Chapter 859: A Different Wildcard Team

Although G2's duo is a champion duo, their laning strength is indeed not very outstanding; even in Europe, when they get a countered duo combination, they will face enormous laning pressure, and if the enemy jungler also targets them, G2's duo will also have explosive development, so G2 also needs to use some tactics to safeguard the bottom lane.

G2 had this tactic even when Liang Yan was still with G2; back then Liang Yan was the team's shot-caller and didn't need to deliberately devise a tactic plan, because Liang Yan always shot-called on the fly; when the duo faced a collapse risk, he would naturally take charge, creating development space for the duo by actively swapping lanes.

After Liang Yan left, G2's shot-calling deteriorated, so Tang Anna compiled many of the good things he had left behind into a book, added the USB drive Liang Yan gave her, and eventually put together a fairly complete operational framework, which includes the things mentioned above.

However, using this tactic is not without cost.

Last year, using lane swaps to create space for development was naturally fine; if they continue doing it this way this year, they'll have to make trade-offs.

Because this year the river has an additional Rift Herald.

As expected, when CNB swapped lanes for the second time, TSM didn't follow suit; instead, they took advantage of the duo being in the top lane and directly opened the Rift Herald.

At this point, Svenskeren's Ezreal had already completed a third-tier jungle knife and even had an extra small wooden hammer, making his combat power very fierce.

Mid lane development also has a gap.

TSM has one extra player in the top half of the map.

Therefore, although CNB's crocodile is equally fierce at this moment, CNB's overall combat strength in the top half still has a clear gap compared to TSM.

CNB dared not engage in a team fight, so they could only give up the Rift Herald and, as a consolation, took a small dragon.

TSM successfully secured the Rift Herald, allowing the AD big mouth to continue returning to the top lane to develop, while the jungle support grouped up and headed straight for mid lane. At the same time, Hauntzer's big tree also rushed up from the bottom lane.

Miller exclaimed in surprise: "Is TSM trying to catch CNB off guard by directly releasing the Rift Herald and grouping up to push mid?!"

As expected, TSM's top, mid, and jungle support four players grouped in mid lane, quickly clearing the minion wave, and immediately Svenskeren directly crushed the Herald's Eye, summoning the Rift Herald from the void.

If this tactic were used against an ordinary wildcard team, even a strong wildcard team like GAM would likely succeed greatly. By then, the red side's middle turret would fall, the side turrets on both lanes would be in jeopardy, both jungle areas would lose the protection of the middle turret, and the already disadvantaged jungle confrontation could only be left to Svenskeren's Ezreal to exploit at will.

TSM played a very good hand.

However, the team TSM faces today is not an ordinary wildcard team.

Usually, wildcard teams have two characteristics: first, the team will have at least two, or even more, relatively outstanding players whose individual strength is very strong, even able to rival top-tier players from the LPL or LCK; this is precisely why they can stand out from so many wildcard teams and reach the world stage. The second characteristic is a drawback: wildcard teams usually have major shortcomings in operations and communication.

GAM is a typical wildcard team. GAM doesn't even have two standout players; it has only one—a team whose absolute core is the jungler Levi.

The reason GAM can sweep the Southeast Asia region is, without exaggeration, solely due to jungler Levi; therefore, some say online that GAM is actually a little VG, just because Levi is not as strong as Firrrrrre, making it a low-end version.

But CNB is different from GAM.

CNB has no player with exceptionally outstanding individual ability; if you isolate each of CNB's five players, every one is quite mediocre. According to Tabe's evaluation, these five players are roughly at the level of an LSPL player—of course, on average. Although LSPL teams that went to the Brazil region might not necessarily secure a world championship spot, CNB not only broke out of the Brazil region but also advanced to the group stage, and yesterday even won their first match.

So many people can't understand CNB; clearly each of their players looks weak, yet how could they make it into the group stage? Even the people from GAM, CNB's opponent yesterday, can't understand how CNB could beat them.

Naturally, it's thanks to team strength.

Operations and communication are what this CNB team excels at.

One minute ago, CNB again adjusted their duo back to the bottom lane; at that moment, TSM began secretly plotting a plan to take the Rift Herald and push mid. After a brief discussion, they had top laner Hauntzer retreat, pretending not to dare to farm in front of CNB's duo, but actually rushing from the jungle to mid lane.

CNB indeed didn't know that the big tree was heading to mid lane, but they have a good habit.

First, support Wos, after going online, first checked the brush, found no big tree, so continued forward to check, confirmed the big tree wasn't under the turret either, and then shared this information with teammates.

At this moment, jungler Vash noticed Svenskeren taking down the Baron pit eye, realized the enemy was going for the Herald, and asked: "Has the big tree gone home?"

Wos truthfully replied that he didn't know, but was certain it wasn't in the bottom lane.

Vash then had Wos come over to help kill the small dragon, and had marksman pbO come over after finishing clearing the lane.

Seeing this, top laner LEP did not take advantage of the moment when TSM's duo went to help with the Herald to greedily farm the minion wave; instead, he strictly adhered to discipline and directly pushed up to in front of the second turret.

But just standing in front of the second turret wasn't doing anything, so LEP entered the jungle, looping around to mid lane, thinking absentmindedly that staying in top lane wouldn't accomplish anything anyway, and if the enemy wanted to do something in mid lane, he could come over to help.

With both top and bottom lanes safe and sound, after Vash finished killing the small dragon, he naturally also came to mid lane.

Support Wos, who had nothing to do temporarily in the bottom lane, also followed along.

When they reached the halfway point, the four TSM players appeared in mid lane, grouped up and pushed the lane.

Then, something happened that shocked TSM.

When they rushed the Rift Herald to the middle turret of GAM, the crocodile and the plane were already standing beside the defense turret, and the silhouettes of the barrel and the gem also appeared from the small path to the right of the middle turret.

CNB indeed couldn't have guessed that TSM would surprise-attack mid lane, but their operational awareness and good habit let them blunder into it.

Svenskeren then hesitated: "Should we still push?"

Bjergsen said: "Give it a try."

The Rift Herald began to charge up.

The barrel suddenly used its E ability to throw its ultimate at the crowded TSM group.

With a loud Boom, the four TSM players either dodged or got blown apart, scattering like birds and beasts.

The Rift Herald slammed forward with one head, and CNB's remaining three players took the opportunity to swarm forward, quickly finishing off the Herald after it had already taken a hit and was low on health.

The onlookers cheered.

Su Xiao Yan exclaimed delightedly: "CNB's defense on this play was excellent; TSM's Rift Herald was essentially obtained for nothing!"

Wawa thought about it, but ultimately lacking the skill to elaborate, could only say: "CNB played with quite a bit of method!"