Chapter 85: He

After securing a kill on the top lane, Liang Yan returned home, then headed to the lower half, arriving just in time to prevent his Magic Swamp Frog from being eaten by Caitlyn, when a Smite snatched it away.

After clearing the Three Wolves, he returned to shield the duo lane, pushing the line out from below the second tower; the second blue buff had just respawned, and after taking it he exchanged a few words with Zven before heading to the upper half.

The duo lane was under considerable pressure, but with the first bottom tower down, that was actually advantageous; facing Olaf who had drawn first blood, FNC's duo dared not lane the enemy under the second tower, allowing G2 to let Zven's wheel mom farm freely in the bottom lane, thereby freeing Mithy's Bard to pressure FNC mid laner Febiven's Shah.

However, Shah's flash is back up and he's already level 6, while Bard lacks reliable hard crowd control, making him not so easy to catch and kill.

The situation then stabilized for a period, during which Liang Yan was occupied with clearing the jungle and refrained from further action.

The commentators then discussed Liang Yan's Olaf item build.

I don't know if you two have noticed, but Firrrrrre's item build seems different from others'; he seems to especially like getting tier-two boots early.

Yes, I've noticed too; as long as he has 1000 gold on his first return to base, he almost always buys tier-two boots outright.

That's right; in this match he likewise opted for cooldown boots on his first return, spending any leftover gold on other small items.

Cooldown reduction and movement speed are Olaf's most important stats; you might pick up this approach in ranked, but as Firrrrrre has said in several interviews, we should still develop our own game understanding.

That's right, he's genuinely teaching fans how to play... speaking of which, have you watched his stream?

Of course! To be frank, I've subscribed to his stream; he shares his jungle tactics in great detail and rigor with viewers, and learning from such a top-tier jungler offers incredible value!

The director reminded them over the comms that the commentators couldn't advertise players' streams on air, so they quickly changed the subject.

But the advertising effect has already taken hold; it's foreseeable that when Liang Yan goes live again, his stream's subscriber count will surely see another surge.

Alright, let's get back to the point.

At the 8‑minute mark, despite only a single kill having occurred, a 1000‑gold economic gap has opened between the teams, mainly from the 600‑gold first‑blood bounty, with the rest largely stemming from the difference in jungle clear counts, as G2's bottom lane has been heavily pressured in last hits while their mid and top leads roughly compensate for the bottom lane's shortfall.

In other words, the jungler's lane advantage amounts to roughly 800 gold.

That's right, and looking at the items makes the gap even more frightening.

What? A tier‑1 jungle knife plus grass shoes versus six‑god items?! Oh my god!

Although Rekkles must be sitting on a lot of gold, given that Spirit hasn't recalled in a while, the effect is still frightening.

The so‑called six‑god set actually consists only of a pair of Ionian Boots of Lucidity as the core piece, the rest being separate items, which also include a Hunter's Potion (an upgraded version of the Reusable Potion) and a Control Ward.

Olaf's jungle clearing is quite mana‑hungry, so Liang Yan spent over 200 gold on his last recall to upgrade the starting Reusable Potion into a Hunter's Potion; although costly, it provides five charges that restore health and mana, killing a large monster replenishes one charge (e. g., the big wolf from Three Wolves or the big bird from F4), and it automatically refills on each recall, making it extremely cost‑effective for a mana‑starved jungler.

After clearing the upper jungle, Liang Yan didn't recall right away but instead headed again toward the lower half.

G2's vision from their last ward sweep has been completely cleared by the enemy, leaving the entire lower half pitch‑black, and once again Caitlyn and Jinx have pushed the lane up to the second tower.

Obviously Rekkles is nearby.

Moreover, the vicinity of the second bottom tower and the river are likely warded by the enemy.

However, given that early on nobody can afford wards, FNC couldn't possibly have perfect vision; Shah had no Control Ward when he last left lane, and the last time he disappeared from lane he went upward, reappearing from the left‑side path of the blue side mid lane, so his trinket ward is likely placed in some bush of the upper river; on the bottom lane, Caitlyn and Jinx together have at most two real wards among three fake ones, with Jinx's fake ward already placed in the red side's bottom‑tower bush and removed, leaving four wards: one must be at the river mouth, leaving three, one of which must be in the Triangular Grass, one at the Five‑Way Intersection… where is the last one? Either before the Dragon Pit or in the bush behind the Three Wolves—a 50 % chance; even if spotted on the right side of mid lane, the enemy might not expect him to loop around to the bottom lane.

While on the way, having sorted his thoughts, Liang Yan entered the lower jungle through a gap near the mid second tower, then followed the jungle path toward the river, while communicating with his teammates over the mic:

I'm about to gank bottom, Lao Zhang—push the lane fast; later I'll give you vision.

No problem!

Lu Ka, you don't need to do anything; just lane normally, don't let the enemy see anything.

OK!

Bottom lane should just farm normally, don't push out; watch my position and I'll envelop them.

Alright!

As he spoke, Liang Yan cut across the river into the enemy's lower jungle, then approached from the path behind the dragon.

From the god's‑eye view, the audience—including the three commentators on stage—originally thought Liang Yan was going to invade the enemy jungle, but when they saw he didn't even glance at F4 and instead ran straight from behind the dragon pit to the bottom lane, they realized something was off.

Firrrrrre is looping! He's made a huge circle!

I have a feeling a big wave is coming! He's like having full‑map radar, dodging all of FNC's wards! Jeez! He's here! This is a meticulously planned encirclement! FNC has no clue! Spirit is still eating Firrrrrre's toad.

There's a ward at the river mouth! He's finally been spotted! But the encirclement is already set!

Liang Yan had made a big loop, finally exiting from the blue side's bottom‑lane Triangular Grass into the river, then over the wall he placed a false ward into his own jungle high ground.

The moment the ward went in, a spinning red light appeared.

After placing the ward, Liang Yan ignored the true ward in the river bushes, sprinted off, hugging the wall and dashed toward the bottom lane.

Encirclement bottom lane diagram

Island has come down! G2's duo simultaneously rushed out from under the tower! Spirit hid in the grass and bumped into a big tree, only slightly delaying but unable to break through G2's encirclement! Because Firrrrrre had already come around from behind to envelop them!

A chaotic battle is about to erupt.

At this point, if the FNC duo were decisive, they could immediately flash‑wall over from the blue buff side and perhaps still expect some help from Shah.

But Rekkles made a different choice.