Chapter 232: The Outrageous Jungle Invasion Technique! [6k Supplement]

"The last time Akshan appeared was last summer during the playoffs against BLG, picked by Master Ye. Speaking of that, the two people involved in that match are here today!"

The director immediately understood and cut to a shot of the backstage.

That was the very playoff match where Scout and Uzi appeared, and Scout was even left with the legendary scene of "The Power of Ten Tigers vs. 0. 9 Tigers"!

However, due to a slight delay in the live stream.

When Scout saw his own "resentment-filled" bitter face appear on the broadcast screen, he hurriedly tried to change his expression, but it was still precisely captured, and he was immediately teased by the barrage.

He only felt that being called here for this "Top Ten Players" thing was basically just coming to sit in prison!

The commentary desk continued to synchronize information: "Akshan hasn't appeared since, likely due to the stat nerfs. Even though there was a strength adjustment in the S13 preseason, even Master Ye hasn't picked him again this year."

Ye Bo had not picked Akshan since that match.

Aside from there being more optimal choices in the meta, it was indeed due to Akshan's stat nerfs, which reduced his base attack damage and Q skill base damage to weaken his wave-clearing and roaming abilities.

Come to think of it, this really has to be blamed on Ye Bo.

It was because of his performance on stage that he popularized the mechanical technique of "AA-canceling," which has now become a mandatory course for all Akshan players—it is already an operation similar to Riven's fast-combo QA.

Yet this technique, no matter how you look at it, has nothing to do with a bug; it is a classic case of perfectly utilizing the hero's mechanics.

The designers, who always publicly claim to "be incredibly happy to see players discover and develop," didn't want to slap their own faces, so they chose to nerf the stats instead.

AA-canceling is the most shameless thing in the early laning phase.

So they lowered your early attack damage, turning it into a mosquito bite that does twenty or thirty damage per AA-cancel.

However, Akshan is a hero that requires great proficiency to be useful, and even a slight nerf can directly knock him back to square one.

Seeing that they had over-nerfed, the designers added a mechanic to him in the S13 preseason.

"E skill, which could originally only last for at most 3 seconds → unlimited duration."

It's just that this kind of fun change still couldn't save his pick rate; after all, Akshan rarely has the opportunity to keep swinging with his E, so there's no difference between 3 seconds and unlimited time.

Having finished synchronizing the information, the commentary desk began to pay attention to the level-one positioning of both sides.

"JDG seems to want to avoid fighting completely. It's clear they know this V5 level-one lineup is very fierce; it's likely impossible for this game to be like the last one!"

Miller said: "Last time, V5's Akshan and Trundle combo showed off their power at level one. This game also has Jinx, plus Shen and Galio; JDG definitely can't take that fight."

Guan Zeyuan, having composed himself, spoke again: "The good news is that Ivern shouldn't be too afraid of having his jungle invaded."

Ivern's passive, 【Friend of the Forest】, is undoubtedly his most iconic skill.

The mechanic of "planting crops" instead of "fighting" jungle monsters is a completely different line of thinking from all other heroes in terms of jungle strategy.

In many people's stereotypes, Ivern seems to be a "functional freeloader."

But in reality, it is absolutely the exact opposite!

In fact, when played well, this hero can be the most difficult "counter-jungling hero" to guard against, and at the same time, the most difficult hero to counter-jungle.

This is also why Kanavi knows how to play him.

Ivern is indeed functionally positioned as a utility, but in terms of playstyle, he is actually similar to Nidalee; he also needs to constantly counter-jungle to restrict the opponent's jungler's growth.

An Ivern who only farms and builds support items to be a dog for his teammates can only be said to have not even entered the door.

The only drawback of this hero is that he lacks combat power early on, which is why he needs to avoid direct confrontation.

Relying on his ability to instantly kill jungle monsters at full health with Smite, he doesn't worry about what the opponent sets up in the jungle and can handle it all.

The members of JDG are, of course, also aware of the strength of the opponent's level-one team, so they are extremely cautious at the start.

"Careful, they're entering the top half!" 369, who was on guard duty, saw someone entering from the side.

"Don't let them catch you, if they want to enter, just give it to them," Kanavi warned again.

V5 has strong level-one lockdown capabilities; whether it's Trundle's long-range pillar, or the strong lockdown from Shen and Galio, there is a possibility of being forced into a fight.

Kanavi was not surprised by the invasion, just a little puzzled.

In his view.

V5's lineup is clearly centered around the mid and bot lanes, especially Jinx in the bot lane, who definitely cannot accept too much of a disadvantage—because the essence of Akshan as a hero is not an "ADC," but an "Assassin" model.

If V5 wants to use the advantage of their level-one lineup to force a swap of jungle halves, it seems it would be more profitable to swap the bottom half.

