“Niiiiice——!!”
PNG's voice comms erupted into a chaotic chorus of monkey-like screeching. “WOOOHOOO—OOOHOO!! My dad is insane!!”
“How many dads do you even have—hey, hey, hey! Watch top lane! Top lane, top lane, top lane!”
“Well played, Cloud! It had to be you!”
“Nothing special, just a little play.”
“? Holy shit, why are you copying Wind's act now too?!”
“With this Herald, PNG's early game is secured!!”
Da Ju was flushed red with excitement as well. “He's done it! Cloud has done something enormous here!! Every single one of us thought this Herald was guaranteed for UG! With Shadow of Vengeance's blackout ultimate shutting off vision across the map, no jungler should have been capable of stealing a Dragon or Herald from range!”
“But Cloud did it!! He didn't approach the pit immediately, and that actually misled UG into lowering their guard!”
Ji Yunyu had really stolen it!
[HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT??? No, Cloud, you—]
[I can believe stealing Herald. But stealing it through a blackout screen?? What the hell, Cloud? Why don't you just put on a blindfold while you're at it?!]
[Cloud, and you still claim you don't know martial arts!!]
[That's my Yun!! Let's go!!]
As Shadow of Vengeance's ultimate ended, light returned to the Rift. PNG had no intention of lingering. They immediately grabbed the Rift Herald and ran.
Park Se-woo still wanted to chase. Sui Ning casually tossed a Sleep Trap at him in return. Broken King was instantly rooted in place, losing all ability to continue the pursuit.
“What do people mean when they say losing both the lady and the army? This is exactly what they mean!” Chao Mi tried his best to hide the schadenfreude on his face. “UG got absolutely destroyed in this exchange!”
Destroyed?
This was far worse than that. UG lost so badly that they'd wake up in the middle of the night and slap themselves, wondering how they had managed to play such an awkward teamfight.
Even the coaching staff backstage and the Korean commentators were collectively reaching for oxygen tanks.
The tall commentator had just finished delivering a rapid-fire breakdown of the fight. Before he could even catch his breath, he watched his team's Herald get stolen, and the situation instantly flip upside down.
His eyes rolled back. He looked seconds away from passing out.
Meanwhile, the chubby commentator sat there with a deeply pained expression, looking as though he'd just eaten a plate of terrible food. “Ahhh!!—Cloud, kill Cloud! Come on! Agh—th-this... how does that get stolen?!”
“Leave, can Leave still chase—ah! Wind's Sleep Trap! Oh no!”
“Key is dead. UG doesn't dare continue chasing. Oh no...”
The entire sequence left the poor commentator so distressed that every sentence came out as a lament.
Chinese viewers who had secretly slipped into the Korean stream to scout the enemy couldn't stop grinning.
Weren't you all talking about how unbeatable UG was? Didn't you start crowning them champions the moment they reached the semifinals? So why are they collapsing now that they're at match point? Why are the commentators sighing?
The fans had only one response: Serves you right.
The Chinese commentators were feeling equally refreshed.
Da Ju happily analyzed: “Given that PNG had already secured their positions in advance, UG's initial formation wasn't actually very good! Key's R-Flash was incredibly decisive, but his goal wasn't to start a teamfight—it was to trade his own life for a guaranteed Herald!”
“Exactly,” Qing Ci agreed. “With Key's ultimate buying time, Serpent only needed the first cast of his ultimate to turn off the lights. He didn't even need to dive anyone. UG still had vision of each other. The safest play would've been to simply secure the Herald!”
“And if they played it that way,” he continued, “PNG would've had almost no chance to steal. Serpent still had his W crowd control available, False still had his massive displacement ultimate—Cloud shouldn't have been able to get anywhere near the pit!”
“They got greedy!” Chao Mi said with a sly grin. “It was a perfect opportunity. They wanted kills and they wanted Herald. In the end they got neither! Key traded one-for-one with Mior, PNG took the Herald, and UG burned all their cooldowns. PNG's early-game momentum just exploded!”
That assessment wasn't wrong. If UG had committed more decisively to one option, either securing Herald or forcing a teamfight would've yielded a better outcome.
If they wanted Herald, jungler Ahn Seung-soo never should have left the pit to chase Sui Ning. He should have stayed under the protection of the darkness, coordinated with his teammates, and Smited the Herald down immediately.
If they wanted a teamfight, then UG should have grouped around Kim Seok-chan. As the team's frontline fighter, Park Se-woo shouldn't have remained in the pit tanking the Herald. He should have joined his teammates on the front line.
Instead, UG ended up with this bizarre result: The jungler holding Smite flew off to teamfight. The top laner stayed behind tanking Herald. The support got instantly killed. And the mid laner and marksman were left staring at each other in confusion.
If Choi Hyun-woo hadn't reacted quickly enough to delete Lin Zhaoxu, UG would've lost even more.
Thinking about it, Da Ju couldn't help sighing. “Key is genuinely a support player with ideas. That R-Flash was incredibly important. It could be used offensively or defensively.”
