Chapter 404: Yu Luocheng; Kassadin!

Lin Dong had forfeited his favourite champion Ezreal and opted for Sivir, a champion that was much more suited for teamwork.

After seeing Team Skycrown pick their ADC, Team Beijing’s ADC quickly picked Number One’s favourite champion—Zed, the Master of Shadows!

Number One was a skilled player. His strengths were not just PvP and controls, but also support. Aside from instant-killing his enemies, Number One was quite capable of providing support for his team in the end-game too.

Ancient Dust was quite good at instant-killing his foes as well. Unfortunately, he was a hot-head, easily getting overconfident after playing a match for quite some time.

Number One on the other hand was different. He was the number one player in the national ranking, so in other words, he was a calm and stable player.

A player like him that was skilful and level-headed? This was the worst kind of foe one could encounter in a match.

“I suppose everyone is familiar with Number One. One could say that he is basically the upgraded version of Ancient Dust. Many ADCs and APCs would definitely find him a pain in the ass!” Miracle was still as brutal as ever.

“The player who is facing Number One is Wu Sen. He was originally Team Stardust’s Support. Now, can this player, who has changed his role to the APC only recently, handle Number One’s fierce and careful offenses?” Jojo asked.

“Hard to say. It depends on his champion… Not many champions can take on Zed in the middle lane. Well, there’s still Lulu. Now, is Team Skycrown going to pick Lulu as their Mid? Or perhaps, they will send a Support to aid her in the middle lane?”

And then came the 4th champion…

Wu Sen was quick in choosing his champion. It was Kassadin!

“Oh! Wu Sen has chosen Kassadin. The strongest Kassadin in the country is Hades, but not only that, Number One’s Kassadin is quite powerful as well. He could in fact take on countless top-tier Mids with his Kassadin!” Miracle bellowed out in astonishment.

Many professional players had their own favourite champions. When facing off their favourite champions in a match, it was something many viewers liked to watch. Why? Because it was quite easy for them to lose their cool!

***

A young man started laughing as he sat on his VIP chair in the Noxus Cafe.

“Does Team Skycrown have a death wish or what? They picked our Number One’s Kassadin!”

It was Li Ji, the person who had tossed in 10,000 flowers earlier on the live streaming site. He was a fan of Number One’s Mid skills, and he loved to watch his skilful maneuvers, especially when Number One used Kassadin and Zed. There was no one that could handle Number One’s offenses when he picked these two champions!

“Number One, how many times do you want to kill Kassadin? I’ll pay you several dozen thousands yuan for each kill!” Li Ji laughed.

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

Tens of thousands for each kill? This was basically a kill-for-hire!

“Then, perhaps you’ll have to go home with your wallet empty tonight!” Number One replied with a calm smile, “I’ve killed him at least 5 times the last time we faced off.”

“If you can kill him 5 times again, I’m willing to part with yuan 50,000. Treat yourself to a grand supper tonight.” Li Ji replied.

Li Ji was a filthy rich kid. To him, money was nothing but a bunch of numbers. It was easy for him to spend over tens of thousands of yuan in just one night in Beijing. He had been to every kind of club in the city and had grown bored of those other high-end places. Now, he was obsessed with League of Legends.

Usually, professional players weren’t wealthy, and so, everyone knew that Number One was going to give it his all after hearing Li Ji’s words.

“Hmm? They changed their positions?” Team Beijing’s Jungler, Ping Feng said.

Looking at the screen, Number One couldn’t help but frown. Demacia Cafe’s Luocheng had changed sides with Wu Sen… Number One hadn’t expected that he was going to face off with the Fighting Hawk right away!

“Their Mid is now assigned as the Support, Demacia’s new Mid is now the Fighting Hawk!” Everyone in the Noxus Cafe was stunned as they stared at the screen.

Team Beijing hadn’t expected any position changing to happen as it was rather uncommon in official matches after all.

***

“Oh my, this is unexpected. Fighting Hawk is going to handle the middle lane!” Miracle jumped from his seat in excitement.

Everyone in the Demacia Cafe was surprised too. Captain Yu was going to station himself at the middle lane!

They had seen him as the ADC before.

They had seen him as the Support as well.

Yet, they had never seen him as a Mid, ever. Not only that, Luocheng was using an assassin-type champion like Kassadin too.

K’s eyes were lit up. This was the first time they would see Luocheng play as the Mid. On top of that, he was facing off the top 1 player in the national ranking, there was so much to see in this match!

Finally, all the champions had been decided and the screen had now changed straight to the battlefield.

Cheers could be heard flooding through the Demacia Cafe. In the meantime, the live streaming site was going crazy as well!

Luocheng’s ADC was a legend in the previous LPL. He was greater than Bai Feng in terms of skills, yet now, he was going to the middle lane…

Could it be that he was also equally skillful in being a Mid!?

***

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“Boss, look! He’s playing as the Mid?” Asmodai was stunned as he stared at the screen.

“Just what kind of position does he main at? He plays ADC, Support, Mid… even the Jungler… it’s really risky for one to play every kind of position like this!” Anubis said.

Everyone had his own strength. It was only by focusing on that single spot, a single role, that one could shine. Taking up multiple roles like this was no different than ruining his own career!

