ARML CH94

After the 10-minute break following the first game, CYC’s coach immediately entered the soundproof booth and said, “The first game is over. Don’t overthink it, quickly adjust your mentalities.”

The players had different expressions, but the marksman who was repeatedly carried over and killed looked the worst.

The coach patted his shoulder and smiled, “Tianhuan’s ‘detention system’ is indeed a bit unscrupulous. But think carefully: the Seraphim’s grab, the Death’s Chain’s hook, and the Black Dragon Knight’s taunt pull—they all follow the same logic. It’s strong displacement crowd control to drag a distant target over for a kill.”

“Ultimately, it’s just their support grabbing, jungler rooting, and seamlessly chaining their CC well! Tianhuan must have practiced this composition for a long time, so losing to them isn’t unjust. As long as the marksman brings Cleanse and the support sweeps for traps in the jungle, they won’t be able to snowball so smoothly.”

Although the coach was using hindsight, his analysis slightly improved everyone’s complexions. When encountering such a bizarre routine in a match, losing to the opponent was quite normal.

The coach continued, “Tianhuan’s recent tactics revolve around feeding the mid-laner, letting him get the kills and MVP. So next game, we’ll avoid their sharp edge and directly crush their side lanes!”

CYC’s captain asked, “Crush the bottom lane? I don’t think Fanxing is very strong.”

The coach shook his head, “No. Fanxing has Qu Jiang protecting him, so he’s hard to kill. They say the top lane is an island—next game, we’ll specifically focus the top lane and crush their top laner!”

The CYC coach’s reasoning wasn’t wrong. Weren’t you constantly yielding top lane economy to your mid-laner? If we crush your top lane, how can you yield it? You won’t have any economy left to yield!

The second game quickly began.

This time, Tianhuan was on the Blue side and had the first BP (Ban/Pick).

Coach Lin continued to ban strong supports to ease Xiao Xing’s laning pressure. CYC’s first ban was still [Abyssal Lord], and their second ban continued to target the [Blessing Priest]’s speed boost.

With the BP being mostly the same for both games, the caster couldn’t help but say, “Aren’t they afraid Tianhuan will bring out the detention system again? Or did CYC’s coach figure out a countermeasure?”

“Personally, I don’t think Tianhuan would use the exact same composition two games in a row.”

For their first pick, Tianhuan locked in [Machine Gun Hunter], the marksman Cheng Xing had been practicing well recently. This hero had high attack speed, fast wave clear with rapid-fire bullets, and wouldn’t be suppressed in the laning phase.

CYC then picked the [Light of Blessing] support and the [Kraken of the North Sea] mid-laner.

Caster: “I understand now. CYC didn’t ban Tianhuan’s detention system because they came up with a counter! The support [Light of Blessing] can grant a health shield to all teammates, preventing them from being burst down. Furthermore, his ultimate removes CC and grants 1.5 seconds of CC immunity, breaking the opponent’s CC chain!”

“Exactly, CYC’s counter-strategy is excellent. Not only does this support neutralize Tianhuan’s detention system, but with him around, the marksman is very hard to burst. With a shield and an ultimate cleanse, the marksman should be able to escape no matter what, right?”

“Let’s see what Tianhuan picks—their second pick is the top laner [Black Dragon Knight]. This is the hero Qin Yizhu has played the most recently, with a very high win rate. Their third pick is the [Mechanical Expert] support… [Machine Gun Hunter] paired with [Mechanical Expert] is also a common tower-pushing duo!”

“Tianhuan hasn’t picked their mid and jungle yet; they’re probably saving them for the second phase to counter-pick.”

In the first phase, Tianhuan drafted their top and bottom lanes, while CYC drafted their mid and bottom lanes.

Thus, in the second phase, Tianhuan started banning the enemy top laners, while CYC went crazy banning mid-laners—forget about [Illusionist], and even [World-Ending Mage] was sent to the ban room.

Caster: “CYC directly banned three mid-laners, are they targeting the mid lane to the bitter end?”

“What hero will Lieyang pick next?”

Inside Tianhuan’s soundproof booth, Coach Lin said, “They picked a support with a cleanse, so our CC chain won’t work. Should we focus on macro tower-pushing through the bot lane, or do you guys want to play something else?”

Ye Shaoyang said, “Their support can cleanse CC, but there are some things he can’t cleanse… like poison.”

Coach Lin looked at him, “You want to play Cobra King?”

