Chapter 145: Deceiving the Heavens to Cross the Sea, Secretly Building Ramparts, The Art of War!

Summoner's Rift descends; ten players leave the fountain one after another, moving along the river to take up defensive positions.

"The match begins! The first clash between both sides! Let's see who can draw first blood and win this crucial opening game of the best-of-five!"

The Korean commentators are still sighing with emotion.

"T1 and DRX in the upper bracket have already converged. As long as DK can take this one, we in the LCK have a very high probability of achieving the first historic honor of an all-LCK semifinal, making up for last year's regrets!"

"So please cheer for DK! Let them guard the glory of the LCK in the lower bracket!"

Clearly, for the final quarterfinal match between Samsung and Rogue, everyone has concluded it will inevitably be a three-to-zero sweep.

Therefore, once DK wins this, the LCK can indeed pop the champagne early, booking an achievement no region has ever reached—an all-region semifinal—and securing the championship in advance!

And if EDG were still in their group stage form, then perhaps no one would hold any hope for a mere third-seed, group-runner-up DK.

But given the situation in this match, all Korean viewers are currently holding huge expectations for DK.

However.

At this moment, the T1 members watching the match in their hotel, driven by a desire for "revenge," perhaps have some other thoughts as well.

"Xianghe-ge, what's the matchup ratio for LeBlanc against Azir?" Having experienced the quarterfinal victory, Keria seems to have moved past the group stage defeat, asking with a relaxed expression.

"Five-five," Li Xianghe says, grabbing a banana: "Theoretically, this hero Azir is five-five against anyone."

He knows both players in this matchup very well.

If he had to make a judgment based on his own feelings, he would probably bet on this Azir.

Ye Bo's laning did indeed bring him pressure and trouble; of course, that might also be due to it being their first time facing off and having insufficient experience against the opponent.

Just then, Li Xianghe pauses his hand, ready to peel the banana, noticing the red rune beneath Azir's portrait.

"Hail of Blades?"

In the current version, half of all Azirs take {Conqueror}.

The rest take {First Strike}, {Aery}, or {Comet}.

Conqueror goes without saying; Sand Soldier auto-attacks count as {melee} units, so one attack grants two stacks, and the speed at which they stack at long range is extremely fast—it is the strongest rune for the late game.

First Strike is to accelerate growth, while Aery and Comet are used to deal with heroes like LeBlanc.

No one takes Hail of Blades.

Li Xianghe cannot help but speculate on the opponent's intentions.

He knows this person never makes meaningless choices and often has some unique understandings.

The previous "Everfrost Azir" was quite impressive.

"DK is invading at level one!" Oner shouts, looking at the familiar scene on the screen.

"Isn't this the same path EDG used against us? They stole it so fast!"

The red-side DK chooses to invade the bottom jungle with everyone at level one, a strategy identical to the one EDG used in their second game against T1 to force a jungle swap.

The core is that Yuumi is too weak at fighting at level one.

But Li Xianghe vaguely feels it is not that simple.

The five DK members on the minimap are already bearing down on the bottom jungle.

"DK's five members are driving straight in from the bottom-lane tri-brush, but EDG is clearly prepared!" Wang Duo notices the tell.

"They were met head-on by the Maokai who rushed straight to the bottom lane, getting hit by a sapling in the brush!"

"However, DK clearly doesn't want to back down; one sapling isn't enough to break their plan, and they continue to push into the jungle!"

Even though the saplings thrown by Maokai's E-skill gain percentage damage in the brush.

But a level-one E-skill cannot change the outcome of this skirmish.

Both top laners, an Ornn and a Sejuani, are clearly heroes that are not easy to gank.

So, if DK can complete the invasion by relying on their team's level-one advantage and force a jungle swap, it will surely be very helpful for DK's tempo.

"Back off first, kite slowly, we can't win a hard engage," Ye Bo commands calmly and quickly.

"But we can defend this jungle!"

The team voice chat is a bit quiet today; even for Flandre, who has recovered the best, his throat still feels like he's swallowing razor blades, so he must minimize talking.

Therefore, today will be Ye Bo's "solo" voice channel.

