Chapter 103: 103

After losing the first game, Xie Weiyu wasn't feeling so good. He took the initiative to say, "I'm sorry, it was my fault that…"Xu Zhuo interrupted, "No need to blame yourself, no one else is blaming you. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang hid themselves well and launched an ambush. Any other marksman would have been killed by them too."Xu Zhuo could say that, but the truth was that in a critical fight, Xie Weiyu had indeed fallen out of formation from the rest of his team. That had given Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang the opportunity to circle around and kill him.The coach swiftly entered the soundproofed room to reassure everyone. "It's okay. Let's prepare for the next round."Xu Zhuo faintly furrowed his brow. He looked towards the coach and said, "It seems like focusing on suppressing them on the middle lane won't work. Every time we kill Ye Shaoyang, we have to pay a huge price. Tianhuan is protecting the middle lane to the death."The coach had watched the game from an eagle-eye view. He was more clear on what had happened than anyone else. Every time Yueying went to group up for a mid lane fight, Chi Shuo would always arrive right away to assist. Even after two 5v5 fights, Yueying hadn't gained much of an advantage.Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were extremely in sync as a mid/jungle duo. They would always find a way to break through together when they were fighting at a disadvantage.Since Tianhuan was dead set on protecting the middle lane, there was no need for Yueying to die on that hill.The coach said, "In the next game, we'll focus on breaking through on one of the outer lanes first."Xu Zhuo's gaze flickered as he suddenly thought of a good idea. He leaned in close to the coach's ear and whispered, "How about…"After a few minutes of a break, the second round began.Yueying was the blue team in this second game; they had the first ban. As before, they didn't choose to start by banning junglers or mid laners, because Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had very deep hero pools. Banning one or two of their favored heroes was useless; they would always be able to find some combo to use.Yueying continued to target Qin Yizhu with their first ban, once again banning his favored Black Dragon Knight. They gave their second ban to the marksman hero, the Divine Archer.Tianhuan used their first two bans on top lane heroes—first they sealed away the Kung-Fu Master that Xu Zhuo had gotten a feel for, and then they banned the Vampiric Duke as well, because this hero was very strong in solo fights.A commentator said, "All the mid laners and junglers have been left free again. Let's all take a look at what Yueying will lock in first?"Yueying took a top laner first—the Willful Sword. The commentators were a bit surprised."This is a top lane fighter who's very strong when it comes to cutting into the enemy team's back line, a very flashy hero. He can handle himself in a 1v3 fight. It seems like in this round, Yueying wants to take the initiative to dive into fights?"Old Qin thought for a moment, then said, "I'll take the Holy Knight, a tanky hero."Coach Lin nodded. "Okay. Let's lock in the Holy Knight and the Machine Gun Huntsman."The Machine Gun Huntsman was very fast when it came to clearing minions, and this was a hero Xie Weiyu was very good at playing. If Tianhuan locked him in first, they could prevent Yueying from running their tower-pushing duo on the bottom lane. For their support, Tianhuan would continue to run a healer to protect Cheng Xing.Yueying wound up taking the Blessed Light as their support, who came with a cleanse skill. They also took the Wind Nymph as their marksman—this hero was very nimble, with many movement skills.In the second phase of the picks and bans, both sides started to target mid laners and junglers with their bans. Chi Shuo's Enchantress from the last round was banned, and Ye Shaoyang's Abyssal Lord was sealed away as well, as per usual. Lin Feng chose to ban off two support mid laners during Tianhuan's turn.Both sides quickly finalized their lineups.Tianhuan would be running—The Holy Knight as their top laner, the King of Fighters as their jungler, the Illusionist as their mid laner, and the Forest Envoy and Machine Gun Huntsman as their bottom lane duo.Yueying