Chapter 237: Titan-ic! Gonggong Angrily Strikes Mount Buzhou!

"What is this again!"

Everyone vaguely felt a sense of déjà vu, yet also felt that something was somehow different.

"All three were knocked up by the nameless one! The Crocodile flashes out, bites the Kindred with a red-fury W, and the Kha'Zix jumps over the wall."

"The Kha'Zix's damage is so high! It seems like {Isolation} was triggered!?"

"Jinx fires another missile!"

The knock-up effect of Nautilus's ultimate is not a "knock-up in place."

Instead, it performs an irregular "bouncing" knock-up based on the landing point of the Nautilus anchor.

The judgment distance for Kha'Zix's {Isolation} is actually very small; as long as two units are separated by 400 yards, they are isolated—it almost requires being "body-to-body" to avoid it!

Of course, even if {Isolation} hadn't been triggered, the Kindred, having suddenly been hit by the Depth Charge and knocked up, had no way to survive.

Because the Lulu, who could have provided mutual protection, was also knocked up.

By the time they landed from the knock-up, the Crocodile had finished his W bite, and the Kha'Zix had finished a bite and used his ultimate to go invisible and weave in an auto-attack; Lulu had nowhere to use her shield or polymorph.

And the key point of this wave was clearly that inexplicably appearing seismic wave!

Oner and Gumayusi both had Flash up for this play, so they weren't in a hurry when they saw Nautilus cast his hook, but they didn't expect that the hook would actually miss and yet still "accidentally hit the mark"!?

"Kindred failed to cast their ultimate and was instantly killed; the big Crocodile is rampaging in the crowd with astonishing combat power! Jinx is about to take off!"

"And Nautilus didn't even die in the first place!!"

If it were only Kindred being instantly killed, it wouldn't count as a rout.

As long as they could also kill the Nautilus, the front line would still be 4-on-4.

But Li Xianghe had just watched the Nautilus in his face cast his ultimate at him and immediately set up his W {Path Maker} to negate it—yet he never imagined that the ripples of that ultimate weren't even aimed at him!

By the time his W blades thrust out, the Depth Charge had already spread from underground, knocking K'Sante up again!

Already lacking one source of firepower, and with the Crocodile and Kha'Zix already on their faces, even though Gumayusi could use Cleanse and Flash to instantly create distance, he no longer had the ability to follow up with damage.

Guan Zeyuan waved his arms and shouted: "K'Sante and the ADC still have Flash and can barely escape, but the top laner and support have no Flash!"

"Gragas and Lulu are desperately trying to hold back Jinx to prevent her from continuing the chase; V5 is content to stop while ahead, steadily trading zero for three and taking the Rift Herald!"

Remember then summarized: "It's not just zero for three plus the Herald; more importantly, it's the triple kill harvested by Jinx! They made a fortune!"

Rita, however, looked bewildered: "What happened again? How were three people suddenly knocked up? Can Nautilus be this 'flashy'?"

【666666666, so cool!】

【Why did K'Sante go to hug the Nautilus? Da Fei is truly confused!】

【You don't understand, K'Sante hugging Nautilus in the river—this is the Titanic!】

【I've always been curious, Kindred is clearly two people, the twins, so why can Kha'Zix still trigger {Isolation}?】

【I know this one! Because Kindred's Wolf spirit is like the child of a prefect; although everyone knows he's there, he doesn't actually count as a complete person!】

【I'm testing, does any expert understand this play? I can't understand it at all.】

If the previous wave was indeed difficult to notice and understand.

Then this wave was much clearer.

From the observer's perspective, Wolf finally noticed the two locations where the Depth Charge appeared.

The T1 members, who were the victims twice in the match, also realized it, including the anomaly from the previous wave.

And what's important is that after the T1 members figured out the principle.

They discovered the "true meaning."

This was absolutely not some so-called "flashy technique"!

Not to mention that a normal Nautilus ultimate requires getting close to cast, the long wind-up animation for long-range casting and the time it takes to "spread underground" mean there is at least a 2-3 second delay before it takes effect.

This is already enough for the opponent to take defensive measures!

For example, this wave—if Nautilus had walked up to lock onto Kindred with his R, Kindred could have easily cast his ultimate to save his life before the shockwave arrived, and would certainly have repositioned to avoid affecting his teammates.

But what if this technique is used?

First of all, you have no idea where the shockwave will pop out from!

How do you defend against this!?

