Chapter 222

Although the laning phase in the mid lane is extremely painful.

Yet, valuing the team, Ya Gao still gritted his teeth, endured without opening his mouth to ask for help, and prepared to tough it out on his own.

Meanwhile, Wei had already begun his planned jungle path with a clear objective.

Due to the loss of vision in the top half of the map at level one, and unable to confirm whether there was vision in his own top jungle, he simply and unreservedly called over the bottom lane duo to perform the fastest possible leash.

"You guys help me hit it a few more times, then Brother Bin and Brother Gao, you two can let the wave push later. Brother Bin, learn E at level two and keep an eye on me."

In these past two years, Wei has actually belonged to the "map-control utility" style of jungling.

Although he isn't incapable of playing jungle carries, the first two games felt off everywhere, filled with a strange scent.

Getting Sejuani this game, he immediately felt his thought process become much clearer.

His considerations for this wave were also very clear.

If Kindred was starting in his top jungle, it would inevitably be a solo start; then Wei could use the speed difference from the bottom lane duo's leash to run into Kindred before they finished their fast level three, and coordinate with his mid and top teammates to complete an encirclement!

Although neither the top nor mid lane had lane priority in the early game.

But here, there was an exquisite time difference.

At the point where a jungler chooses a single-jungle-area fast level three, the solo laners in mid and top are not only level two, but also facing the third wave of minions.

During these brief ten seconds of laning, the advantage of lane priority would be infinitely minimized.

Furthermore, this was BLG's own jungle, and Camille and Zoe are both heroes who can support the jungle very well in the early game!

Taking a step back, if Kindred only took the Blue Buff and followed the route back to their own red jungle, that would be an open secret—and because Kindred would need to travel back and forth through the jungle, Sejuani would also have a short window of time to reach level three first and gank!

Wei, full of confidence, fast-cleared the bottom jungle to reach level three, then headed toward his own top jungle.

On the way, Kindred's second active mark was also placed on Sejuani.

This did not cause Wei any nervousness at all.

Even if he never plays Kindred, he certainly understands some of Kindred's little habits.

Aside from the mark at the start of the game, Kindred's marks during "free time" are generally placed on the opposing jungler, which also fits the idea that Kindred would be fighting 1v1 in the jungle this game.

After all, if it were placed on a lane, that lane would naturally be on guard.

Of course.

There is also a third possibility, which is that Kindred honestly goes back to their own jungle to farm, which is also the safest way for Kindred.

After all, V5's mid and top can both take lane priority in the early game; as long as Kindred farms normally, the jungle invasions that happen later after entering the normal rhythm will take place in their comfort zone.

Sejuani walked into his own blue jungle and, sure enough, found the jungle completely intact.

Wei was slightly disappointed, but he continued to execute his deployment, glanced at the mid and top minion waves, and began to clear the Wolves.

"Brother Bin, I'm coming!"

After finishing the Blue Buff, Sejuani immediately set off, circling around to secretly head toward the top lane from behind the minion wave!

The so-called "Variation":

In fact, it is just suddenly changing the next action during the conventional route of normal circumstances.

Catching the opponent off guard!

The most basic examples are, for instance, suddenly running to gank when you should be farming, or suddenly running to gank when you should be recalling.

And this variation by Wei's Sejuani was quite successful.

If Kindred had started in the top jungle, they would definitely be in the bottom jungle by now.

And if they had started in the bottom jungle, there would be no reason for them not to finish the Krugs after clearing up to the top lane, allowing their jungle to complete a full cycle.

This certainty, besides the fact that Kindred is a jungle carry that is far more dependent on growth than Sejuani.

More importantly, everyone knows that Camille will definitely be more cowardly without Flash; it wouldn't be easy for Kindred to find an opportunity, and they might even waste their own time.

Xun was indeed doing exactly that.

After finishing the Red Buff and glancing at the top and mid minion waves, he headed to start the Krugs.

But immediately after.

Xun, glancing at the mini-map, suddenly had a flash in his eyes.

"Hey, this Sejuani..."

"That's not right, he should be camping behind mid or top! Master Ye, Brother Shengqiang, be careful!"

