Chapter 208: Resurrection! Turret-Mounted Soldiers

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

The JDG members were carrying out their pre-match setup.

In the fourth game of the new season, although they had changed their new bot lane duo, the tactic most used by JDG hadn't changed yet.

Homme had great authority in coaching the team, and last year, the JDG he led was able to become a top-three team in the LPL without a luxurious foundation by relying on the "Kindred" bond between the top and jungle.

With good results at the start of the Spring split, there was indeed no reason to change the lineup temporarily.

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

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

The caster desk quickly saw the reason.

"Jayce vs Sion in the top lane is a classic long-range vs short-range matchup; the support should want to help place a ward in the lane brush, which can ensure Jayce has 100% lane priority in the early game; they are taking very good care of 369!"

Zoom added a deeper layer: "Mainly, the bot lane doesn't look like a combo that can compete for lane priority, so for Viego, at least one half of the map must have initiative in hand!"

"Kanavi, this guy, doesn't really accept jungle deficits..."

Kanavi's playstyle had never changed.

And Zoom had partnered with him for over three years since 2019, being Kanavi's first and longest-serving top lane teammate, so he naturally understood him very well.

Zoom also joked that the two most frequent phrases in the opponent's career were: "Can you come over for a bit?" and "Can you help me place a ward on the other side?"

However, in this game, the short-range vs long-range pressure in the top lane could only rely on pulling the lane brush.

So this targeted method of letting the support help place a ward in the top lane at level 1 was actually not rare on the field, and the effect was excellent.

"Be careful, the opponent is quite strong at level 1; just place the ward in the second brush." Kanavi was directing and instructing: "If they come, just let it go."

"You guys in the bot lane need to be cautious early on; Sylas jungle is very painful to farm; I'll go counter-jungle him twice and he won't be able to play!"

"Mm-hmm." Missing replied alone.

Ruler didn't speak.

After coming to JDG, Ruler got along fine with everyone else on the team—except for his fellow countryman Kanavi, who seemed the "least familiar."

The reason was that Ruler felt... this kid didn't "respect" him!

In his subconscious, Kanavi was still the rookie eating Tarzan's leftovers at Griffin; regardless of seniority or achievement... at least shouldn't he pay attention to etiquette when meeting him for the first time?

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

He just greeted him very normally and then went about his own business!

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

1 minute 10 seconds.

Renata, hanging in the top lane's first brush, began to press recall; just in the last second before recall ended, she placed a ward in the second brush.

This ward was enough to ensure that Sion had no brush to use before reaching level 3, and Jayce could press him at will!

The rest of the group performed their duties, standing at the entrance to defend.

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

"V5 seems to have decided to invade after all!"

The God's eye view had long noticed.

After the V5 members left the base, they first took standard positions; after confirming that the opponent had no abnormal movements at level 1, they began to gather in the bottom half of the map.

The four of them had been crouching behind the wall of their own jungle, as if waiting for some timing.

Because it was well known that swapping jungles at level 1 would be a negative gain, the aggressive level 1 invasion playstyle hadn't appeared for a long time.

So JDG didn't make too many arrangements before the battle.

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

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

Kanavi knew very well that the opponent's level 1 strength was clearly higher.

Not to mention that Aurelion Sol's level 1 combat power was clearly stronger than Ryze's, just the two ranged heroes in the bot lane carrying double Hail of Blades made fighting a no-brainer!

Of course, the problem with V5's composition was the lack of control at level 1, making it hard to keep people.

The only control was Sion's Q, which was hard to hit when cast head-on; this was why JDG didn't think the opponent would try to fight at level 1.

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

BeryL didn't turn on the scanner in advance, but specifically walked into the blue buff pit before turning it on—this was because only the ward in this position could detect the subsequent movements of the invaders.

Unless JDG came over 4v4 with the idea of fighting, they wouldn't be able to sneak in to replenish wards later.

And as long as the vision in the bottom half could be cleared, it would be difficult for JDG to judge whether the opponent was preparing to farm in their blue zone or crouching to ambush them.

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

He understood the shortcomings of Sylas jungle.

