Meanwhile, JK’s male members ran into LZ’s He Jian in the toilet.

Looking at each other with nothing to say, He Jian finally spoke out, “Your support…… is really something.’

Seeing it with one’s own eyes is really different from hearing about it. That Wolf Totem switching to Moon Soul was really impressive.

“En,” Lu Qi dried his hands under the hand dryer with an indifferent look. “But, even if you’re willing to let her be part of the main line-up in your team, I won’t let her go.”

He Jian: “……”

Crazy! Who wants to poach her?

I’ve only praised her without much thinking, don’t take it for real, okay?

Da Ming’s eyes rolled, “We’re really not letting her go?”

“It’s a lie.” Lu Qi continued, “The team isn’t mine. If the management wants to sell her, I can’t do anything about it. But for now, she’s of little value, you can be at ease.”

“How can we be at ease?” Da Qing retorted. “As everyone knows, JK is poor. It won’t be a surprise if one day, all of us got sold by them.”

After the spring tournament, there would be a listing period to reorganize the team for the championship in the summer vacation.

There was a probability that JK might sell off their main line-up.

“We’ll talk about the matters that will happen later. Right now we should focus on the match. The team that lost the recent match has no privilege even to breathe, do you all want to be hung up to be mocked?”

Lu Qi’s icy gaze swept past them, the several youths quickly shrank their necks, “Nope, not at all.”

“We need to play five games and win three in the playoffs. Let’s win two more and hang them on the cliff. And, we can go back earlier to eat hot pot.” Lu Qi paused, “If we win this match, it’s my treat.”

KPL’s number one Grandet^[1]Google Eugenie Grandet for more info, but it basically means very rich was going to treat them.

JK’s members decided to put in 120% of their efforts.

Lu Qi’s luck was as bad as usual. LZ still got to BP first in the second game, and they immediately banned half the mage assassins: Shangguang Wan’er and Yuan Ge.

Da Ming rubbed his chin, “I smell the same smell as last year’s Autumn Tournament match.”

Wasn’t this clearly history repeating itself?

Back then JK heavily relied on Lu Qi’s mage assassins to carry each match, like a hot knife cutting through butter, until LZ banned what they could and snatched what they could regardless of others’ opinion — — it was a shameless tactic, but it was effective.

JK was ultimately halted in the quarterfinals. 

This was clearly history repeating itself. They wanted to restrict Lu Qi!

The coach gave Lu Qi a worried glance, “Later, we snatch a mage assassin for you?”

If possible, he wanted to let Lian come and play. Everyone knew that Lu Qi and Lian were the twin stars of JK, the combination of mage assassins and Gui Guzi struck fear into the hearts of anyone who went against them.

Lu Qi exercised his wrist, faintly saying, “No need. Just look at their heroes for BP.”

What no need! You only know how to play mage assassins!

But during the match, the players had the final say. So even if the coach was very discontented, he could not voice it out now.

JK banned the heroes who were a threat to them.

Following was LZ’s first pick.

After a series of changes, the first pick was locked:

Chang’e.

Da Ming: “Are they trying to replicate our previous BP? Pick Chang’e and Gui Guzi.”

Da Qing: “Gui Guzi’s strength in the current meta isn’t that strong, are we going to snatch it? Or use other heroes? Like Shieldun^[2]Global name for Dun Shan盾山, his second skill can carry a person back.”

“Snatch.” Yu Yue said, “I want to play Gui Guzi.”

Before she could finish speaking, LZ’s second player locked in Gui Guzi.

Ling Chen: “F*ck.”

Being able to BP first was indeed amazing!

On the other hand, Yu Yue was very calm, “It’s okay, Da Qing help me pick Shieldun.”

“You know how to play?” Da Qing gave her a questioning look.”

“Yes,” Yu Yue replied without any hesitation.

Da Qing was also not coy, he directly went to the support heroes section and locked in Shieldun, “Done.”

Next was the selection of the second hero. Who should they pick? Mid laner? Top laner? Marksman? Or jungler?

“Pick a marksman for top lane?” Da Ming swiveled in his chair, “Garo’s not banned.”

Garo was the counter hero for Chang’e. Her late-game damage was unstoppable and she could take responsibility for dealing the damage. The coach thought for a while and felt that it was a plausible plan. So, Garo was picked for Da Ming to play.

So far, the heroes picked were: LZ, Chang’e and Gui Guzi, JK, Garo, and Sheildun.

The commentators did not know what else to say.

LZ was completely copying JK’s selection from the previous game, they were not sure if the next three heroes would be different or the same, but currently, there was nothing much to say.

As for JK, Garo was obviously selected to counter Chang’e, while Shieldun was selected to initiate team fights.

There was also nothing much to say about that.

