"RNG got priority in picking sides. They're on the blue side for the first round and banned Spider Queen!"
Guo Hao's luck was average today. He didn't win the coin toss before the game and was so angry that he cursed the coin for being poisonous.
There was no other way. White Crescent could only take a ban in the red side for the first round and ban Spear of Vengeance.
RNG gave their second ban to Luo. Liu Qingsong, who had led the team to turn the tables against EDG in the semi-finals, was really scary. Firefox didn't dare to let Luo out.
At the same time, this ban separated the Xialuo combo and got rid of a big problem for the blue side.
"YM banned Wind Lady as a response." Mille analyzed. "Currently, Wind Lady is very strong in both lane and team battles. There's no one in the mainstream support who can compete with Wind Lady."
"Her healing capacity is too high in this version," Remember continued. "Redemption and a big move allowed the Wind Maiden to sit firmly in the top position of the Alliance's Censer soft support. At the same time, she can also be used to prevent the opponent from forcing a team. It's indeed difficult to deal with.
[Who said Wind Lady can be forced?
The National Film Academy will be the first to disagree!]
[Every time I see Wind Lady, my mind is filled with that team battle. It's too brainwashing.]
In the time it took for the bullet screen to whip the corpse, RNG sent Kenan to the ban position.
Firefox saw it clearly. YM's two-archer system wasn't hard to deal with in the current version because there were only two options for AP top laners: Kenan and Rambo.
Jin Gong didn't play Rambo and banned Kenan. If YM forcefully took two archers, their lineup wouldn't have enough AP output. This didn't conform to the basic logic of building a lineup. The problem was solved.
"YM gave the ban position to Big Bug to deal with letme!"
Firefox's first choice was Demacia Princes, who could swing in the jungle.
Now that Princes and Galio's ability to enter the game together was too strong, White Crescent naturally wouldn't give it to RNG. He took out Galio and then locked in the ADC Dusk, who was in charge of lane and team battles.
"RNG got Lulu and … Policewoman?" Mille was a little surprised. "There's still Little Pao outside. Aren't they going to choose?"
White Crescent was also very surprised. Logically speaking, Little Pao was very effective against sudden attacks, and it would also be very effective against YM Gario.
But why did Firefox choose Policewoman instead of Little Pao?
Two months ago, in Version 7.11, Policewoman had suffered a lot of damage. Not only was [Luana's Hurricane] unable to stack passive headshots, but her basic attack speed had also been reduced.
Although Policewoman's Attack Speed did not change due to the Level 1 bonus Attack Speed, the impact was still significant.
As everyone knew, the Attack Speed of equipment like Taser Cannon was determined by the basic Attack Speed of the hero. Policewoman's basic Attack Speed being reduced meant that her Attack Speed after the three-piece critical hit set was completed was much lower than before. Her combat power was also much weaker than before.
During the one-month development of Incense Burner, the five ADCs, Little Pao, Dusk, Verus, Ratty, and Big Mouth, were the most suitable archer heroes for this version. The other version T0 Callista could not be obtained, so everyone tacitly ignored her.
But what was the point of playing a policewoman?
White Crescent, the old swindler, saw that the opponent had brought out an unconventional hero and felt that there was a trap. He first picked Liu Qingsong as Karma in the first round. Zephyr, Lulu, and Law were all banned. If they did not get Karma, Firefox would definitely not bring out Incense Burner in the second round.
In the second round of BP, he sent Xiao Hu's Rock Sparrow and letme's Shen to the ban position. White Crescent did not think that RNG's previous choice of Princes was to be used as a top laner.
Firefox's response was also very reasonable. He banned Excavator and Wine Barrel, forcing Mongoose to pick Pig Girl.
White Crescent had no other choice. He had to take Pig Girl even if he did not want to.
"RNG's last two choices, Sindra and Shen!"
Remember's eyes lit up. "They probably want to use Princes to carry Shen into the game. Sindra can be used as a one-second Incense Burner support from the side!"
"Add a long hand." White Crescent glanced at the lineup of Pig Girl + Galio + Dusk and asked, "Jin Gong, you use Nar?"
Although Nar was not a long hand in the traditional sense, it was enough to suppress Shen. It could also be used as a solo carry. Jin Gong naturally had no objections.
