Chapter 582

Monsters respawned, Liang Yan alone started jungling from the red buff.

In this game, VG's top lane had an undeniable advantage, but Smeb's Jayce was indeed slippery; Fu Lan Duo could pressure him, but with Smeb on full alert, it was impossible to whittle down too much of his HP.

So Liang Yan abandoned the early-game plan to gank top, choosing instead to start from top and clear downwards; early on, his main focus was to guarantee his own development while taking care of bottom lane.

KT's Varus + Galio lane was indeed strong, threat very high, especially Deft's Thunderlord's Decree this game, obviously aiming for a stronger burst penetration build.

VG's pick of Trundle support focused more on post‑level‑6 matters; early lane was indeed rough, and even if Trundle used W to help Ashe speed up wave clear, they couldn't push past the enemy, let alone trade blows—if they really went all‑in, Trundle would likely lose half his HP before even reaching the enemy's face, and even if he did, it would be useless because Galio's Bulwark shield is just too strong.

After clearing the red buff, Liang Yan noticed the enemy bot lane pushing incredibly fast; a quick thought revealed their intent, and he immediately grabbed his spear and ran to the lower half of the map, not even clearing F6.

Without surprise, when Liang Yan arrived at the lower half, he placed a ward through the wall into the grass patch of the blue buff camp and saw the Blind Monk dragging the blue buff monster toward the river.

Liang Yan quickly opened the info panel and saw that the Blind Monk had only one last hit—obviously he had just cleared his red buff and run over.

His teammates also noticed the situation in the jungle.

Easyhoon immediately asked: "Should we go?"

Sima Laozei didn't even ask: "Xiao Duan can go help Jiao Shen; I can hold tower and farm alone, no problem."

Fu Lan Duo then shouted: "He hasn't learned E yet; I can T him anytime!"

This is the treatment Liang Yan receives as the Wild Core hero: as long as he wishes, his teammates can set everything aside to guarantee his development.

Liang Yan glanced at the bottom lane, saw the enemy duo had already pushed the first wave and were clearing the second; Galio's portrait was moving toward the river but stopped before entering, apparently waiting a few seconds to reach level 2 before coming over.

Liang Yan refused his teammates' help:

"Don't come. I'll handle it."

Although Liang Yan was fully confident in landing the smite, the enemy Galio had already arrived; before the blue buff's HP dropped into smite execute range, Galio would surely try to stop him from approaching it.

So Liang Yan, without hesitation, after confirming Mang Seng's jungle status via the info panel, turned and left to kill the three wolves.

"Huh?!"

On the LPL commentator's desk, Guan Zeyuan exclaimed in surprise,

"Jiao Shen just gave up his blue buff that easily? Isn't he going to contest the smite?"

Miller also wondered:

"Yeah, logically he shouldn't just give it up so easily."

Changzhang pinpointed the problem:

"Galio's here, no chance to smite; otherwise if Galio taunts him, Jiao Shen could die."

"But Galio is only—"

Guan Zeyuan said, unconsciously glancing at Galio's portrait,

"Uh, Galio hit level 2?! Then there's really nothing we can do…… but what about mid lane? Can Marquis help?"

In mid lane, Lissandra versus Ryze early does have lane priority, but Lissandra plus the male gunner may not beat Galio plus Mang Seng, and Liang Yan doesn't want to disrupt Easyhoon's rhythm.

When Guan Zeyuan said that, the male gunner was already fighting the three wolves.

Meanwhile on the LCK side, several commentators shouted excitedly, as if they had counter-jungled the blue buff and solo-killed their lane opponent.

"Oh? Oh?! Let's go! He left! Didn't dare to fight! Fire has to give up his blue buff! Nice job, Score!"

"Got it! Got it! Nice!"

"Oh dear, is this the blue buff of the World's No. 1 Jungler? So fragrant?"

"Score this kid, I thought he'd become overly cautious, but this invasion was well done, hahaha~"

As he was about to finish the three wolves, Liang Yan glanced at mid lane; Easyhoon was about to push the second wave, and simultaneously the third wave— the cannon minion wave— had arrived behind the tower, with the clash point likely moving forward four to five hundred yards.

Meanwhile, the top lane crocodile had already pushed the wave to not far before the Qingying Shadow tower.

So Liang Yan returned to the upper half of the map, farming F6 while continuing to observe mid lane.

Pawn cleared a few low-health minions, then retreated as the frontline minions of the third wave began to clash; seeing this, Liang Yan immediately signaled Easyhoon to follow.

Easyhoon walked forward while auto-attacking minions.

Through the vision provided by Easyhoon, Liang Yan saw Pawn enter the small path on the blue side's riverbank, but he disappeared for only a few seconds before reappearing.

Liang Yan began mental calculation.

This is actually a basic fourth-grade multiplication problem, similar to "If a person walks 5 kilometers per hour, how far can he go in three hours?"

Liang Yan took less than half a second to calculate Pawn's approximate ward placement, judged there was an opportunity, and a plan quickly formed in his mind.

In the director's view, the male gunner finished F6, reached level 3, then raised his gun and entered the river, turning into the blue side's jungle.

The ward Pawn placed in the river saw the male gunner entering the river and moving upward.

Score, who had just cleared the Magic Swamp Frog and returned to his jungle to start farming F6, upon seeing this immediately moved upward, and after briefly communicating with Pawn, asked Pawn to provide cover.

Pawn pointed at the minion wave, indicating he couldn't clear it that quickly.

But Score estimated that although Lissandra could push the wave first, the red side's mid laner would have to run to the blue side's upper jungle to support the invasion, taking extra travel time; while Pawn, although moving a few seconds later, could take a shortcut to support directly.

The top lane situation was similar to mid lane; likewise, Smeb's support wouldn't be much later.

So Score didn't panic; he didn't want the male gunner to succeed, decided to play more aggressively, and intended to firmly defend his blue buff.

But he didn't expect the male gunner not to go directly to counter the blue buff!

Liang Yan's action of moving upward after entering the river misled everyone at KT's judgment, making them think he was entering the jungle from the gap opposite the Dragon Pit.

Actually, Liang Yan turned a corner in the river, bypassed Pawn's ward vision, quickly drew his gun and slipped around the corner, entered KT's jungle through the gap at the end of the left side river wall in mid lane, followed the small path upstream, and reached the ambush position before Score's Mang Seng entered the upper jungle!

Figure: male gunner's vision-bypassing route