ARML CH103

Losing the first game left Xie Weiyu feeling unwell. He took the initiative to say, “Sorry, my bad…”

Xu Zhuo interrupted him: “No need to blame yourself, no one will blame you. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were hiding and sneaking around. Any other marksman would have been one-shot by them just the same.”

While that was true, in that final crucial team fight, it was indeed Xie Weiyu getting disjointed from the team that gave Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang the opportunity to flank and delete him.

The coach quickly entered the soundproof booth and comforted everyone: “It’s fine, let’s prepare for the next game.”

Xu Zhuo frowned slightly and looked at the coach, saying: “Heavily suppressing the mid lane seems unfeasible. Every time we kill Ye Shaoyang, we have to pay a huge price. Tianhuan is defending the mid lane to the death.”

From his omniscient perspective off-stage, the coach saw it even more clearly. Every time Yueying initiated a team fight in the mid lane, Chi Shuo would always arrive to support immediately. Even after fighting two 5v5 team fights, they hadn’t gained any advantage.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang’s mid-jungle synergy was incredibly tacit, always able to find a breakthrough even when at a disadvantage.

Since Tianhuan was defending the mid lane to the death, there was no need for them to be stubborn and force a head-on clash.

The coach said: “Next game, we’ll crush a side lane first.”

Xu Zhuo’s eyes darted around, suddenly thinking of a good idea. He leaned into the coach’s ear and said: “How about this…”

After a few minutes of rest, the second game quickly began.

This game, Yueying was on the Blue side, banning and picking first. They still didn’t ban the jungler and mid-laner because Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang’s hero pools were too deep. Banning one or two was useless; they could just pick another combo.

Yueying’s first ban continued to target Qin Yizhu’s engage top laner, [Black Dragon Knight], and the second ban targeted the marksman [Holy Spirit Archer]. Tianhuan, on the other hand, banned [Kung Fu Master]—which Xu Zhuo had played very well last game—and [Vampire Duke], a top laner with strong dueling capabilities.

Caster: “Mid and jungle are still left open. Let’s see which hero Yueying will pick first?”

Yueying’s first pick immediately locked in the top laner [Blade’s Will]. The caster paused for a moment and said: “This is a fighter top laner with strong backline assassination capabilities and a very high skill ceiling. He can 1v3 in team fights. It seems Yueying wants to actively force fights this game?”

Old Qin thought for a moment and said: “I’ll take Paladin, it’s tankier.”

Coach Lin nodded: “Okay. Take Paladin and Machine Gun Hunter.”

[Machine Gun Hunter] had fast wave clear and was a hero Xie Weiyu was quite good at. By snatching it, Tianhuan could break their tower-pushing combo. For the support position, they continued to pick a healer to protect Cheng Xing.

Yueying’s bottom lane duo consisted of the cleansing support [Light of Blessing] and [Wind Spirit], the most flexible marksman with numerous mobility skills.

In the second phase, both sides began targeting mid-laners and junglers with bans. The [Succubus] that Chi Shuo repeatedly attached to last game was banned, and Ye Shaoyang’s [Abyssal Lord] remained banned. Lin Feng, meanwhile, banned two utility mid-laners.

The compositions for both sides were quickly finalized.

Tianhuan: [Paladin] Top, [King of Fighters] Jungle, [Illusionist] Mid, [Forest Envoy] + [Machine Gun Hunter] Bottom. Yueying: [Blade’s Will] Top, [Fighter] Jungle, [Frost Goddess] Mid, [Light of Blessing] + [Wind Spirit] Bottom.

The two casters analyzed: “Tianhuan’s mid-laner and jungler are both assassins. They’re sticking to mid-jungle synergy to control the tempo, with the top lane absorbing pressure and the bottom lane focusing on healing and tower-pushing. Their strategy is quite clear.”

“As for Yueying, their top laner, jungler, and mid-laner all have CC, giving them strong fighting capabilities. And the marksman [Wind Spirit], when activating ‘Gale’ mode, can jump everywhere with numerous mobility skills, making him very hard to gank!”

“Exactly. Wind Spirit is the most mechanically difficult marksman—low damage in the early game, explosive damage in the late game, and very hard to assassinate. It seems Xiao Yu was annoyed by being forced-killed by the enemy mid-jungle so many times last game, so he picked a marksman with strong self-peel this time!”

“Alright, let’s enter the second game between the two teams!”

