Chapter 291: Distraction Tactics! The

"What kind of stunt is Ye Bo pulling again!" Zitao stared in astonishment: "What is this mid-lane Viego!"

Letme put on a professional air: "Actually, if you really want to talk about it, mid-lane Viego against top-lane, I think someone played it in tournaments when the champion first came out, probably in S11, right?"

"I definitely know that, but S11 feels like something from four or five years ago; can it even be played now?"

Mid-lane Viego existed when he first launched in the S11 season; he was even considered a mainstream pick at the time and was not uncommon in professional play.

It was just that he could appear back then purely because the stats of the newly released Viego were too exaggerated.

The high amount of healing his Q skill provided at the time was simply beating up Vladimir and kicking Renekton—a total lane-bully scumbag!

Later, the designers nerfed the Q skill's healing, cutting the recovery effect against minions in half, which drove Viego back into the jungle.

Of course, the purpose of Ye Bo picking him was clearly not for laning.

"Braum is leading the team straight into the bottom jungle at level one; V5 seems to want to force a level-one fight!"

"V5's level-one squad is full of bruisers, while BLG's dual carries, Azir and Aphelios, are basically super minions at level one. They absolutely cannot take the fight and must retreat to give up the jungle to avoid it!"

"However, V5 doesn't seem to want to force a fight; they just went in to place some vision in the jungle."

The corner ward that On left in the lower half of the red jungle to detect movement was precisely spotted and cleared by Beryl. In reality, the BLG side had no idea where the V5 members were.

But after all, Beichuan had spent half a year at V5, and suddenly he felt a chill down his spine.

"The opponents are very likely looking to invade my jungle."

In Beichuan's view, the opponents might not be starting at his red buff.

Because if they started that way, it would just be a simple jungle swap, which wasn't unacceptable for BLG's bottom lane, who needed to scale, and it didn't really seem like V5's style.

Perhaps, the opponents just wanted to confirm and lock down Vi's jungle path!

After all, BLG had no combat power in any of their three lanes at level one; Vi couldn't risk a level-one jungle skirmish to head into the opponent's red jungle.

And since his own bottom jungle was pitch black and definitely covered in vision, it was obvious that Vi could only start at the blue buff.

No matter how you looked at it, the opponents seemed to be preparing to come into the jungle to find him.

"I can contest the wave!"

"We can try too."

Both the top and bottom lanes of BLG immediately gave affirmative answers, not wanting their side to be bullied at all, and Yaogao in the mid lane only hesitated slightly.

Beichuan had indeed guessed correctly.

During the draft phase, V5 let through the meta-strong Azir and Aphelios for the sole reason that both were champions with weak early-game combat potential.

Remember V5's first realization in the summer season meta: it was because the mid lane's ability to roam to side lanes had weakened, which instead intensified the importance of "mid-jungle confrontation."

The first match of the summer season against EDG was lost because the opponent picked Twisted Fate, a champion with zero combat capability, which led to Barrier's jungle being completely dismantled.

But as things have developed, the countermeasures and mainstream understanding in the professional scene have changed.

First, naturally, is picking jungle champions with extreme 1v1 strength; the recent surge in Kha'Zix's pick rate is one piece of evidence.

It's just that this clearly belongs to a very "unstable" way of responding.

Because this not only places extremely high demands on the jungler, but also requires all three lanes to pick very extreme "early-game laning" champions—and once the opponent picks a utility jungler to avoid jungle confrontation, the offensive pressure becomes immense!

If you don't crush your opponent, you crush yourself!

And there is no doubt that unless the draft is completely blown, it is basically impossible to pick a lineup where all four positions are at a laning disadvantage.

In that case, all the opposing jungler has to do is avoid fighting and swap jungles; they will always find a half of the map where at least one side lane has an advantage to farm in.

Precisely because of this, utility junglers that don't need to forcibly "kidnap" their teammates have gradually become mainstream.

However, through exploration over several patches, Ye Bo and Beryl thought of a playstyle that counters the mainstream system based on their team's strengths.

Summarized in four characters: "Stabilizing Sea Needle"!

The key point and core foundation of this playstyle is that the "mid lane's" combat power must be sufficiently strong.

The reason is simple—since it's difficult to pick a lineup with four winning lanes, and strong top/bottom lanes are limited by geographical constraints to only protecting half the map, only the mid lane theoretically has the potential to radiate across the entire map.

