Chapter 252: King of Rock, Paper, Scissors! What do you mean by

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

The "Haier Brothers" on the commentary desk, who had been busy with their usual banter, finally realized something was off, 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 too!" Miller recalled with a chuckle. "I remember that Gragas made Yagao's Azir feel a bit dizzy~"

"Come to think of it, this is another major feature of the V5 team. Everyone has an incredibly deep champion pool, and their ability to shake up the draft is one of the foundations for why they so often hold the advantage in BP!"

Prompted by the commentators, the viewers in the stream also recalled memories from last year.

In truth, ever since Gragas was buffed in the summer season patch last year, he hadn't received any nerfs or adjustments; his stats remained exactly as they were in that version.

Therefore, he had always been in a "playable" state.

But the reason his pick rate wasn't particularly high came down to one word: "Priority."

It was simply because there were better choices available.

Just like when Ye Bo needs a pure assassin, his highest priority is always Akali, LeBlanc, or Sylas. Only with a {specific team composition} or a {specific champion counter-matchup} would he choose options like Pyke or Akshan.

But with the arrival of the global BP season and the existence of the "champion burning" logic, these heroes now had more possibilities to appear.

When Chovy saw Gragas on the loading screen, he was clearly taken aback.

He had been oscillating between Azir, Orianna, and Aurelion Sol earlier, precisely because he felt Aurelion Sol would be more comfortable laning against a melee champion like Lee Sin, allowing him to farm his "Stardust" passive happily while also maintaining jungle support speed.

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 Ye Bo has used more and more champions on the professional stage, 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 champion he's ever picked during every single BP phase!

After all, you can't pick a champion and then have to consider whether he can beat Nunu or Pyke, right?

The good news is that considering Lee Sin has a hard time poking Aurelion Sol in lane, Chovy brought {Health} as his rune shard, which helped him avoid an attribute mismatch.

"If we're talking about level one, GEN still holds the advantage. They should have a significant edge having grabbed Sion and Viego. Will they go for a level one design?" The Roaring Emperor leaned forward, full of expectation.

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

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

And this game, everyone had received a strict order to proceed "by the book," following the pre-match setup and preparation to advance the game.

High-variance gambles 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 participation rate in level one team fights among all top-tier teams.

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

The Roaring Emperor smoothly transitioned to laning analysis: "The matchups in this game are basically standard, with the exception of the mid lane."

"Gentlemen, what do you think of this matchup?"

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

That match was played by Xiaohu on TES, who played Gragas, while 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 "gutter oil" odor, 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 spoke up: "In my impression, Gragas isn't great against long-range champions. Mainly, laning against long-range champions is equivalent to only having one Q skill; his trading means are singular. Especially if you can dodge the Gragas Q with movement, he has no way to poke. You just need to avoid standing with the minion wave."

Xu Xiu 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 a few games in the spring season, and his laning seemed quite strong."

Chovy, on the field, couldn't hear their voices and had already entered a state of total concentration.

The minion waves clashed.

The two began their game of wits the moment they met.

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

Aurelion Sol's Q distance 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 tactical points that could be seen from the god's-eye view. He was constantly hovering at the edge of the range while keeping his distance from the minions, so even if the bait failed, he wouldn't be "pushed along with the minions."

Gragas's level one Q cooldown is as long as ten seconds—as long as it can be baited out, Aurelion Sol can directly press forward and use his piercing Q to suppress the opponent!

It is worth mentioning.

Many of the Aurelion Sol "mechanic techniques" first developed by Ye Bo had not been deleted by the designers.

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

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

On one hand, deleting such unique mechanics would 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 a mechanic right after someone else uses it is just waiting to receive a barrage of criticism from fans across the globe!

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

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

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

—This is just like ten years ago, when Lee Sang-hyeok developed the "Cassiopeia Backwards R-Flash" on the professional stage, 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 stick their neck out and provoke those angry players and fans.

Of course, this inevitably brings some side effects.

Because of the existence of such difficult-to-execute but clearly effective techniques, designers can only start from stats and other aspects if they want to nerf them, which led to Aurelion Sol being nerfed in stats for two consecutive versions before the MSI patch.

However, Chovy thinks the impact is not significant; his Aurelion Sol can ignore the version!

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

Seeing Aurelion Sol constantly using "instant Q" to spit at him, testing the waters and scratching him with Scorch and Comet.

Ye Bo didn't take it to heart at all, just stepped forward to auto-attack the minion wave.

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

But Gragas is different!

As a hero with self-healing, this bit of scraping health consumption can be recovered with a single passive "Happy Hour" drink. The mana-to-health exchange is simply not on the same level!

Chovy soon realized this and found that the opponent wasn't taking the bait at all.

So he immediately changed his thinking and shifted to a slightly riskier trading method.

Seeing Aurelion Sol start to press forward.

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

Gragas's Q is a {pure game of wits} skill.

Because the rolling of the Q has no {range indicator} in the enemy's vision, and it cannot undergo any {distance changes} after being released, it only detonates upon reaching the designated location.

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

This point is extremely common in Gragas top lane laning.

