Chapter 321: Live by the Blade, Die by the Blade! The Human Wall Separates! TheShy, Hurry!

"V5 used a sweeper to clear out the vision in the top lane immediately. In that case, WBG's opening strategy can be said to have completely fallen through!"

"Although Vayne is still very good at playing against K'Sante, at least the laning phase in the top lane won't be as miserable for the first few levels, and since Jinx picked up First Blood, V5's bot lane laning phase will also be very comfortable!"

In fact, Karsa could feel that the impact within the match went beyond that.

Because after the level-one team fight, the V5 members' subsequent path of departure was still toward his upper red buff jungle area.

Although V5's level-one combat power in the top, mid, and jungle wasn't great, Karsa wasn't worried that the opponent wanted to force an invasion of his jungle at level one.

But clearly, "vision nails" must have already been planted somewhere in his jungle by now.

This undoubtedly put Karsa in a passive position.

First of all, both bot lanes were compositions that favored scaling, and the side that picked Vayne top would definitely need the jungler to take care of and guard the lane early on, so the jungle pathing naturally had to lean toward the upper half.

It's just that if it were a normal start, one couldn't judge where Vi would start based on this situation—after all, while starting blue and pathing upward is the correct decision, there also exists the opportunity to start red in the upper half and then pivot into a fast gank.

But at this moment, there was a ward in the red buff area, so the probability of Vi catching someone was greatly reduced, and starting red would lose its meaning.

Therefore, by process of elimination, the starting point for the jungle should be locked into the blue area.

And as long as the opponent's jungler's position is known, Vayne top dares not be too oppressive early on, and at the same time, the mid lane laning can be played more aggressively.

"Mr. Da'an, how do you think Talon mid against Galio plays out?" Guan Zeyuan asked Angel, who is also a mid laner.

Angel thought for a moment: "If we are purely talking about the 1v1 laning phase, it should be around 【a certain ratio】, Talon is relatively easy to trigger his passive against melee heroes like this."

Kid, listening to this, retorted with dissatisfaction: "Six-four is too little! It should be at least seven-three or even eight-two! Xiaohu picking it after the opponent should just be for marking and countering in team fights."

"That's not quite right. If it's really eight-two, we have to look at the top lane matchup. Vayne against K'Sante top should be nine-one!" Angel didn't want to be outdone.

"How could it be that high! Vayne is still very reliant on mechanics, I'm familiar with this. Oh, but in TheShy's hands, it's no problem, it should indeed be that high!"

Kid, who was just about to 'self-deprecate' to prove his point, suddenly fell into a state of left-brain versus right-brain conflict over this question.

But in the end, he still followed the most sincere filial piety.

And Xiaohu in the mid lane indeed felt the pressure the moment he got to the lane!

Xiaohu himself is a "Pokemon" champion pool player, not to mention Talon is a niche hero, so his experience in dealing with him cannot be considered very seasoned.

Fortunately, if we really have to say it, there aren't any special precautions for playing against Talon.

It's nothing more than not letting the opponent trigger the "three-ring" passive!

Ever since the old version of "Teleport Talon" became "Parkour Talon," this hero's output mode hasn't changed much; it has always been centered on the super high bleed damage of the passive 【Blade's End】.

And before level six, the most difficult part of triggering the passive is hitting the second part of W!

After all, Q is a lock-on skill, and W1 has a huge range; only W2 is difficult to hit due to the return delay.

But Xiaohu happened to find that his body was like it had a magnet on it.

Almost every wave he would get hit by both parts of Talon's W!

Of course, it wasn't that Ye Bo had any special mechanics; it was just the gap in understanding of the hero.

To increase the hit rate of Talon's second W, you actually only need to do two things well.

1. Close the distance as much as possible before casting.

2. Pulling the blades.

The first point is not hard to understand; the closer the distance when the blades are thrown, the less space the opponent has to react and dodge, especially in melee combat.

Even if Xiaohu had kept his distance as much as possible, only using Q to farm from afar, he would still be caught by Talon finding an opportunity to use Q to close the gap and then throw the blades.

As for the second point, it involves {positioning mind games}.

The second part of the W flying blades "flies back" to Talon, so as long as Talon synchronizes his movement with Galio's dodging direction and pulls ahead in advance, he can naturally further compress the opponent's movement space!

And clearly.

Xiaohu's movement looked quite clumsy in Ye Bo's eyes, as if constrained by his increasing weight.

Before level three in the mid lane, he already had a slight health disadvantage; it looked like if there was no outside interference, a result might be reached very soon!

However.

WBG was well-prepared for this final, and at this moment, someone was seeking a breakthrough through a variation.

"This move from Karsa!?"

"Gege's radar seems to have started; this wave is an attempt to pivot and gank mid!"

"He is 'blind-pathing around vision'!"

Talon placed his vision at the entrance to the opponent's F6 and the river at level one to scout the enemy situation while protecting himself; according to conservative logic, Vi would most likely only start blue.

But Karsa, who is good at variations, didn't play by the book and still chose to start red!

Most importantly, he actually didn't know where the opponent's ward was placed; he could only rely on "deduction."