“Unfortunately, it feels like the team wasn't on the same page in that moment. Their overall plan broke down. They were too impatient. They wanted everything. They chased fortune through risk—and crashed the car.”
Who was right and who was wrong on UG's side?
Da Ju pondered the question for a long while. He couldn't simply judge the play by its result. Because before everything happened, who could guarantee UG wouldn't succeed?
Why couldn't they have secured both the Herald and the teamfight?
UG's choice wasn't necessarily wrong. PNG simply handled the situation better. That was all.
Da Ju could see it. Naturally, Coach Yoonsoo backstage could see it too. At this point, even UG's own behind-the-scenes camera crew was reluctant to get too close to him, afraid they'd capture his deathly expression and get chewed out for it.
——
Ahn Seung-soo's face had gone several shades paler. His lips were pressed together so tightly they were almost turning blue. Regret gnawed at him relentlessly. If he didn't still need both hands on his mouse and keyboard, he felt like grabbing a fistful of his own hair and ripping it out.
Regret. Pure regret.
He had Smite. If he hadn't become obsessed with killing Sui Ning, if he had simply stayed in the pit and guarded the Herald, then securing it would've been two-thousand percent guaranteed.
With the Herald, UG could have expanded their lead and transitioned smoothly into the mid game.
“But then—!”
The atmosphere in UG's team comms instantly became somewhat subdued.
“It's fine, it's fine.” Noticing his jungler's expression, Choi Hyun-woo hurried to comfort him. “We got the Dragons early. If we drag the game out a bit, our mid game will be easier to play!”
“My fault, my fault. I was too impatient,” Kim Seok-chan took the blame proactively. “I should've communicated better.”
“It's okay, it's okay. It's only one Herald. Just keep playing. Small problem!”
“When's the next Dragon?”
At the mention of Dragon, Ahn Seung-soo pulled himself together. “Eleven minutes!”
“Nice,” Lee Dong-il praised. “That's good timing. Let's focus on Dragon control this game.”
“OK, OK!”
At 10:15, PNG's mid-jungle duo shifted the tempo toward top lane, forcing Park Se-woo to retreat all the way back toward his outer turret.
But things were different now. The moment the wave reached the tower, Sui Ning's level and item advantage became apparent. All he had to do was stand beneath the turret, and Park Se-woo practically had to buy a standing-room-only ticket straight back to his inhibitor tower overnight. He didn't even dare look at him for too long!
Ji Yunyu also dropped the Rift Herald in the top lane, successfully taking down the outer turret.
And thus, another legendary scene was born.
While PNG continued pressuring UG's top outer turret, Sui Ning stood calmly between the first and second towers. Meanwhile, Park Se-woo stood trembling beneath his inhibitor turret.
The two stared at each other from afar. At this moment, one of Korea's finest top laners finally got to experience Wei Ye's patented prison-simulator gameplay.
[...??????]
[Holy crap, Leave's prison status—Reborn as Myerii?]
[HAHAHAHA I'm dying. Wind just stands in front of the tower and Leave immediately retreats to high ground!!]
[Of course he won't come out! The outer tower fell way too quickly. The minion wave is already almost at the inner tower. One extra step forward and he might just die!]
[Do you understand what "explode from looking one extra second" means?]
[I'm laughing so hard. Once upon a time, PNG's top laner was laning 1v3 under his tower at three minutes. Now UG's top laner is staring at minion waves from the safety of his base!]
[Two kings of misery. Neither one gets to mock the other.]
[Got it. If you want revenge on someone, it's actually simple. Convince them to play top lane. Then queue them into PNG. Enjoy premium mid-jungle delivery service!]
Park Se-woo: ...
Chao Mi laughed at the sight for a long while before finally speaking. “Wind is way too ruthless! Look how far he's pushed him back! If I were Leave, I'd be calling the police right now. Eleven minutes into the game, and you're trapped at your inhibitor tower, too scared to walk out. Is nobody going to do anything about this?!”
“Hahahaha!” Qing Ci burst out laughing as well. Then he noticed Choi Hyun-woo and Kim Seok-chan approaching. “Actually, look! The emergency response team is here! Mid and support have arrived! But PNG isn't interested in a small skirmish at all. They've got Herald. One charge takes off a third of the tower's HP. Once the minion wave is gone, they just leave. UG feels terrible here!”
By the time UG's mid and support arrived, they managed to kill the Herald just as it charged. Unfortunately, the tower had already lost nearly a quarter of its health. Park Se-woo felt physical pain looking at it.
PNG had played it intelligently. Sure, Sui Ning's positioning earlier had looked incredibly arrogant, but that was only because they'd established vision and confirmed that UG's reinforcements hadn't arrived yet.
The moment Choi Hyun-woo and Kim Seok-chan showed up, all three PNG players immediately turned and retreated without hesitation, refusing to give UG even the slightest opportunity to start a fight.
But then—
“Why are the mid and support the ones who came?”
Sui Ning frowned slightly. A flash of insight crossed his mind. “—Where's their jungler?”
