Chapter 117: Snipe? Set a trap! Anti-snipe Dragon Tail Whip!

"My god! Even the streamer didn't know Sylas could E over the wall like that; Ye Bo is truly capable of doing some real research!"

"Oh Tian, oh Tian, what a pity, what a pity, he was just too careless."

"I know him best! He must have thought the Viego was camping him in the jungle, never imagining Viego would just stay in the bush and never leave!" Doinb recalled the days when he used to remote-control his jungler, shaking his head.

"TES's mid-jungle 2v2 is clearly stronger in the early game; you can tell by Sylas specifically taking Ignite. If the mid-jungle matchup is compromised, TES's team composition will have no power spike!"

TES's draft strategy for this game is simple: use the early-game counter-matchup advantage in the mid-jungle to force plays, then use double-poke combined with double-engage to fight front-to-back teamfights in the mid-game.

After several nerfs, Viego's early-game brawling ability is not what it used to be; at the very least, he definitely can't beat Lee Sin.

And those who could stand a chance against Lee Sin in the draft before were either clunky heroes like Trundle or Volibear, or heroes like Xin Zhao or Vi who are hard-countered by Poppy!

Ye Bo taking Ignite is indeed partly for this reason—to strengthen his early-game mid-jungle skirmishing ability so as not to fall into a clear disadvantage.

Of course, there is another reason for taking Ignite.

"Viego possesses Lee Sin, turns around, and chases Vex to chunk her health!" Guan Zeyuan stared intently at the unfolding situation: "Of course, Vex has her passive up, so she can't die, and her health is still healthier than Sylas's."

"In that case, Sylas is going to lose quite a few minions here."

Jike nodded: "Sylas will lose a little, but he got First Blood, and the jungler can invade the red buff quadrant to make up for it in the jungle. This was a huge sacrifice from the mid laner!"

"Wait, but it seems player Ye isn't planning to recall yet?"

Although Sylas took a bite out of Lee Sin with his W, his health is at most 30%, which is still quite unhealthy.

Meanwhile, Vex didn't take much damage the whole time; she was just kicked by Viego after he possessed Lee Sin, and her health is still at 60%.

At this health level, it seems like Vex should continue to stay in lane while Sylas recalls.

Sylas had come to assist while there was a wave under the tower, but because he didn't clear the tower wave quickly, the second wave arrived to form a "slow push."

Under normal circumstances, one would only let Viego help the mid laner push.

But Viego doesn't seem to want to help push the mid lane; he went straight to the jungle to steal the red buff.

Instead, when Sylas returned to the lane from the river, Vex, who was preparing to stay for another wave... actually retreated directly!

"Knight is doing this! Is he going to recall first? Just letting Sylas take the farm so easily!" Jike said in surprise.

Guan Zeyuan excused him: "Actually, it's reasonable. Don't look at Vex's health as healthy; against an Ignite Sylas, she might be nearing the execute threshold. Playing it safe is no problem!"

"Anyway, Vex has Teleport, so she won't be losing out."

Wang Duo frowned: "But this way, Sylas goes from losing half a wave to comfortably clearing the slow push by himself, and Viego also saved time to steal the red buff."

"How is it that the low-health Sylas is the one playing aggressively, while the healthier Vex is playing it safe..."

This moment highlights the difference between the two players.

The casters' interpretation of the macro game is decent, but it's hard to see through the details of such top-tier laning mind games at a glance.

Actually, Knight's play here wasn't wrong either.

Vex's passive has a long 25-second cooldown in the early game, which was just used to protect herself and drive away Viego. Even if she procs the passive with an auto-attack, it still has over ten seconds of cooldown left.

And this means that for these ten-plus seconds, Vex lacks the {interrupt dash} ability to counter Sylas.

If Vex wanted to stop the opponent from pushing this slow push, or actively used skills to push back.

You don't even have to think about it; Ye Bo would 100% try to cross the minion wave and seize the opportunity to go all-in!

With the extra damage from Ignite, there would be a chance to secure a kill!

So rather than wasting ten seconds of laning time and nervously waiting for Sylas to push the wave in, it's safer and more efficient to just Teleport early and come back; it's the choice that avoids losing anything.

