As the minion waves met, Holden instinctively glanced toward Sui Ning on the screen. As expected, Sui Ning showed no mercy—Soulreaper King was clearing the wave at maximum speed.
“Damn!” Holden cursed under his breath, spamming assist pings on the minimap. “Meurs, where are you?!”
“***, Cloud is camping me!”
Meurs was startled when Ji Yunyu suddenly jumped out from the fog of war. With Holden urging him at the same time, he was caught between running and staying—just two seconds of hesitation cost him a full combo of damage. His temper flared instantly. “F***, how did he know I was coming to countergank for you?!”
He hadn’t even reached the countergank position yet!
What is this, playing with map hacks in an official match?
“Did anyone clear vision in blue side earlier?” the support from bot lane asked quickly. “That level-one fight dragged too long—I didn’t have time to go.”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
Meurs rolled his eyes irritably. “Great. PNG left vision in my blue jungle from the very start and watched everything I did! Fantastic—I only realized this before that damn ward expired.”
“Now’s not the time to worry about vision,” Holden cut in urgently. “Mid cannon wave—get here!”
“Figure something out, Mave! I can’t leave right now!”
Meurs clicked on Ji Yunyu’s portrait and added, “Or come over and we kill Cloud together.”
Of course, that was more venting than a real plan—an early-game Troll with almost no impact plus a half-support, half-mage Storm Goddess had no chance in a 2v2 against PNG’s mid-jungle duo.
The good news was that top laner Remi noticed the awkward situation and was looking for a way to help.
“Unique and Cloud have run into each other in the river!”
Qing Ci raised his voice in surprise. “—No, actually, it’s less ‘running into each other’ and more that Cloud deliberately went looking for Unique, since PNG knows his pathing completely!”
“What’s the purpose of that?” Chao Mi wondered. “Because mid lane is pushed in, both junglers want to help mid? But Wind can see Troll coming to gank! Wind isn’t some brainless player—he still has Flash, there’s no way Troll plus Storm Goddess can kill him.”
[I don’t get it—Void Devourer can kill Troll early? More like giving him a massage.]
[Back in the day, when facing this situation, P would have Feng-bao act like he’s easy to gank, stall in mid, and bait the enemy jungler into camping… then Yun would hit level 6 while they’re still level 4]
[+1 So why isn’t Cloud farming? Isn’t Troll just wasting time here?]
[I don’t understand high-level thinking, but I understand Maverick’s pings—he’s spamming “need help” like crazy!]
[SDB_Maverick] is requesting assistance!
Now Holden was really uncomfortable.
The pressure from Sui Ning was overwhelming. He was so focused on the lane that he didn’t even realize in time that this was a cannon wave.
Cannon waves are tankier and deal more damage than normal waves, so under typical circumstances, a player stuck under tower can use the cannon wave to look for a chance to push back.
Since both waves move at the same speed, when your wave reaches your tower, the enemy cannon wave is still on its way. That brief travel time is the best window for the weaker side to fight for lane control.
Because of this, stacking a wave before it crashes into the tower is the most obvious setup for a tower dive—and a fundamental skill for high-level players.
Sui Ning had considered stacking the wave too, but this was Worlds—there were no weak opponents. Holden would rather miss minions than let him freely stack, and the jungler’s movements showed that SDB had already read his intention.
So there was no need to pretend anymore.
[PNG_Wind] signals: On my way.
Sui Ning found his timing. The moment the cannon minion died, he used two stacks of [W – Raise of the Dead] to summon four bone soldiers. In perfect unison, they swung their long, sharp bone spears. The piercing AoE damage instantly cleared the surrounding minions—and the spear tips clipped a chunk of Holden’s HP.
-157!
Almost a quarter of his health—just getting grazed hurt this much?! Holden’s pupils shrank. Then he noticed an “Armor Shattered” icon on his status bar.
The commentators gasped. “What is that damage from Wind? Just a basic starting magic item and it hits this hard?!”
“Incredible—has Soulreaper King’s early game been overbuffed?!”
“I can actually explain this,” the Western male caster spoke rapidly. “One of Soulreaper King’s passives applies a ‘Shatter’ effect. Every three hits from the bone soldiers triggers a burst of true damage that ignores resistances!”
“Wind used his W beautifully—four bone soldiers spawned almost simultaneously, which means their very first auto attack instantly triggered the passive, and Mave didn’t even have time to react!”
“If he had sensed the danger earlier, he could have—” flashed before the damage landed!
This also exposed Storm Goddess’s second weakness against Soulreaper King: since the bone soldiers are untargetable units, Storm Goddess’s Q tornado knock-up and control effects don’t affect them at all!
Realizing this, the male commentator fell silent. One thing doesn’t work, another doesn’t work—what kind of absurd champion is this?!
