear will be slowed down, and she won't be able to pressure LeBlanc from the minion wave. Second, without minions blocking the way, LeBlanc can easily fight back, and she won't lose in the trade.

However, BDD clearly understood that he couldn't just go straight for LeBlanc with his Q, so he started by Q'ing minions to reach level two first.

Ming Jing remained calm and first used his pawns to feign weakness.

A level one enchantress doesn't have much combat power; we'll have to wait.

After Crystal Maiden secured level two, Ming Jing wasn't afraid. Crystal Maiden at level two only learned a W skill with a range of only 450, which, when combined with Aftershock, was quite suppressive against melee assassins, but not very useful in ranged duels.

Facing the Ice Maiden who was pressing forward at level two, Ming Jing didn't even bother to retreat. He stayed outside the range of the Ice Maiden's W skill and traded a Q skill with her.

While casting her skill, the Ice Maiden also followed up with a basic attack.
However, Mingjing did not rush to retaliate with a basic attack, but instead used it on the minions.

"Om."

A light of upgrade emanated from the demoness, leveling her up to level two.

Mingjing quickly invested his skill points into E, and then a chain extended out!
BDD is in excellent form today. He reacted very quickly, realizing the moment the Enchantress's chains were unleashed that there seemed to be no way to avoid them.

He chose to do the opposite, taking advantage of the moment when the Demoness's chains were in effect, turning around to close the distance, and even trying to land an Ice Ring on her.

The two sides were only a little over 500 yards apart, and just a step away from the 450-yard mark of the Ice Ring.

As long as aftershocks are triggered, this blood exchange will not be a loss.

However, Ming Jing saw the Ice Maiden's forward press and reacted just as quickly, instantly canceling his about-to-be-launched basic attack and almost simultaneously turning around to reposition!
A ring of ice was stomped out at that moment, the skill effect almost grazing LeBlanc's back, but it did not hit her.

It wasn't until this point that LeBlanc turned around again, landing a basic attack on Lissandra. Combined with the subsequent burst of damage from her second E, which triggered Electrocute, and the continuous minion attacks, she significantly reduced Lissandra's health bar.

BDD suffered a huge loss after a major roster overhaul, and a surge of frustration rose in his chest. However, there was nothing he could do but distance himself and plan for the long term.

BDD was already feeling the pressure even though it had only just begun.

The exquisite control of distance was a delight to watch for countless viewers.

That's just right.

You need to have this level of skill to play LeBlanc.

Look at Chovy, he's playing LeBlanc now. Does he even know how to play her? He doesn't have that skill, you know that!

Ming Jing relaxed a little at this moment, and a slight smile appeared on his face.

This first clash shows that BDD is not the Lissandra who can suppress his LeBlanc.

Forget about suppressing him, this maneuver is probably even worse than Chovy's.

Of course, Mingjing didn't nail the coffin lid shut for BDD; he only made a preliminary conclusion.

We'll have to see how things go next.

With a health advantage, Mingjing rejoined the laning phase.

Meanwhile, the bottom lane is also developing according to the established plan.

After securing level two, Meiko watched as Ruler retreated, and Nautilus used Flash Hook to deliver the attack.

Ruler reacted quickly, immediately turning around and repositioning, but for a Varus who hadn't bought boots at level 1, trying to dodge the Flash hook by moving around was nothing short of a pipe dream.

One hook lands on the face, followed by passive restraint.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Viper rushed to the face and delivered an A followed by a Q!

Despite being caught off guard, the GEN duo remained calm. Ruler finished off the low-health minion with a basic attack, while support Life used Relic Shield to take down another half-health melee minion. Both of them leveled up to level two.

Taking this opportunity, Rakan used his W [Grand Entrance] to lift Miss Fortune to her feet, hoping to help Ruler resolve this crisis.

The two of them could certainly understand that the EDG duo wanted to trade Ruler's Flash.

If Varus doesn't have Flash, GEN will definitely have to heavily defend the bottom lane, which will put them in a very passive position.

Therefore, the two of them naturally wanted to find a way to save that Flash ability.

But Viper remained calm in the face of Rakan's sudden W attack. Miss Fortune activated her W [Great Leap Forward], which refreshed her movement speed bonus, and managed to escape the skill's range at the last second. She then quickly chased after Varus and kept attacking him.

Ruler was truly out of options and had no choice but to use Flash to save his health.

