“Game 4’s draft…” Qing Ci stared at the screen, rubbing his chin as he thought. “Both teams’ compositions counter each other to some extent, and their strengths and weaknesses are pretty distinct. Just looking at it, it’s honestly hard to say who drafted better.”
“Really? I actually think PNG’s draft is very aggressive this game—every role got champions that fit perfectly,” Chao Mi immediately countered. “Aside from Electromancer having some ranged poke, everyone on Navic is short-ranged. Even if bot lane gets White Bird + Shadow Hawk, once it reaches mid to late game, it’ll still be very hard to lock down Mior’s Explorer.”
“PNG’s kiting ability is just too strong. Navic is at a natural disadvantage—it’s going to be very hard for them to start fights!”
[?? I don’t get it—can someone explain why it’s hard to engage? Doesn’t Navic have tons of CC?]
[Chao Mi is just blindly praising PNG again, Navic can engage just fine this game]
[PNG’s double carries both have multiple dashes, plus a Storm woman’s support that can peel like crazy. I don’t see how Navic even touches a hair on Mior’s head. What, you’re relying on Nox’s coinflip plays?]
[? Why are you touching Son Xuxu’s hair]
[? bro above you…]
[Navic really is short-ranged though, their engage relies heavily on Flash]
[Still don’t get why they didn’t give Mistake a fighter. Peerless Swordmaster with four dashes—RAQA combo would just delete Explorer]
[Didn’t work earlier so they don’t dare pick it anymore, Ye’s Treant is legit]
Across the various streams on Shark Platform, viewers flooded the screen with comments during the loading screen.
Tofu glanced at the chat and noticed the argument was still focused on the top lane pick, so he spoke up: “This game, Mistake got a bit set up, honestly. Picking Wildfang to add teamfight CC isn’t wrong—this champ has had tons of highlight moments where an R+Flash slams four or even five people into a wall. One wall, one Flash, one miracle!”
Wildfang was, after all, a high-presence teamfight top laner in the league. No one could deny its ability to create miracle fights.
Tofu, the master of balanced commentary, smoothly transitioned after praising: “But the key is, Wildfang’s engage is extremely dependent on terrain and positioning. His ultimate only stuns if it knocks enemies into walls! Now look at PNG—both carries have dashes every five to six seconds and can cross walls; the jungler, no need to mention, Void Devourer is basically a tunnel-digging machine—what’s a wall to him? The squishy support even has knockback. The only immobile one is Myerii’s Treant.”
At this point, Tofu made a slightly pained expression at the camera: “You can’t seriously have your top laner engage on the enemy tank every fight, right? PNG would be laughing in their dreams. Wildfang’s max-level ultimate has over an 80-second cooldown—if it whiffs, that’s a minute and a half of doing nothing! So now you see why I say Mistake got set up. Even though he picked late, there just weren’t many champions left that fit Navic’s needs. He had to bite the bullet and pick Wildfang to pair with Shadow Hawk - Nox to boost teamfight strength—but I think Pan Pan’s plan might fall flat. If Mior’s Explorer opts for a more utility-focused build with slows and cooldown reduction, he could kite Mistake to death from range.”
“Best case, they would’ve gotten Blood Count. Their mid picked AD Electromancer, so the team lacks AP damage. Count could build semi-tank AP and frontline. But PNG isn’t dumb—they’d never let that through. Another option would’ve been sticking with a fighter top: as long as you reach the carries, you either kill them or get killed—just depends who’s stronger.”
“Picking Wildfang feels like conceding a bit. To deal with the Treant, they had to pick a similar tank to stall the lane. Then in teamfights it’s just two frontlines bashing each other. Sadly, a top-tier side-lane carry like Mistake is being forced to switch roles in the finals.”
Tofu sighed. “Pan Pan’s still too cautious. If Treant is that hard to deal with, just ban it. Why keep forcing your own carry top laner to fight the opponent on their terms?”
[Compared to earlier games, top lane impact really hasn’t matched the Treant. Honestly, why doesn’t Navic just pick or ban it?]
[It’s not the Treant that’s strong—it’s Wei’s Treant. Get it right.]
[Still better to ban it. The champ itself isn’t that strong, and Mistake doesn’t look great on it]
[Pan Pan: Give me 100 bans and Wei Ye still won’t touch Treant next life]
[LMAO the bans are already all luxury ocean-view villas, which one are you dropping?]
[Why not? Dream big—I’ll start: remove Aeria from bans]
[Impossible]
[Impossible x10086]
Seeing the flood of “impossible” comments, Tofu perked up: “Why impossible? As a top-tier server player, my intuition tells me—ban slots are like royal power, nothing is eternal. No champion gets to sit permanently in the ban list!”
[? damn]
[Is this reverse jinxing?]
