Chapter 103: "Are the Sand Soldiers Alive?" "The Emperor and the Sand Soldiers avi"!

Ye Bo woke up and opened his eyes; it was, as always, exactly 10: 0 AM sharp.

Over the past few months, he had grown somewhat accustomed to this lifestyle: going to bed at 12: 0 AM sharp to enter the trial grounds, and "waking up" at 10: 0 AM sharp to start a new day; every day felt very fulfilling.

The snoring of the teammate in the bed at the other end of the room, Ghost, was deafening.

Ye Bo got out of bed on tiptoes, saw that he had already kicked his quilt off the bed, and reached out to turn off the air conditioner before heading out.

With minimal movement, he hugged the wall to close the door, then skillfully snuck like a "thief" from the innermost dormitory, passing the other teammates' rooms, and only returned to a normal gait once he reached the cafeteria, far from the rest area.

The new EDG cafeteria provided service almost around the clock; after all, there were many staff members in the base, and it wasn't convenient to order takeout during lockdown.

Ye Bo picked out a portion of Cantonese rice noodle rolls with double eggs and double meat, grabbed a banana, and took a carton of yogurt.

The daily routine of professional players was different from the staff; even on normal training days, they wouldn't wake up until 12: 0 PM, so this was exactly the time when the staff had all left.

Sitting alone in the center of the empty cafeteria, Ye Bo took out his phone, wanting to find some "electronic side dishes" to whet his appetite.

He first glanced at the forum, where most people were still discussing last night's semifinals.

From its founding in 2017 until 2021, a full four years, BLG had actually been a very marginal team, not even making the playoffs many times; it was only after this year's rebuild that they could be considered to have entered the public eye.

Especially with the official announcement of Uzi joining; although it brought a large number of supporters, the anti-fans also flooded in accordingly.

Having lost the match yesterday, the Anti-League forum was already in full swing with "green garlic" (mockery).

【Oh? Isn't this BLG! How did they get so trashy after not seeing them for a few days?】

【Oh? Changed who? How come I remember Uzi never beat Clearlove in the league either? Isn't EDG always the king of internal wars? It's just returning to their true form.】

【Can't you stop mentioning Uzi? Can't it just be that they were outplayed?】

【Anyway, Fofo is definitely innocent! Master Ye was able to take four MVP portraits over the head of the one who outplayed him, but didn't get Fofo's, which proves it's a mid-lane gap!】

【Ip Man! My superman! 2 MVPs in 3 games of the BO5, brothers, there's a code!】

【Those who are sensible have already gone to the livestream to become captains; EDG has a new kid, and my money is flying into his pocket!】

Even though Uzi didn't even play in the match yesterday, he was still dragged out to be used for farming experience, fully demonstrating the power of an "experience book."

However, Ye Bo also noticed that the appearance rate of his own ID and nickname seemed to be surprisingly high now.

Even in discussion threads that had absolutely nothing to do with him, as long as some star players were involved, his name would be brought out by netizens to be used as a shield or a spear.

Perhaps because he didn't come at the first opportunity, Ye Bo felt the restroom today didn't have much "flavor," and he couldn't even enjoy his meal.

He exited and opened Bilibili to browse.

The homepage intelligently pushed a video with a title that hit the chest directly—"Watch the casters get conquered, Ye carries EDG on his shoulders for three games, slaughtering the first round of playoffs!"

Clicking into the video, the beginning was the official caster's pure highlight version.

"Meiko is flanking, but Scout is clearly prepared; this wave should be—wait, what is Ye doing?"

"My god, what kind of play is that! Trickster LeBlanc!!!"

"The Unshackled One dives, returns, jumps into the pit, flashes over the wall, then uses Chain Lash and Kingslayer!" Zeyeon narrated the skill names at an extremely fast speed, not forgetting to steal his good friend Jide's catchphrase: "My old goose!"

"A miraculous kill! This is definitely a classic scene in the tournament that belongs to Sylas!"

