Chapter 217: Intimidating Game Theory! Ultraman Lineup!

"A mere 23 minutes! V5 has successfully secured victory in the first semifinal match!"

Jide excitedly announced in a loud voice: "The tempo of this match, just watching from the spectator's perspective, was suffocating. V5 crushed BLG head-on with a performance that could be called perfect!"

Uzi joked and teased: "It feels like V5 played this semifinal with a bit of a temper."

Guan Zeyuan jumped in at the right moment to play the devil's advocate: "However, we must say that this is the style of the BLG team. Even when at a disadvantage, they won't turtle up to farm; they insist on coming out to fight, which is why the tempo is so fast."

"And in that regular season match, BLG also lost the first game quickly before turning it around to win the second. I can only say I'm looking forward to their performance in the second game!"

The V5 fans at the venue and the viewers in the streaming room were clearly quite excited and didn't pay any attention to what Guan Zeyuan was saying.

【This is what you call dominance!】

【The regular season was just teasing you.】

【It feels like V5 was purely venting their anger this game. They didn't even want to take the final Baron; they just wanted to push the base. I reasonably suspect they wanted to break a record against BLG!】

【BLG: Guan-dog, I'm begging you, please stop talking. Don't let them remember this, or they'll hit even harder!】

【Hehe, I knew our Jingdong lost on purpose! Let BLG go up and reveal V5's hand, then we can march into the finals and fight for the throne without shedding blood—don't blame me for being a fanboy, the struggle for the crown among the princes has always been like this!】

【Classic "lost on purpose." May I ask, what exactly can BLG reveal about V5? Confidence?】

"Too easy~" On the way off the stage, Xun swung his shoulders and neck wildly, looking to be in an excellent mood.

"Chen Zebin is going to get his face slapped again~~"

Xun and Chen Zebin had known each other since playing ranked games in their early years, and later even had a small news story about "forgetting to shake hands" on the professional stage, which made them somewhat familiar with each other.

When BLG called him to join this year, it was Chen Zebin who contacted him privately.

Of course, after receiving the assessment invitation from V5, Xun didn't hesitate for a single second before running over happily.

Facts proved that Xun was damn right!

"You're definitely having a blast. You let Master Ye do all the dirty and tiring work; I could do it too if I were there!" Flandre teased while leaning on his shoulder.

"Aiyo, Flandre, that's not the right way to put it! As the saying goes, the less the ability, the less the responsibility. My Master Ye is just a capable person doing more work~~"

Xun's mood at this moment was purely spontaneous.

As a jungler, as long as you just farm the jungle and win the game, while the mid-laner does all the other work for you—whoever plays like this would have to shout that it feels great!

Ye Bo was also happy about the success of the new playstyle experiment.

He had discovered it now.

Playing this kind of functional style that drags himself along to "leech" doesn't necessarily have to follow his old line of thinking.

Compared to killing the opponent, actually doing the same things as the opponent and then "doing it better" works too!

Before Xun walked into the tunnel, he glanced toward the adjacent tunnel.

He saw the opposing support saying something slyly to the top-laner.

"Hehe, it's ruined. How can Jax not win, Brother Bin? Your Hupu rating is definitely going to explode now."

"What do you say, Brother Bin? What should we pick next game? Why don't you tell the coach to let you steal his Akali? Let's make a big play."

As teammates in the SN youth training camp, the top-support duo had a very good relationship. On often teased the other and enjoyed VIP-level roasting privileges.

Listening to the laughter coming from behind, Chen Zebin glanced sideways at On and tapped his feet on the spot like Camille.

However, the good news is that this person's greatest strength is his extremely high resilience; he isn't afraid of taking hits!

Of course, it could also be that his memory isn't very good.

And unsurprisingly, the audience with nowhere to go during the intermission had already logged onto various forums to provide sharp critiques of the first game.

Chen Zebin, who had been eye-catching during the pre-match trash talk segment, naturally had an explosive thread, full of various memes and mockery.

【Hello everyone~ My name is~ Chen Zebin, I love~ playing Gragas~ picking Jax~, my gaze~ is very firm~ Flandre is already laughing~, ah, my belly makes my eyebrows twitch non-stop~, waving my hands like a helicopter~】

【Watching Bin talk big now is like reading a pre-battle declaration in a dating sim; it's all deliberately done to pique my interest. Surely no one is taking it seriously, right?】

【I think Bin can only prove his grand ambitions in fanfiction for the rest of his life. Instead of proving it in reality, he might as well find a fanfic writer to console himself.】

【How to console? "The Scorching Summer: Bin & Faker's Secret Regarding the Inheritance"?】

【Heaven-defying, the netizens are too repressed. I think the netizens want to enter science.】

【Don't be arrogant yet, be careful that the boomerang comes back and Brother Bin slaps your faces hard!】

In the back, Tabe welcomed everyone back and tacitly avoided mentioning the previous game, immediately leading them into a review.

