Chapter 42 You Make It Hard for Me to Speak

The first game of the BO3 has just concluded, and the broadcast director, ever adept at capturing trending moments, immediately focused the camera on the undisputed MVP of the match: EDG's bot-lane AD, Lin Ruo.

The latter stood up from his chair and responded with a stretching motion.

Pouting and shaking his head, he signaled that the intensity of the match was merely so-so, failing to even give him a proper thrill.

The fans in the live stream channel, who had been silent up to this point, finally ushered in a counterattack, launching a massive wave of trash-talking.

[Where are the haters? You love to bark, keep barking now.]

[Who said Ezreal can't carry? Step out and say that!]

[I heard this year is WE's most hopeful year?]

[Failing to win even against a Jayce, how trash must WE be? And they still harbor hope.]

[No worries, no worries. Let Mouse feed a bit more next game, try not to make WE's loss too ugly.]

[Don't slap labels on us, pig-fans. Weren't you the ones saying every year is your most hopeful year? And then you go and embarrass yourselves at Worlds.]

[So WE doesn't want to go to Worlds? Oh, turns out they can't even get past EDG's second team.]

[The swine are storming the tower, run away!]

[I'm a butcher, make way. New Year is coming and I'm going to slaughter a fat pig.]

[Let the pig-fans squeal. They won't be able to make a sound once Worlds arrive.]

[Alright, hope WE has a great time watching Worlds from home this year.]

[Trash-talking right after the first game, what kind of sportsmanship is that for a player to even step on stage?]

[Forced hate. Just go watch his stream and you'll know this is child's play.]

[The classic move of bringing up character when you can't win. Can't the guy even stretch or pout now? Is that supposed to be trash-talking?]

[No worries, wait for the post-match interview to let WE's fans learn what Lin Ruo's style of trash-talking really is.]

In the EDG lounge, Aibu's mood at the moment was extremely complicated.

When he saw Jayce picked in the top lane during the draft, he knew damn well it was instigated by that brat Lin Ruo.

The anger in his heart surged upward uncontrollably.

What kind of player was Mouse? Was he someone who could play Jayce?

Sure enough, the top lane had completely imploded in the early game.

Aibu had originally prepared his knife, intending to rush out and give him a fierce scolding the moment he came back to make sure he remembered the lesson.

As a result... you motherfucker are telling me Lin Ruo won the MVP.

His performance this game could only be described as flawless...

Seventeen years old with a boundless future, expected to become a leading figure of the LPL in the future?

With you performing like this, I feel embarrassed to open my mouth.

Aibu silently hid the knife away.

The lounge door was pushed open, and the EDG members walked in.

Aibu smiled as he went up and patted the star contributor Lin Ruo on the back: "Well played, kid. Keep it up next game."

Seeing A-Guang following behind, Aibu instantly changed his expression at light speed and said fiercely, "Chen Yuhao, get over here!"

The two of them went to a corner one after the other.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Brother Lin. Boss Bu is taking him to the corner to recite the scriptures."

"Boss Bu is always like this. After every match, he always has to find someone to yell at so he can warn his teammates to stay focused for the next game."

The sensible Love Lingzheng had already bent over to massage Lin Ruo's back, grateful for the big boss's life-saving grace.

If Lin Ruo hadn't carried with his life, his entire family down to the eighteenth generation of ancestors would have been flamed to pieces by the fans after the match.

"Not bad, Zhao Zhiming, you're getting more and more mature."

Lin Ruo felt deeply gratified by the jungler's change. He opened his phone and went to the fan forums to enjoy the praise, sipping champagne at halftime.

NoFe coughed, holding a small notebook and walking over with a feigned expression of seriousness: "Lin Ruo, what kind of draft do you think we should go for in the next game?"

Lin Ruo gave him a subtle look, signaling him to figure it out himself.

NoFe nodded, and suddenly comprehended the underlying logic.

That makes sense.

...

