LOL: I just turned 18, let me fight back and be reborn

Chapter 376 Tian Ji's Horse Racing? How could they play League of Legends like that!

"Both teams have their own strategies for positioning and layout, but V5 seems to have the upper hand. Auntie Yoshi gave away the first blood!"

A God's-eye view provides a clearer perspective.

It's obvious that V5's duo is targeting the mid lane. If T1's mid laner wasn't the duo, the unlucky one would be the mid laner.

From a hindsight perspective, the analysis is quite simple.

A "normal matchup" bot lane duo wouldn't start by stealing like this—after all, the opposing bot lane duo pushes the lane fast enough. Even if they manage to get a kill at this start, they'll lose at least two waves of minions back in the bot lane, plus the bot lane will collapse.

The cost is far greater than the loss of a single life!

In this match, however, V5's bot lane duo was going to the top lane, clearly not afraid of the opponent's top laner pushing the lane.

They even hope the other party will do that!

If the enemy top laner dares to push the lane, the duo can return to the top lane later and immediately control the minion wave, preventing the enemy from getting any minions or experience under the tower!
Just understanding this point was enough to chill the hearts of the five members of T1.

They all know.

Not only did they pull out their own "secret weapon"—the opposing team did the same!

[Where did I come from?! Is this still League of Legends?!]

[Alright, alright, you're going to support in the middle at the start, huh? I'm a pro at that!]

[I suggest adding a health pack behind the tower, and ideally, adding a way to buy equipment without having to return to base; that would make it perfect.]

[What kind of weird thing is this? You can't play games normally anymore, right?]

What do you mean by "playing normally"? It's like League of Legends was always a 1112 lane system from the beginning. It was the EU that created the 1112 system, hence the name "EU style," and then the old WE team started swapping lanes and called it "reverse EU style." Isn't it all just how people play?

Compared to the debates in the live chat, the contestants' backstage staff were constantly making various exclamations.

Everyone's face was filled with shock and surprise.

No one expected that in this BO1, these two teams would pull out a tactical system that was completely unfamiliar to even professional teams like them, and could even be said to have never thought of!

"T1's strategy is very clear: retain their top lane advantage, allow the mid and bot lanes to switch lanes, and use the bot lane duo's advantage to pressure the mid laner and make the mid laner withstand the pressure."

"This explains why they picked Quesanti during the draft phase, locked out the bot lane before banning the double marksman combination, and might even have deliberately let V5's mid laner Yone through."

"Why didn't I think of that!"

JDG coach Redmi and WBG coach Danny huddled together, quickly analyzing the two teams' strategies.

Dani's face was full of regret.

“V5’s lane split looks a bit traditional, but it’s the most suitable design for them, since neither of their top nor bottom lanes are the type to play a direct laning phase.”

"Through such a substitution, we can forcibly create an advantage and make a pure profit."

After analyzing the situation, both agreed that their ideas had merit.

Then the problem is coming.

What's the cost?
"Aren't they afraid of losing turret plating in the bottom lane?" Ruler asked, listening to the two coaches' conversation in Korean.

This is also the most direct question that everyone has when they first see the lane-swapping system.

It's important to understand that the reason lane-swap tactics disappeared was due to the plating mechanism introduced in Season 9, which made the side that initiated the lane swap bear the natural economic loss.

Neither of the coaches could answer this question for him.

After all, no one has actually used it. Everyone judges based on subconscious "brain tests," or rather, they live in stereotypes. Few people will change the status quo without external pressure or coercion.

But actually.

The results of the tests conducted by both V5 and T1 were quite unexpected.

Actively moving the bot lane duo away from the bot lane, regardless of whether the top or mid lane solo lane is ultimately replaced, will inevitably lead to a platter disadvantage before the platter protection mechanism kicks in five minutes.

But here’s the kicker.

Just how much of this so-called "disadvantage" is it?

—You should know that although a solo laner who switches lanes will definitely get beaten in a 1v2 situation, they are not AFK. The minion wave will be cleared quickly as soon as it enters the tower!
Similarly, the other swapped duo lane is just slower at A plating speed, not standing still without A tower.

从1分30秒兵线交汇，到5分钟镀层保护时间的消退→其实拢共不过就3分30秒的差额时间。

Even if you manage to push it to the sky, at most you'll be less than one turret ahead of the enemy's bottom lane!

What do you get in return for 175 yuan for a single coating?
At least one single-player lane that was originally "definitely at a disadvantage" can be reversed to "definitely at an advantage"!
Perhaps there is more than one path!

