League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 244 Your value to me determines my valuation of you!

The match began, and Chen Dongqing, wielding the Darkin Blade, stepped out of the fountain.

Chen Dongqing wasn't actually familiar with this version of Aatrox. After all, he hadn't played this hero much before the rework, and hadn't seen him for several years after the rework. If he hadn't been cheating, he wouldn't even be familiar with the skills.

But luckily he had a cheat code.

Just play a few more rounds of Cao Cao.

I really like a line from the old version of Aatrox: "Your value to me determines my valuation of you!"

The skills in this version are very simple. The passive skill of the Sword Demon has been completely reworked. After casting a skill, the passive skill will be charged. Once fully charged, it will increase the base attack power and attack speed.

Q skill is nicknamed the mini version of Malphite's ultimate. It charges towards a location and knocks up enemies within range. W has two forms that can be switched: one is that after three auto attacks, it consumes health to deal extra damage, and the other is that after three auto attacks, it heals.

The E and R skills are essentially Cao Cao's second and third skills, with little difference.

The changes to Aatrox in this version are that he has gained 50 base health and removed the damage from his Q and W skills. His E skill now only deals 30 damage, meaning Aatrox has gained a significant amount of health out of thin air. In addition, his skill cooldowns have been reduced and his damage has been increased, essentially giving him a full buff.

The enhanced Aatrox is a pure stat monster; he can easily defeat tanks like Treant Protector.

After dragging the Doran's Blade and the potion to a familiar spot, Chen Dongqing stood guard in the upper jungle for a while before following the minions to the lane.

In this game, they have a super strong jungler like Spider, so of course they have to try to play more aggressively, such as tower diving at level three.

Relying on the Sword Demon's innate advantage against the Tree, Chen Dongqing played extremely aggressively from the start, immediately pushing the lane and suppressing the enemy!

Of course, he didn't push the lane; he had to push slowly, controlling the lane until the third wave of siege minions arrived before pushing the minion wave to the tower, in order to maximize his gains!

Actually, controlling the minion wave alone is already a skill in itself, but for Chen Dongqing, the tower-diving maniac, it's second nature.

Ah Guang's fear of Chen Dongqing was ingrained in his bones. When he saw Chen Dongqing pressing forward, his first reaction was to retreat.

There was no other way; last year, Chen Dongqing basically rose to power by beating up A-Guang and Duke.

As a result, the two of them have now developed a severe phobia of trees and dare not compete with Chen Dongqing in terms of skill; they simply endure the pressure.

But against the QG duo, simply enduring the pressure is meaningless.

Xiangguo's strategy was very clear this game. With the help of the bottom lane, Spider quickly started clearing the jungle and went straight to EDG's top jungle after reaching level 3.

The jungler reaches level 3 much faster than the top laner. Xiangguo's plan is to invade the enemy jungle before the top lane minions push the tower!

QG has absolute lane control in both the top and mid lanes and can provide support at any time, so Xiangguo's invasion was fearless.

In just over two minutes, the defensive wards that EDG had placed in the top half of the map at the start of the game had long since disappeared. Xiangguo made his way to the location of the red buff in the darkness and found Graves farming the red buff in the bush.

Just as Xiangguo predicted, after choosing Graves, a jungler who focuses on farming, Clearlove opted for a full-farming route. His plan was to farm all the way up and then secure a push on the top lane at the three-minute mark.

Clearly, this plan is doomed to fail.

Fortunately, the factory manager was on guard against the spider's invasion. He dragged the buff to the bushes to fight it, and he also had his second Smite ready. When he saw the spider coming, the factory manager decisively used a smoke bomb to blind the spider, and then used Smite to take down the low-health red buff. Then he turned around and ran away!

With a clear strategy, Spider decisively stepped out of the smoke grenade, then pinpointed Graves' position and unleashed a Cocoon-like shot!

Graves usually uses his E skill as soon as it's available while farming jungle camps. At this time, Clearlove is in a state where he doesn't have his E skill available, so he can't dodge this cocoon at all!

Xiangguo didn't intend to kill anyone. He used Spider WQAR to switch forms and then took a bite!

