Chapter 54: A Shiny Crystallization of Proficiency! Cancellation, and It's Fucking Cancellation Again!

Fortunately, the Sejuani was left with very low health and could not follow up on the chase. Both top laners were on their way to assist, and neither side had any intention of pressing the fight further.

Karsa rubbed his head in frustration.

He could not understand how Yone was able to aggressively dive in right through his W, teaming up with Sejuani to first focus and dump a full combo onto him.

This should have been a heavily profitable exchange for the jungle; his setup had clearly worked as intended.

Yet in the end, all he managed to steal was a mere chicken!

Ye Bo's understanding of Yone felt as though he had digested the mechanics of every single ability down to the marrow, squeezing every ounce of potential out of the champion.

"Don't worry, Karsa. That Yone has no flash, we'll easily kill him next time!" Rookie voiced out in reassurance. "Our early game isn't hard to play against them anyway."

"Yeah, I can go in again if I find an opening!" Karsa's mental state remained solid.

However, Yone had purchased attack speed boots as early as level 4, instantly altering the dynamic of the mid lane matchup.

Starting with the Doran's items required saving up 1,100 gold to purchase attack speed boots.

Starting with a long sword, on the other hand, saved a full 300 gold—equivalent to the bounty of a kill!

Rookie distinctly began to feel that his laning phase was growing strenuous.

The champion advantage of Galio lay in his natural bruiser-to-tank sturdiness, combined with the mage's prestigious percentage-based damage, a full four area-of-effect abilities, and a formidable triad of crowd control comprising two knock-ups and a taunt!

Among these, the most crucial were obviously the W and E crowd control tools, which were precisely why he excelled as a premier roaming hero.

Yet a vital problem arose.

Rookie discovered that his Galio seemed utterly incapable of locking down the enemy Yone!

The radius of Durand's Shield was barely under 300 units; unless Yone actively stepped forward to trade auto-attacks with Galio, the opportunity to channel a point-blank W simply did not exist.

Not to mention how low the hit rate of an E initiation was, the previous trade had already proven that Yone possessed absolute outplay capability.

The only viable methods seemed to be closing the distance with Predator speed or using Flash to get in close.

Galio's sole advantage from the previous sequence was holding an extra Flash, and Rookie was eager to make something happen with it.

Minute 5.

"Karsa, can we make a play mid? I feel like we need to shut this Yone down once, he doesn't have Flash."

Karsa pondered in his mind for a moment. "But I feel like Sejuani might be counter-ganking mid right now. Jiejie always likes to play around protecting the mid lane... It's better for me to gank bot."

"OK, then I'll fake it," Rookie replied cooperatively without any objections.

The bot lane pairing of Senna and Tahm Kench was among the top three most popular duos of the Season 12 Summer Split.

The strength of this combination lay in the fact that even though Senna occupied the support role, her high inherent scaling meant that once equipped with a cheap Umbral Glaive, she could very rapidly output higher damage than a conventional AD carry.

Meanwhile, Tahm Kench, playing the carry position, absorbed the economic resources of a primary carry, which allowed him to maintain a level of tankiness comparable to a top laner.

This resulted in a duo that peaked early while effectively boasting two carries, alongside a certain degree of late-game security and utility.

If there was one glaring flaw, it was that before level 6—when Tahm Kench lacked his ultimate—Senna was relatively prone to sudden deaths and lacked reliable initiation tools.

This explained why they paired him with a strong double-engagement jungle-mid duo like Sejuani.

Galio's movement in the mid lane suddenly turned aggressive, continuously lingering menacingly close to his W casting range. Under Rookie's veteran acting, it looked entirely natural.

Both Ye Bo and Jiejie, who was lurking nearby, were momentarily fooled.

Yet at that exact moment...

Poppy had actually quietly slipped into the bottom lane brush.

"I'm here, jump on Senna!"

Upon hearing the call, the support PPgod decisively flashed and hurled out a searing solar flare with his Zenith Blade, utilizing the property of piercing through to hit the rear target, locking down Senna who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Tahm Kench!

Aphelios, having readied his weapon, strode forward, unleashing infernal flames blended with gravitational binding while branding both targets simultaneously.

