Chapter 56: The Challenge Completed Ahead of Time! "Even when given the chance, you just can't deliver!"

"So handsome! A triangle slash! This is a crazy Yone performance!"

As Ye Bo excitedly took off his noise-canceling headphones before the Nexus exploded, he could still hear WaWa shouting on the casting desk.

"Player YE's understanding of Yone is visibly profound. Every single detail is executed to absolute perfection. This is what you call a true master of the champion!"

Mille was equally full of praise: "Indeed, the mechanics are an absolute feast for the eyes. He truly weaves together all the upper limits of the champion's kit. I remember the last time he picked Yone, it was also full of high-light plays. This player's carrying capability is genuinely formidable!"

Just as the two commentators were still describing the scene, EDG's four-man squad of Nexus-griefers had already clicked down the crystal.

"Then let's congratulate EDG on securing the victory in the first game of this BO3!"

Mille offered his congratulations first, though he clearly still seemed somewhat unsatisfied.

"Of course, from the on-the-spot decision-making in the final wave, we can also see that EDG's overall coordination at the end was excellent. This is the foundation of a champion team! I noticed that the four players in the mid lane originally wanted to go help, but suddenly changed their decision on the fly!"

"Even if that Yone really died in the final wave, as long as they could stall for just a little bit, they should have at least been able to trade for an inhib turret. As long as EDG didn't give up Baron, that was completely acceptable. This is the importance of a shotcaller making decisions at critical moments! It really can change the entire game in a single wave!"

Hearing his co-commentator analyze the situation so logically, WaWa suddenly remembered: "Ah, but I recall that EDG's current shotcaller seems to be this rookie player..."

Reminded of this, Mille's shock intensified even further.

"If that final decision really originated from this player, then I have to say, this player is simply too much to look forward to! This is almost approaching the realm of 'both pen and sword'—master of both mechanics and strategy!"

"A game-changing crucial decision, paired with extremely calm execution and sharp mechanics, directly killed the game in one fell swoop!"

The two commentators on the desk chatted eloquently.

Originally, due to a vision loophole, Yone had fallen into a dangerous situation, and everyone was saying that EDG's advance had major flaws and had almost courted disaster.

As a result, the ending was forcibly rewritten!

Mille had originally wanted to remain neutral and praise EDG's team decision-making, but his thoughts drifted right back to a single individual.

The bullet chat, however, didn't care about all that.

Compared to macro and decision-making, viewers were clearly much more easily ignited by visceral, punch-to-meat mechanical skirmishes and outplays.

[Triangle Shark! This is the double-blade Garen of the mid lane!]

[So here's how it happened: during Yone's E slide, he flashed and knocked up simultaneously, then chained it with his double-sword ultimate to form the triangle slash!]

[Un-bro-fucking-believable! How do you even learn that?]

[Indeed a bit difficult to react to. Blowing the tornado the exact moment he warded—the AD probably lowered their guard thinking they had Poppy blocking in the front to mitigate damage, and then that reverse-push swept Galio away together and he almost even escaped! It looks all like mechanics, but underneath it's entirely psychological warfare!]

[Yone, truly a champion born with three elemental reactions; simply overpowered!]

[Friendly reminder: just watch and enjoy. Don't go straight into ranked to practice this if your hands are slow. If I hadn't gone and tried it yesterday, I wouldn't have even realized this champion's blades feel like they're made of rust!]

By now, regulations were gradually being relaxed, and the arena was packed with spectators. People chatted excitedly with flushed faces, savoring the previous game.

As Ye Bo walked back to the backstage area, he faintly heard someone in the front row hyping him up to the heavens, claiming that by the end of this match, he'd practically beaten up the "Three Sacreds." Hearing this, he could only press his lips together with all his might to suppress the curve of his smile.

No one dislikes being praised and recognized; there's no shame in that.

Of course, he was simply happy.

With the experiences of Elder Bo to remind him in his mind, and the real-world Three Sacreds' visibly declining slopes year after year following their maiden championships, Ye Bo kept a very clear head. He knew that a professional League of Legends career was a long march.

Climbing a peak once did not mean standing on it forever. Only through continuous effort, even greater effort, could one possibly hope to see the peak again.

Besides, Ye Bo was only just beginning to make his mark. Given his personality, no matter what, he would never let success go to his head.

"Master Ye, your MVP collection is never-ending, you're genuinely perverted!" JieJie turned around and gave Ye Bo's chest a light punch, clearly very happy for him.

He and Ye Bo had a good relationship, trained together the most frequently, and knew best why the other person was able to achieve these feats.

And he knew even better that making a name for yourself in EDG's mid lane was extremely difficult. Anyway, after that Fish God character came once, nobody ever saw him again...

However, as the group walked into the backstage area,

what met their eyes was MaoKai's somewhat stern expression.

