Lin Yan opened the shop. As usual, he did not choose Doran's Ring. Instead, he chose Killer's Ring and a Reusable Potion. He was confident that the Reusable Potion would allow him to survive the first three waves of minions.
The three casters on the commentary platform were still analyzing the lineups chosen by both teams. Remember was the first to speak. "SKT's mid-game charging ability is very strong. Whether it's Rambo and Princes' ultimates or their flexible dual tanks, they are very strong in the early and mid-game."
Mille nodded in agreement with his partner's opinion. "YM's chances of winning are mainly in the late-game team battle and the side lanes. After Qing Gang Ying's two-piece set, SKT has no one who can deal with Brother Gongzi's side lanes."
"There's another point …" Doll added. He was eager to show his understanding. "YM's late-game team battle formation is quite solid. Galio's ultimates can be used to complement Qing Gang Ying. They can also be used to protect Jack's Verus."
They were the typical type of people who only reported the good news but not the bad news. Regardless of whether Doll could understand the lineups, Mille and Remember, who used to be an analyst, definitely knew the strengths and weaknesses of both teams' lineups.
YM's weakness was obvious. They had no lane control.
Jack and Liu Qingsong in the bottom lane relied on Verus and Lulu's strong lane control to gain an advantage. Jin Gong's Qing Gang Ying and Lin Yan's Galio had a hard time in lane control.
This was undoubtedly a huge challenge for YM in the early game.
The casters had a tacit understanding and did not say anything. Many players who did not play the game often thought that the lineups of both teams were not too different. This was to build confidence for the audience.
While the three casters were analyzing the lineups, the minions had reached the middle lane. As the strength of the first-tier teams was not too different, neither side invaded the enemy's jungle.
Jin Gong placed an accessory in the opponent's blue zone and happened to see Little Peanut. Wolf also placed an eye in YM's blue zone. Even though he did not see Xiao Tian, he could roughly guess the route Phyllostachys Pubescens would take to clear the jungle.
After that, they started to lane each other peacefully.
Lin Yan shrunk to the back and did not move. Galio did not have the ability to take the frontline for the first three levels. He planned to wait for Faker to push the minions over before slowly making up for it.
On the other side of the player benches, Li Xianghe's expression was as calm as an ancient well. However, his Lucian slowed down its movements, moving back and forth behind the minions. It didn't seem like it had any intention of pushing the line.
He waited for the three close-combat soldiers to have low HP before slanting forward and using Q's [Transparent Holy Light] to kill them off.
After the soldiers were finished, they did not retreat. Instead, they continued to move forward.
Lin Yan had no choice but to take two of Lucian's passive bullets in order to finish off the three remaining melee soldiers with War Squall.
Moreover, when these two shots hit, YM's three long-range soldiers just happened to throw attack light bullets at the corpses of the melee soldiers that Lin Yan had already killed.
The minions' light bullets couldn't be canceled, and there was a fixed attack speed limit, so there was no way to immediately launch another round of attacks.
As a result, even though Lucian attracted the aggro of the minions, he did not immediately take damage!
Li Xianghe retreated after firing the two bullets. When the long-range soldiers wanted to attack Lucian again, Faker had already run out of their range!
Lin Yan frowned. His own minions had not been able to touch the opponent from beginning to end. Faker's meticulous handling had caused him to lose nearly 100 HP for nothing.
He flexed his fingers, his expression serious.
Lin Yan understood that he had been tricked.
Just now, he had seen Lucian use [Transparent Holy Light] and only move forward when the enemy's melee soldiers had low HP.
He had used War Squall in the gap between the long-range soldiers shooting light bullets at the enemy's melee soldiers with low HP.
There was an advantage to this. The minions' position would not be pushed forward because of him. The long-range soldiers' first round of attacks would be released as usual, but they would hit the corpses of the three melee soldiers.
Lin Yan had no choice but to do this because Faker had not attacked the minions in the beginning. If Lin Yan had not attacked the minions' last attack, the minions would have been pushed forward.
If Galio had still pushed the minions forward in the early stages of the battle against Lucian, he would have been a pig's nose.
Lin Yan knew that he could not push the minions, and Faker knew that Lin Yan knew that he could not push the minions in the early stages. Therefore, he knew exactly when Lin Yan would use War Squall.
He had Lucian take advantage of the gap between the long-range soldiers and Galio attacking his own melee soldiers to take two passive bullets for free.
