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PUD’s ADC laughed and said in their team voice chat, “I can hear the audience’s screams even through my headphones.”
“No kidding, even I want to shout.” XIU scoffed good-naturedly, “The hell, it’s my birthday today, do we really have to free his Lee Sin so he can come screw me?”
Savior said, “Coach said, practice team comp.”
“He’s not that godly.” PUD’s coach was Korean, and he was currently pacing around behind them. “Over on our side, everyone knows how to play this champion, and some aren’t worse than Road. During the World Championships, I can’t possibly ban Lee Sin every single match, we have to try and overcome it. What’s more, it doesn’t matter if we lose either.”
Aside from the fact that this was only a regular season match, they had also already accumulated enough points to solidly enter the playoffs.
Even if they really did end up losing this round, the match was a BO3 setup, so they would still have an opportunity in the next game.
The two commentators were still in a state of shock.
Meanwhile, the barrage had been spamming for a long time—
[Free win, congrats TTC]
[Congrats TTC]
[Congrats TTC]
[They only let out a Lee Sin, that’s all, it’s not that big of a deal. You all make it seem like TTC’s win is set in stone with Lee Sin.]
[Fun fact: in last year’s spring season and the summer season before that, Road’s Lee Sin had a 100% win rate.]
[Actually, that champion’s been heavily banned for a while now. If you add it up, he’s only played Lee Sin five or six times…]
[Fans, stop hyping him up, or else how embarrassing is it gonna be for you if he loses.]
[Won’t say anything else, congrats TTC]
Yuan Qian was the first to pick his champion in this round. When he saw the ban list, he was startled. “What is PUD doing?”
Xiao Bai furiously added fuel to the fire. “I’m saying it like it is: freeing Lee Sin is equivalent to looking down on my ge.”
For once, Jian Rong agreed with Xiao Bai.
As another coach, Ding-ge could tell what the other side was thinking right away, and he laughed in spite of himself. “Are they treating this regular season match as a practice match?”
Pine said, “In any case, they’re guaranteed to enter the playoffs, so they’ll play however they want.”
“Then what do we do?” Yuan Qian was at a loss. “Should we still take Lee Sin? What if they have some new strategy that targets Captain…”
Ding-ge shot Lu Boyuan a look. “Ask him.”
Lu Boyuan said, “Take it.”
His expression was indifferent, and he didn’t actually seem all that happy about his signature champion being freed. As he adjusted his runes, he said, “Just for fun.”
Yuan Qian instantly locked in Lee Sin.
After that, it was as if it didn’t matter at all what champions the other players picked anymore. The commentators continued to emphasize and revolve around Lu Boyuan’s Lee Sin.
Until PUD’s entire team composition was revealed.
Commentator A said, “PUD chose Kha’Zix jungle, Azir mid, and Alistar support… logically speaking, these three champions are quite effective at restraining Lee Sin.”
“That’s true. Alistar’s knockup and Azir’s ult can both block Lee Sin’s dash. Kha’Zix is also relatively agile and can easily avoid attacks.” Commentator B paused. “But as for whether or not they’ll be able to restrain Lee Sin, we’ll only know after the game begins.”
The game officially started.
Lu Boyuan walked out of the base, wearing his own championship skin.
The broadcast director was very competent, and he repeatedly switched the viewpoint back over to Lee Sin.
Right off the bat, Commentator A said, “The way God Lu aggroed this monster is top-tier, his micro-movements are incredible… learn from him, everyone should learn from him.”
Commentator B nodded approvingly. “Even the way he walks seems to be somewhat different from other Lee Sins.”
The commentators could praise anything.
The players’ POV was available to watch on the broadcast. During each game, only one player’s screen from each team would be selected for the audience to watch.
In this round, TTC’s POV was naturally given to Road.
The moment the game began, the number of people in the POV stream frantically exploded—
[It’s been ten years! Road’s Lee Sin TAT!!]
[Don’t be so dramatic, he just played Lee Sin last time he duo Q’d with Soft]
[Can Soft’s fans not stick to my husband all the time?!]
[Like you have the final say in whether we stick to him or not? Who do you think you are? Your husband went to check on my son’s room at two AM in the middle of the night, do you know about that??]
[Well, I’m not like that, I’ve even started shipping my husband and Soft together.]
[Wait a second, hasn’t anyone else realized that there’s something – wrong, with God Lu’s viewpoint…]
[Hahahahahaha God Lu why do you keep looking at the mid lane??]
