LPL History

Chapter 210 The Iron Wall and Copper Barrier Finally Faded, the Poisonous Fang and Dark Blade Have B

Chapter 210 The Iron Wall and Copper Barrier Finally Faded, the Poisonous Fang and Dark Blade Have Been Drawn

"WE.A banned LeBlanc, while EDG banned both Braum and Thresh, two support champions! It seems like EDG is going to focus on the bot lane this game!"

Looking at the two players battling it out, Miller began to analyze the situation.

Wawa nodded: "Yes, in the last game, EDG actually focused on the top lane, but the final result wasn't very good. In this game, EDG also wants to seek some changes."

Unfortunately, Kou Rou was already wearing headphones and couldn't hear what the doll was saying, otherwise he would have definitely yelled at the doll, "I'll fuck you!"

WE.A then banned Kassadin, while EDG banned Annie.

"EDG's transformation means they didn't ban any jungle champions! I've noticed that recently, when these teams face WE.A, they all make the same choice: either give all three bans to the jungler, or they simply don't ban any of them, letting you play whatever you want."

Upon hearing Miller's words, Bella spoke up:

"It feels like this is the only way to handle it, because if you only ban one or two, it really doesn't have much impact on Zhou Li's hero pool. He can pick his signature hero, so it's a complete waste of ban slots."

The doll smiled and said:

“I was chatting with Chris from Royal Club a while ago, and he told me that the best way to deal with WE.A is not to ban the jungler, but to use the limited bans to target the right position. The reason why some teams still choose to give all three bans to the jungler is more of a psychological comfort than a tactical one.”

Miller watched the live stream and said:

"We also saw that WE.A locked in Lulu, the Fairy Witch, on the first floor! It's safe to say that as long as this hero is released, WE.A will immediately grab her. Now, Xiye has been given a nickname by netizens: the Witch Jinchuriki."

“Indeed, we can see the previous data,” Bella pulled out his notebook again, “In the sixteen games of the regular season, Lulu was tied in five games, and in the remaining ten games, Xiye played Lulu all the time.”

The baby laughed and teased:
"In short, Xiye plays Luna, but not Luna, and if he doesn't have Luna, he plays Zilean. In sixteen games, Xiye only played these three heroes. It just goes to show that we still know nothing about Xiye's hero pool."

Based on their analysis, the right to choose has now fallen into EDG's hands.

Without even thinking, Curly-haired man said:

"Braised pork belly, take a big tree."

Kou Rou paused for a moment upon hearing what Curly Hair said.

"Should I just go straight to the first floor and exit to the big tree?"

Sensing the incredulous look on Kou Rou's face, Curly explained:
"Abu specifically told me before I went on the field that he wanted me to take the big tree directly."

Kou Rou pursed his lips, said no more, and locked the tree.

This version of the tree just underwent a rework in July.

However, the skills of the tree at this time are vastly different from those of the tree later on.

The tree has undergone three reworks since its release. The first version was a complete waste. It worked diligently in the Rift for three and a half years, but many people still couldn't even remember its skills.

The passive mechanism is similar to Kassadin's previous W. You gain stacks when someone nearby casts a spell. When you have 5 stacks, you can heal yourself with a basic attack. The Q and W effects are similar to the last version, but the values are slightly different.

In addition to knockback, Q skill also slows for 2 seconds, and W skill's damage, control duration, and casting range are all far superior to the current version.

The E skill was one of the highest damage skills at the time. The tree sprites could not only self-destruct, but also deal damage when they hit people. Up to this point, its strength was still normal. However, it became weak after the ultimate skill was added.

The original Maokai's damage reduction area provides 20% damage reduction. It is cast similarly to Anivia's R, but you can't move and it has a very high mana cost. However, Anivia has a short cooldown, so you can turn it off and on again if you don't cast it properly. This thing has a 40-second cooldown at level 1, so if the opponent kites you, you can just stand there and die.

So even in the early days when tanks were still relatively popular, Maokai's popularity was quite low. He only became popular for a while when utility junglers were prevalent in Season 2, and he completely disappeared after the jungle item came out in Season 3.

As a veteran of Summoner's Rift, seeing that Maokai is not only unable to appear in professional matches, but also virtually unplayed in casual games, Riot Games finally took action.

W has been changed to percentage-based damage, and the Tree Spawn now has a self-destruct slow effect, greatly improving its laning ability. The key change is the ultimate, which now moves with the user's body, significantly enhancing its team fight impact.

During this period, the top lane Zilean Iceborn Maokai was an extremely overpowered character. At the start, Maokai's sons would steal the F4 creeps, and he could use his EQ combo to clear a wave of backline minions. If he couldn't win, he could use his sons to last-hit cannon minions. His ultimate had no time limit, and he could keep using it as long as he had mana. He was incredibly tanky and dealt high damage, like a persistent leech.

However, at this time, not many teams had actually developed the Tree of Life. In fact, the Tree of Life was most popular between Season 5 and Season 7.

There was a saying at the time: a certain team was recruiting a top laner.

EDG's move with the big tree can be said to be at the forefront of the times.

But for a player like Koro1, picking a tank hero is actually a bit unsatisfactory.

If he could just play with the big tree in peace, Ah Guang wouldn't have had any trouble later on.

After securing the Tree of Life, EDG immediately locked in Ryze.

Ryze has high damage output and is also very tanky. When paired with Maokai, this combination can easily achieve a 2v5 in the late game.

The key point is that neither Maokai nor Ryze actually need much attention from the jungler. As long as they farm normally, they can take over the game in the late game.

