Chapter 146: Looking Back and Leaping to Stabilize the Situation

Canyon, having set out again, was still unaware of the miserable state of his top-side jungle.

In fact, this "self-mutilating" style of jungling is quite common in solo queue; one could even say it's an essential habit when leaving the fountain!

Yet, almost no one uses it in professional play!

The reason is simple: the gold available in Summoner's Rift is limited.

With gold already insufficient to go around, it often requires sacrificing a lane and parts of the jungle to distribute it, just to ensure the core carry's development.

Therefore, this common solo queue tactic often ends up not just messing with the opponent, but more likely messing with oneself.

But this is DK.

DK's jungler Canyon is the team's most important core tempo point; if both junglers truly self-destructed, the ones who would suffer are definitely them.

But clearly, Canyon's thought process is not so easily grasped.

"Canyon hasn't headed to the bottom half; he's going to the top lane!"

"Knowing there is a high probability that his top-side jungle has already been compromised, Lee Sin is still resolutely heading top, and Flandre seems to have no defense against this!"

"He is also playing a counter-strategy!"

If one followed a normal person's logic, the next step should be to return to base after recalling, head to one's own bottom blue buff that is about to respawn, and then proceed to the enemy's bottom red buff to reset the jungle.

But if he did that, Canyon would walk straight into EDG's trap!

After all, the bottom jungle camps were just cleared and were the first to respawn; they are a long, long way from coming back up!

If Canyon really waited for the jungle to reset, he would truly fall into a state of having no camps to farm.

The Blind Monk's movements for the next three minutes would be completely controlled by EDG, DK's early-game tempo would turn into a stagnant pool, and his own development would be severely hindered!

EDG only wanted to defend the Dragon; with DK's bottom lane combination of Aphelios and Lulu, which isn't particularly aggressive, they certainly have the power to defend it.

However, although Ye Bo has studied and analyzed Canyon's jungle habits extensively, he is quite familiar with them.

But he is, after all, a mid-laner.

His understanding of the jungle cannot truly be superior to the opponent's.

After a brief moment of shock, Canyon understood the opponent's goal regarding his jungle planning, and quickly anticipated his own upcoming situation.

Although he didn't know the specific respawn time of the bottom half.

He knew that for a tempo-based jungler, the most important core is: never let the opponent discover your whereabouts!

Therefore, he would rather risk the possibility that both sides of his top jungle were empty than fail to change his route.

"Flandre hasn't noticed the Blind Monk's position!"

"Because Flandre also assumed the enemy jungler should be in the bottom half, he hasn't remained vigilant despite this being a vision vacuum!"

Ornn is positioned a bit too far forward, preparing to recall after clearing the wave.

As a jungler, Canyon has his own insights into ganking these side-lane heroes.

Take Ornn, for example.

Due to the unique skill mechanic of 【Living Forge】.

Generally, before the five-minute mark when neither top-laner has recalled, Ornn can be the first to forge five or six hundred gold worth of items, creating an equipment advantage to exert some pressure and get in the opponent's face.

And this moment is usually the jungler's opportunity!

The two sides trade health, and the freezing and brittle effects are knocked out against each other.

The Blind Monk has walked up from behind the river, landing a highly confident long-range Sonic Wave, flying in for a close-range kick, then following up with Tempest to chase and attack along with Sejuani!

Flandre turns to use E, head down, running toward the tower, wanting to save his Flash.

After all, Ornn has bought items and clearly has the advantage in tankiness; he should have a chance to walk into the tower safely.

But after noticing the changes on the mini-map, Ye Bo switches his screen to check.

When he sees the Blind Monk still relentlessly chasing the Ornn, who has no possibility of being killed, he quickly issues a warning.

"Flandre, you have to Flash!"

"Jiejie, his blue buff!"

A bystander sees clearly; although it looks like Ornn can hold out until the tower, the Blind Monk has also bought items, and Ornn's health will inevitably be reduced to a critical state.

And their own jungler has already recalled and is not nearby—the opponent is very likely to attempt a tower dive!

Hearing this, Flandre immediately flashes.

Canyon is startled.

Because it is obvious that an Ornn who bought items early won't die here, and most people would choose to save their Flash.

Canyon was indeed planning to dive!

Both Sejuani and the Blind Monk are skill-based heroes, and their early-game damage is quite substantial; Sejuani's percentage-based damage from her freezing mechanic is not even lower than the Blind Monk's!

He had even constructed the play in his mind.

As long as Ornn is brought down to one-third health, the Blind Monk will directly ward-hop into the tower, and at most, he would only need to take one tower shot to seal off Ornn's escape route.

Canyon, who came here with a counter-intuitive variation, is certain that there is no reason for the Maokai to be in the top lane!

