Chapter 70: Pyke captures Yu Wenbo, step forward! He is the King of Laning!

"Although there is no experience bonus from the jungle item, Pyke only needs three melee minions after arriving in lane to reach level two!"

"This means that even if Pyke arrives late, once he smells the melee minion experience, Galio can only retreat, and instead, he gets pressured!"

"This design really has some logic to it!"

Although designers have always been trying to curb the laning strategy of carrying Smite, including but not limited to: "Removing some jungle monster experience from the jungle item"; "Increasing the jungle item's clearing ability," and "Jungle Hunter penalty," etc.

But the experience of one buff still only requires eating the first three melee minions to level up!

And if it's the conventional "Pyke Jungle Start" routine, after the bot lane teammates help Smite and quickly eat the big wolf, it also only requires the first wave of 5 minions to level up.

Which means no matter what, he can at least lead the opponent by 2 minions and reach level two first, while the opponent must wait for the second wave of minions to level up and fight back.

However, Rookie clearly lacks experience laning against Pyke; seeing the opponent reach level two, he just normaly pulls back, thinking about waiting for his second Q to clear the wave.

Pyke heads straight forward.

Galio has no reason to go back because the minion wave was pushed by him in the first place; retreating would mean being forced out of the experience zone, so he can only firmly stand parallel with the three backline minions.

It's just a Pyke, what use can he be in lane?

This is also the thought of the vast majority of people who don't understand Pyke enough.

But in fact, from the time Pyke was truly "flexed in five roles" to its glory today, the main nerf was only his wave-clearing ability.

Pyke is only weak at pushing waves.

Fighting is absolutely not weak at all!

A short-stab Q, the instantly cast 【Bone Skewer】 ignores minions, piercing straight into Galio's thigh, causing an instant 90% slow.

{When Bone Skewer hits multiple targets simultaneously, it will prioritize locking onto a hero}

Pyke continues to follow up, triggering Hail of Blades to easily land three AA attacks.

Galio returns a heavy punch.

But with boots to start, in a near-naked state, Pyke's combo, after deducting 30 armor, still dealt a full 264 health!

You have to know, Galio only has 632 health at level one, and he was directly hit for one-third!

This doesn't even count the continuous burn from the Red Buff.

"Why is it so painful?" Rookie mutters in confusion.

Pyke, as the only assassin-type support, due to his skills and hero characteristics, the designers were quite generous with his stats.

Not to mention anything else, just the Q skill, the base damage at level one with no items is as high as 100 points, and the base damage at max level is a full 300 points, even higher than some heroes' ultimate skills!

In contrast, Ahri's first Q is only 40, and even if both hits land, it's only 80.

Coupled with the passive 【Gift of the Drowned Ones】 characteristic {Pyke cannot increase his health through any means, all health increases are converted into attack damage}, he even possesses extremely high growth AD stats.

And when Pyke's Q {hits a hero} or {cancels channeling}, it refunds 75% of the cost, which means it only costs 20 mana!

The CD is even one second shorter than Galio's Q!

The secondary commentator, Zhang Zui's Ekko, was originally full of energy with eyes shining when he saw his signature Galio.

But seeing this wave, he couldn't help it anymore.

"Rookie's Galio feels like he lacks understanding; the first Winds of War didn't even scrape the person and the minions together," his mouth kept muttering non-stop.

"Instead, Master Ye handled it very well! After grabbing level 2 and taking lane priority, he directly tore the minion wave state, making the second wave unable to merge with the first, which makes it even more impossible for Galio to deal full damage with Q, while also using his physical body to pressure the opponent so they can't step up to AA the passive! Very detailed!"

Zhang Zui frantically showed his understanding: "Galio's wave-clearing efficiency with boots start this version isn't high, the skill CD is long and consumes a lot of mana; if you want to grab the lane, you must AA the passive!"

Galio's wave-clearing ability is nothing more than passive AA + Q.

But with Pyke pressing up like this, Galio doesn't dare to force an AA, so he can only use 【Winds of War】.

The problem is that the current Galio is no longer the stat colossus from S7 that combined tankiness and output; wanting to rely solely on Q to grab the lane with boots start at the beginning is simply wishful thinking!

Facing Pyke's level two repeat of the same trick, Rookie soon figured it out, just fight Q + passive AA while standing in your face, just trade health.

If he can land a full combo, plus the minion's supplementary damage, the health trade is fine.

It's just that Pyke holds four red potions, plus the Red Buff and the passive skill's recovery, there's no reason to fear the trade.

