All-Round Mid Laner

It was already November. When Ye Shaoyang woke and gazed out his window, he found that all the leaves on the trees outside had yellowed. A dense layer of golden leaves blanketed the ground, and the autumn sky had turned a deep blue.

In the blink of an eye, Ye Shaoyang had already been a member of Team Tianhuan for a full month.

Today was the first time Tianhuan would practice as a team. Ye Shaoyang wasn't at all concerned about his synergy with the jungler. But whether or not the top and bottom laners could keep up with their rhythm remained to be seen.

This was a 5v5 game, not a 2v2 game.

As soon as their teamwork started to fall apart, as soon as they started losing team fights, they ran the risk of allowing the enemy to turn the tables on them regardless of how much of an advantage Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo earned for the team in early-game.

At exactly one in the afternoon, Ye Shaoyang finished eating lunch and made his way to the training room on the second floor. His other teammates rushed in one after another. Last night before everyone went to sleep, Coach Lin had told them in Tianhuan's group chat that they would be training in the big training room the following day.

No one dared to show up late for training. When Coach Lin arrived, he swept his gaze across the room and saw that everyone was present. So he jumped right in and said, "Everyone take your places in two rows, as you would in a match."

Based on today's plans, it seemed Tianhuan's training schedule was for the starting team and the second-string team to first play practice games against each other. This way, they could figure out each team's problems. Once they identified those problems, they could devise a targeted practice plan to address the issues. Once the players in the starting lineup got a feel for one another, they would start to seek out other teams for practice matches.

This was a rather reasonable plan. The five members of Tianhuan's starting lineup had never played a single official game with one another. If they immediately went out to face off against another team in a practice game, there was a good chance they would be completely destroyed, which would affect the players' mental states.

By playing internal practice games, everyone could relax a little. It was a better way of figuring out their own problems.

All the players swiftly took their seats in the order of top laner, jungler, mid laner, marksman, and support. The two teams took their positions and formed two rows in front of their computers, facing each other through the glass panel that divided them.

The mid laner faced the mid laner. Ye Shaoyang faced Xie Xiaotian.

Xie Xiaotian snuck a glance at Ye Shaoyang and just so happened to meet Ye Shaoyang's gaze. The youth instantly, awkwardly averted his gaze. When Ye Shaoyang first joined the team, Xie Xiaotian had taken the initiative to pick a fight. As a result, he'd been totally destroyed by Ye Shaoyang. Today, the starting lineup and the second-string team would be facing off. Xie Xiaotian was actually a bit anxious. What if he was obliterated in the middle lane? Wouldn't that be shameful?

Ye Shaoyang smiled over at him. "Xiaotian, play well."

Xie Xiaotian coughed. "Ahem, mm…"

Coach Lin said, "Everyone, put on your headphones and load up your training software. Log in with the accounts I sent you."

Ten players swiftly turned on their computers and put on their noise-cancelling headphones, then joined their respective team chats.

In Ye Shaoyang's ears, the deep and pleasant sound of Chi Shuo's voice rang out. "Can you hear me?"

Qin Yizhu answered, "Yes."

Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing both echoed, "Yes."

Ye Shaoyang asked, "Captain Chi, is there anything I should be aware of?"

Chi Shuo said, "After the game begins, the support will be in charge of reporting the spawn times of the enemy's buffs. Everyone else is in charge of reporting when enemies use key skills. For example, when the enemy mid laner uses their flash, you can tell me."

Ye Shaoyang said, "Understood."

He warmed up his fingers, then logged into the game.

Coach Lin had sent a password into their group chat, which the ten players input into their computers. Ye Shaoyang saw that his account just so happened to be the [Mid Laner No. 7] account he'd used previously.

"Chi Shuo, make a room and bring everyone in," Coach Lin said.

Chi Shuo created a training room and invited the other nine players in.

Top Laner No. 5, Marksman No. 6, Mid Laner No. 7, Jungler No. 8, Support No. 9…

All the account IDs were of this same style. It looked like Tianhuan's Coach Lin was useless when it came to picking names.

Numbers 5 to 9 were members of the starting lineup, while numbers 15 to 19 were members of the second-string team. At least these names were easy to remember.

Chi Shuo swiftly assigned everyone to their appropriate positions, and everyone hit 'ready' on their screens.

The game loaded up.

The starting team was assigned to the blue side, giving them the first ban in the picks and bans phase.

Chi Shuo asked Coach Lin, "What should we ban?"

"For this internal game, let's just skip the bans," Coach Lin said. "Team One, take the Black Dragon Knight, Spirit Snowbird, Sky Mage, Divine Archer, and Blessed Light."

