ARE was panicking, and there was no hiding it.

Not long after the match started, the audience quickly noticed that ARE’s pace was all over the place, almost as if they were deliberately letting JK take it easy——honestly, given how much they were easing off, “opening the floodgates” might be a more fitting description.

Milady is a lane-dominating hero, and usually, when mid laners face her, they feel like they are going through hell. Those with weaker wave clearing ability could not help but think, “Damn, when will this wave ever stop?”

If you try to manage it, you get restricted to the mid lane;

If you don’t manage it, this hero pushes the turrets like crazy. After roaming to get a kill, you’ll come back to see the turret in ruins.

Getting kills was secondary; losing the mid turret meant losing jungle vision, and it’s easy to lose momentum.

Weighing it out, the turret is more important, so the opposing mid laner will likely get locked in the lane by Milady.

As luck would have it, this lane dominator also has her counters, Zhou Yu happens to be one of them.

.

Relying on his natural advantage, Lu Qi’s Zhou Yu is having a great early game, while the opposing Milady was struggling.

When the robot comes out, Zhou Yu can just set a fire and clear everything in sight.

He even had time to team up with the support to steal their red buff.

“Got it!”

The early game of trading minion waves was so dull, putting the commentators to sleep, as they forced themselves to hype up both teams. But suddenly, seeing Zhou Yu and his support going for the enemy buff, and getting it, caught their attention.

“They’re starting with 3 buffs on JK’s side!”

Ling Chen and Da Qing found a bush to hide in; if ARE’s jungler still had any ideas about that red buff and wanted to kill Lu Qi to steal it back, he’d face a united assault from JK’s top, jungler, mid, and support.

ARE’s jungler, Li Qiu, really did give chase and nearly caught Zhou Yu in that bush——

“My heavens, can they successfully ambush him?”

The commentators perked up.

The viewers had a god’s eye view on the screens, with complete visibility of both teams, every bush lit up.

But that was not the case for ARE.

Seeing that Li Qiu was about to walk right into JK’s four-man ambush, totally unaware, some ARE fans could not bear to watch and covered their eyes.

……It felt like watching a horror movie.

“Don’t go! The bushes are full of big guys!” “JK’s tactics are getting dirty!” “Sneaky little bastards!” “My dear Li Qiu, ahhhh!” Such comments flooded the livestream. If circumstances allowed, fans would probably rush onto the stage and pull Li Qiu’s ears to stop him from chasing Zhou Yu.

[。:Don’t ever chase time; you have no idea how many people are waiting in the bushes to beat you up.]

[I will always love JK: Finally, in my lifetime, I get to see someone protect Qi Ge.]

[Cheongsam girl: Li Qiu, ahhhh!!! Don’t go in!!!]

[LQ charge!: JK’s side is about to lose it, 2333. The Missy is getting restless; I feel like if Li Qiu doesn’t go over soon, she’s going to pop out of stealth to drag someone in.]

Maybe the audience’s thoughts were too intense. Li Qiu was originally charging straight into those bushes, even calling mid laner Milady along, but he ultimately did not step in and turned back to his jungle instead.

The bullet comments let out a sigh of relief:

[Qi Ge, my wife: sat around for nothing, 2333.]

[shdnwhwc: Luckily he stopped; otherwise, the jungler would have ended up in a tragic death situation.]

[Three Deers Milk Powder: ARE, what’s going on in this game? Is the jungler actually face-checking the bushes? Don’t get too cocky, or JK will shut you down. You promised to play smart; what’s with this reckless behavior?]

The commentators also breathed a sigh of relief, mixed with a bit of disappointment, “I can’t believe they didn’t fight. It’s been three minutes, and there’s still no first blood.”

Commentator B: “It feels like ARE is playing really carefully, almost like they’re afraid of JK.”

“But just now, those instincts! Li Qiu seemed to sense someone was hiding in the bushes; he almost went in but suddenly stopped and turned away——” Commentator C said with a smile, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost suspect he was using a hack.”

Li Qiu did not use a hack.

The one with the hack was Qing Guang: “Li Qiu, don’t go over, JK is definitely waiting there.”

Li Qiu was surprised, “You sure?”

He had just seen JK’s jungler show up at the top lane.

“Even if the jungler isn’t there, their mid and support can still take you down. And the top laner isn’t visible either, if they want to ambush you, there could be at least three people hiding in that little bush.” Qing Guang panned around the map and said helplessly, “When you’re up against that girl Yu Yue, never think you can take a gamble.”

When this person plays a support that initiates gank, all she sees are the C positions^[1]Carry position!

She would never hold back on using Stormchaser-Howl plus Flash.

“Are we being too cautious?”  Li Qiu hesitated, unsure whether to keep going.

Qing Guang said tearfully, “Those were all my bloody lessons!”

Li Qiu: “……”

Li Qiu cautiously retracted, and just as he was about to return to his jungle, he saw the four members of the opposing meal buddy team sprinting out from the little bush, each heading in different directions.

Li Qiu: “……”

I was just one split second away from dying right there.

“F*ck!” Shi Nian, who also narrowly escaped death, exclaimed, “Li Qiu, you almost took your mid laner to a glorious death!”

“Same here. We’ve all walked close to the gates of hell,” Li Qiu said, still feeling a bit shaken, as he buried his head back in his jungle. “I’ll farm a bit and then prepare to gank Da Ming.”

Qing Guang: “You two be careful; we’re counting on you to carry us.”

Shi Nian chuckled bitterly: “Don’t expect much from mid, I’m going to self-destruct.”