But he didn't expect the opponent to be this steady.

This is a bit awkward.

You have to know, the Blind Monk's variation this time is not without a price, and the price is not small!

His own bottom jungle has respawned, and without needing to think, he knows Maokai must be going to invade it!

If he cannot kill Ornn and only forces out his summoner spells, Ornn can TP back and won't lose much in terms of waves.

On the contrary, the Blind Monk will lose out completely!

Ye Bo was the one who sensed the "killing intent" hidden in Canyon's relentless pursuit, so he decisively warned Flandre to Flash and run, giving them no chance.

But at this moment, Canyon's decisiveness was displayed.

"I must dive this Xia Quan; you might need to help me trade a kill!"

"Okay." The tacit understanding between old comrades Nuguri and him needs no words.

The Blind Monk feigns a retreat toward the river, but instead touches the wall from the river to loop directly behind Ornn.

Flandre hasn't noticed and is preparing to recall.

But just as the recall timer is about to end, a Sonic Wave is fired from behind to interrupt it!

"They... want to force a dive on me!" Flandre's hoarse voice comes through.

Seeing that Sejuani has already brought the minion wave into the tower and there is no chance to escape, Ornn can only forge a 300-gold Cloth Armor under the tower.

Ye Bo switches his screen again to observe.

He also didn't expect that the opponent's top and jungle would still want to dive under these circumstances.

You have to know, this tower dive is clearly very dangerous; even if they actually get the kill, it would be a 1-for-1 at best.

However, this is indeed the opponent's only chance to break the deadlock.

"Sejuani initiates with crowd control! Ornn accurately uses W to become Unstoppable, wanting to block it, but the stun effect still takes effect!"

Ornn's W Unstoppable only lasts for 0. 5 seconds, and there is no "crowd control cancellation" mechanism—it will retain the crowd control received after the Unstoppable effect ends.

Sejuani's E skill triggers the freeze control and shatters the ice, and only then does the Blind Monk steadily follow up with Sonic Wave.

Avoiding all possibilities of error.

"Ornn knocks up both at the limit to trigger Brittle; this way, Sejuani cannot walk out of the tower, but the Blind Monk still kills Ornn first, taking First Blood!"

"The minion wave is also successfully pushed; nice! Our DK's legendary top-jungle duo Canyon and Nuguri have completed an unexpected breakthrough!"

"However, EDG's Maokai circles out from behind the mid lane! Flash W root—thankfully Showmaker reacted in time! He used both W and Flash to pull Maokai away from Azir; trading Flashes, no danger!"

The LCK commentary desk, silent for so long, suddenly cheers with excitement.

Although the mid lane was also counter-ganked by Maokai and Flashes were traded.

But at least looking at it this way, it seems DK has opened up the situation first.

【As expected of the backbone of the Big Turtle! This is Canyon!】

【Question: If he is the backbone of the turtle, then who is the head of the turtle?】

【Although the Fourth Uncle has had the occasional glimpse of heavenly secrets through the guidance of the Zhuge-like commoner, the Third Uncle is still your Third Uncle!】

【Laughing to death, you've popped the champagne just for getting First Blood? Why don't you take a look at what your own jungle has become!】

【Heh, if EDG wasn't full of little burners, you come and try again!】

Some people in the stream who couldn't see the situation clearly were already unable to resist celebrating early.

But Canyon was not that optimistic.

Because Ornn has TP, he cannot eat too many of these minions, otherwise Sejuani, who helped him trade the kill, will lose a massive amount of experience, or even fall behind in levels.

He can only turn and enter the opponent's top jungle to forage.

The result, naturally, is that it is empty.

Canyon still couldn't figure it out even now; unwilling to give up, he continued toward the Wolves to get to the bottom of it.

A Sonic Wave flies out, hitting one wolf body!

"It really wasn't cleared in the top side!"

Just as Canyon felt a surge of joy, the Resonating Strike flies out and lands, revealing only two lonely wolves!

There is no Big Wolf at home, only two children.

Canyon's head buzzes.

"Wait a minute, if this is the case..."

After killing the small wolves, Canyon doesn't continue to try to shift positions to the bottom half to keep playing the game, but instead rushes back to his own red buff without stopping.

The hypothesis is confirmed.

His own F6 and Krugs all have only one small monster left!

"Damn it! How can this person play the game like this!"

The standard respawn time for jungle camps is a 2-minute and 15-second cycle.

But that is on the condition that all monsters in a camp must be cleared before the timer starts!

For example, the small wolves just cleared; under normal progression, it should be exactly time for the second wave to respawn as it approaches 5 minutes—but right now, the timer has only just begun!

