"Welcome to the 2017 Asia League Tournament. This is the live broadcast of the first match of the group stage …"
The commentators for today's opening match were Remember and Ze Yuan. Ze Yuan's voice was unusually loud and clear. He was constantly brewing his emotions.
It was not just for this opening match.
The next match was between Samsung and RNG.
He was ready to go.
He remembered that he was a little depressed.
When the LPL team led by YM appeared on the stage, Remember had seen the negative reactions of the audience.
As a fellow fan, he felt embarrassed.
"This match will see if YM can maintain their strong performance against IG. After all, Lightning Wolves is not a weak team." Ze Yuan was the first to speak.
"That's right." Remember immediately regained his composure when he heard his partner's words. "Lightning Wolves can be said to be the overlord of the LMS division …"
The caster quickly switched the screen. The BP panel appeared on both sides of the screen, indicating that the match was about to begin!
"YM has taken the initiative to choose the red side. This means that Lightning Wolves are in the blue side. They have decided to ban Roland!"
White Crescent banned the strong jungler Zach as usual.
Steak flipped through the notebook in his hand. His brain was working quickly to come up with a strategy.
He took this group stage very seriously.
Although no matter how bad the group stage results were, there were knockouts in each division. However, ranking was also very important to the three divisions.
The first division did not need to play in the semifinals. They could just wait for challengers in the finals.
Steak also knew that other than Lightning Wolves and AHQ, the other two teams in this division had Dora.
If they wanted to get a good ranking in the group stage, they had to win enough games.
"How about banning Galio and Talia?" Steak suggested. "We can steal Seresi later …"
The team members had no objections.
"Lightning Wolves ban Galio and Rock Sparrow. YM ban Wine Barrel and Lucian," Remember said after looking at the second and third bans of both sides.
"It's obvious that Lightning Wolves are still wary of Ran and Liu Qingsong's support roaming ability. Try to limit their hero pool as much as possible." Ze Yuan raised his voice.
"That's right." Remember looked at the BP panel on the screen. "Lightning Wolf, choose Hammer Stone!"
As a result, of the two supports that Liu Qingsong had used to win IG, one was banned and the other was stolen.
"YM locked onto them very quickly. Dusk and Spider Queen are the best heroes in their respective positions!"
"Lightning Wolves will bring out Sindra and Excavator," Ze Yuan analyzed. "They will also bring out strong midlaners to fight YM head-on!"
White Crescent was still pondering.
Lucian was banned, and Sindra appeared on the other side.
It wasn't as if there weren't any mid-laners left outside who could fight her.
Lin Yan had used the Lamborghini to fight against Broiler's Sindra last week, and the results were remarkable. He had also used Ike and the Little Fishman to restrain them, and they were all good choices.
However, Ike and Little Murloc were not suitable for YM's current lineup.
White Crescent had already chosen Spider for Xiao Tian. This hero had to gank in the early game, or there would be no point in choosing her.
Little Murloc and Ike needed to be level 6 before they could take the initiative in the mid lane, which was obviously not in line with Spider's strong period.
The remaining Lamborghini would become strong after level 3, and it was a good combination with Spider.
However, if Lin Yan got Lamborghini first, Liu Qingsong would definitely face a situation where there would be no support available in the second round.
"Let's give it to Tear first. I can choose last." Lin Yan took the initiative to speak.
"YM replaced Tam in the end of the first round!"
Remember's tone was very calm. "This is a good choice. He can protect his teammates against Hammer Stone, and he can try to roam and support in the mid game."
The second round of BP began. White Crescent blocked Spear of Vengeance and Verus, and Steak banned Lamborghini and Ike.
White Crescent and Steak looked at each other across the air.
The two of them were well aware of the choices of mid-laners.
"In the second round of selection, let Jin Gong take the top laner Princes first …" Remember's brain was spinning quickly. "Let's see how Lightning Wolf will react."
"Big Mouth and Big Tree, Lightning Wolf's team battle formation suddenly became very solid!"
There was no displacement double C, but with the protection of Hammer Stone and Big Tree, the damage output environment would not be very badly limited by Princes.
"Finally, YM's fifth chosen unit …" Ze Yuan was full of expectations.
Just like Remember, he had seen the reaction of the Bendy audience.
Because his partner Remember was also a Bendy player and a former analyst of Lightning Wolf, he did not put too much emotion into the commentary work.
