Chapter 168: Crossfire Beneath the Undercurrent! The Secret of the Big Head!

"Good morning, viewers at home, and welcome to this thrilling Grand Final!"

As the broadcast feed cut back, the avatars of the Haier Brothers and Wang Duo appeared.

"That pre-match hype video was truly stirring. This final is filled with so much anticipation and connection; no matter who the ultimate winner is, it will surely leave behind a legendary tale!"

"And now, we have received the results of the pre-match coin toss. EDG has won the priority side selection for this best-of-five!"

For this final's side selection, Flandre volunteered, having learned from past pain and resolutely choosing the side with the flower.

As the information synced, the LCK commentary desk on the other side immediately erupted in groans.

The importance of priority side selection is especially critical in a meta where resource allocation during the pick-and-ban phase is so unbalanced.

Take the semifinals, for example: if a team goes on a winning streak, they might end up on the red side for multiple consecutive games, which is undoubtedly a significant disadvantage for pick-and-ban.

"Although it's a disadvantageous start, this match is crucial for our region," the Roaring Emperor said on the commentary desk, taking a deep breath and clasping his hands in prayer.

"DRX! Please, you must hold onto this momentum and continue to create your own miracle!"

Last year's S11 season was nothing short of a fatal blow to the entire LCK region.

When the semifinals were occupied by three LCK teams, everyone thought the glory of the LCK region had finally officially announced its return after the darkness of 2018 and 2019, and that it was about to reclaim the region's second consecutive championship.

Yet, they turned around and were swept in a one-versus-three!

Coupled with the losses at both MSI and the World Championship, they walked away empty-handed for the entire year of 2021!

And what no one could have imagined was—this year, the exact same script is playing out for the second consecutive year!

The Roaring Emperor dared not imagine it.

If this script plays out again this year, it would be such a massive blow to the entire region that it's hard to say how many people might leave next year!

"The pick-and-ban has begun! EDG chooses to send Aatrox to the ban list first!"

"It is worth mentioning that, as we can see now, neither of these two teams in the final has any hero pool issues; both can pull out key heroes like Caitlyn and Aatrox."

The previous teams all had, to varying degrees, hard flaws in their hero pools.

DK, like other LPL teams, couldn't play Caitlyn.

T1 didn't want to play Aatrox due to matchup issues, and Gen. didn't want to play Akali or Sylas due to matchup issues.

But looking at these two teams in the final, after a month of evolution, one could say there are no meta flaws to be found!

Of course, Flandre's proficiency with Yone can only be called mediocre; even in the game against Doran, he didn't gain much of an advantage during the laning phase.

Therefore, at the very least, with enough ban slots available on the blue side in the first game, banning the opponent's hottest-handed top laner's hero is the wiser choice.

However, EDG still has the Heimerdinger card!

For a "skill-shot" mage support like Heimerdinger, the soft-support master Meiko doesn't take long to learn—it's just that DRX used it for the first time in the quarterfinals, and there wasn't enough time, so EDG couldn't pick it during the semifinals.

But from the semifinals to the finals, having an extra week of preparation time finally allowed Meiko to practice it to the point where it could be picked!

The hero Heimerdinger played a vital role in the best-of-five where DRX defeated T1.

This hero is almost unrivaled in terms of lane-pushing ability as a soft support in the bottom lane; it can be said to be a tier-gap lead, roughly equivalent to saying that if you pick it, you are guaranteed lane priority.

As for the red side's pick-and-ban, there isn't much to say.

Yuumi and Caitlyn are two iron-clad bans; that is almost fixed.

"EDG chooses to send both Aatrox and Fiora to the ban list; it seems their pick-and-ban strategy this game is to limit the top lane's impact!" Wawa expressed his opinion.

Wang Duo saw a deeper layer: "I wonder if it's possible that because this game is on the blue side, DRX cannot have enough ban slots to limit the mid-lane hero pool, which means Ye will definitely be able to get a few of his most proficient heroes."