Ye Shaoyang smiled, “I don’t really like Cobra King, let’s pick the other one.”

Inside CYC’s soundproof booth, the coach was all smiles, “Our cleansing support directly breaks the CC chain of Tianhuan’s support and jungler, and the Ocean Goddess’s slow won’t work either. Let’s see what tricks Ye Shaoyang can pull out now!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Shaoyang actually picked a flower.

The CYC coach’s smile stiffened: “…Flower Fairy?!”

“Flower Fairy??” The two casters exclaimed, looking at each other in dismay. “Flower Fairy mid-laner, paired with a Paladin utility jungler? Is this the tempo of the Paladin acting as a bodyguard to protect the Flower Fairy while she plants flowers all over the rift?”

The CYC coach’s temples throbbed.

Tianhuan’s dirty routines were truly endless!

A screen full of ellipses flooded the stream.

[Grass, this disgusting hero actually made an appearance.]

[Planting flowers everywhere, stepping on one poisons you.]

[If she gets items in the late game, a bite from a man-eating flower can drop half your health bar. So annoying.]

[I have psychological trauma from man-eating flowers! I hate running into this hero in ranked!]

Flower Fairy wasn’t considered an unpopular hero. On the contrary, because she was an alluring older sister type with beautiful looks and a sexy voice, she was quite popular among netizens and had many official skins.

The annoying part about this hero wasn’t that she could one-shot you with an ultimate combo, but that she could scatter her [Man-Eating Flower Seeds] all over the rift.

Every man-eating flower dealt magic damage to enemies who stepped on it and applied a poison stack.

Having to dodge a field full of man-eating flowers while playing a match was incredibly annoying.

The BP phase quickly ended.

Tianhuan’s composition this game was no longer a CC chain. With the support and marksman bound to the bottom lane for tower-pushing, and the top laner left to his own devices, picking such a mid and jungle duo definitely meant they were going to stir up trouble.

Sure enough, right at the start, Chi Shuo took Ye Shaoyang to invade CYC’s Blue Buff.

[Flower Fairy] was a very strong hero in level 1 team fights because her “Man-Eating Flower Seeding” was her Q skill. She could store 5 seeds on the way to the river, meaning she had 5 instances of attack. While other mid-laners could only hit the enemy once at level 1, she could hit them 5 times. Although the damage of each seed was very low… 5 hits could stack poison!

Since everyone lacked magic defense items in the early game, the poison damage was extremely terrifying.

This was also why poison comps were so strong early on.

CYC’s captain immediately said, “Avoid fighting, let’s go counter-jungle their Blue!”

The idea was good, but executing it wasn’t easy.

As soon as CYC’s jungler ran into Tianhuan’s Blue Buff area, he was rooted by a mechanical soldier from the [Mechanical Expert] support, followed closely by a flurry of shield attacks from the [Black Dragon Knight] top laner.

CYC’s jungler: “They’re defending the Blue!”

The mid and top lane teammates immediately went to help.

However, the heroes Qu Jiang and Old Qin picked this game were both thick-skinned tanks, and they could stall for a long time even in a 2v3. The result was that before the jungle skirmish on Tianhuan’s side even ended, the Flower Fairy, fluttering gracefully with the Blue Buff on her, arrived at the scene accompanied by her tall and burly Paladin bodyguard.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo took the Blue Buff very quickly, with no one to interfere.

The [Flower Fairy] with the Blue Buff was already level 2. Besides her Q skill “Man-Eating Flower Seeding,” she had also learned her W skill “Poison Mist Diffusion.” When Ye Shaoyang arrived at the Blue Buff jungle, his hand speed exploded: one flower, two flowers…

In the blink of an eye, 5 flowers completely surrounded the CYC players who came to counter-jungle!

CYC’s mid-laner predictably flashed over the wall to escape, but the top laner and jungler had short legs and were trapped in the flower field.

Activating the W skill, Poison Mist Diffusion, plumes of purple mist billowed from the flowers.

Poison, poison… Watching the poison stacks tick up rapidly, the two gritted their teeth and trudged through the flower field, making a thrilling escape with 3 stacks of poison, both returning home with critical health.

Ye Shaoyang’s wave repelled CYC, and immediately after, Chi Shuo secured their own Blue Buff.

Then Chi Shuo went to take their own Red Buff.

Having snagged 3 buffs, the two happily started farming.

