Chapter 267: Imminent Defeat

Team Fudan had a reputation for unorthodox strategies, and a knack for finding victory through unexpected means.

In the two years that they’d been around, they’d also been training with various unnamed foreign teams.

It had to be said that foreign strategies were ahead of whatever domestic teams were doing. Team Fudan’s flawless poke strategy demonstrated this clearly enough. Although Team Skycrown had managed to get ahead early on, they were unable to bring any of that to bear once the team fights began.

They were simply being beaten down too badly—and whenever they tried to push through, the enemy would slink out of their reach. Once their health bars had been whittled away almost to nothing, then the enemy would come barging in for the kill.

Kennen’s immense burst damage, Anivia’s area-effect attacks, Tristana’s incredible sustained damage… what use was any of it, when Team Skycrown couldn’t even get within reach of their opponents?

Team Fudan had obviously trained deliberately to become familiar with deploying this strategy. While Jayce provided the main thrust of their poking attacks, Orianna cleared away the minions, and the Iceborn Gauntlet-wielding Ezreal hampered Team Skycrown’s movements, until Lee Sin dashed in to force a fight.

They had a good sense of when they should go in and mix it up, and when they should hang back and keep poking.

Team Skycrown was no slouch at clearing off minions, either, but it wasn’t much help to them: when the lane was clear, Team Fudan had a clear line of fire at them, but Team Skycrown still couldn’t close the distance to them. To make matters worse, one side had already snatched up all the buffs.

They were simply helpless against this play-style.

Backstage, Yu Luocheng shared in the misery of the five players on Team Skycrown.

The team’s weakness was painfully obvious: They’d had too little time to work on their team tactics, and hadn’t developed much in the way of comprehensive strategies. They were always just going with the same old 4-1 split-push and total jungle control. Though they’d achieved a tremendous level of sophistication with these techniques, they weren’t fit to be used in every possible circumstance.

Dominance over every region of the jungle relied on a number of conditions, and was unlikely to fly against a strong team like Fudan—at most, they’d only be able to keep it up for a little while before the enemy team seized back control of their own half of the map.

Team Fudan’s proficiency with this poke strategy was a far cry from anything Team Skycrown could bring to the table. It was a difference of two months against two years—it wasn’t even worth comparing.

Right now, Luocheng could only hope that the players of Team Skycrown would be able to find a way out of this maze, and forge a path to victory.

‘A hundred seconds of cooldown left on Da Luo’s Flash. Essentially, team-fighting won’t be possible during these one hundred seconds…’ Staring up at the screen, Luocheng’s mind was afire.

If he had Flash, Kennen could attempt an ambush with his ulti and, when Lee Sin came after him, immediately Flash behind Lee Sin. Pulling off such a feat should be well within Da Luo’s ability.

Sadly, that cooldown was just too long…

Both Anivia and Elise had crowd-control skill-shots, but the odds were too low that they’d be able to land a decisive Stun. Team Fudan always kept a minimum distance of 800 units away.

Starting a team fight with Anivia’s Q or Elise’s E wasn’t solid enough as a plan. It relied too much on a difference in player ability.

This was the tie-breaker game. If Team Skycrown could only rely on luck, it would be a little different from having already lost.

***

As Luocheng was deep in rumination, the situation worsened. Team Skycrown’s Mid-lane Inhibitor Tower was halfway to collapse, though minions were scant on either side.

“Hah!” Soaring through the air, Lee Sin dove under the enemy tower!

E twice to Slow!

Two champions had been caught by Lee Sin in this way. This was clearly a prelude to a tower-dive-and-kill!

Zhou Yan, Lin Dong, and Wu Sen’s champions were all at half-health. Sensing an opportunity, Lee Sin was here to start off a team fight!

As the enemy team moved to breach their base, Kennen was nowhere to be seen. This was because he was already outside, in position to flank.

When Lee Sin made his move, Kennen charged in with ‘Slicing Maelstrom’!

“Kennen uses his ulti! This flank attack is gonna hurt!”

Da Luo wasn’t a fool. He knew that standing at the front would mean taking all sorts of poke damage, and there was no hope that he’d be able to bring the full effect of his ultimate skill to bear while Lee Sin was in the way.

So he’d attack from the flank!

A face-to-face 5v5 brawl was a no-go. Against an enemy team composition like this, one had to ambush them from the side!

Seeing that Da Luo had thrown himself into the ring, everyone on Team Skycrown advanced!

“Hah!” All of a sudden, the ground was crawling with creeping vines!

It was Zyra’s ultimate skill, ‘Stranglethorns’!

Seeing the ground before them erupt in snaking green tendrils, the four other champions of Team Skycrown were forced to halt in mid-charge!

There was no way forward—not without getting knocked up into the air!

“Da Luo…”

He was already deep within the enemy’s ranks. In mere moments, the enemy team tore him to pieces.

Watching himself die alone, Da Luo’s eyebrows hiked up his forehead.

Team Fudan was swift on the retreat! The only person he’d been able to lock down was Lee Sin.

The Top-laner only managing to catch the enemy Jungler with his skills… it was basically a wasted effort.