And there is no need to even think about the bottom half of the jungle that was just counter-jungled; it must be the same!

Consequently, the EDG bottom-side red jungle is likely the same.

This is equivalent to, for no apparent reason, an entire round of jungle economy vanishing from the map!

And if no one goes to clear the jungle camp, for every second it is delayed, the jungle economy will be delayed by a second in respawning.

If it is delayed by a full 2 minutes, it is equivalent to two sets of jungle monsters disappearing for no reason!

Without a doubt, this is an absolutely "harmful to others and no benefit to oneself" maneuver.

The Blind Monk has nothing to eat, and the Tree Spirit has nothing to eat either.

Yet Canyon is forced to deal with it!

There is no other reason; it is simply because neither Canyon nor the Blind Monk can accept a jungle without economy, nor can they accept their growth being forcibly stagnated.

But relatively speaking, Jiejie and the Tree Spirit can!

The next few minutes.

From the god's-eye view, the Blind Monk began the work of "scrubbing the jungle," constantly clearing the remains of monsters all over the map, especially in his own two jungle quadrants.

But in doing so, the Blind Monk's position became almost transparent.

"Jiejie's Tree Spirit is so clever," Guan Zeyuan discovered the clue.

"I don't know if everyone has noticed, but when Jiejie clears the jungle, he almost never uses his E ability to clear; he almost always uses it to place them at key jungle entrances or in bushes!"

"Because of this, the Blind Monk's movements have been clearly grasped! This is simply playing out the true essence of the Tree Spirit!"

The version where the Tree Spirit is buffed increases the Q ability's extra damage to monsters twofold, so clearing the jungle does not rely on the E ability at all.

And the reason why the Tree Spirit can leap to become a strong jungler choice in this version, besides its stable gank ability and powerful team-fighting efficiency.

At least in Ye Bo's understanding—the core is the E ability.

With a casting range of up to 1100 yards, it is equivalent to being able to set up a ward that lasts for 30 seconds from a great distance, without anyone noticing!

Make good use of this point.

And one can obtain considerable "vision information"!

And "vision information" is the core of operations and strategy.

Take the fact that until 8 minutes in, even though the Blind Monk, who had no jungle to clear, repeatedly wanted to move out with the LeBlanc, the two sides still did not break out into a single fight, which shows this.

DK, whose vision information had been invaded, simply could not find an opportunity!

The Tree Spirit made precise counter-ganks in advance every wave.

There is also a major hidden danger.

Due to the limited growth in the jungle, DK has been hesitant to start the small dragon!

Both the Blind Monk and the Tree Spirit did not reach level six until around 7 minutes.

Although DK's mid-jungle is stronger than EDG's mid-jungle, at least before level six, the bottom lane is absolutely evenly matched!

Without gaining an initiative advantage, a 4v4 cannot take the buffed small dragon naked.

"EDG's draft in this game is so good." Beryl, who was originally playing on his phone while watching the match, had already put his phone away.

"How so?" Deft asked curiously upon hearing his old team's name.

"I don't know how they discovered that Xia Quan doesn't seem to know how to play Aatrox; even I didn't notice that. But they specifically left Aphelios for the opponent in the second round; it must be premeditated!"

Beryl began to talk eloquently.

"Seizing on the problem that this hero Aphelios is too weak in the early game and must be paired with a {protective} enchanter support, it has led to DK being unable to initiate a rhythm in the bottom lane, and even the jungle can only be passively defended."

"In the second round, they banned Lucian to break the Lucian-Nami combo, and banned Renata paired with Draven and Zeri; there are no strong combinations left for the bottom lane."

"Anyway, this hero has some problems; we shouldn't play it anymore either."

Beryl's guess was very accurate.

Aphelios, which still has the highest pick rate in the S12 tournament so far, is a trap in Ye Bo's view.

And in fact, the several teams that have already been eliminated in the quarterfinals are all fond of using this hero.

Time is approaching 8 minutes.

"Both sides have chosen not to have the bottom lane go to participate in the Rift Herald fight; the top, mid, and jungle are already gathered!"

"The rhythm of this match is a bit slow; until 8 minutes, the first small dragon has not been taken, and apart from that attack in the top lane, DK has not been able to complete another raid. And for EDG, this is undoubtedly huge good news!"

"Whether DK can speed up the pace of the match, this Rift Herald fight is the crucial turning point!"

EDG possesses Ornn, who can build items, plus the absolute number one late-game core of the current version, Azir, and the amplifier, Yuumi.

Once it reaches the mid-to-late game, it will definitely be a one-sided situation.

DK is also very clear about this point.

This Rift Herald is the most important offensive round.

Neither side's bottom lane has reached level six, and seeing that the other side had no intention of recalling, they simply did not go to participate in the battle.

