LPL History

Chapter 229 The Bull Chieftain Shatters Horns and Buries Bones of Hatred, Yama Steps on Head and Soars in Double Leap

When Zhou Li locked in Yasuo without hesitation, Xi Ye finally couldn't help but get wet.

He touched his warm eyes, looked at the Zed that had lit up on the opposite side, and vowed in his heart that no matter what, he could not let Brother Zhou down in this game.

"This is so touching, Xiye can start crying now."

Sima the Old Thief spoke.

"We shouldn't have let you come back from the first team in the first place."

Xi Ye gritted her teeth.

Zhou Li was already used to the bickering among the group.

These people are all good at joking and can take a joke.

What I fear most is the kind of person who only allows me to joke with them, but you can't joke with me; that's truly—the sky is falling.

NJWS players' bench.

Upon seeing WE.A's player selections, the second brother revealed a disdainful smile.

"Oh? He's actually playing Yasuo? Does the Lulu jinchūriki really know how to play Yasuo?"

After all, although the second brother couldn't afford to buy Xiye, they didn't watch WE.A's matches because WE.A was the number one seed in the LPL.

He had never seen the other player play Yasuo before.

Zed and Yasuo are both champions that require a lot of skill to play.

Overall, the matchup during the laning phase was roughly 40/60.

With his passive shield and short-cooldown Q skill, including Wind Wall, Yasuo can gain an advantage in both trading blows and lane control.

Zed needs to play cautiously and survive until level 6. Only after getting his ultimate can he try to use it to combo Yasuo. Before that, it's very difficult to fight back against Yasuo in a head-on confrontation.

Even so, Yasuo can use his Wind Wall and E skill's slide to dodge Zed's skills and even create a counter-attack situation.

If we divide them by strength over time, Zed is weaker than Yasuo before level 6, Zed is stronger than Yasuo between level 6 and 13, but in the late game, Yasuo surpasses Zed in both split pushing and team fight capabilities.

Therefore, the second brother's Zed can only play his role effectively in the mid-game.

But the second brother didn't think so.

He doesn't believe that Yasuo, who is Lulu's jinchūriki, can gain an advantage in lane when facing him.

He's going to control the opponent!

"Watch out, pick a strong jungler, I can easily beat this Yasuo!"

Hearing his second brother's confident statement, Watch hesitated for a moment.

Reason told him that Zed was unlikely to beat Yasuo in the early game.

However, the second brother's Zed skill is also undeniable; he plays it very well, and it can be considered his signature champion.

Watch chose to believe first.

So Watch chose the Spider Queen.

Spider isn't actually a popular pick in this patch. However, with Nidalee and Lee Sin both being banned, Spider's ganking ability becomes extremely strong.

Furthermore, Zed is an AD mid laner and Elise is an AP jungler. With such a mid-jungle duo, their fighting power is even stronger in a 2v2 situation in the mid lane.

NJWS then locked in another hand of bulls.

Seeing NJWS's player selections and the strength of their Korean commentators, everyone became visibly excited!

"Wow! NJWS's draft is incredibly confident! They clearly want to go head-to-head with WE.A's mid and jungle! What should we do, Zhou Li? Will he dare to accept the challenge?!"

Upon hearing Jeon Yong-jun's words, Kim Jae-young smiled and said:

"I think it would be a very unwise choice for him to accept the challenge at this point. It's undeniable that Zhou Li's jungle is very strong, but Watch is not weak either! Most importantly, Ggoong's ability is definitely stronger than Xiye's! To give an analogy, NJWS's mid-jungle duo is more than the sum of its parts, while WE.A's mid-jungle duo is less than the sum of its parts!"

Zhao Enjing seemed a little worried and said:

"It seems that Xiye has never played Yasuo before. In fact, WE.A might want to avoid fighting in the mid lane."

"No way!" Kim Jae-young laughed. "Don't forget what Zhou Li said before the match? He was already so arrogant. If he chooses to avoid the fight at this crucial moment, wouldn't that be too cowardly? Hmm, right, Zhou Li? If you're so capable, come and face me head-on!"

Kim Jae-young was venting his pent-up energy when the director's camera happened to pan to Zhou Li's face.

Upon seeing the NJWS lineup, the young man showed no sign of nervousness whatsoever; instead, he displayed a hint of mockery.

Zhou Li couldn't help but laugh when he saw NJWS's player selection.

It's worth noting that the NJWS team has always been adept at slowing down the pace of the game and then relying on team fights in the late game to secure victory.

