Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The match officially began, and both teams were behaving similarly. They stood in a star formation, looking at each other across the river from where they stood.
Team Revelation didn’t have any deeper meaning in the way they were positioned, they only wanted to protect their buff. Team Skycrown also had the same intention of defending their own area.
In the new season, there were some obvious changes in level one team fights. Taking First Blood would only get you an extra two hundred gold, and even if you were to take three kills in the beginning, you could only get six hundred gold at most.
Since the gold amount wasn’t so significant anymore, there were less level one team fights now. Players would rather hurry to lane and farm instead, including those that assisted the Jungler in leashing for their buff.
They would still make the same three strikes, as though only for the sake of being symbolic, and then they would rush to lane so that they wouldn’t lose any experience from that two or three minions.
Of course, if you were playing in this season and happened to spot a Jungler taking down the first Buff without using Smite, you’re allowed a little laugh at the old codger.
Once he reached the bottom lane, Yu Luocheng’s Kennen started to auto-attack the minions. Like a Top Kennen, the first skill he added was his W.
As per the old saying, whoever reaches level two at the bottom lane first is the boss, even if it was against a strong combination like Taric and Lucian.
Both sides were consciously attacking the minions, hoping to reach level two first. As an old timer, Bai Feng knew that the opposing combination was also very strong, and the hike to level two was extremely important. That’s why he was diligently attacking to reach the higher level first.
Both sides seemed to reach level two at the same time…
In the previous version, it was always quite a peaceful farming phase at the bottom lane. If you don’t poke me, I won’t poke you either.
Now in the LPL, the bottom lane will start to heat up once the players reach level two.
The moment both sides reached level two, Lin Dong directed his Draven to activate his Spinning Axe, catching it when it ricocheted back. The health of even a tanky champion like Taric was easily shaved off by the Spinning Axe.
Using Kennen as a Support, Yu Luocheng was practically already playing the role of an ADC.
He didn’t farm, but instead continuously used his basic attack and skills to harass them. Sometimes it was thrown on Taric, and other times he poked Lucian who had a shorter range. It’s not like Kennen needed money to throw his skills, so it didn’t really matter even if he missed anyway!Read more chapter on vipnovel
With one opponent champion throwing spinning axes and another throwing shurikens, Taric and Lucian who had shorter ranges were in for a bad time.
Lucian was indeed a strong champion, able to burst damage in a short period of time, surpassing many other ADC champions…
However, if you were comparing damage output, then Draven would always be at a boss level. The damage from his Spinning Axe was horrifying and would definitely not lose to Lucian’s damage!
Having played ADC for such a long time, Bai Feng had used Lucian to beat down every other ADC in the country. It didn’t matter whether you were using Vayne, Ezreal, Graves, Sivir or Caitlyn. Lucian could always rely on his excellent passive and flexible repositioning skills to completely control everything.
The reason was simple. This champion’s damage output was already high, and as long as he could fully utilize his passive, he would be able to deal an even more terrifying amount of damage.
Initially, Bai Feng thought that with Vayne and Sivier being banned, there wouldn’t be any major threats at the bottom lane. Who knew that their ADC would actually pick The Glorious Executioner—Draven?
Draven had a major flaw, and that was the fact that he didn’t have any repositioning skills!
Nowadays, the ADCs who entered the game needed to be like Sivir who had an excellent ulti to escape. Or they needed to have a shield to reduce the damage taken, or have flexible repositioning skills. Otherwise, they could easily be cut down by even champions who were just tanks…
Each champion had their flaws, but also their strengths. Draven’s strength lies in the exceptionally high damage in his repertoire.
At level one, Spinning Axe had a bonus physical damage of 45%, which was almost equivalent to Lucian’s double shot from his passive. Lucian needed to use an ability before being able to trigger it, but as long as Draven can catch his axes, he can immediately deal the same amount of damage in the next second…
What’s more frightening was if Draven was able to catch all his axes after twelve seconds. Once his Q refreshes, he would then have two Spinning Axes in his hands…
With two Spinning Axes active in his hands, the damage dealt by Draven was definitely way higher than Lucian’s. No matter what happens, Bai Feng cannot allow this guy to pick up two Spinning Axes.
“Qing Ye, his Q is almost refreshing already. Stun him, don’t let him hold two axes. The moment he does, we’ll be in trouble,” said Bai Feng, clearly aware of the looming danger.
You have to admit that as a partial ADC, Lin Dong was really doing a good job at pressuring the bottom lane where Lucian was almost invincible.
Qing Ye nodded his head in understanding, his eyes trained on Draven seriously. Draven had to walk to the designated place to catch his axe, and he needed twelve seconds for this skill to refresh.
If he didn’t manage to catch his axe, then the next attack naturally will not have a Spinning Axe. And if he didn’t drop a single axe in the next twelve seconds, then his Q would have cooled down and he can have another Spinning Axe…
Qing Ye cursed, “D*mn it, this brat is playing quite smoothly, catching his axes so steadily.”
While the axe was dropping, there was an obvious indicator as to where it would go. Determined to not let Lin Dong continue catching his axe, Qing Ye was waiting for the moment when he would throw it. Then, he could stun him.
The time for the skill to cool down was approaching, and Qing Ye still wasn’t able to do anything, so he forcefully pushed forward. When he saw the path of Draven’s axe diverting slightly, a grin flashed onto his face. He immediately fired a prismatic sphere at Draven to stun him.
