Chapter 276: Da Luo vs. Zhao Tinghua

The defense of the world champion’s throne had begun!

Xiao Bei watched Zhou Yan, Da Luo, and Lin Dong flanking Yu Luocheng. His heart felt so full it might burst.

However, he was still a newcomer to the world of professional gaming. It had taken all he had just to get into the LPL. He was still a far cry from a world-class player.

***

Zhang Aijing took center stage. “Hi, everyone! I’ll be the one taking you through the solo exhibition match! According to the rules of the International E-Sports Federation, challenging the coach of Team Skycrown to a duel is not to be done directly—first, one has to get past his honor guard, before they can be allowed to actually face him. As such, Blood Eagle will be taking on the three bodyguards of Team Skycrown, in the hopes of ultimately challenging the enigmatic coach himself!¹”

Aijing didn’t actually announce Luocheng’s standing as the world champion of gaming, but instead used a roundabout fashion to hint to the audience that this series of solo duels would be considered an international matter.

Hearing this brought a smile to Zhao Tinghua’s face.

Good. Someone had realized that this was a challenge for the crown of the world champion. And here he’d thought no one in China would have a clue about such matters.

Let’s get started, then. He’d been waiting for this day for a long, long time!

***

A surge of cheering rose from the crowd.

Back-to-back duels… now you’re talking! However, some question marks had also begun to form.

“Is Team Skycrown’s coach really that amazing, for them to save him for the finale?” a university student with permed curls wondered aloud.

“Who knows? Maybe the coach is a better player than any of them. Maybe he’ll take the field himself during the LPL. Didn’t you hear when the MC mentioned that there are rules about challenging that guy to a duel? Something about a Federated E-Sports International Regulatory something-something…”

“This is so weird. Team Skycrown just won a major game, and now they have to get their asses kicked?”

The discussions raged on. Typically, the crowd would disperse soon after a tournament game ended—this time around, no one had yet to rise from their seats. Everyone was looking forward to seeing Blood Eagle go up against Team Skycrown.

***

“I’ll go first,” Da Luo suggested. He was already making for the computers they were setting up for the solo duels.

Tinghua was already there, waiting. He wasn’t even going to swap in his own mouse and keyboard, just using whatever he’d been provided. It was as though he wanted to keep things as honest as possible.

Seeing this haughty display from Tinghua pissed Da Luo off.

Logging into his account swiftly, he was shown a selection of champions for purchase. He wasted no time making his choices, and then entered the designated custom game room.

Aijing explained a bit about how they’d be doing things: “Keeping in mind that both players each specialize in different lanes, we’ve put some restrictions into place: Lone Gull of Team Skycrown is a Solo Top player, so this duel will take place in the top lane, using only those champions most commonly picked for Solo Top during competitive play.”

Solo maps were only used for particular games, and typically any champion was allowed. However, when one sought to challenge the reigning world champion, there were no guarantees of fairness. Each member of the honor guard was entitled to set the terms of the duel: where they would play, which map they would play on, and even whichever game the world champion was known for playing.

Da Luo could have chosen DOTA—but they were here now as LOL players. To change the game under these circumstances, it would be an admission of weakness.

Straight away, Da Luo selected the same champion he’d used last game, Kennen.

Tinghua’s choice came even faster. As though he couldn’t even be bothered to see which champion Da Luo selected, Tinghua picked Darius without hesitation!

“Uh… I’m sure this is the first time anyone’s watching Blood Eagle play Top. Who would have guessed that he’d choose Darius, the Hand of Noxus!”

Darius, Executioner of Noxus!

This champion used to be the most feared character in the Top lane, and the easiest one to get a Penta Kill with. Once he got rolling with his brutal ultimate skill, ‘Noxian Guillotine’, there would be heads rolling everywhere!

However, with the introduction of other mighty Top champions such as Renekton, Jax, Kennen, and Zac, Darius’s short range became an increasingly evident drawback, and as a result he was seeing less use in serious games.

For Tinghua to insta-lock Darius was an incomparable show of arrogance! As Blood Eagle, he was mainly a Jungler—but every pro gamer, as a matter of course, should be well-acquainted with all the roles in the game, albeit not to the absolute pinnacle of mastery.

“A first-class Jungler should know the Top lane like his own backyard, since that’s the lane the Jungler looks after the most,” Aijing said. “An elite player like Blood Eagle will undoubtedly prove an expert Top-laner as well.”

The crowd cheered as the view soared across the Summoner’s Rift.

The other two lanes had been closed off, so trying to farm there was basically conceding the game.

Both players purchased their starting equipment, and then strode into their lane, arriving at the mid-point simultaneously.

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“Let’s see what each player got… Lone Gull is packing a Doran’s Blade, totally textbook. Kennen especially has to start with Doran’s Blade, not just for effective poking, but also for a leg up at farming.