However, Kanavi quickly figured it out.

Putting himself in the opponent's shoes, those two commanders both love to play "reverse logic"—perhaps it's precisely because they thought invading the bot lane was more reasonable that they deliberately invaded the top half!

Or perhaps, the opponent also thought it would be hard to counter Ivern's jungle and just decided to steal a Blue Buff and retreat.

Kanavi already had some plans in mind.

1 minute and 30 seconds.

Jungle monsters respawn, minion waves clash.

Since Ivern doesn't need teammates to help him jungle, JDG's bot lane duo had already reached the three bushes by the minion wave at level one, ready to wait for the opponent's bot lane duo to arrive and ambush them!

Galio as a support is definitely a first in the current competitive scene, and the JDG bot lane duo doesn't know much about him.

But actually, if you think about it carefully, what is the role of a support?

{Useful without eating economy, has crowd control, can initiate fights, can protect teammates, can poke} Basically, as long as you have a few of these abilities, you can fully function as a support.

And it's obvious that Galio possesses all of these!

It's just that the JDG bot lane hadn't even ambushed the opponent's bot lane yet, when a nervous voice came from the mid lane first.

"Hey, the enemy mid laner isn't here."

The minion waves had already been clashing for a while, but Rookie hadn't seen the opponent appear.

Just like the consideration that Akali would show her face in the minion wave first in the previous game, since the mid lane minion wave clashes first, if the mid laner is missing, the opponent will definitely be on high alert.

Not showing up immediately isn't a big deal.

Perhaps Akshan just wanted to help his teammates camp for a while longer, to avoid the opponent thinking about circling back to sneak an attack, and then got delayed on his way back.

But at this moment, the health of the melee minions was already approaching the danger zone.

Yet Akshan still hadn't shown his face!

No matter how much he helps his teammates, he couldn't possibly be doing it at the cost of his own experience, right!?

"Don't go out, you all must be careful."

"Hey, bot lane, that position of yours! Hurry back, hurry back!"

When Kanavi plays Ivern, he actually prefers to command, but that commanding tone made Ruler a bit unhappy.

However, Ruler also understood the stakes.

Both entrances to their bot-side jungle were warded, so at this moment, with Akshan not showing his face, it was almost certain that he was going to cause trouble in the side lanes at level one!

Although he didn't know how Akshan could catch anyone at level one without crowd control, the JDG bot lane naturally didn't dare to squat in that dangerous position and hurriedly retreated behind the minion wave to join the lane.

And Flandre also began to press forward with an extremely aggressive, strange pace!

You, Akshan, can afford not to eat minions.

So what if I, an Ornn, miss a few minions?

And Rookie in the mid lane was also deliberately holding back, only last-hitting, and didn't even level up a skill at level one to avoid the splash damage from his E passive affecting the minion wave.

This was clearly Rookie deeply remembering the painful lesson from the previous game, worried that he would have to go support the side lanes again later.

Kanavi saw his retreating teammates enter safe positions and continued to plant his crops.

But for some reason.

He felt a strange sense of "unease" in his heart.

Ivern first planted a garden at his own Red Buff, then Q'd the Krugs to plant a second garden, and finally headed to the Raptors to plant a third garden.

The whole process only took a dozen seconds—at this time, Trundle had at most just finished his own top-side Blue Buff!

This is Ivern.

Compared to other junglers, even Nunu, who has the fastest jungle clearing efficiency, takes at least fifteen seconds or more to clear a camp at level one.

But Ivern only needs to fiddle around for 3 seconds in place, and a "flick of the wrist" completes the planting.

And even if the garden he planted is stolen by the opponent, Ivern only loses 90 health and mana—he can still judge the opponent's jungler's position based on the disappearance of the garden and go counter-jungle, similar to Kindred's marks.

In other words.

The biggest advantage of Ivern as a hero is that he has almost no "jungle farming time."

All the time saved can be used for "map movement" and ganking, and it's almost impossible not to be able to swap jungle halves.

Both the top and bot lanes of V5 were laning normally.

The only exception was that the mid lane still hadn't appeared.

After Kanavi finished planting his own red zone, he set off toward the opponent's blue zone, looking at the minimap with a puzzled face along the way: "Is this guy not laning? What is he even playing if he lanes like this?"

However.

When Ivern arrived at the wall of the opponent's Blue Buff, preparing to Q over the wall into the pit, he unexpectedly ran head-on into a big ice pillar "waiting for a rabbit" in the bush!

"Shibal!!" Kanavi was dumbfounded.

How could Trundle be here!?

He immediately realized that the level-one invasion was clearly V5's "decoy tactic"!

Pretending to invade, and even having the side lanes pretend to cooperate, was just to make Ivern mistakenly believe that Trundle was starting at his Blue.

