Chapter 255: Double Ghost Idea Flashes! The Ultimate Respect of a Super Encirclement!

"V5 is actually picking the Emperor of the Sands?"

The Roaring Emperor at the commentary desk did not expect V5 to completely change their tactics in the match point game, even pulling out an out-of-meta hero like the Emperor of the Sands.

Beside him, Scout, whose expression was no better than Gen's and who had been holding back for a long time, finally caught an opportunity and said with disdain: "This only shows that Ye's hero pool has also been burned dry; he can only pick this kind of out-of-meta hero. Once the next game arrives, Gen will have the advantage!"

ShowMaker also said with slight hesitation: "The Emperor of the Sands is indeed a bit too weak in this version, mainly because of the rework to his W; it feels even weaker than the Dragon King."

"However, I must say, you absolutely cannot underestimate Ye's Emperor of the Sands. His Emperor of the Sands is truly different from everyone else's!"

【Brother ShowMaker is indeed qualified to speak! Last year, the Emperor of the Sands could bully Brother ShowMaker even while carrying four patients; although the Emperor of the Sands is sick this year, at least there are no patients!】

【Don't, truth be told, not even a dog would play the Emperor of the Sands in this version.】

【+1, I'm a master of the Emperor of the Sands, and now I just want to command five sand soldiers to frantically stab the designer's butt. It's truly only when a designer is a curry-eater that they can nerf a hero like this!】

【Don't force the hate, as long as the designer puts a piece of cloth armor on the butt, the sand soldiers won't be able to pierce it.】

【Why is the Saint of Thieves so hateful, still thinking about the next game? I bet Gen will have a freestyle swimming advantage across the Atlantic in the next game!】

【I can only say Brother ShowMaker has already given the answer; the Emperor of the Sands and the Emperor of the Sands are not the same~~】

The Dragon King and the Emperor of the Sands, two brothers in misfortune, were both ignored in this MSI.

The difference is that the Dragon King only fell to this state recently in the version, while the Emperor of the Sands has been in this awkward position ever since the mid-scope rework alongside the Cat in version 13. .

There was no way around it; the designer delivered a rework that could be called a butcher's knife.

All base stats were nerfed and adjusted, and the cooldown and duration of the passive tower construction were both halved; these were only considered mechanical adjustments.

But the Q skill's early-game numbers were significantly nerfed, and the mana cost changed from {fixed at all levels} to {increasing with skill level}; only making a certain AP bonus compensation to enhance the late game was absolutely a pure nerf.

Looking at these alone, it was still okay.

But once the rework of the W was added, it instantly and completely "changed" this hero's positioning.

The {passive attack speed} provided by the W was directly removed, and the {three-man army} bonus attack speed gained from summoning three sand soldiers was also directly removed—instead, it changed to providing {bonus sand soldier basic attack damage} per level of W.

It is very obvious that this is forcing players to max W, and they can only max W.

Maxing Q in the early game would result in zero damage, and the mana would definitely not be enough; even because the current W sand soldier damage is strongly linked to skill points, not maxing W would lead to the absurd scene of the Emperor of the Sands being unable to clear minions!

And players who truly understand the Emperor of the Sands know what it means to only be able to max W.

It means the Emperor of the Sands will change from a "flexible and long-range" all-around mage into a flawed hero with trash laning, clumsy mobility, and short attack range!

After all, the Q skill has a long cooldown of 14 seconds at level one, and 6 seconds at max level—while the Emperor of the Sands' W cast range is a mere 525 yards, and only by pairing it with the 700-yard "deployment" of the Q can he harass from a distance.

Including the E skill, if it doesn't have the distance boost from the Q skill, the E skill basically can only fly the 525 yards of the W.

Of course, maxing W is not without its advantages.

Theoretically, as long as he can "keep poking," the damage at all stages will be a bit higher than before.

The problem is that no fool would stand there and let the Emperor of the Sands poke them!

A 14-second Q is almost on the same level as the Dragon King's E, and it can be used at most once per minion wave, meaning the Emperor of the Sands can only adjust the position of the sand soldiers once per wave.

And the opponent only needs to move their feet to leave!

In this situation, one has to wait until the Emperor of the Sands reaches level 13, meaning both Q and W skills reach max level, to restore the glory of the past.

Coupled with reasons like equipment not being suitable, the hero's win rate in ranked games has now fallen to less than 45%, and only a handful of people use him in professional matches, successfully achieving the designer's wish to solve the "too many Emperors of the Sands in professional play" problem.

