League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 412 Triumphant Return!

"Alright, the BP panel has been switched in! We can see that QG, who have the right to choose sides in this game, chose the red side in the first game. If nothing unexpected happens, they will reserve the counter pick for Shu Ge!"

As Guan Zeyuan was speaking, both coaches went back and forth, quickly completing the first three bans.

On the blue side, IG banned Jayce, Fiora, and Zoe, while QG banned Poppy, Azir, and Orianna.

"We've reached the champion selection phase!" Remember chimed in, "Now, the question is, what champion will TheShy pick first to counter Tree Bro?"

IG's strategy was very clear: they first locked in Caitlyn, using her as a substitute for banning her, while on the other side, Uzi, of course, did not hesitate to lock in Ezreal and Karma.

Right now, Uzi's favorite build is Double Goddess EZ. Two pieces of Manamune are like a small takeoff, and three pieces of Seraph's Embrace are like a big takeoff. It's so awesome!

Of course, Uzi has the soul of a marksman. Even when playing Ezreal with a hybrid build, he still relies heavily on auto-attacks for damage.

The only drawback of this tactic is that the player was completely unknown 20 minutes ago, but then the game was disrupted.

You don't think this playstyle is primarily for the bottom lane, do you?

EZ was chosen when the game was focused on the top side of the map, to either play passively or provide backup in the late game!

Therefore, theoretically speaking, the double-goddess EZ strategy is one of the most suitable strategies for QG at present.

On the other side, IG locked in Morgana to pair with Caitlyn, and then directly locked in the top lane.

TheShy's strategy was clear: since QG had already revealed their hand in this game, he would just pick a farming champion and play passively for now.

In this situation, electing a captain is the best option.

Captain, lock on!

Since Chen Dongqing locked onto the Greedy Vampire build half a month ago and achieved remarkable results, TheShy has devoted a lot of energy to this Greedy build.

He has always liked to develop, and he believes that this style is tailor-made for him!

So today, TheShy brought this style of play to the competition to counter the style's creator.

I pick a captain, bring a stealth boots and cookies, and play it safe by not building any extract. I start with a blue crystal and a refillable potion, then hide in the back and keep using Q until 20 minutes in – that's invincible!

Meanwhile, on the other side, Chen Dongqing narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched IG actually lock onto the Captain first.

There are two playstyles for Gangplank in this version. One is the Unyielding lane strategy, where Gangplank's Q can still trigger the full Unyielding effect, making it quite powerful.

Another one is the money-stealing strategy.

Could this guy be stealing money?

If you dare to steal money, you'll be finished!

At that moment, Banbazi asked, "Chen Dongqing, are you going to pick top lane directly?"

"Sure." Chen Dongqing thought for a moment and said directly, "Then get me the Irelia, I'll take him down!"

Irelia has been reworked and is now the new version that listens to her grandmother.

This version of Irelia is a classic example of a champion that is easy to learn but difficult to master.

Stupid people play like zombies, while experts use flashy tricks that are completely incomprehensible.

In this situation, even professional players who are known for their fast hero learning still need a certain amount of time to practice, so it has never appeared on the field before.

"Should we go straight for Irelia?" Banbazi glanced at Chen Dongqing and said, "Sure!"

QG's third pick was the newly reworked Blade Dancer!

A novel hero appeared on screen, causing a stir among the audience.

"Irelia? They locked her in immediately!" Guan Daxiao's tone was full of surprise. "On the very first day of the LPL's new patch update, QG immediately locked in the reworked Irelia!"

"So which lane is this Irelia going to?" Remembering looked at the screen and immediately became interested. "In this version, Irelia can be played in top or mid."

"The answer to this question is actually quite obvious, isn't it?" Colonel Guan chuckled from the side. "I don't think Xiao Hu can learn Heroes of the Storm that quickly."

This Irelia can only be played in the top lane!

This version of Irelia has extremely strong continuous chasing ability because she can refresh her Q with her E and R. In addition, her overpowered standing-up fighting ability when her passive is fully maxed out makes her the nemesis of heroes like Gangplank!

