LPL History

Chapter 269 Avoiding the Real and Attacking the Weak: Zhou Li's Wisdom Breaks Through the Upper Path; Blind Monk's Desperate Gamble in the Dragon Abyss

While the pawn point must be addressed, Zhou Li understands that Samsung White certainly does as well.

In this game, they will definitely focus on making plays around Pawn.

Rushing into a gank might actually make the situation more difficult.

In this situation, Zhou Li had to carefully consider his actions before taking any action.

Because he knows Pawn very well.

While Pawn may not be able to compare with Faker in terms of accolades, Pawn's individual skill at his peak was absolutely on par with Faker's.

Therefore, every seemingly opportunistic positioning mistake that pawn makes may not be a genuine mistake; it could very well be a deliberate attempt to lure you in.

In the current situation, if he and Xiye in the mid lane give away another kill, it will be very difficult for them to turn the tide.

Lulu in the mid lane doesn't deal much damage, so ganking her directly in the mid lane now is definitely not a good choice.

Therefore, there are only two ways to target pawn.

One option is to call in teammates from the side lanes, and even just support might not be enough, to risk being counter-ganked in the mid lane and force a free fight against Samsung.

Another option is to first create openings in other areas and develop oneself.

Zhou Li immediately turned his attention to the road ahead.

Looper's Rogue gained an advantage in the top lane thanks to his long range.

Moreover, he also needs to manage the traffic aspect.

Because once the Wanderer gets fed, the double mage/tank lineup of Wanderer and Maokai can be incredibly annoying.

However, Mata's Maokai was a support in this game, so his tankiness was definitely not up to par.

Therefore, if a three-star White player wants to wait until the very late game to see the Roaming Tree and the tanky mage combo become effective, they will have to wait until the very late game.

Samsung White's decision to pick Ryze was also to ensure their safety in the late game; the true core of their lineup wasn't actually in the top lane.

All they need to ensure is the development of Jayce in the mid lane. After all, as long as this one hero develops well, his hero characteristics will allow Samsung White to gain a huge advantage in the early and mid-game.

In this situation, either Samsung White can quickly win the game, or even if they can't, Wanderers can use this time to get some kills or split push to catch up on their development.

So, while the Wanderer character might seem like a core that needs to develop, he isn't a key player in the early to mid-game of this match.

Everyone thought that this game would revolve around the mid and jungle positions.

Loopers share this view.

After all, from any perspective, one should not be the primary target.

Jayce in the mid lane has already farmed up, while the ADC in the bottom lane is practically AFK under the tower.

It would be more valuable to capture either of these two people than to capture yourself.

But Zhou Li was precisely targeting this mental inversion!

Korean commentary booth.

Quan Yongjun, observing the Blind Monk's movements, spoke:

"Zhou Li finally couldn't hold back anymore and wanted to go to mid... wait! Is he trying to gank Looper in top lane?! But Looper has better vision in top lane!"

At this moment, in the upper half of the Samsung White map, Looper placed a vision in the river bush, while Dandy provided vision in the triangular bush.

Even if you don't help the top laner, you still need to ensure good vision control for the Looper.

These two vision points effectively shut down Lee Sin's gank routes.

Meanwhile, the blind monk, while walking, suddenly made a turn and crashed into the dragon pit.

Then, by using the ward jump, they entered the upper jungle of Samsung White.

"Oh! WE.A must have known that Looper had vision in the river! So Zhou Li chose to take a detour! But there's also vision in the tri-bush, so it's unlikely they'll catch Looper this time!"

As soon as Quan Yongjun finished speaking, he saw the blind monk suddenly die on the spot without any warning.

Then he just stood there motionless!
"What is this?!"

The director immediately realized Zhou Li's intention and directly showed the view of the Samsung White.

Zhou Li was standing right outside the ward's line of sight in the top lane's tri-bush!

Such precise positioning drew gasps of surprise from the audience!

"Wow! That was such a brilliant use of vision control! Flandre was still luring him in, and Looper was completely unaware of the danger! The harpoon hit him!!"

With Quan Yongjun's exclamation, the blind monk finally moved!

Looper also saw the Lee Sin icon that suddenly appeared on the minimap.