It's just that if Ye Bo were Vex, he would definitely make a different decision; he would never let Sylas farm so comfortably.

After all, it's obvious... could Vex really have no room for outplay?

Obviously not!

No matter how high the execute threshold of an Ignite Sylas is, it's a fact that he is at low health; if he misses even one small skill, he could be counter-killed!

Aside from his W and passive, Sylas's Q and E are all non-targeted skills, so there is a lot of room for "outplaying" and "being outplayed."

So in the end, it's just that Knight chose to "play it safe" and didn't want to gamble on such dangerous plays; this was also shown in previous trades.

Especially after seeing the opponent brought {Ignite}, which greatly raised the danger threshold, his "safety" was pushed to the extreme.

One can only say that a defensive player is a defensive player.

All his safety awareness is focused on the laning phase!

And the impact of this "safety" continues to manifest.

"I feel like Knight's counter-pick in this game doesn't have much pressure?"

"Logically, their mid-jungle combo should be brainlessly invading the opponent's jungle, or at least suppressing the opponent's mid-jungle tempo, but Vex doesn't seem to be pressuring Sylas much, which leads to Tian's invasions only being on the fringes..."

"Wait, no, why is he playing so safely!"

Doinb felt extremely depressed inside, even helping to say a few words.

What depressed him was... when Knight was suppressing him this year, he didn't play like this, did he?

Doinb was "brutally beaten" by Knight for the whole year; in their 6 meetings, he only had a positive score in 1, and gave away 4 match MVPs.

There were even four games where he had an explosive KDA with 0 deaths!

Doinb knows best what Knight's laning pressure is like.

When his roaming playstyle meets Knight, the opponent is very good at using laning ability and extreme forward pressure to control the wave, not giving you any chance to clear it quickly.

And he will seize every opportunity to trade health to lower your HP, making it impossible for you to find a gap to move, forcing you to take damage in lane, or even finding a chance for a solo kill!

He played so arrogantly!

In this game, Vex against Sylas, as a counter-pick, should logically have created such a situation.

But, it just didn't happen!

Knight's Vex neither applied extreme forward pressure to control the wave nor actively used skills to try and trade; he just pushed the wave normally, at most exchanging a few skills before stopping.

If you ask Doinb... this is simply like a different person, treating people differently!

How can there be two faces!?

The casters' explanation for this is that Sylas has an extra Ignite, while Vex has no Flash, and using skills actively would consume her passive fear, which is why he is so cautious.

But obviously, Sylas has no Flash either.

Of course, doing this also has its effects.

Vex is indeed a strong counter to Sylas in a 1v1, leaning towards a reactive counter—meaning it's not easy for Sylas to find an opportunity to strike first.

Because of this, the two mid laners were forced into a period of {mutual containment}.

And without the intervention of the two mid laners, neither side's jungle is easy to overextend into.

Five and a half minutes in.

"Both mid laners have reached level six... but Knight is very detailed! He backed off early and didn't give Sylas a chance to steal his ultimate!"

The experience difference between the two is negligible; although Sylas lost some tower minions during his level 3 assist, the subsequent successful push and the experience from the kill meant he was at most behind by two or three minions.

But Knight caught this detail.

Just as he was about to reach level six, Vex suddenly pushed forward and threw out EQ to hard-push the wave, then immediately backed off to create space, intentionally missing a few minions.

The reward for sacrificing those few minions was that Vex reached level six half a step earlier and forced the wave to be pushed.

And after Sylas reached level six, he could no longer find Vex, so he couldn't steal her ultimate.

"Be careful, Vex is missing. Her level one ultimate isn't long; everyone pay attention to these positions," Ye Bo quickly placed several warning pings on the mini-map.

He doesn't understand Vex very well, but the mechanics of this hero can almost be described as "simple and brainless."

Vex's level one ultimate has a range of only 2000 yards, about the distance of one full screen; it's far from the half-map flight effect of Twisted Fate or Galio, so it's not impossible to defend against.

Of course, once hit by the R, you're basically half dead.