At this point, the drawback of Graves' "pure man" nerf became apparent. Even with Graves' passive fully stacked, it had no effect on Elise, and this combo still managed to take away most of Graves' health!

This combo rendered Graves unable to fight, and Xiangguo nodded in satisfaction. Elise then headed straight for the top lane.

At this point, the top lane minions had already pushed into the tower, and the tower had already killed quite a few minions.

Chen Dongqing urged repeatedly, "Hurry up, he's almost at level three."

"Level 3 is level 3, what's there to be afraid of?" Xiangguo said dismissively. "I'll just go straight for it!"

The spider quickly circled around to the back of the tower, and Xiangguo shouted "I'll go first" while maneuvering the spider to force its way into the tower!

At this moment, the defensive tower was firing relentlessly at the siege engine soldiers.

A-Guang knew that this siege minion was his lifeline. With a quick AQ combo from the Tree, combined with the tower's damage, the siege minion was taken down.

A beam of light shone, and the tree successfully leveled up to level three!

If it were an average person, seeing that this almost fully healed tree had leveled up, they would definitely give up on the idea of ​​tower diving.

But Xiangguo wouldn't think that way at all.

Spider used a basic attack to draw the turret's aggro, then unleashed a WQ combo!

Chen Dongqing understood immediately. The Sword Demon switched his W to damage-boosting mode, then used an auto-attack followed by an E to unleash damage. The two of them then chased after the tree and attacked relentlessly!

After Xiangguo finished his combo in human form, he used his E skill [Cocoon] to attack!

Ah Guang reacted quickly, using his W ability to bind the spider tanking the tower, and dodging the cocoon by using invulnerability.

But Xiangguo was prepared, and he used his cutting technique to ascend into the sky and escape the tree binding him!

Chen Dongqing seized the opportunity, and the Sword Demon used his Q to ascend into the sky, charging heavily towards the tree!

A Guang used Flash to dodge Jian Mo's Q. His tower dive was perfect, avoiding all of QG's key control abilities!

Combined with the tankiness of the tree, it's almost impossible for him to be overtaken in this wave!

But unfortunately, QG is just pure monsters.

Chen Dongqing glanced at the tree that still had half its health left, but he wasn't scared at all. He unleashed a basic attack from the Sword Demon!

Spiders fall from the sky, A followed by W for increased attack speed, and both large and small spiders frantically devour the tree!

The turret fired a shot at the Sword Demon, and with full preheating, it took away one-third of the Sword Demon's health in one shot!

If he takes another hit, the Sword Demon will surely die!

Chen Dongqing was not intimidated at all. The Sword Demon continued to chase after the tree and hacked away. With a slash that had an increased damage effect, the [Blood Demon Well] under the Sword Demon's health bar was fully charged.

The turret fired another shot, leaving the Sword Demon with only 30% health.

Xiangguo took a big bite and finally brought the tree down to low health!

Chen Dongqing unleashed another basic attack, wiping out the tree's health bar!

"First blood!"

As the first blood was drawn, the third shot from the turret finally landed, wiping out the Aatrox's health bar in one go!

However, the Sword Demon did not die, but entered a slow resurrection state!

This is the effect from Aatrox's passive ability.

Once the passive energy is fully charged, in addition to increasing base attack power and attack speed, it will also grant a resurrection effect!

It is precisely this ability to revive that makes QG's top and jungle players seem fearless!

One can revive, the other can ascend to heaven; their tower-diving ability is comparable to that of Spider Kled!

After the Sword Demon stood up, he cooperated with the Spider to clear a wave of minions that were pushing into the tower before finally returning to base.

In a classic level 3 tower dive, generally speaking, after the tower dive, Xiangguo doesn't need to come to the top lane; Chen Dongqing can handle everything.

And that's exactly what Xiangguo was thinking: "Then I'll go help the bottom lane, you can play top lane by yourself."

"OK. Play however you like!" Chen Dongqing nodded confidently and bought a vampire scepter.

His item build this game was also very simple: first, he built a Ravenous Hydra for split pushing, and then he built Trinity Force and Sterak's Gage for team fights.

This version of Aatrox's passive has added a new attribute that increases base attack damage. Since Trinity Force's Sheen is based on base attack damage, and Sterak's Gage's attack damage bonus is also based on base attack damage, these two items can be considered Aatrox's essential items in this version.

