novelODS 046 The tide has turned.
046 The tide has turned.
Congratulations, Rise!
The Roaring Emperor's Korean-accented English was quite bizarre: "One to zero, they're just one step away from the championship!"
Today's match was still a best-of-three series, which wasn't very long.
After one game, not only did RISE have one hand on the trophy, but SKT was also standing on the edge of a cliff, just one step away from second place.
The SKT players didn't dare to be negligent and hurriedly returned backstage to discuss countermeasures with coach Kkoma.
Kkoma also looked grim at this moment.
He never expected that even with their in-depth research on RISE, they could still lose so badly.
Previously, he thought that RISE had been using this vision control strategy centered on the bottom lane because it was the only move they knew, so they only needed to defend against it to counter them.
But now it seems they overlooked a terrifying situation.
In this process, Neo actually didn't exert much effort...
Neo only serves as the commander, concealing his operational prowess.
But in fact, the most terrifying player in the RISE team is actually the jungler named Neo.
For a moment, Kkoma felt a little lost.
After playing so many scrims with Neo, is it really that difficult for the huge SKT team to even win a single game?
At this moment, Kkoma felt a pang of regret for the first time that he hadn't acted sooner to recruit these three young men from Mapo Middle School.
Even if we can't recruit them all, it doesn't matter. At least we can separate them so they can't be on the same team.
This situation is really too troublesome.
"No matter what, let's stick to the same strategy as the last game."
Kkoma sighed and said, "The main problem in the last game was the bot lane. It was because the bot lane got ganked, which made Pantheon too fed."
"This time, we need to improve our defense even more, and make sure to protect the bottom lane!"
"good!"
Regardless, their research was effective; they did indeed slow down RISE's offensive pace by using vision countermeasures.
Now, we can only hope that Neo won't kill so many people in the next round.
......
Meanwhile, in RISE's lounge, Li Zhixing was also having a serious court hearing.
The first defendant in the trial was none other than Lee Sang-hyeok, who had committed a serious error in the previous case.
"Sang-hyeok's performance in the last game was absolutely terrible; he was completely carried to victory!"
Sang-hyeok felt a little unhappy as he listened to his older brother's final verdict, but he couldn't think of a reason to refute it.
Because he also knew that he was indeed useless in the previous round.
The score was only 1-1 by the end of the game. The damage wasn't high, and the control wasn't much either. The contribution to the victory was negligible.
But Sang-hyeok was incapable of admitting his mistake. He insisted that he hadn't handled the tower dive well, and that if he had played better, he could have definitely been taken down by Ahri.
If Li Zhixing goes to the bottom lane and dives the enemy duo again, the game will be over immediately!
This scene left several teammates scratching their heads in disbelief.
Even Ma Yingdong, who came with the team to watch the game, rolled his eyes.
Sang-hyeok, just admit it, you can't beat him.
Li Zhixing thought for a moment, then asked, "Sang-hyeok, if you were given another chance, could you guarantee you could crush the opponent?"
Lee Sang-hyeok nodded vigorously.
No matter when or where, he always has the confidence to defeat his opponents.
Of course, this is on the premise that the opponent is not Li Zhixing...
Li Zhixing said, "Then let's get ready."
"Huh?" Lee Sang-hyeok finally spoke, "What are you preparing?"
Get ready to prove yourself.
Li Zhixing chuckled, "The next round depends on you. Don't say I didn't give you a chance."
Lee Sang-hyeok was slightly taken aback, then understood what his elder brother meant.
......
After a short break, both teams returned to the stage, and the match point game's ban/pick phase officially began.
Lee Sang-hyeok walked onto the stage, glanced at Easyhoon across from him, and revealed a resolute look, as if he were carrying some kind of mission.
He has a heavy responsibility.
After the first game, RISE realized that SKT had come prepared today.
RISE has not been a team for very long. Although Li Zhixing has taught the team how to suppress vision, he has not yet explained the deeper game of vision control.
With current vision strategies already thoroughly analyzed, if the next game continues with the same rigid approach, something unexpected might go wrong.
After all, Li Zhixing can't kill like this every time.
However, the strategy of pressing down the opponent has never been RISE's trump card.
After all, the bot lane duo's laning skills weren't top-tier, so the fact that this strategy went so smoothly was largely due to Li Zhixing's exceptional performance as the jungler.
This playing style works even without Kim Hyuk-kyu and Cho Se-hyung, but it is inseparable from Lee Ji-haeng.
Don't forget, RISE has a top-tier laning player on their team.
In the previous few games, Faker almost always had a CS advantage of over 20 in his lane, and solo kills were commonplace for him.
If Neo can sweep NLB with a bot lane that isn't particularly strong, what would it be like with Faker?
Lee Sang-hyeok, who did not perform well in the previous game, is ready to prove himself.
The two sides switched positions in this game, with RISE now on the blue side.
However, SKT on the opposing team didn't seem to have any intention of leaving a backup pick for the mid laner. After the three bans were completed, they immediately picked Syndra, the lane bully.
"So, Sang-hyeok," Lee Ji-haeng asked, "Syndra's good, right? What do you want?"
These days, there's no such thing as a coach; the players handle the drafting and banning themselves.
Of course, this RISE team doesn't need a coach.
"Ahri," Lee Sang-hyeok said calmly, giving his answer.
Teaching forehand and backhand, huh? You've got a temper.
Li Zhixing's lips curled into a smile. "Okay."
Locking in Ahri and then selecting her stable partner Vi directly locks in the mid and jungle, setting the tone for this game with the mid and jungle as the core.
On the other side, SKT locked in Lee Sin to synergize with Syndra, also maximizing their fighting intensity.
Soon, the lineups of both sides were determined.
Blue side RISE: Top lane Kennen, Jungle Vi, Mid lane Ahri, Bot lane Twitch and Nami.
Red side SKT: Top lane Rumble, Jungle Lee Sin, Mid lane Syndra, Bot lane Vayne and Zyra.
Backstage at the stadium, in the SKT lounge, Kkoma looked at the lineups on both sides, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted.
Both sides lacked strong tempo points in the top and bottom lanes, relying almost entirely on the mid and jungle to drive the game. It's clear that both sides focused their attention on the mid lane.
SKT's performance was perfectly normal, since they won thanks to the performance of their mid and jungle duo.
But on the RISE side...
Would they also choose the bot lane with the combination of Twitch and Nami in mid-to-late game team fights?
Do they also play mid and jungle?
The synergy between the mid and jungle players is a fundamental tactical system in professional leagues.
The team-building logic of countless teams is to first find a strong mid-jungle duo as the foundation, and then just find a few random players for the other three positions to form a powerful team.
RISE's mid and jungle abilities are beyond doubt, but SKT and RISE have faced off many times, and Kkoma has never seen the two of them work together closely.
It now seems that these two will be working together, but they've been hiding it all along?
Kkoma sighed inwardly, feeling that the game seemed hopeless.