League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Team Daemons was familiar with the Jungle Suppression Tactic that Team Skycrown used, and they were also quite skilled at using it themselves.

In about five minutes, Team Daemons would most likely be able to kill off someone from Team Skycrown.

Why?

That was the buff duration and also the Flash cooldown timing.

Having watched countless matches played by Team Daemons, Team Skycrown had a deeper understanding of how Hades played. They had purposely spent more time on studying his style and how to counter him.

Playing against him today, they now knew what a terrifying player he was!

As long as his Riven had Flash in hand, someone from Team Skycrown was sure to be instantly killed. And he really knew how to choose his target, always looking for someone who didn’t have Flash.

Riven is a champion that wasn’t overly-reliant on her ulti. Even without it, as long as her items are good enough, the damage output she can deal is huge.

The Dragon respawned every six minutes. Though Team Daemons didn’t have the stronger push factor like Team Skycrown did, they knew how to control the other objective—Dragon.

The Dragon was practically like an ATM for Team Daemons, and by using the Jungle Suppression Tactic, Team Skycrown’s jungle had also become a source of their gold income.

Once the jungle area has been controlled, it was only a matter of time before the outer turret was lost. The gold gap is already at about seven thousand or more, and Riven is ahead of Team Skycrown by one complete item.

As long as he had Flash, Team Skycrown would be treading in dangerous waters. Even if Yu Luocheng reserved Exhaust for him, it was possible that it wouldn’t do much as Riven’s damage is just too high…

***

“Coach, didn’t you say that we’d probably have a seventy or eighty percent chance of winning if we don’t give Team Skycrown the early advantage? Now we’re already ahead by seven thousand gold and Hade is also fed. This should be a sure win, right?” said Anubis.

Huang Kang remained silent as he watched the match. He seemed to be deep in thought, as though he was harbouring some doubts in his heart.

“Dragon has been theirs all the while, four turrets are down, they are also in the lead with kills, and their CS isn’t that far off. With this situation they should already be ahead by at least ten thousand gold, so why is it only at seven thousand?” muttered Huang Kang as he did the calculation mentally.

Of the seven thousand lead, three thousand gold was on Hades’ Riven. Riven’s items were already good, vividly displaying the style of a captain.

After all, this was Asmodai’s last real professional competition, so how could Hades not pull out all the stops to send him off?

With three thousand on Hades’ Riven and an average of four thousand on the remaining members, that would mean that each person was leading by at least one thousand gold. At twenty minutes into the game, this was definitely an important lead in gold…

If they were up against any other team, Huang Kang wouldn’t be worried at all. With this kind of a lead in gold, it was just a matter of time until they claimed victory.

But why was his gut telling him that something was not right? His whole body was stiff with anxiety and tension. Was it because the team that Team Daemons was playing against had once achieved the most glorious achievement in the world of e-sports?

No, it was definitely not because of the shadows of the past. It was because of Team Skycrown’s defense—they were being too organized!

Team Skycrown had not made any mistakes in the process of their defense. In using the turrets as their defense point, as long as Team Daemons lost a single fight due to anxiety or recklessness, then the outcome would likely change immediately. After all, Team Skycrown was great at knowing how to seize opportunities.

Team Skycrown was not making any mistakes, in fact, they were waiting for a chance.

Team Daemons was waiting for a chance to push too, but they were also afraid to act rashly. Getting wiped out just once would make the gold lead fall by a few thousand, and any momentum they had gained would be destroyed.

Once one side has the advantage, and the other side is strong in their defense, how would this stalemate be broken?

Naturally, by the Baron!

This version was unlike the previous season, where you had Oracle’s Elixir to easily de-ward. That was the reason why the Jungle Suppression Tactic had weakened. But it wasn’t like you couldn’t use the normal vision control to lay an ambush at the Baron area.

Using the minion wave to force a Baron fight, whether it was an ambush or actually taking it, was the most classic tactic to break any stalemate, and Team Daemons had already been patrolling the Baron pit area for a while.

Team Skycrown had been led around by the nose by Team Daemons all along, but this didn’t make them panic at all.

In fact, all of the Team Skycrown members were under tremendous pressure at the moment. They had played countless matches where they were at a great disadvantage, where their gold gap was more than twenty thousand, and they surrendered at twenty minutes, but this gold gap of seven thousand was just too hard for them to make up for.

Minions on the lane were equivalent to gold. They could earn more by going to the creeps in the jungle, but even their jungle was under Team Daemons’ control. Plus, they also had the Dragon, which gave them about an extra thousand gold. If this went on, the gap would only continue to grow.

As a Support, Yu Luocheng was clearly aware that he wouldn’t be very useful in late game. As a captain, he had been looking for Team Daemons’ weaknesses all along. But this strong veteran team really had too much experience.

They wouldn’t make the same mistakes as Team Revelation or Team Beijing where their vision was blocked off. Team Daemons pushed the side lines together, and was even vigilant in the corners of the maps where the bushes were.

Yu Luocheng had used those bushes to get one over so many master players before.

