LPL History

Chapter 178 The Blind Monk Locks the Formation to Intimidate the New Army, the Wind Man Draws His Cold Dagger
Royal Family Players' Seats.

After seeing WE.A choose to take down Widowmaker in their final cap, the group was struggling to communicate in English, which they didn't know very well.

"Blind Monk?"

"Oh, Lee Sin is good!"

insec's answer was unusually firm.

"His Lee Sin is pretty good too."

Zero reminded him in Korean.

Zero was met with a somewhat disdainful smile from insec.

He didn't even bother to respond.

Insec also watched that LSPL finals and even secretly tried to replicate the so-called Zhou-style triangle kill, but he didn't succeed.

However, this did not bother insec at all.

In his view, these flashy combos had no real effect; they were just attention-grabbing tricks.

He is known as the world's best blind monk.

Insec, who came from the world's number one region, South Korea, to teach in the impoverished LPL region, has an absolute sense of pride.

Although he knew he couldn't replicate the maneuvers Zhou Li made.

But he felt that he was better than Zhou Li.

His experience, awareness, and rhythm are far beyond what a greenhorn who has just come up from the second division could ever match.

"Oh! The Royal Club locked down Lee Sin on the first floor without hesitation! Insec is very confident. He seems to be saying to Zhou Li, 'Kid, let me show you what a real Lee Sin is!'"

WE.A then immediately locked in Orianna in the mid lane and Thresh as support.

"WE.A also picked Thresh. Although this is Ming's first time playing in a professional match, I did some research on him before the match. He was very good at playing hard supports when he was a solo player."

"Look at the Royal Club's picks! Hey! They've locked in Yasuo!!"

When Yasuo was first released, he completely rewrote the mid-lane meta, especially for mages, who simply couldn't play against him.

Back then, Yasuo had a thicker passive shield, his Q's wind could be held for 10 seconds, his W had a shorter cooldown, and his R had a range of up to 2500 yards. The most overpowered skill was his E, which increased damage by 25% with each cast and could stack up to four times. When fighting mages, learn E, use minions to increase damage first, then E directly into the mage's face and fight. Relying on the shield to trade health, the mage simply couldn't play.

However, Yasuo has been nerfed in the summer split version, but even so, he is still a top-tier (T0) mid-lane champion.

However, in casual games, Yasuo is still a very bad champion.

Moreover, this is precisely when Yasuo players are most active.

In ranked games, Yasuo is guaranteed to be banned, but in normal games, the mid lane will inevitably be filled with two Yasuo players gliding back and forth.

This damaged Yasuo's reputation, turning him into the feared "Orphan Yasuo."

Zhou Li even recalled that when Yasuo was first released, there was a wave of opposition to playing Yasuo in the Chinese server. People thought that Yasuo was a Japanese hero and threatened that anyone who played him would be a fool.

Early netizens were so simple and unpretentious.

From the commentary booth, Miller began:

"With Lee Sin and Yasuo, Xiye's mid lane is under immense pressure this game. Not to mention that Orianna has a very difficult time against Yasuo in the laning phase, once Lee Sin reaches level six, he can just come to the mid lane and kick you, and Yasuo can follow up with his ultimate and kill you instantly!"

On the WE.A player bench, Xiye's face fell after seeing Royal Club's picks.

Once these two heroes are locked in, there's no doubt I'll get a severe beating as soon as I reach level six.

So he had no choice but to say to Zhou Li, feeling wronged:

"Brother Zhou, please take care of the mid lane this game."

However, faced with Xi Ye's pitiful appearance, Zhou Li spoke with an iron-faced indifference:

"Good luck to you, I'm going to swipe this round."

Seeing that the royal family had locked up the policewoman on the third floor, Xi Ye asked:
Do you want to play with the praying mantis?

“No,” Zhou Li shook his head, “get me men.”

Zhou Li's words surprised everyone.

You need to farm to play Centaur? What kind of gameplay is that?
"Centaur run fast, and they refresh quickly, right?"

Upon hearing Zhou Li's explanation, everyone agreed that it made perfect sense and helped Zhou Li secure his troops.

In fact, many people still felt that Zhou Li was joking with them.

The reason for picking Hecarim is to coordinate with Xiye's Orianna to bring the ball into the team fight, right?
How could it be possible to rig it?
But Zhou Li really needs to use Centaur to farm jungle camps this game.

Hecarim isn't a popular jungler in the current patch, but that doesn't mean he's weak.

Zhou Li remembers a version where, after all the top lane champions had been nerfed, Hecarim, a jungler, moved to the top lane and became the overlord of the top lane. Once his Q skill was activated, he could slap the heads of all the top laners.

This proves that the centaur's stats are actually not very low.

Why is Hecarim not valued in the jungle position? The first reason is that everyone now tends to develop Hecarim into a semi-tanky warrior utility character.

Just like how Zhou Li locked up the troops, Xi Ye and the others felt it was to coordinate with Orianna's ultimate move.

