All-Round Mid Laner

Players could manually set certain variables in training games. In 5v5 mode, the gold and levels of the two teams could be adjusted before the start of a game. Playing at an advantage allowed a team to demonstrate their ability to stay stable, while playing at a disadvantage allowed a team to demonstrate their ability to withstand pressure. Only teams who could stay calm while playing at an advantage and at a disadvantage could achieve victory in major games.

Ye Shaoyang had undergone this kind of anti-pressure training in his past life. He was no stranger to setting up a forced disadvantage at the start of a game.

But Coach Lin had ordered a difference of two thousand gold between the two teams. Was that two thousand gold for the whole team, or two thousand per person?

Ye Shaoyang wasn't too familiar with the traditions of Tianhuan, and he didn't feel like it was his place to publicly ask the coach. So he looked towards Chi Shuo and quietly asked, "Is this a two thousand gold advantage for the other team, or per person on the other team?"

Chi Shuo quietly answered, "Tianhuan's practices don't involve anything as diabolical as starting out with a ten thousand gold disadvantage."

If each player was granted an advantage of two thousand gold, then the whole team would be ten thousand gold ahead.

The enemy players would all start out with an excellent piece of gear. They would demolish you in seconds.

Ye Shaoyang breathed a sigh of relief. "A difference of two thousand gold is still alright. We can fight at this disadvantage."

With an advantage of two thousand gold, the other team could start out their players with an extra accessory. For example, the mid laner could usually start out with a mana-replenishing necklace. Ye Shaoyang would only be able to buy one at the start of the game, while Xie Xiaotian would be able to buy two. Team One's marksman would be able to buy an attack-boosting dagger, while Team Two's marksman would be able to buy two.

This may have seemed like a small difference, but professional players were best at taking a small advantage and snowballing it into a crushing one. If the enemy had one extra piece of equipment, that meant they could clear minions just a little faster than you and farm the jungle just a little faster than you. They would reach Level 6 and learn their ult before you.

The difference between a hero with their ult and hero without their ult was massive.

If the enemy team had five players with their ults up, while your team had none, there would be no way to face off against them in a team fight at all. So, it would be necessary for Team One to give away the first minor dragon. That first dragon would give all of Team Two's players a boost in gold, and with that—the economic difference between the two teams would grow bigger and bigger.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang could very easily play their double flight comp in an advantageous situation. The mid/jungle duo could surround and gank their enemies, disrupting the enemy team's rhythm on all three lanes. However, this was a very awkward duo to play in a team that was at a disadvantage—if they couldn't do enough damage, they wouldn't be able to kill anyone and they would put themselves at a huge risk of being counter-killed when they tried to surround an enemy. As soon as these two heroes crashed out of the skies, a small disadvantage would turn into a huge disadvantage!

Coach Lin's intent behind rigging this game was to see how Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang would deal with a disadvantage while playing their double flight comp.

The second game began. The lineups of the two teams didn't change.

Once again, Yan Bin led Team Two into Team One's jungle to steal the blue buff. Chi Shuo simply let them have it. Every player on Team Two had one extra piece of gear; there was no way Team One could win a confrontation there.

Chi Shuo swiftly took down his own red buff. In the end, the enemy jungler took three of the opening buffs while Chi Shuo only got one. This would cause Chi Shuo to level up more slowly than the enemy jungler.

At the four-minute mark of the game, the first minor dragon fight broke out.

Qu Jiang tried to get a look at the dragon, and he was nearly killed for his efforts. Chi Shuo instantly ordered a retreat, continuing to let the other team have their way. The first minor dragon was also simply handed over to the other side.

At the five-minute mark, the economic difference between the two teams had reached three thousand gold.

This was unavoidable. They'd started the game with a forced disadvantage. If they stubbornly tried to fight over the minor dragon, they would have given away a few kills if they couldn't win the upper hand. That would cause a complete collapse. In their current situation, they had to play it safe first and wait to find the right opportunities to turn things around after reaching Level 6.

In the middle lane, Ye Shaoyang's gear was worse than Xie Xiaotian's, and Ye Shaoyang was at a lower level as well. However, Ye Shaoyang didn't let a single minion slip past him.

Xie Xiaotian laid his flames down all over the ground, hoping to suppress Ye Shaoyang's movements. But he soon realized that Ye Shaoyang was always able to move nimbly and dodge his flames while using his normal attack to take down critically injured minions.

Xie Xiaotian was able to quickly equip himself with a better staff, and Team Two's jungler also got a more powerful weapon. Their marksman was also more well-equipped than Cheng Xing.

Their captain Yan Bin decisively commanded, "Group up and push the middle!"

The Flame Goddess comp's greatest strength was team fights. Currently, the entirety of Team Two had better equipment, and they were one level above the members of Team One. If they grouped up and forced a 5v5 now, they could greatly increase their advantage again.