Whether it was a coincidence or not, Yu Lucheng also stepped forward at the same time. He threw out a basic attack and followed up with his W skill, landing two stacks of Mark of the Storm on Taric.
He then immediately connected the attack with his Q, Thundering Shuriken, bringing the stacks up to three!
Do you know what happens when Kennen fully stacks his passive at three stacks?
That’s right, it stuns the target!
“Fighting Hawk seems to have completely seen through Taric’s intentions, and now Taric who has gone too far front has been stunned where he stands!” said the commentator.
When Lin Dong saw Taric getting stunned, his eyes lit up. Yu Luocheng really was meticulous, and his attention to detail left people with no choice but to admire him.
Lin Dong himself was an ADC, he knew what Taric was trying to do by forcefully coming forward. He wanted to interrupt Lin Dong from activating his second Spinning Axe.
Yu Luocheng had anticipated that Taric wouldn’t be able to resist coming forward to interrupt him, and he went forward decisively, throwing his set of skills and stunning him.
At this time, Lin Dong coincidentally activated his second Spinning Axe.
When the first axe landed, Taric’s health dropped by a quarter!
A second axe flew out immediately and landed, which left Taric with only half his health!
This damage really is scary!
Qing Ye didn’t dare to go forward to serve up his own head on a silver platter, so he tucked his tail between his legs and retreated.
When your opponent’s Support only has half his health left, then of course you need to pressure him more.
Yu Luocheng’s Kennen was already almost past the minion wave, and Lin Dong who had already activated his second Spinning Axe was also already in the middle of the minion wave. Even though Bai Feng’s Lucian could take a few hits, he didn’t dare to move forward to farm.
“This unique lineup is actually really effective, Everyone, you must be wondering how this combination of Draven and Kennen is able to overcome the strong duo of Taric and Lucian. Kennen’s early game burst damage is really high, especially since his passive can stun his opponents.
“If you’re even slightly careless, you’ll end up with three stacks of Mark of the Storm on you. More importantly, Kennen’s skill consumption uses energy instead of mana. So throughout the time he’s throwing his skills, it doesn’t matter whether it hits or not, as long as he doesn’t push out the lane too much…
“And with Draven being one of the strong ADC champions with more damage, the damage from his Spinning Axe is also unmatched in lane…”
With great consumption and high burst damage, the only thing holding back this lineup from completely overtaking Taric and Lucian was their lack of repositioning skills.
Taric is actually a very hardcore champion. He can walk up, stun once and knock once, and the enemy will have to retreat three steps. But what just happened to Qing Ye reduced his Taric into becoming more of a nursing mother, just waiting to build his health and defense instead of daring to go forward to stun his opponents.
“Boss, we’ve been using this lineup for quite a while, but it’s still quite invincible. If our opponent wasn’t Bai Feng with his deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of champions, we would even be winning in terms of experience,” said Lin Dong as he continued to catch his axes with full confidence.
Yu Luocheng nodded. Naturally, this combo was something that he had come up with. Whether it was consumption, damage or level six, this combination was terrifying in terms of damage.
The only criteria required for this tactic was having a player who could play Draven well.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Draven is one of the most difficult champions to use. Usually, it’s still easy to have enough energy to catch the axes during the laning phase. But once the team fights start, it’s already hard enough to find a good position for an ADC to attack, but you also need to Animation Cancel when you want to hit your enemies.
You had to be quite an outstanding ADC to be able to do all this. Plus, there was the fact that you had to deliberately keep track of your falling axes and positions. That kind of hand-eye coordination was not something a normal person could do.
As it happens, Lin Dong liked to challenge himself with difficult coordinations. He trained with this champion till it was an extension of himself. Initially, Yu Luocheng had used Taric or Leona to pair up with him, but later on, he found another champion that was more suitable.
Both had Qs that could harass the enemy and drive them crazy, while also having high burst damage at the same time. They wouldn’t succumb to their opponent’s forceful attacks.
Of course, this was only talking about the strengths during the laning phase, but their role was far from being only limited to the time that they are in lane…
***
Bai Feng was a really outstanding ADC player. He knew that if there were problems during lane, then it was reasonable to control the flow of the lane and have the Jungler give them a gank.
Their Jungler—Hao Yue’s Riven—shot out from behind the turret, and this was not anticipated by Yu Luocheng or Lin Dong.
They had pushed too far in. Riven’s sudden appearance, as well as the use of Flash to retain them in their positions, left them helpless. Yu Luocheng sacrificed himself to secure Lin Dong’s escape.
In this gank, the kill was specifically given to Bai Feng, which immediately eased his financial burden from being pressured early on…
Bai Feng’s strength was really admirable, as Yu Luocheng and Lin Dong’s duo was really invincible at the bottom lane. Ignoring the Jungler intervention, a professional player being pressured to this extent was normal. But Bai Feng’s farm did not exceed a difference of 10 CS, and Riven’s successful gank had closed this gap.
“Bai Feng is steadily closing the gap,” said Lin Dong, looking at the status tab.
“Yeah,” replied Yu Luocheng, nodding in agreement. He looked at Zhou Yan and Wu Sen.
D*mn it, did you think that if you call your Jungler to gank, I won’t call my own people to come?
It’s almost level six, Yu Luocheng definitely wouldn’t let go of this chance to get kills, turrets, and Dragon!
