Chapter 192: Do you even know what a tactic is?

S6 Group Stage second round, A Group advancement day, third match.

CLG versus G2.

Both sides' lineups have been locked.

CLG, blue side

ban: Ryze, Syndra, Karma

top lane: Darshan, Jayce

jungle: Xmithie, Leopard Woman

mid lane: Huhi, Viktor

ADC: Stixxay, Jinx

support: Aphromoo, Janna

G2, red side

ban: Dragon King, Caitlyn, Lu Xi An

top lane: Expect, Rambow

jungle: CyanideFI, Prince

mid lane: Perkz, Clockwork

ADC: Zven, Ezreal

support: Mithy, Ox Head

This match is both G2's advancement decider—winning directly secures an advancement spot—and CLG's do-or-die battle—losing means no hope of advancement.

For Ou Mei viewers, this match can be called the most important since the group stage opened, thus focusing the gaze of countless Ou Mei players.

Although CLG's loss to ANX disappointed the North American crowd on site, when their opponent was Europe's First Seed G2, the audience still unreservedly chose to support their home region's team, cheering for CLG with the loudest voices during the draft phase.

On the big screen, the camera split in two, and the enlarged webcam feeds of the five players from each side were arranged in a column, each occupying half the screen.

The players' expressions on both sides were very solemn, faintly carrying a killing intent.

The battle commenced.

CLG had a level‑1 teamfight advantage, at the start they grouped up and invaded G2's bottom half, placing two invasive wards in G2's jungle.

G2 offered no resistance, letting CLG rush in to establish vision, then turned around and had the top, mid, and jungle players group up to invade CLG's upper jungle, forcibly swapping jungle to start their own jungle.

"Ah? Does this not mean outright abandoning the bottom lane?"

"Exactly, it's outright abandoning the bottom lane."

However, CLG's lineup lacks engage; the duo are both long‑range, with strong pushing and pressure, but the problem is the jungler is a Leopard Woman with no crowd control, and moreover G2's ADC is the most mobile Ezreal in the AD position.

CLG can pressure bottom lane, but cannot dive under tower to kill.

Obviously CLG also knows the nature of its own bottom half, so at level two they directly push the wave into the tower to start draining turret health, the two long‑range champions together hit the tower, and it's still relatively fast to take down.

But G2's strategy is simply to ignore bottom lane, relying on the bottom lane duo to hold out; since the enemy can't dive the tower, they let Zven hide behind it, after killing the front‑line minions they use Q to last‑hit the back‑line minions if possible, otherwise they just give up.

Nevertheless, Janna's poke is indeed unstoppable; G2's duo were already crippled and pushed back to base by level three.

Then Zven returned to bottom lane alone, but Old Ox, upon reaching Quan Shui, immediately TP‑flashed to a deep ward in the blue side's upper jungle.

Although CLG had taken precautions, Jayce was hiding far behind the tower, but he still got a bit greedy, lingering far out to hear the tower minion experience, and did not choose the safer option of retreating directly to the second tower.

Prince and Ox Head came out of the jungle and drove Jayce back under the tower.

Giving him no chance, Old Ox flashed with Q, and then Jayce never landed again.

Rambow snagged first blood.

Then the three of them immediately began destroying the top tower.

But the Leopard Woman was also helping the duo destroy the bottom tower, and in the end they took G2's bottom tower about ten seconds earlier than G2's top lane did.

The first‑tower bounty made up for the loss from first blood, and with the bottom lane ahead on creep score, CLG's economy remained ahead.

However, CLG split the tower bounty three ways, whereas G2's Rambow took the whole tower's money; adding first‑blood bounty and creep score lead, before six minutes Rambow had already out‑earned Jayce by over a thousand gold!

Both sides entered the second round.

CLG judged that G2 would keep swapping lanes to trade towers for economy, so they proactively initiated a lane swap, sending the duo to top lane where they conveniently picked up the wave that G2 had left after destroying the tower— a wave not completely cleared by the turret, and upon counting they found it consisted of five ranged minions and two melee minions.

LPL commentator Long Hair commented:

"G2 isn't careful enough; they should have let the turret kill the minions before taking it down— that's nearly a hundred gold. It seems insignificant, but sometimes it's exactly these little details piling up that ultimately sway a match's outcome."

Likewise, the hypnotic‑style commentator Fantasia said:

"Maybe they were afraid the enemy duo would come fast— after all, only Rambow was left taking the tower, which is still a bit risky; taking it early would be safer."

Nobody noticed G2's telltale signs of their strategy.

This is in fact the strongest system G2 can field when the Lao Li + Expect duo is on stage, and since the end of the Europe Summer Split it has been the only system they've practiced in scrims; several tactic variations have been honed to perfection, requiring little communication, with seamless synergy and improvised changes coming naturally.

After a tower‑exchange wave, the two duos met again in the top lane.

Old Ox had no TP or flash, his roaming impact was limited, so he didn't wander around anymore.

Under normal circumstances, G2's lane swap would be caught by CLG and surely lose, because CLG's long‑range duo can pressure G2's duo into hitting the tower, while Rambow, despite having a huge advantage on bottom lane and easily pressuring Jayce, cannot go up to hit the tower.

Jayce clears waves quickly enough and has his ranged cannon form, whereas Rambow is a melee champ with no mobility, making it absolutely impossible for him to approach Jayce's face and destroy the tower.

Prince should have followed down to the bottom half, but Jayce still had flash, and Prince's EQ crowd control isn't reliable, so he couldn't coordinate with Rambow to reliably tower‑dive and kill Jayce.

Given the current situation, CLG basically just needs to keep an eye on Old Ox in top lane and Clockwork in mid lane, and Jayce should be safe.

But nobody expected that G2's second foray would target not the bottom lane's Jayce, but…… the top lane duo of CLG!

Perkz's Clockwork had already hit level six, cleared the wave first, and disappeared from mid lane.

CLG thought he was roaming down to catch Jayce, so they hurriedly told Jayce to retreat to the second tower to hide, but a few seconds later Perkz appeared before the upper river's Da Long Keng, revealed by a ward CLG had placed there.

Moreover, accompanying him was the Prince whom CLG believed was farming the jungle in the bottom half.

It looks like they intended to block the CLG duo who were hitting the tower.

But because they were spotted early, CLG could actually just walk away; after all, even the old cow didn't flash, and EZ lacked any engage tools, so they couldn't be kept.

Moreover, CLG's jungler Leopard Woman was also in Shang Ban Qu.

In G2 Ye Qu, the Leopard Woman waiting for the second red buff to respawn, seeing the situation, hurriedly ran over to the duo lane; his last hit lead over the Prince was very large, and his level was also one higher.

But just as CLG's duo lane was hurriedly retreating from before G2's first tower, at the river entrance, beneath the wall, a red vortex of light lit up.

A Teleport from Xia Lu's Lanbo.