"So EDG wants to exert influence from the mid-bottom half of the map by limiting the top lane!"

"EDG's third ban is given to Kindred! Seeing this, it's very likely that's the idea!" Miller also realized something: "Besides being a signature hero for DRX's jungler, Kindred is more importantly a strong counter to Akali and the 'engage composition,' which are the two weapons EDG is most feared for!"

"And most importantly, the multiple-choice question is now left to DRX—because EDG didn't ban Heimerdinger, they have likely practiced it and are capable of first-picking it!"

The commentary desk actually guessed right this time.

However, BeryL on the other side also realized this point.

From a god's-eye view, the team DRX is truly very similar to EDG in many places.

For instance, the head coaches of both teams could be said to be the two head coaches with the lowest "presence" in the semifinals and even the quarterfinals.

DRX's pick-and-ban is basically handled primarily by the support player BeryL—Mowgli, the head coach who just started his career this year, says most often: "Geon-hee, what should we pick this game?"

"It looks like they probably want to take Heimerdinger," head coach Mowgli said.

"Hmm," BeryL realized what was hidden in this pick-and-ban step, his eyes serious: "We need to ban Ashe."

After saying that, he explained to the coach: "If Ashe is used as a support, she can't out-push Heimerdinger, but as an ADC without mobility, she's very afraid of Heimerdinger's RE engage; we can't grab it as a counter-pick on the red side."

"But, once the opponent gets the strongest bottom-lane push combination of Ashe and Heimerdinger, the bottom lane will be very hard to play."

In the final second of the pick-and-ban time, DRX's coach finally made the call to send Ashe to the ban list.

This highlights the necessity of the decision Maokai made.

If there are people in the "decision-making team" who cannot align their thoughts, one has to explain things to their own people at critical moments, occupying too much meaningless communication cost.

In contrast, the EDG members have absolute trust in Ye Bo.

After all the experiences over the past half-year, no one would ever question any of his decisions again.

"EDG first-picks Heimerdinger! They really did practice this thing; it seems the week of preparation didn't go to waste!"

"Sylas and Akali are both still out there, and Kingen doesn't know how to play top-lane Akali, so there's no need to rush the mid-lane pick!"

Seeing that the opponent had self-banned Ashe as their third pick, Ye Bo's eyes grew deep.

He had long anticipated that DRX, as a team that often wins through "pick-and-ban," would be even more difficult to deal with in the draft.

But he truly didn't expect that the opponent would analyze and dismantle their most ideal lineup with just one seemingly unnecessary ban.

Furthermore, Ye Bo actually harbored some other hidden concerns.

Ye Bo had also thought of some ways to crack the Heimerdinger system.

But as the pioneers and leaders of this World Championship's {Heimerdinger support} and {lane-priority system}, he wasn't sure if they had their own "solution" to this "problem."

The first game is a probe of information for both sides and will directly affect the pick-and-ban games in the subsequent matches.

"DRX counter-picks with Sylas and Sejuani! And EDG grabs Viego to break the combination, then picks Varus."

"EDG still isn't in a rush to pick a mid-laner, but this is actually more of a sign of confidence!" Wawa spoke with a clear bias toward his home team.

"It is precisely because Ye is confident that he has heroes like Zoe, Azir, and LeBlanc in his hero pool to deal with Sylas that they don't need to rush to pick Akali, allowing them to prioritize taking meta-strong heroes!"

"DRX picks Sivir on the third slot, and both sides enter the second round of pick-and-ban."

Compared to all other teams, DRX has an advantage that no one else can compare to, at least when facing EDG.

Zeka's Sylas and Akali can be said to be the most feared heroes in this World Championship, second only to Ye Bo's.

These two heroes of his have had moments including solo-killing Faker multiple times, and he completely crushed Xiaohu and Yagao in the play-ins and quarterfinals, respectively.

Therefore, they don't need to ban Akali and Sylas!

At the very least, Zeka himself has infinite confidence; no matter how the draft swings, he believes he can handle whatever the opponent's mid-laner picks.