It was as if both sides felt that their own top-mid-jungle 3v3 could win.

"Don't be in a hurry this time, just play around me; just don't let them have a chance to engage on me!"

"If they are in a hurry to start the Rift Herald, I can poke them wildly in the terrain of that pit... Hey, Jiejie, don't!"

Ye Bo was conducting pre-battle deployment; the three of them converged and entered from the lower mouth of their own river, stepping into the middle brush of the river.

Above the river were Sejuani and the Blind Monk, eyeing them covetously.

Just at this moment, LeBlanc suddenly stepped out from over the wall above—almost stepping right into the faces of the three!

Jiejie had just received the instruction to "protect Azir," and seeing LeBlanc step into his face, he pressed W to bind almost by instinct.

But he fell for it.

LeBlanc deliberately stood apart from her teammates this time, clearly wanting to try to initiate a side-poke first.

Xu Xiu's understanding of LeBlanc is undoubtedly sufficient.

Because the Tree Spirit's Q ability 【Bramble Smash】 has a chance to "interrupt" LeBlanc's W, LeBlanc cannot step with W from the front when facing the Tree Spirit and can only try to raid from the side.

But this time, Xu Xiu thought of one more point—he wanted to try "fishing for ginseng"!

"Hooked!"

LeBlanc immediately pressed 【Distortion】 for the second stage to flash back inside the wall, and at the same time immediately used 【Mimic】 to use a second Distortion, stepping into the dragon pit!

The Tree Spirit's W embrace followed closely and was just like that brought into the dragon pit!

Jiejie felt a bad omen, landed and counter-attacked with his R ability, Nature's Grasp, and quickly walked toward his teammates below.

But how could the three from DK let him have his way?

The original DWG top-mid-jungle had unparalleled tacit understanding; the two listened to Xu Xiu's shout and instantly understood.

Sejuani immediately threw out QR, Glacial Prison, to freeze the Tree Spirit who wanted to escape, while the Blind Monk flashed and used W for an ultra-long-distance ward-hop, and with one clean Insec kick, kicked the Tree Spirit back into LeBlanc's face!

"Flandre, save your abilities!!"

In the emergency, Ye Bo only had time to shout this one sentence.

Seeing the opponent go all out, Ye Bo knew that the Tree Spirit could no longer be saved.

Once Ornn uses his ultimate, they would be forced to take the fight, and the Tree Spirit would be killed first, which would likely be a completely failed round.

"DK's top-mid-jungle completed an amazing coordination!!" The Roaring Emperor raised his volume, his expression extremely excited.

"LeBlanc counter-attacked with a chain; the Tree Spirit could only pour all his damage into LeBlanc before dying, but the three-man coordination had already killed the Tree Spirit first!"

The Tree Spirit and the Blind Monk were self-destructing after all.

Both of their growth was poor, and the Tree Spirit could not withstand the full burst of three people.

"In this case, the Rift Herald should already be in DK's pocket... Hmm?" CT's voice turned from doubt to joy.

"EDG seems to still want to take it; is there a chance to continue killing!"

"No, no, no, I feel that with the jungler dead, they should take the Rift Herald first; offensive rhythm is the most important." The Roaring Emperor offered advice from afar.

In fact, when the three from DK's top-mid-jungle saw that the two from the opposite side had not yet retreated, they indeed did not want to continue fighting.

The three turned directly to start the Rift Herald, with a sense of ignoring the two.

For one, it was because they had used all their abilities to kill the Tree Spirit and actually had no ability to cross the wall to keep people; at most, Sejuani could have a Q-Flash to force an engagement.

Secondly, it was because the two from EDG's top-mid had not used their abilities.

This point was the most critical.

If Sejuani forcibly Q-Flashed out to keep people, or the Blind Monk Q-chased out, Azir could counter-push and coordinate with Ornn to pull off a perfect combo; with Flash and QE still in hand, they could very likely be outplayed!

"Hold your position, don't let Azir have a chance to get in!" Xu Xiu shouted.

DK pulled the Rift Herald's aggro inside, and the three surrounded the Rift Herald, attacking crazily.

The position they stood in was very clever.

It was exactly the position where Azir could not reach them with an auto-attack from the first sand soldier placed over the wall, and it was not too deep.

Xu Xiu also understood Azir very well.

The sand soldier's casting range is only 550 yards; it is impossible for Azir to "walk in" to cast a sand soldier.

And once Azir uses his Q ability to adjust the sand soldier's position, the three from DK could immediately pull the Rift Herald further inside, escaping Azir's attack range.

Don't forget, without Q, Azir has no ability to drive the sand soldiers.

In the early game, when the cooldown has not yet been built up, Azir only has this one ability to deploy sand soldiers.

