Chapter 24: Grandma always said, leave no survivors!

"Ridiculous, trying to ambush me."

"When I was a veteran player in various FPS games, you guys didn't even exist."

"Say goodbye to this world!"

In the V5 team voice chat, as Luo Ji's words fell.

On the screen.

Irelia, having activated W and been knocked up by Jarvan IV's EQ combo, wasted no time upon landing and unleashed her Q skill, [Bladesurge].

Her target pointed straight at the minion wave under the tower!

That's right.

She did not target Jarvan IV or Graves; from the very beginning, her goal was extremely pure.

Graves had lost his health advantage from tanking the tower, and after switching aggro, Jarvan IV's health wasn't looking too good either.

On the contrary.

Having reduced most of the damage with her W skill, she could rely on crazily Q-ing minions for healing to bring her health bar safely back to her ideal threshold.

Killing them in return was out of the question.

However, this crucial W skill absorption completely shattered the opponent's attempt at a top-jungle coordinated dive.

She could even use this health advantage to push the top lane minion wave back out.

[Ah???]

[Are they out of their minds? Jarvan plus Graves diving Irelia under her tower?]

[Actually there was a chance, this wave even had Graves tanking first, but his smoke screen didn't bait out Irelia's W. Mebius held onto his W way too tightly.]

[It's like he's map hacking, how did he predict the enemy Jarvan's delayed EQ?]

[Don't ask, asking means the blade cuts the flesh, the heart cuts the soul.]

The failed dive meant Bin could no longer suppress Irelia's farm.

He was the first to tank the tower, and by the time he walked out from under it, his health was already critically low, leaving him no choice but to find a corner to recall.

Not to mention Jarvan IV.

The top lane wave basically didn't need much management; the wave had pushed under the tower before they dived, so even if the dive failed, the minion wave was large enough for Irelia to clear for a while.

He could just leave.

Except—

"Why?"

"How did he know I would use my EQ second?"

"Even with divine enlightenment, this Ginpao has only been at the V5 club for a few days, how could he absorb all of that so quickly?"

Wei was completely baffled.

However.

Since he accomplished nothing top lane, it meant his turn in this cycle was over. According to the Yu-Gi-Oh rules of Summoner's Rift,

Next up, it was Karsa's turn.

"Awesome."

Over at V5, Karsa gave him a sharp thumbs-up.

Having come from TES, he couldn't be more satisfied with his current top laner.

The former 369 couldn't quite figure out Gnar or Gragas, and still frequently required him to protect the top lane.

Unlike now.

You could leave the top lane unattended and he would guarantee farm without feeding; give him a tiny bit of help, and he would snowball and make his presence felt.

Taking advantage of Jarvan's gank top just now.

Although Karsa didn't find any glaring flaws suitable for ganking the enemy, he successfully penetrated the enemy jungle and secretly stole a camp.

At least for this game.

He would reach level six much faster than the enemy Jarvan.

After clearing the wave and recalling,

without the slightest hesitation, he directly purchased a Vampiric Scepter.

Don't let the fact that this item isn't a tank item fool you; for Irelia, its cost-effectiveness is no worse than any tank item. Basic attacking minions heals her, and Q execution heals her.

Graves bought a Caulfield's Warhammer on his very first recall, relying solely on a health potion to heal, and once it was gone, it was gone.

Unlike her, she had sustained healing through two distinct channels.

In Luo Ji's words:

At this timing point, he beat the enemy Graves twice over!

With the Vampiric Scepter, and crucially now that his levels had caught up, Bin had to start respecting his presence.

As long as the minion wave was large enough and she hit her E, solo killing Irelia wasn't out of the question.

As time went on.

At the timing when both top, mid, and jungle were approaching level six, perhaps realizing the current situation posed a massive threat to their bot lane, Ming decisively chose to abandon the bot lane to roam.

On one hand, roaming allowed him to secure wider vision control.

On the other hand.

Gala was already accustomed to being left alone in the bot lane to soak up experience and farm, which helped him reach level six faster to prepare for the eight-minute Rift Herald fight.

That's right.

The server patch combined updates 12.3 and 12.4.

Corki's Package timing was changed from 8 minutes to 10 minutes, and subsequent intervals changed from 4 minutes to 5 minutes.

This caused Corki, previously strong in Herald fights, to suddenly fall into an awkward position.

Fortunately, his numerical stats were still there.

This champion managed to remain on the professional stage, but with the mid lane output gone, the bot lane's output naturally had to make up for it.

Yet Ming didn't dare wander too far.

After all, the ADC was Jinx; if it were a Kaisa or someone similar, he would have already shown up top by now.

In the bot lane, Ming incarnated as a compassionate guardian angel to escort the ADC.

In the jungle,

Wei pondered for a moment and chose to do the exact opposite. Instead of going bot, he continued to lurk in the upper half of the map, intending to cause trouble for Irelia once more.