However, Ze Yuan still hoped that YM could teach Lightning Wolf a good lesson and slap the Bendy audience in the face.
Lin Yan was also discussing with White Crescent.
In the remaining versions of the popular mid laners, there was almost no one who could fight against Sindra.
Qing Gang Yin's mid laner was Lin Yan's unique skill. Together with Spider, they could form a combination of ADAP and ADAP damage attributes. The control link was also very good.
However, she did not feel comfortable fighting against Sindra.
It was very simple. Sindra's weak dispersal could easily interrupt Qing Gang Yin's E [Return of the Wall].
Unless she used a big move, Qing Gang Yin could not get close to Sindra.
"In fact, Yasso can fight against Sindra, but Brother Ran Yasso's level is a bit green." Liu Qingsong took a sip of water and said.
Jin Gong laughed. "Lin Yan is Yasso?
My grandmother plays better than him! "
"You're scolding me again?"
Lin Ran had just finished his discussion with White Crescent. When he heard his teammates talking about him like that, he couldn't hold it in any longer. "Last year, I used Yasuo to solo-kill Rat King in the All-Stars Solo Competition. Don't look down on me!
"Haha." Xiao Tian's tone was extremely annoying. "Wasn't that because you were too weak and Rat King was anxious?"
Seeing that the ten-second countdown to the hero selection had entered, Ze Yuan was a little anxious.
"Haven't you chosen your hero yet?"
He thought that Lin Yan could not find a character who could fight against Sindra. "If not, there's still the Little Mermaid!"
Suddenly, a broken Magic Sarcophagus appeared in Liu Qingsong's hero selection window. Blue arcane energy surged wildly in the fragments of the Sarcophagus.
The scattered YM fans below the stage suddenly burst into enthusiastic cheers. Even in the small stadium, it was still very abrupt.
"Zerath!"
Ze Yuan was excited when he saw this hero appear in YM's selection window. "His hands are very long. It's also quite good to fight against Sindra, a non-positional hero … Do you really want to choose?"
"There's not enough time. Lock in, it's Zerath!" He remembered that he did not expect Lin Yan to choose this hero.
The live broadcast room was densely filled with comments. Ever since they witnessed the unfriendly behavior of the LPL team, they became indignant.
【？？？
Another one of his tricks?]
[The first thought in my mind is Zerath the Electric Blade …]
[Ran has never used this hero in his career. Can he do it?
I want to see the faces of Wan Wan's fans.]
[Can Flash Wolf beat YM with this kind of behavior?
Ran can beat Maple with his eyes closed. If Wan Wan doesn't pull out the internet cable, he won't stand a chance.]
Lin Yan, nicknamed Coffin Man and Zephyr Cannon, did not use this hero very often, but it was not difficult for him.
Zerath's four skills were all directional skills with a range of more than a thousand yards. In the hands of novice players, the skill hit rate was very low. It was even the only background of the game's major controls. It was called the IG of the hero world.
This was also the origin of the nickname Zerath the Electric Blade.
After all, if an AD equipment was used, the normal attack would not be dodged in most cases, so there was no room for it to be shown off.
Due to the instability of Zerath's skills, his fists would naturally not have a low upper limit.
In other words, as long as the skill hit rate was high enough, Zerath's damage output would not be bad.
This was also the reason why Lin Yan was so confident.
Lin Yan had fought with Maple a few times before in the mock competition. He felt that there was a certain gap in strength between him and himself. It was not a big problem to predict his position.
In addition, Flash Wolf's double C did not have any displacement. Zerath's skills would not be blocked by a hero like Big Tree in the front row. It was quite a threat to the back row. Naturally, it was very suitable for this game.
"A very unpopular choice!"
Ze Yuan was not prepared for Zerath, an unpopular hero. He could only receive the information from the director and then pass it on to the audience.
"Zerath only appeared frequently in the 2015 season because of the version update and the changes in the midlaner environment. After the values were strengthened and revised, this hero began to sit on the bench again. Few people cared about it!"
He remembered that he was still in shock when Lin Yan chose Zerath. "He really dared to choose …"
Maple was also not on guard against Lin Yan's Zerath.
What a joke. Two years had passed, and there were very few professional players who played this hero in the professional arena.
Who normal people would think that Lin Yan would use Zerath?
Maple panicked in his heart at first, then he calmed down.
