Chapter 181: Unreplicable Jungle Clear

No!

Off by three seconds!

Still no good!

This time the difference is even greater!

In the ROX training room, everyone gathered behind Xiao Huasheng, watching him repeatedly attempt Mang Seng on the red side.

Meanwhile, on two other computers,

Smeb played Kennen to help clear the jungle,

Nofe personally played Spider, following Xiao Huasheng's movement path from the match, appearing at the same place at the same time and warding.

They were trying to recreate the scene from the match where G2's jungler Mang Seng made a level‑3 gank.

But no matter how many times Xiao Huasheng repeated it, he could not perfectly replicate Mang Seng's actions.

Jungle clear order,

Movement path,

Starting items,

Champion stats,

All were the same.

But the final time taken differed.

Even if Xiao Huasheng used the finest micro‑control to manage his jungle clear, he could not finish clearing three monster camps, reach level 3, and appear at the intended spot within exactly the same time.

The best result was off by two seconds.

And it was exactly those two seconds that prevented Xiao Huasheng's Mang Seng from completely dodging Nofe's Spider scout and slipping into that vision blind spot.

Xiao Huasheng had already repeated it over twenty times.

Logically, if there were any detail he hadn't noticed before, repeating it so many times should have uncovered it.

But the fact is, there wasn't.

It was purely a micro‑control gap.

This was a situation Xiao Huasheng had never encountered before.

A simple jungle route, under identical conditions, following the video, actually could not be replicated?!

Is there anything even more bizarre than this?!!

On the fortieth attempt, Xiao Huasheng's Mang Seng entered the blue‑side jungle by hugging the riverbank wall, then turned toward the opposite mid‑lane river wall, trying to slip into the blue‑side vision blind spot behind the F4 camp before the Spider cleared the fog.

But just as he was about to succeed, just like the previous thirty‑nine times, Nofe's voice came through the headset:

"Spotted."

"Spotted..."

"Spotted!"

"See! Got! You!"

That voice was like a curse, echoing endlessly in Xiao Huasheng's mind.

"Sorry..."

Xiao Huasheng let out a sigh, took off his headset and dropped it on the keyboard, bowing his head deeply. At that moment he finally understood what it meant: no matter how hard you try, some things are ultimately beyond your control.

What seemed like a simple task was actually separated by an unbridgeable chasm.

"I can't do it, sorry, Coach, I just can't do it!"

His voice trembled with tears.

The LCK summer champion jungler, the player ranked fifth in the official Worlds top 20, the eighteen‑year‑old peak Peanut, was actually brought to tears by monsters.

Everyone behind him fell silent.

Xiao Huasheng covered his face and cried out desperately:

"I don't know why."

"I gave it my all, I really did!"

"But I just can't do it!"

"Every time I finish the red buff I feel the gap appearing; when I finish F4 I know the gap is even bigger! Why?!"

"Coach, why is this happening?!"

"Could it be a latency issue..."

Someone whispered a remark.

But everyone knows that if it were just a few‑tenths of a second difference, it could indeed be a latency problem.

After all, the match uses the most professional servers and network; the training room's latency, while not high, usually stays between 10 and 20, whereas the venue's latency is single‑digit level, so even if players don't feel the difference, there is still a slight effect.

But this effect is minuscule; it's absolutely impossible for a player to end up with a two‑ or three‑second discrepancy just from clearing three monster camps.

If it's not latency, then what is the cause?

Everyone present is a professional, so they naturally see it and share the same answer in their hearts.

Including Nofe and Xiao Huasheng.

Nofe stood up, went to Xiao Huasheng's side, lightly patted his shoulder, and spoke in a gentle yet stern tone:

"Now you should know: there are always people better than you, and skies beyond the sky."

"But Wanghu, this only proves his mechanics are top‑notch, not that he's stronger than you. Believe in yourself; after beating Score and Blank you are the strongest, and we all believe you are the world's number one jungler!"

……

Among the junglers of the teams participating in this year's World Championship, it's not only Xiao Huasheng who has tried to replicate Liang Yan's Mang Seng level‑3 vision‑control play.

Changzhang has tried it as well.

But he wasn't like ROX, letting the whole team cooperate with him to run an experiment.

Changzhang merely played two rounds in versus‑AI mode himself, realized he absolutely couldn't do it, and then straightforwardly gave up with no psychological burden.

As a veteran with far more experience, Changzhang had endured many more setbacks than Xiao Huasheng and also understood better that there are always higher mountains beyond, so he would not get hung up on details like Xiao Huasheng, nor would he feel discouraged.

Even the recent online pace couldn't affect him, let alone this kind of thing.

Put simply, he has a thicker skin and dares to admit that he is weak.

But admitting it is one thing; being weak is still being weak.

Compared with these specific in‑game operations, EDG as a whole paid more attention to another matter—a shift in wind direction at a higher level.

And it wasn't just EDG.

All teams suddenly started choosing early‑game lineups more often in practice matches.

It is obvious that the cause of this phenomenon was Liang Yan's interview remarks after the G2 versus ROX match ended.

Because G2 pulled off an upset win over ROX, his words attracted attention.

And after verifying it in practice matches, everyone found that Liang Yan was right—the so‑called slow‑paced version was actually a trap.

Thus, the next day the wind direction on the battlefield shifted.

Everyone began playing early‑game lineups.

At the same time, the Dragon King, patched with a bug‑fix, was unlocked in today's match and, upon debut, created an upset even greater than G2's victory over ROX.

October 3, the final day of the first round of the S6 group stage, Game 4: CLG fielded a Dragon King + policewoman ox head composition against ROX; 36 minutes later, ROX suffered its second loss, ending its first‑round group play with a 1‑2 record.

Huhi's Dragon King racked up a lavish 11‑1‑6 stat line and earned MVP of the match.

Immediately after, in Game 5, FW recreated the Dragon King + policewoman ox head composition and successfully slew SKT.

It is worth noting that, in this game FW was on the Red Side, and the Dragon King + policewoman were deliberately left open by SKT to test the strength of the Wheel Mother + Fan Mother composition.

The final match was C9 versus Snake.

Snake lacked the arrogance and stubbornness of LCK teams; right away they pressed Dragon King into the Small Black Room, picked a conventional early‑game lineup for themselves, and easily won the match.

……

(Ps: In reality, the S6 tournament also began showing a massive shift in wind direction from the third day of the group stage, namely that suddenly all teams started picking lineups biased toward the early‑mid game, except for the clueless IM that was completely out of sync with the other teams……)