Chapter 252: King of Rock, Paper, Scissors! What Do You Mean, Absolute Core!

"Wait, is this a mid-lane Gragas!?"

The "Hail Brothers" on the commentary desk, who were still in the middle of analyzing the matchup, finally realized something was wrong, but they quickly and skillfully shifted their tone.

"So he's shaking things up again! Ye played Gragas mid last year too. It must have been when EDG played JDG, laning against Yagao!" Wawa quickly jogged his memory.

"Oh right, I think we were the ones casting that match!" Miller also recalled happily: "I remember that Gragas made Gaoge's Taliyah feel a bit dizzy~"

"Speaking of which, this is another major feature of the V5 team; everyone has an incredibly deep champion pool. Being able to shake up the draft like this is one of the foundations for why the team can repeatedly gain an advantage in the pick-and-ban phase!"

Following the commentators' mention, the viewers in the stream also recalled memories from last year.

In fact, ever since Gragas was buffed in the summer season version last year, he hadn't received any nerfs or adjustments; he had remained at those same stats.

So he had always been in a "playable" state.

But the reason his pick rate wasn't particularly high was due to the three words: "Priority Order."

It was simply because there were better choices.

Just like when Ye Bo needs a pure assassin, his highest priority is definitely ranked from Akali, LeBlanc, to Sylas. Only with {specific team compositions} or {specific champion counter-matchups} would he choose options like Pyke or Akshan.

But coming to a season with global pick-and-ban, the existence of the "champion burning" logic meant these heroes now had more possibilities to appear.

When Chovy saw Gragas on the loading screen, he was clearly stunned for a moment.

The reason he was wavering between Azir, Orianna, and Aurelion Sol earlier was that he felt Aurelion Sol would be more comfortable laning against a melee champion like Lee Sin, allowing him to happily farm his "Stardust" passive while also maintaining speed for jungle support.

Although Gragas is also a melee champion, his positioning is clearly that of a skill-based mage, and his laning logic is completely different from Lee Sin's.

As the number of champions Ye Bo has used on the field continues to grow, especially some relatively niche ones, it has become very difficult for opponents to fully anticipate his picks before the match; it's impossible to think of every single champion he has ever picked during every draft!

After all, you can't just consider whether he can beat Nunu or Pyke every time you pick a champion, right?

The good news is, considering it's hard for Lee Sin to poke Aurelion Sol in lane, Chovy's rune shards were set to {Health}, which helped him dodge a bullet regarding stat deviation.

"If we're talking about level one, GEN still has the advantage. With Sion and Viego, they should have a significant edge. Will they go for a level-one play?" The Roaring Emperor leaned forward, full of anticipation.

"Oh, it seems they aren't. GEN is still too steady."

The loss in the first game was attributed by the coaching staff to the GEN players not following the original plan.

And everyone received a strict order for this game: they must "follow the steps" according to the pre-match layout and preparation to advance the game.

High-variance plays like level-one team fights were naturally strictly forbidden.

In fact, if you look closely at GEN's match recordings, you'll find that this team definitely has the lowest level-one team fight participation rate among all top teams.

This is the team's characteristic, just like how some teams have the characteristic of occasionally throwing a big one.

The Roaring Emperor took the opportunity to transition into laning analysis: "The lineup for this game is basically standard matchups; the only rare one is the mid lane."

"You two, what do you think about this matchup?"

Scout's first reaction was to search his memory—Gragas mid still had a slight pick rate in the LPL, and the first mid-lane Gragas of this season seemed to be the one he faced.

That match was when Xiaohu, who had gone to TES, played Gragas, and he played Azir.

Unfortunately, perhaps because TES hadn't fully gelled at the start of the season, even the "Spring Tiger Emperor" had a hint of a "gutter oil" stench, and they were kicked to the curb by LNG, who no one was optimistic about at the time, losing two-zero.

Azir and Aurelion Sol should be about the same, right?

Thinking of this, Scout confidently opened his mouth to comment: "In my impression, Gragas isn't great against long-range champions. Laning against long-range champions basically means you only have one Q skill, and your trading method is singular. Especially if you can dodge the Gragas Q with movement, he has no way to poke. Just don't stand with the minions."

