Chapter 55

The more aggressive the lineup, the more you need to balance vision and the margin for tactical errors.

With fast movements, a high chance of exposing vision, and quick transitions, the Jungle and Mid Lane are highly susceptible to enemy incursion and separation.

Typically, teams will scout the area broadly before making a move, but the scope of scouting is always limited. This involves strategic positioning, formation, and choosing entry points.

In the ever-changing arena, a few seconds can decide the outcome of a team fight. Therefore, in truly intense team fights, what is tested is the players’ intuitive judgment and rational responses.

Creating fake vision is often most effective in the late stages of intense team fights. Players can’t allocate much mental energy to determine if a 0.5-second retreat direction is a trap.

This is also the focus of VIT’s special training.

Everyone must be able to, even in moments of intuitive reactions, make anti-intuitive strategies and thoughts.

“The only way to beat us is by having a lineup advantage, completely disregarding vision, and going for a full-on assault.”

Rong Yi checked the stats on his screen. Lang Bai’s gold had just increased by 143. He casually said, “Di is attacking the Thunderstrike Bird, can we surround him?”

“No way to surround him.”

Grey Cat glanced at the tense laning of Hydralisk and said, “Yin-Ge and I can go harass him a bit.”

“Come on.”

Xiao Yin instantly moved from the Mid to the River, bringing Grey Cat along for a pincer attack.

Xiao Yin created fake vision towards the Top Lane while Grey Cat appeared in the ADC lane a second before.

Lang Bai did not show up in vision at all, so he was completely unprepared. He didn’t even enter the bush, just openly jungling outside.

Xiao Yin appeared first. Lang Bai reacted quickly, retreating towards ADC to join Yao Cao for a counterattack. Grey Cat flashed in and hammered them at the junction, locking both of them onto the Rift’s floor with a control skill.

Once Mother of the Earth’s control hits, you might as well take your hands off the keyboard. Xiao Yin strolled over and took both kills.

Rong Yi whistled.

“A big fat wave1.”

Xiao Yin scoured the Jungle for resources and said calmly, “Captain Rong gave good directions.”

Hydralisk was still confused. “Captain, how did you know where their Jungler was? He didn’t show up at all, and you two were so far apart.”

“Your Captain is good at math.”

Xiao Yin calmly said in the team chat, “I’ll teach you tomorrow. You need to learn it.”

Hydralisk felt like Xiao Yin was mocking him.

“Fine, I’ll learn! How could I not master such a brilliant trick!”

In fact, the audience was also bewildered.

Even the commentators had a hard time explaining it—VIT’s recent pincer attack was beyond their understanding.

Lion said, “Well, in this wave… Lang Bai was a bit careless. He didn’t enter the bush while fighting Thunderstrike, which has control abilities, so he was discovered and didn’t have time to retreat. VIT seized the opportunity.”

Commentator Bing Bing was more straightforward. She exclaimed, “How is this possible? How is this possible! VIT had no vision of Lang Bai at all! Are they gambling? From Lang Bai’s perspective, it was a disaster out of nowhere—”

The live chat was filled with viewers frantically typing question marks.

“Wow, waiting for in-game voice comms. How is this different from full map vision?”

“This is incredible! How can you defend against it? Who’s shotcalling in their team? Is it Yin?”

“VIT’s Mid Laner is the shotcaller! ADC is BP! The main shotcaller is Easy!”

“Easy is too strong, too strong. Is it because he’s a veteran player? So he’s especially familiar with their tactics?” Some viewers began speculating.

Gradually, esports fans started to understand.

“VIT’s clairvoyant playstyle isn’t a one-time thing! Not just against RS, they’ve been dominating like this all the way, it’s amazing!”

“It can’t just be luck, right? Their luck would be too good.”

“It’s probably just a lucky guess.” Lion, the commentator, was also unsure. He said, “Actually, pro players have this kind of predictive ability, like guessing where the enemy might be. If they guess right, it’s a big success. If not, it’s just a waste of time.”

However, just as he finished speaking, Rong Yi, who had been staying under the tower to avoid being ganked, made a proactive move.