Ye Bo certainly knew that the Emperor of the Sands was not very good in this version, but he believed it wasn't unplayable; it was of a similar nature to the Dragon King, just a matter of priority.

And picking the Emperor of the Sands, he also considered multiple factors.

The first and most core one is that the Emperor of the Sands is also Chovy's signature hero.

Burning the Emperor of the Sands in this game, even assuming V5 loses, the next game will truly be Chovy's turn to have his signature heroes burned out, and he will most likely only be able to pick non-proficient heroes like Galio or Lissandra.

This is equivalent to adding a safety net; looking at the big picture, it is clearly the most stable BP strategy.

The second point is actually the exact opposite of what the LCK commentary desk said.

Ye Bo actually has a "secret weapon" that is more suitable for this matchup and lineup, but he just thought it wasn't necessary to bring it out in this game and could use the Emperor of the Sands to burn heroes instead.

This is also the confidence of having three match points in hand.

After all, this game is not the MSI final, and V5 still has many challenges ahead; there is no reason to show all their trump cards at once while holding such an advantage.

"Gen seems to finally be going for a level-one fight in this game! No problem, this lineup can easily fight a level-one battle!"

"I must admit, if Gen's lineup in this game develops steadily to the mid-to-late game, V5 is superior to them in team fights and core carries, and the offensive pressure is not small, so they must speed up the early game!"

Because this lineup was an impromptu decision by Score, seeing that the team couldn't stabilize in the early game in the first two games, and coupled with the fact that the mid-lane laning seemed to be somewhat affected in mentality, he simply chose an early-game offensive lineup.

But clearly, this is by no means a system they are proficient in.

Score didn't have time to make more arrangements on the spot, and naturally, there was no special design for the level-one fight; everything had to rely on the players' individual skills to improvise.

Anyway, thinking about it, V5 also picked an "unproficient" lineup in this game because there were few heroes left.

Since both sides are using systems they are not proficient in, it's hard to say who has the advantage!

And at this moment, the Gen members on the field decided to use their lineup advantage to invade at level one.

Gen's lineup is obviously strong at level one; with dual ADs paired with Braum, it can be said that as long as Braum lands a Q, it's a guaranteed kill.

Tristana's W jump to the face will definitely trigger a stun!

The V5 mid-jungle duo is standing at the most dangerous entrance to the upper blue buff area, while the others maintain a standard horizontal line formation.

It's just very obvious.

Known for being proficient in level-one fights, V5 also has quite a bit of experience in defense, and their experience is far from what these rookies on the opposite side can compare to.

After leaving the base, the jungler headed straight for the upper half of the map and directly inserted a ward into the river's middle bush "across the wall."

Under normal circumstances, one wouldn't insert a ward like this right after leaving the base—because the level-one ward has a short duration, and inserting it too early means it won't detect the more dangerous level-two and level-three river vision; as long as it's delayed slightly, the cost-effectiveness is much higher.

But, V5 didn't.

Because they saw the opponent's lineup and had already guessed that it was impossible for the opponent not to make a move at level one; inserting this ward in advance helps to make a counter-response ahead of time.

Just like right now.

Relying on the extra vision area of the river's middle bush, V5 saw the five people who walked out from the opposite bank and were preparing to charge in and invade two seconds in advance.

"They're coming!" After Xun shouted, he and Ye Bo prepared to retreat.

But Ye Bo, looking at the aggressive actions of the opponents, suddenly had a ghostly idea flash through his mind.

"Xun, look at me."

Outside the river bush, an Emperor of the Sands suddenly took a step forward and exposed himself, as if he hadn't braked while walking.

And due to the vision obstruction of the "river middle bush," under normal circumstances, V5 would only see the five people walking out from the opposite bank at this moment; this action was completely reasonable.

"We can go! We can go!"

Peanut's urgent urging voice rang out, and Lehends directly started with a Q-Flash to knock out 【Winter's Bite】!

At this moment, if the Emperor of the Sands hesitated even half a second to Flash, eating the Q and being slowed before using Flash would be a death-Flash; Tristana's W jump to the face would definitely be able to keep the opponent there with Hail of Blades!

Even if it was just trading for the mid-laner's Flash, it was obviously something Gen would be extremely happy to see.