Trapped as he was, even Zhonya’s Hourglass could make no difference. Once the 2.5 seconds of Invulnerability ended, Orianna, Jayce, Ezreal, and Zyra fired their skills all at once, and life’s brief candle was about to be snuffed out for Kennen!

“It’s alright, as long as we get Lee Sin.” Da Luo exhaled heavily.

Watching the air fill with incoming enemy attacks, Da Luo felt a sense of despair and helplessness.

If he charged in from the front, Lee Sin had his ulti reserved specifically for him.

If he flanked from the side, Zyra could zone off his teammates with her ulti.

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Team Fudan was heading him off at every avenue. Without his Flash, he was completely at a loss as to how he could salvage the situation.

His screen had grayed out.

Da Luo’s eyes glazed over as he beheld Kennen’s fallen body.

It felt like they were about to lose another team fight.

If they lost this tower, the gold difference would be close to ten thousand, and they’d have basically zero chance of turning this game back around.

How could this be happening? Couldn’t they even handle a bunch of university boys?

Could it be that times had changed so quickly, and now a bunch of old gamers like them were no longer any good?

Skills flew back and forth in grayscale. He watched as Wu Sen’s Support was killed off instantly. Zhou Yan’s Elise pounced into the fray, never to emerge again.

Finally, the only ones left standing were Xiao Bei’s Tristana and Lin Dong’s Anivia, struggling desperately to hold the Inhibitor Tower.

Anivia’s passive ability had already been lost. With the scant little health she had remaining, all it would take was one more hit from Jayce, and she would be finished.

And yet, she couldn’t withdraw—not without immediately losing this tower.

Beneath his spectacles, Lin Dong’s eyes were affixed to the monitor before him, moving around to evade Jayce and Ezreal’s skillshots.

It was like walking a tightrope over a yawning chasm. One wrong step and it would cost him his life!

Whoosh! A Mystic Shot flew in from the side, catching one of Anivia’s wings in an explosion of frost.

That brought Anivia down to her last handful of HP, and before she could make another move, a brilliant ball of energy came screaming in from a second source!

Her movement Slowed, Anivia had no way to escape. Her frozen body evaporated away instantly in the blistering explosion.

Lin Dong sat motionless in his chair. In that moment when his champion had been slain, he’d felt something breaking inside of him. There was a pain in his heart that threatened to consume him!

Why didn’t he dodge that?

Why couldn’t he dodge that?

As long as he’d avoided getting hit, he could have held on.

The color washed out of his screen. He watched with unfocused eyes as the Middle Inhibitor Tower fell. All he could do was watch, as Jayce and Ezreal barged into their home ground.

“Lin Dong…” Xiao Bei glanced at Lin Dong as he meekly pulled Tristana back to the Fountain.

After they lost this Inhibitor, the Baron would be soon to follow. They were already eight or nine thousand gold behind. If the enemy team got any richer with a power play on the Baron Buff, it wouldn’t matter even if Team Skycrown managed to start the perfect team fight—they’d still lose on account of the equipment gap.

Was there still any way for them to win?

Exactly how were they going to win this?

At this point, even if they figured out an effective counter-measure to this poke strategy, it wouldn’t matter.

“It’s just one of our Inhibitors. We haven’t lost yet,” Xiao Bei whispered.

Zhou Yan, Wu Sen, Da Luo, and Lin Dong maintained their glum silence.

They’d all been playing LOL for a long time. Of course they’d been through games where, even after all three of their Inhibitors had been broken, they’d still managed to turn the tables and find victory in the end. Then again, they’d also seen games where, by the time the first Inhibitor was lost, it might as well have just been the whole Nexus.

And they knew how to tell the difference between the two.

Obviously, this tie-breaker game was the latter case.

***

Faced with the wordless pallor of his teammates, Xiao Bei squirmed with discomfort.

If only he’d been able to play his best during the last two games, and help secure some advantages for his team, then Team Fudan would have had to reveal this poke strategy earlier on, and Team Skycrown would have had a chance to plan an effective response to it.

Instead, this was already their last game. There was no chance to make any more adaptations!

For some reason, Xiao Bei’s thoughts were all a mess. He ran Tristana this way and that, unsure of where he ought to go.

Turning around, Xiao Bei gazed helplessly at Yu Luocheng, standing in the back.

In fact, when each of their champions died, Zhou Yan, Da Luo, and Lin Dong had also turned to look at Luocheng.

In the past, no matter how bad the situation—even when things appeared bleak beyond hope—their captain, the heart and soul of their team, would somehow find a way to get them through it, and create a miraculous turnaround.

It had been a reflexive force of habit: In those days, Luocheng’s unwavering gaze and unbreakable spirit had always been a reassuring sight for them.

Every team needs a guiding light—and for Team Wings, that light had been Yu Luocheng. That was why, after he’d left, no one else could stay, either.

But now, the man they used to depend on for miracles could only watch from backstage.

Without him, what were they to do, in a desperate situation like this?

No one had any clue how they should handle the next team fight, or how to stave off their imminent defeat!

***

Clutching the cordon that separated him from the players, Luocheng’s heart was in turmoil.

It was pure agony, watching in silence as Da Luo, Zhou Yan, Xiao Bei, and Lin Dong sank into despair, their movements listless and ineffectual.

So maddening was it, that he was almost grinding his teeth into powder!