What Xun saw was the "Mark of the Kindred" that had refreshed on the Gromp camp in the enemy's blue jungle.

A small detail here is something only players who frequently play Kindred might discover.

In fact.

The refresh time for Kindred's first mark is not 3 minutes and 30 seconds, which is when the Scuttle Crab spawns.

It is 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

The reason it is thought to be 3 minutes and 30 seconds is because of the reason that "the first mark will only refresh on the Scuttle Crab," so the mark that appears early will only appear at 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

But this game, Kindred got a kill at the start!

The rules of the mark were changed.

That is to say.

If the Gromp and Raptors in the opponent's jungle were still there, then at 3 minutes and 20 seconds, the mark would 100% definitely refresh on these two jungle monsters!

But at 3 minutes and 20 seconds, even if someone started the jungle alone, they would definitely have cleared all the monsters, let alone Sejuani, who openly had the bottom lane duo helping to leash.

A mark will not refresh on a dead jungle monster.

A normal person might not notice the short 10-second time difference.

But as a Kindred specialist, Xun keenly used this point to instantly deduce Sejuani's movements!

Brother Shengqiang was actually prepared to use his abilities to push the wave quickly—because the time the Scuttle Crab refreshes is the time when teammates need to take lane priority and coordinate with Kindred to contest the jungle.

Which is the gap Wei wanted to seize!

"Doesn't look like he's in the mid lane," Ye Bo made a judgment based on the subtle details of Zoe's positioning.

He understood Zoe's operational habits too well.

The opponent's positioning didn't even give him a chance to Flash and E; Sejuani coming here wouldn't be able to coordinate at all.

"OK, then Brother Shengqiang, bait a little, I'm coming!"

Xun trusted his mid-lane big brother's judgment extremely.

Even though he saw the opposing top laner's positioning was extremely cowardly, he immediately stopped hitting the Krugs he was halfway through and walked toward the top lane without a shred of hesitation.

And Wei, in the back, looking at the mark in his own jungle—became even more convinced that there was no reason for this Renekton not to come up and fast-push the wave!

Sure enough.

Brother Shengqiang began to move aggressively forward, pulling out a red-fury Q in the minion pile.

"Come, come, come!"

Renekton definitely wouldn't use E to push the wave; giving up his positioning was an opportunity!

Sejuani crashed out directly from the nearby second bush with a boar charge, then whipped to slow!

Renekton stepped back half a step, then used a reverse double E to pull away.

It seemed just now that Renekton had wasted a red-fury Q.

But in fact, it was Brother Shengqiang's incredibly clear-headed handling.

He used his fury in advance to recover his state and bait health, so that he could use the "white fury" state to use double E, without wasting fury on the displacement E.

At the same time, he could use the two segments of white E to quickly accumulate fury again!

Camille hooked the wall at the furthest distance, and even detailedly hooked for an extra 0. seconds on the wall to see if Renekton would use Flash, before specifically kicking out behind his position.

Renekton already had two layers of Sejuani's freezing effect on him; even if he used Flash to dodge this flying kick, Camille could use W to slow him with the outer circle, then step up and AQ to forcibly trigger Sejuani's freezing effect.

However, Camille had just landed.

When she saw Kindred walking out from around the corner!

Renekton had previously used his detailed double white E to accumulate a second red fury, and he swung his crescent axe hard to stun!

Sejuani, of course, couldn't sell out his opponent; the boar-foot combo exerted force, quickly triggering the double freeze.

But Camille, after all, had no Flash, and her initial position was also extremely awkward, unable to pull out of the focus-fire range.

Under the focus fire of the V5 top and jungle duo, her health dropped rapidly!

"Renekton's build is ultimately tougher than Camille's! In this clash between the top and jungle of both sides, Camille falls first!"

"However, Renekton's health isn't very healthy either; this wave ends here, hmm?"

"The V5 top and jungle duo seem to still want to chase!"

Xun originally just wanted to rely on the Red Buff's slow to chase and auto-attack a few more times after Sejuani's Flash to deal damage, so that he could consider continuing to invade.

But Brother Shengqiang saw the Mark of the Kindred on top of Sejuani's head.

He immediately shouted actively in the voice chat: "I can help you hard-trade!"

