Xie Yu’s expression looked a bit ugly.

Having played matches all day, it wasn’t the first time [Abyssal Lord] was taken or banned. However, this time, the opponent who happened to lock in [Abyssal Lord] was another streamer pushing for national rankings—and a newcomer streamer at that.

He had originally intended to show off his skill with [Abyssal Lord] and teach his opponent a lesson, but the other party had outright stolen the hero? Xie Yu let out a disdainful chuckle: “Fine, then I’ll use my signature hero to crush your Abyssal Lord!”

Sitting in Slot 1 himself, he decisively picked [Illusionist].

His stream room immediately burst into excitement:

【Is that Brother Yu’s famous specialty hero, Illusionist? Looks like Brother Yu is getting serious!】

【Illusionist is super strong early game, I bet Brother Yu gets a solo kill on him!】

【Go Brother Yu, take First Blood!】

【Die-hard Fan #7 sent streamer [Brother Yu] 1 Deep Sea Torpedo!】

As a highly popular streamer on Whale Platform, Brother Yu’s viewer count had surged past 3 million. Dense white bullet comments plastered the screen, and gifts flew everywhere.

By contrast, Ye Shaoyang’s audience wasn’t nearly as hyped—or rather, he didn’t really have a fanbase yet. His stream was mostly made up of passersby, alongside viewers from Brother Yu’s channel keeping two windows open just to watch the drama unfold.

Ye Shaoyang minimized the chat overlay and focused entirely on the game draft.

The enemy team in Slots 1 and 2 chose [Illusionist] and [Stealth Rogue].

When it was his team’s turn, Qin Rui stayed on [Blessing Priest] to protect his brother.

Slot 3 player [Wooden Head] proactively asked: “Master, what hero should I pick to pair with you?”

[Xiao Bai]: What positions are you good at?

[Wooden Head]: Marksman or jungler, both work.

[Only Plays Jungle]: Bro, take marksman, leave jungle for me.

[Wooden Head]: OK!

He rapidly cycled through five different marksmen to prove he could play all of them.

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the choices shown and said: “Pick Holy Spirit Archer.”

Slot 3 locked in [Holy Spirit Archer] right away.

The enemy team’s Slots 3 and 4 immediately picked their bot lane duo: [Forest Envoy] as the healing support alongside [Sharpshooter] as the crit marksman. A healer paired with a marksman was a standard duo lane, likely another duo-queue pair.

Ye Shaoyang pondered briefly before typing: “Jungler take Fighter, top laner pick Berserker.”

[Only Plays Jungle]: Won’t we be way too squishy?

[Losing Stars Daily]: Zero frontline tanks, and the marksman scales very late. Teamfights will be rough.

[Xiao Bai]: High mobility.

[Xiao Bai]: Leave teamfights to me.

Seeing the words “Leave teamfights to me,” the team instantly felt re-assured. Perhaps this was the aura of a master? Communicating and building a synergized draft beforehand—rather than picking randomly, arguing, or flame-warring over roles like typical solo queue matches—gave everyone much more confidence.

At least everyone knew their teammates were taking the game seriously.

The Blue side’s draft was locked.

When Xie Yu saw their lineup, he almost burst out laughing. A squishy top lane, a low-burst jungler, a support only good for single-target protection, a late-game marksman, and a mid laner who—despite high burst—was equally fragile.

Xie Yu mocked: “Who the hell came up with this composition? What a bundle of geniuses!”

His stream chat spammed laughing emojis, ridiculing the nonsensical team comp.

The Red side needed one final top-lane pick. Slot 5 locked in [Paladin], the tankiest champion in the entire game, often dubbed the “Daddy Tank” by players.

Match Start

• Red Composition: Top [Paladin], Jungle [Stealth Rogue], Mid [Illusionist], Support [Forest Envoy], Marksman [Sharpshooter].
• Blue Composition: Top [Berserker], Jungle [Fighter], Mid [Abyssal Lord], Support [Blessing Priest], Marksman [Holy Spirit Archer].