[Fun fact: if PNG loses, there won’t be another game, so no more draft problems~]
Tofu clicked his tongue softly. His reasoning was actually solid—Mistake, Jiang Yin, Navic’s cornerstone top laner and a top-tier carry comparable to Yu Cai in the Summer Split, had been invisible for two straight games in the finals. There had to be a reason.
As a coach, Pan Pan naturally had to find a way to activate Jiang Yin. So Game 4 wasn’t just a match point game—it was also a preview of how Navic would handle teams like PNG in future international events.
Navic was testing whether Jiang Yin could fully transition into a frontline utility role. Against PNG—a composition extremely unfriendly to Wildfang—if this worked, it would solve their top lane issues entirely: they could save ban slots, neutralize the Treant problem, and strengthen mid-to-late game teamfights.
But what if it failed?
From this Game 4 draft, it was clear that Treant held very high priority for PNG. So should it be banned in the first phase? With only three ban slots, who gets cut?
Currently, Navic’s first three bans—Shadow of Vengeance and Specter of Shadow—weren’t just targeting individual champions. Shadow of Vengeance, with its fast jungle clear and near-global ultimate, could fit into many compositions. Ji Yunyu hadn’t lost a single game with it in the regular season.
The same logic applied to Specter of Shadow: letting it through meant that Fanlei could also be picked, effectively expanding PNG’s champion pool and lineup flexibility while freely giving them a highly potent mid-jungle duo.
The key issue was Navic’s two mid laners. Neither Meng Xiyue nor Xiang Jin had any “verifiable” record of practicing alongside Pei Xingyi as a duo. They didn’t appear on the national server leaderboard, at most they had scrimmed a dozen games in private, so using a pick to counter-ban was unlikely.
By comparison, the least threatening was the mechanical prodigy, Stellar Sprite. As a pure assassin, her teamfight impact is minimal; how effective she is depends almost entirely on the player’s skill.
Tofu went over it in his head again and again, convinced that his reasoning was flawless. He felt a surge of anticipation, but couldn’t say it out loud, so he yanked his own thigh under the desk.
His expression instantly twisted into something fierce.
[?????]
[Two minutes into the game and Tofu already looks like a dead horse, what’s up with that?]
[Accurate, objective, just like my roommate]
——
“Shadow Hawk is strong at level 1. Let’s get vision first to see which buff their jungler starts with. No level-1 fight.”
Sui Ning said this while quickly scanning the item shop.
Phantom Trickster has low base armor and HP, making her vulnerable in lane. Against Electromancer, a long-range AD burst champion, she ideally needs extra potions or armor at the start.
But Sui Ning barely hesitated and abandoned this defensive approach. Instead, he went with the more common Rank setup: a 400-gold Magic Ring plus two 100-gold health potions, spending all 500 starting gold.
His plan this game was to play more aggressively with the jungler in the early to mid-game. The Magic Ring’s early AP and mana regen were crucial, and the two potions ensured stronger sustain in lane.
The two commentators watching from the god-view immediately noticed Sui Ning’s build. Qing Ci chuckled: “Wind’s item confidence hasn’t wavered. Phantom Trickster is fragile with short range and weak versus Electromancer in lane. Most people would play it safe and go armor.”
After all, everyone has burst skills, but Phantom Trickster’s skill usage often leaves her standing idle afterward, while Electromancer, a semi-marksman, can continue to poke with high attack speed and damage. Shadowmoon Gun works similarly; in a sense, Electromancer is his lower-tier substitute.
“I’ll start at red, push downward. Top lane’s hard to work with,” PNG grouped and moved to establish vision. Ji Yunyu signaled at the red buff, “Can we check which side they’re starting jungle on?”
“Blue side, probably,” Cheng Su replied. He and Wei Ye moved to the front, placing wards and catching the faint shadow of Navic’s bot lane duo.
But since he didn’t see Pei Xingyi directly, Cheng Su didn’t dare confirm with certainty.
“They probably didn’t see me,” Lin Zhaoxu said. “Should I try to fake it?”
He pointed toward the right river. As PNG was red side this game, Lin Zhaoxu, the marksman, was supposed to help the bottom-side jungler with buffs. But Ji Yunyu opted to start on the top side, making Lin Zhaoxu’s movements a key source of information about the jungler’s path.
“I can go to the choke point and leave a fake ward, make them think we’re starting blue.”
“Isn’t that a bit over the top? Feels fake.”
“Who cares? What if they fall for it? It costs me nothing to take a few steps. Just don’t expose yourself top.”
“You think I’m that smart? My sneaky position is basically invisible already.”
Lin Zhaoxu smirked, “You don’t really think your little Wind can block my fat tree, do you?”
Sui Ning: …
Sui Ning was momentarily speechless and started issuing instructions: “Elementary school arguments aside, just place wards where needed. Myerii, get to the red-side bush and hold a position. They’ll definitely enter red to ward—spot it, or Yunyu can’t rotate the jungle.”