Rookie's Galio proficiency is indeed not high; just now, Bai Zhantang asked him if he wanted to play, and he said "anything is fine."

However, despite this, his laning details were still handled well.

Even though Ye Bo had already used the level two advantage to pull the minion wave, Rookie changed his thinking, using two consecutive Qs to give up on the backline and specifically hit the frontline minions, forcibly grabbing the minion wave through the "experience gap" and "health gap" of the front and back minions.

This led to the situation where Pyke originally only needed one melee minion to grab the level-up in the third wave, and then grab level three, being broken.

Galio stepped up for the third time, hitting the melee minion with QA passive, while Pyke focused on attacking one minion.

Both sides reached level three almost simultaneously!

And reaching level three, Rookie felt that his power spike period should have arrived.

He has W and E, why can Pyke still walk up like that and hit QA for consumption in his face?

The initiative should be shifting!

But what he didn't expect was that the moment Pyke reached level three, he didn't retreat but charged, and walked straight towards him with Q raised!

Rookie reacted extremely quickly, immediately charging W for a taunt.

But the next moment, he was poked back by the "short charge" steel nail!

{Pyke's Q skill changes form when charged for 0.5 seconds, and charging only increases the hook length, not affecting damage or pull-back distance}

Galio's figure was plucked behind him by a backflip!

However, Galio's W can still deal the taunt effect of the charged time after being interrupted; seeing the controlled Pyke, Rookie also instinctively aimed and kicked out with E.

But Pyke was waiting for this!

A side-stepping back E kicked out almost simultaneously, barely opening up the distance.

While dodging the back-kick punch.

That Galio seemed as if he had crashed into the ghost path left in place!

Pyke turned around and landed three AA attacks again, relying on the Red Buff's slow to continue the chase, chasing the battered Galio all the way into the tower, almost looking like he was going to get a solo kill!

At level three in mid lane, a huge health gap was inexplicably opened up.

"Holy crap! No problem!" Zhang Zui in the live broadcast room suddenly shouted excitedly: "So that's how it is!? I understand now!"

"No wonder he dared to pick Pyke against Galio!"

This wave, if you don't understand both heroes at the same time, it's hard to see how many layers of mind games are hidden in it.

Zhang Zui saw the question marks in the barrage and explained: "That barrage asks why Galio didn't just instantly W to interrupt Pyke's Q? This is clearly someone who hasn't watched the streamer's video!"

"Galio's fully charged W is a 1.5-second control, but an instant cast is only 0.5 seconds! Viewers who watch my videos know that a Galio who uses W will stutter in place, plus the casting time of your E skill back-kick, this means that for the instant W control, Pyke can 100% dodge the E!"

"Then what about Pyke? I remember Pyke's Q short charge only takes 0.5 seconds to become a hook, which means unless Galio predicts and Ws first, but then Pyke can directly instant Q and then E."

"And if Galio uses W as a follow-up, regardless of whether it's an instant taunt or not, Pyke can definitely use a short Q to interrupt your W, forcing you to use at most an instant taunt, and then use E to dodge your E! Still making his own E a guaranteed hit!"

Zhang Zui spoke with great enthusiasm, wanting to explain the ins and outs to the audience.

He could imagine the many possibilities of this laning mind game, and Pyke seemed to have a solution for all of them.

"Why are you still hung up on the instant W? Galio's W has a full 18-second CD, 8 seconds longer than the other guy's Q! An instant cast only deals 20 damage! 20 damage!"

"Don't forget what I've been saying, W is for connecting E to land a full Q and double passives; even if you interrupt someone's hook with an instant W, Pyke's Q refunds mana when interrupted, while your price is an empty E and then an empty Q! You can't even trigger the passive!"

Compared to other commentators, Zhang Zui's biggest advantage is his high rank, he can genuinely maintain a Challenger rank on the Korean server all year round, and has even played semi-professional matches, so he can see more details than his peers.

In fact, this is indeed why Ye Bo is very confident; at the very least, in a 1v1 lane, Pyke will definitely not be weaker than Galio.

This is a blind spot he discovered through constant experimentation and real-life clashes between the two heroes in many matches.

"Just this wave, the laning in mid is already a disadvantage in my opinion, because Pyke is about to be liberated!"

"A Pyke can actually gain an advantage in laning!"

"I dare to bet, don't look at Master Ye never having played Galio in a match, but his understanding of Galio is definitely not low! At the very least, it's far above Rookie's!"

