League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 123 Torbjörn Top Lane!

According to reports, EDG won the coin toss before the match, gaining the right to choose sides for games one, three, and five, and chose the blue side for themselves in the first game! Consequently, QG will have the right to choose sides for games two and four, and will be on the red side in the first game!

Chen Dongqing was lying on the chair at this moment. His vision went over the screen in front of him and saw a huge audience in front of him. There were supporters of EDG and supporters of QG in the audience.

Both sides' fans held the official free light sticks and sat on both sides along the center line of the venue. From the players' perspective, the white and black light sticks seemed to be subtly competing, which was quite spectacular.

At the same time, it also put considerable pressure on the contestants.

This was also Xiangguo's first time on the final stage. Looking at the tens of thousands of audience members in front of him, he couldn't help but move his chair forward a little so that the monitor would occupy his entire field of vision.

Chen Dongqing, however, was not anxious at all. He just lay there quietly, actually quite enjoying the scene.

During the draft phase, EDG gave their first ban, and as the blue side, they didn't hesitate to ban Fiora.

A trump card that has already been used is no longer a trump card. EDG is probably not going to pretend anymore and wants to bring out Shen directly.

The QG members exchanged glances. They weren't flustered; they didn't even consider banning Shen, but simply put Twisted Fate in the ban list.

Pawn's cards are uncounterable and can only be banned; this conclusion was reached during the regular season.

"Alright, for the second ban, EDG bans Sivir, while QG counters by banning Maokai!"

In the final pick, EDG held down Nautilus, and QG held down Ekko, quickly entering the champion selection phase.

EDG made their first pick without hesitation, immediately securing Alistar, as it's the highest priority item for the support role!

"Let's start with the bot lane," Banbazi said. "How about Braum and Lucian?"

Uzi immediately nodded: "Sure, you can just take these two without hesitation."

QG's draft strategy is like this: they usually pick the bottom lane first, because Uzi's laning strength can ensure that the bottom lane will not fall behind even if it is countered. Then they pick the mid and top lanes as late as possible, giving Doinb lane priority and Chen Dongqing a laning advantage.

After the bottom lane duo locked in first, EDG quickly made their move.

Since the cards were gone, EDG didn't hesitate and locked in Ryze and Graves on the second and third floors.

This is a mid-jungle duo they've used many times in the semifinals, so confirming it shouldn't be a problem.

QG, of course, responded to the move by quickly locking onto Rambo and Excavator!

Rek'Sai isn't popular in this patch, but since their mid laner picked Rumble and their top laner pre-picked Heimerdinger, the jungler needed to fill in with an AD carry with crowd control, and Rek'Sai was the optimal solution.

"Rumble plus an excavator, no problem!" Wawa nodded in the commentary booth. "Rumble should be used as a flex pick in the mid and top lanes. We're still unsure who will get the last spot on QG!"

Miller, still watching the screen, continued, "Then we can see that EDG locked in Shen as their fourth pick, and then finally picked Twitch as their fifth pick! Twitch and Shen? That's a pretty classic combination!"

Twitch's invisibility allows him to bring Shen directly to the opponent's face, followed by Shen's E to lock down the enemy and Twitch's ultimate to unleash a barrage of attacks. This combination was used by many teams even before Shen was reworked.

Although Shen has been reworked, his E and R skills haven't changed much, so he's still usable.

"They really picked Shen," Banbazi chuckled, then asked, "Should we just lock Heimerdinger?"

Chen Dongqing nodded emphatically: "Locked!"

He's currently at a 95% proficiency level in Big Head, who's he afraid of?

"Hmm~ That was definitely a wise choice!"

An unfamiliar character appeared on screen, and there was an immediate commotion in the audience!

"Bighead?" Miller asked, intrigued. "What position does Bighead play?"

The hero Big Head is rarely seen in both competitive and ranked matches. Even the two commentators didn't know about the hero's counter-relationships!

Wawa was a shrewd old man; he knew that too much talk could lead to mistakes, so at this moment, he didn't guess and just vaguely said, "Whether it's mid or top lane, Heimerdinger should have an advantage in the laning phase, after all, this hero's laning ability is quite invincible."

While the two commentators were chatting, the two sides switched positions, and the final lineup was determined.

Blue side EDG: Top lane Shen, Jungle Graves, Mid lane Ryze, Bot lane Twitch and Alistar.

Red team QG: Top laner Torbjörn, jungler Rek'Sai, mid laner Rumble, bot lane Lucian and Braum.

"Is it top laner Heimerdinger?" Wawa rubbed his chin. "Could this be a special tactic QG uses to counter Shen?"

"Impossible!" Miller was the first to disbelieve: "EDG only used the new Shen for the first time in the last game of the semifinals! It's only been five days, QG shouldn't have had enough time to prepare!"

Wawa shrugged: "Who knows? But no matter what, QG did bring out a brand new hero to counter Shen. This must be a trick they prepared in advance. As for when they started practicing this trick, we have no idea."

At this point, there was also a lot of discussion in the live chat.

[Top laner?]

[This is really strange. This guy played Overwatch for five days, and he still managed to pull out a new hero in the finals?]

[Don't be so harsh on him. Do you think he practiced so many Torbjörn games for nothing?]

[What the hell?! Playing Torbjörn and practicing Heimerdinger, is it really cross-platform?!]

I want to see what kind of effect this big head can produce!

The loading process wasn't long, and soon, both teams' heroes appeared at their respective fountains.

