League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Flashing up to knock Ashe away from the path of the bullet, how good was this Thresh’s awareness and instincts to be able to assess the situation and make a subsequent reaction in that short span of time!

The cheers in-game were endless too, having a Support that was this good, their ADC was probably on the ground worshiping him right about now!

Lin Dong was watching the fight while he was waiting to respawn, voicing his confusion, “Boss, who is this Thresh!?”

“Team TPG’s number one Support—Huo Ma, he received the title of Best Support during the S International League… D*mn it, this guy is good!” Luocheng lamented, his eyebrows knit into a bunch.

Lin Dong nodded in agreement, “He really is.” Since when was there a Support with such otherworldly awareness in their country? Even Luocheng couldn’t handle him.

Lin Dong’s expression hardened, as if he was in deep thought.

A split second later, Lin Dong knew what he had to do, and he shouted toward Da Luo, “Da Luo, come over quick, Luocheng’s getting owned!”

“What, really? Sh*t, I’m out of this game!” Da Luo was suddenly energized after hearing Lin Dong’s words, promptly quitting his game to watch Luocheng’s computer even though they were in the lead.

Hearing the commotion, Zhou Yan quietly called for a surrender and then wordlessly moved to sit behind his other teammates.

Luocheng’s face grew dark as he tried to keep his focus on the game!

You bunch of motherf*ckers, I’m getting beat and now all of you are interested!?

Da Luo, what the heck! What are you doing by DC-ing in the middle of a ranked game? What about your teammates!

Lin Dong intricately explained the details of Luocheng’s previous battle to Da Luo, Zhou Yan, and Wu Sen. That scumbag Da Luo was laughing his face off, “Boss, if I were you, I’d go ahead and die as well. Choosing an Ashe Support and you can’t even block Caitlyn’s Ultimate, I can just imagine how angry that Ezreal is.”

From their perspective, Luocheng was asking for it, choosing such a strange Champion even though he knew he was playing against the S League’s Best Support, Huo Ma. He should have known what he was getting himself into!

“What do you lot know, this is my battle strategy. Just wait and watch how I kite them during mid game!” Luocheng said, his upset clear in the tone of his voice.

Ashe Support was already a weak pick. To face such a strong counter to an Ashe Support like Thresh, Luocheng and Mirage really had to crawl their way through if they wanted to make it past the laning phase.

Just hug the tower and wait for backup!

***

“I’m coming!” Xiao Zhuai’s Jungler Lee Sin finally decided to pay a visit to the bottom lane.

Luocheng had held back his ultimate for so long, never getting a chance to use it, all he could do was wait for Lee Sin to gank!

Level 6 was when Support Ashe started to show her strength, the stun from her Ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, couldn’t be cleansed down in the bottom lane, and as long as the Jungler came to gank, it was basically a free kill.

Seeing his chance, Luocheng stepped toward his enemies, using a WER-combo to hit the enemy Caitlyn.

“Holy crap, three shots in a row!” The guys in the lounge were cheering.

Luocheng used Ashe’s Ultimate differently from most other players, he didn’t use his R straight away, instead, using his W, E, and R in unison!

Volley was a wide spray of icy arrows while Ashe’s E-skill was a white Hawkshot, and Luocheng followed the Hawk Spirit with a gigantic Enchanted Crystal Arrow! These 3 abilities firing in unison caused the battlefield to be showered in an ethereal shower of ice, and in the snowy flurry, the enemy ADC Caitlyn couldn’t react fast enough, allowing Luocheng’s Ultimate to easily hit its target!

Feng Da looked at Da Luo who had shifted his viewing position from the VIP room to the main lounge, “Why did Leader Yu use all three abilities? Isn’t that a little excessive?”

Of course Da Luo was happy that someone was teaching Luocheng a lesson. The guy had been on his high horse for way too long without someone knocking him down a peg or two, and so, Da Luo had purposely ordered a drink so that he could enjoy the show in the cafe’s lounge with Feng Da and the others.

“The W-skill was in case Caitlyn used her mobility skills like her E-skill. Professional players are extremely careful in their positioning, especially in front of an enemy who still has their Ultimate. Luocheng put a slow on her first, making it seem like he’s just walking up to poke so that he can catch them off guard with his ulti, and even if the enemy figured that out, their reduced movement speed would keep them from escaping.

“As for why he didn’t just use his Enchanted Crystal Arrow immediately after the slow from his W-skill, Volley, Caitlyn still had her Flash, that was why Luocheng used his E-skill, to try and lure her Flash out!” Da Luo explained.

Using her E-skill to fake out the enemy’s Flash was one of Luocheng’s classic maneuvers on Ashe, after all, Team Relevation’s Mid’s Flash had been lured out in exactly the same way during the LPL!

“At such a short distance, who would be able to react to a straight-up Ultimate?” Feng Da was confused as he still felt that it was a little excessive. Since their enemy was already within range of Ashe’s Volley, surely they wouldn’t be able to dodge an Ultimate from her.

Da Luo laughed, “Well then, you think too little of our boss’s current opponents.”

Feng Da and a few of his friends were stunned and still, Feng Da maintained his expression of “you peasants can’t possibly understand the world of Gods.”

***

Caitlyn acted coolly, her Flash unable to be baited out by Luocheng’s W-skill, but following immediately behind that E-skill was Luocheng’s Ultimate.

In reality, the professional player behind Caitlyn had already had their finger on the Flash key, all they needed was 0.2 seconds.

It was mainly because Ashe had overlapped many shots and due to the particles coming from her Volley, Hawkshot, and Ultimate Enchanted Crystal Arrow, Caitlyn’s vision was muddied, otherwise, this famous Taiwanese ADC could have easily dodged Ashe’s arrow from that distance!