The two continued to pursue, chasing to the front of the tower; Sejuani had less than three hundred health left, and Renekton directly flashed AQ to help make up the damage, while also tanking the defensive tower for Kindred!

"Hard kill! V5's top and jungle still want to hard kill!"

"My god, Brother Shengqiang! He is sacrificing himself; it's exactly the same as Deft in the last game! These two veterans are too team-oriented!"

"Kindred's arrow strikes hard; Sejuani completes a trade with Renekton under the tower while Kindred claims their second mark!"

"This is the team-oriented nature of V5!"

The harvest actually didn't stop there.

If Brother Shengqiang hadn't used himself to trade, even if Kindred could have killed Sejuani, his own state would have become very low, and there was even a possibility of being traded back.

And Camille respawning and TPing out—the Gromp mark could still be defended.

But now.

Because the Crocodile carried the damage the entire time, Kindred's status remained excellent, and she was also bolstered by both buffs.

With the jungler fallen, Camille had no way to defend the jungle area alone!

It amounted to less than 4 minutes.

Kindred was about to claim her third mark.

Xun was so moved he almost wanted to cry: "Brother Gun! If I don't carry this game, I'm a puppy!"

"You brat, you want to be a puppy again, huh?" Saint Gun Brother teased.

"Don't even say that, I really could be Uzi this game! I'll have at least 6 marks by 10 minutes; their lineup can't keep me in check at all!"

"Why six?"

Beryl chimed in inexplicably at this moment: "Because, can't five work?"

"Holy crap! Brother Genshin, why is your accent so standard for the second half of that sentence!?"

The V5 voice comms were filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

What Xun meant, in fact, was that from the 4th mark onwards, Kindred's marks could expand to all jungle monsters except {Epic monsters}.

That's how Kindred is; the lower the number of marks, the easier it is for the opponent to block them, and even for marks 1-3, they only need to guard the Raptors and Gromp a bit more.

But once the count goes up, the opportunities to obtain jungle marks increase.

It's impossible for the opponent to gather forces to control them every single time!

At this point, the marks Kindred could counter-jungle would be spread across the entire map; as long as the subsequent invasions into the jungle went smoothly, the speed of acquiring marks would be unstoppable!

Furthermore.

Actually, there was still one more "hidden" value to the Crocodile's death this time!

Ye Bo accelerated his wave-clearing rhythm in the mid lane, while constantly staring at the death icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Kindred was definitely in her own jungle, and since the jungler had already fallen, Yagao naturally had to completely give up on contesting lane priority and let the opponent push the wave.

However, as soon as Neeko disappeared, he immediately called out "miss."

"Watch out for Neeko, she might be recalling, or she might be heading bot."

Seeing the opposing jungler in the top half of the map, the BLG bot lane duo was currently engaged in a heated trade, constantly fighting for lane priority against Caitlyn.

Ezreal and Rakan still had a say in early-game wave-clearing efficiency, and Bard wasn't exactly a laning support, so the minion waves were constantly deadlocked.

Elk and On didn't want to give up their lane advantage just because of a mid-lane miss; after calculating in their heads, they decided to finish off the last few minions in front of them.

You really couldn't call this "lacking discipline."

Under normal circumstances, without extra movement speed items including {Boots} in the early game, it takes at least 15-18 seconds to walk from the mid lane to the bot lane.

For the two of them to clear the remaining minions would take at most ten seconds or so, so there was no reason for there to be any danger.

But.

Just 7 seconds after the mid-lane miss was called.

A yellow-skinned Crocodile with a golden light wheel flashing continuously at its feet appeared on the screen at an incomprehensible "speed" and charged aggressively toward the bot lane!

"?????"

"What the hell is this?!"

In the current version, after Neeko transforms into a hero, she not only retains that hero's basic attributes like attack range—she also gains that hero's "current" {Attack Speed} and {Movement Speed}!

And the {Homeguard} respawn speed-up mechanism added in S10 caused the just-respawned Crocodile to have a terrifying movement speed of 600+.

For Neeko, this was 600+ that wouldn't "decay"!

From the moment Neeko disappeared to the moment she rushed from mid to bot, it only took a mere 7 seconds!

