Chapter 221: The Dao is a foot high, but the master is a yard high

"Looking at the laning situation for this match, it feels like BLG will face some pressure, especially in the top and jungle," Guan Zeyuan continued analyzing the team compositions. "But I have to say, Camille is definitely Bin's true trump card!"

"The fact that he locked it in confidently the moment he saw Renekton shows just how much faith he has in himself!"

Jiejie nodded and added, "As for the mid lane, Neeko is rarely seen, so it's hard to say how the laning will go, but Zoe's early laning ability is quite strong."

"Uzi, what do you think about this laning situation in the bottom lane?"

Uzi, suddenly put on the spot, loudly shared his understanding: "Theoretically, Caitlyn is definitely not afraid of any AD in lane! Plus, this champion doesn't rely too much on the support; she can play just fine on her own!"

If there's one thing about Uzi, it's that his Caitlyn—a pure auto-attack-based marksman—is a well-known signature pick.

Last year's World Championship saw LPL teams suffer greatly because they couldn't grasp the Caitlyn system, and the public discourse at the time even brought a wave of attention to Uzi.

And Deft, as the most outstanding practitioner of Caitlyn at last year's World Championship, is absolutely beyond question.

The BLG team voice comms were communicating tensely.

"You must help me watch the jungle early on; I'm going to gank a lot this game." Wei, finally having secured a comfortable champion, was ready to put on a show.

Of course, he also knew why V5 had chosen to leave Sejuani open.

Compared to Vi, Maokai, and Poppy.

Sejuani, whose crowd control is relatively the least stable, would be at a clear disadvantage in a 1v1 against Kindred in the jungle!

Although Sejuani has decent damage and fighting ability, she needs to maintain close-quarters combat, and whether it's her slow Q displacement or her ultimate, she is easily outplayed by the agile Kindred.

"Then you can come mid more often," Yagao, looking slightly weary, immediately replied, taking a deep breath to try and perk himself up.

However, Chen Zebin didn't say a word upon hearing this.

Even though he had already seen that he had Kindred's mark hanging over his head.

He had always been very "contemptuous" of top laners who called for help, believing that even if you crushed the opposing top laner that way, it didn't prove you were strong!

He truly never took the initiative to call for the jungler.

Especially when he recalled the losses of the previous two games, thinking of his bold words in the pre-match trash talk, only to have his Jax solo-killed and his K'Sante toyed with like a spinning top by Akali.

Now, only by using his most prideful Camille to slaughter the opposition in this third game!

Could he forget the defeat and prove himself!

Tabe's words during the mid-game break had struck the exact psychological trigger for this guy.

Isn't it just about showing off one's signature champion?

I am determined to prove that my signature is no worse than yours!

This was one of the reasons why, even after seeing the opponent pick the difficult-to-handle Renekton, he still confidently locked in Camille.

In the last game, Ye's champion disadvantage was even greater than this matchup, and he received even more gank pressure, yet it didn't have much effect, did it?

I am determined to prove that if he can do it, I can too!

Fortunately, the BLG members hadn't forgotten Tabe's repeated instructions before the match, and everyone was on high alert the moment they left the base.

Regarding the level-one defense against Bard.

Beryl's Bard had pulled off those miraculous designs too many times to be forgotten; seeing this champion appear during the draft phase was enough to set imaginations running wild.

In particular, they focused their defense on the dangerous spots where Bard might enter.

However, because of the "five wards at level one" in the second game, which ended up being countered by V5 into a key level difference for an early jungle invasion—the situation in the jungle this game was no better than the last, and BLG naturally couldn't fall into the same trap twice.

This game, they only adopted a conservative man-to-man positioning.

"Neeko is here, be careful, they might be preparing to come in from below!" Zoe, who had moved to the river entrance, bumped into Neeko appearing from the opposite bank and immediately reported the information nervously.

The three members in BLG's bottom half of the map immediately braced for action.

