Chapter 103: The sand soldiers have come to life?

Ye Bo got out of bed on tiptoe. Seeing that Sheng Qiang Ge had already kicked his quilt off the bed, he reached out and turned off the air conditioner before heading out.

Over the past few months, he had grown accustomed to this lifestyle: going to bed at 12:00 AM sharp to enter the Trial Grounds, and "waking up" at 10:00 AM sharp to start a new day. Every day felt incredibly fulfilling.

The snoring of Sheng Qiang Ge, whose bed was at the other end of the room, echoed through the air.

Ye Bo got out of bed on tiptoe, seeing that he had already kicked the quilt off the bed, and conveniently turned off the air conditioner before leaving the room.

He moved with minimal motion to close the room door, then skillfully navigated like a "thief" from the innermost dormitory, passing the rooms of his other teammates, and only resumed a normal walking pace once he reached the cafeteria, which was far from the rest area.

EDG's new cafeteria provided service basically around the clock; after all, there were many people at the base, and ordering takeout during the lockdown period was inconvenient.

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 that of the staff; even on normal training days, they wouldn't wake up until 12:00 PM. This time was exactly 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 pickles" (videos to watch while eating) to cleanse his palate.

He first glanced at the Tieba forum; most of the posts were still discussing last night's semifinals.

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

Especially after 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-Uzi Bar was already in full swing, starting to "green garlic" (mock/flame) them.

【Oh? Isn't this BLG! How come they've become so trashy after changing one person in just a few days?】

【Oh? Changed who? How come I remember Uzi never beating 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 guys not mention Uzi for once? Can't it just be that they were outplayed?】

【Anyway, FoFo is definitely innocent! Master Ye was able to take four MVP photos over the head of the outplayed ones, 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 discount!】

【Those who are sensible have already gone to the livestream room to become captains. EDG has a kid now, 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 mocked by people looking for "experience" everywhere, fully demonstrating the power of being an "experience book."

However, Ye Bo also noticed that the appearance rate of his own ID and nicknames 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 sword and shield.

Perhaps because he wasn't there at the first moment, Ye Bo felt the restroom today didn't have much of a smell, and his food didn't taste as good.

He exited and opened Bilibili to browse around.

The homepage intelligently pushed a video with a title that hit the chest directly: "Watch as every caster is conquered, Ye carries EDG on his shoulders for three games, slaughtering everyone in the first round of the playoffs!"

Clicking into the video, the beginning was the pure version of the official commentary.

"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 Irelia!!!"

"The Unshackled One dives ashore, uses Protobelt, flashes over the wall, and follows up with a kidnapping and Kingslayer's Strike!" Guan Zeyuan's commentary was extremely fast, and he didn't forget to steal his friend Remember's catchphrase: "My old goose!"

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

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

He chuckled and took a bite of his banana.

The footage switched to the Akali from the second game.

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

However, there were already many people in the comments explaining the mechanism of Akali's W; Ye Bo even saw related words on the first page of the homepage just now.

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

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

The footage switched again, arriving at the De Yun Se livestream room.

"Hey, what does this mean? Is Ye lagging?"

Xi Ka watched the director manually switch the screen to the mid lane from time to time, only to find that Azir was always standing still in place, his movements slightly stiff, and the DPI (mouse click rate) looked very low at a glance.

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

"Maybe he used up all his chakra in the first two games, so he picked an Azir to slack off in the third game... imitating his predecessor!" Sun Yalong directly linked the two together.

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

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

Everyone from the previous second was still questioning.

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

"He's still walking here? He must not know that the Blast Cone hasn't refreshed at this time! He can only use E-Q to get over the wall, and once he's up there, let's see how you fight!"

"Case solved, it turns out it was Azir's problem. Facts prove that whoever plays Azir will be like this!"

"You're forcing a hate here, Faker wouldn't do that. In the end, isn't it just..."

And the next moment, the classic scene was born: Azir set up soldiers behind the wall outside the Red Buff, used Sand Drift to cross both walls from an angle without vision, and then flashed to push three people back.

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

"Holy crap, Ip Man!!!"

"I said you definitely had a backup plan! I said it! I said it!!!"

"The number one Azir on the Chinese server! This Azir is I don't know how many times stronger than the Thief Saint! Ye!"