And since they also picked Yuumi, it is naturally impossible for them not to have defenses against a tactic they have used themselves.

They not only have Yuumi, but Azir is also not strong at fighting at level one, and their top and jungle are two tank heroes, so it is indeed difficult to engage in close-quarters combat.

This is why Ye Bo chose to leave Aphelios for the opponent.

Deokdam's hero pool is very shallow; in the group stage, besides Aphelios, it was Lucian, and other picks like Varus or Jhin were clearly "trolling" a bit, so it is not hard to control the opponent's AD pick.

And due to Aphelios's unique hero mechanics, he has no skills at level one—one could also say he is the weakest ADC at level one.

Of course, just this is not enough to bridge the gap in melee combat.

Although the five DK members know their position is exposed, they still push forward regardless, closing in on the Red Buff.

Immediately following, {Boomerang Blade} and {Prowling Projectile} arrive one after another.

But the DK members are still advancing.

They are thinking that as long as they can hold the position, pressured by vision, the EDG members will find it hard to enter this jungle and will be forced to give it up!

But when they walk into the Red Buff brush, they are faced with a standing Sand Soldier.

The Sand Soldier receives no attack command; it just stares at the five DK members, providing vision.

"EDG doesn't seem to be planning to leave... but they don't seem to be planning to fight either?" Rita is a bit confused.

"Maybe they are waiting for cooldowns!" Guan Zeyuan guesses.

One sees the five EDG members standing at the upper corner of the Red Buff, the two sides just staring at each other across the distance.

DK's only hard-engage tool is Sejuani, but her charge is only 650 yards total; the opponent simply doesn't give them the distance, so they can't force a fight.

The Sand Soldier can last for a total of ten seconds.

By the time the Sand Soldier's duration fades, the saplings, projectiles, and boomerangs are all off cooldown again!

"This EDG lineup, although weak at fighting at level one, has such long range! Constant poking!"

"However, it looks like DK doesn't want to force a grab either..."

EDG's three poke skills are all over 1100 yards.

DK can take one round, maybe two, but they can't take a third!

Seeing the opponent not giving them an opening, Canyon takes the initiative to order a retreat.

Anyway——————his goal has already been achieved.

DK is not EDG, after all; every mature team has its own preferred methods and rarely copies another team's tactical ideas exactly, at least not without making "adaptive" changes.

Like DK, for instance.

What DK likes to do most is to get "information" for the jungler at level one to help with counter-jungling and invading.

Therefore, the purpose of their level-one invasion is actually not the same as EDG's strategic goal of swapping jungles.

They just wanted to scout Maokai's jungle path!

At this moment, inside the red zone, three wards have been placed, including those from the DK support, mid laner, and jungler, enough to show their determination.

And one of those wards.

Standing in the brush, the Lee Sin uses a "brush-distance ward," placing it in the blind spot from when they were just facing off against EDG—————a corner that no one would usually {scan}, yet it perfectly captures the information on the Red Buff!

"The vision EDG left in the tri-brush has already seen the opponent retreat, and they have started clearing the opponent's vision."

"But this ward placement by Canyon is a bit tricky..."

"Wait a minute, EDG brought three Sweepers!?"

Most people hadn't noticed just now.

In EDG's equipment slots, there are indeed three Sweepers!

Through extensive video analysis, Ye Bo has discovered DK's favorite level-one habits and understands the key point that one cannot expose the jungler's starting path to the opponent at level one.

As long as there is no jungle information.

Counter-jungling is a high-risk event!

Once a counter-jungle fails, it not only drags down one's own growth tempo but also effectively exposes one's position to the opponent.

"Don't save it, scan here too."

As Ye Bo finishes his scan and recalls, he directs Meiko, who was preparing to save a Sweeper cooldown for the recall, to circle around the Krugs.

That corner ward is instantly exposed.

When the bottom jungle of EDG falls back into darkness in the red side's vision.

Canyon feels a shock in his heart.

However, he also keenly discovers a new opportunity.

{Sweeper} and {Ward} share the same "trinket cooldown," and the ward's cooldown is far longer than the Sweeper's.