As soon as the second game started, Tianhuan’s 5 players split into three paths to scout the enemy’s situation. Yueying didn’t invade the jungle. Qu Jiang noticed the enemy wasn’t in the bottom lane and couldn’t help but wonder: “No one in the bottom lane.”

Qin Yizhu: “No one in the top lane either.”

Sensing something was wrong, Ye Shaoyang immediately retreated.

However, 5 people suddenly charged out from the brush. Frost Goddess used a Q skill to slow him, Fighter immediately followed up with a Q skill stun, Xie Weiyu shot him a few times from a distance, and Xu Zhuo raised his broadsword, slashing furiously at him—

First Blood!

Tianhuan Lieyang angrily gave up First Blood.

Ye Shaoyang: “…………”

Is that really necessary?!

5 people grouping up to camp the mid lane right from the start, isn’t that too brutal?

The two casters couldn’t help but laugh out loud: “Ahem, just 1 minute into the game, all 5 members of Yueying came to the mid lane and ambushed Lieyang. Lieyang was surrounded and force-killed by 5 people!”

“This is indeed a case of having too much aggro.”

The stream was dying of laughter.

[The prestige of Tianhuan Lieyang!]

[5 people grouping up to camp the mid lane right from the start, I thought this was a Bronze tier game?]

[Hahaha, Yangyang’s aggro is too high, 5 enemies fighting a BOSS right at the start.]

[We can lose the team fight, but Lieyang must die!]

Giving up First Blood at the start actually didn’t have a big impact. After all, he would revive in a few seconds and still have time to catch the first minion wave. After reviving, Ye Shaoyang quickly went to the lane to clear minions.

At this moment, Qu Jiang suddenly said: “Why is Xu Zhuo in the bottom lane?”

At the same time, Old Qin also spoke up in the voice channel: “The support and marksman are in the top lane… did they lane swap?”

Lane swapping was an anti-routine tactic.

Normally, the top lane was the pressure-absorbing lane, with fighters and tanks fighting 1v1; the bottom lane was the farming lane, with the marksman and support fighting 2v2. However, the laning assignments in the game weren’t fixed. Teammates could swap lanes after discussing it.

Yueying obviously fought a wave at the start, recalled together, and then swapped lanes!

Xu Zhuo was fighting Cheng Xing and Qu Jiang 1v2 in the bottom lane; Xie Weiyu and the support were fighting Qin Yizhu 2v1 in the top lane.

Chi Shuo frowned slightly: “Their breakthrough point this game is the side lanes. Grouping 5 to kill the mid-laner at the start was just to gain some economic advantage to make laning easier.”

The economic reward for First Blood was quite high, and the other 4 players also got assists. Yueying’s ambush in the mid lane at the start yielded pretty good results. However, right now, it was impossible to determine whether Yueying would try to break through the top lane or the bottom lane first.

Ye Shaoyang quickly shifted his camera to observe. Cheng Xing’s marksman [Machine Gun Hunter] had fast wave clear but medium attack range. If Xu Zhuo wanted to force a kill on him, Xiao Star would still be in danger. On the top lane, Old Qin’s [Paladin] was thick-skinned, and Xie Weiyu’s marksman [Wind Spirit] had low damage in the early game, so hitting the tank was like scratching an itch.

Ye Shaoyang said: “They’ll probably hard-push the bottom lane.”

Chi Shuo made the same judgment: “Mhm, Old Xu picking this kind of fighter with strong assassination capabilities probably intends to force a kill on Cheng Xing at level 6. I’ll gank bottom at level 6, Cheng Xing farm safely and mind your positioning.”

Cheng Xing: “Received!”

The jungles on both sides were relatively peaceful. No one came to interfere with Chi Shuo, so Chi Shuo quickly reached level 6 and roamed to the bottom lane. The mid-laner was level 5 at this time and hadn’t learned his ultimate yet, but Ye Shaoyang also quickly followed.

A 4v1 situation was about to form in the bottom lane. However, as if predicting it, Xu Zhuo suddenly charged forward with a combo to clear the minion wave, then retreated into his own jungle and ran away.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang’s gank failed.

In the top lane, Qin Yizhu was playing safely under his tower to clear minions. The enemy jungler [Fighter] suddenly came over and stunned him with a horizontal slash. At the same time, a cluster of ice crystals appeared under his feet—it was the [Frost Goddess]’s CC skill!

Yueying’s chain CC froze Qin Yizhu in place.