Even if you use a short dash to create distance, you cannot escape the shockwave's coverage; you can only use Flash—and if you don't create distance, you will more simply and directly take the full Q+R combo.

The only way seems to be that whenever you see the opponent raise their hand to R or Q, everyone must immediately use all their survival skills on the spot.

Oner did exactly that.

————However, in reality, Nautilus can also adjust the speed of the {QR sequence}; as long as he is slightly slower and waits for the anchor to land before casting R, he can make the shockwave's trajectory return to normal!

A feint to bait out Kindred's ultimate from a thousand miles away, still achieving the effect of "one R, two hits"!

Ye Bo continued to display a shocking, deep understanding.

For example, even without Q, Nautilus can use {Passive A followed by R} to change the hero's orientation, causing the anchor's landing point to turn behind him, similarly achieving a "front-and-back turning double R"!

Keria, who prides himself on being half a Nautilus enthusiast, was already too shocked to speak.

Is this still Nautilus?!

Is this still the Nautilus that everyone sees as stupid as can be, treated as a "leech hero"?

After a few waves, plus the roaming gap from earlier.

The T1 gold gap has already been torn open.

And once the front-line combat power is unbalanced, T1's defensive pressure will suddenly increase when facing V5's double-hook lineup.

The hero Blitzcrank has many shortcomings.

For example, Q is the slowest projectile, has the longest wind-up, and is the narrowest and hardest to hit among all {hook skills}.

For example, once the Q misses, compared to other hook heroes who have lock-ons, lanterns, or executions, Blitzcrank's entire skill set is in his hook, and his utility will instantly drop by 90%!

Another example is that due to the nature of Rocket Grab, being the only one that can directly "pull" an enemy from a thousand yards away "to your face," an ill-timed hook might "harm teammates," instead helping the enemy save their dash skills.

But Blitzcrank also has advantages that other heroes find hard to replace.

For example, the ability to "defy the heavens and change fate" with one hook on a carry in a losing game.

Or in a winning game, it is absolutely the easiest hook to be fatal.

However, to be honest, Beryl's hooks are not accurate.

So he simply almost never initiates a hook!

In fact, Blitzcrank himself often shouldn't hook at all; only by holding the Q does he have enough deterrence, and throwing it rashly and missing would instead give the opponent an opportunity to play.

Blitzcrank must be paired with a lineup to exert his power!

The Crocodile and Nautilus's targeted crowd control, and Kha'Zix's evolved W slow, can all greatly increase the hit rate of the hook.

It's hard to hit when I hook myself.

Isn't it easy to hit when teammates help me initiate and hold the person?

"T1 has been continuously caught out in these few minutes, and now it's hard to take a front-line team fight; it seems they even have to give up the second Herald!" The Roaring Emperor became more anxious the more he watched.

"Kindred finally took the opportunity to get their second mark, but the situation is still very passive!"

"But to be fair, the gold gap isn't actually that big."

Bang, however, shook his head and whispered: "You can't look at the gold gap in this game; if it goes on like this, the situation is a bit ominous."

Compared to last year, the T1 team has actually changed quite a bit, both in their overall playstyle and the players' form.

But one thing hasn't changed.

They rarely make strategic errors.

Every time they give up resources or get caught in a side lane, they never engage in useless, delayed support, or "gourd brothers saving their grandfather."

It is always a clear-headed, decisive exchange of resources to minimize losses.

It is precisely by relying on this that even though the side lanes are constantly being found by Nautilus and Blitzcrank, the gold gap has not been rapidly blown out.

But as Bang said.

T1's situation is still not very optimistic.

The worst news is that Jinx has gotten ahead early!

Their lineup is biased towards counter-engaging, with a Lulu + Kindred double-protection combo, and even a Gragas ultimate to blast the opponent out of the Lamb's Respite circle; facing V5's strong-engage lineup, they actually have a lot of options.

If both sides' backlines are equally farmed, T1's team fights would be very simple; they just need to protect the two shooters and fight, without even needing to dive the backline.

But the problem now is that the output capability of the backlines is too different!

They have to dive!

The 3-0 Jinx, at 16 minutes, already has a super luxurious two-item set of {Galeforce} + {Infinity Edge}.

In contrast, Aphelios barely has one item, and Kindred only has 3 marks, not even reaching the most basic 4-mark threshold for increased range!

If they let this Jinx output, T1 simply cannot withstand it; as soon as one person is killed, she will take off.