Hearing the {hit sound effect} coming from his headset, Lehends shouted with joy: "Hit!"

Upon hearing this, Tristana immediately learned W and jumped forward, inserting a ward into the bush.

There was indeed a figure in the bush carrying Braum's Concussive Blows mark.

But, it was a "stone monkey" standing still!

Behind the vision, one could also see another monkey and the Emperor of the Sands quickly retreating and pulling away.

"The monkey actually learned W instantly to help block? Xun's reaction can be this fast!?"

The Roaring Emperor didn't know V5's coordination and only thought this was the opponent's impromptu reaction.

"This is such a loss... Gen thought the Emperor of the Sands was alone, which is why they used Flash like that; then they must try to invade the jungle to get some opening advantage to barely stop the losses!"

Chovy, who had had a gloomy face since the start of the game, looked even darker.

Originally, he didn't want to level W at level one; after all, it's impossible for Tristana to jump into a pile of minions with W at level one to stand and fight the Emperor of the Sands, so laning is basically equivalent to missing a skill.

Everyone was also stunned for a moment.

Fortunately, Peanut reset his brain for this game and continued to command: "Swap zones to invade! Swap zones to invade! Go steal his lower half, that way our lower half advantage will be stable!"

In fact, according to the lineup situation, Gen should indeed invade the lower half; after all, the lower half of this game is clearly the top priority.

The reason they specifically came to the upper half at level one was to play a "reverse strategy."

It's just a pity that this little trick couldn't even be called a level-one design.

And more importantly, all of Gen actually moved from the mid-lane to V5's lower half in plain sight, without the slightest intention of hiding, as if they wanted to make the monkey directly give up the contest.

This action seems like nothing.

But in BeryL's view, it was simply stupid!

A level-one fight is about information warfare; even if the opponent knows exactly what you are going to do, as long as there is no 100% vision confirmation, they will still have a suspicious mentality.

Entering in such a plain-sight manner instead exposed some loopholes.

"Xun, why don't you..."

As Gen expected, due to the lineup gap, V5 had no reason to take the level-one fight; after searching the jungle with no results, the top laner returned to base.

And here, Gen's team characteristics were once again reflected.

Even if they knew the opponent was unlikely to take the fight, they still entered the lower half of the map as five people side-by-side, not daring to have the slightest relaxation for fear of being ambushed by V5's five people.

Although they are not good at design, discipline is their strong point.

But if the direction is wrong, this kind of discipline might sometimes become a gap.

However, while waiting for the jungle to respawn, Peanut looked at the mid-lane and suddenly had an idea...

1 minute and 35 seconds, jungle monsters respawn.

Because Tristana leveled the W skill, the lane priority that could have been easily grabbed with 【Explosive Charge】 was equivalent to having no skills at this moment.

This instead gave the Emperor of the Sands a chance to compete for lane priority. "Wow, no way, how could the level-one design of both sides be like this! My god!"

The Roaring Emperor had a constipated look on his face, as if he had seen something from a god's-eye view.

"Wait! Peanut seems to have an idea!"

"And Braum too!!"

Although Gen. had already cleared the vision in the red buff area, V5 could still be one hundred percent certain that the opponent started at their own red buff, so the positioning of the bottom and middle lanes remained very cautious.

Ye Bo was not afraid of Sejuani ganking at level two; after all, he was positioned toward the top side, and there was no reason for a level two Sejuani to be able to catch him.

But, he still underestimated the "hatred" the five Gen. members held for him at this moment.

Just as the Emperor of the Sands had finished killing the first three melee minions and was preparing to step forward to place a sand soldier to auto-attack the ranged minions.

Sejuani suddenly appeared in the bottom-right path. And Braum too!

"What the hell?"

Ye Bo had not expected that Braum, despite being tethered to Draven, would not return to the bottom lane to lane at level one, but instead follow the jungler to the middle lane to stir up trouble!

And looking at the timing of Sejuani's appearance, it was clear that she had used Smite to kill the red buff quickly.

Even Draven did not quickly return to the lane from the bottom-side tri-bush, choosing to take a wide detour to avoid being spotted by wards if the support wasn't with him—anyway, he couldn't eat the wave alone.

It could simply be called targeting by any means necessary!

But Ye Bo did not run directly toward the middle, instead pulling toward the top, as if wanting to "stall" for time.

"Go in now, Wukong is coming soon!" Peanut shouted.