Of course, because Neeko's passive transformation in the current version is too weak, any damage taken from a hero will instantly break the transformation effect.

So this little trick is generally useless.

Yet, it was precisely this "roaming" that proved incredibly useful!

Ezreal turned and fired a Mystic Shot, wanting to interrupt the opponent's transformation.

But Neeko, relying on the wind at her feet, forcibly twisted her body to dodge!

Ezreal could only quickly Arcane Shift away.

Rakan, who had no Flash, was limited by the range of his E skill since the opponent wasn't Xayah, so he could only quickly E to follow and fly up.

But Bard seized this timing.

Just as Rakan took flight, Beryl aimed a Q-Flash toward Ezreal's direction!

Ezreal, holding Cleanse, wasn't panicked and instantly cleared it—but Rakan was stunned in place as if hit by a strike through the mountain.

Caitlyn used E to reposition closer, skillfully followed up with a trap, waited for Neeko to close in with her extreme speed, and followed up with a Thorn Trap to chain the crowd control!

"Ah, how could they even get caught by that!?"

"V5's seemingly forced mid-lane gank actually managed to catch BLG's bot lane!"

"Rakan fell first, and Ezreal couldn't possibly dare to defend the tower! And they can even take plating!"

"Master Ye really is a research master! He actually made a niche hero like Neeko bloom with potential!"

【Brother Kai, I'm done.】

【Whether it was not calling miss or calling it and not leaving, whether it's the mid-laner or the bot-laner, come out and own up to it!】

【Such a classic discipline issue, my rating is to bench everyone, not a single one is clean!】

【Gaogao, you should just go home and be your "AAA Esports Hotel Brother Zeng," don't drag down my Brother Bin!】

【Haha, that's too much for Brother Bin, Camille dying twice in 4 minutes with her pants down, that really is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.】

【Old Ye doesn't have a hair on him, he never lies! This game really brought my Brother Bin back to reality 0. 】

【I really like a quote from Song Bin: "My Jax! K'Sante! Camille! If I pick them, I win the game!"】

After helping the bot lane, Neeko didn't take any of the bot lane's plating, instead letting Bard and Caitlyn take the gold together, then recalled and TP'd back to the mid lane.

Both bot lanes recalled together, and Bard bought Boots of Mobility.

Rakan also bought Boots of Speed.

Clearly, for these two supports, whether it's the players or the heroes, it's unlikely they won't be doing something during the first recall.

And both of their choices were the top half of the map!

Mainly, Yagao had been suppressed by nearly 20 CS in 5 minutes, relying only on his long-range Paddle Star to find opportunities, and with Flash up, he was indeed not easy to catch.

However, neither top laner had Flash, and both were very easy to coordinate with teammates.

Once Zoe reached level 6, she had the capital to make plays; as long as she always used R last, theoretically, it was unlikely for Neeko's E to hit her, so it was naturally unlikely for a kill to occur.

Of course, Zoe could therefore almost never use R first.

Otherwise, what awaited her would be a "wake-up" Thorn Trap!

And Yagao discovered that his Paddle Star hit rate was very low, so he simply chose to only pull and throw Paddle Stars at minion piles to survive the laning phase—but the landing point of the Paddle Star could not exceed 750 yards from Zoe's main body.

Neeko's Q is 800 yards.

Ye Bo's mastery of the distance for pulling Paddle Stars was to the point where he measured it with his eyes like a caliper, and he could land a Q-smash every time the opponent threw a Paddle Star.

One could truly say, "His eyes are the ruler!"

This led to the mid-lane trades always resulting in failure.

However, once Neeko reached level 6, she immediately began walking toward the top half of the map again.

It was clear she was heading to the top half of the map where the flames of war were about to ignite!

Yagao, who had also reached level 6, hurriedly followed, only to see Neeko suddenly transform into the "floating posture" of Bard, her movement speed becoming extremely fast again!

The reason for letting Bard have the gold for Boots of Mobility in the previous wave.

Was not just for Bard's roaming this time, but also to provide Neeko with a "Movement Speed Transformer"!

And by transforming when Bard picked up passive chimes to gain an explosive movement speed bonus, combined with Boots of Mobility, the movement speed could also break 500+!