Carried away, he didn't forget to turn his head and rush 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 didn't really understand why Kid Xiaohai Youshen was so excited, even more excited than he himself was at the time————after all, Ye Bo didn't surf the internet very diligently and didn't know about that past event.

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

【Filial piety, everything can be filial!】

【Ge Yan? Ye Yan!】

【The filial Kid Xiaohai Youshen isn't being filial now, how can you treat others like this? Be careful that your mom and dad don't want you anymore~】

【You can tell at a glance that you haven't watched the recent livestreams. Ever since TS and Rookie were eliminated in the first round, they haven't had a chance to be licked. The streamer has been very focused recently!】

【Reasonable, it's very reasonable to be closer to your grandpa than your parents. Do you understand what "intergenerational affection" is!】

As for Crystal Brother, who appeared in the video later, since he was not involved in taking a stance, his emotions were actually much more normal than those of the De Yun Se members.

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~lei~ma! Ye~wen!" Crystal Brother drawled in his standard elongated tone.

"Operation Immortal!"

"This guy only plays cool with you! Anyway, if he can make a play, he will make a play, it's just stone-cold!"

The video subsequently featured commentary from Doinb, Zzitai, 957, and many other secondary streamers, which was truly entertaining.

However, 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 excited; he raised his "Little Fist Stone" with a flushed face, breaking his fast for EDG's truly wonderful ending.

"To be honest, I dare not imagine how miserable this game would have been if the bot lane had developed better!"

"I can only say it's truly worthy of being from EDG. Ip Man is too good at messing with the bot lane, Clearlove was the same back in the day."

At this moment, Clearlove, who happened to walk 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 up so early every day~"

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

There was no help for it; this was the treatment for a carry big brother.

Thinking back to 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 clearly not the first time.

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

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

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

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

"Clearlove, take your time eating. I'll head out first."

Even on a holiday, 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 start.

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

If there were no scrims, he would just play ranked.

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

Ming Kai watched him from afar until the back that was clearly heading toward the other training room 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, and 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, Samsung Gen. G had already swept LSB to advance to the finals. The winner of today's semifinal would advance to the finals to face Samsung and compete for the number one 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 Zefa, were clearly not very compatible with the tone of this T1, especially since both of them seemed to be "at odds" with Faker.

One created 16 sets of permutations and combinations but never managed to get ZOFGK right, and the other engaged in palace intrigue that almost drove people away, and the team's performance during their coaching tenure wasn't good either.

In the end, T1's top management made such a decision.

It was very clear that Bengi serving as head coach was not primarily for coaching.

It was to cooperate with Faker!

There were rumors that this T1 was now almost entirely doing their own BP, and the coaching staff were just assistants helping to do some data collection and preparation work.

Anyway, T1's performance in the Spring Split was gratifying, proving that the effect was indeed acceptable.

"That's about it. Anyway, they're all old opponents, nothing special." After Bengi finished the overall planning, he suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, Sang-hyeok, look at something."

Bengi transferred the footage to the big screen in the preparation room; it was a match recording.

"This is the LPL playoff recording from yesterday."

Keria just glanced at it and was a bit confused: "I saw this match on TikTok yesterday, wasn't it three-nil? There's no strength gap to look at."

Bengi shook his head.

"It's not this, it's the Glacial Augment Azir strategy in the third game. The effect in the match yesterday was good, so we went to check it out."

"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 we found yesterday that the win rate is abnormally high. Sang-hyeok, see if you can use it."

Li Li Xianghe was initially calm.

If the usage rate is low, then a high win rate is normal; this means it's all being used by master players.

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

However, when he saw the ID in the recording.

He suddenly remembered something.

Li Li Xianghe watched the several key nodes selected by the competition training group, commenting while watching.

"There is something to be learned, but it's not something that can suit everyone."

"If you build this, the maturity phase will be at least 1-2 minutes slower than Liandry's, and using E-Q to keep people is ultimately a risky behavior, even if you have R to save your life."

"If you can't use this thing to achieve enough roaming effects, this is a negative-economy item that can only be used as a surprise move for specific matchups, or for players who are particularly suited to this style."

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

He saw the advantages and disadvantages of this item at a glance.

