Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Luocheng was getting a headache as well. Mikael’s Crucible had been buffed in Season 4, and it was cheap to build and very suitable for AP Supports.
You should know that no matter how safely an ADC played and positioned himself, he would eventually get CC’d while trying to dish out damage. During that measly 1 to 2 second CC, an ADC would either be left with a sliver of health or outright killed, which was why most competent ADCs would get either a Banshee’s Veil or Quicksilver Sash once they had a decent amount of damage.
But for ADCs, most of the time, they didn’t even have enough gold to build their standard items, how would they have extra gold to spend on a QSS, Banshee’s, or a Guardian Angel?
The new Season allowed Supports to earn more gold. A Support who was truly thinking of the good of their team wouldn’t just buy damage items, they would rather let their teammates handle that, but with a Mikael’s Crucible which cost around 1,600 gold, they could give one of their teammates a second chance at life as long as they were quick enough! This was why this item was used heavily in high-ranked matches, some would even go as far as to say that it should be a core item of Supports everywhere!
He had to admit, after Huo Ma had gotten his Mikael’s, Luocheng was now facing major troubles with using his Ultimate.
***
Between two evenly matched teams, towers could very well be the deciding factor of who came out the victor. Neither side was going to pick fights under the enemy’s turrets and they definitely weren’t going to fight when the other had the upper hand either.
After 25 minutes, both teams had gotten a few full items, it was just a matter of time before the Baron was taken, and vision had once again become an important pre-teamfight preparation.
In the new Season, each player was limited to only 3 Green Wards and 1 Pink Ward on the map at a time, and so, vision was no longer the sole responsibility of the Support. Luocheng had already built a Ruby Sightstone and his Ashe’s Hawkshot allowed him to check the whereabouts of the enemy team too.
Many footsteps had already imprinted themselves in front of the Baron’s pit, the tension was electrifying the air, only the Baron herself was yawning in her humble abode, waiting for someone to make the first step before she went over to duo rank with the Dragon.
“This Lee Sin sure is brave!” Feng Da said.
Xiao Zhuai’s Lee Sin stood in the bush between the Blue Buff wall and the mid lane. From his position, he could clearly see the 5 members of the enemy team in the river less than 700 units away from him.
Luocheng and the remaining members of their team were all up the river stream. Xiao Zhuai was standing there by himself, wasn’t he afraid of an enemy randomly warding the bush, thus leading to his demise?
Lee Sin stood at the edge of the bush, as if he was one of the blades of grass, allowing the enemy’s fearsome Top and one-shotting Mid to pass by him!
Still, he stood there, fearless!
From Luocheng’s perspective, Feng Da and his friends could clearly see how the Lee Sin treated the enemies who brushed past him as though he was nothing. If it were anyone else, they would be miles away already, after all, a Thresh-hook in that sort of situation only had one outcome—death!
One, two, three, four, Lee Sin hid in the bush as the enemies walked past him one by one.
Lastly, the enemy ADC Caitlyn walked by him too, and that was when Xiao Zhuai’s Lee Sin started to react!
At the same time, Luocheng readied his finger on his R key.
The Blind Monk placed a Ward behind the Caitlyn, giving him a target to jump to as the Sheriff of Piltover walked toward the Baron!
“HAH!”
The kick harnessed Lee Sin’s core energy, landing on the clueless Caitlyn’s behind and it sent her flying!
A godly kick!
Luocheng’s eyes lit up!
Perfect f*cking timing, eat my arrow!
Ashe had already shot out her Ultimate while Caitlyn was still midair, she didn’t even get the chance to land before colliding with the enchanted arrow of ice!
Caitlyn was bursted down before she could Flash, and even with Mikael’s Crucible, Thresh had been knocked up with the Caitlyn as well, he couldn’t Flash over to dispel her stun even if he wanted to.
Lee Sin was deep within enemy lines, but before using his Ultimate on Caitlyn, he had first marked her with his Q-skill, Sonic Wave. Just as Luocheng had thought that Lee Sin was a goner, the Blind Monk regrouped with the rest of his team with a smooth RQ-combo!
Some of the audience in the lounge were cheering and pumping their fists while others were simply dumbfounded!
The combination of abilities were just too perfect, even before Lee Sin had kicked back the Caitlyn, the Crystal Arrow had already been fired, and even though they had had zero verbal communication, the Caitlyn was able to land in front of the rest of her teammates and perfectly in the path of Ashe’s arrow!
Between professional players, there were more ways to communicate other than just talking.
Back then during their fight with Team Revelations in the LPL, Luocheng and Da Luo had made a similar play. At the time, the both of them had been sitting side by side and Da Luo had already given Luocheng a heads up before he kicked.
This time, however, Luocheng and Xiao Zhuai had had zero communication save for Xiao Zhuai pinging the Caitlyn once, and that was the only hint that Luocheng had to cast his Ultimate as soon as Lee Sin Ward-hopped behind Caitlyn.
Truly strong players needed to not only be able to predict their enemy’s next moves, they also had to be capable of predicting their teammates actions. A vast majority of players would wait for Lee Sin to kick Caitlyn, wait to see if it turned out to be a good play, and only then would they finally use their Ultimate. But at that point, the Caitlyn would have already gotten the chance to get back on her feet and Flash away, and a golden opportunity would slip right through their fingers and end up as a regretful “if only”.
