As soon as the two champions were locked in, the big screen simultaneously projected live shots of the two HTG players. HTG’s fans instantly lost their composure.
“Heretic! Heretic!”
“Give my Brother B the Lai pick—Xiao Yu, you’re my dad now!!”
“Bo——ring——AAAAH!!!”
“Kaelos Blade does not strike the nameless—Brother B, charge!!!”
“Wow, is Boring turning on serious mode right from the start?! He wasn’t like this against PNG in the regular season!”
Chao Mi was so shocked he leaned all the way back in his chair. “Lai is one of Boring’s old signature champions. With recent patch changes, assassin mids have dropped off across the board, and Lai was hit pretty hard too—his pick rate has fallen below 5%!”
“And since the Summer Split, the HPL has seen a trend of mid laners giving up Ignite and opting for Flash + Teleport. Running TP on Lai takes another chunk out of the assassin’s signature solo-kill potential!”
“But in Boring’s hands, he’s a completely different beast!”
[Damn, the last time I saw Brother B’s Lai was… the last time I saw it!]
[Hype!! Does this count as ‘the sharpest blade of the Kaelos Empire only kills the strongest’? That’s some serious respect for Wind.]
[Ten-thousand-hour mid-lane Lai main here, tearing up. In domestic pro play, Boring might be the only one who can still run Lai mid.]
[The devs say the era of assassin mids is long gone. Lai players were forced to bring Smite and buy jungle items—only Boring said no. Maybe that’s the stubborn pride of the King of Mid, QuQ.]
[ Hold on, who crowned him king??]
The more Chao Mi watched, the more subtle the final picks felt. “Interesting. HTG’s last two picks are really interesting!”
“Lament Singer Linafa is one of the fastest-clearing AP junglers in the current patch. At maximum efficiency, she can clear double buffs plus one and a half quadrants in 3 minutes 04 seconds—second only to the AP clear-speed queen, Raptor Druid, at 2:56, and that’s with Druid being able to leap terrain from level one!”
“At that time mark, most junglers would be lucky to have their second buff down to half HP. Like in PNG vs GEN earlier—GEN’s jungler started red, got harassed, and still hadn’t even seen what blue buff looked like at three minutes!”
While you’re still climbing hills and crossing rivers, someone else is already ganking a side lane with double buffs. That’s the gap.
After a pause, Chao Mi continued, “Based on past experience, HTG usually doesn’t invest too much energy into early-game skirmishing—especially in the jungle. They prefer to let Viy farm up first. With Linafa this game, Viy’s growth speed is going to be terrifying.”
“But to force-pick Kaelos Blade mid just to match this AP jungler—won’t that be a net loss? Double AP could work just fine, too!”
Qing Ci shook his head. “I think there are two considerations here. First, PNG has basically banned out all the easy-to-pair mages. Second, Lai isn’t as bad as people think.”
“His Q refunds on kill, his ultimate is a large-area explosive AOE with self-stealth and a second execution slash. Combined with his passive terrain-hopping for rapid roams, he can form a very strong direct matchup against Wind’s Phantom Trickster. His weakness is also obvious—the full damage of his ultimate blades relies heavily on teammates. If the comp is bad, Lai’s damage drops off hard too.”
“But this game HTG has Ram top plus Spirit of the Forest support. Spirit of the Forest opens with ult to pull everyone together, Ram follows with a two-stage AOE knock-up, and Lai’s blades will explode with damage in seconds.”
Qing Ci said, “That’s basically a perfect teamfight.”
“Of course, Lai’s little broken blade still has a lot of pressure laning against Fran. You can only say Boring is bold because his skill is there.”
——
Soon, the game officially began.
Right after the loading screen ended, Sui Ning said in a low voice:
“Stay sharp. This one’s going to be rough.”
Unlike the commentators, who focused their attention on Feng Yi, Lai—the chief assassin of Kaelos—didn’t pressure Sui Ning much. But the moment he saw the opposing jungler lock in Linafa, Sui Ning’s heart jumped. A sense of danger surged up—
This was the hand clamped around PNG’s throat. Coach Tang Yu’s real killing move.
Sui Ning subconsciously turned to look at Ji Yunyu and saw that Ji Yunyu had also wiped the smile from his face, brows knitted tightly—it was clear they’d reached the same conclusion.
PNG’s mid–jungle dominance in the early game rested on two secrets. First, winning mid-lane priority. Second, the jungler clearing quickly to reach level 3, ensuring the two could link up smoothly after Sui Ning cleared the first wave.
Because the mid wave arrives first and is also cleared first among the three lanes, top and bottom are still busy last-hitting when this happens. With proper harassment from teammates, PNG could even arrive while the enemy side lanes were still level 1.
Level 3 versus level 1—that’s a straight-up level advantage.
At that point, even at level 2, Sui Ning could choose to roam, help Ji Yunyu defend the jungle, or restrict the opposing mid laner.
