Chapter 48

"Damn, this Shen is so slippery."

During the PE vs NXG match, the top lane Ahri let out a startled cry.

In the early game, Garen dominated Kayle completely—no damage, no crowd control in the first two levels, barely able to fight back at all—but Ahri took an early hit.

Instead of playing passively at level one, the opponent seized the moment when Garen’s rage wasn’t full yet, landed a Q followed by his passive to trade health.

Seeing this, Ahri planned to Q minions to level up fast, skip E, use his red-rage W to strip the opponent’s buffs, and let the jungler come for a tower dive—after all, the Garen-Jayce combo’s mindless aggression was well known.

But the opponent, as if anticipating it, stepped back before Ahri even reached level two.

He even threw another dart to further drain Ahri’s health.

So all this back-and-forth planning—I was just performing for air?

Checking health and last-hits, Garen had zero advantage.

Ahri fell into self-doubt.

"Level-two trade, level-three dive—I’ve dived more towers than you’ve played matches in this entire stretch."

Song Yuan snorted, clicked the ground with his mouse to reposition Twilight’s Eye, barely grazing precious experience.

Calculating experience and judging hero power spikes was basic training for them—if he’d been worn down so easily at level two, he’d be roasted alive for the rest of the season. The real pride of these two months? His positioning and kiting.

He used to just brawl to the death, but after being scolded repeatedly by Ming-ge, he finally understood the value of kiting in top lane.

With Garen failing to gain advantage in top lane, PE’s attempt for a level-two burst in bottom lane also fell flat.

At the moment of leveling two, Sona’s Thresh flashed E—his Death Sentence locked onto Miss Fortune, but the enemy support reacted instantly, pressing W just as Thresh closed in, preventing the Q from landing.

Miss Fortune used E to create distance, then relentlessly auto-attacked, forcing the enemy Nami’s heal to activate. (Most ADs in S3 carried Barrier; this is a special plot setup.)

Nami frowned. "Their reaction speed is insane—like they’re cheating."

"This is pro play—no cheats," Sona mused. "It feels more like they predicted I’d flash E into Miss Fortune."

"Whatever. It’s useless to overthink it—we’re gonna get crushed in bottom lane without my Flash."

"Can Ziv come over?"

PE’s jungler was getting a headache.

Garen and his Jayce work best together; Thresh’s failed level-two engage left him severely weakened and in desperate need of help. And mid lane… all three lanes need ganks. He can’t cover them all. He just can’t.

Mid lane.

Hmm, mid lane?

Sona suddenly remembered something and switched the camera to mid lane—there, a half-health Riven faced a Lux whose health was still at three-quarters, trembling as she last-hit under pressure.

"Bro, how’d you get pushed under tower like this?"

Van’s face flushed. "Got tricked at level two."

In the early game, JM used his range advantage to constantly auto-attack him.

At 2:40, Riven landed a WE combo on the Lux, planning to use the second W to reposition, exploit the opponent’s aggressive stance, and land both his body and shadow Qs for a burst trade—then call the jungler. But his plan was read.

The moment his W landed, he took a Lux E.

[Deceptive Orb][Cunning Fire] plus minion harassment—his half-health was only after using every single health potion.

"Oh shit, save me!"

As Van stammered to explain his disadvantage in mid lane, disaster struck first in PE’s jungle.

Just over three minutes in, the expected script—Jayce hunting the Prince—was flipped instantly due to the Shadow Assassin’s poor performance, swapping the junglers’ roles.

Jiang Ming seized lane priority, then the Prince invaded Jayce’s jungle and collided with him at the F4 camp.

The Prince instantly cast EQ, double-charging Jayce; Jiang Ming’s Lux used a wall-jump E to successfully charm Jayce.

"Flash now!"

At the instant he judged the kill possible, Jiang Ming ordered the Stone Spirit—both instantly flashed in to finish the damage.

FirstBlood!

NXG-JM killed PE-Ziv!

Just three minutes in, the initially dominant PE had lost the first blood to NXG.

【!!!】

【666!】

【What the hell was that coordination? My eyes hadn’t even finished watching the Prince’s EQ combo, and JM’s Lux charm already flashed in?】

【Is NXG this strong? Top lane Garen couldn’t pressure Shen, bottom lane Thresh’s flash E got wrecked, and now mid-jungle got first blood at three minutes.】

【PE feels so weak—worse than randoms?】

【Bro above, PE just beat IG—they’ve got four wins and are directly qualified. No weak team here. Most players in the national server are Diamond rank.】

Viewers in the livestream were stunned.

But NXG’s players, under Jiang Ming’s command to give their all, could only say this was just the beginning.

At 4:30, the revived Jayce rushed top lane.

Garen initiated with E to close in, started W to bite—but Song Yuan predicted it and flashed away, retreating safely under tower. Jayce tried to follow up, but faced a two-thirds-health Shen with his taunt still up—and dared not press.

"Gank?"

"Go ahead, gank me. If I die once, I lose."

Song Yuan instantly turned into a roaring beast.

His daily top-lane pressure training wasn’t for nothing. With mid and bottom both struggling, Ming-ge had made it crystal clear: ganking top lane was the jungler’s best option.

Losing a Flash? Fine. As long as I don’t die.

Minutes later, as top lane was being ganked, Jiang Ming in mid lane hit level six and instantly activated his ultimate—RE predicted the Shadow Assassin’s shadow landing point, then teamed up with the Prince to force out the enemy Flash, followed by his third and fourth R segments to execute the kill under tower—leaving the Riven with just 90 HP barely escaping.

Coincidentally, as news came from mid lane, bottom lane also achieved its strategic goal.

After Thresh’s failed level-two flash E all-in, the Prince—backed by mid lane—made frequent visits to bottom lane, allowing Miss Fortune to push and harass without restraint. With Lulu as support, her Sheep ability locked Thresh down completely.

Barely over eight minutes in, bottom lane’s outer tower fell.

PE was smart—they quickly called both bottom laners to top lane, aiming to combine with Garen and Jayce to further restrict Shen’s farm and swap towers.

But Jiang Ming had anticipated it—he ordered Song Yuan to teleport to mid lane, sent him a wave of minions, and had him team up with the jungler and Miss Fortune/Lulu to push down another mid outer tower.

PE had never seen such tactics—few fights had occurred, yet their towers were vanishing.

Jayce was pitiful—since the first mid tower fell, he hadn’t touched a single jungle camp.

One could only say: Jiang Ming, relying on memory, had overestimated PE—or underestimated NXG’s players, trained with future-pro methods.