Chen Dongqing certainly had a set of fixed tactics in mind. After buying a Doran's Ring and two health potions, he quickly headed to the top lane while communicating with his teammates about the level 1 strategy: "I'll just go straight to the lane and set up the turret. I won't defend the top jungle with you, there's no need."

EDG's lineup is clearly designed to protect their bot lane; they're unlikely to invade QG's top and jungle. If they do, it just means the opponent is out of their mind.

There's not much to say. Chen Dongqing immediately placed a turret in the middle of the top lane. This turret can attack all minions at the same time after the minion waves meet.

Then Chen Dongqing hid in the grass and waited for his Q skill to cool down.

There's no need to rush when placing turrets; wait until you have three turrets before placing the second one.

Although placing turrets in this way will ultimately lead to the same result, it can prevent the opponent from grouping up to destroy the turrets. If you place three turrets at once, but they are all destroyed, then the top lane will be a bit difficult.

Although the possibility is not high, the opponent is EDG, so maybe they really do have this experience?

After 20 seconds, the turret was fully charged, and Chen Dongqing emerged from the grass and set up the third turret.

If you set up turrets online immediately after being born, you can place three turrets online while having three more ready in hand.

In this situation, there is no way to counter the enemy's laning phase unless a long-range AD turret with a range of more than 550 comes along. Otherwise, no one can do anything against it!

Soon, the minion waves met in the middle of the top lane, and the three turrets of the big head were already ready, firing wildly!

Korol watched this scene and didn't dare to move. Shen, this hero, is inherently lacking in AOE. With these three turrets right in his face, if he dared to last hit, he would lose half his health!

Fortunately, Da Tou's ability to suppress experience is not strong; he can still sense it with his experience.

On the other side, Chen Dongqing's basic attacks never stopped. With three turrets in place, it was actually difficult for Da Tou to safely last hit, because the rhythm would be disrupted by the uncontrollable turrets.

Fortunately, Chen Dongqing now has 95 proficiency points. Although he doesn't play the hero much, his last-hitting rhythm seems to have been honed through countless trials.

One wrench after another was thrown out, and all six minions in the first wave were safely killed!

The three turrets pushed the lane too fast. At this time, EDG's second wave of minions had just passed the second tower, but the first wave of minions had already been completely wiped out!

As the minion wave slowly pushed into the tower, Korol looked on with slight annoyance.

Who starts last-hitting under the tower on the very first wave of minions?

This is damn bad, isn't this going to land me in jail?

Most importantly, with this lineup, the top lane is destined to be left to fend for itself, with Clearlove's Graves farming directly from top to bottom.

He might have to serve a long time in jail, at the very least three years.

After finishing his mission, Chen Dongqing didn't rest. He first set up vision in the jungle, and then communicated in voice chat: "Can you guys find the enemy jungler's location?"

Korol knew the factory manager wouldn't gank top, but he didn't know that Zhuge Mingkai always liked to play unexpectedly. His pushing the lane like that made him easy to gank, so he still had to be careful.

"Yes, I can see it." Doinb, who was in the mid lane, replied immediately. He was laning against Rumble and Ryze. In this version, Ryze does not have AOE ability in the early game and must activate his ultimate to have AOE skill damage.

He was certain he could gain lane control in this matchup, so after Doinb went online, he pushed aggressively, quickly clearing the second wave of minions and pushing them to the tower. He then immediately placed vision on EDG's F4 camp.

This ward placement is excellent for detecting the enemy jungler's movements, helping the team gain information.

The ward had barely been placed when the factory manager's Graves appeared in the ward and happily started farming the F4.

Clearly, the factory manager did not change his jungle farming plan because of the laning situation in the top lane.

Seeing this, Chen Dongqing was completely relieved. After the minion wave was pushed out by the turret, Chen Dongqing slowed down the pushing speed a little and only placed two turrets to push the wave.

The minion wave remained blocked in front of the enemy tower. When the second wave was low on health, the third wave of siege minions quickly arrived. Only then did Chen Dongqing deploy his third siege turret and quickly clear out the third wave of siege minions.

Knowing that the jungler wouldn't come, Chen Dongqing pushed the lane with impunity!

As a large wave of minions with varying health levels pushed into the tower, Korol was on the verge of tears.

Shen is a hero with one unique characteristic: none of his four abilities can be used on minions.

In other words, being cautious about last-hitting the tower is extremely stupid.

When Shen encounters Heimerdinger, a lane-pushing maniac, he will inevitably face endless missed minions under the tower, which even professional players cannot overcome!

Korol took a deep breath and began a round of tower dive training.

First and foremost, of course, are the artillerymen.

As the siege minion was being chipped away by the defensive tower, Korol seized the opportunity, quickly walked up, and was about to unleash a basic attack!

But just then, Big Head suddenly threw out a small grenade.

Korol frowned. If the grenade hit, he definitely wouldn't be able to finish off the artillery vehicle, and he would have wasted his time.

With no other option, he could only move Shen forward a step to dodge the grenade, and then try to finish off the siege vehicle.

This forward movement is quite ingenious, because skills like Big Head's grenade are usually thrown behind the opponent, so predicting the movement point will make the skill hit more accurately.

So Korol did the opposite and walked straight ahead, which meant that Chen Dongqing's grenade didn't even slow him down.

But it was too late; the turret landed a single basic attack, and the siege minion was gone.

Korol hardened his fist.

But Chen Dongqing narrowed his eyes slightly, memorizing some information.

(End of this chapter)