Chapter 260: All Trump Cards Played

"Alright, everyone! Welcome back to the live broadcast from the Copper Box Arena in London!"

The broadcast view cut back to the main studio, where Guan Zeyuan spoke first with a relaxed expression on the podium.

"In this match, everyone can finally fully relax and enjoy the clash between two of our region's top powerhouses! There are no losers today; whoever wins is the glorious victor!"

"I am also personally honored to cast this internal regional final, so let me introduce today's guests!"

"They are two mid laners from our LPL region whom everyone is very familiar with—the S9 champion mid laner, Doinb! And the S11 champion mid laner, Scout. Welcome, both of you!"

The camera panned over, revealing two familiar figures.

The big streamer was naturally not stage-frightened; in fact, he was even more excited and natural in front of the camera, waving a greeting.

Beside him, Scout's expression was slightly stiff, but he managed to squeeze out a smile, pretending to be relaxed.

The MSI schedule had no breaks, and even the LPL officials hadn't expected the final to be an internal regional clash, so the last-minute selection of guests was a bit rushed.

Time was tight, top-tier players with high traffic weren't necessarily willing to come, and many were preparing for the summer transfer window and the Asian Games.

In the end, after searching around, the LPL top brass found this strange combination: Doinb, who was out of work and eager for exposure, and Scout, who happened to be in London after taking an LCK gig.

This was just perfect!

After all, given their status, neither could participate in the CN region's Asian Games selection, nor could they participate in the KR region's, so they were both quite free right now.

Plus, Scout moving to LNG this year had directly stolen Doinb's job; the fans of both sides were like fire and water—the intensity was almost on par with Uzi and Cool casting together!

Guan Zeyuan skillfully picked up the topic: "Although it's an internal clash, we still have to do our pre-match predictions as usual."

"Speaking of which, Brother Coin, I remember you were one of the first veteran players for JDG, right? This counts as your old home team."

"V5 also has three of your old teammates, Scout. So it seems there's no need to ask who you two are supporting today, right?"

JDG's predecessor was the QG team, which was acquired and renamed in May 2017.

And at that time, Doinb was still on the team, continuing to play for another season.

So Doinb was indeed the first mid laner since JDG's founding to put the 【JDG】 prefix before his ID; calling him a veteran founding player is no exaggeration!

As for Scout, although he had some love-hate history with Ye Ying, at least his relationship with Deft and Flandre was still quite friendly, especially since it was an internal clash.

"Oh, this, although JDG is indeed my old home team, I definitely still favor V5 more for today's match!" Doinb expressed his view directly.

"V5 beat JDG several times in the Spring Split, after all. Of course, the patch has changed quite a bit, but it's very clear that V5 is also very well-suited for this patch~"

On the other side, Scout was clearly hesitant.

A few days ago, because he expressed support for GEN and criticized the decision-making in the final team fight of the last game, he was directly slapped in the face publicly.

For the past few days, all major platforms were filled with videos and comments attacking him like a corpse!

Even without intentionally checking, he felt the ferocity of the fire, and at this moment, he was somewhat afraid to express his true inner wishes.

"It's a toss-up. As I said before, the patch is different; the Spring Split and MSI are completely different versions. It's clear that JDG has also just regained their form."

Guan Zeyuan was a bit surprised, but he was already overjoyed inside, pretending to be "troubled" to balance things out: "In that case, I favor JDG even more!"

"To be fair, I don't know if everyone has noticed, but JDG has been getting better and better along the way, from 2-3 in the first round, to 3-1 in the second, and then two consecutive 3-0s! They are constantly evolving; their strength is absolutely not what it used to be!"

Guan Zeyuan's redundant explanation, which was like "there is no silver buried here," instead made the chat mock and laugh.

