The entire ARE team fell into an eerie silence.

That flash from Shi Nian had been so fluid and seamless that it was practically artistry.

If not for the fact that there were more pressing matters at hand, Qing Guang would’ve slammed three question marks together right now, demanding to know from his very soul:

What are you nong sha^[1]written in pin yin, basically: what you doing?? lei?

Huo Lang, the top laner, showed no courtesy; as soon as he realized what his mid laner had just done, he immediately laughed, “Ha ha ha ha, you’re way too scared. This guy Zhou Yu hasn’t even shown his face yet, but you’re already running away like a mouse seeing a cat, using your flash desperately.”

“Does Qi Ge have three heads or six arms?” Yang joined in, throwing salt in the wound. “Was it really necessary to flash away the moment you see him?”

“You guys haven’t been caught, you don’t understand how dangerous those guys are right now!” Shi Nian defended strongly, “Did you notice earlier? Four people were crouching in the grass in the middle! Four! How dare they all squeeze into such a tiny bush!”

ARE laughed hysterically.

Huo Lang: “So you’re scared stiff now and want to take a break at the fountain?”

Shi Nian pursed his lips, “I’m going back to recharge! Do you think it’s easy playing against Qi Ge? A Zhou Yu with the blue buff, that fire burns like arrows borrowed from the grass——Li Qiu, why can’t you learn from their jungler?”

“What do you mean ‘borrowed from the grass’? Have you ever read history? That’s the story of the Burning of Red Cliffs!” Li Qiu roared with fury. “JK has a blue-collar jungler, mid laner is their core. What’s wrong with giving the blue buff? I’m the core here, I can’t give the blue buff. You’re just a tool for defending the turret.”

Huo Lang: “Yang, God Yang? Why aren’t you speaking?”

“I just survived a calamity!” Bot laner Yang wailed. “Just now, four people jumped out of the bush!”

ARE’s members: “……”

Today, it seemed as though JK had come over solely to play a game of intimidation.

“How’s mid lane? Bot Lane just got scared. What about mid?” Qing Guang asked.

“Just got out——” Before the word “out” even left his mouth, a semi-transparent figure appeared from the bush between the first and second mid lane turret and directly stepped onto Shi Nian’s face.

It was none other than JK’s Gui Guzi!

Just before Shi Nian’s death, he watched helplessly as three people from the opposing team rushed over with Guardian-Howl^[2]Equipment in game like a pack of wolves about to devour their prey.

He did not even get to cast a single ability.

——It was an extremely brutal tactic!

It was almost eleven minutes into the game, and First Blood finally occurred!

As the voice announcing that [Zhou Yu] killed [Milady] echoed through the King’s Gorge, Shi Nian’s cries of grievance also reached Captain Qing Guang’s ears, “They’re bullying me!”

Qing Guang sighed: “Okay, okay, I got it, go lie in the fountain for now.”

With the First Blood taken, the three commentators on stage all sighed in relief. They might have been out of a job if there was no more fighting.

They should have known that JK, a well-known fighting team in the KPL, would never just calmly wait for the game to end.

A team that gets high on a rampage like this could never avoid looking for a fight.

That First Blood seemed to open the door to a new world, and JK became increasingly aggressive.

By the 20-minute mark, the economic gap had reached 5,000 gold, and everyone in ARE could feel the overwhelming fear of being dominated by JK.

Huo Lang: “How could they do that? Four people hiding in such a tiny bush!”

Li Qiu: “I’m more curious about when they got there……”

When subtly pointed at, Qing Guang shrank back, “Don’t look at me. I don’t know either; they probably blocked our vision.”

When it comes to blocking vision, Yu Yue was a natural pro.

“You’re not cutting it, teaching the apprentice while starving the master,” Shi Nian clicked his tongue.

“Now I feel like every bush in the canyon is dangerous……” Yang said, trembling as he hugged his little warrior. “I kind of get why you flash away as soon as you see Qi Ge.”

Now, when he saw Lu Qi, he also wanted to flash.

His experience told him that when Lu Qi was nearby, the support, jungler, and side laner were all likely waiting in at least two nearby bushes.

However, from the god’s-eye view that the commentators and viewers could see, it was clear that ARE was terrified by JK’s empty-city tactic, with everyone flashing away in an awkward, mysterious way.

[ARE’s too scared, Qi Ge is just burning towers by himself and they don’t even dare to approach]

[I thought ARE was stronger…… all I see is ARE being crushed by JK]

[No one can escape being ambushed]

[Nooo, I bet all my money on ARE! If they lose, I’ll be bankrupt]

[Forget about the betting coins, I don’t care about them——JK’s awesome!]

[ARE, come back! Come on, make a comeback!]

The commentators were also very awkward now. The current situation completely contradicted their pre-match prediction that ARE might 3-0 JK.

