Chapter 67: Banner of Command! Team WE Collapses, Series Tied!

If EDG’s defense resembled a sturdy fortress, the appearance of the Banner of Command was akin to a heavy artillery piece mounted atop those walls, injecting an extra dose of aggression into EDG’s gameplay.

When Galio first built this item, everyone was momentarily taken aback.

"What item is this?"

Even the casters WaWa and Miller had to pause and think for a second before realization suddenly dawned upon them.

"Banner of Command!"

"This is a relatively niche item, and while quite a few teams have experimented with it, it's rare to see someone rush it as a first major item."

In this current season, the Banner of Command was far from popular.

It wasn't because the clubs were oblivious, but rather because the Banner of Command in this specific patch had a critical flaw: the promoted minion did not stack with the Baron Nashor buff.

The reason the Banner of Command became overwhelmingly dominant in Season 8 was due to a rework by League's developers that allowed promoted super-minions or cannon minions to stack simultaneously with the Baron buff.

Ultimately, this birthed a monstrously overpowered promoted cannon minion.

Just how overpowered was it?

A cannon minion promoted by the Banner of Command, further enhanced by the Baron buff, possessed an attack range that exceeded the range of defensive towers.

In that particular patch, the promoted cannon minion was dubbed the true "ADC," and everyone had to play around protecting it to push objectives.

Putting aside those details for now...

Although the Banner of Command was far from its peak state, Chen Yan did not need it to be. What he required was the item's other defining characteristic: magic immunity.

It was hard to imagine that such a terrifying attribute as magic immunity would manifest in this particular form.

As for this specific match, WE's composition—rife with AP damage dealers—was going to find themselves with a massive headache upon encountering a minion fortified by the Banner of Command.

After all, in this patch, Xiaohu had literally used the Banner of Command to humiliate Rookie.

When Galio completed the Banner of Command, Xiye didn't think much of it at first, but he quickly realized something was amiss.

Because of the magic immunity granted to the promoted cannon minion, LeBlanc's abilities dealt zero damage to it.

In other words, the only way to deal with the promoted cannon minion was through basic attacks.

LeBlanc already struggled to clear normal cannon minions with basic attacks, let alone a promoted one.

After expending a tremendous amount of effort to finally take down a single promoted cannon minion, beads of sweat had formed across Xiye's forehead.

Meanwhile, while LeBlanc was preoccupied with dealing with the promoted minion, Chen Yan was far from idle. Teaming up with the Jarvan IV, he roamed down to the bottom lane and successfully assisted in securing WE's tier-one bottom tower.

"Keep this rhythm going. Once my Banner of Command comes off cooldown, we'll push down the next tower."

Seeing the devastating effectiveness of the promoted minion, the corners of Chen Yan's mouth curved into a smile.

He could practically envision how much torment Xiye was currently enduring.

Back when this Banner of Command strategy was first discovered, even the teams in the LCK had been thoroughly tormented by it.

In fact, the item had even influenced the drafting phase to a certain extent.

Every mid-jungle duo was forced to draft at least one physical damage dealer specifically to deal with the Banner of Command.

Of course, WE had already locked in their entire draft, and the mere thought of WE's composition featuring four AP champions made Chen Yan want to laugh out loud.

"Heh heh heh, I just love playing with a bit of tactical flair."

...

The cooldown on the Banner of Command was currently three minutes, which was relatively long.

However, it didn't matter; EDG could afford to stall.

As soon as the Banner of Command came off cooldown, Chen Yan immediately deployed it in the middle lane.

And thus, LeBlanc's torment resumed.

"Come help me out here."

Because the minion took far too long to clear by himself, Xiye was forced to call Syndra—err, the Jungler—over.

When Condi arrived, he quickly discovered that he was equally powerless against the Banner of Command.

"What kind of bullsh*t item is this?!" Condi couldn't help but curse out loud.

However, Condi was resourceful; realizing that Smite still functioned on the minion, he immediately used it to chunk a massive chunk of health off the promoted cannon minion.

Even so, the remaining health pool of the fortified minion still drove the two of them absolutely crazy.

Seizing the opportunity, Chen Yan's Galio roamed to the top lane and demolished WE's tier-one top tower.

As for neutral objectives, WE was currently drowning in minion waves and completely lacked the bandwidth or energy to contest them.

EDG, naturally, would not let those neutral objectives go to waste.

Even though minor dragons weren't overwhelmingly powerful, something was better than nothing, and it would be foolish not to take them.

"You have to admit, this Banner of Command stuff is actually getting results."

Watching WE scramble around in absolute panic over the item, WaWa couldn't help but admire Chen Yan's creativity.

"I never would have thought of playing it like this..."

Miller felt the same way, the look in his eyes as he gazed at Chen Yan having completely transformed.

While Chen Yan's mechanical execution was undeniably dazzling, the LPL was hardly lacking in mechanically gifted players.

In contrast, Chen Yan's tactical creativity was far more exciting to him.