Take V5 as an example. Originally, they were not necessarily able to gain an advantage in either the top or bottom lane, and the top lane was even more likely to be at a disadvantage.
—After the lane swap, the bottom lane will have a stable advantage.

The top lane, which was already likely to be at a disadvantage, would at most just suffer in a different position, and the result would remain the same.

Even if the opposing team really wants to kill him, they have to use the strength of three people to tower dive. This not only attracts the enemy's firepower to the greatest extent, but the tower dive defense under the tower may also give him a chance to make plays. At the very least, they can "mutually kill" the enemy top laner.

It can be said that this maximized the potential of the top laner, a position often considered disadvantageous!

At least the risk of being solo killed is gone.
T1 follows a similar approach.

The only difference is that T1 is targeting the mid lane, and in theory, it should achieve the same effect.

Without a doubt, if T1 only loses a turret plating in the bottom lane and spends a mere 175 gold difference, they can severely restrict V5's mid laner's development in the early game.

Everyone who knows this team knows what an incredible deal this is!

Neither side has a problem with their approach.

The only problem is that—something unexpected happened.

Without any tactical maneuvering or probing between the two sides, a "tactical collision" occurred directly.

V5's tactics seem to have been tailor-made to exploit T1's weaknesses!
T1's initial advantage in the top lane was reversed and turned into a disadvantage by the duo lane. V5's bottom lane, which they were prepared to trade at a disadvantage, became even. T1's only advantage in the mid lane was also taken away by the opening strategy!
It looks like a lose-lose-lose situation!
"It's not a big problem for Auntie to resurrect and return to the mid lane. Even if Yone gets first blood, he can't beat the duo lane and he even used Flash." Roaring Emperor tried his best to beautify the loss in the first wave.

A worried Wolf bluntly revealed the truth: "But this makes laning in the top lane very difficult, and the bot lane Quesanti was originally meant to withstand pressure on the duo lane, but he can't suppress Renekton."

"This way, whether it's a dragon fight or a team fight in the Rift, V5 will definitely have the advantage. Continuing to play like this will only result in us losing!"

Looking at the heroes individually, Gnar is definitely better at "surviving" than Yone when facing a duo lane.

But don't forget that Gnar is a top laner and Yone is a mid laner.

The biggest difference between the two lanes is that the mid lane minion wave is too short, so Yone hardly has to worry about being caught, while Gnar has to be on edge every step of the way!
"Gentlemen, what should we do to break this deadlock?!" The anxious Roaring Emperor turned around and asked impatiently.

Bang pondered for a moment, frantically searching his memory.

"The lane-swapping tactic was quite common in our time. In cases where a lane swap fails, there are only two ways to break the deadlock: re-engage the opposing team or force a breakthrough in a single lane."

"Re-engaging with your matchup means taking advantage of the first lane swap to re-split the lanes and engage with the matchup you want. In T1's case, the top and bottom lanes were swapped, while the mid lane remained unchanged."

"However, the drawback of this approach is obvious. The opponent is not stupid. If they want to gank a lane swap, they must first have absolute lane control to create an information gap. But obviously, neither the top nor bottom lanes can have lane control. If our own duo lane recalls, the opponent's duo lane may immediately follow suit!"

"Furthermore, if you aggressively pursue your opponent, regardless of whether you succeed or not, you will most likely fall behind in minion wave exchanges!"

What Bang was talking about was just the "earliest" version of the cable-changing technology from ancient times.

Obviously, if lane swapping were that easy to crack, it wouldn't have become a symbol of the old era and a nightmare for Riot's designers.

T1, who had studied this in the field, was well aware that they couldn't be foolish enough to aggressively chase the lane in the early game; they could only try to break through at a single point.

"Can you come to Yone?" Keria tapped Yone's portrait on the scoreboard.

"Could the prince possibly counter-gank Youqi? Can he play along?" Oner looked at the minimap.

The T1's coordination is skillful, and it's clear that they have their own understanding and insights.

Upon hearing the request for assistance, Zeus immediately began to make a move. Despite being at a disadvantage in a 1v2 matchup, he suddenly moved aggressively forward, hoping to lure the enemy jungler over.

Unfortunately, V5 practiced this lane-swapping strategy for a long time.

Their experience in dealing with this situation is clearly far superior to that of the other party.

"Top laner Eagle is just bluffing!" Beryl wasn't intimidated by Gnar's boastful attempt and bravely pressed forward: "Xunzi, you stay near mid and watch Master Ye. Be careful the enemy doesn't try to dive mid!"