Anivia is a champion that is suitable for shadow plays, an unprepared enemy would be unable to dodge her Q that came from the bush. Even if they did, an ice wall would follow, and once that hit, Anivia just needed to activate her ulti and there would be no way to run.

Unfortunately, there hadn’t been a chance to use this strategy at all!

***

“Boss, they’re going for Baron,” said Da Luo as he roamed the Krugs area.

“They wouldn’t dare, they’re just baiting us. But once their gold is a bit more, and the stats of Baron increase, it’ll be dangerous if we get led on,” replied Yu Luocheng.

Even if you knew that the enemy is baiting you by walking near the Baron pit, you would have no choice but to let go of that wave at the bottom lane to rush over to guard this vital objective.

Step by step, and dropping a ward every few steps.

As they neared the Wraith camp on the red side, Team Skycrown was more alert. It was possible that Team Daemons was lying in wait for them nearby.

Woosh!

With a loud signal, Team Daemons came rushing with accelerated speed, covering the distance from the river at a fast pace. Annie had activated her Talisman of Ascension to increase the speed of their movements.

Team Daemons was going all in for a fight!

“Be careful of Rengar!” shouted Yu Luocheng.

Just as he said that, Rengar jumped out from the middle lane to the narrow path of the red buff camp. He immediately jumped onto Wu Sen, throwing a set of skills on him and taking his health down by two thirds!

There was no defense against a Top Rengar with such bloodlust. When he jumps into the middle of the fray onto one of the key champions, nothing could be done about it. Then, his team will follow up closely.

With the effect of the Talisman of Ascension, you can see the rest of Team Daemons rushing towards them quickly. Annie was walking at the front of the group with a white mist surrounding her.

If you don’t know what that means on Annie, you will be dead by the time you find out!

Annie was running fast, thanks to the combined speed from the item as well as her Boots of Mobility. She took the chance to plunge into the middle of Team Skycrown while Rengar held their attention.

If a Support Annie released her ulti at a great time, it was a world-saving ulti.

Yu Luocheng was well aware that Mephistopheles had his Flash. Seeing the distance between his teammates, Yu Luocheng who hadn’t bought a Talisman of Ascension knew that they had to fight this battle.

His teammates were retreating, but Yu Luocheng did not.

Mephistopheles’ Annie had already caught sight of Yu Luocheng’s Anivia, but he completely ignored him. With one Flash, Mephitopheles’ Annie skipped over Yu Luocheng, her ulti slamming heavily on Zhou Yan, Lin Dong, and Da Luo!

Luckily for Lin Dong, he was quick to react, using his E to avoid the ulti. If not for that, with Annie’s damage, an onslaught of skills from her would bring his Ezreal’s health down by half!

“Team Skycrown is about to get destroyed, Rengar and Annie’s engage was perfect! It managed to hold Team Skycrown down, and their formation is completely scattered! Hades is coming in to clean up!” shouted Bao Jun in excitement as the fight broke out.

The long, dull game finally burst like a broken dam, the audience was now nervous and excited.

Team Skycrown was in a dangerous position, their ADC and Mid had been zoned out. Yu Luocheng as a Support had been left at the forefront of his team. It was just a matter of time before he was killed!

All of a sudden, Bao Jun screamed, “Oooh! This ice wall, this ice wall!!”

In the battlefield, an ice wall had shot up between the wall from the red buff and the Wraith camp. It sealed off three members of Team Daemons behind it, not giving them even the slightest bit of space.

The battlefield was divided!

The most classic ability of the Cryophoenix—dividing the battlefield!

“Divine wall, this really is a divine wall! I finally understand why the captain has chosen Anivia as his Support champion. Compared to Zyra’s ulti to knock up and slow for two seconds, if Anivia’s wall is placed properly, this backhanded ability is even more terrifying!!”

Team Daemons initially had two members going in to initiate and hold Team Skycrown down, then the remaining three members would follow up. This should have been the perfect initiate on their side.

Who knew that because of one ice wall, it has become a closed cage formation?!

Yu Luocheng’s Anivia hadn’t executed many eye-catching maneuvers throughout the entire game. Even at the bottom lane, he only paired up well with the Jungler to have a couple of nice kills…

But being bland the whole time didn’t matter. As long as one single beautiful ice wall was thrown out to divide the battlefield, then this was no mere ice bird, but a real Cryophoenix, it was just too glorious!

***

Charon, Hades, and Asmodai were blocked off by the wall. Once he hit the ice wall, Hades immediately turned to use his three Qs to jump over the wall at the Wright camp.

Once he was over the wall, his Q was used up, and even if he wanted to display that enormous burst damage, he was unable to. So, Hades turned his attention to Yu Luocheng’s Anivia.

Seeing Hades jump over, Yu Luocheng didn’t hesitate and immediately Flashed out. Even if they were longtime e-sports rivals, Yu Luocheng was not insane enough to use a Support Anivia to go against a Mid Riven in a solo match.

Now switching places with Riven, there was still a wall dividing the two!