Chapter 17: Skill Brother Top Lane

"The first thing. Trick, Emperor, and Hybrid have already left Ji Di this afternoon; they have already confirmed their departure."

"The second thing..."

Ka Lao Si awkwardly rubbed his forehead,

"Everyone has probably noticed that Kikis isn't here."

AP eagerly stood up:

"Could it be that Kikis also..."

"Well."

Ka Lao Si spread his hands,

"Just an hour ago, Kikis submitted a withdrawal application to me. You know, his contract expires tomorrow, and I can't do anything about it."

"What? Kikis is also leaving?!"

AP widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief.

He couldn't believe Kikis would actually betray him; just a short while ago the two of them were joking that it was fine that the two Koreans left, now their team's lineage is even purer.

As a result, only this much time has passed...

The others were also shocked, including Liang Yan, and Liang Yan's expression was a bit subtle; he thought, "Could it be because of me?"

AP and Yudie felt as if the sky had fallen.

Four starters left in just one day!

AP, the eldest brother in the team, has become a commander with no troops!

What the heck is going on?!

After Ka Lao Si and everyone else digested the shock for a moment, his expression became extremely serious.

"Regarding the departure of the four players, I will issue an official announcement later. For now, I need everyone to think of a solution together."

"It's mainly about finding a replacement for the top lane."

Upon hearing this, everyone actually relaxed; it seems Ka Lao Si already had substitutes for the other positions, only Kikis's departure truly caught him off guard.

Liang Yan immediately thought of Lao Zhang.

If we could get Brother to play LoL, that would be awesome!

Is that possible?

Liang Yan began to think seriously.

Even many longtime fans don't know that Lao Zhang actually came from a professional player background; he only started streaming after he couldn't get by in the scene anymore, and although he hasn't been doing it long, he's already a popular big streamer.

In the domestic streamer scene where skill levels vary widely, Lao Zhang's ability stands out as exceptional, even comparable to some retired professional players.

Lao Zhang's Han Fu main account has long been stuck in the King rank; with a bit of effort he could even push into the Han Fu top ten, and as for whether he can get first on the national server, that depends on financial resources.

But Liang Yan knows why Lao Zhang can't continue as a professional.

Lao Zhang's hero pool is too shallow.

His Jax is undoubtedly top-notch; Liang Yan has tried it, and even he, a cheat user, taking Nasus to lane against Lao Zhang's Jax, couldn't gain any advantage.

But if he can't get Jax, Lao Zhang is just an ordinary King rank guardian; his speed at practicing heroes is even slower than some talented masters.

For a professional player, this is the most fatal flaw.

Keeping at least five version-viable usable heroes on hand is a basic requirement many coaches have for professional players, and stricter coaches demand even more.

And Lao Zhang's version-viable heroes number at most three, excluding Jax leaves just two…

To practice a hero to a decent level, Lao Zhang needs at least a week—plus he needs prior version proficiency as a foundation; if it's a hero he's never touched before, the required time will be even longer.

That certainly won't work.

In professional play, versions change roughly every two weeks; if practicing a hero takes a week, what's the point?

Another problem: Lao Zhang only knows how to play a few types of heroes; aside from those, no matter how he practices, he can't get good at the others.

This is due to innate incompatibility between the player's talent and hero suitability—of course, this is also a common flaw among many professional players, just more severe in Lao Zhang.

With both of these major flaws, Lao Zhang's chance of making it in the professional scene is basically zero.

But,

Is there really no solution at all?

Normally, yes.

But the situation now is a bit abnormal.

It's not that G2 is currently short of people.

Rather, Liang Yan can use his experience as a "veteran" to help Lao Zhang make up for his shortcomings.

Don't forget, he is actually a reborn person.

Although Liang Yan doesn't remember the future meta heroes for each version, he knows what type of top laner was popular in certain World Championships—for example, S5's semi-tank warriors, S6 was Jayce and counters to Jayce, and S7 was Jayce and a bunch of big tanks…

The seasonal transitions Liang Yan doesn't recall clearly, but in the current environment where only S championship matters, he just needs to know the S season situation to be enough.

In other words, Liang Yan can tell Lao Zhang in advance which heroes he needs to practice.

And given Liang Yan's understanding of Lao Zhang, Lao Zhang's compatibility with the upcoming seasons' popular S-season top laner heroes is decent—at least not something Lao Zhang completely cannot learn.

This way, Lao Zhang's two biggest problems are solved.

As for whether Lao Zhang is willing to return to professional play?

The answer is affirmative.

Anyone who truly has some ability, whether streamer or player, doesn't not want to go pro and make a name for themselves.

Thinking of this, Liang Yan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement, his imagination running wild.

So he raised his hand.

"Boss."

Ka Lao Si turned his head and looked over.

"I might be able to recommend someone."

Liang Yan looked at Ka Lao Si and said.

Ka Lao Si was quite surprised:

"Do you have a recommendation?"

Liang Yan nodded slightly:

"But I need to ask his opinion; if you agree, I'll contact him right now."

"Sure, first tell me about him."

"Um, he's a streamer; if you open China's xx platform and search now you can see him—he's currently live streaming."

