Chapter 123: The Stone Statue's Back-Kicking Leg! The Zenith of the Jungle's Rear

The match enters the loading screen.

Before stepping down, Bai Se Yue Ya still worriedly cheered for Zuo Shou, telling him he must "believe in himself."

Clearly, the selection of this Galio was somewhat beyond their expectations.

And it is precisely this kind of unexpected turn of events that is most likely to make people feel fear.

Especially given that they are already trailing zero to two, the psychological pressure is multiplied.

Fortunately, this is just a Galio, not some hero they have never seen before.

The problem shouldn't be too big.

"Oh, don't worry, Coach Bai. K-Huang's Ahri is solid; playing against a Galio is easy!" JackeyLove said loudly, seemingly full of confidence.

Zuo Shou nodded gently.

Encouraged by his teammates led by JackeyLove, he gradually revealed a determined look in his eyes!

"Master Ye's Galio, it's here! He's finally here!"

On the other side, in Chujun's livestream, seeing that Ye Bo had picked Galio, he was so excited he almost turned into a zombie and started jumping on the spot.

"Before, people said Master Ye wouldn't play a hero like Galio! Everyone come out and talk now!"

After his excitement, Chujun hurriedly explained for Ye Bo in advance: "But to be honest, Galio is really not good at playing against Ahri. He picked it late this game mainly for the team composition. This Galio is a huge counter to the opposing lineup; if he gets pressured in lane, everyone should understand."

Come to think of it.

Although Ye Bo doesn't play it much, because Galio is a hero in the "Initial Minimum Guarantee" of the old man's blog, and he had practiced some mechanics before, he also triggered a hidden mission this game.

His comprehensive mastery is actually above that of the Fiddlesticks from the previous game.

The minion wave arrives.

Galio follows behind the minions, not giving Ahri the chance to get free damage with her auto-attack and Fox-Fire.

"Zuo Shou's playstyle this game is very aggressive. He'd rather take minion aggro and ruin the wave state just to trade health with Galio," Chujun said, eyes fixed on the mid-lane trades: "I feel like TES still has ideas for the mid lane this game. Do they not change tactics even when they're losing?"

"Master Ye is not the kind of Galio who just takes a beating to push the wave. He uses Winds of War to blow you, then uses the wind path to hit the minions too. Oh my, no problem at all, Master Ye's Galio!"

"Standard laning execution! I said it when I watched him play Galio against Zuo Shou last game; his understanding of Galio is definitely above Zuo Shou's!"

Although Chujun spoke very excitedly.

In reality, Galio is at a slight disadvantage in the trades.

The reason why Ahri is said to be good against Galio is mainly due to three aspects.

The first is the wave-clearing ability in the first few levels; due to her long-range advantage, Ahri is much stronger than Galio.

The second is the health-trading ability. Although Galio's magic shield makes it easy to withstand pressure against mages, if it's just an equal trade, Ahri has sustain after all, so she always comes out ahead.

The third is the E skill, Charm, which has a "knock-down" effect that interrupts movement.

This means that if Galio's only displacement skill is used straightforwardly to charge at her face, it will almost certainly be interrupted.

And although Galio's E has a "control cancellation" usage, that is only possible when winding up the first stage of the punch, making the mind-game difficulty far higher than the opponent's.

Reaching level two.

The trades between the two sides went exactly as everyone expected, as the hero characteristics are laid out there.

With neither side missing their skills, Ahri, relying on her passive Essence Theft for healing, has already created a health gap of about one potion—and this is with Galio learning W at level two and using the magic shield from its passive to mitigate the poke.

Of course, the reason he was poked down like this is simply because Ye Bo was unwilling to retreat and play passively to Q minions for farm.

He kept standing his ground to trade with the opponent and was also actively using his passive to hit the minion wave.

TES's core system for this game hasn't changed; picking this lineup likely means they are still counting on breaking the game through the mid-jungle.

And since Ye Bo picked Galio, he naturally cannot accept handing over the roaming priority to the opponent.