“Don’t reveal bot-side vision. Remember to empty some skills; otherwise, they can see from our mana bars that blue hasn’t started yet.”
Wei Ye immediately obedient: “Got it, bro.”
Lin Zhaoxu followed suit: “No problem, bro.”
Both started working diligently. Wei Ye hid in the red-side corner bush without pause.
Meanwhile, Bian Cheng wanted to extend vision deeper into PNG’s territory, but Sui Ning kept him in check, preventing rash moves.
“Navic’s probing, but they can’t push their wards forward. Wind’s positioning is exquisite! At this distance, Nox could try W to knock up Wind and find an opportunity, but PNG’s vision is excellent. Nox can’t act without seeing others; W at level 1 has too long a cooldown—miss and you flash-locked immediately!”
The two commentators tried to read the players’ minds. Qing Ci first noticed Bian Cheng lingering and then saw Lin Zhaoxu, revealing a knowing smile: “PNG is being really cunning here, keeping Navic’s attention on the river. Especially with Mior’s vision—he can’t show or hide properly. Too tempting to punish!”
Chao Mi nodded excitedly: “Exactly. Nox must want to hit Mior and Wind hard! But the real key is that Cloud has snuck into red with Myerii. PNG will start red. Navic’s vision doesn’t see this—will they realize?”
Fans were curious too, though most didn’t care much about these tactics—it’s just a jungler taking a buff, how important can it be?
Navic lost significant time at level 1. Bian Cheng was stuck on the right river side, while Sui Ning pressured him from the front-left. Bian Cheng furrowed his brows in frustration: “Do you see Cloud?”
“He’s warding, blue start,” Pei Xingyi confidently replied. “I placed a ward; his icon just flashed on the map.”
“Are you sure?” Bian Cheng asked again. Perhaps it was the champion support’s intuition; his sixth sense was telling him something was off.
“Sure… I guess. Mior also showed himself; that last movement should be helping with the blue buff,” Pei Xingyi thought for two seconds before saying, “Red start is fine too. I’ll head top and we can 3v1.”
Bian Cheng furrowed his brow tighter. There was a brief silence over the mic before team captain Meng Xiyue pressed his lips together and made a decision: “Top lane, give vision of the red-side jungle.”
But the top-lane orphan path had only one free ward with a 180-second cooldown. Using it now meant that if Ji Yunyu tried to gank top at level 3, there would be no warning at all. Everyone understood this without Meng Xiyue needing to explain, so Zou Jiayou volunteered: “I’ll place it. The support still has a ward.”
Bian Cheng hesitated. The bottom-lane terrain was complex, and one ward was clearly insufficient. Perhaps missing the chance to place vision in PNG’s blue side earlier had already cost them an opportunity. But… fine, let it go. Bian Cheng relented.
In the end, the ward only caught a fat tree passing by—hardly looking like it was helping with jungle control. Navic didn’t get much information from the red-side jungle.
——
Having witnessed Zou Jiayou place the ward, Wei Ye felt he deserved an Oscar this year.
He took a deep breath, steadied himself, and controlled Verdant Treant to circle the red buff spawn completely. He deliberately moved out of the fog of war and “passed by” Navic’s vision, pretending to come from mid lane back to top, creating the illusion that PNG’s red jungle was empty—
It was so realistic that Wei Ye’s face remained expressionless, his chest heaving violently, silently repeating: this maneuver is ridiculously convincing.
The next second, he couldn’t hold back.
“Damn it! Liome used a ward! There’s only one support ward bottom, do you hear me?!!”
Wei Ye slammed his mouse onto the desk, face twisted, the sudden crash echoing in his teammates’ headsets. “Marksman has no vision! My Feng-Yun, you know what to do! Flank from behind, kill them!!”
Ji Yunyu’s mouth twitched: “…you almost scared me off my buff.”
“Come on, King of Jungle, that’s it?”
Sui Ning stayed calm, expression unchanged: “Don’t slam so hard, you’ll break it.”
Wei Ye grumbled: “My mouse is top quality!”
“I meant the desk ^^.”
“Damn, Feng-bao learned yin-yang attacks too?”
“Still learning.”
Lin Zhaoxu couldn’t take it: “Hello! All you stand-up comedians, pay attention! Minion wave incoming, focus on lane. Anyone misses a minion, do a handstand and eat Oreos, over!”
Teammates: …no need.
Ji Yunyu didn’t comment on his teammates clowning in the finals. He had Wei Ye clear two small camps quickly and take the red buff, speeding up his jungle clear immensely.
Wei Ye marked the exact ward location on the minimap. Ji Yunyu instinctively calculated Navic’s vision range.