Banbazi's strategy was clear. Seeing that Chen Dongqing decided to pick Irelia, he quickly selected a mid-jungle duo that could complement Irelia's performance.

On his fourth pick, Banbazi locked in Rek'Sai to provide a reliable initiation control. Banbazi then locked in Lissandra to counter Rookie's LeBlanc.

The lineups for both sides are now finalized!

Blue side IG: Top lane Gangplank, Jungle Olaf, Mid lane LeBlanc, Bot lane Caitlyn and Morgana.

Red team QG: Top lane Irelia, Jungle Rek'Sai, Mid lane Lissandra, Bot lane Ezreal and Karma.

The lineups are set, let the match begin!

After a brief blackout, the game screen displayed the rune information of all ten players on both sides.

Chen Dongqing also took a special look at the captain's talent choices.

The image of a coin came into view—a harbinger of theft!

Chen Dongqing couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth into a smile.

Are you really going to steal money?

Without an immortal reply, without the protection of bones, how can you, Captain, possibly lane against Irelia?

Chen Dongqing still chose the Conqueror rune this time, and then took Boots and Biscuits as his secondary runes.

These two talents can directly provide 650 gold. If you can't hold on in lane, you can also use the biscuit to heal. The cost-effectiveness is simply maximum, making them a versatile rune.

The match started quickly.

Chen Dongqing bought the most powerful Doran's Blade at the start, maximizing his laning ability.

This time, they're focusing on the top half of the map. If they can't break through the top lane, it'll be considered a failure, so Chen Dongqing has to go all out.

Chen Dongqing guarded the jungle in the upper half of the map for a while, and only slowly turned around and went to lane with the minions after the minion wave spawned.

After the game went live, it was observed that TheShy's Gangplank started with a Sapphire Crystal.

The captain uses a lot of mana in the early game, so you'll need to choose at least one: blue crystals or corruption potions.

Corruption potion is for laning, while blue crystal is for farming.

Of course, if you want to be a bit more aggressive, you can go for a longsword or even an extract, but even Chen Dongqing can't pull off that kind of overpowered playstyle; it's too abnormal.

Chen Dongqing looked at the blue crystal in the captain's hand and nodded in satisfaction.

Alright, alright, you like being greedy, huh? Just wait and see if you'll take the plunge.

The two sides' lines of troops intersect in the center.

TheShy played very steadily this game. He didn't even learn the E skill for lane priority, but instead learned the Q skill and immediately used Q on Chen Dongqing.

When the bullet hit the Irelia, an eye symbol appeared above the Captain's head.

Chen Dongqing raised an eyebrow and glanced at it by pressing TAB.

TheShy seems to have had pretty good luck, managing to steal a True Sight Potion on his first try.

Fortunately, this didn't help much in the online game; the real key was the captain's Q.

TheShy used this Q to break up the minion formation, which prevented both sides' melee minions from arriving at low health at the same time. As a result, Irelia could no longer Q three minions and then Q her face to exchange damage with her full passive.

Although Irelia has only been reworked for a short time, TheShy already has a general laning strategy.

Of course, this is also why TheShy did this, wanting to compete with Chen Dongqing in terms of skill.

Otherwise, the correct approach is to simply retreat and wait for the minion wave to reach its destination.

Seeing this, Chen Dongqing narrowed his eyes slightly, and quickly came up with a plan.

He kept using basic attacks on the first minion.

Once the Conqueror in his hand was ready, he took a small step back, luring the captain forward, and then used Q on the soldier and Q on the man to rush into the captain's face!

With a "buzz," golden light instantly appeared on Irelia's body, and ten points of attack power and a 20% true damage conversion effect were applied to her!

This is the Conqueror in this version; its violent attributes are simply outrageous!

Indeed, the captain managed to control the minion wave at the start of the game, preventing Irelia from engaging in a full-force fight.

If it were Darius here, Irelia would probably have to retreat and wait for the tower to finish her off.

But this is a captain.

You're a captain with Kleptomancy, a Sapphire Crystal, and no Smite Blade. How are you going to fight a Conqueror Irelia? Do I even need to stack my passive?