But just at this moment.

The Emperor of the Sands, however, came to the side alone.

"Ye is going to...?"

"Ah!?"

Immediately following, the Emperor of the Sands' next maneuver made everyone's eyes widen.

One could see a Sand Soldier being summoned through the wall.

Then another Sand Soldier was summoned, but its position had "stepped" a full stride forward!

This was precisely the "Sand Soldier Squeezing Sand Soldier" principle that Ye Bo had used previously for "Crossing the River."

The difference was that this was a true, practical application.

The first Sand Soldier used the "Wall Clipping" release method, and the second Sand Soldier stood at attention one step further forward—reaching almost exactly the 740-yard range!

That was the casting range of the Emperor of the Sands' Q ability.

Yet, the Emperor of the Sands did not use Q!

The DK members inside the Dragon Pit also felt something was amiss, but they could only pull back immediately to avoid the attack range, while incidentally popping the Rift Herald's eye.

But because the three DK members had "cleared" the position, there was no deterrent or obstruction in front of the canyon gate.

The Emperor of the Sands followed closely behind, and only then did he use his Q ability, ordering the two Sand Soldiers to dash deep into the heart of the canyon pit!

Two yellow sand-tipped spears were pressed right under the Rift Herald's crotch, overlapping with it!

With the Sand Soldiers' 350-yard attack range.

As long as the opponent could auto-attack the Rift Herald, the Sand Soldiers would definitely be able to auto-attack the people.

"Don't rush in, we'll just kite!"

Ornn, having received the order, stood inches away in front of the Emperor of the Sands, acting as a bodyguard as if he were a citizen newly joined to Shurima!

The three DK members were suddenly caught in a dilemma.

If they forced a chase on the two, they would be playing right into EDG's hands—after all, Ye Bo only wanted to stop them from taking the Rift Herald.

In any case, the Emperor of the Sands had huge room for maneuvering while kiting, and the two still had all their abilities available.

And if the three DK members were content, treating it as a small gain from catching the jungler and stopping there, this wave could still be considered a small profit.

But how could DK be satisfied?

"Xia Quan, give him position! Let him poke!"

"Take the Rift Herald, retreat once it's done, save abilities to go over the wall!"

Canyon utilized a piece of jungle trivia to make a decision that seemed somewhat "bizarre."

"Live and die with the Rift Herald!"

The Blind Monk and Sejuani adjusted their positioning to hide behind the Rift Herald; due to the Sand Soldiers' AoE damage mechanism, as long as they poked the people, they would inevitably poke the Rift Herald!

And the Rift Herald had a hidden mechanic.

As everyone knows, taking the Rift Herald doesn't rely primarily on hero damage, but on the massive true damage mechanism triggered by auto-attacking the "eye."

The Rift Herald normally only "opens its eye" once every 10 seconds.

But in reality, this frequency of opening... is related to the "frequency of attacks received" by the Rift Herald!

Therefore.

When the Emperor of the Sands also drove two Sand Soldiers to quickly poke the Rift Herald, it was equivalent to gathering the attack frequency of "six people" at once.

The Rift Herald opened its eye for the second time after only a 4-second interval!

"DK wants to force it, but with the Emperor of the Sands participating, they're taking it so fast!" Wang Duo was amazed to see this bizarre scene.

"This choice by DK is simply 'holding the Emperor hostage to command the vassals'!"

The Rift Herald is usually killed in about 15-20 seconds, but in this situation, it was killed in a mere 10 seconds!

Of course, the health of the three DK members had all dropped below half.

However, they were not afraid of the Emperor of the Sands rushing in at all.

The only things about the Emperor of the Sands that made them wary were his mobility and the defensive capability of his ultimate; once the Emperor of the Sands wanted to initiate, as long as he actively committed his R ability to enter the danger zone, what awaited him would inevitably be the three of them pouncing on him!

The Rift Herald's wail rang out.

Sejuani tanked the Sand Soldiers' pokes to forcibly pick up the Eye of the Herald, while the Blind Monk and LeBlanc stood by the wall, watching like tigers.

As long as the Emperor of the Sands had any intention of stepping up to push Sejuani back, the two would decisively fight to the death with him!

Having already secured the Rift Herald.

Even if it were a trade of kills, DK would definitely be the ones profiting.

"Master Ye, do we fight!" Flandre shouted and asked.

Ye Bo was thinking.

He had a decent chance of at least trading a kill, but he wasn't sure how many he could trade... if he couldn't get at least a 1-for-2 or 2-for-3, it would be the worse choice.

The key point of this wave was that his own damage wasn't enough!