He was also a veteran who had entered the World Finals since S3. He had experienced the strongest period of Zerath and still had some memories of this hero.
Stay calm. Stay calm and you can win.
Lin Yan changed his Touch of Hellfire talent, then changed his summoner skill to Purify. He roughly scanned the lineup of both sides.
Blue Flash Wolf: Top Big Tree, Jungler Excavator, Midlaner Sindra, Bottom Lane Big Mouth + Hammer Stone.
Red YM: Top Princes, Jungler Spider, Midlaner Zerath, Bottom Lane + Tam.
The key to their victory was the control of the lane in the middle lane. As long as Lin Yan could suppress Sindra, he could make full use of Zerath's long hand advantage. It was not a problem for him to radiate to the side and annoy other opponents.
As the map of Summoner's Canyon appeared in the center of the big screen, the audience in the stadium immediately became noisy and cheered for their home team, Flash Wolf!
"Take this game seriously." Lin Yan adjusted the back of the gaming chair to make sure that his waist was comfortable enough.
"No problem." Xiao Tian pinched his fingers and smiled. "This game must let this group of audience see the strength of YM."
"Crush them." Jack shook the mouse and bought the Doran Sword. "Brothers, let's go!"
"Go go go!" Jin Gong shouted.
The five members of YM bought their outfits and rushed out of the spring. Countless signals were marked in the opposite jungle.
In terms of a first-level team, Casa's Excavator was basically useless, and Lin Yan's Zerath's damage output was extremely high.
In this case, YM naturally had to invade.
"YM has grouped up and entered the bottom half of the Flash Wolf's jungle, forcing Casa to switch to the jungle …" Ze Yuan looked at the movements of YM on the screen and said.
"It's a familiar strategy again. If Casa lets his own red buff switch to the jungle, he won't be able to effectively protect the bottom lane in the first four minutes!"
Once the Flash Wolf lost control of the bottom half of the jungle, YM would be able to implement their four-man two-man strategy without restraint.
The opposing bottom lane would be like a delicate girl who had lost the ability to resist and could only be manipulated by YM.
In fact, after playing four-man two-man for a whole year, this strategy could be considered an open conspiracy.
But YM was strong in this aspect.
Let me tell you, I am invading the jungle, I am playing four-man two-man, I am using your two-man lane as an ATM machine.
But you can't solve it.
For example, how would this first-level team defend against the Flash Wolf?
It couldn't be defended. Excavator's first level was five.
The Flash Wolf also knew that a first-level team couldn't defend against an invasion. Casa could only swallow the humiliation and switch to YM's red buff.
The small soldiers reached their respective lanes, and the two sides finally began to line up.
Ze Yuan suddenly found a blind spot. "Ran directly went out with Dark Seal!
This is Sindra, the lane boss! "
On Zerath's equipment panel, there was a Dark Seal and Reusable Potion.
"Ah, this …" Memory, who was originally very fluent in speech, had a rare stutter. "Does Ran feel that he has no pressure in the lane?
The health provided by Doran's Ring is very helpful in the lane against Sindra! "
[This outfit is a highlight of the word 'crazy'!]
[Crazy is the end of it. If he goes out and puts on Ran, he wins!]
[He really doesn't treat Sindra as a human. It's obvious that he looks down on Maple.]
Maple was stunned for a second when he saw the Dark Seal in Zerath's equipment panel.
Then his already dark face became even darker. Coupled with the unique dark circles under his eyes, Maple now looked like a combination of King Ning and Gaara.
You look down on people, right?
If I don't kill you once today, how will I have the face to see my fellow countrymen below the stage?
Maple's fellow villagers were also very dissatisfied with Lin Yan's outfit.
This Dark Seal and the chosen unpopular hero, Zerath, were seen by them as a blatant provocation.
No one knew who started it, but the audience in the stadium actually booed in unison.
"Fengtang, you must beat him up!" A sharp voice came from below the stage.
(Fengtang = Maple's nickname. He used the ID "Fengtang Years" to reach the top of the platform.)
Although he was wearing soundproof headphones, it could not completely isolate the sound from the outside world. Lin Yan still noticed the reaction of the audience below the stage.
Shh! Let's see if you can still talk after 15 minutes. "
He controlled Zerath to accumulate energy, and the Q [Arcane Pulse] went towards Sindra!