Karsa analyzed the situation at the start, seeing that the opponent's jungler and support both swapped to {Sweepers} to help the top lane clear wards, proving that the ward the opponent could place in the top jungle area was most likely only one, and the most likely location was the key river entrance.

So he deliberately avoided that entrance, pulled the F6, and after reaching level three, specifically took a wide detour before charging down the river from the Dragon pit with Q.

Karsa had another consideration for doing this—the opponent's jungler is Nocturne, whose ganking ability before level six isn't actually strong; the key point is to restrict Talon!

Coupled with the fact that WBG placed great importance on the mid lane in their tactical design, multiple factors combined drove Karsa to make this seemingly unusual choice!

However, when Vi circled to the rear, he found that Galio's health was a bit unhealthy.

But Vi, having already invested a lot of time, could no longer have the slightest hesitation.

"Do it, do it, do it!"

Seeing that Vi had arrived, Xiaohu immediately kicked out with Galio's 【Justice Punch】!

And Ye Bo, seeing that Galio, who only had 60% health, dared to initiate with E, immediately felt something was wrong. Sure enough, he immediately saw Vi walking out from the side with a charged punch.

But he didn't panic; at the first moment, he even advanced instead of retreating.

Talon is a melee hero after all, so his positioning is inevitably a bit forward. If he only thought about flashing away at this moment, not only would he not necessarily be able to escape—more importantly, the opponent's mid and jungle would have their summoner spells up for the next wave, and Talon would face a fatal threat and have to play passively!

The choice of running away was never in Ye Bo's options.

And just as the 【Justice Punch】 was coming in.

The flying blades of 【Rake】 were also thrown out at the same time!

Xiaohu, suddenly sensing danger, felt his skin crawl as if he had triggered a spider-sense.

Talon reached level three, likely putting two points into W.

And Galio, having closed the distance with E, would be hit by Talon's {Critical Q} and the three-ring passive first, and might very well be counter-killed by Talon on the spot!

Although Xiaohu's mechanics had declined, his rich combat experience saved his life, and he instantly made the correct choice.

After landing, Galio immediately used W to retract his wings for a split-second taunt, not giving Talon any chance to attack, and then decisively flashed to the side and back!

He directly pulled away to dodge the returning flying blades, and only then prepared to shoot out his wind blast!

Although the control time of the instant taunt was very short, it was enough to assist Vi in landing her charged punch; the mission was already accomplished!

As long as Galio pulled away to avoid being traded, Talon's health dropped sharply and he was slowed by Vi's red buff; to anyone, he was basically a dead man.

But.

Just as Talon broke free from the control, he suddenly flashed forward, and the wrist blades in front of his arms, wrapped in golden light, fiercely lunged and stabbed out.

—And the triangular flying blades that had clearly been pulled away and deviated were still flying back, but due to Talon's change in position, they also performed a "secondary turn" in the air!

【Noxian Diplomacy】 stabbed Galio, who had flashed to the side and back.

The blade mark on his body, which originally only had "one layer," stacked with the forced hit of the back-turned W2, instantly bloomed with the blood-red light of three layers of marks!

With one slash, the wrist blade executed 【Blade's End】, cutting open Galio's artery.

The stone statue's life energy began to drain rapidly!

"Master Ye is still trying to counter-kill? Wait, no!!"

"Karsa decisively followed with a flash, wanting to save Galio, but Talon's W2 didn't seem to be dodged! The passive damage exploded instantly!"

"It looks like he really can trade!"

Talon followed up with two more stabs, which were unleashed almost at the same time as Vi's heavy punch.

Two figures fell together one after another!

The whole arena instantly boiled over.

"Can he even counter-kill like this?" Angel said with disbelief: "Master Ye's assassin, it's really a bit terrifying!"

As long as it didn't involve the killing of close relatives, Kid also immediately clapped for Uncle Ye: "Hey, Xiaohu was indeed outplayed by Master Ye this wave, I feel like he was a bit hesitant in the first moment."

In the replay, one could feel the turn of events in this lightning-fast moment even more.

In fact.

The real reason for the discrepancy in this wave was the "difference in mentality" between the two sides.

The two WBG players clearly didn't have a very decisive intention to kill at the beginning, thinking that the opponent would flash immediately upon seeing Galio's E, thinking that forcing a flash for free was already a big profit.

If they had gone all out when they first made their move, Galio would have directly flashed and started with W, and Talon would have at least been forced to use both Flash and Teleport, and there would certainly have been no risk of being counter-killed.

As for Ye Bo.

He has always known: an assassin, no matter what situation they are in, cannot be "cowardly."

So from the first second he saw them, he didn't think about running away; he only thought about how to attack, using offense as the best defense!

Just as Talon's voice line says: 【Live by the blade, die by the blade.】

Clearly, the handling of the two mindsets did indeed bring about two completely different results.

And the most critical operation in this wave was the extremely decisive "forward-flash triangular blade pull" in the 0. -second instant between the end of the taunt and the return of the flying blades.

—As long as the hand speed and timing are grasped correctly, because W2 is forced to fly back to "in front of Talon's face," using Q-Flash to get close to the enemy at the moment of turning back can theoretically achieve a {100% hit} + {360° no-dead-angle} forced-hit second-stage flying blade!