ShowMaker also searched his brain for a moment and gave an ambiguous answer: "I'm not particularly familiar with Gragas either, but in my impression, Faker played quite a few games in the spring season, and his laning seemed quite strong."

On the field, Chovy couldn't hear their voices and had already entered the zone with full concentration.

The minion waves clashed.

The two began their mind games the moment they met.

Aurelion Sol kept moving back and forth in the minion wave, trying to bait out the Gragas Q.

Aurelion Sol's Q range increases with level; the level-one Q cast range is only 750 yards, while Gragas's Q cast range is 850 yards.

Chovy could naturally think of the mind-game points that could be thought of from a god's-eye view. He was constantly hovering on the edge of the range while keeping his distance from the minions, so even if the baiting failed, he wouldn't be "pushed along with the minions."

The cooldown of Gragas's level-one Q is as long as ten seconds—as long as he can bait it out, Aurelion Sol can push forward directly and use his piercing Q to suppress the opponent!

It is worth mentioning.

Many of the Aurelion Sol "mechanic tricks" previously pioneered by Ye Bo were not deleted by the designers.

For example, the "Dragon Raising Its Head" piercing Q, which many people call a "bug."

Regarding this, it was also a decision made by the Riot balance team after careful consideration.

Deleting or changing such a unique mechanic would, on one hand, definitely be condemned by players, who would say it limits the development enthusiasm of the player base.

On the other hand, there is indeed the factor of the ID {ye} existing!

No kidding, the ID {ye} now has a huge number of fans in global regions. Doing something like fixing it right after someone else uses it is just waiting to receive a barrage of criticism from fans across global regions!

Plus, admitting these are bugs would be a bit of a slap in the face to the design team themselves.

It's simply the ultimate thankless task, getting scolded from all sides!

So, although there is no explicit rule within the Riot balance team, and even the designers haven't had similar discussions among themselves, most of them have a tacit understanding of the operations developed by this ID.

—This is just like ten years ago, when Li Xianghe developed the "Cassiopeia backward R-Flash" on the field, which existed for a full two years before being "secretly" deleted in a certain update.

This has nothing to do with the designers' personal preferences for players; it's simply that no one wants to take the initiative to provoke those angry players and fans.

Of course, this inevitably brings some side effects.

Because of the existence of such techniques that are difficult to execute but have obvious effects, designers can only start from stats and other aspects if they want to nerf them, which is why Aurelion Sol's stats were nerfed for two consecutive versions before the MSI version.

However, Chovy thinks it doesn't have much impact; his Aurelion Sol can ignore the version!

It's just that his current thoughts, in Ye Bo's eyes, look as deliberate as if they were written on his forehead.

Seeing Aurelion Sol constantly using "instant Q" to spit at him to test the waters, brushing against him to tickle him with Scorch and Comet.

Ye Bo doesn't take it to heart at all, just stepping up to auto-attack the minion wave.

Other heroes might not be able to hold back from an instant Q—Aurelion Sol's instant Q, although the current version has added a fixed {minimum 1-second} cooldown, still costs only single-digit mana. Even if it's just a mosquito bite, you can still gain a health advantage in trades.

But Gragas is different!

As a hero with built-in sustain, this bit of scratchy health consumption can be recovered with one passive "wheat juice" heal; the mana-to-health exchange is simply not on the same level!

Chovy soon realized this and found that the opponent wasn't falling for it at all.

So he immediately changed his approach, shifting to a slightly riskier way of trading.

Seeing Aurelion Sol start to push forward.

Gragas immediately threw out a {Barrel Roll} with an underhand toss. But when Aurelion Sol saw the barrel flying over, his movement didn't stop; he continued to move forward!

Gragas's Q is a {pure mind-game} skill.

Because the rolling process has no {range indicator} in the enemy's vision, and it cannot undergo any {distance changes} after being released, it can only be detonated after reaching the designated location.

This means that when the enemy sees Gragas release Q, they don't know the final landing spot, making it very difficult to "instantly" dodge—of course, if Gragas's own landing spot judgment is poor, it's also very easy to "miss the Q."

This is extremely common in Gragas top-lane laning.

And Chovy's counter-intuitive move forward this time was based on the certainty that the opponent would place the Q behind him, so he pulled off a big reverse movement to dodge it.