Even so, upon seeing Ye Bo, MaoKai still put on a smile to praise him first, and Clearlove also stepped forward to give him an enthusiastic pep talk!

They knew better than outsiders who the real MVP of that final wave was.

And they all felt that Ye Bo must have been bearing a tremendous amount of "pressure" during this game, yet it hadn't affected his performance at all; if anything, he had played even better.

Clearlove silently marveled: "Now *that* is a player with ice in his veins!"

After praising the star of the show,

it was time to review the flaws.

Clearly, EDG had almost stumbled into trouble again during a massive-lead game, which was quite a serious matter.

It was practically identical to those historical comeback disasters in the team's legacy!

The vision issues were still minor.

The most crucial thing, in fact, was that EDG's shotcalling always seemed to hit snags at critical moments, and whenever problems arose, they tended to be massive ones!

The primary focus of the review was the vision control in the mid-game and the defensive setups in the jungle. The bottom-lane duo, who picked Senna and Tahm Kench, still seemed unaccustomed to supplementing vision duties.

As for issues like the team's playstyle being heavily researched,

those would have to wait until the match concluded and they returned to the base for a detailed, post-mortem review.

Although none of these contents concerned Ye Bo directly, he still listened attentively.

Just at that moment, however,

a high-pitched voice suddenly came from behind, tapping Ye Bo on the shoulder.

"Xiao Bo, ah, come here. Step outside with me for a moment."

Ye Bo turned his head and saw AhBu looking at him with a face full of smiles.

He glanced back at the coach, who naturally nodded immediately.

After all, of everyone on the team, Ye Bo was the one with the fewest issues this game, and the draft for the second round was already mostly prepared anyway, so his absence wouldn't hurt.

Stepping out of the backstage room,

AhBu's eyes were immediately filled with relief: "You played so well! I knew you'd pull it off. To think you could match up against Rookie like that!"

Ye Bo scratched the back of his head: "Heh, it was mostly because Rookie picked Galio this game, so I didn't have much pressure in the laning phase."

"No, no, no. No need to be overly modest; your rate of improvement is truly far beyond my imagination!"

AhBu's words came straight from the heart. Ye Bo kept bringing him unexpected pleasant surprises; it no longer felt like merely striking gold.

It felt like walking out into some remote mountain valley and unearthing a nuclear warhead!

AhBu handed over a document that clearly looked freshly printed; the pages still felt somewhat warm to the touch.

"I've already consulted the boss. With this match ending, those five challenge matches are considered completed ahead of schedule. This is the stamped addendum to that supplementary agreement."

"You don't need any more than this. You've already successfully proven yourself!"

Ye Bo took the document with quite a bit of surprise, seeing that the official seal had already been affixed, marking the completion of the "five challenge matches" addendum.

In truth, though, there wasn't much to be surprised about.

Because the failure condition for the five challenges was losing 3 mini-games (individual games within series).

And now that today's match against V5 was over, the next opponent, TES, was undoubtedly a tough battle.

Yet the match after that—the fifth one—was against AL, who were sitting at the bottom of the standings. That was clearly a match of virtually zero difficulty!

So in other words, even if Ye Bo lost the next match, and then lost 0-2 to TES after that,

as long as they could comfortably secure the "win against a weaker team" versus AL at the end, the challenge would still be successfully completed!

AhBu had probably figured this out as well, hence why he went with the flow. Since it was an internal arrangement anyway, there was no need to rigidly force it through to the bitter end.

Though, of course, he actually had another motive as well...

"Thank you, Coach AhBu. I'll keep working hard!" Ye Bo naturally didn't think too deeply into it, beaming with a sunny smile.

"No need to thank me; you earned this with your own strength... Uh, but anyway, the coach has something he'd like to discuss with you."

AhBu tried his best to use a consultative tone.

Ye Bo's status in his heart was no longer just slightly elevated; he had specifically run out here to end this challenge early precisely to try and buy as much favor and goodwill as possible.

"I know you played amazingly this game, and you're definitely a well-deserved MVP. There are zero problems with you..."

"Oh, just spit it out, Coach! Don't be shy!"

Seeing the other man's awkwardness, Ye Bo generously reached out and patted him on the shoulder, completely reversing the hierarchy!

AhBu felt a bit strange about it: "Alright, then I'll be direct. That... RuiCan (Scout), he hasn't played in a match for quite a while now, and today he really wants to get on stage and test his form..."

Only then did Ye Bo understand why the other man had been beating around the bush.

He didn't know the state of public opinion outside.

Still, Ye Bo didn't really mind.

After all, the original promise was to rotate players. Keeping a championship mid laner permanently benched on the sidelines was practically impossible anyway. As long as his own allocated matches were guaranteed, there was no issue, he figured.

"No problem at all~"

Upon hearing this, AhBu visibly let out a massive sigh of relief, then hastily offered some comforting words in addition.