The corner of Maple's mouth raised slightly, and he confidently twisted his waist to move downwards.
Then, he just happened to collide with the Arcane Pulse.
Zerath's level one Q had 80 + 0.75 AP bonus damage. The damage was very exaggerated, and Sindra's health dropped by almost one bar.
"Accident, it's just an accident …" Maple comforted himself.
He went forward to suppress Lin Yan, wanting to use the Q's [Shadow Ball] to not attract the aggro of minions, and then push him out of the EXP zone.
However, Lin Yan did not think at all. He retreated behind his ranged troops, turned around, and paused for a moment.
Maple saw the opportunity, and the Shadow Ball condensed under Lin Yan's feet.
However, Lin Yan suddenly took another step forward towards Sindra!
It was this step that prevented the shadow ball from hitting its target!
Lin Yan went forward and attacked Sindra with a normal attack. He used the passive [Mana Surge] to recover mana and reduce Maple's health at the same time.
Maple did not dare to fight back.
He was standing very close to the front. If he returned this normal attack, it would attract the aggro of the enemy's minions.
It was definitely a loss for him to trade health like this.
He could only turn around and retreat behind his own minions.
After the nine-second cooldown of the level one Q [Arcane Pulse] ended, Lin Yan started to accumulate energy again.
This time, Maple did the opposite. He moved upwards.
Then, he was hit by the Arcane Energy again.
F * ck!
Something was wrong!
Maple frowned. The two Arcane Pulses not only hit Sindra, but also took away a lot of his minions' HP.
If this continued, Zerath might even get to level two first.
Maple felt that his dignity as a Sindera had been crushed without a trace by his opponent.
Another nine seconds passed.
He saw Lin Yan controlling Zerath to raise his arm again. A ball of blue Arcane Energy gathered in his hand.
This time, he learned his lesson.
He did the opposite and stayed where he was, not moving at all.
It was a pure Bronze and Silver level play.
However, this was very effective against professional players under certain circumstances. Many professional players were used to dodging skills, and naturally, they would also be used to predicting the opponent's movements when casting skills.
Sometimes, standing still could avoid the opponent's prediction skills.
However, this did not mean that a player with a low score would be able to dominate in a professional game. The opponent was not stupid. One of the weaknesses of a player with a low score was that it was too easy to predict their movements. The opponent could see through the player's movements after two attempts.
Like now.
Maple could only watch as the Arcane Energy Pulse hit him again!
Three Qs and one normal attack. Sindra's HP had dropped to half!
The second wave of minions had not come up yet.
Sindra was half HP, Zerath was full HP …
Am I Bronze or Silver?
Maple fell into deep self-doubt.
He felt that Lin Yan seemed to have seen through his thoughts. All of his actions were within his expectations.
Are you a monster?
The caster also noticed the unusual HP difference in the middle lane. When the camera switched, they saw that Zerath had successfully cleared the minions and reduced Sindra's HP to half even though he only had half of his mana left.
The two LPL commentators were stunned.
"This …" Zeyuan wanted to say something but stopped.
Countless question marks flew across the bullet screen of the livestream.
The result of this exchange of HP was completely beyond their understanding of the game.
[What the hell?
Sindra disconnected?]
[I didn't expect Zerath to not lose a single drop of HP. Is he really not fighting back?]
[I thought that the two sides had swapped heroes just by looking at the HP bar. Sindra was suppressed by Zerath to half HP. Is this something that a carbon-based creature can do?]
[This wave, this wave is a midgap!]
(Midgap: the gap in the middle lane, a common term used in foreign 'interactions')
In addition to the cheers of a small group of YM fans, there were also sounds of chatter in the live audience.
The spectators felt a little uneasy.
Zeyuan Cannon's accuracy was a little off the charts.
Lin Yan, one of the parties involved, sat in the eSports chair, staring intently at Sindra's movements on the screen.
He had felt that something was wrong when he fired the first Qs.
Today, his hand felt surprisingly good.
He had a feeling that no matter how the opponent moved, he would be able to hit the skill.
This feeling rarely happened to Lin Yan after he became a pro player.
One reason was because the purpose of a pro player's day and night training was to stabilize their condition and deliberately prevent sudden fluctuations in their hand.
Because there was a situation where one's hand was hot and could kill anything in its path, there would naturally be times where one's hand was cold and useless.
As a pro player who relied on this skill to make a living, he would avoid himself from acting like a crazy knife.
