Chapter 176: Tunnel Incident! A Chess Move Outplayed!

"They actually practiced Nocturne too," Oner said, taking a sip of protein powder inside the T1 base, evaluating the situation to himself.

"Even though this hero is a bit trash in the current meta, in a 1v1 jungle matchup against Viego, it's an absolute one-sided beatdown. That understanding is spot on!"

Nocturne had only appeared once in this S12 tournament; it was definitely not a strong jungler in the current meta.

Speaking of which, it was still due to the durability update.

Heroes like Nocturne, who have to charge into a crowd alone and might get blown up by the opponent instead of securing a kill upon entry, while also needing to farm to level six, were clearly ill-suited for the current game tempo.

But coincidentally, Oner was the only player to have used Nocturne in this World Championship—and that game was against Viego!

So his statement was clearly based on experience.

However, Keria, standing to the side, had a different view: "I actually think EDG's main purpose in picking this Nocturne is to put pressure on the bot lane, right?"

"It's very obvious that they are targeting Yuumi in this game. This hero's mechanics are too unhealthy. Even though it has so many flaws, as long as the opponent can't kill them in the early game, once it reaches the mid-game, this hero is just a menace."

"And this Nocturne and Kalista are definitely targeting the bot lane, not letting the support run around just because the opponent is Yuumi, otherwise they'll just force a dive on your AD!"

Keria's meta understanding was clearly a step ahead, quickly seeing the true purpose.

The reason DRX's bot lane in the previous game could survive while the support was running around wasn't just thanks to Deft's steady playstyle and experience, but also the support's incredibly meticulous warding, which could always detect the opponent's intentions in advance.

But against a hero like Nocturne, who can gank directly by flying in from the "sky," both of those points were hard to utilize!

If a Kalista still wasn't enough to solve the problem of Yuumi providing too little early-game pressure...

Then what if they added a Nocturne?

With Yuumi, EDG had no reason to play an early-game tempo. After all, they only needed to stabilize the situation and reach the mid-game like the last match, and the scales of victory would naturally tilt!

Of course, this was actually the reason DRX still let Yuumi through—they knew EDG was best at early-game aggression. Letting Yuumi through at least meant the opponent couldn't fight in their most proficient domain.

However, Ye Bo had also anticipated this layer of the opponent's strategy, which was why he changed the lineup for this match, opting instead for a slower-paced "Grand Teamfight" composition.

You think of one layer, I think of one layer, and he thinks of another; these were all part of the game's strategy.

Li Xianghe did not participate in his teammates' discussion, just staring blankly at Fiddlesticks' icon.

"Another trick play."

He thought of the second game against EDG in the group stage, where the opponent also picked a trick mid-lane Nunu, breaking through their defenses in an incomprehensible way, and eventually even causing a scene with the "mechanics are mechanics, it's not like they only existed today" blunder.

And with this Fiddlesticks, based on his own game understanding, he seemed to vaguely anticipate some mid-lane laning scenarios.

Just at this moment, the game screen finished loading.

Before anyone could even look at the rune choices for both sides, they noticed someone's level-one start was wrong!

As the match was loading, Ye Bo was still giving his teammates instructions: "We must be careful with our level-one positioning. Bard is a hero outside our plan; we need to be wary of whether they have something designed!"

As soon as they stepped into the Rift, several signals were immediately marked on the map: "Except for the top laner, we'll place wards in these few spots as soon as we leave, then retreat directly to the jungle to see the opponent's movements before deciding."

Ye Bo had a deep wariness toward this Bard.

Not only because it was a hero outside the plan, but also because it was a hero Ye Bo didn't understand at all, to the point where he only knew the hero's basic skills.

Ye Bo felt that his knowledge was still insufficient.

But facing this crucial game, he really wanted to win with all his might.

And for the level-one teamfight of this lineup, EDG also had their own advantage—the abundance of wards!

As one of the teams best at level-one designs, Ye Bo naturally knew that a normal level-one teamfight shouldn't involve placing too many wards, lest vision be left blank at critical time nodes.

But EDG's lineup in this game was different.

The jungler, Nocturne, was a standing-fight king who wasn't afraid of being counter-jungled 1v1.

The support, Yuumi, was a special hero who could buy a {Control Ward} at level one without needing to buy recovery items.

And the mid-laner, Fiddlesticks, because his passive skill 【A Harmless Scarecrow】 would replace wards with 【Effigies】, both the CD and duration mechanics were stronger than regular Stealth Wards!