If he really managed to dodge it, Gragas would effectively be in a 10-second vacuum period after missing.

Aurelion Sol could directly get close and use "Dragon Raising Its Head" to suppress him for ten seconds!

However, the {Barrel Roll} stopped almost exactly at the soles of Aurelion Sol's feet.

Chovy's eyes widened slightly, and he could only react quickly by turning around to spray his Q Dragon Breath!

Simply because the landing spot of this barrel was extremely centered!

It was clearly almost impossible for Aurelion Sol to walk out of it; in order not to be hit for free, he had to forcibly counter-attack and push the wave.

The result was that Aurelion Sol took a fully charged {Barrel Roll} squarely, directly being blasted for a full 163 points of panel damage, plus Comet and Scorch!

You have to know, Aurelion Sol only has 600 health with no items at level one!

The scary part is.

This was clearly not a coincidence.

The second time, the third time... the fourth time!

Before the second wave of minions was even cleared, Aurelion Sol had been blasted four times in the same way.

In less than two and a half minutes, he had already finished both of his health potions!

"No way!?" The Roaring Emperor's mouth formed a "convex" shape: "How can Aurelion Sol keep getting blasted like this! How can he even lane after eating full Gragas Qs every time!? If he gets hit two more times, he'll have to go home!"

"What is wrong with Chovy! This is one of his best heroes from the spring season!!!"

As the saying goes, the expert looks at the technique.

The vast majority of the audience, including the Roaring Emperor, felt that Chovy's Aurelion Sol looked simply "stupid" to an outrageous degree.

It was like he walked up himself to get hit by the full Gragas Q, and then when he saw the Q coming, he didn't run, just stood in place and took it.

But ShowMaker, who saw the trick in it, was already sweating a little.

It was as if he had empathized and put himself in the game.

"Ya-i-shi... this is a bit exaggerated. What kind of prediction is this?"

"Ye has completely seen through Chovy!!"

He first briefly explained to the audience the principle of Gragas's Q "landing as soon as it's cast."

Trying to let the chat understand that this really wasn't Chovy being "bad," but a pure mind game of prediction and movement between the two sides.

"Because Aurelion Sol's piercing Q needs to be close to enemy minions to be used, and Chovy can't get close from the minion wave to avoid being poked along with the minions, he can only keep using this forward-pressing stance. Actually, as long as he can successfully dodge the Q, it's a huge loss for Gragas!"

"But it just so happens that Ye seems to be able to guess Aurelion Sol's movement intentions every single time!"

ShowMaker felt he still hadn't explained it clearly: "How should I explain it? It's like they're playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, but Ye can guess that the opponent is going to play Scissors every time, and then he plays Rock!"

This time, even Scout didn't talk tough, saying in a low, worried voice: "Aurelion Sol is in a bit of a dilemma now. Either he completely gives up on trading and hides behind the minion wave, but that means handing over lane priority."

"If he wants to fight for lane priority, he can only continue to engage in this mind game, but if he gets traded on two more times, there might even be a risk of being killed." "The decision-making pressure on Aurelion Sol is huge."

Only professional mid-lane players can truly understand the pressure Chovy is facing at this moment.

If he doesn't push forward to contest space, the Gragas will just Q to shove the wave. Once his own minions are whittled down, if the Aurelion Sol walks up from at least 850 units away, he's just courting death by walking into the minion wave!

But if he wants to trade, he has to push forward to contest space because his Q is shorter than the opponent's!

And the result and price of pushing forward is a series of failed mind games.

Is this even laning against a Gragas anymore!?

Chovy felt a faint dampness on his forehead; he couldn't understand why the opponent seemed to see through his true intentions with every single move.

It was as if he wouldn't cast Q if he took a step back, but would strike immediately if he took a step forward.

The answer—is actually just that Ye Bo understands Aurelion Sol too well.

Ye Bo's judgment is very simple; it's not some metaphysical "predictive mind game."

It is purely an understanding of the champion.

Plus a little bit of understanding of this opponent.

The reason Chovy's Aurelion Sol is called a signature pick, besides the fact that this champion type is a super-farmer he excels at, is more importantly because this person stacks his passive extremely fast.

