Chapter 278: Mad Dog Style! Don't Use Electricity While Bathing!

"Although Jiejie managed to secure the jungle monster with Smite, it's still such a heavy blow; his top-side jungle is definitely going to be invaded!"

The "Haier Brothers" helped save face: "It's fortunate he got the buff, otherwise the start might have completely collapsed. At least after respawning, he can still head to the bottom side!"

Mala Xiangguo, meanwhile, shifted his attention to the rune choices of both sides.

"V5's runes are so explosive!"

"Three Hail of Blades?"

On the observer panel below, the mid, jungle, and support players were all actually running the {Hail of Blades} rune!

Tahm Kench and Vi taking Hail of Blades was relatively rare, but it was certainly a strategy they had understood for a long time.

This is an extremely "all-in" approach for early-game skirmishing, with little utility in the late game or team fights, so it is generally not a very common setup seen in professional play.

And this was V5's first-stage understanding of this new patch.

However, the commentary desk didn't dwell on this too much, as they had already turned their eyes to the highly anticipated mid-lane matchup.

"For a champion like the Dog, I recall the standard setups in ranked play are mostly {Electrocute} and {Arcane Comet}, with some fighter builds taking {Conqueror}. Even Mr. Ye recommended these in the official new champion tutorial video."

Wawa looked thoughtful: "Taking Hail of Blades is something I've never seen before, at least."

Miller joked: "It seems Mr. Ye still had some tricks up his sleeve, or perhaps he's developed a new understanding?"

To be fair, one really couldn't blame Ye Bo for "hiding things."

Because this was indeed his new understanding.

The new champion video was recorded back when he was at Riot headquarters; time was tight, there weren't enough test sessions, and the old and new versions of the Dog seemed to have little change in laning logic, so Ye Bo had used his old-version understanding of the Dog.

But after he returned and practiced for a while, he discovered that although it seemed like just a swap of the W and R abilities.

In reality, the laning logic had completely changed!

The old version of the Dog's laning was quite mindless—it was nothing more than QQQQQ; if you could Q them to low health, you'd just W into their face for the kill, a design that was basically intuitive at a glance.

Yet, that was exactly where the problem lay.

Even in a matchup between Ye Bo and someone like "Three-Ring Brother" where there was a clear skill gap, Ye Bo couldn't hit 100% of his Qs. Even if he hit the first one, it was hard to hit the second, let alone in a matchup between players of equal skill.

Therefore, this was simply not a healthy laning logic!

"Three-Ring Brother" seemed to have figured this out later as well.

He simply increased the Q ability's damage to minions from 60% to 80%, focusing on making it a wave-clearing skill in the early game.

The W also became an "operational buff skill," which not only summoned two more dogs but also granted an absurd 20% attack damage buff.

This not only made the Hundred-Crack Underworld Dog's all-in capability extremely strong, but it also reverted to the most common game logic for traditional assassins: {Push wave → Roam → Fight → Pick up kills, then burst someone down}.

Of course, this wasn't the only reason Ye Bo took Hail of Blades.

"The mid laner is sending the dogs out to scout the jungle again!"

"Mr. Ye is playing too ruthlessly! He really doesn't want to let Jiejie play at all!"

"After Xun finished the Blue buff, he doesn't seem prepared to keep farming; he's waiting for information from the mid laner to continue invading!"

The casters at the desk, viewing from the spectator perspective, hadn't noticed the "two little dogs" behind the main Dog suddenly disappear, and naturally, the EDG members in the game hadn't noticed either.

Fofo was feeling a bit strange.

Why, in the middle of laning, did the opponent suddenly stand behind the minion wave and stop moving?

Fortunately, the nervous Fofo was extremely focused and soon noticed the two little dogs that had started running quickly toward the bottom jungle on their own, past the minion wave.

"Wait, what!?"

"How did the little dogs run away!!"

"Hey! How can the little dogs run away!"

Uzi, in the bottom lane, heard the exclamation from mid and wore a strange expression: "Run where?"

Fofo hurriedly explained: "No, it's the little dogs from the enemy mid lane! They ran into the bottom jungle!"

"Jungler, be careful!"

Jiejie listened, confused; after all, they had studied the new champion, but he couldn't understand what it meant for little dogs to run into the jungle.

