In the second game, GEN finally seemed to have figured out how to write the words “change the lineup.” They abandoned the ultra–late-game AD carry and instead picked the Executioner, whose laning damage and early-to-mid–game pressure are especially strong. For support, they used a pick-to-deny approach and locked in the Scythe of Calamity, an aggressive support no weaker than Shadow Hawk.
Qing Ci, who had cast plenty of GEN’s matches, sounded slightly surprised. “How long has it been since GEN’s bot lane—Hak and Maomao—played such a ferocious duo? With these two heroes, at least for the first ten minutes, no matter what Marksman-support combo PNG picks, GEN isn’t afraid. Against all kinds of tier-0 lanes, it’s basically a 50–50!”
Chao Mi nodded. “In theory, yes. The Executioner’s base attack is just too high—he’s 27 points ahead of Night Stalker, the lowest among marksmen. That’s basically starting the game with an extra item. Paired with the Scythe of Calamity, he can absolutely go toe-to-toe with the Bird-and-Hawk combo in terms of raw strength.”
Of course, theory is one thing—execution is another. Chao Mi sighed. After commentating so many matches, he knew full well that you could never judge a bot-lane duo solely by individual hero strength. But GEN had lost the previous game so badly that the two commentators were really stretching themselves just to save face for them.
…At this rate, shouldn’t GEN give me an award for this? Chao Mi smacked his lips.
Soon after, GEN completed their last pick of the first rotation, finally grabbing the jungler they’d been longing for: the Dragon Monk.
The first three picks gave GEN fans a lot of hope—but when the final mid-lane pick once again turned out to be White Hidden Lord, every major livestream was instantly flooded with question marks.
[???? I don’t understand at all ???]
[Midc—why are you so obsessed with that damn White Hidden Lord???]
[I feel like I time-traveled. I asked a passerby what year it is, and they said it’s the playoffs and GEN’s mid picked White Hidden Lord. Got it—S3!]
[Offering a million Fun Beans to ban this White Hidden Lord! Look at Wind’s pick, then look at ours—I’m actually screaming!]
[#MidcHeroesPool#]
“What exactly is going on with this hero?”
Sui Ning was utterly baffled. He didn’t believe GEN could be stupid enough to still think their earlier loss was just an execution issue. He already knew White Hidden Lord’s kit and characteristics by heart—so where was the problem? Why pick it again?
The young man racked his brains. “White Hidden Lord isn’t strong in lane, and in teamfights he relies heavily on his ultimate’s AoE silence and root. But the ult’s area scales with level, and after being nerfed twice, a level-1 ult barely catching two people is already considered decent. On top of that, the control duration gets reduced by tenacity. The old version where one ult could lock down the entire enemy team for three seconds just doesn’t exist anymore…”
Slow scaling, underwhelming control—overall, White Hidden Lord is simply not qualified as a teamfight control tool in the current patch. And PNG had already first-picked the Phantom Trickster. Combined with previous encounters, Chen Xiaoyun hadn’t really produced any standout performances on this hero either. Sui Ning glanced at the draft screen, feeling more confused about the opponent’s picks than ever before.
Even Chen Chen couldn’t make sense of it. He offered some reassurance instead. “Don’t overthink it. Our comp has the edge—just play it straight.”
“Mm.” Sui Ning nodded.
——
“If this keeps up, aren’t we just walking the same old road as last game?”
Less than two minutes into the match, Qing Ci watched as Chen Xiaoyun, trying to avoid poke, once again pulled White Hidden Lord back behind the minion wave. He sounded both anxious and disappointed. “White Hidden Lord already has a slow wave clear early on. Midc backing off like this is basically handing lane priority straight to Wind! Once mid is unlocked, PNG’s mid-jungle can start pushing the tempo again. Even if GEN’s jungler JGNoob is on a strong duelist like the Dragon Monk, it won’t matter—two fists can’t beat four hands!”
[I’ve seen this script before—exactly the same as last game. Does swapping the jungler to a tier-0 pick really help?]
