Chapter 55: Three-Way Kill! If You Can't Take the Front Door, Take the Winding Path!

"Holy shit, Yone!" Zilean raised his hands in mock surrender. "What in the world did this Yone just do?!"

"He canceled three crowd control effects in a single teamfight! Good grief, he even canceled Poppy's knockback! And he straight-up dashed right through Galio and Gnar's ultimate abilities!" Xika let out a howl. "That was genuinely a bit too handsome, wasn't it?!"

The teamfight had been a clean sweep, with only Poppy managing to escape in time to avoid a total wipeout. V5's carefully pre-arranged positioning and meticulously designed ambush had created a guaranteed checkmate scenario.

Yet, the most crucial Poppy ultimate completely failed to achieve its purpose!

His third Q countered Poppy's hammer, his ultimate countered Galio's stone fists and Gnar's beastly paws, and his second E even canceled Leona's root.

The true essence of Yone lay entirely in CC Cancellation!

Ever since his release in 2021, this champion had remained lukewarm in popularity, but as time passed and players pushed his limits, more and more people were bound to recognize and discover his extraordinarily high skill ceiling!

Yone's third Q, second E, and ultimate abilities all shared the characteristics of having casting wind-ups while possessing powerful proactive strike properties.

When utilized properly, a player could pull off what he just did—canceling three crowd control effects in a single skirmish and pulling off a miraculous outcome!

The director cued the replay, specifically adjusting the camera angle.

The view focused on a close-up 3D shot of Yone suddenly flashing to stand horizontally before his teammates, facing the oncoming shockwave entirely alone to absorb the impact!

In the frozen frame, the Unforgotten, wearing a cold, blood-red mask and wielding both his mortal blade and azakana sword, radiated an overwhelming sense of intimidation.

"Damn, that reaction time! That angle!" Xika could not conceal the admiration on his face. "Doesn't Yebo's play border on the absurd?!"

"Newcomers nowadays are truly terrifying. During his first match against Big B, I honestly thought Big B threw the game for him!" Zilean rubbed the sparse hairs on the top of his head and clicked his tongue in a sigh.

The duo of veteran trolls couldn't help but voice their amazement; only one person seemed to have been muted.

[The stream chat showing the absolute utmost respect to Doinb!]

[Karsa's facial expression looks like it's about to turn into a snake spirit's face from how sharp it's getting!]

[This champion is genuinely so cool. That fluid grace makes him feel like a swordsman and an assassin fused into one!]

[The Ancient Greek god in charge of canceling crowd control!]

[How come Saint Song didn't seem to be trying his hardest today~ Could the champion he drafted today actually be {BYD·Song}?]

[All these goddamn draft phases! Every single day they draft these useless sub champions for our hard-carrying players! Even if they just drafted Zed for our Rookie, this game would be ten times easier to play! They just had to pick a Galio to sit there and absorb a beating!]

Frankly, Rookie couldn't do much during the early game.

The "brazen" Galio in solo queue could run around with Predator enabled simply because skirmish frequencies were high and opportunities were easy to find.

On the competitive stage, however, every opening required careful calculation, and the cost of failure for every single wave was immensely high.

Galio was naturally better at dealing with AP champions. Perhaps the designers were paying homage to his lore, but against AD champions, he was inherently at a natural disadvantage.

This was not the first time Ye Bo had demonstrated Yone's ability to cancel crowd control.

Yet this game was undoubtedly the absolute pinnacle of its execution!

After EDG secured the Rift Herald teamfight, they split into two groups heading toward mid and top, frantically devouring minion waves and plating gold!

After all, Yone was not Akshan; he didn't need to rush down the mid lane tower immediately, preferring a slower push to maximize profits.

Once he recalled and returned with his Mythic item, Yone's laning phase dominance allowed him to take whatever he pleased.

It wasn't until the 11th minute that EDG unhurriedly dropped the expiring Rift Herald, crashing it into the mid-lane tower to claim the first-brick bonus.

The game then transitioned into the lane-swapping phase, with bottom and mid swapping places.

