Chapter 388: If there is no battlefield, create one yourself! I, by him

"What kind of team composition is this!" the caster Wa Wa rubbed his eyes upon seeing the final pick.

His partner, Mi Le, was all smiles: "ADC Jayce, and it's even Deft's ADC Jayce; this really is a dream back to the EDG days!"

Many veteran viewers of the league also realized what was happening.

In EDG's team history, there were the famous "TP Three Heroes": "Zhao's Teleporting Bear," "Tong's Teleporting Galio," and "Jin's Teleporting Lantern"—and the "Jin's Teleporting Lantern" belonging to Deft was precisely the iconic scene from back then when Deft used {ADC Jayce}!

The chat was instantly filled with: [Dead memories are attacking me like crazy!]

Wa Wa was still reminiscing: "So, actually, ADC Jayce hasn't really been that rare in history. I remember KT back in the day was famous for being a 'Jayce Team,' just because all five of them, even including the support Mata, could play Jayce."

Mi Le then shifted to analysis: "I think this is actually very similar to that five-bruiser setup from G2. It looks like V5 has also gained some new understanding from their scrims against those two teams!"

The director very understandingly cut to a shot of the front row of the audience.

The five members of G2 had expressions of pride as if they were honored themselves; they were all standing up at this moment, opening their jackets to reveal the inner lining—it was shockingly a V5 team jersey!

However, at the same time.

There was another team backstage whose reaction was different from the others, as if they had seen something else.

"What is the meaning of this bot lane duo? Do they look down on their opponents?" Oner's brain, filled with protein, flickered with confusion.

"I've mentioned Jax support before too!" an excited Keria jumped up: "I said back then that this champion has miraculous effects against double marksmen or specific ADs. Who was it that wouldn't let me play it back then?"

As Keria spoke, his voice suddenly grew lower and lower, and he quietly snuck a glance at Li Xianghe beside him.

Li Xianghe was clearly deep in thought at this moment and didn't notice little K muttering to himself.

"Could it be that they want to 'burn' the top lane champion?"

He voiced his conjecture.

In truth, if one were to discuss "abstract" support champions, both Keria and Beryl had picked far more abstract ones on the professional stage, so this clearly wasn't the key.

There was one, and only one, reason why Li Xianghe wouldn't let the other party play it back then.

In a Global BP version, every pick must consider an extra layer of strategy—and if it "burns" a top lane champion, it is a pure nerf to their T1!

The biggest gap in T1's loss to DRX in '22 was that Zeus played Gwen and got crushed by Aatrox, and played Aatrox only to get crushed by the opponent's Gwen and Camille—at the time, he relied on his Yone and didn't practice Aatrox at all, resulting in a flaw in his champion pool.

So this year, Zeus learned from his mistakes.

Whether it was Aatrox and Jax, which he didn't like much before, or even the various tank champions in the top lane during the mid-year MSI version, he ensured he could bring them out and achieve corresponding results.

This situation was clearly quite different for V5.

While Ye Xiong could also pick anything and was sufficiently hardworking, his habit of {lacking aggression} and {not being 'selfish' enough} was evident.

It was just like when playing champions like Renekton or Jax; he often couldn't exert the corresponding impact.

Therefore, "burning champions" had a very high cost-benefit ratio for V5!

Even if "abstract champions" inevitably had some flaws, as long as they could fit the team composition, they possessed "extra value" to compensate!

Moreover, Jax support really did have some miraculous effects in certain compositions.

"Looking at this posture, it seems like neither side is planning to lane swap?" the Roaring Emperor squinted as he analyzed.

"If neither side lane swaps, then that's our advantage! A double-bruiser bot lane doesn't have much to say in laning; as long as they get to the lane, they push and control the wave, preventing the opponent's bot lane from moving actively and avoiding fights in the jungle!"

"Though, it seems V5 wants to invade at level one."

The director's camera locked onto the lower river.

V5's five members were crouching in the middle brush of the river, waiting for time to pass.

HLE was somewhat prepared, but in order to avoid exposing their "lane swap situation," they didn't place any deep wards.

This was thanks to the experience from G2's match yesterday, guessing that V5 might do something similar at key nodes in this match—like, for instance, a mandatory level-one team fight!

The strength of short-ranged bruiser champions lies in their early-game combat ability; forcing an invasion into the jungle for close-quarters combat at level one would clearly grant a massive advantage.

And the reason HLE didn't choose to actively lane swap was also inspired by V5's previous game—they were prepared for the opponent to swap lanes at will to harass their own mid and top lanes, and only wanted to protect the stable advantage of their bot lane Draven.

At 1 minute and 10 seconds, the five icons in the river suddenly moved.

"They're coming in!"