In his view, the loss in the first game was not unacceptable.

After all, V5's strength was obvious to all; one defeat was not enough to make them dwell on it too much.

The members of BLG were all holding their breath, just wanting to start the next game immediately.

After all, they were all thinking that as the only team to have defeated V5 during the regular season—if they could do it once, they could definitely do it a second time!

The short intermission passed.

When both sides reappeared, the members of BLG all had firm gazes.

The leader, Chen Zebin, stared intently at the direction of V5 walking out from next door, wanting to "declare war with his eyes" again with the leader of V5. It's just a pity that the other party was busy waving to the audience below the stage and didn't look at him at all.

Before long, the draft screen appeared again!

"In the second game between the two sides, BLG uses the loser's side selection to come to the blue side!"

"But BLG's first ban is actually given to Vi?"

The draft logic for the red and blue sides is completely opposite, especially under the global ban mode.

And if the blue side in a global ban really has an advantage, it's in the second game—because most of the strong heroes have already been exhausted in the first game!

It is not easy for the red side to occupy the "you take one, I take two" situation again.

Yet, in a best-of-five match, the "loser's side selection" is adopted, meaning that regardless of the side selection rights, the loser will hold the initiative in the second game and will definitely be able to borrow the "terrain" in this draft game!

Don't look down on it; it's just such a logical problem.

But currently, no more than four teams in the entire LPL can master it.

Clearly, the two teams on the stage are two of them.

"Looking at it like this, they should just want to let everything through..." BeryL muttered.

"Yeah, anyway, we'll use the same solution; there's no need to make the draft too complicated with them."

Ye Bo didn't seem too surprised either.

It was just because during the intermission, they put themselves in the opponent's shoes and realized they would likely make this most direct draft decision as well.

And after seeing the opponent's second ban, the two were even more certain.

It was just that BeryL hesitated during the second ban and said: "Should we ban Galio? Otherwise, your laning will be very uncomfortable."

"No need, otherwise it won't have an effect. It's not a big problem~"

Ye Bo's answer was filled with overflowing confidence.

Both sides' first round of bans—

BLG: Vi, Aurelion Sol, Gwen

V5: Sejuani, Maokai, Poppy

"BLG has completely changed their draft from the first game! They actually let both Akali and Sylas through!?"

"On the other hand, V5 has almost no changes; they are still targeting the three bans at the jungler!"

"BLG first-picks K'Sante; there's definitely no suspense about this."

The game of the first round of the draft was not as shallow as the commentators saw on the surface.

Tabe's idea was actually very simple.

Whether it was Sylas or Akali, would he dare to let Yagao pick first and face Ye Bo's counter-pick?

Just thinking about it was dangerous!

And if it were a "ban one, pick one" situation, whether Ye Bo played LeBlanc or Zoe, he had successful cases against both heroes in lane.

But if they came to the blue side and BLG still had to bear two ban slots, then the blue side's advantage wouldn't be that great, and they couldn't restrict the red side's counter-picks. The red side could easily get two counter-pick OP heroes to build their lineup.

Tabe's line of thinking was very clear—then just let them all through!

In the end, there isn't much difference between letting one through and letting two through; anyway, you can only pick one per game.

As long as ten more heroes are burned through the second game, the draft pressure for the third game will become very small, so the third round will be trivial, and neither the red nor blue side will have ban pressure.

And relying on the K'Sante that the blue side can snatch, even if the opponent might flex, BLG has a solution.

Relying on the K'Sante that the blue side could snatch up, even if the opponents might flex, BLG had a way to solve the puzzle.

If V5 bans Galio, at worst BLG can force K'Sante to the mid-lane—Yagao's proficiency isn't high, but resisting pressure against Akali is no problem.

If V5 banned Galio, at the very worst, BLG could force K'Sante into the mid lane—Ya Gao's proficiency might not be high, but he would have no trouble soaking up pressure against Akali.

When V5 saw the opponent's second ban, they probably guessed that the opponent would let everything through.

The obvious "solution" method was actually to ban K'Sante and Galio one after another, and then BLG would ban Akali with their third ban.

But that way, V5's "strategy" couldn't be executed.

V5 had conducted sufficient research on this BLG team and finally found the biggest "weakness" to defeat them: the jungler!