The ideal result should be: wherever the mid laner is, that's where the fight should be won!

Only then can the goal of "forcing fights across the entire map" be achieved!

However, a new problem followed quickly.

That is, in this version of the mid lane, you simply cannot find any champion with "absolute combat power advantage"!

Even Sylas, LeBlanc, or Tristana, who are recognized as having strong fighting capabilities, wouldn't dare say they have an absolute combat advantage in a brawl when equally farmed!

In the current meta, the only one who dares to pat his chest and say this is basically top-lane Renekton, which is also why he has become a focal point of contention in the meta.

But, while searching, Ye Bo suddenly thought of a champion in his own champion pool.

Viego!

If Viego says he is second in "skirmishing," no one in the Rift would dare say they are first—because theoretically, Viego can not only be first, but can also "become the second"!

But it was clearly stated earlier that the only one in the current meta who dares to pat his chest and say this is Renekton, which doesn't include Viego.

Why?

Because jungle Viego does not fall into this category.

This logic is also very simple.

Solo lanes are destined to have much higher levels and farm than the jungle; without extra jungle income, most junglers are only level 4 when a normal mid laner reaches level 6.

No matter how strong a champion's combat power is, there's no argument for a level 4 fighting a level 6!

On the other hand, as mentioned before, there aren't many early-game strong champions in the mid lane this meta; even the strongest, LeBlanc, has had her combat power weakened because she has to go for the Statikk Shiv build, which just happened to clear a spot for Viego.

Extending this further.

Precisely because there aren't many strong laning mid champions, Viego's laning pressure in the mid lane is naturally reduced.

At least compared to the jungle environment, where he faces Kha'Zix, Nocturne, Nidalee, and Poppy who can easily burst him in a 1v1; as well as Lee Sin, Vi, Seeing Seeing Wukong, and Kindred who don't fear him at all...

The laning pressure in the mid lane against major mages is actually much smaller!

As the mid-lane laning phase begins, Ye Bo seems to be interpreting this point.

"Viego's pressure doesn't seem that high, huh?" Zitao felt it was different from what he had imagined.

Azir's range is right there, and purely in terms of laning, he is definitely not weak; logically, he should be able to mindlessly beat up a short-ranged champion like Viego.

However, in reality.

Viego's laning, at the very worst, can be viewed like Sylas'!

The Q skill 【Blade of the Ruined King】 doesn't look long to the naked eye, but it actually has a full 600 yards, only about 100 yards shorter than the maximum range of Sylas' Q 【Chain Lash】.

But the Blade of the Ruined King only has a measly 5-second cooldown.

While Chain Lash is a full 10 seconds!

The most critical thing is that the former is also a no-cost champion—no mana usage!

Even better, as long as you auto-attack a minion hit by the Blade Q, you can heal!

So, to put it bluntly, if Viego just wants to "play passively" in the short mid lane, you won't find many champions in the entire mid lane who are easier to survive with than him!

Of course, if that were all, it wouldn't be much—just the path of a "leech" champion.

Azir's soldier placement range at level one is only 525 yards, and he cannot move the soldiers, so naturally, it is difficult to exert any pressure on Viego for the time being.

But then, both mid laners reached level three.

Yaogao wanted to put his idea of helping the jungle into practice; at level three, he finally had the ability to command soldiers, increasing his pressure by a notch, and immediately summoned a soldier to charge forward, wanting to poke and harass.

But Viego took the soldier's poke head-on, yet his pace did not retreat as usual.

Instead, he stepped forward, moving away from the soldier.

Viego pulled out the Black Mist toward the front, directly covering and spreading across the center of the minion wave, his figure vanishing into the 【Harrowed Path】!

Azir immediately countered by placing another soldier inside the Black Mist to search for the enemy's trail.

However.

The soldier's eye cannot glimpse the true form of the King!

{Soldiers do not count as hero units and cannot gain vision inside the Black Mist}

It's just that, at this moment, Ye Bo seemed to suddenly notice something "strange," his eyes showing some surprise.

Fortunately, the panicked Yaogao failed to notice.

The release range of the Harrowed Path is a full eight hundred yards, directly crossing the entire line of engagement, with the end spreading behind the blue side's ranged minions.

Looking at that Black Mist, which provided absolutely no information, Yaogao could only nervously anticipate the opponent's movement trajectory in his mind.