Chapter 50: with translation of chapter title

Brothers, I have a bold idea!

Doinb's eyes lit up, excited like a monkey in heat.

If we were to say who hates SKT the most, it probably wouldn't be him.

But if you ask which Korean is happiest about SKT's elimination from the group stage, he definitely has a share.

No way, it shouldn't be that bad? This is SKT after all!

Wu Zhu rubbed his hands, nervous yet a little excited, and as soon as he spoke he was the old nemesis.

Who doesn't want SKT to die?

Some even started discussing, aside from SKT, who is most likely to become the biggest obstacle to winning the championship.

Cough cough, everyone please settle down, listen to me say a few words.

As the players began to get restless, Pu Longyun stood up and said: "Whether SKT can advance isn't what we should be most concerned about; no matter how they play, we must first take care of ourselves."

Although we're currently first, the schedule is only halfway through; we definitely cannot be arrogant.

There's a Chinese saying I especially like——

As he spoke, the head coach, nearly forty, picked up a marker and wrote four crooked Chinese characters on the whiteboard used for review behind him.

Arrogant troops will surely lose!

The handwriting was average, written with great effort, looking like that of an elementary school student.

Pu Longyun being able to write those four characters from memory is already rare among Koreans.

Doinb and Swift, who came to China a year earlier than him, can only do basic recognition; most of the time they rely on pinyin and cannot write the characters from memory.

This is an idiom I learned from a storyteller when I was young; during my over ten years as a StarCraft coach in Korea, I have shared it countless times with my players.

Pu Longyun earnestly taught: "As long as your opponent still has a breath, don't let your guard down."

Everyone quieted down.

Xu Dongmen also nodded, strongly approving the coach's stern warning.

In professional competitions, the biggest taboo is swelling and opening champagne at halftime.

We're only at the group stage; halftime doesn't even count yet.

As for LGD picking skins a month before the World Championship starts, that can only be described as optimistic.

After all, the optimistic family, patting the optimistic head~

The next match is CLG versus SUP; judging by both teams' current form, North America should be able to get revenge.

CLG is truly a miraculous team; not only did they lose yesterday's wildcard, they could win four games in the first round.

Winning this match, they still have a chance to catch up.

Riding on the momentum of defeating SKT, this time the North American champion didn't drop the ball again.

Having successfully revenged against the Turkish, they tied with Flash Wolves at a 4-2 record, jointly ranking second on the standings.

It's our turn to go on stage.

G2, it's you again!

Not seeing each other for a day, I really miss you.

Appearing as the finale, Xu Dongmen and the others received the most enthusiastic cheers and support from the crowd.

It's not just because of home advantage; they themselves are also capable.

A perfect first-round record of 5-0 left LPL viewers beaming with pride.

Adding to the contrast of SKT's four-game losing streak, each victory by Xu Dongmen and the others feels especially valuable.

It fulfilled every fantasy fans had of LPL teams!

Brothers, are you okay? The referee asked; if so, we'll start.

The captain, Natural Disaster End Times, is responsible for communicating with the referee.

This is a veteran player who debuted in Season 2 and has experience playing professionally in the LCS North American league, with extremely rich experience.

After receiving everyone's response, Natural Disaster End Times reported to the referee.

The referee ordered, and the match began.

G2 is on the blue side!

In the previous round, the blue side was QG.

Last year's inaugural MSI, held in Florida, USA, faced much criticism because the tight schedule meant the group stage was only a single round-robin.

The win-rate difference between red and blue sides is an eternal topic in League of Legends.

The best solution is to play a double round-robin in the group stage, just like the World Championship.

This year's MSI adopted a double round-robin.

Hahaha, the enemy banned Thresh on first pick; G2's jungler is scared of you, Dongmen. Da B gloated.

Wu Zhu interjected: "That water-drinking type jungler? I also saw it yesterday while sleeping."

This topic sparked everyone's interest, and V also joined in: Just now, while getting water backstage, I saw him holding what looked like cola.

It's the 'fat guy water,' right? No wonder Trick got so chubby after going to Europe.

Or is it ice kuo luo? Drinking that much really won't dilute?

The team's voice chat was filled with laughter and cheer.

Regarding this, Pu Longyun not only didn't stop it, he even shamelessly joined in the laughter.

He has always encouraged everyone to tell jokes before matches to liven up the atmosphere, which helps team communication and coordination.

In a team atmosphere where no one jokes around, players' psychological burden increases, leading to more mistakes.

Oh my, the enemy first-picked Alistar!

It turned out not to be a male spear; we guessed wrong.

Water-drinking type jungler has something new.

G2 first picks the bullhead.

In QG coaching staff's simulation, the opponent will first lock the male gun.

In G2's first round of 5 matches, Trick took 4 male guns.

Very reliant on this hero!

If he doesn't take it, I will; I take the male gun, let him pick the cat girl.

Xu Dongmen is very bad.

What you play yourself is not important; preventing the opponent from getting a comfortable hero is important.

