Chapter 311: The Terrifying Rice-Transplanting Crone

While the commentary desk was still nervously analyzing the team compositions, many eyes outside were also observing this match.

After all, this was the LPL semi-finals, and it featured V5, a team that commanded attention from every region globally, not to mention Ye Bo, the "online class master" acknowledged by many players.

"Ivern?" Keria wore a look of confusion and contemplation.

"Isn't this usually paired with Tristana? What is the logic behind pairing it with a mid-lane Viego?"

Ivern was actually a champion who had been reworked alongside Rell previously.

It just hadn't attracted any attention at the time.

After all, the thing was so unpopular that even data websites couldn't find references for it, and the rework didn't look revolutionary; it was mostly a set of compensatory changes made because the new mid-season {buff sharing mechanism} had affected Ivern's uniqueness.

This champion only truly entered the spotlight because of the previous popularity of mid-lane Tristana, which led teams to develop the "support-style jungler" strategy to protect the mid lane.

Oner, lifting a 20kg dumbbell, didn't even look over, his eyes full of wisdom as he said casually: "Maybe it's to counter Kindred's jungle! Isn't this guy a Kindred specialist? He should know his stuff."

"But if you ask me, this LNG jungler's style is no good. Why would you need to play a champion like Ivern? I could counter-jungle him even playing Poppy!"

Beside him, Zeus teased his jungle brother: "But it seems you were also counter-jungled into oblivion by the V5 jungler at MSI, huh."

"Ya-i-xi! Choi Woo-je, you guy, always picking at people's scars."

Although the two were just joking around.

Mentioning MSI still caused Li Xianghe, in the middle, to feel a jolt in his heart.

That was, after all, the worst World Championship experience he had had since turning professional, his first time being eliminated in the group stage, and also the period when his form was at its lowest in his career.

And by comparison.

Li Xianghe's attention was entirely on the mid-lane matchup.

Ye Bo's Akali was undoubtedly a presence that gave every team a headache.

If he could see what special "counter-measures" Ye Bo chose himself—perhaps it could provide experience for these teams!

Furthermore, as one of T1's biggest rivals in the playoffs, the mid-lane Viego pick was something only Chovy would bring out in the LCK.

Clearly, this mid-lane matchup would provide a lot of reference value for everyone!

"V5 is going to fight!?" At this moment, Gumayusi suddenly shouted from the side, drawing everyone's attention.

On the broadcast screen.

The members of LNG, who had spawned on the blue side, had just stepped out of the fountain gate and were heading straight for the opponent's bottom quadrant as a group of five, looking incredibly fierce.

Anyone who had watched V5's matches and understood their team composition was very familiar with the meaning of this move.

It was clearly an attempt to use their strong level-one team fight composition to forcibly invade and drive the enemy out of the bottom quadrant, achieving the goal of an opening "forced quadrant swap."

The bottom lane matchup for both sides in this game was Draven versus Samira.

It was visibly going to be the main battlefield for the clash!

V5 had always been invincible using this tactic; even if this Sion-Kindred composition had long been thoroughly analyzed by all teams, as long as there were no issues with the composition pairing, they could at least always pull off the quadrant swap.

These actions could be said to require no guessing at all.

Yet, the god's-eye view revealed that the V5 members, upon leaving the base, were also heading toward the bottom quadrant!

"V5 is looking for death!" Gumayusi let out a gloating sound: "They aren't going to be done in by their own stuff, are they!"

"How can they win this level-one fight? Neither side can accept Draven or Kindred taking the kills!"

To outsiders, V5, as the developers, looked as if they hadn't expected the opponent to use this move!

But Li Xianghe didn't speak; he just felt things wouldn't be that simple, believing V5 couldn't possibly make such an obvious mistake.

Although he also couldn't figure out why V5 dared to go.

And even with the god's-eye view, people thought this way.