And the perfect offensive coordination shown by V5 does not look like they will lose out in advantageous operations and exchanges; if they continue to operate, the disadvantage will only grow larger.

Without a successful comeback team fight, the equipment gap between the two carries will only continue to widen.

V5 takes the second small dragon and then turns to the second Herald.

Because K'Sante's deterrence under the tower is still very strong, Nautilus doesn't dare to touch the tower rashly, let alone dive, so the progress on the mid-lane first tower is slow.

V5 still relies on the second Herald, using the power of two Heralds to finally break the mid-lane first tower.

Jinx triggers her passive Get Excited!, and V5 takes the opportunity to continue pushing forward, preparing to take another charge with the second Herald.

But this move.

Li Xianghe suddenly realized it might be an opportunity.

T1 has played many comeback team fights in their history from huge deficits, such as being ten thousand gold behind, or even team fights where the opponent had already determined victory; what they relied on was the ability of the core members to seize opportunities, as well as the team's instantaneous coordination.

"Watch my position."

Jinx is currently in a berserk state, and given the status of the entire V5 team at this moment, they clearly won't have any vigilance.

This second turret looks like it is bound to fall no matter how you look at it.

However, Ye Bo had been guarding against K'Sante and Gragas all along, as they are the only ones capable of engaging on Jinx.

At this moment, he suddenly discovers something.

K'Sante is gone?

After a moment of hesitation, Ye Bo immediately presses the S key to stop in place, then quickly drags the minimap to scan the area behind the mid lane, shaking it at an extremely frantic speed.

{TP visual effects are not visible on the minimap, but the TP beam effect can be seen by switching screens even without vision.

When Ye Bo's rapidly shaking screen pauses at the entrance to the upper river, he sees a purple beam of light under the shadows.

"TP behind us!"

"Don't break formation, retreat together!"

Seeing the enemy's retreat, the T1 members clearly realize they have been exposed and immediately press forward, yet they dare not chase too deep. Because their intent was exposed too quickly, K'Sante had only just left the fog of war and his TP hadn't even landed yet; chasing too deep might result in being counter-engaged!

Therefore, only Gragas stands slightly ahead for T1, while the other three huddle in the back, following cautiously.

"K'Sante has landed! But the TP location seems to have been spotted!"

"Can he still engage from this position!?"

Although he failed to land in position because he was discovered too quickly, Li Xianghe does not want to let this opportunity slip and is still loudly calling out to his teammates.

Renekton wants to use his body to W and hold the opponent back.

But K'Sante immediately executes an EW combo to dash forward, stunning the Renekton who came to block, and simultaneously uses his third-stage flash displacement to forcefully pierce through the crowd and arrive right in Jinx's face!

The target is clear!

Deft keenly senses the danger and, without hesitation, instinctively flashes forward, trying to create distance.

But, he fell for it.

K'Sante's "E-W-Flash-R" combo leaves almost no reaction time; unless the hand speed is fast enough, it is very difficult for Jinx to flash away—{K'Sante's ultimate applies a 'Suppression' effect while casting, so one can only predict and flash early}.

Yet, at the moment he flashed in, Li Xianghe did not use his R immediately, but instead "paused" for a split second in place.

It is precisely this gap that successfully allows Deft to flash and pull back.

But this is clearly not a mistake by the former.

Just as a golden light appears at Jinx's feet, K'Sante simultaneously swings the twin axes in his hands, grabbing the opponent and violently dragging her back!

The terrifying part is...

The position Jinx flew back to was actually her starting point before the flash! Double the distance of the displacement!

{K'Sante's ultimate has a 'forced position lock' effect; if you are locked by the ultimate during the 0. seconds of a displacement, you will still start from K'Sante's position—similar to the mechanic of Jayce's E.

However, even knowing this mechanic, this is undoubtedly a high-risk play!

But the effect is incredibly significant.

Jinx has Flash and Galeforce; if K'Sante had simply pulled her back, at most he would have left her without follow-up combat power.

Killing her would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

But if she uses her Flash only to be pulled back double the distance, the outcome is completely different!

K'Sante completes his task, lands, instantly finishes his QW, triggers Aftershock, and immediately cancels his ultimate state to start tanking damage.

And the quick-reacting Gragas has already flashed to connect with his Explosive Cask, aiming to blast Jinx back!

"An aerial relay pass! The coordination between T1's mid and top!!"