Even though there was no camera on the casters during the match, just by listening to the tone, Ye Bo could guess their dumbfounded expressions at that moment.

He chuckled and took a bite of the banana.

The screen then switched to the Akali from the second game.

That was a kill that was completely incomprehensible even when standing from a god's-eye view.

However, by now, there were already many people in the comments explaining the mechanics of Akali's W; Ye Bo had even seen related terms on the first page of the homepage just now.

Just as he had thought before, no matter how niche a mechanic was, someone would soon research and explain it.

"Ye! He stood up when the team was stuck in a rhythm dilemma! Relying on his personal strength to shoulder the greatest danger of the side-lane pressure for the team, and completing an incredible solo kill, instantly turning the situation around!"

The screen changed to the Deyunse livestream.

"Hey, what's the meaning of this? Is Ye lagging?"

Sika watched as the director kept manually cutting the screen to the mid-lane, only to find the Emperor (Azir) always spacing out in place, the operations slightly stiff, and the DPI clearly very low.

Sika's first reaction was that the opponent was lagging; after all, it was an online match, so it was normal for network fluctuations to occur.

"Maybe he used up all his chakra in the first two games, so he picked Azir to slack off in the third... imitating his predecessor!" Sun Yalong managed to connect two things at once.

"What are you guys saying! Since Ip Man did this, there must be a deep meaning behind it!" Kid immediately defended and retorted without thinking: "It's impossible for him to be slacking off, just wait and see!"

And when the 3v3 confrontation broke out in the top lane, Seraphine moved out first by abandoning the minion wave, while the Emperor arrived late.

The people from the previous second were still questioning.

"I told you Ip Man was cosplaying his predecessor this game! Just this look of delaying support for a few minions is exactly the same as the Thief Saint!"

"He's still walking here? He must not know the Blast Cone hasn't refreshed at this timing! He can only use EQ to get over the wall; let's see how you fight once you're up there!"

"Case solved, it turns out it's the Emperor's problem; facts prove that whoever plays the Emperor will be like this!"

"You're forcing a critique here; my Faker wouldn't do that. At the end of the day, it's still..."

And the next moment, the classic scene was born: the Emperor set up soldiers over the wall outside the Red Buff, used Shifting Sands to cross two walls from an angle without vision, and then flashed to push three people back.

Kid immediately squeezed a roar from his throat with all his might!

"Holy crap, Ip Man!!!"

"I told you he definitely had a backup plan! I told you! I told you!!!"

"The best Emperor on the Chinese server! I don't even know how many times better this Emperor is than the Thief Saint! Ye!"

Carried away, he didn't forget to turn his head and shout at the two people next to him—"Haters! Speak!"

Ye Bo suddenly heard the erupting roar and was almost scared into crushing the banana in his hand.

He actually didn't quite understand why Kid was so excited, even more excited than he himself was at the time—after all, Ye Bo didn't surf the web very diligently and didn't know about that past event.

However, there were already "explanation heroes" in the comments explaining it.

【Filial, all can be filial!】

【Ge Yan? Ye Yan!】

【Kid is not being filial now, how can you treat others like this? Be careful that your mom and dad don't want you~】

【You can tell you haven't watched the recent livestreams; TS and Chicken haven't had a chance to be licked since they were eliminated in the first round; the streamer has been very dedicated lately!】

【Reasonable, it's very reasonable to be closer to the grandfather than the parents; do you understand what "intergenerational affection" is!】

Crystal, who appeared later in the video, didn't involve himself in the stance, so his emotions were much more normal than Deyunse's.

But the strange screams still didn't stop for a moment.

It was fortunate that there was no one in the cafeteria at this time, otherwise Ye Bo would have been too embarrassed to play it out loud.

"A~ye~ma! Ip~ Man!" Crystal said in his standard drawn-out tone.

"Operation Immortal!"

"This guy only plays cool with you! Anyway, if he can operate, he will operate; he's just a stone grain!"

The video subsequently featured commentary from many other second-streamers like Doinb, Zitao, and 957, which was truly entertaining.

