Chapter 39: Grand Martial Champion Version of Ancestor Zhuge! [5K Double-In-One]

Zoe tucked a colorful bubble into the wall, sliding smoothly along the ledge until she crossed half the canyon and entered the blue side's fountain.

The minion wave was about to enter the tower, and Jayce would undoubtedly teleport the exact moment he revived. There was no room for hesitation.

Yet, just as the purple beam began to flare over Jayce's body,

He suddenly felt deeply drowsy...

"What the hell! What is this?!"

The victim was the first to notice the abnormal, blinding white light filling his screen.

When the observer's camera angle shifted, identical exclamations echoed universally both inside and outside the live broadcast studio.

"Ah!?"

"Ah???"

"You can actually do that?!"

Everyone knew that Zoe's E ability could extend its travel distance through walls.

Clearly, however, absolutely no one could have anticipated... that this trick could be channeled across such a distance!

The teleportation was interrupted by the {Sleep} crowd control.

Jayce took a brief two-second nap on the spot, causing even Theshy, sitting live in the arena, to blank out in astonishment for two full seconds.

"Oh my god, look at that design! So this is the true extent of Zoe's kit! Good grief!" Wang多多 widened his eyes in pleasant surprise at the caster desk.

"Player YE has once again delivered an unexpected surprise to us. This is a chained strategy!"

Even Gu Gu could immediately gauge the dire situation: "Wow, it looks like Theshy is in deep trouble now!"

The minion wave under the tower had already been cleared.

As a level-one Jayce whose teleport had been interrupted, he had no choice but to walk back to top lane in frustration and despair.

Watching the massive wave of minions perish under his empty tower, the scene looked rather desolate.

[Holy crap! If I were Jayce, I would've already started playing on my phone. There's no way to play this sh*t!]

[The immersion is way too strong, my blood pressure is spiking. If I were the top laner, I'd literally rage-quit.]

[You motherf*cker really are a genius!]

[Wait, this looked insanely difficult. How did he pull it off so accurately on the first try? Is this guy even Ip Man? He's more like a grandmaster!]

[They always say every single blade of grass in driving school has a purpose, and it's the same in Summoner's Rift. You can tell this guy spent a long time practicing to find this exact spot. All I see is hard work and sweat!]

"Awesome, Bo! You actually interrupted it! F*cking amazing!" Saintangge sincerely showered him with praise, his face beaming with joy.

"I told you it would work, let's keep it up!!"

With every step of the strategy falling perfectly into place, Ye Bo's confidence grew even stronger.

"Jiejie, be careful of his jungle invasion. Bot lane, watch our positioning later and hold onto your cooldowns!"

"No problem, we'll just stick to our pre-match plan!"

Even if Theshy hadn't positioned so far forward at level one and hadn't died, he would have at least been forced to burn his summoner spells and recall, which would have allowed EDG's top and mid laners to save their Flashes.

No matter what, the first time this trick was executed, the opponents had zero room to avoid it!

On the other hand, Zoe teleported straight back to lane after pulling it off, using her two health potions to recover.

Due to the experience gained from the kill and the wave lost outside the tower, Zoe's actual minion deficit was at most half a wave.

Anyone watching would call that an absolute massive profit!

As for those two burned summoner spells...

Is it possible that Zoe actually doesn't lack summoner spells?

Furthermore, in Ye Bo's understanding, the current patch had changed {Teleport}'s scaling cooldown to a fixed 6 minutes prior to the 14-minute mark.

In a sense, using it early meant it came back off cooldown sooner. Since it could only realistically be used twice anyway, it wasn't particularly precious, and trading it to secure this opening play was definitely worth it.

Back in the coaching staff room, Mingkai couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

"Tsk tsk, this kid Ye Bo, even though he can be a little cheeky sometimes, he really is a talent!"

After saying this, Mingkai noticed Scout sitting silently nearby, and he joked with a smile, "Hey rookie, you should know how to do that operation too, right?"

"...Of course. Of course I know how."

"But honestly, it's pretty useless—just flashy, impractical little tricks that you can probably only pull off once," Scout said, his tone sounding rather nonchalant.

"And besides, this is just the beginning. As long as Jayce doesn't play recklessly, he won't get solo killed. Meanwhile, look at his own mid lane—he has no double summoner spells right now, so his laning pressure must be immense."

Mingkai naturally wouldn't argue with him, as he was just giving him a way to save face.

As for whether Scout actually knew how to do it or not, only he knew, and it didn't really matter.

After all, just as he said, no matter how novel such tricks were, they were truly only effective the first time. The second time, everyone would be on guard, making it essentially a one-time gimmick.

