Chapter 867

This closing match was eye-opening from the BP stage.

AHQ lineup: top laner Galio, jungler Mordekaiser, mid laner Orianna, bot lane Ashe + Alistar. A non-Incense Burner composition!

C9 similarly picked a non-mainstream lineup: top laner Singed, jungler Jungle Pig Girl, mid laner Lu Xi An, bot lane Ezreal + Morgana!

At this time, the VG members were still backstage and hadn't left; seeing this BP, they immediately became interested.

Anyway, they'd be playing ranked after returning, and they didn't need to vacate the rest room for another team, so Gao Jun asked the group's opinion, everyone was very interested, so they stayed, planning to watch the whole match before leaving.

Good thing they didn't leave, otherwise they would have truly missed an exciting match.

At the start, C9's top laner Singed looped around the second turret to cut off the wave; AHQ responded poorly, after clearing the first wave they grouped up mid and invaded to gank, but Singed charged all the way to high ground and held on for half a minute before dying, and he gave up the turret, denying AHQ any kill!

C9's jungler and mid laner took the opportunity to group up and invade, counter-jungling AHQ's red buff and Magic Swamp Frog, and moreover, the red buff went to Jensen's Lu Xi An!

Westdoor returned to lane, facing Lu Xi An who was one level ahead and had an extra red buff, he started building the Abyssal Mask.

In the jungle matchup, Mountain's Mordekaiser was similarly one level behind Contract's Jungle Pig Girl.

Mordekaiser is a hero who desperately needs a stable development environment; he must hit level six quickly to be effective, but the first wave of jungle monsters was counter-jungled twice, slowing his development significantly, and reaching level six seemed far off!

AHQ didn't care, since the jungle was already lost, so Mountain didn't bother either, and directly came to camp after Singed respawned and returned to lane!

This time he was caught by Mountain, who took Singed's kill, and Mountain actually stayed in lane to farm two waves with Galio, then returned to his jungle to continue clearing the second wave of monsters.

"It's been almost six minutes, and AHQ's jungler hasn't recalled once!"

"My goodness, what kind of playstyle is this?"

"I've seen greedy players, but I've never seen someone this greedy!"

C9 discovered from item status that AHQ's jungler hadn't recalled for six minutes, realizing the enemy wanted to save time to speed up development; Jensen immediately grouped with Contract to invade, successfully catching Mountain at the Three Wolves Camp and securing the kill.

Mountain was furious, after returning to lane he camped Singed, regaining composure from C9's top laner Impact; immediately after, C9 engaged AHQ's bot lane... Mountain's Mordekaiser hit level six, and alongside Alistar, also engaged C9's bot lane... the two sides went back and forth, kill count kept rising, team gold difference fluctuated, and they were locked in pursuit and evasion.

This situation continued for over twenty minutes.

"Twenty-four minutes in, and both teams' gold are still nearly even!"

"This match is truly a close contest; although both sides made some mistakes, it's undeniable that this is a very exciting game!"

"Teacher Wang Duo Duo, predict how long this match will last?"

"Um... based on the current state of the Rift, both sides likely won't decide a winner quickly, because we all know that even after establishing an advantage, the process from having an edge to completely pushing down the enemy base takes considerable time, and one careless mistake could lead to a crash and burn, so if playing safe, it would take even more time... but now, both sides have almost no gold difference. So I think this match might go on for forty-something minutes."

Not long after Wang Duo Duo said that, AHQ and C9's jungle supports met while warding in the top river.

C9 jungler Contract, relying on being a thick-skinned Jungle Pig Girl, and having Morgana behind him who can give a spell shield, charged forward headfirst on sight.

AHQ jungle support is Mordekaiser + Alistar; unless Alistar uses Flash followed by Headbutt immediately, they cannot quickly break Morgana's Black Shield, but if the Flash-Headbutt combo is blocked by the Black Shield, it means AHQ loses all ability to fight back.

Since they can't win anyway, AHQ jungle support didn't dare to engage; Mountain activated his shield to block Jungle Pig Girl's Boar Rush, and with his support, he turned and ran back to the jungle without looking back.

Contract pressed the advantage, chasing aggressively, but due to insufficient familiarity with Morgana, he misjudged the Black Shield's duration, and was caught by Mordekaiser's Death's Grasp; when the Fear effect triggered, Jungle Pig Girl's Black Shield had just expired!

Mountain flung out a Death's Grasp, sticking to the feared Jungle Pig Girl and unleashing a flurry of attacks. At this moment, Jungle Pig Girl's passive Frost Armor had also expired, causing her armor to drop by dozens of points!