"Viper, Poppy is there!" Meiko called out, having spotted Poppy stepping out from the river vision.

Viper said nothing. The moment the crowd control wore off, he flashed backward, then meticulously used the allied caster minions as stepping stones to aim at Poppy, firing off a precise Q-W combo.

Dark Dominion applied a slow, masking the application of the Black Mist W.

However, Karsa executed his mechanics with precision, using his E to dash through the minions as a displacement springboard just before the delay on the Black Mist took effect, sliding directly into Senna's face!

Aphelios followed up with a gravitational snare, coordinating with Poppy to dish out the full brunt of Hammerkeeper's Shock.

Without his ultimate to swallow her, Tahm Kench could not save her, forced to watch helplessly as the fragile Senna was brutally bursted down, leaving his own sturdy self to escape alone toward the tower.

Simultaneously.

Combat was erupting in the mid lane.

The instant Ye Bo heard the voice in comms, he knew he had fallen for the ruse, reacting with lightning speed to call out for Jiejie to engage!

Naturally, Rookie was this fearless because he had prepared accordingly, stepping back the moment his bot lane teammates initiated.

Yet due to Yone's blistering reaction time, a third-stack Q tornado was already flying toward him.

Galio synchronized by executing a reverse-kick escape!

Though the stone figure's body was swept mid-air by the whirlwind, it still managed to kick forward out of the air!

Galio's crowd control was nullified!

Galio's E ability also possessed a two-part casting process; as long as the timing of the initial backward step was grasped to coincide with the incoming crowd control, the E ability could be forcibly driven through to cancel the effect.

Rookie's attention to detail was exceptional.

The reason it was angled sideways was that a direct linear backward kick would likely crash straight into Yone, resulting in standing completely still.

"Ah! Rookie!" Kid could not help cheering in advance.

Yet Yone did not halt his pursuit, for Galio's E was sideways, meaning the distance had not truly widened.

Taking advantage of the movement speed from his Tier 2 boots, Yone closed the gap once more with the dash range of his tornado Q.

The strength of the Sejuani-Yone duo lay in the fact that although Sejuani's E had a casting range of only 560 units, the range at which melee teammates' basic attacks could help stack her passive spanned virtually across the entire screen!

In other words, even though a level 4 Sejuani without Flash could not touch Galio herself, she could still wait for Yone to help stack the passive, and then deliver crowd control from afar!

Rookie perceived the enemy's intent, knowing he could not afford to give them an opportunity to get in his face under any circumstances.

Galio desperately wanted to save his Flash, but the enemy's Q placement was equally tricky.

Hesitation was no longer an option; he flashed toward the safety of the tower while spreading his wings to channel his skill, attempting to deter the pursuer.

Yone no longer had his tornado dash. If he used his E to chase and ate the full W taunt, he would remain stationary and unable to attack for two full seconds, granting Galio ample time to widen the gap.

Ye Bo clicked Galio with his left mouse button, his eyes locked onto the upper-left corner of the enemy's status bar.

Galio's W could be channeled for up to 3 seconds, during which both the area of effect and crowd control duration reached their maximum values at the 2-second mark, after which it could be held for at most one additional second.

And right as Ye Bo saw the enemy W icon roll to two-thirds———he released his Reverse E!

Mortal Steel's barrier tore Yone's spirit and physical body apart, separating them by five hundred units.

This sequence was a battle of wits regarding the timing of the W.

Ye Bo calculated that if Galio wanted to force a deterrent, he would strive for the maximum taunt duration, which was why he pinned down the absolute limit of the final second—the moment when release became unavoidable.

Furthermore, the instant his spirit and body separated, he rapidly double-tapped EE, instantly snapping the two back together into one!

Galio's taunt swept through empty air precisely where Yone had just snapped backward out of position.

And this reverse E not only dodged the taunt as Yone instantly returned to his body, but it also serendipitously closed the distance, flying straight into Galio's face!

{When Galio casts W, he self-slows.}

{Yone's E ability forcefully separates his body and spirit for displacement, meaning his physical body does not remain in its original spot.}

Utilizing the rapid reverse EE.