This hero could barely farm alone even in his own jungle, let alone in the enemy jungle without buff benefits.

So there was no need to place a ward at all; just by observing the opponent's bot lane's path to the lane and their status, it was enough to judge whether Sylas was farming 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; Ning was inexplicably able to lead the opponent by nearly a group and a half of farming advantage!

Kanavi actually thought the opponent just came in to try and steal a chicken, and would withdraw back to their own jungle if there were no results.

1 minute 30 seconds, jungle monsters refreshed.

Because Viego was basically starting red in the top lane, Jayce didn't hide it either, coming over to help auto-attack a few times before slowly going to the lane.

369 saw that Sion's trace didn't appear in the top lane's second brush, understanding that Flandre must have guessed that their support would come up to help place a ward, so he didn't come over to give an opportunity.

1 minute 45 seconds.

When Viego had just finished the first jungle monster, he saw the V5 bot lane duo coming to the lane from the river.

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

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

"You guys in the bot lane must not give any opportunities early on; if he dares to farm like this, I can farm him into a collapse!"

In Kanavi's view, swapping jungles like this would allow him to occupy a huge jungle advantage.

As long as Sylas couldn't find results in the bot lane, he would naturally be farmed into a collapse!

But his Kindred, 369, noticed an abnormality.

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

369 had originally thought Flandre was crouching in the first brush, because he was worried about Sion's classic level 1 crouch-brush charge Q, so he didn't take the initiative to test.

Anyway, Jayce just needed to control the minion wave; Sion couldn't not show his head.

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

Sion still hadn't shown his face...

After 369 pressed the TAB scoreboard, he suddenly widened his eyes.

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

{There is no system prompt or banner reminder for being killed by jungle monsters, but you can see the changes in the record and hero portrait}

And as a Sion master player, 369 naturally understood what this meant!

But the problem is...

Sion, what jungle can he steal?

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

No matter whose bottom half Sion is in, it would only lead to his own jungler having no jungle to farm later.

And the top half of the red zone always had the mid and top guarding the entrance; unless Sion flashed over the wall, there was no space to sneak in without displacement.

Viego had even finished his red!

When all possibilities were excluded, the last remaining answer could only be the only answer.

"He is stealing the jungle!?"

"Holy shit, this Sion seems to be stealing their own blue zone!"

V5's intention was only now fully exposed.

Invading the jungle at a precise level 1 timing, clearing the vision so you couldn't figure it out.

It was just to force Viego into the top half.

Because Viego couldn't confirm whether the opponent was starting in his own jungle, plus the common defect of swapping jungles, there was no reason for him to run to the opponent's jungle to swap at level 1.

And Sion, after being killed by the jungle monster, used the super high bonus output ability given by his passive Resurrection, with each auto-attack carrying 10% maximum health, using the zombie to steal the jungle!

And because Sion's main body dying already counted as dying, the zombie dying "doesn't count as dying"—so the blue buff killed by the zombie would be inherited and retained after resurrection!

This itself was a routine from the ancient era, not fresh at all.

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

Of course.

With the current situation, what he was stealing was Viego's jungle.

Kanavi's heart sank.

Finally knowing the opponent was coming for him!

Viego's bottom blue zone was countered, and V5's bot lane relied on the double ranged heroes to inevitably have lane priority, plus Aurelion Sol's support from the mid lane... at this time, Viego couldn't possibly force his way into the opponent's extremely strong bottom half to hard-swap!

Which meant that the jungle deficit countered by Sion was a deficit he had to swallow, an unavoidable deficit.

"Viego is directly missing nearly a jungle zone at the start, and Sion is also carrying the blue buff and 200 gold to TP back to the lane; there is no experience deficit, and the pressure resistance is even more comfortable!"

"Good design!"

"Kanavi can only swallow the dumb loss, turning to choose to farm his own red zone to reach level 3..."

After V5 picked Caitlyn support as a late hand, JDG's remedial BP strategy for this game was originally tilted towards the top half, preparing to use the strength of the top half to make up for the disadvantage of the bottom half, giving the jungler a stage.

