Chapter 23: Your Laser Is No Match for My Sword! My Captive! [4.5K Combined Chapter]

The match loaded.

Having entered his competitive zone, Ye Bo focused his entire being on the game.

"Jiejie, wait for my signal. Just watch us put on a show!"

"No problem!"

Since Ye Bo had only just joined, everyone was naturally used to calling him by his name. However, after watching so many years of professional play, Ye Bo had long become accustomed to his teammates' player IDs and nicknames. To keep his focus from being affected by names during a match, he generally addressed his teammates by their IDs.

"EDG has Braum at level one. It seems LNG is prepared; their level-one positioning is extremely cautious," Miller remarked, scrutinizing the setup.

"Oh? EDG is going on the offensive!"

With Braum leading the charge, the five members of EDG moved with the clear intent of invading the opponent's bottom-side jungle. LNG’s top laner and jungler were positioned in the top half of the map, while the three in the bottom half—unlikely to challenge Braum head-on—immediately retreated.

"Back off, back off! If they want to force it, we can swap jungles!" Doinb commanded quickly.

Even though they knew they had been spotted, EDG pressed on regardless, making a wide loop around the Blue Buff. Finding no opportunity, they eventually turned back. However, Doinb clearly didn't think it was that simple.

"They might have warded the Blue Buff when they came in. They might be looking to counter-jungle."

"Support, place a ward on the Blue Buff in a bit."

Doinb didn't believe the enemy would walk five people into his jungle just to do nothing. Theoretically, Jarvan IV would be at a disadvantage in a 1v1 against Poppy. But because of the sacrifice made in the Yone draft, EDG had secured favorable matchups for their top and bottom lanes, allowing them to easily maintain lane priority early on. When it came to jungle invades, besides the junglers themselves, the most important factor was lane priority. If EDG were truly intent on counter-jungling, the pressure on LNG’s jungle would be immense.

At 1:25, the Azir placed a ward in the middle river brush. This protected his lane for the first three minutes and provided vision of potential invades—a standard, safe opening for a mid-laner.

At 1:30, the jungle camps respawned and the minion waves met in mid. However, Yone did not appear in lane immediately.

"He must have gone to hit the Raptors to stack his wind..." Doinb clearly understood Yone well.

There was a common pro-level trick for Yone: at level one, one could pull the Raptors over the wall with two Qs to "bring the wind to lane." After all, Yone’s 450-range "Mortal Steel" wasn't enough to challenge a ranged champion at level one. Only the "Steel Tempest" tornado—with its 900-plus range—would allow him to push, farm, and harass effectively.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Yone arrived in lane with his tornado ready. Doinb, experienced in lane matchups, checked the opponent's status bar via the TAB key. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, save for the slightly aggressive "Doran's Blade."

Azir, displaying careful technique, didn't rush forward. Yone’s Q stacks only lasted six seconds and couldn't be held indefinitely, so he would surely be eager to unleash the wind upon reaching the lane. Ye Bo didn't hide his intentions, immediately firing a tornado through all six minions to shove the wave quickly.

Melee versus ranged—the first three levels were the golden window for suppression! But if one could survive that, the later stages would be much more comfortable. Seeing Yone unleash his wind, Azir immediately grew aggressive, summoning a sand soldier in the minion wave to zone Yone with the 525+225 attack range, forcing Yone to use his Q just to farm from a distance.

At 1:55, the second wave arrived. This was the wave for the level-two race. Azir had used his range advantage to successfully shove the wave forward. Moreover, Yone seemed to be forcing the push, taking some extra damage in the process.

Doinb scoffed inwardly. "I knew it! Without his signature champions, this 'hero coin' is useless; he can't even play the lane correctly!"

This thought wasn't entirely baseless. The correct level-one response for Yone against Azir should have been to let the opponent push, ideally hoarding two waves in front of the tower to create a "slow push" that would allow him to reach level three quickly. Only at level three did Yone have the tools to trade with Azir. Ye Bo’s current actions looked like someone with absolutely no understanding of laning—just mindlessly pushing.