"Don't worry, I've already talked it over with him. This match is just to see how well he's adjusting his form. After all, we flamed out in the first round of the spring playoffs without getting any championship points, and the summer start hasn't been smooth either. We really need to fight for regular-season points."

"If we lose this match, you're back in for the next one."

To be honest, AhBu didn't really want to mess with this either.

The team was currently in a period of prosperity; following two consecutive losses, they had joyously welcomed a two-match win streak, and everyone in the organization desperately wanted to maintain this momentum, which was crucial for team morale.

It was just that the pressure from last night had honestly been a bit too heavy...

Weibo netizens loved playing the role of enlightened centrists, typically kicking things off by pretending to be pure neutral bystanders while spouting completely "fair and objective" opinions.

The rhetoric floating around last night was along the lines of: "Scholar's form was indeed poor previously, and rotating you out is fine, but at least give him a chance!"

"Do you have any idea how hard our Scholar works on a daily basis?!"

To back this up, Scout's hardcore female fans had even specially uploaded his Korean server solo queue records, showing him playing over a dozen games a day.

Among them, they had even meticulously edited and spliced out a Zoe match defeat.

And Scout himself had sought out AhBu late last night to make this request.

Since the crux of the conflict was demanding an opportunity,

well, then you shall have your opportunity.

Of course, the narrative presented to the outside world by the fans was simply that EDG was "drilling different tactical systems." The two mid laners possessed extremely distinct stylistic specializations, and utilizing them to adapt to two entirely separate systems was completely rational and justified.

Except.

When this news was announced in the preparation room, the expressions of several teammates visibly turned a bit unnatural.

Their relationship with Scout wasn't actually bad; the issue was simply that given how brilliantly Ye Bo had just played, didn't swapping players mid-stream like this feel a bit weird?

Scout himself, however, didn't see it that way.

Especially having just watched the conclusion of that game, a sudden sense of "crisis" and "urgency" had welled up in his heart!

This rookie... seemed genuinely a bit terrifying...

Coupled with his observation that Rookie's performance in the first game hadn't seemed all that great—being pressured across the board in their individual matchup—Scout believed this was his chance!

Unfortunately,

he was clearly overthinking it.

Rookie hadn't actually run into any trouble during the laning phase. Galio versus Yone is fundamentally a disadvantaged matchup, especially when Yone gained an early lead.

Combined with JieJie constantly camping the mid lane, denying the enemy jungler any opportunity to counter-gank, that was the actual reason why Galio was kept under tower pressure for the first ten minutes.

In fact, Rookie's mid-game roaming, late-game macro placement, and execution had all been completely flawless, even turning out to be the critical leverage that almost helped V5 find a turning point.

The second game began.

Amidst a sky full of skeptical bullet chat, only a small faction was still fiercely arguing their case!

Scout played it extremely safe, refusing to pick any dangerous champions that might lead to a "car crash," and instead locked in his absolute comfort farming hyper-carry—which was simultaneously one of the strongest mid lane hyper-carries in the current meta—Corki.

The bottom lane remained unchanged; EDG still first-picked Senna and Tahm Kench. The secondary purpose of this combination was precisely to simultaneously protect dual mid-lane hyper-carries, making it an extremely formidable systemic composition.

Top and jungle were adjusted accordingly, each picking champions that best fit their historical playstyles.

Flandre locked in Ornn, and the jungler picked Xin Zhao, a champion capable of safeguarding the mid laner's scaling and supporting the early game.

"A single spear pierces Corki! Ah, he's going for the penta!"

"Capitalizing on V5's mid-game roaming tempo, they've successfully fattened up the bottom lane, and Photic is making a massive impact in teamfights to secure a pentakill! This is the seventh pentakill of Photic's professional career, secured across seven different AD champions! His penta count places him fifth on the all-time leaderboard, and at only 19 years old, reaching the number one spot is surely just a matter of time!"

"This young prospect, who previously showed thoroughly mediocre performances on TES's Academy Tier 2 team, looks absolutely dazzling now that he's come to V5. Truly unexpected!"

"So you can't really say otherwise—if that Aphelios in the previous game had actually gotten his hands on that thousand gold, the ending of the last game might genuinely have played out differently!"

"What has to be said is that Player Rookie's Taliyah, paired with Player Karsa's mid-jungle synergy, executed a tempo that practically suffocated EDG, especially through those crucial mid-game ganks to build up an advantage."

"So in that case, I suppose we should congratulate V5..."

The mid laner's stat line remained frozen at: 1/3/3 versus 3/1/11.

The waves of sound in the audience echoed back and forth throughout the match, until they finally crystallized into a familiar piece of masculine banter.

A classic mocking phrase was repeatedly thrown around:

"Given the opportunity, you still couldn't make it work!"