Chapter 7: I often feel inferior because I am not perfect enough

River channel.

Relying on his unique mobility, the Nidalee was the first to arrive in the upper quadrant, already tossing down traps with utter disregard for public decorum. Wild cats are like that; they have no interest in finding a litter box. They simply mark the corner that looks comfortable the moment they find it.

V5, for their part, didn't mind at all.

They had no intention of playing a drawn-out game with WE. With a composition featuring Leona and Jarvan IV, any hesitation in engaging would mean Karsa and Ppgod’s chairs would be receiving a surge of voltage.

"Wait for an opening and engage. Their double-C setup has no mobility. Don't hesitate. If the damage doesn't follow up, that's on the carries; if we can't land the engage, that's on us."

This moment.

Karsa’s desire to initiate was uncharacteristically intense. Having fought in the bottom lane for so long, the bloodlust had been fully stirred in everyone.

Macro-management?

Hell, right now my brain is solely focused on the thrill of the fight!

The restless posturing of Jarvan IV and Leona did not escape WE’s notice. The river was narrow, and if they stood too close, they risked being locked down by Jarvan’s ultimate and eating the full duration of Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time. Consequently, the members of WE spread out extensively.

But this positioning.

It played right into the hands of their mid-laner, Rookie.

After all...

He was playing the "Papaya" Aspect.

At the casting desk, Miller was focused on the screen with total concentration.

"It’s coming. Both WE and V5 want to contest this Rift Herald. Jarvan and Leona are clearly looking to initiate, but WE’s formation is too spread out—they aren't giving any opportunities."

"The Renekton has snuck up above the dragon pit. And the Tahm Kench? He’s there too, blocking Biubiu’s path."

"The Herald has been up for a while now. Will anyone start it? They’re all afraid; both sides are still posturing."

"Wait! Ppgod’s Leona seems to have found an opening! Solar Flare! This team fight is being initiated by V5’s support Leona!"

The fight was on!

Without a second of hesitation, and with the enemy spread thin, Ppgod was the only one capable of long-range engagement. He had been observing, watching for a crack in the enemy’s movement, and he successfully caught the positioning error of the enemy support, Kedaya’s Nautilus.

R - Solar Flare!

The ultra-long-range ultimate crashed down. Almost the exact moment the spell animation began, Kedaya instinctively fired a Q toward the nearest wall.

Although it wasn’t a long hook, short and snappy often meant fast.

Relying on the displacement from that Q, his Nautilus shifted... roughly half a Flash’s distance. It was a pathetic little distance, but this maneuver undoubtedly put him leagues ahead of many "Champions Club" Nautilus players.

He had proven himself!

Most importantly, thanks to that short dash, he successfully escaped the epicenter of the Leona ultimate.

No stun, just the slow from the edge.

"Here we go!"

Just as even Karsa felt a split-second of hesitation about whether to commit, Xiao Yan, having absolute faith in his support, had already whipped out his dual pistols.

R - Bullet Time!

"Ahahahahahaha~"

He used it?

Miss Fortune just used her ultimate that easily!?

The members of WE were stunned for a moment, followed by a surge of ecstasy.

Miss Fortune’s ultimate is fixed once cast. If the Nautilus had been stunned, catching the full duration would have netted a kill, making it a great play. But the problem was, the Nautilus wasn't stunned.

Kedaya’s heart skipped a beat.

He burned his Flash to dash backward. Even though he wasted a summoner spell, in the next exchange, they would be up an entire ultimate—a critical one at that!

However...

The moment he landed from his Flash, a yellow glimmer flickered inside the Rift Herald pit.

Before he could even react, a surge of water rose beneath his feet.

W - Abyssal Dive!

As they say, not checking a corner completely doesn't mean you haven't checked it at all.

WE, overly focused on the main V5 force in the river, had neglected the brush at the entrance to the upper river. At the eight-minute mark, getting there ahead of V5 was already a success; WE truly didn't have the extra scanners to sweep that location.

The vision Luo Ji had left behind earlier clearly revealed the landing spot of the Nautilus’s Flash. This follow-up Flash into the pit followed by a W was almost perfect, seamlessly chaining his crowd control.

But...

Was it necessary?

The moment they saw the Tahm Kench appear beneath him and knock him up, both Kedaya and the rest of the WE players felt Luo Ji was overreacting.

He had already flashed out of the range of Miss Fortune’s ultimate. At this distance, did he really think he had extra damage to burst down a Nautilus?