However, V5's core mid-jungle duo consisted of seasoned veterans.

Coupled with the team's immense resilience, they weren't so easily broken.

Having just escaped the misery of the laning phase, Rookie was effectively liberated during the side-lane split-pushing phase and quickly began searching for tempo.

Fundamentally, Yone fell into the category of a hyper-carry, heavily reliant on farming to build items for support.

Meanwhile, Galio was born to roam and assist!

Galio slipped into the mid lane, timed his Predator boots, and activated them!

Simultaneously, Poppy emerged from the side for a pincer maneuver, and Leona unleashed her ultimate to slow and lock down targets!

Relying on the Predator speed boost, Rookie displayed exquisite and mesmerizing positioning, first sidestepping a Tongue Lash and then dodging the incoming Black Mist.

Closing in, he initiated with Everfrost sweeping the ground!

Tahm Kench was rooted, while Senna was slowed due to positioning slightly further back.

Ignoring the rest with single-minded focus, Galio strode forward with a lunging punch aimed squarely at Senna.

Meiko, out of a protective instinct, swallowed Viper whole!

{The root effect only prevents the target from displacing, but they can still use non-displacement abilities.}

Yet Meiko had walked straight into Rookie's trap.

Senna was actually only a few steps away from running back under the tower, and Tahm Kench swallowing her ended up "hugging" Senna slightly further backward instead.

More importantly, waiting for Tahm Kench to open his mouth, Galio began spreading his wings to channel.

Galio's W could only be channeled for a maximum of 3 seconds.

Yet Tahm Kench's ultimate could similarly only hold someone for a maximum of 3 seconds.

Leona landed her stun for seamless chain crowd control, keeping Tahm Kench rooted in place—effectively locking down two people at once!

Outside, Galio waited with bated breath, wings spread; even if Senna voluntarily spat herself out of the belly, she would still catch the crowd control.

"Holy crap! Rookie's positioning! Rookie's details!" Kid, previously silent, suddenly raised his voice, instantly glowing with radiance.

"Rookie stepped up right when V5 needed him the most! This is our desperate-hour Song Yengin, forever selfless, forever trying his absolute hardest!"

If the other two commentators had uttered such words, the audience would have been one hundred percent certain they were trolling and dripping with sarcasm.

Kid Shen, however, was speaking straight from the heart!

"He even leaves kills for the ADC. He is truly so team-oriented..."

"Oh! Rookie is teleporting to the top lane again! He's trying to protect Gnar from being dived!"

Simultaneously, EDG's top and jungle initiated a counter-encirclement in the top lane.

Before the mid-lane skirmish had even concluded, Galio chose to leave the battlefield cleanup to his teammates, dealing his damage before decisively backing off to channel a teleport to protect top.

With the 14-minute mark not yet reached, Teleport could still only target allied defensive structures.

Therefore, Yone, who was split-pushing alone in the bottom lane, could not follow with a teleport.

In fact, this was precisely why the top lane, acting as the most "remote mountainous region," frequently went "stealth" during the early game of this patch.

Previously, four or five teleports would rain down into the bot lane within a matter of minutes, allowing top laners who gained early advantages in lane to instantly cash in their rewards.

However, with the changes to Teleport, aside from Rift Herald fights and assisting jungle invasions, it was rarely used for anything more than preventing tower dives.

The early-game agency of top laners had been drastically reduced.

"Pity, they still couldn't save Gnar, but trading one Teleport for two flashes is a win!" Kid said, his eyes filled with regret.

"Though Saint Gnar played the laning phase really well today. I don't know when he managed to burn Gnar's flash again, otherwise that Gnar wouldn't have died!"

Xika chimed in with a strange, sarcastic inflection, pointing out the crux: "Don't get too happy yet, yo. This game Yone is farming happily in the bottom lane with absolutely nobody bothering him, he's almost pushing to the tier-two tower!"

"This Yone is already super fed, I don't even dare imagine how terrifying he's going to be later~"

At its core, this exchange was simply V5 trading resources.

Since Galio split-pushing alone made him a pure punching bag with zero chance of out-scaling Yone, they chose to take a risk and trade.