If one places a ward first and then recalls to switch to a Sweeper, the Sweeper will only have a 30-second cooldown.

But if done in reverse, the ward will have a 90-second cooldown!

This means that the opponent has three people who have no river ward protection for the first three minutes!

However————EDG has a Yuumi who doesn't need to buy potions, and Yuumi's starting item is a Control Ward, so the bottom lane will not have a fatal vision gap.

That must mean there is no vision protection in the mid lane.

Both junglers have their own thoughts.

At 1 minute and 30 seconds, the Rift is full of life.

Azir and LeBlanc arrive in the lane simultaneously, starting the first laning phase between Ye Bo and ShowMaker.

The laning of these two heroes is quite interesting to talk about.

The advantage of LeBlanc lies in her burst damage being far higher than Azir's.

The advantage of Azir, however, is his ultra-long attack range.

Azir's {Arise! range is 525 units, the maximum distance he can {command his soldiers} is 650 units, and the soldiers' attack range is 300 units.

In other words, the soldiers can poke from a distance of nearly 1000 units, which can be said to be the premier range in the mid lane!

But the problem is—after a soldier is summoned, only the Q ability can make it move.

And in the early game, the cooldown of the Q ability is as long as 10 seconds!

This means that once a soldier is placed poorly, or if the Q poke is dodged by the opponent, Azir will fall into a ten-second vacuum period where he cannot command his soldiers again.

When Ye Bo played Azir for the first time, he felt that the playstyle of this hero was like "playing chess."

Every soldier's summon point is a move on the board, and every time he commands a soldier to attack, it is a tactical formation; it has a far greater impact than missing a skill on other mage heroes.

Azir essentially has no skills.

All of Azir's skills must be linked with his soldiers, and the soldiers occupy Azir's auto-attack interval; one can only choose between attacking with soldiers or consuming mana.

And Ye Bo's approach to this "chess game" is very simple.

In a 1v1 matchup against LeBlanc, Azir can actually easily exert pressure.

But this is not what Ye Bo requires; he has a more important responsibility in this match.

Therefore, Azir placed his first soldier piece into the minion wave where both armies converged.

However, Xu Xiu was always paying attention to the distance between them; after being hit by one Azir auto-attack, he easily stepped away from the soldier's threat range with a single move.

From the perspective of laning harassment, this move was actually a "failure."

Because the nearly 10-second recharge time of a level-one W only resulted in one effective poke against LeBlanc, and obviously, the opponent would not walk back into the coverage range of that soldier again.

In other words, LeBlanc can now directly press forward from the side, bait out Azir's next soldier, and then start to suppress him past the line without any restraint!

Once Azir places two soldiers, his own attack range of a mere 525 units poses no threat at all.

However, Ye Bo did not easily hand over his second soldier.

Facing LeBlanc's pressure, he simply utilized the ultra-high attack speed instantly granted by {Hail of Blades} to perform clean stutter-steps.

While retreating, he quickly auto-attacked the front-line minions!

After three auto-attacks, the health of the three nearest melee minions was already in jeopardy.

Seeing this, Xu Xiu seemed to realize something.

LeBlanc pressed forward two more steps, forcing Azir to miss a melee minion—but then, because his own minions had died and he began to draw aggro from the enemy minions, he had to turn and retreat.

And once LeBlanc retreated.

The soldier previously placed by Azir in the minion wave could start pushing the lane again without restraint.

"So that's how it is."

Seeing this, Li Xianghe already understood Ye Bo's train of thought.

Without a doubt, Hail of Blades is absolutely the strongest minor rune for instant burst in laning; anyone seeing this rune would think Ye Bo was preparing to play his most familiar style of extreme laning again.

Xu Xiu thought so too.

But clearly, Ye Bo did not think so.

Extreme laning is certainly the best way to expand an advantage, but at the same time, it is also a risky way.

Pursuing suppression inevitably creates space for ganks, and since Azir is the core of the core in this team composition—one could even call it a "protect the carry" choice—he naturally has to avoid risks as much as possible.

And trying to land all three Hail of Blades procs with a soldier's poke is quite difficult.

