Chapter 148: Mountain-crossing sapling! Drowning luck!

"In this game, both sides are a bit like swapping offense and defense; DK has the Emperor, Graves, and Camille, and whether it's split-pushing or team fighting in the mid-to-late game, they will have a huge advantage!"

The two people on the LCK commentary desk were still analyzing the composition.

CT explained: "DK has indeed made adjustments this game; after discovering that EDG's discipline is not bad and there are few defensive loopholes in the early game, they chose to move the power spike of their main carries to the mid-to-late game, letting the stable mid-jungle duo shoulder the responsibility of carrying!"

"Looking at it this way, Pyke should be EDG's main rhythm point," the Roaring Emperor frowned and expressed his worries: "It's just that although Ye chose it in the group stage before, that game was against a melee hero like Galio..."

"This matchup should be easy to play! In short, completely trust our ShowMaker!" CT Ge couldn't wait to inject confidence into the LCK broadcast room audience who had suffered a loss.

【Don't know, just asking: can Pyke really still play mid lane?】

【Hello, yes, it is possible; as far as I know, there are no relevant regulations in the legal systems of the 233 countries around the world.】

【Hehe, bullying an old man like Caps is one thing, but daring to pick it against my Show God? Ye, wait to die!】

【Hey, upstairs, your Show-soldier certificate fell!】

Similar to the war of words in the broadcast room, the cheers and support at the venue once again resounded through Madison Square Garden.

Until the sound wave gradually subsided, the Summoner's Rift descended with a boom!

"Both sides are in their usual defensive positions; it seems like there is no intention of invading at level one!"

Although both compositions have a certain ability to initiate, unlike the last game, neither side has an absolute advantage.

Except for the junglers, the eight people played a game of "collision" on both sides of the river, and each position could see the player they were laning against.

It was the most standard 1-1-1-1-1 long snake formation.

Canyon examined the hero icons on the scoreboard, thinking about his jungle planning for this game.

Graves against Maokai; in the jungle, whether it's farming efficiency or the offensive pressure given to the opponent by his own jungle carry positioning, it's all a matchup advantage.

It's just that these aren't too obvious in the first few levels.

The true power spike of Graves is when he quickly buys the extremely smooth and cheap "Umbral Glaive," forming combat power and vision suppression, which can then create a suffocating jungle offensive and defensive rhythm.

And the only advantage of Maokai—is the gank success rate.

Thinking back to the "suicidal" farming method Jie Jie's Maokai used in the last game...

It was very obvious that the most important thing for Canyon in the early game of this match was to fully control Maokai's information and make precise counter-ganks.

"This Maokai should be starting in the bottom half; bot lane retreat at two and a half minutes, top lane retreat at three and a half minutes."

"Everyone stand in position, don't expose my information."

"I'm going to invade his jungle at level three."

Still that truth: jungle game theory is about information.

Whether it was the Deceiver invading to place a ward at level one affecting the overall situation, or Maokai's mid-game vision detection in the last game making it impossible to find an offensive point, it all boiled down to the exposure of jungle information.

But Canyon's judgment of Maokai's start was entirely based on his understanding of the jungle.

Maokai faces the pressure of being "invaded" by Graves, especially the first wave of jungle game theory, which is the top priority!

If the first wave of jungle is invaded, it's very likely that the snowball will start rolling directly.

And if one wants to avoid being invaded.

The most direct way is to "reverse start," letting the opponent hit empty air.

Canyon stood in Maokai's perspective and thought—

{Our side is Caitlyn, theoretically we should start from the top half and farm downwards, but this conventional thinking is easily invaded → so perhaps we should do the opposite, start from the bottom and farm upwards}

{Graves has no control, the only way to keep people is a smoke bomb; wanting to do things will rely heavily on the red buff, so the opponent might be red-starting → then to avoid being invaded and hitting empty air, we also need to start from the bottom and farm upwards}

So-called game theory.