The lineups of both sides were confirmed.
Blue RNG: top laner Shen, jungler Princes, mid laner Sindra, bottom laner Policewoman + Lulu.
Red YM: top laner Nar, Wild Boar Girl, mid laner Galio, bottom laner Lu Xia + Karma.
White Crescent was still reminding them of the things to pay attention to in the game. He only took off his headphones to shake hands with Firefox after the referee urged him to do so.
"The 2017 LPL Summer Finals has officially begun. Let's see which team will get off to a good start!"
Summoner's Canyon descended upon Wukesong Stadium. Deafening cheers erupted from the stands on all sides, filling the huge stadium in an instant.
The black and red flags that symbolized YM and the black and gold flags that represented RNG seemed to be affected by the huge sound waves as they fluttered in the air.
Xiao Hu used Sindra, who was extremely good at suppressing the lane, in this game. Lin Yan did not dare to buy Dark Seal again. Instead, he obediently took out a Corruption Potion and followed behind his teammates to the riverway.
"The strength of the two teams should be about the same. Karma's RQ is still very good …"
Mille and his two partners had just finished analyzing the strength of the two teams and judged that the junglers of the two teams should be starting the game normally. They immediately noticed something interesting.
"What does Dusk mean by this equipment?"
There were many old Starcraft players in the audience. Their eyesight was not very good. It was only after Mille's reminder that they turned their attention to the equipment panel below the OB system.
Dusk — Holy Shield and three health potions!
"Ah, this …" Doll expressed his confusion at the right time.
"This should be the equipment. Using the [Spoils of War] passive of the Holy Shield to save money for the support and let Karma make Blazing Incense Burner in advance. This in turn increases the combat ability of the ADC!"
He remembered that his reaction to this kind of trick was very fast. Years of commentating had not completely erased his sharp nose as a Lightning Wolf analyst.
The semi-annual LPL finals had already attracted a lot of viewers who didn't pay attention to the regular season. The bullet screen was bustling with activity. After being caught by 'Eye Protection' and 'It's Snowing', they immediately started arguing about YM's unique choice of outfits in the bottom lane.
[The trick is back again?]
[The support has money, but what about the fight in the bottom lane?
Not fighting?]
[Holy Shield + 3 red. I'm afraid he's being suppressed by Ouze's Doranjian Policewoman to the point that he can't even take care of himself.]
[What's there to be afraid of?
YM's Nakano is not useless. If you dare to suppress him, he will dare to catch you.]
Su Cheng, who was hugging her roommate in bed and watching the live stream, was not surprised to see the change in Jack's equipment.
This trick was created by doom, another analyst in the coaching staff. YM had experimented with it twice in the team's internal training matches. They felt that the effect was good and used it as a trump card for this playoffs.
She even felt that YM had used this trick a little late. However, because EDG did not cause any trouble for them in the semi-finals, YM did not even have the chance to use this trick.
Just as he remembered, the biggest benefit of the ADC's [Holy Shield] was that it provided a sufficient amount of money for the support. The ADC's [Holy Shield] and the support's [Ancient Coin] allowed him to create Incense Burners in the shortest time possible.
[Holy Shield]'s passive loot would stack with a layer of recharge every 40 seconds. Killing minions would provide nearby teammates with the same amount of minions as a bounty.
If one was willing to spend 650 gold coins to upgrade this equipment to [Giant God Peak Bulwark], the recharge would be even faster. It would only take 30 seconds.
According to Su Cheng's calculations, this equipment would provide an extra 370 gold coins for the support in 10 minutes on average.
This number was quite exaggerated. It was equivalent to the support picking up a free kill to eat.
It should be known that the average income of the support in this summer's tournament was around 270. The 370 gold coins provided by the Holy Shield in 10 minutes was close to the support's income for a minute and a half.
In other words, the ADC's support with the Holy Shield would be able to create an Incense Burner that would affect the overall situation a minute and a half earlier.
Just as Mille had thought before, both teams were not confident that they could win against a level one team, so they simply guarded the river in a long line.
This led to Ouze only noticing that Jack's equipment was not right after he came online.
He frowned and could also understand YM's plan in the bottom lane.
However, Ouze felt that this matter had its pros and cons. If Dusk went out to make the Holy Shield, she was destined to be suppressed by him in the early game. That would mean that RNG's pre-match plan was half successful.
