Chapter 31: You made me feel awesome

Liang Yan wanted to kick the host's two legs, but he didn't; he just pursed his lips.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the enemy mid laner's position on the minimap cross the river's midline, so he instantly switched the view to check—great, the wave was pushing toward him.

He tapped the space bar to bring the view back to himself.

He didn't need to deliberately watch skill cooldowns; his fingers naturally danced on the keyboard.

The leopard on screen nimbly leapt away to avoid another monster attack, and before landing it shifted into human form; just then his Q skill came off cooldown, he marked it back and cleared the monster's last sliver of health.

It's a long story, but Liang Yan executed that whole sequence in less than 0.3 seconds.

Next he walked toward the river, sneaking toward mid lane.

Along the way he casually tossed a trap into the patch of grass at the river's center; as soon as the trap landed, the cougar lay low and leapt into the grass on the right side of the river in mid lane.

His actions couldn't be described as smooth; even someone who knows nothing about LoL could feel the precision and elegance just by watching.

Just like art.

Having shifted back to human form, Nidalee hid in the grass and waited silently.

Tang Anna still couldn't help glancing over now and then, but the distance was over ten meters, so she couldn't make out what was on Liang Yan's screen.

……

The next day there was another G2 match, but it was late, starting at 7 p. m.

Europeans seemingly have no habit of waking early; when Liang Yan and Lao Zhang arrived at the training room, they were still the first to arrive.

The two each sat at their own seats and powered on.

Morning scrimmages usually start around 10 a. m., but Ka Lao Si hadn't arrived yet, so Lao Zhang logged onto the Korean server to play ranked by himself.

Liang Yan recalled the update preview from Riot, remembering that a new version was going live on the European server today, so he opened Riot's official website news center and indeed saw a new version announcement.

Liang Yan liked Riot's official website version update announcement.

The data was detailed, the layout clear, and special entries came with direct links to the official wiki; this let Liang Yan more easily catch trends in version changes from the announcement, letting him prepare in advance for shifts in the competitive environment.

Combined with his "Future Memory", he could basically guarantee success.

Today's update is version 6.11.

Liang Yan carefully read through the update notes from top to bottom and concluded: the designers were busy cleaning up after 6.9.

Simply put, this is a special tweak version aimed at the competitive environment.

It mainly adjusts champion strength.

Whatever was strong on the competitive stage got nerfed across the board.

But Liang Yan figured the competitive reaction probably wouldn't be big; it's just 'you nerf yours, I play mine'.

Sure there would be an impact—for example, Lu Xi An's Q skill "Holy Light Penetration" had its penetration range chopped by 200 yards, and his W skill "Fervent Flame Bullet" lost 100 yards of range.

Such a huge range reduction didn't affect his burst damage, so the effect was that bad ADs wouldn't dare pick him—because his range shrank, laning and teamfight risk rose linearly—but for high‑skill ADs who like to dance on the knife's edge (like Uzi), the impact is small, and they might even prefer him because it feels more stimulating to play.

Such balance changes actually widen the gap between strong and weak teams further.

Other changes were also significant.

Thresh's mark mechanic was completely overhauled—now it chooses a refresh location based on current mark stacks, and a new Q‑skill mechanic raises damage according to passive stacks; overall it's a major buff, so Thresh's ban priority will definitely rise.

"Lao Zhang,"

After Liang Yan finished reading the update announcement, he turned and shouted.

"Hey, what's up?"

Lao Zhang pulled off one earcup, his hands busy with controls, and replied without turning his head.

"This patch has you feeling awesome—Jax got an epic‑level buff."

"Another new patch?"

"Yeah, Jax's passive changed—now it decays layer by layer after its duration ends."

"Holy shit, that's awesome?!"

Lao Zhang was overjoyed.

"There's even more awesome stuff."

Liang Yan laughed and said,

"Trinity Force was reworked—crit removed, +25 attack speed, +10% cooldown reduction, and price dropped by 67 coins—so, are you feeling it or not?"

"Holy shit!!"

Lao Zhang yanked off his headset, his face full of surprise as he turned to look at Liang Yan,

"For real? Then I'm not flying awesome?"

"You're flying awesome, right?"

Jax is undoubtedly the champion that best synergizes with Trinity Force in the whole league; the only flaw with Trinity Force for Jax before was its crit stat, since Jax is a semi‑tank fighter who neither needs nor can build crit, which amounted to wasting part of the item's cost‑effectiveness.

Now Trinity Force has lost crit, while the boosted attack speed and cooldown reduction are exactly what Jax needs, which amounts to an indirect buff to the champion.

Together with the earlier change to his passive‑removal mechanic, Liang Yan said it's an epic‑level buff to Jax, and that's no exaggeration.

Besides, there's another key point that nobody except Liang Yan knows.

"Right, Lao Zhang."

Liang Yan shouted to wake Lao Zhang, who was immersed in great surprise,

"Big Tree Ekko has been nerfed—when you have time, practice more and get used to it."

"If it's been nerfed, does anyone still pick it?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Alright, remembered, thanks bro."

"No problem. But don't let your Jax proficiency slip—it'll be useful."

"No way—can I even abandon my main champion?"

"Hmm."

"Yes, from the start of the competition, the old man and Aike, who firmly occupied the top two spots of the global solo lane hero popularity, were both heavily cut in this version; Dashu cut the CD of its Q skill, and Aike was almost comprehensively weakened."

"But unfortunately, they didn't cut the right spot."

"These two things can become big hits in the current version, relying on their mechanics."

"This version's combat pace is very fast, causing most traditional tanks, even with normal development, to be unable to withstand damage in the mid-game and unable to hold their ground in team fights."

"Only Dashu and Aike can withstand a bit longer thanks to their special ultimate mechanism."

"Dashu has an awesome range damage-reduction skill【Revenge Vortex】."

"Aike has an even more awesome【Time-Space Rupture】."

"Furthermore, although the designers cut Aike's skill damage, intending to weaken tank Aike, the main output of tank Aike actually comes from the hero's passive and the passive of W skill; since these two are not cut, tank Aike will not withdraw from the competitive stage."

"Liang Yan remembers clearly that these two things almost became the spokespersons of the S6 Summer Championship; in the entire S6 Summer Championship top lane, it was either Dashu versus Aike or Aike versus Maokai; as a viewer, Liang Yan kept watching these two things and was really sick of it."

"Now, it's time to give this era something new."

"Jiakesi is just right for not fearing Dashu and Aike in lane during the early-mid game and being able to chase and hit them in the late game."

"Trinity changed, Lao Zhang directly took off!"

"As of now, stably occupying a ban spot in the late game is no problem!"