Chapter 31: Is This Even How You Play This Game?

As for the issue of mana sustain, Shi Zhenyu expressed that letting the Blue Buff go even a second later would be an insult to his dedication to the boss as a team member.

Loyalty!

Bang!

"Burp, it’s brawling time!"

Back in the lane, Misaya was in agony. As the Gragas leveled up, the damage from his Q ability grew increasingly absurd. Often, a single barrel would clear most of the backline minions, and two or three barrels combined with an E would wipe an entire wave. The real frustration was that he didn’t dare to step forward recklessly; Gragas’s innate sustain made him a nuisance. The chip damage Twisted Fate managed to deal was less than what the opponent recovered from his passive. Conversely, if a barrel exploded on him, the health bar would visibly drop by a massive chunk.

Once his health state fell, mid-lane became a danger zone for solo kills. Misaya vividly remembered the E-Flash combo from before, to which he had no time to react. With the opponent’s Flash nearly off cooldown, he would rather sacrifice a few minions than step even half a step forward.

However, while Misaya’s Twisted Fate could choose to turtle under the tower, what about the other lanes?

During his streams, Jiang Ming didn't like to take risks with flashy mechanical plays. He had cultivated a persona as a mid-lane commander who treated the map like a chessboard and played with his brain. As an educational streamer, he had to demonstrate mechanics, but not just mechanics alone.

The moment Misaya chose to give up the lane, the fate of the other lanes on the purple team was sealed; their game experience was destined to be miserable.

The first to suffer was Clearlove’s Lee Sin. As soon as the wave pushed in, Gragas vanished from mid. The vision set up by Jarvan IV’s earlier jungle intrusion revealed Lee Sin taking a buff. On screen, Jiang Ming’s Gragas looked relaxed and composed; he E-dashed through the buff wall, used R, Explosive Cask, to blast Lee Sin back into his team's embrace, and finished the kill in coordination with Jarvan IV.

With the jungler dead, the mid-jungle duo turned and headed to the bottom lane. They walked right up to the faces of the purple team’s Caitlyn and Thresh.

Fzzf and Weixiao were in agony. Wary of Jarvan IV’s ultimate, which he hadn't even needed to kill the Lee Sin, they were forced to abandon a massive wave of minions under their tower.

"Wow, you can actually play the game like this?" Uzi’s eyes lit up, showing no trace of his earlier grumbling about his own mid and jungle failing to gank for him.

Tebe, meanwhile, kept his eyes locked on the vision Jiang Ming and the NXG jungler had established, desperately trying to memorize the placement. At the same time, he was rapidly analyzing the actions of his own mid and jungle: "So that’s how JM controls the game’s tempo... After suppressing Misaya in the lane, he immediately radiates that mid-lane advantage into the jungle, messes with the jungler Clearlove, and then moves on to the side lanes..."

There were no flashy, unnecessary maneuvers; it was just a straight-up tactical masterclass. With the mid-jungle duo standing right in front of your duo lane, they didn't even have to do anything—Weixiao and Fzzf didn't even dare to look at the minions.

In that moment, Tebe felt as if he had stumbled upon a door to something extraordinary.

...

"When contesting team fights, like the Dragon fight now, as long as your teammates have enough damage, we, as the ones with engage tools, should avoid being spotted by the enemy."

"Just like this: carry a Control Ward. While your teammates take the Dragon, keep your eyes fixed on their carries. If they don't come, fine; if they do, be prepared to make them pay a three-hundred-gold protection fee."

"Look at this. The top-lane Jayce has come to join the fight; the purple team clearly doesn't want to give up the Dragon's gold."

"Twisted Fate?"

"Don't worry about Twisted Fate. The purple team’s combat power lies with Jayce and Caitlyn."

On the YY platform, in the stream titled "JM Tops the National Server," the real-time viewer count had already broken the one-hundred-thousand mark. Keep in mind, this was still daytime, far from the peak hours of night-time streaming, yet countless League of Legends players who clicked into the channel found it impossible to leave.

Like the viewers before them, they turned into nodding puppets, constantly absorbing the various explanations provided by this streamer. Some even pulled out notebooks to record the gameplay and mechanical tips in real-time—this was scripture!

Because just a second ago, the moment the purple team's Jayce and Caitlyn appeared on screen, Gragas, who had been hiding in the river bush with a Control Ward placed at his feet and having already charged his W for bonus damage, made his move.

It was that same incomprehensible maneuver—E-Flash!

Pfft!

The white flash of a Summoner Spell flickered past.

The sound of the "Body Slam" connecting with a champion echoed in everyone’s ears; Gragas’s greasy belly collided with the face of the Sheriff of Piltover. However, before she could even scream, an unknown object was already plastered onto her face.

"Oh yeah, taste this!"

Deathfire Grasp!

Explosive Cask!

Boom!

In front of the Dragon pit, the massive explosion shook every inch of the Summoner's Rift.

"Damn!"

"What kind of damage is that?"

"I..."

Accompanying the overflowing energy of the barrel was a cold, lifeless AD carry corpse.

One-shot!

Under the barrage of Gragas’s E, Deathfire Grasp, and ultimate, Caitlyn’s fragile frame couldn't withstand a thing and perished instantly.

PDD’s Jayce was still alive, but heavily damaged, he was blasted by the Gragas ult right into the face of Gogoing’s Renekton. Although it wasn't the knock-up effect seen in later eras, the lethal knock-back distance was enough for Gogoing to unleash a Red Fury W.

Blue JM killed Purple Weixiao!

Killing Spree!

Blue Gogoing killed Purple PDD!

Before the team fight had even truly begun, the purple team had already lost two key players. Clearlove glanced at the Dragon, and with great self-preservation, flashed over the wall and fled the river at light speed.

Well, the speed of his hands was so fast it seemed as if he had broken through his own limits again.

[666!]

[Designer, look at him!!]

[Weixiao’s Caitlyn, full health, and she’s just gone?]

[What kind of hand speed is that? Using Deathfire and Flash in mid-air during the E dash, I didn't even see when the Q damage followed the R.]

[Invincible. The purple team has no chance in the late game.]

At the WE base, Weixiao stared blankly at his black-and-white screen, his mind completely blank.

One-shot? He was one-shot?

His full-health Caitlyn, the purple team’s only carry, farmed for over ten minutes, and she didn't even get to land a single auto-attack before she was gone in the team fight?

It took a long time before Weixiao snapped out of it, prompted by Fzzf’s repeated calls.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just... the combo from JM hit a bit too hard."

"He... I... Gragas’s damage output was just too fast."

Fzzf didn't look too good either. After all, Caitlyn had been one-shot right in front of him. As the support meant to protect the AD, that scene felt like a stinging slap to the face.

For a long time, both sighed. They couldn't understand why, even with only a slight deficit in the mid and jungle, the overall tempo of the new season had exploded into such a mess.

If a mid-laner could one-shot an AD ten minutes in, what was the point of playing?

After the Dragon fight concluded, Jiang Ming’s Gragas entered the realm of an unstoppable land-bound god. With Magic Penetration, Rabadon's Deathcap, and Deathfire Grasp equipped, he killed whoever he set his sights on the moment his cooldowns were up. Especially since the purple team lacked a true tank, everyone from top to bottom was squishy.