Chapter 858: With such talent, you wouldn't be stuck in the wildcard region

CNB also never expected Svenskeren's pace to be this fast, not even taking the blue buff, actually making such a risky choice.

When Svenskeren jumped out from behind, the completely unprepared CNB mid laner Tinowns was instantly shocked.

Seeing Bjergsen's enchantress also step up, Tinowns could only use flash to escape.

Even so, he was still chased and shot all the way by Svenskeren thanks to the red buff's slow effect; when he returned under the tower, his health had dropped to less than one-third.

Tinowns hid under the tower and took potions to heal.

Svenskeren stood outside the tower, waited for his cooldown, then fired a Q, which missed, and arrogantly displayed a team emblem before leaving.

"Wow, still messing with people's minds."

"So arrogant, relying on power to bully others!"

"One should say it's relying on champion strength to bully people..."

"Pretty much the same!"

Then the LPL commentary desk fell silent for two seconds.

Miller sank into a frown: "This EZ is a bit ruthless; he really learned it."

Wawa sighed: "Just five minutes ago we caught two waves, and both yielded gains!"

Backstage, CNB's head coach unconsciously bit his nails, his face full of gravity.

The power of jungle EZ, he had already witnessed it on VG and G2, but he never expected TSM to play it this well.

Now it's troublesome……

CNB's trouble lies in that if they lose today's match to TSM, unless they burst forth the day after or in the second round and win a game against LZ, otherwise even if they beat TSM in a later encounter, they would still have to go to a playoff against TSM for a qualification spot.

But that's unlikely; everyone knows how strong the LCK's first seed is.

In Group B, first place is definitely LZ's; the other three teams can only vie for second.

Even CNB might not necessarily make it to the playoffs, for although they beat GAM once, they lack confidence of steadily beating GAM in the second round; only by winning today's match will they be more stable, with pressure greatly reduced……

The good news is, although the CNB players on stage are nervous, they are not panicking.

"Taking advantage of Svenskeren causing trouble in mid lane, the barrel invaded TSM's jungle and stole a blue buff, which counts as timely damage control."

"Huh? But after stealing the blue buff, the barrel didn't leave! He placed a ward through the wall—what is he trying to do? EZ's condition is still relatively healthy, not easy to kill."

"The crocodile taunted!"

LEP, having returned home to replenish equipment, directly cast teleport onto an allied ward previously placed by Tinowns in the river.

Meanwhile, Vash's barrel lay silently in the jungle camp where the blue buff had been taken, watching the entire area illuminated by a false ward behind the wall.

"Svenskeren indeed didn't recall, coming over from the side path, seemingly intending to come again and clear a pack of three wolves!"

"The crocodile charged straight this way; there was no TSM vision in the river, and nobody noticed the crocodile's teleport!"

"Got it! The barrel's Q followed by a body slam knocked Svenskeren airborne through the wall! The crocodile landed perfectly, then used E, flash, and a bite in succession! Although he had no fury, after all he's a level‑4 big crocodile that just returned home after buying gear!"

"Dead! Their combined burst directly executed Svenskeren!"

"Now it's fine, the rhythm has been completely cut off!"

"How does that saying go? The heavens' way is a good cycle; the team emblem was lit too early!"

"Moreover, the crucial kill was taken by the crocodile!"

"That's indeed very crucial hahaha~"

Vash didn't greedily take the two remaining monster groups in the enemy jungle, because if he wanted to keep counter‑jungling, LEP's crocodile would have to follow; otherwise Vash would be caught and killed by TSM's mid‑jungle duo.

Therefore Vash directly pressed recall; the only remaining monster group in his jungle was a Stone Armor Beetle, and the route from here was too far—better to go home, change equipment, and come out again to collect.

LEP's crocodile naturally returned to lane; although he lost a flash this wave, he still has double E dashes, so as long as he plays cautiously, even with the big tree and EZ it's hard to catch him. Moreover, after just three or four more minion waves he will reach level six.

However, Svenskeren didn't abandon early‑game play after this death; upon respawning he first cleared two monster groups, then, as the crocodile went offline, the big tree sneaked in and placed a ward near the red side Stone Armor Beetle camp, confirming that CNB's jungle barrel was in the upper half; he thus repeated the trick, coming again to the bottom lane.

This time CNB's duo ran fast and wasn't caught by Svenskeren.

Vash hurried over; otherwise the duo would lose a big wave of minions.

Svenskeren then again slipped from the jungle into mid lane, just catching Tinowns coming out to place a ward after clearing his lane, and secured a second kill.

"Still, his awareness was a bit off—the enchantresses all leaned this way, clearly a problem." Tabe sighed, looking at Tinowns's fallen aircraft on the screen.

"He probably thought the enchantress was just coming to harass, and since he was holding W, he indeed wasn't that easy to kill." Zhu Xiaolong spoke up for Tinowns.

"Then he still underestimated the damage of jungle EZ."

Zhu Xiaolong smiled, then turned to glance at his own few players and said: "There's no helping it; if he could think that thoroughly, he wouldn't be in CNB."

The meaning of that remark is, a mid laner of this caliber would have already gone to the Europe‑America region to make money; who would still be wasting time in the wildcard region with weaklings? In this year's Worlds, among the nearly hundred players, there are several living examples, the most typical being FNC's new mid laner, Caps.

Caps, this year's rookie mid laner who just debuted in the European league, is praised by European fans as second only to Perkz among European mid laners, earning the nickname 'Emperor of Hats'.

But Caps is not purely a newcomer; FNC recruited him precisely because he made a name for himself last year in the Turkish region.

And Caps indeed has outstanding talent; take yesterday's and today's two matches—although FNC lost both games, Caps even had an edge in lane against RNG's Xiaohu, and when laning against SKT's Faker he was overly eager to secure a solo kill achievement, fell ill, and was counter‑killed by the experienced Faker, causing his lane to collapse; had that not happened, Caps would likely have stabilized his lane, which suffices to prove his ability. However, FNC's overall strength is indeed far too lacking, leaving Caps unable to carry the team alone.

Moreover, at this time Caps also has some obvious bad habits, such as loving to show off his mechanics and being very wasteful.

……

The match time moved forward.

Having secured two kills, Svenskeren revived, relying on EZ's flexible skills and long range advantage, wildly invading CNB's jungle.

Vash is a tanky barrel; there's not much one can do against him, so the best is to maintain vision while seizing gaps to clear his own jungle, his development can still be held steady.

TSM's mid‑jungle advantage is clear, and the initiative on the field inevitably falls into TSM's hands.

Svenskeren frequently harassed the bottom lane; pbO's small cannon and Wos's gem were lagging in development, so CNB, to ensure the cores of both lineups grew, could only actively swap lanes, sending the duo to the top lane to farm; when TSM also swapped their duo up, CNB swapped again, moving the duo back to bottom lane, thereby creating development space through this tug‑of‑war.

Speaking of which, this tactic of CNB's was also learned from G2.