Chapter 60: The Origin of Brainless Hype

First Blood!

NXG-door has slain BLQG-NovaSlash!

It happened neither too fast nor too slow.

When NXG appeared in vision, the Caitlyn actually had time to react. However, BLQG’s Caitlyn could never have imagined that the moment NXG’s Lee Sin landed his Sonic Wave (Q) and confirmed the support was not nearby, the remaining duo would flash-follow with such decisive synchronization.

The three of them chased all the way to the Blue Buff. The mid lane Orianna didn't even need to deal extra damage; she simply leveled E, shielded for an assist, and secured the kill.

"Well, well, the Caitlyn on BLQG's side was a bit too careless," Joker said with a tone of regret.

"Indeed."

"Still, how should I put it? In a sense, at level one, NXG's bot lane also spent their summoner spells just to hard-commit on Caitlyn. If the Jarvan IV can capitalize on this window to gank later, giving up first blood isn't actually that big of a loss."

"Haha, is Doll trying to talk about WE's Caomei?"

"In previous matches, there really were many teams that invested way too many spells into ganking Caomei, which wrecked their subsequent tempo and lost them the match."

"That's right, WE's first-blood strategy was remarkably successful."

Here it comes—the classic "first blood doesn't put us behind"!

The brainless hype tradition of LPL commentators that later generations of players grew to despise originated entirely from these two fellows.

Back in the backstage lounge, Jiang Ming couldn't help but chuckle as he listened to the two of them spouting utter nonsense on the stage.

A level-one Caitlyn burning both summoner spells and giving up first blood—if that isn't maximizing losses, what on earth is?

As for the description of WE's First Blood King, Caomei, that was even more absurd.

Why did WE's top lane always give up first blood?

Part of it was indeed due to Caomei's limited individual skill, but more importantly, WE's strategic focus was entirely centered around WeiXiao. The jungler was practically a permanent resident in the bot lane, while the mid laner, Ruofeng, wasn't the type of player who could win his lane through individual skill and feed advantages back to the side lanes. Being targeted and researched by other teams in such a manner was nothing out of the ordinary.

Under the deliberate guidance of the commentators, some delusional WE fans actually came to believe the falsehood that Caomei being the First Blood King brought WE more victories.

Sure, the enemy team focusing on the top lane did make it more comfortable for the bot lane to perform.

But that was only limited to Season 2. With the version updates, entering the blood-soaked Season 3, ADCs saw a decline in dominance, and the strategic importance of the mid, top, and jungle was elevated. While WE could still rely on WeiXiao's individual prowess to claw things back in the late game during the early stages, as everyone's understanding of the patch deepened, you would notice that in the latter half of Season 3, the invincible WE didn't even manage to win a single league championship, let alone make it to the World Championship.

***

Back to the match.

With NXG securing first blood on Caitlyn, the tempo for the jungler Lee Sin instantly became much clearer.

First, whether it was utilizing the opponent's summoner spell cooldowns to continue targeting the bot lane, or playing reverse psychology and going to cause trouble in the upper half of the map while anticipating the enemy jungler coming to counter-gank for Caitlyn—within these few minutes before Flash came back up, the initiative lay entirely with NXG.

Furthermore, with Caitlyn stripped of her summoner spells, she wouldn't dare push the wave too aggressively. Even if Lee Sin ganked top early on, bot lane's Varus and Janna wouldn't have a hard time surviving simply because the enemy Jarvan IV was around.

Judging from team resource allocation, BLQG would most likely choose the latter option, since their ADC was their most crucial carry player on the purple side.

"I'm starting F4, rushing level 3 to gank top. Lao Song, try to trade more health with Kennen."

"OJBK, good brother, big bro loves you!"

At one minute and thirty seconds, minion waves had just begun to slowly march out of the bases, but the junglers on both sides were already making their moves on side-lane jungle camps.

As a veteran jungler on the purple side, Jarvan IV cleared the Krugs with assistance from top and mid, with all three of them splitting the experience.

(This could be considered the first micro-detail I learned back in the professional league. Please don't think the patch is too far back; professional players back then didn't lack understanding.)

In Season 3, buff camps respawned slightly later than other neutral monsters. At the same time, because minion waves met later in the lane, helping the jungler deal with a camp wouldn't cause you to miss any experience upon returning to lane.

The duo helped leash the Red Buff, while mid lane Orianna and top lane Renekton teamed up to take down the Wolves.

This starting strategy of consuming jungle monster experience allowed solo lane heroes to level up rapidly, making lane clashes exceptionally bloody.

Protected by Orianna's shield, Renekton, who took the brunt of the damage from the Wolves, didn't lose too much health.

On the way back to lane after clearing the camp, Song Yuan, starting with a Red Elixir, began plotting in his mind.

He needed to figure out a way to chip away at the health of the opposing electrical rat.

"Balance, in all things!"

*Splat!*

The sound effect of an ability piercing flesh rang out.

The moment the top laners met, BLQG's Kennen tentatively tossed out his Q ability, Thundering Shuriken.

Landing the first blood-poking hit made the tension in BLQG's top laner's heart dissipate quite a bit.

***

To be honest, the moment he saw the enemy start with a Red Elixir, his heart had panicked like crazy for a full second.

As the saying goes: Level 1 Gangplank, Level 2 Xin Zhao, Level 3 Renekton takes your life.

Such rhyming proverbs didn't spread across the entire League without reason; the kill threshold of a Level 3 Renekton with Fury and a Red Elixir was ridiculously high.

However, being able to poke the opponent right now proved that the gap in rank couldn't change the fact that he was a ranged Kennen playing against a melee Renekton.

A Renekton starting with a Red Elixir had inferior base stats compared to his Doran's Blade, and consumables disappeared once used. As long as he played around spacing and kiting during the early levels, and stayed away when the opponent stacked Fury, he could safely farm and scale.

Thinking of this, BLQG's Kennen grew a bit bolder and wanted to step up to land another basic attack on Renekton.

In the blue side player booths, Song Yuan grinned. "Haha, youngster, still too naive. Falling for it just like that?"

As a top laner completely lacking in sustain during the early game, the electrical rat often had to absorb minion damage in order to poke his opponent.

Because Renekton lacked Doran's items to bolster his health pool, taking a Q-A trade made it look like his health dropped significantly at first glance.

But don't forget, Renekton's Q had built-in healing. Moreover, using a Red Elixir instantly granted an additional 120-235 health and 10 attack damage, so the health bar visible on screen didn't reflect his true status.

Besides...

"Besides, I have a jungle daddy!"

At two minutes and forty seconds, a Level 3 Lee Sin arrived right on schedule.

"Ah, we can see NXG's Lee Sin has gone straight to the top lane. However, Kennen is still at full health; it feels like there isn't much of an opportunity here."

Unlike LPL teams which still traditionally pampered their ADCs and dragged games into the mid-to-late game for teamfights, NXG's move looked more like a solo-queue jungler ganking top, instantly capturing the attention of the entire audience.

The live audience was also filled with confusion: How on earth was a Level 3 Lee Sin going to deal with a full-health Kennen, not to mention Renekton hadn't even stacked much Fury yet?

[What is this Renekton doing? The jungler is about to show up, and he's not even bothering to stack Fury?]

[Didn't people online hype up how strong NXG's players were? Even I, a Silver player, know that Renekton needs to stack Fury before coordinating with a jungler.]