Chapter 345: The Horn Above the Wall Seam

"Huh? Syndra is at the Asian Games? And she was picked by Ye!?"

The mushroom-cut, round-faced mid-laner, who was live-streaming in a small cubicle at Seoul DK, suddenly saw a line of comments scroll across his secondary monitor and his small eyes widened instantly.

Because the version used for the Asian Games is too outdated, it is not only worthless for players preparing for the World Championship but could even provide incorrect information, so non-involved personnel rarely pay attention to this tournament.

Especially for someone like Xu Xiu, who didn't have the chance to become a participant.

But come to think of it, Xu Xiu is absolutely a true lover of Syndra!

The kind of true love where he publicly declares her his "girlfriend" during interviews, and even feels reluctant to break up with her when disenchanting champion shards for Hextech loot!

He canceled his ranked queue, opened the LCK stream based on the guidance of the comments, and noticed the mid-lane matchup at a single glance.

"Playing against Annie, huh? Syndra doesn't feel very good against Annie, though Chovy doesn't seem to play much Annie either."

At this moment, the director's camera just happened to leave the mid-lane to track the second collision about to occur in the jungle.

"Wukong is going to invade?"

Wukong vs. Vi is a classic jungle matchup in the Spring Split version; it's a 50/50 in a duel, mainly depending on the support and combat power of the teammates on both sides.

Clearly, there is a significant gap in early-game combat power between the two mid-lane champions, Annie and Syndra.

Although Ye Bo secured lane priority at level one, he definitely couldn't compete with the opponent once the levels got slightly higher, and Annie had already successfully pushed the minion wave under the tower, preparing to take a shortcut toward the Raptors.

Although Syndra seems to be only a wall away from her own jungle, there is a massive wave of minions under the tower.

Whether she can win if she dares to support is one thing.

First, the mid-lane would lose a fortune!

And Kanavi, after all, had the lead in jungle pathing time and had arrived at the red buff area half a step early, but he didn't start hitting Vi's jungle monster; he was waiting for this exact moment when the mid-lane finished clearing the wave.

What he wants isn't just to eat a few jungle monsters—it's to make the opposing jungler unable to play the game!

Seeing Vi halfway through the Raptors, Wukong finally walked out.

Both junglers knew that the other's Smite was on cooldown.

Xun clearly learned of the danger from the mid-lane warning, retreated to behind the Raptors, used [Relentless Force] to kill the low-health small bird, and then charged up to strike upward, pulling the big bird to contest it.

But Kanavi had a clear goal, using Nimbus Strike to dash straight at Vi's head!

If Vi dared to fight back, Annie, who had already entered the jungle, could arrive in at most 3 seconds; if stunned and held, the worst case would be burning Flash to escape, or even losing the entire top-side jungle because her health was depleted too much!

And if she lost the top-side jungle, Vi would have nowhere left to go.

This was the purpose of Kanavi's invasion!

Seeing this scene, Xu Xiu couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, counting on his fingers in a classic reenactment: "Look, this is the new version of Syndra! Support is bad, fighting is bad, wave clear is bad, damage is bad, anyway, she can't do anything in the early game."

"Huh!?"

At the very next moment, a sound of surprise and commotion erupted throughout the venue.

Just as the Wukong using Nimbus Strike was about to land, a pitch-black sphere suddenly ejected from the wall seam out of thin air, stunning him in place!

Not only that.

Kanavi discovered that Annie, who had just arrived at the Raptors wall, was also stunned by a sphere pushed from the wall seam at the same time!

You have to realize, Syndra was still standing under the red side's mid-lane inner tower farming—at least two Flashes away from Annie, and at least a 1500-yard straight-line distance from Wukong, who was standing in the Raptors brush!

This was clearly far beyond the range that Syndra's E-Q could theoretically cover!

Looking from the god's-eye view.

It was as if Syndra had hit a "Wall Seam Angle Ball"!

Vi boldly used her counter-attack A-A-E-A, snatched the big bird before Wukong recovered, and then quickly pulled back.

Although the two clearly still wanted to pursue, because Annie was also restricted and delayed, Wukong had no ability to keep them there other than an impotent strike.

"Under the tower, Ye's ultra-long-range double-sphere stun!! It actually reached the battlefield faster than Annie!?"

