Chapter 28: He Can Play This Too!?

The players from both sides returned to the stage.

The cheers from the venue pressed in from all directions.

Especially this time, compared to the first match when he had first appeared and nearly faced a cold reception, one could clearly hear Ye Bo’s ID being called out amidst the waves of sound from the crowd.

Ye Bo was certain.

This was the stage he had once dreamed of!

He really liked this feeling.

"Welcome back, viewers. This is the second match between EDG and LNG, with EDG currently in the lead!" Jide said from the commentary desk to open the segment.

"Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing if LNG can make some adjustments this game. Honestly, it felt like they didn't play their usual style in the last match," Miller said, taking a sip of water before turning on his mic.

The director’s camera, in a rare move, first gave a close-up of Ye, who was already seated at the player station.

Miller immediately switched to a smile: "Looking at this rookie player's expression, he seems quite relaxed and confident!"

"So, Mr. Miller, do you think LNG will continue to target the mid-laner with their bans this game?" Jide turned to ask.

"It's possible. After all, our 'stereotype' of this rookie player before the match was his limited champion pool. With LNG switching to the blue side this game, they will have more flexible ban slots."

The draft screen appeared at this moment.

"The draft has begun! Without further ado, let's enter the match!"

"LNG starts off by banning Akali again, and EDG does the same with Galio, just like the last game."

Both sides' first round of bans:

[LNG]: Akali, LeBlanc, Yone

[EDG]: Galio, Kalista, Lissandra

"As expected! LNG really chose to ban Yone, who performed perfectly last game. This is a further crackdown on the mid-lane champion pool issue!"

"But putting everything else aside, the respect shown is absolutely maxed out!"

"And this is just a rookie!"

When Li Ning used their final ban slot to send Yone away, even the venue erupted in scattered commotion—those were the viewers who had just declared themselves "Grandpa Fans" on the anti-fan forum after the last game.

It was clear that, regardless of the perspective, being able to force an opponent to use three bans on the mid-laner was a testament to one's deterrent power.

Of course, LNG certainly didn't think so.

During the review in the back room, Doinb had conducted a deep study of the previous game and reached a conclusion.

Yone was the secret weapon the opponent had been hiding!

Ever since EDG announced their starting roster the night before, the LNG training staff had spent the whole night collecting data on this rookie they hadn't paid any attention to at all.

But in reality, there was nothing to collect; after all, even counting the "newbie-stomping" matches in the LDL, he had only played five short games in total.

So they could only look for clues in Ye Bo’s recent ranked match history.

It was a pity that, although Ye Bo had indeed been practicing Yone recently.

He was no fool!

Those extra training sessions were naturally conducted in the "dream" trial grounds; there wasn't even a single record of it in his account's ranked training history for the past month.

Ye Bo was, of course, very clear about his biggest problem at the moment.

It was that his champion pool was still somewhat shallow, making it easy to be targeted.

And the LNG training staff, looking at those strange champions in his match history, were naturally easily misled.

"Let's go with this mid-jungle combo. Out of all his champions, this one can catch him!"

"We'll play normally this game, following our standard strategy. As long as we're careful about their tricks in the early game, wait for me and Tarzan to set the tempo!"

Doinb had clearly regained his confidence.

Although the last game was truly a bit embarrassing, he could already imagine how those heartwarming netizens had started to "warm" him up.

But as a veteran player who had seen his share of storms, his mentality was definitely still rock solid.

The best way to wash away the shame now was to hit back hard in this game!

"LNG picks the currently strong Vi in the first slot, while EDG counters by grabbing Poppy and Aphelios."

"LNG then picks Miss Fortune and Ahri! That’s an Ahri and Vi mid-jungle combo!"

"Wow, it feels like their early-to-mid game tempo capability is clearly much stronger than last game. LNG is likely returning to their most comfortable system this game!"

After reading the lineup, Jide also gave his assessment: "The only slightly uncomfortable thing is this Poppy. Shouldn't LNG consider banning it?"

Miller replied as a matter of course: "It's okay. Mainly, LNG clearly wants to target the mid-lane, and player Ye's Akali and LeBlanc have too much survivability; they need to be targeted."

"Let's look at EDG's third pick."

Ye Bo looked at the opponent's first three picks with a thoughtful gaze.

"Should I pick first? I can take Gragas; we can flex him, and he doesn't have any hard counters," Flandre offered.

"Or the support can pick first. Meiko can take Renata or Lulu, but with the opponent's lock-down system, the pressure on us to defend against their engage after level six won't be small," Coach Maokai said, looking at his notebook.

"Then I'll pick first to leave a counter-pick slot for Ye Bo," Meiko said. "But Zoe, will she be good against Ahri?"

Ye Bo naturally wouldn't hold back from his teammates.

And everyone knew that besides his "three axes," Zoe could probably be considered his fourth best, and he played her quite well.

It was just clear that the opponent's mid-jungle combo didn't look like a lineup where Zoe would easily shine.

"Ye Bo, what do you think?" Maokai asked for Ye Bo's opinion, seeing there were thirteen seconds left.

Ye Bo then gave his thoughts after some consideration.

"Against this lineup, I think Taliyah might be better, right?"

"I feel like they might want to play a side-lane tempo game this time. Catching me might be secondary. With this lock-down combo paired with Miss Fortune and a hard-engage support, if I pick someone with poor support capability, our bot lane will likely be dove repeatedly."

"Taliyah is indeed an option! But..." Maokai paused.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought of Taliyah.

It was just that in his memory, Ye Bo seemed to have only used her once in a scrim, and that was to counter the opponent's mid-lane Yasuo.

"I can do it! I have no problem! My Taliyah is super fierce!" Ye Bo affirmed three times, his voice full of confidence.

"Okay, okay, okay, don't hesitate, Ye Bo, you take it."

"Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick..."

The teammates didn't hesitate much, urging Ye Bo, who was in the third slot, to make the pick himself.

As the voice line "Fate is woven, so must be the stone" rang out, the venue erupted in gasps.

"EDG has taken Taliyah for the mid-lane? That's a pretty good choice!"

"Wait, does the rookie player actually have this in his pocket!?"

Compared to the commentary desk and the audience.

It was clear that Doinb on the other side was even more shocked.

"No way! He can play this too!?"

"I really don't believe it!"

Taliyah, as a standard template of a {traditional mage}, clearly had no connection to the types of champion pools Ye Bo had shown before.

Doinb believed that the opponent had likely picked her just to fill out the lineup.

And at this moment, Ye Bo was silently shouting in his head like a chuunibyou.

He poured all {28,275} points of experience accumulated from Yone into [Taliyah].

"Deep Blue! Upgrade me!!"

The one-third level five experience bar for Taliyah was almost perfectly filled, completing the upgrade to level six.

As hidden champion techniques zipped into his brain one after another.

The lineups for both sides were subsequently confirmed.

《Blue Side: LNG || Red Side: EDG》

[Top: Gnar vs Gragas]

[Jungle: Vi vs Poppy]

[Mid: Ahri vs Taliyah]

[ADC: Miss Fortune vs Aphelios]

[Support: Nautilus vs Leona]

Lineup image in production, please wait.

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(End of chapter)