But if the goal is just to land one hit, that is absolutely easy!

As long as the soldier can land one hit, it triggers Hail of Blades, and then he can use the following two ultra-fast auto-attacks to shift into "pushing the lane."

The soldier's attack is a "piercing" mechanism.

It is equivalent to a "long cylinder" AOE damage.

Although it {only deals 50% damage to secondary targets}, it lasts long enough!

The 10-second duration of the soldier means it can initiate 10 instances of AOE damage—and it is uninterrupted, normalized, and continuously initiated from over 1000 units away!

And {Hail of Blades}, while it seems like it didn't do much for harassment, actually has a cooldown of only 12 seconds.

It is exactly similar to the cooldowns of Azir's Q and W.

Yes.

Ye Bo took Hail of Blades not to strengthen his laning ability, but to strengthen his lane-pushing ability.

This is also the only keystone rune that can "strengthen" lane-pushing ability.

Under normal circumstances, LeBlanc only needs to bait out Azir's Q ability, and Azir would become very passive because he cannot easily be pushed out of the experience zone.

But if Azir can control the minion wave.

Clearly, LeBlanc would not have the space to forcibly cross the line and threaten him.

Xu Xiu was originally happy that he had dodged the opponent's Hail of Blades and even managed to pressure a melee minion.

But after several waves, when Azir only poked out one Hail of Blades proc and then had no intention of attacking him at all—and he himself had no opportunity to step up and harass—

Xu Xiu finally felt something was off.

He did not expect the opponent to have this angle of understanding.

In the current environment where everyone's mindset is to use Azir's long-range advantage to force a lane matchup.

This is indeed a brand-new line of thinking.

If it were a normal style of Azir, regardless of what he carried, he would inevitably have to achieve the goal of → 【pushing the lane】 through 【harassing health】.

Instead of doing it like this, achieving the goal of → 【forcing a counter-push】 through 【pushing the lane】.

Doing this has two other benefits.

First, it is relatively mana-efficient, overcoming the dilemma of being extremely mana-starved in the early game—after all, he almost only uses W, and only places one soldier at a time.

Second, because he almost never uses Q and E, his anti-gank efficiency is also greatly improved.

Of course, no strategy or playstyle is invincible.

For example, in this way, Azir can indeed avoid too many conflicts with LeBlanc by controlling the minion wave.

But he also poses no threat to LeBlanc.

And if LeBlanc is determined to trade with you, just pressing hard without stopping you from pushing the lane comfortably, in a "pseudo-peaceful" laning style, then Azir cannot gain too much lane priority either.

It's just that this is clearly a situation Ye Bo is very happy to see.

Xu Xiu did indeed do exactly that.

Ye Bo also guessed that Xu Xiu would likely respond this way.

If he felt that Li Xianghe was the type of person who would seize every opportunity, whether in laning, team fights, or operations—and it was for this reason that he was able to seize that solo kill opportunity.

But for Xu Xiu, his feeling was "equilibrium."

If one had to say, it's like "doing Tai Chi," with no obvious weaknesses, but also not in a rush to expand his advantage.

This is also very normal.

After all, in DK and T1, the "responsibilities" of the two mid-laners are different, and their playstyles are naturally different.

One is to command the jungler.

One is to coordinate with the jungler.

At this time, Canyon, having reached level three, had already arrived at the mid lane.

A jungler's route to level three in a single jungle area is about ten seconds faster than a mid-laner's, allowing them to catch a brief, critical window of "level three ganking level two."

Since the mid-laner did not secure lane priority, the jungler could not easily go to counter-jungle, so he could just catch the opponent's vacuum period of lacking ward protection in the early game to launch a surprise attack.

Most importantly, this is Azir!

Azir is forced to learn W at level one, and at level two, he very likely hasn't learned E; many junglers in world tournaments would seize this critical gap to try to burn a Flash or get a kill.

But, just as the Blind Monk poked his head into the lower river.

Inside the river's middle brush, a defensive sapling was startled by him and ran toward him.

"Maokai should have started in the upper jungle area too..."

Canyon's eyes flashed.

