Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 166 The Possibility of Warriors in the Bottom Lane

Version 8.8 was a significant change in Season 8, featuring a small detail that was difficult for other players to notice and was only noticed by a few people.

The peak power of the Archangel's Staff arrived too early, so some of its ability benefits were reduced before it was upgraded to the Seraph's Embrace.

Mana to spell power conversion ratio: 3% → 1%.

It was this entire change that sparked a new version of Ezreal's gameplay: the Archangel's Staff, Manamune, Tear of the Goddess, and high mana build.

This time, Li Luo had told the "walking A monster" not to use this strategy in advance, so until the day before the Spring Finals, no one in the Korean server had discovered the entire strategy.

Furthermore, in this version, LeBlanc, who was previously heavily modified, will revert to her old skill mechanics and reappear on the competitive stage.

"Little dog, what are you thinking? Your Kai'Sa is getting nerfed, and you can't even pick Draven right now. Are you trying to pull off some fancy moves?"

Seeing Li Luo deep in thought, Xiao Ming asked curiously.

"I'm thinking about future version update trends. By the way, where are Yan Junze and Xiangguoren?"

"Those two, they went out for hot pot with some guys from the second team. After all, the second team players have been on vacation since the semifinals, and they were bored, so the two of them went along."

Xiao Ming said with a smile.

"Hmm, trying something fancy isn't out of the question. We're too strong right now. Since patch 8.8, we can tell the designers are basically going to nerf the bot lane later this year... Since those guys aren't here, we can try some unconventional bot lane strategies."

Li Luo nodded, sat down in his seat, and was lost in thought.

Starting with patch 8.8, followed by the major jungle overhaul in patch 8.10, the introduction of Pyke in patch 8.11, and the reworked Aatrox returning in patch 8.13.

For six consecutive versions, spanning over four months, the designers have been relentlessly nerfing the bot lane.

Even at the very beginning of the Summer Split, the changes were so drastic that it was difficult to find an ADC without mobility in the bot lane, and mage-centric bot lanes returned to prominence.

But what's even more noteworthy is the Yasuo ADC that "Walking A Monster" used in the Mid-Season Demacia Cup after MSI.

His two undefeated Yasuo games officially heralded the rise of warriors in the bot lane. Subsequently, not only Yasuo, but also heroes like Irelia and Darius appeared one after another.

In the Spring Finals against IG a few days later, I definitely won't let my Kai'Sa go. If the bot lane slows down the pace and TheShy in the top lane gets ahead, the outcome is uncertain.

Only those who have watched the entire S8 tournament can understand just how terrifying TheShy is right now.

"Log in. Junze's out for dinner, I'll use his account. I'll play Irelia, you play Alistar."

"Huh? Irelia Alistar?"

Ignoring Xiaoming's doubts, he logged in directly, and the two started playing duo queue.

Although they couldn't stream it, the few people who were patiently waiting on the Korean server to observe the professional players were pleasantly surprised.

Big news!

It's worth noting that the RNG team is incredibly popular right now. As long as the title includes the word "RNG," especially Uzi's ID, it gets a ton of likes and views.

A certain streamer on Bilibili became popular by constantly piggybacking on Uzi's popularity, including Uzi in every title.

Upon seeing that Letme and Xiaoming were duo queuing, these people became even more excited. Everyone had seen duo queuing in the bot lane countless times, but when had they ever seen these two duo queuing before?

Letme has recently climbed a lot of ranks thanks to Ornn, currently ranking 64th in the Korean server. Li Luo's own account is ranked 21st, while Xiaoming is 9th in the Korean server.

After a few minutes, they finally got into the queue, and the two were naturally assigned to the bottom lane.

"let me, give you top, go, go"

As soon as they entered the lane, the top laner immediately typed, indicating that they wanted to give their position to Letme and would fill the bot lane role themselves; they were clearly a Chinese player.

"No, you play." Li Luo directly locked in the Irelia, a popular champion in the Korean server, on the first floor. Because it was a high-level game, his teammates didn't ask any questions and just assumed that Letme and Xiaoming were playing some fancy tricks.

"Fight for the land where we were born"

With the background story updated, Irelia's voice lines have also been reworked, now featuring deep, resonant dialogue.

When it comes to dialogue, one cannot help but mention China's ancient culture spanning five thousand years.

Although many of the heroes' lines in League of Legends are voiced by the same person, just by looking at the quality of their lines, you can see the difference in cultural understanding.

Even the translation of the name is very particular. For example, Kindred in the Taiwan server is called Eternal Hunter Twins in the Chinese server, which sounds much better, but in the Taiwan server it is called Eternal Hunter - Mirror Claw, which is completely inconsistent with the hero.

There are also characters similar to the Dragon King, such as the interstellar wanderer Soradramon and the swordswoman Fiora.

Even the Blade Dancer has been changed to the Sword Dancer Irelia, instantly losing all its prestige.

The reworked Irelia has been dominating the Korean server for a patch, and in high-elo games on the Korean server, everyone knows how to counter her.

Sure enough, the opposing team immediately locked down Fiora, the Grand Duelist, on the second floor.

In terms of champion mechanics, Fiora completely counters Irelia. Whether it's team fights, laning, or split pushing in the late game, Fiora is superior.

On win rate websites, you can see that their laning win rate is an astonishing 46%.

This is also why Letme didn't dare to pick Irelia to lane against TheShy.

Upon seeing Fiora appear, Li Luo's top laner stealthily picked Poppy, another natural counter.

There's a saying that every creature has its counter. Not only can Fiora not handle Poppy in lane, she might even get solo killed by Poppy.

If Fiora's Q is interrupted by Poppy's W during her dash, it will enter a long cooldown period.

At this point, Fiora is like a lamb to the slaughter, having lost her mobility and left to be easily defeated.

After some selection, both sides had their counters. The opposing bot lane picked the currently popular bot lane combination of Ezreal and Soraka to counter Irelia and Alistar.

The lineups of both sides are confirmed.

Top lane Poppy vs. Fiora, mid lane Galio vs. Malzahar, jungle Graves vs. Lee Sin.

Looking at the lineups, the opponent's mid-game tempo is stronger, but Li Luo's side, lacking an AD carry, skips the development period and is also in the early mid-game.

In this way, both sides are evenly matched in terms of lineup.

It's not surprising that no ADC went to the bot lane; even the streamers watching the game weren't too surprised. Korean Challenger games are never short of these kinds of unusual team compositions.

Because many people, including Letme, either only play one position, or only play one hero, or only play one position.

This is especially true for professional players; apart from those with exceptional talent, very few players would choose to play other positions.

This not only spreads energy evenly, but also leads to misjudging the hero's role in one's own position.

There's also the type that's like a dedicated streamer for a certain hero.

For example, streamers who specialize in specific champions like Junke Riven, Zhiqiang Talon, jjking, and Mango Fish, no matter which position they play, always have to bring out their own champion.

When going out, Xiaoming used a corrosive potion, while his Minotaur was equipped with a sacred shield.

The opposing AD's ID looked familiar. After checking the match history, I realized it was actually KT, the LCK team, consisting of Deft and Mata.

Clearly, KT's bot lane was also duo queuing, and it was an encounter between acquaintances. Since Li Luo was using Letme's ID, Mata didn't know that he was facing the Uzi+Ming combination.

(End of this chapter)