Chen Dongqing only had two passive stacks, but he relentlessly chased after the captain, relentlessly attacking despite the minions, without any hesitation.

TheShy initially tried to trade a few hits with Irelia using the help of minions, but he quickly realized something was wrong and turned to run away.

With a range of 175 yards, Chen Dongqing relentlessly chased the Captain all the way to the tower, reducing him to half health before finally giving up and turning away.

TheShy stood under the tower and drank both refillable potions in his hand.

Although his face remained expressionless, he was cursing the "bastard" in his heart.

I underestimated this Irelia and I underestimated Conqueror.

What kind of crappy Conqueror is this? I can't even beat it while standing right next to a minion? Is there no justice in this world?!

So you're just playing the game based on stats, huh? What about your skills?

After drinking two bottles of reusable potions, the captain's health quickly returned to around 80%, which is considered a decent health level.

Sadly, after using two bottles of medicine, he didn't recover as much health as the Blade Girl.

Irelia just kept auto-attacking with Q, relying on the healing from Doran's Blade and Q, and she didn't even need to drink health potions to restore her health to almost full.

Most importantly, Irelia maintains a full passive state and constantly refreshes the lane with her Q, making her push the lane incredibly fast!

When the third wave of cannon minions spawned, the minion wave had already pushed to IG's top tower, and after this wave, they would enter the tower.

TheShy glanced at the minimap and immediately understood the situation.

Sent.

Ning started with blue buff and farmed downwards, and by this point he had already farmed to the bottom half of the map.

From the very beginning, IG had decided that the top laner would be left to fend for himself.

How many times TheShy will die this game depends entirely on how well he plays.

If you play steadily enough, you can waste QG's offensive firepower from their top and jungle players, helping your team create space.

If you play enough to get rid of the enemy, then it's a 0-7-0 scoreline with no time to die.

And this wave is the beginning of the dream.

The minion wave quickly pushed into the tower, and the excavator appeared behind the tower just in time.

TheShy's mechanics are quite good; he put his second skill point into W, wanting to try some extreme plays.

TheShy immediately used his orange and flash to create distance as the excavator launched him into the air, hoping to get a counter-kill with the help of the tower.

However, it's not very meaningful.

Because Chen Dongqing held onto his E skill and didn't use it.

The captain couldn't withstand the combined attack from the two after the excavator launched him into the air, so Chen Dongqing had no intention of using his E skill. He was saving it to deal with unexpected situations, such as Ning Wang's counter-camping.

The captain's orange and flash attack were clearly one of the unexpected situations.

Just as the captain flashed away, [Double Blade] quickly followed up, stunning him instantly, and then Irelia used her Q to rush in.

Xiangguo quickly caught up, and after the excavator landed a powerful attack, it used its full rage to follow up with its E, and then immediately flashed away from the tower!

Chen Dongqing then used two basic attacks followed by a Q before the excavator could leave the tower, clearing the captain's health bar.

With low health, Xiangguo stepped out of the tower and completed a perfect tower dive.

"Alright, that tower dive was perfectly coordinated. TheShy used Flash, but he still died under the tower!"

Colonel Guan shouted, "After diving the tower, QG's top and jungle duo can clear the minion wave under the tower before recalling!"

Xiangguo quickly turned around to help Chen Dongqing reduce the minions' health.

Chen Dongqing used a fully charged W to extend his passive and reduce the health of the fourth wave of minions.

Once his QCD is ready, he uses Q one by one to clear the minion wave and then quickly retreats to the bushes to recall.

At that moment, TheShy's Gangplank also teleported online.

During the return journey, Chen Dongqing pressed TAB to take a look at the captain's equipment.

Clearly, TheShy, who didn't farm any minions, couldn't afford any items. His starting items were unchanged, still just a Sapphire Crystal, highlighting his squishiness.

After returning to the city, Chen Dongqing immediately bought two longswords.

These two swords are used to craft the Bilgewater Scimitar.

Looking at his equipment advantage of up to 700 yuan, Chen Dongqing was already planning his next move.