Doinb stepped forward, looking to hit level two and poke. With his river vision secure, he and Yone were positioned on a diagonal line, with Azir slightly closer to the bottom river. Counting the time, both junglers should have just finished their first camp. Doinb felt no danger, pushing forward with the wave to strike the enemy melee minions. Given his experience, this level-two lead was all but guaranteed.

Suddenly, he noticed something. Yone was still stubbornly pushing, using Mortal Steel on the last minion as if he were completely oblivious to the impending level-two threat.

At this point, Doinb began to feel uneasy. No matter how bad he was, he couldn't possibly fail to notice the level-two race, could he?

The next moment, the blue light rising around Yone provided the answer.

Doinb let out a startled cry!

"What the hell! How did he hit level two?!"

He instinctively opened the TAB menu; the minion count was exactly six, the same as his! How!? Obviously, if there had been some accidental experience gain—like the enemy clearing a ward—professional teams would never overlook that detail. But Doinb had no time to think about it now.

Because... the level-two Jarvan IV had emerged from the river brush behind him!

The vision ward placed in the river brush—which should have detected the path—had seen nothing! Doinb instantly realized the answer: the only way to bypass that vision was to EQ combo over the wall. Jarvan IV’s level-one E had a 12-second cooldown. If he was here, he definitely didn't have his EQ combo ready!

Azir was only level one and could only walk toward his tower, and because he had been playing aggressively to contest the wave, he wasn't positioned safely. Fortunately, this was the patch with increased durability.

"Doinb is in trouble! He should at least lose his Flash here... wait, Yone just used Q-Flash! What does that mean?!" Jiejie noted, suddenly startled by Yone’s assault.

Doinb had his Flash ready and hadn't intended to save it, not because he thought he would die, but because he didn't want to get forced into an early Teleport. But he never expected the enemy to explode into action! The reason was simple: Doinb had calculated that Jarvan IV had no EQ. Even if Yone hit the Q-Flash, there should have been no follow-up.

But Yone’s Q-Flash was unavoidable, knocking Azir airborne with the tornado. And Jarvan IV seamlessly followed up with his own EQ knock-up.

Yes—Jarvan IV *did* have his EQ!

Jarvan IV had started at the Raptors. The key was that he had thrown his second E into the edge of the river brush early to reset the cooldown! As for the damage? Jarvan players knew that taking E at level one wasn't for the measly 80 points of flag damage—the Q was clearly better for cooldowns and armor shred. Taking E at level one was purely for the 20% passive bonus plus the 20% from the flag, providing a 40% attack speed buff that lasted 8 seconds as long as one stayed within 1000 range.

Combined with Yone’s two Mortal Steels, Jarvan IV had actually finished the Raptors at 1:47. Then, he took one step around the corner, used his Q to dash toward the flag he’d placed in the warded brush, and waited for the Q cooldown!

"Azir is caught in a chain of knock-ups! He flashes, but Yone is already chasing!"

"Yone is incredibly decisive! But... is the damage really enough?"

Yone swung his blades frantically, shredding the armor-broken Azir with "Dragon Strike," the damage looking lethal. His golden "Lethal Tempo" stacks were climbing rapidly. Yet, because of the durability update, the damage still seemed a fraction short.

"Can you kill him, Ye Bo? I can Flash to finish him!" Jiejie urged.

Yone, having initiated the knock-up, could chase by pathing ahead. But Jarvan IV, arriving late, could only trigger his passive before Azir flashed away.

"Don't! Wait! It seems... it seems..."

Ye Bo watched his Lethal Tempo stacks, his brain calculating at lightning speed. In this patch, although Lethal Tempo had been nerfed, it still provided 60% attack speed and 100 attack range at max stacks. With 60% attack speed, Yone’s Q cooldown would drop from 3.63 seconds to 2.19 seconds. And that wasn't all! With Jarvan’s 20% flag buff, it dropped to 1.71 seconds!

"It's enough!"

Azir was about to enter the tower’s range. Yone poked forward with a Mortal Steel, then activated his E, "Soul Unbound," weaving in an auto-attack as he stepped into the tower range, maintaining the chase!

"Yone is diving the tower!" Miller shouted in alarm. "Is this necessary? He needs to be calm! Trading Flash for Flash is already a huge win!"