Ahri hits level three first.

She activates Fox-Fire for movement speed and pushes past the line!

Zuo Shou is under significant pressure from both inside and outside the game this time, and having been outplayed for two consecutive games and losing the lane MVP, he is now incredibly eager to prove himself!

There are still two full-health melee minions before Galio can reach level three; there's no reason not to seize the opportunity to press forward.

But Ye Bo did not retreat immediately.

His eyes were sharply fixed on the back-line minions—during the previous trade to poke Ahri, Galio had used his "Wind Path Q" to hit those three back-line minions.

Seeing Ahri's aggressive steps move into the gap between minions.

Galio flapped his wings, and two arcs of long-range wind blasted forward—aiming at the position slightly behind Ahri's feet!

Zuo Shou's first instinct was naturally to immediately walk out of the continuous percentage damage area of the "Wind Tunnel Q."

And because the position of the wind tunnel was biased toward the back, Ahri could only choose to move laterally.

But at the same time, Galio had already leaned forward, tucked his wings, and walked over while "charging"!

"Holy crap! Master Ye's laning details!" As a Galio specialist, Chujun quickly saw Ye Bo's intention.

Ahri was driven by the wind path to move laterally, and having just hit level three, she was completely unprepared. With one step in and one step out, she had walked into the maximum range of the "Durand Shield" charge.

Ahri threw out her Charm to interrupt Galio's charge.

But although the charging process of Durand Shield can be interrupted, it does not cause the taunt to disappear; it just ends the charge and automatically releases it on the spot!

"Charm" and "Taunt" triggered simultaneously!

But at this moment, Ahri had not yet walked out of the wind zone!

Ahri's level one E is 1. seconds, while Galio's W ranges from 0. to 1. seconds depending on the charge time.

This wave wasn't an instant interruption; the controls were just close in timing.

However, there is one key point.

"Taunt" makes the enemy walk into attack range to auto-attack—Ahri is ranged, so at this distance, she naturally stays put.

But the effect of "Charm" is that the enemy will move toward the caster!

The distance that originally existed between the two was instead closed during this exchange of crowd control.

The moment Ahri broke free from the CC, she ran backward. Galio chased and auto-attacked with his passive "Colossal Smash," the AOE splash killing all three ranged minions instantly and hitting level three!

{1 melee minion + 3 ranged minions is also enough to reach level three}

Galio kept chasing closely with the "Aftershock" light layer, the Aftershock damage exploded, and then he suddenly turned around for a "Reverse E"!

The Colossal body seemed to pivot in mid-air, suddenly kicking backward 275 yards in the opposite direction, closing in on Ahri's front, and kicking out with his arms raised!

Zuo Shou's hair stood on end instantly.

Without even thinking, he used Flash to create distance!

"My god! The pressure on Zuo Shou is huge!" Chujun slammed the table and shouted, explaining the reason to the audience.

Although the previous health trade was a slight gain, neither side's health was very healthy.

The numerical damage of Galio's skill combo is not something Ahri can compare to; at this point, the health lead had already reversed.

If he were to be knocked up by this reverse Justice Punch and let Galio trigger his passive a second time, not only would he inevitably have to burn Flash, but he might even have to burn Teleport as well!

Of course, if one didn't see the stakes immediately, this Flash would indeed look a bit sluggish.

"Ah, burned Flash at three minutes?" Jiejie said with some disbelief: "Is the laning pressure really that high?"

Didn't everyone say before the match that Ahri is good against Galio?

"Uh, burning Flash at half health is indeed a bit safe, but perhaps Zuo Shou considered that Xin Zhao might be nearby, worrying that if he got hit by the E, he wouldn't be able to run even if he flashed." Guan Zeyuan offered an explanation for Zuo Shou.

Wang Duo pointed to the mini-map: "It's coming; both junglers are moving toward the mid lane. This is the third consecutive game they've wanted to fight in the mid lane!"

Both junglers know very well that with such intense confrontation in the mid lane, the opposing jungler definitely can't help but come.