Yone's E could effectively function as a rapid displacement in any direction!

Point-blank AA-Q-W-AA, meticulously managing attack intervals in a smooth and fluid manual sword dance, instantly proc'd the three-stack frost brand in a single second.

Sejuani hurled out her ice chain from five hundred units away, then charged forward riding her boar with Q-W!

Galio and Yone had recalled at the same time in the previous wave, but Yone had purchased attack speed boots thanks to an extra kill, whereas Galio had only managed to buy a cloth armor.

His stacked magic resistance runes proved entirely useless against the hybrid physical damage of the Sejuani-Yone duo. Nearing the tower, his stone facade was shattered by the back of Yone's blade.

"Ah!!! Rookie!!!" The exact same words, yet uttered in a drastically different tone, conveyed the caster's profound agony and emotional turbulence.

Galio had successfully nullified the crowd control in this exchange, and the angle of his E had been handled with exquisite detail; he had only lost out by a fraction in the final mind game regarding the W release.

Yet in elite-level competition, falling short by a fraction could result in worlds of difference.

"Oh no! How is Ye Wen outplaying even Rookie?! Something is seriously wrong with him!" Sica cried out in disbelief. "How can my Rookie be played this miserably?"

"Karsa doesn't even come to help! What is he doing?! What on earth is he doing?!" Kid fumed with anger. "It's all the fault of this trash champion Galio!"

"Look, he's tilting again!" Sun Yalong laughed heartily as he watched Kid easily take the bait.

"Actually, this play was Rookie overextending himself," Kid muttered, calming down enough to figure out the reasoning. "Wait! He was sacrificing himself to fake out the bot lane! The bot lane also burned two flashes and took a life, so it's not a loss at all! If he hadn't died, they would've taken the dragon!"

"What a pity, truly a pity!"

With that, Kid did not forget to immediately search for a diverting topic to spread the blame.

"EDG should be able to secure the dragon, but Poppy and the bot lane duo can also grab some plating, so it's fine. The gold difference is manageable!"

"Plus, this way, neither bot lane has Flash. For the next Herald fight, the advantage goes to V5!"

"By the way, is Flandre playing this fiercely today?"

While EDG was taking the dragon, the director's camera suddenly cut to the top lane.

With all four members of both teams having appeared on the map, the isolated top lane seized the moment to ignite a skirmish.

Scout's Kennen took the initiative to spark the aggression, seizing the window when Gnar was approaching his mega transformation to step up and apply a Mark of the Storm with his passive W.

Although Mega Gnar possessed the highest base stats in the league, compared to Mini Gnar, his sustained damage and mobility were evened out, especially prior to reaching level 6.

Beast Gnar reared back and slammed down a heavy W strike, but Kennen instantly flashed into a lightning-shrouded armor, his movement speed skyrocketing as he confidently sidestepped the blow, even dodging the flying boulder that followed!

Mega Gnar's boulders did not return; missing and failing to pick it up rendered him nothing more than a lost clown!

Kennen relentlessly auto-attacked the clumsy, helpless Mega Gnar, kiting him to absolute perfection, seizing the opportunity to amplify his laning advantage and forcing him to recall, for free gaining a Teleport advantage and establishing a personal lane lead.

[What is up with EDG today, did they take drugs or something? Did their match against WBG last week recharge them?]

[Audacious! You called them a power bank! Whose power bank!]

[Karsa glanced back at his own top laner and felt something was off: Why does this Gnar look somewhat familiar!]

[Master Ye playing Yone really gives off a different vibe. Last week's Zoe and Akshan—people on the forum were still calling him a mechanic merchant—and what about this game? This is all foundational martial arts!]

[After all, they are his top three signature pocket picks from before his debut. Don't tell me you forgot the dominance of a single Yone occupying three spots in the Top 10 from two weeks ago?]

[So anyway, can you guys please show me an Akali against LeBlanc today? I'm getting impatient!]

In truth, they had indeed been "recharged."

At least for Flandre, that was the case.

While his form might not literally have reached his peak level from last year, his mindset and confidence had unquestionably returned, making him far bolder in executing plays and mind games.