Yet, one thing was undeniable: the impact in this game was absolutely stellar!

The current situation was already glaringly obvious: without assistance, top lane would likely be suppressed for the rest of the game.

Moreover, neither EDG's mid nor top laner had Flash, meaning the enemy jungler would undoubtedly focus heavily on those lanes.

This consequently meant that Sofm's normally unpredictable jungle paths would begin to follow a discernible pattern!

Ever since the draft phase, after banning Xayah, WBG predictably picked the utility AD Miss Fortune for the bot lane, clearly intending to continue centering their strategy around the top-side and freeing up their support to roam.

However, EDG's bot lane duo, chosen as a counter, featured the ultra-strong laning combination of Ashe plus Karma!

This duo could exert crushing laning pressure on the enemy bot lane, forcing their support to remain tied down and unable to roam freely.

The only drawback was that they were slightly vulnerable to ganks.

Yet right now, if the Rek'Sai even dared to head bot lane, Jayce would instantly be in mortal danger even under his own tower. As long as Sofm wanted to play like a human being, he shouldn't do that.

Theshy was having a rather miserable time.

No top laner in the world could endure a setup like that without their blood pressure skyrocketing.

"Are you stunned or what? Come help me out," Theshy requested jungle assistance in broken Mandarin. "His jungler might still come fuck me up!"

"Wait a minute, okay? Let me counter-jungle first."

Anyone who understood Sofm knew that this wasn't a question; it was a statement of fact.

It was just like his classic catchphrase: "I'm going to counter the enemy Raptors, are you coming or not? (I'm going anyway whether you come or not)."

However, this had always been the defining trait of Sofm's playstyle—possessing a clear and unique logic in the jungle. At times it looked exceedingly selfish, but at other times it truly produced miraculous results.

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It was the legendary "duality of gods and demons."

The observer switched to the Erlangshen wide-angle perspective.

All three matchup lanes appeared on screen simultaneously, displaying the laning states.

"EDG's bot lane is putting immense pressure on the enemy. Ashe and Karma playing solo against that combo is practically giving them free slaps in the face!" Xica offered a sharp critique.

"But Theshy is still managing to hold his lane steady. I said it at the start: picking Graves on five made no sense. Jayce isn't afraid of Graves in lane at all!"

"Wait, what?! What is Da'an doing?!" Sun Yalong suddenly slapped his thigh when he saw the mid lane. "Why hasn't Da'an pushed past Zoe yet?! What the f*ck! You can't even pressure a Zoe with that kind of opening?!"

"And that bastard Sofm, all three lanes are waiting for you to gank, but you go counter-jungling first! Infuriating!"

Because the observer's camera cut away at an awkward time, the live audience didn't get to see how Zoe managed to out-push Orianna.

However, Zoe immediately repeated the feat right before their eyes.

Zoe was seen standing near the river wall, tossing her Q backward while instantly channeling her {Hextech Flash}.

The exact moment the charge ended, she flashed down the wall.

She pulled off a long-distance Paddle Star that hit the backline minions dead center, instantly obliterating over half their health with a single blast!

Zoe's Q ability, {Paddle Star}, was League of Legends' highest-damage base AOE minor skill. Depending on the {travel distance}, it could deal up to 3 times its base damage!

To give a simple comparison that showed just how exaggerated this was:

With no items and maxed-out Q, Zoe's 3x base damage was 550.

With no items, Orianna's maxed-out Q was 180.

Even Orianna's R ability only dealt 250 / 400 / 550 respectively.

Yes.

That meant Zoe's Q skill, with a cooldown of just 6 seconds, dealt maximum damage higher than a level-16 Orianna's ultimate!

Of course, achieving this "3x" damage was naturally no easy feat; the {travel distance} needed to reach 2,000 yards to hit that damage cap.

Normally, without her ultimate, achieving that distance seemed virtually impossible.

However... if one utilized Hextech Flash to perform a "wall-crossing" displacement to stretch the Q,

The distance could be maximized, dealing nearly 90% of that peak damage!

Combined with using {Minion Dematerializer} to gain a 12% damage boost against the three backline minions, plus triggering her W passive via Hextech Flash,

She could pull this off every single minion wave.

Every single wave came close to instantly deleting the backline minions!

And if Orianna was careless with her positioning and caught in the splash, she would instantly lose two to three bars of health!

It was precisely through this little trick that Zoe's wave-clearing speed received a massive boost.

"Oh momma! This Zoe has all the macro understanding; I've never seen anyone run Hextech Flash on Zoe!" Sun Yalong acted as if nothing had happened, seamlessly recovering from having his face rapidly slapped by reality.