But V5's start directly scrapped the resources of the top half! Dismantled the stage!

No matter how strong your top half is, there is nowhere to go.

Kanavi breathed heavily and gritted his teeth: "Mid and top, fight for lane priority; I'll still go to their jungle later."

"Bot lane, don't give any opportunities!"

The only fortunate thing was that Sion, who TP'd back to the lane, only had 8 CS.

The farming efficiency bonus only applied to the jungle egg, and Sion didn't enjoy the buff bonus when stealing his own jungle, only having time to steal two groups of monsters.

This meant there was still a group of wolves in the top blue zone; as long as Viego went to farm them, he would only be pressed by 2 groups of monsters.

And, as long as other lanes didn't give gank opportunities, Sylas's hero defects would be magnified—although he had two more groups of monsters "able to farm," because farming efficiency wasn't good, the gap could be narrowed to one group of monsters back and forth.

This was the lowest limit Kanavi could accept.

The director's perspective returned to the laning.

Sion didn't buy potions for the details of leaving the base, using the saved 50 gold, and when he returned to the lane, he had a Doran's Shield + Cloth Armor, plus a blue buff, looking at ease facing Jayce's consumption.

And Ryze in the mid lane received the information, and his positioning began to lean forward to auto-attack minions to grab lane priority.

"Aurelion Sol and Ryze's matchup..." Miller dragged out his voice to recall.

"In the previous few games of Aurelion Sol, the laning was basically being beaten, at most transforming into a 'Dragon-form Zeri' to instantly Q, hitting Comet or something."

On the night Aurelion Sol just landed on the test server, Ye Bo, who was invited to the global trial, discovered quite a few small tricks for this hero, and under the transmission of the live stream, it quickly became popular.

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

Aurelion Sol's Q dragon breath has two casting mechanisms.

And the current version of Aurelion Sol's instant Q closes immediately and won't enter CD.

Although the instant Q skill damage isn't high, it can trigger skill effects such as {Comet} and {Scorch} and {Mask}, and it is also a small AOE, very useful for consumption.

The response method is also very simple.

Just stand behind the minions.

But this time, Knight was clearly contrary to the norm, not only not retreating and walking alongside the minions, but instead deliberately making a very forward-pressing stance.

Outsiders couldn't see the deep meaning.

But Ye Bo, through this small positioning of the opponent, quickly guessed his intention behind it.

Ryze's skills don't exceed 615 yards, Aurelion Sol's level 1 Q distance is close to 800 yards, and under normal circumstances, the opponent is hard to touch him.

Ryze deliberately gave a dangerous stance to let Aurelion Sol Q, clearly wanting to trick Aurelion Sol into using a long Q, then use the casting gap to step forward and hard-trade AE, then use Ryze's E mechanism of attracting minion aggro to control the minion wave.

Knight had also studied Aurelion Sol.

He knew that this hero's so-called instant Q is actually only meaningful when triggering extra effects like Comet or Mask.

If there are no extra effects, instant Q once, it only has a mere 6 points of damage.

However.

Knight's understanding was only on the second layer.

Ye Bo, who had previously "fleeced" Aurelion Sol's rework, although his understanding of Aurelion Sol hadn't reached perfection.

But at least at this moment, saying he was the current "World No. 1" was definitely not an exaggeration!

And in the current version of Aurelion Sol, the Q skill consumes 10 mana every 0.25 seconds.

Casting for a full 1 second will consume the normal 40 mana of a Q skill.

Ye Bo drove Aurelion Sol to spit star flames, but didn't end it immediately, instead staring at the distance between the two sides.

Just as he spat to 0.7 seconds, and Ryze was about to walk into the 600-yard range, Aurelion Sol immediately ended the spit and retreated.

Mastering the art of "Inch Stop"!

The mana consumption was also utilized to the extreme without any waste, the damage dealt was 2/3, and Ryze couldn't fight back because the distance wasn't enough!

And without spitting for a full 1 second, the Q skill didn't enter CD.

Which meant Ryze couldn't catch the CD, and Aurelion Sol could repeat the same trick again, equivalent to a free consumption!

