Chapter 191: Losing to anyone is fine, but we cannot lose to CLG

Facing the aggressive ROX support who invaded his own jungle, CyanideFI tugged for a while, until Perkz arrived to help and he finally secured his own red buff.

But during the tug-of-war he took a Karma RQ, and after clearing his red buff CyanideFI's health was extremely low; his remaining health couldn't sustain him contesting the lower river crab, and because the bottom lane duo was under immense pressure from the Ezreal+Karma combo, they couldn't help him much—he alone couldn't even beat the Stone Armor Beetle, so he could only clear five jungle camps before returning to base.

Because he missed one jungle camp, this resulted in CyanideFI still being level 3 when he returned to base.

CyanideFI was getting anxious; when Liang Yan was playing in practice matches, he sat in the back watching and learning, personally seeing Liang Yan play many games as Leopard Girl, and regarding his understanding of this champion, Liang Yan said the most: Leopard Girl must have a level advantage, at least one and a half levels ahead of the enemy jungler by ten minutes to be qualified; otherwise its usefulness is not even that of a support.

So CyanideFI eagerly wanted to make up his level, after leaving base he directly ran to the upper lane, intending to go to the upper river to snag a river crab first to regain experience and reach level 4.

However, this intention was guessed by Xiao Huasheng.

"Xiao Huasheng knows Leopard Girl too well—he directly anticipated the position and successfully ambushed CF; a level‑4 Mang Seng versus a level‑3 Leopard Girl, I didn't even need to watch, that Q wasn't dodged, so it's over……"

CyanideFI's flash was knocked out; if not for Perkz putting down the minion wave and arriving in time to support, he would likely have lost his first life here.

"Although I didn't die, this situation is simply more painful than dying once—why say that? Put yourself in his place and you'll see: a Leopard Girl, nearly five minutes in and still not level 4… oh, after killing this toad she'll level up, so a Leopard Girl who only reaches level 4 at five minutes—just think how awful that is; if it were me I wouldn't want to play anymore, I'd just quit."

The Leopard Girl got off to a terrible start, the rhythm collapsed completely, and there's no hope afterwards.

Although AP tried hard to roam and make an impact, he's just a Malzahar—without strong jungle support, over‑trying makes him easy to expose, and on his first roam he was caught by Xiao Huasheng, who immediately landed a double summon.

Having lost the double summon and with no jungle protection, Malzahar no longer dared to push the lane, so the mid lane also couldn't hold, and G2 began to be pressured on all three lanes.

CyanideFI, whose jungle was already tough, now suffered an added blow—from then on he hardly ever got to eat his own F4 again.

As the game went on, the Leopard Girl's development worsened, her teamfight presence became useless, and by around 20 minutes it was basically G2 four versus five.

However, ending the game in this patch isn't that easy—although the audience could see it was garbage time afterwards, G2 still managed to drag it out another ten or so minutes before their base was destroyed.

G2's record became 3‑1, ROX 2‑2.

In the second match, ANX again pulled off an upset and took down CLG.

ANX also reached a 2‑2 record.

CLG fell to 1‑3, their hopes hanging by a thread; theoretically they had only one chance to qualify via a tiebreaker, and it depended on others' results. Yet the North American crowd in the venue loudly cheered for ANX.

In the third match, G2 once again took the stage.

Their opponent was CLG again.

Before going on stage, Ka Lao Si said: "Losing to anyone is fine, but we cannot lose to CLG."

This game G2 was on the red side.

CLG banned Ryze and Syndra in their first two picks, while G2 banned Dragon King and Police Woman in theirs; seeing this, CLG coach Zikz was secretly delighted.

Jayce and Leopard Girl were both available; if CLG banned one, G2 would ban the other, meaning neither side could get either of these two top‑tier champions. Although it wasn't a outright loss, for the blue side that had first pick it was still overly cautious.

And Zikz's choice was,

"Ban none!"

If G2 also doesn't ban, then great—CLG would first snatch Jayce and give Leopard Girl to G2; would you take it or not? Based on your Leopard Girl performance last game, dare you take it?

If G2 bans one of them, then CLG can just take the other.

In short, pure profit!

So Zikz instructed the team to ban one Karma.

In Zikz's view, G2 was likely to choose the latter and probably would ban Leopard Girl. G2 couldn't possibly have no research on CLG; they should know the positions and strengths of CLG's five players, and clearly Xmithie's Leopard Girl poses a greater threat than Darshan's Jayce.

However, to everyone's surprise, G2's choice was the same as CLG's.

Ban none.

G2's final ban was……

"Lu Xi An?!"

On a certain platform's livestream, the camera caught Joker's eyes widening instantly,

"What does G2 mean by this, banning a useless Lu Xi An? That's just giving it away—if the enemy snatches Jayce and gives you a Leopard Girl, what do you do, take it or not?"

"And even if you're pretending, this is too fake—plus, does he really dare to hand CLG an easy win? Isn't he afraid of going back to Europe and getting cursed out? I don't think so."

"Something's off—maybe G2 is up to something; really, there's no way they don't want to win this game, there's definitely something up—just wait and see……"

As expected, CLG locked in Jayce with their first pick.

Then it was G2's turn for the second pick.

The first pick shocked Joker greatly:

"Ezreal?!"

"No, why are you snatching Ezreal?!"

Following the second pick, they snatched Lanbo.

Then CLG, eyes shut, took Leopard Girl in their second pick, and in the third pick they took Janna.

In G2's second pick, Perkz locked in Orianna on the third pick, and on the fourth pick they took Alistar.

By this point CLG finally sensed some danger; Zikz racked his brains, recalling the strong lineup G2 fielded when CyanideFI played in Europe's regular season, and the hero that particularly suited CyanideFI's style.

But it was too late; although CLG's mid and bot lanes weren't locked yet, G2 had set a trap from the start, banning the two mainstream mobile ADs of the current patch, leaving CLG only immobile or off‑meta champions.

Meanwhile, all mainstream mid‑lane champions lack mobility.

Zikz's expression grew extremely grave, but with things as they were, he finally made a very courageous decision.

He chose to turn the tables.

Since G2 wants to play a strong engage‑and‑charge composition, I'll match them with a tug‑of‑war, and we'll see whether in the end you scatter my formation or I drag you out and wear you down to death!

CLG locked in their composition with the second pick.

Then G2 revealed their final pick, and as expected, it was the Prince!