Chapter 330

Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Riot Headquarters.

August, Brother Sanhuan, who got up early for work, walked into the company on time, and went to the {Bilgewater} bar as usual to order a Water Ghost coffee, starting his energetic day.

But just as he got the coffee, he saw his old friend Brother CT and several designers who are also in the {Ye Fans Undercover Club}, walking towards him together.

It looked like they had stayed up all night.

"Oh CT, look at your damn dark circles," Brother Sanhuan couldn't help teasing the other party.

"Stayed up late watching Ye's game again?"

"I told you that our design team should remain neutral and not get too close to the players... By the way, did you show him the promotional video for Briar? What did he say?"

The brand-new hero {Wild Rose}, which is about to be released, is Brother Sanhuan's 'final work' as the chief designer.

After this, he will move from a front-line designer to a leadership supervisory position.

And this hero is also a rare one without a 'three-ring-like' ability mechanic—because Brother Sanhuan has always wanted to make a {vampire loli} hero, and this time it can be considered the fulfillment of his last wish before stepping down from the front line.

It is also because of this that he attaches great importance to this new hero, which is also his 'last dance'!

Naturally, he also hopes to link up with Ye Bo, this global star, for publicity.

After all, the official promotional videos for Seeing Akali and Naafiri, which featured Ye Bo, significantly changed and influenced the popularity of the heroes after they went online!

Even if the dog was subsequently subjected to multiple rounds of nerfs, it is still a favorite in rank games, which shows how strong the 'carrying ability' of the {Ye} ID is for casual players.

"That... let's talk about that later." Brother CT rubbed his dark circles from staying up all night: "Just now, the LPL Xia Jue in China just ended."

"Oh, V5 won again, right."

There is a time difference of more than ten hours between Los Angeles and China, and it was just early morning when the LPL Xia Jue ended.

Unlike the fanaticism of a group of 'Ye Fans' led by Brother CT.

Brother Sanhuan, who is a bit old and can't stay up late, didn't stay up all night to watch the final of another league.

Brother Sanhuan took the Water Ghost coffee handed over by the Bilgewater employee: "If you ask me, what's so good about V5's games in the league? You wake up and it's another victory~"

And Brother CT first nodded, then shook his head.

"V5 won, but it's not a question of winning."

"It's that thing that seems to have appeared again."

"?!"

Hearing the two words spoken by the other party, Brother Sanhuan almost drowned in the Water Ghost coffee in his mouth, his face full of disbelief.

There even seemed to be a trace of 'fear' in his eyes!

"You mean lane swap!?"

"How is this possible? We've banned that thing for how long!"

Different from the perspectives of other teams, players, and audience fans.

If there is anything in this world that is more terrifying to the balance team than fixing the bugs of Sylas and Viego—that is lane swap!

The mid-jungle {Infusion-style Jungle Core} system brought up by Taric-Master Yi is not worth mentioning compared to the lane swap system!

It is no exaggeration to say that it is the 'enemy of life' of the designer balance team, and it is to the extent that it changes color when mentioned!

From the EU style born in the earliest S2, to the S3 Smile-Juanmao-Uzi-Tabe double-occupying mid, S4-S5 Factory Manager-Koro's top-jungle sweet double-row, first drop a turret and then start the game, to S8 Letme-Sion's fasting equality for all...

It can be said that for the first eight years of the LOL professional arena, designers have been frantically chasing and intercepting the lane swap tactic.

It wasn't until the {Turret Plating Mechanic} was designed in S9 that it was completely sealed!

So it's not hard to understand why Brother Sanhuan's reaction would be so big when he heard these two words.

This thing is a bit like in a fantasy novel, where the ancient sect finally exhausted the essence and life of all the sect elders to successfully seal an 'ancient demon' that would destroy the world—as a result, I woke up for work today and suddenly heard that the thing had broken the seal for no reason!

Open your eyes and the world is going to be destroyed again?

CT handed over the computer: "Look at this recording."

Brother Sanhuan drank all the coffee in one gulp and lay in front of the computer, watching with full concentration.

But he only watched for a while.

He immediately frowned: "Fuck, dog CT, scaring me early in the morning, right?"

"What kind of lane swap is this? Isn't this just a routine design for top-lane ganking, and swapping by the way!"

"I have an impression of this top laner from WBG. To be honest, this strategy is really interesting..."

Brother CT was reaching out to press the back button, shaking his head and saying: "No, no, don't look at it from the content of this game."