Second round of pick-and-ban—

EDG: Renata Glasc, Maokai

DRX: LeBlanc, Camille

"DRX's Sejuani can also be flexed; Kingen is not a one-trick pony who only plays Aatrox. In fact, in the match against T1, his Camille, Fiora, and Ornn all exerted lane pressure against Zeus; it's just that his Aatrox left the deepest impression!"

"And DRX banning Camille actually looks like they want to give the top lane the option of playing Sejuani, especially when the jungle position is also heavily restricted!"

"Sure enough! DRX picks Lee Sin!"

BeryL saw through the opponent's pick-and-ban strategy for this game.

And clearly, after the two great "spinning-top" tank-counter heroes, Fiora and Aatrox, were both banned.

If EDG's top lane wants to pick a big tank to resist, with Flandre's slippery style, Kingen wouldn't be able to break through during the laning phase.

Then, in that case.

BeryL chooses to meet the challenge head-on!

Giving Sejuani to the top lane to resist the opponent's top laner, picking a Lee Sin with strong early-game combat power for the jungle, and shifting to a brawl in the bottom half of the map!

Banning Camille not only limits EDG's engage ability but also forces EDG's top lane to stop making more variations.

There isn't much suspense left for EDG's final two picks.

"First, take Ornn and Akali!"

"Here it comes!!! Akali is here!" Wawa's voice was extremely high-pitched and excited: "Ye's Akali!"

"This is what we were all waiting for, the thing we were just talking about before the match!"

"Sylas and Akali are both the signature heroes of both Ye and Zeka! They are finally going to have a real, head-on collision in the first game of the final!"

But when it came to the final pick, DRX also gave their solution.

"What is this?"

"Miss Fortune support? I haven't seen this in many years... Is BeryL cooking up something new again?!"

Ye Bo guessed right.

Since he could figure out a way to potentially deal with Heimerdinger in these two weeks, BeryL, as the creator, naturally couldn't have left himself without a backup plan!

It's just that it's clear the two men's thoughts were not exactly the same.

Of course—actually, Miss Fortune support isn't the entire core.

Miss Fortune + Sivir—this entire combination is!

Both lineups are confirmed.

《Blue Side: EDG || Red Side: DRX》

【Top: Ornn vs. Sejuani】

【Jungle: Viego vs. Lee Sin】

【Mid: Akali vs. Sylas】

【Marksman: Arrow of Retribution vs. Battle Mistress】

【Support: Great Inventor vs. Bounty Hunter】

Two "puppet coaches" walk off the stage to the arena to fist-bump.

And within both camps, Ye Bo and Beryl both sense the undercurrents in the draft.

They had previously given high praise to each other's drafts while watching matches.

Today, colliding in person, it is indeed as expected.

"Looking solely at the paper lineup, the blue side, aside from the top lane being slightly conventional, can be said to have picked strong meta heroes, plus the players' signature heroes!" the commentary desk analyzes the lineup.

"However, relatively speaking, the DRX lineup on the red side is also quite good. At the very least, it doesn't look like there is any lane with a clear disadvantage; the only uncertainty for now is this bottom lane."

"In any case, let us see the truth of all the answers in the Canyon!"

Summoner's Canyon descends with a roar.

Ten people step in, ready to go.

"Go, go!"

"Charge, charge, charge!"

Before the curtain of the spawning fountain even drops, urging commands already ring out in unison across both voice channels.

Clearly, both sides have key objectives they want to execute at level one.

And from the god's-eye view, one can also see.

The directions the ten people are heading are almost identical; at first glance, it seems like they have the posture of wanting to fight to the death at level one!

Beryl leads four teammates, the five of them charging straight toward the bottom lane minion wave.

"They will most likely be in the second bush. Wait, AD, don't learn a skill yet. At 35 seconds, wait for me to act on time."

For the support Great Inventor, all his skills and the vast majority of his utility are built upon the two words "lane priority."