But the most entertaining one had to be Uzi, who appeared as the grand finale.

After that push in the deciding game, his emotions were already visibly intense; he raised his "Little Fist Stone" with a rosy face, opening the feast for such a wonderful ending for EDG.

"To be honest, I dare not imagine how miserable this game would be if the bottom lane had a better start!"

"I can only say it's truly worthy of being from EDG; Ip Man is so good at dealing with the bottom lane; back in the day, Clearlove was like this too."

Just then, Clearlove, who had walked into the cafeteria, suddenly heard a familiar voice.

Good, good, good! Finally caught you!

No wonder this kid hints at me every day; it turns out he's reviewing every day.

"Little Ye Bo, you're here so early every day~"

Although Ming Kai was complaining in his heart, as soon as he walked behind Ye Bo, he instantly and skillfully put on a kind and warm smile.

No choice, this is the treatment for a carry big brother.

Back in the day when Pawn was here...

"Clearlove, you're here; you're late today." Ye Bo turned his head to see Ming Kai and greeted him naturally; it was clear this wasn't the first time.

Ming Kai was no longer a player now, and his daily routine was quite regular; he usually woke up a bit earlier than the players.

So basically, Ye Bo could bump into him every day while eating breakfast.

"Resting today, no scrims to schedule; just watch the matches together tonight. You still wake up so early." Ming Kai brought a portion of his hometown's hot dry noodles and sat over.

"Used to it~" Ye Bo replied naturally, picking up his tray feeling refreshed.

"Clearlove, eat slowly, I'm heading out first."

Even on a day off, Ye Bo didn't want to relax.

Although there was still a week until their semifinals, and EDG's playoff journey could be considered a beautiful opening victory.

But Ye Bo wanted to draw the most perfect period for his first Summer Split.

If there were no scrims, he would play ranked.

Anyway, it was all training, and Ye Bo only felt he was enjoying it.

Ming Kai watched him from afar until the back that was clearly heading toward the training room in the other direction disappeared, then lowered his head to slurp his noodles.

Truly a guy who doesn't need anyone to worry about him.

T1 base.

The LCK playoffs only had five matches; this year it hadn't been changed to a "double-elimination format," so the schedule was much shorter and had already progressed to the final semifinal match.

Tonight was T1 vs DK.

The day before yesterday, Gen. had already swept LSB to advance to the finals; the winner of today's semifinal would advance to the finals to face Gen. , competing for the No. 1 seed spot for the Summer Split championship.

And T1's current head coach was Bengi—the other three-time champion jungler from the "Faker-Bengi" mid-jungle duo back in the day.

Because the previous coaches, Daeny and Kim Jeong-soo, clearly didn't fit the tone of this T1, especially since both of them seemed to be "at odds" with Faker.

One was someone who came up with 16 sets of permutations and combinations yet never managed to pair up ZOFGK, and the other was someone who nearly got ousted due to palace intrigue, and whose team's performance during his tenure as coach was not considered good either.

In the end, the T1 top brass made this decision.

It is very obvious that Bengi serving as head coach is not primarily for coaching.

It is to support Faker!

There is hearsay that this T1 team now almost entirely conducts its own pick-and-ban, with the coaching staff merely acting as assistants to help with some data collection and preparation work.

Regardless, T1's performance in the Spring Split was gratifying, proving that the effect is indeed effective.

"That's about it. Anyway, they're all old rivals, nothing special," Bengi said after finishing the overview, then suddenly remembered something.

"Right, Sang-hyeok, take a look at this."

Bengi projected the footage onto the big screen in the preparation room; it was a match recording.

"This is the LPL playoff footage from yesterday."

Keria had only just glanced at it when he felt a bit puzzled: "I scrolled past this on TikTok yesterday. Wasn't it a three-to-zero? There's no point in watching it given the skill gap."

Bengi, however, shook his head.

"Not that. It's this Everfrost Azir strategy in the third game. It worked well in yesterday's match, so we went to look into it."

