Chapter 370: Tian Ji's Horse Racing? How Can They Play League of Legends Like This?

"Both teams have distinct designs in their positioning and layout, but V5 seems to have the upper hand—Gumayusi has given up First Blood!"

The god's-eye view makes it even clearer.

It is obvious that V5's duo lane intended to make a move on the mid lane; if it hadn't been the duo lane standing in the mid lane for T1, the mid laner would have been the one in trouble.

Looking at it with the benefit of hindsight, the analysis is quite simple.

A "standard matchup" duo lane would never start the game by sneaking around like this—after all, the opposing duo lane pushes waves fast enough that even if they successfully secured a kill, they would lose at least two waves of minions upon returning to the bottom lane, on top of a collapse in the bottom lane matchup.

The cost would be far greater than a single kill!

But in this match, V5's duo lane is heading to the top lane, clearly not afraid of the opponent's top laner pushing the wave.

They are even hoping the opponent does so!

Once the opposing top laner dares to push the wave, the duo lane can return to the top lane shortly after and immediately freeze the wave, leaving the opponent with no chance to even farm under the tower or gain experience!

Just realizing this point alone is enough to make the hearts of the five T1 members turn ice-cold.

They all know.

It isn't just them who brought out a "secret weapon"—the opponents have also brought out a "secret weapon" this game!

[Where am I? Is this still League of Legends!]

[Alright, alright, support standing mid at the start, I'm really familiar with this!]

[I suggest adding a health pack behind the tower, and it would be perfect if you could buy items without recalling.]

[What kind of strange stuff is this? You can't play the game normally anymore, right?]

[What do you mean by "normal"? It's as if League of Legends started with a 1-1-1-2 lane setup; it was only called the EU meta because the EU region did the 1-1-1-2 setup, and then the old WE started lane swapping, which was called the anti-EU meta. Isn't it all just played by people!]

Compared to the debate in the chat, the players' backstage area is constantly erupting with various exclamations.

Everyone's face is filled with shock and surprise.

No one expected that in this best-of-one, these two teams would actually pull out a tactical system that is completely unfamiliar, or even unthinkable, even to professional teams like them!

"T1's approach with this system is very clear: preserve their top lane advantage, have the mid and bottom lanes swap, and use the duo lane's advantage to pressure the mid laner, forcing the mid lane to soak up pressure."

"This explains everything: grabbing K'Sante during the draft, banning double-marksman combinations to lock down the bottom lane, and perhaps even intentionally leaving V5's mid lane Yone open."

"Why didn't I think of that!"

JDG coach Homme and WBG coach Daeny are huddled together, quickly analyzing the systems of both sides.

Daeny's face is full of regret.

"V5's lane assignment looks a bit more traditional, but it's also the design best suited for them, since neither their top nor bottom lanes are the type to play for lane dominance."

"Through this swap, they can forcibly trade for an advantage in one lane; it's pure profit."

After analyzing, the two both believe that both sides' ideas have their merits.

So, the question arises.

What about the cost?

"Aren't they afraid of losing plates in the bottom lane?" Ruler, listening to the two coaches' Korean conversation, asked aloud.

This is also the most direct doubt everyone has when seeing a lane-swap system for the first time.

You must know, the reason the lane-swap tactic disappeared was the plate mechanism introduced in Season 9, which forces the side that initiates the swap to bear a natural economic loss.

Regarding this question, the coaches of both teams naturally cannot provide him with an answer.

After all, no one has actually used it; everyone judges based on subconscious "brain-testing," or rather, everyone lives in stereotypes, and few people will change the status quo without the pressure of external patch changes.

But in reality.

The results after V5 and T1 tested it were both surprising.

Actively moving the duo lane away from the bottom lane, regardless of whether the top or mid solo lane is swapped down, will inevitably lead to a plate disadvantage before the five-minute {plate protection mechanism} expires.

But the key is.

Exactly how much is this so-called "disadvantage"?

—You have to know, although the solo laner in a lane swap will definitely take a beating in a 1v2, they aren't just idling; they will clear the minion wave quickly once it enters the tower!

Likewise, the other duo lane that swapped over is just slower at hitting plates, not standing there without hitting the tower.

From the 1:30 mark when the waves meet, to the 5-minute expiration of the plate protection time—it's actually only a 3-minute and 30-second difference.

Even if you stretch it to the absolute limit, at most, the opponent's bottom lane will lead by less than one plate's worth of progress!

One plate is 175 gold; what do you get in exchange?

It's at least one solo lane that was "destined to be at a disadvantage" turning into a "guaranteed advantage" on the spot!

Perhaps even more than one lane!

Take V5 for example; originally, neither the top nor bottom lanes were guaranteed to have an advantage, and the top lane was even highly likely to be at a disadvantage.

—But after the lane swap, the bottom lane will become a stable advantage.

And the top lane, which was likely to be at a disadvantage anyway, is at most just suffering in a different position; the result remains exactly the same.

Even if the opponent really wants to kill them, they must commit three people to dive the tower, which not only maximizes the attraction of enemy firepower, but the defensive play under the tower might also provide an opportunity for a counterplay, or at the very least, result in a "mutual destruction" with the opposing top laner.