"Say what you want about this rookie, his laning ability is seriously legit. Aside from rock-solid fundamentals, he has all sorts of cheeky understandings. He feels a bit like the old WeiXiao!"

"Uh oh, is Scout hiding in the back taking notes, hehe?" Xica made a weird, winking grin.

"The first balloon Zoe popped was a warhammer—useless, but the second one is about to drop..." Sun Yalong displayed his usual ego: "As you guys know, I'm an OG Zoe player. Zoe's W balloons spawn roughly every three waves of minions, and the warhammer and prowler's are absolute trash! Picking either of those makes the laning phase even harder!"

"I get what you mean—even if she picks up the absolute trash, she can still beat the enemy, right?"

"Hehe, you said it, not me."

Although the two of them were playing for comedic effect, they had indeed hit the nail on the head.

Zoe's laning capability was exceptionally strong, to the point where one could practically treat this champion purely as a laning specialist.

The primary reason lay in the unique mechanics of her W skill, {Spell Thief}.

Aside from picking up {spell shards} used by opponents, every 3 to 4 waves she could kill minions marked with a "balloon" to randomly acquire a {summoner skill} or {active item}.

Although overpowered spells like Flash and Teleport had long since been removed in ancient patches, many overpowered items still dropped.

For instance, items like Everfrost, Prowler's Claw, Shurelya's Battlesong, Locket, Redemption, Ghostblade, Exhaust, Smite, Heal...

Often enough, Zoe picking up a powerful laning spell every three waves could instantly turn the tide of a stalemate.

Ye Bo had already spotted the balloon spawning on his seventh minion wave.

Immediately afterward, he began executing the true "setup" for this game.

"Viper, fire an arrow!"

"Coming!"

Ashe, having planned this well in advance, intentionally saved two charges of {Hawkshot} and adjusted her angle to illuminate the top-side jungle with dual straight-line visions.

Right at that moment, Rek'Sai, who had just finished clearing her Raptors, was fully exposed.

Sofm felt his heart skip a beat and instantly wanted to call for backup, but the next second he realized something was wrong.

Neither his top nor mid lane had minion priority!

Especially mid lane... why was it that after all that happened earlier, the enemy mid laner still had no minion pressure?!

Graves was the first to move out early.

Why pick Graves?

Because WBG's core attribute revolved around the synergy between top and jungle; these two mutually influenced each other's tempo—if one prospered, both prospered.

Aside from early-game designs, the greatest utility of picking Graves was his ability to forcefully leverage his shotgun and End of the Line to dominate wave control through top-tier wave-clearing prowess!

Consequently, he could coordinate with the jungler to relentlessly counter-jungle the enemy's territory!

Who said they were going to constantly camp the top laner?

For WBG, ganking the enemy jungler was equivalent to ganking their top laner.

After all, Angel, whose form had been lackluster this year, had long been criticized as a "shackled mage," and down in the bot lane, ON was also pinned down and locked out due to the unfavorable laning matchup.

If the jungle fell as well,

WBG's top lane would completely degenerate into an isolated island ripe for plundering!

"We're in trouble!"

Sofm's dark little face tightened. Realizing he had walked right into a trap, he immediately turned tail and tried to retreat.

"I don't have lane priority!" Angel hesitated repeatedly. Glancing at the minion wave under his tower, he chose not to move.

"I can come, I'm coming." Theshy actually expressed an intention to assist.

"Don't rush, I might be able to get out on my own."

On the mini-map, both top and mid lanes were already showing missing pings, with Vi the jungler pursuing from behind.

Yet Sofm, possessing a nimble mind, had already mapped out an escape route.

At levels three and four, both Vi and Graves lacked hard lockdown tools; the only thing he needed to be wary of was Zoe's E skill.

As for that skill... he could outplay it!

"Boss Sofm! Hey, boss Sofm can't die! If boss Sofm dies, what happens to my Theshy?!" Xica put on an anxious, heartbroken expression.

Rek'Sai was sprinting away rapidly using her burrowed movement speed. Since Vi's Q charge inflicted a "self-slow," someone needed to stall her first.

"Master Ye, can you slow him down? My Q-Flash range isn't enough!"

"I can! Saintangge, don't come over here; go wrap around behind the wall!"

"Got it!"

The top, mid, and jungle trio displayed seamless coordination, dividing up their strategy within a few brief words.

Sofm spotted Zoe through the vision.

Fortunately, the enemy had neither picked up a Shurelya's speed boost nor any hard crowd control like Everfrost, Exhaust, or Randuin's.

They only had something that looked entirely useless.

Ye Bo decisively took action, aiming right at the enemy's inevitable path and predicting a throw with {Sleepy Trouble Bubble}.

