Chapter 382: The Fasting Jungler Is Coming

In summary, the main impacts of the 7.2+3 patch on the battlefield are:

Changes to wild monster spawn times require junglers to readapt and redesign their opening routes.

Nightblade has been strengthened, altering the item builds for assassin-type junglers.

Lulu plus Censer have been strengthened, reshuffling the support priority order.

Barrel has been strengthened, making a strong appearance in the top lane.

The Courage of the Colossus rune has been weakened; the abilities of Treant and Titan have declined somewhat but their status is unchanged, while Alchemist is directly removed.

That's all.

Liang Yan compiled his research conclusions into a document, sent it to Long Ge, who printed it out and distributed it to each team member, then they held a meeting to study it.

This is the normal procedure after Liang Yan joined the team; no further explanation needed.

However, no one in the VG team knows that Liang Yan's research conclusions had already been seen by someone earlier.

Liang Yan's farewell gift to Tang Anna was a USB drive containing this version's research conclusions (the overseas server updated earlier).

It also included Liang Yan's 'prediction' for the direction of future versions.

He packaged these into a document of several tens of KB, placed it on the USB drive, and gave it to Tang Anna, as a slight compensation for the loss his departure caused to G2.

But Tang Anna probably didn't tell Ka Lao Si that it was from Liang Yan; otherwise, that night Ka Lao Si would have called Liang Yan to thank him.

……

The trend of battlefield changes matches Liang Yan's judgment; by late February, although the LPL had not yet implemented the 7.2+3 patch, some teams had already begun using the new patch's compositions in official matches to adapt early; the bottom lane was not yet obvious, but the barrel had started appearing frequently in the top lane, proving that players' hero pools had substantially changed.

Moreover, VG, which had been using super accounts on the Korean server to scrim with LCK teams these days, adapted to the new patch even faster, pulling far ahead of other teams.

That afternoon, after finishing a training match against KZ, everyone returned to the training room after dinner; there was no training match at night, so Zhu Xiaolong let everyone play freely in ranked.

Liang Yan started a livestream, matching while watching the LPL match.

Fu Lan Duo joined him on mic to watch together, and they chatted while watching.

While they were chatting, a humorous scene appeared on the LPL broadcast: in the first game of RNG versus IG, at around seven minutes into the game, the jungler Malaxiangguo playing Braum helped Xiaohu take the second blue buff in his own jungle, but because the damage was miscalculated, the blue buff was killed by the lingering damage from the red buff before Xiaohu's Jayce's lightning cannon arrived.

Fu Lan Duo let out a puff and said:

"Kind of funny, huh."

Liang Yan also couldn't help laughing:

"Well, but LiYuanhao probably wouldn't dare to complain."

"The title of LPL's most trash-talking person belongs to Liushiyu."

"Well, you're about the same."

"Damn it, I'm so refined and easygoing—how could we be equal?!"

"Actually, this version suits Malaxiangguo quite well."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he doesn't like farming the jungle; he prefers to do things. In the past, the jungler version was a drawback for him, often causing his level to fall behind the main group, but now there's an experience catch-up mechanism."

Moreover, Liang Yan knows that Riot will soon continue to nerf jungler-type core champions, further strengthening experience catch-up; in the spring season, a male gunner can still appear thanks to the Black Cleaver + Green Fork combo, but by summer it will truly be the era of utility junglers.

However, this is Liang Yan's version trajectory from his own timeline; in this timeline, due to his presence, there may be some changes.

Because Riot will adjust the summer update based on MSI's situation, the team that wins the mid-season invitational will definitely be targeted by Riot.

As previously mentioned to Tang Anna, Liang Yan is definitely going to MSI.

If VG ends up winning at that time, Riot will definitely target VG; more precisely, they will target him, Liang Yan, but how exactly would they nerf him?

Riot probably also finds it a headache, because Liang Yan's style is too variable; it seems his jungle core is the strongest, yet everyone knows the blind monk's world‑turning kick from S6.

We've gone off track.

Getting back to the topic, Malaxiangguo's mistake prevented Xiaohu from getting that blue buff, which had a big impact; it directly left Xiaohu completely unable to act in the ensuing lane, being pressured by Rookie's Orianna to the point he couldn't even reach the turret.

Then IG's mid‑jungle linkage started causing trouble everywhere, and the snowball began to roll.

Uzi picked a utility‑type AD carry this game, the female gunner; as everyone knows, playing the female gunner is mechanically simple, but it basically lacks the ability to save the world.

IG, thanks to a huge economic advantage, eventually won this game.

It's worth mentioning that RNG got the Quicksilver Sash this game; precisely because they were contesting Quicksilver Sash and Jayce, Uzi couldn't secure a comfortable champion.

RNG's new coach FireFox still has some ability; he noticed that RNG relied too heavily on Uzi last year, which made it hard for the team to win if Uzi underperformed or couldn't step up, so since taking office he has tried to remodel RNG—for example, pulling up the top and mid lanes and researching tactics centered around top‑mid‑jungle.

But things turned out contrary to expectations.

What FireFox wants to do is one thing; what the players think is another.

Simply put, on a team with Uzi, you can only play around him, and Malaxiangguo and Xiaohu have already grown accustomed to being Uzi's supporting leaves.

You unwilling to be a leaf?

Then Uzi would be unhappy.

If Uzi is unhappy, fans will flood Weibo.

When fans flood Weibo, management will have to curse people.

It's pretty blue, huh.

As soon as the first game ended, someone was already cursing under RNG's Weibo post.

【I called you Brother Feng, what trashy BP did you pull?】

【0‑5 Quicksilver Sash, I'm dying laughing】

【The top laner is playing the utility champ well, why do you insist Letme take Quicksilver Sash? And you gave Xiaohu Jayce—can he play it? I suggest you first figure out who is the carry in RNG, otherwise you'll lose again!】

【If after being on the team this long you still don't know who RNG's core is, the coach should step down.】

To be fair, Letme's stats this game aren't pretty, but he actually played Quicksilver Sash quite well—all five of his deaths were from initiating team fights, so being blamed is truly unjust.

Besides, it's not that Brother Feng doesn't want to give Uzi a comfortable champion; the strongest AD in this version, Varus, is right there on the map—the problem is Uzi hasn't practiced enough to pull it off!

Fortunately, RNG's raw strength still surpasses this version of IG, ultimately allowing them to come from behind and win this Bo3.

Hmm, during the second game, the opposing side also had a blunder; Kid's Renekton also snatched the blue buff that was meant to be given to Rookie to eat, and likewise the red buff was scalded to death.