After all, no one wanted to be crazy in the last group stage and then suddenly lose in the next knockout round.
The second reason was because he had the system.
The biggest role of the system now was to help him stabilize the lower limit, and at the same time, it limited the ceiling level to a certain extent. Although this ceiling level might not be reached by all pro players.
Simply put, it was to mechanically reduce the standard deviation of his strength.
With the combination of the two, Lin Yan rarely encountered a time when his hand felt so hot like today.
Although it was a surprise, Lin Yan did not feel very surprised.
After all, he was very angry now.
And as everyone knew, people could do a lot of incredible things when they were extremely angry.
Some people could Slide Tackle Tiger, so it was reasonable for him to release his skills more accurately.
"Ran rose to level two first, W [Eye of Destruction] hit Sindra again!"
"Then with the help of a slow Q [Arcane Pulse], Sindra's HP can't hold on anymore!"
Maple was numb.
W [Eye of Destruction] had a range of 1,100 yards, and his Q [Shadow Ball] only had a range of 800 yards.
Now, he could not even touch Lin Yan's body, and his HP was already very low.
However, Maple also noticed that Lin Yan did not have much mana left, so he drank the potions in his backpack and was ready to force his way out.
As long as Zelas's mana was used up, he would be a large ranged soldier and would not be a threat at all.
"Give me your mana, Xiao Tian?"
Lin Yan also noticed that he did not have much mana left, so he asked for Phyllostachys Pubescens' opinion. "I want to continue to suppress him."
Mongoose had been watching the situation in the middle lane while farming in the jungle, and he did not understand why Lin Yan's skill hit rate was so high.
However, the truth was in front of him. Xiao Tian saw that the mid laner relied on himself to gain the advantage in the lane, and as a jungler, he was very pleased.
"I can give you my mana, but you have to accompany me to counter the jungle later." Xiao Tian stated his condition.
"No problem, no problem!" Lin Yan quickly agreed.
"Wow … Xiao Tian is giving his first mana buff to Ran. Isn't this too much?"
Ze Yuan looked shocked, but in fact, he was laughing in his heart. "This is the treatment of an emperor for Zelas!"
"The main thing is that Ran played well in this match. Under such circumstances, Xiao Tian naturally has to provide Ran with five-star service." Remember added.
Maple saw that Lin Yan, who was almost drained of mana, returned to the lane with a mana buff, and his heart sank.
How am I supposed to fight this!
Maple saw that Lin Yan, who had a lot of stamina, moved forward arrogantly, and shot himself with another [Arcane Pulse]!
No matter how he moved, Maple felt that he had nowhere to hide in front of Zelas.
This was not a script, right?
Sindra, who had just used a potion to recover, was once again at low health.
If they continued to hide under the tower, it would be easy for the spiders to get past them.
Maple quickly shook the jungler.
"I can't come. The spiders must be nearby. How can we win when it's a goose fight?"
Casa saw that his mid laner's health was low and did not plan to go there.
"Then help me block the minions. I have to go back to the city!" Maple shouted.
The jungler liked this kind of opportunity to gain experience openly.
You're really my brother!
Casa was secretly annoyed that he did not take nanqiang. Otherwise, he would have enjoyed it more.
"Three minutes, Sindra is forced to go back to the city. He has finished three waves of minions and can only replenish one Dark Seal and potion."
Lin Yan, who had leveled up to level three, went forward to suppress him. He did not want Casa to block the minions in front of the tower.
Lin Yan's E [Impact Magic Ball] was used instantly. Casa subconsciously wanted to dodge, but he was still stunned on the spot.
A normal attack followed, and the passive [Mana Surge] recovered mana again.
Followed by W [Eye of Destruction] and Q [Arcane Pulse]!
"Three skills and a normal attack. Excavator doesn't have much health left!" Ze Yuan was very excited.
"Xiao Tian, go to the bottom half of their zone. Excavator hasn't finished farming yet," Lin Yan calmly commanded.
Casa had just leveled up to level three when he came to the middle lane. Looking at the number of last hits on the interface, he knew that Excavator had farmed three groups of minions in the top half of YM and the River Crab.
"Xiao Tian decisively took a detour to invade the opponent's jungle. Casa's condition is very bad, so he can only give up on the minions!
"This way, YM has gained a considerable advantage in economy and experience within three minutes!"