The twin blades—one physical, one magic. The level-one E spirit could last 5 seconds. During this time, 25% of the damage Yone dealt would be stored and detonated when he returned to his body. Yone was already taking tower shots.

"Oh my god! Is this guy crazy?!"

"He wants to kill me even here?!"

Doinb scrambled to escape. A level-one Azir had no ability to turn and fight. But even now, he didn't think he would die. The increased durability and base stats were a desperate buffer against early-game damage. Yone poked with a second Mortal Steel, and the tower fired its first shot. A level-two Yone could only take three tower shots before the fourth one killed him.

However, the tower’s attack speed was only 0.83. That meant it would take at least 4.5 seconds to land the fatal fourth shot.

Ye Bo’s eyes shone with extreme confidence. *I’m certain—your laser isn't faster than my sword!*

Second shot.

Third shot.

Just as the third laser beam was fired, Yone’s third "Steel Tempest" was ready. At that moment, the duration of the E spirit was reaching its limit. Ye Bo timed it perfectly. At the very last threshold of the spirit, he unleashed the Q3 tornado!

"Is it really enough?! It still looks like he's one auto away... wait!?"

Yone’s obscure pro-level technique, the "Spirit Double Auto," used the brief animation lock between the E skill and the Q3 to squeeze in an extra auto-attack without needing any bonus attack speed! It was this auto-attack that made up the missing damage.

He slashed down, flew back to his body, and detonated the long-accumulated E damage. A surge of sword energy erupted from Azir’s body, sending the Emperor of the Sands to the grave!

[First Blood!]

[EDG YE killed LNG Doinb!]

"My goodness!" Jiejie gasped. "Yone landed that final, crucial auto-attack before snapping back with his E, and the detonation of the mark was just enough for the kill!"

"What kind of damage calculation is that?!"

"Such a smooth and fluid Yone. And looking at the play, he seems so confident!" Miller added, unable to stop praising him.

"EDG’s level-one design was really something. It felt like a chain of traps!"

"Doinb is in so much pain! He burned his Flash and died, and the wave is pushed in. Most importantly, Jarvan IV didn't even have to use his Flash..."

It wasn't just the commentators who were shocked; the EDG team was stunned as well.

"Nice, Ye Bo! Amazing!"

"You damn genius!"

Jiejie, who had been watching the whole process, couldn't help but channel his inner Li Yunlong. Because this entire play, including the way Jarvan helped open and path through the jungle, was all Ye Bo’s design. Through his study of LNG’s VODs—consuming several nights of effort and 500+ "Counterattack Points"—Ye Bo had mastered LNG’s team style, discovering Doinb’s warding habits and laning quirks.

But the most important thing—the reason Jiejie called him a "genius"—was Ye Bo’s brand-new understanding. Why was Yone able to hit level two with only six minions?

It was simple: he used his second Mortal Steel to kill one of the small Raptors over the wall. The Raptor camp had five small ones and one big one. To hit level two, the jungler only needed three of them. A single small Raptor, worth a mere 17 experience points, wouldn't change the jungler’s level at all. This was something Ye Bo had tested himself while designing the strategy.

As for why Doinb couldn't discover it in advance? That involved a new jungle mechanic: killing the big Raptor gave +2 to the CS count, killing three small ones gave +1, and clearing the whole camp gave +1. Killing just one small Raptor didn't show an increase in the CS count!

His three teammates quickly sent messages of congratulations, their tone clearly filled with surprise.

"You really caught him? Amazing!" Scout was the first to speak.

"Amazing!" Viper added in fluent Chinese.

"Although I didn't see it, amazing!" Meiko chimed in.

They all knew about this design, as the level-one invade was the setup. Doinb was very focused on river vision. If there was no offensive pressure, he loved to place a ward at the entrance to the enemy's Raptors. But because of Braum’s aggressive invade, LNG assumed the target was the jungle, and with Braum’s presence, they never got another chance to ward. Combined with the subsequent chain of designs, they had walked right into the trap!

As the two mid-laners, both with Teleport, returned to lane, the viewers in the chat, eager for chaos, filled the screen with "The Prisoner of the Lord"...