He paused for a moment, the continued, "Team Two, run Huowen's terrain control comp."

Coach Lin Feng knew what he was doing. He'd chosen to match the starting players against a lineup that would allow the double flight comp to best show off their might.

The Black Dragon Knight had an ability called the 'Black Dragon's Roar', which could forcibly drag enemies in. This top lane hero was very good at holding his own against pressure, and he could initiate team fights.

With the jungler and mid laner playing a double flight comp, they would be able to work together to set a quick pace by instakilling their enemies.

The Divine Archer could attack from afar, hiding out in the distance and doing damage from the shadows.

The key piece was the support, the Blessed Light. This support could grant the whole team a shield. The Blessed Light also had an ult called 'Divine Blessings', which cleansed the whole team of all control-type status effects and granted two seconds of immunity from being immobilized.

The double flight comp was most afraid of being immobilized. As soon as the enemy stunned Chi Shuo or Ye Shaoyang in a fight, their rhythm would very easily be disrupted. They wouldn't be able to get their ults back up, and they would have to forget about soaring endlessly together. Their only fate would be to crash and burn together, giving the enemy two free kills.

This was why the double flight comp was very rarely seen in official games. It was too unstable.

However, after the Blessed Light was chosen as their support, they would have a much larger margin of error in team fights.

The ten players swiftly chose their heroes according to the coach's instructions.

The second-string team emulated Huowen's terrain control comp. The top laner, the Willful Sword, was a fighter-type hero who was very powerful after cutting into the enemy's back line. The mid laner was the Flame Goddess, the jungler was the Trapper, and the marksman was the Master of Arms—they were the iron triangle which formed the foundation of the terrain control comp. The support was the Radiant Shield, a very meaty tank that could take a lot of damage and initiate team fights.

With this, the internal practice match became a Tianhuan vs. Huowen simulation match.

Could the double flight comp take down a team built around the Flame Goddess? Lin Feng was also very eager to see the outcome. He turned on his own computer and logged in to watch the training game from an observer's perspective.

The game began. Under their captain Yan Bin's command, the second-string team ran in to steal the blue buff. Chi Shuo had also marked their blue buff with a command to group up there. His top laner, mid laner, and support joined him near the blue buff, running into a force of four heroes from the enemy team as well.

A 4v4 in the jungle at the start of a game wasn't a rare sight in tournament matches. Team Two's Flame Goddess comp was fairly strong in early-game, because the Flame Goddess could lay her circles of fire down all over the place. Not only would these flames make the enemy lose HP, they would burn away the enemy's mana as well!

The two sides exchanged a flurry of skills. Ye Shaoyang was extremely cautious with his positioning. He never stepped into Xie Xiaotian's flames. But Xie Xiaotian was pretty clever. He placed two rings of fire behind Team One, sealing off their escape route. Qin Sui, Team Two's jungler, was fairly in sync with Xie Xiaotian. He laid plenty of traps down on the ground.

This was the diabolical part of a terrain control comp. It quickly became very hard to move in the jungle; there was nowhere safe to step.

Chi Shuo instantly hit the command to retreat, simply abandoning the blue buff.

Since they couldn't get their own blue buff, they would have to steal the enemy's.

While Team Two busied themselves with stealing Team One's blue buff, Chi Shuo swiftly circled around and took down the other blue buff.

When Chi Shuo returned to his own side's red buff, he discovered that Yan Bin had actually led a team of four over to steal the red as well—he was going to target Chi Shuo to the end!

This wasn't to say that Yan Bin had anything against Chi Shuo. It was just that any team facing off against Chi Shuo would play this way.

They would always steal all the resources from your jungle, to make sure your Chi Shuo wouldn't be able to flourish.

Qu Jiang instantly rushed over to help. Both sides clashed in a fierce push and pull. Ye Shaoyang, who'd reached Level 2 after going back to the middle lane to clear minions, suddenly cut in from the side. He flung out a few glowing orbs in an instant, cutting the enemy jungler and mid laner down to half health in the blink of an eye!

Ye Shaoyang's message was clear—

You want to bully our Captain Chi? Do you think I'll take that like I'm dead?

This sudden wave of assistance from the middle lane made the other team rush to retreat. Although none of them were slain, it had been enough to make them retreat. Chi Shuo's red buff had been protected.

Chi Shuo swiftly took the red buff, then continued killing off the other monsters that had spawned in the jungle.

Both sides started to face off on the three lanes.

There was nothing much they needed to worry about on the top lane. Qin Yizhu had three years of experience in big games. He could easily fend off Ping He, the second-string top laner.

In the middle lane, Xie Xiaotian was worried about being solo killed by Ye Shaoyang. He played very, very cautiously. Ye Shaoyang was nimble; although the entire middle lane was bathed in fire, he was still able to duck and weave and find places to dodge many of Xie Xiaotian's skills.

The key concern was the bottom lane. Coach Lin was worried that Cheng Xing would make mistakes, so he focused his observer's camera on the bottom lane. Qu Jiang went back to the bottom lane to protect Cheng Xing, forming a marksman/support team-up. Over the past month of practice, Cheng Xing's mentality had become much more mature than before—in any case, he knew that he couldn't go wrong if he just listened to Qu Jiang. If Qu Jiang told him to retreat, he would decisively retreat. He couldn't give away a kill.

Cheng Xing learned how to develop properly, steadily dragging things out to the four-minute mark.

Ye Shaoyang's Sky Mage hit Level 6.

Xie Xiaotian tensed. He swiftly retreated to his own defensive tower. At that moment, neither side had any minions up. The base of the defensive tower was a relatively safe place for him. However, just as he reached his tower, he saw Ye Shaoyang suddenly soar up into the sky and flash over to attack him!

The figure in snow white mage's robes flew into the sky, like a fluttering snow crane. The dazzling glow of the staff in his hands was almost blindingly bright. A densely packed barrage of glowing white orbs pelted down on Xie Xiaotian like hail!

Xie Xiaotian decisively used up his flash to escape.

But he was still a step too late. Chi Shuo appeared out of god only knows where. The snow white Spirit Snowbird spread its wings and swooped in from afar, instantly taking the crippled Flame Goddess's head!

First Blood!

Coach Lin silently cheered, Beautiful!

The slain Xie Xiaotian was silent.

After that surprise attack, the flight skills came off cooldown.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo were both in the range of the enemy's defensive tower at the time. The tower managed to hit Ye Shaoyang once before Ye Shaoyang swiftly flew away. Chi Shuo helped him take the second hit, then flew out of the tower's attack range as well.

Linking up to execute an aggressive kill, then splitting the damage between them.

This kind of tacit understanding… forget about Xie Xiaotian. Even Zhou Jiawen, playing the Flame Goddess, would have died to this assault.

Yan Bin couldn't help but blurt out, "Fuck, Captain Chi is ganking the middle lane in early-game now. He isn't targeting the bottom lane like before!"

Xie Xiaotian laughed in pain and said, "When he links up with Yang-ge, they're too fast! I couldn't react at all!"

Yan Bin hurriedly said, "Quick, quick, come to the minor dragon once you respawn. They want to take down the dragon!"

However, it was already too late when Xie Xiaotian respawned and tried to rush down to join the fight. Chi Shuo had taken advantage of the few seconds that the enemy mid laner needed to respawn; he'd grouped up with his two bottom laners, and together the three of them took the minor dragon.

Team One's resources continued to grow, which added heaps of trouble to Team Two's predicament.

Both sides continued to face off in their three lanes. Yan Bin was worried about Xie Xiaotian being ganked again, so he ran over to the middle lane and planted a few wards to expand their visibility.

Very quickly, Ye Shaoyang finished clearing away enemy minions and disappeared.

Xie Xiaotian realized Ye Shaoyang was missing and hastily called out in the voice channel, "Mid laner's gone! Mid laner's gone!"

In this match, the mid laner's sudden disappearance was the most important thing to report—the mid laner was very well-suited for roaming the map, and Ye Shaoyang was an especially aggressive mid laner. When he disappeared… would he go up to the top lane to kill, or would he go down to the bottom lane to kill?

The players of Team Two felt like they had been entered into a raffle. They all silently prayed, Don't come looking for me!

Ye Shaoyang chose the top lane.

The bottom lane had the Radiant Shield, who could erect a shield and take quite a lot of damage. Ye Shaoyang's light orbs wouldn't necessarily be able to make an impact. Things were different on the top lane. The Willful Sword on the other team was a fairly fragile fighter.

Qin Yizhu had been handling things all by his lonesome on the top lane. When he saw the mid laner and jungler approach, his eyes lit up. He decisively used his 'Black Dragon's Roar' to inflict the 'taunt' effect on the enemy top laner, rendering him immobile.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo flew in at the same time, instantly taking down the enemy top laner—

[Jungler No. 8] killed [Top Laner No. 15]!

Chi Shuo had taken two kills now. He was the player with the most resources at his disposal, and he'd obtained his core gear.

Next up, it would be time for the double flight comp to put on a show.

