Chapter 30: Care for a Drink?

Amidst the undercurrents, the match pressed on.

After a single display of skill, the purple team’s mid and jungle players showed a noticeable shift in mentality. The tactical focus of the jungle began to subtly pivot. Mingkai withdrew from the deadlock around mid lane and instead unleashed the ingrained instinct for bottom lane ganks etched into his very DNA.

Many held a fixed impression of the veteran jungler—that whenever he ganked the bottom lane, it was always effective, unfolding from every conceivable angle with relentless precision.

In truth, this skill traced back to his days with WE.

During Season 2, WE’s style was a classic top-laner who stood firm under pressure, a roaming mid-laner offering support, and a jungler who helped nurture the bottom lane, patiently waiting for the ADC to scale. Ganking the bottom lane gradually became a habit from the start of his professional career. Later, whether it was Nami during EDG’s Season 4, or Deft in Seasons 5 and 6, Mingkai’s teams always boasted formidable AD carries. Consequently, just as a brute instinctively ganks mid lane, so too did the veteran jungler hone his legendary bottom lane ganking prowess through this experience.

Thus, many fans who lamented how Uzi was overpowered by Deft in Seasons 5 and 6 might better understand that it wasn’t simply Deft’s strength, but that Mingkai’s mastery of bottom lane ganks had reached its peak.

With the jungler stepping back, Ruofeng’s Twisted Fate could only crouch defensively beneath the tower.

Jiang Ming, whose Flash was still available, did not force a kill. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the fog of war above the river.

Seconds ticked by. Jiang Ming, having secured first blood, hit level six first. Ignoring Twisted Fate’s cautious defense under tower, he signaled and joined with the Prince to form a pincer movement, charging straight toward the top lane.

By personal habit, before the ten-minute mark, Jiang Ming rarely prioritized bottom lane ganks unless there was a significant opportunity. Early and mid-game skirmishes meant that an AD carry with only a couple of items was far less powerful than a properly farmed top laner.

(Ding—Gragas is on the way.)

Sending a signal to Gogoing, Jiang Ming traversed through the jungle and arrived outside the purple team’s first top lane turret wall.

Seeing PDD’s Prince visibly marked, his first thought was the straightforward, retaliatory-minded Jayce. Jiang Ming’s impressions of IG during Season 2 were refreshed considerably.

No wonder IG could never overcome WE — every single member was reckless. How could they compete with WE?

Jayce was strong in early harassment and skirmishing but that didn’t mean he could match the brute frontline power of Renekton, let alone with multiple Princes nearby.

“Hic, fancy a drink?”

Without much thought, and needing no complex calculation, Jiang Ming timed his gank perfectly with the minion wave reaching the tower. After Prince and Renekton locked down Jayce with their initiation, Jiang Ming, lying in wait further back, simply tossed a barrel bomb, blasting the flashing Jayce right back.

Blue-Gogoing killed Purple-PDD!

Regarding the kill distribution, Jiang Ming promptly signaled retreat. He and Prince willingly ceded the kill to Gogoing’s Renekton.

The extra three hundred gold between himself and Prince wouldn’t yet drastically affect the mid-jungle dynamics, but giving it to Renekton was a different matter entirely.

In the top lane ecosystem, during the ignite era of Season 3, whoever gained the upper hand first could dominate their opponent indefinitely.

...

“Hey, Ruofeng, I’m playing this banana hammer!”

PDD, who had just been ganked and gifted a kill, roared in the IG training base. “Your fan keeps hyping Twisted Fate as the world’s best, but how come a barrel rolled all the way up to top lane before TF could support?”

“Old man, didn’t I just remind you to ward?”

From the jungle queue, Shadow weakly interjected, “JM and I have duo queued before. His game sense is sharp; his support speed with different champions is very fast.”

An embarrassed flush crossed PDD’s chubby face. Failing to ward properly and getting caught out had become a chronic problem for him on the professional stage.

Previously, Shadow always helped watch his back. Now, paired with Mingkai, who never ganked top, he was suddenly overlooked.

“Ahem, a fluke, a fluke. Forgot the other lanes were all WE players. Let me place a proper ward myself. Even if Renekton gets a kill, it’s not a big deal. I’m zero-zero with Jayce and can still dominate Gogoing.”

PDD, stubborn as a dead duck, aside, Mingkai and Ruofeng were not entirely idle.

Seizing the moment while Gragas was busy top, Twisted Fate—finally reaching level six—activated his ultimate, Destiny, and blinked at lightning speed toward the bottom lane.

Jiang Ming, waiting patiently, executed a small display of skill. He placed a ward just outside the wall before entering the tower, kicking the greedy Vayne right into the arms of their allies.

Ding!

The gold medal landed perfectly. Twisted Fate’s chain control held Uzi frozen in place, his flushed face betraying intense frustration, as though ready to match PDD’s top lane in a contest of “experience.”

Click.

Confronted by a controlled target, the curly-haired jungler smoothly landed his hook. With just his Q and E skills, he helped Weixiao secure the purple team’s first kill.

Purple-Weixiao killed Blue-Uzi!

Jiang Ming furrowed his brows. The bottom lane being so easily caught off guard disrupted his team’s rhythm.

Twisted Fate in mid lane was already struggling to even play. As long as they kept him trapped there, preventing him from casting his ultimate or forcing him into costly mistakes, they could firmly control the pace.

[Wait, is that bottom lane Vayne even human?]

[Why go for that cannon minion? JM signaled retreat thirty seconds ago.]

[Is this even professional play?]

[Heh, I’ve watched JM’s coaching videos for half a year. Even at 1800 elo, I understand the half-map principle: when your mid and jungle are top, the bottom lane must stay safely under tower, or even retreat to the second tower for survival.]

[And the kill still goes to Weixiao...]

Viewers in the livestream chat were highly displeased with the blue team’s bottom lane gifting a kill to Weixiao’s Caitlyn.

Future audiences might find it hard to grasp the fear some casual fans held toward WE’s bottom lane in that era.

At a time when many players were still exploring the intricacies of League of Legends, Weixiao possessed the fundamental skills and teamfight damage output akin to the top ADCs of later generations. His damage conversion rate was absolutely world-class, and at his peak competitive form, he was a crushing force, a true dimensionality reduction strike in the meta.

“Stone, follow me.”

Yet, Jiang Ming made no response to the barrage of criticism in the live chat.

The bottom lane Vayne was Uzi. If he weren’t aggressive and greedy, he wouldn’t be called the “Mad Dog.” Even after giving up a kill, he didn’t bother typing a question mark.

Uzi was far from his personal peak at this early stage. Even if Weixiao’s form had dipped somewhat, it was not a defeat he could easily suffer.

So there was no need to question or blame.

Doing so would be ineffective, and worse, if it affected Uzi’s mentality—leading to a sudden tilt or quitting mid-game—it would only add difficulty to their climb in the Challenger ranks.

In a normal 5v5, even if the bottom lane died once or got pushed out of lane, they could still rally their teammates.

After all, how much impact does a bottom lane’s collapse have compared to a jungle midlane meltdown?

Twisted Fate’s struggles in mid lane were not just his problem alone. The jungle, whose fate was so intertwined with mid, was the first to bear the consequences.

With the top lane momentum set, Jiang Ming returned home to heal and restock, now holding a fresh but useless large rod.

Indeed, he planned to take a violent, burst-damage approach this game.

In Season 3, no mage performance was more satisfying than wielding a Deathfire Grasp and demonstrating the vanishing health bar trick.

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