Meanwhile, ON's Rakan, relying on his champion's sufficient mobility—taking W or E at level one was safe—walked out of the river to scout for vision.

Soon after, he saw the Caitlyn and Bard bottom duo also appear in the river.

And the two of them were heading in a very strange direction, toward the bottom lane minion wave for no apparent reason, which, combined with the thought of Bard's bizarre portals...

"Three people in the bottom half!"

"Could they really be trying to come... wait, no? What is he pretending for!"

Rakan thought that if the opponents saw him, they would give up the idea; after all, this kind of design relies on an information gap, and if they lost the initiative and rushed in, they might fall into a counter-trap and get ambushed!

V5's bottom duo seemed to have indeed given up the idea when they saw Rakan.

But unexpectedly, the next moment, Bard began wiggling his round belly, and Caitlyn also started spinning her sniper rifle in place, performing acrobatics.

They were actually dancing right in front of Rakan's face!

More importantly, that Bard was standing a bit too far forward.

Even with Neeko behind them, this positioning was no different from standing in the middle of the road, with absolutely nowhere to hide on either side!

ON was already extremely annoyed by this point in the match; his expression from the previous game showed he was still holding a grudge.

For two games in a row, he felt he had played the bottom lane well, yet the opposing bottom lane always managed to win!

Being mocked like this now, his anger immediately flared up.

"Zhao Jiahao, get him!"

Elk and ON got along very well and instantly understood what the other meant.

The commotion in the bottom lane quickly attracted everyone's attention, and Zoe also started moving downward immediately.

The two of them quietly arrived at the wall, where Bard and Caitlyn were still dancing.

It wasn't until Rakan walked out that the two of them immediately retreated upward.

The only funny thing was—that retreating Bard was actually still dancing!

It looked as if his model had "glitched," twitching and shaking his belly in mid-air; while the movement looked even more ridiculous, the mockery was more than doubled!

Seeing this, a nameless fire rose up in ON.

Usually, I am the only one who truly understands how to dance!

Mostly because this Bard's dance moves weren't even good!

"I'm going in!"

After ON shouted, he fiercely and recklessly flashed forward, using W 【Grand Entrance】 to knock them up.

Rakan's mobility in the laning phase was clearly much higher than Bard's; even if both sides traded flashes, Bard would definitely be the one who suffered more.

But Beryl, whether due to slow reaction or wanting to save his flash, didn't use it when faced with the Rakan charging into his face, continuing to dance while following the Caitlyn ahead to escape.

Grand Entrance directly knocked Bard into the air!

Yagao seized the moment to instantly learn E, and using the thick wall on the side of the blue side's bottom tri-bush, he whipped out a precisely aimed, super-long-range 【Sleepy Trouble Bubble】 flying toward Bard!

But...

The bubble missed!

It clearly couldn't be that Yagao had thrown it off-target.

Yagao's proficiency with Zoe was at least in the top three in the LPL; with a teammate having already initiated and controlled the target, he could have hit it with his eyes closed!

The reason was—Bard had "disappeared"!

To describe it accurately, you couldn't say he had disappeared.

Because the moment Bard vanished, a purple light of illusion bloomed on his body, and a playful, mischievous voice rang out: "They fell for it~~"

"What the hell!?"

"Neeko??"

"This isn't a ghost, is it!"

Of course, ON hadn't failed to consider that one of those two might be Neeko in disguise, especially since Neeko had also been in the bottom half just moments ago.

But if it really was a disguise... that would actually be even better!

Compared to trading for Bard, it was clearly more profitable to trade for Neeko's abilities; they were hoping it was Neeko!

But the fact that had just been revealed was—that Bard wasn't the real Bard, but an illusory clone created by Neeko's W 【Shapesplitter】.

That was the problem.

Even though Neeko hadn't been on the professional stage for two years and was definitely considered a niche champion before, which was one of the reasons the designers decided to rework her.

