Chapter 207 - Stick to the SP’s Rhythm

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Caitlyn’s E-90 Caliber Net now had a shorter cooldown thanks to the blue buff.

After he had bagged the kill on Zyra, Asmodai skilfully recoiled with Caitlyn’s E to instantly distance his champion away from Vayne.

Xiao Bei was clearly displeased to see Caitlyn duck back into the turret safely. He closed in rapidly, relying on the champion’s innate effect, Night Hunter.

Caitlyn stepped back slightly and used her Snap Trap to hinder Vayne’s march.

Vayne rounded the trap and Tumbled forward into an attacking position, firing a standard sequence of Vayne’s QEA combo on Caitlyn.

The passive effect of Silver Bolts was triggered and that finally terminated the terrifying Caitlyn’s life.

Caitlyn refused to go down without a fight. She had fired at least three shots on Vayne before succumbing to death, and the slow effect provided by the red buff detained Vayne inside the tower’s range for a couple more seconds.

The turret attacked Vayne brutally despite his enormous effort to get out of its range.

Although he had managed to kill Caitlyn, Vayne’s HP didn’t seem to be enough to withstand the tower’s assault.

Finally, just when he was about to escape the tower’s periphery, one last destructive ray came crashing down on her.

QUADRAKILL!!

The majestic announcement immediately shook the entire Summoner’s Rift.

This signified the ultimate closure of the heart-clenching fight. The Snap Trap block and red buff slow by Caitlyn had made sure that Vayne didn’t get to escape the turret in time. Xiao Bei had become the fourth victim under Asmodai’s remarkable play.

To be more precise, Riven’s life had also been taken by Asmodai. This would be a glorious Pentakill if the system had not ruled Riven’s death out of the killing streak.

His status as the top ADC in the country was on full display here, he had declared his authority with a jaw-dropping performance.

At the bottom lane, Jinbei continued his solo push.

He had chosen not to take part in the fight because he reckoned his arrival may at best help his team get one more kill, hence, he was better off taking down a turret instead.

But he never would have seen this coming. He was astonished at how the team fight ended, with Asmodai completely annihilating the entire opponent team.

This opened up the bottom lane for him, and he did not waste the opportunity given and pushed all the way into the high ground. There was a good chance that he would be able to demolish the inhibitor tower as well.

Team Skycrown was distraught watching their inhibitor tower being dismantled, the previous team fight had been devastating for them. The fight itself and the loss of the inhibitor tower might be trivial in comparison to the overall picture, but their greatest concern was on the five kills captured single-handedly by Asmodai.

The upcoming team fights would be tough if Asmodai was not dealt with first.

“Do you think you can kill him instantly?” Lin Dong asked Da Luo.

“Don’t ask such a stupid question, it’s not like you don’t know how strong Asmodai is. This sucker is possibly the most disgusting ADC I have ever faced. His positioning, juking, and ability to find cover is out of this world. Maybe, just maybe, it could be possible if I have Flash, but without that… Pfft…” Da Luo grumbled.

Da Luo had come across Asmodai in the Ionia serve before, so he clearly understood what Asmodai was best at.

“We still have Zhou Yan. I can’t believe the two of you couldn’t kill a single ADC.” Lin Dong said.

“Do you think Luocheng’s Thresh is a decorative piece?” Da Luo rebuked.

Lin Dong and Xiao Bei knew Luocheng better as an ADC, and they seldom saw him in the SP position like in these two games.

They had definitely seen enough, though. Judging by his Alistar’s performance in the last game and Thresh’s superiority in the current game, killing the ADC was close to impossible as long as he was still alive.

Jax had been repelled by Thresh’s Fray the last time he had tried to jump on Caitlyn. Thresh had multiple skills to exploit, such as Exhaust, Fray, Scythe hook, and The Box. To be frank, even if Jax and Riven had tried to storm in on Caitlyn forcefully together, they still wouldn’t have the confidence to kill the ADC who was under Thresh’s protection.

Furthermore, this was a tip-top ADC they were talking about here.

“Let’s try setting up another fight. If we lose that too, then it’s time to ask for a mid-end,” Lin Dong said.

***

The next fight showed that Luocheng was indeed more abominable than Zhou Yan and Da Luo had imagined.

After Da Luo and Zhou Yan had spent all of their efforts to go through Thresh’s series of skills, and finally reached Caitlyn, Thresh’s magical lantern had managed to get Caitlyn out from the sticky situation yet again.

Meanwhile, the two of them were like two rabbits that had accidentally fallen into the lion’s lair as Morgana and Elise’s control skills fell upon them immediately. One Support player, namely Luocheng, was troublesome enough. Turned out the Jungler and Mid of Team SHU had also changed their roles into Support and were now protecting Caitlyn…

Almost the entire Team SHU was playing the Support role now!

After Da Luo and Zhou Yan were killed pathetically, Luocheng once again swayed Thresh’s Scythe arrogantly in front of their champions’ dead bodies, leaving a bad taste in Zhou Yan and Da Luo’s mouth.

The team fight ended without much suspense and Team SHU went all the way into the high ground through the mid lane.

