Chapter 335: Difficult Synergy!

"Aish." Ruler flicked his keyboard, his face flushed, his tone clearly unfriendly.

"Can you stop running around just because we have an advantage in lane? What was the point of us building that advantage in the first place?"

Beryl shrugged with extreme naturalness and replied, "Isn't the point of building an advantage in lane to go roam? What else would you do with an advantage, dive them under the tower and kill them?"

"If that's how you're going to put it, then I can't talk to you!" Ruler was so retorted that he was momentarily speechless.

During his year at V5, Beryl had thoroughly mastered the playstyle he used at DRX last year—especially with a 99. 9% chance of having a laning advantage in the mid lane, he had completely adopted "coordinated roaming" as his universal answer.

Yet he seemed not to realize that the mid laner on the team right now had a playstyle and style completely different from his "true teammates."

This made it understandable why Ruler was completely unable to empathize with him!

Ruler's two previous mid-lane teammates, Chovy and Knight, were both players who rarely "actively took on" the responsibility of roaming.

So Ruler really had never experienced Beryl's perspective!!

Unfortunately, when it came to logical reasoning, he was no match for the other, and despite wanting to refute him, he couldn't say anything, so he could only spin his chair in place and sulk.

On the other side.

Although the atmosphere between the top and jungle wasn't as stiff, they were also facing quite a few problems.

Zeus said to the jungler in a low voice, "Kanavi, next time you invade the jungle, can you check on my top lane first?"

"Actually, there were several waves where I had a chance to dive, but counter-jungling instead just saved the enemy top laner..."

Kanavi, hearing the "honorifics" rarely heard in the LPL, remained calm in his tone.

But the answer he gave was unyielding: "Of course not!"

"Counter-jungling is all about timing; if you're 5 or 10 seconds slow, their jungle is already cleared. If I invade for nothing, I'll lose a lot of tempo, and I might even get counter-invaded by the opponent."

"You help me get an advantage first, and I'll naturally come to help top later, right? Won't you be comfortable if I get an advantage?"

During his year at JDG, Kanavi had grown accustomed to his top laner 369 being ready to sacrifice himself to play around him, and this was also the cornerstone of his "carry jungler" playstyle.

He found it hard to change, and he didn't want to change.

Upon hearing this, Zeus didn't say anything more, just lowered his head and picked at his fingers; it was clear that this playstyle made him uncomfortable too.

And in the first experimental five-man squad, only the mid laner Chovy remained silent, as if possessed by another "version of himself" from somewhere else in the world, quietly fading into the background.

"It's fine, it's everyone's first time playing together in the first game, it's normal to be uncoordinated."

Kkoma stood up and clapped his hands, breaking the silence: "Let's try someone else, Jin Hekui, you come in."

Several KR coaches thought it was just a synergy issue between Ruler and Beryl, and wanted to let Deft, who had excellent synergy, test the waters.

But facts proved once again that it wasn't just the bot lane's fault.

"We can rotate lanes here, let's rotate directly!"

"No, no, no! Top, help me find this jungler first! He's definitely in the top half!"

"Hey, this path is cleared of wards! We can rush the dragon!"

"My Smite just finished cooling down, why didn't you say so earlier?"

"But I've already TP'd."

"So we're not fighting? Then I'm TPing bot to farm, I'm short on gold..."

Even with the AD changed, it only calmed the "internal strife" in the bot lane, but the entire team was still clearly in chaos!

Most importantly: it wasn't just the players who were in chaos.

The coaching staff was even more chaotic!

Kkoma was no longer in charge of pick/bans, and even within T1, he mostly let the five players handle it themselves, serving only as a "mascot" due to his invincible seniority, appearing similar to Li Xianghe's role within the team.

And the other four famous coaches in the KR coaching staff were like the four directions of "East, West, South, and North"!

They didn't see eye to eye with each other!

Dandy valued Zeus's laning pressure ability and suggested that Kanavi stop using a carry-jungle playstyle and play more around the top lane—this stemmed from his consistent style within his own WBG team.

Homme, needless to say, trusted his two beloved JDG players, Kanavi and Ruler, the most, and advocated for following the MSI version's understanding, using carry-junglers and hyper-carry ADs as the focal point.

Score had a similar strategy; as the head coach of GEN, he clearly trusted his own mid laner Chovy—the only difference was that he also trusted the veteran Ruler, making him slightly compatible with Homme.

And Coach Kim, who came to Hanwha this year, often heard his mid and top players talk about the glorious achievements of DRX last year, so he was more trusting of this old DRX bot lane duo.

This made everything completely messy!

All four had their own agendas, and each was a famous championship coach with status.

The one with the "lowest honors" among them was even Homme!

There was no other way; they could only use the clumsy method of experimenting with one set after another to see which one suited them.

What followed was a constant stream of arguments.

"Aigoo, I said the enemy top laner can't handle Zeus, it's very easy to break through if we exert pressure from the top lane!"

"Didn't we try that at MSI? Facts proved it wasn't that easy to break through; we should try a different playstyle than MSI to have a chance at winning."

"How can that be the same!? The rosters and players are all different!"

"First of all, the mid lane is the same. If we listen to you and play for the top lane, what should we do about the mid lane? Don't you know who the core of that team is!?"

"So listening to you and targeting the mid lane is useful? We've already tried that! That mid laner on the other side isn't a normal human! Targeting him is meaningless! You can only delay his power spike as much as possible!"

Although the coaching staff had deliberately moved outside the door, the arguments still inevitably drifted in slightly.

Chovy vaguely heard some things about himself, and his heart felt a bit stifled.

But there was no help for it.

He knew it himself; although the words were harsh, every word was true!

He was indeed a defeated opponent of the other side, and even a repeatedly captured defeated opponent; even if he really wanted to say something tough, he couldn't.

Fortunately, at this moment, a pair of hands pressed on his shoulders and patted him.

Chovy turned his head to meet Li Xianghe's eyes, and the latter spoke at this moment.

"Let me say a few words."

As soon as this voice came out, the originally noisy training room quickly quieted down.

Although the other six players were not very convinced by each other, every LCK player had always held respect for this person in their hearts.

"2018, five years ago, I had already experienced a failure." Li Xianghe's voice held no detectable emotion.

"I hope you all remember that this time, whether it's our region, our country, or ourselves, we cannot fail again."

"Beryl, you go ahead and say a few words first."

Li Xianghe only served to stabilize the room and did not speak much himself.

Instead, he gave the floor to Beryl, who looked like he had something to say.

Li Xianghe was also a bit lost regarding the current state of the team—but he firmly believed that V5's methods were worth their study and reference.

Beryl, who had been arguing until his head was spinning, heard this and moved his chair to the center on his own.

He turned around and looked at everyone.

He had always been a straightforward person; he simply organized his thoughts in his head and spoke his mind.

"Then I'll just say it."

"First of all, we must confirm one thing, which is to choose a shot-caller—a single shot-caller!"

He emphasized the last few words to ensure the pronunciation was correct.

"If someone decides to lead, I guarantee I won't raise any objections during the game and will follow the commands completely. I also hope that no one will question any of that leader's commands, even if they are wrong!"

"At the very least, there cannot be a second voice in the team!"

When Beryl said this, his tone seemed to change slightly.

His emotions also seemed to be fluctuating.

"The other side has a very scary... no! They should be the scariest players!"

"But since we have joined, and since we have to play against them, I don't want to lose!"

"..."

"Hey, why are you guys talking! Why is no one saying anything?"

Beryl's outburst left everyone stunned, with Kanavi and Ruler's expressions being particularly strange.