Chapter 119: 《First Scientific Research》!

"EDG is cutting through the chaos like a sharp blade, securing a quick victory with an aggressive push to bring the score to one-nil!" Wang Duo raised his voice.

"The style of EDG this summer has changed drastically; they are now like a sharp, blood-thirsty scimitar! Once you get cut even once, you'll be bleeding out everywhere—the pressure is immense!"

Remember smiled with a regional accent: "That's true. That play where Sylas stole Vex's ultimate to pull off a 'Flying Thunder God'—it really felt like something Ye came up with on the spot, and it left Top Esports so rattled they didn't even know how to play the game anymore."

The commentary desk was being very tactful.

In truth, to be more precise, a "brute-force team" like Top Esports that lacks key shot-calling is prone to a total collapse once they fail to unleash their raw power.

The spotlights in the center of the arena flickered incessantly, and the giant funnel-shaped screen displayed the collective headshots of the EDG roster.

The EDG fans in the stands were a massive force, waving their team flags with all their might.

Ye Bo took off his headset and left the Rift, but the feverish heat in his heart had yet to fade.

The long-absent, noisy restlessness of the live venue rushed into his ears without the obstruction of the soundproof headset, igniting a bonfire in the depths of his heart and causing his self-confidence to swell and burn rapidly!

Offline matches are just the best.

This is the stage of his dreams!

Although the venue was only one-third full due to capacity restrictions, the stage for the finals was still significantly grander than the regular season; the volume of the audience and the atmosphere of the event were simply incomparable.

Ye Bo and his teammates walked off the stage shoulder-to-shoulder, his gaze subconsciously drifting toward the stands.

In the front row, Ming Kai was grinning with a face full of wrinkles, giving a thumbs-up; his mother was waving her hands in excitement; and his father was standing with his arms crossed, expressionless.

Ye Bo waved vigorously in their direction, a warm and radiant smile on his face.

"Master Ye is waving at me!"

"It's clearly at me, okay? Quick, quick, did you help me take a photo just now?"

"Are you still asleep? It's obviously at me; I even made eye contact with him!"

"Master Ye is actually quite handsome when he smiles."

Ye Bo's parents listened to the young men and women around them discussing their son, and several people even held up and waved cheering banners, the stylized "Ye" signature on them fluttering in the air.

Ye Ying grinned broadly.

However, Ye Xiong only allowed the corners of his mouth to lift by a couple of pixels—and that was only after he watched Ye Bo disappear into the player tunnel, finally relaxing his tense expression.

Ming Kai turned his head to look at the two elders and asked, "Uncle, Auntie, would you like to go backstage and take a look?"

"Ah, we can go backstage!?" Ye Ying sounded noticeably surprised.

But Ye Xiong immediately said calmly, "Let's not go. Wait until he finishes playing; don't make him nervous."

Ye Ying suddenly realized: "Right, right, right! Better wait until he's done; this is a best-of-five, they might play five games!"

"Haha, he shouldn't be nervous, though. I don't think I've ever seen him nervous; this guy has a great mentality!" Ming Kai laughed, turned his head, and shifted his waist to sit up straight.

"Besides, this final shouldn't go to five games. We have a pretty big advantage right now; I feel like you two can already start thinking about what to say to him later..."

Ming Kai was habitually planning ahead.

But this wasn't entirely baseless.

After all, EDG won the first game in a very overwhelming fashion. Even though it was helped by the draft advantage from being on the blue side, once they secured the lead, the opponent had no chance for a head-on team fight, but the form of the players on both sides was still evident.

The livestream was currently showing the highlight reel.

"Master Ye's play there was truly exaggerated; he even managed to turn that around! I thought for sure he was dead there!" Jie Jie said happily, watching the ambush sniper play from Xiaotian in the shadow vision.

"That R-Q-Q-E-E was indeed handsome! Honestly, it was more accurate than the blind monk kicks from the Factory Manager!" Meiko chuckled while the Factory Manager wasn't backstage.

"Your account is gone," Viper blurted out a famous quote from the Factory Manager, making everyone burst into laughter.

However, after Ye Bo finished laughing.

In truth, he didn't feel proud of that play himself; he was actually reflecting on it.

"Actually, I was a bit lucky there. If the opposing support hadn't used Flash to hold me, and if the blind monk had been cautious enough to just not go in, I would have had to give up the tower. Not having Teleport would have been quite painful."