This is a trump card that EDG has been holding onto, but now they are forced to use it.

After all, if they lose to match point, the players' mentality will be greatly affected, and it will probably be too late to use their ultimate move.

However, while EDG's ultimate move might be useful against other teams, it's all too familiar to Zhou Li.

"Janna, take her!"

Kog'Maw and Janna are a perfect bot lane combination for EDG's mid and top lane strategy.

Ryze and Maokai tank in front, Kog'Maw deals damage relentlessly from behind, and Janna protects Kog'Maw while also providing protection for the front line.

It's safe to say that if you get these four heroes, you can't lose even with your eyes closed once the game reaches 35 minutes.

WE.A's acquisition of Kog'Maw not only disrupted EDG's lineup, but more importantly, it also puts EDG at a disadvantage, as Kog'Maw is the fastest tank to take down tanks.

EDG player seats.

Seeing WE.A lock in their champions instantly, Curly's mouth dropped open in astonishment.

He couldn't understand how the opposing team knew their lineup and directly picked Janna and Kog'Maw. They didn't even hesitate, as if they already knew the key points of their lineup and had prepared in advance.

The key point is that EDG has never used this lineup in scrims.

This left Curly Hair in a somewhat helpless situation.

After all, he wasn't originally in charge of the team's draft picks.

"Nami, what do you mean?"

Nami, being an ADC player, immediately thought of alternatives when she saw Kog'Maw and Janna being picked, and said:

"Let's go with the rat, the rat is fine... Let's choose last, let's get the prince and Nami first."

With the Tree of Life, the Prince, and the Wanderer in the front row, and the Twitch pew pew pew pew pew, the team fight scene is just too beautiful.

On the commentary desk, upon seeing EDG's champion selection, Miller said:

"EDG has locked in Jarvan IV and Nami, which is a terrifying lineup for team fights! Fortunately, WE.A has Kog'Maw, so they can handle this kind of tank lineup. However, they must protect Sima Laozei's development in this game."

The right to vote has returned to WE.A.

Zhou Li originally thought that EDG would directly take Twitch, but unexpectedly, they chose to take Nami and Jarvan IV first.

They probably thought that WE.A had already produced an ADC, and that Zhou Li couldn't guess their thoughts.

Since EDG isn't going to take it, Zhou Li naturally won't hold back either.

"Hey! We see that WE.A has locked in Shen and then Twitch! What does this mean? Didn't they already have Kog'Maw? It's Shen jungle..."

Hearing the doll's words, Miller said:

"It should be Shen top lane and Twitch jungle! Actually, Twitch jungle isn't considered a niche jungler anymore, but this champion is very skill-dependent and requires precise timing and rhythm; you either go on a killing spree or you feed like crazy!"

Twitch jungle might sound a bit strange at first, but in fact, it was a pretty popular choice in Season 4.

The reason why this version of Twitch can jungle is because the jungle monsters in Season 4 have a mechanism that allows Twitch to jungle without taking damage!

After the S4 jungle adjustments, if you attack a jungle monster at its disengagement threshold, the monster will enter a state where it paces back and forth but cannot be attacked, allowing Twitch to jungle without taking damage.

Furthermore, Season 4 removed the True Sight Potion and limited the number of True Sight Wards that could be purchased, significantly increasing the success rate of ganks using Twitch's Q skill to become invisible.

However, Twitch is a hero who needs to develop economically, and although Twitch can jungle without taking damage, his jungle clearing speed is not fast at all. Therefore, Twitch's jungle play is extremely dependent on the success rate of ganks.

This is why Twitch junglers either become incredibly powerful or incredibly unplayable.

Although Zhou Li did not achieve perfect proficiency with the mouse this season, he did achieve it last season through Pray's historical records.

Although he no longer possessed the ultimate instinctive muscle reactions and the most detailed micro-management, all his abilities regarding mice were still stored in his mind as memories.

Jungle Twitch requires more control of the game's tempo and doesn't necessarily require the same level of micro-management as laners.

Therefore, Zhou Li did not hesitate to lock up the rat.

Meanwhile, the EDG players were on the bench.

After seeing WE.A's draft picks, Curly and Nami were completely dumbfounded.

They never expected that the opposing team would pull out a Twitch jungler at this crucial moment!

As professional players, they naturally couldn't be like Wawa, who didn't even know the strategy of playing Twitch jungle. But they really didn't expect Zhou Li to suddenly bring out a Twitch jungle pick.

It's obvious that Zhou Li's choice of Twitch as a jungler was entirely aimed at their tactical system.

Our team's draft picks were completely figured out by the opposing team!

What's most disgusting is that WE.A's lineup is just as formidable as EDG's defenses.

Although there's only one Shen in the front row, the combination of Twitch, Kog'Maw, and Lulu and Janna's double shields makes it incredibly annoying.

If these two carry positions are allowed to develop well enough, even a large tree would probably melt in a few seconds if it stood in front of them.

Putting aside the content of these games for the moment, EDG is currently facing a huge problem.

That means there aren't many good ADCs left to choose from to fit this system.

Curly Hair had clearly lost his composure and asked Nami:

"How to say?"

Nami sighed.

"Let's get the plane."

With Nami feeling helpless, the lineups for both sides were thus locked in.

Blue side: WE.A Esports Club VS Red side: EDG Esports Club.

Top lane: (khan) Eye of Twilight VS (korol) Maokai.

Jungle: (Li) Plague Rat VS (Fireloli) Demacian Prince.

Mid lane: (xiye) Purple Garlic VS (U) Wandering Mage.