“Wait, wait, wait—?? Serpent!”
The camera suddenly switched. Chao Mi immediately shouted again. “What is he doing?! Why is he sneaking off to steal Dragon?!”
Just as he spoke, Ahn Seung-soo finished off the Dragon at maximum speed.
Forewarned by Sui Ning's suspicion, Cheng Su hurried to establish vision around the river. Too late. Ahn Seung-soo had already taken the Dragon and escaped.
“11:23?” Ji Yunyu glanced at the game clock and frowned. “They're rushing Dragons this game?”
“Yes.” Sui Ning nodded, his expression turning serious. “We need to pay closer attention to the next one.”
After a team accumulates four Dragons, they gain Dragon Soul—a permanent buff that remains even after death.
It was only eleven and a half minutes into the game. UG had already secured two Dragons.
That meant the next Dragon would put them on Soul Point. And the one after that would be Dragon Soul itself.
“—The first Dragon was taken at six minutes. The second just after eleven. UG is taking Dragons incredibly quickly this game!”
Da Ju finally realized what was happening. After doing some quick calculations in his head, his expression changed dramatically. “The next Dragon spawns before sixteen minutes. That means UG can reach Soul Point before Baron even spawns! If they secure the third Dragon as well, then the fourth Dragon—the Soul Dragon—will spawn at twenty-one minutes!”
And Baron spawned at—
Twenty minutes.
The other two commentators immediately understood. Sure, Ahn Seung-soo had been the main culprit in the Herald fight. But his macro understanding, game sense, and strategic planning were still among the very best in the world.
Starting from the six-minute mark, he had already begun setting everything up. His goal was to manipulate Dragon timers so that the fourth Dragon would spawn at the perfect moment: Twenty to twenty-one minutes.
Which meant that during one of the most critical stages of the game, PNG would face pressure from both Baron and Dragon Soul simultaneously.
If it were only an ordinary Dragon, PNG could simply focus all their efforts on Baron.
But if that Dragon was UG's Dragon Soul?
After understanding the implications, Chao Mi sucked in a sharp breath. “—Damn. If you asked me to choose between a twenty-minute Dragon Soul and Baron, I'd pick Dragon Soul every time!”
“Exactly. Unless Baron directly ends the game or creates an enormous gold gap, Dragon Soul is usually worth more!”
Qing Ci was beginning to feel deeply uneasy. “After all, Dragon Soul is permanent. And all those percentage-based bonuses only get stronger as the game goes on.”
Not to mention that each Dragon Soul came with additional effects depending on its element: Healing. Movement speed. Shields. Area damage.
The more Qing Ci thought about it, the more alarming it seemed. “I think this might actually be the first time PNG has faced a team that's so committed to fast Dragon stacking. In the past, whether against HPL teams or Western teams, everyone treated Dragons before fifteen or twenty minutes primarily as a source of gold—not as a key mid-game strategic resource.”
“But UG actually committed to it. And they're already halfway there! They started setting this up as early as five or six minutes specifically to prepare for the mid game!”
After saying that, Qing Ci suddenly felt embarrassed. He had underestimated them. Far too much.
The draft advantage. The strong early game. The brilliant Herald fight. All of it had caused the tension he'd been maintaining to loosen. He'd even started thinking: UG isn't that impressive. PNG already has this game in the bag.
But Da Ju's Dragon Soul analysis hit him like a deafening alarm bell. It hammered a warning directly into his heart:
Never underestimate your opponent until the enemy Nexus has actually exploded.
Especially when your opponent was a team that had legitimately won a World Championship.
The broadcast had spent the last several minutes zooming in on Ahn Seung-soo's face, capturing every regretful and conflicted expression. He looked almost like a Bronze player who had accidentally wandered into a Challenger lobby, scratching his head after every move. But the reality?
If you treated them as clowns— You were going to pay dearly for it.
Qing Ci felt a chill run down his spine. No wonder players and coaches always said: The more ahead you are, the more vigilant you need to be. A lead could blind people. It could stop them from seeing where the real danger lay.
If Da Ju hadn't pointed it out, Qing Ci would've already fallen into the trap.
But what about PNG? They didn't have a coach with an omniscient observer view standing beside them, reminding them of these dangers.
“—What a snake!!”
Chao Mi was getting nervous too, gritting his teeth in frustration. “Serpent is way too sneaky! Both Dragons were taken during moments when PNG had no vision around bot side! He didn't even care that Leave was suffering in top lane! All he cares about is helping the team rush four Dragons!”
“Just now, with PNG pushing top lane that hard, Serpent could've ulted in, False could've Teleported over, and maybe they could've picked someone off! But he didn't take the risk! He just took the Dragon!”
Ahn Seung-soo was calmly farming his jungle. Yet Chao Mi watched with growing dread. The jungler truly lived up to his ID.
Beneath every seemingly ordinary move lurked countless killing intents. Like a cunning giant serpent hidden in the grass— You never knew when it would suddenly strike and devour its prey.
“PNG! Wake up and pay attention already—!!”
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