The EDG duo weren't greedy; they grabbed Rakan and beat him up again before turning and leaving.

Meiko typed rapidly in the chat box, recording Varus's Blink cooldown.

"7.30AD"

The Flash ability that was used at 2:30 will not be ready again until 7:30.

On the mid lane, Ming Jing noticed the flash timer while laning and nodded to himself.

Everything is progressing according to plan.

With a flash at seven and a half minutes, he might have a chance to go to the bottom lane and join in the fun.

Of course, the premise is that he must first establish a sufficient advantage in the middle lane.

In the middle lane, Mingjing took down the siege minion and leveled up to level three almost simultaneously with the Ice Maiden.

Without much hesitation, Mingjing used W to move forward again, initiating a blood exchange invitation.

When LeBlanc is fighting Ice Maiden, you have to suppress her by lowering her health, so you can't miss any opportunity to trade blows.

LeBlanc's W landed with surgical precision, not by closing the distance to the maximum extent, but by landing exactly 450 yards away from Lissandra, before unleashing her E.

This time, BDD didn't want to trade blows with Mingjing; he just wanted to clear the lane and then return to base to finish off the remaining enemies. But Mingjing's chains were like locks, precisely locking onto him, leaving him no choice but to fight back.

He responded with a QA of his own, while already planning his counterattack.

Once hit by this E skill, there's no way to escape; getting hit by an EQ combo with Electrocute is inevitable.

However, since LeBlanc uses her W ability for mobility, and lacks a damage skill, her damage output is unlikely to be very high.

He first countered with QA, and after the immobilization ended, he used E to face his opponent and W to trigger the aftershock and counterattack. He didn't lose any health in this exchange.

Just before the root was triggered, BDD used his E Ice Claw to throw it at the starting point of LeBlanc's W.

This crampon can hit not only the siren in its path.

Moreover, the movement time of the Ice Claws perfectly covers the duration of the stun, allowing the Ice Maiden to use her second E skill to switch positions and counterattack the moment the stun is lifted!

The moment Ming Jing saw the crampon, his mind raced, and he immediately understood BDD's strategy.

If we follow the original plan, the Ice Maiden will definitely launch a major counterattack.

They play very aggressively.

However, the wind-up is too obvious.

Ming Jing remained calm and maintained the chains. Once the restraint was triggered, he immediately began to move diagonally.

In Mingjing's eyes, it seemed as if a circle with a radius of 450 yards appeared around Ice Maiden and Ice Claw. Ice Maiden's circle was fixed, while Ice Claw's circle was moving.

By observing the two intersecting circles, Mingjing can easily find the intersection point between them and walk out of the diagonal line, thus exiting the range of the two circles.

Ming Jing even dared to stand at the very edge of the circle, giving the other side the illusion that they could step on it.

In League of Legends, skills are based on the feet as the hit point; only hitting the feet counts as a hit. However, the character models are three-dimensional, so anything above the feet is considered an obstacle.

Aim for the head but you won't hit anyone; you can only hit them by aiming for the feet. This is a fact that veteran Ezreal players understand.

This is why, even in ranked matches where the ban/pick phase doesn't emphasize the draft phase, there's a significant difference in win rates between the red and blue teams.

Because the blue team hero is positioned in the lower left corner of the screen during the laning phase, their head is closer to the enemy's, which often results in skills passing through the enemy's head but not hitting them.

EDG was on the blue side in this game.

BDD fell for the trick. He pressed W repeatedly and switched positions the moment the imprisonment ended, then stepped on a circle of ice rings.

The Ice Ring's effects even covered LeBlanc's head, but it didn't affect her at all.

BDD's expression changed; he knew he was about to suffer a major blow.

Is this person really human? Is this distance control not scripted?

The Ice Maiden's repositioning move essentially sent her into the enemy's heartland. Even if LeBlanc had no skills, the minions' help was enough to give the Ice Maiden a massive blow!

Mingjing chased after the Ice Maiden, landing a few light auto-attacks before finishing her off with a Q skill, reducing her health to one-third!

Seeing the Ice Maiden retreat back under the tower, Ming Jing's killing intent was palpable.

Generally speaking, you are only allowed one mistake per laning phase.

After making a mistake, it's still possible to make amends.

Someone like BDD, who made the same mistake twice, would be lucky to escape death.

However, Mingjing concealed his killing intent very well, maintaining a normal advantageous position, using his health advantage to prevent Ice Maiden from getting last hits, and only last-hitting minions while slowly pushing the lane.

