She chose the strategy with the most bullet comments.

Karthus' ultimate ability can reduce a squishy target's health to nearly half, ending the team fight before it even begins. How can they possibly turn the tide?

Even if the Blademaster feeds a wave or two, it will probably be hard to withstand.

After the Baron Nashor spawned, Su Mu did something even more daring for everyone: a one-on-one Baron Nashor challenge.

While the two sides were still locked in a stalemate in front of the high ground tower, the mournful howl of Baron Nashor before its death suddenly echoed across the canyon, instantly stunning everyone at ESG who were completely unprepared.

WLD had four people on the front, which means... Juggernaut took down Baron Nashor by himself?

Grass!

At this moment, they all wanted to roar to the sky—

Damn it! Wu

It's impossible to hit it even a little bit.

With WLD securing Baron Nashor, ESG suffered a complete collapse across all three lanes during the Baron buff's duration.

255. Five Kills Begin

After WLD destroyed all of ESG's outer turrets and inhibitor crystals, Su Mu went back to base and even bought the Kraken, only lacking a full set of items.

The director then showed the economy panel to Bai Wei's Karthus runes, and discovered that she had stolen almost two thousand gold just from the first strike alone.

Their development was far too rapid, far too advanced. (Neighbor)

Upon seeing this, Shengxi and the other realized that their previous conclusions were flawed.

Rather than a hybrid AP Master Yi build, it's more accurate to describe it as a Master Yi build that initially sacrifices some of the damage that can be mitigated, opting to build Nashor's Tooth as the first item to level up W for lane sustain and farming. Once farmed up, it transitions back to a normal build.

Compared to the traditional Blade of the Ruined King build, the only difference is the early-game skill focus; the first completed item is the auto-attack-focused Teemo's signature weapon.

The commentators had already mentally labeled this match as a 10-0 split, but saying it was a 9-1 split to the outside world was just to give face to the saying that there is never a shortage of miracles in esports.

Before long, the most eye-catching team fight in the history of the LPL professional league appeared.

Karthus unleashed his ultimate, and Miss Fortune, who was at full health, was instantly reduced to less than 20% health. Before she could even react to what had happened, she was taken down by Master Yi, who rushed out from around the corner and locked onto her with his Q.

The female gunman died in less than two seconds, leaving everyone else stunned.

Even though Diana and Yasuo successfully knocked up the Master Yi and connected their control chain, they couldn't kill him instantly.

They all temporarily overlooked a crucial piece of information.

The Sword Saint came in with the Gem's ultimate ability...

Diana successfully pulled Master Yi into the air. When Yasuo followed up with his ultimate, he realized that Taric's ultimate had landed on Master Yi's head, granting Master Yi 2.5 seconds of invulnerability!

During this period, no damage can be dealt.

Gnar couldn't unleash his ultimate before his rage was full. After landing, Master Yi flashed and used Q to lock onto the healer. In the blink of an eye, he wiped out all of the healer's health. The healer reacted quickly and used her ultimate to heal, but it was all in vain.

After killing the healer, the Master Yi used his W ability to quickly recover health on the spot. Even though the recovery amount wasn't as terrifying as it seemed in the early game, the Master Yi, who hadn't taken much damage, was back to almost full health.

This state is enough to overturn the remaining three members of ESG.

No one can withstand more than a few cuts.

With all equipment effects fully stacked, the Blademaster's attack speed had long exceeded the 2.50 cap, reaching a stat total of just over 3.01.

Nashor's Tooth, Blade of the Ruined King, Guinsoo's Rageblade, and Kraken Slayer—each item has on-hit damage effects.

Add to that the true damage from Master Yi's E skill, and with his terrifying attack speed, cutting down enemies is as easy as slicing melons and vegetables.

Swords flashed across the battlefield, and solemn announcements filled with a chilling atmosphere resounded throughout Summoner's Rift.

Triple kill!

【Quadra kill

The commentators could only see the Sword Saint land a kill and refresh his basic skills, then use his third Q to lock onto a target after the meditation ended. After a few quick strikes, three more corpses appeared not far from ESG's inhibitor turret, and two more near the ruins of the mid lane inhibitor turret.

Penta kill!

Countless eyes were fixed on the match screen, constantly shifting between the eye-catching pentakill announcement and the Master Yi meditating and healing in front of the inhibitor turret, until the announcement disappeared.

A brief silence fell over the scene; the cheers, shouts, and commotion of the audience could no longer be heard.