Seeing this move from his opponent, Zeus immediately retreated, not daring to let his health drop—after all, if his condition declined, he would also be at risk of being overtaken by the three of them.

Just as T1 was about to make their move, Lee Sang-hyeok, who was switching screens in the bottom lane, reminded them. Keria placed a ward behind the wall next to the Prince, preventing a tower dive that could have caused another major explosion.

This is how it's handled in a line-swapping game.

A seemingly balanced environment can easily lead to huge chain reactions and consequences if one is not careful!
In the next few minutes, everyone witnessed one of the most important effects of the "Channel Swap" strategy.

—Both junglers were almost unable to actively gank the enemy duo lane in the early game.

The reason is also very simple.

After all, it's only a 2v2 when the jungler goes there, and there's no guarantee of winning. Also, if the enemy jungler counter-ganks from behind, it will explode instantly!
Obviously, no one would make such a decision, which yields little benefit and carries extremely high risk.

The key point is that junglers don't really have any other decisions to make.

If you don't dive your own duo lane, you inevitably have to defend against the enemy duo lane diving under the tower. These are the only two paths—meaning the junglers on both sides are engaged in a "single-threaded game," or even a "formulaic game"!
Without any unexpected turning points, the course of the game seemed entirely predictable.

5 minutes.

V5, with their mid and bottom lanes reaching level six, secured the first dragon with the overwhelming power of the Renekton and Senna's early departure.

Zeus in the top lane didn't have a Teleport to move ten minutes ago, and even a 1v1 against Gromp was unlikely to be successful.

Lee Sang-hyeok made a decisive command change, taking advantage of the lane control vacuum created by the enemy team taking the dragon, switching Quesant and Gnar to lanes, and having Gnar go find Renekton for a 1v1 to change the matchup.
However, at the 7-minute mark, V5 made two blatant lane swaps.

The crocodile switched back to the top lane, while Yone went to the bottom lane and the duo went to the mid lane, aiming directly at the vanguard team fight—T1 could only continue to frantically follow the trades.

Gnar continued to follow the crocodile, while the duo followed Yone.

During the back-and-forth, both the top and bottom lanes suffered repeated losses, and their economy was slowly eroded, but they could only silently endure it!

After all, ganking Yone in the duo lane is their only advantageous lane.

For T1, the only result of the early lane swap was that they were able to stick to Yone. The enemy mid laner has not made any noise so far, so they cannot easily give up.

But from God's perspective, one can see it clearly.

In the two lane swaps, V5 has quietly secured a 1K gold advantage, the first dragon, and the first Rift Herald, which is likely to arrive soon.

Everyone can see it now.

The two sides seem to have completely different understandings of this line switching and transfer system!

Lee Sang-hyeok sensed the situation slowly slipping out of his control. He kept telling himself to stay calm, looking at the minimap and pondering a solution.
Meanwhile, at Riot Games headquarters in Los Angeles.

"Calm down? How can you expect me to calm down!"

"How could they play League of Legends like that?!"

Riot Games CEO Tryndamere slammed his water glass down, glaring at the newly promoted Chief Designer, Sanhuan, and another highly regarded employee, CT, who was about to be promoted to 'Balance Director'.

"Look at this match yourselves! Apart from the unexpected level 1 team fight, there hasn't been a single head-on clash between the two sides in almost 8 minutes! That's the power of the 'demon' that lane swap is!"

"Tell me, why didn't you detect this 'demon's' resurgence beforehand? And how could you let it appear at the World Championship?!"

The guy from the Third Ring Road kept his head down, not daring to speak, and secretly glanced at the guy from the CT scan next to him who was also keeping his head down...
Actually, after watching the LPL Summer Finals replay, he sensed something and wanted to weaken this system—but CT's righteous words stopped him.

At the time, it seemed to be fine.

After all, that was the last match of the LPL this year, and V5 didn't openly use it. At the time, they didn't have any concrete evidence; it was all just speculation.

But they were right.

There was also someone on the T1 team at the time who found inspiration from that Summer Finals match.
What are you two doing! Are you even listening to me?

Tryndamere became even angrier at the two who remained silent and pretended to be dead.

"Wait, Boss! Look! A fight has broken out!"

CT, who had been quietly looking down at his phone screen with his mind completely focused on the competition, suddenly raised his phone and shouted.

Finally, at the 8-minute mark, T1 launched an offensive against V5 in a team fight on the Rift.

However, instead of engaging in team fights during the crocodile's power spike, they cleverly switched lanes to the bottom lane, intending to take down Yone.