The members of LNG within the game were even less prepared, directly assuming the opponent wouldn't come to the bottom quadrant at all.

Everyone was moving without any concealment, preparing to head straight in from the nearest river entrance, not even bothering to use scanners or place wards in advance.

"V5 seems to be able to get the first move!"

The five members of V5 were crouching at the river entrance.

Waiting for the five enemies to approach, Rell struck first, transforming horse into armor and stomping down from the air with a W {Ferromancy: Crash Down}!

"Rell landed a knock-up on all five people!!"

Rumble, still utilizing the 8-cooldown-reduction-shard heat-management mechanic, kept his heat just right to reach "Yellow Heat" and activated {Flamespitter} to directly roast all five.

Samira was even more ferocious, learning her E skill at level one to dash into the crowd, while simultaneously using her passive {Daredevil Impulse} on the Akali within, knocking her up again for 1 second and dealing repeated damage.

"Is V5 focusing all their fire on Akali!? Did they focus the wrong target!"

"And LNG is about to counter-attack!"

Although V5's ambush and skill chaining were done almost perfectly.

But if this composition were so easily "broken," it wouldn't be active even now.

V5, who used it the most, had also fallen for it before.

The strength of this composition lies in the fact that—even if they are ambushed first, they don't fear it at all, thanks to the composition's super-high level-one melee intensity!

Moreover, it looked like V5's focus target might have had some issues.

Of course, it was also because the opponent's most critical marksmen, Draven and Kindred, were positioned in the back, and forcing a chase would easily lead to their formation being pulled apart.

And once the Sion in their face was killed, although Viego could also possess and transform, the opponent would first have a "reanimated" invincible zombie king, who could tear everything apart in the crowd and break their formation first!

This was also one of the essences of this composition.

With Sion in a level-one melee fight, there was almost no reason to lose a head-on battle!

Since killing the Alistar was useless, the only remaining focus target was Akali, who was also positioned very far forward.

"Alistar didn't need Flash, he just used Q in place and successfully knocked up the three people who rushed into his face!"

"Kindred and Draven are focusing fire on Samira, who rushed into the crowd! Sion is also charging his Q!"

The gap in level-one combat power between the two sides was exposed.

Although V5 landed a perfect first move, Ivern's level-one melee ability was infinitely close to zero, and Viego's combat power before transformation was about the same as Akali's, which was equivalent to being down one person's worth of front-line damage.

And at this moment, Sion held his battle axe high, charging up; looking at the posture, he was about to knock up multiple people!

At the critical moment, Viego took a large stride forward and unleashed {Blade of the Ruined King}, grazing the edge of Alistar's whip to successfully interrupt Sion's charge!

"Master Ye actually learned W and interrupted Sion's Q!"

"Which side will fall first!?"

Seeing that it was difficult to retreat, Akali didn't prepare to use any other skills, directly unleashing all her damage with an auto-attack and Q on Samira in the crowd behind.

But the five-man focus fire from Viego and his teammates was ultimately one step faster, killing her first!

"Master Ye has taken the First Blood on Akali!!!"

"But Samira, who rushed into the crowd, ultimately couldn't survive and fell immediately after, with Kindred taking the kill!"

"It looks like both sides are likely to fight to the end!"

Having just killed Samira in the crowd.

The LNG members reacted immediately, with multiple chaotic voices blending together.

"Viego! Kill Viego! Kill Viego!!"

Actually, there was no need to shout.

Even if one didn't understand the battle situation, everyone surely knew that the only main combat force for V5 was Viego.

At the first moment, if it weren't for the ADC Samira rushing into the crowd herself, causing everyone to have the subconscious thought of "kill the ADC first."

Presumably, the LNG play would have definitely been Alistar using Q-Flash to knock up Viego, and then the five of them forcibly nuking him down first.

But this was exactly V5's intention.

And until this moment, in everyone's eyes, the advantage was undoubtedly still entirely on LNG's side.