But he found out immediately.

Because just as he started the Red buff, he saw two little dogs walking down from above, appearing before his eyes, staring down his own dog.

And Vi, from above, didn't even bother to hide as she walked straight out of the mid lane.

Charging straight toward the bottom half of the jungle!

In a normal situation, if Kindred saw Vi showing herself in the mid lane just to rotate, she could actually sneak into the opponent's bottom jungle.

As long as Kindred's movements weren't scouted, the outcome of the jungle game wasn't necessarily set.

But it just so happened that those two little dogs could see Kindred's movements!

"Damn?" Jiejie's eyes widened: "Aren't these little dogs despicable!?"

"Let's fight! Vi is only level two!"

Although EDG didn't have Ye Bo this year.

The mid-jungle playstyle he left behind was still being used by the team to this day.

Naturally, Jiejie didn't want to suffer this loss again, handing over the jungle and completely losing all agency in the jungle!

"Jiejie doesn't seem to want to back down!"

"Both bottom lanes have already moved; there should be a skirmish in the jungle!"

Although Vi held First Blood, she hadn't returned to base to buy items yet.

Looking at it, there didn't seem to be a clear difference in combat power between the two sides.

Kindred stopped to regroup with teammates, and V5 also waited for all four to converge, then brazenly started the Red buff right in their faces.

Jiejie was initially happy.

But once the fight actually started, something felt wrong immediately!

"Jiejie Q-Smithed and won the Smite! That crucial Smite didn't let Vi reach level three! And he flashed to dodge Vi's punch!"

"In that case, EDG can kite a bit, but Tahm Kench just W-ed in!"

"The little dog reacted extremely quickly, sidestepping the blind Tahm Kench W! That's the movement of the little dog! I feel like EDG has this!"

"Kindred has no skills left and was knocked up; fortunately, Milio can control and hold back, coordinating with Twisted Fate to burst one first... wait, why does EDG seem to have no damage!?"

Just as the fire was exchanged.

The gap in combat power between the two sides was exposed with extreme clarity!

At first glance, the situation favored EDG: Jiejie Q-Smithed to prevent the enemy jungler from hitting level three, and used Flash to make Vi miss her Q while putting her in danger—the advantage should have been theirs!

The problem.

Lay with Twisted Fate!

The only level-three heroes on both sides were their respective mid laners.

And a level-three Twisted Fate and a level-three Hundred-Crack Underworld Dog were clearly not in the same league in terms of damage, and their combat power was on a completely different level!

Twisted Fate threw a gold card and a Q, then could only stand back.

The Hundred-Crack Underworld Dog, however, had already entered the fray physically, using W directly as an offensive skill, entering a 1-second untargetable ethereal state while gaining speed, charging forward with four little dogs to bite frantically.

It was the same focus fire.

EDG initiated first and landed a full control chain, yet lacked the damage to burst Vi down.

But Kindred's health bar, knocked up by Tahm Kench, plummeted in an instant!

"Tahm Kench's Hail of Blades is licking Kindred red, and Vi landed and also used Hail of Blades to unleash her three-hit combo at light speed!"

"V5's three Hail of Blades! It's showing its power!"

"Even though the initiation wasn't smooth, V5 still won this jungle skirmish without pressure! The combat power of the two sides is not on the same level!"

"Kindred was killed first, Jinx is activated! Run, EDG!"

The reason V5 dared to invade so hard was naturally because they were certain the opponent's lineup had no defensive pressure and were fully confident in the combat power gap.

Ye Bo actually couldn't quite understand.

Why would the opponent dare to pick Twisted Fate first?

In the previous patch, when the mid lane was dominated by {utility} champions, a mid laner like Twisted Fate with poor laning ability still had a place.

But what patch is this now?

The cost of roaming in the mid lane has increased, and the time has decreased, meaning that whether ahead or behind, one can only reduce roaming to the side lanes—but the conflict won't disappear into thin air; it will only shift.

So, where can the battlefield for early-game conflict shift to?

It's nothing more than the most direct "mid-lane laning."

And the "jungle skirmish" closest to it!

Of course, these two don't necessarily need to be balanced simultaneously; champions that can balance both are highly likely to be extreme early-game "suicide" champions, not good choices in the current patch where tempo opportunities are fewer.