Bengi shrugged; anyway, he was just mentioning it to the other party at the end of the discussion to ensure that the players wouldn't have an information gap. This was the basic duty of the coaching staff.

But, it was at this moment.

Li Li Xianghe suddenly bent his neck forward and narrowed his eyes.

"How could..."

His strange behavior drew the attention of the teammates beside him.

It was just that everyone was a bit confused, not knowing what the other party was surprised about.

Because the recording screen at this time had already played to the last wave, and everything looked plain and unremarkable.

Except for the fact that the five people from BLG on the opposite side were chasing too deep, there didn't seem to be anything special.

And there had clearly been several quite brilliant operations before, but the other party didn't have this reaction.

"Rewind a bit." Li Li Xianghe pointed and said.

Bengi rewound thirty seconds.

Li Li Xianghe leaned closer to the screen even more, watching carefully. In the last wave, Azir E-Qed across the river.

"How could this possibly get through..."

Listening to the other party's confused voice, Gumayusi asked with concern: "What's wrong, Sang-hyeok older brother? Isn't Azir E-Q a basic operation? I've seen you fly further than this."

Li Li Xianghe shook his head.

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

It was precisely because this seemed to be Azir's basic operation that everyone watching seemed to have no problem with it.

But Li Li Xianghe knew Azir too well; there wasn't a place on the Rift he hadn't flown over, which was why he noticed the abnormality at a glance.

Li Li Xianghe entered the training match, teleported to the mid-lane river, and completed the upgrade.

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

Once.

Five times.

Ten times.

In the training camp, Azir could only land at 80% of the distance between the two walls most of the time, and at most, he could only fly to the wall, unable to even get completely close to the wall.

Let alone fly over the wall.

"Huh?"

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

They finally knew why Li Li Xianghe had such a reaction.

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

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

"No, this is all wrong."

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

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

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

"But even if I stand at the position of this first sand soldier below and use Q directly, I can't poke to the shore from here."

"So it's not that my E-Q isn't extreme enough, it's that the distance isn't enough at all, it didn't even reach the distance where I could try to get over the wall."

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

Li Li Xianghe's first half was very confident, firmly believing that he hadn't made an operational error.

But the second half was filled with surprise.

Li Li Xianghe watched the recording several times————and soon discovered the clue!

That Azir quickly placed two Ws.

W had 2 charges, and the "charge CD" of continuously placing sand soldiers could also receive the benefit of cooldown reduction, so quickly pressing two Ws when busy was a very normal operation.

But the problem was.

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

It was as if... the sand soldier had come to life!

It was precisely this step forward that allowed Azir to E to a position one step further back and then use Q, thus just enough to reach the distance to get over the wall, achieving "crossing the river."

Li Li Xianghe figured it out.

But, Li Li Xianghe was also even more confused.

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

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

Li Li Xianghe verified his idea in the training camp and confirmed that it was indeed the case.

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

"Hey, if even Sang-hyeok older brother can't do it, then this must be a bug!" Gumayusi, the number one Faker fan, concluded.

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

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

"However, it doesn't matter anymore. Even if Azir died, it was equivalent to stealing a Baron with his life. It's still a profit, so it doesn't matter if it's a bug or not." Bengi, the elderly Faker fan, said so.

Only Zeus and Faker himself didn't speak.

Because these two had both seen Ye Bo use very strange operations with their own eyes.

Li Li Xianghe didn't believe in evil and continued to try, but no matter what, he couldn't complete it.

It just wouldn't work.

And the more it didn't work, the more he had a curiosity that clawed at his heart.

Li Li Xianghe saw the speed and operation of the other party when using it, and was very sure that it wouldn't be something Ye Bo pressed unintentionally.

This could be proven with just one point.

The interval CD for releasing W was 1.5 seconds; even if Azir had CD, it would take about 0.7 seconds to continuously release the second sand soldier.

Ye Bo was clearly pausing for a moment in place, which was why he gave Aphelios the chance to flash and auto-attack with the purple blade, and finally, he flew up while holding the control from the Q, which was still considered a control cancellation.

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

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

The only difference was that Ye Bo was pleasantly surprised at the time.

Because he knew he would soon be able to master those unknown parts, and was just full of curiosity about the unknown.

But Li Li Xianghe had no clue at this moment.