The current state was that Lu Qi had no effective counter, he was completely unleashed and could not be stopped, it was basically JK pressing ARE down and hammering them at will.

They were almost unable to comment on the match anymore.

Commentator A was blunt, “This is completely different from what I predicted, it’s flipped! JK is doing really well, after ambushing so many times, ARE’s mentality has completely collapsed. Now, they don’t dare to approach any bush……”

“The gold difference is already 5,000,” When one of the commentators admitted his mistake, and the others followed suit more easily. “ARE had several waves of great rotations, but they just couldn’t handle JK’s constant ambushes. They’re always sending four or five people to the bushes to catch one person and kill them, no matter who it is.”

“They just want to get rid of one of them,” Commentator C said, “Once someone dies, they can push lanes and destroy turrets, with Zhou Yu, a marksman, and a split-pushing jungler, it’s really shameless. No matter what, one lane will always be threatened. It’s so annoying, but there’s nothing you can do. Now, turrets give quite a lot of gold, and JK is actively taking dragons, if it were any other team, the gold difference might already be over 10,000.”

Commentator B chuckled, “If it weren’t for ARE, the game might already be over. JK has really improved a lot. Not to say, but at least during the regular season, they weren’t this flexible. Last time they played against ARE in the regular season, they got out-rotated and slowly died.”

“Someone in the comments said that JK seems to have left the ‘bottom-tier’ teams behind and made it to mid-tier——yeah, it really feels like Qi Ge, one of the top mid-laners in the KPL, is finally showing his full potential.”

Commentator C: “I have to give credit to the two brothers, Da Qing and Da Ming. In many teams, the top laner is just a tank, and the bot laner is just a damage dealer, but these two brothers are really different. They can swap positions without any issues! This gives their team a lot more possibilities.”

“Why not praise the new support?” Commentator A asked playfully. “Is Eden not strong enough?”

“Honestly, I didn’t realize just how much a good support could impact a team until I saw her play,” Commentator C remarked sincerely. “It’s like, when she’s on the field, you just know JK is going to play differently. You can’t predict her moves, her champion pool is too deep.”

[The Missy’s champion pool is really something, I’ve only seen her play Sun Bin okay-ish, and although there were some great plays with Gui Guzi, it still can’t compare to Lian. But her pool is so deep——If JK needed it, she’d play it, without any hesitation.]

[No doubt…… this is the most sincere praise I’ve ever heard.]

[The second coming of Reed]

[Don’t blow it up, we all know ARE is just going easy on JK because they’re brother teams. Do you really think all those flashes were from being scared? Too naive.]

[They’ve been caught in the bushes several times, even if they’re flashing away at the sight of JK, there’s nothing wrong with that.]

[I don’t know what the person above is talking about. Esports has no feelings, ARE knows how to throw matches? They didn’t know how to throw during the regular season? Just because they’re brother teams doesn’t mean they’d give face. Impossible.]

[JK has really improved a lot…… Shi Nian mentioned something about the training matches, saying it used to be easy to beat them, but now it’s a 50-50 game. It all depends on whether the mid-lane can control Qi Ge. If you can control him, you win; if you can’t, you lose.]

And this game was clearly one where they could not control him.

Shi Nian was even caught too many times and struggled to get any farm.

The rest of the team wasn’t doing much better either.

The fans of both teams got into an argument, and the two teams clashed fiercely. By the time they finished bickering, JK had already destroyed ARE’s nexus.

Fans: “????”

Excuse me, what just happened?

The director, ever so considerate, decided to show the final team fight. It turned out that JK had once again ambushed them in the bushes.

This time, it was fatal——they managed to catch four of them.

To put it nicely, they “ambushed” them, but to be blunt, it was pretty much a full-on team fight with almost everyone from JK involved.

With the initiative, an economic advantage, and the buff from the Tyrant, it was an almost instantaneous victory.

Rotation strategy? It doesn’t exist. We’re better at that.

In the twenty-third minute, after countless back-and-forths, JK finally claimed the first win.

They outplayed ARE with their strategy, and disrupted ARE’s tactics with their ganking.

Even though Lu Qi’s Zhou Yu was a constant threat, it could not hide a fact:

JK had, it seemed, gotten stronger.

Taking off her headphones, Yu Yue and her teammates laughed and chatted as they headed back to the break room, casually hyping each other up.

“The ambushes were so clean, Missy is awesome!” Da Qing openly showed his admiration, “How did you know they like passing through there?”

“Qing Guang also knows where I like to set up ambushes,” Yu Yue replied casually. “It’s all about vision. When you play a lot, you get to know the little habits of the other team.”

Lu Qi added, “You can only use that once. Qing Guang isn’t dumb, he’ll catch on quickly. You won’t have the chance to exploit this the next game.”

Yu Yue: “Then we’ll just use his caution against him.”

The break passed quickly. Before they could say much more, Xiao Ruo came knocking on the door, signaling that it was time to prepare for the next game.