Originally, the second ward wouldn't be available until 3 minutes and 30 seconds, but the Effigy only needed until 2 minutes and 10 seconds to spawn a second one.

So for EDG, they could invest {three wards} into jungle control at level one without any concerns, completely capable of defending the jungle!

But although Beryl didn't have many games on Bard...

His understanding and preparation for this hero were not lacking at all.

"DRX is doing this!?" Wawa was extremely nervous: "Bad, they have a grand design!"

"Beryl's Bard really seems to be a secret weapon!"

Miller couldn't help but clench his fists: "Although EDG's starting positioning looks absolutely careful enough, and they even invested three wards, DRX's positioning is so fast!"

"Can EDG not see this!?"

In the spectator view, one could see it.

EDG's bot lane duo had just followed instructions, speeding out of the base, with Yuumi directly using E to speed up Kalista as they rushed toward the spot.

However, just as Kalista reached the wall across from the Blue Buff and placed a ward, and was just turning back—five people walked out from the corner on the right!

"Holy sh*t?!" Viper blurted out in perfectly articulated shock.

"Damn, Viper, run!" Yuumi, hanging on him, could only shout in a panic.

"Don't panic, don't panic!" But Ye Bo, clearly with a clearer head, shouted even louder: "They have no crowd control, don't waste skills, run downward first!"

In such a thrilling moment, people are actually easily influenced by sudden sounds.

Viper had almost really wanted to flash away just now.

Fortunately, with the louder reminder, his reaction was quick enough, and he immediately reacted by running toward the river below.

Although they were also shocked at how DRX could have arrived here silently, looking for the problem based on the answer made it much easier—it could only be Bard's E skill 【Magical Journey】!

Since that was the case, DRX clearly didn't have much extra crowd control.

They just wanted to fight a numbers-advantage teamfight!

"Hong Changxian, keep him! Trade his skills!" Beryl shouted immediately.

Viego immediately learned W, and while charging it, aimed at Kalista who was escaping downward; once fully charged, he flashed forward!

But this long-range flash-W wasn't hard to react to, and Kalista immediately flashed downward in sync.

"If they trade flashes, EDG is definitely at a loss. The side with Yuumi only has one flash, so it will be very hard for the bot lane to pressure the lane in the first few minutes!" Wang Duoduo couldn't help but sigh.

"You have Zhang Liang's strategy, I have a ladder over the wall. Although EDG wanted to pressure the bot lane with Kalista this game, DRX's level-one teamfight design seems to have forcibly prevented EDG's bot lane tempo from unfolding!"

"In that case, this Bard will likely start roaming at level two or three!"

Miller also shook his head: "For such an unpopular hero like Bard, DRX's design is indeed hard to guard against, and EDG was so willing to invest in wards, yet they still couldn't prevent it."

The director pulled up the replay.

Bard used the E skill twice at level one.

When spawning, Bard directly created a "starting tunnel" at the corner of the fountain leading straight to the high-ground tower, and all five people got on!

Then, upon reaching the corner wall in front of EDG's bot lane first tower, they released a "tunnel through the wall"!

It was precisely because of the two tunnels—one for traveling and one for crossing the mountain—that DRX was able to catch the time difference and arrive with everyone in advance!

Otherwise, with EDG's positioning, placing the wards and leaving directly, just a single tunnel through the wall would have left DRX's five people completely empty-handed.

But at this moment, the director urgently cut the replay screen back to the main battlefield.

"DRX seems to be bluffing!"

"Damn! Are they coming again?! Aren't they afraid EDG just placed wards here?"

While chasing Kalista, the DRX members specifically walked back to their own jungle in front of the opponent, and the top laner even appeared swaggeringly from the mid-lane.

Aatrox indeed walked back to the top lane honestly.

But the other four people detoured from their own jungle, used the bot lane minion wave to turn back, and walked toward the entrance they had just entered again!

Clearly, they wanted to repeat the old trick!

And the reliance they had to dare to do so was nothing else.

It was just because when invading just now, Bard had deliberately waited for Kalista to walk out of the corner and lose vision—quietly placing a ward at the bottom of the Gromp, where no one would think of.

It was also this ward that detected Nocturne's movements at this time.

In DRX's vision, they watched as Nocturne turned on his scanner, swept the blue area, and failed to find the ward hidden at the bottom of the Gromp!

"Beryl's warding is too tricky!"