【Guan-dog is acting coy here. He clearly wanted to support Jingdong from the start; at least they have Ruler, the last remaining remnant of Samsung~~】

【The Saint of Thieves doesn't dare to speak today~ After going to the LCK casting desk, he actually got edited into over twenty face-slapping clips. No wonder the EDG mid lane could never participate in shot-calling before!】

【Heh, today we will prove to those top brass at Li Ning that they were wrong, and Brother Coin was right!】

【The monkey descendants are making a ruckus; streamers shouldn't try to touch professional players, ouch.】

【Oh? Someone who was kicked all over the LPL by Ye Bo, and he has the nerve to mention it?】

【Yo, today the White Monkey has turned over a new leaf, good! Become a filial son of the master, we all have a bright future!】

The chat was like a chaotic battle of the Three Kingdoms, very lively.

It wasn't until the BP panel pulled up that attention was drawn back.

"BP has started! V5 won the coin toss and chose the blue side for the first game!"

"Coming to the finals, theoretically there shouldn't be much difference in the two sides' understanding of the patch, and the BP game is approaching a formulaic response unless one side is hiding some 'secret weapon'!"

First round of bans—

V5: Vi, Sion, Xayah

JDG: Akali, Neeko, LeBlanc

"Both sides are mainly targeting each other's signature picks in the first game; JDG is almost banning three mid laners!" Guan Zeyuan analyzed.

"V5, as expected, first-picked K'Sante to flex, and JDG grabbed Nautilus without surprise, plus Lulu, without choosing to pick for the jungler first."

Picking K'Sante and then selecting Nautilus is already a formulaic response in the current patch.

And the reason JDG didn't grab Wukong, Kanavi's signature hero, but turned to get Lulu instead, actually shows Homme's insight into BP.

Lulu can pair with almost all AD heroes, especially fitting for hyper-carry ADs.

With a deep ADC pool in the first game, getting Lulu allows them to pick an absolutely strong bot lane hyper-carry combo for this patch!

As for the Neeko ban, strictly speaking, JDG isn't banning three mid laners.

Ever since V5 developed the support Neeko playstyle against GEN, Neeko became a T0 mid lane existence overnight, and the red side basically bans it by default.

It's just that the third ban went to LeBlanc, a hero Ye Bo hasn't used much recently, which seems slightly unexpected.

After all, if you look at Ye Bo's recent picks, if they really wanted to restrict him, they should have banned Sylas.

"V5 picked Wukong and Annie! That should be the classic Fire-Monkey combo, a very strong engage combo for this patch!"

"With Xayah already banned by V5, JDG doesn't have a better choice for the AD position, so they finally picked Jinx."

Entering the second round of BP.

JDG, who needed to ban first, delayed for a long time.

Homme looked doubtful, seemingly thinking, and only spoke slowly in the final few seconds.

"Ban Gragas first, then ban Orianna."

The first ban of Gragas didn't cause any surprise; after all, top lane Gragas can't beat top lane K'Sante, JDG couldn't pick it, and K'Sante has flex attributes, so Gragas could restrict the opponent's mid/top.

V5 responded with a ban on the versatile Gnar.

But when the second ban went to Orianna, everyone was clearly surprised.

"Ban Orianna??" Guan Zeyuan's tone rose: "Although Master Ye just played Orianna, and Orianna-Wukong is very strong in team fights, the Fire-Monkey combo isn't weaker than Orianna, and even if Annie can flex, JDG has a mid lane Nautilus, so they shouldn't be afraid."

The outside world couldn't understand this move by Homme at all.

After Annie's rework this year, due to the extreme functionality of her E skill, support Annie is already a very popular regular choice.

But the red side has the fifth-pick counter, so they aren't afraid of the opponent's mid lane picking late; at worst, Nautilus can flex to the top lane to fight K'Sante.

But if Annie is mid, JDG with Nautilus can definitely gain a counter advantage—Annie laning against Nautilus, who is already slightly lacking in damage, will have no way to deal with Nautilus, and her wave-clear speed is a cut below, meaning she won't be inferior in team fights.

In short, no matter how you look at it, JDG doesn't have much reason to continue restricting the mid lane.

And JDG's fourth pick was Ornn, which completely left Nautilus in the mid lane.

Homme stared fixedly at the opponent's fourth and fifth picks, muttering in Korean, as if praying: "Pick it, pick it."

V5 indeed changed their formation.

