Chapter 168: A Clash Beneath the Undercurrent! The Secret of the Heimerdinger!

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

As the broadcast feed cut back, the avatars of the 'Haier Brothers' and Wang Duoduo appeared on screen.

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

"We have just received the results of the pre-match coin toss. EDG has secured side selection priority for this Bo5!"

For this final's side selection, Brother Shengqiang Ge volunteered, and after much reflection, he resolutely chose the side with the flower.

As the information synced, the LCK commentary desk immediately erupted in lamentations.

The importance of side selection priority is particularly critical in a meta where BP resource allocation is unbalanced.

Take the semi-finals, for instance: 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 the draft.

"Although the start is somewhat unfavorable, this match is crucial for our region." The Roaring Emperor took a deep breath at the desk, his hands clasped in a prayer-like gesture.

"DRX! You must hold onto this momentum and continue to create your own miracles!"

Last year's S11 season was a fatal blow to the entire LCK region.

When the semi-finals were occupied by three LCK teams, everyone thought the glory of the LCK region—after the darkness of 2018 and 2019—had officially announced its return, and that they were about to reclaim the region's second consecutive championship.

Only to be swept 3-0 in return!

Coupled with defeats at MSI and Worlds, they walked away empty-handed for the entire year of 2021!

And what no one could have imagined was—this year, the 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 a devastating blow to the entire region; it's hard to say if a large number of people might leave next year!

"The draft has begun! EDG chooses to send Aatrox to the ban list first!"

"It is worth noting that, looking at things now, we can see that neither of these two teams in the final has champion pool issues; both can pull out Caitlyn, Aatrox, and other key heroes."

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

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

T1 didn't want to pick Aatrox due to lane matchups, and Gen. G didn't want to pick Akali or Sylas for the same reason.

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, Brother Shengqiang Ge's proficiency with Yone can only be described as 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 the Blue Side's ban slots being sufficiently abundant in the first game, banning the opponent's hottest-handed top lane hero is the wiser choice.

However, EDG also has a Heimerdinger up their sleeve!

For a "skill-shot" mage support like Heimerdinger, the speed at which the soft-support king Meiko practiced it was not slow—it's just that this pick was used by DRX for the first time in the quarter-finals, and there wasn't enough time, so EDG couldn't pick it during the semi-finals.

But from the semi-finals to the final, having one extra week of preparation time finally allowed Meiko to practice it to the point where it could be picked!

The Heimerdinger pick played a vital role in the Bo5 where DRX defeated T1.

This hero is almost unrivaled in terms of lane-pushing ability as a support; it can be said to be a tier-gap lead, roughly equivalent to saying that if it's picked, the bot lane will definitely have lane priority.

As for the Red Side's draft, there isn't much to say.

Yuumi + Caitlyn are two iron-clad bans; this is almost fixed.

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

Wang Duoduo saw it on a deeper level: "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 champion pool, which means Ye will definitely be able to get his most proficient heroes."

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

"EDG's third ban is given to Kindred! Looking at it this way, this is likely the idea!" Miller also realized something: "Kindred is not only a signature pick for DRX's jungler, but more importantly, this hero heavily counters {Akali} and {engage compositions}, which are the two weapons EDG is most feared for!"

"And most crucially, the multiple-choice question is now left to DRX—because EDG didn't ban Heimerdinger, it's very likely they've 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 DRX team really has many places that are very similar to EDG.

For instance, the head coaches of both teams could be said to be the two head coaches with the lowest "presence" in the semi-finals and even the quarter-finals.

DRX's draft is basically occupied by the support player BeryL for the main share—Mowgli, the head coach who just started his career this year, says the most: "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 draft step, his eyes serious: "We need to ban Ashe."

After saying this, he explained to the coach: "If Ashe is used as a support, she can't out-push Heimerdinger, but if she's used as an ADC without mobility, she'll be very afraid of Heimerdinger's RE hard engage. We can't grab it as a Red Side counter-pick."

"However, once the opponent gets the strongest bot lane pushing combination of Ashe + Heimerdinger, the bot lane will be very hard to play."

In the last second of the draft time, DRX finally had the coach make the call to send Ashe to the ban list.

This highlights the necessity of Maokai making that decision.

If there are people in the "decision-making team" who cannot align their thoughts, they still have to explain 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 one week of preparation didn't go to waste!"

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

Seeing that the opponent self-banned Ashe in the third slot, Ye Bo's eyes grew deep.

He had long thought that DRX, as a team that could often "win through the draft," would be even more difficult to play against in the draft.

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

Moreover, Ye Bo actually had some other hidden concerns in his heart.

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

But as the creators and leaders of {Heimerdinger support} and {lane priority systems} in this World Championship, he couldn't be sure if they had their own "solution" to this "problem."

