Chapter 239: Undercurrents and Wits

As the match loaded, Guan Zeyuan brought up the opening of this game.

"Viewers familiar with the LPL should know that this V5 lineup is very mature in the LPL; it's the Sion level-one system!"

"Previously, this system caused JDG and BLG to suffer heavy losses, though JDG did try to come up with a response back then. Let's see how T1 handles it."

"It looks like they might be prepared as well!"

T1 had naturally studied the opening design of Sion stealing from his own jungle.

In fact, during that semi-final in the latter half of the season, their entire team had been watching the whole process from their base.

JDG had actually come up with a solution back then, having their top laner stand in mid at the start, sacrificing a bit of early laning in the top lane to protect the jungle—it just wasn't used because that game was disrupted by V5's "Senna invisibility outside the wall" tactic.

"The entire V5 team is rushing toward the bottom jungle, and the ward T1 placed at the entrance of the bottom jungle has detected their movement!"

"Clearly, T1 also believes the opponents are stronger than them at level one and has chosen not to engage!"

"Zeus is imitating 369 by standing in front of the tier-one tower. Oh? It looks like they want to imitate the design from that JDG game!" Jide teased with a smile.

The champions chosen by both sides' mid and jungle for this game were undoubtedly destined to be the focus of early-game firepower.

Therefore, for T1, the early jungle area definitely could not be lost.

And after T1 carefully studied this design, they did indeed find that the solution JDG came up with back then was the most logical one—which was to "start stealing" as well!

In fact, "mutual stealing" tactics and systems between the Chinese and Korean regions are not uncommon; it is by no means one-sided.

It's just that during the dark years of not winning championships in the past few years, even if there were places where the LCK learned from the LPL, everyone at home and abroad would act as if they had known it all along—why would they need to learn from a region that hadn't won a championship?

In esports, whoever is the champion, everything they do is right!

So,

At this moment, the chat was filled with mocking comments like 【Stealing from Korea!】, 【Our JDG was right!】, and 【Don't be biased, good designs always have a meeting of minds!】.

But in reality, after deep reflection, one would realize that unless there was a problem with the draft, this was indeed the correct way to solve the problem.

The lineup T1 built for this game also leaned toward early-game combat, and they were definitely not weak at level one.

Especially the bottom lane "Phoenix Legend" duo, which is a rare combination with extremely strong standing-and-fighting ability at level one; LeBlanc and Wukong are not too weak either.

The problem lies in the top lane!

As the core of this design, Sion's ability to use "Soul Furnace" at level one makes him a unique existence among top lane champions!

So even if the other four positions could pick evenly matched matchups, the gap in level-one combat power in the top lane could not be solved; the head-on fight was doomed to be unwinnable.

Of course, T1 had also optimized this design.

"Oh," Guan Zeyuan said, looking at the positioning of the T1 members: "The positioning of the entire T1 team doesn't show them entering the opponent's jungle directly. Are they waiting?"

The god's-eye view can always see the intentions of both sides more clearly.

The commentary desk also quickly showed expressions of sudden realization.

"Oh, they are probably worried that V5 might pull a 'returning horse spear' (ambush)!"

"After all, the vision in their own jungle has been cleared, and they don't know the opponent's current movements!"

When it comes to "copying tactics," strong teams and weak teams produce vastly different results.

Weak teams only know how to copy exactly 1-to-1, just like copying a top student's homework during school, wishing they could even copy the name field.

But after copying, strong teams will further drill and expand, thinking about whether this system has more possibilities or abilities that "haven't been shown yet."

For example, after drilling, the T1 members discovered—this lineup actually has a "second form" of the returning horse spear!

That defensive tactic of JDG just wasn't realized back then.

Even if it had been realized, it wouldn't necessarily have yielded any benefits.

Because the Sion side only needs to clear the vision at the jungle entrance and inside the camps, and the opponent, having lost all vision, would never dare to enter.

And if they were to quietly recall at this moment and head to the other half of their own jungle together—they could catch the opponent who wanted to swap jungles!

To counter this move.

T1's solution was: they must be 100% sure of the opponent's starting jungle half.

"LeBlanc jumps into the jungle with W, placing a ward silently near the Red Buff camp from over the wall, while the top, mid, and jungle continue to crouch near the river!"

"But here, V5..."

T1 chose to have LeBlanc learn W at level one to jump into the jungle, relying on the absolute safety of returning with the second cast of Distortion to place a deep ward.

This vision is enough to detect if the opponent has any "returning horse spear" movements and can also see exactly how many people the opponent has brought.