The ward was placed by Zou Jiayou. Perhaps because he, as an marksman, rarely handled level-1 observation of the opponent’s top jungle, or maybe the blacked-out map filled with fog intimidated him slightly. In any case, Zou Jiayou’s control of vision points was not as precise as his teammates—the championship jungle-support duo.
This was the first trap.
He placed the ward at a relatively safe choke point and retreated successfully, but didn’t cover the top-most bush of the red buff area, leaving a vacuum zone for Ji Yunyu to move through freely.
Qing Ci immediately lamented: “Such a waste! The most critical spot wasn’t seen, 180 seconds of vision down the drain! I doubt Liome expected Cloud’s calculation to be this precise, perfectly cutting the flank! So both junglers will start symmetrically this game. Truik on blue side still starts red and heads top, but coordinating with Mistake to gank the Flash-enabled Treant… will the damage even be enough?”
“You need mid lane to coordinate the gank, but honestly, both top and bottom are hard to gank this game,” Chao Mi said. “Top is tanky, bottom has too much mobility. Navic lacks reliable crowd control early; diving under tower is difficult. Looking at it this way, Navic’s early game feels a bit off—whatever they try is uncomfortable. They can only leverage mid-game Electromancer poke or force fights late.”
“Exactly. Plus, mid lane is peaceful, which is not good for Navic!”
Electromancer’s early strength against Phantom Trickster lies in using his 675-unit auto attack range to chip HP before level 6. E skill, Electro Net, adds 70 range to all projectiles passing through it, affecting auto attacks as well. Even perfect dodging of E+Q can’t avoid the supreme auto attack.
…Theoretically. In practice, players constantly redefine the audience’s understanding, as now with Meng Xiyue. Honestly, lane pressure against Sui Ning isn’t small, but the first two games, due to hero traits, neither side tried to dominate lane. This game was completely different.
Once again, Meng Xiyue was forced to expend E duration under Sui Ning’s auto-range pressure. He looked down at his character on-screen, smiling wryly. He knew clearly: if he didn’t find a way to handle this opponent, he’d be like a cat slipping fish through its paws.
“Electromancer’s lack of mobility is magnified in your presence,” Meng Xiyue murmured, unconsciously stroking the mouse side button. “Troublesome…”
Unfortunately, his sigh didn’t reach the stage. Sui Ning continued silently last-hitting minions. This had been trained countless times; laning details determined 99% of the outcome through fundamentals. Now it was just a showcase.
Xu Zhiyi once asked him what it felt like to lane against the Moon Goddess. His answer had been
… Perhaps, “everything as usual.”
For Navic, if they couldn’t pressure Sui Ning’s HP and compress the wave, Phantom Wraith’s mobility and teleport meant he could threaten both lanes anytime.
At 3:22, Ji Yunyu skipped the last small camp in the blue zone and arrived bottom lane on time. Navic’s marksman still had the free ward on cooldown, and the support placed their only precious ward at the tri-bush junction. Lin Zhaoxu nearly broke the map signal trying to alert Ji Yunyu.
Normally, Void Devourer wouldn’t be done clearing the jungle yet, with no energy for a gank. But Ji Yunyu relied on this “normality,” checking minion positions and planning to sneak into the bush with the wave when Navic’s bottom lane was weakest.
This was the first trap. Ji Yunyu was confident he hadn’t appeared in Navic’s vision.
Bian Cheng sensed danger. The support radar sent another jolt of panic, but the missing vision made it hard to pinpoint the threat. He instinctively glanced up to infer something from mid-lane, but saw nothing.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yin placed a protective ward in top river tri-bush. Pei Xingyi was on the way.
Both teams’ strategies mirrored each other, creating a strangely harmonious spectacle for the audience. From god-view, the minimap was surrounded by countless signals: [On the way], [Initiating attack], [Enemy vision here], [Teleport ready].
Bian Cheng asked again: “Where’s Cloud?”
Pei Xingyi instinctively replied: “Don’t see him. His jungle is a bit slower; maybe rotating red to top bush.” He deduced this from Wei Ye’s unpredictable farming display.
Neither Pei Xingyi nor Jiang Yin had wards to confirm, but Wei Ye, this sneaky veteran, had avoided returning to tower for 3 minutes, preferring to farm jungle experience. Suspicious behavior never lies.
If the play seemed fake, Pei Xingyi wouldn’t be fooled. Wei Ye’s twitching movements and skill conservation hinted at indecision yet aggression. Pei Xingyi had seen this in many opposing top laners.
Thus, he guessed Ji Yunyu was nearby.
Bian Cheng nodded, relying on teammate info, a seemingly calm river, and the top-right time. He relaxed his Gank-alert focus, diverting more attention to lane—
Yes, Shadow Hawk is T0 bottom lane, but professional opponents aren’t idiots. To fully leverage a T0 champion still requires utmost concentration.
This was the third trap.
----------
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