Chapter 23: Let me tell you a joke—Graves diving the tower.

A few days ago.
The match against RNG followed shortly after.
For Luo Ji and his crew, they had already grown accustomed to this intense schedule. Since their days were a monotonous cycle of training and Ranked matches anyway, the arrival of match days actually felt a bit refreshing to them.
After all, match days meant they could go outside.

"We're playing the Spring Tiger Emperor today, Karsa. My memory's a bit fuzzy—in the 'Three Saints and One Emperor' matchup, wasn't Song Saint always able to keep Tiger Emperor firmly suppressed?"
"Of course he is. Do you still doubt your Chicken's strength?"
Karsa gave a thumbs-up gesture, their conspiring so loud that Rookie, sitting nearby, could hear every word clearly, leaving him amused.

"Instead of worrying about me, you should think about how you're going to handle the top lane. That's Bin."
"What's to be afraid of? In this current meta, what else can he pick besides Graves? He plays Tryndamere even less than his dad does, and as for Gnar, he knows I've got Irelia in my back pocket. Unless all three of those get banned, it has to be Jax."
"Seems about right."
If he picked Graves, the top lane would just be a pure farming match, with no real fighting to speak of.

From far away, they saw RNG's medium-sized bus pulling up. They could catch a glimpse of RNG's condition, though they didn't go over to say hello.
Truth be told, Luo Ji was still a bit wary of Xiaohu.
Word had it that whenever Xiaohu saw someone, he liked to pat their rear end, exuding pure Chengdu energy from the inside out. Luo Ji simply couldn't accept that kind of personality.
Besides, a man had to protect himself when he was out and about.
If you knew there was a tiger on the mountain, the logical move was simply not to go to that mountain.

While they were gazing at the RNG group from afar, RNG was also looking over toward V5. The moment he laid eyes on Luo Ji, Xiaohu's eyes lit up sharply:
"That kid in their top lane is actually quite handsome."
"Indeed. There really aren't many handsome top laners in the LPL; they're mostly all concentrated in the AD position."
"I now officially recognize him as the number one (most handsome) top laner in the LPL."
"Wait, are none of you going to consider my feelings? I'm a top laner too!"
Bin blurted out instinctively.
The moment he spoke, he noticed his surrounding teammates giving him a strange, head-to-toe inspection. They shook their heads with unmistakable disdain and then turned their gazes right back toward V5.
Bin: ?
Bin: Heyyy, seriously?!

[The Sword Comes!]
[Incheon boys, assemble!]
[It's time once again for my favorite V5 match day! What kind of comedy show is Mobius going to treat me to today?]
[To be fair, this year's LPL is practically gathering of all the stars.]
[True. Rookie brought V5 back to life, TheShy activated WB, Doinb reinforced LNG, SwordArt completed BLG's galactic battleship, while JackeyLove and Karsa probably combined to form the Phoenix-Braised-Rice-Mixture bond that stuffed the fans full. Everyone has a bright future.]

Following V5's unbroken streak of victories, the club now possessed a fiercely loyal fanbase of its own.
There was no helping it; the team simply had too many running jokes.
The top laner was "Ultraman Mobius," the jungler was "TES48 Distinguished Graduate," the mid laner was "League of Legends: I Am Ye Xiu," the AD was "Reborn Xiao Yan: Do Not Bully the Youth in Poverty," and the support was "League of Legends: Famous on Foreign Internet Because of My ID."
Did you think that was the end of it?
Even the owner was "The Prodigal Son of a Wealthy Family: Taking Back Everything After the Old Man Leaves."
It was practically an anthology of wish-fulfillment web novels.

