"In this match, YM has come up with a new strategy." Mille looked at his two partners. "Support Lulu with healing. They gave up on the idea of dropping the Eye Stone and used an Incense Burner to increase the ADC's combat power …"
Remember nodded. "It's indeed very effective. Whether it's the vanguard in the canyon or the team battle in the mid lane in the 20 minutes, Lulu is crucial."
Doll wanted to add on, but she did not know what to say. She could only praise Liu Qingsong for his amazing healing ability.
RNG's Youth Training Base.
Many of the kids who were chasing their dreams turned on the live stream of the competition in their spare time.
The ten contestants who were competing in the square were the ones they had dreamed of becoming.
Listening to the endless applause and cheers below the stage, the kids' eyes were filled with envy and admiration.
They also wanted to one day stand on a stage illuminated by beautiful lights and enjoy the thunderous applause of the audience.
Able sat among them. His expression was completely different from the kids around him.
He was lost and helpless.
After the Korean server's main account was banned, Able found a new account and started from zero.
He was a youth trainee. He did not have the channels to get a super account with a high hidden score like a popular streamer who was good at Stone Golems. He could only slowly increase his score.
In a week's time, he played hundreds of ranked matches and finally reached the Korean server's Diamond 2.
However, this score was still far from the High Branch.
At this stage, he could not even meet LPL players. Most of them were youth trainees, passersby, and some streamers.
After Gao Dewei retired and picked up his 98K, the only LPL player who was close to his rank was Old Thief Sima who loved to cry for his opponents.
Even Prince Ning was the king of the Korean server with 700 points under Hanyi's supervision.
His low score also meant that Able could not get a high quality opponent.
At the same time, support players with low scores had their own understanding. Most of the time, they did not follow Able's train of thought and chose a hard support to wander around.
As a result, Able did not enjoy many matches with Incense Burner. His playstyle was not spread out.
Because his score was too low, it did not have much reference value.
Looking at the healing spell, the incense burner, and the redemption that YM helped Lulu pull out, Able suddenly felt that his life was bleak.
Needless to say, Professional Bro and the Korean server's high score players would use YM to reveal the incense burner system.
If this system was made public, how could he gain any points?
How could he make a name for himself in the LPL?
Now, Able had paid the price for their previous malicious act of delivering their heads to Lin Huang. They had paid a painful lesson.
…
Lin Yan rushed into the YM lounge with a paper cup in his hand.
"The farming route of the Spicy Saucepan …"
Su Cheng squeezed the pen shut tightly, making a crisp click sound.
She handed a piece of A4 paper to Lin Yan. "Time was tight, and I couldn't get a video of the last match from the OB perspective, so I could only record it with a pen."
In her haste, Su Cheng's handwriting lost some of its elegance and became a bit more sloppy.
The first line on the paper was: 1.38 BB, 1.57 BW, 2.19 BR …
An outsider would be confused, but Lin Yan took a quick glance and extracted all the information.
In this way of recording, the first number represented the time, the first letter represented the blue and red sides, the RNG was in the blue side, and the second letter represented the jungle camp.
B was the blue buff, W was the three wolves, and R was the red buff.
The first line of information that Su Cheng recorded was very simple: 1 minute 38 seconds for the Spicy Saucepan blue side, 1 minute 57 seconds for the three wolves, 2 minutes 19 seconds for the red buff.
This was the farming route of the Saucepan, and it was not the information that Lin Yan wanted.
He looked down decisively.
6.05 BS (Blue Stone Beetle Camp), 6.25 BF (Blue Beak Bird Camp)
After clearing these two jungles, the Spicy Saucepan returned to the city to replenish its equipment, then rushed to the top lane to kill the Sheba, and used a wave of minions to complete the leveling reversal.
Lin Yan frowned. He remembered very clearly that he had chased the Spicy Saucepan out of the three wolves' camp at 5 minutes 30 seconds.
At that time, the Spicy Saucepan was a whole level behind Xiao Tian.
In other words, the Spicy Saucepan relied on the two groups of Beak Birds and Stone Beetles to close the gap in experience.
Lin Yan had a guess in his mind during the game. He was not sure at that time, but now that he saw the route that Su Cheng recorded, the answer was obvious.
"That's weird …" Xiao Tian glanced at it and tilted his head, but he still could not figure out the reason.
White Crescent and Lin Yan, who had been sitting in their chairs in deep thought, spoke at the same time. "Wild experience compensation."