And it certainly yielded results, pushing Aphelios—already their best-farmed player—to an even higher level of strength.

Meiko's voice sounded somewhat self-reproachful: "My bad, my bad. I feel like I ate him a bit too early. If I waited for him to use W, we might not have died..."

"It's fine, we smashed the top lane, and they're pushing mid tower. Master Ye can keep pushing!" Jiejie chimed in with words of comfort.

"Yeah, let's just be a little careful and not give them any openings. Our scaling is definitely at an advantage!" Ye Bo also offered reassurance.

EDG's team composition had fully taken shape, and the gold difference was actually beginning to widen steadily.

Though it might have looked like V5 mounted a counter-offensive just now, in reality, factoring in Yone farming happily in the bottom lane while clearing an entire jungle quadrant, the overall gold lead was still slightly ticking upward!

V5 could only rely on the strength of their composition and weren't overly terrified of Yone.

A Poppy who could isolate engages.

A Galio packed with crowd control, alongside a Leona equally packed with CC, plus a Mega Gnar.

Put these four champions together...

...they genuinely resembled four fortress walls!

If Yone wanted to reach the mega-fed Aphelios, he had to first leap past this encirclement of walls.

At the 16-minute mark for the third dragon fight, V5 chose to concede and avoid the engagement, buying more farming time for Aphelios.

"Wah wah wah, my goodness, the mid lane CS gap is getting close to sixty minions..." Wawa secretly glanced at his co-caster.

Hearing this, Miller thought about it seriously: "Looking at the team compositions, V5 is clearly playing a 'protect the Aphelios' hyper-carry style. As for EDG, Senna certainly isn't a hyper-carry, and Kennen can really only be considered a one-and-done option."

"Looking at it that way, EDG's hyper-carry responsibility this game rests entirely on Yone's shoulders!"

Wawa had originally wanted to point out that a matchup gap had shockingly emerged between the mid laners.

But hearing his co-caster speak with such solemnity, he could only seamlessly pick up the thread with equal gravity: "Ah yes, absolutely. Player YE's performance this game is undoubtedly extremely eye-catching, and EDG currently holds a 4k gold advantage!"

"Speaking of which, Yone is rarely played in our LPL this patch. Player YE can be considered the current poster boy for this champion..."

Ever since Ye Bo's debut, rumors had circulated in the urban legends about his "three-trick pony" status.

Yet in reality, the only champion he had truly whipped out in the LPL arena so far was Yone, and Yone had now become the impression he left most deeply etched into the public consciousness.

Of course, this was indeed the champion in Ye Bo's current pool that leaned closest to a "hyper-carry," outside of assassins and roaming champions.

At the 21-minute mark.

Because V5's composition—consisting of Gnar, Poppy, Galio, and even Aphelios—was exceptionally strong in the dragon pit terrain, forcing Baron directly carried a certain degree of risk.

Ye Bo made an on-the-spot tactical adjustment, advocating for a 1-3-1 or 4-1 split-push strategy.

In doing so, it fully maximized Yone's champion traits of being "undefeatable in a 1v1."

"EDG is playing so smartly. They aren't forcing head-on messy brawls, they're playing macro... Didn't they used to just wait for the mid laner to farm up and then take coinflip 5v5 teamfights?!"

Sun Yalong never missed an opportunity to troll.

However, the crafty Xika refused to take the bait, lest he end up on the "Weibo Most Wanted" list like last week: "This choice is definitely wise, yo! Yone is an absolute god in side-lanes right now! Whether it's Gnar or Galio, if they dare posture, he'll deal with them in minutes!"

"Uh, didn't EDG actually play like this in the past too? It's just that Thief-Saint was slightly more greedy, while Yebo's split-pushing feels a bit more team-oriented. I noticed he hardly ever takes his teammates' jungle camps."

In the end, only the innocent Sturgeon General took a big bite of the salted bait.

[Still dropping hints! Still dropping hints!]

[Streamer, I swear to God, did you take Yone's captain subscription money? You guys were the ones who broke the Scout contract news too! Secretly helping Yone run palace intrigue, aren't you?!]