"Substitute yourself into the perspective of the V5 players, imagine, suppose you are now wanting to play lane swap..."

Clearly, Brother CT, who can design heroes like Thresh, Kalista, Aphelios, Yasuo, Zoe, Zed, Seeing Akali, etc., has unique insights into anti-thinking angles.

Brother Sanhuan listened and started to re-examine.

Then he found.

What the other party said seemed to be right!

Looking closely, it is clear that V5's opening positioning information, vision for detecting enemy situations, control of minion wave pushing and delaying, unity and decisiveness in the lane transition period, and clarity of strategic goals...

Everything is completely unlike an on-the-spot decision!

If you really want to say this is V5's strength, and they can use such a perfect effect even when using this subversive tactic for the first time, that's a bit too exaggerated!

The only explanation seems to be that the other party is conducting special training.

It is specifically playing the {Lane Swap System}!

Brother Sanhuan's expression also became a bit ugly: "... Is this the last game before they enter the World Championship?"

"Yes, this is also the point I'm worried about. We don't have more reference samples."

The Asian Games after the summer season cannot use the latest version, and might even use a very old spring season version.

V5 is not sending the whole team, so this system is unlikely to be used in the Asian Games.

And the designer team must finalize the {S-match Version} update announcement before the end of the month!

Once there is a possibility that the lane swap tactic reappears and becomes popular, it might bring unpredictable effects to this World Championship!

"CT, what do you think?" Brother Sanhuan patted his head with a worried face.

"This is not a super-model equipment or hero, just changing some values. If you rashly move the defensive turret or other map resources, it will cause earth-shaking changes to the version..."

Designers have experienced similar historical lessons more than once—the heavy fighters in S5, the Ardent Censer in S7, are all version hidden dangers that were not discovered on the eve of the World Championship.

All of them overturned all their expectations at the World Championship, which can be said to have made everyone lose a lot of face!

Brother CT, who stayed up all night, also said his thoughts: "Don't rush, the matter is like this."

"First of all, we can't be 100% sure that V5 is using this tactic, and we are not sure if other teams have discovered it—in fact, if it's just used occasionally, it's good for the diversity of arena tactics."

"Secondly, weakening is definitely not possible. You know very well what kind of impact major version changes without time verification will cause..."

"August, you don't want to see the plots of S5 and S7 happen again, right?"

The heavy fighter version of S5, and the Ardent Censer version of S7.

Are collectively known as the two S-matches with the worst 'viewing experience' in LOL history.

Both have similarities: they rely on the single-core big brother in the team, one is protecting the top laner and the other is protecting the AD, and then they farm each other for 30 minutes without fighting, until the big brother develops, and then compare whose big brother is more powerful.

Lane swap tactic is regarded as a thorn in the eye, actually for this reason!

Lacking frontal conflicts and fighting, it is completely constant avoidance and resource exchange—although there are actually many, many things to be excavated in tactics, game theory, decision-making, etc.

But in the eyes of the audience, it just feels too damn boring!

"This Ye, really is..."

Brother Sanhuan leaned on the corner of the table and gave a bitter smile.

For this player, he is really 'both love and hate'.

While the Viego and Naafiri he created shined in his hands -> various eerie 'mechanics' development made everyone exhausted, adding unknown amounts of workload!

And now, the rebirth of this tactic is clearly inseparable from the other party no matter how you look at it!

"You can't say it like that. In any case, the tactic itself is innocent. Being able to develop it is the player's ability, and whether it can be balanced is our ability..."

"CT, I see your butt is almost tilted to the Great Wall. It's work time! You are still our Riot person!!"

"No, I already asked for annual leave for today to watch the game yesterday, and I'm ready to go home and sleep later. Now I'm just Ye's fan!"

Two old friends were joking.

And looking at each other and smiling, the atmosphere seemed to relax.

However, it is really hard to say whether Brother CT's words have a little bit of selfishness.

After all, if you really go to weaken this tactic in the World Championship version at the end of the month.

That is completely announcing to the world: telling all players that we Riot are targeting V5!

Not to mention anything else.

Just the Ye fans all over the world, one spit each, could drown everyone in the office!

At the same time, deep in Brother CT's heart, he is of course very unwilling to 'target' the player he likes very much.

"Boss, I think so."

"We can first make some 'preventive' nerfs, such as increasing some early-game defensive turret damage reduction, and say to the outside world that this is to slow down the game rhythm! It won't attract attention!"