The first game is a probing of information for both sides, which will directly affect the draft games of the subsequent matches.

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

"EDG still isn't in a hurry to pick a mid laner, but this is actually more of a sign of confidence!" Wa Wa spoke in favor of his home team.

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

"DRX picks Sivir in the third slot, and both sides enter the second round of the draft."

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

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

These two heroes of his have had moments including solo-killing Faker multiple times, and have completely blown up Scout and Yagao in the play-ins and quarter-finals respectively.

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

At the very least, Zeka himself has infinite confidence; no matter how the opponent flexes, no matter what the opponent's mid laner picks, he believes he can handle it.

Second round of the draft—

EDG: Renata, Maokai

DRX: LeBlanc, Camille

"DRX's Sejuani also has flex potential; Kingen isn't just a one-trick Aatrox player. In fact, in the match against T1, his Camille, Fiora, and Ornn all suppressed Zeus in lane; it's just that the Aatrox impression is the deepest!"

"And DRX banning Camille is actually very much like wanting to give the top lane the option of playing Sejuani, especially when the jungle position has also been heavily restricted!"

"Sure enough! DRX picks Lee Sin!"

BeryL saw the opponent's draft strategy for this game.

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

If EDG's top lane wanted to pick a big tank to resist, with Brother Shengqiang Ge's oily style, Kingen couldn't break through during the laning phase.

Then, in that case.

BeryL chose to meet the challenge head-on!

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

Banning Camille can limit EDG's hard-engage ability while also forcing EDG's top lane to be unable to make more changes.

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

"First take Ornn and Akali!"

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

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

"Sylas and Akali are both signature heroes for both Ye and Zeka! They are finally going to have a real clash in the first game of the final!"

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

"This is?"

"Miss Fortune support? I haven't seen this in many years... BeryL is pulling out new tricks again?!"

Ye Bo guessed right.

Since he could figure out a way to deal with Heimerdinger in these two weeks, as the creator, BeryL naturally couldn't have left no backup plan!

It's just that clearly, the two's ideas were not exactly the same.

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

Miss Fortune + Sivir—this entire combination is!

Both sides' lineups are confirmed.

《Blue Side: EDG || Red Side: DRX》

【Top: Ornn vs Sejuani】

【Jungle: Viego vs Lee Sin】

【Mid: Akali vs Sylas】

【ADC: Varus vs Sivir】

【Support: Heimerdinger vs Miss Fortune】

The two "puppet coaches" walked off the stage to the center to fist-bump.

And Ye Bo and BeryL within the two camps both felt the undercurrents in the draft.

They had highly praised each other's drafts when watching the games.

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

"Looking at the paper lineup, the Blue Side, except for the top lane being slightly conventional, has picked meta-strong heroes in all other positions, plus the players' signature heroes!" The commentary desk analyzed the lineup.

"However, relatively speaking, DRX's lineup on the Red Side is also quite good. At the very least, it doesn't look like there's any obvious disadvantage in any lane; the only thing uncertain for now is this bot lane."

"Regardless, let's see the truth in the Rift!"

Summoner's Rift descended with a boom.

Ten people stepped in, ready to go.

"Out, out!"

"Charge, charge, charge!"

Before the curtain of the spawn fountain had even fallen, the urging commands were already sounding in unison in the voice channels of both sides.

Clearly, both sides had key objectives they wanted to execute at level 1.

And from a god's-eye view, one could see.

The directions the ten people were heading were almost identical; at first glance, it seemed like they were ready to fight to the death at level 1!

BeryL led his four teammates, and the five of them charged straight toward the bot lane minion wave.

"They will most likely be in the second bush. Wait, AD, don't learn a skill yet. At 35 seconds, move on time when I say..."

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

And the core of Heimerdinger's ability to grasp lane priority lies entirely in the Q skill, {Turret}.

If the opponent can clear Heimerdinger's turrets, they have no pushing ability, and vice versa.

Therefore.

The difference in strength between Heimerdinger starting with {six turrets} and {three turrets} is worlds apart!

If he can plant three turrets in the lane in advance and wait for the cooldown to plant more, even if the opponent spends all their effort clearing the three turrets, Heimerdinger will immediately be able to release the second set of turret arrays!

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

BeryL naturally understands Heimerdinger and wants to forcibly dismantle Heimerdinger's level 1 turrets, making the opponent lose this key level 1 technique design!

EDG's level 1 lineup cannot be called very strong; although they have Viego and Heimerdinger, Ornn and Akali have no combat power at level 1.

On the contrary, DRX's five people are not weak at level 1.

0:30

Miss Fortune took the lead, casting {Make It Rain} toward the second bush!