Ye Bo looked at the map, hesitating and thinking.

Due to hero counter-matchups, Vex is always the one with the initiative; disappearing from vision early gives her more time to roam, making it hard for Ye Bo to judge where she went.

Their top laner is Sejuani, who looks hard to gank, but in reality, the double level six and double burst of Jayce + Vex means that if the jungler is camping, a 3-man dive on 1 definitely has a chance to succeed.

If Sejuani falls, the 2v2 situation in the top jungle might change.

And there's no need to mention their own bot lane; Draven is the core of the team's tempo, so he definitely cannot accept being dived. Even if it's a trade, if they don't get a kill, it's a huge loss.

After a moment of contemplation, Ye Bo made a decision.

"Jiejie, you go top, I'll go bot to protect. If they do a four-man dive, Flandre will TP down."

"OK!"

Ye Bo made the choice to cover both top and bottom.

Because the composition the Blue side chose this game is very comfortable; they don't need to rush the tempo in the early game, they just need to wait for resource fights to find opportunities for Draven to cash in.

Ye Bo walked downwards after pushing the wave.

Because the team's focus is on the bottom lane, the protection in the bottom quadrant is naturally deeper; both the {river bush} and the {red buff outer wall bush} have control ward vision protection.

But the casters, seeing Sylas's movement, couldn't help but shout in surprise.

"Tian must have bypassed the vision here! He passed through EDG's layers of vision defense; this is very detailed!"

"Of course, even if the opponent's vision detected him, he wouldn't be afraid, because Vex has the opportunity to support from a distance! They can still win the 2v2!"

"Then player Ye might be in trouble!"

Lee Sin had just used his ward-hop to get over the dragon pit wall, cleverly passing through the blind spot between the {red buff outer wall bush} and the {bottom lane tri-bush}, lurking in the red buff bush.

And at this moment, Vex was standing outside the dragon pit.

Preparing to "Snipe"!

Sylas passed through the protection of the control ward without noticing the danger, and never expected that a Lee Sin was providing "human vision."

"Come, get ready, Knight! He's dead in this position!"

Vex, positioned below, found the right spot, and the excited shadow flew forward, predicting with her ultimate 【Shadow Surge】!

Knight's fundamentals are quite solid; this prediction accurately guessed Sylas's path, and Sylas would only see it after it flew over the dragon pit wall.

There was almost no time to react!

"Prediction hit! And Xiaotian had already cleared the Blast Cone in advance while invading!"

"They've launched a sniping operation against player Ye!"

"It's over, he's definitely dead; Sylas doesn't have Flash for this!"

The commentary desk seemed to have already determined Sylas's fate.

Ye Bo hadn't expected a Lee Sin to emerge from behind in his own bright lower quadrant.

The opponent's true target was actually him!

Facing the sudden assault, he immediately began thinking of countermeasures, refusing to accept that death was certain.

Vex landed, W for a stable fear, then followed up with EQA to deal full damage.

This champion's mechanics are just that simple and unadorned; as long as the R lands, the landing W is almost guaranteed to be a point-blank fear, followed by a full combo of skills dealt steadily.

Lee Sin then unleashed QE, and Sylas's health plummeted!

Fortunately, the duration of the {Fear} from Vex's passive skill "scales with level," and the control duration at level 6 only increases from 0. 5 seconds to 1 second.

The moment Sylas broke free from the crowd control, he first W-d to drain some health to hang on, then immediately E2-d toward the Dragon Pit!

With maxed-out details, he first Q-d to "wake up" the dragon, then E-d, successfully using the positioning to fly into the Dragon Pit.

"Save Ye Bo, save Ye Bo!" Meiko was just about to move.

"No, no, no, no! Don't come!" Ye Bo shouted urgently.

Because the jungler had gone to the top lane, if both sides' bottom lanes arrived together, it would be a 4-on-3; if Draven in the bottom lane lost his stacks, it might truly be a total disaster!

Therefore, Ye Bo immediately called them off, wanting to try it himself.

"Come, come, come, surround, surround, surround! He can't run!" Xiaotian followed him down with a ward-hop, shouting excitedly.

