Chapter 208: Reflecting Light in Death! The Artillery Cannon

"JDG seems to have a move right from the start! The support is heading straight to the top lane!"

The members of JDG are carrying out their pre-match setup.

In this fourth match of the new season, although they have replaced their new duo carries, the most habitual tactics of JDG have not changed yet.

Redmi has significant authority in coaching the team, and last year, when he led JDG to become one of the top three teams in the LPL despite a not-so-luxurious roster, he relied on the bond of the "Kindred" duo in the top and jungle.

With the results being quite good since the start of the Spring Split, there was indeed no reason to change the lineup drastically on short notice.

So, as soon as they left the base, the support Missing followed directly toward the top lane and crouched in the first brush of the lane.

"This should be to help place a ward in the top lane!"

The commentary desk quickly saw the reason.

"Jayce versus Sion in the top lane is a classic ranged versus melee matchup. The support likely wants to help place a ward in the lane brush, which can guarantee Jayce 100% lane priority in the early game. They are taking good care of 369!"

Zoom added a deeper layer: "It's mainly because the bottom lane doesn't look like a combination that can contest lane priority, so for Viego, at least one half of the map's initiative must be in hand!"

"Kanavi, this guy, he really can't accept losses in the jungle."

Kanavi's playstyle has never changed.

And Zoom, having partnered with him for a full three years since 2019, is Kanavi's first and longest-serving top lane teammate, so he naturally understands him very well.

Zoom is still joking that the two most frequent sentences in the other's career are: "Can you come here?" and "Can you help me place a ward on the other side?"

However, in this match, with the melee versus ranged matchup in the top lane, the only thing one can rely on is pulling the lane brush.

Therefore, this method of having the support go to the top lane at level one to help place a ward is actually not uncommon in professional play, and the effect is excellent.

"Be careful, the enemy is quite strong at level one, just place the ward in the second brush," Kanavi is commanding and urging: "If they come, just give it up."

"You guys in the bottom lane need to play cautiously early on. Sylas's jungle clear is very taxing; if I counter-jungle him twice, he'll be out of the game!"

"Mm-hmm," Missing replied alone.

Ruler did not speak.

After arriving at JDG, Ruler gets along fine with everyone else on the team—except for his fellow countryman Kanavi, with whom he seems the "least familiar."

The reason is that Ruler feels... this kid doesn't "respect" him enough!

In his subconscious, Kanavi is still the rookie who ate Tarzan's leftovers at Griffin. Regardless of seniority or achievements... at least shouldn't he show some etiquette when meeting him for the first time?

But when the two first met at JDG, Kanavi seemed to "not take him seriously" at all.

He just greeted him normally and then went off to do his own thing!

However, being a newcomer, Ruler also knew that the other was the core player of this team for the past few years, so although he was unhappy, he didn't say anything.

1 minute and 10 seconds.

Renata, who was hanging out in the top lane's first brush, started to recall. Just in the last second before the recall finished, she placed a ward into the second brush.

This ward is enough to ensure that Sion has no brush to use before reaching level three, allowing Jayce to suppress him wantonly!

The rest of the members are each performing their duties, standing at the entrances to defend.

But just at this moment, Viego, who was crouching in the jungle, saw four people suddenly walk out from the river below!

"It seems V5 finally decided to invade!"

The spectator perspective had noticed it long ago.

The members of V5 first took up standard positions after leaving the base, and after confirming that the opponent had no abnormal movements at level one, they began to gather in the bottom half of the map.

The four of them kept crouching behind the wall of their own jungle, as if waiting for some opportunity.

Because it is well known that swapping jungles at level one results in negative returns, the strategy of aggressive level-one invading has not appeared for a long time.

So JDG did not make too many preparations before the battle.

"They're coming in," Kanavi shouted while retreating.

"Don't fight, don't fight, Park Jae-hyuk, back off!"

Kanavi knew very well that the opponent's level-one strength was clearly higher.

Not to mention that Aurelion Sol's level-one combat power is clearly stronger than Ryze's, just the two marksmen in the bottom lane carrying double Hail of Blades make fighting a no-brainer!

Of course, the problem with this V5 lineup is the lack of crowd control in level-one team fights, making it difficult to lock people down.

The only crowd control is Sion's Q, which is hard to hit when cast head-on; this is why JDG didn't think the opponent would try to fight at level one.

Viego was driven away by the four, and the four members of V5 continued to invade the blue buff area.

Beryl did not activate his Oracle Lens early, but specifically walked into the lower half of the blue buff pit before activating it—this is because only a ward in this position can detect the invaders' subsequent movements.