Flandre had always carried the impression of being "slippery."

Yet that slipperiness had never meant simply being difficult to gank or just playing to clear waves.

It represented rock-solid stability during the laning phase, showing his fangs only under conditions of absolute safety.

It was supreme execution, consistently fulfilling the tactical responsibilities assigned to him by the team.

People often felt that EDG's top laner lacked a prominent voice.

Yet a closer analytical look revealed that the top lane had always been a core link in the tactical system. In an environment with limited jungle resources, being able to hold down a lane single-handedly without demanding resource allocation was critical.

EDG erupted with a mini-surge, holding a slight gold lead of 1.5k. Only the bot lane suffered mildly, though that was partly due to the inherent early-game weakness of their combination.

"We have to contest the Herald fight; we need to disrupt their mid-jungle rhythm, otherwise Yiyi is going to have a hard time playing," Karsa reasoned with clear logic.

Although Galio's deficit in gold wasn't massive and remained manageable, he was unquestionably locked down tightly in the mid lane by Yone.

Karsa's radar wave detection constantly felt that Sejuani was lingering purely to protect the mid lane, causing Poppy to dare not even dream of poking around in a 2v2 for fear of completely collapsing the mid lane.

The positive news was that resources were always finite, and the essence of macro play was trading.

Even though Rookie was held down, Sejuani likewise accomplished very little elsewhere.

This was because EDG's top and bot lanes in this match were not easily killed. The system itself was designed to bind the jungle and mid together while allowing the side lanes to farm into the mid game based on their champion and combination traits, unleashing their power in team fights.

Meanwhile, Poppy had spent this period focusing heavily on invading and restricting EDG's bot lane, successfully clawing the gold difference back to under 1k.

At 7:30, the Rift Herald was about to respawn.

Both teams' members were converging toward the pit.

For V5 in this sequence, the bot lane held a gold advantage, and at this timestamp, the Senna-Kench duo still leaned heavily into their utility composition.

"I feel like neither side wants to give up this Herald, but actually, EDG is looking a bit dangerous..." Sun Yalong suddenly and rare-ly began earnest analysis alongside Sica. "However, I've noticed that ever since EDG substituted in Master Ye, their enthusiasm for contesting the Rift Herald has skyrocketed!"

"Yeah, probably because whatever Master Ye plays are flashy champions—the kind where once you push down the mid tower, he can just run wild all over the map~" Sica nodded in agreement.

"If you brought Scout in, and you pushed down his mid tower too early, where would he go to farm and collect gold? He'd be forced into side lanes, but Viper and Meiko are players who naturally want to contest the lane matchup, which would make things awkward~"

Following a round of analysis, the two realized these were fundamentally two different systems of players.

In essence, it was hard to say which was definitively good or bad.

It was simply that, judging by current appearances, EDG's recent matches had all been won this way.

And they had won them very quickly!

The Herald spawned, and V5's bot lane—having gained lane priority due to their jungler's frantic pampering—arrived ahead of schedule.

EDG gathered at the entrance of the raptor camp, approaching the Herald pit in search of an opportunity.

"Don't rush to burst it down yet, wait for me to find an opportunity to smash someone away..." Karsa gazed intently.

A well-placed Poppy ultimate could alter the course of a teamfight.

Yet obviously, channeling it openly meant everyone would dodge it, and the enemy wasn't foolish enough to let it yield ideal results easily.

"Watch out for Poppy, don't rush, remember to group toward my side..." Ye Bo muttered instructions while kettling the raptors to stack his tornado.

At that moment, a wolf-head mark suddenly lit up above everyone's heads.

"Don't panic! Galio doesn't have Flash!"

Ye Bo quickly realized that the predator activation here was purely meant to intimidate.

Poppy's Flash was back up, and the greatest hazard in this skirmish was getting hammered away into a key target.

It was just that the EDG members never expected Galio's position to be entirely outside the dragon pit.

The warning radius of Predator was roughly 2,000 units—the distance spanning from the mid lane minion wave to the center of the river, which wasn't considered particularly far.