The first team fight was set to begin. Ye Shaoyang asked, "Do we fight?"

"Little Xing, come clear these minions," Chi Shuo said. "Shaoyang, get ready to farm the top lane."

Ye Shaoyang nodded. "Understood!"

Would they fight? They wouldn't be able to win. Each and every enemy player had better gear, and Tianhuan's second-string players weren't useless newbies. If they could lose a team fight when they were at such an obvious advantage, they could just disband on the spot.

Yan Bin was a support, and he was a very calm commander.

When he saw that their minions had reached the enemy tower on the middle lane, he immediately leapt into the fray to initiate a fight. He used his shield to stun Qin Yizhu and Qu Jiang. Qu Jiang instantly cleansed, but it was too late…

Xie Xiaotian's hand speed was formidable. In the blink of an eye, he'd spread his flames left and right. The jungler also threw his traps all over the place. Team Two's marksman, Fu Yue, hid out far away and fired cannons into the crowd.

In an instant—Qu Jiang, Qin Yizhu, and Cheng Xing were all brought down to critically low health!

With his explosive hand speed, Cheng Xing finished clearing away the enemy minions on the middle lane. But Team Two's top laner was the Willful Sword, a fighter-type hero who flourished after cutting into the enemy team's back line. The Willful Sword swiftly dashed in and hacked the fragile Cheng Xing to death in just a few strokes!

Immediately afterwards, the Willful Sword turned to pursue Qin Yizhu and Qu Jiang.

A top laner who was all geared up could do a fearsome amount of damage. Plus, the battlefield was currently full of flames and traps. It was very difficult for Qu Jiang and Qin Yizhu to escape. One after another, they fell to the Willful Sword's blade.

But as they fought and fought, Team Two noticed a problem.

Xie Xiaotian exclaimed, "Where's the mid laner?!"

His words had just fallen from his lips when Ye Shaoyang answered that question with his actions—

Ye Shaoyang had run up to the top lane to deal with the enemy minions. Chi Shuo had run down to the bottom lane to do the same. After swiftly clearing away these enemy minions, the two of them disappeared into the jungle.

Yan Bin sensed that things were going in a bad direction. He instantly shouted, "Retreat!"

But he was still a step too late.

Because the Spirit Snowbird and the Sky Mage were both capable of flight, their movement speed was much faster than that of other heroes. After the two of them finished clearing minions on the top and bottom lanes, they swooped through the jungle and now appeared behind the enemy!

At that moment, Team Two had already used up their ults—their big moves were all on cooldown now. Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo swooped down in unison, perfectly synchronized.

[Mid Laner No. 7] killed [Mid Laner No. 17]!

[Jungler No. 8] killed [Jungler No. 18]!

These two messages popped up at nearly the exact same time.

Chi Shuo pelted the enemy with a snowball from above, simultaneously freezing the enemy jungler and mid laner. Ye Shaoyang concentrated his firepower on the Flame Goddess, while Chi Shuo focused his attacks on the Trapper. The two of them slaughtered the enemy mid/jungle duo in one breath. Then, immediately afterwards, they parted ways before they could meet a disastrous end—one fled left, one fled right.

Yan Bin was speechless.

Captain Chi, you're too much!

Your teammates are lambs to the slaughter, and your power knows no bounds?!

This fight on the middle lane had nearly been over. Team One's players had all died off, while Team Two had mostly exhausted their skills. That was when Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had suddenly popped up out of nowhere, circling around and ruthlessly slaughtering two of the enemy glass cannons?

That was certainly a solution to a problem with no solutions.

When one team was at a disadvantage in gear, there was no way they could win in a 5v5 fight. The sacrifices of their teammates had allowed the double flight comp to gain an opportunity. Team Two had used up all their ults in the main fight, which allowed Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang to take two kills and escape with their lives intact.

The tower on the middle lane had been taken down to half health. Based on the kills in that first team fight, it looked like Team Two came out ahead, but… you had to look at which players had been killed!

Team One lost their top laner, marksman, and support. Their jungler and mid laner were fine!

Which was to say, Team One's two bosses hadn't taken any damage in this first team fight. Plus, they'd each taken a kill. They'd also gobbled up the experience from the minions on the top and bottom lanes.

When a team was at an economic advantage and still wanted to win, there was only one way—

They had to feed all their resources to the mid laner and jungler, placing their hope in the double flight comp.

The top laner Qin Yizhu had started to leave his resources for Ye Shaoyang, including a wave of minions. The bottom lane marksman left a portion of his resources for Chi Shuo as well. After Chi Shuo went down to the lower jungle to claim a buff, he took down a river crab along the way as well.

Yan Ban noticed that the economic difference between the two teams was staying at three thousand gold.