Unless JDG comes over with the intention of fighting a 4v4, there is no way for them to sneak in later to replenish wards.

And as long as the vision in the bottom half is cleared, it is difficult for JDG to judge whether the opponent is preparing to start their jungle in their own blue area or is crouching to ambush them.

Kanavi quickly cleared his thoughts: "It's fine, you guys go to your lanes, don't enter the jungle, I'll start at red."

He understands the shortcomings of Sylas in the jungle.

Even in his own jungle, this champion can barely start clearing camps alone, let alone in the enemy's jungle without any buff.

So there is no need to place a ward; just by observing the path the opponent's bottom lane takes to their lane and their status, it is enough to judge whether Sylas is starting in his own jungle.

And the result of swapping jungles at the start had already been shown in the opening match of the Spring Split, LGD vs UP, where Ning was inexplicably able to lead his opponent by nearly one and a half camps in clear speed!

Kanavi actually thought the opponent was just coming in to try a cheap trick and would retreat to their own jungle if there were no results.

1 minute and 30 seconds, jungle camps respawn.

Because Viego was basically openly starting at red in the top lane, Jayce also didn't hide it and came over to help auto-attack a few times before leisurely heading to his lane.

369, seeing that there was no sign of Sion in the top lane's second brush, understood that Flandre must have guessed that their support would come up to help place a ward, which is why he didn't come over to give them an opportunity.

1 minute and 45 seconds.

Just as Viego finished the first jungle camp, he saw the V5 bottom lane duo coming to their lane from the river.

This actually... was still starting in their own jungle?

"What the... are they trying to swap and hard-gank the bottom lane?"

"You guys in the bottom lane, absolutely do not give them an opportunity early on. If he dares to clear the jungle like this, I can clear him into a collapse!"

In Kanavi's view, by swapping jungles like this, he could occupy a huge jungle advantage.

As long as Sylas finds no results in the bottom lane, he will naturally be cleared into a collapse!

But his Kindred, 369, noticed something abnormal.

"No! Sion doesn't seem to be there!"

Anyway, Jayce only needs to control the minion wave; it's impossible for Sion not to show his face.

But until all three melee minions died and the ranged minions began to clash.

Sion still hadn't appeared...

After 369 pressed the Tab scoreboard, his eyes suddenly widened.

He discovered that Sion's record had changed from 0/0/0 to 0/1/0.

{Being killed by jungle monsters does not have a system sound or banner notification, but one can see the changes in the record and hero portrait}

And as a Sion expert, 369 naturally understands what this means!

But the problem is...

Sion, what jungle camp could he go to steal?

It is known that Sylas is starting in the bottom half.

Regardless of whose bottom half Sion is in, it would only lead to their own jungler having no camps to clear later.

And the top half of the red area always has the mid and top laners guarding the entrance; unless Sion uses Flash over the wall, there is no space to sneak in without a dash.

Viego has even finished his own red!

When all possibilities are excluded, the final remaining answer can only be the unique answer.

"He's stealing the jungle!?"

"Damn, this Sion seems to be stealing their own blue area!"

V5's intention was only then exposed completely.

Invading the jungle at the perfect time at level one, clearing out vision to make you unable to fathom their moves.

It was all to force Viego into the top half of the map.

Because Viego could not confirm whether the opponent was starting in his own jungle, and coupled with the common flaw of swapping jungles, there was no reason for him to run to the opponent's side to swap jungles at level one.

And Sion, after being killed by the jungle monsters, used the super-high bonus output ability granted by his passive, Glory in Death, where every auto-attack deals 10% of maximum health, to steal the jungle as a zombie!

And because Sion's main body dying already counts as a death, the zombie dying "doesn't count as a death"—so the blue buff killed by the zombie will be inherited and kept after respawning!

This is a strategy from the ancient era, not fresh at all.

The problem is, who would have thought he was stealing his own jungle!?

Of course.

In this current situation, what he is stealing is Viego's jungle.

Kanavi's heart sank violently.

He finally knew the opponent was coming for him!

Viego's bottom blue area was counter-jungled, and V5's bottom lane, relying on the double marksmen who inevitably have lane priority early on, plus the support from Aurelion Sol in the mid lane—at this moment, it is impossible for Viego to force his way into the opponent's extremely strong bottom half to hard-swap!

This means that the jungle loss caused by Sion's counter-jungling is a loss he must swallow hard; it is an unavoidable loss.

"Viego is missing nearly an entire jungle area at the start, and Sion is even returning to the top lane with the blue buff and 200 gold via Teleport. His experience is not behind at all, and his pressure-resisting is even more comfortable!"