The HLE members, who discovered the invasion information immediately, saw there were five of them and retreated in unison, not giving the opponent any chance to fight a level-one team fight.

Canyon assumed his lower jungle would be swapped, so he prepared to head directly to the upper jungle to start his camps.

But the god's-eye view revealed V5's unusual personnel movement.

"Jayce went to the bot lane, but why is Jax going up? Are they going to let Jax and Renekton play a duo lane?" P-Junior couldn't make sense of it at all.

"Definitely not," Nugu, who was proficient in top lane ecology, saw the clue: "Pressuring Aatrox is definitely for Jayce to go up; Jax is melee and isn't that easy to pressure with."

"Could it be that Jax wants to counter-jungle!?"

"Ah? But the jungler is still at the Red Buff and didn't follow; how can a support counter-jungle?" P-Junior was stunned for a moment, but immediately realized and shouted: "Oh! Xun is Ivern!!"

From the god's-eye view, they seemed to understand.

At 1 minute and 30 seconds, the jungle monsters respawned; Xun spent 3 seconds planting a garden at the Red Buff, then headed to the Raptors to spend another 3 seconds planting a garden—and then directly circled behind to appear in the mid lane!

And on the other side.

The HLE duo, still facing off across the brush in the bot lane and believing the opponent's bot lane might be crouching in the brush, had already heard the startled cries from their mid and jungle teammates.

"Ivern is in the mid lane!"

"Why is Jax here... ya shibal Zhao Qianxi!!!"

Lee Sin had just started hitting the Blue Buff when he immediately saw someone surrounded by the light particles of a support item walking swaggeringly in from the jungle entrance!

Starting a camp solo at level one, even with Smite, takes at least 15 seconds or so, and the status is definitely not going to be perfect.

Not to mention having someone harassing nearby.

Canyon watched as his old teammate's Jax clearly came for him, so he had to stop immediately; he could never ignore the opponent and continue hitting the Blue Buff!

And Sylas, who had just been flanked by Ivern in the mid lane, although he reacted extremely quickly with [Abduct] to displace and wasn't hit by the [Rootcaller] Q from the flank—could only watch helplessly as the opponent walked past him, incidentally handing over lane priority.

"Ivern is over there! If I go over, Viego will also go over!" Zeka could only hurriedly express his laning situation.

Canyon directed while walking toward his lower jungle: "Our support has to come over too! This Jax of his seems to still be chasing me; if he stares at me like this, I can't farm!"

The situation was now very clear.

While the HLE support staying in the bot lane could indeed pressure Jayce, because the jungler was being shadowed by the opponent's support and couldn't get away to help dive—how could the bot lane duo possibly complete a 2-vs-1 dive in the early game?

At most, that would just pressure Jayce's farm.

The cost was that their own jungle would always be one person short in fights!

Once their own jungler and the opponent's support mutually exploded and both stayed in the jungle idling, HLE clearly couldn't accept that!

There was no choice; even though the timing was already delayed, HLE's Nautilus had to immediately head to the jungle, leaving Draven to face Jayce in a 1v1 laning situation.

"So that was their line of thinking!?"

Keria backstage widened his eyes.

"Let the support pressure the jungle, forcing the opponent to come help Lee Sin defend the jungle; that way, a jungle brawl will definitely break out!"

"Jungle brawls are completely the main battlefield for this V5 composition! G2 lost to GEN because they couldn't force the opponent to fight, and once a fighting composition doesn't get to fight, their development only becomes more and more inferior!"

"No battlefield... they just create the battlefield themselves?"

When Canyon wanted to walk back to his lower jungle, only to find that the opponent's Ivern had also returned to the mid lane, clearly intending to chase him, he understood.

V5's true target this game—was actually him!

More accurately.

It should be that V5 wanted to use the "carrier" of jungle invasion to forcibly exert the fighting characteristics of the "Five Bruisers" system!

And the key to V5's execution.

Was actually the Ivern who seemed to be a "Viego accessory"!

{Ivern's passive [Friend of the Forest] cannot attack jungle monsters; he can only use the "gardening" mechanism, waiting for the garden to mature to "harvest," or use Smite to "harvest early."}

The point is: as long as Ivern plants a garden, he doesn't need to wait on the spot and can use Smite at any time to instantly kill an entire jungle camp at full health.

Theoretically, Ivern has no "farming time."

So when facing counter-jungling, Lee Sin neither has the time difference to bypass the opponent to play hide-and-seek in the jungle, nor the opportunity to "contest Smite" head-on!

If Ivern is determined to mutually explode with Lee Sin, and without interference from teammates on either side, Lee Sin won't even be able to eat a single jungle monster!

Not to mention that at this moment, Canyon's movements were completely captured, and he couldn't get away from the gaze of two people and vision.