It wasn't until the narrator, who had been looking blank, came to his senses and spoke with a look of utter shock that he finally came to his senses.

"A pentakill! The first pentakill of the playoffs has been achieved!"

Everyone who was stunned was pulled back to reality by the sudden loud shout. Whether they were at the scene or watching the live broadcast, countless people blurted out the word "Holy crap".

The minion wave pushed into the inhibitor turret, and several WLD players followed one after another next to the super minions.

There's no suspense anymore, or rather, there's been no suspense for a long time.

A more emotionally intelligent perspective: WLD is too cautious; he won't make a move unless he's absolutely certain.

A low-EQ explanation: WLD is ruthless. They deliberately farmed to an insane level and slaughtered ESG, trying to get Juggernaut and Karthus banned.

Both arguments seem to have merit.

Even if it were Earthworm Potato, I'd still have to say, this Sword Saint is terrifyingly powerful, terrifyingly powerful!

[It feels like even without Karthus's ultimate, Master Yi could single-handedly wipe out the entire ESG team in a 1v5 situation...]

Be confident, forget your feelings. Miss Fortune is 4 levels behind Master Yi, and Soraka is 6 levels behind. To put it bluntly, they are even squishier than cannon minions in front of a Master Yi with four full items.

[This is so cute! If Brother Mu's Sword Saint isn't banned next game, I'll perform a handstand while drinking water right here and now!]

【…

Too ha.

In the first few minutes of the game, when your combat power is not strong, focus on leveling up W to level 3 to farm and sustain in lane. Then switch to leveling up E to deal damage with the added damage from high attack speed.

Then, through individual skill, they secure lane kills, and the teamwork allows them to snowball their economic advantage, ultimately creating a scene typically only seen in high-elo veterans smurfing lower-elo games.

The level difference is huge; some people can only afford to use a two-piece set while having a four-piece set, and some can't even get a two-piece set...

This isn't some ranked game, not the international or Chinese server, it's the official tournament server, the LPL playoffs semifinals!!

In the semifinals, one side was so thoroughly humiliated that it could be described as playing against bots. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, who would believe it?

"Unbelievable! WLD gave ESG a huge surprise gift in the first game. Coach Yan Xuezhen must be having a headache in the next few games. Should she ban Su Mu's Sword Saint or not?"

"Not only Sword Saint, but Xiao Wei also continued her usual style of making a fortune in silence. It seems that most of the highlights are on Su Mu, but in fact, her Karthus's economy is also very terrifying. She can always develop to an astonishing level without people noticing."

"Indeed, that final ultimate move crippled everyone on ESG. The effect of unleashing the ultimate at full health was far more impressive than finishing off someone with low health."

"In patch 2.14, where the top and bottom lanes are still suitable for supporting roles, WLD delivered a perfect performance. ESG suffered a setback in their first match. We look forward to seeing them adjust and come up with a different tactical system and playstyle. We also look forward to seeing what kind of sparks will fly in the second game."

"..."

Just like the commentator analyzed, Yan Xuezhen in the ESG lounge was in a real bind.

WLD pulled out a lineup even better than ranked games and slaughtered them like pigs. Who can withstand that?

Su Muna's individual skill and champion pool surpass all other mid laners in the LPL, and can influence the win rate by almost 30%, which is undoubtedly a very frightening percentage in team-based competitive games.

Everyone here is a professional player. Even if it were Youzi from RT, he wouldn't be able to match up against Xique, who is ranked 27th in the international server with his full-on sheer skin.

Only a monster like Su Mu could have done that…

The question is, what should we do in the second game? Should we ban Juggernaut or not?

256. Why don't you use your ultimate move?

Strong teams are often arrogant, and few people at ESG were convinced of their loss to WLD's mid-jungle core duo of Master Yi and Karthus.

Excluding Xique.

He had a good grasp of the difference between AC and understood the gap between himself and Su Mu. He once suggested to the coach that if they couldn't handle the Sword Saint, they should at least ban him.

Yan Xuezhen felt a little uncomfortable.

Everyone knows that WLD was playing the ban phase in the first game, and now that they've successfully implemented it, they have to face two choices.

First, don't target specific individuals; instead, find actionable and correct countermeasures to launch a strong counterattack.

Secondly, you can simply ban them out of sight and out of mind, saving you time and effort.

The problem is, banning the Sword Saint still means dealing with another of Su Mu's strategies, unless she doesn't have one.

only…

You can fool others, but don't fool yourself.