Xiao Tian was stunned.
He blinked his eyes and tried hard to recall this strange yet familiar term in his mind.
It was familiar because most junglers knew this term.
League of Legends was destined to be at a disadvantage. Junglers were always the unluckiest and had the worst experience.
Since the jungles did not have the protection of towers, the opponents could invade without fear and wipe out all the junglers.
If they only had to endure the pressure from the opponents, the junglers would not have to suffer so much.
What was even more frightening was that their teammates could backstab.
As long as they were at a disadvantage, the junglers who lost their towers would become unpunished junglers who could wipe out their own jungles.
Needless to say, the red and blue buffs were definitely at the top. The top lane and bottom lane would then wipe out the Stone Beetles and Magical Swamp Frogs closest to them, leaving the junglers with only the Beak Birds and the three wolves' camps.
In this situation, the junglers' levels could not keep up at all, and the gap between them and their opponents' levels would only grow bigger.
It should be known that the punishment damage was linked to the player's level, which meant that it would be very difficult for the junglers who were at a disadvantage in level to snatch the neutral resources (Dragon, Dragon, Primordial Dragon) from the opponents.
Junglers in team battles had no economy and no level, so they would be instantly killed the moment they entered the arena. They would not be able to snatch the Dragon and would gradually become invisible in the battle.
This was very unfriendly to junglers.
In order to change this situation, Fist had set up a jungler experience catch-up mechanism a few years ago so that junglers who were at a disadvantage could still have a certain gaming experience.
This mechanism allowed the junglers who were at a disadvantage to gain extra experience while farming. Their levels would catch up, and their punishment damage would increase. The possibility of them turning the tables would also increase.
It was unfamiliar because this mechanism had not been fully used in professional matches. Everyone knew about this mechanism, but they simply treated it as a tool for their junglers to catch up in the middle and late game.
"But, this experience isn't right, right?" Phyllostachys Pubescens understood the mechanism. "The experience catch-up mechanism can't be this ridiculous …"
"Do you have specific data?" Lin Yan looked at Su Cheng.
He planned to figure this out.
"… I'll have to look for it."
Su Cheng turned on her laptop and searched for the updated version of the experience catch-up mechanism in the database.
It didn't take long for her to get the answer. She let out a soft gasp of surprise.
"Come and take a look …" Since there was no projector in the lounge, the YM players could only use Su Cheng's computer to look at everything in detail.
Phyllostachys Pubescens stretched his neck, trying to look past the tall Lin Yan in front of him.
"Every jungler behind provides 30 extra experience points …" he muttered. Then his eyes suddenly widened. "F * ck!"
"Every jungler?" Jack, who was shorter, could not see the computer screen clearly, so he asked from outside the crowd.
"Every jungler," Su Cheng answered him.
(See the picture in this chapter: The previous experience compensation mechanism in the wild was very old and could no longer be found. However, the clever and witty author found the updated content of the experience compensation mechanism that was nerfed and dug out the specific content that was not nerfed.)
Lin Yan took a deep breath. "Is there a level experience table?"
Su Cheng nodded. Her slender fingers moved the cursor on the computer and opened a document on the desktop.
The document contained the experience points needed to level up a hero (see the description in this chapter).
"Level 4 to level 5 requires 640 experience points …" Phyllostachys Pubescens looked at the table in the document. "Then isn't this experience catch-up mechanism a little too retarded?"
All the YM players realized how ridiculous this was and nodded in agreement with Mongoose.
Lin Yan did the math in his mind and solved the mystery of the Spicy Saucepan's level.
Previously, the Saucepan was one level behind Xiao Tian at the five-minute mark. This triggered the experience catch-up mechanism in the wild. Every jungler would give him 30 extra experience points.
The Stone Beetle Camp had received an update in Season S7. The two Stone Beetles in the camp, one big and one small, would split after being killed. The big one would split into a medium one, and the medium one would split into a small one. Only when the small Stone Beetle was killed would this group of junglers be considered cleared. (See the description in this chapter. I mentioned this change at the beginning of Season S7.)
The small Stone Beetles that split from the Ancient Stone Beetle were also counted as junglers.
Now, the camp would spawn one big, three medium, and six small Stone Beetles, a total of ten junglers.
Ten junglers!
What did that mean?
Even though the Spicy Saucepan was one level behind, the Spicy Saucepan was able to gain 300 extra experience points from killing this group of Stone Beetles!