Xie Weiyu exploded with hand speed, frantically rapid-firing from the side. His damage alone wasn’t enough to kill the thick-skinned Paladin, but combined with the damage from the jungler and mid-laner teammates, no matter how thick-skinned you were, you still had to die!

—[YY-Rain (Wind Spirit) killed Tianhuan Zhuhuo (Paladin)]

The kill went to Xie Weiyu.

Qin Yizhu hurriedly said: “There are 4 people in the top lane!”

Chi Shuo: “…”

Ye Shaoyang raised an eyebrow: “We fell for their trick. Their breakthrough point this game is the top lane!”

Xu Zhuo intentionally picked a fighter with strong backline assassination capabilities, and Xie Weiyu was a marksman with low early-game damage. Everyone naturally assumed Xu Zhuo would summon the jungler to force a kill on Cheng Xing and break through the bottom lane…

As a result, Xu Zhuo was truly “absorbing pressure,” and they chose to break through the top lane.

After sending Qin Yizhu back to base, the 4 people in the top lane immediately pushed the tower with the minion wave. The defensive tower’s shield was destroyed, and its health dropped by a third. Following that, the 4 of them grouped up and invaded the jungle to steal a small jungle camp.

Chi Shuo naturally wouldn’t lag behind, taking Ye Shaoyang to the enemy jungle to farm a wave of experience.

Ye Shaoyang reached level 6, and mid-jungle synergy could begin.

Chi Shuo said: “If they attack the top lane, it’s the same if we break through the bottom lane.”

Ye Shaoyang nodded: “Mhm, Xie Weiyu is hard to gank, let’s kill Old Xu.”

Xie Weiyu had a support beside him who could shield and cleanse CC, and he himself had numerous mobility skills. Trying to gank such a flexible marksman would likely end in failure; ganking Xu Zhuo would be easier.

If the enemy attacks top and we attack bottom, trading defensive towers isn’t a loss.

However, when Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo arrived at the bottom lane, they found—

It wasn’t Xu Zhuo in the bottom lane; they had swapped back to the marksman-support duo!

“They lane swapped again,” Qu Jiang said.

Chi Shuo frowned: “Frequent lane swapping is to disrupt our mid-jungle synergy tempo.”

The key to mid-jungle synergy lay in roaming to gank, rapidly creating a numbers advantage to kill crucial enemy heroes and establish an advantage for teammates. Xu Zhuo’s lane swap this wave caused Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo’s plan to force a kill on him to fail.

Under the protection of the support’s shield, Xie Weiyu’s [Wind Spirit] rapidly shifted positions. It was very difficult for Ye Shaoyang to CC him. After a team fight in the bottom lane, Xie Weiyu narrowly escaped with a sliver of health.

Meanwhile, after swapping to the top lane, Xu Zhuo summoned the jungler again and forced another kill on Old Qin.

Picking a thick-skinned tank yet dying twice in a row left Qin Yizhu quite speechless.

In the blink of an eye, the top outer turret was directly pushed down, and subsequently, Yueying began crazily split-pushing and playing macro.

Xu Zhuo was extremely elusive, rotating mid or bottom every time he cleared the top minion wave. Xie Weiyu was also exceptionally cautious and hard to gank. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang changed their strategy, forcefully ganking and killing the enemy mid-laner in an attempt to break through the mid lane.

Team Yueying quickly rotated to defend. At this point, Xie Weiyu’s core items were complete. The highly mobile marksman dealt 50% of the team’s damage in the team fight, while our marksman was suddenly flanked by Xu Zhuo activating his ultimate and sliced to death with two strikes!

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo teamed up to kill Xu Zhuo who charged in to assassinate, but Xie Weiyu was a very difficult point to deal with. With the shield provided by the support, he secured a triple kill in one breath!

Tianhuan fell into a massive disadvantage. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang tried to find opportunities and killed the enemy mid-laner a few times, but they couldn’t deal with Xie Weiyu.

He constantly hid behind the support, who shielded him and cleansed CC for him, and he himself had rapid mobility. The economic gap grew larger and larger. In the final high ground team fight, Xu Zhuo flanked and assassinated Cheng Xing once again!

Cheng Xing lowered his head: “I’m sorry…”

Ye Shaoyang said: “It’s fine, the survival environment for a marksman is difficult, dying a few times is normal.”