BP mind games, if they make the opponent uncomfortable, that's already a kind of success!

Perkz also has a Zed in practice matches; will he also bring it out to pair with the cat girl?

Da B is a bit nervous.

After all, his match against Flash Wolves just ended a few hours ago; his Zed PTSD hasn't fully healed.

Doinb's worry is unnecessary; both the cat girl and Zed are easy to gain advantage with but hard to win with.

The European Young Wolves, 1-4 in the first round, no longer have the confidence to pick like that.

After taking the cat girl, they dare not pick Zed.

Instead, they locked onto the Emperor.

Champion selection is very stable, and after the game starts it's even more stable.

Upon entering the game, G2 made an ultimate stability-seeking decision.

——Switch lanes!

Having picked Lucian and the bullhead, facing QG's bottom lane 'wheel mom' Braum, they actually faltered and actively switched lanes.

Vision saw Lucian and the bullhead appear in the top lane at 1:30, which is 10 seconds before monster respawn.

Xu Dongmen immediately changed his jungle start, moving from the stone beetle to the red buff, and called the top laner.

Bobo, come over and join me; the enemy wants to invade the jungle.

Coming.

Xu Dongmen started the red buff with V; V is playing Ekko this game, with three rings + two-segment Q having strong jungle clear ability.

1:40, monsters respawn.

The two started fighting the red buff.

Midway through the fight, two uninvited guests came to the jungle.

Not Trick, but G2's duo.

The lane-swapped Lucian and bullhead didn't go straight for experience, but first came to the jungle to find Xu Dongmen.

Classic lane swap then jungle invade to harass the jungler!

Thud~

Xu Dongmen steadily smote the red buff; even if Lucian stole a small monster, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, he needs to give experience to the top laner; even if not stolen, he wouldn't reach level 2.

The enemy's top jungle also took the red; they still wanted to take F4, but I chased them away.

Natural Disaster End Times sent a message from the lower half.

Because of the lane swap, he came a step late, failing to harass the enemy's red start.

But he could, with his own strength, quickly enter the jungle and drive away the enemy's cat girl and Bobo, which is already quite rare.

An excellent support provides huge help to the jungler.

Natural Disaster End Times' successful harassment wave directly lets Xu Dongmen, at the start, eat two more F4 sets than the enemy jungler.

Red > F4 > F4…

After clearing our own F4, V hadn't reached level 2 yet, then turned to go bottom lane to join the turret push.

At this moment, the bottom lane minion wave just entered the turret; the top laner going over now won't get too much AD experience, and can destroy the turret as fast as possible.

The first two minion waves brought under the turret; with three people's strength, they cut and cleared the third big wave behind the enemy turret, avoiding collision with our own minion wave.

This is the best lane-swap push tactic forged over years of lane-swap games in major leagues worldwide.

By cutting the minion wave behind the enemy turret, we not only avoid our minions suffering loss upon contact, but also extend the advance time under the defense turret.

More importantly, our third big wave can then advance straight into the turret, achieving perfect minion wave continuity and realizing a one‑push turret destruction.

Time is usually around 3:30.

At the start, three minion waves push down a defense turret.

Before S6, some teams could do it, but that required the combined strength of top, jungle, bottom, and support.

This season's evolved push mode requires no jungler participation from start to finish.

Efficient and energy‑saving!

If someone tries to come up with ideas here, it would cause the turret‑side minion line to break and fail to continue, resulting in a blood‑loss situation of exchanging one turret for none.

Those who can come to MSI are champion teams; naturally they won't drop the ball on this basic operation.

Brothers, come on!

Three teammates are hard at work pushing the turret, while Xu Dongmen happily farms the jungle nearby.

That is, the jungler's status has been unprecedentedly raised since S6; in previous seasons, he too would have had to go do grunt work!

Worth mentioning is that the first turret bounty obtained by both sides was unanimously given to the solo top laner.

This dates back to the S5 World Championship!

As everyone knows, S5 is the heavy-armored warrior version.

And before the S5 World Championship, there was never any notion of soloing turret bounty.

Until SKT gave the world a lesson!

Even though the turret's local bounty was only a paltry 150 gold at the time, they hesitated not at all in giving it all to the top lane, not even letting the ADC have a share.

Besides that, at the start, when the ADC swapped lanes to push the tower, there was a hard requirement: after destroying the enemy turret, the minion wave must be a counter‑push!

The specific method is to use the enemy turret to ensure that some of our minions survive when the turret falls, so that when the enemy's next wave spawns, they will automatically adopt an attacking formation, creating a natural counter‑push.

The surviving minions cannot be too many, otherwise they cannot counter‑push.

Nor can they be too few; if too few, they die on contact and there aren't enough to let the enemy form a line.

The ideal situation is to have two minions left after the turret is destroyed.

When the Korean team led by SKT unveiled this lane‑swap, top‑lane‑farming tactic at the World Championship, every team, including the LPL, was left dumbfounded.