The Hero only needed 640 experience points to level up from Level 4 to Level 5. This experience catch-up mechanism was able to provide the Spicy Saucepan with almost half a level of extra experience points!
In addition to the experience points provided by the Stone Beetle Camp, the Spicy Saucepan would be able to level up by killing this group of junglers!
With the addition of the six small birds from the Beak Bird Camp, these two groups of junglers became the key to the Spicy Saucepan catching up and even surpassing the Hero.
Under extreme circumstances, killing these two groups of junglers would give as much experience as killing six groups of junglers!
"F * ck me," Jack cursed. "Why does this Stone Beetle split?
Isn't this just messing with people's minds? "
"Stop barking. The split Stone Beetles are quite profitable. You didn't even make a fuss when you ate my junglers," Xiao Tian mocked.
"It's time to go on stage," Guo Hao reminded everyone as he filled everyone's paper cups with water and drinks.
Lin Yan took the ice water and pondered on his way to the stage.
They had observed RNG's training tactics during the Intercontinental Championship. At that time, the Spicy Saucepan had never used this tactic.
It was most likely that RNG's analysis team had discovered this new tactic after the Intercontinental Championship.
To be honest, before S7 changed the Stone Beetle Camp and the Beak Bird Camp, the Spicy Saucepan's tactic couldn't be used.
In S6, the Beak Bird Camp was still F4, and there were only two small monsters in the Stone Beetle Camp. Due to the small number of junglers, the experience catch-up mechanism couldn't be used at all.
Last year, the Spicy Saucepan's stalking tactic would have been ridiculed by the commentators and audience.
Eimy, the Wild King, was a victim of that. He farmed wherever he caught, and even if he didn't farm, he would catch people. He could plan his jungler's route as he pleased, and it was normal for him to be two levels behind in a match. He was ridiculed by the commentators and audience as a hunger-striking jungler.
But now, the changes to the two junglers' camps had allowed the Spicy Saucepan and RNG to take advantage of the loophole and play the hunger-striking jungler to perfection.
The game designer clearly hadn't expected that his simple increase in the number of junglers would lead to this kind of tactic.
Lin Yan sat on the chair with a glass of water in his hand, staring at the computer screen. His thoughts had long since drifted away.
He was thinking about the significance of the Spicy Saucepan's strategy.
With his eyes in a daze, Lin Yan took a sip of ice water and allowed his brain to continue spinning. Gradually, he had an idea.
The Spicy Saucepan could stalk the opponent's jungler in the early game. If he could figure out the opponent's jungler's route, he could also prevent the opponent from farming comfortably, forcing the opponent's lane hero to help relieve the pressure on the jungler. It was just like how Lin Yan had used Lucian to support Xiao Tian in the previous game.
In the early game, when the lane support the jungler, there was an 80% to 90% chance that the lane would suffer losses. The Spicy Saucepan's goal would have been achieved.
He had successfully discovered the opponent's jungler's movements and diverted the attention of the opponent's lane hero. In other words, he had provided help to his own lane.
When the opponent's jungler got rid of the Saucepan with the help of the lane hero and widened the level gap between them, the Spicy Saucepan would take the opportunity to farm the Razorbeak Bird and the Stone Beetle's camp. He would use the experience compensation mechanism to instantly level up. Then, he would gank the opponent when he was unprepared and help the lane gain economy.
If he succeeded in driving the pace of the game in the first two steps and his teammates developed smoothly, then he would only need to start the team in a normal way and control the resources in the neutral map.
If the first two steps were not successful and the team was still at a disadvantage in the early game, the Spicy Saucepan would give the economy to the core damage dealer in the jungler to help his teammates develop faster. Just like in the previous game, he had given all the junglers except for the Razorbeak Bird and the Stone Beetle to Ouze. He wanted Ouze to complete the three-piece set as soon as possible and lead the team to victory.
The Spicy Saucepan's approach would only hurt his own economy. The experience points were all provided by the two groups of Razorbeak Bird and the Stone Beetle. The core damage dealer of the team could use the monsters to farm more gold coins and complete the lead in level.
It was a perfect jungler strategy.
More importantly, this hunger strike style was very suitable for the current version of the game.
The increase in the number of Razorbeak Bird and the Stone Beetle's camp was one of the reasons.
