Chapter 358: Can't I push?

Sima Laozei learned a move called Eagle Strike the Skies, shooting an arrow from below to above toward the blue side's jungle, revealing the Changzhang who was taking the red buff.

On the commentator's desk, Su Xiao Yan whispered softly:

"The Changzhang has been spotted; VG knows Mang Seng is also clearing from top to bottom, so Jiao Shen likely intends to finish clearing the magic swamp frog and then go up to eat the river crab—without lane control on the bottom lane, there's no way to contest."

Liang Yan originally planned to do the same, but he hadn't finished clearing the blue buff yet when Marquis in mid lane signaled down the river, heading toward the river while speaking as he went:

"Go ahead and eat, I'll help you."

Liang Yan only looked away from mid lane for a few seconds, never expecting Marquis to clear the minion wave that quickly, and with full health!

He was somewhat surprised:

"Is Snake Girl that easy to play against Rek'Sai?"

"Hmm, I think it's still okay!"

"Marquis's Snake Girl is really strong!"

That was said by support Xiao Duan.

Xiao Duan coached VG's team in last spring's split, and has been fighting alongside Marquis for a year, gaining a deep understanding of Marquis's champion pool and proficiency with various champions.

Marquis smiled sheepishly:

"No, no, Snake Girl is still good against Rek'Sai."

Liang Yan accepted the goodwill, finished clearing the blue buff, entered the river, and under Marquis's protection smoothly ate the river crab; this action also impacted bottom lane's lane control.

VG's duo started pushing the minion wave.

When laning, Laozei is extremely focused; thanks to that, his lane rarely collapses from being outplayed, but excessive focus in lane also means his observation of the overall situation is not timely, and his handling of the minion wave is always a beat behind.

For example, just now Liang Yan had finished clearing the river crab, pinged his own Magic Swamp Frog to signal he would return to the jungle; at such a moment, the bottom lane player with stronger game sense would judge the situation, knowing his jungler would likely go up next, so the bottom lane would lose the jungler's protection—he would have to decide: either quickly push the wave and look for a chance to recall, or simply not push the wave, maintaining equilibrium or a slight disadvantage to ensure his position isn't threatened by the enemy jungler.

But Sima Laozei wouldn't think that much; he just buried himself in pushing the lane, constantly seeking opportunities to suppress the enemy's last hits, and attempting to trade damage with the enemy.

However, the enemy Zet and Meiko were also desperately clearing the wave, causing VG's minion wave to be unable to push.

If the minion wave situation continues developing this way, Sima Laozei will be in danger—either caught by Changzhang or zoned out, damaging his last hits. Even if Ashe had vision‑granting abilities, it wouldn't help, since by then Liang Yan had already cleared upstairs; as soon as Changzhang approaches bottom lane, Laozei must retreat.

By then, VG's bottom lane would suffer greatly.

Fortunately, after a few days of practice scrimmages, Liang Yan had roughly figured out the laning styles of his own laners, with bottom lane being his main focus; thus, when Liang Yan finished clearing the Magic Swamp Frog and prepared to go up, he noticed the bottom lane was still aggressively pushing and immediately spoke up to warn:

"Ma Ge, don't keep auto‑attacking minions, or the wave will push over."

Upon hearing this, Laozei jerked out of his extreme focus on laning, blinked, and asked:

"Can't I push?"

"I'm about to go jungle up; if you keep pushing, the wave will cross into the mid lane via the river—I can't protect you, and I can't have Marquis's Snake Girl come give you cover; at most he can just watch the lower river, he can't roam."

Sima Laozei fell silent.

Since his debut, Sima Laozei's understanding of the jungler role has been that it exists to serve the lanes—he only needs to win his lane; nothing else matters.

Therefore, in ranked games, when he gets caught and killed while pushing the lane while his own jungler isn't in the bottom half of the map, he will angrily rant, and firmly believe it's the jungler's fault.

But at the same time, Sima Laozei is an absolute results‑oriented person; when a teammate's achievements far surpass his own, he unconditionally obeys—this is why, when duo queuing with Changzhang, he never talks back no matter how much Changzhang flames him, because Changzhang won the IPL5 world championship early on.

Thus, when Sima Laozei teams up with a superstar player, he undergoes a kind of severe split that he himself doesn't even notice.

Just like now.

On one hand, Sima Laozei absolutely obeys Liang Yan's commands; Liang Yan is an S‑tournament champion jungler, everything he does is right, so Laozei just needs to listen.

So when Liang Yan just said he could skip the river crab, Laozei said he could help take it, because he believes Liang Yan is the team's absolute core and worth sacrificing his own interests to assist.

But on the other hand, Sima Laozei's fundamental understanding of the jungler role is wrong; deep down he thinks the jungler should serve the lanes, so he doesn't realize he needs to coordinate with the jungler's actions to control the minion wave, otherwise he would be in danger.

These two contradictory views coexist in Sima Laozei's understanding; over time, this inevitably makes him play worse and worse, he loses his lane, teamwork suffers, and eventually he can't take it—either he becomes reclusive or retires.

In fact, in the timeline Liang Yan experienced, Sima Laozei followed exactly this path until the late stage of his career, when he finally realized his understanding was flawed—but it was too late, as inertia had etched this mindset into his basic understanding, turning it into an instinct that cannot be changed.

This is precisely why Sima Laozei has never been able to achieve good results.

During his time with RW, that was considered the peak of Sima Laozei's career; why? Because he happened to meet RW's mid laner Donib, who loves to roam, and their synergy created that eye‑catching RW team.

In short, Sima Laozei is essentially an improved version of Uzi—his mindset is better than Uzi's, giving him a higher floor, but his talent falls short of Uzi's, so his ceiling is lower.

Fortunately, this time he met Liang Yan.

Could a world champion's words be wrong?

It must be me who's wrong.

Where am I wrong?

After a bout of brainstorming, Sima Laozei finally truly recognized his problem.

Regarding how to handle the minion wave, he still has a long way to go.

Liang Yan also isn't rushing to pour a lot of theoretical knowledge onto Laozei all at once; he's like a shovel, gradually prying loose Laozei's foundations.

Once Laozei's fundamental understanding of the game is completely loosened, Liang Yan can then completely tear it down and rebuild it.

The spring split has just begun; there's still plenty of time.