This made him curse, because in his opinion, he just happened to be slowed down by Lee Sin, and then Lee Sin just happened to arrive!
Flandre played very aggressively, immediately using Flash to roast Looper's Ryze.

Looper wanted to make another move, so he countered by controlling Rumble and then tried to dodge Lee Sin's Sonic Wave.

But Zhou Li would never hand over a Heavenly Sound Wave like that!

The Blind Monk chose to place a ward and get right in the face, then unleashed a devastating palm strike!

Looper knew he couldn't benefit from the slow effect, so he immediately used Flash!
But the golden light behind him lit up even earlier than he did!
"Oh!!"

"Wow! E-Flash! Am I seeing things? I feel like Zhou Li used his Flash even earlier than Looper! This was a predicted E-Flash!"

Seeing that he was still slowed down by Lee Sin, Looper knew that if no one unplugged Lee Sin's mouse, he would definitely not be able to escape.

After a symbolic twist, he gave up his own head.

"Zhou Li! A perfect vision control maneuver! He caught and killed the top laner, Ryze! And he didn't even give the kill to Rumble in lane!"

Zhou Li would naturally not give his head to Rambo.

Because he urgently needs the money to upgrade his equipment in order to take the lead.

What followed was even more outrageous.

After Rumble used his Q skill to burn all the minions to low health, Lee Sin used his E skill to clear all the minions, and then used Sonic Wave to eat the cannon minion. Then the two of them pressed recall.

"Oh mo!"

Kim Jae-young's eyes widened when he saw this.

"What is Zhou Li doing? Has he gone mad? Why is he farming Rumble's minions like that?"

Quan Yongjun also felt that WE.A's actions were somewhat illogical.

"This is a bit too outrageous. Rumble actually letting Lee Sin have the minion wave? Does this mean there's something wrong with WE.A? While there's no doubt that Zhou Li is the leader of WE.A, squeezing his teammates like this is going too far."

“Yeah, it feels like there’s a bit of bullying involved,” Kim Jae-young started to take it seriously. “If he were playing a hard carry, it would be one thing, but he’s playing Lee Sin. What’s he doing getting so much gold? I feel like his current mentality is that he realizes this game against Samsung White isn’t going to be easy, but he also knows the fans will put a lot of pressure on him, so he wants to make his stats look better?” The two of them analyzed it and then laughed.

"Ah, that's true. For star players like them, the burden of maintaining their image is quite heavy. They might not be able to accept defeat."

The two sang in perfect harmony, their coordination was superb.

In an instant, the live stream's popularity surged.

This is because some South Korean netizens couldn't accept the quick defeat in the first game and couldn't bear to continue watching, so they left the live stream.

Now, the two of them are analyzing together, making it sound as if Samsung White is about to win the game in the next second. Korean netizens are delighted, overjoyed, and celebrating with great enthusiasm.

So all the netizens who had left the live stream came back.

But as soon as they entered the live stream room, they saw the scene they least wanted to see.

After Zhou Li and Flandre returned to the city, they headed towards the top lane almost simultaneously.

That's right, this Zhou ritual is meant to train Looper, first treating Looper like an ATM!

Looper clearly didn't expect Zhou Li to target him like this.

He had just logged in and was about to go to the river bushes to clear some vision when he bumped right into Zhou Li's arms.

Although Ryze is a mage tank hero, his tankiness comes from his unique passive mechanism and is built up through equipment.

The current Wanderer hasn't even released his lunchbox yet; essentially, he's still a long-range, squishy hero.

He had almost no chance against Rumble and Lee Sin, and died again as soon as he went online!
After killing Looper, Zhou Li and Rumble cleared the top lane minion wave together and took the top lane's gold.

Then, the two players pressed the recall button at the very last moment before the minion died.

The moment Samsung White disappeared from their sight, the two immediately canceled their recall and plunged into Samsung White's top lane jungle, ambushing in the bushes in front of the Krugs.

While Zhou Li and Flandre were giving Looper military training, Samsung White did not stop their actions.

With a significant advantage in the mid lane and the ability to maintain their offensive rhythm, they naturally wouldn't disrupt their pace by going to the top lane for a defensive play.

Soon, Mata and Dandy returned to the mid lane, and the three of them forcefully tower-dived and killed Lulu under the tower.