Another key factor was the popularity of herbivorous junglers. Heroes like Pig Girl, Wine Barrel, and Zach were very bad at solo fights in the jungler.
The Spicy Saucepan could tail these heroes to its heart's content. After all, it was very difficult for the opposing jungler to kill it alone.
In the previous version of the World Championship, which was led by Blind Monk, Olaf, Spider, and Panther Lady, the Spicy Saucepan dared to tail them in the early game. These heroes would then turn around and fight each other head-on.
The last point was the decrease in the jungler's spawn rate.
Now, the jungler would have to wait 150 seconds for the jungler to spawn. This gave the Spicy Saucepan more room to do things.
He only needed to kill two groups of junglers. The rest of the time, he could set up his vision or gank the jungler.
This was unimaginable in the previous version where the jungler's spawn time was 100 seconds. This was because heroes like Nanqiang and Panther Lady could clean up the jungler in a short while. When that happened, even the two groups of Razorbeak Bird and Stone Beetle wouldn't be able to kill the jungler.
With a combination of many factors, a compatible playstyle, and players who adapted to the version, the Spicy Saucepan's hunger strike style finally showed its supreme value.
"bsyy, how about I take a strong jungler this round?"
Xiao Tian's voice in the team voice pulled Lin Yan's thoughts back to the real world. "I can kill him in the jungler's jungler."
"If you're sure, I can let you get Excavator. This is one of the strongest junglers in the current version of the game …" White Crescent, who was standing behind him, said after pondering for two seconds.
The referee behind the player's seat confirmed everything and gave the order. With a clang, the second round of BP began!
The three casters on the commentary platform were excited. "YM has chosen the blue side for this round. They'll ban Pig Lady first!"
The red RNG team sent the unchanging Zac to the ban position.
In the second ban position, both sides banned Kynan and Lucian respectively.
Mille looked at the BP of both sides and said, "As expected, Lucian won't be released again. Otherwise, if YM gets a double archer system, there won't be any other team that can deal with it."
Doll nodded. "If YM can get a double archer system, Censer's buff to the team will be too strong. Killing an ADC in one shot doesn't matter. As long as one of the two archers survives, it'll be a devastating blow to RNG."
"YM banned Letme's Big Tree in the end. Let's see how RNG will respond next …"
In RNG's player area, Firefox was discussing something with his team members. Following the head coach's nod, a hero was placed in the ban position.
Storm's Fury Jana!
"Zephyr?"
Doll was stunned for a moment. This hero hadn't been in the ban position for many years. However, he quickly reacted. "They're probably afraid of YM's Censer system."
"That's right," Remember agreed. "Zephyr's shield and healing are very useful to the team."
The key point was still the combination of Zephyr's AOE health regeneration and Scorching Censer. It could be seen as a strengthened version of Redemption. It could not only push away enemies who came forward to attack, but also give all the teammates the Censer effect.
This was almost invincible in the early and middle stages of small-scale team battles. Thinking about it carefully, if all the teammates had the Censer's attack speed and health regeneration, just these attributes alone would be worth thousands of gold coins.
During the break, Lin Yan and the others were studying RNG's Hunger Strike jungler. RNG didn't let down their guard either. They had also seen through YM's Censer system.
Both sides had experienced the shock of the previous round and were well prepared. They were about to welcome a bloody battle.
YM saw that RNG finally banned Zephyr and let out a small sigh of relief.
"Take Callista first. We'll talk about the rest later." White Crescent patted Jin Gong's shoulder.
Spear of Vengeance, Ruin's buff, and her excellent adaptability with Tauren, Bloom, Hammerstone, and other hard supports allowed her to sit firmly on the throne of the version's T1 ADC even before she developed the Censer system.
Now, after YM experimented with the Censer system for nearly a week, they discovered the strength of this treasure girl, Callista.
All the team members were certain that she would be a T0 hero in the Censer version.
Callista's unique laning ability made her stand out among the ADCs supported by the Censer system. She could even take down a tower with soft supports.
Of course, Policewoman could also do this.
However, Callista's advantage in the Censer system wasn't limited to laning.
The R [Destiny's Call] could pull back a support that was in danger and provide protection for the core of the system — the Censer monster.
There was also another advantage.
W [Sentinel].
Once the Censer support became popular, it would evolve into a competition of support equipment. Whoever had better support equipment and more healing would have a greater advantage in a team battle.
In this situation, the support couldn't afford to buy eyes. Their vision would have to be filled by junglers.