"Nocturne's intention to start Blue is exposed. No wonder the opponent would enter the jungle with four people again; they are determined to take advantage of this opportunity to forcibly find early-game priority in the bottom half of the map!"

1 minute and 10 seconds.

Bard opened the space-time tunnel again, and four people took the tunnel to arrive for the second time.

Viego turned on the scanner and confirmed there was no vision in this bush!

Beryl's idea was very simple.

Even if they came over by tunnel for the second time, and EDG spent a huge price to place a ward in this bush and found them, it would be nothing more than a direct retreat.

EDG's level-one combat power wasn't strong, and let alone whether they could win, at least the opponent definitely couldn't keep them, posing no threat!

And once they could complete the infiltration again.

Whether it was attempting to counter-jungle and forcibly occupy the jungle, or camping the Kalista duo who had no flash, at the very least they could steal the opponent's jungle monsters.

It could be called a win-win situation!

Only, there was one problem.

Just as Bard opened the portal again, a voice suddenly came from EDG's voice channel.

"Eh? They seem to have come in again!"

Ye Bo, waiting for the minion wave to arrive, was staring at the bottom half of the map, as if thinking about something.

What he was thinking was—if the tunnel of a hero like Bard is invisible to the enemy, then the pressure of defending against roaming in this game is really not small.

But just at this moment.

Ye Bo suddenly saw a "golden entrance" that wouldn't appear on the mini-map appear at the corner of the wall!

In fact.

The mechanics of Bard's tunnel were somewhat special.

Under normal circumstances, the enemy indeed couldn't see the tunnel created by Bard—only when at least one end of the tunnel's "edge radius" was exposed within the opponent's vision would the tunnel become visible.

And the instruction Kalista received at level one was to place a ward in the bush below the Blue Buff, this equally unusual position!

It was only after placing the ward that they ran into the three people!

But in Beryl's view, level-one ward placement was especially precious, and the opponent couldn't possibly place a ward in this position.

After all, if EDG placed this ward in this bush, the information gained would be incredibly limited; at the very least, the information for the entire bottom river would be completely blank, which could be called "wasting"!

This was the "conflict" in the understanding level of the two people.

Of course, perhaps the real reason was that Beryl didn't know that Fiddlesticks' {Effigy} CD was different from regular wards, being nearly twice as fast.

Coupled with Ye Bo's special "playstyle" school in this game, there was actually no vision pressure near the mid-lane!

So, even if the bot lane used all three wards, at worst the jungler would just give the Control Ward that was supposed to be for the mid-lane to the bot lane—even Fiddlesticks himself could go and place Effigies for the bot lane!

Ye Bo didn't understand Bard.

But Beryl understood Fiddlesticks even less!

The third tunnel exposed its entrance within the vision EDG had placed, and coupled with Ye Bo just happening to be staring at this spot, he witnessed this scene with his own eyes.

"What do you say, Master Ye, should we do it!" Barrier felt like he really wanted to cause trouble.

"Can we win?" Meiko asked worriedly.

The bot lane duo, who had just left the base again, was preparing to head over.

"Wait a moment, don't go over yet."

Ye Bo was also thinking about this combat scenario.

Although Bard learned the E skill at level one, his combat power was actually no different from Yuumi, or even weaker!

Theoretically, the combat power gap in their 4v4 was already small.

But EDG's level-one teamfight really didn't have much to say; even if Fiddlesticks fully charged a W, there was no follow-up, and Nocturne also lacked burst.

The important thing was that Kalista had no flash, and the opponent had Viego.

Once the opponent's four people forcibly all-in to kill Kalista, and they were the first to lose a member, helping Viego get a body, Kalista's fragile frame definitely couldn't withstand it!

If Viego really transformed, this 4v4 would be completely unpredictable.

And if something happened to the bot lane in the level-one teamfight, even if it was just a 1-for-1 trade, it was clearly a situation that this "battle-seeking lineup" of DRX would be extremely happy to see.

This was also why DRX dared to be so bold in their hard push.

It was because even the worst result was something they could accept!

However, for EDG—since they already knew the opponent's position, they could actually let Nocturne quietly swap jungles to avoid the fight.

But, Kalista having her flash traded away directly resulted in her not daring to pressure the lane for the next 5 minutes.

It could even be said that as long as they pressured the lane, it was equivalent to exposing that there was a jungler protecting them from behind, continuously exposing the jungler's position—just this one flash could be said to have far-reaching effects.