Is nothing more than you thinking of the first layer → he thinks of the layer above → and then you think of the layer above that—until the person who thinks +1 layer wins the game theory.

Canyon thought of this layer.

And his thinking was quite comprehensive.

Graves starts from the top blue zone and farms downwards, then goes directly to invade the opponent's blue zone—

If they didn't take the blue, he could forcibly invade and fight, playing Graves's invasion rhythm.

If they took the blue, then Maokai's position is exposed, their own top half is all empty, and as long as the top lane doesn't give an opening, Maokai has nowhere to go.

And Graves can directly return to his own red zone to farm, while ensuring his own development is not damaged in the slightest, he can also backhand and limit Caitlyn's bot lane push rhythm!

Canyon's understanding of the jungle is profound, and the invasion thinking he made on the spot is definitely a safe and reliable response.

But just at this moment.

The commentary desk outside was making bursts of ghostly screams.

"What does this mean!?"

1 minute and 30 seconds, jungle monsters refresh, minions hit the lane.

The commentary desk was originally still shocked by the earth-shattering changes on the field.

But the director, whose perspective was originally focused on the jungle, suddenly detected the occurrence of combat.

The screen instantly flew to the mid lane!

Just when everyone thought that short-range Pyke laning against long-range Emperor should definitely be the "smelling experience" style of play, always hiding behind minions.

Instead, it was seen that Pyke was actually moving forward side-by-side with the first melee minion, looking extremely arrogant!

This move was naturally not Ye Bo showing off—the purpose was to not give the Emperor a chance to "place pieces in advance."

Pyke's E skill is 550 yards.

And the Emperor's W cast distance is also 550 yards, but the "remote control distance" is 650 yards, plus the 300-yard attack range of the sand soldiers, which is a range of nearly a thousand yards.

So.

The chance for Pyke to touch the opponent is when {the Emperor places sand soldiers}.

Ye Bo has a deep understanding of both heroes.

But it was very obvious that Xu Xiu's experience in laning against Pyke was quite lacking.

The Emperor met him as usual, directly summoning a sand soldier in the minion pile to poke.

But who knew that at the same moment, Pyke actually instantly dashed forward with E 【Phantom Undertow】, directly rushing into the Emperor's face!

"Pyke is directly E-ing the face at level one? What kind of playstyle is this!?"

"Wait... it hurts!"

Although the distance of the two skills was equal, Pyke instantly dashed to the Emperor's face, almost sticking to him.

But the Emperor was not a wooden stake that wouldn't move.

Xu Xiu immediately moved backward keenly to pull away; there was no reason for this E to hit.

Of course, it didn't hit.

Pyke just had red light flashing on his body, {Hail of Blades} triggered, and he extremely quickly AAA slashed three times.

But what was terrifying was—just these three hits, and the Emperor actually lost a full one-third of his health bar!

"What kind of damage is this?" Guan Zeyuan couldn't understand at all: "You have to know that this E skill didn't even hit, it's purely three flat A's; if the E had hit, wouldn't it have directly dealt half health!?"

Wang Duoduo also shook his head blankly: "Pyke mid is too rare; even in Ye's entire career, he's only played it twice. Could it be because of the 'Doran's Blade'?"

He looked and looked, and it seemed only this Doran's Blade looked a bit strange.

Generally, when this kind of hero plays mid, it seems it should be Long Sword + three reds, or Doran's Shield start.

But at this time, if anyone noticed Pyke's panel attributes.

They would find that level one Pyke's {Attack Power} was as high as a terrifying 93 points!

You have to know, the base attack power of most heroes at level one is only around 60 points, and many AP mage heroes don't even have 50 points!

This is besides the fact that Pyke's base attack power is already very high—more of it is because of the passive skill 【Drowning Luck】.

Pyke's passive skill, besides the well-known effect of {storing damage taken}, also has the effect of {Pyke cannot gain any health increase, but will convert every 14 points of bonus health into 1 point of attack power}.