Their own jungler only needs to stand guard at the corner of the river entrance, and once the jungle respawns and it is fully confirmed that no one is in the top jungle, they can enter again to swap jungles without pressure!

This can 100% guarantee a safe jungle swap!

And if they can detect Sion stealing their Red, Wukong will even have an unexpected gain!

At this moment.

V5 was also deploying their troops; Ye Bo walked directly out of the mid-lane river to expose his vision, wanting to detect the positioning where the opponent had no one appearing.

Seeing the position of Lee Sin, LeBlanc also immediately walked out from the river entrance to avoid exposing their own intentions.

But just after Ye Bo saw the state of the opposing LeBlanc, he suddenly looked suspicious.

"Wait, Xun, don't enter the top half yet..."

Nidalee and Sion, who had already recalled, had just arrived at the edge of the top jungle and were preparing to grope their way closer when they heard the voice and immediately stopped.

"What's wrong, Master Ye?" Xun asked in confusion: "At this point, it's impossible for their bottom lane to still be there, right?"

At this time, there were only twenty seconds left before the jungle respawned; even if the bottom duo had been crouching here at the start, they would definitely have returned to the bottom lane by now.

"LeBlanc lost mana, so she must have placed a ward in our jungle, and a very deep ward at that."

Ye Bo didn't explain in detail, just gave the conclusion directly.

But why could he be so sure?

Couldn't it be that LeBlanc just learned W to jump over the wall to scout for vision and see if anyone was there, without actually placing a ward?

This brings us to an enhancement LeBlanc received in the 13. patch a while ago.

Due to LeBlanc's extremely low error tolerance and the dilemma of being unable to coexist with pressuring/pushing the lane during the laning phase, she was rarely used except by a few specialists.

So, in the 13. patch, an enhancement was made: "Killing any unit with 【Sigil of Malice】 restores 100% of the mana cost and 30% of the remaining cooldown of this skill, and deals an additional 10-146 damage to minions."

Simply put, she can last-hit for free.

This change had no impact on combat power; it was more of a "comfort" change.

But true LeBlanc specialists all understand the significance of this change.

Ye Bo put himself in Li Xianghe's perspective—if he were the opponent, when using LeBlanc against a melee champion like Lee Sin, it would be impossible to level W at level one.

After all, if you level W and jump in, you will definitely be countered by Lee Sin, and there is no reason to make a profitable trade—which would lead to not daring to use W, destined to lose early lane priority for nothing!

And the Q skill now also has a certain ability to clear waves and can consume Lee Sin without taking damage; it is a better choice from any angle.

If it were a worse LeBlanc player, they might not get this point.

But the person on the other side...

So Ye Bo concluded that the opponent couldn't have sacrificed their early laning initiative just to "jump in and take a look"; that would be too worthless.

There must be a deeper purpose!

Switching perspectives again, what if the opponent thought they would play a "returning horse spear"?

Then this might be a trap!

The Li Xianghe on the other side didn't even know that he had only lost a little mana, and with the recovery from Doran's Ring, he was already approaching full mana—a small detail that couldn't even be seen without looking closely... yet it made the opponent have so many wild thoughts!

"Got it, Master Ye, then I'll..." Although there was no information to support it, Xun still quickly modified his approach based on this information.

After listening, Beryl immediately pointed out areas to fill the gaps.

But at this moment.

The OB perspective, besides noticing the changing deployment of the V5 members, also noticed the actions of the two T1 bottom laners.

"The movements of the entire V5 team have suddenly changed; the bottom duo, who were clearly prepared to retreat, have walked back into the opponent's bottom jungle!"

"Hey, but what does the T1 bottom duo want to do!?"

"Is the T1 bottom lane trying to ambush someone? This is too bold!"

From T1's perspective, the entire map was pitch black at this moment.

The vision placed by LeBlanc in the top jungle didn't detect any enemy activity, only a Lee Sin wandering in the mid lane.

And with less than ten seconds until the jungle respawns, this almost made it clear that the opponent was definitely in their own bottom jungle; otherwise, Wukong could have picked up a whole jungle for free!

But even knowing this...

The T1 duo, who were crouching in the bush in front of the Krugs, were still moving toward the tri-bush!

Keria didn't level a skill, just activated his sweeper to grope closer from behind the wall, and after confirming there was no vision in the tri-bush, he called for the AD to move closer.

They were convinced that Nidalee couldn't have just cleared one Red Buff and retreated, and thus couldn't have followed the bottom duo to the lane—so they could completely try to ambush them!