Immediately afterwards, the top lane entered a period of fun for Aatrox.

With the Vampire Scepter and Doran's Blade providing lifesteal, Chen Dongqing can simply switch his W to damage-boosting mode without hesitation. Whenever he gets the chance, he can relentlessly hack away at the tree, leaving A Guang feeling utterly overwhelmed and forced to call for backup.

"Can we gank top lane? He hasn't respawned yet, but he'll be soon."

"Wait a minute, we can't gank top now, otherwise I'll fall behind in development." The factory manager decisively refused the request to call for reinforcements.

Originally, he was planning to farm from top to bottom to ensure his own development, but considering that the top lane might be in a bad situation, he chose to farm from bottom to top to protect the top lane.

But as we saw, not only did the person not survive, but they also missed out on eating the most valuable stone beetle in this version.

The current factory manager has decided to proceed at his own pace.

Soon, the factory manager cleared the second round of jungle monsters in his own jungle in just over five minutes. In this version, the jungle respawn time is a full two and a half minutes, so the factory manager had plenty of time to move around.

He controlled the Graves and first circled around the mid lane.

Karma kept pushing the lane, while Syndra had crowd control abilities, so Clearlove wanted to see if there were any opportunities in the mid lane.

Unfortunately, Godve knew that the factory manager was farming from bottom to top, so he had already set up vision along the upper river. Karma turned and ran, giving him no chance.

Seeing this, the factory manager activated the scan, eliminating Gao Dewei's vision in the upper river, and then he finally turned his attention to the top lane.

Graves quickly arrived at the top lane river bush, but as soon as he stepped into the bush, he saw a control ward.

The factory manager narrowed his eyes.

He knew that Ilex rarely bought true sight wards, at least not at the very beginning of the game.

Based on his understanding of QG, this ward was most likely placed by the opposing jungler not long ago.

The factory manager remained calm, simultaneously manipulating the Graves' wards and observing the enemy Aatrox's movements.

At this moment, it can be clearly seen that after the enemy Aatrox saw him clearing wards, he not only did not retreat, but also took two steps forward, as if he wanted to push Maokai out of the experience zone!

Spider on top!

The factory manager immediately came to a conclusion: he chose to return to base immediately after clearing the wards. Now that more than six minutes had passed, he could return to base just in time to farm the third round of jungle monsters.

What he didn't know was...

At this moment, many people at the scene and in the live broadcast room were astonished.

Seeing Chen Dongqing's actions, Colonel Guan couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Brother Shu is really bold! He's lying!"

From God's perspective, it's clear where the spider is on the road.

After clearing the second round of jungle camps, Xiangguo placed a ward in the river and then immediately recalled to base!

The factory manager spent half a day outsmarting the air!

Chen Dongqing was also very bold. After seeing the male gunner, he didn't retreat but advanced, tricking the factory manager into becoming a complete idiot!

The comments section erupted in laughter.

The abandoned factory is really stupid; it chickened out at the slightest intimidation.

Indeed, if it were you, a mere Silver rank cultivator, you would have killed Tree Brother this morning.

[Haha, this trick only works on experts.]

[You could say Brother Shu understands the factory manager too well.]

Meanwhile, the factory manager had already returned to the city, and Graves, carrying a shotgun, quickly ran towards the underworld area.

All he needs to do is give up the blue buff to the mid laner, then farm the jungle until Syndra gains lane priority with the blue buff, and then they can consider a mid-jungle gank.

This momentum is crucial for the entire EDG team.

While the factory manager was communicating with Scout via voice chat about taking the blue buff, Graves also walked towards the blue buff camp.

He just happened to see the spider steal the blue buff with a single Q-Smite right in front of him!

The factory manager's face froze instantly.

What's that spider doing here?!

This B wasn't on the road just now!

What was that B-level swordsman pretending for?!

The factory manager's face flushed red and then turned pale; he realized he had been deceived.

The camera suddenly cuts to the road ahead.

On the top lane, Chen Dongqing saw that Clearlove's Graves had appeared in the bottom jungle. His already arrogant playstyle became even more arrogant. Aatrox targeted Maokai, chopped at the minions twice to get the damage buff, and then charged in with a Q!