The 80 health points of Doran's Blade, plus the 65 health points of {fixed health rune shards}—these two alone provided Pyke with 10 attack power!

Exactly worth a 350-gold 【Long Sword】.

And although Pyke's E skill didn't hit, it triggered the fixed armor penetration of "Sudden Impact."

Hitting the Emperor, who only had 25 armor, three flat A's were exactly 253 damage.

A level one Emperor only has less than 600 health, so naturally, it was one-third!

Xu Xiu in front of the screen clearly had a look full of shock.

Originally, he was still a bit resentful, not expecting the opponent to pick this hero to deal with him.

It was simply a bit of looking down on people!

Even if it had appeared in the group stage, no one among all those who entered the quarterfinals, including T1, DRX, and DK, cared about this hero, completely treating it as EDG's "entertainment" choice.

After all, the strength gap between G2 and EDG this year was too obvious, and it was hard to have any reference value.

Now it seems, perhaps that's not the case.

The Emperor turned his head, set up a sand soldier, and poked back once at Pyke, who had 33 magic resistance, successfully dealing 46 damage.

The difference was quite obvious.

And the laning style of Pyke mid: it's "trading health"!

After all, Pyke has no ability to push the lane.

However, the way to compete for lane priority has never been only by clearing minion waves—making the opponent afraid to clear minion waves in large numbers due to health disadvantage can also achieve it!

Both sides reached level two at the same time.

Ye Bo first avoided the coverage range of a sand soldier, again seized the gap when the Emperor set up a sand soldier, and E-dashed to the face!

However, although Xu Xiu hadn't figured out Pyke's weird laning thinking, he was consciously keeping his distance this wave and didn't let Pyke E directly to his face again.

But a 【Bone Skewer】 poked out from a short distance of 300 yards, and a 90% slow was instantly applied!

The Emperor was easily followed up again, and AAA poked out three times!

This time, plus the Q, it was 363 damage, exactly a set dealing over half health.

The level two Emperor could only turn his head and wave the sand soldier, chasing and poking out one more QA, successfully dealing 107 damage after deducting 35 magic resistance.

The charm of "numerical values" was fully displayed.

"Axi, this hero..." Xu Xiu hissed a breath.

"Jianfu, can you come and gank him? It seems like he will always actively use E."

Although Xu Xiu didn't understand this hero.

But his laning experience was so rich that he instantly noticed the problem with this laning method.

Although Pyke's way of using E only as "close-up" + "triggering Sudden Impact," combined with the Q skill slow, and using Hail of Blades A as the main output means of consumption, looked quite rogue.

And although Pyke's E has no damage to minions, the forward-dashing E just happens to be able to stun minions, avoiding being focused by the minion wave!

And the Deceiver, with the same displacement distance, because W must be used to deal damage—this is why the Deceiver, who clearly has longer hands, instead couldn't touch the Emperor.

But in this way, Pyke also had no displacement skills.

Theoretically, it should be very easy to be ganked.

Canyon, who was farming the three wolves, heard the sound and switched screens to observe.

Seeing the health status of both sides, his eyes also showed shock.

But he quickly realized—something was wrong!

"No, this wave is not okay."

"He dares to trade health like this; it's too much like someone being behind him. It's very likely that he wants to force us to fight 2v2 in the mid lane, so that their jungler can know my position..."

"I'm going to invade the jungle first this wave, don't be anxious, you play steadily for a while."

After the partner's reminder, Xu Xiu also reacted immediately.

The "status" of the opponent's mid laner in the team was already well known; if you said the jungler had to use his own life to help the mid lane camp, that seemed extremely normal.

And by "forcing you to fight in the mid lane, and instead avoiding 1v1 jungle collisions."

It seemed that it was not a bad way to solve the problem.

Anyway, the Emperor's laning ability was there; as long as the level went up and the CD of the Q skill went up, Pyke would still only be beaten.

