Chapter 64: The Pack of Wolves and the Wolf King

"Vision around the Baron pit, once we secure that, we push down their high ground and end the match in one go."

Pang Ran opened the scoreboard, evaluated the item disparity between the two teams, and finally pinged his signal directly onto the Nashor's Tooth icon once core defensive items like the mid-laner's Zhonya's Hourglass and the top-laner's Guardian Angel were fully completed.

Throughout this game, NXG's tactical focus had essentially revolved around Song Yuan's insanely fed Renekton in the top lane. They either targeted the doomed Kennen or, whenever the opponents mobilized their Hecarim to protect their top laner, rotated down to sandwich the bot lane.

Securing kills and demolishing towers, they established absolute vision control over the jungle, ensuring the enemy never even caught a glimpse of a dragon respawning, and largely avoided clashing in massive, messy teamfights.

"Old Xu, watch yourself!"

"Alright, no problem. For the sake of the Baron, this old man grants you permission to go follow our jungle dad first," Xu Jing quipped with deliberate exaggeration.

"Twenty minutes is just too agonizing, and the Baron buff doesn't even grant extra pushing power. We could easily just brute-force our way up there right now."

"You rascal, getting cocky again are we? Careful or Ming-ge will make you do extra training sessions when we get back."

"Hey hey, don't, please don't! I was just talking nonsense for fun."

With victory firmly in their grasp, the players' previously laser-focused concentration eased slightly during the brief window of shopping at the fountain. Xu Jing wasn't entirely wrong; given the current economic gap and the strength of defensive towers in Season 3, charging straight up the high ground would have been entirely feasible. However, their leader had given strict instructions before the match: make their professional debut as clean and pristine as possible.

Considering that the purple team's top, jungle, and support all possessed ultimate abilities that could pack a punch if used defensively on their high ground, NXG's members were in no rush to break the inhibitor turrets and barracks. Their tactical focus remained on the outer-tier towers across all three lanes and controlling jungle resources.

"Leaving the inhibitor crystal standing there—sometimes, choosing not to destroy it early expands your gold lead far more than taking it down immediately."

Whenever Pang Ran recalled the phrase Ming-ge had used to educate them during strategic planning, he could only bow his head in absolute admiration.

They were all high-ladder players, yet while he was still only focused on hunting kills for gold in ranked games, Ming-ge had already calculated the exact economic value of super minions into the grand equation.

With orders issued down the line, another breathtaking scene unfolded on the game screen, causing the spectators outside the venue to feel a prickle of scalp-tingling awe.

All five members of NXG recalled simultaneously, swapped items simultaneously, and then hung fiercely glowing Stealth Wards in every single slot of their inventory.

Among them, except for the top laner Song Yuan, who had the highest net worth and lacked inventory space, purchasing only a single Control Ward, the other four players adopted a dual-ward configuration of one Control Ward and one Stealth Ward apiece.

Carrying vision, the jungle and support moved ahead first. Renekton cleared the bottom lane wave up to the purple team's tier-one tower and instantly vanished from vision.

Varus cleared waves solo in the mid lane, but once his minions pushed past the midline, he ceased advancing any further. From the purple team's perspective, they would only occasionally catch a glimpse of a Piercing Arrow flying out from the darkness, picking off a few ranged minions responsible for pushing.

As the match drew toward its twilight, the livestream chat and the discussions flooding the internet forums grew increasingly heated and frantic.

[BLQG is completely out of options!]

[The jungle is pitch black, all three lanes are compressed under pressure, and they can't even step outside their towers.]

[Crucially, the left side is playing it insanely safe, giving away zero opportunities. Their only two deaths came from diving under towers while tanking hits during multi-man collapses.]

[Is this what the professional League of Legends league looks like? Absolute trash.]

[Pfft, the guy above me, dare to post your rank tier? Forget NXG—literally anyone pulled at random from BLQG could torture you until you shit your pants.]

[You laugh at me getting brutally slaughtered by the pros on the professional stage, but what would you call me in a ranked match?]

