Chapter 866

Zhu Mei crouched in the grass for nearly forty seconds, successfully counter-ganking MSF's jungler.

Then she took the kill, giving Yao Ji only an assist.

The VG fans in the venue cheered loudly.

Miller, however, still frowned: "Jiao Shen seemed to help mid lane regain a round, but the problem is Feiji didn't die, and his posture didn't get a kill either... this..."

Wang Duo Duo nodded: "The key is, to catch this wave, Jiao Shen camped mid lane for nearly half a minute, wasting too much time."

"Emm... do you guys feel this playstyle is a bit weird?" Wawa rested her chin, thoughtful: "It doesn't seem like Jiao Shen's usual style."

Miller immediately nodded: "Exactly. Before, whether Jiao Shen was counter-ganking or initiating Ganks, unless it was late game, his early and mid-game moves were always swift and decisive, never wasting too much time in one spot, but today he..."

"Maybe he's just being more cautious." Wawa started smoothing things over: "After all, it's Worlds—our strength is enough, playing safe won't hurt."

"That makes sense, after all, yesterday EDG and RNG both crashed, VG learned from it and is playing steady to win, understandable..."

After this wave, Maxlore didn't dare act rashly anymore.

Summoner's Rift remained calm for a long time.

Both sides' offensive rhythms became unusually slow...

Around thirteen minutes, both sides finally erupted in the first small team fight, fighting over the Rift Herald's ownership in the top river, resulting in a 3v3 between top, mid, and jungle.

The result was a one-for-one trade: Liang Yan exchanged with the enemy top laner, and both sides grabbed the Rift Herald. However, VG didn't gain much from this fight, because Yao Ji from Zeize Tai was also low on health, and after Liang Yan died, no one dared to pick up the Rift Herald buff.

"This wave... jungler swapped for top laner, VG can only say it's a small gain."

"Any gain is good!"

"Yeah, but I feel the snowball is rolling too slowly."

It was nearly fifteen minutes, and VG's gold lead was just over 1000, mostly coming from the top and jungler players relying on individual skill to last hit and clear jungle camps.

The top and mid lanes had no advantage, bot lane last hitting was still behind, Gangzi lost lane to Hansama, constantly bleeding health, and if not for Liang Yan helping reset the wave once, his last hitting would have been even worse.

Such a situation is rare for VG.

After the Herald team fight ended, both sides returned to that lukewarm pace, constantly warding, last hitting, and clearing jungle monsters...

The audience started feeling drowsy.

"Both teams' late-game combat power is similar, no offensive pressure, normally slowing down wouldn't matter... but I have to say, this game doesn't feel like VG."

"Yes."

The commentators could see the oddity, and other teams familiar with VG's fighting style naturally noticed it more clearly.

"Forget watching it." Malaxiangguo yawned: "Damn, it's making me sleepy—Jiao Shen isn't even trying to carry this game, nothing to see, let's go, brothers."

The RNG players each started ranked games; if they kept watching, they'd truly fall asleep.

The game reached around eighteen minutes, and VG began placing wards in MSF's jungle.

Wang Duo Duo's eyes lit up: "Oh?! Is VG finally launching an offensive?!"

The audience also perked up, getting excited.

But after a few minutes, their eyelids drooped again.

VG didn't launch a full-scale offensive—at most, the jungler brought the mid laner to invade, if no one was there they'd steal one or two jungle camps, if someone came they'd immediately retreat, unless they couldn't escape, otherwise they'd never engage MSF head-on.

At twenty-five minutes, the combined kill count for both sides hadn't reached ten.

However, compared to ten minutes ago, VG's gold lead had grown significantly, the team total leading by nearly 4000 gold, roughly equivalent to one and a half items.

But unnoticed, VG had firmly seized the initiative.

The MSF players all felt bewildered, fighting and fighting until they just couldn't win anymore.

Then they felt a bit suffocated.

Maxlore got a bit anxious, tried several times to engage, but all failed—no matter where he went, the enemy laner on that line would always run away in advance.

MSF then realized their jungle was already filled with VG wards everywhere. But they had no way out, because VG had pushed all three outer towers, making vision disadvantage inevitable.

VG only lost one outer tower.

At twenty-eight minutes, the situation became slightly more exciting.

First, Yao Ji assembled her three-item build and scored a solo kill in bot lane.

Immediately after, taking advantage of MSF's main force going deep to chase down Feiji for Yao Ji, Liang Yan struck in mid lane, coordinating with the duo to kill Hansama's Weiluosi.

Zeize Tai wandered through the jungle, eventually hiding on MSF's high ground to successfully ward control and recall, replenished state with TP to leave base, regrouped with teammates to take Elder Dragon.

Around thirty minutes, VG took the first Elder Dragon, pushed down all of MSF's outer defensive towers, but didn't destroy the base.

At thirty-seven minutes, VG won the game's only 5v5 team fight.

Subsequently took the second Elder Dragon.

Three minutes later, VG safely and smoothly pushed down MSF's base.

Many viewers had already fallen asleep by then, or were awakened by others' cheers, dazedly opened their eyes to glance at the big screen—oh, VG won.

VG's winning streak continues, fans naturally happy, but always feel something's missing. Walking out of the venue, friends who didn't get tickets or watch the stream ask: How did they win?

I don't know.

VG's performance in this game left many dissatisfied.

Because this match was practically a copy of SSG's game against IMT the previous day.

VG also had no astonishing tactics—just relied on stronger player skill to gain lane advantage, slowly snowballed, then used richer experience and stronger mechanics to execute some partial coordination—this time invading and stealing jungle camps, next time pulling enemies over to let the solo laner steal chickens and take down a tower, using this boiling frog method to slowly grow the snowball, then using vision advantage to make further invasions...

One bullet comment described it perfectly:

【What are you doing simmering medicine here?】

Exactly right.

VG's performance in this game felt like slowly simmering herbal medicine over low fire—gradually, gradually, they simmered MSF to death—isn't that exactly how SSG played against IMT?

Even the match duration was similar—both took around thirty-something minutes to finish.

The most crucial point is—Jiao Shen seems to have unstable divine power, and his performance in this match is even more stealthy than the last one.

Someone said, don't worry, VG is hiding their trump cards.

Someone said, Jiao Shen is stealthy, Fu Lan Duo isn't making much noise either, and Zzitai is even less reliable—does that mean we'll have to rely on Easyhoon alone to carry?

Playing like this against weak teams naturally isn't a problem, but in the knockout stage, it's probably...

Amid the discussion, the third day's group stage entered its final stretch.

The last match of today's schedule is C9 vs AHQ.

People originally didn't have high expectations for this match—VG's games have been like that, so what impressive performance could the two weakest teams in the group possibly have?

【68> But no one expected this match to be as exciting as it turned out to be.

However, Never expected, this match turned out to be more Exciting than anyone had anticipated.