After Lin Yan came online, he did not shrink back and wait for the enemy line to push over. Instead, he took two steps forward. It looked like he wanted to use [Colossus Smash]'s AoE damage to hammer the three melee soldiers in the front row.
Xiao Hu almost laughed out loud when he saw Lin Yan's actions.
Due to their good relationship, they often met in practice matches and official matches. Xiao Hu believed that he was the person who understood Lin Yan's playstyle the most outside of YM. He knew everything about him.
When Lin Yan was fighting against Sindra, he would often go forward and pretend that his minions would be stunned to trick his opponent into casting a Q [Shadow Ball]. Then, he would press S to cancel the attack and turn around to dodge Sindra's Shadow Ball.
Many mid laners had suffered from this trick.
The smart Mi Dehu naturally would not fall for it. He quietly watched Lin Yan's act.
However, Galio's heavy punch actually smashed forward without hesitation. It looked like he had no intention of using a fake normal attack to trick Sindra into casting a Shadow Ball.
Xiao Hu frowned and narrowed his eyes. He was confused.
Why aren't you following the script?
Cautious, he wanted to observe for a while longer. However, Galio's two wings flung out strong winds that blew past the two melee soldiers on the left and right. In the end, they gathered into a giant tornado around the three ranged soldiers, dealing percentage damage.
Only then did Mi Dehu realize that Lin Yan was only trying to push the line. He was not thinking about anything else!
For a short period of time, he was like a monk. He did not understand why Galio was in such a hurry to push the line. However, there must be something wrong!
Xiao Hu did not care about the reason for now. He only needed to do one thing — not let Lin Yan get what he wanted.
He used his normal attacks to deplete Lin Yan's health. From time to time, he would mix in two Shadow Balls to force Galio to retreat.
However, Lin Yan was clearly not right this round. He was taking damage to push the line!
Even though Galio's Level 1 Q [War Squall] had a cooldown of 10 seconds, Lin Yan still used two sets of War Squall and two punches of passive [Colossus Bash] to clear the line of soldiers.
He spent a total of 17 seconds. He could move freely for 13 seconds before the next wave of soldiers came in.
Xiao Hu moved to pull the low-health soldiers that were about to enter the tower to the side. He looked at Galio, who had disappeared from his field of vision, and frowned.
Lin Yan's crazy push just now was not without a price. Under Xiao Hu's constant harassment, Galio's health had already dropped by 40%.
Even though the speed of pushing the line was not slow and there was a certain amount of time to move around, Galio's combat power was not high even if he cooperated with the Level 2 Pig Girls in the jungle. It was not realistic to want to catch someone.
Thus, Lin Yan's goal was obvious.
Salesman pulled the aggro of a few low-health soldiers to prevent them from entering the tower. At the same time, he moved forward and inserted an accessory in a deeper position into the wall. He happened to see Galio move to the upper half of the zone and placed his eye on the entrance to the upper half of YM.
Lin Ran did not expect Mi Dehu to see the process of him setting up his field of vision. He was stunned for a moment.
Xiao Hu immediately confirmed his thoughts.
This person played Galio to protect his own jungle from being invaded in the early game!
In this round, Spicy Saucepan was controlling Princes to fight against Xiao Tian's Pig Girls. Due to the characteristics of the hero, Princes would definitely beat the Pig Girls in the early game. Thus, when Spicy Saucepan chose Princes, he communicated with his teammates in advance that he was going to invade and harass the enemy.
Galio was sacrificing his health to push the line to the upper half of the zone. Wasn't it to prevent the Saucepan from entering the jungle?
"He's guarding against level two invaders." Xiao Hu quickly told Spicy Saucepan about his discovery. "Be careful."
"Wasteland." Saucepan didn't care about his arrogant tone. "Galio and Pig Girls are level two. What can they do?"
Mi De Tiger thought the same.
This was also why he wasn't sure of his thoughts before. Even if Galio could quickly push the line to protect his own jungle, what was the use of that?
Sindra and Princes' level two combat ability was not something that YM's Galio and Pig Girls could compete against.
Even if both sides' top laners were added together, it would be useless. Shen's early game damage was not inferior to Gnar's, and his performance in small team fights was even stronger.