Holden had clearly realized this even earlier than the commentators. He was just as speechless—there was no room to fight back. If he cast Q, who exactly was he supposed to hit?
Knock up the Soulreaper King himself? But his main body was positioned at maximum range, and Storm Goddess’s tornado travels slowly—unless you predict perfectly or cast it point-blank, there’s no way it lands!
Would Sui Ning even give him the chance to predict? Holden had already tried a few “lottery shots” earlier in lane, only to have Sui Ning dodge every single one with movement so clean it shattered his mentality.
He’d learned a simple truth: don’t gamble against players with insane reaction and movement—other than wasting half your mana bar, it does absolutely nothing.
If you can’t deal with him, can I just Flash and live?
Holden hit Flash.
“Maverick decisively uses Flash!”
The male commentator covered his forehead. “Alright, PNG clearly planned this—their jungler has completely locked down Unique’s movements, and Maverick is now isolated! This Flash is worth it. Against Soulreaper King, Storm Goddess simply—”
Before he could finish, a flash of golden light appeared at the same time.
“Wind follows with Flash—!!”
Chao Mi shot up from his seat in shock, his voice tense and full of disbelief. “What is this?? What is Wind thinking? He’s going to take turret shots!”
“F***!” Holden was thinking the same thing, swearing nonstop into comms. “He’s trying to kill me—he’s trying to kill me!”
Sui Ning remained calm, his eyes locked onto the Storm Goddess. His Flash had been decisive—having Ji Yunyu intercept Meurs earlier was all for this moment.
With no worries about backup, Sui Ning controlled Soulreaper King, using [Q – Legion Assault] to reposition his bone soldiers. AA–Q triggered the first passive proc.
The turret instantly switched aggro onto him.
The Chinese commentators immediately tensed up. “Th-this—early-game turret damage hurts a lot! Wind’s squishy build can’t take many hits—”
What is this? The outer turret is still up?!
Chao Mi almost suffocated. “That Flash went straight under tower—what’s going on?? A misplay?? Bone soldiers have no health bar and don’t draw aggro—you can’t tank turret with them!!”
Qing Ci also panicked. “If he doesn’t go under tower, he can’t secure the kill—Wind is clearly committed to taking Maverick down! But early turret damage is so high, this is at best a one-for-one trade!”
That’s exactly what Holden thought. With Flash gone and those annoying bone soldiers still chasing, he might as well shield himself and try to trade back with turret damage!
[?????]
[What is this…?]
[Feng-bao???? What’s happening???]
[Holy—no way… even Wind loses his head sometimes??]
“Both junglers have been stuck fighting too long in the top river—Cloud is clearly preventing Unique from reinforcing! But the problem is, he can’t reinforce either! Does he trust Wind this much??”
“Myerii and Zakiah are both moving toward the river,”
Chao Mi frowned deeply, “but mid lane—are they really going for a solo kill??”
A crimson laser blasted out from the turret. Sui Ning fixed his gaze on its trajectory, tightening his grip on the mouse, ready.
Soulreaper King’s [E – Boneform Shift] works similarly to Star Spirit’s [R – Interstellar Leap]—both are “blink-phase” abilities, meaning the character becomes untargetable during the cast.
Sui Ning could use E to block a turret shot—but unlike Aeria, the invulnerability window on Soulreaper’s E is extremely short, almost only at the instant the skill begins and the character starts moving.
Turret damage ramps up quickly. He would only have one chance—he wouldn’t live to see a second E cooldown.
Sui Ning pressed his lips together. He had discovered this trick by chance in custom practice. Pulling it off required perfect timing—and sometimes a bit of luck.
He hadn’t expected that his first attempt in an official match… would be in the Worlds quarterfinals.
At early levels, E has a full 17-second cooldown. If he failed, he would die.
The laser fired.
At the exact instant the beam was about to touch Soulreaper King—Sui Ning pressed [E – Boneform Shift].
-0!
The laser that should have chunked a massive portion of his HP dealt zero damage!
[?????]
[??]
[Cheating???]
“W—What, what?!”
The Western female commentator was stunned, mouth wide open in shock, repeating “oh my god.” “Why? Why did the turret deal no damage to him?? Is this a bug? Pause! SDB, call your coach—we need a pause right now!!”
“Maybe—Johnny, do you know what just happened?”
The male commentator was just as lost. “I don’t know, I—”
If he knew, he wouldn’t still be sitting at the commentator desk!!
The chat exploded. At this moment, regardless of region or language, viewers all over the world were spamming the same thing: Question marks.
“Wind dodged the turret damage! I don’t know how he did it—but right now, he has everything he needs for a solo kill!”
Chao Mi took a deep breath, then shouted so loudly it practically rattled viewers’ ears: “E pierces through—two autos follow to trigger the second passive—this combo is insanely fast and smooth!! Maverick, can you even survive this?!”