“The guy was an all-rounded champion in E-sports back then. He climbed to the top of the world with DOTA before this and LOL has similar mechanics, so it’s easy for him to do the same.” Hades replied in a serious tone.

Being the King of E-sports was not about being the best in just one thing. He would need to master multiple roles, and Hades knew this.

However, there was something else that Hades was curious about—Just what role was Fighting Hawk’s strongest?

If he couldn’t find out the answer to that, it was going to be a shot in the dark for them when they faced off against Team Skycrown in the future.

***

Luocheng had not let his Mid skills go rusty. In fact, after the LPL, he did think that he would one day be taking up the role of a mid lane AP. This role could bring his team to glory.

After spending 4 months training, Luocheng realized that there were some challenges in playing as the Mid. He needed to spend a lot of effort in killing spawns, hitting the jungle, and predicting his opponents’ locations in the jungle. Taking out spawns required a lot of energy and this prevented Luocheng from actively strategizing effectively in the middle of a match.

After watching Wu Sen play as the AP carry several times, Luocheng eventually gave up on his AP training and went back to being a Support.

There was a reason as to why so many captains were Supports.

A Support didn’t need to help on the front line as much as the others, and thus, he had extra time to observe the entire match and command his peers. By doing that, he could raise up the efficiency of his entire team in a match.

Hence, Luocheng decided that it was best for him to remain a Support.

Yet, this match was special. Wu Sen was not confident in facing Number One, therefore, Luocheng needed to be in the middle lane.

Luocheng didn’t think that he could do any better than Wu Sen, but he was never scared of anyone ever in E-sports.

And this match? A mid laner’s mental constitution was much more important than his skills.

***

The players had been summoned into the Summoner’s Rift.

The 5 members of Team Skycrown walked towards their respective position.

This was different from the other seasonal matches. This time, Team Skycrown did not stick together. They needed to spread out to the top lane’s bushes, blue orb, bottom lane bushes, the entrance of the Crimson Raptors, and the triangle bushes.

If they were to face off with their foes like this, Team Skycrown could then form a pentagon formation.

By doing so, they could stop their foes from invading into all of their turfs.

In the latest version, a First Blood could only grant them so much gold, other than that, it was quite difficult for a team to bag a few kills in the early phase of the match. They could only get about 600 gold with 3 kills. Thus, it didn’t matter if they stuck with their old formation.

This time, they needed the buffs from the orbs.

Back then, Team Skycrown had been a bit relaxed in picking their positions.

Now, they had chosen a formation, and seeing this, the viewers knew that something was different with Team Skycrown today.

After planting the wards, Zhou Yan’s Olaf successfully acquired the Red Orb. Lin Dong and Wu Sen had reached the bottom lane while Luocheng was now facing off with the top player in the country!

“Kassadin versus Zed. Who is stronger?” Jojo asked.

“Zed is undeniably stronger than Kassadin. Kassadin is nothing but an easy kill before reaching Level 6, but after Level 6 though, he could turn into a fierce tiger!” Miracle replied.

Indeed, the champions’ difference in strength was quite obvious. At Level 1, Kassadin could only aid the creeps for a moment before retreating back to the rear.

At Level 2, Number One crossed the creeps, trying to get to Luocheng’s Kassadin. Luocheng had opted not to creep score, merely standing at the creeps’ rear to receive the EXP.

“Wow, Number One is so awesome! He has totally overpowered Kassadin there!” Jojo was surprised.

Due to Luocheng’s reputation, Jojo had thought that this was going to be a bloody and exciting match from the start. She didn’t think there would be such a large gap in terms of champions’ strength.

“Why hasn’t Luocheng done any creep-scoring? His foe has already done it 7 times.” Duo Duo was anxious as he looked at the screen.

“If he did that, he’d be feeding to the enemy. If you touch the enemy’s creep, Zed would come forward with an auto attack followed by an E-skill. Then, he would continue with another auto attack before casting his Q-skill. By then, Kassadin would only have half of his health left, meaning that now, Zed can rush in with his E-skill… Kassadin could be slain right away…” Feng Da explained.

And Feng Da was right. When facing off against Riven or Zed, Kassadin should not expect to do any creep scoring. Doing that was no different than committing suicide. As a Mid Kassadin, you only had the Q-skill at your disposal, thus, if your foe rushed in with a set of skills and an Ignite, your Kassadin with only half of his health would be sent straight back to the fountain in no time.

Luocheng didn’t care about attacking the enemy’s creeps at all. All he could hope for at the moment was to occasionally do some creep scoring using his Q-skill. His Q-skill, Null Sphere, wouldn’t use up a lot of his Mana, besides, he was carrying a few bottles of potions with him too.

The viewers had started to talk.

Oh… This world champion was nothing but a wimp… The Fighting Hawk was going to be slain in no time…

Luocheng ignored all of them.

What was the true essence of playing Kassadin?

Don’t try to be a hero before reaching Level 6. Remember! Before reaching Level 6, you were no different than the creeps.

You must suppress your desire to hit the opponent’s creeps. Why? Because the moment you stopped and picked up the gold that they dropped, your ass would be piledriven to death by the enemy.