Chapter 14: When It Comes to Careers, Choosing the Right Teammates Is Crucial

"Something's not right. This is TheShy! Can't even TheShy find a way to deal with him?"

Outside the livestreaming room, team data analysts were completely unable to make sense of the current situation.

From the Demacia Cup until now, Luo Ji had barely repeated a single champion. That could be explained away—after all, Flandre had been the same way when he first debuted, daring to play anything. The crucial point was that Flandre had never made everything look so effortlessly winning back then!

If TES's WeiYan couldn't handle you, it was because WeiYan was too young and inexperienced.

But TheShy? How could you not handle him either?

After observing Luo Ji for a long time, Ah Bu finally arrived at a conclusion.

"Actually, from my perspective, this match comes down to a late counter-pick combined with TheShy's own current form issues. This rookie hasn't changed at all. What makes him strong has always been his ability to capitalize on opportunities and his macro awareness. His champion pool experimentation is just a bonus."

"There is one more thing, though."

"That is, once he secures an advantage, he will go to any length to amplify it."

"Look at this sequence. A normal youngster, after killing TheShy once, would be walking on air with a swollen ego. But look at what he did right after the kill: upgraded his Vampiric Scepter, and called the jungler to dive the tower."

"Compared to those other top laners, he clearly possesses a much more peculiar trait."

"Shameless."

At first, Maokai pondered for a long time.

He simply couldn't figure out what other traits this V5 top laner possessed. It wasn't until Ah Bu glanced at him out of nowhere and blurted out those three words that Maokai finally had a sudden epiphany and nodded.

Right.

That was so right!

It was precisely this shameless, try-hard, rank-obsessed playstyle.

Countered? Build tank. Ahead? Also build tank. If the advantage isn't big enough, he directly calls for reinforcements. Otherwise, he simply locks in counter-picks or plays stat-check monsters on stage.

From start to finish, he placed himself in an awkward middle ground that was simultaneously extremely disgusting to play against.

On the stage, V5's early-game tempo had already been completely blown wide open.

The top lane was 2/0, the bottom lane was holding its own under pressure, and the crucial point was that the mid lane was also beginning to exert pressure. In the current patch, both Corki and Viktor were overpowered, but Corki's power stemmed entirely from that one-minute window of his Package.

A Corki with a Package was fierce, but a Corki without one was entirely mediocre.

While generating matching dominance in the mid lane, Karsa capitalized on a rapid-fire recall—enabled by dying and instantly respawning—to immediately refresh his items and head straight towards the dragon pit.

At this moment, Sofm was not only still stuck in the top lane with outdated items, but he also couldn't possibly rush over in time.

With no jungler present and zero mid-lane priority, even though Huanfeng and ON possessed bottom-lane priority, they didn't dare come anywhere near the river. They could only silently listen to the dragon's death cries, ripples of restless grief stirring in their hearts.

Pain, sheer agony!

Why on earth was the first dragon still surrendered to the enemy when they were running a Caitlyn composition?

"Nice, the tempo this game is extremely smooth."

"Keep an eye on the gold differences; don't hand them any shutdown bounties too early." PPGOD offered a timely reminder.

Though he wasn't the main shotcaller, offering an occasional suggestion from his independent support role was completely fine.

"Don't worry," Karsa patted his chest, speaking with absolute confidence. "The next Rift Herald will coincide with Corki's Package timing, so we'll just hand that Herald over to them."

It had to be said that TheShy's biggest flaw was that whenever he wasn't in a peak physical or seasonal form, he would dish out opportunities in the top lane as if he were suffering from a sudden illness.

Generally speaking, TheShy had three distinct peak periods: S7 to S9 was his absolute golden age, his long-range top lane era in S11 marked his first spring revival, and after that, one would have to trace back to the latter half of S13.

The moment the top lane yielded an opening, Karsa could control the entire match with absolute ease.

V5's stance was crystal clear: if your Corki has a Package, we won't fight you. But the moment your Corki doesn't have a Package, you better watch out and make sure you don't get caught by us.

If you get caught, you can bet there won't be any good fruit for you to eat.

"If we win today's match, I should be able to absorb a few of TheShy's fans, right?"

"No problem at all. As long as the kid doesn't play too poorly, his looks alone are enough to pull in a massive fanbase, not to mention his recent performances have been quite solid."

Rookie glanced at the scoreboard, a bright smile blossoming across his face.

Countless LPL patches had proven one immutable truth: choosing the right teammates was vital.

Choose well, and you secure stable playoff runs, guaranteed World Championship appearances, and a shot at that coveted ultimate throne. Choose poorly, and you end up like Germany and Italy: Germany shocks the world twice, and Italy shocks Germany twice.

With that foundation, the better Luo Ji and Xiaoyan performed and the more fans they attracted, the happier he felt.

It proved he hadn't chosen the wrong people.

A storm might rage, but the three-time champion of the storm wasn't necessarily guaranteed to walk further and higher alongside him.

"Hey, Brother Karsa, Brother Rookie, this isn't very nice of you two."