But no matter how niche, at least everyone knew that Neeko's W 【Shapesplitter】 could only exist for a very short time!

At most, it couldn't exceed 3 seconds.

But just now... that Bard and Caitlyn had danced for at least 10 seconds!

While the three BLG bottom laners were still full of question marks, another shout came through the voice comms.

The BLG top and jungle duo, who were staying at the two entrances of the top half, had actually relaxed their vigilance upon seeing the three enemies appear in the bottom half.

With only Renekton and Kindred left, what could they do at level one?

And Camille had been crouching in the brush at the entrance of her own blue buff, even slightly adjusting her positioning to stand near the "edge" of the brush.

But who would have known.

A Bard who had just walked out from around the corner—fired a Q ability 【Cosmic Binding】!

Chen Zebin's reaction was already lightning-fast; even though his perspective was on the bottom lane battle, he caught a glimpse of a red dot on the minimap and immediately pressed the spacebar to snap his screen back.

But Bard had "blind-fired" the Q before placing the ward.

It was as if Bard knew Camille would be standing in that exact spot in the brush!

And why was Caitlyn there too!?

"Camille is pinned to the wall by the blind Q and stunned! Caitlyn follows up with a trap, Kindred applies E, and Renekton walks up to follow with W crowd control! They're going to lock him down and kill him!!"

"Bin has a massive desire to survive and burns his flash, but Xun decisively follows with a flash over the wall; Press the Attack plus Mounting Dread from the wolf spirit, the damage calculation is precise, and he executes him while he's low health!"

"First blood taken by Kindred!"

"Original God Brother's luck is a bit explosive here; can he really 'guess' it like that? The brush actually has some area to it; if he had been a second slower, Camille might have reacted in time!"

Both the casting desk and Tabe backstage believed it was just a lucky guess.

Because one can see clearly from the god's-eye view, it is obvious that V5 indeed had no vision of Camille's positioning, and it is also clear that Bard's Q skill was fired into the fog of war.

But, could it really just be a lucky guess?

Of course not!

Beryl would have guessed that Camille would stand in that position.

It is because in his view, if the opposing coaching staff "knows how to play," someone would definitely be standing in that spot!

The most famous design of Beryl's Bard is the tunnel he placed by brushing against the edge of the vision limit at the thick wall in front of the bottom lane's first turret.

It was precisely this design that nearly overturned EDG in the final desperate moment.

And the top lane of the blue side is exactly the mirror image of the bottom lane of the red side.

Furthermore, trying to defend against this design is truly disgusting, because placing a ward in that spot in one's own jungle is completely useless and a massive waste, providing no help for subsequent jungle invasions or river scouting.

So, is there a way to defend against it?

There is.

One only needs to have a champion stand at the edge of the brush at the blue buff entrance.

However, three conditions must be met: it must be a champion, standing in the entrance brush, and at the edge of the brush.

Placing a ward won't work!

Because {a champion's vision acquisition range is slightly further than that of a vision ward}!

Once tested, one will find that to detect that thick wall to spot the tunnel location, one must have a champion act as a "human ward," standing at the edge of the entrance brush to perform defensive scouting.

This is the only reasonable defensive measure.

It can only be said that it is fortunate the BLG coaching staff are not yet at the level of idiots like Weezing.

Because this design—I fear the opponents are noobs! They don't know about this point!

"Brother Bin actually burned his Flash here, this is so painful!" Guan Zeyuan shook his head, heartbroken.

"And Kindred started the game by marking the top laner; Xun is having such a comfortable time! He got a mark right at the start!"

Jide noticed Neeko's play just now: "Master Ye's hat trick here is a bit exaggerated, one person disguised as three! He's tricked everyone on BLG!"

"This can be called the true turning point, because BLG thought the danger was in the bottom half of the map at first, and were completely unprepared for the top half!"

"They never imagined there could be four people in the top half!"

The director also happened to show the replay from the god's-eye view.