But now an unexpected situation has occurred.

Ahri has no Flash at level three!

If a 2v2 were to break out in the mid lane, there is no doubt that TES's winning chances are lower.

Xiaotian hovered for a while, thought about the encounters in the first two games, and finally chose to retreat.

After all, Ahri's health is still relatively healthy; as long as she doesn't overextend, she is not that easy to catch.

"Jiejie, you don't need to hover; they probably won't dare to initiate."

Ye Bo looked at Ahri's positioning, seeing no intention of stepping up to use E, and guessed that the opposing jungler had likely given up on the idea.

He still held his Flash and was completely unfazed.

"OK!"

Both junglers withdrew, and the mid lane began to return to normal laning.

It's just that because Ahri no longer has Flash, she clearly started to be less daring to press forward, worried about being held down by Galio's Flash-W initiation and killed in coordination with the jungler, so she could only temporarily give up competing for lane priority to stay safe.

Seeing this, Ye Bo's liberated thoughts turned rapidly, combining with an analysis of the battlefield.

"Everyone be careful, the opposing jungler should be going to gank someone this wave. If they are going to gank, I feel it might be top lane."

"Jiejie, you can go counter-jungle first; my support speed will definitely be faster."

The basis for Ye Bo reaching this conclusion is very simple.

Ahri is forced to lose lane priority; if Vi still wants to try to enter the jungle to counter-jungle at level three, what awaits her is Galio's preemptive encirclement and support, which is almost no different from seeking death.

If Vi goes to farm her own jungle, Galio can also use this lane priority advantage to support first and create a jungle advantage.

And since he has Flash in the mid lane, the opponent doesn't dare to gamble on a 2v2.

By process of elimination, it only leaves ganking top or ganking bottom.

The bot lane's Zeri and Yuumi don't have strong combat power before level three, whereas Kalista and Amumu have extremely strong combat power.

Not only is it hard to gank, but forcing a gank even carries significant risk.

As for the top lane, Kennen against Ornn, the long-range advantage means the minion wave is definitely hard to control, and Saint's position right now does indeed look like there's a slight opportunity.

It's still the same strategy as the last game; Kennen is very weak at fighting before level six. As long as TES can catch Kennen once, perhaps they might be able to use the top lane advantage to counter-invade the jungle, and they would have a fighting chance in the top half of the map.

Fighting into the third game.

Ye Bo is confident that he has completely seen through the minor, not-so-varied schemes of Top Esports!

And after completing the command layout.

Ye Bo also refocused his attention back to the laning phase.

The conditions for the "Hidden Mission" in this match are somewhat peculiar; surprisingly, it is not to win the game.

It is: "Solo kill the opponent once"!

And after all, having already faced off six times, Ye Bo understands the characteristics of this person, Knight. Winning against him might actually be simpler than killing him!

Just like the first time he met Knight in ranked, he didn't find an opportunity the entire game, and it was only with the final "Four-Fold Thrust" that he finished the mission right before the lane ended.

But in fact.

Ye Bo felt there was an opportunity during this wave of laning.

He knows very well how hard Ahri is to kill after level six—more importantly, many people seem not to understand the full damage of Galio's complete combo well enough.

For instance, the opponent's current state at about half health looks quite safe.

In reality, however, it has already entered the "execution range"!

It is just that the prerequisite is to be able to land the full combo, meaning one must start with {fully charged W} or {E start}, to land the full damage of the "Double Passive."

And this is clearly not easy to achieve.

Ye Bo is looking for the timing.

At the same time, the observer perspective noticed that no fight had broken out in the mid lane and also sensed changes in other directions.

"Tian is still camping in the tri-bush! This should be to wait for Flandre to come over and place a ward!" Guan Zeyuan even guessed Viego's intention: "But Flandre isn't falling for it at all; it's actually very hard to gank if he comes out like this!"

"Jiejie has already snuck into the blue buff, he's so bold. Does he really dare to counter-jungle like this without knowing Viego's position? You have to know that if a fight breaks out in the top half, TES has the power to put up a fight!"