"Xiaotian, watch out for the damage!" Left Hand said indistinctly, not knowing if the other had heard clearly.

Vex, without Flash to get over the wall, chose to circle around from above to flank, and the bottom lane duo had also arrived from the river entrance.

A three-sided encirclement!

Sylas had no other choice but to rush toward the direction of the opponent's jungle.

"Player Ye is still struggling to stall for time; there is indeed no way to rescue him in this position, but EDG has turned to make a move on the top lane!"

"Jayce reacted extremely quickly, using E to hammer and interrupt Sejuani's Q! But Viego arrived from behind, and Jayce didn't dare let the Sword-Pig combo's coordination play out, so he could only Flash to escape!"

"And because his teammates aren't there, it's hard to survive under the tower; Jayce might be driven all the way back to the second tower!"

"By the way, is there a possibility that Sylas might feed the tower here..."

Just as Ye Bo was about to walk into the jungle, facing the three people walking from behind and below, he chose to steal Lee Sin's ultimate.

The members of TES also thought of this possibility.

Because Sylas had flown into the Dragon Pit using the dragon as a displacement unit, even though Lee Sin had warded-hopped over the wall immediately, there was already a distance between them.

And Xiaotian didn't dare to Q in himself.

Because the dragon had subsequently switched its attack target to the closer Lee Sin, and Lee Sin had been spat on for three or four dragon breaths while chasing, his health had dropped slightly.

Xiaotian was very clear about the execute threshold for an ignited Sylas; don't look at the fact that Lee Sin had only lost two bars of health, but if he were hit by all skills, he might actually be traded!

They had gone to such great lengths to ambush him.

A 1-for-1 was absolutely an unacceptable result!

Sylas had already walked to the outer wall of the Blue Buff, heading toward the second tower.

"I'll save Flash, I'll save Flash!" Mark saw that Sylas might be thinking of feeding the tower, walked to the corner, and decisively Flashed over the wall!

Braum Q-Flashed forward, slowing him to keep him there!

Relying on the slow, he caught up and began throwing punches to trigger his passive.

"Give the kill to Tian!" JKL had already begun allocating the kill.

Xiaotian also had his fingers on Q, waiting for Braum to trigger the passive, or for Sylas to proactively use a skill, so he could immediately follow up with a skill to execute him.

But even though Sylas's W had come off cooldown, he didn't move at first.

He was still waiting.

The three stacks of 【Concussive Blows】 had been applied, and Braum was about to throw the fourth punch.

But the next moment.

Sylas E-d toward the upper side, and in mid-air, he transformed into a martial monk phantom————【His Own Path: Dragon's Rage】!

Ye Bo adjusted his orientation through the dash displacement, found the "goal" angle, and kicked the shield-wielding uncle in front of him away like a "bowling ball"!

Xiaotian's scalp went numb, and he instinctively used Flash to dodge!

However, Sylas had actually changed his target.

If 【Dragon's Rage】 is used to treat an enemy as a "ball" to knock up other enemies, the knocked-up enemy heroes will take additional percentage health damage on top of the equal amount of ultimate damage!

Originally, under Ye Bo's damage calculation, a point-blank R combo would just barely kill Lee Sin.

But Xiaotian was very cunning and didn't use his skills forward at all.

But that Braum, who had Flashed to keep him there, proactively provided himself as a "ball," which also provided a higher damage ceiling.

QE unleashed in mid-air.

The double chains, almost at the moment the three bowling balls collided, passed through the human wall to lock onto Ziggs!

"ERQEWA Sylas-Monk"!

Under the crowd control time of being knocked up in place by the Dragon's Rage, both 【Abduct】 and 【Chain Lash】 hit without pressure, paired with the instant burst of AWA + Ignite from Perseverance!

Ziggs was at full health, but he was only level four.

This full set of damage had already nearly torn the full-health Ziggs apart!

"What the hell!?"

JackeyLove hadn't expected the opponent's target to be himself.

Ziggs threw out all his bombs, coordinating with Sonic Wave to kill Sylas first.

But the Ignite on him was still burning.

At the same time, in a corner no one noticed.