While trading health with TheShy by relying on superior item stats, Luo Ji chimed into the team voice chat:

"You guys are veterans from the same era; why don't your fanbases outnumber the enemy's Brother Shy? You're forcing me to poach fans right out from under Brother Shy's nose."

"Don't give me that excuse about playing different positions. Isn't JKL in the bottom lane instead of the top lane? Look at the sheer cohesion of his fanbase."

"I hope you seniors will reflect on yourselves. Over all these years, have you worked hard at streaming? Have you purified your fanbases? Have you successfully milked your fans, lowered their psychological defenses, cultivated their combat effectiveness, and scammed them out of their money?"

"If even a single one of you had managed that, I could have successfully taken off just by living off your reputations."

Karsa: ...

Rookie: ...

Xiaoyan and PPGOD: ...

Even though it sounded somewhat infuriating, why did it strangely feel like it made a lot of sense?

By dodging combat around the Rift Herald, Corki's Package ultimately failed to yield any meaningful impact.

Angel flew his Package from the mid lane to the river and then up to the top lane, scouting around. Forget finding an opportunity; he didn't even spot a shadow.

Luo Ji directly chose to recall and update his items.

If I can't afford to provoke you, can't I at least hide from you?

However, this aimless wandering actually bought TheShy a breathing window.

Previously, Luo Ji had relied on his item advantage to force him into a state of "don't even think about farming." Now that the enemy had retreated and he was alone in the lane, he could finally unleash his signature style with peace of mind.

By the way, once he pushed out the wave, he could roam.

Except...

Angel hadn't managed to catch Luo Ji during that roam and felt deeply unsatisfied. He never expected that just as his Package was about to expire, the roles of hunter and prey on the battlefield would quietly reverse.

"Brother Rookie, Brother Karsa, what do you say? Shall we go gank that kid?"

Luo Ji pinged the mid-lane Corki.

As a veteran psychological master (self-proclaimed), Luo Ji deeply understood that a Corki fresh off the overconfident high of wielding a Package was precisely at the stage where he was most vulnerable to exposing an opening.

If it were just Rookie and Karsa, Corki might still have a chance to escape.

But with him added to the mix?

Wouldn't they arrange the enemy with crystal clarity in a matter of seconds?

"Are you sure?"

Karsa glanced at Luo Ji's position. Having just left the base, he was hurrying toward the mid lane, while his current location...

Actually seemed viable for an opportunistic invasion of the jungle to flank from behind.

"Not bad. Once my Dream is in position, we go straight in."

Rookie's eyes lit up as well.

The main reason he and Karsa couldn't secure a kill on Corki earlier was the lack of reliable hard crowd control.

A cautious Angel would never give Xin Zhao a chance to get close. But adding Akshan to the equation changed everything—crowd control wasn't even necessary; their sheer output was more than enough to overflow.

"Then let's begin."

Luo Ji rubbed his hands together in excitement. This was the debut convergence of their V5 Trident this match, and it wasn't even aimed at TheShy, but rather at an otherwise low-presence Angel.

As he hurried along, Luo Ji unconsciously muttered to himself:

"Activate Magic Card! Polymerization!"

"Fuse the three [Blue-Eyes White Dragons] on the field!"

"And then, Fusion Summon—"

"Appear! The LPL's exclusive [Blue-Eyes V-Polar Dragon]!"

With Luo Ji's soaring declaration, Rookie abruptly launched his attack on Angel the moment Akshan arrived on the battlefield.

Nobody could resist the temptation to "beat the Corki."

Not even Rookie, who was already taken.

Viktor's sudden forward-stepping ability forced Angel's Corki into a split-second hesitation. With neither side of the map showing any trace of Xin Zhao on vision, he simply assumed this was just Rookie's routine harassment.

Until the camouflaged Akshan suddenly materialized.

In that instant, his expression twisted into utter terror.

Luo Ji: Young man, wanna buy some hacks?

Angel: !!!

When the grappling hook violently reeled in a fully armed Akshan from the stone wall beside him, Angel's mental state suffered a partial collapse.

What deep hatred or profound grievance is this?

I clearly failed to gank you just a moment ago, and you're already coming back to avenge yourself?

Are you a disciple of Confucius or something—seeking restitution for every slight?

Faced with Angel's helplessness, Luo Ji showed no mercy whatsoever.

A true man shooting his gun values speed, precision, and ruthlessness. The essence lies in rapidly securing position and dumping all your damage directly onto the enemy's face. The only drawback is that you can't use this method too frequently, since it relies on sacrificing your future scaling for immediate gratification, which isn't very friendly to your late-game form.

Once the distance closed, Akshan's E-skill bullets rained down entirely onto Corki.

Upon landing, Angel managed a desperate Corki W-escape, though he was still slowed by Akshan's Q upon landing, after which Akshan squatted in place.

R [Comeuppance]

The combined damage of Viktor and Akshan instantly wh_ored Angel's health bar down to a sliver.

Fortunately...

Being Corki, he still managed to make it back under the safety of his defensive tower with scraps of health.