And Trundle could ambush him right here!

Ivern is not a new hero—in fact, this is a hero released in the S6 season, and it has been a full 8 years since then.

Even if he is unpopular, some basic playstyles and common sense are known to junglers.

Ivern's "garden" needs 40 seconds to mature naturally; to counter-jungle the opponent, one basically must rely on Smite to instantly kill the monsters.

What does this mean?

This means Ivern is still level one after finishing planting his three camps!

Most importantly, because he planted three gardens, his health is now just over half, and his state is very poor!

"Save me, save me!"

Ivern backhands a Q onto Trundle to kite him while calling for mid-lane support.

However, the level two Trundle summons a Pillar of Ice from beneath his feet, "knocking" Ivern directly back, while also applying an infinitely refreshing, high-magnitude slow!

Although Tristana has already moved, the second wave of minions in the mid lane hasn't arrived yet, so she is effectively just a level one Tristana.

Kanavi grits his teeth hard, and after taking another hit from an ice-shard hammer, he has no choice but to decisively burn his Flash toward the rear.

Fortunately, Trundle does not pursue.

After all, Ivern still has Smite; if he escapes back into his own jungle, he only needs to instantly clear one camp to reach level two, and with Tristana rotating over, it would still be dangerous.

But Kanavi's doubts grow increasingly intense at this moment.

What is the point of this?

Even if they caught Ivern, it's actually unlikely for a lone Trundle to secure the kill, as Trundle has no additional crowd control.

Even if Akshan were lurking nearby, it would be unlikely to hold him down at level one.

Just to burn his Flash?

Wait, so...

"Where is Akshan? Why hasn't he shown up yet!?"

Just as he voices this question.

Akshan's figure finally walks out onto the mid-lane minion line.

However, what makes Kanavi's heart nearly stop is this.

On Akshan's body.

There is, shockingly, a Blue Buff!!

His slightly trembling fingers press the Tab scoreboard—the opponent's CS is actually 8, which means two jungle camps!

Even more absurd is Akshan's condition.

Nearly full health!

You have to know, even Trundle, who had the bot lane duo help him hit the buff a few times, isn't at full health after finishing the Blue Buff!

"He had no idea! Kanavi's mental state is truly about to collapse!!!"

The God's-eye view observer has their eyes wide open the entire time.

"Akshan... can he actually do this!?"

"No, this is too broken! He doesn't even have a jungle item!"

"Can this champion really clear two jungle camps alone, at full health, and without taking damage!?"

Everyone watching the God's-eye view sees it clearly.

Just as V5 invaded the top half, they confirmed the opponent had directly given up on defense, leaving only the top and mid laners in the blue zone, while the others all recalled on the spot.

Shen actually didn't help hit it much.

It was mostly to mask their intentions, letting JDG truly believe Trundle was starting in the top half.

And one sees Akshan pull the Blue Buff halfway, then suddenly fire his grappling hook at a protruding point on the wall, beginning to "take flight in place" in a bizarre manner!

The extended grappling hook acts as if supported by the air, driving Akshan's body to rotate.

The output of 【Heroic Swing】 is quite absurd, triggering his passive crazily with nearly max attack speed.

This utilizes the {end-point compensation} mechanism of the E skill, aiming at a "slight protrusion" on the corner of the wall, then instantly releasing it with lightning-fast hand speed via E + right-click, using the E mechanism of kicking back to change the starting point of the grappling hook...

Achieving "mid-air rotation in place"!

Strictly speaking, this trick was actually possible in the old version.

But previously, Akshan could only spin for 3 seconds, and spinning in place was easily interrupted by the opponent rushing him; the opponent isn't stupid, so this so-called rotation was just a niche trick useful only in specific situations.

And the changes to the E skill this season didn't change much for the vast majority of Akshan playstyles—but it has a huge impact on "jungling"!

After all, only jungle monsters won't run around, will obediently stay there to be shot, and won't knock Akshan out of the air.

But the infinitely extendable E skill, even without the amplification of a jungle item, has terrifyingly high clear efficiency; with precise positioning, Akshan can even hit two jungle camps at the same time!

As for the secret to taking no damage...

"No wonder he started with Cull! Master Ye's choice of items and runes seems to be very well thought out!"

In the replay, Akshan's health bar constantly shows green +3+3+3+3, with a healing light trail flying out from time to time.

It is exactly 【Cull】 + 【Fleet Footwork】!

The passive effect of Cull is {each basic attack restores 3 health}.

Every basic attack from Heroic Swing triggers this independently!

Compared to Doran's Blade's {3% omnivamp}, the difference in healing per basic attack in the early game is nearly 3 times—after all, to heal 3 points with omnivamp, an Akshan with 53 attack power would need to deal 100 damage after armor/magic resist.