Rong Yi headed to the enemy’s red Jungle and directly found Neng Li, their Mid Laner, controlling the Jungle monsters.

From the top-down perspective, this move was extremely risky—RS’s Top Laner was hiding in a nearby bush, ready to flank from behind.

But at the same time, Xiao Yin entered, precisely passing by the bush where Qing Yan was hiding, and joined Rong Yi to attack Neng Li together.

Xiao Yin, paired with Rong Yi, meant there was no chance for a counterattack from the Top Laner. Moreover, Wu Daogu was patrolling the River, ready to support at any time.

Lang Bai had not yet respawned.

If Qing Yan engaged now, it would turn into a three-versus-two, so he wisely chose not to follow.

Neng Li, the Mid Laner, had picked Polar Explorer, a champion with very low durability but with a frost slowing effect.

Neng Li used a Flash to escape, but Rong Yi predicted the direction of the Flash and hooked him back, dragging him straight to Xiao Yin, who finished him off.

Afterwards, instead of retreating, Rong Yi created fake vision indicating he was returning to the Mid Lane but instead looped around to the Top Lane River!

At this point, Qing Yan sensed something was wrong and started to retreat after Xiao Yin killed the Polar Explorer, he would likely check the Top Lane vision. Qing Yan was about to retreat under his tower when suddenly, a Silver Hook flew out of nowhere.

Rong Yi Flashed into the bush Qing Yan had just been hiding in, hooked the retreating Qing Yan, and dragged him back in front of Xiao Yin.

Xiao Yin didn’t hesitate and secured the kill.

When Wu Daogu arrived, he didn’t even manage to get an assist. He sighed, “So unlucky.”

“So unlucky, completely dragged out from hiding!”

“Dragged out and beaten down! Once Easy hooks you with that Silver Hook, there’s no escaping!”

The audience was abuzz, boiling with excitement.

If the previous catch on Lang Bai was a coincidence, this one on Qing Yan was a visionless prediction!

Lang Bai was caught while Jungling, but Qing Yan had only been in the bush for two or three seconds.

Lion, the commentator, started to sweat a bit as he explained, “In this wave… after VIT took down the Mid Laner, Xiao Yin went to the River to scout for vision, but Easy Flash-controlled the area as if he knew someone was there. Of course, this is a common bush to check, a standard bush.”

The audience began to grow impatient.

“Can this commentator even do his job? Easy’s brilliant plays are downplayed by him! Can you do better?”

“Does this commentator have a grudge against Easy? Just politely asking. These plays can’t just be explained as predictions. Isn’t this the team’s pure skill?”

“Exactly, and every time Easy makes a move, Yin immediately follows up. Such impressive coordination, and you make it sound so mundane.”

With two catches in a row, the team that was supposed to be ambushing ended up getting ambushed. RS had no way to turn this game around.

Moreover, due to Rong Yi drawing most of the enemy’s fire early on, both Xiao Yin and Hydralisk had a very comfortable game, and the ADC also developed well. Xiao Yin was strolling around controlling vision right in front of the enemy, and in the late game, the situation completely flipped. RS entered base defense mode.

A lineup with high control, high burst, and high engagement naturally has the weakness of being squishy and having low crowd-control resistance, making it hard to defend the base.

Especially when the opposing Support is Little Key.

At best, he can resurrect you.

At worst, not even a god can save you.

Rong Yi’s Silver Hook, combined with Grey Cat’s mother of the earth, left enemies immobilized. Wu Daogu, being the team’s only tank, took most of the hits.

Wu Daogu cursed, “Damn it, I can’t even move.”

Grey Cat glanced at the enemy he had just hammered and Rong Yi had just speared.

Grey Cat said, “I think the enemy wants to say the same.”

The scene of the base siege turned into a hilarious exchange of crowd control. This side couldn’t move, and the other side couldn’t either. But Memory Key had limited impact during the base defense and couldn’t prevent the team’s casualties.

RS’s Nexus was destroyed by VIT. They lost the first game.

The team took off their headsets.

Rong Yi also set down his headset, gently exhaled, then stretched and rubbed his temples.

The mental state required for a match is indeed different from that of training. Matches demand such high levels of concentration that it’s a bit exhausting for him.