In previous Group B matches, Cheng Xing basically never died. Today, being continuously flanked by Xu Zhuo, even Qu Jiang’s healing couldn’t save him. The burst damage of the top laner [Blade’s Will] was simply too high. Xu Zhuo’s playstyle was charging in to trade his life for another.

As long as he killed Cheng Xing, even if he died himself, it wasn’t a loss.

The match dragged on to 35 minutes, and Yueying pushed down Tianhuan’s high ground with the Baron buff.

“Congratulations to Team Yueying for winning the second game!”

“Is this also Tianhuan’s first time losing a small game in Season 10?”

“That’s right. Yueying’s frequent lane swapping this game disrupted Tianhuan’s mid-jungle synergy tempo. Moreover, with Captain Xu flanking and killing Cheng Xing in several consecutive team fights, Tianhuan lacked damage output.”

“The two sides are tied 1:1. Next up is the deciding game, we’ll be back in 10 minutes!”

During the break, commercials appeared on the large screen.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo were seen sitting in front of a computer, their hands rapidly typing on the keyboard. Chi Shuo turned around and asked earnestly: “Is this the Silver Dragon mechanical keyboard?”

Ye Shaoyang recited his lines seriously: “Yes! Every keystroke provides a crisp tactile feedback and excellent rebound. After playing a high-intensity ranked match, my fingers don’t feel tired at all.”

The fans watching the stream hadn’t even had time to feel sad about Tianhuan’s Game 2 loss…

Before they were amused by this suddenly appearing commercial.

[Captain Chi’s expression is so serious, like he’s in a meeting.]

[Yangyang’s serious expression while reciting lines is so cute hahaha, like reciting a textbook.]

[Buy buy buy, I’ll buy it, alright?!]

[The black and white models are too simple, I have my eye on Cheng Xing’s colorful one.]

[Let’s buy, rich brothers and sisters buy all 5 models and switch them out every day!]

The bullet screen, originally filled with mockery towards Tianhuan, was entirely submerged by “buy buy buy.”

In the backstage viewing area, Fang Zhengqing yawned, his voice lazy: “Another bladder match. Just two games today have already taken an hour and a half. It seems our next match is going to be delayed?”

Xie Yuan smiled and said: “It’s normal. After all, Yueying has Group S strength, and Old Xu understands Chi Shuo well enough. It won’t be that easy to determine a victor.”

Inside the soundproof booth, Coach Lin took the initiative to speak: “This game is on me, the composition wasn’t drafted well, and our tempo was disrupted by their continuous lane swaps.” He said this hoping Xiao Star could adjust as quickly as possible.

Ye Shaoyang gently patted Cheng Xing’s head: “Don’t overthink it. Didn’t we kill Xie Weiyu many times in the first game too? When playing marksman, you have to be prepared to be one-shot at any time.”

Cheng Xing nodded: “Mhm.”

Lin Feng asked: “Should we ban Xie Weiyu’s Wind Spirit next game? He’s indeed hard to deal with.”

Ye Shaoyang smiled and looked at Chi Shuo: “No need to ban. We can’t just ban whichever hero the opponent is strong at. We’ll encounter even more strong enemies in the future; we won’t have enough bans for them all. It’s better to think of a countermeasure, right?”

Meeting Ye Shaoyang’s serious eyes, Chi Shuo suddenly remembered a long time ago, when he and Ye Shaoyang were watching a match at the Star City Esports Center. When discussing Jingzhe and Huowen’s strong systems, Ye Shaoyang had said that the best method was mid-jungle synergy directly one-shotting their core. Although very difficult, there was always hope of achieving it.

Many teams in the Chinese Region lacked the spirit of bold innovation and pushing forward against the wind.

If they played timidly in the regular season group stage, what would they do in the playoffs or even the World Championship? Without attempting to break through, simply banning a system because the opponent is strong at it will only lead to a situation of being trapped in one’s own cocoon.

Chi Shuo had always wanted to confront other teams’ strong compositions head-on as well; this thought coincided perfectly with Ye Shaoyang’s.

He finally realized how fortunate it was to have a teammate beside him who could keep up with his line of thought and shared the same ideals. With Shaoyang by his side, an extra source of strength seemed to bloom in his heart.

It made him believe that, working together, they could overcome any predicament.

Chi Shuo looked at Ye Shaoyang, his gaze gentle yet firm: “I think so too. We can leave Xie Weiyu’s Wind Spirit open next game—together, we’ll find a way to crack it!”