Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Team Skycrown had yet to make an appearance on the map, and with their opponentâs lineup, it was impossible that they would invade their jungle area. Getting hooked by Blitzcrank would basically mean they would be a fat meal for their opponents, there was no way Team Sky had the guts to do it!
Waiting quietly for the announcement of âminions have spawnedâ, Luocheng and Lin Dong recalled to their base and followed the newly spawned minions, marching into the top lane.
Excuse me, our Team Skycrownâs top lane is the duo lane.
As for Da Luo who was solo-ing at the bottom lane, he was already used to 1 vs 2 situations.
Maybe one day, he would be back at the top lane and 1 vs 1-ing, but even then, he would probably curse and be unused to it, roaring for the enemiesâ f*cking Jungler to come at him!
***
âD*mn it, they swapped lanes again, seriously!â Guan Langjie cursed from his position at the bottom lane, feeling utterly annoyed.
Jupiterâs face was equally black.
He wasnât like Da Luo who always played under pressure, and more importantly, the Support on the other side was a Blitzcrank.
If you were just a little bit careless with your positioning, you could be hooked from under the turret. Even though it wasnât certain that you would be killed immediately, it still wouldnât feel good to be beaten up at all.
For the first and second wave of minions, Lin Dong and Luocheng had chosen to freeze the lane. Waiting for the cannon minion in the third wave, the two of them then forced the lane forward, pushing them toward the turret. At this time, there were a few tens of minions together with a cannon minion that would soon reach the turret.
âCaptain, come and back me up!â Vulcan said as he saw the big wave of minions coming closer, and he was slightly panicked.
The opponent Jungler was a Pantheon, and if all was within their assumption, Pantheon would already be rounding from the back. Taking advantage of the big wave and using his Aegis of Zeonia, turret-diving at three minutes would be as easy as killing creeps in the jungle.
Tinghua who was at Level 3 was already nearby.
He had guessed that Pantheon would definitely be in that bush, so he took the path behind to make a roundabout to his turret. In this situation, the priority was ensuring the safety of the Top, otherwise, they would lose the turret and probably even a kill.
Only, after glancing at Luochengâs Blitzcrank, Tinghua had some doubt.
âBack it, let them have the turret.â Tinghua commanded.
âWhy?â Vulcan was confused. The captainâs KhaâZix had joined him and was taking experience in the lane, defending the turret. This was a situation that was ideal and calculated, why did they need to give up the turret?
Tinghua didnât bother explaining too much, going back into the jungle to farm.
Vulcan finally had no choice but to withdraw from the turret he was defending, only being able to watch with a pained face as the turret killed the little minions whilst he dared not to go nearer to take any experience.
Such pain, Vulcan had only just reached Level 2. For other players who didnât understand this, being at Level 1 when you were near to four minutes was really a bad situation that would make people want to throw in the towel.
âLuckily for them, Tinghua still has some brains.â Lin Dong said as he watched Marsâ Rengar retreat, his tone chillingly cold.
Choosing to abandon the turret and not defend it was the right call by Tinghua, because even if both of them had been under the turret, they wouldnât have been able to escape the doom of being killed!
Take a look at Team Skycrownâs lineup.
A super-stable CC Jungler Pantheon!
Pantheonâs set of skills at Level 3 could easily take down someoneâs health by half, and in this case where the three of them had the place surrounded, Pantheon would definitely not miss any of his skills!
Zhou Yanâs Pantheon would walk directly up, using a Spear Shot to land one hit and taunt the aggro of the turret on him, letting the turret focus on him. Using his passive to block the turret attack and immediately following up with his W-skill, Aegis of Zeonia, he would then stun either Rengar or KhaâZix, subsequently using his E-skill, Heartseeker Strike.
The W-skill would refresh his shield immediately and Pantheon would then be able to block one more turret hit.
Once all his skills were cast, he could then retreat with just two hits from the turret.
At this time, Luochengâs Blitzcrank would be able to launch his Q-skill, Rocket Grab, hooking the stunned opponent from under the turret and throwing an Ignite and a few basic attacks. Sivir would poke a little, and if all went well, they would have easily secured a kill.
As for the other person under the turretâ¦
It was best to just ignore him. If the attack was aimed at KhaâZix, a Level 2 Rengar couldnât even compare to a minion, and he would only be able to watch as his teammate was killed!
Team Skycrown had actually used this routine a lot of times on the Taiwan side.
This was a double layered trap.
The first trap was that all three of them would dive the turret and force the kill, the person defending the turret would die, and the turret would be theirs to take.
The second trap was that even if your Jungler came, there would be no effect. They would still secure a kill and for Pantheon to freely dive in and take both kills would also be extremely safe. Even if a Flash came into play in the unfortunate event, the one who dared to use the Flash to come in for the kill would also be just serving his head on a silver platter, because the Support was a Blitzcrank and he had added W as his first skill.
***
Not even four minutes in and the top lane outer turret was taken down.
This tactic of Team Skycrownâs was really disgusting.
They had seen people raise pigs for slaughter in the jungle area, but they had never seen someone use another personâs turret for that purpose. Everytime, before it had even reached the four-minute mark, they would take down the top laneâs first turret. They were really living up the name of turret-killers.
As expected, taking the top lane turret was the rhythm they used to switch back to their normal lane.
It was wise of Vulcan to retreat, unlike those other teams in the LPL who had stayed. If he hadnât, by the time he respawned and reached the lane again, he would have to face an almost Level 4 Da Luo.
Da Luoâs playstyle had always been more aggressive, constantly staying ahead by at least one level. Even if he was a level below you, he would still dare to engage against you.
