A familiar figure slowly emerged from the river brush.
“Huh?”
“...? Who is that??”
[UG_Key] signals enemy missing!
[UG_Serpent] signals enemy missing!
Question-mark pings from teammates started popping up one after another!
Kim Seok-chan froze for a full two or three seconds before his eyes widened in disbelief. He stared fixedly at the person who had arrived in mid lane. “...Erllit??”
His gaze swept up and down over the champion repeatedly. The familiar robe. The familiar wizard hat. The familiar astrolabe in his hand.
Who else could that be but Astromancer Prophet?
Cheng Su pinged Sui Ning. “I'm here.”
“Okay.” Sui Ning thought for a moment. “Just shove the wave?”
“Sure. I'll pressure their positioning.”
“Be careful.”
And just like that, Astromancer Prophet openly walked from bot lane to mid lane.
The livestream instantly short-circuited. Even the scrolling chat froze for a second.
[??????]
[HOLY SHIT? WHAT IS THIS?!]
[? Why did Brother Su run to mid too?]
[If you can't beat them, join them?? They're leeching experience, so we're leeching too??]
[LMAO! As long as we all siphon our teammates' XP together, our levels stay equal! What kind of Rift Relativity Theory is this?!]
At 5:15, even one or two seconds earlier than Kim Seok-chan's own movement timing, Astromancer Prophet emerged from the river's vision blind spot and leisurely positioned himself behind Sui Ning, helping Fan'en clear the wave.
[Brother Su got here before the enemy support. Seriously, I'm gonna cry.]
[No outsiders here. Brother Su, be honest. How long have you been coveting Feng-bao’s minion waves?]
[Looking at how smoothly he's clearing minions, I refuse to believe he hasn't secretly stolen lane farm before.]
[Bot lane Xu-Xu: (ecstatic) The support's gone! Time to gorge myself!]
[ In the old days, if Daddy Support left for three seconds, his son would've started barking "I'm dying! I'm dying!" Now? The Great Support Father has been officially ordered to mid. How dare a mere marksman object?]
[LMAOOOO.]
Kim Seok-chan arrived as well. Spirit of the Forest and Astromancer Prophet stared at each other across the minion wave. For a moment, it almost felt like they could read the same sentence on each other's faces: Fancy meeting you here.
Kim Seok-chan: ???
“What is Prophet doing here?”
“Ah, damn it. Seriously? Is he trying to rush level six too?”
“He has his passive. His experience gain is actually higher than ours.”
The teammates rapidly exchanged opinions over voice comms. Kim Seok-chan blinked slowly and clicked his mouse a few times, as if only now processing what was happening.
Choi Hyun-woo reminded him over comms: “The enemy support got experience too. Watch out for the Herald fight.”
So this wasn't a coincidence. PNG had planned this from the start.
Kim Seok-chan felt a surge of irritation rise in his chest. Do they really think they can break the strategy just by copying it? They saw it once, and now they're copying it fifteen minutes later? Is that supposed to be impressive?
Every timing window where he roamed for experience had been carefully calculated. How to maximize gains without hurting teammates. How to keep the marksman safe from a 1v2. When to leave. When to stay.
Everything had been meticulously designed. PNG wanted to imitate it? Could they really imitate it?
If someone asked PNG's mid-support duo and coach Chen Chen that exact question, their answers would probably be perfectly synchronized:
No need to imitate it.
Last game, PNG had been caught off guard by the support rushing level six. This game, however, they were prepared. Which made it much easier for Kim Seok-chan's plans to fall flat.
As for Astromancer Prophet—After extensive consideration, Cheng Su had concluded that this was the support best suited for PNG and the one most capable of solving the team's weaknesses around the Herald fight.
He had his own style. It also revolved around rushing level six. But the route he took was completely different from Kim Seok-chan's.
“—Actually, the more you think about it, the more Astromancer Prophet feels like a very deliberate pick,” Chao Mi said while stroking his chin. “PNG clearly came prepared! Astromancer Prophet is genuinely perfect for this kind of fast-level-six strategy!”
“First, there's his passive, [Future Insight], which grants a nearby ally 15% bonus experience. That means when he's following a solo laner or jungler and 'drinking their blood,' the negative impact is minimized!”
