Chapter 193: Star Core Dragon Breath Triangular Kill!

"Karsa is both dead and has blown his Flash; the only barely good news is that his jungle shouldn't be invaded."

"Yeah, as expected, the previous match already served as a cautionary tale."

Miller sounded a bit emotional as he said this: "If this were the previous patch's EDG, I'm afraid it would be time for their half-jungle swap tactic to shine again; it's a pity."

Wawa teased his partner: "Mr. Miller still can't forget EDG, but it's true, this tactic left such a deep impression on us last season, it was almost the signature of that EDG!"

Miller naturally didn't mention EDG for no reason.

Anyone who watched the S12 season knows that the most signature tactical system for EDG last year was to forcibly swap to the starting jungle half through endless level-one designs and lineup combinations, which could be said to be one of the cores of their aggressive system.

But come the S13 season.

This system is almost unusable, or at the very least, its power is greatly diminished!

League of Legends basically follows a "one major subversion per year" level of changes.

S10 changed the map, S11 added Mythic items, and S12 added bounty points and durability.

And as for S13, looking at it now, the designers might want to reconstruct the weight of the four lanes.

The previous changes to solo lane experience and levels have already begun to show signs of this.

But in reality, the biggest impact right now is the jungle.

First, all jungle monsters have had their "extra percentage" damage increased; clearing the jungle will become more difficult and damaging.

Then, a new addition: "Jungler champions deal 20% extra damage to monsters in their own jungle, but this extra damage does not trigger when invading the enemy jungle."

And because the jungle egg "companion" that helps clear the jungle has noble AoE damage.

This has led to there no longer being a particularly large difference between jungle-clearing heroes; there will no longer be a gap in clearing efficiency because certain junglers can quickly clear the Raptors and Krugs.

If it's a playstyle that honestly clears one's own jungle, then these few changes have almost no impact.

But, these few small changes.

————mean that swapping halves at the start will instantly turn into a completely one-sided loss!

It's a very simple principle.

Suppose Viego starts directly in the red buff area of the enemy in this game, even if teammates can help start the buff————as long as Viego goes to his own blue area to start normally, in the end, whether it's health retention or clearing speed, he will be at least 20% stronger than Vi!

Afterward, Viego can wantonly utilize this extra time.

Either perform an extra gank, or use the health advantage to directly counter-invade Vi's lower blue area!

Because Vi has no extra damage bonus, her health retention will absolutely not be very good when solo-clearing the buffed jungle monsters.

Therefore, it is impossible to be like before, where everyone had similar speed and health, and you had to bite the bullet and swap halves just to not lose development.

The biggest impact of this is indeed that tactical system EDG previously had.

So much so that some EDG fans think that Riot is clearly targeting their home team.

And this is just two of the dozen or so jungle changes.

By comparison.

One can see the gap between "strong teams" and "weak teams."

The reason Miller specifically mentioned the previous match was because in the first game between LGD and UP, LGD's jungler used EDG's level-one forced jungle swap tactic.

Perhaps their coaching staff was still smugly thinking they had mastered the champion's stuff, preparing to show off in the new season.

As a result, they were hit with a head-on blow as soon as they started!

The opposing jungler didn't swap halves at all, ran back to the jungle nearly ten seconds early, and directly caught the low-health jungler to get First Blood!

More importantly, until the end of the match, LGD's incompetent coaching staff still hadn't realized it was because of this reason.

They still thought it was Ning, who had returned, experiencing a second spring with explosive awareness!

Yet, Ning in the last game was purely lucky; he just wanted to play a variation gank and didn't expect to catch a low-health kill at the corner.

As for V5, it was clearly their understanding of the version.

Likewise.

As a team that can definitely be called a "strong team" whether it's the coaching staff or the players, WBG also has its own interpretation of the version.

First is the understanding that "you can't swap jungle at the start," which they also have.

So after Karsa left the base, he decisively continued to head to the lower red area, certain the opponent wouldn't go to start his red, nor would they make unnecessary secondary attacks.

As long as the outer entrance has some detection, if they really come again, the worst case is to just give the red area to them and repeat the aforementioned counter-move to complete the break.

The tactical focus Karsa received this game is very clear: it is to fight around the upper area while trying to pose a threat to the mid lane as much as possible.

So his ideal jungle path is definitely starting at the lower red and clearing upwards.

And, although Viego didn't manage to dismantle that ward just now.

But a ward position where one knows where it is————not being dismantled, might instead become a weapon to be utilized.

Karsa planned his jungle path, and when he was about to reach the Raptors, he deliberately hugged the wall to bypass the vision.

The ward placed at 0: 0 will disappear exactly at 2: 0.

And the speed for a jungler to clear their own jungle area to reach level three is about 2: 0.

Karsa grasped the timing perfectly; right at the moment the ward disappeared, he immediately leaned toward the mid lane.