Lin Yan realized that ever since the mid-season match, Faker's strength had not decreased. Instead, he had improved and even seemed to have returned to his peak.
Both sides continued to wait for the long-range soldiers to wear each other down. Lin Yan's War Squall had a cooldown of 10 seconds, so he did not dare to rush forward. Faker was pacing back and forth on the side, not attacking the minions.
He was clearly trying to replicate the previous scene and wear down Lin Yan.
Lin Yan did not want to just sit there and wait for his death. However, after thinking for 10 seconds, he still could not come up with a solution. What could a level 1 Galio do?
After a round of replication, Lin Yan took another two bullets. Now, he had lost 14% of his health.
However, the good news was that since both sides had not worn down their minions before, the second wave of minions had already arrived.
These three long-range soldiers were not attacked by Garp. They obediently protected their base while Faker fired a volley of bullets.
Lucian's resistance was much lower than Galio's, so both sides had lost about the same amount of health.
However, Li Xianghe immediately began to push the minions. Lucian's original skin felt very ordinary. Lin Yan felt irritated when he heard the sound of the bullets hitting the minions.
He did not know what Faker was thinking. My champion's skin feels so good, yet you don't use it?
However, Lin Yan did not have the time to think about why his opponent did not like to use his skin. When he saw Faker start to frequently use normal attacks to clear out the melee soldiers, his already nervous state became even more tense.
In the rules of the mid lane, this kind of abnormal action was considered to be a quick push.
Lin Yan was forced to move back. He knew that Lu Xian was about to reach level 2. If he did not retreat in time, Faker would definitely slide over and take a health swap.
Seeing this, Li Xianghe gave chase. He raised his gun and lowered the health of another melee soldier. After adjusting his angle, he used his Q, Transparent Holy Light, and successfully finished off all three melee soldiers.
After taking down the three melee soldiers, Faker did not stop his actions. His bullets continued to hit the long-range soldiers.
This was clearly because he did not want to wait for the cannons to push all of them into Lin Yan's defense tower.
In other words, if the side that had control of the front line wanted to push, it would be best to wait for the cannons to move.
This was because the tanky cannons could withstand seven attacks from the defense tower. During this period of time, the side that was pushing could do whatever they wanted. They could roam or stay in front of the defense tower while the opponent was replenishing the soldiers.
Faker definitely knew this kind of common sense, but he still pushed the front line unconventionally. His intention was clear — he wanted to take advantage of the gap between the second wave of soldiers to roam.
Where could he go to roam?
The top and bottom lanes were too far away. With Lucian's movement speed, he would definitely miss the soldiers.
Then there was only one answer left — the jungle.
"Xiao Tian, be careful. Lucian has pushed the soldiers over. It's very likely that he'll harass you in the jungle," Lin Yan quickly reminded Phyllostachys Pubescens.
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm looking at the mid lane."
Mongoose's tone was relaxed. Just now, he had gone red in the top half of the map. He had purposely avoided farming Razorbeak Birds and went straight to the bottom half of the map. His goal was to get two BUFFs and avoid the battle.
Although the Level 2 Wine Barrel's combat ability was not much weaker than Princes', Xiao Tian still did not want to start a fight with Little Peanut in the early stages.
This was because Gario in the middle lane would not have control of the front line in the early stages and would not be able to help him. Phyllostachys Pubescens could only avoid him.
With his big belly sticking out, he slowly farmed the blue buff. Since he had nothing to do, he looked at the middle lane.
As long as Faker made any strange movements, he would be alerted.
As for Princes?
He was not worried that Little Peanut would invade at this time. There was simply not enough time.
Jin Gong's vision in the top half of SKT had accurately captured Little Peanut's blue opening route.
With Princes's base movement speed of 340, if he went from the blue buff in the top half of the blue map through the jungle and river to the red buff camp in the bottom half of the red map, he would need a full 22 seconds.
In other words, as long as Phyllostachys Pubescens was efficient enough and was willing to punish him, Little Peanut would definitely not be able to reach the scene in time.
What a joke. He was not Instructor AJ, who had created the second jungle course. He would not use the bushes to block his normal attack just to farm the blue buff. Naturally, his farming speed was guaranteed.
Xiao Tian was full of confidence. He looked at the middle lane and thought about which lane he should attack from.
Then, on the minimap, he saw a valiant man wearing golden armor and a golden crown appear in the blue buff camp that he was in!
What was going on?