And the core of the Great Inventor's ability to grasp lane priority lies entirely in the Q skill, 【Turret】.

If the opponent can clear the Great Inventor's turrets, they have no pushing power; conversely, the opposite is true.

Therefore.

The difference in strength between a Great Inventor starting with "six turrets" and "three turrets" is worlds apart!

If one can plant three turrets in the minion lane in advance and hold the cooldown before arriving in lane, then even if the opponent spends all their effort clearing the three turrets, the Great Inventor can immediately deploy a second set of turret arrays!

This is also the reason why the five members of DRX are gathered here.

Beryl naturally understands the Great Inventor; he wants to forcibly dismantle the Great Inventor's level-one turrets, making the opponent lose this key level-one tactical design!

The EDG lineup cannot be called very strong at level one; although they have the Ruined King and the Great Inventor, Ornn and Akali have no combat power at level one.

On the contrary, on the DRX side, none of the five are weak at level one.

0: 0

Bounty Hunter takes the lead, casting 【Make It Rain】 toward the second bush!

According to Beryl's calculations, at this time, even if no one is camping in this bush, there would at least be three turrets.

Bounty Hunter hits with the full E skill, and Sivir learns Q for piercing rotation, which can instantly destroy the three turrets inside the bush!

If the five opponents happen to be camping in the bush, this full combo could even allow for a follow-up pursuit.

However... under the rain of bullets, no effective units were hit.

"Didn't they come?" Beryl looks suspicious.

He leads the four others to the second bush, cautiously letting the AD place a ward in the first bush—Bounty Hunter's level-one E has an 18-second cooldown; if they get ambushed face-to-face, they might suffer.

But the bush remains empty, calm and quiet.

Beryl is somewhat hesitant.

His heart was racing during the loading screen just now, and the ill intent he sensed from the draft made him quite cautious this game.

And upon seeing the opponent pick the Great Inventor, he subconsciously assumed they must have fully mastered this system.

But this response at this moment is like they only understand the surface!

Do they not even know the most basic level-one turret planting?

But immediately after, Beryl realizes something.

"Not right!"

"Top, mid, and jungle, recall together. Go back to help the jungler watch the top jungle; we'll camp for a while and then go into the bottom jungle to help watch."

"Right, jungler, switch to a sweeper!"

Beryl has also studied EDG deeply, especially their frequently surprising level-one designs, which remain fresh in his memory.

Seeing that the opponent did not execute the Great Inventor's most basic level-one turret hiding, besides the possibility that they haven't mastered this system at all and just practiced the hero,

there is another more "terrifying" possibility—it is that EDG anticipated they might come to target this level-one Great Inventor technique and, by exploiting the defensive gaps caused by troop movements, are invading the jungle at level one!!

This is an unavoidable orbital game.

If you want to defend against the Great Inventor, you must come as five; otherwise, if the opponent is waiting as five, the bottom lane duo might get ambushed.

But if you come as five to defend against the Great Inventor, the map outside the bottom lane is almost completely undefended!

The top, mid, and jungle strictly execute the order, arriving at the red zone to scout for vision.

Sure enough, they witness an Akali just leaving.

Lee Sin uses the sweeper that the hero wouldn't normally switch to, patrolling the intersection between F6 and the red buff, and actually discovers a vision ward that was placed not long ago.

Seeing this scene, Beryl feels relieved instead.

"It's fine, let's go to the bottom jungle and take a look. Wait for me to use a skill to scout the path."

At this time, the time is approaching 1 minute.

The cooldown of the Great Inventor's Q skill 【Turret】 is {one charge every 20 seconds}.

That is to say, if the Great Inventor wants to complete the pre-planting operation before the minion wave arrives at 1: 0, the ideal six turrets need to be planted starting from 0: 0, and no later than 1 minute.

Otherwise, even if planted, at most one turret will be ready by the time they reach the lane, failing to achieve much effect from this level-one technique.

1: 5, the bottom lane minion wave arrives.

