"RNG! Let's Go! RNG! Let's Go!"
"EDG! Let's Go! EDG! Let's Go!"
The crowd's roar washed over the arena as both teams loaded into Summoner's Rift.
"I'm still starting red buff this game, then ganking top at level three," Clearlove said as the game timer hit zero.
"Alright." Zack Harper gave a slight nod, thinking for a second. "Their Lee Sin is definitely going to make plays early, but his targets are probably jungle and top. You two bot can look for a level one fight if you want."
"OK, OK!" Zet nodded immediately, understanding the assignment.
EDG's current ADC was the Korean import Zet. He could understand English well enough, but he still couldn't communicate fluently.
"Scout, if you get a chance, drop a ward at their blue buff, yeah?" Zack said, glancing over at mid.
Scout looked at him but didn't say anything.
Who the hell are you?
First game on stage and you're already giving me orders?
"Scout, give me a ward. I need to drop mine at blue buff," Clearlove stepped in when he saw Scout wasn't responding.
"OK!" Scout nodded once Clearlove spoke up.
Clearlove's position in EDG wasn't ordinary, after all. They might have different reads on the game, but a simple ward request like that? Scout could fulfill it.
Ivern placed a decoy ward at his own blue buff at the start.
Taliyah, meanwhile, didn't head straight to RNG's blue to ward. There'd probably be someone guarding it, and Taliyah had lane priority against Ryze early anyway—she could just shove and then go ward.
Over in RNG's voice comms, the chatter was nonstop.
"Uzi, you guys play your own lane this game. I'm going for a fast level three gank top," MLXG announced.
"An AD top laner isn't just an insult to our top laner—it's an insult to the jungler. If I don't camp him, I'm not doing myself justice."
"Fast level three top gank?" Uzi's brow furrowed slightly. "We can't help you leash bot, then."
Their bot lane duo was Caitlyn and Lulu.
If they didn't suppress Tristana and Leona hard early and just let them peacefully farm to mid-late game, the moment Leona engaged, they could easily trade kills. After a few kill trades like that, the enchanter support's advantage would evaporate.
When an enchanter support played against an engage support, you had to stomp them early, constantly chip away at their health bar. If an engage support tried to go in while low on HP, it was just inting.
"No need. I'll start raptors, you guys just lane normally," MLXG said, shaking his head slightly.
"Alright, then no problem," Uzi said, a smile creeping across his face.
In RNG's team at the moment, only MLXG dared to push back against him. As long as they communicated well, nobody else had any objections.
"Both sides are using a long defensive formation to guard their own jungles this game, with no intention of invading," Miller's voice rang out through the broadcast.
"Let's see how both junglers handle this one," Walker added with a laugh. "Last game, Rory's jungle got completely invaded by MLXG's Lee Sin, which caused EDG to fall behind and get rolled. Clearlove should have something new prepared this time."
"Top lane is Kalista into Fizz. Let's see if Lee Sin plans to invade Ivern's jungle at the start or gank top."
"I'm way more excited about the top lane matchup," another caster chimed in. "Let's see if EDG's new top laner can show us something different."
While the casters discussed, both sides had a peaceful early start.
Ivern still began by planting groves on raptors, then red buff. Then he walked toward bot side's blue buff area.
Clearlove's jungle pathing on Ivern this game was identical to Rory's from last game.
Lee Sin started raptors, then cleared red buff.
Mid lane minion waves crashed first.
Taliyah versus Ryze—Taliyah had priority early game, and in the mid-to-late game, they'd just shove each other endlessly.
Soon, the side lane minion waves began clashing too.
The observer immediately cut the camera to bot lane.
At the same time, both players' rune pages appeared on screen.
"Huh? Did Leona take the wrong runes? Why doesn't she have Courage of the Colossus? Why'd she take Thunderlord's Decree?" Walker immediately noticed something off about Leona's setup. "Is she going for a damage build this game? That doesn't make any sense."
"She probably just took the wrong runes, right?" Miller shook his head, choosing to cover for the player. "Maybe nerves got to her."
"Then bot lane's going to be rough," Walker sighed involuntarily.
Caitlyn and Lulu walked to lane with their minion wave and immediately started moving forward, pressuring Tristana and Leona.
Caitlyn's Q ability pierced through the minions and smacked Tristana clean.
"Whoa!!!"
Seeing Caitlyn's Q pierce the wave and land on Tristana, the entire crowd let out a collective gasp.
But then, as if possessed, Tristana suddenly used her W—Rocket Jump—and launched herself straight onto Caitlyn's face.
Leona, meanwhile, hit her E—Zenith Blade—on Lulu and started trading health with her, keeping Lulu from attacking Tristana.
"Wait, what? Why did Tristana learn W at level one? Why would she take Rocket Jump at level one?" Walker's forehead was covered in question marks. "Is EDG's bot lane prepping some kind of secret tech ?"