Xie Xiaotian anxiously reported once more, "Mid laner's gone! Mid laner's gone!"

The top laner Ping He thought, You guys should go down to the bottom lane this time, right? You wouldn't come back to gank me again, right?

Xie Xiaotian also thought, These demon kings should be heading down to gank on the bottom lane, right?

But in the end, Ye Shaoyang pretended to head down to the bottom lane, only to turn around and head for the top—Ping He was instakilled by Chi Shuo yet again!

Ping He was nearly about to cry. "…they're dead set on bullying me?"

Wasn't the top lane supposed to be a lonely road? Why was this mid/jungle duo constantly coming up to get in on the commotion?

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had a very simple thought process—team fights were the Flame Goddess comp's greatest strength. The Flame Goddess could set everything on fire, the Trapper could lay snares that were capable of stunning enemies, the Master of Arms could set up a cannon and blow a fragile hero to bits with one shot.

If Team One wanted to break through this lineup, there was only one option…

They had to destroy their enemies before their enemies got a chance to gang up on them!

The top laner had been killed twice; he was already half-destroyed. Then, Ye Shaoyang killed Xie Xiaotian one more time; the mid laner was now half-destroyed as well.

As a result of the top and middle laners falling apart, the resources in the upper jungle were completely cleared out by Chi Shuo.

Chi Shuo signaled for his team to attack the enemy's defensive tower on the middle lane. Qin Yizhu finished clearing the minions in his lane and immediately rushed over, destroying the mid lane outer tower with Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang.

Afterwards, Team Two's worst nightmares became their reality. Once the mid lane outer tower fell, Ye Shaoyang no longer had to worry about minions. He could truly run free. He started wandering the map with Chi Shuo—

During a key fight around the grand dragon, Qu Jiang used his immunity-granting 'Divine Blessings' ult to make it impossible for the Trapper to stun his teammates. The Flame Goddess couldn't immobilize them either. Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo immediately took flight, swiftly killing off the three glass cannons on the other team—the mid laner, jungler, and marksman.

Double Kill!

Triple Kill!

Ye Shaoyang took three kills in one go, heralding the end of the game.

Xie Xiaotian wore a completely blank expression—

Who am I? Where am I? How am I supposed to play if I get killed even while I'm hiding under my tower?!

The top laner Ping He had also fallen into a gloomy state—

Wasn't the top lane supposed to be a lonely place? The top lane was too popular in this game. These demon kings came up for a fight at the drop of a hat. Turns out, loneliness is the best!

The marksmen on the bottom lane were also dumbfounded.

Cheng Xing had to wonder, "Was I… carried to victory?"

Team Two's marksman wondered, "I was fighting and fighting and then just… lost?"

An eerie silence descended upon the training room.

Ultimately, it was the captain of the second-string team, Yan Bin, who typed into the public chat: [Double flight comp, 666.]

Everyone else immediately added: [Captain Chi, 666.]

Xie Xiaotian: [Yang-ge is super 6.]

Coach Lin huffed a laugh and said, "Looks like this comp is one we can use. The results are pretty good."

The double flight comp's strength was in its ability to provide 'immediate assistance'. The two heroes in this comp could both fly over obstacles and barriers. They could swiftly rush to the scene of a battle. They could first destroy the defense on one lane, then quickly fly off to destroy a mid lane tower. Then they would wander the whole map freely, setting the rhythm of the game. If their enemies couldn't react in time, it was very easy for them to bring about a total collapse.

Of course, if they really played this comp against Team Huowen, they definitely wouldn't have had such a relaxing game.

Because Zhou Jiawen's ability to assist his teammates was extremely strong, and his ability to defend himself was far superior to Xie Xiaotian's. Today's game was just a means for the team to cut their teeth. The main goal was to see if the double flight comp could integrate into Tianhuan's team as a whole.

The top laner Qin Yizhu could keep up with the rhythm set by Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang. The bottom laners didn't do much in this game, which meant further testing would be necessary. Qu Jiang had used his ult at the perfect moment, though, giving Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo the chance to swoop in for the kills.

Coach Lin fell into thought for a while. After a moment, he smiled and said, "In the next game, you guys try playing at a disadvantage."

Ye Shaoyang lifted his head and looked towards Lin Feng. "A disadvantage?"

Coach Lin smiled and explained, "Chi Shuo, change the room settings. Let the red side start out with an economic advantage of one thousand gold."

He paused for a moment, then said, "One thousand might not be enough. Make it two thousand."

Ye Shaoyang was silent.

Forcing a disadvantage? They could even do that?!