Their reliance was the strength of the "Phoenix Legend" combination at level one.

As long as Rakan could knock them up, this combination was a rare existence in the bottom lane with kill potential at level one!

Of course, there were definitely risks. But this is the playstyle characteristic of the two T1 bottom laners; compared to creating advantages, "stability" is not the first priority for either of them.

This point can actually be seen from Keria's willingness to research champion pools, as well as Gumayusi's positioning in team fights, etc.

1 minute 30 seconds, jungle monsters respawn.

The two had been crouching in the bush for several seconds when they saw Thresh and Kalista, who hadn't lost mana but had lost a little health, walking over one after another.

Rakan didn't rush to use W; only when the two were about to walk into the bush did he cast W 【Grand Entrance】 at his feet half a second early!

"Knocked up!!" the Roaring Emperor shouted, clenching his fists with joy: "Guma and Keria successfully ambushed the opponent! They must have realized it! As expected of T1!"

"Kalista, kill Kalista!"

"Feels like they can get a kill!" Wolf was equally excited, prematurely delivering his conclusion.

Xayah and Rakan, this official couple, have various synergies between their skills, and the strength of them being played alone versus together is worlds apart.

For example, Rakan's E 【Battle Dance】 has {double the range} when used on Xayah, so even if they run into an enemy ambush at level one, Rakan can force a long-range E to escape easily.

And Xayah's W 【Deadly Plumage】 not only grants high attack speed, but also a 25% damage bonus on basic attacks and 30% movement speed—if Rakan is also nearby, he gains the same effects.

With both of them casting Deadly Plumage together, even recognized level-one powerhouses like Draven or Kalista could never win a head-on fight!

"What the hell?"

Beryl and Deft did not expect the opposing bottom lane to dare to ambush them here without knowing the location of their jungler.

But watching Kalista's health drop instantly under focused fire, Beryl did not immediately use his E skill, attempting to use 【Flay】 to trigger 【Glacial Augment】 to save the situation.

After all, the health already lost could not be recovered.

He suddenly had a flash of inspiration, thinking of a point he could use in reverse.

Thresh instantly cast his W skill, throwing it far out behind him!

This action.

Seen from the god's-eye view without the fog of war, it was simply inexplicable!

But in the eyes of the T1 bottom lane duo, it was enough to make them both feel a moment of terror.

"It's okay, it's okay!"

"It's fine, he leveled W and can't hold us, retreat, retreat, retreat!"

Taking off nearly half of Kalista's health was definitely a huge profit for the T1 bottom lane.

And Kalista also suddenly began to act incredibly aggressive, chasing to land two more hits followed by Rend, barely recovering a sliver of health.

But compared to the T1 bottom lane duo, who were overjoyed at having their scheme succeed.

The LCK commentary desk was screaming and shouting.

"Did they not realize it!? Don't retreat! You've been tricked, Keria!!"

"This wave was killable!"

"Thresh threw a lantern into thin air, and it actually scared them off..." The Roaring Emperor was anxious to death, but immediately realized something: "Wait!"

"In that case, won't it send out the wrong information!?"

His guess was correct.

The T1 bottom lane duo, having successfully pulled away, were at that moment reporting the information that "Nidalee is at Red."

And at this moment, Monkey was still completely unaware.

The laning phase in the mid lane was underway.

Because he leveled W at level one, LeBlanc had no sustain; if she W-dashed in, she would be hit by Lee Sin's E, and LeBlanc would definitely lose the trade.

So at level one, Li Xianghe did not intend to fight for lane priority.

But he gradually discovered something strange.

This opposing Lee Sin not only refused to use his skills, but wasn't his positioning also a bit too arrogant?

Lee Sin's E skill has a 9-second cooldown, LeBlanc's W skill has a 15-second cooldown, and the former's damage is one-third higher, while the latter also costs mana.

Even if Lee Sin let LeBlanc step on him for free, he could rely on the cooldown difference to forcibly take the minion wave, and subsequently rely on his sustain to easily recover his status!

Not to mention that with the range of Lee Sin's E skill and Ye Bo's control, he could perfectly cast it at the very edge of the E skill's range.

Li Xianghe had already sensed something was wrong and suddenly had a bad premonition.

He decisively chose to initiate with W, dashing in to probe!

And just as he raised his hand—Lee Sin also instantly kicked back with 【Sonic Wave】!

LeBlanc turned back, and Lee Sin followed up with the second part of Q to pursue.