"Still not cautious enough. The opponent had a Vex; I should have considered that the river area might have been warded."

Saint Gun Brother offered some comfort: "It's normal. People aren't machines; you can't account for everything. You handled that play perfectly already. If it were me, I would have at most thought to E the Krugs, and I still wouldn't have escaped."

Ye Bo nodded.

Although he had successfully outplayed the situation in the end, he often looked for shortcomings and flaws even in winning games, and then worked to improve them.

He still held to that philosophy.

Discovering and improving while winning is always better than trying to change only after losing.

However, when Ye Bo watched the replay again, he suddenly leaned closer to the screen.

With his keen observation, he seemed to have discovered a small detail.

Watching the magical "Sorrowful Flying Thunder God" play from the mid-game again, it was still shocking enough to stun even his own teammates.

Poppy has been out for less than a year since the "staying up late" build surfaced, and combined with being a niche pick, it counts as a relatively new hero.

Never mind the operations performed by Sylas after stealing the ultimate.

Even for Poppy herself, no one at this point in time had ever discovered that she could be played like this!

It was absolutely groundbreaking!

"Master Ye, I'm really curious, how on earth do you discover these strange and bizarre operations?" Jie Jie leaned close to Ye Bo's head, making a gesture as if he wanted to cut it open to take a look.

"How else would I discover them? I don't have superpowers; I just tried them one by one!"

Ye Bo shrugged and said truthfully.

Ye Bo had always believed that the greatest help the system provided him was the existence of the "Trial Grounds."

It was precisely because of the Trial Grounds that he had more time than others to spend on researching and exploring these so-called "strange and bizarre" things.

And the reason he could pull off so many magical combinations of "The Way of Others" was naturally because he had spent a significant amount of time trying out every combination of heroes, truly testing them one by one.

Furthermore, what he had used so far was actually just the "tip of the iceberg."

After all, there are over 160 heroes in League of Legends, and each hero is an "iceberg" with most of its bulk buried beneath the sea.

And the process of exploring the true face beneath the ice through practice and honing was something that made Ye Bo feel incomparably excited and happy.

The rest of the EDG team listened without a shred of doubt regarding the truth of his words.

Most of them felt from the bottom of their hearts that, sure enough, nothing was a coincidence.

"Alright, let's talk briefly about the draft for the next game."

Also watching the replay was the Top Esports lounge.

Everyone kept their heads down, picking at their fingernails, their expressions somewhat inscrutable.

How exactly did they lose the first game?

If you had to say someone was throwing, it didn't really seem like it!

Although looking at the results, the jungler's several ganks in the early game were neutralized—but in reality, the setups for those plays were on point; they were just one move behind at the end.

The mid-laner wasn't solo-killed either, and in the laning phase, he didn't let Sylas play proactively, successfully fulfilling the role of a counter-pick, and he had some bright moments in team fights.

As for the top and bottom lanes, there didn't seem to be any major mistakes either.

But it was one move behind here, another move behind there, constantly piling up.

And then, a single explosive 1-for-5 trade directly tipped the scales!

By the mid-game, it had basically become the opponent's show; given the gap in operational skill and team composition, there was simply no chance for a comeback.

This led them to the point where they couldn't even find the reason why they lost.

As the team atmosphere fell silent, it was coach White Moon Crescent who spoke up.

"Next game we go to the blue side, the draft will be easier to manage. As it stands, our mid-lane pressure effect is still there."

He turned his head to look at Left Hand, clicking his ballpoint pen: "K-King, what do you say? If Sylas is available, should we let you unsheathe your sword next game?"

White Moon Crescent's coaching and drafting skills weren't great, but when it came to acting as the mood-maker, he was truly skilled and could really get along with the players.

As long as they weren't particularly rebellious, he could generally get along well with them; he could be called the Zhu Erkai of the team!

Left Hand looked left and right, mumbling as he met White Moon Crescent's gaze.

Only then did he open his mouth to say: "Anything is fine."

Xiaotian had some ideas, picking at his fingers and muttering: "Actually, I think Left Hand really isn't afraid of this guy in lane, but to say he can break through the opponent isn't easy either."

"So if there's no Sylas next game, why don't we try our most familiar old tactics? Let the mid-lane pick a tempo hero; that's the only way to get results."

JackeyLove also nodded in agreement: "I feel like we can try one game. That regular season match was, after all, just a regular season match; we didn't understand their playstyle then. Let's do it again, and the result might be different!"