Quesanti, who was acting in the mid lane, was incredibly skilled. By the time V5 realized what was happening, Yone was already surrounded by three people.

It seems like there's no way out!
Yone under the tower didn't seem to give up. He used his E to dodge the Poké Ball thrown by Kalista, and then used Flash to escape over the wall.

"What is he doing?" Brother Sanhuan asked in confusion.

What's the point of Yone's E skill being behind him, and then having to flash over the wall?

The three members of T1 squatted in place and "guarded the corpse".

Everyone knows that when the time comes, Yone will be forced to fly back and become a corpse!
"I don't know, oh shit!" CT shouted, his eyes wide.

The next moment, from God's perspective, Yone detonated the Blast Fruit and took off from the spot.

Then, sheathed her sword in mid-air, and after a brief moment of twitching, suddenly struck out from the air, slashing the wind forward.
It looks like "Interrupted Soul's Return to the Body"!?

The three people guarding the tower behind it had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem; they were just puzzled as to why the spirit seemed to have taken a little longer to return this time.

Meanwhile, Zeus in the top lane is also finding himself isolated and helpless due to his teammates' failure to find a way out.

V5 reacted extremely quickly, stopping their attack on the Rift and immediately surrounding and killing Gnar!

The LPL live stream was extremely popular.

[What happened? Yone's E can be interrupted like that!?]

I thought I had finished watching all of Master Ip's and Wing-yan's videos, but it turns out there's still something I haven't used!

【I get it now! So this isn't a lane change, it's a classic case of "Tian Ji's horse racing strategy," right?】

[We've just arrived. Who are the best horses, and who are the worst?]

[Holy crap, we have oxen and horses, but some people don't have horses, and the enemy has a white dragon horse! What the hell is this?!]

"What a generous gift! I knew he was going to make a move! Just by looking at his movement, I knew he definitely had a backup plan!"

CT completely forgot his surroundings and cheered and jumped for joy on the spot.

Then he received a death stare from Tryndamere on the other side.

"Ah, no, boss, let me explain first."

"You know, what we've always been afraid of isn't the 'lane swap' tactic itself, but the 'spectacular effect' it brings."

What CT said is true.

Each additional tactic increases the unpredictability of the game, just as the uncertainty in the early stages of this match brought surprises to many viewers, which should theoretically be a good thing.

The downside of this tactic is that lane swapping can easily lead to a "formulaic" game.

Once a game becomes formulaic, it becomes dull and boring, and everyone knows what's going to happen next.

Riot Games may not care about anything else—but they've always cared immensely about the entertainment value of their matches!
After all, an exciting match directly impacts the event's viewership.

Tryndamere retorted irritably, "Since you know all this, then take a look at what's happening on the field right now. Is this how these two teams should be behaving?"

"When has V5 ever played a match like this in the past year!?"

"No, no, no, Boss, I know you're in a hurry, but please don't rush."

CT is still trying to argue his way out of things.

"If all we care about is the entertainment value of the game, look at this ID on the right side of the mid lane, what comes to mind?"

"Don't forget, the ID YE has only been around for less than two seasons, but it has already created more highlights than we have in the last five years combined! And it has developed at least three new tactical systems."

"He's practically the epitome of entertainment!"

"What I mean is, the 'lane swap' in ancient times was indeed demonic—but if this is a new tactic he created, is it possible that this is just a rudimentary form?"

CT's long chanting made Tryndamere dizzy.

But the central idea was conveyed.

In short, the point is that the old lane swapping was boring because those players 'didn't know how to play' and couldn't develop more in-depth and interesting gameplay.

It's a human problem, not the fault of the cable replacement!

"CT, don't think I don't know you're a fan of this guy, right?"

Tryndamere snorted mockingly.

But there seemed to be no anger in his tone anymore.

"Hehe, don't worry, Boss, it's work hours now, and I'm still a Riot employee for the time being~"

Seeing his boss's expression, CT knew that the other party had temporarily stopped, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, he had no choice.

On the one hand, things had already come to this point, and it was impossible to change the version at the last minute. The World Championship was already decided, so he could only bite the bullet and make do.

On the other hand, it was indeed he who prevented Sanhuan Ge from making any changes to V5 before the World Championship.

Who can blame them when their favorite 'daughter' is in someone else's hands?

Tedamir sat back on the sofa and looked at the live stream screen.

"Don't get too excited yet. If this match is criticized by the audience or affects the popularity of the World Championship, there's still an empty toilet cleaner position in the Bilgewater coffee shop's restroom."

(End of this chapter)