It was just that he could be fierce for the first few levels.

Xu Xiu finished thinking and began to calmly lane while taking potions.

He no longer pursued placing sand soldiers in the minion pile, only placing them from a long distance, at least not giving Pyke a chance to E directly to his face; this way, at most, the pushing would be a bit slow...

"No detection! DK's mid-jungle seems to have no detection!"

"They are completely unaware of this level one design!"

"It's coming!!!"

The third wave of mid lane minions arrived.

Pyke waited for the CD to turn, and again dashed forward with E.

However, the Emperor had completely learned his lesson, keeping a distance of about 700 yards from Pyke at all times—this way, even if Pyke E'd up, using the short Q poked to slow, he definitely wouldn't be able to hit the full three Hail of Blades.

Although the price was that an Emperor was actually level with Pyke.

But it seemed that it really made Pyke have no way to deal with the opponent...

But this wave, Ye Bo didn't rush to poke out the blood dagger.

The moment Pyke landed from the dash, he raised his right arm high and held the Bone Skewer, aiming forward and charging!

Another way to trade health?

Xu Xiu manipulated the Emperor to sway left and right, frantically shaking his chicken butt to move.

He naturally could see that Pyke's way of trading health by E-ing up and charging the hook with Q was clearly a quite "desperate" way of trading health!

Once the Q failed to hit, Pyke would be equivalent to all skills being empty, and would be chased and counter-attacked by the Emperor all the way!

The health situation that had been painstakingly accumulated before would also instantly reverse!

Xu Xiu's eyes focused.

But just as Pyke raised the dagger forward.

And the drowning ghost shadow of Phantom Undertow was braking back from behind at high speed—gold light suddenly flashed!

Pyke and the Emperor's figures instantly overlapped!

The drowning ghost shadow, which had been brought over at the limit, hit the Emperor who was sticking to Pyke.

《EQ charging E-flash》!

Because the speed of the drowning ghost shadow following back was extremely fast, as long as the E-flash timing was pinched limit enough, there was no possibility of reaction space; the only possibility was a pre-judgment flash.

But it was very obvious that the Emperor hadn't realized the murderous intent and couldn't flash like this.

The E skill took effect first, the Emperor was stunned in place for 1.25 seconds, Pyke then took a step back, threw the Bone Skewer sideways, and threw the Emperor behind him!

Throwing him to a slightly "deliberate" angle.

This position was exactly the intersection of the river road and the F6 wall.

And the next moment, gold light flashed again, and a plant man suddenly flashed into his face... from the pit of his own F6!!

"Ah!?" Xu Xiu let out an unbelievable scream.

"How is Maokai here!!!"

DK had a perfect defensive position at level one, and Xu Xiu had placed a defensive ward at the river entrance of the bottom jungle at 1 minute and 20 seconds.

At this time, it was only 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and the ward hadn't expired.

That is to say, Maokai didn't circle around from the river...

The Emperor had no operation space.

Maokai used an Asian bind to tie up the Emperor, then backhanded with a Q skill to knock him back!

The Emperor's health was already not very healthy due to successive consumption, and this wave was hit by Pyke's E-flash with all skills, plus the full skills of Maokai who appeared.

With a wail of a chicken, he kicked his legs and fell to the ground!

【First Blood!】

"First blood taken by Pyke! Such fast operation! Nice!" Guan Zeyuan raised his arms and shouted, letting out a long breath.

"This is EDG's design!"

Rita also followed up: "In this way, Maokai's flash can be completely used as a gank flash; Hextech Flash coming out so unexpectedly—this is better than a flash!"

Wang Duoduo discovered the real key: "The most important thing in this wave is that magical 'Mountain-crossing Sapling'; this is definitely the first time we've seen this technique on the field; it should be something the EDG players discovered themselves!"

"It was that sapling, detecting Three Uncle's farming route, that led to the subsequent bold level one invasion!"