"The usage rate of this thing on the Chinese server (Korean server) is very low, so we didn't pay attention to it before, but yesterday we discovered that the win rate is actually abnormally high. Sang-hyeok, see if you can use it."

Li Xianghe was initially unmoved.

If the usage rate is low, then a high win rate is normal; it just means it's being used by one-trick players.

And once the usage rate goes up, no matter how strong a strategy is, the win rate will drop due to individual differences; this is also a law.

However, when he saw the ID in the recording.

He suddenly remembered something.

Li Xianghe watched the key moments selected by the competition training team, commenting as he watched.

"It has its merits, but it's not something that suits everyone."

"Building this, the power spike will be at least 1-2 minutes slower than with Liandry's, and using EQ to lock someone down is ultimately a risky move, even with R for self-preservation."

"If you can't use this item to generate enough roaming impact, it's a negative-economy item that can only be used as a surprise tactic for specific matchups, or by players particularly suited to this style."

Li Xianghe's understanding of Azir is extremely deep; it would be no exaggeration to say he is in the top three among current professional players.

He saw the pros and cons of this item at a glance.

Bengi shrugged; he was just mentioning it to the other at the end of the discussion to ensure the players wouldn't suffer from an information gap—this is the basic duty of the coaching staff.

But, it was at this moment.

Li Xianghe suddenly leaned his neck forward and squinted his eyes.

"How could this be..."

His strange behavior drew the gaze of his teammates beside him.

Everyone was just a bit confused, not knowing what the other was surprised by.

Because the recording at this moment had played to the final wave, and everything looked completely unremarkable.

Aside from the opposing BLG five over-chasing, there didn't seem to be anything special.

And there had clearly been several quite brilliant plays before, yet the other hadn't had this reaction.

"Rewind it a bit," Li Xianghe said, pointing.

Bengi rewound it thirty seconds.

Li Xianghe leaned even further forward toward the screen this time, watching carefully as the Azir EQ'd over the river in the final wave.

"How could this possibly make it over?"

Hearing the other's puzzled voice, Gumayusi asked with concern: "What's wrong, Brother Sang-hyeok? Isn't Azir's EQ a basic move? I've seen you fly further than this."

Li Xianghe shook his head.

He didn't explain directly, but turned and walked to his seat, immediately opening a training camp session.

It was precisely because this seemed like a basic Azir move that everyone watching seemed to have no issues with it.

But Li Xianghe understood Azir too well; there wasn't a spot on the Rift he hadn't flown over, which is why he spotted the anomaly at a glance.

Li Xianghe entered the training match, teleported to the mid-lane river, and leveled up.

Then he stood in the same position and began the E-into-limit-Q drift, which was almost instinctive, attempting to replicate the operation.

Once.

Five times.

Ten times.

The Azir in the training camp could only land at 80% of the distance between the two walls most of the time, and at the absolute limit, he could only fly close to the wall, unable to even fully hug it.

Let alone fly over the wall.

"Huh?"

The five people behind him looked at each other, subconsciously making the same sound.

They finally understood why Li Xianghe had such a reaction.

Because, if even Li Xianghe couldn't do it in the training camp...

Then could the person who could do it possibly understand Azir better than him!?

"No, this is all wrong."

"The reason Azir's drift EQ is long is because you can perform the second dash by Q-ing at the limit before reaching the first E sand soldier's position, which is equivalent to changing the 'spellcasting position' to extend it."

"Therefore, the distance you can poke with Q is the distance of the EQ."

Li Xianghe seemed to be explaining to his teammates, but also talking to himself.

"But even if I stand at the position of this first sand soldier down here and cast Q directly, I can't poke onto the bank from here."

"So it's not that my EQ isn't at the limit; the distance simply isn't enough, it didn't even reach the distance where one could attempt to clip over the wall."

"Then, how did he do it..."

The first half of Li Xianghe's words were very confident, firmly believing he hadn't made an operational error.

But the second half was filled with astonishment.

Li Xianghe watched the recording repeatedly—and soon discovered the clue!

