Chapter 713: Could it be for G2?

Readers with foresight all know that this Ezreal is actually a jungler, but the players and audience in the 2017 regular season didn't know that.

Because, EZ jungle actually only started appearing in Han Fu ranked play after the 7.15 patch buffed Ezreal, and then after receiving another buff in the 7.17 patch, EZ jungle became widely known.

Historically, this strategy first appeared on the professional stage at the LPL World Championship qualifiers in early September, in the match between WE and IG, where Condi first unveiled this bizarre jungle pick (and lost the game).

And now, although the foreign servers have already been updated to version 8.15, the high-ranked Han Fu player who developed EZ jungle still hasn't had a flash of brilliance.

How could people possibly think of a strategy that hasn't even appeared in ranked play?

The LPL server version has only been updated to 7.14, yet it has appeared on the stage three patches ahead—truly a futuristic high-tech stunt!

Of course, Liang Yan wanting to play EZ jungle may be a spur-of-the-moment choice, but it's not an impulsive move to reveal his trump card; rather, it's the result of deep consideration, mainly because EZ jungle actually can't serve as a trump card—once that patch arrives, even if he doesn't play it, someone else will, and the environment Liang Yan now faces is such that whenever a strong new jungle strategy emerges, all teams will assume Liang Yan will play it, given the many lessons he's learned the hard way. So, there's no way to hide it.

In that case, it might as well be brought out early for some fun.

By the way, pretend to be a scientist, huh.

As for how to play this version without the buff, honestly, if you just know how the strategy works, those minor stat changes don't matter to Liang Yan—you can make up for it with skill. Moreover, since no one has seen this strategy yet and doesn't know where its strength lies, there's no preparation against it, which is the biggest advantage.

In short, it's about using skill to compensate for stats and exploiting information gaps to gain an advantage!

Of course, Liang Yan never expected that his spur-of-the-moment choice would provoke such a huge reaction from the top teams of all major regions worldwide.

The lineups for both sides in this game are as follows:

VG, blue side

bans: Spider, Plane, Enchantress; Hammer Stone, Karma

top lane: Flandre, Big Tree

jungle: Firrrrrre, Ezreal

mid lane: Zzitai, Enchantress

bottom lane: Kryst4l, Varus

support: Caveman, Alistar

coach: Loong

IG, red side

bans: Galio, Zac, Caitlyn; Rek'Sai, Mang Seng

top lane: Theshy, Jax

jungle: Ning, Kai'Sa

mid lane: Rookie, Orianna

bottom lane: West, Xayah

support: Baolan, Leona

coach: Mafa

LCK, Europe, LMS, North America… everyone watching this match was frightened by the lineup VG selected for this game.

Even the G2 Zhong Ren, who already knew exactly how talented Liang Yan is at pulling off stunts, were shocked by this EZ jungle pick—charred on the outside, tender inside.

Jankos turned to his assistant coach in shock and asked, "Lao Zhang, have you ever seen this jungle thing?"

Lao Zhang asked Tang Anna, who was sitting nearby, "Have you seen it?"

Tang Anna likewise widened her eyes slightly, staring in surprise at the Ezreal icon on the screen that had already been swapped to the blue side's second pick and locked; she shook her head slightly: "I haven't seen it, and he's never mentioned it to me."

In the 7.15 patch, Ezreal received a buff, with the cooldown of his Q ability reduced at all ranks—by 1 second at level one and 0.75 seconds at level two…

The 7.15 patch is really too new—even the European servers haven't implemented it yet—but under the influence of the good traditions Liang Yan left for this team, both of G2's coaches and many players have already read the latest patch notes, so they naturally understand the major champion stat changes.

In today's meta where attack-speed AD carries dominate the Xia Lu, Ezreal has fallen to trash-tier status; when he saw the buff notice for Ezreal, even Tang Anna didn't think of bringing it to the stage, because the current meta guarantees Ezreal won't see play, and Ezreal's ban rate across all major regions is in the single digits, so Tang Anna only felt the designer gave the big buff just to placate angry Ezreal players in ranked.

As a result, today Liang Yan gave her a big surprise… or rather, a fright.

What the heck is he thinking?

This patch hasn't even been buffed at all!

Tang Anna could certainly guess that Liang Yan was doing this for the information advantage, but she couldn't figure out why he'd pull it out now.

No… wait, could he be reminding G2 to practice EZ jungle?

Tang Anna fell into deep thought.

……

On site.

"Come on! Let's have a VG science game! Ezreal jungle plus a solo Big Tree! This is the first time EZ jungle and the reworked Big Tree have appeared on the LPL stage! Let's look forward to seeing what exciting moments this match will bring!"

Wawa's booming voice echoed through the arena, the crowd's cheers gradually faded, leaving only a few diehard fans from both sides still shouting back and forth.

Summoner's Rift appeared on the big screen, and the battle officially commenced.

VG has Big Tree, Alistar, plus three long-range champions, while IG's Kai'Sa at level one is basically a five—if they fight a level-one team fight they're effectively down a player, so the opening naturally gives VG a big advantage. But Liang Yan didn't have everyone group together; instead, using reverse thinking, he guessed IG knew they couldn't win a level-one team fight so they wouldn't group to defend, and he used that to slip in alone.

"Jiao Shen dares to walk into IG's Ye Qu alone to place wards—what guts!"

"But IG really only has one person defending there, and after he Q's them they just back off and give up the position!"

Because Ezreal's range is excessive and Ning, after landing his Q, withdrew too decisively, IG actually didn't know whether anyone was behind Ezreal. But they assumed someone was there, judged that VG's main force was in the Shang Ban Qu, so Rookie and the Xia Lu duo grouped up, intending to invade VG's Xia Lu to place wards, but before they even showed up they got hit by a Varus arrow…

It's obvious there's vision in the river.

The three IG players still tried to push forward, driving away Gangzi's Varus to keep warding, but as soon as they went up the slope they heard a clanging sound—Xiao Duan, the cow, was standing on the ridge hitting a pot!

"Hahahaha…"