Xiao Tian quickly switched back to Demacia Princes, who had the blue buff, sent him flying with two consecutive EQ attacks and stabbed him with his halberd!
He was shocked. He cursed a few times and then drank a reuse potion to recover his mana.
"Luthian has gone. Be careful."
Lin Yan could only remind him. He had just risen to level 2 and was facing a large wave of minions that were about to reach his tower. He could not go to the jungle to provide support.
"Xiao Tian doesn't plan to leave yet. He still has to protect his blue buff!"
Mille looked at Wine Barrel's HP, which was slowly decreasing, and his tone became more and more urgent. "Faker is the first to provide support. We can't stay here for long!"
Phyllostachys Pubescens was also very calm. His HP was still quite healthy. Little Peanut did not have a red buff, so it would be difficult to kill him in a short period of time.
Q [Rolling Wine Barrel] was placed under the blue buff, waiting for the beer Wine Barrel to ferment for a while before activating W [Drunken Rage].
Little Peanut was still poking Wine Barrel with his halberd. He didn't try to snatch the blue buff because he didn't have enough HP to kill it.
He had used EQ when he leaped over the wall earlier, and the passive percentage damage of [War Rhythm] clearly couldn't compete with Wine Barrel's QW.
"Gulagas's heavy blow landed on the blue buff, and the instant Wine Barrel detonated, he used Punishment …" Remember's mouth was like a Gatling gun as he described everything that had happened on the scene very quickly. "Punishment arrived!"
At level 2, 410 true damage from Punishment. Coupled with the percentage damage of the Rolling Wine Barrel that had been fermented and the Drunken Rage, Xiao Tian had instantly killed the 550 HP blue buff!
"But Faker used the explosive ball between the blue buff camp and the middle lane to bounce in and slid forward to deal damage!"
Phyllostachys Pubescens decisively handed over Flash. With the help of Liu Qingsong, who had come to provide support, he escaped to the next tower with a sliver of HP and returned to the city.
Restless voices could be heard from the spectators' stands all around.
"Even though he defended the blue buff, Little Peanut is going to take the other two groups of wild beasts in the bottom half of the zone!"
Compared to the two groups of wild beasts that he had lost, Xiao Tian was more concerned about another problem.
"How did he get here?"
Lin Yan was also puzzled. Jin Gong's initial setup in SKT's blue zone had provided him with a lot of information — Little Peanut had opened the blue zone by himself, and he hadn't even used Punishment.
However, the time he had taken to reach YM's blue buff camp was clearly much faster than Xiao Tian had expected!
Death's Elementary had told him that there was only one truth.
That was, Little Peanut hadn't walked through the jungle, but had instead crossed the middle lane, going straight from SKT's blue zone to YM's blue zone.
This was the fastest way, as the distance between the two points was the shortest.
However, the problem was, Little Peanut wasn't playing as a mouse. How had he crossed the middle lane without being discovered?
After SKT had taken the lead in attacking the jungle and forced Xiao Tian to Flash, they had temporarily stopped their attacks. Lin Yan had nothing to do, so he quietly replenished his troops. His mind flashed back to the details of the previous confrontation in the middle lane.
Very quickly, he found the key point.
When the second wave of minions had arrived, Faker had started to push the line quickly, and had taken down three of the close-range minions as quickly as possible.
At that time, Lin Yan had retreated to the front of the tower to avoid Lucian's two-kill.
The minions' field of vision was the same as the heroes', with a radius of 1,500 yards.
When the three close-range minions had died, Lin Yan's Galio had also retreated. The remaining long-range minions couldn't provide him with enough vision in the middle lane!
Little Peanut must have controlled Princes to cross the middle lane at that time. As long as he stuck close to the river wall, he would be in Lin Yan's blind spot, and successfully enter YM's jungle through the shortest path!
This way, he would be three to four seconds faster than taking a detour in the jungle, allowing Little Peanut to reach Phyllostachys Pubescens before he could remove his blue buff!
This wasn't a random game without any communication. SKT's midlaner had clearly discussed this strategy, using Faker's Lucian's early lead to get Princes through the middle lane in the shortest time possible!
How dirty!
Lin Yan couldn't help but shudder at the thought.
SKT had made ample preparations today. If not for Xiao Tian's Retribution and Flash, as well as Liu Qingsong's timely support, Phyllostachys Pubescens could very well have been killed by SKT's midlaner's Flash.
