You actually want me to...

Both sides released their bot lane champion pools, and the second round of bans would target either the top lane or the bot lane. Since both sides' bot lane AD carries are basically familiar with these champions, banning them would be pointless, so they simply released them to each other's advantage and then focused on the top lane together.

Second round of bans:

Monkey, Camille, Crocodile, and Naruto were all sent away.

In their fourth pick, TES chose Jayce.

Don't ask, just be confident.

Short-range champions in the top lane are basically dominated by Jayce, the tall, rich, and handsome guy. As for long-range champions? With Hecarim on the side and Twisted Fate in the middle, if you dare to keep picking your stupid Lucian, just watch me fly away and you're done for.

When playing games, someone always has to bear the pressure. As the saying goes, if you feel that life is peaceful and carefree, it's because someone is carrying the burden for you. What goes around comes around.

If the mid lane is comfortable and the bottom jungle is evenly matched, then the top lane will suffer.

Xiaohu's top lane champion pool can be counted on one hand: Gnar, Camille, Gragas, Lucian, Jayce, and even Camille is only at a level where he can play her a little bit, his proficiency is far from enough.

Now, with these five heroes either banned or picked, all the pressure is suddenly on his shoulders.

In their last two picks, RNG locked in Kai'Sa and Sett.

As expected, Sett is a hero with a low skill threshold and his skill mechanics are so simple that anyone can play him. Thanks to his W shield, he has a terrifying margin for error. As long as he doesn't get carried away, he can barely hold his own in lane and even adds to the team's initiation and tankiness. In a sense, he has no problems at all.

But RNG overlooked one thing.

In TES's final pick, with the absolute counter pick and AD champions all available, JKL not only didn't pick a high-damage AD like Draven or Tristana, nor did he pick a late-game AD like Jinx or Xayah, but instead picked a champion that no one expected—Ezreal.

Let's take a look at TES's lineup:

Jayce, Hecarim, Twisted Fate, Ezreal, Gragas.

Top lane is the absolute core + jungler is the initiator and ganker + mid laner is the strategic pressure maker + bot lane is the support AD carry and roaming support.

The more RNG lineup looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. Even viewers who had just clicked into the live stream initially thought RNG was on the red side, only to realize upon closer inspection: "Holy crap, am I seeing this backwards?"

To kill someone, you must also destroy their spirit.

This is TES's final blow. They'll use your most familiar lineup and your most familiar playstyle to try and defeat you in your most familiar territory, letting you experience what it means to face TES head-on.

At that moment, at this moment.

Ditto-TES, activated successfully!

Summary: Chapter 117: Shake, you can shake it~

There's a saying that goes: those who are good at creating funny moments attract each other.

Just after TES finalized a lineup that was very much in line with RNG's style, in the last second of the game, RNG's mid and top laners also swapped heroes at the last second.

Syndra was given to Xiaohu in the top lane.

Jinfu passed the ball to Guozi in the mid lane.

The final lineups for both sides are now complete:

RNG: Top lane Syndra, Jungle Lillia, Mid lane Sett, Bot lane Kai'Sa + Nautilus

TES: Top lane Jayce, Jungle Hecarim, Mid lane Twisted Fate, Bot lane Ezreal + Gragas

It has to be mentioned that when the lineups for both sides were revealed, the commentators present and countless viewers in the live broadcast room were almost simultaneously stunned by the two teams' wildly imaginative ideas.

These two teams are just ridiculous. Is this how you draft a team?

[One second I was wondering how Xiaohu could play a tanky lane, and the next second Syndra just disappeared. TOP Xiaohu is still the same old Xiaohu.]

[This is why TES picked Gragas; it seems like RNG still has a chance.]

[Let's wait for the 7-minute mark for a 5v5 brawl in the top lane, okay?]

It has to be said that RNG's substitution really caught TES off guard.

Why?

Syndra has a good matchup against Jayce in lane.

Back when TheShy started playing long-range top laners, there were already discussions on various forums about the possibility of Syndra top lane, because in the long run, her performance far surpasses Kalista. She is strong in the laning phase, aggressive in team fights, has a safe enough casting range, and possesses both crowd control and considerable burst damage.

But why didn't it become popular?

Because it's too difficult to implement.

First, you can't pick Syndra first because of the team composition. Second, you need to ensure that you have strong lane dominance. Third, Syndra has a long top lane and relies heavily on teammates for protection when pushing the lane. Fourth, and most importantly, her E skill has a cooldown of 18 seconds at level 1, so her early-game solo defense might not be as strong as you might think.

Can it be won in a professional setting?

You can pick it, but you can only use it as a surprise in one or two games at most. For example, in this game, when almost all the heroes that can counter Jayce were banned, this guy was a good alternative.

"My clever Tiger, he even came up with this idea." Faced with RNG's imaginative position swap, even Roland, who is known for his antics, had to give him a thumbs up.

"Actually, I'm quite curious. Did you accidentally reveal your idea of ​​Syndra's top pick when you were duo-queuing with Xiaoming?"

"Wow, that's impressive~ Coach, you actually noticed that?" Seeing Roland's slightly surprised look, White Crescent also revealed a slightly smug expression of knowing it was true.

Sure enough, he wasn't wrong. With this guy's cunning, he could easily see that Xiaohu was duo-queuing with him behind Xiaoming's ID. He clearly knew that the other side was doing this, and then deliberately set a trap for him.

Syndra top lane, is this even something a human can touch?

"Alright, we're out of time, so I won't say any more. You're in charge of the top lane this game, okay?"

"Absolutely. I have to arrange a solution for people to get rid of their internet addiction. Otherwise, it would be a disservice to all the wonderful arrangements I made."

Did they think they could hide the fact that they had switched players from a support player?

