Chapter Five: Boosting the Snake Team's Strength

After all, this was a proven strategy tested in the clash between SKT and ROX.

Zyra’s support poke is immensely powerful, and combined with Ashe’s slow, the bottom lane priority was firmly in their grasp.

After warding the central bush to secure vision, Meiko did not push further for control. Facing a hook champion, especially when paired with a Draven, even the slightest carelessness could result in a kill. Avoiding unnecessary fights was essential.

When it came to wave clear, Thresh simply could not provide the same assistance as Zyra. He had to step out of the brush and sacrifice his own health to help Draven pressure the wave, yet he still could not stem the efficiency of the EDG duo.

Lin Ruo leaned against the wall of the bottom river, poking and pushing. While clearing minions, she never forgot to gauge the distance for opportunistic pokes, firing a W through the gaps of dying minions to slow Draven.

Meiko seized the moment to unleash his Q, the 750-range Thorn Spitter, whose wide-area damage left Kryst4l in agony.

"Are you kidding me? That Ashe W can actually reach?" Kryst4l, who had been playing with extreme caution, still found himself hit and miserable.

They had devised a strategy before the game: look for an aggressive engage at level one to either chunk the opponents or force out their summoner spells. If they succeeded, lane priority would be theirs, making it much easier for their mid-laner and jungler to dive later.

Unfortunately, even with Thresh pushing up, he couldn't find a single opening, and now, having been poked down, they were forced to concede lane priority.

"Wait for level two; my Q makes it easier to force an engage," the Snake support said hurriedly.

As they spoke, the EDG duo reached level two first. The space for pressuring opened up, and Kryst4l was forced to retreat in a hurry.

After starting his Red Buff in the top side, SofM prepared to head down to clear his Blue, hoping to catch someone on the way. But one look at the bottom lane state, and he abandoned the thought without a second word. He ignored the Blue Buff, cut through the Wolves’ territory across the river, and headed straight for Clearlove’s F6.

Why gank when counter-jungling is so much more satisfying?

Kryst4l grew anxious. "Wait, SofM, why are you counter-jungling? Come gank the bottom lane!"

SofM didn't even turn his head, his tone flat. "The wave is frozen. Not a good time to gank."

Kryst4l looked up. Although the EDG duo was working hard to hit level two, they were cleverly maintaining a slow-push pace. Aside from the chip damage they dealt to him while hitting the back-line minions, they didn't touch the wave unnecessarily. This resulted in a stacked wave, making it even riskier for him to step up and farm. Since they weren't pushed to the tower, it was difficult for SofM to gank without wasting his own development.

*But I'm playing Draven...* Kryst4l felt the bitterness rising. Even if it's not a good gank, you're supposed to help!

After circling a few times, Lin Ruo grew bolder, camping the brush and abusing her vision advantage to relentlessly slow and poke them.

The red side duo dropped to half health. Even if Lin Ruo walked right up to their faces, Thresh and Draven had no desire to engage.

"Holy crap, Clearlove, your F6 are about to be gone," Lin Ruo suddenly shouted, drawing eyes toward the mid-lane.

She knew the "Vietnamese bandit" had been coveting the F6 for a long time, which was why she had warded the river earlier. Sure enough, he was already crossing it.

SofM was the type who wouldn't sacrifice his own gains to gank unless a clear opportunity presented itself. He preferred invading and stealing camps to break the enemy jungler.

Clearlove, who was farming Wolves in the top side, was startled but helpless. Even if he went down, it was useless; they had no lane priority in the mid-lane, and the mid-jungle duo couldn't fight.

Unless... a crazy thought crossed Clearlove’s mind. He looked closely and saw that the unbelievable, beautiful figure had already emerged from the brush behind the Red Buff.

With one piercing W, she stole two of the small raptors, then had the nerve to chase the Lee Sin down.