And Chovy's counter-intuitive forward movement this time was based on the certainty that the opponent would place the Q behind him, which is why he pulled out a large reverse movement to dodge it.

If he really managed to dodge it, Gragas would effectively enter a 10-second vacuum period.

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

However, the Barrel Roll stopped almost exactly at Aurelion Sol's feet.

Chovy's eyes widened slightly, and he could only react quickly and immediately turn 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. To avoid being hit for free, he could only forcibly counter-attack and push the wave.

The result was that Aurelion Sol took a solid, fully-charged Barrel Roll, directly exploding for a full 163 points of panel damage, plus Comet and Scorch!

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

What's scary 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 exploded 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 exploded like this!? How can he lane after taking full Gragas Qs repeatedly!? If he takes two more, he'll have to go home!"

"What's wrong with Chovy!? This is one of his most proficient heroes in the spring season!!!"

The so-called "insiders look at the doorway."

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

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

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

It was as if he had empathized and put himself into the field.

"Ya-xi... 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 released."

Attempting to let the stream understand that this really wasn't Chovy being "bad," but a pure game of wits between the two sides regarding prediction and movement.

"Because Aurelion Sol's piercing Q requires being close to enemy minions to use, and Chovy can't get close from the minion wave to avoid being poked along with the minions, he can only maintain this forward-pressing stance. Actually, as long as he can successfully dodge the Q, Gragas is at a huge loss!"

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

Xu Xiu 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 try to be tough, saying in a low voice with some worry: "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's handing over lane priority."

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

Only mid-lane professional players can best understand the pressure Chovy is facing right now.

If he doesn't press forward to give a position, Gragas will directly Q to push the wave. After his own minions' health is whittled down, Aurelion Sol will walk up from at least 850 yards away. By the time he walks into the minion wave, that's just courting death!

But if he wants to trade, because his Q is shorter than the opponent's, he must press forward to give a position!

And the continuous failure of the game of wits is the result and price of pressing forward.

Is this still laning against Gragas!?

Chovy felt his forehead was slightly damp, unable to understand why the opponent seemed to be able to see his true thoughts every time.

It seemed like if he took a step back, he wouldn't use Q; if he took a step forward, he would release it immediately...

The answer—actually, it's just that Ye Bo understands Aurelion Sol too well.

Ye Bo's judgment is very simple, not some metaphysical "prediction game."

It's purely an understanding of the hero.

Plus a little bit of understanding of this opponent.

The reason Chovy's Aurelion Sol is called a "specialty" is not only because this hero type is one he is very good at as a super farmer, but a more important reason is actually that this person's speed of "stacking passive layers" is extremely fast.

In this regard, there were even bored viewers in the spring season who made comparisons and found that Chovy's stacking speed was even faster than Ye Bo, who is also good at Aurelion Sol!

It seems this person has a unique talent in the aspect of "stacking layers."

As for the reason, it's actually very simple.

Simply put, this person's obsession with "development" is far greater than others—for the sake of development, he can even sacrifice health, minion wave posture, and even teammates...

To put it bluntly, others feel that the layer from that Q might get hit, but Chovy would rather get hit than miss that Q layer.

So, what does Aurelion Sol's stacking rely on?

A beginner's understanding would definitely think it relies on E, but what actually widens the stacking efficiency gap is Q.

The E skill can be used at most once per wave, throwing the black hole into the minion wave—who doesn't know how to do that?

But the Q skill spitting at heroes, each full rotation will grant extra Stardust; this is the skill that can truly be triggered frequently and can accelerate growth.

Then Ye Bo's judgment is very simple.

Because Aurelion Sol needs 1.25 seconds from release to a full rotation, but the Q skill only has 750 yards in the early game. If Aurelion Sol wants to be able to spit a full rotation while the opponent retreats immediately, the starting cast distance must be close to 600 yards to have a chance.

And the key point is still the hero Gragas—the Q skill is not just 100 yards longer; counting the coverage area, it can actually reach 900 yards. The active initiative always lies in Gragas's hands.

So.

As long as Ye Bo discovers the opponent's movement within 600 yards, he directly releases a "short Q"; if they start turning back beyond 600, he releases a medium-distance Q at their feet; beyond 700 yards, he doesn't use Q at all.

Speaking of which, I have to praise Chovy as a master of "distance control."

Because if his distance control were even a little bit worse, he might have been able to guess right a few times!

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

The Roaring Emperor, seeing the mid lane return to base early, couldn't help but speak up anxiously.

"Because the mid lane returned to base first, Gragas's state is still quite good. Does it seem like he's going to cooperate with the jungler to invade the jungle?"

"Lee Sin has already started a strong invasion and found Viego!"

The minion wave disadvantage in the mid lane began to affect the jungle early.

Originally, GEN's early game was relatively stable, and under the strict vision deployment ordered by the coaching staff, Xun hadn't been able to find any flaws to act on in the first four minutes.

But unfortunately, the mid lane was empty, and Gragas's status was "miss," which was simply an open declaration of a hard jungle invasion.