Commenting for these two teams would shorten one’s lifespan by three years.

“Hey, hey, hey!” The youngest commentator, Commentator C suddenly hollered out from nowhere. “Did you guys realize something? LZ’s hero selection seemed to be something fresh!”

Of course, it was fresh, wasn’t this the core of JK’s hero comp for the previous game?

Chang’e and Gui Guzi were dependable and steady, just not sure if LZ would still pick Ukyo, Tigerous, and Xiang Yu.

“Wait,” Commentator A also got the point, his eyes lit up. “This is LZ’s first time using Chang’e in the tournament!”

Chang’e was released in March, LZ had never used newly released heroes, even if they did, it had to be at least half a year-long later. This was LZ’s first time using a hero that was released less than half a year ago in the tournament, much less a hero released less than three months ago.

Other things aside, for this game’s hero comp, LZ was clearly mimicking JK. The heroes they picked were more or less similar, only that the top laner was a tank instead of a warrior.

A jungler that could control the pace, a mage tank mid laner, and an offensive support.

“They’re playing the exact same thing as us, mid-jungler-support comp?” During the preparation time, Da Ming asked.

JK’s hero comp was more lively: strong top laner Guan Yu; jungler Sun Ce, the happy seafarer; mid laner Gao Jianli with his deathly rock ‘n roll; bot laner Garo with her strong late game; and Shiedun, who only needed to have fun.

They have the tankiness, as for self-protection…… Except for Garo, the others had no problem protecting themselves.

From the moment Lu Qi picked Gao Jianli, the fans exploded and their expectations for this game skyrocketed!

[Who would believe today’s BP?!]

[How did Qi Ge think of Gao Jianli this hero? Really amazing! Didn’t you snatch my Chang’e? I’ll just choose Gao Jianli then. The ult can increase speed and can grant immunity to some damage, this hero’s damage is high too, during the team fight, he’ll be unstoppable 23333]

[Qi Ge really likes short-ranged mages, those kinds that charge into the crowd. Is this the legendary looking for riches amongst the danger?]

[Chang’e’s perfect replacement.]

[If Chang’e is the mage among the tanks, then Gao Jianli must be the tank among the mages. I suspect that Qi Ge will use Fu Zi or Kai in the mid lane if we follow this logic.]

[No matter if Qi Ge can actually play Gao Jianli, at least he caught the other side off guard. They probably did not think that Qi Ge would bring out a Gao Jianli, right? In theory, mage assassins would be more important, so long as Qi Ge knows how to play two more heroes, JK as a team can ascend to one more level.]

[I’m here to praise the missy: her hero pool seems to not be shallow]

[So far, it looks like one can not restrict JK in the BP phase anymore.]

The game had not started yet, they were unsure of how good Yu Yue’s Shieldun was, but as of right now, Yu Yue’s hero pool was obviously bigger than Lian’s. Though her playstyle was more on the cautious side, once she had a chance, she would also be courageous. 

Gui Guzi, Zhang Fei, Shieldun, Sun Bin, and Da Qiao during the rank match…… She could play soft supports and tanky supports, this kind of good support, how come they’d never let her play before?

[After watching the previous game, I feel that Chang’e is really strong, especially when invading the jungle. Stealing the creep was just a matter of a few seconds. In the professional league, doesn’t the gold make all the difference? If JK snowballed the game, won’t they be unstoppable?]

[Not really. Doesn’t JK still have a Garo? They can play 4-protect-1 to counter Chang’e. This strategy was thought up by JK, can they be defeated by the strategy they thought up of?]

[JK’s side is tanky. In theory, they should not screw up.]

[LZ copied JK’s hero comp, really shameless (dig nose)]

[Today, JK’s BP is really marvelous. In the first game, I completely can’t guess which hero would be chosen. Even if I know which hero it is in the second game, I’m still clueless.]

[This bunch of extremely daring fools are not afraid to bring out anything.]

[LZ is crazy, snatching Chang’e for the first pick— — did they really think that this hero got no counters?]

…… [Did LZ not think that despite replicating JK’s hero comp, it’ll still be useless? After all, not every mid laner is called Lu Qi.]

Mid-Jungler-Support hero comp was a comp that asked a lot from the mid laner and needed the middle lane to be dominating.

LZ’s mid laner, Distant, usually plays fortress mages. Now, he was using a short-ranged Chang’e to fight with other people, and it was against Lu Qi’s Gao Jianli. It was an impossible fight.

JK knew that they would invade the jungle, but they did not have any intentions of wanting to fight with them. The moment they saw LZ coming, they immediately switched jungles with them. In the first wave of clashes, both sides neither gain nor lose the advantage.

Chang’e’s ability to clear the minion wave was slightly faster than Gao Jianli’s, reaching level four first, “I have my ult! Pekingese, come and gank Gao Jianli!”