"As expected of the genius player favored by the streamer, hero understanding and mechanical details are all maxed out. He is simply a natural King of Laning!"

A round of analysis and flattery caused the number of barrages in Zhang Zui's live room to surge.

【Wang Chujun? Ye Chujun!】

【Master Chu is really licking Ye Wen now, does he even know you're so filial?】

【Does anyone really think this much while operating? I feel like it's a fluke!】

【Still a fluke, still a fluke, he's already fluked for eight small games, are you kidding me, do you think my Master Ye is running a fried chicken shop?】

【Just kidding! Punching two saints and kicking the pure emperor, if he didn't have real stuff, he'd really think he could top the Thief Saint.】

【Mainly why did Bai Zhantang pick it? Why the hell did he pick Galio for Rookie, his Galio has never looked like a human!】

Even as a Galio specialist, Zhang Zui couldn't think of a solution for a moment.

Pyke indeed has no wave-clearing ability.

But, if you are pressured by me to the point where you don't even dare to get close to the minion wave, and can only throw skills from a distance, then no matter what, it's impossible to find the initiative in roaming.

"Pyke moved! Very detailed, he directly opened W from the minion wave and disappeared!"

"This makes the opponent have no idea whether he went top, bottom, or into the jungle! The deterrence is maxed out!"

Pyke's disappearance made everyone on Top Esports feel like they were facing a great enemy.

Especially the Graves who was clearing camps in the enemy blue zone.

"Holy crap, can you come or not?" Karsa called out urgently.

"Uh, then I'll come," Rookie glanced at the minion wave under the tower, gritted his teeth, and moved to avoid taking the blame.

"We'll come too, but the opponent's bot lane doesn't seem to have any intention of going," JackeyLove said.

But just as Galio walked to the river, what he saw was Pyke who had already returned.

To be precise, it was Pyke who had stolen the bottom river crab!

The newborn river crab in this version only has 600 health, a 450 Smite plus two or three basic attacks can directly execute and take it.

Karsa's face turned a bit green.

He was already missing a buff, and now that the river crab was stolen, he couldn't reach level four after clearing these two jungle areas.

This playstyle is so disgusting!

However, this was just the beginning.

Pyke returned to laning and began the true gameplay of this system.

"Xin Zhao come to mid! Previously Pyke used a counter-E to dodge E and opened up a health advantage, maybe there's really a chance!" Barrier shouted excitedly: "Fortunately, Rookie's safety awareness is good, his positioning has always been very far back, eh?"

"Xin Zhao doesn't seem to be here to gank at all! Is he directly helping Pyke push the lane!"

Guan Zeyuan made a sudden realization expression: "So that's how it is, is Pyke mid actually half a support in essence?"

"Let the jungler come to help push the lane, and then he can supplement his economy through liberated roaming ganks and Smite counter-jungling, fully utilizing the hero's characteristics, easy to understand!"

The "Jungle Hunter" mechanism for jungler minion penalties only has one trigger criterion.

That is {the "money" obtained from minions exceeds the proportion of jungle monsters}

The key point is, money!

Experience is not penalized; even if you hang out in mid lane the whole time eating waves, as long as you don't last-hit, you will never trigger the penalty!

Pyke is inherently very good at cooperating with the jungler, and the jungler doesn't need to come specifically to help push; as long as they "pass by and gank" whenever they are nearby clearing camps, if they don't catch anyone, they can just push the minion wave along the way, and then the two can go roaming and counter-jungling together.

Looking at Galio, it has already been proven that even if he turns on Predator to step up, he will still be interrupted by Pyke's short-charge Q and easily pulled away with E.

Pyke's super high mobility, as long as he isn't too bloodthirsty, there is simply no risk of being ganked!

This is also why he brings Smite.

Pyke's support ability is already top-tier, the current TP can't bring much improvement, and ganking obviously doesn't really need the supplement of Ignite.

Then Smite, fully amplifying Pyke's restriction on the enemy jungle, and even occasionally cooperating with {Minion Dematerializer} to force a push.

Why not?

Xin Zhao circled back again, Pyke used a long-distance hook to force Galio's Flash and force him to recall, forcing him to hand over TP early.

Seeing this, Ye Bo immediately got an idea: "Barrier, feels like it's about time!"

"Let's go!" Barrier replied concisely.

After the two pushed the lane together again, they both disappeared from the map.

Under normal circumstances, Xin Zhao's bottom jungle is empty, and neither of them has recalled yet, so this wave definitely needs time to recall and resupply.

But this wave has a very good timing.