The moment that thought crossed their minds, a transparent bubble suddenly appeared by the wall, beginning to circle the moment it touched the Nautilus.

Wait!

This thing~!?

Kedaya’s face twisted in horror.

"Holy shit, block it! Quick! Help me block it!!!"

He frantically shouted to his teammates, but as he instinctively looked back, he saw that the teammates who had been nearby were, with silent synchronization, moving as far away from him as possible.

Beneath his feet, the Zoe E-skill finished its cycle.

Xiangke looked on, his face full of pity.

But as the team’s pillar, he said with great sorrow: "Sorry, Rong (Kedaya), from now on, I can block any skill for you—be it Caitlyn’s sniper shot or Jinx’s rocket—but I can’t block a Zoe’s 'boop.' That thing is impossible to stop."

Kedaya: "!!!"

Under the "go in peace" gazes of the other four members of WE, the Zoe’s Paddle Star arrived from afar.

As a support Nautilus in the first Herald fight, he was squishy and lacked tank items.

How could he possibly survive that "boop"?

"Boom!"

With a crisp explosion, his health bar was perfectly depleted in an instant.

V5 Rookie killed WE Kedaya.

No one could have expected that the Nautilus support, who had already escaped the jaws of death, would be intercepted at the very gates of hell by the River King Tahm Kench.

Before the Herald fight even truly started, they were down a man!

[Holy shit, a dream!]

[What a damn decisive Flash-W. How was he so confident his teammates would follow up?]

[It’s hard to imagine that the execution and synergy of this team come from a newly reorganized roster.]

[Good evening! Except for Zoe players!]

Absurd.

Too absurd!

Even from a god’s-eye view, the audience felt this initiation was heaven-defying. Either Leona hits the ult and Miss Fortune wipes the floor, or Tahm Kench knocks them up for the Zoe follow-up. In front of V5’s double-carry firepower, WE’s carries looked like green recruits.

After the successful kill.

Even Luo Ji couldn't help but sigh: "Sigh, other than having a strong grasp of the macro, elite reaction time to opportunities, and a keen sense for the meta, I’ve got nothing. So why, why do they insist on charging into my zone of advantage?"

Rookie, in a pleasant mood, subconsciously chimed in: "Actually, I’m the same. Other than being strong in lane, having a long peak, winning championships, and having my own mage champion pool, I’m useless."

"What? You also understand this feeling?" Luo Ji was shocked.

"Exactly. I often feel inferior because of it." Rookie nodded quite seriously.

The other three V5 members: ...

Are these two insane!?

After the skirmish that didn't quite qualify as a full team fight, and being down a man, WE naturally didn't dare to contest the Herald. They had to retreat to the bottom quadrant, trying to find a way to recoup some resources.

"He’s really something, this rookie."

"Axin (Biubiu), wasn't he just facing you above the dragon pit? How did he suddenly Flash-W into the fight?"

After giving up the Herald, the WE members, busy trying to stop the bleeding, started asking their top-laner, Biubiu.

On the surface, it looked like a gap between the carries, but in reality...

Damn it, the enemy top-laner flashed in, and what was my top-laner doing?

"I don't know either."

Biubiu was equally bewildered. In past matches or even scrims, he and every other top-laner would just stare each other down in the top lane until a fight actually broke out, at which point they would have a tacit agreement to dive the backline.

Or they would just beat each other up to say they participated.

But this?

The opponent just Flash-W’d straight down.

This sense for team fighting and macro control—Biubiu felt that if he could learn it, he wouldn't be one of the "Four Dark Heavenly Kings" mentioned by the caster Guan.

Of course, one could say he could learn and improve.

But...

Biubiu possessed the traits common to many young people today, making it hard for him to change.

For example:

His attitude was upright, his ability was non-existent, he accepted criticism, change was non-existent, and being fired would be for the best.

What one might call a "dead pig that isn't afraid of boiling water."

Want him to change?

Maybe in the next life.

After taking the Herald, the second elemental dragon was a certainty. With the Herald dropped in the mid-lane, WE couldn't possibly spare the attention to contest it.

Compared to his teammates’ various macro plays in the mid-lane.

On the flank.

Luo Ji felt somewhat bored.

In the current meta, the build for top-lane Tahm Kench is extremely formulaic, summarized by a little rhyme: "Thornmail for damage, Plate for health, Spirit Visage to heal, Sunfire to burn; buy a Chain Vest to strap on, if the team sucks, just surrender~"

Of course.