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

Miss Fortune hits with a full E skill, Sivir learns a Q for piercing, and they can instantly destroy the three turrets in the bush!

If the opponent's five people happened to be camping in the bush, this combo could even allow them to chase further.

However... under the rain of bullets, no effective unit was hit.

"Didn't they come?" BeryL looked suspicious.

He led the four of them to the second bush, cautiously letting the AD place a ward in the first bush—Miss Fortune's level 1 E has a 18-second cooldown; if they were ambushed face-to-face, they might suffer heavy losses.

But the bush was still empty, calm and peaceful.

BeryL was a bit hesitant.

His heart was racing when he was at the loading screen, and the ill intent he felt from the draft made him quite cautious this game.

And upon seeing the opponent pick Heimerdinger, he subconsciously assumed they must have also fully understood and mastered this system.

But this response right now was like they only understood the surface!

Don't they even know the most basic level 1 turret hiding?

But immediately after, BeryL realized something.

"Wrong!"

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

"Right, jungler, switch to a sweeper!"

BeryL also has deep research on EDG, especially their level 1 designs that frequently produce surprises.

Seeing that the opponent didn't come to execute the most basic level 1 turret hiding, besides the possibility that they didn't understand the system at all and just simply practiced the hero...

There is another more "terrifying" possibility—EDG anticipated that they might come to target this level 1 technique of Heimerdinger, and by using the defensive loopholes of troop deployment, they are invading the jungle at level 1!!

This is an unavoidable orbital game.

If you want to defend against Heimerdinger, you must have all five people come together; otherwise, if the opponent is camping and waiting for you, the bot lane duo might be ambushed.

But if you want all five people to come and defend against Heimerdinger, the map outside the bot lane is almost in a completely undefended state!

The top, mid, and jungle strictly executed the order and came to the red jungle to scout for vision.

Sure enough, they witnessed an Akali just leaving.

Lee Sin used the sweeper that the hero wouldn't normally change to, patrolling the intersection of F6 and the Red Buff, and really found a vision probe that had been placed not long ago.

And seeing this scene, BeryL instead breathed a sigh of relief.

"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 was approaching 1 minute.

The cooldown of Heimerdinger's Q skill, {Turret}, is {one charge every 20 seconds}.

That is to say, if Heimerdinger wants to complete the pre-planting turret operation before the minion wave arrives at 1:30, the ideal six turrets need to be planted starting from 0:30, and at the latest, it cannot exceed 1 minute.

Otherwise, even if they are planted, at most one turret will be waited out upon arriving in lane, unable to achieve much effect from this level 1 technique.

1 minute 35 seconds, the bot lane minion wave arrived.

Seeing Heimerdinger with the "screw mark" of three turrets, and appearing in lane right on time without any delay.

BeryL completely let his guard down.

"No problem, Hyeok-kyu, just follow what we practiced before; wait for him to place the turrets first."

"Hmm."

Heimerdinger seemed to want to play a game at first, to see if the opponent would use skills first.

But how could DRX make such a mistake? Both of them just simply used auto-attacks.

And because of the existence of Miss Fortune's passive skill, the pushing efficiency of using only auto-attacks is something Heimerdinger cannot compare to.

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

Meiko was helpless and took the lead in placing the turrets.

Waiting for Heimerdinger to carefully disperse and place all three turrets, Miss Fortune then started casting Make It Rain, precisely grazing the edge and simultaneously damaging the two turrets that were close to each other!

The range of the turret is about 450 yards.

Even if Meiko consciously wants to disperse the turrets, as long as they can attack the minion wave, they must inevitably surround the minion wave in a circle, and there is no room for much adjustment.

And at this time.

Sivir, who hadn't learned a skill, just invested 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 at once.

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

A level 1 turret only has 130 health.

The turrets won't 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 were destroyed almost instantly!

And throughout the whole process—the DRX bot lane duo didn't need to move forward, all done by {long-range casting} + {ricochet}.

On the contrary, the EDG bot lane duo needed to adjust their positioning to dodge Make It Rain and the ricochet, dragging out time!

With only one turret left and no threat, Miss Fortune directly pushed forward, enduring the consumption, and cleared the last turret.

And a level 1 Heimerdinger without turrets... can almost be said to be not even as good as a ranged minion!

The level 1 minion wave could no longer be suppressed and was controlled by the DRX bot lane, starting to push forward.

BeryL can now almost confirm that EDG's Heimerdinger support is just playing it blindly.

Completely failing to grasp the essence of this hero and playstyle!

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

Level 1 is the most critical of all!

The reason Heimerdinger is shameless is that placing three turrets at level 1 is equivalent to having three {continuous output} skills at level 1—any other soft support only has one skill.