"What a design!"

"Kanavi can only swallow the bitter pill and turn to choose to start at his own red area to reach level three..."

After V5 chose Caitlyn as a support as a counter-pick, JDG's remedial BP strategy for this match was originally to lean toward the top half, preparing to use the strength of the top half to make up for the disadvantage in the bottom half and provide a stage for the jungler.

Ye Bo can start with a level 5 opening, directly crippling the resources in the upper half of the map! Tearing down the stage!

No matter how aggressive your upper half is, there will be nowhere to go.

Kanavi breathed heavily and gritted his teeth: "Top and mid, fight for the wave; I still need to go into their jungle later."

"Bot lane, absolutely do not give them an opening!"

The only consolation is that Sion, who used Teleport to return to lane, only has 8 CS.

The jungle clearing efficiency bonus only applies to the jungle egg; Sion doesn't get the buff for stealing his own jungle, and he only had time to steal two camps.

This means there is still one camp of Wolves in the upper blue side; as long as Viego goes to clear it, he will only be behind by two camps.

Furthermore, as long as the other lanes don't give up gank opportunities, Sylas's hero flaws will be magnified—although he has two extra camps "available to farm," because his clearing efficiency is poor, the gap can be narrowed back down to one camp.

This is the minimum limit Kanavi can accept.

The director's camera returns to the laning phase.

Sion didn't buy potions at the start; using the 50 gold saved, he returns to lane with a Doran's Shield and a Cloth Armor, plus a Blue Buff, appearing to handle Jayce's poke with ease.

Meanwhile, Ryze in the mid lane receives the information and begins to position forward to auto-attack minions and contest the wave.

"The matchup between Aurelion Sol and Ryze..." Miller draws out his tone, reminiscing.

"In the previous few games with Aurelion Sol, the laning phase was basically just taking a beating, at most transforming into a 'Dragon Form Zeri' to tap Q once, proc Comet or something."

On the night Aurelion Sol first landed on the test server, Ye Bo, who was invited to the global playtest, discovered many small tricks for this hero, which quickly became popularized through his livestream.

The most famous is naturally the "tap Q" mechanism.

Aurelion Sol's Q, Breath of Light, has two casting mechanisms.

And in the current version, Aurelion Sol's tap Q immediately shuts off without entering cooldown.

Although the tap Q doesn't deal high skill damage, it can trigger skill effects like {Arcane Comet}, {Scorch}, and {Liandry's Mask}, and it's also a small AOE, making it very useful for poking.

The way to deal with it is actually quite simple.

Just stand behind the minions.

But this time, Knight is clearly acting against the norm; not only does he not retreat to stand behind the minions, but he intentionally positions himself extremely far forward.

Outsiders cannot see the deeper meaning.

But through this small bit of positioning, Ye Bo quickly guesses his underlying intent.

All of Ryze's skills are under 615 units, while Aurelion Sol's level 1 Q range is nearly 800 units; under normal circumstances, the opponent can hardly touch him.

Ryze is intentionally giving a dangerous position to bait Aurelion Sol into using a long Q, then using the casting gap to step up and force an AE trade, then using the mechanism where Ryze's E draws minion aggro to control the wave.

Knight has also studied Aurelion Sol.

He knows that this hero's so-called tap Q is only meaningful when it triggers extra effects like Comet or Liandry's.

If there are no extra effects, a tap Q only deals a measly 6 damage.

However.

Knight's understanding is only on the second layer.

Ye Bo, who previously "fleeced" the Aurelion Sol rework through 【Glory Echo】, may not have reached perfection in his Aurelion Sol understanding.

But at the very least, at this moment, calling him the current "world number one" is by no means an exaggeration!

And in the current version of Aurelion Sol, the Q skill consumes 10 mana every 0. 5 seconds.

It only consumes the normal 40 mana of a Q skill after being channeled for a full second.

Ye Bo drives Aurelion Sol to spray starfire, but doesn't end it immediately, instead keeping a close eye on the distance between the two.

Just as the spray reaches 0. seconds and Ryze is about to walk into the 600-unit range, Aurelion Sol immediately ends the spray and retreats.

Mastering the art of "Inch-Stopping"!

The mana consumption is also utilized to the extreme without the slightest waste, 2/3 of the damage is dealt, and Ryze cannot fight back because the distance is insufficient!

And because it wasn't channeled for a full second, the Q skill didn't enter cooldown.

Which means Ryze can't capitalize on the cooldown, and Aurelion Sol can repeat the same trick—it's essentially free poke!