If it ever reached a bladder-testing game where even a top-laner could get six items.

The final piece could be Titanic Hydra.

Once finished, he would transform from an ultimate old turtle into a fire-breathing, tanky, high-damage old turtle.

Off-screen.

Watching the Tahm Kench, whose tankiness was such that even a Renekton had to avoid his edge, Nofe and Zero looked at each other, unable to hide their bright smiles.

"I imagine those clubs watching us are going to be stunned."

"Who wouldn't be? We showed his blade once in the finals, and immediately he turned into this impenetrable, ultimate team-oriented top-laner. Don't counter-pick him, and you’re afraid he’ll repeat it; try to counter him, and it seems useless. I’d have a headache too."

Yes.

This game, from the very beginning, was a gimmick V5 had discussed and intentionally released. Even if they hadn't chosen Tahm Kench, Nofe would have had Luo Ji pick a utility top-laner like Gragas.

It wasn't that he didn't trust his top-laner.

On the contrary, he had believed in Luo Ji’s potential from the start.

But the problem was, going all-out too early would expose too many things that shouldn't be exposed—like the competitive experience that only comes with time.

Why did LPL’s aggressive top-laners seem to "feed" so much in their debut years? Even Bin, at the start of his career, was dubbed, along with the Biubiu in this book, as the "Hidden Dragon and Phoenix" of the SN team.

Because in professional play, the veteran top-laners are master actors.

Many opportunities you think you see are actually baited by others. You fall for the trap, thinking you can make a highlight play, and as soon as you go in, someone pops out from behind. After a few repetitions, the top lane collapses. The new generation of LPL top-laners has suffered from this many times.

Furthermore.

The more frequently you attack, the easier it is to expose your playing style and offensive habits.

Just imagine.

You always use the same few moves, the same frequencies. After a while, people know exactly when to cooperate with you, indulge your ego, and eventually, they get bored and leave you in the dust.

And there are only two ways to solve this problem.

Either be naturally gifted.

Or constantly evolve.

In the early S12, where damage is so overflowing that even a tanky top-laner struggles to survive, rashly exposing one's aggression would only turn oneself into the team’s weak point. Conversely, this steady, extremely disciplined champion selection and playstyle could genuinely help the team and annoy the opponents.

At least for now.

Quite a few teams were already biting the bullet and re-studying V5’s bottom lane.

It couldn't be helped; if they dared to bring a top-lane Tahm Kench this game, they’d dare to bring a top-lane Ornn the next, and maybe a top-lane Malphite after that.

Studying him was less productive than deciding what to have for lunch.

On the field.

V5’s advantage was gradually widening.

It was a team with two veterans, after all. Esports is a very pure competition; at least at this point in time, it still strictly follows market rules: the only downside to something expensive is that it’s expensive—there are no other flaws.

With Karsa and Rookie working together.

Luo Ji could essentially hang out on the flank without needing to return to join the team, while all sorts of good news from the mid-lane and jungle reached his ears.

"Comfortable~"

"If I could ride the coattails to victory every game like this, even if it meant living in a mansion, driving a luxury car, and marrying a young, beautiful, rich woman, I’d be willing."

The other four V5 members: ???

"You kid, how are you taking all the benefits and the credit?"

Karsa laughed, annoyed. In reality, if the Tahm Kench had returned to the team, they might have won even more easily, but Tahm Kench staying away was also correct because Luo Ji was effectively single-handedly defending against the "James" (Renekton) of the enemy team.

If Renekton joined the fight, he joined.

If Renekton didn't leave, he didn't leave.

He took life and death lightly, focusing solely on companionship.

Biubiu was left speechless by this arrogant rookie—he couldn't win in a fight, couldn't chase him off, and yet every now and then, he’d jump up to annoy him with a combo.

However.

At this critical juncture, Kedaya managed to seize a perfect opportunity. While Karsa was protecting Ppgod to place wards, Xiao Yan in the mid-lane wandered into a subtle position—not necessarily dangerous, but certainly not safe.

This is a common flaw for rookie players: they can't gauge a "safe zone" on the field, lacking the experience to judge whether teammates can provide resources in time if something happens.

However.

An opportunity given is an opportunity taken!

Kedaya’s eyes lit up. He decisively flashed and fired his Q. And the moment his hook connected with Miss Fortune, a Teleport light from the V5 side appeared on the mini-map.