[How many times does someone have to make the same mistake before learning?]
[Hidden picks]
[Midc should just retire already. What kind of gameplay is this? Same spoon-fed hero over and over!]
“GEN still isn’t bold enough,” Qing Ci put it as diplomatically as he could. “Playing a mid-lane utility role isn’t impossible. Take Navic, for example—he made a name for himself playing Stone Sentinel with Fiw, acting like a dog for the bot-lane carry. But that hero clears waves fast, his ult doesn’t depend on level, and his roams are quick. Level 6 is already his power spike. That’s completely different from White Hidden Lord.”
Chao Mi thought for a moment and sighed. “After the major changes to the dragon area this patch, the overall pace of the game has sped up. A lot of former jack-of-all-trades heroes have fallen out of favor. After all, being a jack of all trades also means excelling at nothing—especially a hero like White Hidden Lord, who’s been hit by the nerf bat for three straight patches.”
To put it bluntly, GEN’s understanding of the game, as shown so far, was already behind the current meta.
At 2:14, Sui Ning calmly shoved the wave under the enemy tower and coordinated with Ji Yunyu to prepare an invasion into GEN’s jungle. At this point, the second minion wave hadn’t even spawned yet, and the bot-lane duo were still level 1. GEN’s jungler Zhong Ye had just finished clearing two camps in his red side and was heading toward the blue buff when he heard his captain, Chen Xiaoyun, say, “Enemy mid is missing.”
Zhong Ye immediately cursed under his breath.
“Isn’t this a bit ridiculous? Invading my jungle at level two?” His temples throbbed painfully. “I’ve only cleared two camps—two!”
Each buff area has three camps, but on red side, one of the small camps is positioned far away due to the terrain. Pathing over to it wastes a lot of time, so most junglers skip it on their first clear in order to finish double buffs and hit level 3 faster.
They were on red side this game. The river ward near the blue side had been placed by the support, and Qiu Feichen had been keeping an eye on it. He immediately said, “The ward I placed earlier didn’t see Wind. Did he go around through the other brush?”
Chen Xiaoyun replied lazily, “Or maybe he’s just still mid, pressuring you a bit, Xiao Ye.”
He wasn’t worried at all. Ever since the coach had once again forced him to pick White Hidden Lord, Chen Xiaoyun knew the one who should be anxious definitely wasn’t him. Of course, he still intended to play the match properly. He dropped a ward in the right-side river brush, but it revealed no one.
With no other choice, Zhong Ye went to clear the topmost small camp in the blue side first. It wasn’t until nearly 2:40 that he dared approach the buff area again—and even then, he probed the brush with an ability like someone bracing for death. Only after confirming his jungle was intact did he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
It was true that everyone started with a free ward, but nearly three minutes in, the Dragon Monk still hadn’t even seen his second buff. Zhong Ye’s tempo was already behind. If he burned the only vision tool he had left here as well, it would be extremely hard for him to make any plays in the next few minutes.
But if there was no counter-jungle—where had Wind gone?
“Be careful, they didn’t come into my jungle.”
Zhong Ye had overthought it so much that even taking a buff made him nervous, half-expecting a Phantom Trickster to suddenly jump out of a corner. His teammates in top and bot lanes cursed under their breath when they heard this and, almost in unison, heightened their vigilance, shifting into clearly defensive positioning.
From the commentators’ god’s-eye view, this play was crystal clear. Chao Mi slapped his thigh hard and exclaimed, “This is the moment—this psychological warfare! High-level mind games are terrifying!”
The director briefly revealed the fog of war before closing it again. Sui Ning was standing in the blind spot of red side vision in the right-side river. He knew that Chen Xiaoyun, with his lane being pushed in, had no way to extend vision outward. So he smartly didn’t enter the brush. Instead, he exploited the lingering-vision mechanic to leave behind a fake visual cue as he drifted downward. As a result, both Chen Xiaoyun and Zhong Ye’s first instinct was that he was invading the blue side.
