Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 121 The Factory Manager's Vigilance, Ray's Redemption

Everyone here is a high-level player on the Korean server, so once one person steps up and starts the game, it's like the most ingenious bearing in a machine, driving the rhythm of the entire game.

The top and bottom lane swaps, quick dragon takedowns, early vision control of the Rift Herald, and jungle invasions—all these maneuvers felt like those of peak SKT in a professional match, thrilling every viewer watching the live stream.

To understand why League of Legends has the ADC position, ever since Smile added the letter C to the AD position in Season 2, it has given the bot lane marksman a different mission.

In a game like League of Legends where players trade, the ADC (Attack Damage Carry) position has the highest margin for error and the highest success rate in trading.

Once a team can develop a strong ADC, then as long as the ADC is powerful, the opponent will not be able to dodge their basic attacks.

This is why, in many professional matches, as long as the ADC's equipment is decent, the team has the potential to turn the tide.

A high-burst mage in the mid lane can be terrifying in casual games if they develop well, but it's rare to see a mid laner carry a game in a formal competition.

Now that we've seen how Xiaogou has managed to fully utilize his mid-lane responsibilities while also contributing to the ADC's damage output, all the fans can't help but start imagining RNG's performance in S8.

Fifteen minutes later, the outer towers on the top, middle, and bottom lanes had all been destroyed by the red team, and the jungle had been completely wiped out by Li Luo's red team.

Shenchao, playing on the top lane, put immense pressure on the blue team by holding down the second turret alone. The current Maokai is not as arrogant as he was ten minutes ago.

Once the crocodile's cooldown is up, the tree can be easily killed by the crocodile if you're not careful. Even so, the difference in last hits between the two can reach 30 CS.

Perhaps realizing that continuing like this would lead to a slow death, Kuzi and Bdd took the initiative to start directing their teammates, typing strings of Korean in the chat box.

The players on the blue team clearly recognized Kuzi and Bdd, and were now obediently preparing to gank the top lane crocodile with the two of them.

But just as the group made their move, bad news came from the bottom lane. Ezreal, with his mobility, could survive against this stealthy team composition, but Brand support was a different story.

Brand, who was still on his way, was secretly stolen by Twitch and Widowmaker. Widowmaker also placed the Rift Herald at the bottom lane's second turret. Although there were no minions, they used the Rift Herald to push the turret directly.

Seeing Brand get stolen in less than two seconds, Bdd, controlling Zed, remained true to his original intention and headed towards the top lane.

With the Rat and Widowmaker developing so smoothly, the damage from the two of them was completely beyond what a semi-tank Zed could withstand.

It's too late to go down and defend now. It's better to kill the crocodile, then let the tree go defend, and I can solo the top lane to catch up on my farm.

If I don't catch up on my development, I'm afraid that in team fights, I won't even be able to take down half of a squishy target's health with a full combo.

The Nidalee in pants and BDD's Zed came on strong, looking like they were determined to fight to the death, but suddenly a bald guy popped out from the bushes next to the blue team's second top lane turret.

Brown, rubbing his bald head, jumped onto the crocodile, and O'Bama followed closely behind.

The situation instantly became awkward, turning into a 3v3. The damage from the Ruined Little Hammer's Omniknight was not low, and after a set of skills, Nidalee was left with only a third of her health.

The damage startled him so much that he immediately used a W-flash to escape backward.

But how could Shenchao's crocodile remain indifferent to such an opportunity?

As the next wave of minions arrived, a skillful ERE flash WQ combo followed, and with a flurry of fancy skills, Kuzi was the first to fall behind the top lane's second tower.

Seeing this situation, bdd had no choice but to give his R to the crocodile. When the three appeared, he and his pants were targeting Oma, but now they could only give it to their original target. "The heart is the strongest muscle!"

Braum, standing in front of the tower, timed his ultimate perfectly and unleashed his R skill. Just as Zed's Shadow Strike appeared on Renekton, he was lifted into the air by the massive glacier that rose from the ground.

Oma, standing behind, landed a precise AQA, stunning Zed. The crocodile took this opportunity to escape outside the tower and stood in front of the high ground tower with a full half of its health remaining.

On the other side, the big tree, who was still observing, finally reacted and tied an Asian hand to the crocodile's foot, and the two began to fight.

However, the pure tank Maokai took no damage, and with the addition of the semi-tank Zed, the two could only helplessly watch as the crocodile left from the wall in front of the blue team's three wolves.

With this, both the top and bottom lane second towers were destroyed, and for the next four minutes, the blue team's vision control would be completely suppressed.

Ezreal, Nidalee, and Brand – players must always be wary of a sneaky duo suddenly appearing from the shadows when venturing into the jungle.

"Is bdd really that bad?"

Inside the EDG base, apart from a huge screen that provided some light, the rest of the place was completely dark.

At the end of the year, Edg also needed to train new players for the Demacia Cup, so most of the veterans were disbanded and went home. Scout, the junior, also returned to his hometown in South Korea. At this time, only Mingkai was left in the EDG base.

The flashing lights illuminated half of Mingkai's face, half in darkness and half in light.

Now, under Abu's management, the new top laner, Ray, formerly C9's star top laner, has reached a preliminary agreement with EDG. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Ray will be able to play as EDG's top laner in the Demacia Cup.

"It seems the key to S8's momentum lies in the mid and top lanes; a well-farmed top laner is truly terrifying."

In the live stream footage, Shenchao's crocodile was still applying pressure under the blue team's high ground tower.

At this point, not only were the pants stretched thin, but even a half-tank BDD couldn't take down a fifth of the crocodile's health with a full combo.

Without hesitation, Mingkai sent a message to Abu.

"Let the new top laner, Ray, practice more with the current meta champions. We don't need a reliable tank anymore; the top lane is crucial next season."

After repeated editing and deletions, and refining the wording, the WeChat message was immediately sent to Abu.

Abu replied quickly, sending a small "ok" emoji and also a screenshot of Ray's recent performance.

When he saw that Ray's match history consisted entirely of top laners from the current meta, and that his Korean server rating was quite high, Mingkai smiled with satisfaction, looking like a kind old father.

It's important to know that Ray's skill level is not weak. In fact, during the S8 season against RNG at their peak, he dared to pick Riven and completely dominated Letme. This pressure even extended to Xiaohu in the mid lane.

It wasn't until the second game, when Letme had no other option but to bring in Zita, that Ray's Riven dominance was finally stopped.

Towards the end of S8, a top laner who had endured pressure throughout the season actually became the team's only carry, single-handedly leading EDG into the World Championship and making them the LPL's third seed.

Ray's 7-1-10 Urgot in the group stage match against KT brought tears of joy to many fans. Unfortunately, in the later matches, EDG still failed to understand the meta and picked several tanky top laners for Ray, which ultimately led to EDG being eliminated from the World Championship.

(End of this chapter)