"I have to say, looking at these two games, Jie Jie's Maokai definitely has a lot of research and practice! They truly played things that other teams haven't played!"

Witnessing the whole process from God's perspective.

During the level one positioning, except for the junglers, the other four people were exposed and met each other, which could be said to have absolutely no doubt or sense of danger.

Absolutely no one would have thought that Maokai would flash over the wall from the Dragon Pit at level one!

And the most important core of this wave is—how exactly can one determine what Graves is starting?

After all, in the level one positioning of both sides, neither side obtained any extra information.

If Graves was red-buff starting, Maokai flashing up like this would simply be sending his head!

Obviously, this couldn't be "guessed."

Speaking of which.

This was still the "magical point" Ye Bo discovered when practicing Maokai.

At that time, Ye Bo was studying how to place Maokai's saplings to obtain more information resources in the jungle and achieve the strategic purpose of this hero.

Then he accidentally tried that point.

It turned out that when Maokai stood on the edge of the wall on the upper side of the Dragon Pit and aimed the mouse pointer at the only point on the red buff wall—he could directly throw the sapling into the red buff pit from inside the Dragon Pit!

Just like that, separated by two walls, he easily obtained vision!

As long as it was thrown 15 seconds before the jungle monsters refreshed.

At this time point, the jungler must have already chosen the farming half-zone; if Graves was red-starting, he would inevitably be revealed by this sapling!

Maokai didn't need to rush to flash; after all, the sapling could exist for 30 seconds.

Just wait for the red buff to be born, automatically detonate the sapling under his feet for a second confirmation, then flash over the wall and throw down a second grass sapling—this way, he wouldn't lose damage, and could minimize the risk!

Then it was clearing Graves's red zone, first clearing the Krugs, then clearing the F6, and arriving at the mid lane on the way.

Mid lane reaching level three would be much slower than the level three from a single jungle start.

More importantly, the mid lane was the Emperor!

Just like Maokai running over to help the Emperor throw saplings to protect him before level 3 in the first game.

Because the Emperor had to force a point in W at level one, and there was no skill point game theory at level 2, it was almost impossible to point E!

That is to say, there was no unique displacement ability.

So even if the Emperor wasn't in that position at the time, Maokai flying out from behind through Hextech Flash could also easily cooperate with Pyke's flash EQ to complete the snipe!

【First time knowing that the Tree Son can be thrown so far? A half-court three-pointer!】

【This is EDG's team soul Maokai; this distance is ridiculously outrageous, directly thrown from the Mavericks to the Lakers!】

【As expected of the hero passed down from the ancestors, the ancestor Seven is watching from heaven!】

【To be honest, I know with my butt that this design must have been thought up by Master Ye; the taste is too authentic! It's still this taste!】

【Canyon: This is not right; why does it feel like there's a phantom behind this Maokai? It seems like there's an old man in a bottle!】

Some people in the barrage were still questioning that this was "good luck."

The reason for this idea was, what if Graves didn't come to the bottom half after reaching level three, or went directly to invade the top half after finishing the buff at level two?

The answer is that's courting death!

This was actually the most ideal result EDG expected.

Killing the Emperor, through the ward at the entrance left after clearing the bottom half, could completely determine Graves's position.

If Graves really went to EDG's top half, this wave could directly take advantage of the mid laner's death, cooperate with the top-mid-jungle three-pack-one, and then catch Graves on the way!

Then DK would be blown up in one wave!

The invasion thinking Canyon made had no problems; it could even be said that it was because of this thinking that Graves didn't fall into a desperate situation.

Of course, it was still very uncomfortable.

The Emperor had TP, so the loss from death wasn't particularly large for him.

But Graves happened to walk into his own bottom half, and then saw the empty F6 pit.

Then looking at the red buff hanging on Maokai...

Everything was revealed!

Canyon's breathing became a bit heavier.

But what he didn't know was.

The offensive against him had just begun!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 149 =====