The draft phase for the second game began, with WE on the blue side and EDG on the red side.

After the first round of the draft, WE's first-pick on the blue side locked in LeBlanc.

Without a second thought, NoFe immediately instructed his top and jungle to lock in Varus and Zyra.

This was the most decisive he had ever been in his life.

Don't know how to draft? No problem. Just knowing which lane was the carry was enough.

Guan Zeyuan at the caster desk's eyes lit up: "NoFe gets it too. Giving the bot lane the strongest laning combination—if even my Ezreal can have a laning advantage, picking Varus must mean utterly crushing them in lane."

"With the Varus and Zyra combination, WE's bot lane definitely needs to weigh things carefully. In the last game, they thought too comprehensively by picking Thresh paired with Caitlyn, which resulted in no laning advantage for the bot lane and created scaling time for EDG," Haokai analyzed.

Following that, EDG selected Ryze for their third pick.

It was a conventional roaming combination and could effectively restrict LeBlanc's roaming through the laning phase.

WE countered with Lee Sin paired with Malzahar as support to prevent tower-diving.

Seeing that EDG's laning composition was overly aggressive, Homme instructed his teammates to lock in Sivir for the fourth pick.

If you can't beat them, stall for the late game.

In the EDG player booth.

Love Lingzheng was brimming with fighting spirit: "Coach, pick Vi for me. Their bot lane still wants to farm passively, I'm going to smash their heads in early game."

"The enemy bot lane has shields, you know," NoFe hesitated and said.

"It's fine, it can be picked. Love Lingzheng, just keep your ultimate locked on LeBlanc, you'll still be useful this game," Lin Ruo agreed approvingly.

Against a hero like LeBlanc who constantly liked to jump forward and harass, you just had to use Vi to smash her head in.

Hearing this made sense to NoFe; perhaps it really was a brilliant unorthodox strategy that could perfectly restrict LeBlanc's mid-game burst, so he agreed to lock in the Piltover Enforcer.

Finally, both sides each picked a tank top-laner, concluding the draft.

WE Blue Side Composition: Top-lane Nautilus, Jungle Lee Sin, Mid-lane LeBlanc, AD Sivir, Support Malzahar.

EDG Red Side Composition: Top-lane Poppy, Jungle Vi, Mid-lane Ryze, AD Varus, Support Zyra.

As the match began, the WE bot-lane duo roamed around the bottom river, intending to step into the blue buff area to place a ward, only to run straight into the ambushing EDG bot-lane duo.

Malzahar was forced to flash away.

Zero sighed in the voice chat and said helplessly, "The ward was placed, but it got cleared."

"It's fine, Brother Tui, let's invade directly."

957 nodded, and the two of them went straight from the top lane tri-brush to invade EDG's red buff area.

Arriving at the location, they placed a ward to check—it was completely deserted like no-man's land, leaving Condi feeling slightly dazed.

How come there's not a single person here?

Could it be that the enemy saw through their invasion plan from the very beginning?

Taking the red buff right where he stood to reach level two, Condi wasted no time hurrying back to the river and passing through mid lane toward the lower jungle.

Since Vi started blue on the bot side, she would definitely counter-jungle to take the red to ensure she didn't fall behind in the early game.

Condi wouldn't let the enemy succeed.

Why should a Lee Sin like him swap jungle camps with a Vi?

I'm taking the enemy's red buff, and I'm defending my own red buff as well.

Daddy wants it all!

That being said, when an ambitious Condi entered the jungle and glanced at the empty red buff nest, he instantly flew into a rage.

"Zhao Zhiming, where the fuck is my red?!"

Only then did he realize he had fallen into a major trap; the enemy jungler's choice from the very start was a counter-invasion.

She hadn't even thought about taking her own blue first and then leisurely coming over to take his red.

"Then isn't he currently at..."

A belated Condi hurriedly shouted in the voice chat to warn his teammates: "Bot lane run, Vi is coming."