"Neeko is going top! Neeko is going top!"

Seeing Neeko, whom he couldn't catch up to at all, Yagao could only shout urgently.

However, at this moment, BLG's fighting gene began to kick in again.

Seeing Neeko walking up from the river, and glancing at the positions of both sides—it seemed there was a possibility of a "counter-collapse"!

"We can target Neeko first!"

The three from BLG's top, jungle, and support, who were lurking in the back, stopped pretending and walked directly out of the brush to surround the river.

From behind the brush on the other side, V5's jungle and support also walked out!

In an instant, there were six people in the top lane minion wave, all rushing toward the river.

"I can E to force his skills first!" Yagao shouted.

Seeing that his three teammates had already entered the river, Zoe prepared to R-Flash to force an engagement.

But Neeko directly created a clone in place, summoning the two-flower shadow of Bard's clone to follow behind her.

Yagao was desperately looking for an opening to use E... but he really couldn't find one for a moment!

Because that clone was also twisting around in place!

The key was that the "clone" also had huge movement speed!

The movement speed gap between the two sides was large; if they stayed any longer, Zoe would be completely out-distanced, and by then, even Flash-RE wouldn't find an opportunity.

Yagao acted urgently, using R-Flash-E for a two-stage displacement to find a side angle, and threw out the Sleepy Trouble Bubble!

But Ye Bo, with his skilled multitasking, controlled the summon, as if he had long guessed the path of the opponent's jump, using his back to "lead" the rotating clone to block the bubble!

"I'll hit Neeko!" Sejuani's finger was already on the Q key.

However, the next moment.

The opposing Neeko acted first, an E-Flash crossing the dragon pit upward!

But the initial visual left everyone on BLG stunned for a moment.

What does that mean?

This Neeko E-Flash, the Tangle-Barbs actually flew out from the spot before the Flash, and looking at the flight distance, it definitely shouldn't have been enough to hit.

It looked like the E-Flash was pressed too slowly?

The reality was the exact opposite.

It was because the E-Flash was pressed "too fast," causing the skill animation to shift.

That is, the very next instant after the three BLG members were stunned.

Those 【Tangle-Barbs】, which had clearly vanished halfway through their flight, seemed to "teleport" forward, forcibly hitting all three!

"Shadowless Tangle-Barbs"!

The enhanced crowd control effect of a level-one Tangle-Barbs lasts for a terrifying 2 seconds; Neeko then walks up to use the edge of her ultimate, 【Pop Blossom】, to jump up and land!

"Is this Neeko using a portal-Flash? That's so weird!"

"Neeko caught three people! Except for Rakan in the front, Sejuani and Camille both ate the full control chain and are unable to move!"

"ON still wants to get in her face to interrupt Neeko's approach, but Neeko's edge still successfully landed on two people, and the three behind followed up with damage; it seems like even Rakan himself can't run away!"

"It's over! It looks like BLG is about to explode again!"

Liking to fight, when the players are in good form, might allow them to rely on this to pull off all sorts of unscientific, miraculous team fights.

But mindless fighting, especially when the players' form is problematic.

That will only accelerate the death of the game!

The two people in the back for BLG barely moved the whole time, and along with Rakan who rushed into their faces, they were all eliminated; the score has already reached 1-7!

Strictly speaking, it's even more miserable than the last game!

What's even more despairing is that another piece of bad news is coming from the bottom lane.

"I'm going, the bottom lane actually got a solo kill! Deft!!"

The director cuts to the replay.

It turns out it was still Elk actively seeking a fight, using W over the minions to tag him and then E-ing into his face, wanting to show off!

And Deft's play was remarkably simple and unadorned.

He just used E to steadily pull back a body's distance, then while using exquisite attack-moving to poke the opponent to death one shot at a time, he twisted his body to flash over a key Q.

It looks simple, but it is precisely what highlights Deft's playstyle.

It's just stability, staying calm in the face of danger, and incredibly solid fundamentals!

【No way brothers, are we playing against bots? I want to report someone for smurfing!】

【I really want to report! Ye Wen used a moving screen this time, that's a foul!】

【Bin is Bin, he already has the temperament of a legendary top laner; look at how proficiently he's developed these i-series and o-series!】

【Is this our little Wang? It's really funny, he just got lucky in the bottom half of the map, purely stealing the spot of our WBG all-star team!】

【Ban Lan Gen! Bee-le-gou! Bi Luo Chun! Step forward!!!】

A collapse across three lanes.