But what if the enemy jungler clears faster than yours—much faster? In pro play, speed often means danger.
Linafa doesn’t really excel at teamfighting or ganking compared to traditional jungle kings. She has one defining trait: absurdly fast clears. Her standard playstyle is simple—farm camps nonstop.
Most teams previously avoided Linafa because they didn’t dare place their bets on a “I eat waves and clear camps first, but I’m just watching in teamfights” kind of “true jungler.” But with HTG already having a perfect teamfight setup in top, mid, and bot, Linafa’s jungle pressure only adds icing on the cake.
Ji Yunyu’s face darkened. “We might have to swap jungles.”
Hearing that, Cheng Su immediately dropped a vision ward at the river choke by the red side jungle to track the enemy’s movement.
What he didn’t know was that less than two seconds after the ward went down, four HTG players had already grouped up and crouched in a brush inside fog of war—just one step away from being revealed.
“Bait them a bit,” Feng Yi said tersely. “Don’t actually fight. We’re not all here yet.”
“Got it.”
From the god’s-eye view, Qing Ci immediately picked up on both teams’ movements and said urgently, “HTG’s comp is very strong for a level-one fight. They’re grouping up to invade PNG’s red side!”
“On PNG’s side, Erllit has a ward at the red-side choke point. If HTG takes one more step forward, they’ll be spotted! I don’t think PNG dares to defend this red, but—why is HTG missing one person? Huh?!”
At this moment, the jungler Qu Feiying was standing in HTG’s own red-side jungle, waiting for the camps to spawn, with no intention of invading at all.
“What does this mean??”
The commentators were dumbfounded.
What is HTG doing? If the jungler isn’t coming, how are you invading the jungle? Cloud has Smite! Smite does double damage to jungle monsters—way stronger than all your abilities put together!
After standing there stunned for at least five seconds, Qing Ci and Chao Mi exchanged a glance and barely managed to keep their expressions under control. They figured HTG wouldn’t make such a brain-dead mistake—this had to be some kind of setup.
With a head full of questions, Chao Mi racked his brain but still couldn’t make sense of it.
HTG was unusually cunning.
Breathe, Yu Ze, HTG’s support, might look tall and burly and a bit simple, but in reality he was a seasoned veteran who had followed the team to Worlds multiple times.
His big-stage experience far surpassed Cheng Su’s—enough that he could analyze old match footage, summarize patterns, and even predict Cheng Su’s playstyle.
“That kid definitely warded here.”
Yu Ze pinged a spot on the minimap, his tone certain. He could even guess exactly where the edge of that vision was. “No rush. Guesz, just rub back and forth in this brush. Walk into his ward and show them that we even called the top laner down—that we’re definitely going into red. Later, the three of us will step out together. Style, you go last.”
“OK.”
Yu Cai responded, moving Furnace Ram Spirit forward and back, looking exactly like he was waiting for teammates to gather before invading.
Seeing this, Cheng Su made an immediate call. Beneath his cold voice was a trace of tension.
“They’re going into red.”
Less than a minute into the game, Cheng Su was already feeling the pressure. PNG’s bot lane matchup was disadvantaged and desperately needed jungle cover on the lower side—especially at level two.
But HTG’s intention was clearly to force Ji Yunyu into the top jungle. That would leave PNG’s bot lane isolated and helpless. Even if Ji Yunyu wanted to respond, there was no way he could clear faster than Qu Feiying.
“Hard to hold.”
Ji Yunyu frowned as well—his concern ran even deeper than Cheng Su’s.
From this single group movement alone, Qu Feiying’s possible jungle routes already branched into at least five or six variations, and Ji Yunyu would have to adjust accordingly.
But for some reason… Ji Yunyu clenched his teeth. He felt something was off. A vague idea flickered in his mind, obscured by fog, impossible to see clearly.
——
“PNG is spreading out. Cloud should be getting ready to start on blue.”
Unable to read the players’ mind games, Chao Mi assumed HTG was about to four-man steal red, looking utterly confused. “HTG is walking out now… doesn’t that mean they’re all visible on PNG’s ward? Did they not notice the ward PNG placed?”
“Honestly, I think four-man stealing red like this is still way too sketchy. No jungler, no Smite—that’s the original sin!”
The commentators couldn’t wrap their heads around it. “It’s slow, and what if PNG snatches it with a single ability? Wouldn’t all that time be wasted? What about the minion waves? And they even called Guesz over—one mistake here and they could completely ruin their own top lane!”
Not just the casters—fans in the arena also thought HTG had lost their minds.
[???? Is HTG throwing?]
[PNG isn’t even defending. A free red, and Viy doesn’t come to take it—he insists on starting his own??]
[What kind of psych ward jungle start is this? ICU scrim?]
[Semifinals and this is what we get??]
Meanwhile, backstage, Tang Yu heard the commentators and burst out laughing without a shred of decorum. “Ha—hahahaha! These commentators are way too funny. I love it when they analyze things so seriously and get everything completely wrong!”