[Don't frame them blindly. The streamer's stance is a Schrödinger's pig. Wait until Scout's fans actually roll up, these three clowns will instantly turn into traitors!]

[Coming from Scout's super-talk forum, which one of them is called Kid Shen?] Kek

[The one who looks like a pig's head is Xika, the one who looks like an actual pig is Kid Shen, and Sun Yilong should be recognizable at a glance, right?]

[Stealing memes from Se-ge, even the chat is stealing memes!]

Just as Sun Yalong was preparing to continue teasing the Sturgeon General, an unexpected development disrupted the structured game state.

"What does V5 want to do, vocals?! Were they planning to make a move on Yone all along?!"

"Wait, this vision placement... It's Rookie!"

"V5 actually looks like they have a chance! That Yone is worth a thousand gold!"

During the 4-1 push, V5 held their ground, relying on the advantage of their fortress walls in positional warfare.

Yet V5—or more accurately, Song Yengin—had spotted a flaw earlier.

Just like his successful flank earlier, he had uncovered a vulnerability in the bottom lane's vision control.

Generally speaking, during a split-push, the support would help clear jungle vision to prevent the pusher from being flanked and ambushed by a gank.

Meiko had certainly done so.

However, because he was playing Tahm Kench as an ADC this game, he didn't have a sightstone item, nor could he wander far away from the AD for extended periods to place vision like a normal support.

And while Viper, piloting Senna, was a master of dealing damage, he was fundamentally an ADC player lacking in that kind of macro awareness, focusing more heavily on farming.

Therefore, during the previous wave of wave-clearing, Rookie had deliberately placed a stealth ward in an uncanny corner of the jungle and river, which now served as the setup for this play.

This was the manifestation of Song Yengin's competitive experience.

At this moment, a Mega Gnar with accumulated rage teleported to flank.

And Galio, Poppy, and Aphelios charged forward together!

V5's intent at this moment was crystal clear: they wanted to assassinate Yone and help Aphelios claim this massive 1000-gold bounty!

If this bounty landed in his pocket, Aphelios would rapidly accelerate into his three-item core of Infinity Edge. At that point, even with two massive meat-shields like Tahm Kench and Sejuani on EDG's side, they wouldn't be able to withstand the strongest damage-dealing champion of the current patch!

shielded by four bodyguards, Aphelios would transform into a flintlock musket mounted atop a fortress wall!

"They're just giving up their tier-two tower like that..."

The experienced Flandre, seeing only a single Leona loitering near the high ground gates while ceding the mid tier-two tower, acutely sensed something was amiss.

"Wait, could they be going after Ye Bo?!" Meiko rapidly realized the possibility as well.

Of course, Ye Bo had already seen it coming.

The bottom tier-two tower was hanging by a thread, and he had originally planned to gobble up the hefty tower bounty, back to base for a key item, and then consider forcing a resource fight on the main map.

Yet before he could even push the minion wave in, he already saw three figures walking straight out from the front of the tower.

Predator boots lit up above their heads.

And glancing behind him... Mega Gnar had cut off his retreat!

"What the heck, four of them?!" Ye Bo's eyes widened in shock.

Yet the more perilous the situation, the more he felt a surge of hot blood rushing up the back of his head, accompanied by a slight trembling of his facial muscles, as if his thought processes were becoming sharper by the second.

"Push mid, break their high ground!"

Before he could say more, he gave instructions to stop his teammates who had intended to come and assist.

Obviously, their team lacked a champion like Galio; rushing over from the mid lane wouldn't be fast enough, and Kennen's Teleport ran the risk of sending two kills instead of one.

At the very least, violently trading for a lane of high ground to guarantee a net-even outcome was the smartest choice.

With that decided, Ye Bo turned his gaze back to the predicament before him.

Galio and Poppy had learned their lesson from the past; this time they were crystal clear and wanted zero room for him to outplay them.

The two of them split to either side, standing in front of Aphelios to maintain their formation, genuinely acting like two shields protecting him.