Annie wasn't actually a must-pick for V5's mid lane; in fact, her priority as a support was even higher, and picking her could also burn one of Rookie's hero pool options.

The fourth and fifth picks were Zeri + Sylas, and Annie was indeed flexed to the support position!

"They took the bait! Pick, pick, pick!"

Homme's voice was impatient, and the JDG players' faces showed admiration.

Just then, JDG's fifth pick revealed a hero that hadn't appeared for a long time.

"Cassiopeia!?" Doinb's eyes widened: "My god! JDG is using their secret weapon in the first game! Is this hero even playable!"

Beside him, Scout glanced at him sideways and commented calmly: "Cassiopeia against Sylas is like a grandfather beating a grandson."

"Aiyo, I definitely know that~" Doinb laughed even after being retorted, maintaining his persona in front of the camera: "But good matchup or not, this is just like Quinn against Renekton a few days ago; it's a pure laning choice!"

"After all, Cassiopeia is strictly a magic-core hero, but in this patch, even Ryze, Azir, and Orianna are doing so poorly, it definitely can't be too strong."

Guan Zeyuan noticed the key point: "Wait a minute! Then that means it's jungle Nautilus!?"

"JDG is really going all out in the first game! They have consecutively brought out two heroes that no one else had picked in previous matches!"

Only then was JDG's BP intention fully revealed.

Why they banned LeBlanc but not Sylas in the first round, why they had to seal off the mid lane in the second round, and even deliberately picked Ornn in the fourth spot to give away the ultimate, plus faking a mid lane pick.

The goal was to force V5 to move Annie and K'Sante, who are hard to play against Nautilus, away from the mid lane!

They just wanted Ye Bo to pick Sylas, a mid laner he is very good at!

Just as Doinb said, Cassiopeia against Sylas is an absolute counter.

And it's not just an ordinary counter; it's the kind where you almost never have the initiative to act!

At the same time, Cassiopeia is not only good against Sylas, but also good against K'Sante and Tristana, those two shameless laning heroes, and Nautilus can counter Annie—no matter what Ye Bo finally flexes to the mid lane, the red side is guaranteed to get a counter matchup!

Mid lane Cassiopeia and jungle Nautilus were exactly the "secret weapons" JDG prepared specifically for V5, hidden until now.

Homme knew very well that if they wanted to grab a jungler on the red side, it would inevitably lead to a significant lag in team composition, so he didn't prioritize the jungler too highly on the red side.

Jungle Nautilus had a small buff to jungle clearing in the previous patch, so it was definitely playable.

And this playstyle can not only "burn hero pools."

Ye Bo had already proven before that Nautilus is by no means a "freeloader," but a proper "mechanical hero," and Kanavi is also one of the best mechanical junglers—anyway, whatever he plays, he plays it as a jungle carry; it doesn't have much to do with the hero.

The match against GEN also proved that the "burn hero pool" strategy is meaningful; as it progresses, Ye Bo will inevitably have to pick some unpopular, non-strong picks.

The V5 members were also surprised by this change from JDG.

They didn't expect the opponent to use their ultimate move right away.

At this moment, everyone could better understand why the two coaches had valued the opponent so much before.

"Master Ye, how about I go top lane Sylas? I can play it." Flandre proactively said with concern, clearly knowing how hard this mid lane matchup was. "Actually, I can play it too," Beryl also said.

"It's fine, K'Sante is also hard for Cassiopeia to deal with," Ye Bo's voice, however, did not change much: "It's not a big problem, it's playable~"

To be fair, Sylas against Cassiopeia is definitely countered to death; there is no doubt about that.

But, that is a standard Sylas.

When Ye Bo's Sylas reached level seven, he discovered some things that perhaps not many people had noticed—actually, against Cassiopeia, it is not completely without options!

Hearing the other party say this, the teammates did not speak again and finished the swap selection.

Both sides' lineups were confirmed.

《Blue Side: V5 vs Red Side: JDG》

【Top: K'Sante vs Ornn】

【Jungle: Wukong vs Nautilus】

【Mid: Sylas vs Cassiopeia】

【ADC: Zeri vs Jinx】

【Support: Annie vs Lulu】

"JDG's draft this game is truly well-thought-out! Although the mid-jungle champions are rare, while the mid lane secured a huge counter-matchup, the overall team composition is also quite perfect!"

