Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When both top laners clashed at the bottom lane, you could immediately feel the bloodlust in the air!
Normal attacking the creeps and maintaining some attack speed, Da Luo very quickly shot an attack onto Renekton’s head.
As though he wanted to bring out all the anger in his heart, Da Luo continued to follow up, stepping forward out of the minion wave. Just as Renekton was about to counter, he pressed his E—Counter Strike!
The creeps were attacking Da Luo’s Jax, but all the damage from them was absorbed by his Counter Strike. Gathering strength with his Brazier Stave, he swept down fiercely onto Renekton’s body!
Vulcan didn’t want to go head to head against a level one Jax, and he was willing to let his farm go rather than let Jax take his health. A level one Renekton couldn’t beat Jax, and Vulcan didn’t really care much about this early disadvantage, he just wanted to silently gain experience.
Reaching level two after the seventh minion, Vulcan immediately launched a counter attack, using his E skill to dash through the minions and avoid the damage from them. At the same time, he was also dashing towards the back to avoid giving Jax a chance to damage him.
Between level one to three, both sides frequently exchanged blows but unfortunately the champion’s disadvantage just became more and more obvious.
A level three Renekton has a stronger capability for wave clear, stable CC, and also two flexible repositioning skills. With a combination of skills thrown together, he was able to clear the wave and return to the back of the line, taking farm and also bringing down his opponent’s health at the same time.
Meanwhile, Jax was not as stable, his stun was weak, and his life steal capability was not as good as Renekton. If they exchanged blows, Renekton would be the one gaining the upper hand. And if they engaged, Renekton wouldn’t lose to Jax either…
After level three, no matter how aggressive Da Luo’s Jax attacks were when given the chance, he was still unable to match up to Renekton’s strength.
To beat Renekton, Jax had to be equipped with a certain level of items. If his farm wasn’t suppressed too much, he still had a chance to make a comeback in the later game.
***
At the middle lane, Xie Yi was playing very aggressively. He had strong individual capabilities and Lin Dong had started off with Doran’s Blade. From the beginning, he had been harassed a lot and his health quickly dropped. After just one hit, he already had to recall to base to recover his health.
He was also lagging behind quite a bit in both farm and experience, an obvious gap between the levels of the two champions could be seen.
No matter what, Xie Yi had an individual ability index of 23 points. Although his champion control wouldn’t be considered as top in the country, he was good at fully utilizing help from his teammates.
Ezreal was a Mid that was very difficult to catch and kill, but Xie Yi’s Syndra was good at her Scatter The Weak. She stunned Lin Dong’s Ezreal, letting Jarvan fly in from the side onto him!
Lin Dong had to use his Flash before he was even level four, and if another combination of skills were to be thrown at him, his life would be forfeited.
Meanwhile for Zhou Yan on Jungler, the few times that he babysit middle lane, he was interrupted by a beautiful stun from Syndra, rendering him unable to launch an attack!
This time, both team’s Junglers frequently appeared at the middle lane. And as expected, the head to head confrontations between Renekton and Jax at the bottom lane completely depended on how deeply they understood their respective champions.
At the top lane, ADC and Support weren’t willing to confront each other in order to not disturb their laning phase. Hence, the middle lane became the most frequent fighting lane.
In terms of coordination, Jarvan and Syndra were more in sync, and this clearly affected Lin Dong’s farming on Ezreal.
A Mid Ezreal really needed to farm, as he would only have more kiting capabilities after getting Manamune and Trinity Force. But if this situation continued, Syndra and Jarvan would definitely be a much better combination than Ezreal and Volibear, especially once they started ganking other lanes.
Both the top and bottom lanes seemed to be in a pinch, it was easy for a bad situation to arise. Feeling the opponent Mid’s pressure, Lin Dong frowned deeply.
“You can’t beat Xie Yi. In terms of laning, he’s not weaker than you. In terms of coordination, he is at about 8 points. If you go against him in lane, he can probably control the lane and pressure you. But once the Jungler appears, your lane will just be waiting to crumble!”
Looking at this somewhat tragic situation, Lin Dong couldn’t help but recall the words that Zhang Aijing had said previously.
Xie Yi was a player with overall skill points of 23, while Zhang Aijing had only rated him at 20 points, there was a 3-point difference between them!
At first, Lin Dong didn’t really care much, as he felt that points couldn’t accurately determine one’s skills.
However, facing someone like Xie Yi who could fully utilize the Jungler to pressure the Mid, Lin Dong could really feel the enormous pressure now!
This was a player with 23 points?
They weren’t even at level six yet, and Lin Dong was already behind by 12 CS and 1 level. After level six, his Mid Ezreal would have even less of a chance in a head to head confrontation against Syndra!
Lin Dong finally spoke, “Forget it, Zhou. Just focus on your own farm and leave my lane alone.”
The outcome of this match was really important. He couldn’t hold his Jungler back just because of the pressure on his own lane. Whether or not they could win the mid game team fights would depend on how long Volibear could withstand the opponent’s assault.
If the damage output was slightly lower, then Volibear really needed to tank up.
“I’ll ward for you,” said Zhou Yan as he nodded his head in agreement.
“No, don’t bother. Go and farm. I’ll add E and then W to get around,” said Lin Dong.
