Chapter 41 Faker's Surprise

To ensure his promotion match was a success, Jungler MLXG went all out this time, building Plated Steelcaps and Dead Man’s Plate to maximize his tankiness and movement speed.

Seeing the enemy LeBlanc immobilized by crowd control, he was the first to charge into the turret range to draw aggro, while tossing an axe to chip away at her health and secure an assist.

Meanwhile, Lu Ziyang quickly stepped forward to begin dishing out damage. His item build was even more luxurious now than just a moment ago!

He already had two completed items; if factoring in the boots, that made three items, and his damage output was explosively high.

LeBlanc was far too squishy to withstand such damage and was instantly melted right on the spot.

Dying back-to-back under her own turret completely shattered Crown’s mental state. He felt as though he were an orphan in this match, entirely abandoned by his teammates.

Peanut was currently clearing his blue buff. He had originally planned to roam mid for assistance, but... anything he said now seemed far too late.

Gazing at the now-greyscale game screen, Crown gritted his teeth and said, "Jae-hyuk, you guys must defend the mid lane this wave, otherwise they’re going to break our base!"

"We won't be able to fight the upcoming Baron teamfight if we don't clean up the mid lane minion wave first!"

"Understood." Ruler nodded. He was already rushing back, but his movement speed was slightly too slow; the blue side was pushing turrets at a terrifying pace.

Lu Ziyang hadn't even deployed the Rift Herald yet. He intended to save it specifically for ramming the inhibitor turret. The later the Rift Herald was summoned, the greater the damage it dealt to structures.

At the 18-minute mark, the red side's mid lane tier-2 turret fell!

Leading his team, Lu Ziyang immediately began assaulting the enemy inhibitor turret.

"Tch..." Peanut’s expression was extremely grim.

Just then, a bespectacled, lean-faced young man walked past him, glanced at his monitor, and couldn't help asking, "Peanut, who are you playing against? At 18 minutes, the deficit is already this massive."

"Sang-hyeok sunbaenim!" Upon hearing the voice behind him, Peanut’s tone was filled with utmost respect. While continuing to operate his champion, he explained, "Just a few unranked players. Their jungler is RNG's MLXG."

"Oh? Then your team's performance has been quite uncharacteristic."

The young man pushed up the glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. His name was Lee Sang-hyeok—none other than the world-renowned super genius of Summoner's Rift, "Faker."

Heralded by major global media outlets as "the closest entity to a god within Summoner's Rift," he had also accumulated three League of Legends World Championships.

Without exaggeration, he was the most powerful entity in the entire game of LOL. Even though his absolute peak years were behind him, he remained one of the top mid laners in the LCK.

No one dared to underestimate Faker; back in the day, if he didn't hide his ID in Korean solo queue, his opponents wouldn't even be able to play normally.

Such was the weight of his reputation!

Peanut shook his head, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Although they are just solo queue players, they are exceptionally powerful. Especially this guy called Falcon!"

"He managed to suppress Ruler in the bot lane matchup, and he's still suppressing Crown in mid. He's no ordinary player."

"Oh?"

"This guy is from the LPL division, right?"

Upon hearing this description, Faker's expression instantly became intriguing. "To be able to suppress both Ruler and Crown means this person is not only proficient in the ADC role, but also fully capable of playing mid."

"At 18 minutes, 220 creep score, 4-0-0. Those stats are indeed dazzling." Looking at the Miss Fortune on the game screen, Faker muttered to himself, "Looks like the Season 9 meta is going to be very interesting."

Faker then stood quietly behind Peanut, watching the high-elo ranked match, while Peanut finally arrived at the mid lane theater of operations.

He lingered at the periphery, probing and searching for an opening to kick multiple enemies at once and create a clean sweep opportunity for Kaisa.

"Mid lane requests assistance! Mid lane requests assistance!" At the same time, he frantically pinged, signaling his top laner to recall for defense.

Because by this time, the top laner had already destroyed the blue side's top tier-2 turret and was on the verge of pushing onto the inhibitor platform.

Fiora was a Challenger-tier player, after all; she couldn't possibly keep split-pushing indefinitely at a time like this. No matter how fast she could clear turrets, she surely couldn't push faster than four enemies plus a Rift Herald, right?

In high-elo games of this caliber, refusing to group for teamfights was judged as passive play and risked heavy punishment from the system.

As long as Fiora returned, the red side could still contest teamfights even with a deficit!

