Chapter 179: The True Opponent

Liang Yan chased all the way to the tower; at the moment his Q skill cooldown ended, he closed his eyes and fired a light wave at the spider butt twisting left and right.

With a pop, Liang Yan heard the skill hit sound effect and immediately pressed Q to fly over.

Xiao Huasheng was kicked to death.

Liang Yan endured two tower shots; finally a Golden Bell Shield attached to Kennen waiting outside the tower, and he successfully exited the tower.

The stage floor beneath his feet trembled; Liang Yan looked up at the audience seats, but the lighting was dim and he couldn't see clearly, only vaguely seeing some demon-like silhouettes.

The live commentator shouted:

「Thevision！！！

「After a long-term layout and patient lurking, Firrrrrre successfully counter-ambushed Peanut's attack! Helping the team score two more kills! 」

「Firrrrrre! 」

「We must admit! He is absolutely a top-tier jungler! 」

「Yes, it's too terrifying! Looking back at this minute, the Mang Seng's entire course of action, we will have an astonishing discovery—」

「Firrrrrre perfectly predicted Peanut's movement! 」

「This is exactly as if the two had agreed beforehand, with Peanut step by step walking into the designed trap according to the script! 」

On a certain fish platform, Lu mouwei's livestream room.

「Nice! 」

「Awesome! 」

「Jiao Shen invincible awesome!!! 」

「This guy's heart is too dirty, bro, but he's really handsome; Xiao Huasheng was directly beaten into a muggle!! This wave lost and turned into a pig-headed monster!! 」

Liu mou, who was linked mic with him, fell silent for a moment:

「This person is too gloomy. 」

「The kill score is one to six. 」

「Something's off, guys; I feel the tiger might actually get pecked to death by a chicken. 」

……

After killing ROX's jungler, Liang Yan stayed in the top lane and together with Lao Zhang began to demolish the tower.

Syndra was locked down by the vampire in mid lane; the two bottom lane champions couldn't possibly come over, so this tower fell as a matter of course.

「G2 took the first blood tower! 」

「The gold difference between the two sides opened up to nearly four thousand! 」

「Oh my god, a four-thousand gold difference at 11 minutes……ROX won't really lose, will they? 」

The live commentator's shouting transmitted to the backstage lounge; ROX coach Nofe's expression became extremely grim.

At this moment, Nofe must admit that he underestimated G2.

But actually their research on G2 wasn't lacking either; initially the conclusion was that as long as each lane normally gains an advantage, then the jungler focusing on their mid lane and causing trouble would easily win.

Specifically in this match, during champion select they found the top and bottom lanes were countered, so Nofe ordered the top and bottom laners to withstand pressure normally; the task for Xiao Huasheng and Kuro was to, after gaining an advantage through mid-jungle synergy, bring up the female sentinel's tower-pushing rhythm; as long as they took the first blood tower, afterwards they could play however they liked and still win easily, because G2 is an early-to-mid game composition—once they lose that advantage, they will naturally collapse later.

However, once the game actually started, it was completely not like that.

The enemy's top and bottom lane laning strength was inferior to ROX's, a fact; even though the lanes were disadvantaged, before the rhythm fell apart, ROX's side consistently led in last hits, occasionally even contesting lane priority, and the bottom lane even led by a dozen last hits at the 5‑minute mark.

This was achieved while under pressure.

Mid lane need not be mentioned—Syndra versus the vampire is inherently an advantageous matchup, and Kuro still leads the vampire by a dozen last hits to this day.

But the problem is, Kuro was supposed to roam; he took Swiftness to roam and catch the side lanes, yet in reality he was double‑caught by the Mang Seng at level three.

Without double casts, Syndra dared not push the lane; not being able to push the lane meant she couldn't leave mid lane, and thus she couldn't help the side lanes or the jungler.

Xiao Huasheng was originally supposed to work together with mid lane, but in reality he had no lane priority on any of the three lanes; not only was the initiative completely taken by the enemy, but every key point on all three lanes was warded by G2, which left Xiao Huasheng unable to act in the first few minutes—instead he was hampered by the lane situation and invaded by the Mang Seng, unable to retaliate.

After finally finding an opportunity to give G2 a big tempo swing, the result was that the enemy anticipated the move, and moreover Jinx's sudden level‑up caused a total collapse.

How did it come to this?

Nofe traced the thread and found that all of this stems from the Mang Seng's level‑three mid‑lane grab.

At that time, the Mang Seng's display of computational ability while zoning vision and lurking to counter Syndra shocked Nofe greatly, but Nofe did not then realize that even that wave, which didn't produce a kill‑oriented rhythm, would have such a huge impact on the later situation.

Only after carefully pondering at this point did he discover that this was the root of everything, the initial cause of the Mang Seng's ability to fully control the situation thereafter.

That very wave of subtle, far‑reaching counter‑ambush showcased the player's near‑monstrous calculative ability in full, vivid detail.

Firrrrrre……

He is actually such a terrifying opponent!

Moreover, he is like the most crucial gear, while G2 is an exceedingly precise machine, with everyone revolving around him to perform the most accurate and efficient mechanical motions!

G2, absolutely not weak!

They could even be the biggest obstacle on ROX's path to victory!

Fortunately, ROX ended up in the same group as them! After the group stage, if they meet again it will have to be on the finals stage; if G2 truly can reach that point, ROX will also have ample time to study them more thoroughly and in depth.

Having figured all this out, Nofe felt his heart throb with anticipation.

As for this match right now, to be honest, Nofe no longer cares much about it.

Of course, the outcome should be ROX losing.

Although the live commentator and the Korean‑language stream both say ROX still has a three‑to‑four‑percent chance to turn things around, at this moment Nofe hearing these words only finds them grating.

How ridiculous.

These people actually still think that G2 is a far‑inferior challenger to ROX.

But Nofe, following along, couldn't help but self‑deprecatingly laugh.

Although he says he must value every opponent, in truth, before he sees this team's true strength, Nofe himself also looks at G2 from a superior's perspective.

At this moment, Nofe still believes ROX is stronger than G2, but from now on he will treat G2 as a truly evenly matched opponent.

That's not just fooling around!

Nofe stared at the blind monk wandering through the canyon river channels on the screen, his eyes slightly narrowed, his gaze turning sharp and dangerous—

Since you've unleashed your full power without any hesitation, then……

Are you also prepared to receive the treatment that matches this power?

But don't ROX just get serious, and you collapse right away.

Right,

Firrrrrre.