LPL History

Chapter 268 Mata's Divine Strategist and Ingenious Plan: A Series of Ambushes and Nightfalls Trapped Zhonglang

When Samsung White completed the final repositioning, it surprised everyone.

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

Top Lane: (Flandre) Rumble VS (looper) Ryze.

Jungler: (Li) Lee Sin VS (dandy) Jarvan IV.

Mid lane: (xiye) Lulu VS (pawn) Jayce.

ADC: (smlz) mouse VS (imp) airplane.

Support: (ming) Leona VS (mata) Maokai.

Miller looked at the lineups of both sides and said:

"We can see that in the second game, the lineups of both sides were not as aggressive as in the first game. However, overall, both sides still picked lineups that were strong in the early and mid-game, but each side had heroes that could provide backup in the late game."

He then changed the subject, saying with some concern:
"But to be honest, I really didn't expect Mata to be such a big player. Korean teams often suddenly bring out things we've never seen before at the World Championships, and they always manage to get pretty good results."

The doll nodded and spoke up:

"Yeah, in this second game, Samsung White was clearly pulling out all the stops. To be honest, I was actually a little nervous."

WE.A players' bench.

After seeing that the Samsung White had completed the repositioning, Zhou Li breathed a sigh of relief.

Big Tree support!
That's fine.

He thought Jayce was the support.

That gave me a fright!
As the two entered the game, Zhou Li was surprised to find that he had somewhat underestimated Mata's understanding of the game.

When the two sides' minion waves met, Xiye couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

"what?!"

That exclamation of "Ah Li" was a mixture of incomprehension, doubt, anger, and utter confusion.

Zhou Li immediately switched the screen to look at the middle lane.

That glance made his gaze linger on the middle lane for a full two seconds.

Because at this moment, in the mid lane, there's not only Pawn, but also Mata!

Instead of going to the bottom lane to support, mata chose to hold the vision at level one and walked out from the F4 pass of WE.A!

Level 1 gank mid lane!

This is why Samsung White still chose Jayce for the mid lane.

Because compared to traditional mages, level 1 Jayce has two mindsets, which can unleash extremely high burst damage!
Mata used an Asian-style binding technique to imprison Xiye, Pawn unleashed a shockwave, and then switched to hammer form for Sky Leap!
The two of them worked together perfectly, and at level one they took away half of Xiye's health!

What's even more outrageous is that Mata's disgust for Xiye goes beyond that.

After catching Xiye, Mata didn't even leave. He stood in the mid lane and helped Pawn push the lane!

This outrageous move completely stunned Zhou Li.

When people say someone has an excellent understanding of the game, they usually mean they have a version of the game that is ten years ahead of its time.

But Mata is such a jerk.

They're ahead by a whole game!
Mata's actions clearly surprised the whole world.

After all, Honor of Kings hasn't been released yet, so it's understandable that people are making a fuss.

"Why is Mata already in the mid lane? Isn't Imp going to do anything about it?"

Hearing the doll's words, Miller said:

"He doesn't seem to care about Imp at all. But is it really okay to play like this? Mid lane is the lane that relies most on experience. If you're in mid lane like this, you'll be taking away Pawn's experience."

Mata clearly understands this as well.

So after helping Pawn push the lane a little, he immediately disappeared in the mid lane.

Mata's actions clearly shocked everyone in WE.A.

Seeing Mata disappear in the mid lane, Xiye spoke up:

"The big tree is gone; we don't know where it went."

Hearing Xi Ye's words, Zhou Li smiled and said:

"I guess he went with the jungler."

After all, in Honor of Kings, once the support finishes pushing the lane for the mid laner, they either go back to the bottom lane or go with the jungler.

He had only made a casual joke, but to Zhou Li's surprise, Mata was actually talking to Dandy at that moment.

The audience, with their God-like perspective, were completely stunned.

[What the hell is Mata doing?]

【Wait, why are you following the jungler again?】

Is this how League of Legends is played now?

There's something dirty inside!

[WE.A, be careful.]

What's the meaning of Mata stealing mid lane experience and then stealing jungle experience?

Faced with everyone's doubts, Mata quickly gave them the answer.

After Mata helped Dandy clear the jungle monsters in the top half of the map, he led Dandy towards the mid lane.

And the situation in the middle lane at this time was exactly as he had predicted!
Although Xiye was ambushed at level one, resulting in a significant drop in health.