“Take this situation right now,” Da Ju emphasized once again. “Erllit and Key are both sharing the same mid-lane wave, but the effect on Wind and False is completely different! Everyone, do not underestimate that 15%! The later the game goes, the more important it becomes. That 15% difference could easily be the gap between a level 16 champion with a rank-three ultimate and a level 15 champion with only a rank-two ultimate!”
And that very 15% made Cheng Su's approach more flexible and more advantageous than Kim Seok-chan's.
Qing Ci nodded vigorously in agreement. “Exactly. And as everyone knows, Astromancer Prophet is also one of those champions that undergoes a massive power spike at level six!”
“Especially after the World Championship patch, his ultimate, [R – Gravitational Galaxy], was completely reworked. The original area-of-effect pull and crowd-control effect was removed and replaced with a system that empowers his next skill cast after activating the ultimate. Depending on whether he follows it with RQ, RW, RE, or RR, he gains a different effect—”
“This rework effectively pushed him out of the mid-lane meta at Worlds! A champion who was once a teamfight-control mage core had his arms and legs chopped off. Both his damage and crowd control were significantly weakened! Many players who once specialized in Astromancer Prophet were forced to change their playstyle—or abandon the champion entirely.”
As he spoke, the camera on the giant stage screen happened to focus on mid lane. While helping Sui Ning shove the wave, Cheng Su also used his Q to chip away at a considerable portion of Kim Seok-chan's health.
And the moment Kim Seok-chan showed any intention of fighting back, Cheng Su immediately cast W on himself for a speed boost and backed away, making it obvious that he intended to bully the short-ranged Spirit of the Forest.
Kim Seok-chan ground his teeth furiously.
He wanted to engage. Opening the scoreboard, he checked his teammates' cooldowns. The moment he saw Choi Hyun-woo's Flash still unavailable, the tiny spark of anger that had just flared up inside him was instantly extinguished.
Wearing a pained expression, he retreated to a safe distance and became a genuine experience leecher.
“The enemy mid doesn't have Flash. They won't fight,” Cheng Su said. “I'll keep poking him.”
Sui Ning nodded. “Okay.”
Then he posted another message in the team chat twice in succession:
[PNG_Wind] (Team): MidF0914
The enemy mid laner's Flash would come back up at 9:14.
“OK,” Cheng Su replied.
Another long-range Q from Sui Ning forced Kim Seok-chan to sidestep. He barely dodged it— Only to immediately get hit by Cheng Su's [Q – Astromantic Talisman].
Being targeted from two directions at once, Kim Seok-chan twisted left and right, looking like he was playing CrossFire.
Kim Seok-chan: ...Is it really this hard just to leech a wave?
[Key is about to explode lmao. How is this mid-lane 2v2 harder than bot lane?!]
[This wave-leeching is genuinely dangerous. Look at the poor guy. Key, a proper engage support, is reduced to standing under tower sniffing XP.]
[Take one step forward and two long-range monsters start poking you. Meanwhile a swarm of minions can summon little creatures to jump you at any moment. Tell me that isn't dangerous.]
Watching this, Qing Ci couldn't help feeling emotional. “The poke and lane pressure are excellent. Combined with his passive and the utility from his ultimate, everything about the champion looks really solid... I think Astromancer Prophet has a lot of potential. It's just difficult to fully utilize him in mid lane!”
Chao Mi nodded. “Exactly. Maybe Astromancer Prophet didn't fall out of the meta after all. Maybe he just found a better home than mid lane.”
——
8:00. The Rift Herald spawned. Both teams arrived in the top-side jungle exactly on schedule.
The commentators clenched their fists nervously. “Neither side can afford to give up this Herald! From the draft phase to the risky tower dive, all the tricks and mind games afterward—everything has been leading up to this moment! Both PNG and UG desperately need tower pressure and lane control. This Herald is absolutely crucial!”
“Do we start it? Do we start it?”
“Start it, start it, start it! Fight inside the pit directly. Our mid-jungle duo are gods on this terrain.”
Ji Yunyu raised an eyebrow. “How come I didn't know that?”
Lin Zhaoxu grinned. “Hehe. Your brother here only has half an item and deals zero damage. You know how it is.”
Sui Ning: “...”
