Chapter 210: This tactic is too brainless!

1 minute 38 seconds, the Zhong Lu minions opened fire first.

Two seconds later, the wild monsters respawned.

Originally positioned in the grass at the river mouth of the top lane, Lao Zhang moved a step ahead, walked downstream along the river, entered through the gap in the wild area opposite Da Long Keng, placed a ward through the wall revealing Mang Seng, who was fighting the Magic Swamp Frog for Mlxg, and Jess, who was helping Mang Seng clear the jungle.

Lao Zhang did not do any further harassment; after placing the ward, he immediately returned the same way.

Looper's Jesse then came online, not auto-attacking minions, just wandering near where the front-line minions clashed, only last-hitting.

Lao Zhang positioned near the river mouth, took two basic attacks from Jesse in cannon form, last-hit the two nearest melee minions, and could only use Q to last-hit the third.

Looper immediately moved forward upon seeing this.

But Lao Zhang didn't retreat toward the tower; instead, he pulled back a distance toward the river mouth, turned to dodge Jesse's ordinary cannon shot, then turned back.

Looper was wary of a possible level-three gank from the enemy marksman, so he didn't trade health, directly turned and pulled away to avoid taking Q, afterwards he played very cautiously, still only last-hitting, relying on the vision advantage from occupying the side brush to occasionally ping Pantheon.

When the third wave arrived, Lao Zhang's Pantheon had lost about half its health, glowing green, and was taking potions to heal.

Looper's Jesse also left the side brush, stood behind the blue side's ranged minions, no longer advancing; despite that, the minion line pushed forward about two to three hundred yards, so Jesse's position remained near the middle of the river.

Moreover, because Pantheon firmly blocked the river mouth, he was never able to place a ward there, so the entire river mouth direction lacked blue team vision.

This is a classic top-lane vision war.

Looper was wary but couldn't be sure if the enemy marksman would come. At this moment, Malaxiangguo was already in the bottom half; Looper was isolated and could only be careful on his own.

Meanwhile, from the audience's view, Liang Yan's marksman had finished clearing F4 and was heading toward the river.

"Wow, Jiao Shen's marksman is clearing pretty fast!"

"Clearing F4 in two minutes twenty-plus seconds is indeed fast. I recall a high-end player from the Korean server made a video not long ago saying that for a marksman to solo the red buff in the jungle, clearing three camps to hit level three by 2:40 is considered qualified; with help, around 2:35. He's nearly ten seconds faster than that."

"There's something... huh, why is he going up? What's he trying to do?"

"Let's take the river crab; it can't be a gank, right? Looper's position... looks like there isn't much chance. Jesse at two-thirds health shouldn't be insta-killed."

However, Liang Yan went straight past the river crab and headed up.

The LPL casters immediately exclaimed:

"Wow, here it comes, it's really a gank!"

"They're only level two, Pantheon and Jesse both!"

In this version, a solo lane champion needs to eat the two front-line minions of the third wave plus any other minion or cannon minion plus any minion to reach level three.

Spawn time is 1 minute 15 seconds; from the base, minions take 23 seconds to reach the front line in mid lane, and the side lanes take an extra 10 seconds.

A wave every 30 seconds.

That is, the arrival times of the first three top-lane waves at the front line are:

1 minute 48 seconds.

2 minutes 18 seconds.

2 minutes 48 seconds.

Clearing minions also takes some time, so top lane usually hits level three around the three-minute mark; if only last-hitting, the level-up time will be later.

Meanwhile, Liang Yan had finished clearing F4 before the two-and-a-half-minute mark.

He was exploiting this time difference.

In fact, he could even have taken the river crab first then ganked, since both top-lane champions were still level two.

However, Looper seemed a bit wary; to avoid giving him a chance to react, Liang Yan went up without taking the river crab.

The river mouth had no wards.

"Here it comes, really coming to gank Looper! But Looper is somewhat aware; at this distance Pantheon can't jump directly, if he flashes…"

Figure: Gank position

"Wow! He's in! Jia ke zhang flashed W and stunned Looper!"

"The marksman quickly drew his gun from the river! But Pantheon's W crowd control lasts only one second; the marksman fired one shot, Pantheon auto-attacked Looper once, then Looper flashed out of the stun! However, Pantheon's spear throw and the marksman's Deadly Flourish followed closely! After Pantheon triggered Thunderlord's Decree, Looper was down to a sliver of health and ultimately burned to death by the marksman's red buff damage over time! Firrrrrre got the first blood!"

The arena instantly burst into cheers.

"Hey, why is their damage so high?!"

Miller shouted in shock and confusion,

"This is unscientific!"

Wawa chimed in:

"Exactly! Is this reasonable? Looper's position was already cautious, yet the enemy just flashed W in plain sight, took off a big chunk of health, and insta-killed him?!"

"I can't accept this, I really can't accept it! Hey, designers really need to look at this; this should be nerfed, otherwise this tactic is too brainless!"

"Actually..."

Guan Zeyuan, who had stayed silent after commenting on the team fight, now hesitantly spoke up,

"I think... perhaps this damage should be considered... uh, fairly normal?"

"Huh?!"

Wawa couldn't believe it,

"Is this normal?"

Guan Zeyuan lightly nodded, then explained by counting on his fingers:

"Well, look, Looper is only level two; his full health is just over five hundred points, and he wasn't even full—his health bar looked like three and a half segments, so definitely under four hundred."

"Then Pantheon's Shield Bash, followed by a basic attack, then Spear Shot, finally triggering Thunderlord's Decree—four hits of damage, right? Averaging out, 40 damage each isn't excessive."

"That's 160 points."

"Plus the marksman's basic attack that hit at least two bullets—call that 80 points—so the total is 240."

"And the final Deadly Flourish. Please note, from the director's camera we can still see that the marksman hasn't learned Smokescreen yet, so his Q is still level two."

"So a level-two Q from the marksman deals about 100 damage per segment, which I think is quite normal. Besides, he's level three versus level two, and he came with the red buff."

After Guan Zeyuan finished this analysis, Wawa and Miller had nothing to say; both of them had black faces, that classic expression of "I'm unhappy inside but can't refute".

"But I still think this routine is totally brainless, really!"

Wawa held back for a long time before finally blurting out this sentence, her tone extremely displeased.

Guan Zeyuan didn't refute further, after all he couldn't embarrass his own people, and if nothing unexpected happened, the bullet comments were probably already cursing him by now.