"Damn, they actually picked Draven straight up," Doinb muttered.
"But that's pretty normal. Renata's W synergizes extremely well with Draven. Their bot duo is really aggressive."
"It's fine. Our bot lane can just play safe and absorb pressure. If we don't give them opportunities, it'll be hard for them to get a lane kill," LvMao said while brushing his hair back. His pairing with Light wasn't something anyone could casually bully. As long as they didn't make mistakes, the lane wouldn't collapse. He had that confidence.
If the public could hear his inner thoughts, they'd probably be curious—why was he so confident despite being so mediocre?
"Their Jayce could be mid or top. It's a flex pick. In that case, let's lock top lane first. What do you think, Ale?"
"Sure. I play Fiora into anything. If they dare to leave her up, I dare to pick her." Ale was extremely confident. Seeing Fiora not banned made him eager to try.
It was time for the headmistress to come out and cure their internet addiction. If they dared to run Jayce top, he'd teach Duke what discipline felt like—with the ruler, no mercy.
Without hesitation, Fiora was locked in at third pick. Ale's message was clear—he was unstoppable.
Everyone knew Ale's confidence wasn't baseless. In his most recent match just last week, he'd used Fiora to defeat TheShy's Gnar. His form was blazing hot.
Ale also had thoughts of leaving the club, so he wanted to put up even more eye-catching stats in matches—to add another highlight to his résumé and secure a bigger contract.
In the current meta, carry-style top laners were extremely valuable. The blue-collar top laners once common in the LPL were practically extinct.
The reason was simple. With legendary weakside tops like Letme and GimGoon retiring, the remaining blue-collar tops were frankly trash.
And Riot also had intentions of nerfing tanks, making this the era of duel-focused top laners. Naturally, the value of players like Ale skyrocketed.
Just as the Weapon Master once said—each patch creates its own god.
Ale and his peers were benefiting from the meta.
To be honest, the only one who truly went against the meta was TheShy in Season 8. He was unquestionably the most dominant top laner at his peak.
"Fiora, huh… then we'll have to see whether Jayce goes top or mid. With Rise of Kingdoms Bro's champion pool, it's hard to tell. It's really unclear which lane Jayce is headed to."
"But one thing's certain—this game is going to be exciting. Draven on one side, Fiora locked in on the other. Neither side backing down. The gunpowder smell is intense."
"That's understandable. This win is crucial for both teams. Every TES victory brings them closer to playoffs. They need at least eight wins to qualify. The schedule's already past halfway—counting today's match against LNG, they only have seven games left, meaning they need to win five out of seven."
"Right. And among those are strong teams like V5 and Weibo. The pressure is obvious."
While the casters chatted, the second ban phase ended.
Both teams targeted different things. TES banned Xin Zhao and Galio, continuing to focus Tarzan and Doinb.
LNG mainly targeted Tian—Hecarim and Viego were both sent to the ban list.
With Tian's comfort picks gone, they were clearly trying to force him to coordinate more with Lin Fan. The idea was smart—those two hadn't been playing together long, so there might be coordination issues to exploit.
Doinb understood Tian very well. He knew that Tian sometimes lacked his own initiative.
Rise of Kingdoms Bro was strong, sure—but his shot-calling probably lagged behind, right?
LNG then locked in Diana for jungle, leaving counterpick for Doinb.
"Cunning old fox," Luo Sheng cursed quietly.
Still, that was the advantage of red side—saving a pick for mid.
And since blue side already had the strongest support of the patch, Renata, even confirming Jayce mid wouldn't be a huge problem.
The only slight discomfort was Diana being taken away.
Overall, it didn't matter too much. For teamfights, Sejuani was fine—force an engage and fight it out. For top lane, Zoom was given Gragas.
Gragas into Fiora was playable early. As long as he didn't give Fiora an all-in window, his sustain let him hold the wave. And Gragas wasn't like other tank tops who just took hits—he had real damage and counterplay.
Gwen was also an option, but after the nerfs, Zoom wasn't confident enough.
With those picks decided, Jayce was undoubtedly heading mid.
"Jayce mid?" Doinb's tone rose slightly. Apart from Rookie, he'd never really been afraid of anyone's Jayce. Very few mid laners could actually play it well.
Unfortunately, Ryze was banned. So what could punish Jayce?
He hadn't expected Jayce to be picked mid at all.
Scrolling through the champion list, he searched for a suitable answer.
"What about Irelia? Irelia counters him."
Mages didn't do well into Jayce. Long-range poke followed by a melee swap for burst—very few mages could withstand that.
After looking around, Irelia seemed the best fit.
Even though he'd told everyone his Irelia was shelved, he still felt it was salvageable. At least at Worlds, going tanky had worked fine. He hadn't been destroyed in lane.
"Hmm…"
The coach thought for a moment.
Against Syndra he struggled, but the rest of Lin Fan's champions seemed average.
…
Without Syndra, that dominant form probably wouldn't continue. Doinb's Irelia wasn't incredible, but it was solid enough.
And there really wasn't a better option.
"Just don't go full tank on Irelia. One tank item at most. Start Blade of the Ruined King and start chopping. Once you get ahead, Jayce won't be able to play the game."
"No problem," Doinb laughed awkwardly.
After all, the original full-tank, max-W build had been his invention.
It worked at first—chasing people down relentlessly—but eventually turned him into a joke.
The final compositions were locked in.
Blue side TES:
Top Gragas,
Jungle Sejuani,
Mid Jayce,
Bot Draven + Renata.
Red side LNG:
Top Fiora,
Jungle Diana,
Mid Irelia,
Bot Jinx + Lulu.
The coaches shook hands, and the match entered the brief loading screen.
Cheers from the crowd echoed through the arena, noticeably louder than the week before.
As the broadcast returned to the in-game view,
both teams formed a long line across the map. Jayce and Irelia faced off mid.
Jayce stepped forward, looking to proc First Strike.
Irelia instantly dashed in with Q!
What's going on? Why is Doinb so aggressive?
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup