She chose the strategy with the most bullet comments.

Suddenly, Su Mu's lips curled up, and he banned Angel.

Targeting wet nurses?

Absolutely not. Who wouldn't know how to break the patterns they themselves have created?

111. Mid-lane Senna

Even digital miracles have their tempers and confidence; seeing that Step by Step Wins isn't banning healers, they immediately prioritize picking them.

In their research, even if a solo laner doesn't work, the support can still return to the support role and be paired with ADCs like Draven or Xayah, still showing considerable strength.

Su Mu had anticipated the plans of the digital miracle. The healer would basically go top or support, but not mid, because her hero pool was unpredictable, and most of them were support heroes.

There's also a support healer build that maxes E, which deals significant poke damage and has a long range.

If she remembered correctly, there was a version in her previous life where the main E healer was popular, but it was quickly nerfed back to the main W build.

"So, Brother Mu, are you getting your period? To be honest, I'm a little nervous."

"You can go out. Don't be nervous. I'll take care of everything."

"Wow, so cool! I feel so safe!"

Zhang Xiaoyu couldn't help but squeeze her legs together, no longer hesitating, confidently locking in a hero no one had expected—

Singed the Alchemist.

what?

Countless people were stunned for a moment.

Alchemist is such an unpopular hero. Not to mention in competitions, you hardly see anyone playing him on any server. His pick rate is consistently in the bottom five, and his win rate is also low. The designers have been stingy with the buffs he's received.

At least, that's how many top laners see it.

Su Mu is different; she has advanced understanding and knows how to deal with certain long-range top lane champions.

Want to steal money to level up?

I won't even go against you in lane. I'll pick a disconnect-style alchemist and see how you steal from me.

However, it's very difficult to play Alchemist well, as it relies heavily on teamwork. It's okay if this hero gets caught and killed, as long as the enemy top laner loses minions, the jungler loses jungle camps, or the other laners are wiped out.

Zhang Xiaoyu's alchemy proficiency is really average. Fortunately, this hero doesn't have any difficult operations. What's more important is awareness, strategy, and understanding of minion waves.

None of that matters. As long as the pressure in the mid lane isn't too great, she can provide general guidance to make it easier for Zhang Xiaoyu to play.

……

Alchemy?

San San frowned, sensing something was amiss. Before she could discuss it with her teammates, she discovered that Step by Step had locked in Senna as their second pick.

In the commentary booth, Luan Ming's eyes lit up, and his clear voice resonated throughout the venue.

"Wow, it's the new hero Senna! I didn't expect her to appear in the semifinals. She's only played twice before, and lost both times. Her win rate in competitive matches is currently 0%."

"Senna does have a decent pick rate in ranked games, played as both ADC and support, but her win rate isn't ideal."

This is also why no one targeted Senna in the match; her early-game strength was simply too weak to describe.

Slow attack speed, mediocre health regeneration, fragile build with no mobility, and skills that don't immediately provide speed boosts, shields, or crowd control, make the game feel clunky for many players.

In this fast-paced meta, taking Kleptomancy will result in insufficient gold stealing due to its long skill cooldowns, making it an unsuitable rune for this champion.

This hero only has room to perform if they collect 75 or more passive souls.

The awkward part is this: the new hero was supposed to be the highlight of the patch, but a new rune stole most of the limelight.

"It seems that neither side intends to test the waters in this BO5; they're going to go all out from the start."

"Digital Miracle has revealed the robot. Dare to pick it? This hero's game curve is similar to that of high-elo ranked games. It's hard to perform well once you're at a disadvantage, but it also has the charm of turning the tide with a single hook. It's a high-risk, high-reward choice."

"Wow, they picked Draven as their third pick, that's pretty aggressive! It also means the support role can only be either top or mid lane."

Cheers erupted from the crowd. Most people preferred watching these intense, action-packed matches to long, drawn-out, and tedious games that avoided direct combat.

Su Mu raised an eyebrow and casually asked, "Does Xue Min dare to take Jiela?"

"Uh... I think I'll pass. I'm not very confident using Zyra..." Zhou Xuemin said somewhat awkwardly.

After all, she hadn't played this game many times, and the pressure of the semi-finals was considerable. If she played something unfamiliar and underperformed, the consequences would be unacceptable.

Su Mu wasn't too surprised, and calmly said, "How about we build Maokai first? You and Lis can decide who gets the minions based on the situation. If Senna doesn't go bot lane, Maokai can be paired with another ADC."

"no problem."

With the bot lane duo of Senna and Maokai confirmed, the Digital Miracles duo frowned.

They...don't know anything about this group.

The unknown is what we need to pay the most attention to. Their research on Senna is limited to her ADC role, which is basically paired with heroes like Nautilus. When she plays support, it's usually Caitlyn or Jhin, using her long range to poke and suppress the enemy team.

Pairing Senna with Maokai... Senna might not be able to keep up with Maokai's engage rhythm, right?

Or perhaps this is the correct way to combine them, but they just don't know it?

Digital Miracles doesn't underestimate the importance of winning step by step. The fact that this team can come up with so many novel strategies and tactics shows that their creative thinking is outstanding.

……

The two sides entered the second round of ban/pick.

The only unrevealed position in the numerical miracle is the mid-jungle duo. Considering the low probability of the support going mid, we can ignore the mid lane and focus on targeting the jungler.

Furthermore, the jungler from the digital miracle team was worth targeting, so two strong jungle heroes were banned in succession.

The choice of Digital Miracles was similar. They rejected the Yeti, which both Su Mu and Bai Wei could use. Knowing that Su Mu had a niche skill, they even put Galio on the list, as if they wanted to choose a melee mid laner.

In the current version... the short-ranged characters are even more afraid of Galio, a tanky mage, than the long-ranged ones, which is somewhat counterintuitive.

"Is choosing Wei a good idea?"

"Ah."

After deciding on the jungler through a series of steps to victory, the players from the "Number Miracle" team fell into deep thought. After a moment, they decided on the popular mid-jungle duo of Yasuo and Gragas.

Upon seeing the opponent's complete lineup, Zhao Lisi and the others couldn't help but glance at Su Mu.

The enemy mid laner picked Yasuo...

Feeling the gaze of his teammates, Su Mu couldn't help but smile.

"OK, let me play Senna, and Liz can take Tristana or Vayne."

Zhao Lisi nodded, "Then let's go with Xiaopao."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuemin also smiled and lightly clicked the mouse to select the hero.

When the final counter-position was revealed, commentator Luan Ming couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"Mid lane Tristana?"

"That's probably true, but ADCs have a hard time countering Yasuo, and the team composition is too physical, basically all of them are heroes who rely on auto-attacks for damage."

"That's a minor issue. No hero in the Digital Miracle team can build armor items like Iceborn Gauntlet, unless Gragas builds tank items. I wonder what Yun Jie's thoughts are on both teams' lineups?"

"The 'Step by Step to Victory' lineup is quite surprising. As expected of Xiao Mu, she's shown a new... Wait, Senna has switched to the mid lane?!" Jian Yun's eyes widened.

After the role reversal ended and it was confirmed that Senna was indeed going mid lane, the crowd erupted in cheers.

112. The Torture Begins

The lineups of both sides are as follows:

Blue team's Miracle lineup: Top lane Soraka, Jungle Gragas, Mid lane Yasuo, Bot lane Draven, Support Blitzcrank.

Red team's strategy: Top lane Alchemist, Jungle Vi, Mid lane Senna, Bot lane Tristana, Support Maokai.

"I really didn't expect Senna to be able to go solo lane, wouldn't that render her passive useless?" Luan Ming asked with a puzzled expression.

As we all know, Senna's passive ability requires her to collect souls. The chance of her getting souls by killing minions is very low, and she has to rely on her teammates to kill them.

Currently, Senna has already been developed to play two roles: ADC and support for last-hitting minions, or support and play the normal role.

When Senna goes to a solo lane like mid or top, Luanming can't think of a way to accumulate souls. Attacking the enemy hero twice is possible, but the key is that Yasuo can't just stand there and give away points. Attacking people will also attract the aggro of minions, indirectly affecting the minion wave position and the number of last hits.

"It still carries the money-stealing rune..." Jian Yun's lips twitched.

Senna's skills have such long cooldowns, the trigger probability is worrying, is Kleptomancy really suitable?

The runes of the others were quite normal. As soon as Su Mu entered Summoner's Rift, he immediately attracted the attention of the vast majority of people.

[Holy crap, how many more support champions can Xiao Mu play in the mid lane?]

[What a talent! I won't watch any professional matches without her!]

Don't worry, my friend, professional players are definitely better at creating entertaining content than she is.

Don't make promises lightly, unless you're willing to offer something in return.

Viewers initially thought that Senna's Kleptomancy run in the mid lane was already refreshing enough, but when they saw Su Mu's starting outfit, it caused another uproar.

In her equipment inventory lay a scythe that countless support players knew by heart.

What?! What is Xiao Mu doing?!

[Something's gone wrong, why did they get a Ghost Scythe? That's an item that AD carries and supports usually build...]

I'm uncultured, all I can say is "Holy crap!"

[Amazing skill!]

The support hero is a robot, while the ADC is still the very aggressive Draven. He will inevitably choose to invade at the start of the game to see if he can hook Lucky Guy, but he encounters Senna in the jungle and then sees her retreat away.

Already struggling against Senna mid laners, they habitually opened the tab to check their opponent's starting items, and were instantly stunned when they saw the Ghost Scythe in their inventory.

No, playing mid lane and building support items?

Where are Big Tree and Little Cannon? Let me see your outfits!

"Could it be that the opposing team has switched lanes, with the support Maokai going mid?" the support player Jiujiu tentatively guessed.

"It's possible, but I guess Tristana will play mid, Senna will play ADC, and Maokai will farm in the bot lane."

"Isn't Tristana playing Yasuo just asking for trouble? It's really hard to say who will go mid... And I don't understand this kind of tactic of switching players to play the other lane."

Liu Liu was originally enjoying herself by pressing Ctrl+3 to control Yasuo and play the flute, but now that she doesn't know who she's going to lane against, she's lost interest in playing.

It's frustrating to be constantly swayed by the other side.

She doesn't feel much pressure playing Yasuo against Senna, but it's different with Maokai. Sometimes in ranked games, I've been assigned to the top lane against him many times, and I don't feel very comfortable playing against him.

Either you'll get knocked away when you try to use E, or your key skill might be dodged by W.

"I don't care who goes mid, as long as it's the ADC, I'll definitely take extra care of them." Wu Wu rubbed his hands together, eager to get started.

"So, should we switch to the enemy jungle or retreat?"

"Hmm... let's switch, that way your bot lane can play more aggressively." Wu Wu made the decision.

So what if the enemy team finds out I'm in the bottom half of the map? Anyway, top lane Soraka, with her long range, has no problem beating short-range Alchemist, so she doesn't need any special attention.

Knowing that the enemy had invaded, Bai Wei chose to play solo in the upper half of the map.

Zhang Xiaoyu was overjoyed. The fact that the enemy had switched jungle areas meant that they were unlikely to come to the top side of the map, at least not in the short term. So she was going to thoroughly and unscrupulously annoy the healer!

Hmph, how dare they use the tactics developed by her brother Mu to attack her? They don't know their own limitations. They have to be taught a lesson.

No matter if you're a pro or not, I won't lane against you. Even if you're the best in the international server, it won't matter.

With that in mind, Zhang Xiaoyu followed the designated route to the front of the blue team's top lane high ground, activated her Q skill to release poison and start cutting off the minion wave.

The five members of Digital Miracles all twitched when they saw the alchemy icon appear somewhere on the minimap.

what?

what?

What the hell?

Nobody understood what the alchemist was trying to do with this move.

The mid-lane minions were about to arrive on the lane, and Liu Liu had no time to pay attention to the Alchemist. She quickly switched the camera back to prepare for the laning phase and also wanted to know who would go mid for Step by Step to Victory.

Then she saw Sena following behind the soldier.

Good grief, Senna playing mid lane with support items, there's a penalty for over-farming minions, she won't eat them anymore?