If Yone cast his ultimate raw, professional players could obviously flash away to dodge it.

And no matter what method Yone used—Q-Flash, Flash-Q, or Flash-E—Poppy's positioning hugging Aphelios would intercept and block him with {Grounding}!

This was completely different from the skirmish in the jungle at level three.

In that skirmish, Yone only had Q and E, and with both spent, being Grounded had zero impact.

But if Yone got grounded here.

Whether it was Q, E, Flash, or Ultimate—none of them could be activated due to the restrictions of {Grounding}!

That would be equivalent to dashing into the faces of three people to take a beating, eating a mountain of crowd control, and getting gunned down by Aphelios in a couple of autos.

Therefore, under no circumstances could he allow himself to get grounded.

Lightning flashed through Ye Bo's mind as he figured it out.

"Desperate Yone! It's over!"

"Rookie is going to lead the comeback!" Kid roared at the top of his lungs.

"Yone can only pull back into the brush and drag out time, but he's already surrounded by four people. I ask you, how do you even plan to struggle now?! Eat a single CC and you're dead meat..."

The roaring abruptly cut off.

Yone stored up a whirlwind and hid in the brush in front of the tier-two tower, while the three pursuers敏捷ly maintained their formation.

Galio stepped forward to face-check the brush, the three of them maintaining meticulous separation.

Poppy proved exceedingly reliable, guarding the ADC with her life!

Even if Yone cast his ultimate blindly without vision, it would still trigger a warning animation!

Thus, they firmly believed that as long as Poppy used {Steadfast Presence} to become a wall of flesh in front of the ADC, Yone could never cross this defensive line!

Yet the moment the vision lit up—

The whirlwind blade had already slashed out!

Poppy executed a near-simultaneous point-blank W, making no mistakes.

Aphelios kept his eyes locked on the red beam signaling the ultimate, which failed to appear—he only watched as the enemy seemed about to collide with the Grounding...

...yet Yone's form shifted the moment he dashed forward.

At the exact instant he was about to collide head-on with Steadfast Presence, Yone utilized {In-place Wind-Flash} combined with a lateral trajectory shift, making it visually appear as though he had merely "sidestepped" in place!

{Steadfast Presence} could indeed block the displacement of Yone's Q...

...but it could not block the "Whirlwind"!

If he couldn't walk through the front door, he would take the winding path!

The whirlwind circling Yone's body knocked up Galio, while the whirlwind unleashed by the in-place Wind-Flash knocked up Poppy and the closely clustered Aphelios!

His original spot and his current position...

...seemed to form the shape of a triangle!

The moment he landed, he unleashed a fierce wind, instantly chaining a backward E.

Lifting his blade at that exact moment, aimed along a straight line of the sword's edge, he unleashed the {Seal Fate} at the intersection of the triangle!

Because the stationary wind-Q had saved displacement time, by the time the wind-Q whirlwind launched them into the air, Yone had already raised his dual blades.

And at that moment, all three of their heads... were still trapped in the {Airborne} state!

The sword wave locked onto Aphelios standing at the very rear, using him as the target destination, scooping up Galio and sweeping all three along in a coordinated charge toward the tower.

Landing directly on top of Aphelios, he unleashed a flurry of sword strikes, hacking four times in one second!

《QD - Gale - E - R - A - W - Q - A - E》

《Triangle Kill》!

A super-fed Yone dealing this combo would deal devastating damage even to Poppy, let alone a fragile ADC.

The sword hilts slid back into their scabbards, and his spirit form snapped backward.

Aphelios's head hit the floor instantly.

"We have to kill him! No, we absolutely have to kill him! Don't save your cooldowns!"

The mid-lane high ground had already been breached, yet the ADC had gone down instead.

If they couldn't even kill Yone, then V5's play here wouldn't just be a minor loss!

Most importantly, look at the position Yone's spirit form returned to.

That spirit form position was extremely far back!

Why did he use an additional backward {Gale Force}?

Because the body displacement of the Q-Flash needed to run parallel to the enemy, and if Yone wanted to use a "forward-stepping E" where the shadow stayed behind, the distance would be too great to drag Galio along with his ultimate.