However, Mata's unpredictable appearances put immense pressure on Xiye.

Xiye's pressure didn't come from the online game, but from his worry that Mata and Dandy would target Zhou Li in the jungle.

This is also the most likely possibility that comes to mind for a top-tier site on the Mata platform.

So Xiye still forced the lane forward.

What he didn't realize was that Pawn was also intentionally laying out lines.

Meanwhile, because Mata was helping Dandy jungle, Xiye lost a sense of timing regarding Dandy's jungle efficiency!
This puts Xi Ye in an extremely dangerous position!
And this is the elaborate scheme that Samsung White tailored specifically for Xi Ye!

"Mata and Dandy are about to cause trouble! Xiye! He didn't realize that the jungler and support were coming to gank mid at level two!! Wow, it looks like we can't escape this wave!"

First blood!

As the first blood sound effect rang out, the long-silent Korean audience finally erupted in a burst of enthusiastic cheers!
Xi Ye stared at the gray screen, her expression somewhat grim.

He used Flash, but was still killed under the tower. The three Samsung White members immediately cleared the mid-lane minions. Even if he revived and teleported back, he would lose the experience of almost a wave of minions.

"How can Mata be so disgusting?"

Xi Ye couldn't help but complain.

Zhou Li was surprised that Mata actually went to jungle with Dandy.

Having played professionally for so many years, he's seen all sorts of ups and downs, but this is the first time he's experienced the feeling of cerebellar atrophy.

Judging from Mata's current pace, his next move will most likely be to enter his own jungle and then flood the area with vision.

In fact, Mata's playstyle is definitely a huge loss for Samsung White.

If League of Legends could be played like this, then this tactic would have been developed long ago.

First, there's the bot lane that was abandoned. Imp was already being pressured so badly in the bot lane that he couldn't lift his head and was far behind in gold.

Next up was the mid-jungle duo, who both got experience from Mata.

In other words, Mata's actions directly led to losses in all three areas.

But since Mata did this, he certainly didn't do it just to get his team home early. There are definitely benefits to it.

And clearly, Xiye's death is the first step for Samsung White to turn a profit.

However, merely getting a kill in the mid lane is definitely not worth the effort Samsung White made in the early game.

Therefore, Zhou Li is 100% certain that Mata's series of moves are definitely not over yet!

Since they've paid such a high price, they must be looking to gain even greater benefits!
As Zhou Li predicted, Mata indeed entered his jungle.

In this game, Zhou Li chose to start with the red buff and farm upwards. He was attacking the blue buff when he saw Mata's Maokai swaggering over.

"Wow! Mata is so arrogant, he just went into Zhou Li's jungle all by himself?!"

On the commentary panel, seeing Mata's actions, Wawa couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Miller, however, reacted quickly and said:

"Mata is playing mind games! We can see that Dandy went back to farm his bottom jungle, but Zhou Li didn't have that information! Mata and Dandy disappeared from WE.A's sight at almost the same time. He's deliberately acting so arrogantly, like he has someone backing him up!"

The doll suddenly realized and complained:

"This Mata even resorted to a ghost town tactic!"

There was nothing wrong with MAMA's psychological maneuvering in itself.

After he and the jungler became inseparable, if he suddenly saw one of them, he would inevitably be nervous about whether the other was also nearby.

Anyone else who saw Mata walking towards them like that would probably choose to cautiously back away.

But Mata's mistake was that he underestimated Zhou Li's confidence.

In Zhou Li's view, what difference would it make if you, a prince, followed behind a big tree?
He's level 3, and he's taking on two level 2 opponents—that's a guaranteed kill!

If there is an opportunity to act, then one must act; this is the essence of Zhou ritual!
Therefore, this psychological game simply doesn't hold true from Zhou Li's perspective.

Mata walked towards Zhou Li's blind monk, only to find that the other party completely ignored her.

This completely stunned Mata, who even began to wonder if Zhou Li had been too focused on farming the jungle.

So he simply used his Q skill to hit the blue buff, trying to harass Zhou Li, the jungler.

But this one action directly exposed the fact that Mata had no one backing her.

Because if there were anyone behind Mata, he wouldn't have used Q in this wave, but would have directly used W to bind them together!
So Zhou Li, while attacking the blue buff, actually moved towards the location of the big tree.

Seeing that the Blind Monk was advancing instead of retreating and walking towards his face, Mata panicked.