But what kind of lineup did they choose now?
Clearly, they wanted to engage in close combat with them from the very beginning.

But playing the early to mid-game is what WE.A has always excelled at!

In Zhou Li's opinion, NJWS's decision to field such a lineup either shows they don't respect WE.A or they've lost their minds.

But whatever the reason, Zhou Li has already spoken:

"Brothers, let's take this round."

Zhou Li's words startled everyone at WE.A. Xiao Ming asked awkwardly:
"Is that all?"

“I’ve accepted it,” Zhou Li said with a smile. “Brothers, I’m already starting to enjoy it.”

Zhou Li's words undoubtedly gave everyone a boost of confidence.

After all, although nine out of ten of Zhou Ge's statements are lies, the one true statement he made was definitely during the competition.

"Xi Ye, get me the poodle."

Rengar is extremely strong in this version and is a representative of early-game invasion heroes.

Although this would create a double AD situation for WE.A's mid and jungle, with Nidalee being banned and Elise being picked, there are no other junglers suitable for the early game tempo.

However, in the current version, heroes deal extremely high damage, so there's not much to worry about with two AD heroes.

Most importantly, the current version of Rengar has explosive damage in the early game, making him the king of 1v1 in the jungle. If you encounter him in the jungle, it will be very difficult for any hero to beat him when facing him alone.

And because the Lion Dog has a mechanism that allows it to jump over grass, sometimes it not only can't beat them, but it can't even outrun them.

NJWS picked Spider, hoping to find an opportunity in the lane to engage in a 2v2 mid-jungle matchup against them.

Zhou Li would naturally not avoid war, but how to fight would be up to him!

Spiders like to gank lanes, right?

Then we'll make sure he can't even leave the jungle!
The atmosphere at the scene became noticeably heated when WE.A locked in the Rengar.

After all, what the audience wants to see is exciting battles where the two teams constantly clash, rather than a boring match where the players just focus on farming and then the game ends in a team fight after forty minutes.

After taking down the poodle, Zhou Li spoke:

"Take the policewoman!"

With Maokai locked in the top lane, WE.A is destined to pick a physical damage-heavy team for this game.

It's unrealistic to expect to deal AP damage by relying on support.

Since the "melee team" strategy is unavoidable, the best option WE.A can make is to pick heroes that can further accelerate the game's pace!
Seeing WE.A's player selections, NJWS naturally understood their intentions.

But how to break the deadlock became a point of contention among the group.

Second Brother Gogoong confidently stated that he would directly challenge WE.A with an early-game lineup. However, the more cautious Zefa wanted to secure a late-game carry as a safety net.

Ultimately, due to the team's consistent playstyle and the fact that the ADC selection was ultimately in Zefa's hands, NJWS locked in the Kog'Maw and Janna combination.

WE.A locked in Thresh as their last pick.

The lineups for both sides were thus finalized.

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

Top lane: (save) Alistar vs. (khan) Treant Protector.

Jungle: (watch) Spider Queen VS (Li) Pride of the Hunter.

Mid Lane: (ggoong) Zed vs. (xiey) Yasuo.

ADC: (zefa) Kog'Maw VS (smlz) Caitlyn.

Support: (Gorilla) Janna VS (ming) Thresh.

Amid cheers from the crowd, as soon as the game started, WE.A immediately grouped up five players and invaded NJWS's jungle.

In terms of team fight strength, WE.A's lineup has an almost overwhelming advantage, so they naturally have no reason to let their opponents off the hook.

Chinese commentary booth.

Seeing WE.A's actions, Miller spoke up:

“We saw WE.A immediately preparing for a level 1 team fight! But NJWS clearly understands WE.A's team style very well. They didn't even choose to spread out with all five players at the beginning, but instead prepared themselves directly in the bottom half of the map!”

The five members of NJWS were crouching in the bushes outside the red buff wall, still thinking of ambushing WE.A.

Although NJWS's lineup is at a disadvantage in a direct confrontation, if they can catch someone off guard, with Alistar's control and Janna's charged wind, NJWS is fully capable of putting up a fight.

But Zhou Li immediately became wary after not seeing anyone from NJWS show up.

Instead of having Thresh or Maokai face-check the bushes, he had Sima Laozei learn the W skill, Traps.

The female police officer's W skill has a very large casting range, so she doesn't have to worry about being caught by the level 1 short-range NJWS team.

Even though the Spider learned the E skill, Xiaoming's Thresh was always stuck in front of Caitlyn's position.