Team Skycrown had given up on resisting and allowed their opponents to destroy the nexus freely.

The second game went to Team SHU.

Luocheng and Asmodai had carried their team all the way to victory in this match, deliberately making themselves the opponents’ main target, so that their teammates had enough time and space to sweep the middle and bottom lanes.

Asmodai had kept his economy the highest throughout the game despite the oppression, and the Pentakill had made him unbeatable for the rest of the game.

In subsequent team fights, Luocheng had blatantly gone with the three Supports strategy and completely crushed Team Skycrown’s plan to assassinate Asmodai.

After the defeat, Team Skycrown concluded the game with two lessons learned.

Firstly, Asmodai was insanely strong. He was difficult to press against and unbelievably powerful when farmed. Asmodai was going to be a horrifying rival that would haunt their professional journey in LOL.

Secondly, Luocheng was as great a Support as he was an ADC. He was such a big headache to the opposing team. If you tried to kill him, the ADC behind him would have enough time to return the favor. If you left him alone, he would use all sorts of tactics to harass you and even take your life in the process. He had mastered the art of using a Support while only having to do limited farming. His firm stance as a supportive player had successfully drawn out the full power of a talented ADC like Asmodai.

Team Skycrown would have defeated Team SHU with ease if it hadn’t been for the two of them. They had raised the bar of the game by several folds.

“Damn you, Luocheng! Come fight me at the top lane if you have balls! I will beat the hell out of you!” Da Luo yelled through the QQ voice chat, obviously furious and wanting revenge on Luocheng.

“Hehe, I would never play solo-top.” Luocheng ignored his provocation.

‘Fighting Da Luo at the top lane?’

Da Luo’s skills and experiences as a top lane player were perhaps greater than most professional gamers, and while Luocheng may have been able to bully normal players at the top lane, against Da Luo… That was just suicidal…

Team Skycrown actually knew Luocheng very well. Behind Luocheng’s inspiring story as a legendary MOBA player, deep down he was actually a terrible man. It was rumored that once, a prideful international player had smashed his keyboard after being verbally abused by their shameless captain.

Sometimes, it was really hard to regard Luocheng as a MOBA player with good sportsmanship. He was willing to do all kinds of immoral conduct, such as mocking, spamming, harassing, and farm hogging, just to provoke the person he disliked. Team Skycrown had seen this guy through thoroughly.

Today was one such example. They had played into Luocheng’s hands and were frequently distracted at the top lane.

Truth to be told, if Team Skycrown had played following the script and had conquered the other two lanes first, the game would have been hardly recoverable for Team SHU even with Luocheng and Asmodai’s help.

“Third round. Let’s start quickly!” Da Luo was unsatisfied, it tormented him mentally for allowing Luocheng to get away through his Riven.

“There is not going to be a third round,” Luocheng said.

“F*ck! What type of match ends in two games? It’s either the best of 3 or the best of 5. Let’s play one more to decide the winner,” Da Luo bellowed.

“This is just a friendly match, we will stop here,” Luocheng said decisively.

He was not going to play the third match no matter what.

The reason was simple. No matter which lane he and Asmodai chose, they would be ganked brainlessly in the next game.

During the second game, although they were also being constantly outnumbered, at least it was done after Wu Sen and Xiao Bei had completely lost the early laning phase.

They could withstand a gank that intensified gradually, but if the opponent team was coming at them from the start, like a five-person gank at level 3, or bombardment by ultis at level 6, or even mindless ward placements to oppress them…

They couldn’t even gain experience if that happened, not to mention farming.

Luocheng was never going to play a game that was destined to fail.

‘One win and one loss. This was an acceptable result, let’s put an end to this.’ Luocheng was satisfied with the performance of both sides. He had also regained the long-forgotten joy of playing a professional game after teaming up with Asmodai.

Team SHU bore the same opinion as Luocheng. They preferred not to have a third game as it was going to be a one-sided butchery anyway.

Team Skycrown couldn’t do anything when their ex-teammate was being this unreasonable.

***

“Asmodai, you have played two games with us so you must have some understanding of our team. Could you tell us frankly what differentiates us from the professional team? I feel like we are at a bottleneck now and we don’t know what and how to improve,” Xiao Jia asked for his opinion sincerely.

“You guys lack the big picture and in-game rhythm. The support always comes way too slow,” Asmodai said honestly.

A good team would never allow a 5v2 situation to manifest, and Asmodai felt that Team SHU still had a lot to improve on.

“Then, what should we do?” Xiao Jia queried.

Asmodai smiled and pointed at Luocheng, “Stick to his rhythm and the team will immediately improve by a great margin.”

“Stick to the Support’s rhythm?” Yang Ying, Xiao Jia, and Jinbei looked at each other.

It wasn’t that they were doubting Luocheng’s prowess, but he was just a Support after all, how were they going to improve by following his rhythm? Were they going to surrender the ADC’s farm to him as well?

“His perception of the game is way more excellent than anyone in this room. You will do no wrong following his command, besides, don’t you know that most professional team captains actually play the Support role?” Asmodai explained.