To say that Su Mu lacks knowledge and only knows old tricks is an overstatement. Even if we disregard Su Mu's fans, even the online trolls and haters who criticize her would probably refuse to admit it.

The undeniable fact is that Su Mu is the LPL professional player who has chosen the most different heroes in matches.

Should we ban heroes that have proven effective against the enemy, or should we leave them untargeted and seek ways to break their strategies?

Yan Xuezhen discussed these two points with Xique, who remained silent. After much deliberation, he decided against targeting the Sword Saint and instead considered countermeasures.

So in the second game, ESG was banned again.

Although it wasn't as quick or as disastrous as the first game, it wasn't much better.

WLD secured Master Yi and Taric in the first round of bans. ESG, thinking that Mengnan would also play Karthus, decided to use a pick instead of a ban to disrupt the opponent's familiar strategy and secure Karthus. In the second round, they banned Kalista.

I won't let you play jungle comfortably in the bottom lane.

But none of the ESG members expected it, nor did any of the viewers or commentators. There was nothing WLD couldn't pull off; the only question was what kind of performance could be even more eye-opening.

The gem locked in by WLD in the first round wasn't for a support, but for a jungler!

The Master Yi is no longer playing the old-school, cheesy lane-farming style of maxing W and building Nashor's Tooth. Instead, he uses the Conqueror rune and builds Duskblade as his first item for armor penetration and burst damage.

Following the principle of focusing on scaling with their signature long-range champions, the ESG coaching staff gave Xique his Azir, who was then solo-killed by Juggernaut at level 2—a tower dive kill, no less.

The Master Yi displayed completely different damage output from the first game, with terrifyingly high burst damage. He flashed in, landed a single slash followed by his passive double slashes, and then a single-target Q, and the nearly full-health Azir was gone...

There are quite a few hardcore players in the audience who really enjoy playing the jungler Master Yi, and even they didn't know that Master Yi could one-shot someone at level 2.

The mid-laner was solo-killed at level 2, which became a weak point that WLD seized upon.

In a mid-jungle meta, it's not unreasonable for the jungler to stay in the mid lane, right?

Jungle Taric is not a support; he can give Master Yi a very high margin for error at level 6, allowing him to use his ultimate to chase and attack.

Unfortunately, the Tsar's ultimate ability has a short wind-up, which most professional players with incredibly sharp reflexes can react to and take measures to avoid being pushed away the moment they are pushed away.

Throughout the game, Tsar's ultimate ability failed to push away Juggernaut, as it was dodged by Alpha Strike every time.

If it weren't for Tsar's long range, he could at least farm up, and even the laning phase would be shortened by several minutes out of nowhere.

WLD is down 2-0.

It's not that no one had considered this outcome, but when they actually saw this situation, it still felt unreal.

This isn't the regular season anymore; it's a much more intense best-of-five playoff series!

While WLD's performance throughout the regular season can be described as good, there is still a certain gap between them and the top teams.

To put it nicely, the players haven't gelled enough yet. The team is full of rookies, with only Su Mu being a semi-veteran who transitioned from FPS.

Strictly speaking, he's not even a seasoned veteran. He's only played one match in his FPS career. Can he really be called a seasoned veteran?

Broadly speaking, WLD is a completely rookie team. (Dirty/Unclear)

Reaching a top-five finish in the regular season is already a very strong achievement; any flaws in the process don't overshadow the overall success.

I didn't expect them to perform so strongly in the playoffs. A 3-0 sweep of BRS wouldn't be a big deal; RT could probably do the same.

So, to win 2-0 against ESG, a team not much worse than RT, speaks volumes.

WLD's progress is far faster and more rapid than outsiders perceive.

The speed of understanding and adaptability to different versions, as well as the players' overall performance, all show a remarkably clear upward curve.

Based on the current score... WLD's chances of defeating ESG and advancing to the finals, securing a spot in the World Championship, have rapidly increased.

If WLD hadn't recruited two national college league champions, Su Mubai and Wei, at the beginning of the season, and hadn't had any established veteran players transitioning to other roles, this team wouldn't have attracted much attention.

WLD, now ridiculed as an "internet celebrity team," is undoubtedly a dark horse team.

……

Inside the ESG lounge.

"Hey boss, he didn't zoom in on that last game either. This guy must have something wrong with his thinking."

"I didn't scold him, I haven't scolded him in either of the last two games. I didn't expect that in this game the problem wasn't just the mid laner getting destroyed, but even the jungler seemed completely out of sorts."