"As for his ability……"

Liang Yan opened his phone, logged into the OPGG mobile web version, directly searched for Lao Zhang's ID, went to the detail page, and then handed the phone over:

"You can take a look at this."

Ka Lao Si took Liang Yan's phone; the first thing he saw was the eye-catching mark of a Han Fu Challenger 900+, and he was startled.

AP also leaned over to Ka Lao Si's side and immediately let out an exclamation.

"A Han Fu Challenger with over 900 LP!"

"Few in the Europe Region can reach this tier!"

"The opponent's ability is beyond doubt."

AP glanced dubiously at Liang Yan, "This Asian kid has something going on—he actually knows such an expert."

Ka Lao Si began to browse Lao Zhang's Han Fu match records.

"The most recent ranked match was a few hours ago, playing the champion Jax, a 6-1-5 record is splendid for this tier."

"The previous match was also Jax, a win, and the record wasn't bad either."

"The match before that, he played crocodile and lost."

"The match before that, again Jax……"

"Wait a moment."

"Ka Lao Si realized something, extended the match list and looked back, discovering that this player picks Jax in 80% of his games; it feels like if Jax is available he must pick it, if not then either it's banned or snatched."

"Emmm..."

"Ka Lao Si frowned slightly, looked up at Liang Yan, somewhat hesitant:"

"\"Is this person the Jax one-trick? \""

"Liang Yan nodded candidly:"

"\"That's one way to put it, but it's because he's a streamer; if needed, he can practice other champions. \""

"\"Believe me, I know him very well. \""

"……"

"……"

"……"

"Here I'll explain why we're bringing a streamer to compete."

"If we were to try to challenge S6 with G2's original lineup, raw strength would definitely be insufficient, even with a cheating jungler; the main problem lies in this top laner."

"Right, Expect is G2's original top laner."

"Let's post Expect's S6 stats for everyone:"

"KDA: 1.8, ranking 15th among all S6 participating top laners, 4th from the bottom."

"Average assists per game: 1.6, 18th place, last; the 17th-place wildcard top laner has 2.6, a full 1 assist per game difference (seeing this I can't help but……)"

"No support, so he must be able to farm and carry well, right?"

"Average gold per minute: 359, only ranking ninth; compared to H2K's Odoamne in the same region, it's worlds apart, let alone comparing to Duke who was first back then."

"Average CS per minute: 8.4, 9th."

"Average damage per minute: 369, 17th, second from last."

"Average damage taken per minute: 644, 11th."

"Average wards placed per minute: 0.4, 18th, last."

"Average wards cleared per minute: 0, 18th, last."

"That's all."

"At a glance this data shows this top laner can't lane, can't support, making it impossible for him to carry; simply put, he's bad yet loves to farm and still dares to engage and die."

"Even with a cheat, such a top laner can't be carried!"

"Then why not replace him with a stronger player, but insist on using a streamer?"

"Because most stronger players already have teams."

"Swapping a player isn't as simple as just swapping; if I take a player from another team, I need to find a roughly equivalent replacement to send back, and then also find a similar player to fill the spot left on the team I took from……"

"The result is patching east wall to fix west wall, sewing and patching, piecing together east and west, then a chain reaction leaves the whole region a mess, completely unlike its original state."

"And my style is relatively realistic, so this loses the original flavor."

"So after thinking it over, I ended up bringing a streamer; this streamer naturally has a prototype, and you all should have noticed."

"This plan was also thought out from the start."

"Why choose Jax as Lao Zhang's prototype?"

"First, because he has ability."

"This player himself is a former pro; in the early S4–S6 he was the starting top laner for some team, after the team disbanded he retired and turned to streaming."

In 16 (S6), Han Fu's strongest King placement was 15th.

In 17 (S7), domestic server first, Han Fu sixth, TGA National Solo Elite Championship champion (using only one weapon).

S8, Han Fu King top thirty.

S9, Han Fu King fourth.

Even by the S14 season, one could still rush into Han Fu King top ten.

Not old either, born in '98, only 18 in S6.

Some might think being in Han Fu top ten isn't impressive; any pro player with time to play could easily get there?

That's really not the case—back then even Gongzi Ge making it into Han Fu's top thousand would merit a special Weibo celebration; even now, some players getting into Han Fu top ten sometimes prompt their teams to post an official Weibo celebration, showing Han Fu top rankings definitely have weight. With so many Sino-Korean youth trainees averaging over eight hours of rank a day, how many have made it into Han Fu top ten?

Gold Gong wb

During the S7 summer tournament, theshy also said in a post-match interview that his Weapon Master was learned from Jia Kehu; these are all verifiable records.

Moreover, when Jia Kehu played professionally he actually didn't play Weapon Master, mainly using pure tank and heavy-armored warrior; he only started playing Weapon Master after switching to livestreaming, often being reckless for show effect, but when he played seriously he was very stable—for example, when bringing a certain celebrity to climb the canyon peak, interested parties can go search and watch.

So my personal opinion: this streamer differs from ordinary rank-one players; as long as we solve his hero pool problem, his ability is definitely enough to play professionally.

Another reason is that this streamer has no serious blemish on his character—at least I haven't found any.

After careful consideration, I decided to bring him on board.

In conclusion: bringing the streamer to play in matches is not about adding dead weight, but about strengthening.