Jike also analyzed: "The health of the mid laners on both sides will actually be about the same very soon, Ahri can heal after all."

"Hey!?"

Just as the commentary desk was still analyzing the situation in the top half of the map.

The director's camera turned rapidly, returning to the mid lane.

"No way, what is Galio doing!!!"

Immediately after, three system prompts sounded from the mid lane.

【EDG Ye Bo killed TES Knight!】

【First Blood!】

【EDG Ye Bo executed! (Killed by defensive tower)】

Everything happened way too fast.

When the director's camera detected the fight and cut back, the final moment seen was just Ahri, whose taunt had just ended, being forcefully smashed to death by the high-raised Colossal Smash!

"Solo kill? A solo kill!"

"A tower-dive solo kill!!!"

"And why was Galio killed by the tower? How was this done!"

"Replay, quick, look at the replay!"

Everyone in front of their screens leaned forward eagerly, wanting to see the truth of the replay.

They desperately wanted to know what happened!

The footage was rewound to 15 seconds ago.

Both sides traded skills in front of the tower. After Galio landed a Gale Winds on Ahri, he did not step forward to use his passive to clear the minions this time.

Instead, he just stood outside the tower, swaying.

This is actually quite normal; after all, pushing the lane in front of the tower makes one easily harassed by Ahri.

Also, because Galio stopped, the minion wave wasn't cleared quickly, and the second wave arriving seemed to have a tendency to push back.

Galio's Q skill has an 11-second cooldown, while Ahri's Q is 4 seconds faster.

Knight clearly had no intention to fight, only wanting to clear the wave quickly and return to base to TP back and reset the lane, so he used his skills as soon as they came off cooldown.

Of course.

Although no matter how you look at it, Galio had neither the opportunity nor the intention to kill.

But Ahri still held onto his E skill tightly; this was his amulet.

Yet Galio was still swaying outside the tower, just quietly watching Ahri clear the wave in front of the tower, doing nothing.

{The "Combat Kill Detection" time in Summoner's Rift is 15 seconds.

That is to say, at the 11th second, Galio took a step forward.

And this step... killing intent suddenly appeared!

Ahri, who was clearly still unaware under the tower, only saw a golden light suddenly flash before his eyes, and the Colossus was already right next to him, then kicked back!

But that backward-kicking stone leg—it kicked into the solid defensive tower!

The solid object blocked the backward distance of the E skill, and at the same time, it almost interrupted and canceled the casting animation, instantly kicking out a punch to knock the point-blank Ahri into the air!

A heavy punch smashed down first, then came the Gale Winds.

Next was the slow release of the {instant taunt} to bridge the full control duration, while waiting for the auto-attack interval and using the W damage to reset and refresh the passive.

The second Colossal Smash punch suddenly came out again!

{【Colossal Smash】 CD is 5 seconds, but Galio reduces it by 3 seconds for every skill hit, and when possessing the Colossal Smash effect, Galio gains a massive 'attack speed' boost.

First was the "Flash backward-facing E into the wall" start.

Then the "EAQ slow WA double-passive punch"!

The entire duration was still within the W taunt and E knock-up combo; no matter how desperately Ahri pressed EEEEE, he just couldn't get that spell off!

The full damage from the moment the E skill started until it finished was within 1. 5 seconds (0. + 0. 5).

By the 13th second, Ahri immediately met his end under the heavy punches.

And the reason Galio made his move at the 11th second was because Ye Bo was incomparably confident in his damage calculation, knowing that once this combo was finished, the opponent would definitely fall.

Although Galio couldn't leave the tower safely after flashing E into it, he could withstand two tower shots.

The defensive tower's 0. 6% attack speed meant those two tower auto-attacks would happen exactly after the 16th second.

When the replay ended.

The entire arena instantly erupted in an indescribable, shocking buzz!

"Holy crap!" Chujun jumped up excitedly, feeling his whole body burning as if he were truly immersed: "Master Ye is my god!!!"