Red ran a standard team composition: a ultra-tanky top-laner, a healing support, agile mid/jungle picks, and a high-burst marksman.

As for Blue? Five squishy heroes—was this a joke?

While they had plenty of crowd control, could they even take down a single Paladin if they all piled on?

Viewers in Ye Shaoyang’s stream voiced their doubts:

【Is Xiao Bai trying to stall for late game?】

【This comp is paper-thin, one hit in a teamfight and they collapse!】

【Xiao Bai has a point though, the mobility on this comp is insane】

【Streamer, don’t draft recklessly! Teamfights need a tank, a Berserker top can’t soak damage!】

【Came from Brother Yu’s stream, sitting back to watch this new streamer get humbled, lol】

Ye Shaoyang didn’t bother explaining.

MOBA tactical concepts were universal. Having memorized hero data yesterday, he understood every role’s kit: this composition was picked specifically to counter Red’s mid and jungle.

High burst? Blue countered with extreme mobility. Every hero possessed displacement skills, and [Blessing Priest] provided teamwide movement speed boosts. Once activated, they moved incredibly fast. The enemy team would soon realize that unless they wiped Blue in a single clean sweep, they would never be able to catch up.

Unable to chase, unable to lock down, unable to force engagements. That was a fatal weakness in a match.

——Welcome to Gods’ War!

The system announcement rang out, and Ye Shaoyang instantly pinged the bush on the left side of their jungle.

Top, Mid, Support, and Jungle—four players gathered near the Blue Buff to set up an ambush, leaving only the marksman to hold the bottom lane. Qin Rui expertly placed a ward in a hidden river spot.

At 30 seconds, the Blue Buff spawned.

The enemy jungler, [Stealth Rogue], relied on invisibility to recklessly invade Blue’s jungle. Hiding in the bush, he saw only [Fighter] slowly whittling down the buff. Since [Fighter] dealt low base damage, taking down the buff was taking a long time.

Now!

[Stealth Rogue] decloaked, landing a critical hit on the Blue Buff from behind—

Just as he was about to Smite it away, [Berserker] leaped out from another bush, slamming a massive blade downward!

The heavy hit stunned the rogue, chunking his health bar.

Qin Rui cast his attack-buffing Q ability on his brother, and Ye Shaoyang seized the opening to burst the target down.

——First Blood!

Mid-laner [Abyssal Lord] secured First Blood, while the rest of the ambushers gained assist gold.

Xie Yu swore under his breath: “Fuck, is my jungler out of his mind, running in to feed First Blood at level 1?!” He cleared a mid-lane minion and quickly moved into a river bush to set up an ambush.

However, the opposing mid-laner was overly cautious, bypassing the bush completely by taking a path through the jungle to reach his tower safely.

Failing to catch him, Xie Yu turned back to clear waves.

Both sides farmed peacefully until the 3-minute mark, when a kill notification popped up from the bottom lane—

[Momo-a (Sharpshooter)] killed [Wooden Head (Holy Spirit Archer)]!

Ye Shaoyang checked the bottom lane state and typed: “Marksman, stay under tower. They’re a duo pair, 1v2 is too risky.”

Wooden Head replied sheepishly: “My bad, I got greedy after getting him low and got turned on.”

Ye Shaoyang: “No worries, play safe. Support will roam down shortly.”

Kills stood at 1:1, but Ye Shaoyang held a gold advantage from First Blood.

Soon, both junglers hit Level 6. The enemy jungler ganked bottom lane again; despite Blue’s marksman playing defensively under the tower, the enemy healer enabled a tower-dive kill!

[Momo-a (Sharpshooter)] killed [Wooden Head (Holy Spirit Archer)]!

The enemy ADC claimed another kill, leaving Blue’s marksman thoroughly demoralized, typing a string of ellipses: “…”

Ye Shaoyang instructed: “Xiao Rui, go help bottom lane.”

Qin Rui headed down, leaving Ye Shaoyang and Xie Yu in a 1v1 mid lane matchup.