The approach itself is flawed!
But Zhou Li is different; he's going to play his horse and rider as a jungle carry!

Hecarim clearly has the potential to become a jungle carry hero!
What are the key elements of a jungle carry hero?
The two simplest points are: first, efficient jungle clearing and farming ability; and second, high damage output and carry potential once fully developed.

Centaur clearly fits both of these criteria perfectly.

The combination of his Q and W skills makes Hecarim's jungle clearing speed very impressive. Most importantly, his four legs allow him to move incredibly fast, enabling him to invade the enemy jungle or his teammates' minion waves at any time. Once fully developed, Hecarim's damage output is also terrifying.

Once the ultimate skill is activated, it's truly like taking the enemy general's head from among ten thousand troops, or kicking the opponent's carry to death with a single kick.

Relying on the healing and high movement speed of the W skill, as long as they can kite the enemy to the second set of skills, they can turn around and kick them to death again.

Of course, all of this is based on two points.

First, the riders and horses need to have a difference in equipment and level.

Secondly, this is the S4 team.

Anyone who plays with these days is a fool; they're just a carousel toy.

Upon seeing WE.A's player selections, Miller spoke up:

"WE.A has locked in Hecarim! They're aiming for a mid-jungle synergy composition! It looks like today's game will definitely feature a very exciting clash between the mid and jungle players!"

The doll continued:

"In their fourth pick, WE.A directly chose Lucian, which gives them a very aggressive bot lane combination of Lucian and Thresh! Let's see how Royal Club responds!"

The right to elect has returned to the hands of the royal family.

As the second Korean player for Royal Never Give Up, Zero is clearly very confident in his abilities.

Faced with the Lucian-Thresh combination, instead of choosing heroes with a higher margin for error, such as Alistar, they directly picked Sona.

The combination of Sona and Caitlyn creates a very strong lane dominance.

As long as Thresh doesn't make any positioning mistakes that give him an opening, these two champions can keep Thresh and Lucian pinned down under their towers, preventing them from even peeking out.

Of course, this is all on the premise that no mistakes occur.

If a mistake is made and Thresh finds an opportunity, or if the jungler targets the enemy, it's very easy to get wiped out.

That's why Zero was so confident and immediately locked in Sona.

In their final hero selection, Royal Club chose to add some AP damage to the team and also picked Gragas, a hero whose skills can synergize with Yasuo's.

"Royal Fate locked in Gragas as their last pick! Wow, with this lineup, Corn in the mid lane is going to have a royal experience, he can just casually take all the ultimates in team fights!"

Hearing Miller's words, the doll nodded and said:

"Let's see what WE.A's final pick will be for the top lane."

"Olaf has been locked down!!"

As a top lane carry, Gragas can go toe-to-toe with almost anyone.

However, there's not much that can be done against Olaf.

During the early laning phase, Olaf isn't particularly afraid of Gragas's poke and sustain.

From level one to six, if Gragas makes a mistake and Olaf activates his ultimate, all of Gragas's countermeasures will become useless.

Zhou Li picked Olaf for Flandre to ensure the team could at least maintain an absolute advantage in one lane.

This will provide him with space and opportunities to counter-jungle.

While Yasuo can counter Orianna in lane, that's only after level six.

In the early game, Orianna, with her long range and Xiye's aggressive laning style, was able to control the lane.

In this way, WE.A's mid and top laners can have lane control in the early game, allowing their units to move around freely.

The lineups for both sides were thus finalized.

Blue side: SH Royal Club Esports Club VS Red side: WE.A Esports Club.

Top lane: (cola) Gragas VS (Flandre) Olaf.

Jungler: (insec) Lee Sin VS (Li) War Shadow.

Mid Lane: (corn) Yasuo VS (xiye) Orianna

ADC: (UZI) Caitlyn VS (smlz) Lucian.

Support: (zero) Sona VS (ming) Thresh.

Miller looked at the lineups of both sides and said:

"Royal Family's lineup is absolutely top-tier in team fights! It's a lineup that makes it very easy to find opportunities. Whether it's Gragas or Lee Sin, as long as they can engage, WE.A will feel immense pressure in small-scale team fights!"

The doll nodded and echoed:

"Yes, in short, it feels like this game will depend on the mid lane matchup! It'll be about which side's mid and jungle are stronger and can gain an advantage! Whether it's Orianna or Yasuo, once they're farmed up, their performance in team fights will be terrifying!"

As both sides entered the game, enthusiastic cheers erupted from the audience.

Even with headphones on, UZI could hear the cheers; they were all cheering for WE.A.

Despite being a team that had just been promoted from the second division, they had so many supporters because of their association with WE.

As for the royal family, they have been subjected to all sorts of insults and harassment from netizens since Season 3.

Thinking of this, UZI felt even more frustrated.

As soon as I entered the game, I clicked on my own jungle and said:

"If they want to fight, we'll engage them directly!"

(End of this chapter)