"I can only say they definitely came prepared!"

Guan Zeyuan analyzed the lineups of both sides, not forgetting to be fair: "Of course, V5's lineup is also quite good; overall, it's a very tough engage composition. The only uncomfortable part is this mid lane matchup."

"Who could have imagined that Knight would draw his sword right from the start!"

This was precisely Homme's strategy.

Having worked together for half a year, he had gradually come to understand this mid laner under his command, especially regarding his personality.

Homme believed that Knight's strength could definitely rank in the top two of the region, and the biggest problem was that one must instill "confidence" in him—only then could he exert his full strength!

Just like against GEN, in the first game Sylas's performance fluctuated, in the second game Annie started to become heroic, and in the third game Akali even started to dominate!

That was the manifestation of accumulated confidence.

In Homme's heart, for the outcome of this final, the game in the mid lane was absolutely crucial!

It's just a pity that the coin was poisoned today; they couldn't win the blue side and were a step behind.

But confidence waits for no one!

Once confidence is shattered in a BO5 match, it is very difficult to rebuild it immediately; it must be accumulated starting from the first game—this is also the reason why he spared no cost and wanted to play his trump card directly in the first game, determined to take the first point!

"Both top laners meet normally."

"Oh? JDG seems to have a level-one design!"

JDG, who usually didn't have the habit of level-one designs, looked somewhat unusual in their movements as they left the base.

Lulu learned her W ability 【Whimsy】 immediately upon spawning, directly granting the percentage movement speed boost to Nautilus, and they sprinted out of the base with the {Homeguard} buff!

During this, Nautilus was also using his maximum-range hook displacement to quickly close the distance!

"It seems to have grazed past! It just grazed past, the person going to the mid lane didn't see it!"

Nautilus walked into the river bush four steps ahead of the time it took for Sylas to arrive at the mid lane, and did not expose his vision.

And this move.

Was actually "learned" by Homme from an EDG match at last year's World Championship.

Not only did the JDG members want to win this final to prove themselves, but Homme's desire to win was no less than his players'.

Because, ever since he heard at the beginning of the season that V5 had no coach, Homme had scoffed at it, believing that the other party's lack of regard for a coach would lead to trouble sooner or later!

As it turned out, he was the one who kept getting slapped in the face, and JDG was even swept by them.

But today he would prove that his presence could bring important changes to JDG!

"It's over! They might really be caught!"

The V5 members knew the opponent's lineup was very strong at level one.

Xun arrived at his position, preparing to head to the river bush normally to place a ward for defense.

This action was not a problem; after all, the river bush was still a considerable distance from the other side of the river, the opponent definitely couldn't reach him, and he would have plenty of time to run away if he walked out.

But he never expected.

That with the mid laner already having arrived and gained vision, there would actually be people hiding in the bush next to him!

Just as Wukong was about to approach the river bush, a giant anchor flew out from the side!

With no reaction time, he was hooked and then stunned by an auto-attack; Lulu immediately flashed and used W to polymorph him, preventing Wukong from flashing away at the first moment.

Cassiopeia closed the distance, using a long-range W 【Miasma】 to hold him, applying a continuous high-amount slow, and turning his Flash into a gray, disabled state!

"Kill, kill, kill!"

Wukong was already trying his best to walk out of the poison mist.

But no matter where he flashed to escape, JDG following with their own flashes would definitely kill him; there was nowhere to run.

More importantly, although the V5 teammates were not far away, they clearly couldn't save him—once Jinx got the kill and started running, maybe more than just him would die!

"Xun! Hug the wall!"

Xun, who had already somewhat given up on escaping, heard this voice and suddenly reignited with the hope of survival.

Wukong's health dropped extremely fast.

He walked out of the poison mist at the fastest speed, but didn't go upward; instead, he leaned toward the thick wall slightly below the river.

"V5 is still trying to save him!? Wukong is definitely going to die first!" Guan Zeyuan was dumbfounded.

