Chapter 860

TSM's one-wave surprise attack had no effect; the Xia Gu Xian Feng almost gave away for free, everyone felt a bit embarrassed, and the team voice channel fell into a brief silence.

Doublelift spoke up to ease the mood: 'It's fine, the advantage is ours; we just need to take it slow. Let's get the snowball rolling first.'

Then Svenskeren continued to invade; sometimes he could counter one or two groups of jungle monsters, sometimes as soon as he entered the jungle, the two laners corresponding to that jungle area on CNB's side would start moving, obviously having been spotted by wards, so Svenskeren had to retreat.

After several rounds of back-and-forth that took considerable time, a few minutes later Svenskeren pressed TAB to check his equipment and found he didn't have much of an equipment advantage.

He suddenly felt a bit lost.

After busily fighting for three or four minutes, they only managed to open a slight gap.

How could this happen?

Looking at the other two lanes, the situation was similar. The gap between the AD carries had even shrunk a bit, obviously because in CNB's earlier lane swaps and tug-of-war, Tristana got better farm, while TSM possibly missed some details during the lane swaps, causing Doublelift to lose some farm, thus narrowing the gap.

Although Bjergsen firmly controlled mid lane, the gap couldn't be widened, because at level six Corki's long-range wave clear is too strong; often after Bjergsen pushes the wave and tries to step up to poke the tower, Corki's long-range abilities hit, wiping out the minions before they even enter the tower's attack range.

It's also because of Corki's strong wave clear that CNB's middle tower, which the Xia Gu Xian Feng had collided with earlier, remains standing.

The game time quietly reached twenty minutes.

During these few minutes both sides made several more exchanges, but neither turret kills nor kill count opened a significant gap.

The TSM players inevitably grew a bit anxious.

Although their lineup had a late-game big core Ezreal and a Lulu, compared to CNB's Corki+Tristana late-game double core, TSM's lineup had no advantage in the late game and was actually at a clear disadvantage.

Moreover, TSM only had one frontliner, a rather average-farmed Maokai; by the late game, if TSM wanted to initiate a teamfight they would have only long-range ultimates as an option, otherwise Maokai would likely be turned into a squishy by the auto‑attack range‑extended Tristana and Corki missiles before he even reached the enemy.

In other words, TSM faces pressure to attack.

Adding it up, the team estimated they had roughly a two‑thousand‑gold overall advantage, and Ezreal's combat power was still at its peak, giving them a clear edge in team fights.

The problem was how to force CNB into a team fight.

The second drake had spawned, but its value was too low for CNB to risk an all‑out fight with TSM over just one drake.

"Let's see if Gragas will come contest the dragon." Bjergsen suggested, "We can give up the small dragon, lure him in and kill him, then go for Baron."

Thus four TSM members grouped up in mid lane.

CNB likewise grouped four members to defend.

To increase the chance of Gragas coming to contest the dragon, Svenskeren used Smite on a siege minion in front of the CNB players.

The attempt to finish off the siege minion with an anti‑air gun exploded uselessly, and Doublelift complained, "Hey, what are you doing?"

Svenskeren explained, and Doublelift reluctantly accepted.

After clearing the mid lane minion wave, the four TSM members swarmed toward the dragon pit, and the Maokai who had been solo‑defending against Renekton in bottom lane also dropped his wave and rushed over.

All five TSM members grouped up to take the drake.

A dragon with several thousand HP at this point is no different from a big siege minion; under five-man focus fire it would die quickly, so CNB didn't dare to push mid, fearing a flank.

However, Vash's jungler barrel indeed appeared, and it seemed he really wanted to steal the dragon, loitering in the river outside the dragon pit, looking eager to act.

TSM felt anticipation rise, and jungler Svenskeren couldn't help shouting into the mic: 'Come over here! I don't have Smite!'

He wished he could rush over to CNB's player seats, snatch Vash's keyboard, and press Flash for him.

However, Vash ultimately didn't go up.

The barrel's silhouette vanished into the edge of the fog.

TSM took down the dragon in under ten seconds, yet they weren't happy at all.

The team voice channel fell silent again.

Support Biofrost suddenly asked: 'Liang, how much more do you need for Hurricane?'

The one being asked was Doublelift, whose name is Peng Yiliang.

'Over two hundred.' Doublelift glanced at his own gold, calculated the result, and answered the support.

'Jungler, let him have your F6.' Biofrost clicked his F6.

Svenskeren was confused: 'Huh?'

But Bjergsen instantly understood: 'Okay, clear this wave in Zhong Lu, then we all go back, and later we'll force a fight over the elder dragon.'

If you don't hook the dragon, I'm damned if I'm going to let you take the elder dragon!

TSM's team then discussed the details, and within a few seconds they each looked for an opportunity to recall.

Doublelift's Ezreal pulled out his second completed item upon returning to base—Hurricane.

TSM headed out again, dealt with the three lanes, and the five of them suddenly ran toward the elder dragon pit.

The big tree must come, as he is the sole frontline; if we truly want to fight the elder dragon, we need him to soak its damage, and if we want to teamfight, the big tree also must secure his position beforehand.

TSM's intention was extremely obvious; this was a clear giveaway.

CNB's team quickly rushed forward, with the fully tanky barrel leading, the five maintaining reasonable positioning, one side placing wards while the other cautiously pushed into the river.

After advancing to about a thousand yards from the elder dragon pit, they indeed saw TSM's Ezreal and Lulu standing at the pit's mouth, dealing damage.

The big tree and enchantress didn't know where they were.

'Be careful.' Support Wos clicked on the portraits of the big tree and enchantress that weren't in vision, alerting his teammates.

Just as his words fell, a huge torrent of tree roots rolled out from the blue team's Ye Qu, and at the same moment the big tree's silhouette appeared in the ward Wos had placed less than two seconds ago, located at the jungle choke point formed by the blue side's mid lane tower left wall and the blue buff camp wall; this spot happened to be the flank of CNB's formation, the vital point of a snake.

At the same time, the remaining three members of TSM, who were feigning an elder dragon attack while slacking off, also rushed forward.

Bjergsen's enchantress was still nowhere to be seen.

Wos's face changed dramatically, he frantically pinged his own jungle: 'Spread out spread out spread out!'

Trickster led the way with a rocket jump toward the riverbank slope, and CNB's five quickly fled toward their own jungle, but two legs ultimately couldn't outrun the magically driven tree roots; the rearguard barrel and crocodile were soon caught by the roots.

Vash gritted his teeth: 'I'm selling!'

'I'm selling! Jungler can't die!' the top laner LEP's voice rang out simultaneously in the team chat; the situation was urgent, with no time to discuss further, LEP controlled his crocodile, bringing a decisive, grim aura, and charged straight into the vast torrent of tree roots.

CNB's other members couldn't bear to just sell LEP off, so they fell back, keeping a safe distance to shield him, striving to try and rescue their teammate.

Although the intention behind this move was good, it nevertheless showed a lack of firm execution discipline, and the cost was……

Haunted's big tree saw the CNB group turn back, overjoyed, it rushed past the crocodile, flashed over to Xiao Pao and bound him.

Bjergsen the enchantress, who had been hiding in the mist behind Da Long Keng, flashed and stepped up; if it weren't for Wos's quick heal, Xiao Pao would already be dead after that combo.