"Such extreme distance control!" Wawa couldn'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 a person, he E's a minion..."

Zoom corrected: "Mainly it shouldn't be that he isn't convinced, it's because the jungler is going to enter the jungle later, Ryze has to grab the lane priority."

Miller suddenly shouted to interrupt: "Hey, but Master Ye doesn't indulge you! Aurelion Sol also directly presses forward!"

Knight, who had been pulled by the opponent and had high blood pressure, saw Aurelion Sol take the initiative to press up from the side and put on a face, and was overjoyed.

Ryze was just suffering from short hands.

But once the opponent took the initiative to give distance, Ryze only needed to use the minions as a "meat shield" to block the dragon breath, and he could offset most of Aurelion Sol's damage!

Knight didn't retreat but advanced, sticking to the minion wave, and started auto-attacking Aurelion Sol.

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

"What is this doing!?"

"Aurelion Sol auto-attacking like this will attract minion aggro! Without Q, he can't win the health trade!"

Because Q dragon breath would be blocked by minions, Aurelion Sol clearly had no chance to use skills.

On the contrary, Ryze could freely cast AEA, and after triggering Phase Rush, continue to adjust positioning to pull aggro, trading health smoothly.

The advantage Aurelion Sol had gained in the previous health trade was being quickly wiped out.

Ryze had no reason to retreat; after all, this Aurelion Sol was simply playing himself as an ADC, standing in the minion wave and auto-attacking him; Knight completely didn't understand what the opponent was doing!

Both sides' health was close to the bottom half.

It started to be Ryze's turn to put on a face.

Knight prepared to grab level 2 while pressing forward and sticking to Aurelion Sol.

As long as there were minions as a shield, Aurelion Sol couldn't fight back, and couldn't use any output means at all!

This is also why the new Aurelion Sol's win rate is extremely low, and major regions don't favor him.

Everyone naturally knows that this hero is very powerful when he scales... the problem is that now it seems this thing is weaker than Kassadin in the early game!

At least Kassadin's QWE can force-aim at output heroes; as long as it's not like Xiaohu, completely giving up health trading, he can still create a bit of a threat.

But Aurelion Sol?

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

Then if Aurelion Sol wants to consume the opponent, he can basically only rely on the "Comet" instant Q to transform into a "Spit Dragon"!

Compared to the old Aurelion Sol, who could rely on the W planetary orbit to force a press over the minion wave at level 1, the laning ability is simply a world of difference!

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

"Ryze EW casts to stun, Aurelion Sol also starts spitting on the spot, but with the obstruction of minions, he can't win the health trade..."

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

And that blue giant dragon walking alongside the front-row minions, the dragon head slightly passed over the first minion, spitting dragon breath at Ryze.

But Ryze wasn't afraid at all, immediately pressing forward a step to stick to the melee minions, in order to avoid the dragon breath.

But, soon.

Knight showed an unbelievable expression.

"What #@#! Why!?"

The caster desk was even more stunned by the scene in front of them.

"What is going on!!"

"How did Aurelion Sol's Q 'penetrate' the minions!"

Ryze, who walked into the melee minion pile, never escaped the coverage of the dragon breath.

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

But Knight soon discovered.

No matter how he adjusted... he seemed unable to escape the "lock-on" of the dragon breath!

That dragon breath looked like it was shot from the top of the minions, ignoring all targets on the path, locking firmly onto Ryze.

This completely overturned everyone's cognition!

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

But, it just penetrated.

The new Aurelion Sol's laning is weak, the only reason is because the Q skill is basically Aurelion Sol's only output skill in the early game—but it will be blocked by minions, unable to continue outputting, and he even has to be beaten on the spot.

However, if the Q skill can spit for a full 1 second.

Besides the sustained output that jumps every second, every time he spits for a full circle, he will deal an extra noble {maximum percentage} damage!

A 3.25-second Q skill can trigger 3 times.

This full output is not just a little bit higher than the old "scraping dragon"!

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

At this moment, when he realized it, he was almost about to be spat with a full set of dragon breath.