TheShy no longer has teleport.

He only needs to kill the opponent once more, and then TheShy will basically be out of the game.

As for how to kill?

Irelia, with her superior abilities, can kill Gangplank. You're still asking me how to kill him?

Kill them indiscriminately!

After logging in, Chen Dongqing looked at the captain with full health, but felt no emotion and slowly pushed the lane.

Another powerful aspect of this version of the Conqueror is that it amplifies the role of line control to an extreme degree.

Whoever controls the lane can keep farming creeps and Conquerors, which can be triggered as soon as a fight breaks out.

In this situation, the side without lane control doesn't dare to fight back and can only wait for the minion wave to reach the tower.

However, even under the tower, the enemy's massive combat power makes them vulnerable.

Chen Dongqing's main strategy is a fast push, maintaining a fully passive state and pushing the minion wave off the stage.

With his passive fully activated and Conqueror ready, Chen Dongqing completely disregarded the full-health Gangplank under the tower and unleashed a basic attack, triggering Conqueror!

The moment the basic attack landed, the turret's red line immediately locked onto the target.

However, because Chen Dongqing skillfully timed the turret's intervals, the turret's damage could not be dealt immediately.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Chen Dongqing used his E skill [Double Blades] at a distance, and then immediately used W to charge up!

In this version, Irelia can unleash a second E while her W is charged, thus eliminating the casting animation for the second E and reducing the opponent's reaction time.

When encountering this WE combo for the first time, it's easy to fall into its trap.

Take TheShy for example.

TheShy was watching Irelia's W animation intently, wondering why she was using W while tower diving, when two Twin Blades appeared on either side of him and converged towards the center!

TheShy was immediately alarmed. His reactions were always quick, but unfortunately, the Captain's mobility couldn't keep up with his reactions.

The short-legged captain took two steps out, only to be instantly knocked unconscious by the [Twin Blades]!

At this moment, the turret's attack finally landed on Irelia, but because Irelia had her W active, most of the damage was mitigated!

Chen Dongqing unleashed his fully charged W, reducing the captain's health by a large amount. He then took a step forward, delivered a basic attack, and immediately followed up with a QA combo!

With the full passive and Conqueror buffs, these three AQA attacks were incredibly effective, rapidly reducing the Captain's health!

At this moment, the turret fired a second shot, reducing Irelia's health to 60%.

Chen Dongqing was not intimidated at all. He kept moving and slashing, and finally withstood another turret attack. With a basic attack, he brought the captain to low health!

At that moment, TheShy immediately pressed the orange button and then detonated the powder keg beneath his feet!

Chen Dongqing had anticipated this. Despite the damage from the powder keg, he used his final AQ combo to take down the captain!

Chen Dongqing had a clear strategy. After killing the captain with Q, he quickly moved the mouse and used Q to move the minions away from the tower, and then flashed out of the tower!

At that moment, the turret fired its final shot!

With the screen up close, Guan Zeyuan keenly sensed something was wrong and immediately shouted, "Hey, something seems off! Irelia only has a third of her health left, she might not be able to withstand this hit!"

But just then, a beam of yellow light flew over to the Blade Girl, restoring her health by a large amount!

The turret attacked and nearly emptied Irelia's health bar, but unfortunately, it didn't secure a kill!

"Triumphant return!" Guan Zeyuan remembered the two shouting in unison, "We're back!"

Seeing that the Irelia had survived with almost no health, countless spectators in the audience waved flags and cheered, all extremely excited!

Wow, a full-health tower dive solo kill, is this the reworked Irelia?

At this moment, countless fans in the live stream chat were mimicking the voices of the two commentators, flooding the screen with the words "Triumphant Return!"

Triumph is a replacement for the dangerous games of the past.

However, Triumph restores 12% of lost health, which is much higher than Dangerous Game's 5%.

Furthermore, Triumph grants an additional 20 gold coins upon participating in a kill, making it a god-tier talent in ARAM.

With the boost from his triumphant return, Chen Dongqing successfully completed a tower dive solo kill against a fully healed opponent!