Although his movements were exposed, at least the intention of this mid-lane variation gank had gone bankrupt.

But because Maokai's saplings can only exist for 30 seconds, it implicitly meant that Maokai's position was also exposed.

Canyon did not believe that Maokai would specifically run from halfway through his jungle to the top lane just to throw a sapling and ruin his own jungle-clearing rhythm.

And if Maokai started in the lower jungle, with the Blind Monk's superior clearing speed, Maokai could never have arrived here early to drop a sapling to protect the mid lane.

With these conditions combined, Maokai's jungle route was obvious.

Canyon was not in a hurry.

After all, his position was already exposed, and with the top and mid lanes temporarily lacking priority, there was no need to force an invasion.

After the first exchange in the mid lane, Xu Xiu also discovered that he couldn't seem to do anything to the opponent, and soon he was no longer so desperate to trade health; anyway, as long as he could keep an eye on Azir, it would be fine.

In an Azir 1v1 laning matchup, as long as the player isn't too bad, there's no reason for any major incidents to occur.

After all, this is a hero who possesses the "longest hands," the "farthest legs," and the "safest position."

It is precisely because of this that Ye Bo wanted to choose this hero.

"The jungle route choices of both sides."

The commentary desk looked at the perspective shifted by the director and suddenly noticed something, shouting out in shock.

"Jiejie's jungle clearing!?"

"This isn't right, how is he clearing the jungle like this!"

"This is his own jungle, Jiejie!"

Seeing that there were no gank opportunities in any of the three lanes for the time being, the Blind Monk turned back to farm his own bottom jungle quadrant.

In a game where none of the three lanes offered opportunities, one only needed to start counter-jungling from the second wave of camps and establish a certain level lead to naturally seize the tempo during key objective fights.

After all, the Blind Monk was not a Nidalee; he didn't have that much offensive pressure in the early game, and DK's lineup was also one that leaned towards the mid-game.

But what they didn't expect was this.

The Maokai, who appeared to be on the defensive, actually initiated an attack first!

"Maokai is top!" Nuguri suddenly exclaimed.

"What!?" Canyon quickly panned his camera to look.

He saw a level three Maokai, who had somehow managed to sneak around to the back of the top lane!

Although getting the kill wasn't easy, Sejuani was rooted and knocked back, unable to use Arctic Assault at point-blank range, and ultimately had to burn her Flash.

"That's not right."

"He must have started top, how is it possible for him to be in the top lane?"

The Blind Monk was still busy hitting his Gromp at this moment.

Canyon glanced at the opponent's CS and instantly understood everything.

At this moment, when the Scuttle Crab hadn't even spawned yet, the opponent only had 16 CS!

This meant that the opponent had only cleared four camps so far.

A full two camps fewer than him!

"He must have only done Red and then came top to throw his E," Canyon explained his thoughts: "Going for such a self-destructive play? If that's the case, his jungle is in bad shape; my top jungle is completely empty, he's going to fall behind in experience!"

"No big deal," Nuguri didn't pay much attention to it either.

Originally, after Canyon finished farming to level four, he was prepared to recall.

But seeing Maokai appear in the top lane, he had to return the favor and make the opponent pay for this top lane gank.

Looking at the extremely cautious Azir in the mid lane, he ultimately chose to head to the bottom lane.

Aphelios had rolled {Infernum} + {Severum}, and upon hearing the jungler's instructions, he immediately began looking for an opportunity to initiate control.

But it was unclear if it was because Deokdam's acting was too poor.

Or if the EDG bottom lane had received some kind of "instruction."

The Blind Monk hadn't even arrived yet, just having the thought of heading there—the Sivir and Yuumi immediately turned and retreated!

They didn't even want to engage in any mind games with the opponent, disappearing from vision immediately.

Seeing the opponent's vigilance and discipline, Canyon had no choice but to give up.

Fortunately, the reason he came to the bottom lane first was to catch them off guard.

In fact, this move was a "sure win regardless of the outcome."

After all, the CS count on the double-buff Maokai had already proven that there were basically two camps left in the bottom quadrant.