“Blood Eagle is also going with a common starting load-out: Cloth Armor and five Health Potions, that’s playing safe. Kennen has an advantage against Darius—as long as he can avoid getting hooked, he’ll basically dominate the lane.”

Kennen juked tirelessly, taking pot-shots at Darius in between picking off minions. Darius just kept farming, guzzling potions as quickly as Kennen could damage him.

Soon, the minion wave was pushing in against Kennen!

“A solo duel is decided when one player gets a single champion kill, or one hundred minion kills. Blood Eagle hasn’t used his hook even once—he’s just been farming non-stop.”

Luocheng was frowning. Watching the duel play out on the main display, he could see that Da Luo’s poking wasn’t doing very much. In fact, from the moment Kennen’s first attack hit Darius, he knew that Tinghua wasn’t using damage Runes—he’d gone for double defense.

Darius was heavily dependent on gaining levels, with equipment as a secondary concern. It was obvious that Tinghua’s plan was to weather the harassment with his defensive Runes, while using his skills to clear away the minions and push in the waves.

Early game, Kennen couldn’t match Darius at farming. As the front-line was forced against his tower, Da Luo began to miss a few minions.

In this way, Darius soon pulled ahead by 5 CS.

It should have been the ranged champion bullying the melee fighter, and getting ahead in CS—however, thanks to the Armor and Magic Resist Runes, things were turning out the opposite way.

Worse still, even with those Runes, Darius still promised to deal a fearsome amount of damage, if he could get ahead in levels!

“He’s almost Level 5.” Luocheng glanced at the state of the minions, and his heart sank.

A melee minion fell, providing the last few Experience Points Darius needed to reach the next level.

There, Tinghua did something in the moment just before Darius leveled up: taking one tiny step to the side, he slipped into the brush!

Having lost sight of him, Da Luo couldn’t see him level up. As he moved Kennen forward to finish off another minion, Darius suddenly Flashed out from the brush!

First a basic attack, then his W-skill ‘Crippling Strike’, followed by another attack!

After suffering three hits in the blink of an eye, Kennen reacted quickly and retreated into his ‘Lightning Rush’ form, pulling himself away from the action!

Decimate!

With one vicious sweep of his battle-axe, Darius hewed off yet another section of Kennen’s health bar.

No sooner had the axe blade flashed past, than it shot out again to Apprehend!

Darius had used his E-skill ‘Apprehend’ last. It was psychological warfare: In solo duels, most people were accustomed to using Flash to dodge their opponent’s key control skills.

Tinghua hadn’t used Apprehend at all, instead throwing out a skill combo, and then waiting until Kennen was just about to escape the reach of that skill before suddenly using it to pull him back again!

It was a play at the very limits of possibility. Kennen had hoped to escape via Lightning Rush, but when he saw that he was about to get caught by the wicked hook on the axe blade, he was forced to Flash!

If he got pulled back to eat another combo, with an Ignite laid on top of that, even if he didn’t die, he would still be done for.

“What a breathtaking combo!” Aijing gasped.

Every champion in League of Legends had their own set of combat animations. Upon closer examination, one might notice that some elite players were much faster at stringing their moves together, and they were somehow more graceful about their movements—as though they were using WSAD instead of a mouse cursor.

When it came to playing Darius, some people felt the champion was clumsy and ungainly to use, with terribly obvious cues telegraphing the use of each skill, as well as slowing down each attack.

However, Tinghua played Darius with the elegance of a ballet. Even while Kennen’s movement was being accelerated with Lightning Rush, Darius had still been able to unleash a jaw-dropping A-W-A-Q-E combo onto him. Typically, that second basic attack should have been too much to hope for.

Don’t overlook the value of that one basic attack—in a Top-lane duel, especially prior to Level 6, each attack could be the difference between life and death!

***

With half his health gone, Kennen had to tread carefully now. If he got hooked now, considering Tinghua’s APM, it was certainly possible that a single skill combo plus Ignite would be the end of him.

Darius resumed pushing in the minion wave, using the concealment of the brush to force Kennen away entirely. With the increased need for caution, Kennen only continued to fall behind on minions.

Little by little, the difference grew to 10 CS. The waters of anxiety were rising in Da Luo’s heart.

Kennen should be able to gain a dominating advantage against Darius. In Ranked play, Da Luo had never failed to win the lane when playing in such a match-up.

How was Tinghua’s Darius able to exude such a frightening aura of menace? He couldn’t even approach the shadow of his hooked axe. There was a zone of certain death with a radius of 600 units around him—but ‘Apprehend’ should only have a reach of 540 units!

Da Luo felt a monumental sense of pressure weighing down on him, and yet he still couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on.