The Sylas who had fallen first had an extra item in his inventory almost the moment he died————【Dark Seal】.

One second later, Ziggs's health bar was scorched away.

And the stacks on Sylas's Dark Seal became 2!

"My god! He can even counter-kill like this!?" Doinb shrieked exaggeratedly like a monkey.

"What a pity, they mobilized a division's worth of troops, how did they still get traded~"

"And it's not just me telling you... Ye Bo was so precise this time, just the part where he went into the Dragon Pit was very detailed!"

If Sylas had panicked and E-d directly into the dragon, the result would have been getting bounced back by the dragon and chased down by the Lee Sin who followed him down with a ward-hop.

But by Q-ing first and then E-ing, waking up the dragon while connecting the E2, he was able to avoid the "shockwave" at the moment the dragon was hit, which allowed Sylas to use the dragon for "displacement."

And afterward, the dragon would inevitably switch to attack the Lee Sin who was chasing behind, lowering Lee Sin's health slightly, creating the conditions for Sylas to counter-kill.

This was the best handling Ye Bo could think of in such a desperate situation.

Following that, in the jungle escape, if the opponent's bottom lane didn't use skills to chase, Sylas would have tried to feed the tower.

Then there was that kick while searching for an angle with Abduct.

Actually, not only did Xiaotian react, but JackeyLove also reacted.

But reacting is one thing; that doesn't mean you have to use Flash!

Shouldn't you use Cleanse to break the knock-up first?

It's just a pity that Ziggs didn't bring Cleanse this game; of course, JackeyLove truly didn't expect that he, at full health, would be in danger.

【Brother is like a roadside, kicked to death by an inexplicable sweaty foot!】

【Originally, it was destined by heaven to succeed, but our protagonist JKL stood up and shouted, "My fate is determined by me, not by heaven!" And then everything was reversed!】

【Success lies in heaven, failure lies in Yu!】

【Damn, isn't this just like Lee Sin's RQQ being a guaranteed hit? Sylas's REE is a guaranteed hit! Sylas-Monk!】

【This is the thief man, it's true that even me stealing your ultimate is better than you; whatever you can do, I can do, it's not an exaggeration to say he's the champion with the most possibilities!】

【Isn't this Lee Sin's basic operation? Ah, no way, no way, there can't really be anyone who can't hit a Lee Sin RQQ, right!】

Just as the counter-kill erupted, a cheer suddenly swept through the audience.

Ming Kai couldn't help but wave his arms!

Ye Bo's father, watching the changes around him, didn't understand what had happened: "Why are they so excited? Isn't this just one kill traded for one kill? It's not a big deal, is it?"

Ye Ying, while clapping hard, explained to him: "It's not as simple as you think! Little Bo's opponent lost everything!"

"Think about it, four people using so many skills to catch one person, and the result was only a 1-for-1; it's equivalent to you spending all your effort preparing for a week of night fishing, only to catch zero fish; it's pure baiting, all for nothing!"

Ye Ying's extremely vivid explanation made Ye Xiong, who loves fishing, understand in a second: "Ah, then that is a huge loss!"

Ming Kai, listening from the side, couldn't help but laugh.

But that really is the logic.

He spoke up to add an explanation: "It's not just that; Ye Bo kicked two of them to low health with that one kick, and forced two more Flashes, and then the opposing lineup is very slow at taking the dragon and doesn't dare to risk starting it, and our top lane has already taken plating!"

"This is equivalent to... painstakingly baiting, catching no fish, and also feeding all the fish in the pond!"

At this time, the director and the commentary desk finally noticed the changes in the equipment bar.

"Player Ye actually finished off with a Dark Seal! A Dark Seal with stacks!"

"Ziggs died almost a second or two after him, wow, his hand speed is so fast!"

"This is equivalent to a carefully laid ambush by the TES mid-jungle, and the final result was actually shattered by Sylas, who turned around and generated nearly 1000 gold in economy!"

"Moreover, Vex's first wave of tempo has ended with such an outcome; for the next critical canyon team fight, the TES summoners are still missing spells. This... perhaps this will be a foreshadowing!"

(End of chapter)