To dodge this preemptive prediction E, Rek'Sai would be forced to step backward, which would cause her to walk straight into Vi's attack range—essentially a {path-blocking prediction}.

Sofm's thinking was crystal clear: he refused to dodge entirely, charging straight ahead head-on.

The Sleepy Trouble Bubble successfully hit, though it didn't instantly put him to {Sleep}.

The Sleepy Trouble Bubble required a 1.75-second {Drowsy} precursor state, initially only slowing the target before finally plunging them into sleep.

Sofm narrowed his small eyes. The exact moment the Drowsy state was about to put him to sleep—he flashed right up against the Blue Buff wall!

Utilizing Rek'Sai's E mechanic, {Tunnel Wall Extension}, he successfully tunneled an ultra-extreme angle to dig a "1,200-yard super tunnel" straight across to the other side!

{The moment Rek'Sai casts her E, provided the timing is right, she can execute a forced-cast "crowd control cancellation."}

And this diagonal wall was the thickest wall in the entire blue jungle.

Even if Zoe had picked up Rek'Sai's Flash, the distance wouldn't be enough to instantly follow with a Flash over, and the Graves waiting on the other side clearly couldn't solo kill a nearly full-health Rek'Sai.

Not to mention Jayce was rushing over to assist.

"Crowd control canceled! Such a long tunnel! Such a fast escape! Boss Sofm!"

"Zoe swapping to pick up a Flash is alright too... wait!"

"Holy crap, what kind of play was that?!"

Zoe used the E slow to close the distance, but she didn't pick up the Flash shard left on the ground.

She tossed her Q backward, locked her W targeting onto the Rek'Sai who had just burrowed into the wall, and timed it precisely with his transit.

Prowler's Claw locked onto the target. Zoe's form closed the distance in parallel with him, and the next instant, she crossed through the wall alongside him synchronously!

Simultaneously,

The "meteor" behind her curved mid-air and blasted forward with perfect timing.

{Prowler's Claw Displacement Follow} + {Position-Assisted Paddle Star Curve}!

The 1,200-yard thick wall coincidentally matched the exact travel distance for the Paddle Star.

This allowed the Paddle Star to reach the maximum distance of its 3x peak damage!

Rek'Sai's crowd-control cancellation only forced a displacement cast, but upon landing, she was still subjected to the amplified damage modifier from the sleep effect.

A fully charged Paddle Star smashed down.

The Void Burrower was instantly blown upside down!

Combined with Graves, who had been lying in wait the entire time, Rek'Sai's fate was sealed, leaving her with only futile, last-ditch struggles.

Xica, who had moments earlier pretended to be heartbroken over boss Sofm, fell silent for a split second, covered his face, smacked his lips, scratched his head in rapid succession, and instantly flipped his persona back at lightspeed.

"Good Zoe! Gorgeous!"

"That Prowler's Claw follow depended heavily on timing, but mainly his limit-range Q stretching was insane. Such a distant Paddle Star, so precise!"

"Without that maxed-out Q damage, Rek'Sai probably would've had a chance to escape. After all, Vi was pulled too far away and lacked the damage."

"The mechanics are one thing..." Sun Yalong muttered softly on the side, "but EDG's strategic design today is so rich! It's completely different from their last match."

"Is this right? What the f*ck, is this really EDG?!"

"How come EDG today feels like the Calabash Brothers fusing into one? They didn't have this much methodology in their previous games; didn't they just rely on raw mechanical strength to brute-force wins?"

"Could changing just one mid laner really make this big of a difference?"

[Check last week's comms, EDG's mid laner is actually doing the shotcalling. This rookie is an absolute freak!]

[A mid lane treasure talent, EDG seriously struck gold!]

[Good lord, a fusion of the Martial Arts Champion and Zhuge Liang!]

[I don't know if it's just my imagination... why do I feel like I'm looking at Doinb? Except it's a mechanical god version!]

[Who's Doinb? Never heard of him~]

[Uh oh, I bet Scout is sitting backstage feeling like pins and needles. This rookie's performance is just too good, the contrast is brutal.]

Level-one physical baiting, designing top lane to gain an advantage, utilizing that top lane advantage to feed back into the jungle, restricting the enemy jungle from influencing the bottom lane, and finally executing a three-lane coordinated encirclement.

Every single step formed a tightly connected tactical system.

Clearly, compared to the Spring Split where they relied solely on the players' individual raw prowess, EDG had undergone a very noticeable transformation in this match—so obvious that countless viewers caught onto it immediately.

Backstage at EDG, Scout's expression grew increasingly ugly, his back teeth grinding together involuntarily.

"Damn it... at least do something, WBG..."