Chapter 629: Basic Ops, Don't Show Off

Mouse also didn't understand what kind of play Sima Laozei was using—skate shoes flashing in on sight to attack was simply unheard of.

But Mouse sensed the danger, tossed an exploding barrel to blast the person away, only to misjudge the direction and get sidestepped by the skate shoes.

"Sima Laozei dodged it!"

"Awesome, Ma Ge!!"

Mouse panicked, instantly flashed to flee, but was nicked by Blade of the Ruined King, which applied a slow; even after flashing out, he was still caught up.

Sima Laozei kept sliding……

Until the rotund Galio was bristling with spears.

Then, in a flash, the skate shoes launched a second piercing spear, skewering the barrel to death.

Just an ordinary, unremarkable solo kill.

Mouse didn't figure out what had happened until the screen went dark.

I, a damn Tristana with armor boots on a barrel, have flash, ult, and mobility—what the hell is wrong with the enemy to just flash in and go all-in like that?

And Wawa, who knows the player's style, burst out laughing: "Exactly! You can't find any reason to explain why he did that, but that's Sima Laozei for you!"

Zzitai on mid lane stared dumbfounded: "Ma... Ma Ge?"

Sima Laozei was utterly calm: "What's up?"

Zzitai: "……"

He also didn't know what was going on, just feeling he needed to fully integrate into the team, with a long way still to go.

Actually, Sima Laozei's logic is quite simple.

Caitlyn is naturally a strong early‑mid game champ, and she even snagged a first‑blood tower solo; your jungler's already shown up in the upper half and blown his ult, yet you, an underdeveloped barrel, dare to farm in my face? Armor boots are great, but even if their cost‑efficiency is off the charts, they're just a 1,100‑gold item.

So when he saw the barrel blow its Body Slam, his hand reacted before his brain could even start thinking—he flashed in to confront him.

And the result matched his intuition—he indeed killed him.

Xiao Duan chuckled: "For Ma Ge, this is basic operation; Zhihao Ge, you'll get used to it!"

"Ah... oh, oh!"

For this team led by the super‑strong carry, newcomer Liu Zhihao gained a deeper understanding.

After Sima Laozei scored the solo kill, Liang Yan moved down lane and summoned the Canyon Vanguard to assist Sima Laozei in pushing the tower.

After summoning the vanguard, Liang Yan immediately recalled to base and, together with the revived Fu Lan Duo, defended the upper second tower, while Sima Laozei alone took the vanguard and destroyed EDG's lower second tower.

The commentators were a bit doubtful:

"I'm not quite seeing it—why did Jiao Shen place the vanguard in the bottom lane instead of mid?"

"I don't know; Jiao Shen's thoughts are always as elusive as an antelope's horns, hard to fathom."

I think maybe because putting it in mid might not necessarily push through, so it's better to pick the bottom lane where you can reliably push, to cash in first. After all, the Vanguard's Eye can only exist on the holder for 4 minutes; after that it disappears outright. Just now I saw the remaining time was only about two minutes, so later there might not be a better chance to place it. Also, if the Vanguard's Eye is never placed, it will keep occupying the accessory slot, preventing accessories from being used, which is also quite unpleasant for the Blind Monk.

I recall the teacher being very detail‑oriented; it's basically the two reasons you mentioned.

Around the sixteen‑minute mark, with only the middle tower still standing on all three lanes, the teams naturally began to center their play around mid‑lane offense and defense.

At 16:30, VG's mid, jungle, and support were crouched under the river wall; Xiao Duan's ult landed first on Zet, but Liang Yan's flash wasn't ready and he couldn't immediately use eye‑R flash to kick him back, while Zzitai's ult was also a bit late, causing a momentary lapse in control—Zet landed and Meiko threw a lantern that flew away.

In terms of fighting power, VG definitely has the edge now; Ma Ge's skate shoes are farming nicely, the two‑piece set is almost complete, but the problem is there's no mandatory fight right now—if EDG has decided to keep avoiding combat, VG really can't do anything about them.

No doubt, if we drag it into the late game, EDG, with Kassadin and a more solid composition, will definitely have the advantage over VG, which only has Orianna as a late‑game solo core.

The commentators said as much; even though this Kassadin came online just before sixteen minutes, theoretically it's not wrong, and it's at least a hope.

Besides, although VG didn't kill anyone this wave, they still picked up some advantages.

The second dragon was about to spawn; VG first took a favorable spot in the river, swept EDG's vision clean, and placed wards on all the key positions.

The second dragon is still a wind dragon; one wind dragon may not be much use, but if VG manages to snag two wind dragons in a row, even without the ancient dragon's damage bonus, the two wind dragons would give VG a noticeable boost—especially for the skate shoes and Orianna, which require high movement speed and rely on constant pulling to teamfight; the wind dragon's buff is actually very practical for them.

Meiko this time didn't say anything about just one wind dragon; he hurriedly called people over to stop VG from taking the dragon.

EDG's five members grouped up and began trying to push into the river.

At this point, Zzitai's Orianna finally came into play. Under the jungle's protection, Zzitai used the patch of grass in the middle of the river as his position, leveraging his long range to firmly block the slope choke point near blue side F6 that connects EDG's jungle and the lower river.

EDG had no other recourse but to try grouping up and force‑charging; however, both waves failed to scare VG off, instead causing the barrel and the lion dog to lose considerable health, and even when Ai Luoli unleashed her ult during the second charge, she still couldn't break into the river.

As EDG's shot‑caller, Meiko saw VG lodged in the river like a nail, unmoving, while his own front line could no longer sustain another force‑charge; so he changed plans, leading the team toward the small path behind the dragon pit, hoping to loop around via the wild area exit at the triangular grass in the bottom lane.

But this decision was really bone‑headed.

VG, via the ward behind the dragon pit, noticed that EDG's marksman, jungle, and the top‑mid duo had split up, and immediately went for the dragon.

At eighteen minutes, the dragon, with less than six thousand HP, had its health bar rapidly shredded under VG's five‑person focus. When Meiko finally led his party into the river from behind, a death‑rattling cry of the dragon echoed through the canyon.

Immediately afterward, VG's five members grouped up and, from the gap near the F6 camp, charged into EDG's jungle, pushing back the barrel and Kassadin; they then left two members to hold the position while the rest rushed straight to mid lane.

Meiko was left dumbfounded……