Chapter 473: A Moving Castle (Part 1)

Luocheng ignored Tinghua’s taunt. He was not the type that would lose his head after being mocked.

After all, it went without saying. Would you be so reckless in using Blitzcrank to fight against the opponent’s Jungler Kha’Zix? Luocheng would have most definitely returned the favor if he was using Lee Sin.

The number of kills between the two teams remained close. More so, Team Sky was one Dragon ahead of Team Skycrown. Such a small advantage might not be a deciding factor this early, but as the game progressed, Zhou Yan and Wu Sen began to feel the mounting pressure as a result of Tinghua’s exceptional control over the entire jungle area.

He had been wandering freely around Team Skycrown’s side of the jungle in the past minute or so. Not only did he steal their income, but he had also gained a headcount over Zhou Yan. After he was killed, Zhou Yan lost the blue buff and the situation had turned dismally bleak for him.

“What a classy performance from Blood Eagle. His prowess as a Jungler did not diminish any bit from facing such a ferocious team like Team Skycrown. To be honest, I somehow think that he is even more ruthless today!”

There were two types of successful Junglers. The first were those who constantly invaded the opponent’s jungle and straight-up destroyed the opponent’s position. Ganking from behind after invading the opponent’s jungle was also a very proficient strategy for champions like Kha’Zix, Elise, and Lee Sin, who came with high mobility.

The second type were the ones that constantly set up counter-ambushes. This style was more conservative as the Jungler would always hide in the bush behind his teammates after sweeping the camps. He/she would either initiate if the opponent was alone or round to the back if there were two incoming champions.

In a 2 vs 2 situation, the countering side usually had the upper hand as the initiators would have usually used up all their CC or mobility skills. They were basically doomed if the counter-attackers were able to stall them.

Zhou Yan’s playstyle tilted slightly toward the latter. His frequent counter-ambushes often brought unexpected gain to his team.

However, when his opponent was the first type of Jungler with unmatchable skills like Tinghua, the effectiveness of his counter-ambush would be greatly neutralized because his whereabouts were always within Tinghua’s radar.

Tinghua was now two kills ahead of Zhou Yan, and the latter would be no match for Tinghua in a solo fight at this point of time.

***

“It’s odd. Captain Yu is nothing like his usual self.” The regulars from the Demacia café who knew Luocheng’s playstyle well sensed the irregularity.

Following the destruction of the top lane’s turret, Luocheng’s Blitzcrank rarely displayed his signature Rocket Grab after that.

Come to think of it, he had actually only used his Q-skill once up to this point. When the audience had seen him pick this champion, they had imagined all sorts of god-like grabs from under the turret, maybe catching the mid player out of nowhere, or even singling out the ADC from a packed crowd.

But in reality, he was currently playing more like a melee minion. He stayed close to Lin Dong’s Sivir and nurtured the ADC obediently like a pre-programmed bot.

It was just unconventional for him to play so typically! Judging by Luocheng’s cunning nature as a Support, it was really unusual to see him behave this quietly alongside the ADC for such an extended period. Blitzcrank’s speed after being equipped with boots was as quick as activating Ghost. With such a speed boost to back up his team, why had he chosen to lay low instead?

Without Luocheng’s gank, the match leaned heavily toward the intense competitions that occured between the Mid players as well as the Junglers. As a result, the difference in kills began to pile up in Team Sky’s favor.

The second Dragon was going to spawn soon, and Tinghua was particularly sensitive about the timing of each wild creep. On the other hand, Team Skycrown had lost their bottom lane’s outer turret. It would be difficult for them to compete for this subsequent Dragon.

***

Da Luo’s Shyvana could be seen rushing toward the Dragon camp from the top lane.

At the same time, Team Sky’s Rengar, who was controlled by Vulcan, had also vanished from the map.

It was around the 11-minute mark and quite apparently, both teams had been prepared to clash near the Dragon’s pit.

“Team Skycrown seems to have arrived a little too late. Team Sky has already begun the attack on the Dragon. Zhao Tinghua’s damage is so high now and the Dragon’s health has dropped rapidly under the attack of four of Team Sky’s members. It’s going to fall really quick!”

Zhou Yan’s Pantheon was idling nearby. However, he did not use his ulti to kill-steal the Dragon, instead, he just waited patiently.

Team Sky left the pit once they had finished off the Dragon.

It was always risky to stick around after securing the Dragon. Team Sky had chosen to play it safe and was happy enough to have slaughtered the monster ahead of Team Skycrown.

Just as Team Sky was withdrawing, Zhou Yan suddenly turned his sights onto the retreating Lucian and Leona near the bottom lane!

“Jupiter and Guan Langjie!” Luocheng ordered promptly.

Lin Dong pressed his R button as soon as he heard Luocheng’s command.

It was hunting time!

Sivir’s high popularity in this patch was not because of her powerful skills, high damage, or magical shield. Rather, it was due to her Ultimate that could provide the entire team a speed boost of 60%!