As everyone knows, in this version, Jungle Pig Girl before the late game mostly builds Cinderhulk first and Sunfire Cape second; both items give only health, no resistance—stacking health, not dual resistance—because Frost Armor provides massive dual resistance, making health stacking most effective. But now, Frost Armor is gone!

Meanwhile, Mountain's Mordekaiser had taken many heads in the early-mid game, so his development was actually very good; at this point he had a tier three jungle blade with Edge of Night, plus a small lethality bow, giving him solid attack and lethality, dealing real damage; his basic attacks chopped into Jungle Pig Girl, who was wearing Mercury's Treads with no armor items, and nearly every strike was true damage!

After a few strikes from Mordekaiser, the bloated Jungle Pig Girl instantly lost a small chunk of health!

C9 support Smoothie realized something was wrong, immediately used his ultimate to try to stop the pursuit, but Alistar lowered his head and charged, directly displacing him and tearing apart Morgana's Soul Shackles!

Moreover, Alistar's displacement also used Morgana as a placeholder, moving him behind Jungle Pig Girl, and he then stepped on her, knocking her back again!

Contract finally panicked, thinking he'd use Flash to escape after landing.

But as he landed, Alistar, who had already activated his Headbutt, punched him down, stunning Contract again!

Mountain landed two strikes, securing Contract's kill!

The casters exclaimed in surprise:

"My god, he died that fast?!"

"Contract underestimated Mordekaiser's damage; don't forget this is a six-kill Mordekaiser! With two lethality items in hand, it's practically soul-stabbing with every strike!"

"Oh no, oh no, the skin issue happened! After twenty-plus minutes, losing a jungler, C9 feels like they're about to lose Elder Dragon!"

Sure enough, after killing Jungle Pig Girl, AHQ's remaining members quickly grouped and went straight for Elder Dragon!

Although C9 lost their Jungle Pig Girl, losing the chance to smite, they still had four alive and in great condition, so they naturally wouldn't let AHQ take Elder Dragon easily; thus the four grouped up to contest it.

But AHQ's Elder Dragon attempt was just a feint; their real goal was to force C9 into fighting while outnumbered!

With a crack of thunder, the Rift's sky turned blood-red, a black shadow sliced through the air and lunged forward, targeting C9's best-developed mid laner Lu Xi An!

"AHQ engaged! Mordekaiser ulted! Lu Xi An immediately activated Spear of Shojin and wildly fired at the incoming Mordekaiser! Wow! Ashe's arrow! Mordekaiser was stunned! Galio ulted but Lu Xi An's damage was too high and Mordekaiser, built full damage with very fragile plating, ate a full Spear of Shojin from Lu Xi An and was left on low health! Ashe ADC fired one Enchanted Crystal Arrow and directly took his head!"

"Ah?!"

"Galio came down just in time to also get hit by Morgana's Dark Binding! Alistar flashed and used Headbutt to come up, but was made immune to the crowd control by Morgana's Black Shield!

"Lu Xi An, under the Incense Burner's buff, went berserk with damage!

"And Impact's Singed activated Poison Trail and his ultimate, charging toward AHQ's backline!"

Singed's damage isn't high, but he specializes in being disgusting!

The green poison cloud heavily enveloped AHQ's mid laner Orianna and ADC Varus, reducing their movement speed greatly; they tried to run but couldn't escape, and couldn't keep up with teammates, making them miserable!

The two could only cast their abilities at Singed, but he used the movement speed boost from Poison Trail and his ultimate to dodge most of it, even making Varus's ultimate whiff!

Although Singed's burst damage is indeed low, his sustained damage is a real headache for squishies; in just a few seconds, Varus from AN had already lost half a health bar!

AN was forced to use Flash to create distance, but right after flashing out, he was hit by Singed's old phlegm and Mega Adhesive, dropping his movement speed to near single digits, making it no different from being crowd controlled!

And Singed charged forward again!

With a light lift of the pole, a soft thud, he put Varus back on his back!

AN hadn't even landed when the deadly poison burned away his last sliver of health!

"God! Impact solo killed AHQ's ADC!!"

"This is what happens when there's no Incense Burner Monster!!"

On the other side, Ziv's Galio also died under the focused fire of Lu Xi An and the Ashe marksman, dealing all his damage before dying, yet failed to take off even half of Lu Xi An's health, with most of the damage blocked by Morgana's Black Shield!

Seeing Alistar trapped in a dire situation with no escape, Westdoor knew his Orianna alone could not turn the tide, so before getting hit again by Singed's glue, he used Flash to go through the wall back to the jungle, withdrawing from this team fight.

"Four versus five! Zero for four! Do you believe this?! This team fight was too dreamlike!"

"C9 played incredibly well!!!"