The Emperor of the Sands as a hero was simply too item-dependent; at this moment, he only had a {Lost Chapter} on him, the tips of the Sand Soldiers' spears hadn't been sharpened yet, and the damage was simply not worth looking at!

Ye Bo was quickly reviewing his and Ornn's abilities, thinking about whether there was an opportunity to make a play.

And just at this moment.

Ye Bo suddenly noticed something.

"Flandre, come here!"

All three DK heroes had the ability to cross mountains and ridges.

Sejuani picked up the Eye of the Herald, then the three converged, and with disciplined coordination, all three used their dashes to go over the wall!

"Retreat, retreat, retreat!"

"Oh, the Emperor of the Sands is chasing! It looks like he wants to make a move!"

But as said before, they were not afraid of the Emperor of the Sands initiating.

No matter how the Emperor of the Sands wanted to play it, as long as he dared to initiate by EQ-ing into their faces, Sejuani could Q to knock him out of his pursuit, and the damage from the Blind Monk and LeBlanc would be enough to instantly kill the squishy chicken!

The three DK members went over the wall.

And just at this moment, a ram's bleat echoed through the canyon.

And that Magma Ram—was generated almost right before their eyes!

Ornn's R ability had a full 2500-yard casting range, and the first part of the R started from 2500 yards away, running toward Ornn's direction.

The three ignored it.

In any case, the damage of Ornn's ultimate was just like that; the first time it rolled over the three, it only dealt a mere 125 damage.

But the next moment.

Within their field of vision, the Emperor of the Sands, who was chasing from the Dragon Pit below, suddenly used Flash.

This Flash looked incredibly inexplicable.

Because the Emperor of the Sands neither crossed the wall nor chased; he just flashed to "supplement distance."

The Emperor of the Sands summoned a Sand Soldier through the wall—but beat the three of them to it, popping the Blast Cone from a long distance with one strike!

The three were knocked back into the Dragon Pit.

But the core of that "Blast Cone" seemed to be packed with "explosives"!

The moment they took flight, the health of all three could be clearly seen dropping sharply by a layer!

That was the 【Brittle】 effect applied by the first part of Ornn's Call of the Forge God!

{The Brittle effect can be broken not only by Ornn himself, but by any crowd control triggered by allies.

The Blast Cone detonated by the Emperor of the Sands naturally counted.

This wasn't over yet.

While the three were in mid-air, falling back, Ornn had already charged out to meet them with the second part of his ultimate!

The three, still in a knocked-up state, could not dodge and were knocked into the sky by a headbutt—and had a second 【Brittle】 effect applied to them.

"Arise!"

The 【Emperor's Divide】 pushed the three knocked-up targets horizontally again, breaking the second 【Brittle】 effect!

Ornn then dashed forward with E, using the wall formed by the Emperor's Divide to knock the three up for a third time.

Upon landing, he blew his Bellows Breath, knocking the third Brittle effect out of the surviving Sejuani!

"What just happened!!!"

"What kind of play is this! How can this Emperor of the Sands' ultimate be so painful!?"

"Brittle! It's Brittle! The Emperor of the Sands' ultimate triggered the Brittle damage!"

"A sudden reversal! The Emperor of the Sands... has harvested a triple kill!"

The LCK commentary desk seemed to fall from heaven to hell in an instant.

Just a second ago, they were still shouting that DK had taken the Rift Herald without taking damage and had even killed one person, which was a huge profit.

Yet the next moment, the voice broadcast of a triple kill came through!

The reason why Ornn as a hero has high damage is primarily due to this Brittle effect, which deals 15% of {maximum health} damage per hit.

But under normal circumstances, Ornn's ultimate only triggers Brittle once, and that's only if the second part of the R hits.

Yet in this wave, it was first triggered by the {knock-up} of a Blast Cone, and then triggered by the {knock-back} of the Emperor's Divide.

And both were group triggers!

Acting on all three people at the same time!

It forcibly created an incredible effect.

【Holy crap, Shuriman Malphite! The enemies never even came down from the sky!】

【Looking back, he flies to stabilize the momentum; the Emperor's Divide arrives to settle the outcome!】

【AoE triple-shatter??? Goodness, I struggle to even land a single-target triple-shatter!】

【@Feifei, are you there? Come learn from the Emperor! New goods have arrived!】

【Master Ye is truly a genius!】

【To be honest, after playing it safe for so long in the early game, he almost threw it all away with that one play by Jiejie; he really turned the tide step by step!】

"DK found a key opportunity, but it was met with a shocking reversal!" Guan Zeyuan said excitedly: "Although they secured the Rift Herald, the Emperor secured a triple kill!"

"That's right! While it might look acceptable, we all know that DK's team composition relies on suppressing the Emperor's growth phase; this is disastrous news for them!" Wang Duoduo shouted, waving his arms in excitement.