But this time, WE.A clearly took some precautions.

Xiaoming had already rushed from the bottom lane to the mid lane, leaving Mata's Maokai alive in the chaos.

Although WE.A clearly still suffered a loss in this round, it did manage to mitigate the damage somewhat.

Samsung White had just gained an advantage in the mid lane when Looper in the top lane suffered another heavy blow.

This time, he couldn't even get to the lane; he was killed on the way by Rumble and Lee Sin, who had been lying in wait!

Zhou Li opened the panel and looked at Jayce, who had the same number of kills as him.

Although the two had similar kill counts, Jayce, as a mid-laner, definitely had better equipment.

But Zhou Li knew that there was no longer any time for him to continue developing.

With the mid lane being frequently targeted, WE.A's mid lane turret was already on the verge of collapse.

It can be said that Samsung White's first wave of tactical missions has been successfully completed.

Therefore, they cannot ignore Looper, the top laner they have been targeting.

Because Samsung White is currently very strong, they are not afraid of small-scale or even 5v5 team battles, and even hope that team battles can break out between the two sides.

Therefore, the next step is either to stop doing anything according to Zhou Li's principles.

As long as he takes action, it's certain that Samsung White will immediately and directly confront the group.

Either they engage in a team fight that will likely determine the fate of WE.A.

Yes, this team fight will only determine the fate of WE.A, and will not have too much impact on Samsung White.

If WE.A loses the team fight, then they have basically lost 80% of their chances.

Even if WE.A wins, it would only bring the win rate of both sides back to a 50/50 situation.

From any risk perspective, WE.A should have avoided such team fights.

However, Zhou Li knew that if the first option was chosen, WE.A would face a suffocating death.

Once Samsung White gains an advantage, their ability to snowball and seize opportunities is terrifying.

If Zhou Li chooses to do nothing, then WE.A will only fall completely into the same trap as Samsung White.

A fed Jayce has an incredibly powerful poke ability during this period.

If WE.A only defends against Jayce's overwhelming power, they will be unable to mount an effective defense and will only be able to watch as their towers are destroyed one by one by Samsung White, thus falling into an even greater economic disadvantage.

After returning to town to replenish his equipment, Zhou Li tapped the little dragon and said:

"Flandre, watch out for teleport! We're going to take the dragon this wave!"

So far in the game, neither side has managed to take down any of the dragons.

As for Zhou Li, he had been in the top half of the map, so he naturally went to the bottom lane to farm a dragon.

As for Samsung White, although they have a huge advantage in the mid lane, this is at the expense of the bottom lane. It is not safe to start a team fight in the bottom half of the map when Jayce has not been developed.

But now that Jayce has a major item advantage, he can naturally start thinking about the dragon.

So, it was as if the two teams had secretly made some kind of deal, and they both moved towards the direction of the dragon!
However, this scene is clearly incomprehensible to outsiders.

Because in everyone's eyes, Samsung White is now qualified to take this dragon, but what makes WE.A dare to touch the dragon?
In the commentary booth, Miller visibly tensed up.

"Hey! Is WE.A also going to take the dragon? That seems completely unnecessary! It's better to avoid fights for now, Jayce's items are just too good!"

The doll nodded and called out:
"WE.A seems to be in a bit of a rush, but this team fight is really tough!"

Bella also spoke up:

"Judging from the strength of both sides on paper, WE.A is behind in both economy and summoner spells. It feels like if WE.A can win this team fight, it really depends on whether Lee Sin can kick out a miracle!"

Upon hearing Bella mention Zhou Li, Miller immediately suppressed his nervousness and said:

"That's right, this will put a lot of pressure on Zhou Li! But we all know that Zhou Li is the team's shot-caller for WE.A! It's highly likely that Zhou Li was the one who made the decision to take down the dragon. Since he was able to make such a decision, can we assume that he already has a very clear strategy?"

At this moment, both WE.A and Samsung White had arrived at their respective river mouths.

Meanwhile, the deep vision systems deployed by both sides in each other's jungles also allowed them to see each other's positions.

Mata was even taken aback for a moment; he clearly hadn't expected WE.A to be vying for such an insignificant dragon.

(End of this chapter)