Seeing the "screw mark" of three turrets on the Great Inventor, and that they appeared in the lane right on time without any delay.

Beryl is completely at ease.

"No problem. Hekui, just do as we practiced. Wait for him to place the turrets first."

"Mm."

The Great Inventor seems to want to play a game at first, seeing if the opponent will use skills first.

But how could DRX make such a mistake? Both of them simply use basic attacks.

And because of Bounty Hunter's passive skill, the pushing efficiency of using only basic attacks is something the Great Inventor cannot compare to.

At the same time, the DRX bottom lane duo seems to have a plan, focusing their fire on the two melee minions in front.

Meiko is helpless and is the first to deploy the turrets.

Waiting for the Great Inventor to finish spreading out the three turrets in detail, Bounty Hunter finally starts casting Make It Rain, precisely grazing and damaging the two turrets that are close to each other!

The turret's range is about 450 yards.

Even if Meiko consciously wants to disperse the turrets, as long as they can attack the minion wave, they must surround the minion wave, leaving no room for much adjustment.

And at this moment.

Sivir, who hadn't learned a skill, finally invests the skill point into W 【Ricochet】.

Showing the deep meaning behind the two of them focusing fire on the minions.

Sivir's W Ricochet can only bounce to {8} targets at most.

To ensure the ricochet can definitely hit the turrets, the DRX bottom lane duo needed to kill the melee minions in front as quickly as possible, allowing the ricochet blade to cover them!

A level-one turret has only 130 health.

The turrets cannot walk out of the range of Make It Rain and can only take all the damage in place.

With the addition of the ricochet blade, the two turrets are destroyed almost instantly!

And throughout the whole process—the DRX bottom lane duo didn't need to move forward, doing it all through {long-range casting} + {ricochet}.

On the contrary, the EDG bottom lane duo had to reposition to dodge the Make It Rain and ricochet, delaying time!

With only one turret left that poses no threat, Bounty Hunter pushes forward, ignoring the consumption, and clears the last turret.

And a level-one Great Inventor without turrets... can almost be said to be worse than a ranged minion!

The level-one minion wave can no longer be suppressed and is controlled by the DRX bottom lane, starting to push forward.

Beryl can now almost confirm that this EDG support Great Inventor is just playing blindly.

They have completely failed to grasp the essence of this hero and playstyle!

The struggle for lane priority in the bottom lane needs to be managed from the first wave of minions.

Level one is the top priority!

The reason the Great Inventor is shameless is that placing three turrets at level one is equivalent to having three {continuous output} skills at level one—any other soft support only has one skill.

If you have lane priority at level one, you can reach level 2 first.

If you can reach level 2 first, you can reach level 3 first.

If you can reach level 3 first, you can get the "free consumption" opportunity while the opponent is last-hitting under the tower on the fourth wave, or the opportunity to cooperate with a jungle invasion early on!

As long as you can consume their health advantage in front of the tower, the opponent will be even less able to come up to "use their health to clear the turrets" in the next wave, causing the same process to repeat.

In the end, the bottom lane will present a passive situation where the opponent is always last-hitting under the tower, continuously being denied farm, and the jungle is constantly being subjected to {short-handed invasions} and {vision aggression}!

But now, the EDG bottom lane has not achieved these things.

"I'm going to place a ward." Beryl is very cautious, heading to the river bush to prepare to place vision.

It hasn't even been 2 minutes yet.

Clearly, the jungler couldn't possibly have reached this spot, and setting up vision against a level 2 gank early was enough to keep the DRX bot lane's lane priority safe!

However, at this moment.

The LCK commentary desk is screaming at the top of their lungs!

"No! Beryl!"

Just as Miss Fortune walked in front of the river brush, preparing to raise her hand.

A fully charged 【Dread】 was fired out early!

Beryl's eyes widened instantly.

Simply because the angle and timing of this Dread——————were both wrong!

At this point, the first wave of the bot lane had only just been cleared, and Viego could at most have just finished his Red Buff; how could he possibly be here?!

