Chapter 135: You're playing this well, you ought to go pro?!

Leopard Woman, this hero after being reworked in the S4 season, has always had a different color in players' minds, just like the top lane's Nuo Shou, mid lane's Yasuo, bot lane's Vayne, and support's Pantheon, all are special existences; but compared to those earlier heroes, Leopard Woman is different, the former merely being relatively popular among the player base, while Leopard Woman is likewise a hot pick on the battlefield.

Since last spring's season, Leopard Woman has been a evergreen pick on the battlefield; this season she is almost always either not banned or selected, an absolute T0 jungler.

But sometimes, when she is available in the ban/pick phase, some people still dare not pick her.

Because Leopard Woman is not something everyone can play; her skill mechanics and playstyle positioning are very complex, and in different hands her gameplay and performance vary greatly.

Some people's Leopard Woman is a babysitter, some people's Leopard Woman is Ma Dongmo, some people's Leopard Woman is an assassin…… Only a very few people's Leopard Woman possesses all of the above functions.

Many retired players have said, don't play Leopard Woman below xx rank; this statement is of course overly arbitrary, but not without basis.

Leopard Woman is very strong, but ordinary people can't grasp her; differences in proficiency and understanding cause a thousand junglers to have a thousand kinds of Leopard Woman.

Today, is Liang Yan's first time picking Leopard Woman on the battlefield since his debut.

A special hero.

A special player.

Naturally there will be a different impact.

Everyone in SPY felt like they were facing a formidable foe, even Kobbe didn't smile.

YamatoCannon communicated with the players for a long time, and finally in the third or fourth pick secured the Troll + Wine Barrel duo, this top-jungle combination.

In this version, Troll has a support playstyle, but after the pillar's cooldown and W ability were nerfed by the developers, fewer people play him as support, and now most who pick him go top lane.

Furthermore, even when Troll support was at its hottest, Mikyx never picked this hero, so we can basically judge that he is going top.

Don't look down on Troll being a short-range melee; top lane he is actually quite strong.

Ka Lao Si originally planned to still give Lao Zhang Nael, but Nael vs Troll is hard to lane, after discussion they finally chose Ekko, and then the fourth pick secured Ice Archer.

Many people, upon seeing Nael lane against Troll, think that a long-range vs short-range, Nael also has mobility, so surely he has an advantage—but this is actually a presumptuous mistake.

In reality, at best it's even, and sometimes a disadvantage.

Nael is indeed long-range, but his range is only 400 yards, merely over two hundred yards farther than standard melee auto-attack range, just a step away.

Skilled Troll will, at the right opportunity, use the pillar to block Nael from catching the returning boomerang, then rush into Nael's face; while Nael vs Troll in a stand-up fight is unwinnable, if caught in close combat he can only use jump to disengage, and since he failed to catch the returning boomerang, Nael's Q skill enters a very long cooldown, while Troll still holds W in hand; in this window, if Nael is carelessly caught again by Troll in close combat, one bite takes half his health bar, two bites kill him.

By comparison, Ekko, who also has mobility, is much easier to deal with; as long as there's no mistake in thinking, don't casually use W, the lane basically poses no threat to life.

As for the issue that top, mid, and jungle are all AP, it depends on whether Troll will build anti-item; if he is targeted, just ignore him, teamfights are irrelevant anyway, and G2 still has Ice Archer on their side.

Keeping the support slot until last is to see which way SPY's Karma will go, and also as a precaution in case Troll goes support, keeping a hand is safer.

SPY, with two positions left to pick, is even more troubled.

G2 bans one Wheel Mom and then picks Leopard Woman, making SPY's bot lane extremely hard to choose; they already had four ADs banned, and now the remaining options are pitifully few.

Ezreal won't do; the output would be insufficient.

Actually the best is still Wheel Mom, but Wheel Mom is banned.

After much thought, YamatoCannon finally gave Kobbe a Big Mouth; the unfortunate part is that support cannot pair with Lulu, because Lulu's roaming has little effect, so she cannot be chosen.

It had been agreed beforehand that this game Mikyx would be sent out, yet G2 still picked Leopard Woman; Mikyx must go out to do something no matter what, otherwise this Leopard Woman truly cannot be suppressed.

In the end they still took Thresh.

Although Mikyx's Thresh in the previous game seemed useless, this is indeed his most confident hero.

SPY with two locks, Karma's position is now set.

Ka Lao Si no longer needed to consult anyone; seeing the situation, he directly let Mithy take Braum.

Both sides' lineups are now locked.

SPY, blue side.

Ban: Crocodile, Spider, Lucian.

Top lane: Wunder, Troll.

Jungle: Trashy, Wine Barrel.

Mid lane: Sencux, Karma.

Bot lane: Kobbe, Big Mouth.

Support: Mikyx, Thresh.

G2, red side.

Ban: Caitlyn, Aphelios, Wheel Mom.

Top lane: Island, Ekko.

Jungle: Firrrrrre, Leopard Woman.

Mid lane: Perkz, Sparrow.

Bot lane: Zven, Ice Archer.

Support: Mithy, Braum.

Both coaches shook hands and left the stage; the arena echoed with cheers from both sides' fans.

Then commentator PiraTechnics evaluated:

"Compared to the previous game, G2's lineup this game is roughly the same, but because Nael was swapped for Ekko, their engage ability is greatly weakened; however, after swapping the jungle from Elise to Nidalee, their poke and tug-of-war ability has been greatly strengthened."

"That's right, but SPY's lineup also looks not bad; Karma paired with Troll gives double speed plus a shield, and adding the Wine Barrel that can both initiate and control, this top-mid-jungle combination's early combat power is quite outstanding."

"But I think whether SPY can break the stalemate still hinges on support Mikyx; only by getting Mikyx moving can SPY seize the initiative from Firrrrrre's hands."

"Makes sense... Okay, both sides have entered the Summoner's Rift! EU Summer Finals Bo5 second game, battle officially commences! The much-anticipated Firrrrrre player is also picking Nidalee for the first time in this match, so let's look forward to seeing whether it's SPY's jungle-support rhythm that's better, or Firrrrrre's spear in hand that's sharper; we'll wait and see."

The air wall around the fountain disappeared; the director's camera locked onto Liang Yan's Leopard Woman, following this sprinting leopard all the way to the upper half at top speed.

He first placed a trap in front of the F4 camp grass, after standing a few seconds at the jungle exit he inserted a false eye at the downslope and immediately turned back from behind the Dragon Pit, standing on the red buff grass wall he placed a second trap toward the Stone Armor Beetle camp, after ten plus seconds he placed a third trap, after squatting a few seconds in the grass he started running down, at one minute and a few seconds he turned back and placed a fourth trap in front of the red buff camp, then transformed into leopard form and rushed straight to the lower jungle, at around one minute twenty seconds he placed a fifth trap in front of the Three Wolves camp, finally returning to the upper half, at one minute thirty plus seconds he arrived at the Stone Armor Beetle camp, at one minute forty seconds the monsters respawned, and Leopard Woman began jungling together with Ekko.

Trap Position Diagram

This series of operations left the live audience, those watching off-screen, and the commentators on the analyst desk all bewildered.

What the heck? Isn't Leopard Woman just supposed to learn Q at the start and be fine?

You're doing this so scientifically, are you going to go pro?