Top Esports' bot lane is currently in an isolated and helpless state!

"Feels like a scene recreation, isn't this Top Esports' move!?" Zhang Zui clearly saw the clues: "Top Esports didn't notice, thinking Pyke and Xin Zhao recalled, didn't expect it to be a mid-jungle variation!"

"Top Esports is about to be killed by the move they are best at!"

Graves changed jungle areas and hasn't reached level four yet, and at the same time, there is the roaming deterrence from mid lane, so naturally, he has to recall early.

And Galio was just forced to recall by Xin Zhao, forcing out TP, and he can't move to support with the wave under the tower.

Top Esports' bottom half area only has two people this wave!

When JackeyLove saw people in the tri-bush vision, and then saw the opponent walking in with two waves of minions, he actually felt a bit familiar.

"Holy crap, bro!? Can Knight save us!"

"I don't have TP."

"I have, I have, should I come?" Top laner Wayward asked for command advice.

JackeyLove made a prompt decision: "Come! Do it! Can't let them dive like this!"

Vladimir's sudden retreat also made Flandre realize the intention: "Vladimir seems to want to TP!"

This is why top laners are prone to invisibility in the early game after the TP changes; no matter which lane fights, it's hard to TP, even if the defensive side can only TP to the tower to save people, they will inevitably lose quite a few things.

But the dive in the bot lane has already begun.

Although EDG's bot lane isn't as experienced as Top Esports and didn't hoard a big wave in advance, the opponent's bot lane has also reached double level three.

But compared to the last game, they also have one more person!

Even if Vladimir can TP down, at most it's just trading kills, there's no reason to be persuaded to retreat by such a small threat.

Pyke takes the lead with a naked E, charging straight through the wall, waiting for the ghost shadow to return while raising the steel dagger!

"Coming again!!"

This scene instantly triggered JackeyLove's PTSD-like memories, recalling that level two lane kill.

That time was just like this, feigning a charge, but actually grasping the last moment of Pyke's E to Flash and charge for a double stun, carrying out an undefendable strangulation!

JackeyLove, who had already suffered once, didn't have time to explain, taking a deep breath.

Seeing the moment Pyke's E returned, he immediately predicted and used Flash, separating from Tahm Kench's figure.

"Hey! What is Jackey doing!!!"

"What kind of Flash is this??"

Ye Bo understands JackeyLove too well.

"Positioning habits" are not just simple positioning methods, but how the opponent's thinking will handle things when facing non-targeted skills.

Ye Bo guessed that JackeyLove might fall into the same trap again in reverse.

Facts proved he guessed right.

"Senna without Flash is plucked out by the hook again! Xin Zhao aims and stabs from the rear, Draven raises his axe and kills!"

Actually, even without this Flash, the level three Senna and Tahm Kench have no chance of struggling against a four-man dive, it just looks a bit uglier.

But at the same time, TP has already lit up under the tower.

Because Vladimir had to walk to the back of the tower to use it, it delayed some time, but in this position, there is no minion wave, so Kainan should be hard to penetrate.

But Flandre didn't want to give up.

He turned around and AAed a minion to stack the 【Electrical Surge】 for his W, then used Lightning Rush E plus Flash, decisively forcing his way into the tower!

Electrical Surge AA + Q + W detonates, hard interrupting Vladimir's TP!

"Interrupted! But Flandre also tanked three tower shots! Vladimir is furious and turns on Ghost to chase hard!"

"Top and bottom are fighting at the same time, the bot lane has already resulted in a kill, Draven slashes Senna under his horse with one axe and collects First Blood!"

"EDG's detailed tower aggro swapping pulls away the tower damage, anyway there's no one in the bot lane so no need to rush, waiting for skill CDs and the defensive tower's overheat to refresh, then move on Tahm Kench for the second time!"

Tahm Kench has E 【Thick Skin】 and is hard to kill, relying on Exhaust and Heal to survive, still wanting to use the defensive tower to trade one person.

But after Pyke waited for QE to refresh, he timed the seamless connection of EQ's knock-up and stun, making Tahm Kench unable to open the accumulated Thick Skin!

Finally, Renata's 【Bailout】 revived the Pyke who died from tanking the tower!

"Ahhhhh! This should be Galio's move!" Zhang Zui was clearly a bit anxious.

How he wished this Pyke was Galio!

"EDG's detailed tower dive aggro swap finally completed a kill without damage, Draven even mentioned the passive!"

"Although the stacks aren't many, this time, EDG has played out the rhythm Top Esports envisioned in the last game!"