And as long as the Blind Monk could take those two camps, it would be equivalent to eating an entire extra jungle quadrant, giving him at least a half-level gold lead in the matchup!

What did this mean?

Not to mention the subsequent counter-jungling tempo, or the potential snowball effect in the jungle.

First of all, the Blind Monk, having eaten an entire extra quadrant, would very likely be able to hit level six at the five-and-a-half-minute mark simultaneously with the solo laners!

Maokai would be at most level five and a half; this was a case of one growing while the other waned!

At that point, DK could rely on the level advantage of their mid and jungle to rush the Dragon without pressure—this was far more important than a harmless Flash from a Sejuani in the top lane.

And the reason Canyon didn't go directly to the opponent's jungle was that he wanted to gank bottom first.

One reason was to catch them off guard, attempting a variation gank when the opponent surely thought he was going to counter-jungle, but he didn't expect the opponent to be so disciplined and not take the bait.

The second reason was that clearing the jungle late could also delay Maokai's second wave of jungle spawns, further dragging down Maokai's growth tempo!

But immediately after.

Canyon, walking into the bottom jungle, saw a scene that shocked him!

"How is this possible!?"

"His bottom jungle is cleared too!?"

Canyon was stunned.

He unwillingly checked the Raptors camp thoroughly, but it was still empty, as if the passing Azir had even rolled his eyes at him!

As the king of counter-jungling, Canyon was best at analyzing and judging the opponent jungler's movements and ideas through various small details in the jungle, and then seeking a breakthrough.

And this time, it started with the sapling in the brush when he wanted to gank mid at level three, followed by Maokai ganking top with 16 CS.

No matter what, Maokai should have cleared two fewer camps!

Could it be that Maokai cleared fewer camps in the top quadrant!?

Canyon thought about this and immediately dismissed the idea.

Absolutely impossible!

The sapling Maokai threw before 2: 0 proved everything.

That was the time when the Blind Monk had finished his entire top jungle and hit level three.

If Maokai hadn't done the two camps in the top lane, it would mean he had cleared the entire bottom quadrant, and it would have been impossible for him to make it in time to throw that sapling to protect the mid lane, which lacked vision!

It wasn't the first time Canyon and Jiejie had faced each other.

But this time, he really couldn't understand how the opponent had done it.

And the time for the second wave of jungle spawns was almost here.

A normal jungler finishes the first wave of two quadrants + Scuttle Crab at around 4 minutes.

The second wave of jungle camps would respawn at 4: 0.

Because the Blind Monk had headed to the bottom lane and wandered around in the opponent's jungle searching for a while, he had already wasted quite a bit of time.

At this moment, his own top quadrant was about to respawn.

And Maokai, having just finished ganking top, would very likely go straight to farm his own top quadrant, as his 16 CS growth was a fact.

Canyon had strong on-the-fly adaptability.

Although he didn't know how the opponent did it, the reality was right in front of him—Maokai was top, the bottom quadrant was empty, so the opponent must have started at Red.

So, in order not to lose out in the jungle, Canyon could only wait inside the jungle.

He firmly believed that new life would soon be born in this Red quadrant.

At 4: 8, the Red side Krugs had already respawned.

But there were still no jungle camp icons refreshing in the Blue side bottom quadrant.

Time ticked away, second by second.

The Blue side's bottom quadrant still showed no signs of life.

"Sibal-roma!" Danny in the back room shouted excitedly with a tongue-flicking sound, his two ramen-noodle bangs fluttering wildly.

"Jin Jianfu, what are you doing! Wake up!"

"You've been tricked!!!"

Unfortunately, the sounds from the outside world could not reach Summoner's Rift.

And although Danny was anxious for his favorite player, he also knew that he was just standing from a god's-eye view.

It was indeed extremely easy to be misled and misjudged on the field.

"EDG has used a strategy of 'deceiving the heavens to cross the sea'!" Wang Duo on the commentary desk was even more excited than Danny: "Hidden ramparts, using military tactics to play esports!"

Guan Zeyuan was also shocked: "Isn't it said that Jiejie still has a low fever today? Could it be that his brain is overheating, yet his thinking is even clearer? He actually has Canyon running in circles!"