In the Spring Split, some bored viewers even made a comparison and found that Chovy's stacking speed was even faster than Ye Bo, who is also proficient with Aurelion Sol!

It seems this person has a unique talent for "stacking."

As for the reason, it is actually very simple.

Simply put, his obsession with "farming" is far greater than others—for the sake of farming, he can even sacrifice health, minion wave states, and even teammates.

To put it bluntly, others might feel that if they use Q to get that stack, they might get hit, but Chovy would rather get hit than miss that stack.

So, what does Aurelion Sol rely on for stacking?

A beginner's understanding would definitely assume it's the E, but what actually creates the gap in stacking efficiency is the Q.

You can only use the E skill once per wave at most, throwing the black hole into the minion pile—who can't do that?

But the Q skill, which spits at champions, grants extra Stardust every time it completes a full rotation; this is the skill that can truly be triggered frequently and accelerate growth.

Then Ye Bo's judgment is very simple.

Because it takes 1. 5 seconds for Aurelion Sol to complete a full rotation from the start of the cast, but the Q skill only has a range of 750 units in the early game, Aurelion Sol must be within at least 600 units to have a chance to complete a full rotation if the opponent retreats immediately.

And the key point is the champion Gragas—his Q skill is not just 100 units longer; counting the coverage area, it can actually reach 900 units, so the initiative always lies with the Gragas.

Therefore.

As soon as Ye Bo notices the opponent's positioning within 600 units, he releases a "short Q"; if they start turning back beyond 600, he releases a mid-range Q at their feet; beyond 700 units, he doesn't cast Q at all.

Speaking of which, one has to praise Chovy as a master of "distance control."

Because if his distance control were even slightly worse, he might have accidentally landed a few!

"The laning pressure in the mid lane is just too high!"

The Roaring Emperor watched the mid laner recall early and couldn't help but call out anxiously.

"Because the mid laner recalled first, the Gragas is in quite good shape; does it look like he's going to coordinate with the jungler to invade the jungle?"

"The Lee Sin has already started a fierce invasion and found the Viego!"

The minion wave disadvantage in the mid lane has begun to affect the jungle early on.

Originally, this was a relatively stable start for GEN, and under the strict vision deployment ordered by the coaching staff, Xun hadn't found any openings to make a move in the first four minutes.

But with the mid lane missing and the Gragas's status unknown, this is practically an open declaration of a hard jungle invasion.

Peanut had clearly just replenished his items from base; facing a Lee Sin who hadn't recalled yet, he should have had an item advantage, but when they bumped into each other, he couldn't even fight back and could only run blindly, abandoning the resetting jungle camps!

However, in reality, Xun was just acting like a fox borrowing a tiger's might.

"Oh no, the Gragas went to the top lane! Doran doesn't seem to have noticed either!"

"It's this same trick of using momentum to act; GEN really hasn't learned their lesson!"

If this were a "bolder" team or player, Viego clearly has an item advantage; even if he knew someone was behind him, he would definitely have traded a few blows with the Lee Sin to vent his frustration.

At the very least, he wouldn't have run away so decisively.

But as the saying goes, every team has its own characteristics.

A team as extremely formulaic and disciplined as GEN is naturally very resistant to this kind of chaotic jungle skirmish.

Peanut also long ago lost his youthful edge; seeing a Lee Sin who hadn't recalled daring to chase him, combined with the mid lane missing, he didn't even dare to turn his head and willingly let himself be beaten for free.

"Aigoo! The Gragas is in the top lane!"

The bad news came from the top lane Sion, and Peanut realized it too late, but his health had already been kicked down by nearly half by the Lee Sin, and he still couldn't fight back!

And Doran was also running blindly.

The jungler has gaps to recall early, but the solo laner earned this roaming time purely through lane priority; neither the top nor mid had recalled yet.

The good news is that the Gragas isn't level six yet, so theoretically, the Sion is still hard to kill.

In the end, the Sion only had his Flash and summoner spells burned, and the Gragas helped the Jayce push another wave into the tower.

"Flandre, I'm short on gold, it's quite critical! Give me a cannon minion!" Ye Bo glanced at his item slot and shouted.

"Take it all, take it all, take it all, it doesn't matter if I fight the Sion," Li Xuanjun shouted without a second thought: "There are also plating stacks, I'll hit them, you just touch them."