"Yijin, he hasn't come to the river to place a ward, right?"

"No, no! He should be moving soon as he's about to hit level three; he's already started pushing the wave, there's a chance!"

Generally, this time of ward transition is the time when defenses are at their lowest.

After Viego finishes clearing the Raptors and hits level three, he immediately heads to the mid lane river bush to crouch, wanting to find a flaw in Aurelion Sol.

"Aurelion Sol, because he leveled Q at level one, was originally supposed to be pushing Azir's wave hard, but it has temporarily stalled..."

"But Karsa, is he trying to make a move on the mid lane this time!?"

"However..."

"It feels like it's impossible for Karsa to be aware of this!"

Anyone standing in Karsa's perspective would have to cry foul.

Azir has been keeping an eye on Aurelion Sol's movements; it's certain that Aurelion Sol hasn't approached the lower river, so it's impossible for him to have placed a ward in the lower river.

And Vi placed a ward outside the Raptors entrance at level one; theoretically, there's no reason for there to be another ward there.

Karsa's Oracle Lens will be available at 2: 0.

But he saw with his own eyes the corpse of the vision that disappeared on the ground, stepped along a path he thought was absolutely impossible to expose, and snuck into the mid lane river bush, preparing to ambush the mid lane Aurelion Sol.

The current version of Aurelion Sol is an extremely standard "early game tempo" hero.

In a sense, he is like a more extreme early-game Taliyah, or a jungle Nidalee, a bot-lane Draven, or a top-lane Renekton.

Once this hero is picked, one must find a sufficiently large tempo advantage in the early game; otherwise, the output capability and stability in the mid-to-late game are far inferior to traditional mages.

The bizarre close-range W output method makes one constantly fall into danger.

Once in the S6 World Championship, the Aurelion Sol master Huhi pulled off the famous scene of "level-one roaming," pushing the wave 5 seconds after arriving in lane and immediately running to the bot lane, brutally crushing the then-popular championship favorite ROX in the group stage, achieving a 11-1 boosting-level record.

If Ye Bo hadn't leveled Q at level one this game, facing Azir who has no threat in the early game, he would definitely play like that too.

So Karsa is certain that the opponent will hold back at most until level three and will definitely launch an attack.

"Yijin, don't rush, wait a few more seconds; I'm worried Vi might be crouching."

Karsa's experience is still seasoned.

Although he couldn't judge Vi's position due to a lack of information.

But through reverse deduction of his own thinking, he believes Vi might also come to protect the mid lane at this time.

His own mid laner is Azir, whose anti-gank ability is more than a little stronger than Aurelion Sol's; it can even be said that it's almost impossible to be ganked!

So Vi can only be counter-crouching.

Since it's counter-crouching, it's impossible to crouch for too long; after all, it's a one-sided game, and if the opponent doesn't crouch, they will immediately fall behind in jungle tempo!

Karsa is grasping this scale.

After Aurelion Sol reaches level three, he first arrogantly steps forward to activate W 【Celestial Expansion】, clearing the minion wave.

But this wave is a cannon minion wave; Aurelion Sol cannot finish pushing it with one W, and after the inexplicable "arrogance," he suddenly becomes timid again.

This kind of back-and-forth change in behavior.

Made Karsa, who already had suspicions, even more firm, confirming that Vi should have just left!

"Looking at it this way, Vi should have started red in the upper area and is going to the bot lane later... Let's fight!"

Before Karsa finished speaking, he saw Aurelion Sol, whose W cooldown should be up, step forward again.

This time the intention was clearly defined: he wanted to step forward and push the wave quickly.

Karsa had been crouching for nearly ten seconds; no matter what, Vi had no reason to hard-crouch here for ten seconds to protect the mid laner, as that would only leech experience from the mid lane!

The vast scorched earth shoots out, the thousand-year wail gathers power!

Azir sets up soldiers and pushes out, drifting sideways to move forward, the sand soldiers poking forward to slow and stick to Aurelion Sol's face!

Rookie and Karsa had already partnered for a year at V5 last year, and their synergy was very high.

Azir and Viego starting from two directions can ensure that Aurelion Sol's counter-Q cannot hit both of them at the same time.

And as long as Aurelion Sol takes damage, his E skill will immediately fail.

Unable to escape immediately, Aurelion Sol will either have to blow his Flash or at least lose half his health and not dare to force a push anymore————thereby naturally being restrained from the space to force a push and roam!

In that case, Karsa's variation gank, which sacrificed jungle-clearing time, would be absolutely profitable.

Ye Bo made the most correct choice, which was to cast Q toward Viego, who was gathering power for W; it was clear that Viego's damage was higher at this point in time.

Karsa was also very detailed; because the flight speed of Aurelion Sol's Q star core is not fast, at the moment the star core was about to make contact with him, he simultaneously cast W to strike, achieving "control cancellation"!