"Wow, Master Ye went home and bought Everfrost! He's so rich!" Rita blinked her eyes, noticing the change in the item slot.

Having secured a triple kill, the Emperor returned to base and immediately purchased the Mythic item {Everfrost}!

This was definitely not good news for the members of DK.

Especially for Xu Xiu.

He still remembered the LCK playoff match against T1, where he also played LeBlanc against the Emperor.

In the decisive game of that series, the final play saw Faker use Everfrost to root the incoming LeBlanc, preventing her from escaping, which led directly to the mid-laner being burst down and the game ending in one push.

If he remembered correctly, it seemed like Faker's Everfrost was stolen from this very person.

Without a doubt, at least for Xu Xiu, who had psychological trauma, seeing this Everfrost made him afraid to use his W in front of the Emperor.

Of course, the Emperor with Everfrost also had its drawbacks.

For example, a relative lack of damage——————but EDG had Yuumi!

The expressions of everyone on DK were not looking good.

After this skirmish, not only did it fail to alleviate their offensive pressure, but it actually made the tempo even more urgent!

The Emperor's current growth was already a Sword of Damocles hanging over DK's heads.

It felt like it was telling them every moment: if you don't speed up the tempo, this Emperor will soon be unstoppable!

Canyon had been trying to target the Emperor earlier.

But because he only reached level six at seven minutes and had to prepare for the Rift Herald, plus Maokai kept scouting his movements, he never found an opportunity.

Now he finally had his ultimate, but the Emperor had his Mythic item!

The only good news was the nature of the Emperor as a hero; his combat effectiveness remained limited before completing two items.

And DK, with everyone reaching level six, could also begin to leverage the strength of their team composition.

"DK secures the first dragon, and EDG makes a very wise choice to avoid the fight!" From a god's-eye view, Wang Duoduo highly approved of this decision.

"Taking the first dragon at over nine minutes means the decisive fight for the Dragon Soul will be at least at the 25-minute mark; by then, the Emperor will definitely have two, or even three items!"

"That is when they will fully enter their power spike!"

The corners of Guan Zeyuan's mouth curled up: "I can only say there is a gap in the team compositions; DK let both Yuumi and Maokai and the Emperor through, giving EDG all the strong picks of this patch—the offensive pressure is simply too great!"

It must be said that DK did indeed discover the reason for letting Yuumi through and designed an level-one invasion for this game.

But they failed to discover the most important core.

Ye Bo dared to let Yuumi through before, firstly because of the opposing support player's factors.

But more so because they were a team that could focus on a "bot-lane offensive."

They could attack the bot lane fiercely and strike with full force by seizing on the hero's weaknesses!

But DK was not that team.

The overall strength of DK's bot-lane duo was truly mediocre; even if the combination had a slight laning advantage, EDG's bot-lane duo was playing while unwell, and they could only be said to be evenly matched.

In that case, once Yuumi easily passed her weak phase, she would play a huge role by jumping up a level of impact!

Time reached 19 minutes.

The score between the two sides remained very tight; DK's mid and jungle duo kept looking for gank opportunities, and indeed, relying on the strength of LeBlanc and Lee Sin, they managed to catch a few side-lane players.

But the gains were simply too small!

It was because every assault was forced; EDG was able to perform equivalent resource trades on the side lanes, and no one gave away free opportunities.

"EDG is really showing amazing discipline this game; it feels like everyone is very careful, there's absolutely no..." CT hesitated to speak.

"EDG's macro-management really hasn't been affected much, very similar to their performance against T1," the Roaring Emperor was quite candid: "Perhaps it's because the person in charge of their shot-calling is still in very good form today."

"Now it just depends on whether they will take the next dragon fight..."

21 minutes.

EDG continued to choose to give up the third dragon, simply avoiding the fight.

In fact, EDG's gold had actually been a slight advantage the whole time.

But as the shot-caller, Ye Bo stubbornly held back one opportunity after another to start a team fight—he mainly had to force himself to endure it!

His responsibility in this game was too heavy; it wasn't the usual multi-core carry composition, so he had to be steady.

And it was precisely this steadiness of his——————that made all five members of DK feel a sense of despair.

Forcing Baron was impossible, after all, they were even at a gold disadvantage.

Or rather, if not for that miraculous counter-attack at the Rift Herald, perhaps DK would have dared to try, but now they were already traumatized by EDG's "positional warfare" composition!

Now it seemed they could only watch the opponent grow, waiting until "Game Start."

25 minutes.

On the eve of the Dragon Soul fight, the Emperor returned to base again.

After the {Shadowflame} in his item slot, another {Zhonya's Hourglass} appeared.