Being ulted by Ashe, Caitlyn was basically a sitting duck and even Huo Ma left her to die after assessing the situation.

Ashe had an infinite slow on her passive, if Huo Ma got caught up in that, he would be dead as well.

***

“This China boy is playing really weird!” Caitlyn’s Taiwanese player—Zhi Zhiguang lamented.

He had used up all of his Summoner’s spells but he still couldn’t escape.

A smirk creeped up on Huo Ma’s face, “A triple shot, interesting.”

This was the first time Huo Ma had seen someone use Ashe’s ultimate in this manner.

But there really wasn’t any other way, in their pro-player group, everyone had inhuman reactions. Even if you threw an Ultimate right at their face, it still wouldn’t be a guaranteed hit.

***

Lee Sin’s gank helped the bottom lane to get back up after their crippling disadvantage, and Luocheng bought a full Talisman of Ascension, the final upgrade of his Ancient Coin.

The trinket wasn’t too expensive and was quite cost effective. A 20% CDR on a Support like Ashe who relied on her Ultimate heavily was extremely beneficial, and her Volley could be used at a higher frequency as well, not to mention it helped with her mana regen.

Luocheng pressed his tab key and saw a Chalice of Harmony sitting in Thresh’s inventory.

The Chalice caused some confusion in Luocheng, not knowing what this guy was trying to pull.

Ezreal wasn’t an easy champion to bully in lane, he could play it safe and still farm easily with his Q-skill, so Luocheng started roaming heavily during the mid game.

After pinging for his Ezreal to retreat, Luocheng left Ezreal to fend for himself in the dangers of the bottom lane and went off into their jungle and beyond.

The opponent’s Mid was terrified of Luocheng as an arrow came through the Fog of War and their own Mid Kassadin was able to follow up with a round of abilities and Ignite. Their enemy didn’t stand a chance.

One Ultimate and the bottom lane was at an advantage again, another Ultimate and their Mid Kassadin had picked up a kill, and his third Ultimate forced the enemy Jungler to expend his Flash.

This was when the Ashe Support made her presence known, but their opponents weren’t holding back either. While Luocheng helped his Jungler and Mid gain an advantage, Huo Ma and his ADC pushed down their bottom lane turret and controlled the vision around the Dragon.

Luocheng had to buy a Sightstone.

Luocheng was a little passive when it came to warding. Ashe and Thresh were like a rabbit and a fox, if they met in the Jungle, Thresh would land his hook and then pull in his teammate with his lantern. The low mobility Ashe was as good as dead then.

Without control over vision, the first Dragon was taken by Call me Daddy’s Elise.

Even though they had to give up the Dragon, they weren’t going down without a fight.

Luocheng dealt out a team wide slow before using the active of his Talisman of Ascension, leading his team into battle while the enemy was worn down from the Dragon!

“Woosh!”

An Enchanted Crystal Arrow flew straight down the river, its target set on the fleeing Elise!

Call me Daddy was a real example of a world-ranked Jungler, he knew to instantly enter Spider Form, allowing him to dodge Luocheng’s arrow by shooting up into the air, and all Luocheng could do was watch the glistening arrow fly past below the nimble spider!

The speed, the technique, the guests in the lounge were going wild!

Luocheng didn’t think much of it, the Elise wasn’t the only target in his arrow’s path. The Spider Queen may have escaped, but the Ziggs behind her had nowhere else to run!

“Thunk!”

The Enchanted Crystal Arrow shattered right on Ziggs’ face.

Xiao Zhuai’s Lee Sin was the first to react, rushing in to stop the enemies’ retreat.

But for whatever reason, the 2-second long stun was cut short by a wave of green energy washing over Ziggs!

His stun was cleansed!

Huo Ma’s Thresh laid down his Ultimate, barricading Luocheng and his team’s attack route. Even though Xiao Zhuai had landed his Q-skill, he couldn’t go in on it at all in fear of being separated from his team.

Seeing his opponents flee just like that, Luocheng wasn’t at his happiest.

Feng Da was stunned, “How did that Ziggs get rid of his stun? The ulti hit, didn’t it? Plus he didn’t have Cleanse or a Quicksilver Sash!”

“F*ck…” Da Luo let out his breath, “That Thresh really is strong, building a direct counter against our boss.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mikael’s Crucible, able to cleanse a teammate of all stuns and slows. With that item, Luocheng’s game-deciding Ultimate won’t have much of an effect,” Da Luo explained.

Feng Da’s gang of friends didn’t understand.

A crucible? What even was that? Such an item existed in League of Legends?

Feng Da was staring at his shoes. He knew of this item and he was pretty sure that the Chalice of Harmony built into it, but he had never seen the item in play before during all his time playing ranked.

For players below Gold, knowing how to use a QSS or Cleanse to get rid of stuns was already impressive, but for an item like Mikael’s, 70 percent of players probably hadn’t even heard of the item let alone know how to use it!

“Um, Da Luo, could you maybe ask Luocheng to play a tad lower-ranked match…?” Daisy asked meekly.

What the heck, Daisy had almost two thousand games of LoL under his belt, but he felt like he didn’t understand anything while watching this match.

“Screw off, you’ll never understand the world of Gods!!” Feng Da huffed.

In all honesty, Feng Da himself was getting a little sweaty! How many times had he said that today… He was still one of the top players, right? Why did he feel like the players on the screen were on an entirely different playing field!?

Things like Thresh Flash-Flaying someone to let Caitlyn’s Ultimate land.

Ashe’s W E R 3-hit combo to disguise his Ultimate.

Elise’s instantaneous Rappel to dodge Ashe’s arrow.

The Support instantly cleansing a teammates stun with Mikael’s…

Leader Yu, what kind of f*cking match was this? Why did this high-ranked Diamond player feel like you’re playing an entirely different game!