YM's top, middle, and jungle could not defend against the invaders.
When the second wave of soldiers came up, Lin Yan returned to the middle lane and continued to push the line unreasonably.
Xiao Hu's skills and basic attacks were not idle at all. Whenever Lin Yan came forward, he would greet him.
Galio had already stuck close to his own melee soldiers in order to finish off the soldiers. Mi De Tiger's shadow ball was draining Lin Yan's health, and at the same time, he could rub against the soldiers.
Lin Yan was unfazed. He drank a Decay Potion to recover his health and mana, and continued to push the line.
After eating a melee soldier, Lin Yan leveled up to level two and learned E [Righteous Smash]. He crouched down and rammed into Mi De Tiger.
Xiao Hu's basic attacks drained Lin Yan's health, causing him to slow down a bit. However, under normal circumstances, he would not be able to overtake Lin Yan. Galio sacrificed his health to use the percentage damage of the wind and passive [Heavy Smash] to finish off the melee soldier. On the other hand, Sindra needed five basic attacks and one shadow ball to kill the 477 health melee soldier.
He knew that Lin Yan would level up to level two first, but he did not expect Galio to not learn W's [Durang's Shield] and use the magic shield to resist the damage. Instead, he learned E and tried to fight back.
Mi De Tiger was knocked into the air. Lin Yan's skill hit, and the cooldown of his passive [Colossus Smash] was reduced by four seconds. He punched Sindra, and then used the newly refreshed [War Squall] to shave off a chunk of Xiao Hu's health.
Although Xiao Hu was equipped with the Doran's Ring, and his equipment had a certain amount of health, it could not hide the fact that Sindra was a fragile mage. After being hammered by Galio, its health dropped by more than 30%.
After this round of attacks, Lin Yan decisively retreated and watched as Xiao Hu's basic attacks killed the melee soldier. He also leveled up to level two.
"I'll invade, you guys watch me!"
The Spicy Saucepan who had leveled up to level two carried his halberd and crossed the river, trekking thousands of miles to reach the top half of YM.
He was full of confidence in this anti-jungle invasion.
If the Saucepan was originally unsure of Mongoose's route, then Lin Yan's action of pushing the line to the top half of the map to insert the eye had undoubtedly exposed this information.
If Mongoose was not in the top half of the map, then why did Galio push the line to the top half of the map in such a hurry to insert the eye?
Are you kidding me?
However, when he plunged into the top half of YM, all he saw was an empty Beak Bird camp!
The Spicy Saucepan inserted the eye into the red buff camp through the wall, but the giant Crimson Mark Treant was nowhere to be seen!
Empty, it was all empty!
In the entire top half of YM, there was only one group of Stone Beetles left!
WDNMD！
"The Saucepan crossed half of the map and wanted to use the red buff and Princes's strength to invade YM's jungle," Mille shouted when he saw the situation, "But he predicted the wrong position. Xiao Tian cleared out the two groups of monsters in the top half of the map as soon as the game started!"
Remember also reacted, "The eye that Ran placed in the top half of the map was a trick to make the Saucepan think that Xiao Tian came from the bottom half of the map!"
The spectators who were watching from God's perspective could clearly see that Phyllostachys Pubescens had activated the red buff in the top half of the map. Although his health was a little low, he was still able to maintain his health and farming speed by using Retribution.
Since Princes had the support of the bottom half of the map to clear the jungle, the two of them took almost the same amount of time to finish the first group of buffs.
On the other hand, it would take Prince 23 seconds to travel from the red buff camp to the top half of the red zone (measured), which was more than enough time for Piggy to finish off F6 alone.
The spectators saw it clearly. Just as Pigsy finished off the last Beak Bird and moved towards the bottom half of the map, Princes arrived with his halberd. In front of him was an empty jungle.
The two of them were separated by a few seconds and did not meet at all!
In this short amount of time, the chat started arguing again.
[YM's early game design is really good. They completely incorporated RNG into their strategy!]
[RNG is too naive. Ran went in front of Xiao Hu. Did they really think that Xiao Tian would stay in the top half of the map?]
[That's not a big deal, right?
RNG Shen + Princes + Sindra's top half of the map is so strong. Xiao Tian must've gone in the wrong direction to clear the jungle, right?]