Although this Q didn't knock the enemy into the air, it did close the distance. Chen Dongqing saw the tree use its Q and immediately slashed at it!

With his basic attack boosted by increased damage, Aatrox traded blows with Maokai's Q, and was knocked away.

Seeing that the strategy was clear, Chen Dongqing continued to follow the tree for two more steps, and only after the colossus shield on the tree disappeared did he use an E.

As Aatrox's only wave clear and poke skill, E is usually the skill to be maxed out first.

With that one E, the tree's health dropped another chunk.

Chen Dongqing glanced at the health bar, satisfied, and left.

The tree now has only 60% health left, and it's already at the kill threshold.

The minion wave was quickly pushed into the tower by the Sword Demon, and Chen Dongqing also maintained the energy of his passive [Blood Well], keeping himself in a state of increased attack power and attack speed, and he could also revive.

In this version, the resurrection cooldown for Aatrox at level 1 is only 180 seconds. After resurrecting once at level 3, it's ready again at level 6.

As a wave of minions pushed into the tower, Chen Dongqing was quite daring. Following his usual routine, he first auto-attacked the tower twice, then waited for the third part of his W skill to be available before quickly walking up to the tree and delivering a heavy basic attack. He then used his ultimate to cancel the basic attack's animation!

This version of Aatrox's level 1 ultimate provides 40% attack speed, and at level 6 with his passive fully active, he can provide an additional 30%!

In other words, even without any attack speed items, Aatrox's attack speed reached 1.2!

With this attack speed, Aatrox has a very short attack interval. After casting R, Aatrox quickly slashes down again, rapidly stacking Fervor of Battle to six layers!

After this basic attack, Aatrox canceled the attack's animation with an E, and then launched another basic attack.

ARAEA, while rapidly bombarding the tree with five consecutive hits, also stacks Battle Fever to ten levels!

A-Guang was stunned by the rapid five-stage attack. He was still preparing to use Maokai's W to dodge Aatrox's Q, but Aatrox didn't even need to use Q; his health was already almost depleted!

Immediately afterwards, Aatrox unleashed another slash with the increased damage from his W ability, bringing Maokai to near-death!

Ah Guang was starting to struggle, but he didn't dare to attack the Sword Demon. With his ultimate activated, the Tree of Life could only use W on the minions, and then use his passive to bite the minions!

Chen Dongqing was prepared. The moment the tree opened its W attack, the sword demon took off high into the air and moved towards the minions at the same time as the tree!

The tree had just moved and popped its head out when it was stabbed away by the sword demon in the next second!

Chen Dongqing swiftly swung his knife and delivered two more normal attacks, instantly sending the tree away!

Tower dive solo kill!

The stats of the Sword Demon after this buff are simply too overpowered; it has a fast attack speed, high health, and high damage.

Old gods like Tree, who were dethroned by Gragas's belly, can only become Sword Demon's sex slave.

The Sword Demon slowly walked out of the tower, with only a sliver of health left. He hadn't even been forced to revive.

"Wow, this Sword Demon actually has some substance!" Colonel Guan was momentarily shocked: "That tree still had more than half its health left, and it even had its ultimate activated, yet it was still killed by Sword Demon!"

What's even more outrageous is that the low-health Aatrox went back to the tower to clear a wave of minions, and with the help of his W and the healing from his items, he managed to recover most of his health!

Judging from this, they're planning to take two lives with one.

"That's Tree Bro!" I exclaimed in admiration. "He's the top laner with the strongest snowballing ability in the world. From the moment Mouse got tower-dived at level three, the game in the top lane was practically over!"

At this moment, the comments section was filled with agreement.

[This Sword Demon is so strong! He can tower dive like that?]

[The old sword demon was overjoyed, "I'm going to give it a try right now!"]

[Ah Guang is being persecuted again]

[Ah Guang, always the background character for Brother Tree!]

At this moment, in the EDG backstage area.

Abu stared at the game screen in front of him, his brow furrowed.

QG is the team he has studied the most; he understands all too well what this situation means.

Actually, we can put the top lane aside for now. He had already anticipated the situation in the top lane three minutes into the game.