Taking a look at today's pre-match interview—oh ho, it was still Suki. That meant they could also catch a glimpse of Lord Chicken's eruption today, treating themselves to a married-couple interview package~

In the lounge, the coaches and analysts had once again gathered around Xiao Yan.
The current RNG team wasn't simple to defeat, but neither was it impossible. The primary prerequisite was that Rookie had to suppress Xiaohu, severing the mid-jungle connection between Xiaohu and Wei.
Building on that foundation, Karsa would be focusing more of his attention on the mid lane this game.
After all, Wei's nickname as the "Wei-future Guardian of the Tiger" wasn't given for nothing; the enemy jungler would undoubtedly pull out all the stops to help Xiaohu create an advantage.
Secondly, amidst the friction in the mid lane, it came down to whether the side lanes could exert their respective impacts.

"I'll take Zeri."
Xiao Yan spoke up proactively in the lounge.
In the current patch, Zeri's on-hit build—namely the previous Trinity Force, Titanic Hydra, and Runaan's Hurricane setup—had received a nerf, but in exchange, Zeri's heavy-damage crit builds had been buffed.
Clearly, the designers wanted Zeri to return to a standard itemization path, stripping away the excessive safety net of the previous on-hit builds.
Nofe and Zero nodded in agreement, then turned their gaze toward Luo Ji.
If the bot lane drafted a champion like Zeri who lacked early-game damage, the top lane had to shoulder the responsibility of early damage output; otherwise, relying solely on the mid laner's damage wouldn't quite be enough.

Luo Ji thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll play Irelia, and let him have Graves."
Although the Turbo Chemtank build had been nerfed, Blade of the Ruined King's stats remained untouched. Irelia still had room to shine, and she was very strong.
Having established the mid-jungle foundation and the hero choices for both side lanes, V5's draft became straightforward.
After some simple targeted bans, the final lineups were locked in:
V5: Irelia (Top), Hecarim (Jungle), Orianna (Mid), Zeri + Nautilus (Bot)
RNG: Graves (Top), Jarvan IV (Jungle), Corki (Mid), Jinx + Leona (Bot)

A quick note here:
In patch 12.4, due to Turbo Chemtank's dominance, Phase Rush Hecarim made a powerful comeback. Furthermore, despite Death's Dance receiving a rework that increased its total cost by 200 gold, Death's Dance wasn't nerfed—it was actually buffed.
It changed from purely storing physical damage to storing both magic and physical damage.
The only change was the healing mechanic: instead of granting healing on every assist, it was changed to grant healing if a target you damaged died within 3 seconds. That was practically tailor-made for Hecarim, the ultimate teamfight disruption engine.
Thanks to this adjustment, Hecarim directly re-ascended to the T0 jungle tier on the professional stage.

At the start of the game, after barely helping to guard the positioning for a brief moment, Luo Ji rushed without a moment's hesitation toward the top lane to fight for the bush control. In his own words, once he survived the weak phase, he could play for the team, but while he was actually *in* the weak phase, he had to be as selfish as he needed to be.
Unfortunately, this game he ran into someone even more selfish.
Before he even stepped into the brush, two shotgun blasts from inside the grass were fired point-blank right into Luo Ji's face.

"What the hell, an ambush?!"
Without a shred of hesitation, Luo Ji began retreating toward his tower without even returning fire.
Bin stared in disbelief at the Irelia's decisive retreat. A normal person, even if ambushed in a bush, wouldn't they at least trade autos with him for a second to see if they could win before running or chasing?
What was this business of instantly turning around?

The top brush was very close to the top outer turret, and after Bin chased and landed one more auto-attack, he could only watch helplessly as the Irelia safely reached the tower and began recalling.
Taking advantage of the early timing, his recall and return to lane would even time out perfectly with the arrival of the first minion wave, meaning he wouldn't lose too much.

[Mobius, your safety-first playstyle genuinely disgusts me.]
[Bin's mind is blown. Is this really an 18-year-old rookie LPL player? Why is he such a massive coward?]
[Elevating safety into an extreme playstyle—it's like an old lady crawling under the covers, absolutely cracking me up.]
[Say what you want, just tell me if this resolution wasn't absolute perfection.]