“No, no, no. In this game, we need to gank Garo, the first tyrant is also at Garo’s side”

Pekingese ignored him.

“Then I’ll solo kill!” Distant moved his Chang’e closer to Gao Jianli who was clearing the minions.

Gao Jianli was also short-ranged.

The two short-ranged mages mutually exchanged blows in the mid lane.

Seeing that Gao Jianli’s music note bounced to him via the minions, but only took away an almost negligible amount of mana, Distant could not help but let out a victorious smile.

Newly released heroes were really amazing, look at how overpowered this was.

He threw out a skill, landing exactly on Gao Jianli, stunning him.

The audience watching let out agitated sounds, mixing in was the commentator’s voice, “He’s stunned! He’s stunned! Are we going to get first blood? Now, there’s a minion wave, Chang’e can regain her mana, and a set of her combo is enough to kill Qi Ge. Can Eden get there in time for a ‘beauty saves the hero’^[3]美人救英雄?” 

The answer was: Yes.

Before the commentator finished speaking, a horse rushed out from the bushes — — Oh wait, it was not a horse, it was Da QIng’s Guan Yu. With one stroke of his blade, he stunned Chang’e. Instantly, Yu Yue’s Shieldun carried Chang’e into the turret using his second skill, cooperating with Lu Qi’s Gao Jianli to kill Chang’e.

[First Blood!]

The First Blood was born!

At the same time, Garo retreated back into the turret in time under Yu Yue’s reminder, successfully thwarting LZ’s first gank, even using her second skill’s silence to counter-kill one of them.

[Garo] killed [Tigerous]

The scoreboard was now 2:0.

Both of JK’s carry now had gold from their kills.

Pekingese threw Distant a loathful glance, “I already said not to engage, why did you still do it?”

“You’re not the captain.” Getting ganked by three people, Distant also did not feel comfortable in his heart, “Why were the bushes in the mid lane not checked? Guan Yu was hiding in there for so long!”

Guan Yu this hero needed to run to be strong, which means Da Qing was moving around a lot in the bushes just now, but did not expose his vision on the map.

How well did they control their vision of the whole map?

“The vision was not like that for Chang’e in the previous game, right?” Distant was unhappy, “Playing the same hero comp, why is it so different?”

He Jian felt a great pressure, “It’s okay. I’ll go over to do the vision for you later, okay? Let’s focus.”

Xi Xi sent out a signal, “JK’s taking the tyrant.”

The first tyrant was an important strategic objective.

“Let them take it. Their jungler is Sun Ce, he hasn’t used his ult yet. If we go and snatch, we might be countered by them in the pit,” He Jian pondered the pros and cons before saying to his team.

A crash from the happy seafarer was not something just anyone could hold.

Xi Xi, the bot laner, pursed his lips, “Captain, this isn’t right. Just now, JK’s Chang’e was dominating the game, whoever blocked her way was whoever died. How come when we play Chang’e, we have to be so careful?”

That’s right, why?

“The top lane! Top lane!”

Tiger, the top laner who had been silent, called out a reminder, “I just saw them heading to the mid lane, you guys be more careful!”

“F*ck!” He Jian could not help but curse, bringing his team over for the fight about to erupt.

Who knew that in the bot lane, Sun Ce and Garo would appear to push the turret.

He Jian: “!”

They were surrounded by enemies and attacked on all sides!

He Jian felt like suffocating.

JK seemed to have a magnificent army with thousands of men and horses^[4]千军万马, an idiom, completely unafraid to fight with them!

And when they fought, there would always be a minion wave pushing the lane, LZ had no choice but to send someone to clear the wave.

They were too passive.

Their Chang’e seemed to be a fake. She was completely unlike that annoying Chang’e of JK’s in the previous game. Where’s the supposed mage tank? She just evaporated the moment she stepped into the fight.

They could not win the team fight, pushing wise — —

They also could not push the lanes.

JK’s Guan Yu and Sun Ce were heroes who had their feet anointed by oil, adding to Yu Yue’s vision, when they wanted to catch them, JK would have run away.

Unable to be caught or killed, and pushing the lanes like their lives depended on it, those two were like mosquitoes, annoying as hell.

The pacing was all in the hands of JK, LZ had a tough time controlling the gap between their gold. When Chang’e had her core item, they met at JK’s mid lane.

Guan Yu hit four of them with a stroke and Sun Ce stunned them. Following that, the annoying Shieldun steadily carried Distant and Xi Xi to Lu Qi using his second skill, even blocking their retreating path.

Under Garo’s and Gao Jianli’s attack, Distant’s Chang’e evaporated in an instant.

Before his death, Distant heard Sun Ce’s “Crossing beyond the sky and the sea!”