[When I came in here, I almost thought that I was watching Soft’s POV.]
A great deal of players all believed that jungler was the hardest role to play, because not only did this role require good mechanics, it also required a certain amount of awareness.
The jungler had to predict what monsters the enemy jungler was killing and which lane would be ganked in the next wave, so that they could lie in wait at that lane ahead of time and counterattack. Junglers also needed to constantly pay attention to what was going on in their teammates’ lanes in order to provide assistance and gank at a moment’s notice.
Lu Boyuan’s camera switched once again to the mid lane, just in time to spot Jian Rong trade a few blows back and forth with Savior, successfully consuming a bit of Savior’s health. After gaining the advantage, Jian Rong didn’t forget to proficiently flash TTC’s team logo.
[Twenty seconds earlier, Soft’s dancing, twenty seconds later, Soft’s flashing his logo]
[If this dumbass isn’t acting like a prick, then he’s on his way to acting like a prick…]
[It’s basically at the point where Road glances at the other lanes once while checking on Soft eight times.]
[Poor XIU, the Rift Scuttler that he painstakingly fought for quite a while was taken away by a single Q from God Lu…]
It was true that Lu Boyuan kept checking on the mid lane.
In the last game, he was always either at the top or bot lane. This time around, no matter what, he had to pay some attention to their mid laner.
XIU’s Rift Scuttler was stolen, and he turned around, wanting to give chase. But after he ate Lee Sin’s Q, he calculated Lu Boyuan’s current damage before deciding not to pursue him in the end.
Yet at that moment, Lee Sin abruptly stopped, and then flashed their team logo at him.
XIU: “…”
Heavens, they were all getting corrupted by Soft.
At level 7, when Lu Boyuan saw XIU appear at the bot lane, he circled around to the bush behind Savior. “Jian Rong, get ready to pick a card.”
Jian Rong was playing Twisted Fate, which had a skill that allowed him to cycle through three different colored cards. The blue card restored mana, the red card slowed enemies, and the yellow card stunned the target.
Jian Rong immediately said, “He’s got no flash, has his ult.”
Lu Boyuan said, “We can kill him.”
If Lu Boyuan said they could, then they could. Jian Rong promptly cooperated and pressed forward.
Savior was also on alert, and when he noticed that Jian Rong’s positioning was unusual, he quickly sought help from XIU in their voice chat before rapidly withdrawing back towards his tower.
Upon seeing Lee Sin appear next to him, he instantly used a movement skill to shift away. Unexpectedly, the second he landed on the ground, Lee Sin’s Q accurately smashed onto his body.
Savior’s action just then was a little rushed, which allowed Lu Boyuan to predict where he was going to move to.
Savior reacted very fast. When Lu Boyuan followed up with the second part of his Q, Savior directly tossed out his ult, interrupting Lu Boyuan midair and pushing him some distance back.
The commentators had long since noticed that Lu Boyuan wanted to tower dive and gank Savior. One commentator frowned and analyzed, “They can’t tower dive here, right? At level 7, two people going to dive Azir isn’t actually very rational… see, he was knocked back—”
Before the commentator could finish his sentence, he saw Lee Sin place a ward behind Savior the second before he was knocked back.
Lu Boyuan had already anticipated that he was going to be pushed away, and he immediately used his W skill to dash to the ward. He flashed, rushing over to Savior, and used his roundhouse kick ult—propelling Savior over to Jian Rong.
Right away, Jian Rong cycled to the yellow card, a stun. With a Q plus Ignite, and then two auto attacks, he cleanly finished off Savior.
Lu Boyuan’s entire chain of skills just now took less than two seconds to complete.
“This…” Commentator A said, “Wasn’t that wave way too meticulous?? When did he place that ward? Did you see it?”
Commentator B shook his head. “I think I did, but I’m not too sure. Let’s wait until they show the kill replay.”
A minute and a half later, Lu Boyuan’s ult went off cooldown, and he snuck into XIU’s jungle straightaway, precisely camping XIU in the bushes next to the red buff.
XIU’s health wasn’t too great. Sensing danger, he wavered at the side for a moment and didn’t go right for the buff.
Commentator A: “Actually, this is a bit risky. With how agile Kha’Zix is, it’ll be very hard for Lee Sin to sweep him away if his Q misses…”
As he spoke, he saw Lu Boyuan emerge with a ward hop. XIU swiftly leaped and hid in Lu Boyuan’s blind spot, evidently also wanting to dodge that Q before engaging with him.