would be running—The Willful Sword as their top laner, the Brawler as their jungler, the Frost Goddess as their mid laner, and the Blessed Light and Wind Nymph as their bottom lane duo.The two commentators started to analyze these team comps."Tianhuan's mid laner and jungler are both assassins. It seems they'll be using their mid/jungle duo to set the rhythm of the game again. Their top laner will hold his own lane, while their bottom lane has a healer and a hero capable of pushing towers quickly. Their strategy seems pretty clear-cut.""As for Yueying, their top laner, jungler, and mid laner all have crowd control skills. They'll be very strong in hero fights. Plus, when their Wind Nymph is in her 'storm' mode, she can nimbly prance all over the place. She has loads of movement skills. It's very hard to kill her!""That's exactly right. The Wind Nymph is one of the most difficult marksman-type heroes to play. Her damage output in early-game is very low, but she's terrifyingly strong in late-game. Plus, it's very hard to hack her to death. It looks like Little Yu was killed too many times by Tianhuan's mid/jungle duo in the last game. He's gotten tired of dying, so he's gone with a marksman with a very high survivability rate in this round!""Alright, now let's take a look at how these two teams will face the opening of their second game!"As soon as the second game began, Tianhuan's five players made their way to their respective lanes to scope out what their enemy was doing. Yueying didn't invade their jungle, but Qu Jiang discovered there was no one else on the bottom lane.He couldn't help but suspiciously call out, "There's no one on the bottom lane."Qin Yizhu said, "There's no one on the top lane either."Ye Shaoyang sensed something wasn't right. He instantly started to retreat.However, five people suddenly burst forth from the woods near him. The Frost Goddess cast her Q skill to slow him. Then the Brawler instantly followed-up with his own Q skill to stun Ye Shaoyang. Xie Weiyu took a few shots at him from afar, and Xu Zhuo charged in, swinging his big sword fiercely at Ye Shaoyang's head—First Blood!Tianhuan-Lieyang became the first kill of the game.Ye Shaoyang was speechless.Was that necessary?!Staking out the middle lane with all five players at the start of the game… you guys are too cruel.The two commentators couldn't help but laugh out loud."Ahem, the game has been underway for just one minute, and Yueying's five players have already grouped up by the middle lane. They overwhelmed Lieyang here, and Lieyang was taken down by that five-man ambush!""He really has garnered a lot of hate from his enemies."The fans in the streaming room were laughing their heads off.[That's what you get with Tianhuan-Lieyang's reputation!][When I saw five people staking out the middle lane, I thought I was watching a Bronze-ranked match?][Hahaha, Yangyang has so many people out to get him. Tianhuan's five opponents act like they think they're fighting a boss!][Group fights can be lost, but Lieyang must die!]Giving away one kill at the very beginning of a game wouldn't necessarily have a big effect on the rest of the game. Ye Shaoyang would be able to respawn after just a few seconds, after all. He could get back to his lane in time to farm the first wave of enemy minions. After respawning, Ye Shaoyang swiftly returned to his lane to do just that.At that moment, Qu Jiang suddenly said, "Why is Xu Zhuo on the bottom lane?"At the same moment, Old Qin said into their voice channel, "The support and marksman are up top… they swapped lanes?"Swapping lanes was a 'reversal' in typical battle tactics.Under normal circumstances, the top laner was in charge of holding their own lane. They typically chose fighters or tanks; these heroes flourished in 1v1 face-offs. The bottom lane was the road where players developed quickly. The marksman and support of each team faced off in a 2v2 down there.However, there was no rule in the game which set these roles in stone. If teammates agreed on it in advance, it was perfectly fine to swap lanes.In this round, it was obvious that after their opening attack, Yueying had all gone back to their base and swapped lanes!Xu Zhuo was going against Cheng Xing and Qu Jiang in a 1v2 in the bottom lane; Xie Weiyu and Yueying's support were taking on Qin Yizhu in a 2v1 in the top lane.Chi