So he was openly declaring himself a useless freeloader now?
Speechless for a moment, Sui Ning quietly posted his cooldowns in team chat. “All my skills are available. We can fight.”
“Don't rush, don't rush, don't rush—”
“Find the Bombardier's position! Don't let him poke us forever! River! Get vision in the river! Who still has wards?”
“I do. Wait for me!” Cheng Su's voice was cold as he hurried out of base. “Wait for me!”
“Oh, we can fight! Watch my position!”
Having spent ages peacefully farming, Wei Ye could no longer contain himself. Shouldering his massive sword, he rushed toward the upper river. “Where's Reeco?! Throwing bombs, are you? Let's see if I split him in half!”
Before he could finish speaking, several rolling sounds echoed out. A cluster of small bombs painted with Bombardier's face rolled out from the fog of war.
Lee Dong-il was tucked away near the entrance to his blue-side jungle, throwing bombs from maximum range to harass.
Wei Ye unleashed his trademark godlike movement. But the bombs rolled along extremely tricky trajectories. He dodged two. The third still exploded on him.
The commentators winced. “Whoa, Reeco's poke is really annoying! Bombardier comes online much faster than a traditional marksman. His combat strength is already higher than Mior's! Thankfully we're only eight minutes in, and nobody has special-effect items yet. Otherwise, if those little bombs were applying bleed, slows, and other effects, it'd be absolutely disgusting!”
“Do we fight? Do we fight?”
Ji Yunyu answered in a low voice: “We fight. Hit players first.”
“PNG— They want to start Herald first!!”
“They've begun! Cloud is attacking it! The first Herald has very little health, so they absolutely have to watch out for a steal from UG! Myerii is controlling space and preventing UG from entering the pit from below. The rest of the team is searching for the enemy backline. So far, so good—”
The commentators' voices gradually rose as they stared at the screen without blinking.
“Everyone from both teams has arrived. Nobody wants to give this up!”
Before the sentence was even finished, Sui Ning placed a ward over the wall in the lower-left side of the pit. The vision instantly revealed multiple UG players!
Without a moment's hesitation, he made the call. “Fight! We're extremely strong in this choke point!”
Or rather— The narrow passage stretching from blue side's jungle exit to the Baron pit in the upper river was the perfect stage for PNG's composition.
Under the pressure of shrinking vision and Wei Ye's relentless forward positioning, UG had unknowingly backed themselves into a terrain that was both extremely familiar—and extremely dangerous.
“Every professional player walks through this corridor hundreds of times a day!” Da Ju immediately saw through the calm surface and slammed the desk. His emotions were all over the place; he was even starting to feel sorry for Coach Yoonsoo. “—I guarantee UG's coach must have reminded them a thousand times not to fight in this choke point! Demon Blade is way too strong here! The saying one man guards the pass and ten thousand cannot break through isn't a joke!”
“Fan'en and Fanlei are even stronger here! The entire area is terrain—walls, obstacles, chokepoints everywhere! But they ignore terrain! How is UG supposed to play this?!”
[Forget everything else. This choke point is officially certified as the ideal Demon Blade ascension arena. Does UG really think Brother Ye isn't human?]
[Only eight minutes, unfortunately. My Brother Ye doesn't have items yet. If this were twenty-five minutes and UG played like this, I'd take out a loan betting on him to 1v5.]
[ ??? That's ridiculous. The other four PNG players didn't disconnect.]
[Wind and Cloud are broken here too, okay? Unless you find a giant open field, the brothers' ultimates ignoring terrain is completely absurd.]
Da Ju sucked in a breath. “They absolutely cannot fight here—but UG's players probably haven't realized it yet!”
When it came to fine mechanical reactions, everyone on stage was world-class. Da Ju didn't dare judge. But macro judgment was different. Without an observer's perspective, when you're actually inside the game—and especially when PNG has deliberately disguised weakness as strength—it's easy to have your thinking led astray.
Backstage, Coach Yoonsoo had already jumped off the couch in panic. “Ah, seriously! How many times have I said this?! Seok-chan, look at where you're standing!”
Lee Dong-il also noticed a ward had appeared near him.
Before he could say anything, a ring of pitch-black ink suddenly spread beneath his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the vortex under him resemble the gaping maw of an abyss from the underworld—bottomless and terrifying.