"Such extreme distance control!" Wawa can't help but praise.

"But Knight feels like he still wants to press forward, as if he really wants to trade health with Aurelion Sol; if he can't E the person, he'll E the minions..."

Zoom corrects him: "It's probably not because he's unconvinced, but because the jungler is about to enter the jungle, and Ryze has to contest the wave."

Miller suddenly shouts, interrupting: "Hey, but Master Ye isn't going to indulge you! Aurelion Sol is also directly pushing forward!"

Knight, who was already feeling a bit hypertensive from being kited, is delighted to see Aurelion Sol actively pressing up from the side to get in his face.

Ryze only suffers from his short range.

But once the opponent actively gives up the distance, Ryze only needs to use the minions as a "meat shield" to block the dragon's breath, and he can negate most of Aurelion Sol's damage!

Knight doesn't retreat but advances, standing close to the minion wave and starting his auto-attack on Aurelion Sol.

And Aurelion Sol seems to just be trading auto-attacks with Ryze.

"What is he doing!?"

"Aurelion Sol will take minion aggro if he trades auto-attacks like that! He can't win the trade without Q!"

Because the Q dragon's breath will be blocked by minions, Aurelion Sol clearly has no opportunity to use his skill.

On the contrary, Ryze can freely execute AEA, trigger Phase Rush, and then continue to adjust his position to kite the aggro, trading health silkily.

The advantage Aurelion Sol gained in the previous health trade is being rapidly wiped out.

Ryze has no reason to back down; after all, this Aurelion Sol is simply playing himself like an ADC, stubbornly standing in the minion wave to auto-attack him. Knight completely doesn't understand what the opponent is doing!

Both sides' health is approaching the lower half.

It starts to be Ryze's turn to get in his face.

Knight prepares to contest level 2 while pressing forward to stand close to Aurelion Sol.

As long as there are minions acting as shields, Aurelion Sol cannot fight back and has no way to exert any means of output!

This is also why the new version of Aurelion Sol's current win rate is incredibly low, and why major regions don't favor him much.

Everyone of course knows this hero is very powerful once he scales—the problem is that right now, he looks even weaker in the early laning phase than Kassadin!

At least Kassadin's QWE can still force-target output on heroes; as long as he isn't like Xiaohu and completely giving up on trading, he can still create some threat.

But Aurelion Sol?

As long as the opponent keeps hiding behind minions, not giving you space to spray Q.

Then if Aurelion Sol wants to poke the opponent, he can almost only rely on the "Comet poke" of the tap Q, turning into a "Spit-Dragon"!

Compared to the old Aurelion Sol, who could rely on the W planetary orbit to force a lane crossover and suppress at level 1, the laning ability is simply worlds apart!

"Both mid laners reach level 2 at the same time!"

"Ryze's EW hits and roots him, Aurelion Sol also starts spraying on the spot, but with the obstruction of the minions, he simply can't win the health trade..."

Aurelion Sol seems to be helplessly fighting back on the spot.

And that blue dragon, walking alongside the front-line minions, has its dragon head slightly pass the first minion, spraying dragon's breath at Ryze.

But Ryze isn't afraid at all, immediately pressing forward one step to get close to the melee minions to dodge the dragon's breath.

But, soon.

Knight reveals an expression of disbelief.

"What #@#! Why!?"

The commentary desk is even more stunned by the scene before them.

"What is going on!!"

"How did Aurelion Sol's Q 'pass through' the minions!"

Ryze, who walked into the pile of melee minions, never escaped the coverage of the dragon's breath.

Knight thought it was a problem with his positioning direction and continued to jump left and right in the minion pile, squirming to adjust his form.

But Knight soon discovers.

No matter how he adjusts—he seems unable to escape the "lock-on" of the dragon's breath!

That dragon's breath looks like it's shooting straight from the top of the minions' heads, ignoring all targets on the path, and locked dead onto Ryze.

This completely subverts everyone's cognition!

Anyone who has played a single game of Aurelion Sol knows that the Q skill shouldn't be able to pass through minions, otherwise this hero's laning wouldn't be so weak!

But, it just passed through.

The only reason the new version of Aurelion Sol is weak in laning is because the Q skill is considered Aurelion Sol's only early-game output skill—yet it gets blocked by minions, unable to continuously output, and he even has to take a beating on the spot.

However, if the Q skill can be sprayed for a full second.

In addition to the continuous output that ticks every second, every full circle sprayed also deals an additional instance of noble {maximum percentage} damage!