"Kanavi camped for so long but only got two small birds, what a loss!"

"However, he doesn't seem to want to give up! He wants to continue invading the red buff!"

Kanavi was definitely not willing to let it go at that.

Don't forget, Vi had already completed a gank in the bottom lane before returning to farm.

And in order to seize the invasion advantage in the jungle, Wukong had actually wasted a lot of farming time to come and camp; how could he give up without getting a result!

Now, because of this interlude, he hadn't even hit Vi's skills, and he had only managed to snatch two small birds!

"Choi Woo-je! Can you come!"

"Coming."

Zeus, who had been deliberately fighting for lane priority, received the call and immediately abandoned his wave to move.

Just like how Kanavi could sacrifice himself to help the top lane after they had synergy in the previous game, since the jungler was the core of the lineup this game, Zeus also ignored his own minion losses to support quickly.

It was clear that there was a significant gap in the continuous combat ability of the top and mid lanes in the early game, which was Kanavi's confidence.

Even if Flandre arrived as well, this jungle area would still be hard to defend.

Flandre indeed did not arrive.

And Kanavi was confident that even if the opposing jungler wanted to risk his life to contest the Smite, he would absolutely not lose to him!

But, they seemed to have forgotten.

The right side doesn't necessarily have to rely on contesting Smite to "protect the jungle."

"Oh no! Syndra stole the red buff away!!"

Wukong had just prepared to raise his staff to start the red buff, but the next moment, black light flashed before his eyes—and then the thing in front of him disappeared!

Syndra's [Force of Will] spell range is listed as 925 yards, but it actually tolerates up to about 1100 yards depending on the volume of the target, enough for Syndra to stand at the corner of the brush below and grab the red buff inside the pit.

What's even more outrageous is where the red buff went after Syndra grabbed it in her hand.

Although Kanavi was stunned, he didn't take it too seriously.

After all, this was nothing more than wasting a bit of time; Syndra's W cooldown is also very long, the opposing jungler would also have their time wasted, and once it returned, this buff would still be his.

But his relief didn't last long.

Wukong, who stood there like a fool for five seconds, still hadn't seen his red buff run back.

Gnar and Annie were also nearby to help guard, but they were actually very anxious—because for every extra second they stayed, their own minion waves lost another second!

"No way? Where's my buff!?"

After waiting a full 11 seconds, he finally saw the red buff panting as it ran back, then it returned to the buff pit to start recovering its stamina.

And just as Wukong impatiently raised his fire staff.

The red buff!

Disappeared right before his eyes again!

"What the!? Damn it!!!"

This time, Kanavi was truly dumbfounded.

Where was this red buff grabbed to, how could it take so long to come back?

Even Syndra's 12-second W had refreshed!

The KR commentary desk was also stunned.

"Can it actually be thrown all the way to the high ground?"

"This is a bit too cheap!!"

Although others looked at it as if it were just a utilization of Syndra's mechanics.

But there were actually many details involved.

For example, the route was one Ye Bo had specifically tested many times, and for the last-second W throw, one had to use a bit of "wall-clipping W" technique.

Ye Bo had even studied the "patience value movement speed" mechanism of jungle monsters, knowing that all monsters have a hidden mechanism where their movement speed only doubles within 10 seconds of leaving the camp and triples only after 10 seconds, so he specifically researched this route.

However, although outsiders didn't understand these things, they still felt it was outrageous!

[Oh no, Wukong! The Red Buff has been snatched away by the monster!]

[Oh no again, Wukong! The Red Buff has been snatched away by the monster again!!!]

[I'm dying of laughter, even though he can't win, it's all about making sure no one gets to play, let's see who loses more!]

[There's actually this way to defend the jungle? This is Master Ye! Every casual move is full of ideas!]

[Brother Xu, I know you're watching! Brother Xu! Have you learned it yet!]

"I have to go back."

Zeus, who had already lost quite a bit of experience, glanced at Kennen, who hadn't come to support at all and was about to push the wave into the tower, knowing he couldn't stay any longer.

It wasn't that Annie in the mid-lane didn't want to help block the position.

The problem was that Syndra's W could grab from thousands of miles away.

As long as Wukong hit the buff, he definitely had to stand inside the pit and be right next to the red buff—and Annie couldn't possibly use her own body to stop the opposing mid and jungle alone!