Chapter 288: Yordle Red-Heat Sword Saint! A Teamfight Revealed from Multiple Angles

Neither side had any special champions in their level-one lineups, and both sides simply performed standard defensive positioning.

"It looks like both sides are playing very standard at level one; they've already spotted each other, and everyone is at ease knowing there's no trickery."

"What is Flandre doing?"

The observer, thinking everything was safe, shifted the camera to the top lane and discovered that Rumble's pathing seemed a bit off.

As soon as Rumble left the base, he headed straight for the top lane minion wave, entered the lane brush, and started throwing harpoons at thin air.

Since the other three lanes were all man-to-man, Rumble could act with impunity without worrying about defensive gaps—at most, he might have a ward stolen by Jax in the jungle, but that would require the top laner to "sacrifice himself."

Not to mention that BLG's "top-lane-focused" system wouldn't really do that kind of thing.

Compared to what Rumble was preparing to do, taking some risks was worth it.

At 1 minute and 20 seconds, the minion wave was about to arrive.

Rumble was seen walking toward the middle brush first, firing a harpoon into the lower brush to confirm no one was inside, which also confirmed Jax's position.

Afterward, Rumble walked directly toward the river!

"It looks like Rumble wants to find Jax!?"

Chen Zebin, who was standing in his normal position at the river entrance preparing to go to lane, saw Rumble approaching and his eyes lit up with joy.

He had also read the patch notes and the coaching staff's champion analysis, so he roughly knew the positioning of the new Rumble.

Q increased its noble percentage damage, W increased its percentage health bonus, and E enhanced its percentage magic resistance shred—three percentage-based buffs that greatly increased damage potential in the mid-to-late game, but also weakened early-game laning.

This was easy to understand; after all, since the base stats weren't up yet, percentage bonuses weren't actually advantageous.

And even against the old version of Rumble, Jax wouldn't fear him at all at level one!

Chen Zebin was experienced in laning; seeing Rumble press forward, he knew what the opponent wanted to do and immediately adjusted his positioning, moving to a tricky angle at the lower edge of the brush.

He actually succeeded in dodging a blind harpoon shot from Rumble!

A top laner's level-one ward is extremely precious, and Rumble couldn't possibly place it into the brush in front of his opponent, voluntarily exposing his own vision vacuum.

Therefore, he would most likely have to retreat.

And once Jax successfully walked back into the minion wave, he could use the minions to block the harpoons, which would force Rumble to retreat and use harpoons to last-hit.

In that case, Jax could easily seize lane priority for the first three levels and survive his most dangerous, suppressed node!

But Chen Zebin didn't expect it.

The opponent wasn't playing by the book!

Flandre didn't place a ward, missed his harpoon, and yet he was still mindlessly pressing forward!?

This... it looked like suicide!

Everyone knows Jax's level-one combat power; once he gets close and starts with 【Counter Strike】, relying on the super-strong stand-and-fight ability of Lethal Tempo, it's enough to chase and beat Rumble until he's critically low, or even force him out of the experience zone at level one!

"Flandre's Rumble seems a bit reckless here!?" Zzitai said, hesitantly making a fuss.

"Bin's temper won't put up with you; if you dare to come, he'll just start fighting!"

Jax used a detailed face-to-face auto-attack to start, not in a hurry to activate 【Counter Strike】.

This is also a small mechanical detail for Jax—if you can directly auto-attack your opponent, don't rush to use your E; wait until the opponent wants to pull away to use the E skill to control and keep them, or wait for the gap when the opponent wants to stand and fight to confuse and counter-attack.

Anyway, in a level-one trade, you can't use E twice, so this is how you utilize the skill effect at the critical moment!

Flandre also saw the opponent's intention; after bumping into him in the brush, he immediately fired a harpoon at point-blank range, then immediately retreated to try and create distance.

The key to Jax not using E first was reflected here; while being hit by the harpoon and slowed, 【Counter Strike】 was immediately activated, then quickly closed after one second.

Utilizing the close-quarters distance, he stunned Rumble in place at the edge of the fan!

At this moment, Jax's Lethal Tempo had already stacked to 3 layers.

After the stun, he could chase and land at least 2 more hits, and he was only 1 layer away from max-stack Lethal Tempo; Rumble couldn't possibly win and could only bury his head and run—the trade would definitely be a huge loss for Rumble!

But... Chen Zebin had been ignoring one thing.

Or rather, one thing that everyone watching the stream had ignored.

Rumble's heat.

"Wait? Damn it! How did Rumble get to red heat!?"

"Wait, isn't it impossible for the new Rumble to reach red heat at level one!?"

You really can't blame everyone for not noticing this.

Come to think of it, back in the ancient days, Rumble had a small trick called "Q-stacking for level-one red heat," which was quickly nerfed and removed.

By Season 11, Rumble's first passive rework had another trick, "W-stacking for level-one red heat" → then it was also quickly removed in mid-S11 by increasing the W skill's cooldown.

It was very clear that the designers knew exactly what this meant for Rumble and didn't want to see him have the ability to build heat at the start of the game.

And since then, there had indeed been no Rumble tricks for level-one red heat.

Which means, for two whole years, in everyone's impression, Rumble didn't have the concept of "being able to reach red heat at level one"!

Even "level-one yellow heat" only existed in this newly reworked 13. 2 version, because the heat provided by Rumble's E skill went from 10 to 20, making the possibility of level-one yellow heat exist again.

This point is, of course, common knowledge; as long as you read the patch notes, it's not hard to find.

Chen Zebin naturally knew this, so when he first saw the heat bar on Rumble, he didn't have the slightest suspicion.

After all, yellow heat only makes the E skill damage slightly higher...

But if he could trigger the passive 【Junkyard Titan】, it would be instantly different!

It's equivalent to having 50% attack speed from a max-level Highland Bloodline, high bonus damage, plus percentage maximum health damage.

Red-heat Rumble instantly transformed into a "Yordle Sword Saint"!

"Warning! Warning! Warning!"

Jax was still unconvinced, wanting to rely on Lethal Tempo to be fierce.

But after just three auto-attacks, half his health bar was knocked away by the mechanical Rumble's flaming hammer, and his scalp was almost burned bald!

"Jax wants to run but has no E, and Rumble still has a harpoon!" Zzitai shouted in the stream: "Who are you calling a shorty!"

"Bin! Holy crap, is Bin going to be solo-killed at level one!?"

Jax, having chased too deep, couldn't create distance at all, and was held back again by Rumble's follow-up harpoon, leaving him no choice but to burn Flash to pull away.

Otherwise, there might have been a risk of dying at level one!

But even so, because Rumble hadn't pushed the minion wave, Jax's health was too low to stay in lane, and he could only recall and come back.

It was equivalent to having both summoner spells burned for nothing at level one... his laning phase could be said to have directly imploded!

"Holy crap, Old Pig!" Kryst4l clapped and shouted for his old teammate: "Bin just suffered a huge blow; Jax should have been able to easily suppress Rumble at level one, right? His laning is ruined now!"

"But why can Rumble reach red heat at level one? Wasn't that stuff deleted long ago!"

Zzitai was also full of confusion, turning to ask the professional on the line: "Coach Letme, what's going on? Explain it!"

"Learning harpoon at level one allows for red heat; did the coaching staff not know? So is this wave Bin's fault or the coaching staff's fault?"