Chapter 54: The E-Sports Yang Guo? A One-Armed Twisted Fate Top Laner!

Chapter 54: The Esports Yang Guo? A Self-Mutilating Top-Lane Twisted Fate!

[S-Grade Status: Star of Fortune]
[Description: Once your probability-triggered mechanisms in the game reach their maximum limit, accumulated luck values will be granted to you! The initial luck value is 1%. Every time the Star of Fortune is triggered, the luck value for the current match increases by +1%, and overall strength increases by +10%! Before the match ends, there is no upper limit to attribute boosts! (Effective for the current match only)]

[Daily Quest (S-Grade): Twisted Fate's Loaded Dice]
[Description: Use the Twisted Fate, and trigger the maximum-value passive more than 100 times in a single game match.]
[Rewards: System EXP +5000! Legendary Hero Fragment *2! Legendary Equipment Fragment *2! Legendary Skill Fragment *2!]

……

Probability-triggered mechanisms in League of Legends are very rare compared to other games.
Critical strikes can be considered a probability mechanism.
And Twisted Fate's passive (gaining an extra 1-6 gold per last hit) is also a probability mechanism.

"They want to stomp Shaqima right in the laning phase! But this guy Ma-ge has a very strange flex-pick pool; he can flex from support to jungle, and also to the top lane. So, before being certain about what champion Shaqima would pick, they simply opted for extremely aggressive lane matchups across all positions!"

As everyone knows, Jax's E skill, Counter Strike, can block all skill effects attached to basic attacks.
Moreover, top laners are basically short-range champions. Having the range advantage in the early game would undoubtedly relieve a lot of pressure for him.

The match officially commenced.
The duo lane had too many variables. Without a solid foundation of strength, the bot lane would likely struggle to even last-hit minions in the early game, let alone stack their own fortune buff.

This champion was considered a popular support-heavy system within the current meta. Its priority hadn't reached the absolute maximum during the playoffs, so it was frequently left unbanned.
Twisted Fate was nothing rare; a permanent resident of the mid lane.

"Brothers! No matter how flashy Shaqima's plays are! As long as he fails to make it to the Worlds championship, he will never win the recognition of my Iron-tier self!"

"Let's save the last counter-pick for Nuguri, waiting for their fourth and fifth picks." Steak nodded in satisfaction facing the super-strong laning lineup they had locked in.

Before this game had even begun, a laning phase collapse was practically written all over the big screen.

"Have you guys noticed? FPX seems to have changed their mindset this game. They've picked all sorts of weird systemic combinations. I honestly can't even figure out how the team fights for this composition are supposed to be played... All of them are systems with ferocious single-target laning matchups, but lacking crowd control and AOE for team fights." Jiejie pushed up his glasses, clearly spotting the bizarre nature of FPX's draft this game.

On the contrary, FPX's champion selections were flashy and unorthodox: Lee Sin in the jungle, Syndra in the mid lane, Thresh as the support, and Caitlyn in the bot lane—a champion that hadn't seen competitive play in a long time.

However, if played in the top lane, his ultimate could only influence the mid lane, which was equivalent to cutting off one of his own arms.

"iG's selections this match are quite normal, and they've also made certain buffers against the early-game pressure exerted by FPX." Mile analyzed the composition: "Under the pressure of three AP threats, the jungler Xun picked Nocturne, whose burst is equally high, making up for the lack of AD damage and forming a dual-dive system with Twisted Fate."

At this moment, inside FPX's team voice comms.

A jungler had even fewer opportunities to trigger Twisted Fate's passive in the early game. Although a camp counted as 4 minions, individual monsters could only trigger the passive once, yielding very low returns.

FPX's entire team draft sealed off the laning strength of this match with virtually zero blind spots.

"Nuguri, lock in Jax!"

Cheng Xuan simply combined the two into one grand collection of fortune!

Although some players were fans of Shaqima's performances in previous games, they still didn't believe his Twisted Fate could accomplish much in this match.

Lee Sin in the jungle went without saying—combining burst, mobility, sustain, and fast clearing speed, he feared no other jungler.

Facing a dual-spliced split-push system like Twisted Fate and Ryze, FPX had to draft a late-game split-push threat of their own to respond, otherwise they would be suffocated to death by minion waves.

***

A very standard first pick.

iG's support Morgana was swapped with the mid-lane Twisted Fate, and Twisted Fate was swapped again with Ryze.

After weighing his options several times in his mind, Cheng Xuan chose the much safer top lane.

Under the gaze of countless eyes.

"As the AD carry with the second-longest range, combined with the Volley skill, Ashe can find a sliver of breathing room under the pressure of Caitlyn's range."

Thanks to the big benefactor 'Breserkrer' for the 2500 coin tip!

Shaqima at this moment had clearly exhausted all his tricks.

He had also been ruled out.

However, if the matchup was merely Ryze, the pressure wouldn't be too immense.