But because Ye Bo pressed S with precision to cancel the "automatic basic attack" upon landing the second Q, he did not attract minion aggro, only being chased by LeBlanc to trigger Electrocute, making the trade at best even.

{Resonating Strike is a locked-on skill, but it does not count as a 'targeted' skill that attracts aggro}

But the strangeness in Li Xianghe's heart grew stronger!

Leveled Q?

Lee Sin against LeBlanc, there is absolutely no reason to level Q!

The damage of the Q skill mainly comes from the execute damage of the second part and the AD scaling; at level one against a full-health LeBlanc, both parts of Q combined don't deal as much damage as an E, not to mention the risk of missing the Q!

Why would he level Q?

Li Xianghe could not figure it out.

While last-hitting, he glanced at the minimap to scan.

After scanning for a few seconds, when he saw the Monkey hitting the F6 camp... he suddenly thought of something!

"Xuanjun, your position might be a bit dangerous!"

Oner didn't stop his hands, not quite understanding yet: "What? Is it dangerous here?"

But just as he was puzzled, a figure appeared on the left—Nidalee, with no buffs, but already level two!

Only now did Lee Sin reveal his true intentions.

The second wave of minions in the mid lane would not arrive until 1 minute and 58 seconds.

This meant that no matter how fast the mid laners pushed, at this 1 minute and 45 seconds mark, both would inevitably still be level one.

So the question arises.

If a level-one Lee Sin wants to support the jungle, what skill is most useful to level?

"T1 really had no idea! They ambushed the V5 bottom lane, but it actually became the foreshadowing! This is a battle of wits in the dark between both sides!"

"Xun actually chose to start at Wolves!"

"This is Nidalee's supreme level-two counter-jungle... and it's an unexpected counter-jungle of 'his own' jungle!"

The champion Nidalee is at her strongest at level two throughout the entire match!

In the entire League of Legends, she is absolutely the undisputed master; champions like Kha'Zix shouldn't even think about comparing.

Simply because this champion possesses 95% of her combat power at level two, has four low-cooldown, repeatable damage skills, and is also ridiculously mobile.

T1's level-one design did indeed crack V5's Sion design.

But due to the slight intentions exposed by LeBlanc, it also brought them a new side effect—Monkey's jungle starting position was locked!

Plus the stroke of genius that appeared in the bottom lane.

This made T1 convinced that Nidalee, at level two, would definitely find the opponent to start a fight and enter their territory!

"Because Monkey started the buff alone, his jungle clearing speed is already a bit slow, and now he's been caught red-handed!"

"Both mid laners are rushing here!"

There is clearly a difference in the health status between Monkey starting Red buff alone at level one and Nidalee starting Wolves alone at level one.

Oner didn't think about running at all, only wanting to rely on the Red buff to try and kite while waiting for mid lane support—in the jungle, facing a Nidalee with passive movement speed, it is impossible to create distance!

But at this moment, a 【Sonic Wave】 with a tricky angle flew in from below and successfully hit!

In V5's strategic definition, the mid-lane Lee Sin is the ultimate "Mid-Jungle Dual Counter-Jungle" combination.

The reason Lee Sin has remained evergreen in the jungle for ten years is because of his excellent champion mechanics.

The Q skill's 1200-yard displacement distance and the W skill's 700-yard displacement distance allow him to traverse the jungle, with mobility and support capabilities far exceeding most junglers.

And a mid-lane Lee Sin can also bring out this characteristic.

"Lee Sin's maximum range Q hits accurately! Master Ye is so precise!"

"LeBlanc is still on the lower side of the river wall, and even if she follows with W, it's useless; if she uses W for mobility, she has zero damage!"

"Monkey is already in a certain-death situation!"

"First blood taken by Nidalee... So it's come full circle, the jungle outcome hasn't changed! Oner is even more behind than if he had a jungle camp stolen by Sion!!"

【That cunning villain, the Genshin player! How did he become so insidious after going to the LPL! Too hateful!!!】

【Xun is putting in work! You liked counter-jungling me last game, right? Let's see if I counter-jungle you to death this game!】

【I want to ask, why is the mid lane a beat slow again? Is LeBlanc's support always this slow, Da Fei!】

【Damn it, Lee Sin's Q flew over from a thousand yards away, longer than LeBlanc's R+W combo, how can you compare?】

【If you ask me, Xun is still immature; why not give this kill to the mid laner? If he gave it to the mid laner, the game would be over!】

【Not giving it is the right move! If he gave it, the fans would have something to say again; wait for a fair fight in the mid lane!】

(End of chapter)