Chapter 60: I Let Him Practice

In the G2 lounge.

Ka Lao Si held his tactical board, discussing BP with Tang Anna; a fresh notebook lay beside him, to be taken on stage for the BP draft, and he finally realized showing up empty-handed wouldn't do.

Freeze is from North America. Do you know anything about him?

I know a little, but I don't have a strong impression; it feels... uh, pretty average.

Oh, he's a bad player, so we can ignore him. Mid lane...

Ryu is also pretty average.

Exactly, he's also a bad player; their core is the jungler. Should we target their jungler in this BP?

Actually their top laner too...

Odoamne is decent, I think; or maybe he's their team captain.

Okay, we need to consider what we want to pick. I have a feeling they'll ban the jungler, at least two. If we also ban jungler, Liang will have few choices.

I'm not worried about Liang's champion pool, but are you sure they'll ban jungler?

My intuition says so.

Um...

The two whispered their discussion, voices low, but Liang Yan nearby could hear clearly.

But Liang Yan didn't interject; he still believed that the time wasn't right—interfering too early in BP would make Ka Lao Si dependent, which is bad. We need to give the coach some growth motivation, otherwise later all the work would fall on Liang Yan alone, which would be disastrous.

The two kept discussing for a while, then Ka Lao Si turned and asked Lao Zhang:

Zhang, how's your champion practice coming along?

Big Tree and Ekko are about the same; I've been practicing Rambo these past few nights.

Lao Zhang blurted it out without thinking and immediately regretted it.

Because Liang Yan had assigned him to practice Rambo.

Sure enough, Ka Lao Si was shocked:

"You actually practiced Rambo? Why would you practice that?"

Rambo is an obscure pick in this patch; since the summer season started, only Smeb of the ROX team in the LCK region has played him a few games, and that player accounted for Rambo's appearance rate across the four major regions in summer.

Even Smeb's win rate with Rambo is only 50%.

Moreover, Rambo's spring appearance rate was similarly low, with only a few players who deeply understood him using it.

Ka Lao Si simply couldn't understand why Lao Zhang would suddenly start practicing this.

Uh... because...

Lao Zhang couldn't answer; he couldn't betray his brother.

Liang Yan was about to speak up to help Lao Zhang out.

Tang Anna suddenly said:

Rambo has been buffed in this patch, and has received consecutive buffs since spring; Riot seems intent on raising Rambo's pick rate.

While speaking, Tang Anna glanced at Liang Yan, intentionally or not.

Liang Yan noticed the detail, not knowing whether Tang Anna had discovered something, but it didn't matter; he hadn't planned to keep anything secret from anyone.

After Tang Anna finished speaking, Liang Yan directly said:

Coach, it was me who had Lao Zhang practice Rambo.

In an instant, not only Ka Lao Si but everyone stared in shock.

What does it mean to be a professional player?

The most important thing is those two words up front: professional.

Professional means a job, requiring everyone on the team to fulfill their duties.

Liang Yan's behavior is like substituting a peach with a plum—he's taking over the coach's job.

That's a major taboo in the scene.

But fortunately, given the preceding events, everyone found it easier to accept.

Surprise is inevitable.

After all, a pro's time is precious; deciding which champion to practice isn't something you can just snap your fingers over.

Why make Zhang practice Rambo?

Ka Lao Si asked.

Liang Yan's expression didn't change:

Because Thresh's mark mechanic was reworked in 6.11, I think it will be strong, but it's a jungler with weak disruption resistance, and its new mechanic needs a strong early-game laner to synergize for maximum gain.

So I wanted Lao Zhang to practice Rambo, so we could possibly synergize later.

This explanation was sound and convincing, earning everyone's agreement and trust.

Liang Yan also wasn't lying; although his main reason for having Lao Zhang practice Rambo was to enrich his champion pool for the patch, he also had in mind preparing himself to play Thresh—not just Thresh, but Rambo can actually serve as an early-game enforcer for most jungler comps, or even a jungler bodyguard, thanks to its strong early- to mid-game combat power.

This champion can be said to be a must-have weapon for top laners.

Having Lao Zhang practice Rambo was already part of G2's overhaul plan, not something Liang Yan decided on a whim.

Ka Lao Si nodded noncommittally, said nothing more, and turned back to discuss BP with Tang Anna.

Only then did Lao Zhang relax, wiping sweat from his forehead.

Good grief, he broke out in a sweat from the stress.

Not long after, staff came to announce the imminent start, so everyone left the lounge and waited by the backstage exit in order of appearance.

Welcome back!

The commentator PiraTechnics' voice suddenly rang out in the arena.

The upcoming match is one everyone here and watching online has long awaited; to be frank, I feel the same. So let's immediately call out the two teams.

「HardtoKill！

「and

「G2Esports！」

HardtoKill is the full name of the H2K team.

The literal translation means 「hard to kill」, while Xinyada's translation is 「never wiped out」, which at first glance conveys a sense of tenacity and resilience.

As for why it's not called HTK but H2K, it's a long story; simply put, it's like Chinese netizens typing 「thanks」 as 「3Q」, and English netizens also have the habit of typing 「ForYou」 as 「4U」—this is a unique internet culture.

Moreover, from a visual standpoint, 「HTK」 is not only lacking in memorability, even resembling some kind of code, whereas 「H2K」 is relatively fresh and concise, giving a feeling of being eye‑catching.

H2K entered Europe's top league one year earlier than G2; since its promotion to the LEC (LCS. EU), H2K has been a strong team regularly reaching the league playoffs semifinals (and almost always finishing third), deserving the title of a traditional EU powerhouse.

In this summer split, this H2K lineup, due to Forg1ven's departure, appears to have weakened in strength, but the impact is actually not significant.

Because H2K's core has always been the jungler.

Odoamne and Jankos are the big brothers of this team. Odoamne mainly serves as a spiritual leader, because he is the veteran of H2K and has the aura of an elder brother; as for skill……well, skill still depends on Jankos.

The popularity of these two is also the highest.

H2K is the blue side team in the first game, and their order of appearance is before G2's. As the host loudly called out Odoamne's ID, the audience burst into enthusiastic cheers.