Hydralisk rushed to the bathroom, and Wu Daogu went backstage to find some snacks, leaving only Xiao Yin, Grey Cat, and Rong Yi in the Training Room.

“But Captain, how did you know the enemy’s positions?” Grey Cat asked eagerly, munching on a small piece of bread. “Those plays were so on point; I couldn’t predict them.”

“By watching the economy. Each Jungle monster provides different amounts of gold, and the gold from solo farming versus duo farming is different too.”

Rong Yi explained, “Thunderstrike has three stages of Jungle monsters, offering 72, 143, and 200 gold respectively.”

“Di, at level twelve, takes six seconds to clear that Jungle monster.”

“I can tell where he is just by looking at the scoreboard.”

“As for whether he’s in our jungle or theirs, whether he’s farming Jungle monsters or minions, that depends on the specific situation and is something I deduce from experience.”

Grey Cat’s expression turned to one of astonishment: “Do people really watch the scoreboard that closely?”

He couldn’t help but blurt out his thoughts.

Rong Yi’s method wasn’t unknown in the Pro Scene; everyone had heard of it and some even used it.

For instance, at the start of the game, by looking at the Jungler’s and Mid Laner’s gold, you can tell if one person is taking Blue Buff or if they’re duo farming, or if they’re setting up an ambush.

But this method is typically only used at the beginning of the game and isn’t always reliable. The Arena is constantly changing, and there aren’t enough eyes to keep track of the real-time gold fluctuations.

Noticing such details mid-game is unheard of. This means the Shotcaller has to focus on their own development while continuously monitoring the real-time changes of the five enemy players’ gold, calculating it on the fly.

Moreover, they have to track the time taken for the gold to increase.

Faced with Grey Cat’s astonishment, Rong Yi smiled: “We’re still practicing coordination; your training plan hasn’t reached that level yet.”

“You have to memorize every patch.”

“For this patch, you need to know the attack power of every Champion at each level, the time taken to clear Jungle camps and minions.”

“You need to know the effects of each piece of Equipment on Jungle clearing and farming, and the defensive stats.”

“The combined effects of multiple pieces of Equipment, attack speed, Jungle clearing speed, and movement speed.”

“In my team, I require everyone to memorize these.”

“You can choose not to memorize, but the prerequisite is that you can roughly calculate all this in real-time like Yin and I do.”

“Or, you can play thirty thousand games with each Champion and rely on your intuition and experience to win in this patch.”

Rong Yi shrugged. “That’s how it is. But when I was with RS, many people didn’t memorize it.”

“They didn’t memorize it because they thought no one could do it,” Rong Yi said. “But tracking gold gains down to every second is the limit we can pursue in competitive gaming.”

“They forgot that I could always do it.”

Xiao Yin nodded. “Everyone on VIT can do it too.”

During the halftime break, an additional interview segment needed to be recorded.

Because today’s entrance ceremony had some adjustments, the pre-game dialogue was moved to halftime.

“Captain, you have a nice voice, you go.” Everyone had gotten used to pushing this task to Rong Yi—anyone else speaking might get verbally attacked by angry Fans.

Rong Yi was the only one who could handle it with some tact.

The Host was also someone who liked to stir the pot, so he asked:

“Captain, many people are saying that to beat VIT, you just need to target Mid Lane. This includes our Commentator Lion and some Netizens on the forums. What do you think about this?”

“We’ve seen that RVG, and even today’s RS, have made efforts and preparations to target Mid Lane. What’s your take on that?”

“I’ve seen what Commentator Lion said.”

Rong Yi directly named him, his voice calm and steady.

“He said there’s nothing special, really. To beat VIT, isn’t it enough to just target Mid Lane?”

“Indeed, there’s nothing special about targeting Mid Lane. But didn’t RVG target Mid Lane before, and still, they didn’t even win a single point against us?”

Footnote:

1. A Big Fat Wave(一波肥): In League of Legends, ‘A big fat wave’ refers to a situation where a player gets a large amount of gold and experience from clearing a wave of minions or jungle monsters. This allows the player to quickly become stronger and gain an advantage.