Chapter 249: Top-Tier Multi-Lane Coordination! A Fierce Clash of Team Synergy!

"Here, here! Don't rush, let me change position!"

Because Peanut's positioning was very steady and he was still some distance from the F6 brush, Neeko did not make a move directly.

Beryl retreated and circled into the Red buff pit, aiming through the wall at the spot where Vi had just been standing.

Only then did he let the others in the bottom river walk out together to provide vision for a second confirmation.

Peanut was shocked when he saw the group walk out from below, but fortunately, his positioning was safe enough; in this lineup, only Sylas could reach him with E.

But immediately after, he saw a cluster of thorny garlands fly out from behind the wall!

"I'm engaging!"

Before Neeko's E skill was buffed, it only provided a brief root, but it was enough for Sylas to reliably follow up with the knock-up from his E2 chain!

Shengqiang Ge learned his skill instantly with Ctrl+W, steadily flashing forward to land a hit and chain the third stage of crowd control, helping Caitlyn walk up to place a 【Yordle Snap Trap】.

0. + 0. 5 + 0. ; none of the three stages of crowd control were very long.

But it only needed to delay for the brief wind-up of Caitlyn's trap to root the target for a full 1. seconds!

This chain of crowd control was enough for Nidalee to place another trap and pounce from afar; Vi didn't even have a chance to flash, being controlled and killed throughout the entire duration.

"How did they get in here!?"

Peanut was full of shock, looking at his own Ornn still standing guard in the tri-brush, unable to fathom how Neeko could have reached this position!

This was deep inside his own Red jungle!

Doran looked innocent: "I don't know."

"Could they have flashed over from the Dragon pit?" Support Lehends looked at the route in the top jungle, pondering and guessing: "They seem to have designed something like this before."

"If that's the case, they can come to the bottom lane to gank later. I can flash-engage; their composition should be pushing the lane."

The GEN members did not have a god's-eye view. Lehends could immediately recall a similar level-one design V5 had used in the past, and thinking it might be a flash over the wall at the "vision limit" was already quite an achievement.

No matter how much they racked their brains, it was hard for them to imagine how Neeko had actually bypassed their snake-like formation to sneak into their deep rear!

Roaring Emperor, having witnessed the whole thing, exclaimed: "GEN holds a huge advantage with their level-one teamfight lineup, yet V5 still managed to find an opening like this!"

"Although it looks similar to the operational principle Ye used in the last BO5, the earliest respawn time for level-one blast cones is 1 minute and 30 seconds. Even if GEN could think of it, they wouldn't be prepared. Besides, who would have thought they would use Nidalee's trap to disguise! Even the defense tower couldn't see it!?"

"I remember Nidalee's W is supposed to be a trap, right?"

Compared to Roaring Emperor, who kept muttering and throwing out various questions.

Xu Xiu, sitting beside him, did not hide his praise at all: "I can only say that Neeko is, after all, a hero developed by Ye. V5's understanding of this hero is too deep; GEN choosing to let it through was definitely a mistake!"

"And what's even more brilliant is that V5's crowd control chain was simply too perfect; multiple controls were linked at just the right moment!"

"Their team synergy is so well-executed; they are truly worthy of being a team composed of last year's champion and runner-up."

【Aishibare! Xu Chu, whose side are you actually on!】

【Oh my! Brother Xu is fair! Let everyone in the chat type 'Brother Xu is awesome'!】

【Heh, I think it's just that Xu Dog was scared by Ye last year, and after being captured by EDG for two consecutive years, he's here awkwardly praising his opponents to cover up his own incompetence and dampen his own team's spirit!】

【What's wrong with what he said? You don't know who developed Neeko? GEN didn't research it well enough and still dared to let it through; they're just clueless!】

【I'll say it again, the LPL only knows how to play dirty tricks! In a head-on confrontation, they are actually no match for our LCK at all! It's all a fake win!!】

【I only realized what a 'boomerang' was after coming to this stream. A few years ago, people were clearly saying 'LPL only knows how to fight head-on without using their brains, they can't beat LCK in strategy.' Now that they are actually 'using their brains' with you, you're not happy? I don't recall seeing you win head-on in the past few years either!】

Xu Xiu's remarks praising the opponent clearly sparked resentment among the Korean audience.