Holden really wanted to say: why don’t you try tanking it yourself?!
Two procs of true-damage passive were already enough to make anyone despair, but Sui Ning was weaving in countless auto-attacks between abilities, maximizing damage in every possible way—truly achieving the highest burst in the shortest theoretical time!
Anyone else attempting this would have their hands cramp up—and that still wouldn’t be enough. He could even dodge turret shots with invincibility frames?!
At this point, Holden’s mind was filled with nothing but American-style profanity. The last time someone beat him this speechless purely through mechanics was UG’s mid laner, False.
But UG was a three-time world champion dynasty—Wind was just a rookie in his first year at Worlds. How could that even compare?!
[PNG_Wind (Soulreaper King) has slain SDB_Maverick (Storm Goddess)!]
[First Blood!]
“2 minutes 43 seconds—first blood secured, Maverick had no room to respond!”
Chao Mi praised loudly, but before he could celebrate, he saw Sui Ning take a turret shot and instantly drop into execute range—his heart jumped again. “Wind is still inside turret range—he might die here as well—”
Fortunately, Holden hadn’t applied much lane pressure earlier. Sui Ning still had his last health potion, and after drinking it, his HP began to slowly recover—just enough to tick up once between turret shots!
-304!
Current HP: 2 / 736!
“Two HP again, escaping under tower—history repeats itself!”
Chao Mi let out a long breath of relief. “Maverick must be furious—he couldn’t even trade the kill!”
[???]
[He still doesn’t die??]
[I swear, I’ve done nothing but spam question marks watching this match!!]
[Last time it was map hacks, now it’s HP lock? ‘Small cheats don’t count,’ right?]
[After this, I have a whole new understanding of how absurd Feng-bao is… The so-called best self-peeling mid, Storm Goddess, gets solo killed mid—does that make sense?]
[Fun fact: across all ranks, Storm Goddess’s chance of being solo killed by Soulreaper King in lane is only 5.39%. Pushing lane is easy, but getting kills is extremely hard—Wind is in peak form this game]
[I just want to know—why was that turret damage 0? Can any expert explain?]
Qing Ci relaxed and smiled. “I feel like Wind had everything calculated. If he dared to Flash in, he must’ve had a plan to avoid dying! And even a 1-for-1 wouldn’t have been bad—Wind’s cannon wave already crashed into the turret, while Maverick didn’t get any of it—huge loss!”
Chao Mi nodded. “Exactly. After this play, the gap in both experience and gold opens up immediately! That’s what I love about Wind—when it’s time to play macro, he’s among the best, but when there’s an opportunity, he never hesitates! This first blood was something he forced purely through laning pressure and spacing!”
“Cloud also deserves credit—he tied up Unique and completely removed Maverick’s last chance to turn the fight around! But I still can’t figure out that turret shot—”
Before he could finish, both teams’ screens suddenly lost color.
A large [PAUSE] appeared in the center.
[??? What the hell, whose computer broke?? Why pause now?!]
[Who the hell called pause?! Can we at least replay Wind’s play first??]
“Uh… huh?”
Lin Zhaoxu was happily farming when everything froze, looking completely confused. “What’s going on?”
Wei Ye shrugged. “That first blood—your ‘dad’ played so hard he forced a pause.”
Lin Zhaoxu went blank. “Huh??? My dad’s already reached that level?”
Sui Ning: “…That’s not what happened.”
“Pfft.” Ji Yunyu covered his mouth, laughing quietly. Sui Ning shot him a look, and he immediately straightened up. “Just routine for Feng-bao—basic stuff, no need to hype it.”
“Damn, solo-killing every HPL mid isn’t enough for my dad anymore?”
“My suggestion? Still need to work harder. A mere pause is nothing—our goal is to make UG surrender.”
Cheng Su: “6.”
“What else can a language-barrier support do besides spam ‘6’…”
“Players, please refrain from talking.”
The referee stepped in just in time to prevent things from escalating. “SDB has requested a pause. During the pause, both teams are not allowed to communicate. Please wait patiently—we will notify you when the match resumes.”
“….” Lin Zhaoxu pursed his lips and looked around. His mid and jungle “big carries” had already closed their eyes to rest. He cautiously asked, “Referee, can we know the reason for the pause?”
The referee pressed his earpiece but didn’t respond.
——
The broadcast cut back and forth between the players’ booths and the backstage coaching areas. SDB’s coach Mark and PNG’s coach Chen Chen both looked serious.
Mark was serious because, in his view, that turret-dodge had never been seen in professional play before—it might be a bug in the new patch. Calling for a pause to report it cost nothing.
Besides, SDB’s early game had already gone poorly. Even if Sui Ning hadn’t used a bug, this pause was a perfect chance for the team to calm down and rethink their strategy.