"EDG's bot lane is here. SofM, watch yourself," Kryst4l warned lazily. He felt much better now; he could finally farm the wave in peace.

In his stead, SofM had to pay a heavy price. Under Ashe's pursuit, he was forced to drop a ward and burn his Flash, fleeing back across the river in a sorry state.

"Seriously? You're playing like this? Leaving your lane to protect the F6?" Meiko, who had arrived late, sounded disgruntled. Back when they played together, he had never seen her take such good care of their jungler.

"As long as I can protect Clearlove's F6, any sacrifice is worth it," Lin Ruo declared with unwavering resolve.

Clearlove looked over at her determined face, feeling a warmth in his heart. So, she really was a true fan. He immediately promised, "Don't panic. I'm definitely ganking this bottom lane. Even Jesus couldn't stop me."

Although they had lost a bit of minion XP, they had gained the heart of the world's best jungler. This was a trade well made.

Over the next five minutes, Clearlove's Kha'Zix basically never left the bottom side of the map. The Snake duo, already suppressed to death, was beyond frustrated.

"Seriously, SofM, where are you?"

SofM had already entered the river, preparing to counter-jungle the Gromp that had just respawned in Clearlove's top jungle. He offered a disingenuous reassurance: "I'm pathing toward you. Just wait a second, I'll be there after this."

Pathing toward them, my foot. Kryst4l had complaints he dared not voice, watching helplessly as the Kha'Zix roamed the bottom quadrant.

Zzitai in the mid-lane had priority and kept wanting to roam down to help, but every time he looked, he saw the Kha'Zix lurking in some corner of the jungle, and he immediately abandoned the idea.

The bottom lane laning phase was a failure; the duo's health was always half that of their opponents, so a gank seemed pointless.

Zzitai decided to go top instead, coordinating with SofM's Lee Sin to set up a three-man dive, successfully picking up a kill. SofM was also able to continue enjoying the benefits of swapping jungle camps.

The bottom lane, however, was a tragedy. Scout pulled his "hearse" and brought the Kha'Zix into the tower for a funeral; the first tower and two lives were gone.

After making the play, Scout realized it didn't really matter if he went bot or not; in fact, Clearlove and the bot duo could dive them just as easily without him, so he stopped bothering.

The laning phase continued. Deprived of the shelter of their first tower, the Snake duo was forced to swap lanes, heading to the top to develop a new battlefield.

Just as Kryst4l finally found a moment to farm in peace, a Crystal Arrow pierced through the shadows of the river, slamming straight into his head.

Following closely behind was Ryze’s Teleport.

EDG Scout has slain Snake Kryst4l.

"Nice shot," Meiko praised. Predicting that from across half the screen was impressive.

"Nice," Scout echoed.

"Just luck," Lin Ruo replied with practiced humility.

The second arrow followed, landing on the "richest man in Vietnam" as he tried to peek at the Dragon, resulting in another beautiful assist.

"Seriously, SofM, are you playing with snakes?" Kryst4l, who had made bold claims before the game, had entered a state of gibberish.

"The bottom lane kept calling for me, but they had no priority. How was I supposed to gank?" SofM retorted with a glance. He had his own side of the story; every time he checked the bottom lane, they couldn't even maintain basic health, so what was the point of going?

"Forget about your fancy Draven plays; you've already let the rookie AD on the other side get into a rhythm," Zzitai said after holding his tongue for a long time. Just a moment ago, he had finally found a moment of poor positioning from the Ashe and tried to R-Flash engage, only for her to dodge it with a god-like back-turned prediction and follow up with a Crystal Arrow that stripped away two layers of his own skin, forcing him to retreat to his second tower in shame.

"Damn it, how is she so confident?" Zzitai had lost his composure. The more he played, the angrier he got. He had missed two Qs in a row, and the Ashe was walking right up to his face to kite him, not treating him like a human being at all.

*Damn it all, I'm a mid-laner, at least. How do you dare to do this?*