[Honestly, I feel like it's precisely because of this massive gap that we can truly feel what a professional team is. The purple team is, at best, a group of high-ranked solo queue players with decent synergy and some tactical understanding, but NXG on the left is a genuine, formidable professional powerhouse.]

[From the start of the match until now, I haven't even seen a single instance of someone on the left losing their mind, overextending, and getting caught out solo.]

[*(Laughing-crying emoji)* Look at the complexions of those five BLQG brothers—they look like boiled sweet potatoes.]

[Don't laugh, you'd be blushing red too if you played a pro match that felt like someone was forcing you through an internet-addiction rehabilitation clinic.]

[NXG is like a wolf pack. Once the commander gives the order, every other position executes it flawlessly.]

[A wolf pack?]

[Then Jm must be the Alpha King, huh?]

...

In the final moments, the courage within their hearts finally triumphed over cowardice.

Unwilling to let the very first match of their professional careers end in such humiliating fashion, BLQG chose to plunge headfirst into the Baron pit for a final, do-or-die showdown against NXG.

"Courage worthy of praise!"

The casters on stage, Wa Wa and Joker, offered high commendations.

Then...

Then came the aftermath, which meant there was no further aftermath.

The entire red-side jungle was illuminated by NXG's vision, laying bare every single movement of the purple team's champions.

Jarvan IV and Kennen lacked any viable angle to engage properly, making any hope of a miraculous comeback orchestrated by a flawless ultimate completely out of the question.

Leaving aside the fact that Jarvan's EQ combo was kicked away by Lee Sin in less than a second, forcing both him and Kennen to burn their Flashes, waiting for them were Janna's Q and R dual crowd-control spells.

Even purely based on the current item discrepancy, a Kennen who was dangerously close to being super-fed was entirely incapable of stirring up any waves.

On the big screen, the mega-Renekton with his ultimate active chased both of BLQG's carries all by himself, while the top, jungle, and support trio left behind were effortlessly dismantled by Orianna and Varus.

An Orianna with exceptional farm landed a single QR combo, leaving very little actual work for a Varus boasting three and a half completed items.

Conversely, looking at BLQG's Caitlyn—whom the entire team had desperately tried to feed—she only had Infinity Dancer and Phantom Dancer, having failed to complete her Last Whisper. Her basic attacks literally couldn't scratch Song Yuan's Renekton. As for the mid-lane Twisted Fate, whose ultimate had looked like a decorative ornament all game long... well, pulling a yellow card to buy the AD carry a tiny fraction of time was his sole contribution to this teamfight.

ACE!

The chilling broadcast of total annihilation echoed through the venue's sound system.

The live audience erupted into cheers and applause, and even those attending an esports event in person for the very first time caught the infectious energy, joining the chorus.

"NXG!"

"NXG!"

"NXG!"

Zero for five plus the Baron; the massive item gap meant BLQG couldn't even focus down and instantly vaporize a single squishy support.

NXG didn't drag things out any further. Pushing down the lane as one, they tore through the high-tower straight into the Nexus before the purple champions could even respawn.

...

"Ah, in the end, our BLQG team still failed to stop NXG's advance."

"All five members of NXG moving in synchronized unison, just clicking the enemy Nexus."

"The Nexus explodes! Let us congratulate NXG!"

"Congratulations to NXG on securing victory in the opening game."

Applause and cheers echoed continuously through the arena, the audience completely captivated and subdued by NXG's performance.

Terrifyingly powerful, aesthetically pleasing in their gameplay, and most crucially, you genuinely felt like you could learn something by watching a team like NXG.

Oh, wait, that's right—NXG's owner was Jm, the guy who had long since uploaded various advanced LoL gameplay guides and tactical concepts to the internet.

Goodness gracious, this streamer was truly too virtuous! To prove that his tutorial videos actually worked, he had actually gone out of his way to create a professional esports team to prove it!

Thus, the cheers of the spectators felt all the more sincere.

"Woohoo, we take those!"

"Nice, brothers, we've advanced into the promotion stage!"

On the stage, the NXG players pulled off their headsets, stood up, and high-fived each other to celebrate their victory.