But the fixed healing of Cull fits perfectly!

And the energy stack accumulation of Fleet Footwork also relies heavily on attack frequency, and it also receives independent stacks from each shot of the E skill.

With the two combined, the healing speed is simply terrifying!

【Holy crap, he's spinning!】

【Urgot, known as Little Akshan!】

【A sentry gun in the jungle!】

【The King of Firepower calls him an expert!】

【You like planting gardens, right? I'll tear your whole garden up!】

【Kanavi, this guy is no good; he cracked in less than two and a half minutes, no debut for him!】

Kanavi's mental state is indeed somewhat affected.

He didn't expect that even this wouldn't stop him.

Most importantly, he feels like he has nowhere to go now!

The Red Buff, the fastest-maturing camp in the jungle, still has over ten seconds, the other two camps have about 20 seconds, and there is only one Wolves camp left in the top jungle!

Akshan returns to the mid lane at this time—because Tristana didn't push the wave and went to assist instead, and Akshan stole two whole jungle camps, so now he only needs one melee minion to reach level two!

Originally, Tristana would definitely have been able to push the minion wave to Akshan in the early game.

But because he was beaten to level two, and Akshan has the Blue Buff and can spam Q infinitely, Tristana is temporarily unable to contest the wave.

Kanavi ponders in his heart... he feels he must "save himself"!

"Can you guys in the bot lane bait them? Otherwise, it's going to be very hard for me to play later."

Both bot lanes are about to reach level two.

JDG's bot lane laning also seems to suddenly become somewhat aggressive.

Rell suddenly uses W 【Ferromancy】 to crash down, rising high on her iron horse, and sits toward Jinx, who has no mobility!

Under normal circumstances, Jinx fears these kinds of champions who can force their way into melee range—like Leona or Nautilus, where Jinx still has a chance to dodge hooks or E's with movement.

But Rell's W skill, even if it misses the knock-up upon landing, can still force a close-range engagement, and once she is in melee range, her full kit of crowd control can easily make it difficult for Jinx to create distance!

But just as Rell leaps high with W.

Galio's E 【Justice Punch】 kicks out in the opposite direction—knocking her directly out of the air!

The wind-up for Rell's W is even longer than Leona's, and the main displacement distance of W relies on the "slide" after landing.

But being interrupted by Galio's reverse punch causes her to almost look like she's treading water in place!

It is also because the wind-up is too long that even if Rell had flashed Q to stun first and then W, Galio's back-kick E could still have knocked her out of the air!

"Damn, this guy seems to counter me a bit," Missing says with difficulty, realizing his most important engagement tool seems hard to use.

If Rell cannot use W to engage, even if she has Flash, the threat to Jinx is inevitably greatly reduced.

And the range of Jinx's rocket launcher is significantly longer than Xayah's.

If the support can't land an engage, it's clearly difficult to achieve any results in the bot lane laning phase.

Fortunately, JDG's goal for this wave is considered achieved.

Xun, who is clearing the jungle, sees the intensity of the bot lane skirmish and senses that the opposing jungler is very likely to go there, so he immediately sets off.

After all, in Xun's view, Ivern hasn't even finished collecting the gardens in the bottom half, and there are no camps to clear in the top half, so he can only gank bot.

However, Kanavi's experience on the competitive stage and other aspects are certainly still stronger than the current Xun; the jungle matchups in the first two games were also somewhat indicative of this.

Compared to his schemes, Xun is still a bit green.

"Kanavi is so bold this wave! He didn't wait in the bottom half for the camps to mature... he just cleared the Red Buff and went straight into the opponent's jungle!"

"Isn't he afraid of running into Trundle in this position? If he doesn't have Flash, he'll probably die!"

If Kanavi had stubbornly waited in the bottom half for the camps to mature, waiting until the final F6 matured, Trundle would likely have already finished ganking the bot lane.

And once Trundle didn't see Ivern appear in the bot lane, he would clearly realize immediately that this was a "lure the tiger away from the mountain" tactic and would immediately rotate back to defend his own red zone!

It is difficult for Ivern to wait for the three gardens in the opponent's red zone to mature in time.

Therefore, Kanavi only cleared the Red Buff, not even bothering to clear the Krugs below, and went straight around to the opponent's red zone.

As long as Trundle wastes enough time in the bot lane, Ivern could very well turn the jungle disadvantage around in one go!

This wave is both the uniqueness of the champion Ivern.

And it is also another confirmation of Kanavi's playstyle characteristics.

Even when playing Ivern, he can't really accept his own losses, even if it means making his core side-laners take risks for him.

But at this moment.

The person JDG is most scratching their heads over is not Ivern.

It was the mid lane, where the Tristana had inexplicably already begun to play defensively and retreat.

(End of chapter)