The power of the Shadow Isles and the star core energy exploded simultaneously.

Viego and Aurelion Sol both fell into a stun.

However, Karsa hadn't had time to be happy... the next moment, his eyes widened!

"What the hell!?"

Just because at this very moment, near the corner behind him, in the direction of the blue zone.

A Vi had actually walked out, already charging up a punch!

One punch slammed hard into the stunned Viego.

As soon as Aurelion Sol finished his crowd control, he immediately activated W to push out his Astral Flight, gaining double rotation speed for his orbiting planets, along with a 150% bonus damage modifier!

Azir was poking hard on the side, but he was only a level three Azir!

In a 2v2 against Aurelion Sol and Vi, there was no chance of winning.

Viego turned to run, but without Flash, he couldn't create distance and could only let the two chase him all the way to the turret, eventually being finished off by Vi's Flash-AE and a third-hit passive proc.

Another kill secured!

"What the f*ck! How is he not gone!?"

Karsa really couldn't understand how Vi could be there.

You have to know, he had prepared to sacrifice his own farm to blow up the mid lane, potentially slowing his own efficiency by nearly two jungle camps, just to forcibly restrict Aurelion Sol's tempo.

As long as it was a trade, it would definitely be worth it.

But if Vi was also camping like this, and if Viego hadn't come to mid, whether she went to farm the top half normally or invaded Vi's bottom half, she would have suffered a massive loss!

Unless Vi could be certain of his position.

If Vi could confirm he was camping, then of course she could camp too!

Karsa was best at guessing the enemy jungler's position.

It was precisely because of this that he was even more certain that guessing positions didn't rely on metaphysics or luck; without vision information, it was hard to draw conclusions.

But Karsa didn't understand where there could be a ward?

On this path, there clearly wasn't any spot left where a ward should be!

"Oh my goodness, this ward spot that even we didn't quite understand has actually come in so handy!" Doll couldn't help but exclaim.

Miller also agreed: "Beryl's understanding of vision is something else. He really has studied the science of warding. What do you think, Pyl?"

As a support player, Pyl was an expert who could see the nuances and noticed quite a few details.

"I think..."

"First of all, this ward—just placing it isn't easy at all!"

Pyl was too embarrassed to say that he actually didn't know this ward could be placed like that; after all, for a support player, that seemed a bit shameful.

You have to know, Viego also had a ward placed outside the river wall.

If Jhin had ever approached this area, he would have inevitably become suspicious.

Therefore, that ward was actually Jhin standing in the dragon pit—hugging the edge to perform a limit-test ward over the wall into the brush outside the Red Buff!

Don't underestimate this ward.

Inside the entire dragon pit, there was one and only one spot, and only one pixel for the mouse cursor, that could place a ward from the pit into that brush.

The error rate was incredibly high!

And the difference in vision provided by whether this ward successfully landed in the brush or not was like heaven and earth.

Only by successfully landing in the lower part of the brush could it provide vision of the path outside the upper part of the brush, while simultaneously providing vision of the path leading to the bottom lane—covering both essential routes!

In other words, this ward spot didn't just protect the mid lane; it also protected the bottom lane!

Jhin placed the ward at 1: 0.

And after the opponent hit level three, it still had 30 seconds of duration left, which was already enough to detect Viego's movements after he hit level three!

Karsa didn't realize that he had actually been exposed to the opponent's vision the entire time.

Due to the realization that he couldn't swap jungle quadrants early on, Karsa naturally couldn't proactively go into Vi's blue zone, and the bottom lane couldn't contest the wave before level three because Jhin had learned W at level one.

So, Viego walking into the river from the direction of the Raptors could only possibly be to gank mid!

Conversely.

If this ward hadn't seen Viego at that time, one could conversely be 100% certain that Viego had gone to the top half after finishing his clear.

Then, after Aurelion Sol pushed the wave at level three, he would immediately coordinate with Vi to forcibly invade and attack the opponent's jungle!

"Counter-jungling" is indeed a disadvantage.

But getting kills is not affected by that.

Everything, one could say, was under control.

The key turning point was that very inconspicuous ward spot, the significance of which even the casters in the god-view booth hadn't realized.

Of course, there was actually more than one.

Vi's level-one warding, besides fishing, actually had a bit of intentionality to it.

"A ward spot that is already known, if not cleared, might instead become a weapon that can be utilized"—this is a "reciprocal" truth.

However, the livestream chat couldn't see that much.

They only felt that the jungler was feeding!

【Pizza!! If you feed again, I won't acknowledge you as a Nanjing native!】

【Pizza is truly trash, dying twice in 3 minutes, what's the point of playing?】

【Brother Ka is really old now, can't even outplay a player like Xun? Feels like he's been handled by the opponent since level one; he can't even win with his best attribute, intelligence.】

【That's enough, what does that fishing ward at the start and this brush ward have to do with the jungler? I can only say, if you throw away your brain and just mash the keyboard, I could do that too!】

【What kind of dragon is this? A real dragon! Isn't this just Master Ye's good acting?】

【Wow, it seems like Jhin support against Heimerdinger really has some merit!】

The director cut the view to the bottom lane.