Just by looking at how well the eye sockets were placed on the account with Xiaoming's ID, Roland could already guess about 80% of the situation.

But it doesn't matter, if you're going to play, you have to play it freely.

Syndra top lane is a great strategy for RNG. If it weren't truly credible, Tabe wouldn't be foolish enough to use it. As the saying goes, the most sophisticated lie is nine parts truth and one part falsehood. Roland cleverly used this idea, but why did they say he set a trap in the end?

Even the best cutting-edge technology is useless if you don't consider the opponent's overall lineup.

Their side has men, cards, and barrels.

You want to play Syndra top lane?

You've never died, right?

At the start of the game, neither side had enough crowd control skills to enter the other's jungle rashly. They simply greeted each other from a distance across the river.

However, once they returned to the online arena, the friction between the two players in the laning phase became quite intense.

On Roland's side, Gragas' Ezreal's early wave clear speed almost entirely relied on Gragas' charged Q, while JKL's Ezreal would occasionally auto-attack the Titan trying to last-hit minions while Q'ing the minions to accumulate his passive.

This is very important.

EZ is actually an extremely strong ADC in level 2 duels. His Q skill has a short cooldown, and his passive that increases attack speed can be triggered by auto-attacks or skills. More importantly, he can also take Conqueror as a rune. When dueling, a level 2 EZ with full passive stacks and Conqueror can hold his own against most ADCs as long as his Q skill is not blocked by minions.

This is a habit, a deterrent, and the core difference between whether or not Ezreal is good or not.

If both sides have similar experience in reaching level 2 quickly, and assuming RNG's bot lane reaches level 2 first, they will encounter an Ezreal with a full passive who is about to upgrade. Even if Ming lands a hook, he will have to consider the minion positions and see if he can engage.

"Not bad, Shui, that's a good distance for a basic attack."

"Absolutely, but it's a pity I'm playing Ezreal this time. If I could get Samira back, I'd show you what 'breathing of gunpowder' really means: First move, American Iaijutsu, hiss~ (exhale) Six-hit combo! Bang bang bang bang bang bang~"

"So you're the gunpowder style, my apologies. My school of thought is the grenade style. Heavy artillery has no edge, great skill is without artifice. No matter how fast or accurate the opponent is, I can defeat them with a grenade from 1000 yards away. This is called defeating skill with force."

"666666, great job."

In fact, the two sides reached level two very quickly. Almost the instant RNG's bot lane reached level two and used their hook, TES's bot lane also simultaneously reached level two.

then.

"Bang~"

With an E-Flash-Q combo followed by Ignite, Roland displayed even more decisive speed and skill than Xiaoming, ignoring his own AD carry and directly charging headfirst into Kai'Sa's face.

Gragas's E-Flash is unavoidable unless you predict it in advance, even if Gaggle is known as a human script.

On one side, Titan hooked and killed JKL's Ezreal with a combo, while on the other side, Gragas flashed and forced Kai'Sa to stop her entry. The two supports coordinated perfectly, splitting the bottom lane battlefield into two.

However, Ming soon realized that something was wrong.

After the two supports started using potions one after the other, the sharp-eyed Xiaoming inadvertently noticed that the amount of health the barrel was recovering was actually more than his.

What the hell?

They all bought the red medicine from the shop owner. So, the one he bought was a defective product, while the one across the street was the genuine product?

Of course, this alone was not enough to make him back down.

What truly made him realize something was wrong was that after Gragas forcibly E-flashed in, the minions that were supposed to come up to help provide cover were all lured to his side by Gragas. Without the minions blocking his way, after completing his control chain, Nautilus could only tank the damage from Ezreal's fully stacked passive and Conqueror, unable to block Ezreal's Q.

The decisive Flash-Ignite counterattack after leveling up to level two, coupled with the higher healing from the healing item and the aggro transfer from the Gragas, made the experienced Xiaoming and Gala decisively abandon the idea of ​​fighting to the death and instead forcefully use Flash. Both ADs also used Heal. After exchanging a wave of summoner spells and health, the two sides widened the distance. However, in terms of the result, TES gained a slight advantage.

"what's the situation?"

"His secondary runes should be Twisted Potion and Hextech Flash, and he's not carrying Biscuits." Xiao Ming never expected that this guy would pull a trick on him here.

The Twisted Potion secondary rune is usually paired with Biscuit Delivery to maximize its effectiveness. Since Gragas support would almost always take Hexflash, Xiaoming subconsciously assumed the enemy team had Hexflash + Biscuit Delivery or cooldown reduction.

A small detail and a little trick caused him to almost deplete all his health potions in a single battle.

The enemy bot laner is out of health potions.

Our bottom laner still has a health potion.

what does this mean?

This means that unless the opposing jungler ganks, or JKL and Roland make a huge mistake, TES will firmly maintain lane control and initiative in the bottom lane until both sides recall in the first wave.

The laning phase is going to be tough.

Integration: Chapter 118: As long as you don't give up, there are always more solutions than problems.

"This kid never disappoints me when it comes to the details of his fights." In the TES backstage viewing room, White Crescent couldn't help but laugh and scold as he watched Roland's movements, which were full of meticulous detail.

Just as each athlete has their own unique characteristics and strengths.

Among the five key elements of support – stability, mechanics, rhythm, vision, and initiation – Roland is currently at the forefront of the LPL in terms of mechanics and initiation. This is mainly because players who originally came from the top lane are too inefficient in terms of mechanics. Before others engage in a fight, they think about how to hit the target with their skills, while Roland, who transitioned from the top lane, thinks about how to break the enemy's bone fragments first. That's the difference.

Why can't many players rank up?

Because they don't usually pay much attention to details.