[Go in the wrong direction my ass. You don't even know how Saucepan can clear the jungle. Besides, if you went in the wrong direction to the bottom half of the map, wouldn't RNG Policewoman + Lulu still have the right to support Princes?]
The exasperated Spicy Saucepan could only vent its anger on the remaining Stone Beetles of YM. However, the benefits of this wave of clearing the jungle were not great. After all, it had wasted a lot of time. Furthermore, it was not behind in level. Killing this group of Stone Beetles would not give it any extra experience.
Spicy Saucepan circled around the top half of the map. Although it deliberately moved around Lin Yan's position, it was not discovered by YM on the surface.
However, Lin Yan saw that Xiao Tian was safe and sound in the bottom half of the map and knew that Spicy Saucepan had been fooled. Otherwise, with Spicy Saucepan's personality, it would've definitely come over to invade.
He let out a long sigh of relief. It was good that Saucepan had been fooled. His efforts were not in vain.
When the first wave of minions converged in the middle lane, Lin Yan began to lay out his plan.
Lin Ran knew that his team had taken a team that did not have any advantage in the early stages of the game. The Spicy Hotpot would definitely invade them. Lin Ran had to make sure that Pigsy could level up to LV 6. Otherwise, they would be in trouble if they were to be blown up in the jungle.
Starting from controlling Galio to push the line crazily, and then going to the top half of the map to set up his vision in front of Xiao Hu, Lin Yan almost wrote 'I want to protect the top half of the map' on his face in the first two minutes. In the end, he succeeded in tricking Spicy Saucepan.
Phyllostachys Pubescens, who had comfortably eaten his own minions, sighed with emotion. Finally, he did not have to face the torture of being followed by Spicy Saucepan.
"Brother Ran, you're a veteran actor," he praised sincerely. "Your fishing skills won't be justified if you don't win an Oscar."
"It's so-so," Lin Yan said humbly. "It's all because of the other side's cooperation."
Without knowing the position of the other side's jungler, the jungle invasions were all based on the known information.
There were layers upon layers of mental games, just like a thousand-layer pancake.
This would often lead to "I predicted your prediction", and the Thousand Stacks Game was a common occurrence.
All Lin Yan could do was to create all kinds of fake information to deceive the other side's jungler and lead him in the wrong direction.
However, it was not up to Lin Yan to decide if he would fall for it. Everything still depended on the cooperation of the Spicy Saucepan.
If he insisted on doing the opposite, then Lin Yan would have no way to deal with him. All the previous confusing information was like a clown trying to entertain himself in the eyes of the audience.
"This time, the Saucepan missed him. It hurt him a little." Mille shook his head. "Now, he and Xiao Tian have completely missed each other. It's not realistic to recklessly find the other side."
Saucepan was not Ning Wang. He would not bring his AJ with him when he went out. With Princes' base movement speed, it would take him 20 seconds to cross half the map to find the Saucepan.
He had already wasted time before. If he blindly went to find the Saucepan again, he would fall behind a lot of his development and his level would fall behind.
He was on a hunger strike, but it was not like he did not eat any minions. The Spicy Saucepan could only give up on the idea of invading for the time being.
However, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, he soon set his sights on Lin Yan. He cooperated with Sindra and began to train the middle lane.
"Roaming …" Doll watched as Lin Yan was gank three times in the next three minutes. She could not help but feel sorry for him. "Ran had already used up all his teleport and blink. This wave of attacks took more than half of his health. He could only drink all three bottles of Corrosive Potion to maintain his health!"
When the time came to six minutes, Lin Yan, who was being trained, did not die once. However, he frequently returned to the spring to replenish his health. This caused him to fall behind in terms of experience.
At the same time, Ouze's suppression of the bottom lane continued. Dusk's 525-yard shooting range was considered short in front of Policewoman. Furthermore, Jack had used the Holy Shield in this round. YM's bottom lane combo was not that strong.
Policewoman and Lulu had already taken 13% of YM's health from the bottom tower. If they did not stop them, the bottom tower would be destroyed in less than five minutes.
However, when Lin Yan smashed a melee minion with a heavy punch, the level-up whirlwind circled around him, announcing that he had successfully leveled up to Level 6!
The clumsy Galio shook his sturdy arms. It was his turn to show off.