It's not to say that Wei is really that "bad."

After all, thanks to the results of that RNG team last year, as the person with the most league awards on this BLG team, his individual strength is definitely not a problem.

The key lies in the integration with this BLG team.

In the review, it's not hard to find that when Wei plays a jungle carry on this team, his performance becomes very strange. It's easy for him to dive into the jungle to farm for twenty minutes and then fake-carry a team fight to end the game.

Therefore, the tactical idea V5 made for this semifinal—is to force the opposing jungler to only play jungle carry!

Therefore, the tactical approach V5 adopted in this semifinal was to force the opposing jungler to play nothing but a jungle carry!

V5 needed to ban the version-strong, all-purpose functional junglers and not ban Galio.

After all, banning Galio would mean having to ban K'Sante along with it; otherwise, K'Sante could be moved to the mid-lane and be similar to Galio, at most just making Ye Bo's laning slightly more comfortable.

After all, if you ban Galio, you have to ban K'Sante along with him; otherwise, if K'Sante is brought to the mid lane, it's not much different from Galio, and at most, it would only make Ye Bo's laning phase slightly more comfortable.

What Ye Bo chose was to sacrifice his own laning comfort.

It was certainly not difficult for those with a keen eye to see.

"V5 has directly picked Akali and Kalista as a follow-up! They're taking them if they're left open!"

"But I have to say, V5's strategy this game is actually similar to BLG's last game; both are sacrificing individual lane matchups in the first round of drafting to gain an overall draft advantage for the red side!"

"It's just that the Jax in the last game was countered by Gragas as a follow-up and had a rather miserable time, and in this game, there's still Galio out there."

What the commentators could see, Tabe naturally saw as well.

It was just that he saw a deeper layer of the opponent's intentions.

In fact.

Tabe had originally thought V5 would pick their mid-laner in the third slot or even during the second round of drafting—because that would allow them to utilize the second round of drafting for support and even force the blue side to use up two second-round bans.

Regardless, Ye Bo has a deep champion pool, and this was the best solution Tabe could think of by putting himself in the opponent's shoes.

But for V5 to insist on picking Akali like this.

Clearly, there was only one goal.

————To force BLG, if they still wanted a mid-jungle matchup, they would have to pick Galio in the second or third slot!

Then what would picking Galio early mean?

With the bot lane champion pool already burned through one round, it means BLG's bot lane combination choices will be severely restricted in the second round!

As everyone knows.

The strength of the bot lane depends on the strength of the combination.

Clearly, V5 is not content with just achieving the goal of restricting the jungle position; they are also willing to sacrifice mid-lane comfort to trade for a laning advantage in the bot lane!

Since the red side's 3rd and 4th slots are picked together, it means they are almost guaranteed to have priority in picking their desired bot lane combination!

Tabe couldn't help but feel a secret shock in his heart, though his face remained composed.

"The blue side has picked Galio and Viego for mid and jungle, and the red side takes Sion in the third slot! Both sides enter the second round of bans!"

Second round of bans——

V5: Lulu, Nami

BLG: Kindred, Lee Sin

"BLG has banned the newly buffed Lee Sin and the Kindred that Xun is proficient with, while V5 has banned two enchanter supports."

"Hmm?? Which unit is that from!"

"Morgana? I haven't seen her all season, and it seems like no one on BLG's lineup is afraid of her."

"Oh, never mind. After clicking around for a while, V5 finally picked Xin Zhao in the fourth slot, still leaving the support for the fifth-slot counter-pick."

Guan Zeyuan and Remember seemed not to have understood and were still joking about it.

But Uzi seemed to have suddenly understood something.

"Wait... Oh my god! Why does it seem like V5 is playing 'mind games'!?"

Familiar with the bot lane ecosystem, Uzi explained: "The Renata Glasc and Yuumi from the last game have all been banned, and with Lulu and Nami gone, there aren't many protective enchanter supports left!"

"In this draft environment, what BLG can pick is either a double-marksman bot or a hard-engage support."

"But if it's a double-marksman bot, no matter the combination, it's very hard to gain an advantage against the Kalista that V5 has already taken!"

"And if it's a hard-engage support, Beryl seems to be telling his opponent: 'If you're capable, go ahead and pick it! Do you believe I have a Morgana up my sleeve?'"

Uzi, with a slightly flushed face, left the two people next to him stunned.

But thinking about it carefully, it actually makes some sense?

Tabe, of course, also saw this implication————the other side is purely 'intimidating' him!

BLG's bot lane also practices double-marksman setups.