Soon, iG's five picks were locked in, though the position order hadn't been finalized yet.

As for routing choices, the bottom lane was ruled out first.

And the heartless keyboard warriors went all out across the board.

What about the top lane, though?
Never seen it.

"He's truly the Esports Yang Guo."

"That way, no matter which lane you go to, Shaqima, I will hunt you down! I'll beat you into total silence during the laning phase and see how you keep showing off!"

Soon, recovering his senses, Mile shouted: "I get it!! FPX is trying to hunt down Shaqima this game!"

There was a very high probability of crushing the lane and securing a direct victory this game!

"Looking at it this way, Ashe and Morgana are locked into the bottom lane, and Ryze is top... let me think." Steak pondered for a moment and snapped his fingers.

"Heh, support Morgana. It seems his trump card has been emptied. He can't pull out anything fresher. Without Shaqima as a disruptive wildcard, based on iG's overall level this year, they won't be making it to Worlds." Steak chuckled dismissively.

"Watch closely, Ma-ge might just pull off another miracle. Didn't so many people flame him when he first debuted? And what happened? They got their heads spun right off!"

Twisted Fate's first pick hadn't drawn too much attention from the commentators in the early stages.

Both sides began swapping positions.

Anyone would eventually run out of tricks.

It was extremely rare, even in solo queue.

Nothing else—Twisted Fate's ultimate trait allowed him to roam and support side lanes.

The drafting phase for both teams continued sequentially.

Just in the final few seconds.

Like Garen's Q, Renekton's W, Xin Zhao's Q, Wukong's Q.

"It really is like that." Jiejie, enlightened by Mile, also nodded in agreement.

Facing the buffs to Goredrinker and the rise of Goredrinker-reliant top laners, Jax wasn't quite viable in the meta for this patch.

No one stays young forever, and no one remains invincible forever.

***

Instead, it depended on what kind of antics the player Shaqima would pull off this game.

"And once this composition drags iG into the late game, the dual-pushing of Twisted Fate and Ryze will cause huge headaches for FPX. The draft this game is actually quite well-done."

Namely: Twisted Fate, Ryze, Nocturne, Ashe, and Morgana.

Moreover, if the matchup was against Jax, it would be even harder.

The bullet chat was thick with toxic rivalry.

"iG really does produce handless top laners. Is Shaqima's playstyle a form of self-mutilation?"

Now, regarding every single iG match, people no longer cared about which side would win or how they would win.

"Wait! There's a change on iG's side! Shaqima didn't pick support Morgana! He took Twisted Fate to the top lane instead!! Twisted Fate playing top lane? Holy ghost! This guy is at it again!! Look at him, he's doing it again!!" Mile appeared extremely excited.

Twisted Fate's core ability, W, would also be entirely negated by Jax.

"He's not doing it again! He never stopped!!" Jiejie said, crying and laughing: "Initially seeing him pick Morgana this game, I felt a bit of regret. But then in the very last second, he swapped with a teammate and grabbed Twisted Fate! This guy Shaqima! He doesn't just toy with his opponents! He toys with his teammates! He even toys with the commentators and the audience! This guy is utterly absurd!!"

As for Syndra in the mid lane, as one of the highest-burst mid-lane champions, her skill range was also quite wide.

Thanks to the big benefactor 'Jiang Hengyu' for the 2000 coin tip!

After all, the strength buff state for this game needed to be stacked gradually, rather than being present from the very beginning.

Only the mid and top lanes remained as choices.

With long-range Q, W, and E skills, he could begin harassing the enemy's health bar for free once reaching level 3.

"Do modern pro players only need to play a couple of random games to attract this many brainless fanboys? I honestly can't even."

FPX on the red side: top Jax, jungle Lee Sin, mid Syndra, bot Thresh supporting Caitlyn.

With the final lock-in of Jax.

Bot lane Caitlyn + Thresh, a long-range pushing combination with relatively low impact in mid-game team fights. Caitlyn's passive and mini-skill traits made her rely heavily on basic attacks, but before critical strike items were fully stacked, her mid-game combat capability was somewhat weak.

Yet during the laning phase, as the AD carry with the 625-range maximum distance, combined with the oppressive pressure of Thresh, they could practically make life a living hell for their opponents.

They could even max Q and leap forward.

iG on the blue side: top Twisted Fate, jungle Nocturne, mid Ryze, AD Ashe, support Morgana.

The Weapon Master was undoubtedly the optimal solution.

Long minion waves, suitable for farming.

Thanks to the big benefactor 'A Shi Dong Ming' for the 1000 coin tip!
Thanks to the big benefactor 'Ouwen Wuchen' for the 200 coin tip!
Thanks to the big benefactor 'Qingcheng Qingyu' for the 100 coin tip!
Thanks to all the generous benefactors for your fierce support!
Kowtow! Kowtowing for dear life!
Bang bang bang!!!
(End of this chapter)