“That won’t work too well, your damage is still low,” said Zhou Yan, frowning.
Ezreal’s W was currently really weak and it wasn’t worth adding points to it right now as the mana consumption was also high. A mainstream player would add Q first, and then E.
Lin Dong wanted to forgo adding his Q, and instead go for W and E. That would mean giving up Ezreal’s main damage skill, since the champion’s damage skills came mainly from his Q—Rising Spell Force!
“It’ll be fine, Xiao Bei’s farm is good. Right now I’m not even half useless and it’ll be hard for me to deal much damage in the first twenty minutes. If it’s going to be that way, then I’d rather add more to W to help Xiao Bei have attack speed,” explained Lin Dong.
In fact, his W would add 50 damage points with every level, while his Q would only add about 20 damage points with every level. Since Lin Dong’s first item was Manamune, adding Q would not be as effective as adding W. At least against Syndra at the middle lane, his W would be much more useful than his Q.
Following this exchange, Zhou Yan stopped bothering about the middle lane. He went back into the jungle to farm, focusing on that and counter jungling.
Meanwhile, their opponent’s Jungler—Birch—seemed like he was intent on crushing Lin Dong, even going around the tower to land a kill on Ezreal.
Anyone else playing Mid would most likely have died countless times by now. Ezreal had brought Flash and Barrier in his Summoner’s Skills, and with his keen map awareness and maneuvers, Lin Dong managed to escape several close calls.
“My middle lane will crash. Good luck at your own lanes, guys,” said Lin Dong quietly after about ten minutes.
“Don’t worry, you still have us!”
“Yeah, farm properly.”
In this kind of competition, there was no room for blame and anger. They were all facing the same enemy that they resented, and only with their hearts as one would they have a chance at victory.
They recalled what Yu Luocheng had said to them during the pre-season: “You have to win, for your own sakes!”
They had always kept his worlds close to their hearts, and had continuously worked hard to launch an aggressive assault on Team Sky to make up for their tragic and dreadful past.
But now, they were doing it all for the sake of the one person who couldn’t watch their match, because without him, Team Skycrown wouldn’t even exist today.
***
“Having fun pressuring me in lane, are you?” said Da Luo calmly as he glared at the screen.
“When I was just a newbie, you were still wearing diapers. You dare to compete at the top lane with me—Lone Gull?”
His eyes flashed with determination and Jax’s figure burst onto the screen with a cold, killing intent!
In early game, Renekton would be able to pressure Jax. However, once the items have been built up, Jax’s damage was more than enough to slay the tanky crocodile.
Da Luo was impatiently anticipating the completion of his Blade Of The Ruined King and Trinity Force, because Lin Dong’s lane was obviously not doing very well. So it was up to him to be able to beat out a good advantage!
Playing top lane, Da Luo had already slaughtered many Renektons, if not a thousand, then at least eight hundred of them. When he chose to use Jax against Renekton, he had known from the start how to overcome all the disadvantages that came with his choice of champion.
Even Team 71’s Forgetful Laughter didn’t dare let Da Luo use Jax against him in top lane. So what made Team Sky’s Vulcan think that his Renekton could even hold a candle to Da Luo’s Jax?
After seeing Renekton use his W, Da Luo immediately threw Ignite on him!
With Da Luo throwing his Ignite on a full health Renekton, it was basically a declaration that he was going to kill him right here, right now!
Without hesitation, he activated the slow effect from Bildgewater Cutlass, chasing and hitting Renekton with the staff. When he tried to escape using his E, Da Luo used his Q to close the gap and hit him with the staff again.
At this time, he felt that Renekton was about to launch a counter. When Renekton turned around to attack, he activated his E—Counter Strike—to stun him at the right moment.
Together with the damage from the creeps, Da Luo’s E had stacked to 5!
5 stacks would mean a 100% increase in damage. Vulcan was clearly aware that if he were to be hit by this Counter Strike and stunned, then Da Luo would be able to use his W—Empower—and the stacks from R which gave him bonus damage, to launch an assault with terrifyingly high damage!
Vulcan was also a veteran Top player and he had purposely kept his second part of E to avoid Da Luo’s Counter Strike.
Using Dice, Renekton managed to put some distance between him and Jax. However, Da Luo’s reaction was faster, his Counter Strike landing true after using his Flash to close the distance.
Woosh!
Renekton was stunned!
Empower, Grandmaster’s Might!
The two hits landed and Renekton’s health dropped significantly. Even if Renekton had armor, it would have been useless. Both the hits were magic damage, and Da Luo was skillful in using Spellblade’s unique effect which had a 2 second cooldown to heighten the damage of the blow. Together with the Empower and Grandmaster’s Might stack, he landed a devastating blow!
In this consecutive fight, Renekton’s W had already been used, and he was unable to interrupt Jax’s assault, making his passive stack even higher. Even if Renekton’s skills were not on CD, he still would be no match for this Jax who was now on a mad rampage.
Vulcan was forced to use his Flash, retreating from the fight against Jax. But the length of the top lane was long, and Da Luo had been waiting for Renekton to overpush the minion wave in order to launch an attack.
“You Flashed for nothing, my Q will be ready in an instant!”
Da Luo had both bottled up his anger and endured Team Sky for a very long time!
Have a taste of this relentless counter!