"My god, don't look at this backward E as simple; it is insanely hard to press in actual combat! I'm telling you!"

"Especially an E like this at that distance, it's very easy to mess up!"

"Master Ye must be playing Galio in private! I knew it! I knew it!"

【Seeing Galio dominate, Chujun feels even better than if he had been the one playing, wishing he could jump in and apply for the Huluwa family tree on the spot!】

【24k pure solo kill!!! This is a real achievement unlocked!】

【There isn't a single mid laner in the LPL who can fight! Call the LCK over, I dare you to call the LCK over!】

【Who said Ye Bo couldn't play Galio? Speak now! Speak!】

【This is too ridiculous, even a champion as clunky as Galio can be operated like this!】

【Look at how scared that poor kid Knight is, he probably won't even dare to respawn, right?】

The camera below gave a very timely close-up of Knight.

His lips were slightly pursed, his eyes looking at everything on the screen, seeming somewhat evasive.

And the chill in his heart was rising uncontrollably!

Knight had played so many matches against Ye Bo, so he had long seen that the other party was a bona fide mechanical monster.

But he actually thought nothing of it, thinking it was just the youthful arrogance of a "newcomer period," and that after playing for a while and adapting to the stage, the newcomer would start to become timid and not dare to risk everything to make plays.

But these three games, every single one, Ye Bo was refreshing his thoughts, and every one deepened the impression he had of him.

The opponent's playstyle was simply unreasonably fierce!

Until this wave.

If there had been even a slight mistake, if the W skill link-up had been just a split second slower, perhaps even if Ahri had managed to press E during the final heavy punch, at least a trade could have been achieved.

"How, how did he dare?"

The naturally timid Knight, at least at this moment, found it hard to understand this feeling.

But for Ye Bo, this couldn't even be considered a question.

Afraid of making mistakes? That's so simple!

As long as you don't dare to make plays, don't think about suppressing your opponent, and don't take the initiative to attack.

To be honest, it's hard to make a mistake even if you want to.

And the aforementioned things were even harder for Ye Bo to accept; he would rather risk making a mistake.

Furthermore, there are many ways to reduce mistakes.

Besides watching replays, the way Ye Bo practiced Galio was by spending the most time on the two key operations: "Backward-kicking E" and "Control Cancellation."

No choice, he just likes this stuff.

So his Galio, although still lacking in the utilization of the hero's overall characteristics and only able to crudely apply his general ideas for roaming heroes.

But when it comes to the solidity of his mechanics, Ye Bo is confident that he is not weaker than anyone.

Only this could live up to the time spent honing them.

"A key first-blood solo kill has occurred in the mid lane! Ahri didn't manage to trade a kill and will also lose a massive amount of experience!"

"Flandre's acting was superb; Tian sensed something was wrong but was still delayed, and Zhao Xin is already feasting in the jungle!"

"Both mid laners have TP'd back out, but wait, why didn't Ahri choose to push the wave? Won't she be unable to help the jungle this way?"

The commentators were a bit confused by Left Hand's choice.

Logically, since Ahri TP'd out after dying three seconds earlier, she actually had the opportunity to push the wave first and then rush into the jungle to help.

But Left Hand didn't.

He thought very simply, believing the three-second time difference wasn't enough to get the wave into the tower, and that Galio would likely freeze the wave after TPing out.

And if that happened, his laning phase before level six, without an ultimate, could potentially turn into a hellish mode where he was in danger at any moment.

Strictly speaking, this was a choice without any major errors.

It's just that the jungler would have to suffer for it.

"Galio and Ahri are moving at the same time; although their support speed is the same, their combat power is different!"

Xiao Tian, who had failed his top lane ambush, heard the tragic news from mid lane; his original hope of entering the opponent's jungle was completely shattered, and he had no choice but to turn back to his own jungle.

As a result, the moment he stepped into his jungle, he found it empty!