Use pauses wisely—that was something Mark had emphasized repeatedly before the match.
Chen Chen was also serious, silently repeating something over and over in his mind.
…Damn it, our star mid just pulled off another insane play—please don’t let it be a bug. If it is a bug, they’ll have to rewind or remake the game. With such a huge early lead, who could stomach a remake? Even just thinking about it made Chen Chen, who wasn’t even on stage, feel like punching a hole through the planet…
The livestream chat exploded, waves of doubt flooding in:
[This has to be some unknown bug]
[Oh my god, I never thought Wind would intentionally abuse a game exploit. I’m so disappointed :(]
[Hey, the referees haven’t even said what happened yet!]
On the English stream, most viewers were expressing disbelief and confusion—after all, PNG’s dominant performance had already won over many Western fans. But the Korean broadcast chat was far less friendly:
[I’ve supported SDB for ten years. How could Maverick possibly get solo-killed by a rookie (and a Chinese player at that)? Obviously some rule-breaking method was used]
[All those people saying Wind is comparable to False—come out now. How can someone who cheats in competition be compared to False?]
[Trash. PNG is clearly the black sheep of this Worlds]
[Kick this cheating team out already!! Just thinking they replaced Loud makes me sick]
[This is why I’ll never forgive Tio for losing to a Chinese team in groups :)]
[??? As an undercover viewer I can’t take this anymore—what is this toxic nonsense? The country known for cheating has the nerve to accuse others? What a joke]
[This is just the kind of person Sui Ning is—he used to pull tricks back in Idol Gas Station!]
[…? Wait, you people are still around? Still following Feng-bao?]
Doubt, insults, mockery, trolling… chaotic online discourse raged for over twenty minutes. Just as even the players were starting to get impatient, several referees and game developers quietly walked onto PNG’s stage from backstage.
Sui Ning was briefly startled. Someone tapped his shoulder from behind—when he turned around, he met the gaze of an East Asian-looking developer.
The man smiled kindly and spoke in Chinese: “Don’t be nervous. We just want to ask—dodging that turret shot earlier, you used the invincibility frames from Soul Reaper King’s E skill, right?”
Sui Ning nodded. “Yes.”
“Can you reproduce it?”
“Yes.”
“We’ve got a spare computer here—try it on this one.” The developer moved aside the keyboard and mouse on the desk and placed a laptop in front of him. “Do you want to use your own peripherals?”
Sui Ning shook his head. “No need.”
It was the first time several of his teammates had seen something like this—they didn’t even dare breathe too loudly. Ji Yunyu looked at Sui Ning with concern, only to be met with a steady, reassuring gaze.
The official equipment was excellent. Under the watchful eyes of referees and teammates, Sui Ning quickly recreated the exact same maneuver.
One referee murmured, “That was… surprisingly easy to reproduce?”
“This isn’t a bug,” the developer said. “It’s just invincibility frames. During that frame, the character is untargetable.”
Someone immediately complained, “That sounds way too unbalanced—a champion this strong also having invincibility?”
Sui Ning didn’t respond. The developer rolled his eyes on his behalf.
Did this guy even know how long a “frame” is?
One twelfth of a second of invincibility, and you’re calling it unbalanced? Neither of them had anything to say to that.
——
As soon as the investigation concluded, the commentators received the update.
Chao Mi finally relaxed. “SDB requested a bug check on Soulreaper King’s ability. The developers and referees have reviewed it—there is no bug!”
As he spoke, the big screen finally showed a 16x slow-motion replay of Sui Ning’s play. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Soulreaper King phased out at the exact instant the turret laser struck—
“[E – Boneform Shift] grants an extremely short invincibility frame at the start of the cast!”
Chao Mi explained with excitement, as if he himself had pulled off the play. “I’m not sure whether anyone uses this in ranked, but at least in pro play, this is the first time someone has used Soulreaper King’s invincibility frames to dodge damage!!”
“That’s right—but the timing is incredibly, incredibly strict,” Qing Ci added, deliberately emphasizing “incredibly” twice. “Our observers tried it backstage for quite a while—out of 30 to 40 attempts, they could only succeed once, and that’s under perfect conditions with no distractions. But Wind, just now—he had to secure the kill, manage the wave, position himself, execute mechanics, track the map, and stay calm under pressure… Pulling this off in such an extreme situation is unbelievably difficult!”
[??????]
[I have nothing to say…]
[Wind!! My god—you always pull off insane plays!!]
[Holy—Wind!!!]
[Something with a 1-in-40 success rate, and Feng-bao dares to use it on the Worlds stage… respect]
[Or maybe his success rate is 100%? (lol)]
[I’m tired of calling this insane. Borrowing the commentator’s words: bold yet meticulous, fearless yet precise. The most perfect, ideal player I could ever imagine is exactly like this]
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