Shuo faintly furrowed his brow. "Their breakthrough point in this game will be the outer lanes. They ganged up on our middle lane to take that early kill just to get some experience and gold, making it easier for them to face off against us on the outer lanes."The reward for killing a player was quite substantial, and the other four Yueying players had gotten assists as well. Yueying had gotten quite a nice boost from their ambush on the middle lane.Right now, the problem was that Tianhuan still couldn't tell where Yueying would try to break through first—the top lane or the bottom lane?Ye Shaoyang swiftly spun around to take stock of his surroundings. Cheng Xing's hero, the Machine Gun Huntsman, could clear minions very quickly, but his range was only about average for a marksman—not too short, but not too long. If Xu Zhuo wanted to kill him, Little Xing could be put in quite a lot of danger.As for the top lane, Old Qin's Holy Knight was a tanky meat shield. Xie Weiyu's marksman, the Wind Nymph, didn't do a lot of damage in early-game. If she tried to take down a tank, she would barely do more damage than an irritating itch.Ye Shaoyang said, "They'll probably push the bottom lane."Chi Shuo had reached the same conclusion. "Mm. Old Xu chose a very powerful fighter. He probably plans on killing Cheng Xing once he reaches Level 6. I'll attack the bottom lane when I hit Level 6. Cheng Xing, keep moving and stay on your toes. Be mindful of where you're going."Cheng Xing answered, "Understood!"The jungle was fairly peaceful at this time. No one came over to harass Chi Shuo, so Chi Shuo reached Level 6 very quickly. He roamed down to the bottom lane. Ye Shaoyang was still at Level 5 and had yet to learn his ult, but he also swiftly followed Chi Shuo down.It seemed like a 4v1 was about to break out on the bottom lane. But it was like Xu Zhuo had anticipated this a long time ago. He suddenly charged in and used a skill combo to clear a wave of minions, then swiftly retreated and ran off into his own team's jungle.Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang's attempt to gank ultimately failed.In the top lane, Qin Yizhu was expertly clearing minions under his tower. The enemy jungler, the Brawler, suddenly leapt in and stunned him with a chop. At the same time, a cluster of ice crystals appeared under Qin Yizhu's feet—it was the Frost Goddess's control skill!Two of Yueying's players worked together to freeze Qin Yizhu in place.Xie Weiyu attacked wildly from afar. It was true that his DPS alone was incapable of taking down the tanky Holy Knight, but when the jungler and mid laner attacked with him—even the tankiest tank would die!YY-Rain (Wind Nymph) killed Tianhuan-Zhuhuo (Holy Knight)!The kill was ultimately taken by Xie Weiyu.Qin Yizhu hastily reported, "There are four people on the top lane!"Chi Shuo was silent.Ye Shaoyang lifted his brows. "We fell for their trap. They want to make the top lane their breakthrough point!"Xu Zhuo had deliberately chosen an extremely powerful fighter, and Xie Weiyu had deliberately chosen a marksman whose early-game DPS was relatively weak. Everyone would naturally assume that Xu Zhuo would summon their jungler down to the bottom lane to attack Cheng Xing, so that they could break through on the bottom lane…But in the end, Xu Zhuo was truly only 'holding' his lane. The team had chosen the top lane as their breakthrough point.After Qin Yizhu was killed and sent home, the four players on the top lane started to push towards Tianhuan's tower with their minions. They tore down the defensive tower's shield and managed to take down a third of the tower's HP as well. Right after that, the four of them swiftly marched into Tianhuan's jungle to steal a wave of small monster spawns.Of course, Chi Shuo wasn't willing to fall behind. He took Ye Shaoyang into the enemy jungle as well, to farm some resources.Ye Shaoyang had reached Level 6. They could run their mid/jungle duo now.Chi Shuo said, "If they get through on our top lane, we'll get through on their bottom. That'll even things out."Ye Shaoyang nodded. "Mm, Xie Weiyu isn't very easy to kill. Let's kill Old Xu."Xie Weiyu had a support with him, one who could shield him and cleanse him of immobilizing status effects. The marksman had many movement skills of his own as well. Going to gank such a nimble marksman