Not far away, Fan'en was commanding his Shadows as they crawled out of the swirling darkness. Every single one locked onto Lee Dong-il.
[R – Shadows Upon Shadows]: Three Shadows are summoned at Fan'en's location, the nearest enemy champion's location, and the cursor position. During the skill's duration, Fan'en can swap places with any Shadow.
Shadows automatically attack and move toward enemy champions within range. They cannot be directly controlled and ignore terrain while moving. When too far away, they automatically cast [Abyssal Path].
Synergy Enhancement: Fan'en can allow Fanlei to swap places with Shadows, with a one-second interval between swaps. After each swap, Fan'en may reposition one Shadow.
“Wind spots them through vision and instantly opens with [R – Shadows Upon Shadows] the moment he sees them—!!”
The decision was unbelievably decisive.
Chao Mi nearly forgot to breathe. His eyes widened as he desperately tried not to miss anything. “How does UG deal with this?! The summoned minions have immediately locked onto Reeco, and with the Synergy Enhancement active, there are six minions on the map! UG needs to think very carefully before clearing them! Every one they kill refunds 25% of Wind's cooldowns!”
Six shadows. That alone was enough for Fan'en to unleash another full rotation of abilities.
Then summon another wave. And repeat forever.
This had always been one of the greatest headaches when facing the Brothers composition. Shadows ran everywhere across the battlefield. Ignore them? Painful. Kill them? Also painful.
And with Fanlei present, those minions could become movement platforms for him at any moment.
Ultimate plus abilities. The battlefield effectively transformed from a 5v5 into a 10v5. Stared at simultaneously by five or six pairs of silent, hollow eyes, Lee Dong-il shuddered violently and immediately screamed into voice chat: “—Help! Help! Help me!!”
“The shadows! Kill the shadows!”
“No, no, no!”
“Look at me! Look at me!” Ahn Seung-soo shouted. He was the first to react.
But Sui Ning was too far away. So he immediately dashed forward with E toward Wei Ye and activated [R – Dawn Guardian], slicing through the battlefield and attempting to isolate PNG's backline damage dealers. Chao Mi became excited all over again. “—Serpent's ultimate isn't accomplishing much! Mior isn't even hitting the frontline, and our mid-jungle duo doesn't care about your ultimate at all!”
Blade of Dawn's ultimate could block ranged attacks coming from outside its sweep zone. Was that powerful?
Chao Mi barely restrained his smug expression. Inside, he was asking a different question: What if our carries simply walk directly into your face? Then what are you going to do?
Against Fan'en and Fanlei, wasn't this champion basically serving himself up on a platter?
At the same moment, Ji Yunyu issued a brief command over PNG's voice comms.
“Take the Herald.”
Lin Zhaoxu was stunned. “Holy shit, I'm tanking it?!”
Ji Yunyu didn't answer. He was already controlling Fanlei as he leapt out of the pit. Meanwhile, Wei Ye continued squeezing UG's positioning from the front, forcing their entire formation deeper toward blue-side jungle.
The chubby Rift Herald lost its attack target and immediately turned toward Lin Zhaoxu.
“...Okay, okay.” Lin Zhaoxu shrank his neck. Using his tiny body to absorb the aggro, he sighed. “I'll tank it. I'll tank it, alright?”
“PNG wants both the fight and the Herald!! Mior is finishing the Herald while Demon Blade alone is holding the blue-side choke point—”
Wei Ye grinned and activated his ultimate. He raised his blade and slammed two brutal strikes directly into the only exit. Q1. Q2. The damage landed. Combined with his passive healing, his health instantly returned to full.
The crowd erupted.
“Wooooo!!”
“That damage!” The commentators' eyes widened, only for their excitement to suddenly stall halfway. “—It's actually way too low! My God! Myerii rushed two small armor items early specifically to make Leave miserable. He has basically no damage right now—but he has sustain and crowd control. As a frontline, he's completely fine!”
The massive blade in Demon Blade's hands glowed with a sinister crimson light. [Q – Deathbringer Blade] entered the countdown for its third strike.
