Chapter 330: "Fist of Fear?" Public Opinion Heat!

Riot Games Headquarters, Santa Monica, Los Angeles.

August, the "Three-Ring Brother," walked into the company right on time for his morning shift and headed to the Bilgewater Bar as usual to order a Water Ghost Coffee, kicking off his day full of energy.

However, just as he got his hands on the coffee, he saw his old friend, CT, along with several other designers from the "Ye Fans Insider Club," walking toward him.

It was clear from the look of them that they had pulled an all-nighter.

"Oh CT, look at those damn dark circles under your eyes," Three-Ring Brother couldn't help but tease him.

"Did you stay up all night watching Ye's match again?"

"I've told you before, our design team needs to remain neutral; we can't get too close to the players. Oh, by the way, did you show him the promotional video for Briar? What did he say?"

The brand-new hero, "Briar," set to be released soon, was Three-Ring Brother's "swan song" as a lead designer.

After this, he would be transitioning from a frontline designer to a leadership and oversight role.

This hero was also a rarity in that it lacked a "Three-Ring" skill mechanic—because Three-Ring Brother had always wanted to create a "Vampire Loli" hero, and this could be considered the fulfillment of his final wish before stepping back from the front lines.

Because of this, he attached immense importance to this new hero, his "last dance."

Naturally, he also hoped to collaborate with Ye Bo, that global superstar, for the promotional launch.

After all, the official promotional videos for Akali and Naafiri that Ye Bo had appeared in had immediately and significantly impacted the popularity of those heroes upon release!

Even though the dog had been hit with multiple consecutive nerfs afterward, it remained a favorite in solo queue, which showed just how strong the "sales power" of the 【Ye】 ID was for casual players.

"Let's talk about that later..." CT rubbed his dark circles from the all-nighter: "Just a moment ago, the LPL Summer Finals over in China concluded."

"Oh, V5 won again, right?"

There was a time difference of over ten hours between Los Angeles and China, so the moment the LPL Summer Finals ended was just the start of the morning.

Unlike the fanaticism of the "Ye Fans" led by CT.

As for the finals of a different regional league, Three-Ring Brother, who was getting a bit older and couldn't handle all-nighters, hadn't stayed up to watch.

Three-Ring Brother took the Water Ghost Coffee handed to him by a Bilgewater employee: "If you ask me, what's there to watch in V5's regional matches? You wake up, and it's just another victory~"

CT nodded, then shook his head.

"V5 did win, but it's not about the winning."

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

"?!"

Hearing those two words from his friend, Three-Ring Brother nearly choked to death on his Water Ghost Coffee, his face full of disbelief.

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

"You mean lane swapping!?"

"How is that possible? How long have we had that thing banned!"

Their perspective was different from that of other teams, players, or fans.

If there was anything in this world that the balance team feared more than fixing bugs for Sylas and Viego, it was lane swapping!

The "Funneling" mid-jungle system once popularized by Master Yi and Taric was simply not worth mentioning compared to the lane-swap system!

It was no exaggeration to call it the "nemesis" of the design and balance team; it was the kind of thing that made them pale at the mere mention of it!

From the EU meta at the birth of Season 2, to the double-mid strategy of WeiXiao, JuanMao, Uzi, and Tabe in Season 3, to the sweet top-jungle duo of Clearlove and Koro1 in Seasons 4 and 5 where they would trade first towers before the game actually started, and finally to the "everyone is equal" fasting meta of Letme and Smeb in Season 8...

It could be said that for the first eight years of the professional League of Legends scene, the designers were constantly and frantically trying to intercept and block the lane-swap tactic.

It wasn't until the "Plating Mechanism" was created and designed in Season 9 that it was finally completely sealed away!

So it wasn't hard to understand why Three-Ring Brother reacted so strongly to those two words.

This was a bit like in a fantasy novel, where an ancient sect had exhausted the lifeblood and essence of all its elders to successfully seal a "primordial demon" that would destroy the world—only for them to wake up for work one day and suddenly hear that the thing had inexplicably broken the seal!

Open your eyes and the world is about to end again?

CT handed over his computer: "Take a look at this recording."

Three-Ring Brother downed the rest of his coffee and leaned over the computer, watching with intense focus.

But he only watched for a moment.

He immediately frowned: "Fuck, you damn CT, trying to scare me first thing in the morning?"

"What kind of lane swap is this? Isn't this just a top-gank strategy design, with a swap on the side!"

"I have an impression of this WBG top laner. To be fair, this strategy is actually quite interesting..."

CT reached out to press the rewind button, shaking his head as he said: "No, no, no. Don't look at it from the content of this specific game."