A 3. 5-second Q skill can trigger it a full 3 times.

This fully realized output is not just a little bit higher than that old "scraping dragon"!

Because Ryze thought it was his own problem at first, he wasted quite a while moving in the minion pile.

By the time he realized it, he was almost about to be sprayed by a full set of dragon's breath.

Ryze's health instantly enters the danger zone!

Knight discovers he's been baited, instinctively panics and retreats, wanting to escape responsibility, and flashes to pull up his pants and run away without hesitation!

But Ye Bo's deliberate forward pressure earlier was to close the distance between the two, letting Ryze actively step into the trap himself.

Now that he wants to run, it's too late!

Aurelion Sol's level 2 W triggers 【Astral Flight】, gaining a movement speed bonus to fly and chase, and starts spraying dragon's breath the moment he gets close.

W, in the flying state, provides a percentage of bonus damage to the Q skill, making the dragon's breath damage even more astonishing!

One circle of starfire turned to the end, directly burning Ryze to ashes!

【First blood!】

"Wow, wow, wow! Left Hand was solo-killed at level two!" Wawa clutched his head and shouted: "For the first time in a season, Left Hand has broken a record!!"

"But this play..." Miller's voice sounded hesitant: "Why this play? I don't quite understand this Q; why could it pass through the minion like that?"

"To be fair, the main thing is that nobody knew the Long Wang Q could be cast like this, otherwise Left Hand definitely wouldn't have given up that position; there's no way he could have died."

Duke, sitting beside him, was also shaking his head in confusion: "Left Hand didn't call for a pause; maybe it's some kind of mechanic or technique?"

This hero had only been online for less than half a month, so it was perfectly reasonable that there were things yet to be discovered and developed.

Of course.

The most critical factor was the person.

If it were any other player using an understanding that completely exceeded the public's perception, the player might have called for a pause immediately, and the commentary desk might have questioned if it were a bug.

But, the ID being used was Ye!

Facing this ID, almost no one would question it; instinctively, everyone would assume it was some kind of mechanic, and Left Hand thought the same.

The director played the replay.

But even in the replay, no one could see the slightest clue.

Only the observant egg-tart master Duke barely noticed something: "It seems like Long Wang is deliberately adjusting his movement here, not just using basic attacks to poke..."

"His head?"

The only anomaly seemed to be that when Long Wang was casting, the dragon's head deliberately brushed past a minion.

It looked as if the dragon's head had been "mounted" on top of the minion.

And in fact—this was a special mechanic of Long Wang.

It was also something Ye Bo had discovered while exploring, bolstered by his superior level of understanding.

The principle was likely due to the special nature of the Long Wang model, where the head and tail did not align with the actual model visible to the naked eye—much like the old version of Long Wang where the tail could dodge skills.

So when Long Wang's head slightly brushed past a minion and appeared to be flush with it.

In reality, the Z-axis had already deviated far from the target.

Then, as long as the Q skill locked onto a target at the moment of casting, it would trigger a somewhat mysterious "locking" mechanism, allowing it to penetrate and ignore the blocking object in between.

After all, it was essentially a brand-new hero.

Ye Bo didn't know what to call this either; was it a mechanic, a bug, or an "Easter egg" left by the designers?

But clearly.

Everyone had witnessed the power of this technique in this solo kill.

"My goodness, I can only say that if this is a technique... then Long Wang's laning ability doesn't seem weak at all!"

Even Wawa, who had the poorest understanding of the game, had a look of sudden realization and surprise.

"It's more than just not weak; it's almost like a lane bully!" Duke nodded in deep agreement.

Miller stopped hesitating and started hyping it up: "I can only say this is Ye; he always lets us re-evaluate a hero!"

【Prefect Zhao is a joke, is this the legendary former number one mid-laner in the country? How can he not even survive level 2?】

【My assessment is that he's not even as good as the Thief Saint!!】

【As everyone knows, Long Wang is flying in the sky, and the minions are so short on the ground they can't block him, this is perfectly logical.】

【Is there a possibility that Long Wang's designer actually copied the code from Chinese chess? This fits the positioning of Long Wang as a magical artillery piece; the artillery piece fires over the pieces, it's meant to hit from a distance!】

【Holy crap, the dragon raises its head!? Who is on the tournament stage!!】

【To be fair, Master Ye's hero pool is truly deep now. Think back to when he was just a one-trick pony, and now there's nothing he can't do; he can even research new heroes that have been reworked!】

However, the solo kill in the mid lane was not the end.

It was just the beginning of the chaotic rhythm of the early game!

(End of chapter)