Neeko first deliberately appeared at the river entrance where someone would inevitably be, then stepped into the corner of the vision and disappeared, first transforming into Bard.

Then she summoned Shapesplitter, creating a "Bard" clone—and then immediately "transformed twice" into Caitlyn!

This is considered Neeko's most practical trick, utilizing the interaction between her passive transformation and W to create the illusion of three people on one side of the map.

But obviously, that is not the point of this play.

The real point is: why could the clone created by Shapesplitter exist for so long?

Although Bard's dancing is not great, the key to this play is precisely that seemingly taunting "dance"!

The designer created a hidden "entertainment mechanism" for Neeko: {Neeko's clone can extend its duration by three times when {dancing} or {recalling}}.

It's just that the designer also set a restriction: once the clone dances or recalls, Neeko can no longer use the Alt key to control and move the clone afterward.

Theoretically, this would have no strategic significance.

What a pity.

The devil is one foot tall, but the master is ten feet tall!

Ye Bo discovered during his research that as long as one issues a follow command to the main body before the clone dances.

The clone can execute the final "follow command" and then start dancing.

Although one truly cannot continue to operate it afterward.

But I performed the operation in advance, what does that have to do with not being able to operate it later?

As long as this is done, Neeko's main body can "lead" the clone to move—which is why that movement trajectory of Bard moving while dancing appeared.

【One breath transforms into three purities, an incarnation outside the body! Kid!】

【Neeko is really shameless! Master Ye, I'll remember you! How dare you trick my Brother Bin!】

【V5 is too mean, look at what they've done to my BLG, they are purely teasing my great Biluochun.】

【Small-minded hero! Winning doesn't count!】

【What is this? In the lore, Neeko can turn into anything, but in the game, she can only turn into heroes, too weak~~】

【I can only say the designer probably never thought Neeko's entertainment mechanism could be used like this; Master Ye is definitely the number one public enemy of the Riot design team!】

Chen Zebin's eyebrows were twitching like lightning; those who didn't know would think he bought Dongting Lake peripherals and his headset was leaking electricity.

Getting his Flash burned and giving up First Blood at the start—he was supposed to prove himself this game!

Even his last bit of dignity was slapped away, and he was against the "call-for-help" top laner he looked down on the most.

He struggled for a long time.

He still opened his mouth and said: "Uh, jungler, you can come to gank top later."

"OK OK!" Wei naturally responded to every request from the Crown Prince, and set about changing his jungle path.

And Yaogao, who had originally agreed to come mid, didn't say anything.

Although he leveled E at level one, he figured there shouldn't be any problems with the mid-lane matchup.

This is his "most familiar" Zoe!

However, when the minion waves clashed.

When Yaogao saw a "Caitlyn," clearly transformed from Neeko, walk out from under the enemy turret, he didn't feel anything at first.

Until the laning phase began.

"Neeko is crazily stepping over the minion wave to poke Zoe! Gaogao is having a miserable time laning!"

"After Neeko transforms into Caitlyn, she simultaneously inherits Caitlyn's league-leading attack range! Plus the passive three-hit heavy strike effect from W, this level one suppression is too explosive!"

"Looking at it this way, Caitlyn is truly Neeko's best partner; this is what you call perfect utilization of hero mechanics!"

At level one, he made Zoe's life worse than death.

Making Yaogao, who had experienced two "unfair lanes" earlier, feel the laning pressure of a "parallel confrontation" with extreme clarity this time.

Most importantly, Zoe leveled E at level one, so he couldn't fight back at all!

Because as long as Neeko's W clone is cast properly—it can get in his face and block the Sleepy Trouble Bubble for Neeko's main body!

Yaogao almost paid the price of missing the entire first wave of minions just to barely survive the level one suppression period, reaching level two and learning his Q skill before he could start laning normally.

But it seemed even more wrong!

Yaogao discovered, why is this Paddle Star so hard to hit the opponent with?

Am I not familiar with Zoe anymore?

(End of chapter)