Abu doesn't know much about the champion Aatrox, but he does understand the game. Aatrox's mid-game role is actually quite similar to Riven's, mainly focusing on split pushing.

As long as the other four teammates can gain an advantage, even the strongest split-push opponent can be somewhat contained.

But what made him frown was that the blue buff had been stolen.

The second blue buff at seven minutes is crucial to the mid-game tempo in professional leagues, as it determines lane control for both mid laners.

But the current situation is that Scout has no blue buff, while Godv has taken it, so they still don't have lane priority in the mid lane!

Next, QG will inevitably launch another offensive. If they can't defend against it, then the game will surely end for them.

At 8 minutes, Gao Dewei, who had secured the blue buff, used Karma's RQ combo to push a wave of cannon minions directly under the tower, and then the mid and jungle coordinated their attack.

But will their target be the bot lane?

Not will.

Let's hit the road!

After pushing the lane, the two junglers headed to the top lane. Even if A-Guang was at full health and stood under the tower, he couldn't survive and was killed by three other players at full health!

EDG's mid and jungle had no choice but to go to the bottom half of the map to cut their losses.

However, Uzi's ability to withstand pressure has reached an unparalleled level. Knowing that he would be retaliated against in the bottom lane, he abandoned the bottom lane minions in advance and brought Shi Senming to the mid lane, where they devoured the entire mid lane. His development was not even affected at all.

This trade was essentially exchanging a regular bottom lane tower for a kill and the first tower in the top lane—a huge win for them.

Immediately afterwards, EDG seemed unwilling to just take the next tower, so they turned their attention to focusing fire on the dragon.

However, QG also used the wall ladder to push the lane and directly took down the top lane's second tower in one fell swoop. Now, the second tower can provide more than 1000 team gold, so trading it for a dragon is still a worthwhile trade.

From this point on, the game was pretty much over.

The Sword Demon was developing too well; he built a Ravenous Hydra as soon as he returned to base.

Moreover, Chen Dongqing was aiming to destroy the tower. After returning to base, he headed straight to the bottom lane, where he encountered Syndra, who had swung to the bottom lane.

Chen Dongqing's equipment is now far superior, so he is not afraid at all when he sees Syndra and takes the initiative to push forward!

At that very moment, a crater suddenly appeared behind him.

It's from Tahm Kench's ultimate ability!

Backstage at EDG, Abu clenched his fist tightly upon witnessing this scene.

That's it!

EDG perfectly capitalized on QG's lane swap, with their jungler and support arriving early to ambush in the bottom lane, resulting in a three-man gank on Aatrox!

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this move will completely reverse the situation!

"Damn it, EDG's 3v1 gank was too fast! QG only has Aatrox in the entire bottom half of the map!" Guan Daxiao shouted, "Tree might be in a bit of danger this time!"

Amid Colonel Guan's anxious calls, the audience below the stage became increasingly tense.

We can't afford to lose this wave!

In the scene, Tahm Kench and Graves have emerged from underground, and the three of them are flanking Aatrox!

The junior seized the opportunity, making a push shot that accurately stunned the Sword Demon, and then unleashed a full AWR combo!

Meanwhile, Graves and Tahm Kench unleashed their damage in an instant, and Aatrox's health plummeted almost immediately!

Under the barrage of Graves' ultimate ability, Aatrox's health bar rapidly dwindled, instantly being wiped out and resurrected.

Ruined!

Seeing that the Sword Demon was completely powerless to resist and was instantly resurrected, the audience below the stage couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in their hearts.

How can we play like this?

The energy bar of the Blood Demon Well was decreasing bit by bit, while the Sword Demon's health bar was slowly recovering.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment!

Seizing the moment before Aatrox revived and got up, Tahm Kench stuck out his tongue, and Syndra also unleashed her Q skill!

Just then, a golden light flashed!

After being resurrected with low health, Aatrox surprisingly teleported to Syndra's side!

ARA (Greed) = AEA (Greed)

Chen Dongqing unleashed seven consecutive hits of damage using high attack speed and various methods to cancel the aftercast animation!

If you start with the Q skill, then it will be the legendary eight strikes in one second!