When a person who has reached the top thinks they have mastered everything about this thing, only to suddenly discover that there is still something they don't know... or even have nowhere to know.

This feeling is somewhat torturous.

And at this time.

Li Li Xianghe also happened to see an ID in his friend list that was {in queue}.

"chinesekungfu"

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

Recalling the two previous exchanges, Li Li Xianghe felt that he could be considered to understand the other party and knew what kind of people they both were.

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

Li Li Xianghe hesitated for a while, but still opened the chat interface.

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

He clicked it open and was incredibly surprised!

【hi ye, can i ask, why you azir, there river eq so far】

【of course 0.0】

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

Their English levels were equivalent, and Ye Bo caught the frequency and understood the meaning in seconds, replying without even thinking.

But then he was in trouble again.

【viper is sleep, can you wait, or can i chinese?】

【ok, we have translators】

Naturally, it was impossible for the T1 base not to have a Chinese translator; after all, they had many business collaborations such as livestreams in China, so this was not a difficult thing.

Just like this.

An exchange almost identical to the last scene was staged again.

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

【It's like this, I discovered that sand soldiers essentially have "collision volume." This can be proven by the fact that as long as you use Q on stacked Ws, they will inevitably be "forced to separate" by position.】

【Using this mechanism, you can try to achieve the technique of "using the sand soldier behind to 'push' the sand soldier in front over the wall."】

【As for why W can be stacked, I guess it should be that the designer deliberately added such an "operation lubricant" so that the casting of W doesn't affect the usage feel, but it doesn't affect the essence.】

【And I believe you definitely know the casting mechanism of "wall-blocking W."】

【So, if we combine these three mechanisms and then cast W by "targeting the wall in the distance," we can achieve a very magical operation.】

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

The way he discovered it was somewhat coincidental.

In order to be able to skillfully use the "super-distance" E-Q drift, Ye Bo specifically spent a whole night in the "Trial Grounds" practicing this.

And it was during the practice process that he cast W at the wall countless times, and just by the coincidence of his mouse drifting out those few times, he captured that strange change.

Then.

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

【if you need, i can record a video, so easy】

Ye Bo switched the last sentence to English.

Li Li Xianghe listened to the Chinese translator beside him reading a book from heaven, and indeed felt more confused the more he listened.

After hesitating for a while, he still sent 【thank you】.

Since he had already asked, if he didn't figure it out, wouldn't it have been a waste of asking?

The two exchanged contact information.

Ye Bo also learned today.

It turns out that foreigners also use WeChat... and the international version and domestic version of WeChat can actually be used to add friends directly!

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

He didn't feel it was troublesome; after all, the other party had also answered his questions without reservation before, and he felt that doing so was "reciprocity."

Exchanging insights!

【

Li Li Xianghe received the file and couldn't wait to click on the video to check it.

Then he saw an outrageous operation!

Sand soldiers could not only stack one forward, but could even keep stacking forward like "Arhat stacking"!

Azir's max-level W after having some CD was less than 3 seconds, and it was possible to reproduce it in actual combat!

In terms of operation, it turned out that not only could you not be close to the wall, but you had to deliberately stay away from the wall to achieve the wall-blocking, and then deceive the system by changing the casting target with the mouse pointer...

Li Li Xianghe suddenly realized!

"It really is chinesekungfu."

And what surprised him even more was.

The speed at which the other party sent the video, and the time in the upper right corner of the training camp, could prove that it was just done immediately.

But in the video, the judgment of the extreme distance required was done in one go, and as for the fluency of those super-long E-Qs, it could be called effortless!

From the last time the other party asked him to now, it had been less than half a month.

Recalling the other party's performance in the match just now with shock...

"He practiced it like this in half a month!?"

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

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

He clicked on the WeChat interface again.

Lee: 【Very powerful technique, thank you.】

Ye: 【(Animated emoji)】

Ye: 【Good luck with the match tonight, see you at Worlds!】

Li Li Xianghe couldn't help but laugh after reading the software translation.

Wishing me luck...

Your playoff semifinals haven't even started yet, and you're already in such a hurry to study us.

However, although EDG hadn't confirmed their spot at Worlds, based on their Summer Split regular season ranking points and the winner's bracket semifinal round, it could indeed be said that they had one foot in.

He also replied:

【See you at Worlds.】

(End of chapter)