The speed of Blitzcrank in Overdrive mode after getting Boots of Mobility was unimaginably quick, and coupling that with a 60% increase in base-speed…

Luocheng’s Blitzcrank was practically flying. Even though he was still 1000 units away from the opponent’s ADC and Support, he would catch up to them in no time.

“That’s insanely quick! Blitzcrank is speeding in as if he was gliding through the air!”

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Luocheng’s champion reached the front of Lucian and Leona from as far out as the Dragon’s cliff in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, Lucian and Leona had only managed about half the distance of a Flash radius, while Blitzcrank had already traveled for about 2000 units of in-game distance!

Who needed the Q-skill? Luocheng walked directly into Langjie’s path, quickly knocking Lucian up with a beautiful uppercut.

Seeing that the ADC was in danger, Leona panicked and immediately cast her Ultimate on Luocheng.

Did it stop the assault? Of course, it didn’t!

Other than Blitzcrank, the other members of Team Skycrown were also enjoying the speed buff granted by Sivir’s ulti.

The one who followed closely behind Luocheng was none other than Zhou Yan’s Pantheon! He stunned Lucian with his W-skill, Shield Vault. To completely lock down Langjie, Lulu used her ulti on Pantheon from behind and the enlargement elegantly knocked Lucian up yet again.

Leona was out of tricks and Jupiter could only watch helplessly as his team’s ADC was swiftly killed by the entire Team Skycrown troop. He had no choice but to Flash away to save himself now.

Almost instantly, Luocheng’s Blitzcrank whirled around with no warning. “Quake in fear, fleshling!”

He had yet to use his Rocket Grab. Luocheng had been waiting for this exact moment to drag the fleeing enemy back!

Jupiter’s last-ditch escape plan had been foreseen by Luocheng, and Blitzcrank’s right hand was projected precisely to where Leona had landed.

In the end, Jupiter’s Leona was also killed right after Lucian had fallen.

Team Skycrown had wordlessly passed the kills to their ADC and AP, and upon claiming the two heads, they rode the minion wave and conveniently took down Team Sky’s outer turret at the bottom lane.

The game had gone slightly past 12 minutes now, and Wu Sen had finally gotten his first blue buff of the game.

This ambush by Team Skycrown had caught Team Sky out. In their defense, they had made the right decision to back off as soon as they had taken down the Dragon. However, due to the fact that they had retreated disjointedly, Team Sky had painfully lost two players, an outer turret, and the blue buff.

***

“I think Team Skycrown is bringing us yet another surprise,” Zhang Aijing finally spoke up after a long deliberation.

The front rows were mostly occupied by professional players. Almost every LPL player had attended this match.

Everyone knew that Aijing was a renowned analyst, and the players kept quiet and listened closely when she spoke.

“How so?” Wind from Team Stardust asked.

“In the next wave, I believe that Team Skycrown is going to target the mid-lane turret. A lot of Team Skycrown’s strategies relies on getting rid of the mid outer turret. They will surely do the same in this match, mark my words.”

Aijing didn’t want to reveal any more than that. After all, nothing was more impactful than seeing the strategy play out with your own eyes.

***

The victorious teamfight drew Team Skycrown level with Team Sky in terms of gold, and they returned to their respective lanes to continue farming.

This did not mean that they were being conservative. This was just a good habit of theirs in professional matches, which was to push the lane up first before creating another teamfight. If they had an advantage over the creep line, losing a teamfight meant that they were just losing one or two guys. However, if they forced a fight while the lane condition was unfavorable, the domino effect would be huge as they would lose their turrets and income subsequently.

After pushing the creep lines back, Team Skycrown’s players simultaneously disappeared from the two side lanes. Meanwhile, Xie Yi’s Gragas was busy clearing the minion wave in the middle lane.

Suddenly, a giant halo appeared behind Gragas! The huge circle mark signaled that something horrible was going to land there very soon!

“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back,” Tinghua was apparently prepared for this and had waited quietly in the fog. He was waiting for the moment when Pantheon would land.

Xie Yi nodded and placed his fingers on the skill buttons.

However, before Pantheon landed, Xie Yi realized a more imminent danger—a large troop had suddenly dashed out from his blind spot.

There were four champions with a large group of melee minions!

They came forth like a bullet train,simply running toward Xie Yi without using any relocating skills!

Xie Yi was flabbergasted.

‘What crazy speed! They are too fast!’

Too fast indeed. When Xie Yi finally reacted by throwing Gragas’s ulti to knockback the enemies’ formation, he realized the Explosive Cask had missed the frontline and had actually pushed Blitzcrank and Shyvana further toward him!

Just like before, Blitzcrank ran up to Gragas and knocked him up with his E-skill. Then, he still had all the time in the world to turn back and use his Q-skill to pull Xie Yi away from his teammate.

Xie Yi immediately gave up on resisting and looked at Tinghua sullenly.

The Blood Eagle was equally bewildered.

How were you going to counter-ambush when your enemy came in a whole group?

It was common to see the Support help the Jungler gank the middle lane or the Jungler and Mid coordinate to gank the side-lanes during the mid-game. But a gank that involved the whole team at this timing was rare or probably unheard of. This was more like a stampede over the enemy rather than a gank!