Of course, these are just terms used by those Sword Demon streamers to boast about their creations; the actual operation time has long exceeded one second, and may even be more than two seconds.

But that doesn't stop this combo from being fast and powerful!

Actually, this combo has two versions: one is fast, and the other deals high damage. However, Chen Dongqing chose the higher-damage version this time to maximize the damage output.

After these seven consecutive hits, Syndra's health plummeted, and she was on the verge of being critically injured!

This outburst really startled the junior students.

He glanced at Tahm Kench, who was still some distance away, and instinctively pressed Flash.

At that instant, two golden lights shone simultaneously!

One was Tahm Kench flashing in, trying to eat Syndra.

One was Syndra using Flash to create distance, not wanting to be killed by Aatrox.

Tahm Kench and Syndra have practically swapped positions!

Clearly, it was a misunderstanding.

The next second, Aatrox took off high into the air and used his Q to poke Syndra!

Syndra, who had neither pushed the ball nor used Flash, was solidly knocked up by this Q, and then Aatrox slashed down with his sword. This action means that the additional damage from W was triggered.

At the same time, this strike was also accompanied by a full stack of Battle Fever, and the damage was quite exaggerated, instantly wiping out Syndra's remaining health of over 100!

what?

A question mark appeared in the minds of all the audience members.

Something's not right here!

The Sword Demon unleashed multiple hits, even restoring his health to over 100, and then the [Dangerous Game] healed him, bringing his health back above the danger level.

At this moment, only Graves and Tahm Kench remained in front of Aatrox.

Chen Dongqing didn't even need to switch to W to heal; he continued to slash wildly at the Graves next to him in his damage-boosting form!

This version of Aatrox's W doesn't deal damage, so Chen Dongqing is fearless!

Chen Dongqing maintained a high-speed kiting pace, continuously healing himself. The increased damage from W and Fervor of Battle made every strike to Graves devastating!

The cheers from the audience grew louder and louder!

Because they all realized that this Aatrox was no longer someone that EDG's jungler and support could kill!

Tahm Kench then joined in, landing a basic attack that fully stacked Aatrox's passive, then swallowed him whole, spat him out, and then used Q!

This version of Tahm Kench is a pure mechanics monster. His W ability to eat people doesn't clear the stacks on the target; when he spits them out, they still have three stacks, making it easy to follow up with a guaranteed-hit stun Q.

With these two consecutive controls, the two successfully reduced the Sword Demon's health bar to almost zero!

Just as the Sword Demon was about to be taken down by Graves' basic attack, a mysterious force appeared.

"We're doomed! Tahm Kench is controlling too much! Treant Protector is going to be controlled to death!"

The Sword Demon awoke from his control, his sword glowing green. He stabbed out, and his health returned to over a hundred!

Immediately afterwards, Aatrox used his E again, sacrificing 30 points of his own health to significantly reduce Graves' health bar and apply a 50% slow!

The low-health Graves had already created some distance with his E skill, but Aatrox didn't need to move. He used his auto-attack followed by his active ability, and finished off Graves.

This version of Aatrox has an attack range of up to 325 after activating his ultimate, making him a true ranged hero.

After the male gunner killed him, Aatrox received another "Dangerous Game" response and managed to withstand another lick from Tahm Kench.

Clearly, after failing to secure a kill with his basic attack, Tahm Kench no longer had the ability to kill Aatrox.

The healing sword blade stabbed wildly, and the health bar began to rise steadily, while the cheers from the audience grew louder and louder!

When Tahm Kench also died at the hands of Aatrox, Aatrox had already recovered to more than half health.

The cheers from the audience reached their peak!

"Triple kill!"

"Triple kill!" The commentators were nearly frantic, almost unable to believe what they were seeing: "One against three, a triple kill! EDG's perfect gank plan was completely shattered by Tree's single-handed attack!"

As the triple kill was secured, Aatrox's lines rang in both players' headsets.

"To die in fear, or to win with blood on your hands."

The three EDG players were terrified.

That's about it for this game. The story is over. Tomorrow we'll finish this BO5. At this point, there's not much to enjoy about EDG crushing their opponents.

See you tomorrow, guys!

(End of this chapter)