With their current lineup, once they were at a great disadvantage in the early stages of the jungle, they would have to drag it out until 30 minutes later.
"Xiao Tian, go directly to the upper half of the jungle." Lin Yan understood everything and hurriedly organized the attack. "I'll teleport to ensure that you snatch these two groups of beasts."
Little Peanut had invaded and snatched Phyllostachys Pubescens' beasts. Naturally, he wouldn't just sit there and wait for death. He had to lead his teammates to make up for the disadvantage as much as possible.
Although Galio couldn't beat Lucian in the early stages, he had a temporary advantage thanks to his two rings back in the city.
There would be no problem for him to team up with Xiao Tian to invade SKT's upper half of the jungle.
Lin Yan began his preparations in advance, and the turrets had already arrived. Since Faker had pushed the second wave of turrets into YM's middle tower to reinforce the jungle earlier, the turrets from both sides were now in front of Lin Yan's tower. There was no doubt that this was Li Xianghe's turrets.
He downed the reusable potion on him and set up an eye on the wall below to guard against any possible sneak attacks from Little Peanut in the lower half of the jungle.
Then, Lin Yan went forward and tried to switch health with Lucian.
It had to be said that Faker's Lucian's control was very elegant. He had kept his Slide Step so that he could avoid Lin Yan's control.
After a series of skills, Li Xianghe's HP was left with half, while Lin Yan's was left with twenty percent. In order to protect his damage output environment, Faker had purposely brought along Purification. His hunting ability was limited, and Lin Yan had sacrificed a lot of his HP.
This half of his HP was only depleted by Lin Yan with the help of the turrets. It was enough to show that Galio had no chance of winning against Lucian in the early stages of the game.
However, Lin Yan had no intention of soloing the lane. In the previous battle, War Squall had successfully hit three long-ranged soldiers. With the help of the fourth wave of minions, they had successfully pushed the minions into SKT's middle tower.
After single-handedly taking down all four waves of minions, Lin Yan had risen to Level 4. Taking advantage of the eight-second gap under the tower to return to the city, he had nothing better to do. He switched his screen to observe the three lanes, looking for a better opportunity.
"Brother Siba, can you get ready?" Lin Yan suddenly asked. "Xiao Tian, let's go top lane and overtake this Lan Bo!"
Looking at Lan Bo with the ID "SKTHuni" above his head, he remembered YM's instructions before the game.
Capture him!
Capture Huni with the same treatment he had given to The Sh!
Before the game, White Crescent and Su Cheng had done a detailed analysis of the five members of SKT. From the stable mace combination to the seemingly flawless Faker, they had not found any fatal flaws.
However, the top laner, Huni, was definitely the biggest flaw in this powerhouse club!
Last year's top laner, Duke, was much stronger than him. The Unlucky Bear was good at dragging the lane until the later stages of the game. Other than the fact that he often did not teleport, there was nothing to criticize him about.
However, Huni was in an awkward position. He was the strangest member of SKT. Even his reason for joining SKT was very special.
The answer with high EQ was that kkoma had noticed his outstanding performance in the European League and the World Championship. He had recruited him to SKT to form a jungler partner with Little Peanut.
He wanted him and Little Peanut to form an early offensive spearhead to make up for SKT's weakness in the early game. Huni also wanted to win the World Championship, so both sides hit it off.
If his EQ was low, Huni would be a spare tire.
Last year, Li Hom's real target was the former ROX top laner, Smeb.
However, at that time, the high-spirited boy had made up his mind to fight SKT to the end. He was far from Wang Jingze's level, so he rejected Li Hom's offer.
Kkoma had no choice but to look for the spare tire, Huni. Although he was not as all-rounded as Smeb, he at least had some offensive ability.
However, Li Hom did not expect Huni to be a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong.
That year, he had chatted and laughed with Ou Cheng in FNC, controlling Raven's killing stance. In one match, he had achieved 13% of his professional career value. In reality, it was not as exaggerated as the outside world had made it out to be.
After the mid-season S7, Li Hom realized that he had been tricked. Huni had been continuously trained by YM to the point of being autistic. His results in every match were close to that of a ghost. He had helped Faker get his second MSI runner-up title in his career. It could even be said that YM's first mid-season championship trophy had to be accompanied by his 13% contribution from IG.
Li Hom went back and thought about it. He understood.
Huni's ability was very awkward.
Further up, Ma Da Tou could say that he had the ability and could carry as long as the team allocated resources.