It can be said that this maximizes the role of the top lane, which is a disadvantageous position!

At the very least, the risk of being solo-killed is gone.

T1 has a similar line of thinking.

The only difference is that T1 wants to target the mid lane, which theoretically should achieve the same effect.

Without a doubt, if T1 only pays the price of a plate disadvantage in the bottom lane, spending a mere 175 gold in economic difference, they can strictly limit the growth of V5's mid laner in the early game.

Everyone who knows this team knows what a great deal this would be!

Neither side's approach is problematic.

The only problem is—an accident happened this game.

Without either side knowing about the other, they didn't engage in tactical maneuvering or mutual probing; they just directly had a "tactical collision."

And this tactic from V5 seems to have been tailor-made to hit T1's soft underbelly!

T1's original top lane advantage was reversed into a disadvantage by the duo lane, and V5's bottom lane, which was prepared to be at a disadvantage in the swap, actually became an even matchup... T1's only advantage in the mid lane was also caught by the opening design!

It looks like a three-way losing situation!

"Gumayusi reviving and returning to the mid lane isn't a big problem; even if Yone takes First Blood, he can't beat the duo lane, and he even used Flash..." Roar Emperor tried his best to downplay the losses of the first wave.

The worried Wolf directly revealed the truth: "But the top lane matchup is very uncomfortable; K'Sante in the bottom lane was originally meant to soak up pressure from the duo lane, and he can't suppress Renekton."

"This way, whether it's the dragon fight or the Rift Herald fight, it will definitely be V5's advantage; if we keep playing like this, we're definitely at a loss!"

Looking at the champions alone, Gnar, also facing a duo lane, is certainly better at "surviving" than Yone.

But don't forget, Gnar is a top laner, and Yone is a mid laner.

The biggest difference between the two lanes is that the mid lane is too short; Yone almost doesn't need to worry about being ganked, whereas Gnar needs to be cautious at every step!

"You two, how do we break the deadlock now!?" The anxious Roar Emperor turned and asked urgently.

Bang pondered for a while, frantically searching his memory.

"Lane-swap playstyles were quite common in our era. Generally, in situations where the lane swap fails, there are only two ways to break the deadlock: re-matching the lanes or forcing a breakthrough in a single lane."

"Re-matching the lanes means using the timing of the first lane swap to re-assign lanes and go after the matchups you want to find. In T1's case this game, it would be swapping the top and bottom, keeping the mid lane the same."

"But the disadvantage of this approach is obvious: the opponent isn't stupid. If you want to catch a lane swap, you must first have absolute lane priority to create an information gap—but it's clearly impossible for both the top and bottom lanes to have lane priority. As soon as your own duo lane recalls, the opponent's duo lane might immediately follow suit!"

"And forcing a matchup, regardless of whether you can catch them or not, will likely result in falling behind in the minion wave exchange!"

What Bang mentioned was only the "initial version" of lane swaps from the ancient era.

Clearly, if lane swaps were that easy to crack, they wouldn't have become the symbol of the old era and a nightmarish existence for Riot designers.

T1, who has studied this, is of course aware that it's impossible to be stupid enough to force a lane matchup in the early game; they can only try a single-point breakthrough.

"Can we dive Yone?" Keria pointed at Yone's portrait on the scoreboard.

"Jarvan IV might be counter-ganking. Can Woo-je act a bit?" Oner looked at the minimap.

T1's coordination is proficient; it's clear they have their own insights.

Hearing the request for defensive assistance, Zeus immediately started posturing. Despite being in a disadvantageous 1v2 matchup, he suddenly moved forward aggressively, hoping to lure the opposing jungler over.

Unfortunately, V5 has been practicing this lane-swap strategy for a long time.

Their experience in dealing with this situation is clearly far superior to their opponents'.

"The top lane Gnar must be faking it!" Beryl isn't intimidated by the posturing Gnar at all and bravely counter-presses: "Xun, you just watch Master Ye near the mid lane; be careful that they might want to dive mid!"

Seeing the opponent's move, Zeus immediately retreated, not daring to let his health drop—after all, once his condition worsened, he would also be at risk of being dived by three people.

Just as the T1 members were about to make a move, fortunately, thanks to a reminder from Lee Sang-hyeok, who was screen-switching to the bottom lane, Keria spotted the Jarvan IV behind the wall with a control ward, avoiding a tower dive that almost led to a massive explosion.

This is the handling of the lane-swap game.

In a seemingly balanced environment, one moment of carelessness can lead to a chain reaction with huge consequences!

And in the next few minutes, everyone witnessed one of the most important effects of the "lane-swap" strategy.

—The junglers of both sides have almost no way to actively gank the opponent's duo lane in the early game.

The reason is also simple.

After all, if the jungler goes over, it's just a 2v2, and there's no 100% certainty of winning the fight; at the same time, if the opponent's jungler is counter-ganking, it will instantly explode!

Clearly, no one will make a decision that has little gain and high risk.

The key point is that the jungler actually has no other decisions to make.

If you don't dive your own duo lane, you inevitably have to defend against the opponent's duo lane diving; there are only these two paths—this means the junglers on both sides have become a "single-threaded game."