That meant the next swing of Demon Blade's blade would deal massive damage and knock up every enemy caught in its area! Wei Ye wasn't hiding his intentions anymore. His damage was low in the first teamfight? Fine. Then he'd provide crowd control. If UG dared step forward, he'd send the entire team airborne and teach them a lesson.
Thinking about it, he couldn't help grinning viciously. “I don't have damage? So what, my teammates don't have damage either? I can't clean up the fight? Doesn't mean my teammates won't mow everyone down! You think my mid and jungle dads are joking around??”
Sui Ning: ...That really isn't necessary.
“Demon Blade! Demon Blade—”
“Ah, damn it! Watch out for his third Q! Don't get knocked up!”
“What are they doing? Is their marksman tanking Herald?”
“Hit the frontline,” Choi Hyun-woo decided instantly. “Demon Blade is too deep. Kill him first!”
At this stage of the game, getting hit by a large-area crowd-control ability could easily mean a team wipe. UG simply couldn't afford to move forward.
Kim Seok-chan licked his lips, searching for an opening to counterattack. But the patch of ground at the blue-jungle exit was far too narrow. Far too favorable for PNG.
The key abilities of multiple PNG players could cover nearly ninety percent of the area UG occupied. And that Demon Blade— Holding his third Q without using it— Was practically a nuclear deterrent.
Kim Seok-chan clenched his teeth as his mind raced.
“Do you dare step forward?!” Qing Ci's face had gone red with excitement as he practically shouted on Wei Ye's behalf. “Do you dare take one more step and eat Demon Blade's AoE knock-up?! In this choke point! In this place where countless professional players have created miracles with Demon Blade! Our Myerii is standing right here! Who dares come forward?!”
“Our fragile little marksman is right behind him taking Herald. So what? Not planning to contest it?”
His voice rose with every word. “If you want this Herald— It's impossible!”
Cheng Su had already cleared UG's vision around the pit. Lin Zhaoxu was still miserably auto-attacking the Herald.
Its health was getting low. Choi Hyun-woo calmly assessed the battlefield and once again felt just how restrictive this terrain was for UG. Their composition couldn't exert even half of its intended strength.
After confirming he had little chance of getting past Demon Blade and reaching PNG's backline, he shifted his attention toward Wei Ye, who had pushed deep into enemy territory.
A gust of wind suddenly swept past him.
Choi Hyun-woo instinctively turned his head. A pitch-black raven shot straight through UG's formation and dove toward Lee Dong-il!
The distance between Fanlei and Bombardier vanished in an instant. A flash of silver from the dagger at Fanlei's waist. Lee Dong-il had never seen such an unreasonable engage before. Startled by the sudden black shadow appearing in front of him, he immediately burned Flash. Ji Yunyu followed with Flash without hesitation. His blade rose and fell.
Realizing disaster was imminent, Lee Dong-il frantically mashed his R key, trying to throw out his ultimate bomb.
At the exact moment the blade swung— Several Shadows suddenly disappeared from the battlefield. Sui Ning had timed everything perfectly, sacrificing his low-health minions at the ideal moment.
“Ah!” Lee Dong-il's mouth fell open. He only managed a brief cry. “I—”
His ultimate never came out.
[PNG_Cloud (Shadowbane) has slain UG_Reeco (Bombardier)!]
82%...
0%!
One second. His health bar vanished.
Before the audience could even process what happened, Lee Dong-il—who had been perfectly healthy just moments ago—was already dead on the ground.
Regardless of nationality, everyone in the arena exploded with excitement. The instant kill sent adrenaline surging through the crowd. People leapt to their feet and began shouting Ji Yunyu's name.
“WOOOOOOOHHHHHH—! PNG! PNG!!”
“CLOOOOUD——!!”
“Holy shit, Cloud! HOLY SHIT!!”
Many Chinese fans who were normally eloquent suddenly seemed to lose the ability to speak. They could only repeat the same two words over and over.
[HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT???]
[I really like one audience member's reaction: "Wait... that's real??"]
[HOLY CRAP THIS IS SO HYPE AAAAAAAHHHHH]
[What the hell just flew past? Is that damage even legal???]
[Damn! This is literally: One Blade, Asura!]
[I've decided. Starting today, Fanlei is the coolest assassin in the Rift.]
