LOL: What does "mid-lane hybrid expert" mean?

As the game loaded, Li Yi picked up his Coke cup and took two gulps. He glanced at the enemy mid-laner's ID and thought it looked familiar.

Isn't that SSG's mid laner, Crown?

It's a long story, and this player's professional career was somewhat regrettable.

During S6, he was at his peak and even solo-killed Faker with Viktor in the finals. However, due to Ruler's frequent mistakes in the bottom lane, he unfortunately missed out on the championship.

In the original timeline of the S7 World Championship Finals, although SSG avenged their 3-0 defeat against SKT, Crown's decision to pick Malzahar three times in a row had already cemented the image of him as a "passive mid laner" and a "last-minute champion" in the minds of the audience.

As they left, Faker's name echoed throughout the Bird's Nest stadium.

After retiring, Crown chose to become a streamer, but his popularity plummeted. He even broke down in tears one night, begging viewers to stay, even if they came to criticize him.

It is embarrassing.

"Old man, let me tell you, you weren't fast enough or ruthless enough back then!"

Clearly, the viewers in the live chat recognized Crown's ID and immediately felt like they had found a new daddy.

[Here he comes, Crown, the mid laner from the S6 runner-up!]

[The streamer's sycophantic manner has started to tremble!]

Do top-tier mid-laners even play these kinds of "noob" champions?

There are no heroes that are useless, only summoners who are useless. Malzahar is a carry-style champion in the hands of a streamer, but in the hands of others, he's a burst damage champion...

  

[Haha, so that's what grasshoppers are like in your hands? They're completely different in mine. I've already sent you the match recording; watch it if you can handle the tension...]

Li Yi glanced at the rapidly scrolling comments.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

"Wait, Malzahar has a burst damage build? Someone in the chat, someone who's actually used a computer, please."

【Trying to pick a fight, huh?】

Upon entering the game, Li Yi immediately bought a pair of straw sandals and four health potions, then headed towards the bottom lane.

[The streamer has improved; before, he would only run away when he couldn't win, but now he's preparing to run away even before the fight starts.]

Those who are already afraid before the battle has begun have arrived.

[This is so embarrassing, does anyone know how to delete a fan badge?]

Using the speed boost from his straw sandals, Li Yi arrived at the first bush in the bottom lane ahead of time and crouched down.

At the same time, he sent a "on the way" signal to the bewildered duo following behind, and pinged his level 1 Q skill [Brutal Strike].

"Follow Me!"

"Just trust!"

Seeing the message Li Yi typed in the chat box, the bottom lane duo hesitated.

Fortunately, this was a top-ranked game on the Korean server, and the two players were willing to believe that this was a pre-game strategy rather than their teammates messing around.

This match.

Li Yi's bot lane consists of Ezreal and Bard, a lineup that clearly allows the AD carry and support to roam freely, while the opposing team has Lucian and Janna, an aggressive combination where failing to completely dominate the lane is considered a failure.

therefore.

When Ezreal landed a very precise Q on Lucian, who was standing still under the tower, Lucian immediately got angry.

Using the shield and attack power boost from Janna's E skill [Eye of the Storm], Lucian directly E'd into Ezreal's face and took away half of Ezreal's health with two shots.

But next second.

Li Yi unleashed his fully charged Q from the bushes.

Lucian was knocked into the air for a second, and then landed and was stunned for 1.25 seconds.

What's going on?

The Lucian player behind the screen was stunned for two seconds.

I was in Seoul and felt the tremor!

"Keep up, keep up! We need to use Ignite decisively at this moment to prevent the support Janna from using Heal to heal Lucian." Li Yi explained to the audience while controlling Sion to walk out of the bush and follow up with a basic attack.

Bard followed up with his Q skill, [Cosmic Binding], to slow down Lucian.

To preserve his health enough to continue laning, Lucian had to use his Barrier and then Flash back to his tower.

"Alright, we can leave once we've destroyed Lucian's Flash and Barrier. We weren't really expecting to kill him anyway." Seeing Lucian use Flash, Li Yi decisively turned around and headed towards the mid lane.

"Everyone should remember a key time point: the first wave of mid-lane minions will converge around 1 minute and 50 seconds."

"Most mid-lane champions have a base movement speed of around 345, which means it takes them about 28 seconds to walk from the bottom lane back to the mid lane."

"Since we start with level 1 boots, it only takes 24 seconds. So just remember to head to the mid lane at 1 minute and 30 seconds after helping the side lanes, and you'll most likely not miss the experience from the front-line minions."

Li Yi switched screens and glanced at the mid lane.

"Of course, this excludes top-tier laners."

It can only be said that Crown truly deserves to be one of the top mid laners today. From the moment he discovered that Li Yi was lurking in the bottom lane, he began to intentionally pull the minion wave, creating a focus fire on his own first front-line minion.

Therefore, when Li Yi returned to the laning phase...

Instead of the usual laning phase with three front-line minions at low health, the player had already lost experience from two front-line minions.

[Streamer, streamer, the bot laner is calling you brain-dead.]

That's an abbreviation for Nice Try...

What's going on with this minion wave? Why are two front-line minions down, but the last one is still at full health?

Coach, I want to learn this!

If the coach knew this, he wouldn't be here teaching people how to easily climb the ranks.

Is Sion really good against Malzahar? Won's charged Q won't be interrupted by Malzahar's Q silence?

"That's a very good question from the audience."

While arguing online, Li Yi switched screens to scan the live chat and finally found a professional question among a bunch of trolls.

"Malzaha's Q can indeed interrupt our Q, especially skilled Malzaha players who use the angled Q technique to make the silence effect take effect more quickly."

"But no matter what, we have the initiative in this laning phase. We don't need to deliberately seek the maximum damage of Q charging. We can cancel the charge as soon as the opponent casts Q."

As a master of playing Malzahar, Li Yi knew very well that this hero was extremely mana-starved before completing the Lost Chapter.

That's why he chose to leave with four health potions, sacrificing his own health to buy Malzahar's mana, thus regaining lane control.

"And most importantly, and this is the point where Sion is most effective against Malzahar—"

Li Yi activated his W skill, "Soul Furnace," and stepped forward to detonate the shield, finishing off the three small insects that Malzahar had just summoned.

"Our W ability can stack its passive health by killing Malzahar's larvae! Every time Malzahar casts W [Void Swarm], we gain 12 maximum health."

"At this point, some viewers might ask, 'If I, Malzahar, don't activate W, then you won't be able to counter me,' right?"

Who asked? Who exactly is asking?

I was going to ask, but now that you've mentioned it, I'm not going to anymore.

[I'm an honest person, I'm asking you, I won't post W, are you going to explode?]

"Yes, there's really nothing I can do about you. After all, Sion is a champion who can only passively take damage in the early game."

Li Yi nodded.

"But many people have a misconception that Malzahar uses his E skill to quickly push lanes."

"Actually, that's not the case. The bugs summoned by Malzahar's W deal extra damage to minions with E active, so W is actually Malzahar's main way to push lanes."

"The point of picking Malzahar is to secure lane priority and roam early. If you're not using your W just to prevent me from stacking health, it's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater!"