“Tianhuan starting with a three-buff advantage, and forcing the enemy mid-laner’s Flash—that’s a massive profit!”

“The hero Flower Fairy is relatively strong in the early game. With 5 flowers, if all are stepped on, she can stack up to 5 layers of poison. But this hero heavily tests mechanics. The planting speed must be fast, and the placement must be accurate, otherwise, experts can easily dodge them. It’s not recommended for players with slow hands to practice her.”

“Ahem, yes, I definitely can’t play this hero well.”

The bullet screen was flooded with comments:

[Understood, it’s not a hero us players with slow hands can master.]

[I only know how to plant flowers in a straight line. Cross-kill formation, circular planting formation… my eyes have learned it, but my hands haven’t!]

[Yangyang 666, I thought he only played his 8 National Server heroes, to think he can even play Flower Fairy!]

Misjudging the first jungle wave and allowing the opponents to steal a buff was a very common situation in the professional league. CYC quickly adjusted their mentality and started clearing waves to farm.

They were determined to gank the top lane this game and crush Qin Yizhu.

They gave up the dragon and 4-man grouped to gank top. Fighting 1v4, Qin Yizhu was naturally outmatched and was tower-dived and killed. Hearing the “First Blood” sound effect in his ears, Qin Yizhu scratched his head and said, “4 people in the top lane, what a grudge!”

Ye Shaoyang said, “They want to break through from the top lane this game. Need help?”

Chi Shuo calmly said, “Old Qin, hold on for a bit. We’ll attack the bottom lane and take the outer turret first.”

CYC’s strategy wasn’t flawed. If Cheng Xing was hard to kill, they would dive the top laner, push the top lane, then invade the enemy Blue Buff jungle to snowball their advantage.

But Tianhuan didn’t rush to help Qin Yizhu. Instead, they 4-man grouped to push the bottom lane, sending CYC’s bot lane duo back to base. The result was that CYC took Tianhuan’s top turret, and Tianhuan took the enemy’s bottom turret.

“Trading two outer turrets, it seems neither side suffered a loss?”

“I guess CYC’s initial intention was to suppress the top laner to prevent the mid-laner from leeching farm across two lanes. But in the end, the mid-laner didn’t go top to leech, and only leeched the jungle instead?”

“Exactly. Not to mention the Blue Buff, after hitting level 6, Captain Chi even yielded the economy from all the small jungle camps to Lieyang. He’s practically the ultimate bodyguard!”

“Lieyang’s economy has become the highest in the match again. Against Tianhuan’s mid-core funnel strategy, unless you can dive the mid-laner and break their tempo, they’ll be very hard to deal with in the late game!”

CYC’s captain evidently noticed this too and immediately pinged for assembly in the mid lane: “Kill the enemy mid-laner!”

The support they picked this game could shield and cleanse teammates, but lacked CC skills.

However, the top laner was a tank with CC, and the jungler also had CC, allowing them to brave the crossfire, charge into the crowd, and force an engage on the mid-laner.

Sure enough, when the 5v5 team fight erupted, CYC’s frontline crazily rushed toward Ye Shaoyang! The top laner flashed in to beat him up, and the jungler dashed over to stun him—they were determined not to stop until he was dead!

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

Scared, gotta run!

However, he didn’t flash backward to escape. Shockingly, he reverse-flashed, blinking directly next to the enemy mid-laner and marksman, then his hand speed exploded into a flurry of actions—

His maneuver of reverse-flashing into the crowd left all of CYC dumbfounded.

Before they could react, a patch of flowers appeared around them.

The [Flower Fairy] Ye Shaoyang played this game was using the limited skin released last year, [Phantom of the Flowers]. Her clothes were purple, the flowers she planted were purple, and the toxic mist diffusing from them was a dark purple-black… The visual effect was very unfriendly.

The game map’s color palette was already dark. Suddenly, a massive cluster of purple-black man-eating flowers sprouted in an area without vision, emitting eerie purple toxic gas, accompanied by an alluring voice line: “Sending you a flower, no need to thank me~”

At this moment, CYC’s mid-laner and marksman only wanted to curse.

Grass.

A type of plant.

The netizens in the stream were dying of laughter.

[Great Demon King, stay away! I don’t want your flowers.]

[Can’t afford it, please don’t send them.]

[Stop planting, stop planting, my eyes are full of purple flowers, I’m going blind.]