Tristana used Rocket Jump to land a slow at maximum range.

But at this moment, the "foreshadowing" from level one appeared.

If Braum hadn't used Flash at level one, or if he had traded for the Emperor of the Sands' Flash, this Braum would have definitely killed the Emperor of the Sands with a forced Flash-Q, and it would have been hard to outplay even with Flash.

But as it happened, Braum had no Flash, and the Emperor of the Sands did.

To preserve his health, seeing Braum about to reach him, Ye Bo decisively used Flash over the wall to escape.

"Not bad! Still managed to burn the Emperor of the Sands' Flash!" The anxious Roaring Emperor breathed a sigh of relief.

"But... Gen. seems to want to keep going! This seems a bit forced! There might be danger!"

It appeared that Sejuani had returned to the top side to farm, and Braum was heading to the bottom side.

But in the spectator view, Sejuani had only entered the top river bush and stayed there, and Braum had looped back to the rear F6 camp.

One must know, Draven could only idle at the bottom tier-one tower at this time; even if V5 didn't freeze the wave, he inevitably lost quite a few minions.

But Gen. had their own calculations.

As long as they could catch the middle laner.

Even if the bottom duo could reach level two, because the Senna-Tahm Kench combo lacked tower-diving power early on and would lack damage, Draven, holding both summoner spells, would definitely have an opportunity to outplay.

Even if it resulted in a 1-for-1 trade, in the end, it would be Draven and Gen. who profited!

It can only be said that after the first two games, Gen. 's goal of "restricting the middle lane" had reached a somewhat "manic" level!

Ye Bo had been extremely cautious from the start, having considered the possibility of the opponent "doubling back," and did not walk outward.

But precisely because the Emperor of the Sands had pushed the wave earlier, the minion wave was inevitably pushed outward, and he couldn't afford to not even soak up experience.

He reached level two almost at the same time as Tristana.

Ye Bo hadn't put a point into a skill yet; seeing Tristana press forward, he realized something was wrong, immediately retreated, and instantly leveled up his E skill.

Tristana used 【Rocket Jump】 to leap, the Emperor of the Sands immediately used a short-range WE drift to fly out, but Tristana suddenly flashed in mid-air to stick to his face, forcibly interrupting the displacement of 【Shifting Sands】!

Even without looking at the cameras, everyone could seemingly see Chovy's gritted-teeth expression.

At the same time, Braum flew out from behind the wall below, but the distance seemed insufficient—but Sejuani walked out from above, decisively using Flash-Q to knock him up, not even giving the Emperor of the Sands a chance to dodge, providing space for Braum to land his Q!

Winter's Bite landed firmly, Ignite was applied without hesitation, and Tristana and Sejuani quickly triggered the stun.

Fortunately, Ye Bo had learned E at level two to get a shield and, being very cautious with his positioning, was only two steps away from the defensive tower.

Although it was difficult to escape against three people, the defensive tower had strong early-game deterrence and could kill someone in three hits.

Gen. did not dare to be too humble about the kill, avoiding a trade that would result in a massive loss, and finally, after both the jungler and support tanked until they were low health, they retreated, leaving the Emperor of the Sands to be burned to death by Braum's Ignite.

First Blood!

However, strangely.

Although First Blood was born, there was no joy on the LCK commentary desk, and at the same time, the LPL commentary desk didn't seem too worried.

"Wow, it's a good thing it's Braum's kill!" Wawa shouted on the commentary desk: "Gen. spent ten seconds with three people camping! It's equivalent to burning three Flashes to force a 3-on-1!"

"They really went for the hard gank! Targeting him like this!"

Miller also sighed: "Four summoner spells, they really respect Master Ye, but the Emperor of the Sands has Teleport, so frankly speaking, it won't hurt too much."

"And, if you're going to target the middle lane like this, what about the bottom lane?"

Gen. 's plan and formation change were very successful, and the execution had no deviations; it could be said that they had achieved their most ideal effect.

It just so happened that the Senna-Tahm Kench combo had poor early-game tower-diving ability, so Viper would definitely be able to outplay under the tower, and at worst, he could trade for one—trading kills with Draven would clearly not be very profitable.

And if V5 were smart and didn't act, Draven would only lose a few minions from the first wave, and he could make it up immediately by eating the wave alone, not affecting his laning at all!