At this point, we can see that Chen Dongqing was still greedy after killing someone, insisting that no one would come to collect his kill. He even managed to kill a wave of minions under the IG tower with his remaining health, and then left happily.

The captain died under the tower again, and without any teleports.

This wave is truly devastating.

They missed out on a big wave of minions, and Irelia got another kill.

The economic gap between the two sides has now reached 1,000, and the experience gap is also ridiculously large!

At this point, we can see that TheShy is only level 3, but Chen Dongqing has already reached level 5.

The two-level difference is equivalent to the attributes of two Doran's Blades, which will leave the captain with no chance of turning the tide.

"The top lane is over," Colonel Guan sighed. "You can tell that Brother Shu didn't just pick Irelia randomly; he really has a strategy!"

Before Irelia's rework, Chen Dongqing was the best player of this champion.

After the rework of Irelia, Chen Dongqing was the first person to bring her to the competitive scene.

It can be said that Chen Dongqing has a deep love for this hero.

But here's the question: when exactly did this guy start practicing the new version of Irelia?

This hero has only been online for a few days, and Tree Bro's ranked record doesn't even include a single Irelia!

Does this mean that the old and new versions of Irelia are essentially the same?

There's no logic to it; the combo strategies of these two Irelia characters are clearly completely different, and it's obvious that they require more practice.

Moreover, the EWE combo that Brother Tree used in this tower dive didn't seem like something he'd never done before.

What an oddity!

After returning to base, Irelia combined her two longswords into a Bilgewater scimitar, clearly aiming for the Ruined King.

This version of Irelia doesn't rely heavily on Trinity Force because she can stick to the enemy and keep auto-attacking, so Blade of the Ruined King is a better fit.

Once the Blade of the Ruined King is completed, that will be Irelia's first power spike. At that time, she will be unstoppable, and even two or three of them won't be able to stop her.

"The main problem IG is facing right now is that the fighting power gap in the top lane is too big!" Remember shook his head and said, "With such a big gap, TheShy can't even stand under the tower, and IG's rhythm is thrown off balance!"

If you don't go to protect the top lane, then the top lane will inevitably be endlessly tower-dived and eventually pushed through the entire lane.

Upon seeing this scene, Prince Ning couldn't help but scratch his head.

TheShy usually plays very aggressively against other top laners, relentlessly attacking their opponents, but he always underperforms against Maokai, sometimes even failing to hold his own.

This left Prince Ning feeling helpless.

There was no other way, so he had to go to the road to protect them.

Thanks to the jungler's threat, Chen Dongqing's offensive momentum was indeed hindered—at least TheShy was indeed kept in check.

But this doesn't mean IG won't pay the price.

The most direct consequence was that, within seven minutes, IG's blue buff area refreshed, and Xiangguo, without any hesitation, led Chen Dongqing into the jungle to help the top laner secure the blue buff.

With lifesteal items, Irelia doesn't lack sustain; her main problem in lane is mana shortage.

With the blue buff, Chen Dongqing was like a tiger with wings, constantly using his Q to clear the wave in the top lane without any hindrance.

Meanwhile, Xiangguo returned to his own bottom half of the map and helped Xiaohu get a blue buff.

Xiaohu's role in QG is now very clear.

He no longer needs to desperately pursue solo kills against his opponent, or compete with the other team in terms of killing efficiency, as he did during his time as the dean last year.

All Xiaohu needs to do now is push that damn lane over there, and then run to the side lane with Xiangguo.

All I can say is that with these two powerful figures around, anyone who comes along will end up like Doinb.

Do it yourself? That's too much trouble!

At this moment, Xiaohu's Lissandra had reached level seven, possessing a level four Q and a blue buff advantage, clearly indicating that he had firmly grasped lane control!

"Come on, Li Yuanhao, follow me!"

Although Xiangguo has changed three mid laners, as long as he is still there, QG's mid-jungle synergy will never be absent!

This time, the two went straight to the top lane and forcefully attacked her!

Ning sacrificed his own development to protect TheShy for two minutes, but QG's mid and jungle rushed in, rendering his protection meaningless.