[ARE’s match… what’s going on? Feels like they can’t get it together.]

[They’re being so cautious.]

[Wow, every move from both teams is so calculated!]

[Come on, play it out! Fight! This is so boring right now! Disappointing.]

[Can ARE make it any more obvious that they’re throwing? They’re giving up their advantage——shouldn’t they just surrender and let their buddy team JK advance?]

[Does JK have a “dumb buff” against the opposing team in the playoffs? Are they going to shut out ARE today too?]

[A team that’s supposed to be low-tier making a comeback? Can’t even dare to say that, it’s clear ARE is throwing!]

If ARE saw the current comments, they’d probably just laugh at those saying “ARE is throwing the game.”

Since the schedule came out, they’ve been trying to clarify things, but even today, some people think the plastic friendship between ARE and JK is more important than winning——

If beating JK would guarantee their advancement, ARE would have no hesitation and would just smash the neighboring team with a club.

The problem is, they couldn’t!

To outsiders, JK seems to have just brought out a Zhou Yu.

But ARE knows that their entire plan has been thrown off by this Zhou Yu, and their mid laner, Shi Nian, could not set up his rhythm for the game.

This had thrown off everyone else’s rhythm too.

Qing Guang previously analyzed that overall, ARE and JK are evenly matched.

Top, jungle, and bot were about 50-50, but the imbalance lay in the mid and support.

In terms of support, Yu Yue was still a rookie, though she was improving quickly, but Qing Guang had more experience, giving him a slight advantage.

And in mid, ARE’s mid laner Shi Nian was definitely outclassed by Lu Qi.

——The good thing was, Lu Qi only played burst mages.

If they pick a utility mid-laner, play defensively, and wait for Lu Qi to overcommit, they might even get a counter-kill.

They could also use the minion wave and mid turret as leverage to force Lu Qi to stick to mid and not provide any support.

Meanwhile, Qingguang could coordinate with others to pressure the side lanes, slowly snowballing the game, and making it hard to lose.

This strategy had been effective in their practice matches.

They thought it would keep working.

Until——

Lu Qi, this dog, pulled out Zhou Yu.

The slight balance in mid was shattered.

.

The first gank did not work out, unfortunate for JK, and the audience felt it even more.

ARE was both timid and clever, expertly snowballing and sneaking into the jungle.

Or waiting for the other team to invade, seizing the chance to counterattack.

It looked like they were giving up resources, but they were actually playing it safe.

However, JK seemed to be patient today too; both sides were testing each other, exchanging skills like crazy, but neither would go for the kill.

This had the audience on the edge of their seats, practically wanting to jump on stage and help them out.

Especially during the ninth minute at the dragon pit, both teams were going all out. JK had caught three members of ARE who were starting the dragon, but they quickly got their health drained, and the commentators were going wild:

“Eden is left with just a sliver of health! Is there going to be first blood?!”

“ARE wants to seize the chance to fight! Will JK engage?”

“On ARE’s side, Li Qiu and Shi Nian have used their ultimates! But Eden didn’t hesitate! She flashed away!”

“……Even pulled off a clutch flash, getting really far away!”

“Hahaha, so calm……”

“Just asking if you’re mad or not, just a sliver of health left!”

……

At this moment, the supposedly ‘calm and collected’ Yu Yue was actually panicking inside.

“Let’s go! We can steal it!”

“My health is empty, kill Milady!”

“I’m outta here! Someone’s chasing me! ARE’s members must be dogs, right? Are they really that happy smelling the blood? Qi Ge!! Help me!!”

The man was getting a headache from her shouting, carefully laying down fire zones while grumbling, “Alright, alright, I’ll help you out, you just focus on running. You’re always yelling——”

“They’re still chasing!” Yu Yue screamed, “They must be dogs! Right? Even worse than the captain!”

Ling Chen laughed, “Don’t panic! Just run into the bushes and break their line of sight, I’ll come to get you.”

“Quiet, my head hurts.” If he could spare a hand to cover Yu Yue’s mouth, Lu Qi would definitely do it. “You must want to be the star guest of ‘Explosive Mic’ or something, the kind that hogs the airtime every day.”

As the cold, unfeeling system voice announced that [Zhou Yu] had killed [Overlord], JK began a full retreat.

“Alright, alright, Li Qiu is cutting it,” Da Qing said while covering Lu Qi’s retreat, smiling, “Master, please retreat after achieving a feat.”

Meanwhile, at the commentary booth, the three commentators’ eyes were glued to the screen:

“ARE is still chasing Eden, trying to secure first blood! But——wow, the Missy dodged a fatal skill using the bushes!”

Commentator B: “There’s still no first blood!”

“Now both sides have used most of their ultimates, and ARE has lost a significant amount of health from Qi Ge’s Zhou Yu. Will JK choose to force a team fight?”

It did not seem like they would.

In the dragon pit, both sides met, exchanging skills in a flurry, and after securing the dragon, JK began to retreat.

They had no intention of sticking around.

Commentators: ……

Commentating on JK’s matches really shortens your lifespan.

“Why are they retreating?” The three commentators exchanged confused glances.

Weren’t they just fighting fiercely?

Commentator A glanced and perked up again, “They’ve met in the mid lane! Is there a chance for ARE’s Milady to land a first hit on Zhou Yu?”

Everyone’s eyes were back on the big screen, only to see Shi Nian’s Milady flash away in panic, rolling back to her turret.

Everyone: “……”

What a coward!