But with Varus already gone, no matter what double-marksman setup it is, it's clearly very hard to defeat the Kalista + marksman support pairing————and a double-marksman bot lane is also very likely to let Akali go on a killing spree!

As for hard-engage supports like Nautilus, Leona, or even Blitzcrank... they would all be hard-countered by Morgana!

Morgana hasn't appeared once in the S13 Spring Split and belongs to the most niche of niche picks.

If V5 hadn't inexplicably flashed her in the fourth slot just now, it's estimated that no one would have remembered this champion, nor would anyone have paid attention to her.

The problem is.

Compared to those "bizarre" support champions Beryl uses, would anyone think he doesn't know how to play Morgana?

The battle of the draft is just like this.

You throw a strike, I throw a strike, back and forth, it just depends on who can't take it first.

Tabe, having taken this strike, was clearly frowning with a headache.

Looking at the few backup options recorded in his little notebook, he finally made up his mind.

"Let's pick Senna and Tahm Kench, and defend against Akali a bit more."

"Their lineup is purely for the early game; as long as we can stabilize before twenty minutes, we'll win later on."

"Think about how we won that regular season game; as long as we stabilize this one, the next game will still be our home field."

The chicken soup Tabe was feeding his team members hadn't even been digested yet.

But the champion that lit up in the opponent's fifth slot caused his pupils to suddenly tremble slightly.

"What champion is this again!?"

"No flex this time! Shen? It's locked in directly!"

Both lineups confirmed.

《Blue Side: BLG vs Red Side: V5》

【Top: K'Sante vs Sion】

【Jungle: Viego vs Xin Zhao】

【Mid: Galio vs Akali】

【ADC: Senna vs Kalista】

【Support: Tahm Kench vs Shen】

The moment Tabe saw the last champion revealed, his gaze was clearly somewhat unfocused, looking at the opponent's lineup as if pondering something.

The referee had already started urging them to leave the stage.

However, Tabe's steps as he walked off the stage were extremely slow; it wasn't until he reached the stairs that his eyes suddenly widened.

Oh no?

I've been tricked!

"Xiao Wei!" He suddenly turned his head and shouted in a startle: "You must be careful this game! Their lineup is coming for you again!"

The female referee behind him almost pulled out a red card to warn him before she managed to chase Tabe off the stage.

And Tabe walked off the stage clearly somewhat absent-minded, arrived at the center of the stage, and bumped fists with the head of the logistics department of the opposing V5.

He was still frowning and pondering as he walked toward the backstage.

The commentary desk was also analyzing the lineups of both sides at this time.

"BLG's lineup this game is purely an iron-clad formation! Three walls at top, mid, and bot! What a solid lineup!"

"V5's side is the Ultraman lineup, which can also be considered one of their classic lineups."

"Ultraman lineup" refers to a lineup that is super fierce in the first 15 minutes.

Kalista, Xin Zhao, and the likes of Renekton and Nidalee are all very standard types.

"I feel like the most uncomfortable part of V5's Ultraman lineup is that the mid lane is very hard to play!"

"Not only is the laning countered, but all five members of BLG's lineup can be said to have been picked specifically to catch Akali; it's a targeting effort with the 'full strength of the team' in the true sense! It's much more outrageous than the Jax that Bin played last game!"

"Eh? Where is Tabe going??"

"Hahaha, why did Tabe almost walk into V5's backstage..."

The commentary desk, still chatting enthusiastically, and the bullet comments arguing, were all amused by the scene broadcast by the director.

They saw Tabe, who was absent-mindedly looking down and thinking, actually walk toward the neighboring V5 backstage without realizing it!

【Old Wang wants to act up again, right? Starting the game by planting a scouting ward behind enemy lines.】

【Don't smear him, this is Tabe wanting to leave early to help gain an advantage; your team's coach can go on stage to play, so what's wrong with our coach planting a ward!】

【Walking the wrong way during the handshake is nothing, just don't walk the wrong way after winning. Our Biluochun is the most well-mannered team in the LPL, we don't advocate for coaches fountain-diving~~~】

【Laughing my head off, does anyone really think Banlangen can win?】

【Hehe, laugh, keep laughing, let's see if you can still laugh later! The pain my brother Bin suffered last game, Ye must taste every bit of it this game!】

【Can the Kalista King and the Top-lane King be the same thing? This game will tell Bin what is worthy of being called a signature champion!】

And at the player's seat.

Bin, who had already left the base, was unconsciously pressing Tab, looking at the avatars of Akali and Galio.

As a player who also understands Akali quite well, his thoughts were surging at this moment.

There really shouldn't be any way to counter this champion, right?

(End of chapter)