Yet in this sequence, within EDG's vision, they could only see the enemy starting the Herald. The vision showed an Aphelios stacking crescendum blades while tangling with the Rift Herald, naturally leading them to assume the rest were lying in wait inside the pit.

Because the Oracle Lens required level 9 to purchase, the information was only secured thanks to the vision EDG had set up early in the river brush due to their early advantage in the top half of the map.

Yet right now, Galio was hiding in the corner just ahead of V5's tier 1 mid tower!

And simultaneously... a Poppy wielding a spinning hammer was also stationed right there!

The two sides were separated by a single corner wall.

Since this was directly in front of V5's tier 1 tower, EDG completely lacked vision of them.

"Put some pressure on them!"

Upon hearing the cue, Leona unleashed a distant Solar Flare from afar.

An ultimate thrown openly from such extreme range was unlikely to hit multiple targets, prompting the members to quickly scatter and split their positioning.

Yet this was precisely V5's intent.

Positioned in the rear, Poppy found her window upon seeing Kennen and Tahm Kench leaning back together side-by-side, her hammer aching with anticipation.

"Right in this spot! Engage, engage, engage!!"

Poppy abruptly revealed herself by flashing out from the blind spot, winding up her hammer!

A massive shockwave surged across the ground from behind!

"Poppy! Behind us!"

Throughout the entire sequence, Ye Bo had remained vigilant against a potential flash-hammer from Poppy.

Though the angle was entirely unexpected from behind, the Blade's Shadow was still capable of halting all of this!

Yone flashed backward, his blade gleaming under the flash of light as he stood resolutely before his two teammates, facing the oncoming shockwave alone.

The sole window of opportunity.

Steel Tempest crashed into the shockwave, colliding head-on!

Yone's body was first hurled high into the air on the spot, then instantly dropped back to the ground before surging forward once more!

As if a gale-force slash had stubbornly swallowed and dissipated the shockwave.

"What the f*ck?! Even that can be nullified?!" Karsa could not help cursing aloud.

However, the rear-guard teammates had already arrived; Gnar prepared to leap forward, diving from the air while Aphelios and Leona charged in from behind.

Rookie reacted with blistering speed, executing Hero's Entrance centered on Poppy, coordinating with Gnar to complete a front-and-rear pincer squeeze!

"Dive straight for the backline! We win this! I'll carry these two over!" Ye Bo moved his lips rapidly in excitement. "Support, watch me!"

Poppy watched as he seemingly succeeded in launching the pair away, yet due to this unexpected development, the entire landscape of the fight instantly flipped.

Sejuani and Kennen launched dual ultimates charging backward into the backline, a glacial prison and a thousand lightning bolts forming a cage!

Tahm Kench bravely stepped forward, while Senna retreated first to safety, casting Piercing Darkness to maximize her AOE damage and shield.

Meanwhile, Yone narrowed his eyes, locking onto the straight line formed by the landing point of Hero's Entrance and Gnar's aerial giant paw.

Soul Unbound pushed forward instead of retreating, adjusting his orientation to skim the center of Hero's Entrance.

The exact instant before the strike landed—Dust-clearing sword aura, Fate Sealed!

Yone slashed with dual blades, tearing through space in a swift dash.

Gnar landed from the air to swing down his massive paw, combining with the righteous punch of Hero's Entrance landing simultaneously. The damage from the double ultimates caused Yone's health bar to plummet.

Yet miraculously, his figure remained completely motionless!

"It's f*cking crowd control nullification again!!!"

The moment Galio and Gnar landed, they were gathered, unified, and dragged forward by Fate Sealed.

They were hauled straight into the target zone of the glacial prison and thunderstorm bombardment!

Yone touched down. Leona attempted to apply crowd control to quickly burst down the low-health target, but the instantly snapping-back spirit nullified crowd control once more, swallowed safely into the belly of Tahm Kench in the rear, once again thwarting Poppy's attempt to harvest a corpse.

It appeared to be a simple crowd control nullification.

Yet every single collision represented a margin of a hair's breadth.

Every single instance served as a brilliant crystallization of mastery!

The cheers within the performance center merged into a roar, causing the astonished emotions of the live audience to reverberate heavily throughout the venue!