Therefore, upon landing from the Q-Flash, immediately chaining a backward Gale Force to pull back, followed by a forward-stepping E to run parallel to Galio once more, was the only way to synchronously execute the triangle ultimate!

What Ye Bo truly cared about from the very start was this step—he was thinking of his escape route!

However, do not forget.

Waiting in the rear was a Gnar who had been camping the spirit form.

Mega Gnar landed without hesitation and slammed down a Tathagata Palm, while Galio immediately leaped up with Hero's Entrance!

Yone had only taken a single tower shot the entire time; relying solely on an under-farmed Gnar made a full-health solo kill mathematically impossible, and Song Yengin understood the importance of decisiveness here.

Chaining crowd control slammed Yone high into the air.

"Kill him, kill him! Base! The base is gone!" The ADC fountain-commander yelled anxiously.

Yone's exploits in the bottom lane had given EDG a whiff of opportunity. Four members finished pushing the high ground and immediately reinforced the minion wave to push further; a single Leona couldn't even clear the wave alone.

Poppy instantly smashed the recall key.

"You guys chase! I'll TP back!" Song Yengin landed to help execute his combo, but Galio couldn't do anything more and immediately turned back.

Though Yone was built full damage, his level advantage from split-pushing was right there.

Even taking the full rotation of two champions' skills, the damage from Galio and Gnar couldn't achieve a "full-health instant deletion," requiring Gnar to chase and auto-attack a few more times.

With Yone down to critical health, he broke free from the CC, unleashed another Q at Gnar, and stored up a landing wind-Q.

Gnar still had his E available, but as long as Yone could Q across the terrain wall, he clearly still had a chance to outplay.

This was why he had executed that backward Gale Force + forward E earlier.

Yet at this moment.

Ye Bo caught sight of Galio turning his head, taking a few steps back, and casting his Teleport from afar.

"...Brothers! Push the base, just push the base!"

"I can interrupt the TP! I can interrupt it!"

Braving Mega Gnar's beastly paws, Yone trudged forward with bloody steps toward Galio.

His intent looked absolute.

"What the hell! Can someone stop him!?"

"I don't have my skills up!"

Mega Gnar's W and R had long since been spent; all he could do now was fling a giant boulder to slow him as much as possible.

Though Rookie was frantic with anxiety seeing the high ground tower about to be destroyed, Galio had already walked far enough away.

Yet Yone's wind-Q had a massive range of a full 950 units.

And, it could not be blocked by a physical body!

Before the beastly paw could slam down and snuff out Yone's life.

Yone had already launched his third wind-Q from afar.

The execution prompt flashed across the screen, safely securing the 1000-gold bounty.

Yet the absolute maximum-range tail-end of the whirlwind... still knocked Galio airborne!

The Teleport channel beam was shattered nonetheless!

Gnar had used Teleport to flank, Aphelios was reuniting with his sister in the fountain, and Poppy had only just managed to stumble back to the fountain to replenish her status.

"Be careful not to let Poppy knock too many people away! These two can only walk back! It's too slow!"

"There's time, there's time! Interrupt Poppy, Jiejie!"

With his screen grayed out, Ye Bo didn't even look at his own side. Without missing a beat, he immediately switched screens to the fountain nexus to direct traffic.

Poppy stepped out twirling her giant hammer.

Receiving the call, Sejuani executed a clear thought process: Q-Flash-R straight into the front, stunning Poppy with the glacial prison, interrupting her channeling ultimate while drawing tower aggro.

Tahm Kench burrowed underground to close the distance with CC, Kennen rushed forward with Protobelt to activate his storm, and Senna fired her ultimate while focusing entirely on hitting the tower.

"Ignore those two and just destroy the nexus!!"

The two massive meat-shields absorbed the tower aggro, paying no heed to Kennen's AoE stunning everyone, entirely ignoring the dying struggles of the two defenders.

A sudden, sudden-death scenario.

Everyone battered the crystal furiously. The moment the enemy duo spawned and teleported back, they forcibly shattered V5's nexus!