Nowadays, there's no need for Zhou Li to remind people about things like positioning.

While the W skill provides very little vision, only revealing a small patch of vision briefly when the trap is placed right at the enemy's feet, the bushes outside the Red Buff wall are incredibly small. If five people are camping there, even if the trap is thrown randomly, it can still land right at someone's feet.

Sure enough, when the policewoman lowered the trap, the WE.A team saw a spider flash by.

Sima Laozei almost had a professional urge to go up and tap anyone he saw, but Zhou Li's reminder came through his earpiece.

"Move out!"

Upon hearing Zhou Li's voice, Sima Laozei forcibly interrupted his normal attack and moved to the side.

Xiaoming's Thresh, on the other hand, directly opted for control cancellation—using his Q skill.

The policewoman's traps, placed in the grass, had already restricted the standing space for the NJWS members.

Seeing Thresh use his hook, the only option is to move towards the outside of the bushes.

But this was exactly what Xiaoming had predicted!

However, NJWS also demonstrated their discipline. After seeing that their teammates had no room to move, the Alistar deliberately moved to block the hook for the Spider.

"Just kill the bull's head."

Upon hearing Zhou Li's words, the Khan was the first to rush over and give the bull-headed man an Asian bondage.

The bull still thinks it's meat.

However, he clearly underestimated WE.A's chain of control.

Sima, the old scoundrel, had already placed another trap at the feet of the bull-headed creature.

The Minotaur kowtowed once, but it only knocked away the Khan's tree. Xi Ye used his positioning to block the Minotaur's casting range.

By the time the control ended, the saved minotaur was already low on health.

He knew he couldn't withstand the subsequent damage, so he chose to use Flash over the wall.

"Xi Ye, give me an eye!"

In the red buff pit, a scout ward landed, instantly illuminating the location of the Earthshaker.

The Rengar, who had already entered the bush, used his passive ability to bypass the red buff and catch up with Alistar.

Save knew he was doomed, but before he died, he had to do something: lure the poodle towards his teammates!
The Rengar was now out of position from his teammates, so Alistar chose to run towards the right-hand bush. NJWS's support Janna immediately set up vision in the bush, and watch's Elise was even more cunning, only learning her E skill at this moment.

Just as the lion dog was about to kill the bull, the spider's cocoon shot over.

The Rengar deftly turned its head, dodging the spider's control, and then used its passive ability to leap out of the bushes and kill the Minotaur.

First blood!

"Zhou Li! First Blood! But NJWS is already right in front of him, it looks like he's going to be forced to use Flash!"

Miller watched the live stream and shouted nervously.

At this point, Zhou Li's position was severely out of sync with his teammates.

If you want to run directly towards your teammates, you have to use Flash.

However, Flash is very important for a jungler in the early game, so Zhou Li chose to turn back.

And then headed to the lower left.

In the Korean live stream, Kim Jae-young excitedly shouted:

"Kill him! Kill him! Zhou Li is in a panic! He's running towards our house!"

Seeing that Zhou Li's health had dropped to half, Zhao Enjing clenched her fists nervously.

On the WE.A player's bench, facing what seemed like an inevitable defeat, Zhou Li showed no sign of tension.

As soon as he stepped into the bushes to the lower left, NJWS immediately set up a vision point.

Zhou Li glanced at Xiao Ming's position.

"Xiaoming, start scanning!"

Before the upgrade, this version of the scanner could only be used in fixed locations.

However, this also has an advantage: the hero no longer needs to move to a position where there are wards!
Upon hearing Zhou Li's words, Xiao Ming immediately understood and placed a scanner in the bushes next to the red buff!

NJWS's view, which had been sitting in the grass, was instantly illuminated!
The poodle turned and pounced!
"Zhou Li! He stepped on the heads of the four NJWS members and flew back to his teammates!!"

The NJWS members were stunned for a moment as they watched the poodle fly overhead.

However, they knew that continuing the pursuit was unlikely at this point, and were just about to retreat when something surprising happened in the next second.

The poodle, which had just lost sight of the spider after jumping into the bushes, suddenly leaped out of the bushes again and pounced on the spider's face!
"Eh!"

In the commentary booth, Miller was so excited that he lost his voice!
"What's going on? Why did it jump back?! Did I press the wrong button?!"

The NJWS staff were stunned to see the Shih Tzu return!
The second brother, ggoong, shouted loudly.

"Damn it, what does this kid mean? He's only half health and he still dares to jump over here?! Kill him!!"

(End of this chapter)