Having just reached level two, Jhin had actually already begun to demonstrate high-intensity turret-clearing ability.

The amazing thing was, he didn't learn Q at level two, but E.

Jhin's E skill has extremely high bonus damage; at level one with no items, it already has 110 base damage, almost exactly matching the health of a turret.

The key is, the turret doesn't move!

Throwing it over will actively trigger it, and the remaining sliver of health can even become a springboard for Jhin's Q skill to bounce and deal increased damage.

The cooldowns are also surprisingly consistent.

One is 24 seconds, the other is 20 seconds, and both can store charges.

In other words, even without counting Q, W, and auto-attacks, Jhin, with just his long-range E skill mine, could already take out more than half of Heimerdinger's turrets!

Not to mention there was also a Varus on the side.

As a skill-based hero, Poke-style Varus could easily clear the turrets by slightly aiming his Q and E to splash onto them while pushing the wave.

Without turrets, Heimerdinger had no wave-clearing ability—and as an ADC, Jhin naturally had wave-clearing ability with his auto-attacks.

Not to mention Q, W, and E were all three AoE skills; his wave-clearing speed was truly no slower than yours!

Of course, compared to the jungle, the bottom lane was still doing okay.

The jungle was already starting to suffer.

After killing Viego, Vi helped Aurelion Sol push the wave, then went to kill the Red Buff to hit level four.

Aurelion Sol, after recalling, immediately TP'd to the mid lane and, utilizing the item advantage he had just bought, quickly cleared the mid lane wave again.

In a non-cannon wave, as long as Aurelion Sol adjusted the angle of his expanding celestial aura, one full rotation of W could clear more than half of a wave!

After clearing the wave, he immediately coordinated with Vi to forcibly charge into the opponent's top jungle to continue disgusting Viego!

Viego still wanted to go to the bottom lane to trade for the Scuttle Crab.

But as soon as he arrived in the bottom half, Aurelion Sol took flight from the mid lane again!

Aurelion Sol's E skill, 【Astral Flight】, has a full 5000 units at level one—Twisted Fate's level-one R is only 5500 units.

Although one lands in 3 seconds and the other in about 10 seconds.

But one is an ultimate, and the other is a basic ability, and the cooldown difference is more than three times!

This is also the main reliance for why this version of Aurelion Sol would become an early-game roaming hero.

Viego saw the dragon and retreated, but below him, someone carrying a sniper rifle had already flanked him.

It was none other than the support Jhin, who had seized lane priority!

What is the most powerful ability of support Jhin?

It is that "instant support" capability that covers nearly half the map with a 3000-unit range!

The other support with this kind of ability is Ashe.

But that skill is an ultimate, and its cooldown and hit rate are both lower... and the hit effect is about the same!

Jhin's 【Deadly Flourish】 has a terrifying 2. 5-second root at max level!

And 【Deadly Flourish】 only requires the enemy to have taken damage from an ally within 4 seconds to carry a crowd-control mark.

"Oh!"

"Missed, way off!"

Unfortunately, Beryl missed this one.

Because Viego was holding onto his W and retreated very decisively, Ye Bo's straight-line ball throw definitely wouldn't hit, so he could only rely on his speed-boosted W to chase and attack, helping Jhin apply the mark.

But Beryl's W was a bit ridiculously off, and since Jhin's W wasn't easy to hit to begin with, it counted as Karsa being spared for his life.

No choice.

This guy Beryl has brains when he needs brains, and if he needs mechanics... well, he still has brains.

Mechanics are indeed not his strong suit.

However, it was clearly harmless; this was already enough to bring Karsa a suffocating jungle experience.

The only good news remains the jungle changes in S13.

The "Jungle Egg" companion compensation mechanism automatically generates "snack" stacks at regular intervals—clearing camps with these stacks grants additional experience and gold.

Those with a keen eye can already tell.

The S13 jungle changes are more of a "leveling" mechanism, which will significantly narrow the gap between the skill floors and ceilings of junglers.

In this version, it is very difficult to see the classic scene where Canyon out-levels Peanut by five levels in the jungle; with companion supplements and experience compensation, the jungle floor is very high.

5 minutes.

Due to the disadvantage in the jungle, the dragon can only be handed over, giving Karsa a chance to supplement his development.

But continuing like this is not a solution.

Rookie knows that the biggest tempo problem in this game is the Dragon King!

It is precisely because the Dragon King can take flight to support at any time.

The Dragon King doesn't even need to "truly fly" at all.

As long as he pushes the lane and goes missing, the top and bottom lanes must immediately retreat; he can complete a "gank" from afar.