After all, the enemy Cho'Gath had been thoroughly beaten into submission and was practically no different from being AFK.

The health bar of the inhibitor turret was plummeting rapidly!

Seeing that it was down to about two-thirds remaining, Lu Ziyang immediately summoned the Rift Herald, effectively turning the creature into a vanguard for the minion wave.

"Bang—" The Rift Herald charged fiercely into the inhibitor turret the moment it was deployed, instantly bringing the structure's health bar down to zero.

With a few more basic attacks from the team, the red side's inhibitor turret was officially declared destroyed, tilting the balance once more.

By now, the red side’s Fiora, Kaisa, Braum, and Lee Sin had all arrived.

Braum initiated the teamfight decisively!

He unleashed his ultimate, aiming to knock up the blue side's carries.

MLXG was truly putting the team on his back in this match. Instead of aggressively diving to initiate, he stayed tightly tethered to Lu Ziyang like a personal bodyguard.

He knew very well that their Cho'Gath was useless this game; he had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of frontline tanking and protecting the ADC, otherwise the game was completely unwinnable.

Morgana was an enchanter support, far less impactful than Braum in head-on teamfights, and Braum was practically a hard counter to Miss Fortune!

With a directional shield, knock-ups, and hard crowd control, as long as Braum held onto his shield or ultimate, Miss Fortune's ultimate ability was essentially rendered useless.

Giotto roamed outside the wall, searching for an angle to toss out her sleep bubble.

Lu Ziyang understood her intentions implicitly; having played countless ranked matches together, they had developed seamless synergy.

Giotto suddenly pinged Braum, while the positioning of the four enemy champions on screen was tightly clustered, as if they intended to brute-force a clash against the blue side.

With Braum anchoring the front line, they genuinely had nothing to fear from the blue side's Miss Fortune.

"Plop~!" Accompanied by a watery explosion, an ultra-long-range sleep bubble shot fiercely toward Ruler's Kaisa.

Seeing this, Braum hurriedly raised his Unbreakable shield, intending to use his own flesh and blood to block the crowd control for his ADC.

Ultimately, the sleep bubble landed squarely on Braum. Seeing this, Lu Ziyang knew the teamfight had erupted!

He instantly channeled his ultimate ability. Right behind the red side's nexus, Miss Fortune stood like a war god, her arms moving in a frenzy as a torrential rain of bullets poured down.

After completing his Infinity Edge, Lu Ziyang had immediately purchased a Last Whisper item, elevating his damage output to a whole new level.

Furthermore, his ultimate was now ranked level two. Compared to the skirmish at the 14-minute mark, his damage was far more terrifying.

Provided, of course, that he could stand his ground and channel his ultimate uninterrupted.

"Damn it!!" Ruler gritted his back teeth so hard they nearly shattered. The moment he saw the sleep bubble intercepted by Braum, he knew disaster was imminent.

This was clearly a deliberate trap—luring them into letting Braum absorb the CC to carve out a clean damage window for the ADC.

On the red side, only Braum possessed the tools to interrupt Miss Fortune's ultimate; as for Lee Sin, shielded by Morgana's Black Shield, he had no way to approach.

Moreover, Lu Ziyang's positioning was immaculate—exceptionally tricky and maintaining absolute maximum distance. Even Fiora, with all her mobility, would have to eat the full brunt of the ultimate's damage just to reach Lu Ziyang.

Yet he couldn't block it either; Lu Ziyang was far too fed, and having built purely for damage this game, Ruler had no choice but to retreat in the face of such astronomical numbers.

From the flank!

Zoe was also frantically outputting damage with her spell combos.

Morgana and Olaf followed up immediately, pulling out all the stops to delay the blue side quartet from escaping the radius of the ultimate.

Kaisa was struck by Zoe's ultra-long-range Paddle Star from the flank, instantly losing over half her health bar before perishing entirely within Miss Fortune's bullet storm.

In this 4v4 teamfight, everyone seemed to cooperate subconsciously, especially the collaboration between Lu Ziyang and Giotto, which could only be described as flawless.

Kaisa fell, marking the first casualty for the red side!

The health pools of Lee Sin and Fiora were also plummeting rapidly, shaved down by nearly half after a single ultimate, while Braum, ironically, had taken very little damage.

Except that by the time he actually joined the fight, the opportunity had long since passed...

"Damn it."

Staring at his greyscale screen, Ruler—usually a remarkably composed player—couldn't help dropping a curse word. "Sibal, how the hell is this kind of Miss Fortune even playable?"