[ That's a lot of qualifiers, but... COOL COOL COOL AAAAAHHHHH]
“One strike to the throat!” Chao Mi shouted until his face turned bright red. He was excited. And utterly confused. “What just happened?! How did Fanlei's Q do that much damage?! How is that possible?!”
Even with Synergy Enhancement, there was no way an eight-minute assassin should be one-shotting people like that. This can't be a bug, can it?!
Kim Seok-chan had the exact same thought. His first instinct was to raise his hand and request a pause. Choi Hyun-woo cut him off immediately. “E-A-Q-A-W-Q. Two Qs.”
“...Huh?”
Choi Hyun-woo repeated himself.
In the entire arena, he was probably the only player with the mechanical skill to see what had actually happened. That "single strike" from Ji Yunyu wasn't one Q at all. In an absurdly short span of time, he had executed Fanlei's entire combo— Plus two enhanced [Q – Omen of Death] casts empowered by the Synergy effect.
The second strike even included an execute effect.
Visually, it looked as though Fanlei had simply stabbed Bombardier once and instantly killed him. But Choi Hyun-woo knew the truth. That wasn't what happened at all.
He pressed his lips together and shifted his gaze toward Sui Ning, who remained hidden in the distance.
An 8-level jungler, even while clearing four camps at once, simply wouldn’t have enough economy to build a full cooldown reduction setup to pull off two seamless Q rotations. So where did that cooldown refund come from?
Choi Hyun-woo thought of those inexplicably dying “Shadows.” At the time, all of UG were focused on the diving Cloud, and on Lee Dong-il being assassinated. Even he had been primarily thinking about killing Cloud first, while also staying alert to Sui Ning and Wei Ye…
So had the players subconsciously thrown out some AoE skills in the chaos?
Then wasn’t it reasonable that those Shadows got clipped by AoE and died as a result?
—But those Shadows’’ movement patterns were uncontrollable. They were true “zombies,” following only the simplest AI logic, wandering around the battlefield randomly, attacking whatever they could reach.
Choi Hyun-woo shook his head subconsciously. Even he found it hard to convince himself that something like that was possible.
What exactly did Sui Ning use to “control” those uncontrollable summons—so that they died exactly when he wanted, exactly where he wanted, not a second off, while also perfectly syncing with Cloud’s skill timings?
Too early, and Cloud’s skills wouldn’t land, wasting the cooldown reduction.
Too late, and the “one-shot” effect would fail—Kim Jin-seok could counter-engage immediately, and Lee Dong-il could still cast his ultimate, [R – World Annihilation], which could devastate PNG no matter where it landed.
…How was this even done?
For the first time in his life, Choi Hyun-woo felt genuine confusion toward the game War of Glory.
But no matter how puzzled he was, the teamfight continued. After sacrificing the shadows to reset cooldowns, Cloud found it especially difficult to reposition out of the enemy formation.
Kim Jin-seok immediately stepped forward and cast his ultimate, while Park Seo-woo and Choi Hyun-woo followed up—
“Kill him!” he shouted. “He’s locked down!”
The commentators immediately tensed up. “Key has used his ultimate! The jungle choke point isn’t ideal for Spirit of the Forest to operate, but Cloud is 100% going to get crowd-controlled here! In this position, Cloud might be done for—”
[UG_False (Phantom Trickster) has slain PNG_Myerii (Soul-Sealing Blade Demon)!]
Wei Ye, who had held on for a long time, was the first to fall. Chao Mi’s palms were sweating—he was still thinking about Cloud. If the jungler also went down, then the fate of the Rift Herald would become completely uncertain!
All of UG’s core members were still alive!
“—”
Amid the chaos, Cheng Su seemed to say something. Almost simultaneously, the Astromancer Prophet on his screen spoke: [Reverse fate. As easy as turning one’s hand.]
“You’re revived!!”
With a soft chime, a pale white aura instantly surrounded Fanlei.
His HP was still rapidly dropping!
15%, 5%, 0%…
50%.
His health jumped back to half.
Chao Mi froze for a moment, stunned into silence for a second, then realized it was Cheng Su’s RR ultimate activating. His expression immediately lit up with excitement:
“The Prophet!! Erllit gives the crucial ultimate at the key moment!!”
With this revival, the mid-jungle duo could continue the fight!