This leads to the top and bottom lanes being unable to contest lane priority, which in turn leads to a vicious cycle where none of the three lanes have priority!

Although Rookie's form is far from what it used to be, he is still very willing to take responsibility for the team.

This alone is much stronger than some players who start hiding the moment they feel pressure.

The Emperor of the Sands begins to change his usual development routine, very frequently initiating trades and harassment, completely unconcerned about the jungle pressure he might attract as a result.

Rookie's thinking is also very clear; he has E, Flash, and R anyway, so even if Vi locks onto him, it won't be easy to kill him.

By comparison, he must create enough pressure on the Dragon King to force the opponent to be unable to move frequently!

The idea is great.

But when it comes to actual execution, the difficulties are infinite!

The limit of the Emperor of the Sands controlling his sand soldiers is about 800 yards, while the Dragon King's passive is normally only 550 yards, and even with the W skill activated to push into the outer orbit, it is less than 750 yards.

That is to say, theoretically, the Emperor of the Sands' attack range will always be a little longer.

But Ye Bo understands the Emperor of the Sands all too well.

He sees through the opponent's intentions and instantly enters a state of "undistracted" total focus.

The so-called attack range limit of the Emperor of the Sands requires him to first use Q to send the sand soldiers to the front line.

Ye Bo deliberately exposes a position, giving the Emperor of the Sands a spot where he can "poke with both man and soldier."

Rookie, as expected, drives the sand soldiers to poke forward with Q without hesitation.

Ye Bo, who took the hit, does not fight back, only pressing forward again to pull away, but his positioning still does not leave the attack range.

Rookie senses an opportunity; eager to suppress health, he pursues the victory, setting up a second sand soldier in the Dragon King's face, and pokes fiercely with the two soldiers in a surrounding formation!

But, he has already fallen into a trap.

The CD of the Emperor of the Sands' W is very long; he only has two sand soldiers in the early game, but they were lured out by the Dragon King using his "health"!

Without sand soldiers and without Q, the Emperor of the Sands simply cannot use the E skill to displace!

It wouldn't be a big deal against other heroes.

But the Dragon King suddenly strikes with both W and Q; the movement that seemed to be away from the sand soldiers was actually closing the distance at the same time.

Both W and Q skills come with acceleration during casting; in an instant, he flies forward, and the Emperor of the Sands has already entered the coverage area of the Celestial Orbit!

This is what happens when you don't understand the hero well enough.

Rookie has not laning against the Dragon King many times in his entire career; being able to have those guesses and ideas at level one is already not easy, and it is impossible to be comprehensive about every detail of the actual laning.

The star core hits, the celestial orbit spins violently.

The Emperor of the Sands loses the reliance of his sand soldiers and cannot fight back, so he can only hold his head and run wildly.

The essence of the Dragon King lies in positioning and constant small adjustments; under the pursuit of Phase Rush, the high-speed rotating planets deal almost full damage, chasing all the way into the tower.

Rookie does not have the stupid idea of turning back to use R to push the opponent back—he knows very well that such a close-range hard push is simply asking to be outplayed.

At this moment, both of them glance at their mini-maps.

Both are in poor condition, yet they continue to lane.

It is just that both have become more focused and careful; the Dragon King also stops giving opportunities for pokes, moving very elusively.

Both seem to have something in mind.

"A royal city PK in the mid lane; I feel like Master Ye's proficiency with this Dragon King is truly impressive!" Wawa praises loudly.

"But to be fair, the Emperor of the Sands is indeed too weak in the early game, especially since the CD of W and Q is too long; wanting to suppress the Dragon King in the early game is indeed a bit unreasonable." Miller explains for Rookie.

"But why do I feel... there is a killing intent in the mid lane this time?" Pyl seems to have smelled something.

The two in the mid lane are not in great condition, yet they stubbornly played a wave of minions at half health without recalling.

More importantly—this is the time when both bottom lanes are missing, which is very likely the time for the first wave of support roaming.

This is why Pyl feels there is a killing intent.

Both bottom lanes have returned to their lanes normally.

Deft very carefully probes the brush from a distance first, while Gala goes straight to the lane straightforwardly—the common point is that neither support has shown their face.

Ye Bo pushes the minions forward, his positioning looking very cautious, and Rookie also seems to be very careful under the tower.

"There should be someone here."

And at the very next moment.

A sound suddenly erupts from the top lane!

TheShy's Sylas suddenly erupts during a seemingly normal trade, stealing R in mid-air with EW, then flashing and using R in reverse to knock K'Sante back!

A shock grenade and spreading black mist immediately fly out from the brush one after another.

But at the same time...

Two people actually appear behind K'Sante!

"He doesn't have anyone behind him? And he's still pressing like that!?"

Rookie has actually prepared to operate or even die in a 1v3 under the tower this time, just to use his life to stall the opponent's key tempo point.

There is no other reason.