Weren't people always criticizing the LPL for blindly copying strategies from the LCK?

What had they to say now? Had the LCK ever pulled out a strat like the Banner of Command?

The viewers on the stream weren't overthinking it; they simply found the suffering of WE's mid-jungle duo thoroughly entertaining.

Especially whenever the camera put the spotlight on Xiye, the mask of pure agony on his face was intensely vivid.

"Xiye is laughing at me... Wait, actually, being unable to beat a cannon minion is tragic."

"Other people get to lane against opposing champions; Xiye gets to lane against a cannon minion."

"Hahaha, Dog-Chen took all those smurfing tactics and unleashed them all on Xiye."

"I wanna see Dog-Chen play Shaco and kill people with control wards."

The chat comments scrolled by in a relentless torrent.

Back in WE's backstage lounge, Homme wore a profound expression, his gaze locked fixedly on the Banner of Command.

"This strategy... I completely failed to anticipate it... How are we supposed to crack this?"

After pondering for a long time, Homme finally scratched his head in utter frustration.

"My draft... fell right into their trap yet again."

"Nofe, since when did you become this formidable?"

The mere thought of losing to Nofe left Homme feeling deeply resentful. He might not be the greatest coach out there, but he certainly considered himself superior to Nofe.

...

Bolstered by the Banner of Command, WE's three outer towers were quickly dismantled.

By this point, the overall gold difference between the two teams had widened significantly.

More importantly, the scaling and strength of WE's team composition were falling drastically behind.

WE had zero answers for EDG's frontline tanks.

EDG wasn't even forcing hard engagements; they simply used the Banner of Command to poke and prod from a distance.

WE weren't complete fools, though, and they sent Ashe to deal with the promoted minions.

Yet, within moments, WE's players realized that Shen had also built a Banner of Command.

Two promoted cannon minions simultaneously on the map pushed WE's players right to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Once Baron Nashor respawned, this sense of collective breakdown reached its absolute peak.

"The bottom lane wave! Go clear the bottom lane wave!"

"What about Baron?!"

"Dammit, why is the enemy Galio as unkillable as solid rock?"

"His literal body is a gargoyle..."

Minion waves, Baron, and vision control—WE were falling behind on virtually every front.

Under these circumstances, EDG naturally and smoothly secured the Baron Nashor buff.

"Let's just end it, I am ridiculously tanky right now!"

Chen Yan was brimming with confidence regarding his own durability.

With the enemy team consisting of multiple AP threats plus a tickle-damage Ashe, he could literally stand completely still and it would still take them ages to kill him.

Returning to the base to purchase items, elixirs were instantly consumed across the board.

Seeing every member of EDG chugging elixirs, WaWa and Miller instantly caught on to their intentions.

"Is EDG about to go all-in?"

As they spoke, the four members of EDG had already pushed up to WE's middle-lane inhibitor tower.

Meanwhile, Shen, who had been split-pushing in the side lane, had already taken down the bottom tier-two tower and was continuing his march toward the bottom inhibitor.

However, EDG's main squad couldn't wait for Shen to finish his split-push, and Chen Yan directly instructed Clearlove to initiate.

"Should I just go?" Clearlove asked.

Chen Yan rolled his eyes: "Who else are you waiting for?"

Realizing there was no backing out now, Clearlove hardened his resolve, thrusting forward with his E-Q combo.

His ultimate dropped directly onto the backline of WE.

Chen Yan immediately followed up with his ultimate onto the Jarvan.

Cataclysm coupled with Hero's Entrance forced WE's backline to instantly flash away.

"Don't chase the backline, focus the frontline!"

Chen Yan roared over communications.

Hearing the call, his teammates immediately pivoted their fire onto Braum.

Since the support Braum had low gold income and poor scaling, he melted almost instantaneously.

The Fizz used his E to vault backward to safety.

The rest of WE's members scrambled to retreat as well.

Xiye's LeBlanc attempted to pull off a poke, but Janna instantly interrupted her with a quick Q tornado.

LeBlanc was instantly vaporized.

WE was left with only Ashe, Elise, and Fizz.

EDG pressed their advantage, pushing onward to the twin nexus towers. The three remaining members of WE had no choice but to desperately step out to defend.

Chen Yan's Galio planted himself squarely at the forefront, charging up his W ability before flashing to catch all three of them in a massive taunt.

Ashe was the first to fall.

Fizz and Elise burned their defensive mobility tools to scramble back into the safety of the fountain.

It was all in vain. After demolishing the twin nexus towers, three bulky EDG members boldly charged straight into the fountain itself, with Zet's Varus going completely berserk with kills inside the enemy spawn.

Finally, Janna activated her ultimate inside WE's fountain to heal up her teammates.

"End it, end it!"

"Hurry up or I'm gonna die here!"

"Faster!"

As the final sliver of health on WE's Nexus vanished, the game screen froze in place.

WaWa and Miller simultaneously raised their voices to announce the match result.

"Congratulations to EDG! They have successfully defeated WE and leveled the series two to two!"