Needless to say, Luo Ji knew there were definitely hordes of people outside mocking him right now.
But it didn't matter.
His playstyle was never about striking first; it was about reacting second. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't studied the art of "riding the coattails" in Summoner's Rift.
Getting caught with your pants down by an opponent might cost you your life.
But if you got caught by your teammates, your parents would end up suffering along with you.
Though in this lifetime, he legally had no family members...
Well... there were plenty of them in his streaming chat room, and quite a crowd at that.

"What happened?"
"Ambushed by the enemy. They probably studied our matches and knew I like to contest the bush early. I was careless, didn't have Flash."
Luckily, there was still time.
Returning to the lane, Luo Ji had already whipped himself into peak mental focus. Since they had researched his habits, they naturally would have researched his playstyle as well.
He hadn't guessed wrong.
Bin looked expressionless on the surface, but he was actually just waiting for the enemy minions to drop low so Irelia would Q in. The moment she did, she was guaranteed to eat his E-A combo.

However...
Luo Ji didn't move.
He merely watched the death of the minions from afar, his eyes holding three parts cold indifference, three parts mockery, and four parts casual apathy.
Was it that he didn't want to take the farm?
No.
It was that he *didn't dare* take the farm.
Even though his starting item was a Cloth Armor and Health Potions, Graves could genuinely bully Irelia in the early game. He wasn't in a rush; taking a few free auto-attacks from Graves just for a few dozen gold wasn't a profitable trade.

Seeing that Irelia had no intention of approaching, Bin frowned, slightly relaxing his control over the minion health bars and stopping the wave manipulation.
Seizing this opportunity...
The next second, just as two remaining melee minions dropped low simultaneously:
W - Defiant Dance!
Utilizing the maximum range of his W, he secured both minions at the same time.
CS + 2.
Perfection!

Down below, Nofe and Zero looked toward GimGoon in sheer disbelief. In their impression, while Luo Ji was safe, his performance had never been this exaggeratedly passive.
Therefore, the issue must definitely originate from GimGoon.
"Why are you looking at me? Watch the game, he's fine." Feeling the gazes converging on him from all directions, GimGoon, who had long been away from the stage, felt a bit unaccustomed to it, but he completely understood their astonishment.
A few days of time couldn't fundamentally transform a person's entire nature.
However, tightening discipline...
Could make someone's performance improve instantly and visibly.
An overly cautious early-game playstyle wasn't admitting defeat; it was intentionally preserving one's health pool. A half-health Irelia couldn't withstand the burst damage of Graves and Jarvan IV, but a three-quarters-health Irelia? The enemy wouldn't dare harbor any thoughts even if you gave them ten sets of guts.
After all, tower-diving a Graves carried a certain degree of risk... wait.

"No, there's no opening in the top lane."
Wei glanced at the top lane with a dark expression. They had studied Luo Ji's matches, originally intending to use Bin's laning prowess to bleed out the enemy's health bar and then coordinate a direct tower dive.
Yet right now, the enemy was giving up minions entirely.
That meant he had to alter his jungle pathing, throwing his early jungle planning completely into disarray.
And that wasn't even the worst of it.

Down in the bot lane...
PPGOD, who had been waiting for the jungler's arrival, initiated straight from the brush with a Q skill, locking down the enemy support Leona tightly and triggering his passive auto-attack stun.
In the jungle...
Hecarim came galloping in, riding the movement speed buff of his E.
Seeing this, Ming no longer dared to hold onto his Flash, burning it instantly with a "whoosh."
Seeing his old teammate play it so safe, Karsa glanced back at his position, gave his own backside a pat, made a sharp turn, and charged right back into RNG's jungle.
Before, he wouldn't have dared to step in.
But now that Leona had no Flash while their own support still had Flash, there was nothing to fear.
Having Flash while the enemy had none implied lane priority; lane priority implied support roaming; support roaming implied jungle backup; and jungle backup implied that this jungle was his territory.
Invasion—so satisfying!