could very well be a futile endeavor; it was a bit easier to get a kill if they went after Xu Zhuo.You take our top lane, we'll take your bottom lane.Exchanging a defensive tower for a defensive tower wouldn't leave Tianhuan at much of a disadvantage.However, when Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo got down to the bottom lane, they discovered—Xu Zhuo was no longer down there. Yueying had swapped again, sending down their marksman and support duo!"They've swapped lanes again," Qu Jiang said.Chi Shuo furrowed his brow. "Frequently swapping lanes… they want to disrupt our mid/jungle rhythm."The key to a good mid/jungle duo was in their ability to roam the map and take kills. They had to move quickly and frequently engage the enemy in small scuffles. They had to kill the enemy team's key heroes, helping their teammates establish superiority across the map. By swapping lanes now, Xu Zhuo caused Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo to fail to kill him yet again.Xie Weiyu's Wind Nymph breezed across the field, shielded by Yueying's support. Ye Shaoyang had a very difficult time trying to immobilize him. When Tianhuan attacked the bottom lane, Xie Weiyu narrowly escaped with his life.Meanwhile, on the top lane, Xu Zhuo called up their jungler after moving up there. Yueying once again slaughtered Old Qin.Dying twice in a row even after choosing a tanky hero… even Qin Yizhu was speechless.In the blink of an eye, Tianhuan's top lane outer tower was destroyed. Immediately after that, Yueying started to attack fiercely all over the map!Xu Zhuo played a diabolical game. Every time he finished clearing a wave of minions on the top lane, he would swap down to the middle or bottom lane. Xie Weiyu was also playing very cautiously, so it was difficult to get a kill on him.Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang changed their strategy. They decided to attack the enemy mid laner, intending to make the middle lane their breakthrough point.Team Yueying swiftly grouped up to defend. By then, Xie Weiyu had already equipped some very good gear. In a team fight, this quick and nimble marksman did 50% of the damage—meanwhile, Tianhuan's own marksman was killed in two blows when Xu Zhuo unleashed his ult and cut into Tianhuan's back line!Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo linked up to kill Xu Zhuo, who'd charged into their ranks. However, Xie Weiyu was more difficult to deal with. While shielded by his support, he managed to kill three people in one go!Tianhuan found themselves at a huge disadvantage. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang thought of ways to turn things around. They killed the enemy mid laner a few times, but they never managed to solve the problem of Xie Weiyu.He hid out behind his support throughout the whole game, and the support kept him shielded and provided timely cleanses whenever he was immobilized. With his own movement skills added into the mix, he was able to dance around and amass more and more resources.In the final team fight at Tianhuan's base, Xu Zhuo once again cut into their back line and took down Cheng Xing!Cheng Xing hung his head. "I'm sorry…"Ye Shaoyang said, "It's fine. It's hard for marksmen to survive. It's very normal to die a few times."In their Group B matches, Cheng Xing had basically never died. Today, he was repeatedly targeted by Xu Zhuo's blade; not even Qu Jiang's healing could preserve his life. The Willful Sword was an extremely powerful burst top laner, and Xu Zhuo was playing aggressively—when he charged in, he was always ready to trade a life for a life.As long as he could kill Cheng Xing, he wouldn't consider it a loss even if he died as well.The game dragged on for thirty-five minutes, until Yueying obtained the grand dragon's buff and pushed their way through Tianhuan's base."Congratulations to Team Yueying for taking the second round!""This is Tianhuan's first loss in the S10 regular season, right?""That's right. Yueying's tactic of repeatedly switching lanes in this game succeeded in messing up Tianhuan's mid/jungle rhythm. Plus, Captain Xu continuously cut into their ranks to kill Cheng Xing. Ultimately, Tianhuan didn't have enough DPS to fight back.""The two sides have reached a 1-1 tie. The deciding game will be next. See you all in ten minutes!"While the players took a break, the big TV screens played some commercials.Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo suddenly appeared on those screens. They were each sitting in front of a computer. Their hands flew swiftly over their keyboards, until Chi Shuo turned and calmly asked, "Is this Silver Dragon's mechanical keyboard?"Ye Shaoyang earnestly answered, "Yeah! The responsiveness and feedback are amazing. After playing a fierce game, my hands don't feel tired at all."The fans who were watching the livestream didn't even get a chance to mourn Tianhuan's loss in the second game… before this sudden commercial made them all laugh again.[Chi Shuo's expression is so serious. He looks like he's holding a meeting.][Yangyang is way too cute when he delivers his lines so earnestly, hahaha. It's like he's reciting answers in school.][Buy, buy, buy! I'll buy one for sure!][The black and white keyboards are too plain. I like that rainbow one Cheng Xing has.][All you rich brothers and sisters should each buy five of them. Use a different one every day!]The comments that had popped up to ridicule Tianhuan for their loss were all drowned out by these 'buy, buy, buy' comments after the commercial was aired.In the spectators' area backstage, Fang Zhengqing yawned and lazily drawled, "Yet another long match to test our bladders. They've already taken up an hour and a half with just two games. It looks like our match is going to be pushed back?"Xie Yuan smiled slightly and said, "That's to be expected. Yueying is as powerful as any Group S team, after all, and Old Xu understands Chi Shuo well enough. There won't be an easy victory here."Inside Tianhuan's soundproofed room, Lin Feng started, "This loss is my fault, we didn't come out with a good comp. They broke down our rhythm with all their lane swaps."By saying that, he hoped to help Little Xing adjust his mental state as quickly as possible.Ye Shaoyang lightly patted Cheng Xing on the head. "Don't dwell on it. In the first round, didn't we also kill their Xie Weiyu a bunch of times? As a marksman, you have to be prepared to be killed at any second."Cheng Xing nodded. "Mm."Lin Feng asked, "How about we ban Xie Weiyu's Wind Nymph in the next round? He really is a bit difficult to deal with when he plays that hero."Ye Shaoyang smiled towards Chi Shuo. "We don't need to ban the Wind Nymph. We can't possibly ban every hero that our enemies are good with, right? In the future, we'll run into even fiercer foes. We won't have enough bans to go around. Why don't we think of a way to counter him instead?"When Chi Shuo met Ye Shaoyang's gaze, he suddenly thought back to the distant past—to the game he and Ye Shaoyang had watched together at Star City's Esports Center. When they discussed Jingzhe and Huowen's team comps, Ye Shaoyang had said that the best method of dealing with them would be to run a mid/jungle duo that could cut out the heart of their team. Although executing a plan like that was difficult, there was always hope of success.Many teams in the Chinese division lacked the guts to innovate and play at a disadvantage in order to seek new ways to break through old comps.In the group stage of the regular season, everyone played with their tails tucked between their legs in fear. If that went on, then how could they contend with powerful opponents at the world championships? If they weren't good at finding counters and breakthroughs, if they just banned whatever heroes their enemies were good with… they would simply end up sinking into the same bad, old habits.Chi Shuo had always wished to find ways to counter strong team comps. In this regard, he was in complete agreement with Ye Shaoyang.He finally realized how lucky he was to have a teammate who could keep up with his thoughts and who shared the same ideals. With Shaoyang at his side, Chi Shuo seemed to feel a new power being born within him.Shaoyang made him believe that when the two of them joined hands and worked together, they could triumph over any adversity.Chi Shuo looked towards Ye Shaoyang. His gaze was warm and decisive. "I feel the same way. Xie Weiyu can continue to play his Wind Nymph in the next game—together, we'll think of a way to take him down!" Author's Notes:Yueying is a Group S-level team. This match will be a bit more detailed~

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