So, even if they swapped jungles now, DRX's goal had already been achieved.

Ye Bo, at this moment, suddenly had a bolder idea.

"Shengqiang Ge," Ye Bo said with extremely fast speech: "Can you come over for this wave, but you might lose quite a lot."

"Don't worry about me, just tell me how to come!" Li Xuanjun replied without the slightest hesitation.

Ye Bo made a prompt decision: "Then the bot lane shouldn't go out yet. Since they dare to come like this, it means there must be an opponent's spy in our jungle."

God's eye view.

One could also see EDG's sudden personnel changes.

"What does this mean???"

"Why is Ornn walking down from the top jungle! The minion wave has already come out, this is going to miss minions!"

"EDG seems to have discovered the opponent's movements, and this position of theirs, could it be!?"

The DRX members didn't notice anything.

Looking at the vision, Nocturne was standing alone outside the Blue Buff pit, and seeing the bot lane duo hadn't appeared for a long time.

They very naturally guessed that the opponent should be letting the bot lane go straight to the lane to avoid exposing the jungler's jungle path.

1 minute and 30 seconds, jungle monsters respawn.

The DRX members came out directly, rushing toward the Blue Buff camp!

They had to act directly this wave and couldn't wait, otherwise, when the mid-lane minion waves met, if Akali hadn't appeared for a long time, it would inevitably expose their intentions.

Four people walked out, and sure enough, they saw Nocturne jungling alone.

Seeing the four people walking out from behind his butt, Nocturne clearly seemed to rush toward the edge of the wall in a panic, while carrying the Blue Buff's attack, while seemingly hesitating whether to flash.

Four strong men blocked Nocturne in the corner!

But Nocturne still didn't flash.

"Just trade the flash, don't chase too deep. If they still want to fight, we'll forcibly kill Kalista directly; trading a kill is definitely..."

Before Beryl finished speaking.

A sound of an explosion that could not be heard.

Immediately following, a full four figures—suddenly descended from the sky across the wall!

And the moment they saw the opponent's numbers clearly, all four DRX members trembled in their eyes.

"Why is the top laner here too!?"

"Take my gate! Run!"

Bard reacted extremely quickly, swinging to the side and opening a gate toward the bottom river direction.

The four figures reacted extremely quickly, immediately turning to the portal.

{Bard's gate, allies riding it will gain a 33% movement speed bonus}.

Even if the opponent's five people followed, they had a certain amount of room to kite, anyway, the opponent didn't have any more crowd control skills.

However, the landed Ornn used E to headbutt the wall of the portal!

The ram horns weren't sent away by the portal, but instead instantly interrupted the four people who were close to the wall and taking the gate, pulling them out of the wall and knocking them all high into the air!

"Just kill Viego! No flash!"

Fiddlesticks immediately learned the Q skill, landing and following up with fear, and the four people focused fire on him.

Seeing that Viego, who also had no flash, was clearly already unable to escape, and there was no chance of winning in a 5v4 head-on, the other three DRX members decisively sold Viego and left by the gate without looking back.

"Give the kill to the AD!"

In the clear command distribution, Viego's kill was smoothly distributed to Kalista.

Ornn waited for the battle to end before TPing to the top lane first tower.

"First blood is born!!!"

"DRX definitely didn't expect their level-one design to be utilized by EDG instead! Giving away first blood and it was even fed to Kalista!" Miller instantly exhaled and shouted.

"Although the price was an extra TP from the top lane and losing some minions, this is definitely a huge profit!"

"Shengqiang Ge played so selflessly... This wave was truly critical. Without Ornn's spiritual interruption and damage replenishment, the opponent would have either fought 4v4 head-on or just taken the gate and run!" Wang Duoduo praised without concealment.

"The two teams we hailed as the best at level-one design in S12, in the most critical game, each showed their magical powers... In the end, DRX was one step behind!"

【Shengqiang Ge, I'm crying to death, he's really too team-oriented!】

【It's done, I announce that for this wave, Ornn has the legal right to lie down and win this game!】

【Wasn't it the same last year helping Barrier with the level-one all-in invasion of Uncle Three's jungle? Always putting teammates before himself, and such a top laner still gets called a feeder when he plays!!】

【What kind of hellish inspiration is this Long Cha, don't you know the opponent has a guy nicknamed "Idea King"?】

【It's a pity it's Kalista's kill, if this was Fiddlesticks' kill, I'm afraid someone's mentality would really collapse.】

(End of chapter)