Peanut had clearly just replenished his equipment from home, and in this wave, facing a Lee Sin who hadn't returned home, he should have had an equipment advantage. As a result, when they bumped into each other, he couldn't fight back and could only run wildly, abandoning the jungle that was resetting and refreshing!

However, in reality, Xun was just "borrowing the tiger's prestige."

"The bad Gragas went to the top lane! Doran doesn't seem to have noticed either!"

"It's this trick of borrowing momentum to act again. GEN really hasn't learned their lesson!"

If this wave were a team or player who was a bit more "reckless," Viego clearly had an equipment advantage, and even if he knew someone was behind him, he would definitely have to clash with Lee Sin to vent his anger.

At least he wouldn't run away so cleanly and decisively.

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

A team like GEN, which is extremely formulaic and rule-bound, is inherently very resistant to this kind of jungle chaos.

Peanut had long since lost his sharpness from back in the day. Seeing that a Lee Sin who hadn't returned home dared to chase him, plus the mid lane miss, he didn't even dare to turn his head and was willing to be hit for free.

"Aigoo! Gragas is in the top lane!"

Sion in the top lane sent bad news, and Peanut only then realized it, but his state had already been kicked by Lee Sin for nearly half, and he still couldn't fight back!

And Doran was also running away blindly.

The jungler had a gap to return to base early, but the solo laner had used the lane priority to create roaming time, and both top and mid hadn't returned to base yet.

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

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

"Brother Shengqiang, I'm a bit short on money, it's quite critical! Give me a car!" Ye Bo shouted after glancing at his equipment bar.

"You take it all, you take it all, you take it all. It doesn't matter if I fight Sion," Li Xuanjun shouted without even thinking: "There are also plating layers, I'll fight it, you just come and touch it."

Jayce hit a full EQ from the side, then switched to hammer form and jumped up with Q, but didn't open the W electric AOE, just enough to leave all the minions crippled.

Gragas easily ate them all with his belly!

Gragas walked forward and auto-attacked the defensive tower to get an assist, then saved time and directly retreated to base, while Jayce tanked the harassment of the landing Sion under the tower, forcibly sending the defensive tower plating home.

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

The Roaring Emperor, from the god's-eye view, had just finished sighing when he suddenly looked enlightened.

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

"Jayce and Renekton are very similar, but forcing the top lane TP can turn the risk of GEN sacrificing the top lane in the previous game into ashes! On the contrary, V5 has Jayce's TP to back them up! At the same time, Lee Sin went directly to the small dragon after blowing Viego's state, and the GEN bottom lane didn't dare to press forward either!"

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

"And Gragas's equipment is explosive after returning to base. GEN really needs to save Chovy; the mid lane cannot be suppressed like this!"

{What do you mean by absolute core? It means whatever he plays, he is the absolute core! }

{Peanut is really laughing, having an equipment advantage and being chased away? He's cowardly to the extreme! }

{Sigh, Peanut can't deny he's getting old. Back then he kicked the Factory Manager like a ball, now the new generation is also kicking him like a ball~}

{In the past, there was a level four Mantis fighting a level six Pantheon; today there is a naked little Xun gnawing on an equipped Peanut! }

{Can this be blamed on the jungler? How is the jungler supposed to play when the mid lane is inexplicably missing a person? Blaming our Peanut sauce for this is really unreasonable! }

{Deserved! Right-hand man shouldn't have done it, 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, looking at the opponent's bottom lane pressing forward, clearly guessed that the opponent was going to move on the dragon.

Viper, after coming to GEN, had adapted quite quickly to the team's steady operational environment, and after a spring season, he felt there was no problem.

But now that he had come to the international tournament, he had encountered V5 again, or rather, he had encountered his old teammate Ye Bo.

He suddenly found that in this team, why was he always feeling uncomfortable while playing!

Thinking of last year, he was so relaxed in the team.

He didn't need to use his brain at all, just listen to the mid-lane command to fight, and then win. It was simply a god-like life!

However, Viper hadn't been a teammate for half a year for nothing.

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

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

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

Viper looked at the changes on the mini-map and suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "The three of them in the bottom jungle are going to fight the small dragon. Gragas should TP to the mid lane. As long as I don't go to the small dragon, Gragas shouldn't go either. I feel like we can give it a try..."

"Help Jihoon."

This kind of fleeting opportunity grasping is very demanding on the command and the attacker's ability to seize opportunities.

And to be honest.

Lehends, whose roaming was inherently a weakness, and Peanut, whose blade had long since dulled, really couldn't seize this kind of opportunity.

Viper, who was still in his prime, undoubtedly had this ability—but in fact, he was mainly because he recalled a match from last year.

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

The scene at this moment overlapped a little, only the IDs had changed...

"It really works!!"

Peanut examined it and found that it was indeed an opportunity.

Viego had been expelled from his own bottom jungle and had nowhere to go for a while, and the support was supposed to return to base after being pushed by the opponent's bottom lane, so he should have had no guard up.

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

It seemed like they could really land an unexpected blow!

Chovy, who was under great pressure in the laning phase, heard that his teammates were finally coming to rescue him, and suddenly felt like he saw the dawn.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 253 =====