Chapter 291: Crocodile Leopard Debut

Leopard Woman was taken by Firrrrrre, Nofe naturally felt pressure, but he had also been mentally prepared; only with a solid counter-strategy did he finally decide to release this Leopard Woman.

Nofe realized that Leopard Woman, as a champion, always needs lane cooperation to be effective; since G2 couldn't get Syndra, there was no suitable champion in lane that could beat Dragon King before level three, the jungle-mid lane linkage couldn't be formed, so Leopard Woman would just be average.

One could even say it's a version trap, because the fault tolerance is indeed too low.

In this game, ROX's invasion will be very early and extremely fierce.

Even if Firrrrrre's personal ability were outstanding, without the Leopard Woman from the previous game with Xiao Huasheng that directly burst open, his development would certainly suffer severe interference.

As long as Leopard Woman can't farm, the outcome is the same.

"Wow, this round it's Jiao Shen's turn to get Leopard Woman!"

"It seems that after losing the previous match, Coach Nofe's evaluation of the priority of Leopard Woman as a champion has changed."

Guan Zeyuan thought for a moment, then continued:

"That said, I actually think Leopard Woman is a version trap; everyone overhyped it, but sadly no one dared to try it earlier, so it never got picked—until today, when Jiao Shen used the male gun to educate Peanut, ROX decisively made an adjustment, which takes real courage; I truly admire Coach Nofe."

"I've also noticed that Leopard Woman is indeed not that easy to use; once targeted early, it collapses too easily."

"Yes, it's strong when it farms well, but when it can't farm, its impact can even be worse than many utility junglers, like Mang Seng; Mang Seng at least always has a foothold, so when things feel hopeless, you can go give it a try."

After the earlier picks and bans settled, both sides made their selections very quickly; G2 locked in Leopard Woman plus Caitlyn, while ROX quickly locked in Jinx plus Janna.

Then G2 picked Taurus plus Kennen.

Lao Zhang had practiced Kennen for so long; finally he got a chance to appear, sitting in the gaming chair he couldn't help rubbing his little hands, looking somewhat excited.

Then ROX took the last two picks, Ekko plus Mang Seng, locking in the lineup.

G2's final pick.

"What?!"

"One to gnash teeth?"

"What?!"

All the casters from the regions, looking at the big screen where G2's fifth pick was locked, had their eyes wide open, filled with confusion and shock!

The audience also exclaimed in unison!

Guan Zeyuan exclaimed:

"What the hell? A crocodile?!"

"This, never mind why G2 picked him; the key is… where does he go?!"

"A weird trick! G2's weird trick is back again!"

Nofe was also stunned.

After all the calculations, it was still inevitable to encounter this unforeseeable situation.

And this is exactly what Nofe fears the most.

After the semifinals ended, on the night before SKT departed for the United States, Nofe found SKT coach Kkoma, and they had a lengthy talk.

They discussed many details; finally Kkoma gave Nofe a piece of advice:

"When facing G2, the most important thing is how to guard against their odd tricks; I failed at that, you still have a week, perhaps you can study it."

Nofe did study it seriously afterward, but unfortunately found no clue.

Because G2's moves are always like antelope horns, some things are even completely detached from the version, like Pantheon spider, double lock— which of those borders this version?

Nofe researched for two days, found that G2's moves left no trace, and could only give up.

In today's first game, G2 didn't pull any weird tricks; Nofe even breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, 'G2, G2, you've finally run out of inspiration, you've got no tricks left.'

Never expected, it was actually waiting for him here.

After both sides swapped champion positions, Nofe saw the crocodile appear on the red side's third pick, feeling many unease, not knowing if G2 had some dark trick aimed at Kuro.

Looking at the champion's traits, crocodile versus Dragon King doesn't have much to say; at most it has sustain that isn't afraid of Dragon King's harassment, since Dragon King indeed lacks strong drain, and crocodile has double E, perhaps after level three it can even suppress Dragon King… but besides that?

Nofe couldn't think of anything.

He could only say whatever came to mind.

But the most important task remains:

"Invade Ye Qu!"

"No matter how the crocodile plays, Li Ruixing doesn't need to mind him, don't get entangled, after pushing the lane just leave and go help Wanghu!"

"Don't give Firrrrrre a chance to breathe; don't worry about whether you catch him or not, whether you get Ye Qu or not, go all in on him, don't let him be comfortable!"

Nofe announced loudly, but after just a few sentences the referee drove him away.

When shaking hands, Nofe barely squeezed out a smile, saying to Ka Lao Si:

"Your BP is really well done."

Ka Lao Si first blinked, then said:

"Oh! Thank you!"

Afterwards, the two went their separate ways off the stage.

The venue is huge; the two walked on stage for quite a while before getting down.

Ka Lao Si returned to the backstage lounge, and Tang Anna immediately asked:

"Who picked the crocodile?"

"What do you think?"

Ka Lao Si wanted to tease Tang Anna's appetite, wiggling his eyebrows.

Tang Anna, without hesitation, said:

"Liang Yan?"

Unexpectedly, Ka Lao Si shook his head, quite pleased:

"Haha, this time you guessed wrong!"

Tang Anna was stunned for a moment:

"Is it Lu Ka?"

Ka Lao Si nodded:

"You know, from the first time Liang and Zhang played the crocodile-spider combo, Lu Ka started playing crocodile, and he also really wanted to try this amazing combo with Liang once."

The crocodile-leopard, however, is a more ferocious existence than the desert spider.

Tang Anna waited silently, turning her gaze to the monitor.

The map finished loading, and the enormous Summoner's Rift appeared on the stage floor, with both teams' benches conveniently situated at the red and blue sides' sacred spring.

Although they had seen this scene at the start of the previous game, its magnificent reappearance now still amazed the live audience, who let out a huge cheer.

On the big screen, the heroes descended into the spring amid beams of white light.

In the LPL livestream chat, the barrage began to refresh the score.

More than half of them were showing a 1-1 score.

The rest showed various scores: some 2-0, some 3-2, and some even a comeback from 1 down to 3 up.

The camera cut to the G2 bench, where Perkz's close-up appeared on screen; he lacked his usual playful smile, instead looking rather serious, as if intently listening to something.

The screen flashed and switched to the ROX bench, where a solemn atmosphere enveloped everyone; each person looked tense, and even Xiao Huasheng's tiger teeth were no longer visible.

Next, the screen split in two, the air wall vanished, and both sides rushed out of the spring.