A true dimensional strike!

In that legendary SKT vs. EDG match, after the lane swap, when Marin's crocodile soloed the turret bounty and began enjoying the top‑lane counter‑push, EDG's bottom lane had only Deft farming alone.

Where did their top laner go?

AmazingJ's level‑2 Darius, while controlling the dragon together with the jungler‑support…

At its core, League of Legends is a resource game: the side that gains more resources finds victory easier, the side that can invest those resources into the right player can just kick back and play.

"Actually, this patch doesn't require deliberately leaving turret gold for the top laner, but everyone's already used to doing it that way."

Xu Dongmen saw through it but didn't expose it.

Path dependence and inertia are very common in pro play, so there's no need to be the lone sober one while everyone else is drunk.

"Come on, pup, let's go top."

"You go first, I'll be there in a bit."

When his teammate destroyed the bottom turret, Xu Dongmen had just finished eating the nearby stone‑shelled beetles.

He didn't recall; instead, he slid down the dragon pit back into his own jungle.

The three monster camps in the lower half were still alive.

After taking the blue buff, he then ate the swamp frogs and the three wolves.

While he was eating, the G2 support came into the jungle to harass again, but this time was different: a level‑4 marksman with double buffs wasn't something that little bull‑head could provoke.

Xu Dongmen cleared seven monster camps in his first round, getting off to a very smooth start.

Green jungle blade + longsword + cloth armor + refillable potion

By five minutes, his item slots were completely full.

"Guys, let's take the Rift Herald."

Xu Dongmen finished his F4 clear and charged straight for the Herald; by then the top turret was already nearly pushed down.

Two and a half minutes to clear the dragon, four minutes to take the Herald.

In this patch, the epic jungle monsters might as well be premature babies.

With the help of the Apocalypse, he easily secured the Rift Herald.

One person finds it tough, but two can do it with their eyes closed.

"The enemy hasn't touched the dragon, so the cougar must be farming."

Xu Dongmen made that inference.

Mid laner Doinb was playing the Mischief this game, and he didn't think Trick's cougar would have any designs on Lulu.

"This AP is pretty fierce, playing a Sand King and still wanting to dominate."

Xu Dongmen set his sights on mid lane.

Da B was good at making plays: "I'll poke first; the Sand King's got heal, so one wave won't kill him."

Bang bang~

After hitting level 6, the Mischief's two‑stage Shadow Step slammed into his face, draining a chunk of his health.

At that very moment, Xu Dongmen was already in position.

One minute earlier, when he cleared his F4, he used Smite on the big bird and received the Gift of the Eagle Eye.

It's like a future control ward; once you have the buff, any nearby enemy ward will automatically reveal itself.

With the Eagle Eye buff, you can confirm you haven't been spotted by vision.

"Dongmen, don't rush; wait for my skills to come off cooldown—right away, in ten seconds."

Doinb couldn't wait.

Ten seconds later, the Mischief lunged forward with a big step, and her chain landed successfully.

Whoosh~

Doinb flashed straight onto the Sand King's face!

The AP retaliated with his ultimate, pushing the Mischief away, but the stun had already taken effect.

At the moment the Wall of the Guard pushed Doinb back, he also ignited the Sand King.

"Trouble never ends!"

Xu Dongmen, who had been lying in wait, sprang forward with a quick draw, using the Wall of the Guard as terrain to blast out a powder keg.

Boom!

A T‑shaped fire serpent erupted, leaving the Sand King instantly battered.

The AP flashed, his heal on cooldown!

Xu Dongmen flashed, fired a shot, then tossed a slowing smoke bomb.

"Gold, help!"

Perkz's escape route was toward the lower half, while Trick's cougar was spurring hard to reach his position.

To save the mid laner, the mana‑type jungler didn't even hesitate to flash and give to the support!

He was ultimately a step too slow, and the Emperor became a soul under Xu Dongmen's spear.

Trick flashed and checked a wave of corpses.

Ah!

Frustrated and angry, he wanted to help Ah P get revenge, but as another surnamed Jin player arrived, he had no choice but to accept reality, swallowing his broken teeth.

"Ying Bi Ge, are you brothers with the enemy jungler?"

With first blood in hand, Xu Dongmen acted mischievously for a bit.

"Huh? What brothers? I know him, but we're not familiar at all!"

"Da B quickly denied, he indeed had gone to CJ tryouts in his early years, and that was also where he met Swift."

"Hehe, I thought you guys were brothers."

"Impossible! Dongmen, you're my brother; I don't like this Tirck, and he gets along very well with Swift."

"Oh oh, really?"

"Yeah, back when I was trying out with him at CJ, this guy was really disgusting."

"OK, OK…"

Xu Dongmen couldn't hide his smile.

Let's not talk about the hundred thousand volts; when it comes to disgusting people, the older brother doesn't even mention the younger brother.

Jin Taiyun, Jin Taixiang,

Even if you say the two are real brothers, that's as likely as saying they're in the Ganges River!