The Jayce landed a full side-angle EQ, followed by a Hammer Form Q jump, but didn't activate the W electric AOE, leaving all the minions at low health.

The Gragas easily ate them all with his belly!

The Gragas walked forward to auto-attack the defensive tower to get an assist, then saved time by retreating directly to recall, while the Jayce stayed under the tower to tank the harassment from the landed Sion, forcibly sending the tower plating gold back home.

"Wow, this treatment for Ye... Gragas mid, shouldn't it be a utility mid like Lissandra or Annie?"

The Roaring Emperor, from the observer's perspective, had just finished sighing when he suddenly looked enlightened.

"I get it! This move by V5 might be to defend against the offensive GEN made in the previous game!"

"Jayce and Renekton are very similar, but forcing out the top lane Teleport can turn the risk GEN took in the top lane last game into ashes! Instead, V5 has Jayce's Teleport as a safety net! At the same time, the Lee Sin is heading directly to the Dragon after draining Viego's health, and the GEN bot lane doesn't dare to push forward!"

"This dual-lane coordination between the mid and jungle, although it didn't result in a kill, has quietly spread the rhythm of the killing intent!"

"And the Gragas's items after returning to base are explosive; GEN really needs to save Chovy, the mid lane cannot be pressured like this!"

【What is an absolute core? It's that no matter what he plays, he is the absolute core!】

【Peanut is hilarious, having an item advantage and getting chased away? He's cowardly to the extreme!】

【Sigh, Peanut can't deny he's getting old; back then he kicked Clearlove like a ball, now the new generation is kicking him like a ball too~】

【In the past, there was a level 4 Kha'Zix fighting a level 6 Pantheon; today there is a naked running little Xun gnawing on an item-heavy Peanut!】

【Can you blame the jungler for this? How is the jungler supposed to play when the mid lane is inexplicably missing? It's unreasonable to blame our Peanut-chan for this!】

【Serves him right! Chovy shouldn't have done anything else, but he shouldn't have played Aurelion Sol in front of the real Dragon King! This is a fake being exposed; at best, he's a crooked-mouthed Dragon King!】

GEN looked at the opponent's bot lane pushing forward and clearly guessed that they were going to move on the Dragon.

Viper, after joining GEN, had adapted quite quickly to the team's steady operational environment, and after playing through a spring season, he felt there were no problems.

But now, arriving at the international tournament, he encountered V5 again, or rather, he encountered his old teammate Ye Bo.

He suddenly found that in this team, why did he always feel uncomfortable as he played!

Thinking back to last year, he was so relaxed in his team.

He didn't need to use his brain at all; he just had to listen to the mid lane's commands to fight and then win—it was simply a heavenly life!

However, Viper and his teammates who spent day and night together for half a year didn't spend that time in vain.

At this moment, he couldn't help but think.

If he were Ye Bo right now, what would he do?

"Lehends, why don't you not go back, and go to the mid lane with Peanut?"

Viper looked at the changes on the mini-map and suddenly had an idea: "The three of them in the bot jungle are going to do the Dragon; the Gragas will probably Teleport to the mid lane. As long as I don't go to the Dragon, the Gragas probably won't go either. I feel like we can try it..."

"Help Ji-hoon."

This kind of fleeting opportunity requires a great deal of ability from the commander and the attackers to seize the moment.

And to be honest.

Lehends, whose roaming is a weakness, and Peanut, whose blade has long since dulled, really couldn't seize such an opportunity.

Viper, who is still in his prime, undoubtedly possesses this ability—but in fact, he was mainly reminded of a match from last year.

It was very similar to the current situation, and they at EDG had used a similar tactic.

The scene overlapped slightly, only the IDs had changed.

"It really works!!"

Peanut examined it and found it was indeed an opportunity.

Viego had been driven out of his own bottom jungle and had nowhere to go for a moment, and the support was preparing to recall after being pushed in by the opponent's bot lane, so he should have had no guard up.

This time, they circled from behind their own jungle, surrounding them from both sides.

It really seemed like they could land an unexpected blow!

Chovy, under immense laning pressure, heard that his teammates were finally coming to rescue him and immediately felt like he saw the dawn.

(End of chapter)