That Azir quickly placed two Ws.

W has 2 charges, and the "cooldown" of consecutively placing sand soldiers can also benefit from cooldown reduction, so pressing two Ws quickly when flustered is a perfectly normal operation.

But the problem is.

That second sand soldier, unexpectedly, stood one step "forward" in a bizarre way!

It was as if... the sand soldier had come alive!

It was precisely this step forward that allowed Azir to E to a position one step further back before casting Q, which was just enough to reach the distance to clip the wall and achieve the "crossing of the river."

Li Xianghe figured it out.

But, Li Xianghe was also even more confused.

Because he clearly remembered that when Azir places W, the sand soldiers can be "stacked"—so theoretically, the sand soldiers should have no {collision volume}.

Then why could Ye Bo's second sand soldier be placed one step forward?

Li Xianghe verified his thought in the training camp and confirmed it was indeed so.

Even if he stood at a spot almost identical to the other's, he still couldn't do it; it wasn't a simple collision volume issue.

"Geez, if even Brother Sang-hyeok can't do it, then this must be a bug!" Gumayusi, the number one Faker fanboy, concluded.

"I think so too!" Keria, the number two Faker fanboy, nodded vigorously.

"Indeed." Oner, the number three Faker fanboy, added +1.

"But it doesn't matter anymore; even if the Azir died, he essentially traded his life to steal a Baron, so it was still worth it. Whether it's a bug or not doesn't matter," Bengi, the veteran Faker fanboy, said as such.

Only Zeus and Faker himself didn't speak.

Because both of them had seen Ye Bo perform very strange operations with their own eyes.

Li Xianghe, refusing to believe it, continued to try, but no matter what, he couldn't complete it.

It just wouldn't work.

And the more it wouldn't work, the more he felt a heart-wrenching curiosity.

Li Xianghe saw the speed and operation when the other used it, and was certain that it wasn't something Ye Bo pressed accidentally.

This could be proven with just one point.

The interval cooldown for W is 1. seconds; even with CDR, it takes about 0. seconds for Azir to consecutively place a second sand soldier.

Ye Bo clearly paused for a moment in place, which is why he gave Aphelios the chance to Flash-auto with the purple gun, and in the end, he barely took flight while under the control of the incoming Q, which could be considered a cancellation of control.

After trying for a few more minutes, Li Xianghe reluctantly exited the training camp.

His state of mind now was very similar to when Ye Bo first learned that his Akali wasn't actually at level seven mastery.

The difference was, Ye Bo was pleasantly surprised at the time.

Because he knew he would soon be able to master those unknown parts, and he was only filled with curiosity about the unknown.

But Li Xianghe was completely clueless at this moment.

When someone who has reached the top thinks they have mastered everything about something, only to suddenly discover that there is still something they don't know... and nowhere to find out.

This feeling is somewhat torturous.

And at this time.

Li Xianghe happened to see an ID in his friends list that was {In Queue}.

《chinesekungfu》

"Why don't I just ask him directly?"

Recalling their two previous exchanges, Li Xianghe felt he understood the other party well enough to know what kind of person each of them was.

Looking at the status of being in the queue, perhaps about to enter a game soon.

Li Xianghe hesitated for a moment, then opened the chat interface.

Ye Bo, who was waiting in the queue, suddenly saw a message flash in the bottom right corner.

He clicked it open and felt incredibly surprised!

【hiye, caniask, whyyouazir, thererivereqsofar (Hi Ye, can I ask why your Azir's EQ in the river was so far)】

【ofcourse0. (Of course)】

Li Xianghe was simple and direct, just like Ye Bo had been before.

Their English levels were comparable; Ye Bo was on the same frequency and understood the meaning instantly, replying without a second thought.

However, he immediately ran into a dilemma again.

【viperissleep, canyouwait, orcanichinese? (Viper is sleeping, can you wait, or can I use Chinese?)】

【ok, wehavetranslators (OK, we have translators)】

It was naturally impossible for the T1 base not to have a Chinese translator; after all, they had many business collaborations in the country, such as live streaming, so this was not a difficult task.