"Put yourself in the perspective of the V5 players. Imagine, suppose you are the one who wants to play a lane swap..."

Clearly, CT, who had designed heroes like Thresh, Kalista, Aphelios, Yasuo, Zoe, Zed, and Akali, had unique insights into reverse-thinking angles.

After hearing this, Three-Ring Brother began to re-examine the footage.

And then he discovered something.

What his friend said seemed to be right!

Looking closely, one could see that V5's opening positioning, their vision for detecting enemy movements, their control over pushing and delaying minion waves, the unity and decisiveness of their rotations, and the clarity of their strategic objectives...

Everything about it didn't look like an on-the-spot decision at all!

If this were truly just V5's raw skill, and they could execute such a subversive tactic perfectly on their first try, that would be a bit too exaggerated!

The only explanation seemed to be that the other side had undergone special training.

They were specifically practicing the "Lane-Swap System"!

Three-Ring Brother's expression turned somewhat ugly: "... s this their last match before entering the World Championship?"

"Yes, that's also the point I'm worried about. We don't have any more reference samples."

The Asian Games after the Summer Split couldn't use the latest version; they might even use a very old Spring Split version.

V5 wasn't sending their whole team, so this system likely wouldn't be used at the Asian Games.

Yet, the design team had to finalize the update announcement for the "World Championship Version" before the end of the month!

Once there was a possibility that the lane-swap tactic could re-emerge and become popular, it might bring unpredictable consequences to this year's World Championship!

"CT, what do you think?" Three-Ring Brother patted his head, his face full of distress.

"This isn't like overpowered gear or heroes where we can just tweak some numbers. If we rashly touch defensive towers or other map resources, it will cause earth-shattering changes to the version..."

The designers had learned similar historical lessons more than once—the Juggernaut update in Season 5 and the Ardent Censer meta in Season 7 were both version hazards they failed to discover before the World Championship.

Both times, they overturned all expectations at the World Championship, which could be said to have made everyone lose face!

CT, who had pulled an all-nighter, also shared his thoughts: "Don't be anxious yet. Here's the situation."

"First, we can't be 100% sure that V5 is using this tactic, and we're even less sure if other teams have discovered it—in fact, if it's only used occasionally, it's actually good for the diversity of competitive tactics."

"Secondly, nerfing is definitely out of the question. You know very well what kind of impact major version changes that haven't been verified by time can have..."

"August, you don't want to see the plot of Season 5 and Season 7 happen again, do you?"

The Juggernaut version of Season 5 and the Ardent Censer version of Season 7.

They were collectively known as the two World Championships with the worst "watchability" in League of Legends history.

Both had similarities: they relied on a single core carry on the team—one protecting the top laner, the other protecting the AD carry—and then they would farm for 30 minutes without fighting until the carry was fed, then compare whose carry was stronger.

The lane-swap tactic was viewed as a thorn in the side for this very reason!

It lacked direct confrontation and combat, consisting entirely of constant evasion and resource trading—even though there was a lot to be explored in terms of tactics, gamesmanship, and decision-making.

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

"This Ye, he really is..."

Three-Ring Brother leaned against the corner of the table and gave a bitter smile.

He truly "loved and hated" this player.

While the Viego and Naafiri he created shone brightly in Ye's hands, the development of all sorts of bizarre "mechanics" made everyone else miserable and added an unknown amount of workload!

And now, the rebirth of this tactic clearly had something to do with him no matter how you looked at it!

"You can't put it that way. Regardless, the tactic itself is innocent. Being able to develop it is the player's ability, and whether we can balance it well is our ability..."

"CT, I think your loyalty is leaning all the way to the Great Wall. It's work hours! You're still one of us at Riot!!"

"No, I already took today off as annual leave to watch the match, and I'm planning to go home and sleep in a bit. Right now, I'm just a fan of Ye!"

The two old friends bantered back and forth.

Looking at each other and smiling, the atmosphere seemed to lighten up.

However, it was hard to say whether CT's words didn't have a little bit of personal bias.

After all, if they really targeted this tactic by name in the World Championship version at the end of the month.

That would be like posting an imperial edict to announce to the world: telling all players that Riot is specifically targeting V5!

Not to mention anything else.

Just the sheer number of Ye fans across the globe—if each of them spat once, they could drown everyone in the office!

At the same time, deep down, CT certainly didn't want to "target" a player he liked so much.

"Boss, here's what I'm thinking."

"We can start with some 'preventative' nerfs, like increasing the damage reduction of early-game defensive towers, and tell the public it's to slow down the pace of the game! It won't attract any attention!"