Sui Ning marked Choi Hyun-woo’s position, and Cloud immediately understood—he dashed out of the shadows once more.
Chao Mi, still shaken, rambled incoherently: “Wait, wait—PNG also has a revive?”
“Yes, they do,” Coach Da Ju patted Chao Mi on the shoulder. He understood the feeling—he himself, as a coach, also felt a sudden sense of brilliance at how the situation had turned.
“As I said before, Erllit’s Astromancer Prophet elevates Wind and Cloud’s composition to another level entirely.”
“Previously, they had to consider whether minions were used for swapping or cooldown reduction, and the enemy could disrupt their plans by clearing them. That combo wasn’t flawless.”
“At least for Cloud, as a melee jungler, going in always meant the risk of not getting out. And repeated deaths were very costly, while Wind alone wasn’t as strong as top-tier meta mages.”
“But after the rework of Astromancer Prophet, it really erased their final weakness,” he said. “That extra revive—its impact on this combo is immeasurable.”
At the very least, from what we just saw, when they fully commit, their coordination becomes terrifying.
In the jungle, Choi Hyun-woo used WRW triple dash to retreat, and Park Seo-woo’s Ruined King became the next victim.
[PNG_Cloud (Shadowbane) has slain UG_Leave (Broken King)!]
[Double Kill!]
“OOOOHHHH—!!”
“PNG!!”
The crowd erupted again as the kill feed appeared. But almost immediately after, the referee signaled for a pause.
[PAUSE]
“Huh?” The commentators were stunned. “What’s going on?”
“Did someone request a pause?”
It was indeed Coach Yoonsoo in the back. He now looked slightly dizzy, weakly waving his hand.
The referees from both sides each brought staff over to the players, and as expected, they were asking about Cloud’s earlier “instant one-shot” play.
Sui Ning and Cloud responded together.
Lin Zhaoxu muttered quietly, “What is this… every time we come up with a new mechanic they assume it’s a bug?”
Seriously? He frowned in annoyance. Our mid-jungle is just strong. We can pull off things you’ve never seen before—what’s wrong with that?
On the other side, after hearing the referees’ explanation, several UG players exchanged glances.
After a moment of thought, Choi Hyun-woo was the first to answer. “No need to test it. It’s not a bug. It’s one of their combo sequences.”
The staff member paused. “Uh, are you sure—?”
Choi Hyun-woo nodded. To prove it, he even reproduced Cloud’s combo on the staff computer, though his execution was slightly stiff and he couldn’t trigger the second Q.
“I don’t play this champion much,” he explained. “My proficiency can’t compare to theirs.”
He then asked the staff to enable infinite cooldown mode, and successfully reproduced the one-shot combo. The staff stared in disbelief. “If you use the Synergy Enhancement properly, the first rotation is basically no different from having no cooldown,” Choi Hyun-woo said as he returned the computer. “So it’s not a bug. It’s just something most people can’t do.”
He emphasized and repeated the words “very difficult” twice, then successfully recreated the one-shot kill using the no-cooldown mode.
The staff member stared in disbelief.
“If you make full use of Synergy Enhancement, the first round of skills is barely any different from having no cooldowns,” Choi Hyun-woo explained seriously as he returned the computer to the referee. “So that wasn’t a bug. It’s just something most people can’t do.”
That was also why he could be certain that the opponent’s mid and jungle players were incredibly, incredibly hardworking geniuses.
Without hundreds or even thousands of repeated practice sessions and patient study, it would be impossible to pull off such an astonishing display.
……
The pause ended quickly, and the officials confirmed that the “one-shot” was not a game bug.
The replay began playing on the big screen. At nearly 20 slow motion, the players finally managed to see the logic and thought process behind the entire combo—
Coach Da Ju watched it as well and couldn’t help letting out the same sigh as Choi Hyun-woo. “One minute on stage takes ten years of practice offstage. Everyone, that one-shot only lasted about a second in the match, but how long did Wind and Cloud have to practice it outside the game? I honestly don’t dare to imagine.”
A hundred hours? A thousand hours?
Da Ju couldn’t even estimate it.
But he knew one thing very clearly: for professional players, no matter how much time and effort they had invested, as long as that one second could help their team secure victory, then every bit of that training had been worth it.
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