He propped his chin up with interest, clearly waiting for the next punchline.
On the other side, in PNG’s backstage lounge.
After a long silence, Chen Chen suddenly slapped his thigh hard, the sharp, loud smack making everyone around him jump.
“That bastard Tang Yu!” he cursed through clenched teeth, cracking his knuckles with a series of pops.
The analyst beside him nearly dropped his pen and hurriedly stopped him. “Hey, hey, hey—bro, there are cameras backstage!”
Chen Chen snapped back, “He loves playing dirty tricks!”
“Yeah, yeah, absolutely!”
After venting for a bit, Chen Chen could only glare viciously at his own players’ champion portraits. “It’s a trap. It’s all an act! You think they’re taking red, but they’re actually trying to bait you into swapping jungles, understand?”
“If Yunyu plans to trade red sides—clear blue first and then go to Viy’s red—it’ll already be gone! By the time you realize and turn back, it’s too late. Linafa is one step ahead, and once she’s ahead, she stays ahead!”
“But they have tells. Hovering back and forth in that brush for so long without entering the jungle—that’s tell number one. The way they walk out one by one, deliberately lining up at the edge of vision—that’s tell number two. And the biggest tell of all: the jungler isn’t in the group!”
He pressed his index and middle fingers together and held them to his temple in a classic psychic-telepathy pose, desperately hoping he could somehow transmit his thoughts to the players on stage.
“Brats, hurry up and wake up already!!”
——
“This doesn’t make sense.”
After repeatedly checking the minimap, Sui Ning’s expression grew grave. “Is HTG really invading our red? Did they see the ward we placed?”
He wasn’t just asking his teammates—he was asking himself. Sui Ning hadn’t ignored that fleeting sense of unease from earlier. On the stage, that kind of feeling was more like a warning.
Lin Zhaoxu glanced at the map. “They kind of have to invade, don’t they? Even Guesz is here. The ward… hey, support, I’m talking to you.”
Cheng Su, uncharacteristically hesitant, said, “…They probably didn’t see it.”
Sui Ning pressed on. “Then what are they still waiting for? Fine if they’re waiting, but why are they even lining up to leave the brush?”
Lin Zhaoxu said, “We line up when we leave brush too. We can’t break formation—aren’t you the one who says that all the time?”
Cheng Su replied, “But we don’t line up like a boot-camp platoon.”
After a pause, Sui Ning added, “And… why hasn’t Viy shown on vision yet? At level one, Linafa can scout brush whether she takes Q or W. Is he afraid of getting CC’d, so he’s walking in the back? But even Style has shown already.”
“Uh… maybe he’s taking a detour? Coming through the bottom tri-brush?”
“Isn’t he afraid of running into our bot lane?”
The voice chat fell silent for a second.
That’s when Lin Zhaoxu finally caught on too—and realized something was seriously off.
Ji Yunyu said in a low voice, “It is strange. I suspect they know exactly where our ward is. All of these movements are deliberately being shown to us.”
Sui Ning spoke slowly. “Then that means—”
“Viy is taking red.”
“Viy is taking red!”
The two said it in unison.
The fog blocking their view completely dispersed, and Ji Yunyu’s heartbeat spiked.
He was overjoyed at finding a teammate whose thinking was perfectly in sync with his—and exhilarated at seeing through the opponent’s trap. His instincts screamed that this was the answer.
HTG intended to exploit PNG’s plan to trade red sides: clear their own red first, then use Linafa’s fast clear to create a timing advantage and sprint straight into PNG’s buff jungle.
In the worst-case scenario, Ji Yunyu would open with a single buff plus two small camps—level two.
Meanwhile, the opponent would clear three camps and be level four and a half. If they then ganked a lane and soaked a bit of minion XP, they’d hit level five.
At that point, what level would PNG’s sidelanes be? Even with fast pushing, maybe barely level four. But this game PNG’s bot lane was already at a matchup disadvantage and didn’t dare push; on top of losing the jungle, by the time they arrived, Lin Zhaoxu might only be level three.
Level five versus level three—PNG’s bot lane could practically be declared dead on the spot.
Thankfully, they had already discovered this fatal trap.
Ji Yunyu shuddered involuntarily, a lingering trace of fear mixed with far stronger excitement. The arena air conditioning was on full blast, yet his palms were slick with sweat.
Facing an opponent like HTG—one that would kill you instantly the moment you showed the slightest lapse—made every cell in his body boil.
He steadied himself and replayed the line of reasoning in his head. His jungler’s instincts told him this was also an opportunity.
And he decided to take a risk for that opportunity.
Sui Ning glanced sideways, as if he knew exactly what Ji Yunyu was thinking, and repeated the words he had once said to him that day:
“Do what you want.”
Oh no.
Ji Yunyu thought, I actually want to kiss him on stage.
----------
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