Further down, Letme could say that he knew that he was not good enough and could just play as a frontline player and wait for the team battle.
But Huni?
He felt that Letme, a blue-collar player who only knew how to play as a big bug, was not worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as him.
But?
He wanted to go up, but he could not. That was why Huni's level was the most awkward. He could not help but be stuck there.
He could not control his skills even if he wanted to, but he felt that it was not worth it to fall down and play as a tank.
It could only be said that Raven's killing stance had given Huni too many misconceptions.
That was why kkoma found another top laner — Untara.
His playstyle was a bit like Unlucky Bear from last year. He was very stable and could withstand pressure. He could also execute the team's tactical decisions well in the mid and late game.
His weakness was that he was weaker in all aspects. He had a lot of pig nose skills and was jokingly called Emperor U by SKT fans.
Those who had the title "Emperor" in their titles were basically the cancerous ones among the professional players. However, SKT used this name very well. They could just copy S6's Brainless Gou and turn the tables. Faker and Bang, who did not meditate, these two C's could enter the league finals even if they tied a dog to the top lane.
However, in the LCK Summer Finals, they brought Khan the Villain and gave Emperor U a head-on blow. Jace and Jax almost rode on his face and peed.
You could enter the finals even if you tied a dog to the top lane?
Then you should stop being a human.
After losing two matches in a row, Emperor U's mentality exploded. In the end, Li Hom replaced Huni with one win and one loss. Once again, Huni achieved the legendary achievement of helping Faker obtain his first professional league runner-up honor.
Before this, Li Xianghe had entered the LCK finals six times and won all of them.
However, Huni's performance still gave Li Hom hope.
Emperor U's performance in this finals made him realize the team's upper limit. Emperor U was not as good as Unlucky Bear. Little Peanut, who was not used to the team's style, was not as good as The Jungle. As for the other three, they were getting older. Although they still maintained their strength, their standards were not as stable as they were last year.
Based on this calculation, SKT's strength was a level lower than S6's!
After YM stabilized their lineup in the Summer League, the overall strength of the team was still improving. The core of the team, led by Lin Yan, was very young and had a lot of room for growth.
Coupled with the fact that Dragon Ball had just defeated them in the Summer League, Kkoma realized that if he brought Emperor U to the international tournament, they would not even be able to reach the finals.
According to the fist rule, Li Hom could only choose one of the two jungler substitutes. The other could only be an emergency substitute. In reality, it was like watching the water cooler. Unless a major accident happened to the starting player, he would not be able to play.
In the end, Li Hom chose to bring along the jungler. Little Peanut's condition was too unstable.
As for the jungler, he chose Huni.
If he brought Emperor U, SKT's upper limit could be seen at a glance. Their chances of winning the championship were extremely low. Kkoma had two League S championship trophies in his hands. Naturally, he would not consider entering the Top 4 as a success.
Winning the championship was his goal in the international tournament.
Kkoma decided to take a gamble. He wanted to see if Huni could explode and withstand the pressure of the strong junglers.
Lin Yan was not sure if Huni could withstand Jin Gong.
However, he knew that Huni would not be able to withstand the encirclement of Jin Gong, Xiao Tian, and himself.
Although it was impossible for Qing Gang Yin to take control of Rambo's lane in the early stages of the game, Rambo did not need to push the minions into the tower in a 3v1 situation!
"Brother Ran teleported to Xiao Tian's spot in the top half of SKT. The two of them went straight to the top lane." Doll understood. "They want to kill Huni!"
"Little Peanut has just finished clearing the Magical Swamp Frog and Third Wolf in the bottom half of YM. There's no way he can help the top lane!"
Huni saw Galio and Wine Barrel emerge from the bushes behind his own tower. Despair filled his heart.
"The top lane is here. It's a 1v1 battle between men. What the f * ck are you guys doing here?"
Lin Yan was unreasonable. He charged up Durang's Shield with his W and then flashed into the tower to taunt Rambo.
He activated [Courage of the Colossus] and provided himself with a layer of shield to tank the tower.
The next moment, Wine Barrel's belly came over. Together with Qing Gang Yin's two-section wall to stun, the chain of control combined to kill Rambo easily!
"Jin Gong's Qing Gang Yin has successfully taken the first blood!" Doll shouted with all his might.
The cheers of the audience in the stands were like an airtight curtain wall, firmly enveloping the players' seats!