Mingjing waited until the fourth wave of minions passed before slowly pushing the minion wave towards the tower.

The LeBlanc, who had already reached level four, seemed to have no interest in the Ice Maiden under the tower; she simply turned her head and disappeared into the darkness.

This is certainly reasonable, after all, the Ice Maiden with Aftershock standing under the tower is not so easy to kill.

BDD even pinged a disappearing signal, indicating to his teammates to be careful of LeBlanc's roaming.

BDD even considered that his teammates might get caught, but he never thought that he would die.

However, from God's perspective, it is clear that LeBlanc did not obediently return to the city, but instead stepped into the upper river, wandered around in the darkness, and went directly to the F6 camp in the red zone of GEN.

At this moment, the Ice Maiden was farming minions under the tower. After consuming a few melee minions, she also reached level four.

The upgrade provided additional health, restoring the Ice Maiden's health to around 40%.

Looking at the health bar, Ming Jing knew that the health was still within the kill threshold of a level four LeBlanc.

We just need to be more careful.

Without much thought, LeBlanc used her W to jump over the wall, landed on Lissandra's face, and unleashed a basic attack followed by her Q!

The appearance of this enchantress startled BDD.

Damn it, they're really coming after me?
Although BDD was startled, his actions were still swift. Without much thought, the Ice Maiden decisively used Flash and W to engage!
LeBlanc's AQ combo has already drawn the turret's aggro. If he can calmly counterattack, who knows who might be the one to die!

But in the very instant she flashed forward, LeBlanc also vanished from her spot!

LeBlanc used her W second teleport to return to the F6 camp. Crystal Maiden stomped on a circle of ice rings, only to step on another circle of air.

So far in the laning phase, Crystal Maiden has stepped on Ice Ring three times, but has not hit LeBlanc even once, and Aftershock has not been triggered yet.

Back at the F6 camp, LeBlanc used her E skill [Phantom Chains] again, hitting Lissandra's body through the wall!

Seeing the skill hit, Ming Jing didn't hesitate at all. He immediately flashed over the wall and returned to the turret's range!
However, because the skill hit the tower before entering it, the skill did not attract the tower's aggro, and the tower continued to clear the minions on its own.

Ming Jing glanced at the turret's attack and, just as the turret was about to fire, landed a basic attack on the Ice Maiden.

As usual, BDD threw out Ice Claws just before E's Imprisonment, intending to switch positions and escape after the Imprisonment ended.

But given his remaining health, it's questionable whether he can survive until then.

At this moment, BDD unleashed his fastest hand speed in his professional career, frantically pressing E. The Ice Maiden switched positions to create distance the instant the root ended, but LeBlanc's next basic attack was also launched at the same time, turning in mid-air and chasing after the Ice Maiden.

The damage from that basic attack was calculated with incredible precision, just enough to empty the Ice Maiden's health bar!
"First blood!"

The cheers from the audience surged instantly, and the three commentators in the LPL commentary booth also started shouting.

"Solo kill!" Miller roared, "A tower dive solo kill from Xiaofei! BDD really messed up this time!"

Just as the doll had gathered her thoughts and was about to deliver a passionate speech, the camera suddenly switched to the bottom lane.

In the video, JieJie's Poppy chose a different approach, flashing from the tri-bush in GEN's blue buff area to the bottom lane, appearing behind GEN's bot lane duo.

A loud shout from Colonel Guan rang out instantly: "JieJie is ganking bot lane this time, Ruler needs to be careful!"

Poppy flashes behind, how can a Varus without Flash defend against that?
Poppy was still holding onto her W, and even if Rakan tried to use W to restrict Poppy, he couldn't.

GEN's support life had no choice but to try to get close to Poppy before using W, giving the opponent no time to react.

But young JieJie's thinking was incredibly clear. The moment Luo entered the range of W, he proactively activated W [Unwavering Demeanor], directly blocking the possibility of Luo using W.

Forget all that fancy stuff, let's see if I can stand up to you!
Poppy used her W's speed boost to quickly catch up to Varus and used her E to knock him down.

Ruler had no room to maneuver and could only watch as he was rammed into Titan's face before being hooked and killed.

Titan followed up with QAE and Poppy with QA, instantly reducing Varus to low health. Viper's Miss Fortune then secured the kill with just a QA!
"EDG Viper has killed GEN Ruler!"

(End of this chapter)