He originally came here to dress up, but he didn't expect the other person to be so clueless. This gesture seemed to say:

"You just wait, I'll take care of you as soon as I finish off the blue buff."

Mata was so frightened that she immediately turned around and left, not daring to linger.

Whether Mata managed to get Zhou Li this time is hard to say, but he definitely left netizens bewildered.

However, Mata seemed to have anticipated this situation.

In fact, his main purpose was simply to check Zhou Li's location so that he could better plan his next move.

After seeing Zhou Li's location, it can be confirmed that Zhou Li is the route to be obtained through online farming.

So Mata ran straight to the bottom lane.

In order to save time, he even openly crossed through the middle lane.

Because Mata wasn't afraid that Zhou Li would discover his intentions.

He even deliberately let Zhou Li see his movements.

In League of Legends, for roles like support and jungler, maintaining vision control is a very advanced skill.

But an even more sophisticated method is to deliberately leave a gap in the field of vision, using the false field of vision information obtained by the opponent to confuse them and thus make them fall into the trap themselves.

Mata's missed vision signaled to WE.A that they were heading to the bottom lane.

Meanwhile, it's not hard for WE to guess that Dandy is also in the lower jungle.

Therefore, WE.A's bot lane duo had to be careful with vision control and temporarily abandon their pressure on imp.

Of course, imp's role was just a side effect of Mata's.

Most importantly, he wanted to lure Zhou Li to the bottom lane, thereby affecting Zhou Li's jungle clearing rhythm.

at the same time!

He had already secured another vision, and together with Dandy, they were once again targeting Xiye, who was in the mid lane!

Just as Xiye received the information that Mata had not returned to the bottom lane, Mata and Dandy had already attacked from the side.

Samsung White's mid-jungle-support combination was clearly chosen specifically for this tactic.

Jayce's dual forms have extremely high burst damage in the early game.

With the tree's stable control combined with the prince's burst control, it's very difficult for anyone to survive if they get hit by a skill.

Mata even understood this, so he directly chose to start with Flash!
[SSW_pawn (Future Guardian) has defeated WE.A_xiye (Fairy Witch)!]

"Oh!"

As Pawn secured another kill, cheers erupted from the crowd.

"Ah! Mata's surprise attack caught Xiye off guard again! These two are going a bit too far today, constantly ganking the mid lane!"

Hearing the doll's words, Miller said with some concern:

"The biggest problem now is that Jayce got both kills! That means Xiye will be under a lot of pressure in the mid lane!"

Bella nodded and analyzed:
"Yes. We know that Lulu was able to move from the support role to the mid lane not because of her high damage output, but because of her strength in controlling the lane. But now, it seems unlikely that Lulu will be able to control the mid lane, and it's probably unlikely that she will be able to achieve much in the future."

“Yes,” Miller nodded, “but although Lulu, as a utility champion, failed to play her role in the early laning phase, it’s still acceptable that this champion at least has reliable control and survival skills in mid-to-late game team fights.”

"But the biggest concern right now is Jayce. If you let him get too farmed, you won't be able to withstand his poke in the early and mid-game."

Meanwhile, in the live stream, seeing the 0:2 kill score, LPL viewers were clearly getting a little anxious.

After all, in previous matches, WE.A rarely fell into a disadvantageous position in the early stages.

【Wait, what is Xiye doing?】

Why push forward if you don't have Flash?

[I'm speechless. This is supposed to be a display of human Jinchūriki?]

[It's bad enough that the mid laner is completely useless, but the real problem is that they're feeding Pawn.]

[This game isn't going to be a 'G' (golden) game, is it? Holy crap.]

[Can we win 3-0? I'm getting a little nervous!]

The key issue is that the mid-laner died twice in a row, making it difficult for Zhou Ge to perform well.

Samsung's strategy of using white did indeed catch WE.A off guard.

However, Zhou Li was not in a hurry at this time.

Just as Miller said, Lulu is ultimately just a utility character.

Sacrificing Xiye to preserve one's own development is not an unacceptable thing.

In this game, as long as the team's two core carries, Twitch and Rumble, don't have any major problems, everything will be fine.

The only tricky problem right now is this Jayce who's developed quite well.

Zhou Li needs to find a way to disrupt Pawn's momentum.

Otherwise, if Jayce gets too ahead in development, a three-star White can accelerate the game and use Jayce's poke ability to push towers.

(End of this chapter)