Chapter 66: Supermodel Durability! A Four-Protect-One Perfect Counter against WE!

Galio's damage reduction, Shen's shield, along with the buffing skills from the Janna by his side...
Varus was forcefully kept alive.
Incredible expressions appeared in the eyes of the WE players.
The next moment, they made a decisive choice without hesitation.
"Fall back!"
957 decisively canceled his Teleport, and MyStiC also maneuvered Ashe back toward the safety of the defense tower.
However, while Ashe could escape, Elise and Braum were caught deep in enemy territory and surrounded by the members of EDG.
After landing his ultimate, Chen Yan silently calculated the damage. Seeing that Braum was down to low health, he used a Winds of War to claim Braum's head.
The other kill was awarded to Zet's Varus.
"WE is taking a massive loss from this play!"
Seeing WE fail to steal the chicken and instead lose their rice in the process, Wawa was completely dumbfounded.
WE initiated the attack, yet it resulted in a zero-for-two trade?
"Varus staying alive is just too crucial," Miller couldn't help but say, "It was by such a narrow margin..."
EDG's capability to protect their carry was demonstrated to the absolute limit during this passive defense.
WE could only try to trade objectives elsewhere to minimize their losses.
"We can't gank Varus anymore!"
Xiye said, "The enemy has two global-support champions; their rotational presence is way faster than ours."
Aside from the "four-protect-one" composition, EDG's lineup also incorporated the once immensely popular global-presence strategy.
For WE to have reached this stage, their ability to adapt on the fly was extraordinary.
Realizing that Varus was difficult to target, the WE members quickly discussed and shifted their strategy.
There are two ways to deal with a global-presence composition.
First, bait out their abilities, wait for the cooldowns of the champions who can fly across the map, and then look for an opening.
Second, directly target the one who does the flying; after all, support skills can protect others, but they cannot protect oneself.
"Let's just take down this Galio first."
Xiye's gaze landed on Galio, a cold glint flashing through his eyes.
...
Chen Yan was unaware that he had become WE's primary target.
Even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.
Gank him? They were probably underestimating Galio's tankiness.
After securing a kill, Chen Yan's item progression was slightly ahead of the normal curve.
Mercury's Treads + Aegis of the Legion + Double Doran's Rings.
With this build, he had nothing to fear when facing LeBlanc.
LeBlanc's abilities posed no real threat to him; instead, LeBlanc had to carefully dodge his skills, or else she would come out on the losing end of any trade.
Realizing this, Xiye's expression turned somewhat grim.
In the past, he was always the one making others miserable with Galio, but today was the first time he found this champion to be so annoying.

However, Xiye possessed immense composure.
After discovering that Galio's tankiness was abnormal, he called 957's Fizz over to the mid lane.
"Three people ganking mid?"
From the spectator perspective, Wawa and Miller saw the situation crystal clear.
Yet, neither of them favored WE's offensive play here.
"Is the damage enough? Galio's tankiness is extremely high right now."
Right as the words fell, LeBlanc initiated the attack, using W (Distortion) for mobility, followed by casting her E to bind Galio with Ethereal Chains.
Galio was shackled.
Chen Yan didn't panic in the slightest, using his E to create distance back toward the defense tower.
To Chen Yan's surprise, however, LeBlanc flashed proactively, intentionally intercepting Galio's dash with her own body.
This demonstrated just how thoroughly Xiye understood Galio.
During the execution of the assault, he had already factored in all of Chen Yan's possible responses.
The second trigger of the chain activated, rooting Galio in place.
Simultaneously, LeBlanc used her ultimate to replicate the chain, binding Galio with a second tether.
"Oh? You know what, there actually might be a real chance here."
Seeing this, Wawa and Miller grew uncertain.
Although Galio's health bar hadn't dropped significantly yet, Fizz and Elise hadn't dealt their damage output yet, and they weren't certain whether Galio could withstand the concentrated fire of all three WE members.
"Shark!"
At that exact moment, Fizz's ultimate landed squarely on Galio without suspense.
Elise also appeared in Galio's vicinity.
Everyone's attention focused on the mid lane—to be precise, focused entirely on Galio.
Can he survive this?
At that moment, the Galio on the screen began to channel.
Rings of ripples spread outward from around Galio's body.
Durand's Shield!
Aside from serving as a crowd-control tool, Durand's Shield was also a terrifying damage-reduction ability.
During the channel, both physical and magical damage dealt to him were reduced by a percentage.
Especially for magical damage, the reduction percentage was double that of physical damage.
At rank one, the magic damage reduction was already a staggering 25%. Combined with additional scaling from health, magic resistance, and ability power, the actual damage reduction was at least 30%.
Galio already possessed his passive magic shield, and on top of that, he was absorbing a 30% magic damage reduction.
The moment the giant shark bit down, a shocking scene unfolded.
Galio's health bar barely moved at all.
Even after absorbing the Fizz ultimate, followed by all the abilities from Elise and LeBlanc, Galio was still hopping around full of life.
"What the f*ck! This tankiness is ridiculously insane."
"Three people tickling him—did you guys not eat lunch?"
"@LeagueOfDesigners, take a look at the monster you designed."
"Needs a nerf."
"Irelia: Don't ping me."
The chat screen went wild.
The top, mid, and jungle trio of WE were also beginning to doubt reality.
957 refused to accept this and tried to continue sticking to Galio, but once Galio stepped under the tower, Fizz—who was built as a tank—could no longer sustain the tower's damage and was ultimately forced to back off.
"How can this thing possibly be this tanky?"
957 pressed Tab a few times, gazing at Galio's item panel in deep contemplation.
Clearly, Galio's farm and items were completely standard, nothing overly overpowered.
Yet this champion, with roughly the same item progression as them, ate their full burst of damage and acted like it was nothing. Was that even reasonable?
Any other champion would have been dead beyond a doubt.
"Sigh, forget it, just leave him alone."
Xiye sighed. Actually, he had a premonition of this outcome.
This play was merely an attempt.
After all, Galio presented the most obvious opening, as the other two lanes were even harder to gank.
But looking at it now, Galio had likely exposed that opening intentionally to bait them into making a move.
...
Following this skirmish, the atmosphere within the WE team had turned somewhat sour.
Galio's tankiness was truly despair-inducing.
Even more despair-inducing, however, was what came next. As time passed, WE still failed to find a particularly good breakthrough point.
WE had no choice but to forcefully look for opportunities.
As a result, Chen Yan's Galio truly felt like a deity descending from the heavens.
Wherever WE attempted a play, Galio would appear.
Every single offensive move by WE was completely neutralized by Galio.
"Why is Galio everywhere?!" Wawa couldn't help but complain.
Miller looked at the Galio on screen and joked, "Everyone says EDG is playing 'four-protect-one', but from my perspective, it's clearly 'one-protect-four'."
Wawa couldn't help but laugh and nod, "Makes total sense."
Because of Galio's existence, WE's gank success rate remained at zero.
What disgusted WE even more, however, was an item Galio had purchased.
The appearance of this item completely stripped the WE members of any remaining will to fight back.
And the name of that item was—Banner of Command!