NOVEL NEXT Chapter 468
To be honest, our team hasn’t really preferred snowballing compositions until now.
There are various reasons for this, but I felt that the intricate nature of snowballing compositions didn’t quite match our team’s style.
In fact, we did try snowballing compositions quite often during scrims, but in the end, we always circled back to value compositions centered around top and jungle.
First, we had to win.
It was much easier to rely on a strategy that had already been validated multiple times than an unproven one.
But just because we didn’t prefer it didn’t mean we could keep playing relying solely on value.
A team with limitations in playstyle tends to crumble during crucial moments, and for the big stage coming up, we needed to sharpen as many weapons as possible.
Protein and Kim Ji-hoon’s Pyke were among the picks prepared in this context.
I can confidently say that Kim Ji-hoon is the player I trust the most on our team.
-Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!
The game officially began.
With it being a best-of-three in a 1:1 situation, the fans’ cheers from outside the booth pierced through my noise-canceling headset.
Amidst the fans’ excitement, I focused my mind.
[⨷] [⨷] [⨷]
[⬇] [⬇] [⬇]
Pings lit up all across the mini-map. A few were my own.
Given the compositions of both teams, the bottom lane matchup was practically unviable, leading to an intense invade phase due to the lane swap.
[“Let’s wait a bit down at bottom.”]
We all gathered and briefly waited in the bottom bush, but the enemy team didn’t show up.
Afterwards, we split up to scout for vision, but the enemy also seemed cautious during their invade and showed no particular movements.
-Minions have spawned!
The laning phase officially began.
We did a top-bottom lane swap while the enemy team set up in the standard lanes.
It seemed that the opponents, having formed a strong bottom lane composition including Rumble, would prefer a standard lane for their comfort, while we found that setup uncomfortable, so we opted for the lane swap.
My early path was the standard full camp route.
A route starting from the bottom and sweeping upwards.
Though a rather obvious choice, Kha’Zix is surprisingly weak in the early game, unlike the image of a meat-eating champion.
Yet, going the usual route against Sejuani didn’t sit well for Kha’Zix either.
So despite Kha’Zix’s early weakness, he was in a position where he needed to do something.
This meant diving the enemy Rumble left alone in the top lane during the lane swap.
A 3:1 dive, or even a 3:2 dive, was a task that had to be accomplished from the lane swap perspective, and the enemy had to do the same as well.
“Can we make a play on the top lane? Jaem-min, don’t respond, let Ji-hoon answer.”
[“Yes.”]
“Okay.”
[“Wait, what I meant was—”]
“Shut it.”
Jhin and Pyke slowly started to form the wave.
The enemy Rumble decided not to overextend and completely hid instead.
Since he would lose out on experience as well as CS, he intended to use that time for other actions.
Similarly, our K’Sante helped with jungle clearing during that time, boosting the jungle speed.
[Kha’Zix – Level 4]
After completing my full camp, I headed straight for the top lane.
The 3:1 dive setup was ready.
Under normal circumstances, Rumble should’ve already retreated and suffered the loss of a big wave.
However, the enemy Rumble seemed determined to stick around near the turret instead of backing off.
Clearly, he wouldn’t be able to withstand a dive as a champion like Rumble in a 3:1 scenario.
What this indicated was clear.
“I think Sejuani is around.”
As I boldly jumped into the enemy golem bush, sure enough, Sejuani was already waiting there.
Facing Sejuani, I immediately landed an isolated Q on her, applying a bit of pressure to her health.
She likely had the intention of ambushing us if we tried to dive Rumble.
[“What do we do?”]
At Kim Ji-hoon’s question, I replied.
“Let’s do it.”
In a 3:2 situation.
The enemy decided to try to withstand the dive with Rumble and Sejuani’s power, which was something I intended.
Making the enemy feel like they could hold out enough.
Originally, in a game of Legends of League, the higher the risk, the greater the potential return.
We and the enemy both made such choices.
“Start with Ji-hoon.”
First, Pyke’s Q shot towards the overlap between Sejuani and Rumble.
Even if one of them flashed, one would still connect.
Consequently, the enemy Rumble had no choice but to get snagged by Pyke’s grab without a chance to awkwardly evade.
On top of that, Jhin’s W skill layered onto the attack.
The reason this synergy was possible was quite simple.
Kim Jae-min’s Jhin used W the moment Pyke’s grab flew in, confident that it would hit.
While Sejuani hurriedly landed her Q on Pyke, he had a survival ability.
During a brief immobilization, Pyke used his E to chain CC and drew the turret aggro.
Sejuani, who was trying to cover, also got caught up in Pyke’s E skill, which was just the cherry on top.
As I landed the finishing blow on Rumble, his health rapidly diminished until he fell.
-First Blood!
-Enemy slain!
Now only Sejuani remained at the enemy turret.
While we could have backed off with a significant lead, I was feeling a bit greedy.
“Let’s go for it again. Sejuani has her aftershock down right now.”
There was no disagreement.
Our team had tremendous faith in what I said.
“Start with Jaem-min. Once skills are off cooldown, go right in. Pyke will CC for us.”
[“Okay.”]
Starting with the healthiest Jhin’s auto-attack, we drew turret aggro, while Pyke initiated a mind-game of grabs with the enemy Sejuani.
Would Sejuani flash or not.
Flash!
Sejuani opted to use her flash, and Kim Ji-hoon’s predicted grab succeeded, pulling Sejuani in.
From that moment on, Sejuani was completely out of options.
Her aftershock was down, and she had no flashes left.
On top of that, Jhin’s W and Pyke’s E skill went in together for a CC chain, dealing heavy damage.
[“I’m backing off now!”]
As Kim Jae-min, who had been dealing damage until the end, barely flashed out, the turret aggro shifted to me.
-Enemy slain!
Just managing to take down Sejuani, I too immediately flashed away from turret aggro.
In a 3:2 dive, we managed to take down two enemies 2:0.
Even though we lost two flashes from our team, we effectively picked off one flash and two enemies from the opposing side.
That’s not just a jackpot, it’s a mega jackpot.
Considering that the dive line was currently burning against the enemy turret in real-time, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the game had tilted overwhelmingly in our favor.
[“I’m backing off now.”]
“Good job, Yeon-woo.”
Meanwhile, our K’Sante on the bottom lane retreated, sacrificing a bit of experience but at least not giving the enemy a kill.
We killed the enemy while they could not kill us.
The situation was looking very good.
Earlier, we mentioned forming a snowballing composition, but that didn’t mean our team’s value was low at all.
The lineup of K’Sante, Kha’Zix, and Orianna alone was a pick that certainly didn’t lag in value.
Bringing time for the top side to grow while the bottom side developed with the composition.
In a way, one might say the composition of this match could be neither this nor that, but it could also imply a combination that’s neither lacking in value nor snowballing.
In the game, the most desperate situation is falling behind from the get-go against a value composition.
Having returned to base, I immediately dashed towards the bottom scuttle.
Considering the time Sejuani appeared top, she must have skipped the bottom scuttle and gone up.
“Can you give me a brief poke in mid?”
[“Oh. That’s possible.”]
Through my matches with SY thus far, I learned that Rainbow always seemed to be conscious of me.
However, time has moved on.
Now the teams are well aware that we’re taking advantage of that fact, making the once invisible notion of Kha’Zix ineffective.
Of course, we can dish out our punishment in such a case.
‘So, what’s your play now?’
Orianna stepped quite boldly forward, exposing herself for some poke.
Was it a mistake or intentional?
What choice would Rainbow make in this chess match?
Now was the time to focus on that.