Ryze's health instantly entered the danger zone!

Knight found he was set up, instinctively panicked and retreated, wanting to escape responsibility, flashing without hesitation to pull up his pants and run!

But Ye Bo's deliberate press forward before was just to close the distance between the two sides, letting Ryze step into the trap on his own initiative.

At this moment, wanting to run, it was already too late!

Aurelion Sol's level 2 W stirred up 【Astral Flight】 to gain movement speed bonus and flew to pursue, opening dragon breath when close.

W in the flight state will perform a percentage extra damage increase to the Q skill, and the dragon breath damage is even more astonishing!

A circle of star flames turned full, directly burning Ryze to death!

【First Blood!】

"Wow wow wow! Knight was solo-killed at level 2!" Wawa held his head and shouted: "After a season, Knight has broken the record!!"

"But this wave..." Miller's voice was a bit hesitant: "Why this wave, I don't quite understand this Q, why can it penetrate minions?"

"To be honest, this wave is mainly because no one knows Aurelion Sol's Q can be cast like this, otherwise Knight definitely wouldn't have given this position, there's no way he could die..."

Duke, the master of egg tarts on the side, was also shaking his head in confusion: "Knight didn't call a pause, maybe it's some kind of mechanism or technique?"

This hero has been online for less than half a month, so it's very reasonable to say there is something that hasn't been discovered or developed yet.

Of course.

The most critical thing is the person.

If it were another player using this understanding that completely exceeded public cognition, the player might have called a pause directly, and the caster desk might have questioned if it was a bug.

But, the ID used is Ye!

Facing this ID, almost no one would have doubts, instinctively thinking it was some kind of mechanism; Knight thought so too.

The director conducted a replay.

But even in the replay, everyone couldn't see any clues.

Only Duke, the master of egg tarts with outstanding observation, barely noticed something: "Aurelion Sol seems to be deliberately adjusting his positioning, not just simple auto-attack consumption..."

"His head?"

The only abnormality seemed to be that when Aurelion Sol was casting, the dragon head deliberately passed over a minion.

It looked like the dragon head was "mounted" on the minion.

And in fact—this is a special mechanism of Aurelion Sol.

It is also something Ye Bo discovered while exploring, with the blessing of leap-level understanding.

The principle is probably because of the special nature of Aurelion Sol's model, the head and tail do not match the actual model seen by the naked eye—just like the mechanism of the old Aurelion Sol's tail being able to dodge skills.

So when Aurelion Sol's head slightly passes over a minion, looking like it fits,

In fact, the Z-axis has long deviated far from the target.

Then, as long as the Q skill locks onto a target at the moment of casting, it will trigger a somewhat inexplicable "lock-on" mechanism, able to penetrate and ignore the blocking objects in the middle.

After all, it is equivalent to a brand new hero.

Ye Bo doesn't know what this counts as, is it a mechanism or a bug or an "Easter egg" buried by the designer?

But clearly.

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

"Turtle, I can only say if this is a technique... then Aurelion Sol's laning ability doesn't seem weak at all!"

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

"This is more than not weak, it's almost like a lane bully!" Duke nodded in deep agreement.

Miller no longer struggled and let out a loud blow: "I can only say this is Ye; he can always let us re-recognize a hero!"

【The Grand Tutor is funny; is this the legendary former No. 1 mid laner? How can he not even survive level 2?】

【My evaluation is that he is not even as good as the Thief Saint!!】

【As everyone knows, Aurelion Sol is flying in the sky, minions are so short on the ground they can't block, this is reasonable.】

【Is there a possibility that Aurelion Sol's designer actually copied the code of Chinese chess? This is also very consistent with Aurelion Sol's spell turret positioning, the turret is across the soldiers, it hits from far away!】

【Holy shit, Dragon Raises Head!? Who is on the competition stage!!】

【To be honest, Master Ye's hero pool is really deep; think about the growth from the specialty guy to now, there is nothing he can't do, even the reworked new heroes can have this kind of R&D!】

However, the solo kill in the mid lane didn't end.

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

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 209 =====