Because of this, Chen Xiaoyun’s precious trinket ward ended up being placed in the lower river. It revealed nothing—yet still put significant psychological pressure on GEN.
Chao Mi said, “GEN has completely lost track of Wind. The lanes that should be playing aggressively now don’t dare make a move! JGNoob even decided to start on a small camp first—this has a huge impact on a Dragon Monk’s jungle tempo. This champion’s strongest timing is at the three-minute mark! Other junglers are still struggling with their buffs at that time!”
“Top and bot have both stopped pushing forward. GEN’s a little panicked,” Qing Ci said helplessly. “Who would’ve thought Wind is actually just standing mid? In the past, we used to mock mids who cleared waves and didn’t roam as ‘kind mothers guarding the mid lane.’ But in pro play, doing it like this actually works.”
Chao Mi grinned. “That depends on who your opponent is. This trick definitely wouldn’t work in Bronze or Silver. But GEN is thinking a layer deeper than regular players—and besides, they just got punished by a level-two gank bot last game! On top of that, I think it also has to do with Wind’s playstyle and sheer intimidation factor. Swap the ID and it might not work at all.”
[I do this in Silver too, so I = Wind (kappa)]
[Clearing waves without roaming isn’t hard. I do it in Diamond, and my teammates flamed me all game (kappa)]
[Learned it—next time my teammates flame me, I’ll just say “Little Shark 32566,” then ask them to look at who I am before talking (kappa)]
[GEN looks so constrained. Those defensive wards didn’t spot anything—so he must just be mid holding vision. Anyone who thinks for a second could figure it out. Their jungler’s tempo completely collapsed.
[ Another “expert.” Last game, Wind also disappeared at two minutes, GEN didn’t back off, and bot lane got blown up by a 4-man dive. Would you dare gamble this time? At the end of the day, PNG has the initiative. Can you really say that if top and bot didn’t retreat, Wind wouldn’t go gank?]
“The Dragon Monk’s abilities have execute effects on low-health targets, and at level two he already has two mobility skills. Yunyu’s on the Void Devourer this game—without Smite, the success rate of invading is low, and he can’t lock anyone down,” Sui Ning explained his earlier decision to his teammates. “The second wave hadn’t arrived yet either, so a level-two gank was unlikely to succeed, and it might even expose our own jungle.”
He thought for a moment, then pinged the top-lane brush. “Top should be warded. Once that vision expires, you’ll be level four—we can gank top then.”
Ji Yunyu replied, “Got it.”
Even if Zhong Ye’s game sense wasn’t as sharp as Ji Yunyu’s, his hero simply had strong early clears and farmed fast. If left unchecked, as a pro player—even if he were a pig—he’d still know how to counter-jungle and gank. That was why Sui Ning quickly decided to apply pressure by denying vision. Given the Dragon Monk’s strength, he could have easily cleared only buffs in the lower jungle and ganked with double buffs at three minutes, or invaded to look for Ji Yunyu’s position.
But now—
The young man glanced at the clock in the top-right corner: 3:21. Zhong Ye still hadn’t shown himself, clearly having abandoned the fast level-three route.
“I understand all the logic,” Lin Zhaoxu said. “But can you explain why he gets to be Yunyu, and I’m just the useless son? Am I not your precious baby Zhaoxu?”
[PNG_Wind]: ?
Cheng Su rolled his eyes. “Ignore him. He just got discharged from the hospital.”
Ji Yunyu let out a cold laugh. “Who signed off on that? Call the police.”
[PNG_Mior]: ?
“I’m about to cause a scene,” Lin Zhaoxu said calmly, last-hitting a ranged minion with steady hands.
Cheng Su chuckled. “Quit yapping.”
Wei Ye wasn’t happy. “How can you talk like that? Of course, he’s a baby!”
Lin Zhaoxu blushed. “Huh? Really…?”
Wei Ye: “A low-IQ Teletubby baby.”
PNG_Mior signals that an enemy is missing!
PNG_Mior signals that an enemy is missing!
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