Distant: “????”

Wasn’t he a mage tank? No??

This squishy, he was a fake, right??

Once again, the familiar wipeout.

This time, twelve minutes was not even up.

LZ: QWQ

What kind of devils were they?

The second game ended and the score was now 2:0.

If JK won one more round, the first match for the playoffs could end.

During break time, LZ’s resting room was in dead silence.

“If we win the next game, we will have more games to play. If not, we pack up and go back” He Jian said. “Distant, please explain why your Chang’e was so squishy?”

Distant: “How would I know? You didn’t do the vision in the mid lane, how would I dare recklessly attack?”

“They were split pushing.” Pekingese felt a headache, “Is it because in the first game, we did not choose heroes good at pushing? You look at JK’s choice of Guan Yu and Sun Ce. They’re both good at pushing, causing us to be so helpless.”

Tiger: “If not, we ban it?”

They were really helpless.

“Ban Chang’e and Gao Jianli to let out the mage assassins?” Xi Xi’s face turned colder, “If not we ban it all?”

“All ban.”

“I give you eight bans, okay?” Xi Xi said, “Just because of Lu Qi, you want to ban Chang’e, Wan’er and Diao Chan…… But in my opinion, Time is strong not because he is strong, but because of his cooperation with that new support! Thus, we should either ban or snatch heroes to separate those two from making a hero comp.”

He Jian thought for a while before sighing, “It’ll be hard.”

Eden’s hero pool was deep and rarely played, they could not focus on banning her heroes.

“That little support kinda gave me the feeling of going against Reed……” Pekingese said.

QAQ’s Reed was a player that one could not focus on banning the heroes that he was good at.

But unlike the silent and obedient Yu Yue, Reed had a very strong presence in the game.

“We can only fight against JK head-on,” He Jian concluded. “I disagree with saying that Eden is strong. Her game mechanics are not impossible to pull off, it’s just……”

“Hard to deal with.”

Pekingese deeply felt that.

The jungler and support had to roam, and because of that, he clearly understood how flexible Eden was.

It was as if she had her eyes all over the King’s Gorge.

Her shadow could be seen everywhere on the map. The person she wanted to protect, would have a high wall of vision built around them.

This caused LZ to be unable to even have the chance to touch the team’s carry at all.

Undeniably, other members of JK were strong too. Those that could restrict them could not be weak at all — — but Eden, her talent was already shining through.

“She has grown,” He Jian had mixed emotions.

.

That was not the only case. That last team fight where JK continuously controlled their enemy was cut out and posted online. JK’s fans laughed their heads off:

[My god, what kind of coordination is this? Guan Yu kicked, Sun Ce stunned into the air, and Shieldun carried back! LZ did not even have the chance to use any skills before their screen turned black. Really crushed them.]

[In my lifetime, I finally saw JK not getting restricted by their BP, I have no regrets in death.]

[They’ve grown!! They’re no longer squishes!]

[Qi Ge’s hero pool plus one!]

[Missy’s amazing!! (Really loud)]

[Amazing!!!! (Extremely loud)]

[Discovered a new hero comp, Chang’e 1.0]

[It should be two, Chang’e 1.0 and Gao Jianli 1.0]

[I have to say, I feel that today’s JK is unstoppable. Using that Chang’e comp to crush LZ, then use Gao Jianli comp to crush their Chang’e comp. They embodied that unchanging theorem: Your daddy is still your daddy. There’s no future in plagiarising. I dared to create this strategy, then I definitely know how to counter it.]

[Most importantly……The mid laner is Qi Ge. Every match his damage was so high, the average mid laner could only imagine.]

[I’m gratified.]

[I’m at ease.]

[JK’s support of Light.]

[Let’s watch the next game.]

While the internet was a mess, Tieba was red with people requesting for an analysis of these two games.

The exact same hero comp, but the results of the two teams were so different:

JK’s Chang’e comp resulted in the enemy getting constantly invaded and snowballed. In the late game, LZ was completely unable to curb Chang’e.

As for LZ’s Chang’e comp was timid and hesitant, just a touch and she died.

If Lu Qi’s Chang’e was said to be unafraid of everything between the sky and the earth, then LZ’s Chang’e was cowering and afraid of getting into the center of the fight.

— — Like a little beggar.

It was so tragic that anyone who looked at him would feel pity.

[Hero comp.] Someone hit the nail on the head. [Chang’e comp was invented by JK first, they must know how to counter it. What was LZ thinking?]

[Qi Ge is strong himself.]

……

[Because of Eden ah. This kind of hero comp, if Lian played, would never appear, no?]

---

T/L’s note:

My apologies, I meant to post this earlier today but I, uh, got sidetracked by HOB S2 screening, soooooo