White Moon Crescent thought about it and felt it made sense.

White Moon Crescent liked to let the players have their way; he believed that the team's morale would directly affect their state on the field. Losing that sharp edge would likely affect their courage to go in and make plays, and for a team like Top Esports, that would undoubtedly be fatal.

It was obvious.

A brute-force team like this, which didn't have much brainpower to begin with, once they started playing scared... that would probably just be a pure turtle-shell waiting to be beaten!

The intermission for the finals was longer, with various ceremonial activities taking place.

But when the players from both sides returned to their seats, the feverish cheers that erupted from the venue showed that the audience was clearly still wanting more.

"Welcome back to the live broadcast of the 2022 League of Legends Summer Finals!"

"The draft has already begun! The loser of the finals gets side selection; Top Esports, having lost the first game, has come to the blue side. First, they still send Akali to the ban list! And EDG directly sends Sylas to the ban list!"

"No problem there. I think all teams should start prioritizing Sylas; the ceiling for this hero is truly high, especially in the hands of a skilled player, and it also exerts a certain pressure on the draft!"

First round of bans—

TES: Akali, Taliyah, Braum

EDG: Sylas, Kalista, Poppy

Seeing the blue side use their final ban on Braum, EDG keenly sensed the opponent's intention.

They want to pick Draven!

Braum as a support is generally used to counter heroes who can generate a large amount of AOE in a short time, such as Miss Fortune or Twitch.

But because the shield from his E ability can directly swallow Draven's axes, during the laning phase when cooldowns aren't short enough, he has a unique counter-effect against Draven!

As Zeri is a typical hyper-carry hero with long-term sustained damage, Braum's shield, which only lasts for 3 seconds, is clearly not enough to deal with her, so there is little point in wasting a ban on him.

Sure enough.

TES on the blue side immediately snatched up Renata on the first pick, their intentions almost entirely exposed.

Because Zeri paired with Renata is quite abstract—the little water gun makes it easy to fail to trigger the revive—and if they wanted to pair her with Aphelios, there would be no need to specifically ban Braum.

Considering this, Ye Bo proposed changing the final ban from Zeri to Poppy, who counters Wukong.

The reason is simple: to force a choice.

If you take Renata, I take Wukong; both sides take one of the most popular picks for their respective positions, forcing an exchange.

This is the red side—you can only solve the puzzle and react, you cannot focus solely on your own intentions.

"EDG counters by grabbing Wukong! And it seems they have no intention of taking Zeri, instead picking Ashe as their AD!"

"Although the red side still has the top-tier Zeri + Yuumi combo available, this combo is too weak in the early laning phase and is easily exploited by the Draven system, while Ashe is the most standard AD capable of dealing with Draven!"

Clearly, even the commentary desk saw through TES's obvious draft intentions.

"TES has indeed picked the Draven + Lee Sin bot-jungle combo; it seems they want to return to their most comfortable aggressive bot lane system for this match!"

【The traditional classic Draven pick; since they don't know what to pick, they just pull out Draven for Brother, and here comes that determined look again~~】

【Always picking in the first round, damn it; does White Bud even know how to draft? Isn't this just waiting for the other side to target Brother!】

【Sigh, when EDG picks a bunch of dive-heavy heroes, Brother will get scolded for 'dying abruptly' by the haters again; I only feel bad for Brother!】

【Just White Bud's standard routine; can't handle it before the intensity even ramps up? Just wait, now that 369 is gone, there's plenty of 'blessings' for the water ghosts to enjoy! If you're so capable, call 69 back!】

【I don't think Ye Wen is that great either! He didn't even dare to leave Sylas open for Rookie, but look at how I dare to leave your Sylas open! Win!】

【Truly a massive win, though it was just getting a 25-stack PhD degree read by Sylas; at least he wasn't solo-killed, right? Still the KDA God, win!】

The EDG members revealed familiar smiles upon seeing this Draven.

It must be said that the presence of the coaching staff really does have a significant impact.

Facing White Crescent of TES and Homme of JDG, it is very obvious that TES's draft is much easier to guess and lacks so many tricks.

EDG picks Amumu as support, and both sides enter the second round of bans.

TES: Gragas, Camille.

EDG: Renekton, Galio.

Both sides are banning heroes capable of forced engages; after all, neither side's ADC has a dash, so facing a forced engage is still somewhat dangerous.

"Ye Bo, you pick last. I'll go first; just get me Kennen or Gnar," Flandre suggested proactively.