After all, this play looked like nothing more than Neeko playing a little trick; it didn't seem to reach the level of 'team strength.'

But only those who understand can see what was displayed in those minute details—to seamlessly link these short-duration crowd control skills without wasting any overlapping control is clearly a massive test of the players' coordination.

Perhaps V5, purely in terms of individual ability, does not have the world's best player in every position, such as the two veterans who are often questioned.

But, if we are talking about team synergy and coordination.

V5 can at least be ranked in the world's top two!

The reason, besides the high volume of daily training, is that so-called team chemistry is forged in this kind of daily practice.

It is more about the team having a clear-headed leader; as long as everyone has a clear mind and executes their own tasks step-by-step, they can achieve the desired effect.

Scout, sitting nearby, didn't pick up the thread and said to himself: "The good news is that Sylas took the First Blood. Anyway, the mid lane is a K'Sante, so it doesn't matter."

Xu Xiu also seemed to have his memory suddenly awakened: "That's true! After all, it's K'Sante; First Blood shouldn't change anything, he can still hold his own in lane!"

"Now it's just a matter of whether Wanghu can get his jungle back on track..."

The only good news about this play was that in order to avoid using extra skills, the kill wasn't easy to concede; Vi didn't use extra skills, and Nidalee didn't gain too much extra jungle advantage.

As long as Vi starts jungling normally after respawning, the jungle deficit isn't actually that large.

But the premise is not to get invaded at level two!

When Peanut first started playing professionally, Nidalee was also his specialty, so he naturally knew the hero's early-game strengths, especially the pressure of a level-two jungle invade.

Back then, he was the one who had been invaded at level two, leading to the famous scene where Canyon's Nidalee was 3 levels ahead at the 5-minute mark!

And because they lost their positioning in the top jungle, there was a high probability of wards in the top half; if he returned to the top half to farm, he would likely be caught by Nidalee—and as long as the ward in the Red jungle could detect that Vi didn't start Red, it would naturally confirm a Blue start.

Thinking about it this way, Vi seemed unable to escape being arrested by Nidalee at level two.

"Daoin, can you get lane priority in the bottom lane at level one?" Peanut thought for a long time and could only send a plea for help to the bottom lane: "If we don't have lane priority, it will be very passive if Nidalee comes to invade me at level two."

"If Neeko doesn't have Flash, it should be fine," Viper's reassuring voice came through quickly.

"Then I'll look for an opportunity at level one!" Lehends responded immediately.

Although Lehends and Viper had been separated for many years, they were, after all, original bottom-lane teammates with the bond of their debut; they had regained their former chemistry in less than half a year of working together.

The minion wave arrived.

The director's camera also focused on the bottom half of the map.

"Oh my, two Caitlyns!" Miller on the LPL commentary desk lit up: "I feel like this Neeko support for V5 really has something going for it!"

Wawa also nodded in praise: "It's all about understanding. Neeko support's positioning should originally be a poke-style soft support? Paired with Caitlyn, this long-range monster, she can literally poke the opponents until they can't take care of themselves!"

Because Neeko has the mechanism of inheriting the base stats of the disguised unit, when Ye Bo used Neeko for the first time, he used the technique of turning into Caitlyn to lane in the mid lane.

The 650-yard attack range, which is top-tier in the League, is a built-in bargaining chip for the laning phase.

And Neeko support turning into Caitlyn during the laning phase... the laning pressure of "two Caitlyns" is maxed out!

However, Jinx being one of the strong core ADs of the patch naturally has its reasons.

Jinx's Q skill, switching weapons to the 【Fishbones】 rocket launcher, increases her range from 525 yards to 605 yards; although still slightly shorter than Caitlyn, at least she won't be kited too miserably—and relying on the rocket launcher's AOE auto-attack ability, she has a natural advantage in pushing speed!

The key game is still between the two supports.

As a hard support, if Nautilus can land a hook, fighting is definitely still a cut above Neeko; conversely, if he can't land it, he will naturally be poked in the head by the two long-range champions.