So, young man, let it go, donât go dragging yourself through mud just because it was a professional league gameâ¦
After returning to their normal lanes, Team Skycrownâs turret was still standing with about one fifth of its health remaining.
At this time, you could really see the difference between a good and a bad Jungler.
Tinghua was really clever, he had decisively let go of the top lane turret, knowing that Team Skycrown would use this time to return to their normal lanes. With that, he had already anticipated and prepared to counter-gank at the bottom lane, and at the same time, defend the Dragon from behind the bottom lane turret.
Team Skycrown was on the blue side and there was a bush behind the turret. He had been hiding in it since before Team Skycrown had made an appearance back at the bottom lane.
A wave of minions entered the range of the turret, and Ezreal and Leona were forcefully hitting the turret. The moment the turret went down, Tinghua made an appearance!
This flank was out of Luocheng and Lin Dongâs expectations.
âLin Dong, back it.â Luocheng said to Lin Dong, making a decision.
Flanking them this way, somebody definitely had to die. Luocheng naturally wouldnât let Lin Dongâs development get pulled down, so he deliberately slowed his pace by half a beat, forcefully pulling Tinghuaâs KhaâZix to hold him back, not letting him catch up to Lin Dong.
Luocheng didnât have his Flash, and even if he did, he would still die in this situation, thus, it would be better to keep it for a more meaningful future use!
***
First Blood!
KhaâZix raised his raptoriales high in the air, bringing it down in an arc onto Blitzcrankâs body, swiping clean through him.
A huge long gash appeared on the gleaming body of the robot, the sparks of short circuit wires bursting out as the robot turned into a pile of useless scrap iron.
A smile spread over Tinghuaâs face, like a praying mantis raising its claws to lick the blood off it!
âTeam PIPO from Europe also liked to play the swapping lane tactic, donât think that using such a tactic in the LPL can disrupt our professional path in the country!â Tinghua rounded Luochengâs corpse of Blitzcrank, the meaning behind was not covered up at all in that gesture.
âOh, five minutes into the game and the first blood has happened! And it is Blood Eagle who has taken Fighting Hawkâs head, can you smell the scent of the rivalry in the air!?â Miracle exclaimed.
âDonât you know, Fighting Hawk and Blood Eagle were originally teammates, they were world-renowned. And now that they have appeared on opposing sides, there will definitely be emotional factors mixed in there.â Qi Qiao said.
Old grudges indeed. To say that Tinghua wasnât aiming for Luocheng was unlikely. From the time he had hidden in the bottom lane, it was obvious for all to see!
***
Tinghuaâs move this time was extremely successful, not only taking a turret, but also taking the Dragon at the same time.
Suddenly, Team Sky had the lead in gold!
It seemed that other than Team Daemons who had gained a snowball advantage at Level 1, no other team had managed to get the upper hand on Team Skycrown in the early stages.
There was no denying that Tinghuaâs ability to disrupt otherâs routines and rhythm was really strong.
This game had felt like a grudge from the very beginning.
No matter whether it was the top lane, mid lane or bottom lane, all of them were overly aggressive!
The top lane had just broken out and both the Topâs were killed with an exchange of Ignite, and meanwhile, both the Midâs had engaged and were now playing chase in the river!
Xie Yi was slightly stronger in terms of ability compared to Wu Sen, and with the blue buff on Xie Yiâs Gragas chasing Wu Sen downward to the bottom lane, Wu Senâs Lulu ran and accelerated her movement speed, kiting as she continued to run.
In a chase like this, it was not necessary that the one being chased would die, but rather, it depended on whose teammates reached them to assist first!
As the fastest assistance-giving Support, having the bonus movement speed from Overdrive made it entirely possible for Luocheng to reach the scene in 7 seconds!
Xie Yi kept up the chase until the Dragon pit, but then, he suddenly found a silver Blitzcrank Flashing directly in front of Lulu from the unseen area!
Blitzcrankâs hook flew beautifully, and although Xie Yi had already anticipated the assistance from the bottom laneâs Blitzcrank, he hadnât expected him to Flash up suddenly to hook him!
Do you know that the larger the size of the champions in League of Legends, the more harmful it was than good? Because to avoid things like Blitzcrankâs Q-skill and Asheâs ulti was incredibly hard.
Gragas was fatter, and even if he dodged at the right angles, his fats would still be caught!
When the Q-skill arrived, you would die for sure.
Wu Senâs Lulu just needed to polymorph, followed by a Q-skill and some basic attacks. There was no need to even cast an Ignite, Xie Yiâs life would be easily forfeited.
âCareful, Tinghua is nearbyâ¦â
Luocheng had just opened his mouth to remind Wu Sen, but before he could finish, the purple KhaâZix jumped out from the side bush!
The long sickles swiped across Wu Senâs head, and it felt as though Lulu was beheaded right there and then. Wu Sen didnât even have any time to react at all, and he was killed instantly by Tinghuaâ¦
Luocheng, who had already thrown all his skills out, could do nothing.
What was even more outrageous was the fact that the kill boosted Tinghua to Level 6, and he didnât choose to retreat, instead choosing to upgrade his skill right in front of Luocheng!
When KhaâZix upgraded his skill, there would be an obvious pause of at least 1 second, with him striking a pose as well.
Of all the places Tinghua could have chosen to up his ulti, he had to do it in front of Luocheng!
This kind of sarcasm and provocationâ¦
It was as if he was telling Luocheng, your teammateâs life was only good as a grub to make him stronger!