Lu Boyuan didn’t even blink. He fired his Q behind a wall that he had no vision of whatsoever, accurately landed the skill, and followed up with his second Q, dealing out the limits of his damage. With one final roundhouse kick ult, he knocked XIU back into Savior. As both of them flew into the air, he used his Q again and killed off XIU before ward hopping and escaping right in front of Savior’s eyes.
Commentator A very naturally finished what he was saying earlier. “—of course, for God Lu, that’s not a worry at all.”
Commentator B: “…”
After completing that wave, Lu Boyuan recalled to base and bought more items as a kill announcement came from the bot lane.
Xiao Bai’s Thresh directly flashed and followed up with an E and R, slowing and trapping the enemy ADC. Pine teleported over via Xiao Bai’s lantern and instantly crushed the opposing team’s ADC with his Aphelios.
“Nice!” Xiao Bai pinched his voice higher. “Song-gege1 is super amazing, mwah mwah!”
Pine missed a minion, and his face immediately darkened. “You’re not getting any more heals in this game.”
With the bot lane at a major advantage, Lu Boyuan headed straight for the mid lane. He said to Jian Rong, “After we gank this wave, let’s go to the top lane.”
He spoke as if they had already sent Savior back to respawn at the base.
Jian Rong didn’t even think about it. “Okay.”
The other three people in the team went quiet for a second.
Most likely because Lu Boyuan had become significantly more low-key and restrained in the past few years, they had all forgotten that Lu Boyuan was also once a chuunibyou youth who would directly declare the enemy’s death in the team voice chat.
Recently, due to the addition of their team’s new mid laner, that sort of temperament seemed to be making a reappearance.
Savior was indeed very good at farming. Even though he had been ganked by Lu Boyuan once already, he still had more than a dozen minions under his belt compared to Jian Rong.
As a result, Lu Boyuan made a trip over again.
Savior was as cautious as ever. Unfortunately, the one he encountered was Lu Boyuan’s Lee Sin.
Lu Boyuan’s hand speed was too fast, and his mechanics were systematic and methodical. Savior was kicked over to Jian Rong yet again.
Lu Boyuan had a skill that was off cooldown, but he didn’t use it. Instead, he gave the kill to Jian Rong.
“He keeps staying in front of me…” Savior clenched his teeth. “My flash is gone, XIU, can you come help me?”
The icon belonging to Twisted Fate’s ult appeared over 98k’s head. “Their mid laner is coming to gank me, I can run… I’m gone, Road is here too. XIU, go for the drake.”
[Road’s Lee Sin is so agile that laozi can’t even tell how Savior died the last couple times…]
[This game is probably gonna become Road’s Lee Sin’s swan song, R.I.P]
[Thank you benefactor PUD for allowing me to witness Road’s Lee Sin, thank you thank you!]
[Road keeps giving kills to the dumbass, shipping it~]
[There’s nothing wrong with giving kills to the mid laner, don’t fantasize. However I’m also shipping it, thank you thank you!]
PUD was at too great of a disadvantage. They were obviously trying to drag the game out to the late game, as they never actively engaged any team fights.
But it wasn’t up to them whether or not they were going to team fight.
Twenty-six minutes in, Lu Boyuan circled around behind them. With a ward hop, flash, and roundhouse kick, he knocked back three of PUD’s members before he directly killed off four of them, skyrocketing the game’s rhythm.
Twenty-seven minutes in, TTC decisively went for Baron. PUD’s only remaining survivor, XIU, crept around the bushes behind the pit, wanting to find a chance to steal Baron.
The instant Kha’Zix jumped down, Lu Boyuan’s ult just happened to get off cooldown. He mercilessly kicked XIU out of the pit, and after taking care of Baron, he ward hopped and hit XIU with his Q, immediately finishing him off with a wave of damage.
Lu Boyuan recalled to base while standing atop XIU’s corpse. Lee Sin poured a cup of tea into the championship trophy before he leisurely tilted his head back and took a sip.
[No way no way, there are still people who want to try stealing Baron from God Lu?!]
[Always gotta give a shot, you never know?]
[Hahahahaha it’s like God Lu is wishing XIU a happy birthday]
[Everyone quick, go look at the match broadcast, XIU was so mad he started laughing hahahahahaha]
Thirty minutes into the game, TTC forcefully advanced. Originally, they were planning to end the game in one wave, but Savior stepped forward at a critical moment. Azir, whose creep score was quite impressive, jabbed twice and oneshotted Pine and Yuan Qian, who had slipped up in their positioning. After TTC pushed two inhibitors, they temporarily retreated.
