Kanavi had squatted mid lane for so long, yet JDG got nothing out of it. Instead, TES struck back.
With only the cost of half of Leona's HP, they successfully secured First Blood for JackeyLove. If Zeri could scale this game, her room to operate would be enormous. With Leona's protection, it would be very hard for JDG to properly limit Zeri.
And all of this was built on spotting Xin Zhao's position early, allowing Tian to make his move with zero pressure.
That ward was worth a fortune, and Lin Fan's superb acting wasted a huge amount of Kanavi's time.
"That trade hurt a lot. Bot lane got pushed back, and they don't even dare to invade Tian's Raptors now."
"Rise of Kingdoms Bro is playing this way too smoothly," Guan Zeyuan said in surprise.
"His positioning made it look like he was slightly scared of LeBlanc at level two. Whenever Yagao stepped back, he'd move forward a couple of steps—but always stayed in a relatively safe spot. Kanavi wanted to wait for Viktor to step forward, but he just never did."
"And because of that, Xin Zhao couldn't go to the top side to counter-jungle. He had no choice but to return and clear his own bottom jungle. That means top lane Gnar has no pressure either. I can only say TES has a huge early-game advantage and is playing very comfortably."
With top lane already pushing the wave under the turret, the four-minute wave would get stuck around the middle. Xin Zhao wouldn't have good chances to find plays at top side.
So before six minutes, it was very hard for Kanavi to make anything happen in lanes. The only thing he could do was farm the jungle.
But Xin Zhao trading farm with Hecarim—no need to say which side had the advantage.
Watching the situation unfold, Luo Sheng nodded in satisfaction.
—
Since TES had drafted a scaling composition, this was exactly how the early tempo should look: suffocate the opponent's desire to speed the game up and drag it into mid-to-late game. Reaching this point already meant TES had basically won half the game.
Yagao's expression didn't look great.
He took a big loss in the level-one trade. Even though he started with Corrupting Potion, he was already down to just two charges. And during the strong level-two timing, he didn't apply pressure while trying to bait Viktor out, failing to trade HP.
On top of that, LeBlanc had taken Teleport. In this situation, solo-killing the opponent was extremely difficult.
Still, Yagao played very aggressively.
He went in several times in a row.
But unfortunately, Lin Fan never gave him the distance to step on Viktor with W.
Every engage required burning a skill for nothing, and his E was even sidestepped during the wind-up.
As a result, Yagao made plenty of noise mid lane but gained nothing. Worse still, he lost the HP trades.
Mainly because Lin Fan had taken Summon Aery and put two points into Q. Early trading really wasn't scary at all.
Kanavi—perhaps resentful over wasting so much time camping mid at level two, or perhaps because Viktor had no mobility and looked easy to gank—kept coming mid repeatedly.
But every attempt ended in failure.
A huge amount of time was wasted. Meanwhile, while Tian's Ghost was on cooldown, he quietly farmed the jungle, and Xin Zhao fell behind Hecarim in levels.
Without realizing it, JDG had already slipped into a small disadvantage.
At six minutes, the gold difference had grown to nearly one thousand.
Yagao felt stifled… His LeBlanc actually had no way to deal with Viktor at all. This wasn't the lane he had imagined.
Logically speaking, a Viktor with no mobility should die every time Xin Zhao came.
Or at least get chunked heavily by chains, setting up future solo kills.
But reality was completely different. Viktor even had more CS than him.
For LeBlanc to be out-farmed by Viktor meant he was already at a disadvantage.
Last match, everyone said it was just luck, that he wouldn't keep that form afterward.
But now, in lane, the feeling was real—he was being given zero opportunities.
Form completely maxed out.
Aside from one forced face-check where E actually landed, nothing else connected. And even that trade wasn't favorable. Fighting in the minion wave, combined with Viktor's shield and Summon Aery, it was simply unsolvable.
Yagao immediately focused up completely.
Because there was an upcoming timing where TES's mid-jungle would become extremely strong.
That was when Hecarim hit level six. Once Hecarim reached six, his synergy with Viktor was terrifying.
So Yagao could only adopt a defensive posture. LeBlanc's W cost too much mana, and competing with Viktor in waveclear just wasn't possible.
Seeing the opponent retreat, someone as slippery as Lin Fan immediately seized lane priority.
With Tian also setting up vision control around mid, TES's tactical execution was always one step ahead.
Once the wave was pushed, Viktor disappeared from mid.
Even though Viktor had almost zero gank potential, Yagao still didn't dare let him roam freely. He could only spam pings mid.
Top lane was already being bullied by Gnar. And with Hecarim now level six, 369 couldn't even stay under turret, continuously losing waves.
Bot lane wasn't much better either. But with Kanavi mainly hovering bottom side, at least they dared to farm under turret.
Even with just a one-kill lead, the advantage kept growing.
Anyone with eyes could tell that after swapping mid laners, TES's coordination had improved significantly.
Although Yagao pinged every time Viktor disappeared, it happened too often.
Especially this time—Viktor was gone from mid for a full five seconds.
Yagao instantly sensed something was wrong.
Where is he?!
"369, run! Viktor is coming to gank you!"
Hearing this, 369 didn't hesitate at all and immediately ulted backward.
That's the advantage of Sion. As long as the enemy hasn't fully wrapped behind you, you can still escape.
"Damn it—Viktor and Hecarim are here!"
Kanavi was in the top-side jungle. Hearing the mid call, he wanted to check top lane. Even if he was late, he could at least catch a wave.
But he didn't expect that the moment he stepped through the brush, Hecarim ulted and controlled him instantly.
As Xin Zhao tried to move back, Viktor dropped Gravity Field at his feet, then immediately chained his ultimate. Damage fully loaded.
Chain CC!
Xin Zhao wasn't even at full HP. He didn't even get the chance to Flash.
The kill went straight to Viktor.
Kanavi was completely desperate—there was nothing he could do from start to finish.
Viktor did go top, but the target was never Sion. It was Xin Zhao in the top-side jungle.
That was vision advantage at work.
The moment Lin Fan saw Xin Zhao, he pinged Tian over. Then he didn't continue toward top lane, instead camping slightly above the red buff to wait for Xin Zhao.
"Fan-ge, that play was insane—calculated to perfection. Xin Zhao really did come top side."
"That was a great ult. With this kill, my E is upgraded. Now LeBlanc can't pressure me in lane at all. Brothers, this game is massively favored—I can carry!"
"Carry it! Fan-ge!" JackeyLove shouted loudly in team comms.
"Damn… you—"
"If you want to flame, Fan-ge, just flame. Don't hold it in."
"Fuck you, you scared the hell out of me!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup