Chapter 29: Sneaking into the Worked Ground! The Yellow Earth Giant Hand! [5k Combined]

Entering the match.

The starting positions of both sides appear quite normal compared to the previous game.

Perhaps because they just suffered a heavy blow in the last round, LNG is surely on high alert.

Seeing that the war drums have not yet sounded, the commentary desk turns to look at the rune panel lit up by the director below.

"Player Ye Bo's Taliyah is running [Unsealed Spellbook]; it seems he has his own understanding of the champion," Jiekou mentions regarding this rune.

"I'd also like to inform the audience that Taliyah underwent a mid-scope update in this year's 12.9 patch, and all her abilities have seen subtle changes."

"A key change is that her E ability, [Unraveled Earth], now also provides a stun effect when triggered by an enemy dash!"

Before this year, Taliyah had been absent from the mid lane for nearly three years.

It was precisely because of the rework on the eve of the Summer Split that Taliyah regained the possibility of returning to the mid lane.

However, her ability to return to laning actually has little to do with the E ability the commentator mentioned.

It is mainly thanks to the changes to her Q, [Threaded Volley].

Simply put, the old Taliyah would leave behind a restrictive "Worked Ground" after casting Q, and since there is only so much movable space during the laning phase, it greatly affected wave-clearing efficiency and laning space.

This is the main reason why mid-lane Taliyah went extinct and everyone ran off to the vast, boundless jungle.

But after this rework.

Although the Worked Ground mechanic still exists, it is no longer a "regional restriction."

Instead, it has become a "burst tool"!

In the current version, it is equivalent to distributing the original Q ability's damage into two forms: {Normal Q} and {Worked Ground Single Q}, where the Worked Ground single Q can deal double damage.

If you can land the full effect, the damage is even higher than before, and the wave-clearing speed is faster than before!

This solves a major pain point for mid-lane Taliyah, making her a very strong mid-lane champion in the current meta.

Of course, Doinb is also skilled with Taliyah and is full of confidence right now.

He believes no one understands Taliyah better than he does!

"Positioning, positioning. Be careful this game, don't give them the same opportunities as last game. They won't dare to enter the jungle this time."

"? Taliyah is here!"

Ahri, who had just walked to the river bush in the top half of the map, ran head-on into Taliyah, who was walking quickly while "riding a skateboard."

Taliyah is carrying the "Celerity" rune, and her base movement speed is 333.

When she moves along a wall and triggers her passive, [Rock Surfing], her movement speed reaches 369.

Don't underestimate this number!

Ahri's level-one movement speed is only 330, which is equivalent to being 39 points faster than Ahri out of thin air.

You have to know, a pair of 300-gold boots only provides 25 movement speed.

This is equivalent to starting the game with tier-two boots.

It is precisely because of this that Taliyah can outpace Ahri and arrive at the opponent's top river entrance ahead of time.

The director switches the camera immediately.

"Oh? Taliyah charges into the enemy jungle in the lead and runs straight into Ahri!"

"Teammates from both sides are rushing over here. Are they really going to have such a heated fight?"

Both top and mid laners gather immediately, but EDG clearly communicated in advance and is moving faster.

Ale's Gnar walks out from the entrance of the Blue Buff and throws a boomerang, successfully slowing the two of them before shouting, "What's the call, are we fighting?"

"No fight, no fight, just drive them away!" Doinb is very calm, knowing that nothing can come of this.

And the two from EDG don't seem to have any intention of fighting either.

Under the cover of Gragas, Taliyah retreats toward their own jungle above, looking like a trip that yielded no results.

LNG does not notice anything unusual.

But the spectator perspective is different.

"Good heavens, look at this ward placement from Taliyah..." Jiekou's tone is secretive, like a thief.

"Completely undetected! Taliyah used the high movement speed from her runes and passive to reach the enemy wall ahead of time, then seized the gap in Gnar's vision to place a 'wall-piercing ward'!" Miller loudly recounts the process of the crime.

"Player Ye Bo, these strange ideas just keep coming one after another!"

As it happens, just above LNG's Blue Buff area.

There is a ward placed through the wall using the "wall-piercing" method, which can clearly see the situation inside the Blue Buff pit.

That was exactly what Taliyah did while "fleeing"—deliberately hugging the wall, pretending to want to refresh her passive.

In reality, she saw Gnar walk out.

When the opponent lost vision of the rear, she silently placed this wall-piercing ward!

The outside world knows too little about Ye Bo; during his time in the LDL, his performance was basically just overpowering others with raw strength, and one couldn't see many specific traits.

In fact.

In the eyes of the EDG members, besides being "capable of making plays," Ye Bo has another label.

What is even more characteristic are the "little ideas" that pop up from time to time.

And Ye Bo clearly has a very deep study of Tarzan.

He knows that the best way to minimize this person's threat is to grasp his jungle pathing.

Information about the jungle can at least ensure he can rest easy for the first four minutes.

Therefore, Ye Bo thought of this trick during the loading phase of this game and quickly communicated it with his teammates.

Using the hero's characteristics, Taliyah's movement speed allows her to reach the position quickly to bait the opponent into a fight, but the real goal is to fish in troubled waters and place a ward to monitor the opponent's jungler's movements.

He succeeded.

Because immediately, Tarzan, seeing that the opponent seemed to have thoughts of invading, secretly changed his jungle pathing "in the dark."

Vi appears inside the Blue Buff pit.

Having obtained this information.

In Ye Bo's mind, another idea suddenly popped up again!

"Jiejie, shall we go gank him at level two? I can have lane priority; Ahri's ward was just placed in the entrance bush."

"Let's do it!" Jiejie's reply is concise and to the point.

Although Taliyah's wave-clearing speed is fast, that is only after she gains some levels.

And as a Tier 1 champion in the current meta, Ahri is no slouch when it comes to wave-clearing ability, especially in the early game.

But Ye Bo has a way.

At 1:05, Taliyah first arrives at the river beside the mid-lane minion wave and throws a Q at the air.

Waiting for the 7-second cooldown of the Q ability to refresh.

Then she moves to the other side of the river and does the same thing.

"What is Taliyah doing? Those two empty Qs used up nearly a quarter of her mana!" Miller, whose game understanding is slightly lacking, asks in confusion.

But he soon gets his answer.

At 1:30, the minion wave arrives.

Taliyah walks onto the "Worked Ground" created by the first Q earlier, picks up a critical-strike boulder from under her feet—and throws it at the stacked minion wave!

Then she walks to the other side for a second single-Q boulder!

Furthermore, for the start of both Qs, Taliyah meticulously steps onto the "river water" to gain the AP bonus from the {Waterwalking} rune.

With two critical AOE boulders crashing down, the first wave of stacked minions is almost instantly reduced to low health!

"Worked Ground" can persist for 30 seconds.

And the single Q boulder on Worked Ground not only has double damage but also has its cooldown halved, and the mana cost is only 20.

Although the first two "air Qs" used up 130 points of Taliyah's mana, in the 30 seconds she waited, Taliyah relied on the {1.6/s base mana regen} + {1.25/s Doran's Ring regen} stacking.

By the time the minion wave arrived, she had actually already recovered 85 mana!

Doing all of this only used the mana of one normal ability and did not consume too much.

Ahri, who had just started clearing the wave, looks at the minion wave that is about to be pushed in.

Doinb falls into deep thought.

Wait, no?

This looks like a very simple trick... why didn't I think of it!

But Doinb quickly comforts himself, not feeling like it's a big deal.

After all, the game has just begun, and he believes that these "little tricks" from the opponent cannot be effective every single time.

"Taliyah missing, level one, probably went to place a ward."

Generally, the speed of the first wave of mid-lane minions is equal to the speed at which the jungler finishes the first camp.

But this game's Taliyah, using the "Pre-emptive Worked Ground" trick, was a full few seconds faster than the conventional speed at level one!

Fortunately, the opponent is still only level one after quickly pushing the wave.

Clearly, they didn't repeat the same trick this time.

Doinb thinks to himself, using the same move twice would be a bit too stupid; after all, this move also carries the risk of exposing his own jungler's pathing.

However.

The commentary desk has already let out another shrill cry of shock.

"My god, they're doing it again! The wonderful coordination between EDG's mid and jungle!"

"Poppy started at the Raptors, deliberately leaving one low-health small bird to drag out far, allowing Taliyah, who happened to be walking by, to eat it, letting her successfully cross to level two with the experience of one wave!"

"The two of them walk along the wall, bypassing the vision of the entrance bush, with a clear goal—they should be heading straight for the opponent's Gromp!"

"Tarzan is going to be in big trouble!!!"

The innocent Tarzan-meow was still unaware at this moment, busy focusing on controlling Vi and throwing punches at the Gromp.

There was a reason why Ye Bo had this thought.

He had played Vi a few times; although he didn't know much about the champion's mechanics, he knew that a solo-starting Vi would never learn the Q skill at level one—that was the most basic common sense.

Vi's jungle clearing strategy revolves around refreshing her passive shield.

Level one W, level two E; unless one intends to gank at level two, this is almost impossible to change.

That meant something.

A level two Vi actually has no displacement or escape ability.

"It's coming, it's coming."

"Look at the health of this Gromp! If Tarzan doesn't handle this well, he might suffer a huge loss!"

Poppy started at the Raptors, and the AoE of her Q skill allows for fast clearing; her speed is bound to be much faster than Vi, who is hitting the Blue Buff, and the path distance is even shorter.

At this moment, the second wave of minions in the mid lane had already arrived.

Doinb finally began to sense something unusual.

"No, Maya, this is wrong!"

"Where did he go! It's not like a level one Taliyah can go anywhere; who can he even catch at level one!"

"Everyone, be careful!"

As soon as these words were spoken, both the top and bottom lanes of LNG were startled.

After all, the Yone from the previous game had given them a hard time.

Although they couldn't figure it out, the top laner Ale still honestly backed off to place a ward, and the duo in the bottom lane also retreated immediately; having vision in the back was the only way to feel at ease.

But Tarzan, who was still brawling with the Gromp,

felt a strange tightening in his gut upon hearing this.

Because looking at his own health, how did he realize that he seemed to be the most dangerous one?

Doinb's warning was very timely, and Tarzan, possessing a strong survival instinct, directly took a step to the side and back, wanting to place a ward in the brush over the wall.

But the next moment.

Behind the wall on the right, Poppy had already walked out, and the ward he placed even spotted Taliyah, who seemed to be preparing to "take a detour."

"Aishie~!"

Tarzan let out an exclamation in his native language, his instinctual desire to escape erupting.

A Vi starting solo in the jungle can actually recover to at least 80% health after killing the Gromp.

But the problem was, he hadn't killed it yet!

At this moment, Vi had at most less than 60% health!

Tarzan knew that, first and foremost, he could not give Poppy the chance to land a naked E wall-stun; otherwise, he might not even be able to use his skills, or he would be forced to die by a follow-up Flash.

Poppy's E skill has a dash distance of up to 450 units.

At this corner, it was already within reach.

Tarzan decisively used his Flash, which was not against the wall, and precisely jumped over the wall.

To everyone else, forcing this Flash out of White was already a huge win; he could even steal the Gromp, which could be called a massive profit.

But Ye Bo felt it wasn't enough; if asked why, it was just his personality.

He wanted it all!

"Jiejie, you can kill him!"

Ye Bo roared, his fingers dancing rapidly.

He used his mouse to pre-select the direction in the air outside the range, and Taliyah followed up almost immediately with a Flash, releasing her W the moment she landed.

"Pre-commanded W-Flash over the wall"!

Tarzan, who had just thought he escaped a disaster,

suddenly saw a yellowish "circle" appear under his feet.

Taliyah shook the earth, and a protruding giant rock, like a pair of earthen hands, forcefully "bounced" him back at the limit!

Forcing Vi back inside the wall!

"Oh my!" Jike excitedly blurted out an exclamation: "How did he lift him back!!!"

"Poppy follows up with a wall-stun! Taliyah fires a full Rock Volley!"

"Vi is doomed now; how did that even work!?"

He used his Flash, only to be bounced back over the wall.

Clearly, he could take his hands off the keyboard now.

"Ye Bo, you take it!"

Vi, with no possibility of escape, was tragically devoured by the two.

Ye Bo didn't refuse Jiejie's kindness; after all, he had used his Flash and needed this kill.

Taliyah lightly raised her sleeve, and a rock flew from her palm, smashing into Vi's skull!

[First Blood!]

[EDG Ye Bo killed LNG Tarzan!]

"Ni~ce, A-Bo!"

"Ni~ce, A-Jie!"

The mid-jungle duo performed a verbal high-five.

"Zhao Lijie, I feel like you've almost been assimilated by Ye Bo." Meiko, laning in the bottom, heard their infectious exchange and teased them.

But Jiejie's face clearly showed excitement and happiness that was hard to hide.

To be precise, he was having a blast.

As a jungler, to have a mid-lane teammate who can command you to go crazy and make plays with you... and the key is, they actually often succeed!

Every jungler knows how great that feels.

In any case, this was an experience Jiejie had never felt with Scout.

"What kind of reaction was that? That kind of over-the-wall lift must be quite difficult, right? Player Ye is truly a mechanical monster!" Jike was still full of praise.

"The main thing is that he was so daring; there was no vision, it was a blind lift!" Miller quickly added.

To be fair.

Although the direction of Vi's Flash was exactly the direction he was facing, it wasn't actually hard to predict.

Including the synchronized Flash, since the intent was so obvious, it wasn't much of a test for professional players.

But to execute this play clearly still required "courage."

And the courage to make plays has always been what LPL viewers value most; it's better to die standing than to lose lying down.

The chat was filled with cheers.

[Cool!]

["Get! Your! Ass! Back! Here!"]

[Eating the little chickens to hit level two and actually turning it into a fancy play; I have a feeling this move will become a must-have in ranked, every mid-laner will have to ask their jungler to help them clear the Raptors.]

[EDG really struck gold this time.]

[I really want to know who commanded this play for EDG; if it was the mid-laner, then this guy is a bit strong—he has both mechanics and brains!]

[Tarzan-meow, oh Tarzan-meow, why not punch the mid-laner, why didn't you even report the miss?]

To be reasonable, this really couldn't be blamed on Doinb.

He reported the miss he should have, and one could even say he reported it very timely; two seconds later, Taliyah wouldn't even have needed to use that Flash.

It was mainly because Taliyah's "shameless" three-Q hard push was so fast that it didn't give Doinb time to warn them; he had reacted to it himself.

And what could a level one Ahri do anyway?

However.

Doinb, seen on the camera, already had a slightly flushed face.

It was as if the opponent wasn't just killing his jungler, but was constantly slapping him in the face; the contrast was just too strong!

"Tarzan, wait until I come to gank him!"

"He has no Flash... this game, we're going to gank him!"

Tarzan was equally gnashing his teeth: "Gank!!!"

The operation has been restored in the chapter notes.

Two-in-one, 5k big chapter!

Sorry for being late; as compensation, I will add more tonight!

At least 3k, still before 23:59.

Please keep reading!

Please give me tickets, qaq!

Thanks to the big boss Qingfeng Zhixia for the 100-coin tip!

Thanks to the brothers for the monthly tickets!

Thanks to the brothers for the support!

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(End of chapter)