As the stun wore off, Miss Fortune immediately burned her Flash backward.

But seeing an opportunity in her health bar, Varus followed up with the Hail of Arrows he had been holding back, and Heimerdinger even flashed in, landed an auto-attack, and ignited!

Viego also decisively followed up with his own Flash!

Miss Fortune had already lost some health from pushing the wave, and despite being exhausted, she still couldn't shake off a level 2 Viego with Red Buff.

Accompanied by another stab of Viego's blade.

First Blood!

"DRX's bot lane didn't expect this! They didn't anticipate this Viego, who was actually able to position himself so far in advance!"

"EDG has played Heimerdinger with their own unique understanding! A design that even Beryl, the pioneer, didn't see coming!"

"This is really something!"

【Pioneer? Who said Beryl is the pioneer? Isn't Heimerdinger a champion from our region?】

【Nothing wrong with that, although Yu Wenbo has gone home, he is indeed our LPL region's Heimerdinger!】

【I just don't understand, why can EDG pick champions like Yone, Heimerdinger, and Caitlyn? Are the coaching staffs of other LPL teams dead?!】

【If we're talking about that, we have to mention "Is it really that hard to practice one Gnar in one, one, one, one season?"】

【The people above don't understand at all. They can play Caitlyn because someone set up the tempo and all they have to do is click the mouse; they can play Yone because Yone himself taught them personally; they can play Heimerdinger because Heimerdinger requires no mechanics and is purely about playing with your brain. This design clearly has traces of Shurima internet culture!】

The reason Heimerdinger didn't go to the bot lane for a level 1 skirmish was not only because the EDG lineup didn't have an advantage at level 1, making a 5v5 win unlikely.

It was also because EDG had their own understanding.

Or rather, it was Ye Bo's understanding.

This point is actually understandable, and it's not that Meiko isn't working hard.

After all, Ye Bo has advantages and speed in practicing new champions that others find hard to match, so naturally, it is easier for him to discover and research new things.

And Ye Bo had exactly this thought: since Heimerdinger's three turrets at level 1 can have a huge impact on pushing the lane... what if they were used in the jungle?

So, in fact.

At the start, the five members of EDG also went to the bottom half of the map, and Heimerdinger did indeed start setting up turrets at level 1, even starting at the 0: 0 mark.

It's just that he was setting them up in his own Red Buff brush!

Afterward, through positioning and confirming the opponent didn't want to invade the jungle at level 1, Akali went alone to the opponent's top jungle to plant a "smoke bomb."

As for why both bot lanes appeared with the minion waves at the first moment, without any flaws in timing?

This point is actually very simple.

Heimerdinger actually only needed to crouch next to the bottom Krug camp to "awaken" the turrets in the Red Buff brush.

And waiting for the minion wave to arrive, Heimerdinger would then get up and leave simultaneously, pushing the continuous awakening time to the last second; the turrets could still last for another 8 seconds before entering "dormant" status.

Three turrets firing rapidly and continuously can shoot 6 bullets per second!

This amount of time was enough to help Viego, who used Smite, to kill the Red Buff early and arrive at that position where he absolutely shouldn't have been able to reach!

"Oh no..."

Beryl felt something was wrong.

He certainly understood why the opponents would go to such lengths to kill him at all costs.

In fact, even if Miss Fortune could have luckily escaped with Flash, the opponent wouldn't have wasted more skills——————but no matter what, Miss Fortune would definitely have to recall.

And as long as she recalled.

Heimerdinger could use this time to rebuild his turret formation, get through the early game period where he couldn't set up, and at the same time use his level and minion wave advantage to pull the laning situation back to the normal "Heimerdinger process"!

Furthermore, the bottom half of the jungle would also be invaded by a team with a numbers advantage!

"Wait..."

Beryl suddenly remembered a detail from level 1.

"Hong Changxian is going to gank mid! Akali has no wards!"

(End of chapter)