"If they fight this, it might explode!"

Strangely, the other three in V5's bottom half of the map actually rushed over to support.

Annie, who was already maneuvering in the middle, had arrived at the upper wall in advance, decisively flashing over the wall and using W 【Incinerate】 to stun four people!

Sylas took this opportunity to E-E forward and throw his chains, aiming at Jinx below!

"Ignore them! Kill Wukong first, he can't W over that wall in this position!" Kanavi, who understood Wukong extremely well, shouted with extreme confidence.

Although Wukong's W could go over walls, the displacement distance was limited.

At this moment, the thick wall position he was standing at was impossible to pass through; they had enough time to focus fire on him and help Jinx trigger her passive, Get Excited!

Unfortunately, there was someone on the opposite side whose understanding of Wukong was not below his, and perhaps even higher.

It wasn't Xun—it was Ye Bo, using the "Hand of Sylas"!

Just then, Wukong seemed to press S in place, stopped running, and started auto-attacking the Nautilus in his face.

Wukong was being mindlessly focused by four people.

The four JDG members also completely ignored the two who were outputting damage onto their ADC.

And just as Wukong was about to reach death's door, that dying Wukong actually "disappeared" the next moment!

At the same time, the Wukong that still had half health appeared in place.

"Eh??"

"Did JDG make a mistake!? How did they focus the fake Wukong!!!"

This wave, it really wasn't a mistake by the opponent.

Because just now, even the casting desk with the god's-eye view hadn't seen that it was actually a fake Wukong!

In fact, this was a niche little trick.

Wukong's 【Warrior Trickster】, when "cast against a wall" that cannot be traversed, allows the main body and the clone to perfectly overlap 100%.

Achieving the effect of "Clone Overlap"!

And more importantly—because Wukong's W main body enters {Invisibility} and becomes untargetable first, even if the opponent discovered it was a fake, there was no way to target the Wukong main body that would only appear later!

They could only be forced to lock onto the fake, even {Target Champions Only} was useless!

Not to mention that in such a chaotic team fight moment, even Kanavi hadn't noticed that figure which was perfectly overlapped and even had the same movements!

The 3. seconds of the clone's existence was almost equivalent to providing Wukong with 3. seconds of "Ethereal" invincibility time.

"No! It seems JDG has no damage now!"

The reason Ye Bo dared to turn back and fight was not just because this little trick could save Wukong's life and prevent him from dying instantly.

It was because he understood Nautilus, and also knew a thing or two about Cassiopeia.

Nautilus learning Q at level one, Cassiopeia learning W at level one, and Lulu learning W at level one—this indeed made it impossible for Wukong to run away at the first moment.

But there was also no sustained damage at all!

Especially Cassiopeia, learning W at level one, she was completely a pure super minion who could only auto-attack!

And usually, Nautilus learning Q was naturally fine; he was just a support anyway and didn't need to provide damage.

But this game, it was a Nautilus occupying the jungle position's combat power.

Wukong had already stacked Conqueror to full stacks, and his health was not much lower than Nautilus's.

The only one with output on JDG right now was Jinx, but she was being all-in'd at close range by Sylas and Annie, and Zeri in the back had also arrived!

"No, no! Retreat and protect Ruler first!" Missing shouted anxiously: "We have no damage, if Ruler dies, it will explode!"

JDG immediately retreated as a whole, preventing Sylas and Annie from chasing.

But Jinx's health was already somewhat unhealthy; if this dragged on until the mid and support's skill cooldowns refreshed, they might very well be the ones forced into a trade first!

Once Jinx died first, even if the kills were traded, JDG would have no subsequent combat power, and they would suffer heavy casualties in the front!

They wisely chose to fight while retreating.

"V5's mid and jungle both have full stacks of Conqueror, how does it look like they are even counter-chasing!?"

Nautilus, who was organizing the rear guard, had no choice but to use his Flash, and the level-one team fight finally ended.

However.

As the JDG members took stock of the results, how did this level-one design of theirs end up looking like a "reverse attack"?

(End of chapter)