Ye Bo had no objections.

Ultimately, Kennen was selected for the top lane, piecing together a team-fight composition.

In fact, just looking at the lineup, Ye Bo had already guessed that the opponent's mid laner likely wanted to play a roaming style; otherwise, they wouldn't have self-banned Taliyah, and there would be no need to pick last when having the counter-pick on the red side.

But the reason Ye Bo still decided to pick last.

Is because he had an idea.

Ye Bo wanted to "test" something in this match.

"TES first picks Lissandra for mid, then Gnar for top! This lineup is also very comfortable; Lissandra and Lee Sin are a very classic, strong, tempo-based mid-jungle combo, and there are almost no late-game counters they fear!"

"This lineup is not only very 'Top Esports,' but besides looking very strong in early-game tempo, there also seems to be quite a bit of room for imagination in team fights..."

"Now we just have to see what mid laner EDG will pick on the fifth slot; however, there aren't many tempo-based mid laners left. Could it be something like Akshan?"

Seeing the opponent pick Lissandra mid on the fourth slot, Ye Bo whispered in his heart.

Subsequently, an interface appeared before his eyes.

【《Scientific Researcher》 Talent】

【Talent Active: {Choice} Select a niche hero that meets the criteria of a "counter-pick" for this match to gain an on-the-spot hidden bonus (1000 Counter-Attack Points/use)】

It wasn't that Ye Bo had no heroes to use.

Although Sylas, the best counter to Lissandra, was already gone, and there were no other meta heroes that particularly countered Lissandra, his own LeBlanc and Zoe were quite afraid of Lissandra's gank coordination.

But he still had Akshan and Yone to consider.

And the reason Ye Bo decided to try using this function here was actually for the upcoming World Championship.

Since obtaining this talent, because it requires spending Counter-Attack Points, Ye Bo hadn't used this active ability even once, instead frequently using the {Passive} to increase his understanding of niche heroes.

But because they had already confirmed their entry into the World Championship.

Everything about the world stage was unknown to Ye Bo and full of infinite challenges.

Having one more trump card meant having one more peace of mind.

Since Ye Bo insisted on saving his daily allowance, his Counter-Attack Points had long since reached five figures, so the cost of 1000 per use wasn't unbearable.

Experimenting once in advance to see what this thing was actually useful for would prevent him from being flustered when he truly needed it.

The interface began to scroll.

Soon, a magical and rare hero appeared before Ye Bo's eyes.

"This one..."

And as the fifth-slot member of EDG received the message, the fifth slot instantly locked in a hero icon.

The arena instantly resounded with bursts of buzzing!

"Fiddlesticks!?"

"This must be Fiddlesticks mid? It can't possibly be Wukong mid! Player Ye is doing scientific research!"

Both lineups were confirmed.

《Blue Side: TES || Red Side: EDG》

【Top: Gnar vs Kennen】

【Jungle: Lee Sin vs Wukong】

【Mid: Lissandra vs Fiddlesticks】

【ADC: Draven vs Ashe】

【Support: Renata Glasc vs Amumu】

And as the match locked in.

Three prompt boxes continued to appear before Ye Bo's eyes.

【Scientific Research Project】

【1. Whimsical Idea: Gain Level 7 proficiency in {Understanding}, mastering all hidden techniques (No practical experience; after the match, you can retain varying degrees based on memory and personal understanding)】

【2. Natural Fit: Gain Level 7 proficiency in {Practical Operation}, equivalent to the muscle memory of one thousand matches (No understanding experience; after the match, you can retain the practical muscle memory)】

【3. Self-Taught: Gain Level 6 hero proficiency on the spot; no extra retention after the match except for memory】

The descriptions were very direct and easy to understand.

Having {Max-Level Understanding} but no {Operation} is like knowing Zed's "Triple-Flower Convergence" but potentially missing your Q due to lack of practical experience.

Having {Max-Level Operation} but no {Understanding} is like not knowing Zed's Triple-Flower Convergence, but having a high hit rate on the simplest W-Q-Q.

The third option's meaning was even more direct, but it was clearly the one with the lowest "cost-performance ratio."

After a brief thought, Ye Bo did not hesitate much and quickly chose option one.

Because in his mind, Fiddlesticks should be a hero that doesn't rely too much on mechanics...

And as he read the information on understanding.

A strange light constantly flickered in Ye Bo's eyes!

(End of chapter)