Just as he started to exhale in relief—

From behind him came yet another baffling voice:

"First shot!"

"Longing brings sorrow and remembrance! Short longing has no end! Yearning!"

Angel: ???

He spun around, only to find his back shivering in mortal terror.

His Flash had already instinctively been used earlier, but surrounded by enemies both front and back, a Corki's Flash was nothing more than a futile gesture.

Karsa merely applied a casual W slow and followed up with a single basic attack.

V5 Karsa killed WBG Angel.

The encirclement was a complete success!

[666666]

[Everyone wants to beat the Corki, but that's really unfair to Corki.]

[So ruthless! The moment Corki's Package ends, V5's top and jungle smell blood and show up. Are they really this bloodthirsty?]

[Where is TheShy? TheShy, do something, TheShy!]

With his teammates falling one after another, WBG's jungler Sofm felt a mounting sense of pressure.

He didn't like facing the enemy top laner.

Because a player with such strong macro awareness and roaming support capabilities was the exact type he—a roamer wandering aimlessly across the map—detested the most.

Unless that player was on his own team.

Since he had run into one now, however, he had no choice but to forcefully alter his jungle style, anchoring himself in the top half of the map to protect his bottom-lane duo.

Yes.

The reason Luo Ji recalled and returned to the lane was precisely because he anticipated WBG's lane swap involving Caitlyn and Sett.

Around the eight-minute mark, right after taking the Rift Herald, the bottom duo would naturally rotate to the top lane. If V5's bottom duo didn't follow, it would result in a 2-v-1 suppression of Akshan's development.

If they did follow, it simply meant swapping lanes to farm, which was never a bad deal.

V5, naturally, saw right through the enemy's maneuvers.

Early on, Xiaoyan and PPGOD had already begun moving toward the top lane. Since both bottom-lane duos reappeared in the top lane, Luo Ji naturally transitioned down toward the bottom lane.

Luo Ji glanced at the scoreboard and the top lane.

Xiaoyan's Zeri had survived the early game reasonably well this match; his cs hadn't fallen behind drastically, and he hadn't handed the enemy any openings in the laning phase. In a sense, he was performing quite decently.

Still...

It was a bit too slow.

Xiaoyan's learning talent still lacked a bit of punch.

A "three-year pact" was simply a bit too long. If they swapped him out for Huolinfei, that three-year pact would instantly become a three-second pact, rushing all the way to the Soul Heaven Emperor in a single day.

Returning to a solo lane, Luo Ji discovered that TheShy—who had started 0/2—had somehow completely caught up in CS. This development caught him somewhat off guard.

So this was what a top-tier professional player looked like?

Farming—

On the surface, the CS difference between professional players rarely seemed massive, but that perception was actually mistaken.

Top-tier professional players simply possessed a far superior resource-harvesting capability compared to ordinary pros. For instance, mid-laner Chovy, or jungler Sofm, or even the retired AD carry Uzi.

During their prime, their farm numbers practically led the opposing players by a generational gap.

Why?

Because when their fundamental mechanics were powerful enough, they never let go of any visible resource.

To give an example:

Even right before an elemental dragon teamfight, whenever Uzi walked past the Raptors camp, he would habitually clear five of the six small birds with a skill. Never forgetting to farm while traveling, this style of resource accumulation had one major advantage—it allowed them to hit their item spikes faster than the enemy carry.

And the downside?

It was a great way to end up in your own jungler's little black book and get bludgeoned over the head in the middle of the night.

TheShy was clearly that kind of player as well.

"Lesson learned."

"Turns out you can farm like that too."

Luo Ji nodded thoughtfully, then turned his gaze toward his own jungler. Compared to WBG, the V5 team he belonged to seemed even more suited for this kind of parasitic playstyle, seeing as Karsa had spent the past few years doing precisely this.

Gromp belongs to the top laner, Raptors belong to the mid laner, Krugs belong to the AD carry, and the only things that belong to you are the enemy's Wolves and their jungle camps.

Mm!

He should definitely give it a try in the future.

In this match, both teams played out the mid-game almost like a turn-based strategy game.

Whenever Corki had a Package, the entire V5 roster pulled back in defense.

Whenever Corki lacked a Package, the entire V5 roster pressed forward in aggression.

Both Heralds were practically surrendered directly to WBG.

Huanfeng's Caitlyn had grown very fat.

The Caitlyn composition inherently relied heavily on tower plating to accelerate its item curve. With the Herald practically feeding him all the tower gold, the trade-off was that Karsa comfortably swept up the first two elemental dragons.

In fact, the third dragon and the second Herald spawned simultaneously.

Operating under the philosophy of resource trading, WBG intended to concede this third dragon as well, since V5 had zero intention of taking a teamfight with them. If WBG marched toward the dragon with a Package, V5 would relocate the entire team to secure the Herald.

However...

In a blind spot completely hidden from WBG's vision, right inside their own jungle—

At this very moment, an extremely shady, rat-like old fox was quietly waiting for his very own—"yuan"-carrying target to walk right into his trap.