From his perspective, he had no other choice.

Hecarim had his ultimate, the enemy bot lane support Nautilus had crowd control, and mid laner Xiaohu was being suppressed by Rookie and lacked lane priority—who on earth dared to walk down to the lower half of the map?

Even if he wasn't thinking about protecting the ADC, the moment he showed his face and got spotted by the enemy, he'd probably get a barrage of combo skills thrown at him, right?

Aha!

The upper half of the map was different.

There was only an Irelia up here. At best, Rookie might trigger his grass-eating-and-milking buff to rotate and support, but that wouldn't work either.

The moment he caught an opportunity!

As long as they weren't under the tower, couldn't he and Graves easily bully the enemy top laner?

Even if they couldn't kill him,

burning his ultimate or even his Flash would make the upcoming Herald fight much easier.

That was what Wei thought.

What he didn't realize, however, was that at this very moment, Karsa and Rookie held the exact same thought.

At how many completed items does a critical-strike Zeri peak?

Three items!

At how many completed items does Luo Ji's Irelia peak?

Two items!

They desperately needed Luo Ji to step up and carry the early-game combat power.

Thus.

Karsa had been lingering in the upper half of the map early on, similarly waiting for the enemy Bin's Graves to show his flaws.

Gradually, though,

Karsa began to sense something amiss.

"Wait a minute, his positioning—why does it look so much like he's baiting you into attacking him?"

As the saying goes, those involved are blinded, while onlookers see clearly.

After watching the top lane matchup for a brief moment, Karsa immediately pinpointed the strange anomaly.

Prompted by this remark,

Luo Ji paused for a second, followed this train of thought, and indeed discovered the problem.

The minion wave!

Anyone playing against Irelia knew to constantly monitor the health of the minion wave.

It wasn't that Bin didn't distance himself when the minions reached execution threshold, but rather that every time he backed away, he happened to position himself at the exact edge of a distance that made it look like he could be engaged upon.

After all,

Irelia's basic attack range is longer than that of ordinary melee champions.

Luo Ji understood this.

He believed the enemy top laner understood it too. Since both understood, they could follow the vine to find the melon and figure out what was going on.

"I understand."

"You understand?"

"That's right, you're a person who understands. I understand what you mean by understanding, and I'm also a person who understands. A person who understands should understand that I understand what you mean by understanding, as long as everyone is a person who understands what other people who understand understand, then the internet environment will be full of people who understand what other people who understand understand."

"As full of nonsense as that garbage talk is, it's still weird on the enemy's side—you've said so much bullcrap, why haven't they come up to engage on you yet?"

The moment his voice faded.

Over there,

the RNG top-jungle duo, who had been waiting endlessly for Irelia to initiate on them, simply felt that Luo Ji had become too overly cautious.

In that case!

The very instant Luo Ji stepped up near the tower to secure a minion and Q'd out,

from the top lane bush,

Wei's Jarvan IV once again erupted with his EQ combo!

"Demacia!"

Almost simultaneously, Bin counter-attacked by tossing out his W skill, [Smoke Screen].

Last time you used your W to time the enemy Jarvan's delayed EQ, I'll let you pass.

This time,

both of us starting at zero frames, there's no way in hell you can react in time!

Well.

Luo Ji indeed did not activate W.

It wasn't that he couldn't react, but rather that he deliberately ate the enemy's combo.

If he had activated W, the enemy might not have committed to the dive, making it impossible for him to bait them. But once he pretended not to react, he would emerge from the smoke screen with low health.

And low health tends to make people excited.

Young people have two states they cannot control: one is being horny (the lower head controlling the upper head), and the other is being excited (the upper head malfunctioning).

Without a doubt, the enemy took the bait.

When Luo Ji finally broke free from Jarvan's crowd control, stepped out of the smoke screen range, and retreated under the tower,

sure enough.

Graves and Jarvan rushed into the defense tower range almost simultaneously.

As the saying goes:

Play it safe and you get reckless; tower diving is the true counter.

This wave,

they had waited far too long.

However,

just as Bin was pondering the exact millisecond to bait out the opponent's W before fiercely unleashing his own combo,

from the side,

the long-ambushing Hecarim finally triggered his ultimate and came galloping out.

R - [Onslaught of Shadows]!

It might not have dealt an astronomical amount of damage, but the terror of the ultimate's fear effect played a crucial role the exact moment the RNG top-jungle duo initiated the dive.

The Fear debuff—

aside from cleanses and QSS, nothing could remove it. It was a god-tier debuff second only to knock-ups, sitting at the exact same table as suppression.

Seeing the enemy top and jungle instinctively retreating, Luo Ji's eyes brightened, and he successfully launched his E skill, [Flawless Duet].

This time,

under the state of fear,

no one could use movement or mobility skills to dodge his E crowd control, unless he completely missed throwing the E himself.