Seeing Xiao Zhuai camp in the bush near the enemy team, Luocheng had already figured out what he was trying to do, which was why he could use his Ultimate without hesitation within a few microseconds of Xiao Zhuai pinging Caitlyn. He didn’t care that the frontmost enemy champion was a super tanky Top, he knew that Xiao Zhuai would be able to get Caitlyn where he needed her to be!
Flawless judgement, unshakable trust, and the decisiveness and confidence a pro-player needed. The moment these two unstoppable forces worked together on the battlefield, that spark would surely be blinding!
After the ADC’s death, it was time for them to continue the pursuit, and Luocheng used the movement speed buff from his Talisman of Ascension to rush toward the enemy team and dished out a team-wide slow with his Volley.
The slowed enemies were clipped of their wings and were unable to escape, a perfect three-for-one trade, and thus, Luocheng’s team successfully secured the Baron, pushing them even further into the lead!
“This Lee Sin’s pretty alright,” Zhou Yan, who was standing silently behind Luocheng, slowly said.
Zhou Yan tried putting himself into that Lee Sin’s shoes.
If he were the one controlling Lee Sin, he was confident that he too could find the perfect wardless bush to stake out the enemy team, but as soon as the enemy AP carry would walk past, Zhou Yan wouldn’t be able to control his urge to kick the opposing Swain over.
In reality, kicking a Swain directly into your team wasn’t the best idea as Swain was very tanky with his Ultimate. Bursting him down wouldn’t be easy, plus he still had a Zhonya’s.
Zhou Yan admired Xiao Zhuai’s determination and self-control for waiting until the ADC had showed up.
What impressed Zhou Yan even more was that Xiao Zhuai positioned his kick perfectly to knock up Thresh, Swain, and the Top, a total of three people!
It was a four-man Ultimate!
Lastly, what made Zhou Yan shudder in respect was that Xiao Zhuai didn’t use the conventional method of Ward-hopping and ulting the Caitlyn from behind, instead, he had added onto that a terrifyingly swift QR-combo, allowing him to send the Caitlyn flying while at the same time giving him an escape route out of the enemy team!
Ward-hopping into enemy ranks and kicking their ADC over to their team was already a hard enough maneuver, there were so many factors that required immense precision and perfect timing.
Well, at the very least, Zhou Yan was quite positive that he himself couldn’t pull it off.
To put it bluntly, all Zhou Yan would have been able to do was kick the enemy AP carry toward his team, leaving himself stuck deep within the enemy team. If that had happened, the following team fight definitely wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly as it did.
But this Lee Sin had turned the odds completely to their favor!
They were both Junglers, but this Jungler beat him out in almost every aspect, viewing the bigger picture, timing, mechanics…
This was a huge blow to Zhou Yan’s self-esteem and it was difficult to put into words. It was as if an unbeatable master had suddenly confronted an even better prodigy, or even as though he had reached a new level of enlightenment on his path to becoming the best Jungler in the world!
“This Jungler Zhao Ting Hua has kept wanting to issue a challenge, I wouldn’t ever want to match up against him,” Lin Dong muttered.
If they had a Jungler like that on their team, how could they not win?
***
Xiao Zhuai’s side won this round.
Luocheng admitted that he didn’t have much to do with deciding the victor. If he really had to give himself some credit, it would be regarding the fact that at least he didn’t waste Xiao Zhuai’s godly kick.
Huo Ma’s Thresh was strong, bullying Luocheng’s Ashe hard in lane. Even in team fights, he had the perfect weapon to counter Luocheng’s Ultimate, and if it weren’t for Xiao Zhuai’s victory-determining kick, the rest of the game would have been rough.
A serious expression came over Zhou Yan’s face, “I hope I’ll be able to face off against him someday, although I will admit I’m definitely not as strong as he is…”
Luocheng looked back at the bushy-browed Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan wasn’t easy to read, always maintaining the same blank expression regardless of his emotional state, but this time, Luocheng could see an unmistakable glint in his eye.
Want. There wasn’t a single e-sports player out there who didn’t want to become stronger, especially after seeing a player in your category that left you in absolute awe!
“It’s too bad though, that Xiao Zhuai and Huo Ma aren’t on the same team… If they were, a match with them during next year’s S International League would be exhilarating!” Luocheng said.
As Zhou Yan was admiring the stronger Jungler, Luocheng was thinking back to the sense of danger he had had while he was laning against Huo Ma.
Luocheng had a mental list of players in his head compiling all the opponents he thought posed a threat to him, and Huo Ma had already been a part of this list for quite some time. During this year’s S International League, Luocheng had seen what his Support was capable of, and today’s match with him only solidified in Luocheng’s mind his worthiness to hold the title of “Best Support”!
There were only three more months left until the LPL…
The best of the best were scattered across the globe, if they couldn’t breakthrough even the LPL, how was their Team Skycrown going to conquer the world! How were they going to settle it once and for all regarding who was the best among all of the gaming legends!
Luocheng wasn’t naive enough to think that this victory meant that he had surpassed the world-renowned Huo Ma… He still had a long way to go!