It is a foregone conclusion that Jinx, having no Flash, will be blasted into the T1 backline; Gragas aims directly at her landing spot to belly-slam her, preparing to lock her down with a full combo!

But, Nautilus moves too.

Nautilus throws out his Q hook while simultaneously clicking keys 1 and 2.

The moment the green light reappears on his body, {Rocketbelt} twists his body to dash upward—actively colliding with the belly-slamming Gragas!

This "collision-course hook" interrupts Gragas's E skill, which was originally aimed at Jinx, and simultaneously, a {Depth Charge} lock-on mark appears above Gragas's head.

Meanwhile, below, Kindred and Aphelios, watching the "hook" fly toward them, have a completely different sensory experience.

The hair on their bodies stands on end instantly!

"Again!?"

Both of them are extremely decisive this time.

The last time already proved that Kindred's short Q and Galeforce displacement could not reliably dodge the coverage of the shockwave.

The two flash almost simultaneously, and their flash positions are surprisingly consistent—both flashing into the corner behind the second turret, just one step away!

With Jinx blasted back, there is no way to run, and Gragas and K'Sante should be able to finish the kill.

The point is that Nautilus's damage is already very high by now, and the two must ensure their health remains healthy to prepare for subsequent battles!

Don't look at this position as being just one wall away from the hook; it is absolutely enough to make Nautilus "despair"!

If he flashes to follow, Nautilus will be disconnected from his teammates; with Lulu and Kindred's ultimate, it would be impossible to kill them, and he might even sell himself out instead.

If he doesn't flash to follow, not only can Nautilus not threaten them in the slightest, but the others following up will also find it hard to get close.

Aphelios drops his turret, and with Kindred's constant jumping, the two can use this thin wall as a "gun mount" to output damage over the wall without pressure!

The next moment.

Nautilus still flashes into the pit.

But the strangely timed shockwave appears from under his feet again, "carried into the pit" by Nautilus's physical body!

This time, Nautilus delayed the appearance of the shockwave by adjusting the timing of his follow-up R—causing the shockwave to rise from the ground only after Nautilus had already flown in and landed!

Upon landing, he even seemed to adjust the direction he was facing.

And the tricky-angled Depth Charge explodes at the feet of the three—due to the change in direction, the shockwave actually "bounces" the two of them together over the wall!

"The redirected human bomb!"

The two fly high in the air for 1. seconds, and Nautilus steps out his Riptide from over the wall to deal full damage!

"Kill this one!"

A sudden change occurs.

The team fight scene suddenly flips 180 degrees.

Because Nautilus's collision-hook blocked Gragas's E for Jinx, not only was a lethal burst of damage avoided, but Jinx also gained freedom the moment she landed from the knock-up.

She can open fire now!

On the contrary, a "delayed shockwave" that cannot be dodged is arriving in front of Gragas!

The good news is: Lulu is positioned in the back this time and wasn't caught in the crowd, so she pours out her ER immediately.

The bad news is: Lulu can only save one, and after the two were bounced over the wall, their models are almost "overlapping," so who gets the skill depends entirely on luck.

Fortunately, T1 is lucky, and the skill happens to land on Kindred.

However, Jinx's {Fishbones} rocket launcher is an {AOE damage} basic attack.

It doesn't need to "aim."

Deft himself didn't expect to survive.

His seasoned experience helps him instantly understand Ye Bo's intention and refine it.

First, he throws his E grenade forward, then lifts the launcher to fire a shot at the two, dealing 444 critical damage, while simultaneously using Galeforce to create distance and utilizing {auto-target low health} + {Executioner} damage tracking!

The egg that didn't receive protection instantly shattered, yolk spilling everywhere.

"Ah, no, this, this, this Nautilus ￥%@#!?"

The commentary booth is momentarily incoherent due to this sudden turn of events.

"Aphelios has been insta-killed!!!"

"Jinx, who was blasted back, is now under the rescue and counter-attack of Nautilus; the two have actually become a pair of assassins who have dived into the backline!!"

"Gragas is knocked up by the shockwave! He failed to finish off Jinx! Jinx is about to start!"

"K'Sante and Gragas don't seem to be able to catch up to her!!"

Kindred, protected by Lulu, lands and is immediately suppressed for another 1. seconds by Jinx's {Flame Chompers}!

Seeing that he cannot finish off Jinx, Oner has no choice but to activate his R in place to save his life.

