Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 167 Explosive Kill Style Blade Girl

As soon as the game started, several streamers trying to ride the wave of popularity immediately changed their stream names to...
Rare! Champion team RNG's top, support, and bot lane duo queue.

Interested passersby clicked on the link after seeing the title.

"Holy crap, Letme and Xiaoming are going bot lane, Irelia + Alistar, what the heck?"

As more and more people joined, the viewers began to interact.

"Could this be RNG's secret weapon for the Spring Finals? Is it Irelia + Alistar?"

"Seriously? If this works in the bot lane, then my Yasuo + Malphite bot lane combo is a guaranteed win."

"I'm going to register my patent now..."

Apart from a few newbies who only started playing in S8, none of the viewers in the live chat believed that this was RNG's sneaky tactic.

As is well known, before a match, coaches and analysts from all teams will specifically study the opponent's record.

Some people are even serious about it, like Abu and Factory Director, who will download the players' videos to study their playing styles and habits.

However, for every step the righteous take, the wicked take ten. For example, Ma Ge often plays recklessly in ranked games before matches, trying to distract the opposing data analysts. There were even times when Ma Ge's acting was so convincing that he managed to get banned.

From then on, LPL adopted this tradition.

But it's understandable that Letme, who doesn't know how to play AD carry, would play Irelia instead.

Both sides were very restrained when they went out, and after exchanging a few glances, this was a fairly standard start to the game.

Mata and Deft haven't had a good season, being overshadowed by SKT and KZ. Mata has been quite unlucky.

The S4 champion support player didn't make much money. After coming to the LPL, he moved around several times but was still penniless.

Left with no other choice, Mata returned to South Korea. Unexpectedly, as soon as he returned home, the team he had been with won the championship.

Both of them started live streaming to earn money.

"Letme is looking down on us by playing this in the bot lane. He's lost all three games he's played Irelia."

Deft checked his stats and confidently told Mata.

"This game shouldn't be a big problem. If it were Uzi playing on the other side, we might be a bit more worried. Letme, he's just a 'carry' player."

Although RNG won the S7 championship, Mata's impression of Letme was still that of a mediocre player.

"Even if it's Uzi, we're not afraid, okay?"

The two chatted and laughed as they logged on and began farming minions as usual.

In terms of peak performance, Deft is actually no less than Uzi, but unfortunately Uzi's peak period was just too long, sending off generation after generation of ADCs.

He started playing when he was smiling, and continued until the next generation, Lwx, when he chose to retire.

Deft was also an ADC who was completely suppressed by these top ADs for an entire era.

Poppy counters Fiora, so Graves' jungle strategy was clear for the blue side: stay in the bot lane.

Even if Lee Sin and Fiora can't necessarily kill Poppy, if the bot lane falls apart and the AD carry is out of the game, and the mid laner is Malzahar, then the game is basically over.

It has to be said that the quality of high-level games in the Korean server is so high that even the Lee Sin player on the red side is planning to stay in the bottom lane.

Having played in high-elo games on the Korean server for years, and with the bot lane being a member of the professional team KT, they recognized each other long ago. When facing such a carry, they simply protected him and won.

The minions on both sides lined up and began to attack. Ezreal and Soraka are stronger in terms of mobility and lane sustain, making it extremely difficult for them to pressure two people with support items.

It's important to know that in the current version, there's no penalty mechanism for last-hitting minions while carrying support items. For Irelia, the power of Relic Shield is evident from level one.

Irelia's Q skill has a range of 650 yards. That's roughly the same range as Caitlyn's attack.

Ezreal's attack range is only 550, which means that as long as Ezreal can auto-attack the front-line minions, Irelia can use her Q skill to quickly approach Ezreal and deal her damage.

In this version where Irelia's passive hasn't been nerfed yet, an Irelia with two stacks of her passive is already on par with any champion in terms of auto-attacks. This Alistar is carrying an Ancient Coin.

As soon as he went online, Alistar walked to the mid lane and immediately used his Q skill on the concentrated minion wave. While knocking away the backline minions, he also tanked the damage from Ezreal and Soraka and brought the backline minions down to the health that Irelia's Q skill could kill.

With minions and five stacks of her passive, Irelia is clearly at her peak.

Deft and Mata in the bot lane have clearly never faced Irelia before and are unaware of her strength.

In their understanding, Irelia in the top lane is basically suppressed at level 1, and only has the ability to fight back at level 2. Seeing that the front minions are low on health, Ezreal moves forward to prepare to last hit the minions with auto-attacks.

The moment Ezreal came up, Li Luo's Irelia suddenly burst into action.

The Blade Slam (Q) skill hit the first front-line minion, and the moment Relic Shield triggered and instantly killed the minion, the second Q was used again.

Ezreal was still using QA to last-hit minions when Irelia dodged and weaved back and forth, clearing out the three ranged minions in the backline, and then dashed right up to Ezreal.

Five layers of passive ability, and it's a passive ability that has never been nerfed!
When Ezreal saw Irelia dash in, he relied on Soraka's level 2 healing to try and trade blows.

"You're still not leaving? Then you're doomed."

Seeing Deft's overconfidence, Li Luo smiled faintly, then used the attack speed bonus from his Q skill to skillfully kite Ezreal.

With just three simple auto-attacks, Ezreal's health was reduced to about a third. As the squishiest ADC, how could he withstand Irelia's onslaught?

The fourth hit was a flat A!

Ezflash, follow with a flash!
The fifth time!
First blood!

A simple Q skill plus five auto attacks took down Ezreal, who only had 480 HP.

"Is this hero really that powerful at level one?"

Deft, who had just been solo killed, stared blankly as Irelia reduced Soraka to half health and fled in panic, saying in disbelief.

The chat messages in the live streams of several ob streamers also started scrolling.

"When did Letme's Irelia become so aggressive?! Holy crap, his fluid auto-attacks are just as good as TheShy's!"

"Haha, Xiaoming didn't even get a chance to get an assist; he could only stand back and watch."

"This Irelia is ridiculous if she doesn't get nerfed. With five stacks of her passive at level one, a single auto-attack can do almost 100 damage. That's outrageous!"

By the time Deft came online, Irelia had already reached level 3, which is the playstyle of Irelia and Yasuo going bot lane.

The support is just a tool; in the early game, the experience should be given to the ADC. A level 6 Yasuo or a level 6 Gragas is not advantageous against a level 6 bot lane.

However, a level 6 Yasuo and a level 4 Gragas can reliably suppress the opponent, and even use their mobility to push the opponent out of the experience zone.

This is precisely why teammates often mess up when they pick Yasuo as AD in casual games. In casual games, supports will want to give up all the minions when they see Yasuo as AD, so how could they possibly give up the experience?

However, even when pressed under the tower, Deft didn't panic.

Soraka and Ezreal are extremely resilient. Once they reach level 2, with Soraka's silence ability, Irelia and Alistar won't dare to tower dive easily.

Furthermore, Ezreal is meant to withstand pressure in the early game; his power spike begins at level 6.

Having secured First Blood, Li Luo immediately went back to base and bought two Long Swords to increase his damage. In the early game, Irelia doesn't need attack speed; attack power is more directly beneficial to her damage output.

(End of this chapter)