First, if he wants to compete with the Dragon King in roaming, he is far behind.

Whether the Emperor of the Sands has one more kill or one less kill in the early game cannot affect the game tempo too much, especially with the upcoming Canyon team fight.

And WBG wants to make a move on K'Sante, who seems the hardest to kill.

Firstly, because the top lane is undoubtedly the biggest main force in the Canyon team fight, killing K'Sante while feeding Sylas will become an important reliance for WBG in the Canyon team fight!

Secondly, Karsa is still brooding over that level three mid-lane wave.

Without extra information, he can only think that Xun was camping mid to death, so much so that he has subsequently been deliberately walking around the mid lane, thinking he could waste the opponent's time.

It is also because of this that when Rookie proposed attracting firepower, he also firmly believed that the opponent must be going to protect mid!

In fact.

At the very beginning, Xun did indeed think so.

As soon as he saw that his mid-lane big brother's health was unhealthy, Xun immediately wanted to go and camp.

But he was stopped by Beryl.

"Ze Bo, I feel like the other side is going to the top!"

"Come with me."

Ye Bo is busy focusing on laning and doesn't have much time to switch screens—playing a hero like the Dragon King that tests positioning so much makes it impossible to keep switching screens, especially since Ye Bo's Dragon King still has room for improvement.

He chooses to trust his teammates.

Of course, holding Flash and his ultimate in his hands, he also truly believes he has an opportunity to make a play.

And the battle in the top lane is almost a rout as soon as it starts.

The difference in combat power between the two sides' junglers and supports is not small, and WBG even threw all their skills at K'Sante; a 3v3 is already impossible to win!

Rookie controls the Emperor of the Sands, about to quickly clear the wave and then rotate top to support... but suddenly his pupils shrink.

Because the next moment.

The Dragon King actually chases directly into the tower, and a star core carrying a nebula has already flown toward him!

Rookie did not expect the opponent to dive the tower so directly.

You have to know that the Dragon King's health is not much healthier than his!

He reacts extremely quickly, tapping his golden staff lightly, and E 【Shifting Sands】 draws an elegant zigzag line; the fake move of seemingly retreating also hides a killing intent.

While dodging that star core—concealing his true intentions.

The zigzag Q in mid-air drift draws a 45-degree angle, suddenly turning his head in a "triangular flight shape" and crashing toward the Dragon King again!

"I'm going, Rookie!"

Although the Dragon King has not yet taken tower aggro.

But as long as the Emperor of the Sands can get close, he will touch the planet's damage and attract aggro; following up with a knock-back can complete the kill.

But immediately after.

It is at the very moment the Emperor of the Sands flies.

A brilliant golden light instantly erupts from the Dragon King's body, and a breath of dragon fire sprays out diagonally in a trajectory that defies physics.

He hits the Emperor of the Sands in mid-air, forcibly interrupting his displacement, and knocks him back toward the predetermined coordinate—that is exactly the destination where the star core was cruising!

"R-Flash! The Dragon King's QR triangular kill!!"

"He knocked the Emperor of the Sands back into the position of the Q!!!"

{The R ultimate will automatically knock enemies back to the Dragon King's maximum W range—which is the maximum range where the Q skill star core automatically detonates}

The Emperor of the Sands fell backward, unable to resist; the moment he hit the ground, the Star Core detonated, while the simultaneously surging Star Vault rotated at high speed!

"Star Core Dragon Breath Triangular Kill"!

The triple Star Vault power from the Star Core detonation instantly emptied the Emperor of the Sands' health bar, and the kill notification shook the Canyon in unison.

"I'm going to Cinnabar!!" Wawa shouted excitedly: "It's here! Master Ye's first solo kill of 2023! Coming from rookie!"

"So cool, this play! Both of them are so cool! Both of them are using the Triangular Kill!"

Miller, unaware of their thoughts, continued: "It feels like rookie was still too arrogant here; why didn't he recall?"

The battle reports from the top lane followed one after another like signal fires.

"Sylas used K'Sante's ultimate, he's extremely fragile, Heimerdinger can't escape either, only Viego can barely Flash to safety!"

Stealing K'Sante's ultimate as Sylas is actually a bit of a trap.

The only useful part of the ultimate's bonus stats is the lifesteal effect, yet one must endure the reduction of maximum health and bonus dual resistances, and even 'Sylas's' own skills do not refresh or reset; the effect is extremely poor.

They were already losing the 3v3, and this just made matters worse.

"Wait! Can Aurelion Sol still come!?"

"Aurelion Sol still has his E! He's coming to block the retreat, oh no, it seems Viego can't run either!"

"V5's ambush in the top lane this time was truly ingenious; no one could have expected WBG to gank a K'Sante, but even less could anyone have expected V5 to actually protect a K'Sante instead of protecting their own more vulnerable mid-laner!"