Just like that.

A scene almost identical to their last exchange played out once again.

Ye Bo used Chinese to explain the principle of that mechanism as simply as possible.

【It's like this: I discovered that the sand soldiers essentially have a "collision volume." This can be proven by the fact that if you stack W and then cast Q, they will inevitably be "forced apart" by their positioning.】

【Using this mechanism, one can attempt to perform the technique of "using the sand soldier behind to 'push' the sand soldier in front through the wall."】

【As for why casting W allows for stacking, I suspect the designers added this "operation lubricant" intentionally so that casting W wouldn't affect the feel of the game, but it doesn't affect the essence.】

【And I believe you are surely aware of the "wall-clipping W" casting mechanism.】

【Therefore, if we combine these three mechanisms and cast W by "targeting a distant wall," we can achieve some very magical operations.】

This technique was discovered by Ye Bo himself, and he had received a substantial epiphany reward for it at the time.

The way he discovered it was somewhat coincidental.

In order to master the "super-distance" EQ drift, Ye Bo had specifically spent an entire night in the "Trial Grounds" practicing just this.

And it was during that practice that he cast W against the wall countless times; it was through those few coincidences where his mouse drifted that he caught that strange change.

Then.

It was experimentation, confirmation, practice, development, and finally, application.

【ifyouneed, icanrecordavideo, soeasy (If you need, I can record a video, it's actually very simple)】

Ye Bo switched to English for the last sentence.

Li Xianghe listened to the Chinese translator beside him drone on like it was gibberish, and he truly felt more confused the more he listened.

After hesitating for a while, he still sent: 【thankyou】

Since he had already asked, wouldn't it be a waste if he didn't get to the bottom of it?

The two exchanged contact information.

Ye Bo only learned today.

So foreigners use WeChat too. And it turns out the international version and the domestic version of WeChat can directly add each other as friends!

Ye Bo started a training camp and recorded a simple video.

He didn't find it troublesome; after all, the other party had previously answered his questions without reservation, and he felt that doing this was "reciprocating courtesy."

It's just exchanging insights!

【《Video File》Emperor and Sand Soldiers. vi】

Li Xianghe received the file and couldn't wait to click and watch the video.

Immediately, he saw an outrageous operation!

The sand soldiers could not only stack one in front, but could even keep pushing and stacking forward like "acrobats"!

The Emperor's max-level W has less than 3 seconds of cooldown, so it is possible to reproduce this in actual combat!

In terms of operation, it turns out you can't be right against the wall; instead, you have to intentionally stay away from the wall to achieve the wall-clip, and then deceive the system by changing the casting target with the mouse cursor.

Li Xianghe had a sudden moment of realization!

"It really is Chinese kung fu."

And what surprised him even more was.

The speed at which the other party sent the video, as well as the time in the top right corner of the training camp, proved that this had just been done immediately.

Yet in the video, the other party's judgment—which required extreme distance mastery—was successful on the first try, and as for the fluidity of those super-long EQs, it could be called effortless!

It had been less than half a month since the other party last asked him.

Recalling the other party's performance in the match he had just watched with astonishment.

"He practiced it to this level in half a month!?"

Li Xianghe was very clear about the practicality of this technique and the infinite possibilities within it.

WeChat has a built-in translation function, so there was no need to type in English, which was awkward for both of them.

He opened the WeChat interface again.

Li: 【Very impressive technique, thank you】

Ye: 【(Animated sticker)】

Ye: 【Good luck with your match tonight, see you at the World Championship!】

Li Xianghe read the software's translation and felt a mix of amusement and frustration.

Wishing me luck...

Your playoffs semi-finals haven't even started yet, and you're already in such a rush to prepare to study us.

However, although EDG had not yet secured their spot for the World Championship, based on their summer regular season ranking points and their round in the winner's bracket semi-finals, it could indeed be said that they already had one foot in the door.

He also replied:

【See you at the World Championship】

(End of chapter)