【What does Ye Wen mean! He's just targeting Brother!】

【Great, it's the Water Ghost King, our water ghosts are saved!】

【Isn't this wave purely Ice Emperor making a fool of himself, what kind of Flash is this? I feel like he saw Pyke use EQ and was scared into shaking out two drops!】

【No, where is the jungler! What is the jungler doing!】

【This game is Top Esports imagining themselves, our Top Esports is like this~】

Top Esports fans were just about to mourn, but saw that good news seemed to come from the top lane.

Flandre's sacrifice to interrupt was clearly effective, because Vladimir TPed down, he would definitely be able to at least trade for the person who tanked the tower and was revived, and at least save Tahm Kench to stop the loss.

Earning is definitely earning, it's actually a choice between earning big by eating tower plates in the top lane, or earning big without damage in the bot lane.

And Flandre chose to lose a little himself.

Under normal circumstances, this wave would just be him and the opponent trading summoner spells, and a single Vladimir doesn't have enough combat power at this point in time, even if he chases all the way with Ghost, it's not easy to kill, so the loss isn't much.

It's just that he didn't expect Rookie and Karsa to have keen senses and had moved at the first moment.

Because seeing that the bot lane support couldn't make it in time, Galio and Graves decisively made a choice, both rushing up to launch a counter-attack.

The result was just seeing the scene of Kainan flashing to interrupt!

"Flandre is already walking very steadily towards the second tower, but Galio circled from the jungle and turned on Predator to flank!"

"Galio successfully kept him, Graves followed up and steadily collected Kainan!" Karsa repeated the battlefield changes.

"Both sides had a passionate double-lane bombardment!" Guan Zeyuan then made the closing statement: "In this case, Top Esports found one back in the top lane, that's barely acceptable, anyway Senna can survive even if she dies..."

"Hey! What is Pyke doing!?"

Everyone thought this wave ended just like that.

But the bot lane from God's perspective seemed to still be changing.

The four people in the bot lane retreated together after eating the plates, no matter how you look at it, they all recalled together.

But in reality.

When Ye Bo found Galio missing, and then bad news came from the top lane, he immediately had a new idea.

"Brothers, let's do it again, Flandre can't die in vain!"

"Two two three three four, do it again? I like it!"

"Attacking JackeyLove so hard" Meiko's tone seemed a bit unbearable, but his hand movements were not slow.

The three of them just squatted in the bush.

And Pyke, once again stuck to the wall, glug-glug went underwater.

God's perspective knows the specific process of what happened at level one—Top Esports has no idea at all!

They only know that Pyke learned W at level one, maybe they were negligent and he snuck in at level one.

Pyke repeated the same trick, again sticking to the wall with W to sneak into the rear, bypassing the tri-bush ward to sneak into the rear.

JackeyLove couldn't hear the sad shouts from the fans at the scene, and Senna, who revived and left the base earlier, was walking step by step towards the front of the tower.

"Water Brother, should I wait for me to go together?" Mark asked.

"Doesn't the tri-bush have a ward, it's fine..." JackeyLove looked at the minion wave suffering under the tower, a bit unable to bear this scene.

Then.

Senna, who had just walked under the tower, saw Pyke walking out from behind her.

"Holy crap!"

Although the state is not good, with Renata's shameless revival as a bottom line, just killing a Senna is clearly not very difficult.

Pyke used another charged Q to pierce through the minions and hit Senna, just like in the trial field, that figure soaring time and time again!

While eating the Endless Despair, he turned around and used E to force his way out to offset the control, relying on Renata, Pyke didn't even need to use Flash.

Senna was killed by the four people under the tower again!

【Discipline, discipline, discipline! Damn Ice Emperor is always so undisciplined, like this, I'm telling you, sooner or later there will be a big explosion!】

【Pyke captures Yu Wenbo, step forward!!!】

【Isn't the Prefect more out? A Galio suppressed by Pyke and roaming, what kind of Galio is he playing, he should go back and play his signature hero, Kindred!】

【Pity, if all three heads were given to Draven, wouldn't Draven cut the pee-pee into Yu Youbo with one slash?】

【The problem is not big, Top Esports' Draven will feed when he gets hot-headed later, oh this isn't Top Esports' Draven, then it's fine.】

Due to the poor state, Draven has already proposed that there is no need to force it.

JackeyLove on the camera is shaking his head helplessly.

However, he still has a good mentality, and on Senna's corpse in the canyon, he flashes the "white flag" expression.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 71 =====