Chapter 872

The lineups are locked in:

SSG: Top Lane Nasal, Jungle Pig Girl, Mid Lane Feiji, Bottom Lane Weiluosi+Lu.

G2: Top Lane Shen, Jungle Jiu Tong, Mid Lane Yanque, Bottom Lane Xia+Fengnv.

During the map-reading phase, VG members began heated discussion:

"I can't believe Fengnv is still available as a last pick—damn, that's outrageous. Can't we get something this satisfying when it's our turn?" Duan Deliang shouted in frustration.

"SSG believes restricting G2's jungler's performance is more important than limiting their bottom lane."

"I'd do the same if I were in their shoes—Xiaoyang is actually pretty strong."

"Joking around, what about EU1 jungler?"

"Furthermore, to be fair, G2's bottom lane... last year wasn't top-tier, just decent, but this year they're truly bad."

"I've checked their stats—this season, G2's MVP is basically split between AP and Xiaoyang, with the other three combining for fewer than ten. I'm laughing my ass off."

VG's bottom lane three combined have at least over ten MVPs this year, and with Fu Lan Duo added, it's nearly twenty.

Gangzi looked at Fu Lan Duo, astonished: "No way? Even more outrageous than us?!"

"It's that outrageous—the top laner guy has always been a noob playstyle, no different from last year, but that bottom lane... you ask Jiao Shen, he knows best."

"Jiao Shen is a true gentleman, wouldn't badmouth people behind their backs."

"Tch! This guy's the best at pretending."

Liang Yan didn't join the discussion, staring at the screen, his eyes showing a hint of thought.

Battle Began.

Everyone thought, given the two teams' styles, the early game wouldn't see much fighting, probably not until after 8 minutes would the first blood appear.

But just like the BP, the plot took an unexpected turn.

Jankos' Jiu Tong ganked top at level 3, CuVee's Nasal pushed lane across the river, hugging the wall to control vision and place a ward—ward placed, both sides exposed simultaneously. Jankos blindly attacked from fog of war, meatball impact sliding along the wall, perfectly interrupting CuVee's jump.

Far away, CuVee was chased all the way, finally flashing into tower with low health, slowed by Jiu Tong's second Q, G2's top-jungle dove tower for a kill, successfully securing first blood.

Jankos barely survived out of tower, Ambition's Pig Girl rushed in to take the kill.

This one-for-one trade cost SSG heavily—one from first blood bounty difference, another from Nasal missing half a wave, plus he used TP. Seems okay? But in high-level play, these details decide everything. Shen vs Nasal is inherently disadvantaged, after this trade it's even 5-5—this is why G2's top laner, though he can't carry, Jankos still helps him: G2 can't let SSG's mid-late game split-push threat Nasal farm too freely, or it'll be harder to handle later.

Around five minutes, Perkz' Yanque aggressively pushed lane, contesting first recall advantage in mid lane. Ambition, who'd been camping in the river for nearly half a minute, suddenly struck—Q-flash knocked Perkz airborne.

But before being knocked up, Perkz tossed Stone Scatter Formation toward Feiji, clearing last minion while predicting correctly—Crown's Feiji charge was interrupted, damage couldn't follow in time, ultimately both mids flashed and swapped flashes, Perkz escaped with sliver health while also securing recall priority.

SSG used one extra flash this trade—again, G2 came out slightly ahead.

At six minutes plus, Jankos tried to flank and catch flashless Crown, met Ambition's counter-jungle in the jungle, triggered a skirmish—Perkz pushed first to support, flashed to chase, a volley of Stone Pierce wiped Ambition before Blue Side's mid second turret.

Crown pursued all the way, SSG's duo came up from below river to flank, Perkz extremelly dodged Lu's lift, but dodged the first and not the fifteenth—hit by Weiluosi's Spectral Arrow Rain and died.

Afterward, SSG's mid-bottom trio continued chasing Jankos' Pig Girl.

Jankos relied on his thick build to tank damage, finally a Boar Rush broke through river wall into side path near mid first tower, returning to under mid first tower.

Bottom lane, G2 duo took the chance to push lane.

SSG duo returned to bottom lane—previously they'd been pushing, this support came only after pushing to tower, so returning naturally caused no loss, just that G2 duo stole a perfect recall timing.

SSG even wanted to seize this chance, play along to set up a trap kill.

G2 duo recalled.

Ambition quietly came to bottom lane, sneaked into side bush to camp.

SSG duo kept pushing minion wave to under G2 tower, walked into grass bush in full view of G2's defensive tower vision, pretending to recall.

G2 support Mithy fell for it, returned to lane and immediately chased over, wanting to place ward to interrupt SSG duo's recall—unsurprisingly caught by Ambition.

Pig Girl bounced+Lu lifted+Pig Girl froze and locked down, a chain of CC combo—squishy Fengnv couldn't even flash before her health was emptied.

Weiluosi got second kill, bottom lane situation completely collapsed.

At nine minutes plus, Ambition seized Perkz' blue mana depleted must-recall-to-recharge moment, brought Feiji for four-man gank on two, wiped out G2 duo, successfully killing both.

Perkz reached base, instantly TP'd top, Jankos came out from behind tower to block CuVee, top-mid-jungle dove tower for kill, successfully killed CuVee. Perkz got the kill.

Afterward, G2 trio as one dove SSG's top turret, stopped after clearing a wave of minions, then three went straight to river to fight Xia Gu Xian Feng.

SSG meanwhile fought Dragon in bottom half, leaving only Weiluosi alone to dive tower.

Zven respawned, left base straight for top lane, took over tower diving, Mithy went to mid lane, guarding Perkz's return to mid lane to soak lane.

SSG got first Dragon and First Blood Tower.

G2 got Xia Gu Xian Feng and top turret.

Fifteen minutes, gold difference minimal—SSG led by under a thousand, kill count also very close. These past ten-plus minutes, both sides could be called evenly matched.

And the fighting intensity far exceeded anyone's imagination.

Two strong macro teams, in these first ten-plus minutes, actually fought for tempo instead of macroing—this match from start to now, too many things unexpected.

SSG realized Nasal was already useless—even giving him ten minutes safe farm wouldn't yield much split-push threat, so they decisively abandoned CuVee, even letting him make certain sacrifices, shifting whole team focus to mid and bottom lanes.

Referring to people, not lanes.

Time reached mid-game, both sides entered lane-switching and kiting phase.

Liang Yan saw this, yet closed the livestream webpage.

Easyhoon watched Liang Yan open the domestic client and click into ranked, face full of surprise: "Why aren't you watching?"

Early game had no decided winner, the next ten minutes were exactly the most crucial moment—how come you're not looking now?

"Victory is already decided."

Liang Yan said calmly.

SSG's avoid-fight macro tactic hasn't evolved to peak perfection yet—discussing mid-late game macro level, it's on par with current G2.

But SSG has late-game nuke Feiji.

Only Yanque and Xia were present, clearly under attack pressure.

G2 actually picked a counter-attack lineup this game.

Whether it's Shen's Ultimate, or Yanque's basic skill set, including Fengnv's Ultimate, all of them require counter-attacks to unleash their maximum power.

Before SSG gains a decisive advantage, they cannot initiate an attack.

So Liang Yan said the outcome was already decided.

But the result surprised him.

G2 actually won.