"Plus the explosive solo kill in the mid lane, both places blooming simultaneously... no, it seems this wave has exploded!"

"How did the score suddenly reach 0 to 6 without me noticing? It's only been less than seven minutes!"

【Triangular Kill? The genuine Triangular Kill!】

【Feels like Master Ye is super serious this match. A serious Master Ye is too terrifying; do you really need the Song Yi from five years ago to even stand a chance?】

【Song Yi just has to accept he's getting old; still trying to play with mechanics, feels like he's the type of Emperor of the Sands who would get himself stuck even while trying to reverse park~~】

【gala: "Love, isn't it??"】

【Roar roar, seems like we'll be able to hear "Aka-Long is here! Aka-Long is here!" soon.】

【The most desperate game for an ADC has appeared; you play and look at those guys above, not a single one has a positive KDA! Poets of the Ten Thousand Springs Department!】

【The "All-God Team" we had such high hopes for, how does it look like they're about to be flushed? So~ smooth~!】

rookie scratched his head in distress in front of the screen.

"He can even operate like that, oh my."

Meanwhile, backstage, Danny leaned back and slumped on the sofa, his fingertips unconsciously tapping on the tactical board.

His mouth was constantly muttering some vocabulary that could be understood.

To be honest, Danny had a very bad premonition the moment the Aurelion Sol + Jhin pick came out for the fourth and fifth spots.

He knew there would be immense pressure in the early game as soon as Aurelion Sol was picked, but since the Emperor of the Sands was already locked in, even if they swapped to the top lane, the team's early-game combat power was destined to be lacking, so he simply decided to drag the tempo out and pick two fierce carries.

He had originally hoped to rely on the jungler to target the early game, combined with Heimerdinger's lane priority, to create trouble for the mid lane and stall the tempo until the two carries could stand out.

But the result was that an unseen Jhin support crushed Heimerdinger again!

This strange combination completely tore apart his pre-match deployment.

Especially this Jhin, who inexplicably played with a sense of synergy with Aurelion Sol.

Anyway, as long as Aurelion Sol went missing, he didn't even need to actually fly; the threat to the two immobile people in the bottom lane was immense, and Jhin could "borrow the tiger's might" to seize lane priority.

And to be honest.

If it weren't for the fact that Beryl's Jhin W hit rate was truly touching, the bottom lane combination would actually have even more terrifying synergy.

Varus's Q and E both have ranges of 1000+ yards; theoretically, if Jhin's W were accurate enough, these two could forcibly lock people down from thousands of miles away!

Specifically targeting the two immobile, squishy heroes in WBG's bottom lane!

Of course, Beryl isn't an ADC player after all, so one really can't demand that much.

Anyway, after reaching the mid-game.

Jhin no longer needs to rely on his W for a lucky shot.

Vi has a point-and-click lock, Varus has point-and-click CC with his R, Aurelion Sol has his Q and R, and K'Sante is also full of crowd control.

Even Jhin himself has a "RW" guaranteed-hit trick!

A terrifying 2. 5-second root, point-and-click control from 3000 yards away; if the hit rate can be guaranteed—that is basically equivalent to a "locked-on" Magic Crystal Arrow with a 12-second cooldown!

More importantly.

With this V5 lineup, who are the opponents going to kill?

The two "throwers" in the bottom lane; don't even think about seeing them within 1000 yards on a daily basis.

The mid-lane Aurelion Sol has Time Warp + Archangel's Staff, his level is high, and he even has nearly 1000 more health than the jungler Vi.

The top-lane K'Sante... is even more of a legendary tank!

The easiest one to kill is actually the jungler Vi.

The problem is, damn it, Vi seems to have grown two brains this game; she's incredibly sharp!

And most importantly.

Perhaps WBG has reached a new version, or perhaps it's because it's the first official match of the new season.

The so-called "All-God Team" seems to have not adjusted their state yet, and everyone's subsequent performance has gradually become abstract.

Especially Teacher Xiao Jiang, he seems like he's gone mad, constantly trying to solo a K'Sante with a huge advantage... and then getting solo-killed repeatedly!

The audience is even calling TheShy "Daoist Gun" in the chat!

An even more terrifying thing is.

Until 18 and a half minutes, the score actually remained at 10-0.

"They won't really get shut out in the first game, will they?" Miller's voice sounded like he didn't know whether to watch the spectacle or be worried.

"Pyl, what do you say?" Wawa skillfully tossed the hot potato.

"Uh, feels like there's still a chance," PYL said with his lisp, surprisingly, but fortunately added immediately: "I mean, there should still be a chance to get one kill, wait for the Baron fight and give it a go..."

"Oh, mid lane! Is V5 trying to force a push in the middle!?"

V5's second Rift Herald is about to expire.

Beryl wants to set up Baron vision and slowly kite to grind down the high ground.

But Ye Bo commanded them to come to the mid lane, wanting to use this second Rift Herald to force a push.