[We can lose the team fight, but Ye Shaoyang must die! Flashing into the crowd to plant toxic flowers, that’s too wicked!]

Ye Shaoyang directly flashed into their faces; who could tolerate this?

CYC’s mid-laner and marksman immediately focused fire on him, throwing all their skills at him!

At the same time, Tianhuan’s Cheng Xing seized the opportunity, standing far away and frantically throwing out basic attacks and skills.

Ye Shaoyang was inherently squishy. By flashing into the crowd, he was quickly killed.

However, CYC’s trio was also rapidly whittled down to critical health, stacked with 5 layers of poison.

His man-eating flowers sprouted in huge clusters. After activating the “Flower Field Diffusion” skill, the dark purple mist rushed straight at their faces. This visual effect was truly… disgusting!

CYC’s entire team hadn’t built any magic defense items yet.

They simply couldn’t withstand 5 stacks of poison; they lost health with every step they took.

—Double Kill!

—Triple Kill!

Ye Shaoyang’s corpse lay right next to them.

Although he died, his poison slowly ticked away the lives of 3 enemies.

A 1-for-3 trade, what a massive profit!

The stream erupted in laughter.

[Holy crap, he can still kill people after dying?]

[This is the most disgusting part about the hero Flower Fairy: you kill her, but the poison she stacked continues to poison you!]

[5 stacks of poison, who can withstand that?]

[Flashing into the crowd to trade 1 for 3, Yangyang is awesome!]

CYC’s jungler and top laner wanted to cry but had no tears. They originally wanted to assassinate Ye Shaoyang, but Ye Shaoyang reverse-flashed, trading 1 for 3. CYC’s melee fighters fought 2v2 for a long time without a clear victor, but their backline was already dead.

The captain gritted his teeth: “Retreat, retreat, retreat!”

In today’s match, the phrase he said the most was “Retreat, retreat, retreat.”

The two casters couldn’t help but say, “This extreme 1-for-3 mechanical play directly repelled CYC’s offensive!”

“Yes, Lieyang charged into the enemy’s faces and, at the cost of self-sacrifice, poisoned 3 enemies to death!”

“Dragging 3 people down with him even in death, Lieyang’s play this wave was too flashy!”

Having secured a Triple Kill, Ye Shaoyang’s economy took off.

After reviving, he coordinated with Cheng Xing and Qu Jiang to quickly push down the enemy mid turret, then planted flowers in the enemy jungle.

—Your jungle is my backyard garden.

Ye Shaoyang used his actions to teach the opponents this truth.

CYC’s jungle completely fell. In narrow terrain like the jungle, locking down chokepoints with a patch of man-eating flowers made it impossible for the opponents to pass. If they did, their poison stacks would rapidly tick up.

Tianhuan began crazily snowballing their economy. In under 20 minutes, Ye Shaoyang completed his 6-item full build, and Chi Shuo also built 4 super-tanky defensive items. Cheng Xing, who tagged along to push towers the whole way, also saw his economy rise. In the late-game team fights, CYC wanted to find an opportunity to burst down Ye Shaoyang, but under Chi Shuo’s protection, it was simply impossible!

When the two sides engaged in a team fight near the dragon pit, Ye Shaoyang’s flowers sprouted in another patch in the blink of an eye. The purple man-eating flowers surrounded the opponents tightly, while the soft voice of the Flower Fairy sister echoed in their ears: “Sending you a flower, no need to thank me.”

Thank you very much!

At this moment, CYC’s 5 players really wanted to spit blood.

The coaches watching from off-stage had mixed feelings.

Picking the [Light of Blessing] support was meant to break the CC chain routine of Tianhuan’s support and jungler. But in this game, they didn’t chain CC; they relied on the mid-laner exploding with hand speed to plant flowers and stack poison on you?

The support couldn’t cleanse poison, and the jungler and top laner couldn’t assassinate Ye Shaoyang…

Losing this game was truly infuriating!

The match ended at the 20-minute mark, and Ye Shaoyang secured MVP once again.

Chi Shuo had yielded a lot of economy to him, but in a composition where the support and jungler lacked CC, he relied on his extremely strong game sense and mechanical hand speed to plant flowers and poison a group of opponents.

8 National Server heroes?

That was just a stepping stone he used early on to attract the attention of major teams.

In reality, during his three months of training at Tianhuan, he had mastered all mid-lane heroes.

You couldn’t possibly ban them all ^_^