And for a hard support, there are two conditions for wanting to land a hook in the laning phase.

One is no minions, and the other is no vision, which means fighting for the brush.

But Beryl, with great attention to detail, did not throw a ward into the brush at the first moment, but waited until Nautilus walked out of the brush to hit the support item passive before stepping to the side to place a ward in the second brush.

Even if Nautilus bought a sweeper at the start, he would definitely have placed a ward before returning to base to switch, so he definitely had no cooldown at this moment.

And as long as he occupied this key lane brush with this ward, it would be very difficult for Nautilus to press forward; if he didn't want to be poked for free frequently, he would have to concede and retreat, giving up lane priority!

In this way, the level one and two lane priority would be firmly grasped in V5's hands!

But just as Neeko leaned over to place the ward, a ward suddenly lit up in the brush illuminated by her vision.

Although Nautilus walked out of the brush, seeing Jinx, who clearly wanted to go into the brush to place a ward, he actually approached in advance and placed a ward almost simultaneously!

Raising the machine gun to start an auto-attack, then using Q rocket launcher and instantly switching back to the machine gun, using the in-place pacing to cancel the auto-attack backswing with the "gun switch," he executed the attack at the limit!

The moment Neeko's stealth ward disappeared, a machine gun auto-attack had already been fired, perfectly dismantling the ward solo!

"What the?"

Beryl didn't expect the opponent to be so decisive.

Even though he knew the little trick of Jinx's "fast gun-switch to kill a ward," he didn't expect the opponent to be so decisive in following up with a brush ward, directly dismantling this ward first.

At this moment, it was GEN that grabbed the brush vision; even if Caitlyn continued to lean over to place a second ward, it would still be dismantled by Jinx in the same way!

However, despite this, considering their jungler's level-two plan to cause trouble, V5's bottom lane still had to press forward to fight for the minion wave.

"This minion."

Viper's Jinx fired a rocket-form shot into the center, but the real intention was elsewhere; he repeated the trick of instantly switching to the machine gun to reset the auto-attack, firing at another minion—the splash damage from the rocket form plus the second hit from the machine gun instantly killed a minion standing in front of Neeko!

When Nautilus released that auto-attack, he threw out his hook simultaneously, flying almost past the corpse of the minion.

It grazed the "fake Caitlyn" behind!

"Hooked!"

Neeko took the hard CC and turned back into her original form, but immediately turned around and threw E at the Nautilus and Jinx in her face; the accelerated, buffed E flew forward rapidly.

But the moment Jinx took the 【Tangle-Barbs】, she directly used {Cleanse} to chase forward hard!

Nautilus even applied Ignite; he hadn't used his passive immediately, waiting until this moment to flash forward and land an auto-attack to try to keep Neeko and secure the kill!

But Beryl couldn't understand what kind of play this was from the opponent.

How could they kill me with this?

Neeko directly followed up by flashing backward, not letting the slow-winding Nautilus successfully land his passive, and successfully created distance. "Eh?? Does Neeko have Flash!"

Lehends, who had thought he had secured the kill, was even more confused: "Then how did he get in at level one?"

Viper was more pragmatic, not forgetting to send a reassuring signal to the jungler: "It's fine, we got the lane priority."

Although Neeko successfully created distance.

But without Flash, plus her health dropping significantly, she didn't dare to press forward too much at level one, otherwise, there might really be a risk of being killed in lane.

This play was equivalent to GEN's bottom lane using an extra Cleanse to forcibly grab lane priority and a slight laning advantage.

Peanut felt much more at ease upon hearing this; after finishing Blue, he continued to farm jungle monsters, not worried that Nidalee would come.

After all, the bottom lane priority wasn't even equal; if Nidalee dared to come now, she would just be waiting to be surrounded.

"Nice!" Roaring Emperor gave his praise happily: "GEN's successful aggressive play at level one in the bottom lane escorted the jungle! Nidalee shouldn't dare to come now! They successfully avoided and resolved the level-one disadvantage!"

"As long as Vi survives the transition through level two, the jungle disadvantage won't be that significant, and the higher the level, the less she fears Nidalee!"

