Chapter 284: Radar Bro!

1 minute 40 seconds, jungle monsters respawned.

Both sides' junglers chose to start clearing from bottom to top.

On the big screen, the view was fixed on Xiao Huasheng's Leopard Woman; the human‑form Nidalee stood in the grass near the blue buff camp, throwing a spear at the newly spawned Magic Swamp Frog.

Guan Zeyuan, upon seeing this, immediately said:

"Understanding the Leopard Woman champion is still very important."

"Why do we often say that among a thousand players there are a thousand Leopard Women? It's precisely because of differing personal understandings—each Leopard Woman's playstyle differs, even the opening can be completely different, and this holds true even among professional players."

"Just take this match as an example."

"I don't know if you've watched the European summer finals, but at that time Jiao Shen also played a Leopard Woman, and his Leopard Woman's opening was very strange—right from the start he ran all over the map, placing traps in every jungle camp. I don't remember exactly how many traps he set, but essentially the whole jungle was his traps. I recall he was on the red side as Leopard Woman, then he started with Stone Armor Beetle, yet the opening traps he placed ended up at the three wolves."

"But now we can see that, due to differing understanding, Xiao Huasheng's Leopard Woman chose to start by leveling Q."

"What's the difference between these two openings?"

"Um… actually I'm not entirely sure, but I can irresponsibly guess: I feel Jiao Shen's trap‑laying opening yields slightly higher jungle clear speed, but because it lacks room to maneuver, it tends to be more damaging."

"If you're interested, you can look up the video of the European finals where G2 played SPY; Jiao Shen's Leopard Woman made my heart pound—between levels two and three his HP was especially low, and I felt the enemy could invade just a little and he'd collapse."

"Then Xiao Huasheng's traditional Q‑start opening might not be as efficient, but his HP stays better, making it more stable."

In the livestream chat, many viewers who are Leopard Woman experts also chimed in with opinions:

{【Leopard Woman should be stable up to level three, because the efficiency is already high enough that losing a few seconds doesn't matter, but if HP is too low, getting caught easily leads to collapse】}

{【Personally I prefer Xiao Huasheng's playstyle; the Leopard Woman doesn't lack efficiency, and later you can easily catch up, but if the early jungle clear is too damaging, getting caught once means game over】}

{【But the Leopard Woman inherently needs to pressure with level—shouldn't we pursue the highest efficiency? It's inherently a flank‑oriented champion, so we should maximize its strengths!】}

This is the opinion divergence arising from differing understandings.

Liang Yan's understanding of the Leopard Woman is that everything serves to highlight jungle clear speed.

Xiao Huasheng's understanding, however, is to stabilize early on, then later leverage the Leopard Woman's advantages to gradually make up for earlier losses.

Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Liang Yan studied Xiao Huasheng's Leopard Woman, watched many of his ranked match recordings, and discerned a pattern: in ranks below King, Xiao Huasheng's Leopard Woman opts for the opening with maximum jungle clear efficiency, whereas in King and above he chooses a different, more stable opening.

This shows that, although Xiao Huasheng is called the LCK's most ferocious carnivorous jungler, he actually still retains a bit of leeway.

Now it's the World Championship; the intensity is far higher than the Korean server's King tier, and the opponent is an extremely aggressive jungler, so Liang Yan judges that Xiao Huasheng will definitely choose the more stable opening this game.

After clearing the three monster groups in the lower half, Liang Yan's Male Gun moved to the upper half, cleared another wolf pack, then headed straight for the river.

G2 did not place any invasive vision at the start, so they didn't know from which side the Leopard Woman began her jungle.

But it can be guessed by analyzing the lane matchups.

Since Xiao Huasheng will choose a stable opening, his goal must be to safely get past level three and secure the first river crab; as long as he safely completes this routine, the Leopard Woman will have survived the most collapse‑prone early minutes.

The key lies in the first river crab.

In the bottom lane, ROX cannot guarantee lane priority when Xiao Huasheng reaches level three, meaning that when he needs teammates to help guard the river crab, ROX's bottom duo may not necessarily be able to assist him.

No need to elaborate on mid lane: Syndra playing cards, constantly being poked from start to finish, and Kuro's lane‑trading ability is also inferior to Perkz's, which further confirms the minion wave state in mid—Perkz definitely has lane priority.

Only in the top lane does Smeb surpass Lao Zhang in personal ability, and in champion matchup Nail vs. Bo Bi he likewise has an advantageous lane, so if Xiao Huasheng simply starts by clearing upward, whether the jungle is invaded or they contest the river crab, Smeb can guarantee stable support for Xiao Huasheng's Leopard Woman.

The conclusion is thus reached.

Furthermore, the Leopard Woman's red‑side opening that starts with Q and proceeds from bottom to top for maximum efficiency and safest route is clear: Magic Swamp Frog → Blue Buff → Three Wolves → F4 → Red Buff → River Crab → Stone Armor Beetle or gank → recall.

What Xiao Huasheng will choose at the seventh step is unknown—it depends on the lane conditions at the time—but the first six steps are certain.

With the champion and route set, the timing can be calculated.

Liang Yan entered the river and headed straight for the Dragon Pit, simultaneously placing a ping to alert his teammates to watch his position.

Perkz began moving up the river, approaching the left‑side river brush, made a pause then turned back, feigning that he was coming to place a ward.

The venue began to stir faintly.

Looking at the big screen, the commentators also grew doubtful:

"Huh? Why is Jiao Shen camping here?"

"He didn't even take blue buff before coming down—couldn't he be trying to steal the river crab before the Leopard Woman? What's he doing here?!"

"He couldn't be trying to camp Peanut, could he?!"

"Maybe……Peanut finished his red buff and came around behind the Dragon Pit!"

"This?!"

"He just jumped down!"

"He's really about to get caught by him!"

The commentators' voices rose gradually.

The audience's restlessness also grew.

The barrage boiled over:

{【Holy shit?!】}

{【Jiao Shen is awesome!】}

{【No way, this counts too?!】}

{【Just open it, holy shit!】}

{【Radar Bro!】}

{【Xiao Huasheng is being completely figured out……】}

{【But the Male Gun is missing a blue buff; even if he gets the drop, can he win?】}

{【HP is about the same, the Male Gun's close‑range burst is stronger!】}

{【Maybe just quit……】}

In the G2 player bench.

Liang Yan wore headphones, sitting quietly in their own spot.

At a certain moment, he glanced at the game time.

He began to silently count:

3

2

1...

At 3 minutes 03 seconds, the male gunner standing by the wall at the entrance of Da Long Keng raised his gun and walked out.

He bumped into the leopard woman who had just come out of the dragon pit, hitting her full in the chest.

Figure: Both sides' jungle opening routes.