Rita then chimed in: "Perhaps, could it be Ye Bo's shot-calling? I don't know if everyone has watched the EDG voice comms."

"I watched that too!" Guan Zeyuan immediately responded: "But honestly, if this was all designed by Ye Bo, that's truly a bit too scary! He's a mid laner!"

"If that's the case, the Sima Yi skin he chose for this match is just too appropriate~" Wang Duo joked.

"Sitting in the center, observing the whole situation—this is basically him in person!"

It was indeed no wonder Canyon would fall for it.

Because this was a massive, elaborate trap "specifically" made for him.

As DK's most important tempo core, half of Ye Bo's research on the opponent, DK, was focused on Canyon.

He knew this person was very good at finding breakthroughs through small details.

Once, the opponent had used only Peanut's level one positioning to complete the legendary "Level 5 vs Level 2" jungle scene in a Nidalee vs Hecarim matchup.

And from the very first wave, the first small detail had already made Canyon firmly believe in this design.

Maokai did indeed start Red, and he did indeed "almost" clear the entire Red quadrant.

It was just that he didn't clear the "medium Krug" and one of the small birds from the Raptors.

Relying on the help from his two bottom lane teammates to leash, plus saving at least 5 seconds by not clearing the medium Krug—Maokai successfully timed it to arrive at the top river almost at the same time as the Blind Monk.

Of course, even if the Blind Monk hadn't been in the top quadrant at that time.

Maokai would have intentionally stood in the mid lane brush after throwing his saplings, absorbing the experience of two melee minions to make up for the level three requirement.

Then he would walk out and "force his presence" to create "misleading information."

Azir forcing a push with Hail of Blades in the early game was for this very purpose—not giving LeBlanc a chance to move, thereby having time to help the jungler scout.

And once the Blind Monk discovered Maokai's "jungle route."

He had already stepped half a foot into this trap.

Because from exposing vision, to the opponent's top lane letting their guard down, to confusing the Blind Monk, it all required time.

Maokai couldn't just be window-shopping during this time; he needed to farm.

So in fact, Maokai had cleared everything in the Blue quadrant except for the hard-to-kill Gromp.

But why are there still 16 minions?

Because {the two small wolves of the Three Wolves count as 1 minion each, the small birds of the F6 count as 1 minion, and the medium Krug of the Krugs also counts as only 1 minion}, which adds up to exactly 4 minions.

Plus the Gromp that wasn't taken, that makes exactly an 8-minion difference.

This is what gave Canyon the line of thought where the "real account" just wouldn't add up!

Then why were there no jungle monsters in the lower jungle when Canyon entered it?

You have to know that in the current S12 version, jungle monsters don't "die automatically."

The answer——————is naturally the Sivir who disappeared early!

Sivir appeared to be guarding against the Blind Monk.

In reality, she immediately turned around with the Cat to quickly kill the medium Krug.

As for the one tiny bird at the F6, that was even simpler; the Emperor with lane priority only needed to pretend to ward, and he could easily clear it.

The evidence was wiped clean just like that.

All the conditions laid out before him forced Canyon to arrive at the only possible conclusion, which is the conclusion he has now reached————and also the conclusion Ye Bo set up for him!

By 4: 0, seeing that his own F6 was about to respawn.

The blue side's lower red jungle was still completely empty!

Canyon's heart sank.

No matter what, he knew something was wrong.

"EDG's mid and bot lanes really aren't giving any chances; they seem like an iron-clad formation, moving in and out together!"

"The Blind Monk is forced to recall from this position, swallowing this bitter pill, but this is so damaging! The entire upper jungle that just respawned has been counter-jungled! It's equivalent to losing an entire section of the jungle!" the Roaring Emperor lamented bitterly.

"No... look at what this Twisted Treant is doing!" his partner, Mr. CT, wailed.

"Is this Twisted Treant 'self-destructing' while farming!? He's not just failing to clear his own jungle; it seems like he's not clearing any jungle monsters he farms!"

"My god, I've never seen anyone use this playstyle in a tournament... Is he trying to drag Canyon down to self-destruct with him!?"

(End of chapter)