"Yong-jun is right," Xu Xiu nodded in agreement, offering a 'know-it-all' style prediction: "If this Nidalee is playing aggressively, she should be rotating to invade the top-side red buff immediately. After all, they have the advantage in the mid and top lanes; perhaps she can continue trying to counter-jungle."

"If a champion like Nidalee fails to establish a jungle advantage early on, she might as well not be played! On this point, I still listen to—"

As Xu Xiu said this, he was clearly feeling nostalgic for his long-time partner.

However, now that the two have separated into different teams, and with the drama that stirred up among fans during the departure, it's not even convenient to mention it anymore, which is somewhat sigh-inducing.

And it was obvious.

Even a player like Xu Xiu, who isn't a jungler and only knows a little about Nidalee, knew that the best strategy for her right now was to go to Vi's red buff area.

Peanut naturally thought of this as well.

So, after safely finishing the Gromp, Vi didn't even bother with the Wolves and headed straight toward the top-side jungle.

"Mid and top, keep an eye on the jungle. Nidalee might come, but I can reach level three first!"

Peanut had a lot on his mind this turn.

Vi moved out immediately; since Nidalee had to travel between the two jungle halves, even if Vi took an extra Gromp, she would definitely arrive before the opponent finished their red buff.

Vi first placed a ward in her own red buff pit to confirm safety, then turned to start the Raptors, wanting to secure level three first.

"The top laner is pushing the wave." Doran noticed the Renekton's movement.

"Mid lane too... damn it!"

Chovy suddenly let out a startled cry while issuing a warning, causing Peanut to switch his screen to look, only to find it was just a normal trade between the two sides.

Actually, it really wasn't much.

It was just Sylas intentionally seizing the gap while K'Sante wanted to last-hit the cannon minion, dashing in with an E-W combo to trade.

K'Sante immediately set up his W in response—but because Sylas intentionally changed his positioning during the E-W displacement, he stood in a different direction from the cannon minion.

If K'Sante used his W to knock back Sylas now, he would miss the cannon minion behind him; if he didn't knock back Sylas, he would just take a free trade from the opponent!

Just as he heard the jungler's plea for lane priority, he helped Chovy make a human-like decision: he used his W to collide with Sylas and trade health.

Seeing the movement from the opponent's mid and top lanes simultaneously, Peanut became increasingly certain that a fierce battle was imminent.

However.

At this moment, Nidalee had already appeared in the bottom river, at a position and time where it was clearly impossible to invade Vi.

"What is Xun trying to do!"

The Roaring Emperor suddenly glanced at the minion wave on the right: "Could it be!?"

Their own jungler had gone to the top side, and the V5 bottom duo only had a disadvantage at level one because of the skills they leveled—if Neeko had leveled her W at level one, her poke ability as Caitlyn would undoubtedly be much stronger!

More importantly, with Neeko's W skill, as long as one's reaction is slightly faster, one can use the "clone to block a hook" method.

Theoretically, Neeko isn't afraid of Nautilus like other enchanter supports!

So after reaching level two, the lane dynamic shifted again; the GEN bottom lane saw no point in fighting for lane priority and chose to retreat, as they only needed to farm anyway.

"No way! Is this the meaning of support Neeko!?"

"GEN doesn't seem to have noticed at all!"

Although Neeko's tower-tanking is broken, it isn't actually "unsolvable."

First, taking hard crowd control will revert her form, so everyone now tries to save hard CC skills for Neeko.

Second, Neeko cannot use skills after transforming into a cannon minion and must stand at the edge of the defensive tower; when diving, it is equivalent to missing a mid-laner's damage output—this means that for the sake of stability when diving the bottom lane, it is best to call the jungler so as not to lack damage.

Furthermore, Neeko transforming into a minion to tank the tower doesn't mean she doesn't take damage.

Not to mention the risk of taking damage and being traded for a kill—just the fact that a mid-laner would lose a lot of health during every roam and be unable to return to lane is equivalent to ganking with their own life!

Support Neeko had not been developed before today.