Next, without suspense, C9 easily took Baron Nashor, and the resurrected Zhu Mei just happened to eat this Baron Buff.

From this point on, both sides finally showed a relatively clear gap.

However, the following matches did not see one side completely overwhelmed in favor of C9.

C9's five members, with Baron Buff, pushed forward; AHQ resisted fiercely; C9 charged AHQ's bottom second tower; after Morgana's random Q proc hit Galio, C9 swarmed in, only to be hit by Orianna's reverse-pulled Command: Shockwave...

The team fight ended, and C9 was hit by AHQ's two-for-four exchange...

LMS Region commentator shouted excitedly: "Westdoor says! AHQ's Savior!"

Not long after shouting...

AHQ finished the team fight, taking advantage of their numbers, spread out, pushed all three lanes forward, quickly advancing the minion wave. Westdoor overextended in lane and was caught by Singed.

Until Westdoor was burned down to half health by Singed, Ziv's Galio then used TP, wanting to protect an ally, but the resurrected Ashe marksman fired an arrow from the fountain...

An arrow traveling over four or five thousand units... hit Westdoor.

"Holy shit!"

"Awesome!!!"

"Wow!!!"

The entire venue suddenly erupted.

In the backstage rest area, VG members also became excited.

"How godly is this, even able to hit?"

"Dazed, damn it!"

"Can Ma Ge do that?"

"What are you talking about? Ma Ge has hit many times before; I remember the farthest was from our high ground to the enemy jungle, farther than this!"

"Ma Ge is awesome!"

"I'm dazed."

"Ma Ge is still awesome!"

Whether luck or something else, this arrow was indeed awesome.

This stun duration of over three seconds made Westdoor feel like a century had passed; finally, he gained freedom.

AHQ's Savior fell.

The good news is Baron Nashor hasn't respawned yet.

In the following minutes, both sides fell into back-and-forth entanglement; although C9 had a gold advantage of several thousand, time had already entered very late game, and a gold advantage under five thousand could not give C9 a decisive strength advantage.

In the end, they still had to rely on Baron to decide the outcome.

This time, C9 initiated Baron.

AHQ came to harass, but until the end, no fight broke out.

After placing the third Control Ward, Baron had only over two thousand health left; Mountain sacrificed himself, used his ultimate to reduce C9's vision, and flashed into the Dragon Pit.

"Mountland successfully smited and secured Baron!!!"

C9 became enraged and counter-engaged.

AHQ, relying on having taken Baron Buff, engaged confidently despite Mountain already being dead, but were wiped in a team fight; the Baron spawn they had just obtained—none remained.

C9 launched an assault on AHQ's high ground, yet for unknown reasons, at the final moment, a difference of opinion occurred—some wanted to go all-in, others wanted to play safe.

In the end, C9 destroyed AHQ's two inhibitors, left two corpses, and successfully withdrew.

The situation of losing two inhibitors and being reversed is extremely rare in League of Legends history, due to the extremely high difficulty. But AHQ refused to give up, still resisting fiercely...

Until forty-eight minutes, C9 gathered Baron + Ancient Dragon Buff, without suspense won a team fight, and finally pushed down AHQ's nexus.

Based on the outcome, Wang Duo Duo's prediction was actually correct.

However, the match's twists and turns were unimaginable to anyone. A near-fifty-minute bladder game with no bathroom breaks needed, exciting throughout. One could even say this is the most exciting match since the start of the S7 Group Stage!

Someone in the barrage spammed "noob vs noob pecking," but you don't need to mind that; the vast majority of viewers enjoyed it greatly, and the venue's cheers never stopped, wave after wave.

As the closing match of the third day's group stage schedule, this match is undoubtedly qualified, and one could even say the emotional value gained far exceeds the ticket price.

Moreover, from a professional perspective, is this match truly noob vs noob pecking?

In execution, both sides indeed had many instances of pulling the crotch.

But in decision-making, aside from AHQ's major mistake of engaging after taking the second dragon, the rest of both sides' decisions actually had no major issues.

At least, even VG's two coaches couldn't find major flaws.

Honestly speaking, even both sides' lineups have some aspects worth VG learning from.

AHQ's Mordekaiser + Galio + Orianna system is clearly their hidden trump card saved for two days; although it ultimately failed to help them win, their lineup is not at fault.

However, no one knows that AHQ's system actually originally resided in VG's tactical reserves. What truly made VG members' eyes light up was C9's top laner Singed and the repeatedly effective Morgana support!

"Worth practicing."

When Zhu Xiaolong asked Liang Yan's opinion, the latter also gave an affirmative response.

Thus, VG's top laner and support hero practice list added two more strange things.