Thirty-three minutes in, PUD’s ADC was left on his own, and he was caught and killed by Yuan Qian. Once again, TTC pressed forward in PUD’s mid lane.
PUD was already at a disadvantage, and after they lost their ADC, they basically didn’t have any ability to counterattack; they had no choice but to try and guard their Nexus turrets. Xiao Bai flashed and hooked onto Savior, with Jian Rong’s yellow card following close after. Lu Boyuan immediately ward hopped and kicked 98k—simultaneously launching Savior, who was standing at an angle behind 98k. The three CCs created an optimal amount of time for Pine to deal damage.
Twenty seconds later, Jian Rong dealt the finishing blow to PUD’s Nexus.
TTC beautifully won the second round of the match, bringing the score to 1:1.
The players went off stage, and the commentators started analyzing the odds of victory or defeat in the third round.
Commentator A said, “Regardless of what PUD was thinking in the last game, there’s no way they’ll free Road’s Lee Sin again. For the third game… I feel like PUD is probably a bit more likely to win.”
Commentator B asked, “Are you suggesting that Road can’t win unless he plays Lee Sin?!”
“Don’t you put words in my mouth!” Commentator A scolded amiably. “God Lu’s individual strength is excellent. Actually, none of TTC’s current members are weak, but how to say this, it’s obvious that TTC’s teamwork as a whole isn’t good enough—especially the teamwork between the mid laner and the rest of the lanes. Although PUD’s mid laner is also a new member, Savior is fundamentally a team fight-type player. He thoroughly understands what he should be doing at every moment, while Soft is clearly a bit weaker in this regard. For example, in the first game, Savior was always the one taking initiative to gank, whereas Soft only ran over to provide assistance afterwards. Like this, no matter how threatening you are on your own, you will rarely ever be able to effectively display your strength.”
Instantly, Xiao Bai whipped his head around, wanting to see their mid laner get pissed. Instead, he was met with the sight of their mid laner sitting with his legs slightly spread apart and his elbows propped on top of his knees. Jian Rong wasn’t even looking at the TV screen.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Xiao Bai felt like something was wrong, and he knocked gently against Jian Rong’s shoulder. “How come you aren’t saying anything?”
Sensing Lu Boyuan look over, Jian Rong swiftly pressed his lips together before he lifted his head and said, “It’s nothing, I was just wondering why I didn’t play Yasuo in that last game.”
Xiao Bai said, “I’m begging you, it’s enough suffering seeing that blasted thing show up in ranked games. Promise me, don’t let him contaminate the high and mighty LPL stadium too, okay?”
Jian Rong asked coolly, “You think that your old man Zilean doesn’t contaminate the stadium? Does your keyboard even have a Q?”
Xiao Bai: “…”
Jian Rong stood up and tossed behind him, “Going to the bathroom, be back soon.”
Lu Boyuan furrowed his brows slightly. Right as he was about to call out to him, Ding-ge suddenly turned around and said that he wanted to discuss the third game’s team composition with him.
Not long after Jian Rong walked out of the break room, he couldn’t help but reach out and brace himself against the wall.
His shoulders hunched forward faintly. After he walked into the bathroom, he immediately bent over and started to dry-heave.
But he hadn’t really eaten anything, so nothing came out as he tried to throw up.
With a creak, the door to the bathroom stall opened behind him. When the person who exited the stall saw the familiar team uniform in front of him, he was startled at first before he blurted out, “Oh shit.”
Jian Rong weakly tilted his head and peered over, meeting the gaze of Squid’s Doufu.
Squid had just lost 1:2 to MFG. There were a lot of highlights in the showdown between TTC and PUD, so Squid had chosen to stay behind and watch live at the stadium.
At that moment, Jian Rong didn’t have any energy to argue with someone, and he probably couldn’t beat him in a fight either. He contemplated for two seconds before he decided to treat the person behind him as a fart and paid no more attention to him.
Doufu was given a fright by Jian Rong’s deathly pale face. He asked without thinking, “What’s wrong with you? Looks like you’re about to die.”
Jian Rong revived a little and casted a sidelong glance at him. He explained calmly, “Not at all. The after-effects of watching your match earlier were just too great, you were so trash you made me vomit.”
I can’t remember if this has already come up or not lol but ‘Song’ is the last character of Pine’s real name (Jiang Yusong). Song = pine, hence his game ID ^