However, Callista relied on W [Sentinel] to provide vision for the bottom half of the jungle and prevent ganks and all kinds of river invasions.
Now that RNG had released this hero, how could they not pick her?
"RNG backhandedly gets Dusk + Luo!"
Mille looked at RNG's selection and was very surprised. "This is UZI's first Dusk, right?"
"That's right." Remember nodded his head. He didn't even need to think about this kind of hot knowledge. "Previously, the ADCs of other teams have more or less used Dusk, but this is the first time Uzi has used it."
Previously, Ouze was criticized for not practicing heroes. Dusk had already been out for two months, but he had only started practicing it.
However, after winning the Intercontinental Championship, his attitude towards training changed significantly. In half a month, he had practiced Dusk 50 times.
Although it wasn't as good as Ultimate Skill Bro, it was definitely not a problem to use it.
"How did they react so quickly?" White Crescent looked at the opposing team's selection and was a little puzzled.
After the Censer system appeared, Dusk's legendary phoenix combo became extremely strong. This was something that YM and the others knew.
Originally, Dusk's combo strength was guaranteed, but it wasn't the strongest. It was just barely ranked at the bottom of the T1 echelon with the other bottom lane combos.
The reason was simple.
The heroes couldn't adapt to the version.
Previously, the support of the bottom lane combos were heroes like Bull's Head, Hammer Stone, Boulogne, and Sun Maiden. They all had one thing in common — they had a lot of hard crowd control and had very strong backhand abilities.
Dusk, a fragile hero, relied heavily on the big move [Fleeting Fissures] to enter the game. This meant that he was destined to be afraid of heroes with hard crowd control abilities, such as Sun Maiden.
The moment he entered the game, if he was crowd-controlled by Sun Maiden, the opponent's damage output would instantly melt Dusk.
Of course, other than this, Dusk was also considered a strong support hero in the Summer League.
However, Dusk, Dusk's partner, was fiercely attacked not long after the Summer League began in Version 7.12. The cooldown of W [Deadly Feather Raiment] was increased by four seconds.
(See this chapter.)
This undoubtedly greatly weakened Dusk's damage output.
However, in the current Censer system, these small flaws could be ignored.
The soft support heroes had no way to deal with Dusk's entry. At most, they could only use Wind Maiden's big move and Lulu's Polymorph. The former could only stop Dusk from entering the game. The latter's Polymorph had a casting time, and Dusk could use E [Dance of the Twin] to pull away.
Dusk's strength had also been greatly improved with the introduction of Censer. Her R [Storm Feather Blade] could protect her damage output environment, and her E [Barb] could provide crowd control.
Moreover, Dusk and Dusk could be used together to increase the displacement distance of Dusk's E [Dance of the Twin].
A marksman who could protect a support was a good AD. The strength of the Dusk and Dusk combo instantly increased by several levels.
"Spider and Lulu," White Crescent responded after a short moment of surprise. "In this game, we have to target the enemy's bottom lane. Xiao Tian, pay attention …"
Phyllostachys Pubescens nodded vigorously.
"RNG the first round, give Saucepan a Wine Barrel at the end, and then add another hand to start the team!"
In the second round, Firefox banned Sindra and Rock Sparrow in an attempt to lock down Lin Yan. White Crescent banned Crocodile and Big Tree in an effort to prevent letme from having any heroes to use.
"RNG chose Rambo directly. They obviously want to fight YM head-on in this game."
He remembered that he was not surprised by letme's choice. Other than the few top laners banned by YM, Rambo was his best hero in the current version.
"Princes, give me Princes!" Jin Gong was waiting for the opponent to take Rambo. He was already prepared.
"Lin Yan, what do you want?" White Crescent asked.
"Can Galio do it?" Lin Yan glanced at the lineup of both sides. He planned to use Galio and Princes to complete the game.
"RNG decisively locked down the plane in the end!
Xiao Hu is going to develop in the middle lane! "
Mille teased. "RNG successfully got a double archer system in this game. The lineup looks perfect!"
The lineup of both sides was as follows:
Blue YM: Top Laner Princes, Jungler Spider, Mid Laner Galio, Bottom Laner Callista + Lulu.
Red RNG: Top Laner Rambo, Jungler Wine Barrel, Mid Laner Airplane, Bottom Laner Charlot.
Amidst the deafening cheers of the audience, the second game officially began!