And if it's a support Neeko, all these drawbacks can be solved!

Anyway, tower-tanking ability is almost unrelated to items, and there's no real need for a "support" to provide extra damage.

If it's a support, let alone taking damage while tanking, even if she tanks until death to get a trade, it doesn't matter at all!

When Viper saw the wave pushed in and Neeko walk into the tower to cast an E at Nautilus, he already sensed something was wrong.

But it was too late!

Nautilus was hit by the E and controlled, Caitlyn immediately followed up with a trap, and Neeko instantly transformed into a cannon minion to tank the tower—while a javelin flew in from behind the wall!

"Nautilus has no Flash here! A sudden tempo change from the V5 bottom and jungle!"

"Neeko returned to the tower edge, Nautilus couldn't control her to interrupt the transformation, and the level three Nidalee dived into the tower to output damage without pressure, even able to land two rotations to kill Nautilus!"

"Wait, but Viper!"

With the support dead and seeing two full-health giants in his face, many people's first reaction would definitely be to run away immediately, abandoning the tower minions to save their lives.

But Viper not only didn't retreat, he noticed the cannon minion behind him.

Although one cannot see Neeko's "true health" after she transforms into a minion—Viper calculated in his heart and was certain that the already-injured Neeko had less than 200 health left.

He ignored the two people in front of him, placed his mouse cursor on the target in advance, and then flashed forward to land an auto-attack!

Beryl clearly also thought the opponent might have designs on him, or was even intentionally giving Jinx the distance; the moment the opponent flashed, he immediately used W to go invisible and split, turning into two minions and running in two directions.

This move could potentially cause Jinx to lose her target after flashing, interrupting the auto-attack.

And once Jinx chose the wrong target and flashed to auto-attack the fake cannon minion, she might even waste her Flash and die!

But Viper's little trick worked.

He locked onto the target and attacked in advance, knowing the opponent hadn't used W yet; upon landing, he relied on the machine gun's rapid fire to avoid losing the target or having his auto-attack interrupted.

Most importantly, through the direction the bullet flew due to the final "target tracking."

Jinx successfully judged that the left side was the real body!

Switching from machine gun to cannon and back to machine gun, a barrage of fire killed Neeko in three shots, triggering the Get Excited! passive!

The Caitlyn and Nidalee behind naturally wouldn't let the opponent go.

Seeing Jinx hugging the wall to escape and placing E Flame Chompers to block the path, Nidalee also decisively used Flash to chase hard.

"Nidalee uses Flash to chase in the jungle, Jinx will definitely be chased to death... but this is actually the best result!" The Roaring Emperor tried his best to save face.

"Jinx couldn't have stayed under the tower anyway, and she couldn't have taken the wave first! Trading a Flash and a kill is already a huge stop-loss!"

Xu Xiu couldn't help but sigh: "This is what V5 is best at, the teamwork I mentioned earlier!"

"Their side-lane support is too fast; the mid and top were already helping to act and disguise before the bottom lane even revealed their intentions. Especially in the mid lane, if I were Chovy and saw the opposing mid-laner trading so boldly, I would definitely think they wanted to invade!"

"This level of multi-lane coordination, combined seamlessly, is what makes GEN unable to notice anything; even with our god's-eye view, it's hard to judge accurately!"

【Did Brother Xu reincarnate as Kid the God of Gaming? Why is he licking Ye so hard today!】

【Good! I announce that I hold a 'Show-Soldier' certificate and can expedite my application to join the sect!】

【Support Neeko is right! Yes!】

【Bad, I can already feel that all the autofilled supports in ranked will be Neeko; ADC players are in for a treat~~】

【So what is Peanut doing, may I ask? Nidalee is constantly ganking, and Vi is constantly farming?】

Listening to this person next to him constantly praising V5, especially the mid-laner, Scout always felt a bit inexplicably annoyed!

He couldn't help but offer an evaluation: "V5 is an early-game lineup after all, it's normal to get a small advantage early on; these few plays are still acceptable."

"Once K'Sante hits level six, the dragon might still be contestable; the Sylas at level six couldn't possibly be as useful as K'Sante..."

(End of chapter)