The already poor mentality of the BLG players was made worse, and everyone's play was becoming distorted; it was obvious there was a problem with their mentality.

It even looked a bit like they wanted to throw the game!

They would even come to fight for the Rift Herald when they shouldn't be fighting for development!

They just wanted to fight regardless.

Can't win? Then just give up!

The upper jungle was pitch black, and the five of them huddled together to push forward—and just at this moment, a teleportation portal came through the thick wall of the jungle.

And inside the portal, there was clearly the figure of a person!

"Someone's coming, someone's coming!"

Hope seemed to be rekindled in the BLG voice comms!

"Neeko!!"

What landed was indeed a Neeko.

Wei's Sejuani threw her ultimate directly forward, and the others also rushed in to kill.

But what appeared was still the voice line they were already tired of hearing: "They fell for it again~!"

It was actually "Fake Clone Portal-Sit"!

The BLG members had all just rushed to the entrance wanting to focus fire, and now that the attack missed, they hadn't decided whether to continue fighting this wave.

In the portal tunnel, however, figures appeared again.

This time it wasn't just one.

It was one, followed by several more behind.

"They actually got tricked?!" Guan Zeyuan's voice suddenly rose to a shriek.

"Wait, using the ultimate in the portal? Portal ultimate!!!"

"Neeko first controlled the fake clone to sit in the portal to lure them, and the real body started channeling the ultimate before entering the portal, so when she landed, she sat down immediately—this is a team fight initiation that is impossible to react to and has no warning!"

"Neeko and Bard, to think they could have such synergy! Ye and Beryl are simply two geniuses!"

"What kind of team fight is this!!!"

First the lure of the fake clone in the portal, then the "Astral Pop Blossom" combo.

Without any warning or wind-up, from the enemy's perspective, there was no Neeko ultimate animation in the portal; it exploded the moment she landed!

A terrifying dual-combo that led to a perfect 0-for-5 team fight that swept everything away!

It also directly became the final straw that crushed BLG's mentality.

The voice channel was as silent as if they had arrived at a library.

Camille started mindless split-pushing.

Sejuani just buried her head in farming the jungle, only to be constantly invaded and bullied by Kindred.

Zoe was just careless; as long as she got hit by an E, she would be mindlessly solo-killed.

By the second half, Gao Gao was completely slumped in his gaming chair, his eyes becoming unfocused.

As for V5.

With Kindred's marks being plundered at lightning speed, and pushing steadily around the Caitlyn system—at the same time, there was also Neeko and Bard's "Two-Person Horror Game"!

In the BLG voice comms, if no one was talking.

Then it was things like:

"Bard! Bard is here!"

"No, wait, this seems to be Neeko... damn, it really is Neeko!"

"No way? This is also Neeko!?"

"Bard is on the damn top!"

Bard's portal is inherently one of the hardest skills to guard against in a winning game, with all sorts of wall-crossing angles that are impossible to defend against.

Not to mention there was a Neeko running super fast, constantly transforming and pretending to be Bard, wandering all over the map!

Everyone on BLG just wanted to end the pain and end the torture quickly!

But unfortunately.

V5 still chose to push steadily.

Focusing on being steady!

Getting Baron at 20 minutes, waiting for a Dragon Soul at 21 minutes, pushing three lanes at 24 minutes, taking a second Baron at 25 minutes, and taking an Elder Dragon at 26 minutes.

During which BLG, who had been constantly hunted and teased, was beaten to 29 deaths by 27 minutes.

They just wanted to curse!!

Not until 27 minutes did V5, carrying the ultimate double-buff, finally start to push all the way.

Bard used his ultimate directly to put the nexus turrets in stasis, forcing the opponent's five-man formation back and giving Neeko an angle to initiate.

However, the five of them were practically begging for it.

They took the opportunity to just give up their base!

Finally, at 27 minutes and 49 seconds, BLG finally succeeded in letting their own crystal explode!

(End of chapter)