"We've been played."
In the RNG lounge, Tabe stared at the screen with a grave expression.
This was V5 deliberately opting for a jungle-side swap against them, sacrificing the top-side jungle as the price to seize control of the bottom-side jungle.
This strategy allowed V5 to securely and safely control the first elemental dragon.
The price?
The top lane was practically reduced to an isolated island, with no one able to go up and help Luo Ji.

And therein lay the problem: against any other top-lane champion, this scenario would prompt the top and jungle to mindlessly dive the tower.
Yet Bin was playing Graves.
To tell a joke: tower-diving as Graves.
In other video games, you could rely on rolling invincibility frames and untargetability to dodge all enemy bullets; but in League of Legends, you could simply "walk around the pillar" to make yourself untargetable to Graves's auto-attacks, thereby dodging every single one of his bullets.
As long as Luo Ji kept controlling Irelia to maintain her health bar like this, the enemy could only watch with wide eyes while he absorbed experience and farmed.
As for the minor deficit in minion gold?
To be reasonable.
How much was that, really? He would make it up by pushing a couple of towers mid-game.
Top lane was simply a position where:
In your youth you despised passive players, when you entered the industry you didn't understand them, when you played Ranked you grew curious, after dropping rank you understood them, after achieving enlightenment you obsessed over them, and reborn, you became one of them!
Could they suppress him for a few minutes, or could they suppress him for dozens of minutes?

"Are you sure top lane doesn't need help?"
"No need, look at how healthy my health bar is."
Listening to Karsa's concern, Luo Ji pointedly tapped his own health bar: 87% health, leaving his teammates utterly dumbfounded.
However, glancing back at the CS score:
26 to 12, and another minion wave was about to crash under the tower.
Fine.
You're a beast.
Seeing this, Karsa stopped worrying.
Anyway, once the bot lane jungle camps were cleared and the dragon secured, he would definitely head up top soon enough. By then, the enemy jungler should be heading down.
As long as Irelia didn't die, there would be plenty of opportunities to tutor Graves later.

"No good, we can't drag it out like this."
Coach Wei looked at the state of the Rift with a flushed face. As the man who spiritually inherited RNG's "red-face" passive, even with Irelia's healthy HP bar, he still wanted to give it a try.
"Then let's try it."
Bin wasn't someone given to hesitation.
They'd try it once together; if it didn't work they'd back off, and if it worked they'd come out ahead.
Having agreed, Wei wasted no time operating Jarvan IV to head upward. Just as the minion wave was about to crash into the tower, Jarvan cut off Luo Ji's retreat from behind.

"I'll go first!"
As the minions began taking tower aggro, Bin directly operated Graves into the red side's defensive tower range, closing in face-to-face on Irelia's position.
Immediately following, he initiated with W - Smoke Screen.
He was baiting.
Normally, the very first thing an Irelia player would do upon losing vision was wonder if the Jarvan would EQ in the next second, and they would likely panic and press W. As long as Irelia wasted her W, they would have a massive probability of securing the kill.
It was a game of unseen psychological warfare.
Yet...
She didn't use it!
Jarvan hesitated on the timing of his engage, and Irelia showed no reaction whatsoever. Just as Irelia was about to walk out of the smoke screen, Wei finally executed Jarvan's control skill.
EQ Combo!
An execution of the Jarvan double-knockup that was fast to the absolute limit!
As a signature Jarvan player dating back to his ES days, he once again displayed his terrifying champion mastery at this moment.

However...
Right at the split second before he was about to launch Irelia into the air—
Literally on the very last frame before walking out of the smoke screen—Irelia's W skill, Defiant Dance, was successfully charged and cast.
Wei's pupils dilated instantly!
Despite having lost vision entirely while trapped inside the smoke screen, she had still predicted the danger and cast her W skill in advance.
Could it be that what you've inherited is...
The legendary stainless steel basin—the Asura God's Path?!