Turning his head, he saw Zhao Xin, who had just finished the Gromp, coming around the corner to find him!

Zhao Xin was acting arrogant, backed by his teammates, because he knew his mid laner's support speed wouldn't fall behind.

Instead, Xiao Tian, with his punch charged for a long time, finally calmed down and could only helplessly turn around and fire it off to escape.

Li Xianghe, who was also watching the stream, frowned deeply.

"Ahri has doomed the jungle this time."

He could, of course, see Left Hand's reasoning, but he clearly didn't agree with this decision: "Galio isn't that easy to land an engage on; when playing Ahri, you can't be this afraid."

Oner, on the side, was still marveling: "That Galio play just now was kind of cool, Brother Xianghe, is that move hard to pull off?"

Li Xianghe gave a positive answer without hesitation: "It's very easy to mess up, but when necessary, it's the only move that can lock someone down."

"This Galio is played very well."

Although there was no change in his facial expression.

Li Xianghe was actually quite surprised in his heart.

He hadn't expected that not only did the opponent have all sorts of rare, off-meta picks, but they could even perform like this on such a "traditional" hero?

This person...

"Playing like this, the mid-jungle duo probably won't have any presence before level six," said Bengi, who hadn't been optimistic about TES during the draft phase, already starting to predict their downfall.

"Their draft wasn't good to begin with; I don't even know how they're supposed to teamfight with this lineup. How are they going to get past Galio to burst the AD? One counter-ultimate and you're forced to death by the engage!"

"Unless the opposing team makes a huge mistake in their formation during a teamfight, otherwise, looking at how things are developing, there's just no way to fight!"

Xiao Tian, frustrated in the jungle, still tried to gank the mid lane again.

But Ahri stepped forward, aiming a lighthearted E skill, only to be precisely dodged by Galio with a "Backstep."

The Galio versus Ahri matchup is exactly like this; the E skill is actually a "mutual counter."

Theoretically, whoever uses it first gives the other a chance to outplay them.

Ahri can easily interrupt Galio during his E2 flight, and Galio can use the first part of his E skill to instantly dash backward to dodge, or use the second part's crowd control to negate forced displacement.

Ahri's missed kiss exposed her intentions, making Ye Bo realize the jungler's position.

He immediately called for the nearby Zhao Xin to come and flank!

Having previously helped the jungler establish a counter-jungling advantage through a solo kill in mid, the EDG mid-jungle duo now held a two-man advantage!

Zhao Xin chased all the way, eventually forcing out Vi's Flash.

After that, Galio wasn't in a hurry to gank the side lanes.

Because TES's top lane was an Ornn who played safely, the success rate wasn't high, meaning they could only gank bot, and such obvious intentions would easily be spotted by the opponent, leading to a wasted tempo.

Ye Bo's understanding of Galio's so-called "utility" role wasn't actually very deep.

But his logic was simple.

Galio would just keep cooperating with Zhao Xin to crazily enter the opponent's jungle, using a forceful approach to counter-jungle and invade, moving the battlefield into the jungle instead of under the tower.

Facts proved that this was undoubtedly a wise choice.

TES's jungle was tormented to the point of misery, as if it had become the backyard of the EDG mid-jungle!

Xiao Tian had absolutely no energy to threaten the bottom half of the map; he had to be careful to help the bot lane counter-gank without revealing his position, while also running himself ragged trying to avoid fights and swap jungle camps just to preserve his own growth as much as possible.

But because of this, Vi's position was almost an open book, and she was silenced for the entire duration.

"Xiao Tian is being crazily driven out of the jungle... it's over!"

"Vault Breaker was interrupted by Justice Punch! Vi has been caught by Galio in the jungle again, and with Zhao Xin's help, they've secured the kill!"

"Player Ye's Galio is now simply the sturdiest Zenith Blade in the back of the jungle!"

"With him there, Zhao Xin's invasion is like entering an empty land!"

"The gap in the jungle is slowly being widened; if this continues, it might very well affect the levels for key resource teamfights."

(End of chapter)