The blade light connected.

Stun generated!

"Grandmother always said, leave no survivors!"

R - [Vanguard's Edge]

Tossed point-blank at Jarvan. The moment it hit Jarvan, the expanding ultimate cage perfectly enveloped the minion wave just entering the tower range.

Q - [Bladesurge]

Instead of immediately using the Q skill to activate the passive on the champions, he dashed straight through the crowd of minions caught in the ultimate's boundary.

Through four consecutive Q skill dashes, Irelia's passive stacks were successfully maxed out, and her health bar recovered a decent amount from the minion executions.

Afterward,

she refreshed her skill and Q'd back in.

The tower damage, Hecarim's damage, plus Irelia's E and ultimate combined—when Luo Ji once again commanded Irelia to lunge back,

before his eyes, Wei's Jarvan IV was left with merely a sliver of health.

V5丶Mebius killed RNG丶Wei!

Crap!

Bin's expression darkened, and he hurriedly retreated outside the blue side defense tower's attack range, attempting to escape.

But Luo Ji wasn't about to give him that opportunity.

He Q'd another minion to chase him down.

His confidence didn't stem from anything else.

It came from the massive Hecarim standing right behind him.

Granted,

GimGoon's most famous classic quote was: "A true man's 1v1 battle, what are you doing coming top lane!"

However...

if you actually watched his streams, you would find that he later added a supplementary line during broadcasts: "Who's doing a 1v1 battle with you? Of course you rely on your teammates!"

While auto-attacking in pursuit, Luo Ji kept calculating the health bar above.

Sensing potential danger approaching,

Q - [Bladesurge]

He dashed back toward the minion wave once more. After this dash, the positioning of the three of them had transformed into:

Blue Side Defense Tower - Irelia - Hecarim - Graves.

Moreover, the low-health Luo Ji didn't leave; he simply hung back at a distance behind Graves, holding onto his Q and W skills, projecting the exact aura that once Karsa whittled Bin down, he would Q in to secure the kill.

Bin stubbornly held onto his skills.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the opponent to impulsively Q him or make a spacing mistake during the kite, at which point he would decisively turn around and counter-attack, trading himself for Irelia.

Yet...

One second passed, and he still had half his health.

Two seconds passed, and his health was already critical.

Three seconds passed, and Irelia still showed no desire to go in, just lingering closely at that safe-yet-close distance.

Teasing him ruthlessly without committing.

Even after Graves dropped to single-digit health, Irelia deliberately flashed an emote at him.

Bin: ?

Bin: I'm going to kick your ass!

Finally losing his composure, Bin directly operated Graves to turn around with an EQ Flash.

However...

W - [Defiant Dance]

A crucial W skill caused Graves's turnaround burst to hit absolutely nothing.

Luo Ji wasn't in a hurry either, holding down the W skill to channel it fully, until the skill ended on its own before casually unleashing a final Q skill, courtesy of Karsa's restraint.

V5丶Mebius killed RNG丶Bin!

Double Kill!

Bin.

His mental state completely shattered.

[666666]

[Wait, bro, how do you manage to turn such a domineering champion into something that feels so rat-like and sneaky?]

[So cheap, deliberately baiting Bin into turning around to fight back.]

[Old Gun's champion pool + slickness, combined with Gong-zi's discipline and teamfight processing, I don't even dare to imagine how cursed this Mebius will be in the future.]

[I guessed it, V5's top laner watched Ultraman Tiga when he was a kid; after the light was lent away, nothing was left in his heart but darkness.]

The stream chat exploded.

You could talk about V5 drafting help all you want, but the problem was RNG did it too, and RNG was quite literally the only team in existence that had no right to accuse others of calling for jungle help.

After all,

when Xiaohu transitioned to the top lane last year (S11), the four-protect-one setup left a deep impression on countless people.

Outside the livestream.

Coaches and analysts from numerous teams had completely shifted their analytical framework regarding V5.

"From now on, when playing V5, ignore their top lane."

"Right! And in the draft, just focus on bullying their bot lane. We can't handle an alien from the M78 Nebula, but can't we crush a transmigrator from the Battle Through the Heavens universe?"

"Good idea, so should we study Xiao Yan first, or PPGOD first?"

"Let's study both together; anything is better than studying that freak in their top lane."

They finally learned.

They genuinely learned.

From the spring split until now, not a single team that targeted V5's top lane succeeded; on the contrary, the teams that targeted V5's bot lane actually managed to snatch a game or two off V5.

If they had known earlier, they wouldn't have wasted all that effort and just violently targeted the bot lane instead.

In the V5 player booth,

Xiao Yan and PPGOD suddenly shivered in unison.

They looked at each other with some confusion. Strange, why did it suddenly feel like someone was plotting against them?

Was it just their imagination?