Xie Yu sneered: “That annoying support is finally gone. Watch me solo kill him at Level 6!”

[Illusionist] was an assassin mage with insane early-game burst capable of deleting fragile targets. Having practiced him in bot matches, Ye Shaoyang knew exactly how lethal his kit was.

The moment Xiao Rui left, Ye Shaoyang controlled his wave and pulled back.

Moments later, both mages leveled up simultaneously.

Ye Shaoyang’s vision blurred—

Under a purple phantom glare, shattered illusions swirled around his hero, violently shredding his health bar down to a sliver!

Seeing the imminent kill, Xie Yu gave chase, but Ye Shaoyang swapped places with his shadow, darting across the wall to escape on low health!

The narrow escape left stream viewers holding their breath.

Xie Yu cursed in frustration: “Fuck, how did he survive that? Is this guy cheating?”

After escaping, Ye Shaoyang recalled to base to replenish his health. Thanks to his earlier wave control, he didn’t lose any minion gold despite recalling.

The mid-lane duel resumed.

Shortly after, both junglers roamed mid. Xie Yu and his jungler initiated a 2v2. Ye Shaoyang once again escaped on a sliver of health, while Blue’s jungler mispositioned and was eliminated by [Illusionist].

——[Brother Yu (Illusionist)] killed [Only Plays Jungle (Fighter)]!

Brother Yu’s stream exploded with “666” spams.

Despite losing the 2v2, [Abyssal Lord] had slipped away yet again.

Xie Yu smirked: “Ran away again. That should’ve been a double kill.”

Ye Shaoyang returned to lane and typed: “Jungler, focus on helping bottom lane. I can handle mid solo.”

The jungler pathing shifted to the bottom lane, where a 3v3 erupted as the enemy jungler roamed down as well. Outmatched in damage and lacking healing output, Blue lost the skirmish.

——[Momo-a (Sharpshooter)] killed [Only Plays Jungle (Fighter)]!

With 3 kills, the enemy marksman led the game in gold, while Blue’s jungler fell behind.

[Only Plays Jungle]: “…Forget it, I can’t outfight their jungler!”

[Only Plays Jungle]: “Master, you take the top jungle camps. We’re counting on you this game.”

[Xiao Bai]: Thanks. Everyone stay steady.

Kills were now 1:4, and the bottom outer tower fell shortly after.

The situation looked grim, and team morale was plummeting.

Ye Shaoyang hadn’t expected the bottom lane to collapse so quickly, but he reassured his team: “Don’t rush, we scale into late game.”

At 9 minutes, the enemy mid roamed bottom, triggering another teamfight that killed both Blue’s marksman and support, giving [Illusionist] two more kills.

——[Brother Yu (Illusionist)] killed [Xiao Rui (Blessing Priest)]!

——[Brother Yu (Illusionist)] killed [Wooden Head (Holy Spirit Archer)]!

Xie Yu grinned, chatting casually with his stream viewers: “Didn’t expect this game to be so easy. Their marksman is awful, and the support plays like a Gold player carried into King rank.”

He opened the scoreboard to check performance stats.

Sitting at 3-0-0, he expected a massive gold lead over the enemy 1-0-0 mid-laner. But the moment he saw [Abyssal Lord]’s economy, his grip on his mouse tightened, his eyes widening in disbelief.

How was that possible?

How was the opposing mid-laner’s gold equal to his?

He had forced [Abyssal Lord] to recall twice and had just picked up a double kill bottom!

Just then, [Abyssal Lord] appeared in his vision, glowing with the Blue Buff aura.

“…Fuck, he farmed out his entire jungle!” Having played dozens of matches on [Abyssal Lord], Xie Yu knew his late-game burst damage all too well. A chill ran down his spine as he hastily typed into team chat: “They want to stall for late game! Don’t let them! Group mid and force a end now!”

Responding to his call, the Red team assembled in the mid lane.

Ye Shaoyang pinged for a rally as well, grouping his team mid.

At 11 minutes, the first 5v5 teamfight of the match was about to break out.