But the {Lamb's Respite} field has just appeared.

In the crowd behind, who were beating up K'Sante, one person suddenly flashes to the side!

It is Beryl, who has been paying attention to this area all along.

The landing grenade Jinx cleverly followed up with becomes the key foreshadowing, and even though Oner knows exactly what the opponent is going to do, the trapped Kindred cannot move a single inch!

The Rocket Grab flies out, directly "pulling" Kindred out of the range of Lamb's Respite!

"Kill this one first!"

The crowd instantly shifts their focus, abandoning K'Sante; a claw from Kha'Zix and a dash from Renekton kill the low-health Kindred.

And killing Kindred first is because it can continue to provide {Get Excited! for Jinx!

Zeus's Gragas still wants to use his Q rolling barrel to kill Jinx, who has less than 200 health.

But the terrifying 175% movement speed provided by Get Excited makes Jinx feel like she's wearing running shoes and flying, easily pulling away!

The second kill is credited from afar.

Get Excited resets, double stacking!

Lulu tries to use her DF combo to finish her off, but it is instantly cleansed, and Jinx turns around to fire wildly!

With only two hundred health, Jinx kites half a step, like a flaming rocket launcher pouring out bombardment at extreme speed!

"Wait, how does it look like Jinx is about to clean up the rest!!"

With her attack speed already stacked to 75%, Jinx's already terrifying output goes up another level, and the ultra-long range added by the rocket launcher makes it completely impossible for the opponent to touch her!

"Triple kill!"

"Quadra kill!"

"It looks like a pentakill is coming!!"

Inside the V5 team, they were also shouting, "Let him have it, let him have it, let him have it!"

The remaining few were clearly already trapped like turtles in a jar, with nowhere to run.

Jin Kesi turned back and fired a cannon to take down K'Sante, while the Titan held the Gragas in place, feeding the kill right into his mouth.

The livestream and the chat were instantly boiling over!

【Holy crap! Alpaca!】

【To be fair, didn't Jin Kesi just steal all five kills from the Titan? That was a pure carry + a pentakill fed right into his mouth!】

【It really is, this wave actually almost made Jin Kesi an epic-level war criminal, right?】

【Gonggong strikes Mount Buzhou in a rage! I declare this year's championship skin will be the Titan! Let's base it on this 'Scroll of Mountains and Seas: Gonggong'!】

【Gonggong? This is the Great Monad Savior of Suffering! To be able to save someone like this, this Titan is truly like a god!】

【This is the 'Aka-Tai' (Akali-Titan), as expected of the leader of my sect!!】

【I can only say that this hero fully demonstrates that there are really no "slacker heroes" in the world, only "slackers"!】

"Fierce, brothers!" Flandre shouted excitedly.

"Strong, Brother Alpaca!" Although it wasn't his own pentakill, Ye Bo was still very happy and excitedly offered his congratulations.

Deft was clearly very excited to get the pentakill, an uncontrollable smile on his lips.

But he obviously knew best what had happened, and even now he still felt a lingering fear: "This wave was all thanks to you... you're really too amazing."

Xun immediately agreed: "Master Ye is awesome! This Titan left me stunned!"

"Amazing, amazing!" BeryL also said with a grin: "Is the Titan actually this fun? I want to try this next time too..."

Originally, the situation for T1 was only somewhat tense, but as long as they farmed into the mid-to-late game, their lineup definitely still had a fighting chance; relying on the wave-clear ability of their dual AD marksmen, it wouldn't necessarily be easy for V5 to push in.

But after this fight.

The result had been completely decided.

With a pentakill in the bag, Jin Kesi instantly reached a godlike 8-0-0 record, and at 18 minutes, he returned to base and pulled out a Rapid Firecannon and a Last Whisper.

18 minutes, three and a half items vs. one and a half!

It was purely Cybertronians playing whack-a-mole!

The game instantly became simple; V5 didn't even need to initiate team fights, everyone just stood next to Jin Kesi to protect him and let him shoot, and that was that.

T1 still wanted to put up a desperate resistance.

But when Jin Kesi's ultra-long-range cannon went "biu" and instantly deleted one-fifth of Gragas's health bar, it was clear that they could no longer find an opportunity like before.

24 minutes.

With a 13, 00 gold lead and the dual dragon buff, V5 pushed straight up the high ground and neatly razed the T1 nexus in one go!

(End of chapter)