Chapter 673: You said the same thing last game

The course of the match over the next twenty-plus minutes matched Liang Yan's prediction exactly.

WE remained at a major disadvantage, only able to defend passively.

The match gradually became somewhat suffocating.

However, WE also had great resilience, and because JT's play was not rigorous, they occasionally let WE snatch some advantages, narrowing the gap, so the match never lost its suspense, and WE still held hope for a comeback.

Then an accident occurred.

Seeing they couldn't take down WE for a long time, JT grew a bit anxious; at around thirty minutes they began gathering in the upper river lane, hoping to force a teamfight with Baron.

The five members of WE came forward to meet the challenge.

After a chaotic skirmish, WE lost the teamfight three-for-two, leaving only two survivors with extremely low health.

Yet JT's surviving Prince, Spider, and Lu Xi An were in excellent condition; the Prince had decent durability and could grant attack speed to the AD, so without hesitation JT's three went on to take Baron.

WE's two members didn't retreat; Condi's Wine Barrel hid behind the Baron pit, while Xi Ye's Fox Spirit stayed in the river, timing a step forward to grant vision, almost getting killed but ultimately spotting Baron's health.

A few seconds later, Condi blindly launched a body slam from the fog of war, eyes closed, and cast Smite.

"We got it!!!"

"Condi is like Jiao Shen possessed! Blindly striking from the fog of war actually snatched Baron!!!"

"Condi! My god!!!"

When the teamfight ended, Condi's health was only one-third, but his Wine Barrel had self-heal; while JT was busy taking Baron, he recovered a lot, and by the time he returned the Wine Barrel's health was back up to about two-thirds.

Baron was stolen, JT panicked, then grew angry and swarmed in to attack the immobile Wine Barrel.

Condi served as a worthy punching bag, drawing all the fire.

Xi Ye's low-health Fox Spirit flashed in and landed a double-tap, instantly bursting the Spider; after widening distance with the second W, she followed up with a Q-E-A, and Lu Xi An also fell.

On the LPL commentary desk, Miller outright called Xi Ye WE's savior.

Meanwhile, backstage in the LPL lounge, everyone erupted, jumping up to shout that Xi Ye was too fierce; even the composed Homme leapt up, face flushed, waving his fists.

Of course, the Prince ultimately didn't escape either, trading kills with Condi.

What's even more exciting is that, because JT's three were slow at taking Baron, when Condi secured it, two of WE's three fallen members had already respawned.

Thus, WE sounded the horn of counteroffensive.

With only about a five-thousand gold deficit, WE pushed forward with Baron buff and directly erased their early disadvantage, also destroying JT's bottom lane high ground.

WE's lineup had a late-game edge, while JT's early-game advantage vanished completely, and morale plummeted to rock bottom.

The LMS commentators' voices were full of bitterness:

"It feels like we can only hope for a miracle......"

"Ah, you said the same thing last game."

"Um......"

In the LPL lounge, everyone's mood relaxed. Having reached this point, unless WE threw caution to the wind, suffered a crushing teamfight loss while behind in lane, and then got wiped in one push, it would be hard for them to lose; and since this WE squad is led by Homme, discipline is assured, making it nearly impossible for them to go on a tilt when ahead, so this game is essentially already won.

Garbage time, everyone started chatting.

"Damn so-called world-class jungler, all hype—my ass, I shut him down hard when we were behind." Discussing the previous match against Flash Wolves, Malaxiangguo's evaluation of Flash Wolves jungler Karsa was utterly unsparing.

The other RNG players chimed in with praise, only the not-yet-integrated Koro1 sat silently in the corner.

After being benched for three full seasons (one and a half years), Koro1 finally left EDG and found a new team after the spring split, but nobody expected his next move would be to EDG's arch-rival RNG……

However, despite escaping the doldrums, the year-and-a-half hiatus still dealt Koro1 a massive blow—a pro player absent from the stage that long cannot return to this high-intensity arena at peak form; recovery and adaptation are definitely needed.

Yet, because RNG lacked Uzi due to hand injury, their strength had already plummeted, and since it was summer split, they needed to max out their power to chase points for an S7 slot, with no time to let Koro1 slowly adapt, so they could only bring in the current top laner Letme.

Thus, Koro1's two months with RNG, compared to his time at EDG, actually saw little improvement; one could even say it was eerily similar……

For this Intercontinental Tournament outing, RNG did bring Koro1 along, but he was just a makeup player—he has yet to actually appear on stage in the Intercontinental Tournament.

In this team lounge, Koro1 also looked like an outsider; while everyone chatted animatedly, he sat alone in the corner picking his nails, occasionally glancing up to smile along with the mood, yet nobody spoke to him, making him appear forlorn and awkward.

Liang Yan also didn't speak much, only occasionally responding to teammates' teasing; otherwise he just smiled while watching others' chatter. Of course, he also noticed Koro1 in the corner.

Regarding Koro1's career trajectory, Liang Yan knew it; he once rather liked this player, knowing he later teamed up with Avoidless and Sask to play in the LSPL—the latter being the one who later said in WE 'just go and collapse,' interestingly his nickname also matches Liang Yan's, also called Jiao Shen.

However, Koro1 and those two teammates, even in the secondary league, couldn't control lightning; that season their team didn't even make playoffs. Afterward, Koro1 vanished from public view.

In short, Koro1 is a player with talent who once shone, but his fall from peak to trough was swift, and he carries a touch of tragic color.

This reminded Liang Yan of his good brother Lao Zhang, inevitably stirring his feelings.

On screen, WE broke another of JT's top lane turrets, then retreated steadily; after regrouping they headed out again, gathering in the upper river lane to prepare for a second Baron.

JT knew that dragging things out would only worsen their lineup disadvantage, so they chose to go all-in, engaging WE in the river lane; predictably they were crushed, after which WE marched straight toward JT's base.