Although V5 has an 8k gold lead, the lineup is, after all, an ultimate early-game composition; one could say there isn't a single person who can hold up in the late game.

Moreover, V5's pushing ability isn't that fast; the two in the bottom lane are both "throwers" without strong tower-hitting ability, whereas WBG's Emperor of the Sands, Aphelios, and Heimerdinger have very strong tower-defending capabilities.

They must pierce WBG's final line of defense before the Emperor of the Sands, Aphelios, and Heimerdinger can build an iron wall.

As usual, when there was a disagreement with the mid-laner, Beryl basically wouldn't argue back.

"Aurelion Sol seems to be pushing the Spiral Sphere again!"

"This really is the peak Spiral Sphere, it should be bigger than the level one one... hiss, could it be?"

As the director's camera focused on the expanding Star Core in Aurelion Sol's hands, all three commentators were delighted to see it.

PYL smiled and shook his head: "I remember Aurelion Sol's E gets interrupted if he gets hit once; the Spiral Sphere is so obvious, Aphelios, Heimerdinger, and the Emperor of the Sands can all interrupt it from afar; counting on using this to engage on many people should be quite difficult~"

"This should still be mostly for fun!"

It wasn't just the commentators who thought so; the WBG members actually thought so too.

But just like everyone's inherent perception.

Although after Aurelion Sol's E skill level goes up, his movement speed is enough to fly from his own fountain to the opponent's fountain.

But the Spiral Sphere is so "obvious"; the larger the volume, the further away it should be visible.

Even if it couldn't be interrupted, as long as one moved in advance, they wouldn't be engaged on by too many people.

However, in fact.

The Star Core actually has a mechanism that is extremely counter-intuitive.

————When Aurelion Sol is charging his Q in the Fog of War, the Star Core travels through the Canyon like a ghost ship, and it only reveals itself to enemies when Aurelion Sol appears in vision.

And the reason why many players think that Aurelion Sol's Q, like his passive, forces visibility, and have even "seen it with their own eyes."

The truth is, the E skill description contains a mechanism description of {enemies and allies will see units through walls}.

Simply put, it is the E skill flight that makes Aurelion Sol "visible," not the Q skill.

So when seeing an Aurelion Sol using E to push Q and crashing over a wall, it seems one can always see the huge Star Core in advance————naturally, one would subconsciously think that Q forces visibility.

But that is a misunderstanding of the mechanism, a misguidance of cognitive inertia!

Of course, this is also normal.

After all, how many people can remember this hero who is almost forgotten, and these canyon relics covered by dust.

The four members of V5 gathered in front of the high-ground tower.

The five members of WBG stood firm on the high ground.

"No way! The trajectory of this Spiral Sphere!!"

The director switched to the enemy's perspective, causing the commentators' voices to suddenly rise.

Right at the edge of WBG's vision.

That terrifying Star Core, which was already enough to block out the sky, had already covered the entire high ground... yet in the eyes of the WBG members, everything was still peaceful!

Upon approaching the range, Ye Bo actively canceled the E skill, while positioning himself at the very edge of the range.

Once the Star Core shrouded the tops of the five people on the high ground————Aurelion Sol instantly flashed to tear through space and move forward!

A star dragon, and a "Hidden Planet of Destruction."

Appeared at the same time!

Just like leaping out of thin air from another dimension, the star breath and the sound of the Star Core explosion shook the eardrums simultaneously, and five golden stun marks lit up on the enemies' heads in unison!

This was a reactionless, inescapable five-man crowd control!

The moment they saw it was the moment the planet smashed into their faces.

"Holy crap!"

"Holy crap!!!"

"Aishibal!"

"What the hell is this?!"

K'Sante ascended into the fray, while Vi locked onto the only one capable of counter-attacking, the Emperor of the Sands.

The whistling sound of the Chain of Corruption had not yet faded when the Virtuoso's Curtain Call began to roar in succession.

The final, brilliant breath of the Dragon King instantly obliterated the heads of the two opposing carries.

"My god!!! This! What kind of team fight is this!"

"Can the Dragon King even initiate like that? If they can catch the vision, it's impossible to defend against! Wow, that Dragon King feels so fierce!"

"Are they really going to shut them out? It looks like they can end it in one push!"

The last one to survive was Gala, whose reaction to cleanse was incredibly fast; he landed, used Gale Force to dash backward, and bolted for the fountain without looking back.

The V5 team also marched forward triumphantly, charging toward the Nexus!

However, in the final moment of pushing the base, the Dragon King and K'Sante still charged into the fountain together, not letting the score look quite so embarrassing.

But this "kind gesture."

Not only failed to restore the noise from the nearly half-silent audience, but instead made them all even more silent!

Fortunately, the livestream chat was as lively as a New Year's celebration.

Everyone was spamming 【It's blown up, it's blown up, it's blown up!】

(End of chapter)