"They must have some secret strat prepared!" Miller's game knowledge wasn't quite sharp enough to read what was happening on screen, so he stuck with covering for the players.
"Wow, Tristana took a huge loss that trade, gave up so much HP for free," Walker exclaimed. "RNG's bot duo is looking pretty healthy this game."
If they won, praise them to the sky. If they lost, no big deal.
That was the casting style of the broadcast duo back then.
After Tristana rocket jumped onto Caitlyn and they traded a few autos, she turned and ran back. On her way out, she ate three more free autos from Caitlyn, dropping her health to just over half, while Caitlyn still sat above two-thirds.
Caitlyn and Lulu had priority to hit level two first, but they didn't frantically shove the wave. Instead, they walked forward to zone.
Level two priority was determined by the level one skirmish, health trades, and attack speed. After securing priority to hit two first, not leveling immediately but instead zoning the opponent out of XP range was the most profitable play.
Because if you auto-attacked minions too fast, you'd quickly crash the wave under the enemy tower, giving them a safe farming environment.
This was common knowledge in high-elo play, but this time, an accident happened.
Caitlyn and Lulu chose not to auto minions. After they slowly moved forward, they gave Tristana's W enough time to come back off cooldown.
The moment Tristana's W was back up, she immediately jumped onto Caitlyn's face again, slowing the level one Caitlyn and drawing aggro from RNG's minions.
Caitlyn instinctively fought back but drew aggro from EDG's minions in return.
Leona's E hit the slowed Caitlyn, and she started auto-attacking her, also dropping Ignite.
Caitlyn immediately used Heal to restore some HP and create distance.
Lulu, meanwhile, hit Exhaust on Tristana to cut her damage output.
But Leona just kept chasing Caitlyn down, auto-attacking like a maniac.
Leona's Thunderlord's Decree procced, and the damage ramped up hard.
However, Caitlyn's runes this game were Warlord's Bloodlust, a talent similar to Fleet Footwork. Caitlyn triggered it, using a small burst of movement speed to create distance.
Tristana and Leona turned back and started attacking Lulu. Caitlyn turned around too and started hitting Tristana, who was sitting at less than a third HP after getting chunked by Lulu, trying to secure the kill.
But Leona's E was already back off cooldown, and she targeted Caitlyn again.
And this time, Leona even used an E-Flash !
Caitlyn saw Leona dashing toward her and immediately burned Flash, but still got clipped by the E-Flash.
One auto.
Two autos.
Three autos.
Tristana Flashed forward and auto-attacked Caitlyn for the extra damage !
Caitlyn's health bar was critical.
At this point, waves of noise had already started rippling through the arena, growing louder and louder.
Seeing the situation spiraling, Lulu Flashed directly on top of Caitlyn, stacking on her model, hoping Tristana and Leona would misclick.
But Caitlyn kept walking away on her own, and Lulu's plan failed.
Under the combined assault, Leona maximized her damage. After two more autos brought Caitlyn to near-death, Leona even carefully chose to stop attacking.
Tristana landed the final auto, killing Caitlyn.
Once Caitlyn died, Tristana's W reset, and she immediately jumped onto Lulu's face.
The two relentless champions beat down the poor little Lulu.
Lulu was killed too !!!
"WHOA!!!!!"
The entire crowd was absolutely stunned, erupting into thunderous roars !
First Blood!!!
The announcement of First Blood echoed across the Rift.
"Wait, what is this? EDG's bot lane just got a lane kill???" Walker was completely dumbfounded.
His forehead was plastered with question marks. "Caitlyn and Lulu just got solo killed by Tristana and Leona? That's... that's... that's..."
Walker stammered for a while without finishing his sentence, so Miller straight-up took over the mic.
"EDG's bot lane duo, who got suppressed the last two games, have finally bared their fangs after being backed into a corner!" Miller shouted with passion:
"Even a cornered rabbit will bite back, let alone EDG's bot lane, who are already cheetahs? Even if they're tigers, they can still put up a fight."
"This is the charm of Leona! Bot lane played that so aggressively," Walker followed up closely. "Sweeping away the slump, coming back with swords drawn! Is this EDG? Tristana got the double kill, establishing an early lead... Wait, wait!"
Walker paused, then said again with clear astonishment, "First Blood wasn't Tristana's ?"
Hearing Walker's words, every person in the audience froze.
Only then did they realize there were actually three kill notifications on the big screen.
EDG Havoc (Kalista) killed RNG Letme (Fizz)!!!
EDG Zet (Tristana) killed RNG Uzi (Caitlyn)!!!
EDG Zet (Tristana) killed RNG Mitch (Lulu)!!!
First Blood !
It was actually taken by Kalista in top lane ?
Everyone hadn't even had time to fully process the double kill bot before they were stunned all over again by this new information !
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