On the contrary, the Emperor of the Sands had his summoner spells burned, so he could take the initiative in the middle lane for the next few minutes, and then use Tristana's advantage to invade the jungle and harass the side lanes, executing V5's playstyle from the previous games.

A perfect script!

The only deviation—was the level two Wukong walking out from behind Gen. 's bottom tier-one tower at this moment.

"?" Viper, who had been ready to outplay, was shocked: "How is Wukong here!"

"Ah??" Beryl, who was low health and had to recall, looked anxious: "Can you Teleport to save him!"

"How did he steal my blue start... Don't, don't Teleport!" Peanut reacted quickly, stopping the middle lane's Teleport.

If Tristana were to Teleport to the bottom lane now, let alone whether he could save him.

First of all, their middle lane gank would have been for nothing!

Not pushing such a large wave into the tower to go save someone, by the time the Emperor of the Sands respawned and Teleported out, the experience might even surpass Tristana's.

Then all that effort and cost would have been purely for nothing!?

It can only be said that Peanut's command was very wise, because Draven clearly couldn't hold up at all against three people, and there was a high probability he wouldn't survive until the Teleport landed.

Tahm Kench, carrying {Hail of Blades}, stepped up to tank the tower, starting with three licks to land the long-tongue stun, then applied Ignite and walked back to the edge to tank.

Wukong, whose health wasn't very healthy, walked in, and a charged 【Crushing Blow】 broke Draven's armor, making the level one Draven even more fragile!

Tahm Kench learned E at level two, allowing him to tank two more tower shots than a normal hero, and the three of them focused fire to kill Draven without any pressure!

Viper also wisely chose not to use any skills.

"Aigoo! I said this wave would likely not be profitable at all!" The Roaring Emperor beat his chest in sorrow.

"The Emperor of the Sands has Teleport and can return to the lane, losing at most three minions, but Draven doesn't have Teleport!"

"Viper hasn't eaten a single minion until now! He might lose two or three full waves! This is definitely not good news for Draven!"

Xu Xiu was still farming: "The main thing is that the kill went to the support, if it had been Tristana's, it would have been acceptable... but it's understandable, Ye was too guarded just now, his position was too far back, he really couldn't let it go, if the middle lane had been traded for a kill, that would have been a real explosion."

"The good news is that V5's kill also went to the support, it was actually stolen by Ignite! And Draven didn't have any passive stacks to lose."

Scout was expressionless, having no heart to farm but still shot an arrow at everyone: "However, Tahm Kench doesn't seem to be the support."

The broadcast camera cut back to the beginning of everything.

There was too much foreshadowing at level one, not just Ye Bo's flash of a trick that tricked Braum into using his Flash.

There was also Beryl's.

Gen. assumed that Wukong, seeing them go to the bottom side, would definitely go to swap to the top side, but they never expected that the opponent could be this bold.

He actually relied on the W learned at level one to jump over the wall directly from the middle river bush, avoiding the middle river bush that might have had vision!

Beryl's idea was also very direct.

Since Sejuani started at red, she definitely had to finish clearing the bottom red area; it was impossible to clear the red and return to her own jungle.

And if Gen. let the bottom duo return to guard the jungle, it would mean Sejuani was farming the red area alone, and then V5 could surround Sejuani!

Anyway, Wukong's W could go over walls and he had Flash, so his escape probability was clearly much higher than Sejuani's.

Actually, it could be said there was no risk.

Of course, originally Beryl only wanted to force Sejuani back to the top side; after all, Wukong's level one W farming speed couldn't be faster than Sejuani's, and Sejuani would have time to swap sides if she returned to the jungle and found the blue area gone.

This was originally just to resolve Gen. 's intention of "forcing a swap of the offensive half"—this trick had always been one of V5's specialties.

It was just unexpected that the opponent would target the middle lane like that.

And even conducted a second round of camping!

So Wukong, who was halfway through farming, naturally detoured to perform the tower dive.

"Haha, they aren't very familiar with swapping jungle sides, did they not watch our replays properly!" Beryl teased happily.

Xun shouted anxiously: "Damn it! Daring to mess with my Master Ye like this! Wait for me to come and deal with him!"

And Ye Bo, who rarely gave away First Blood, was very clear that this wave was definitely a big profit for his side overall, and he didn't lose much, so it was actually completely acceptable.

But while waiting for Teleport after respawning, he was still rubbing his hands repeatedly.

"Fine, fine, fine, that's how you want to play, huh."

(End of chapter)