Chapter 576

After Pawn fell, Deft and Mata hurriedly came to Zhong Lu, picked off the last few ranged minions that hadn't been finished off by the turret

The director cut to the Zhong Lu kill replay; after the replay ended, the camera cut back and saw Karma tying a chain onto the fox, and Pawn decisively used Flash this time.

Actually, there was no one behind Karma; Pawn was just scaring himself.

The KT team's internal channel fell silent again.

Meanwhile, the cheers from the live VG fans grew louder and louder.

The camera cut to the top lane, where Galio, after buying Doran's Blade, picked up a pair of boots and a small cloth armor, apparently aiming for armor boots, and still had a few hundred gold; estimating he could combine the boots once he returned to base.

Moreover, even though Galio hadn't returned to base yet, Karma could hardly move him now.

However, Smeb was equally decisive, actually picking up a Doran's Blade as well; he also had a pair of Boots of Speed and an attack speed dagger, seemingly heading for attack speed boots—but it's also possible that dagger is for combining into Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Approaching nine minutes, Liang Yan came to the lower river, and with the duo's help began to kill the dragon; KT's mid and bottom lanes were both pushed under tower by minion waves, with no one coming to check.

Just after nine minutes, VG took the first dragon—a water dragon.

Taking advantage of VG's main force being in the bottom half, KT's mid and jungle went top to cause trouble, aiming to surround and kill Fu Lan Duo's Galio, and the three chased all the way to the tower.

Easyhoon arrived in time, placing a shield that lasted longer than Fu Lan Duo's remaining health, then blocked Pawn who tried to flank and snipe a kill, successfully saving him.

After the skirmish, KT failed to kill anyone, instead they had to use an extra Flash, putting them slightly behind.

"Really can't kill him! Galio looks squishy but is actually very tanky!"

"There's no way; although these three aren't lacking crowd control, Sheng Qiang Ge is too slippery—his teammates doing things in the bottom half, he firmly refuses to push the wave over. KT's play was basically a forced dive, but the damage simply isn't enough to burst him down; AD Karma's damage is low to begin with, Smeb's farm is only average, and the Fat General's farm is terrible. Among the three, the sole physical output, Rek'Sai, couldn't go all‑out because he had to tank the tower, and in the end Sheng Qiang Ge dragged him out until the Marquis arrived, almost getting counter‑killed himself."

"The mid laner's shield mom's shield is just too thick—once it's stacked, it's longer than the health bar, utterly despairing."

However, although KT didn't manage to kill anyone in that exchange, their morale oddly crept back up a bit.

Regardless of whether they succeeded, at least they dared to fight—and that is indeed a good thing.

The top lane rhythm wrapped up; Easyhoon helped Fu Lan Duo clear the wave and then recalled directly in top lane, while Liang Yan picked up the dragon and swung by mid lane to collect minions, feeling quite pleased.

Pawn's roaming cost him another wave, his farm already awful; without noticing, the mid lane's gold deficit versus the opponent exceeded that of the bottom lane, reaching two thousand gold.

That basically means Easyhoon is almost a full item ahead of Pawn.

Even the LCK commentators stopped yelling "full pizza"; each of them looked ashen-faced.

The situation then remained stable for two minutes.

Just after eleven minutes, Liang Yan once again slipped unnoticed to the bottom lane, emerging from behind KT's duo. Had Smeb not used Teleport to save his teammate, Deft's ultimate would have landed accurately and rooted Sima Laozei, and this wave KT's duo would have been killed under tower again.

However, after falling behind, KT's duo naturally played cautiously; when last‑hitting they stayed farther back, keeping their health fairly healthy. Deft quickly cleared the minion wave in front of the tower during Smeb's Teleport, Smeb saw the risk was gone, and so he didn't come down.

At the same time, when the Prince appeared in the bottom lane, Pawn again abandoned his wave and roamed upward, once more trying to team up with the jungle to dive the tower and kill Galio.

But he still didn't catch anyone.

Galio directly ulted toward the river to meet the incoming Easyhoon, once again leaving KT's trio grasping at air.

"KT's plan to act in the opposite direction has miscarried again!"

"It looks like KT is feeling like a trapped beast, frantically wanting to act but constantly failing—how painful."

At this point, KT finally realized that as long as Easyhoon's Karma stayed alive, even if Pawn didn't move his wave first, they still couldn't kill this Galio.

Consequently, KT's top‑mid‑jungle changed their mind, abandoning a top lane grab and instead focusing on mid lane.

To pull off a successful play, KT's trio had been laying the groundwork for a long time.

But before they could act, Liang Yan moved first.

At thirteen minutes, the Prince appeared in mid lane, striding nonchalantly up from the river; he first tossed a flag behind the red side's minions, then walked up and auto‑attacked a minion, seemingly just aiming to help mid lane push quickly before taking someone away to go for the second dragon—but Pawn let his guard down, and the Prince flung him into the air with a miraculous EQ‑Flash.

The Prince followed up EQ‑A with his ultimate, and Karma's R‑Q exploded; due to excessive roaming, the fox—whose development was extremely poor and whose level matched that of the jungle—was instantly left with low health.

Pawn landed, used Flash, then followed with his ultimate to escape.

Liang Yan and Easyhoon turned back, swiftly cleared the wave, and pushed forward with the minion line, exuding an arrogant aura that implied at least one kill or tower had to be given up.

Even the Karma who had just returned to base and was walking out had to flash his ultimate to protect the mid laner, and one wasn't enough—Score's Rek'Sai likewise flung his ultimate from Quan Shui to the vicinity of mid lane.

KT only managed to save Pawn and the middle tower after expending two ultimates.

In VG's internal channel, Liang Yan gave a chuckle and leisurely turned away.

On the LPL commentator's desk, Miller furrowed his brow slightly: "Jiao Shen's several engage attempts looked promising, yet he never caught anyone—this feeling…"

Changzhang interjected bluntly: "VG seems to be deliberately dragging the game out; Jiao Shen's several engages aren't actually aimed at killing anyone, but at forcing the enemy to use their abilities. The first time was to bait Teleport, the second to bait the ultimate—probably that's it."

Miller's eyes lit up: "Exactly, how smart! Karma is useless without his ultimate; before his Teleport and ultimate come back online, you can indeed ignore him, and since the Fat General lacks both his ultimate and Flash, he can hardly go for picks either—VG can just farm peacefully for a few minutes."

Guan Zeyuan chuckled: "Indeed, VG never had offensive pressure to begin with; this lineup is rock solid, and later they have Big Mouth as a safety net—so all they need now is steady farming."

As the old saying goes, three clumsy craftsmen make a Zhuge Liang; these three crosstalk performers, chatting back and forth, actually managed to clearly lay out Liang Yan's true motives behind his first two engagements.

However, this isn't some obscure tactic that's hard to see through.

At fifteen minutes, the second dragon respawned; KT was behind in economy and at a skill disadvantage, lacking the means to contest VG for it.

This game actually had a hint of a one‑sided stomp.