"The Emperor has three items! They will definitely take this Dragon Soul fight!"

"Yuumi has switched vehicles, and Yuumi even bought a Staff of Flowing Water; this is truly the treatment of a main carry!"

Both sides gathered in front of the dragon pit.

Aside from the mid-laners, the equipment gap between the two sides was actually not large; it was just a difference in resource allocation.

Canyon wanted to find an opportunity for an Insec kick.

But Sivir had a spell shield, the Emperor had Zhonya's, and there was no point in kicking the other two; it was very difficult.

Furthermore, if he didn't kick the Emperor back, the impact on the battle would be limited.

"Should I find an opportunity to engage on the Emperor?" Nuguri signaled.

"It feels very difficult, that Maokai and Ornn are always standing in front," Canyon, who was also looking for an angle, shook his head.

"I'll go poke and see if I can bait out their skills."

Xu Xiu took the lead, leveraging LeBlanc's advantages.

He dashed in with Distortion from a distance, walking up to perform long-range poke.

EDG's composition posed almost no threat to him; there were no skills that could immediately lock him down, and as long as he didn't dash into their faces, the wind-up for Everfrost was not easy to hit.

But when Ye Bo saw the LeBlanc dashing in, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Jiejie, if you get a chance, hug the LeBlanc," Ye Bo said: "Use your ultimate when she lands."

"Hmm?"

Jiejie, who was still blaming himself for the Rift Herald mistake that almost ruined the big picture, was a bit confused.

However, he didn't ask further, just started staring at LeBlanc's movements.

Xu Xiu acted aggressively, walking up unscrupulously to throw Sigil of Malice and Ethereal Chains at the Maokai in front...

And Maokai, for the first time in nearly 20 minutes————flashed to root LeBlanc!

Xu Xiu's face was filled with ecstasy, and he shouted in the voice chat.

He didn't expect the opponent to make the same mistake twice in the same game!

He flashed back to his original position with Distortion, bringing Maokai into his teammates' encirclement!

But at this moment, the Emperor suddenly erected a sand soldier in front.

Ornn also blew the horn of the Call of the Forge God.

"Careful!"

Maokai followed LeBlanc as she flew back, using her as a springboard to dive deep behind enemy lines!

Upon landing, he released {Nature's Grasp} to summon the field of thorns.

The field of thorns covered an extremely wide area, easily covering all five people from 300 yards behind Maokai, dealing an AoE {Root}!

The 0. 5-second root from a short-range start was very brief and, in most cases, could not be effective, just like when Nunu fished Maokai back earlier; the other four couldn't follow up with skills in time.

But at this moment, the Emperor had already used {Shifting Sands} to move forward!

The Emperor's Divide pushed them back in the opposite direction!

If not for this preemptive root, the opponent would have had countless ways to knock him down as the Emperor flew straight in.

But now, they could only watch everything happen!

The {Call of the Forge God} moved through the air, the hunting rhythm accelerated, and the lava ram crashed into them!

"Pizza, totally pizza!" The Roaring Emperor shouted, holding his head.

"Maokai released a perfect ultimate! EDG pulled off a perfect team fight! The Emperor of the Sands destroyed this team fight!"

"How did they go from struggling for 25 minutes to a sudden death like this!"

【This is no sand wall, but a formation to execute the thieves!】

【Luoyang has fallen, why not surrender early?】

【Xu Xiu, are you the one who brought the bandits into the village?】

【This game actually died at eight minutes, it was just buried at twenty-five! You guys loved to spam the chat when they got first blood, speak up now!】

【Eight minutes? One minute! It was over from the moment the draft started!】

EDG secured both the major dragons, and the gold lead was blown wide open.

The Emperor of the Sands had already become an existence the opponents could not deal with.

Two bodyguards stood in front, while the driven sand soldiers were incomparably valiant.

The figure enveloped within the formation seemed to be commanding a steel torrent composed of yellow sand!

The sound of defensive towers collapsing came continuously; the defensive line that DK had held for the first twenty minutes was being rapidly torn apart layer by layer.

29 minutes.

The Twisted Treant and Ornn initiated a double-team, and DK was caught and held at the front of their high-ground gate!

Accompanied by the Emperor of the Sands' scepter striking the earth one last time, the phantoms of the imperial guards were like a sandstorm blotting out the sky, submerging DK's high ground in one fell swoop.

The Blind Monk was still attempting to forcibly intervene, but the moment he flashed and warded to dash, his ankles were entangled by quicksand—it was the path of survival sealed off by the Eternal Frost cold current!

Cracks in the Nexus spread amidst the swirling yellow sand.

At exactly 30 minutes, the DK base crystal collapsed with a roar!

(End of chapter)