Having lane priority at level 1 means you can reach level 2 first.

Being able to reach level 2 first means you can reach level 3 first.

Being able to reach level 3 first means you can get the "free consumption" opportunity when the opponent is compensating for tower minions in front of the tower on the fourth wave, or the opportunity to cooperate with invading the jungle early!

As long as you can consume a health advantage in front of the tower, the opponent will be even more unable to come up and "use health to clear turrets" in the next wave, leading to the same process repeating itself.

In the end, the bot lane will present a passive situation where the opponent is always compensating for tower minions, continuously being suppressed, and the jungle is always being {invaded by fewer people} and {vision-invaded}!

But now, the EDG bot lane didn't achieve these things.

"I'll go place a ward." BeryL was very cautious and went to the river bush to prepare to place vision.

It was less than 2 minutes in.

Clearly, the jungler couldn't have arrived here, and placing a level 2 anti-gank ward in advance was enough to protect the DRX bot lane's lane priority!

However, at this time.

The LCK commentary desk was screaming with all their might!

"No, BeryL!"

Just as Miss Fortune walked to the front of the river bush and was about to raise her hand...

A fully charged {Chain of Corruption} was fired in advance!

BeryL's eyes widened instantly.

Just because the angle and timing of this Chain of Corruption—were both wrong!

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

As the stun disappeared, Miss Fortune immediately flashed backward.

But seeing the health opportunity, Varus followed up with the E skill, {Hail of Arrows}, which he hadn't used yet, and Heimerdinger directly flashed, auto-attacked, and ignited!

Viego also decisively followed up with a flash!

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

Accompanied by another stab of Viego's blade.

First blood was born!

"DRX's bot lane didn't expect it! They didn't anticipate this Viego who was able to arrive in position so much earlier!"

"EDG played Heimerdinger with their own understanding! A design that even BeryL, the creator, didn't think of!"

"This is really something!"

【Creator? Who said BeryL is the creator? Isn't Heimerdinger a hero from our region?】

【No problem, although Yu Wenbo is back, he is indeed the Heimerdinger of our LPL region!】

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

【If you want to talk about this, then you have to mention "Is it really that hard to practice one Gnar in one season?"】

【The people above don't understand at all. The reason they can play Caitlyn is because someone paved the rhythm and all you have to do is click the mouse; they can play Yone because Yone himself taught them; they can play Heimerdinger because Heimerdinger has no mechanics and is purely playing with brains. This design clearly has traces of Shurima Network!】

The reason why this Heimerdinger didn't go to the bot lane to play at level 1, besides the fact that EDG's lineup didn't have an advantage at level 1 and the odds of winning a 5v5 at level 1 were not high...

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 didn't work hard.

After all, Ye Bo has advantages and speed that others can't reach when practicing new heroes, so naturally, it's easier to discover and research new things.

And Ye Bo just thought, since Heimerdinger's three turrets at level 1 can have a huge impact on pushing the lane... what if they are used in the jungle?

So in fact.

At the beginning, EDG's five people also went to the bottom half of the map, and Heimerdinger did indeed start setting up turrets at level 1, even at 0:30.

It's just that they were set up in the bush of their own Red Buff!

Then, after checking their positioning and confirming that the opponent didn't want to invade the jungle at level 1, Akali went alone to the opponent's top jungle to set up a "smoke bomb."

As for why both sides' bot lanes appeared with the minion wave at the first moment without any flaws in timing?

This point is actually very simple.

Heimerdinger only needs to camp next to the Krug camp to "wake up" the turrets in the Red Buff bush.

And waiting for the minion wave to arrive, Heimerdinger then gets up and leaves synchronously, pressing to the last second of the wake-up time, and the turrets can continue to last for 8 seconds before entering the "dormant" state.

Three turrets frantically and continuously outputting rapidly, shooting 6 bullets per second!

This time is enough to help Viego, who used Smite, to kill the Red Buff in advance and arrive at that position where he should never have been able to arrive!

"Broken..."

BeryL felt something was wrong.

He naturally understood why the opponent would spare no cost to forcibly kill him.

In fact, even if Miss Fortune could luckily escape with a flash, the opponent wouldn't use more skills—but Miss Fortune would definitely have to return to base no matter what.

And as long as she returns to base.

Heimerdinger can use this time to rebuild the turret array, survive the level 1 offensive and defensive period where he couldn't set up, and at the same time use the level and minion wave advantage to pull the laning situation back to the normal "Heimerdinger process"!

And the jungle in the bottom half will also be invaded by the numerical advantage!

"Wait..."

BeryL suddenly remembered a level 1 detail.

"Hong Changxian, go catch the mid lane! Akali has no wards!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 169 =====