After the minion wave pushed into the tower, the Rek'Sai used her W to knock the enemy away, and the Crystal Maiden didn't even need to use her ultimate to easily take down the Captain.

TheShy successfully reached 0-3-0 in eight minutes.

Chen Dongqing pressed TAB to look at TheShy's stats and couldn't help but exclaim that it was just right.

As early as S8, TheShy's S13 stats were already impressive.

Isn't this helping them avoid taking five years of detours?

At this moment, countless people in the live stream chat were pretending to empathize with TheShy, feeling heartbroken over the captain's tragic experience.

Don't be too brutal, QG!

But the audience also knows that this is just the beginning.

With Tree Bro at 3-0, the audience couldn't even imagine how he was going to kill anyone this round!

At this point, the early protection of the top lane turret had disappeared. After QG's top laner and jungler dove the turret, they retreated first, and Chen Dongqing took down the first turret in the top lane by himself.

When she returned to base, Irelia sold the four cookies she had, and then she had just enough gold to build Blade of the Ruined King.

At the same time, the Magic Boots were also delivered to my hands.

A Blade of the Ruined King and Magical Boots in eight minutes is an Irelia whose combat power is simply outrageous, placing her on a completely different level from the other nine players.

After logging back in, Chen Dongqing stopped pretending and pushed the minion wave forward, passing the enemy's first tower ruins!

This arrogant split-pushing strategy obviously caught the attention of IG immediately.

"Be careful, the enemy LeBlanc is missing." Xiaohu immediately spammed ping signals in the mid lane.

Chen Dongqing listened to the message and nodded: "Okay, I saw it. You guys don't need to worry about me, go to the bottom lane."

"Okay!" Xiaohu nodded, quickly pushed the minion wave to the tower, and then ducked down into the river.

Chen Dongqing switched the camera back to his own screen.

Although he knew the opponent had most likely caught him, he wasn't worried and continued pushing the lane forward.

The opposing mid and jungle players are LeBlanc and Olaf, neither of whom pose a threat to Irelia. Even if the enemy team tries to gank her three-on-one, he can still make plays.

As long as he can hold off the enemy mid and jungle, and then trade one or two of them, he won't lose out in this round!

As expected, the moment he pushed the minion wave to the enemy's second tower, there was a sudden commotion in the jungle.

A red streak of light emanated from Olaf's feet as he swiftly charged out!

Behind Irelia, a LeBlanc also appeared at the same time!

IG's attack was swift and decisive. In the blink of an eye, a three-on-one gank on Irelia was launched!

Seeing this from a god-like perspective, Guan Zeyuan couldn't help but shout, "Hey, Tree Bro's pushing really deep into the lane! IG's people have already surrounded him! This looks like something bad is going to happen!"

IG was quite experienced; they even waited around Irelia for a while before finally making their move, after Irelia's passive and Conqueror debuffs disappeared!

The captain unleashed his ultimate move and charged forward with his fire sword.

Olaf, who had built a semi-tank build, charged in with Predator, used his Q to slow the enemy, and then chased after them with a flurry of attacks!

Seizing the opportunity, LeBlanc used W to step on the face, and then used E to close the gap and land a clean hit!

To avoid Irelia's Q dash breaking the chain, Rookie didn't even intend to W back, but instead stuck to Irelia's face and threw out another Q skill!

In that instant, all three of them arrived beside the Irelia!

All three of them clearly thought that the naked, broken, squishy Irelia was doomed, so they fought quite arrogantly and recklessly!

Upon seeing this scene, Chen Dongqing couldn't help but sneer inwardly.

You don't really think I'm going to die, do you?

Irelia may not be the best in team fights, but her ability to take on multiple opponents is absolutely top-tier!

Today I am facing a choice.

One is 7,000 words longer, and then the chapter ends here.

One is to update 4,000 words, and I'll save the last 3,000 words for tomorrow to post together.

After some thought, I chose the former.

So this missing chapter issue is a matter of adding extra chapters, I'm not taking the blame for it.

(End of this chapter)