But when he compared each player's individual resources, the blue team's mid laner and jungler were gradually catching up—they weren't behind the red team's players at all!

So what if the top laner Qin Yizhu was so deprived of resources that he was practically destitute? In team fights, he just had to charge in and use his crowd control skill. The support Qu Jiang was so poor in this game that he could only buy himself one piece of gear, but that was fine—as a true support, all he needed to do was cleanse and shield his teammates.

As for the marksman Cheng Xing…

He could just do his best.

The mid/jungle cores of their team were developing very well. All the team's resources were going towards raising them up. Yan Bin gradually realized that Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were very hard to gank. Chi Shuo's Spirit Snowbird could fly—if you went to gank him, he would flip over a wall and fly away. Ye Shaoyang's sense for danger was extremely keen. If the slightest wind rustled the grass on the middle lane, he would flee.

The game continued to the twelve-minute mark, yet Team One's mid lane tower still remained standing.

Chi Shuo's strategy was very clear—he and Ye Shaoyang would still lead the charge by relying on their superior mobility. They would make sure the top and bottom lanes didn't collapse too quickly. As for the other three players, they would defend the middle lane tower even if they had to sacrifice their lives to do so.

The pace of the game continued to be dragged out. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang continued to farm minions on the top and bottom lanes. They fattened themselves up very quickly. Then, Yan Bin discovered—Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had both geared up with three key pieces of equipment.

Chi Shuo hit the command to group up and attack.

From the beginning of the match, they'd withstood pressure for over ten minutes. Now, they'd finally found the chance to counterattack!

They aggressively initiated a team fight around the next minor dragon. Qin Yizhu jumped right into the fray and used his Black Dragon's Roar, then stood around like he was saying, Alright. I can die now. He would just get in as many hits as he could.

Cheng Xing attacked as he pleased from afar, hitting anyone he could.

Qu Jiang swiftly used his Divine Blessings, granting Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo each a shield that was 20% of their HP, as well as two seconds of immunity. Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo instantly took the field—

A handsome fellow with snow white wings and a mage wrapped up in pure, divine robes descended from the sky in unison. Chi Shuo froze the three heroes in Team Two's backline from above, and Ye Shaoyang instantly brought all three of them down to low health with one burst of attacks. Immediately afterwards, Chi Shuo dove sharply and claimed three kills at once!

This team fight was still a three for three, with three heroes dying on each side. The headcount ratio didn't change.

But the blue team had lost their top laner, marksman, and support. The red team lost their jungler, mid laner, and marksman—the three fundamental heroes of their team comp. They also lost the minor dragon in the end. They'd really come out at a huge loss!

Lin Feng watched the whole game from an observer's standpoint.

Gradually, he discovered that the team at a disadvantage was actually catching up.

Starting from the fight that broke out at the twelve-minute mark, the blue time caught up to the red team in their gold count—then surpassed them!

After that, the rhythm from the first game returned. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang roamed the whole map. They swiftly destroyed towers and counter-jungled. They overtook the enemy's economic advantage and established their own advantage of four thousand gold. Then, they took the game straight to its finish by getting a team kill in the fight around the grand dragon!

The five players of the red team all hung their heads, like they were too ashamed to look at the results on their screens.

This was like the two sides had competed in a swimming race, in which the blue team let the red team take a fifty-meter head start. But in the end, the blue team still managed to counterattack and win. This… besides their own ineptitude, what other explanation could the red team give?

Yan Bin: [666.]

Xie Xiaotian: [You guys are too 6!]

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang met each other's gazes and smiled.

Coach Lin stood up and gestured for everyone to take off their headsets.

Everyone took off their headphones and looked over at him, just in time to hear the coach begin his analysis. "Blue team, you did a very good job of handling things in this game. When you're at an economic disadvantage, you can't worry about every single person. Some teammates will have to make sacrifices to fatten up one or two heroes who have the ability to turn the tide."

He looked towards Qin Yizhu, Cheng Xing, and Qu Jiang. "Although Old Qin and Little Xing died quite a lot in this game, leaving all your resources to Captain Chi and Shaoyang was actually the most correct decision you could have made at the time—the double flight comp can destroy the enemy in one go as long as they develop properly and are given the opportunities to gank. This is the key reason they're able to turn things around and seize victory from defeat."

Everyone nodded repeatedly as they listened to the coach's analysis.

Coach Lin continued, "Team Two, you still weren't decisive enough. When you realized the enemy mid laner and jungler were missing during a team fight, you should have retreated immediately. You can't let them surround you. Also, you should have realized the problem after that first team fight. You absolutely couldn't allow Captain Chi and Shaoyang to continue growing stronger. The five of you had to surround them and aggressively kill them on the spot. That was your only way of disrupting their rhythm."

Yan Bin shamefully admitted, "It was me, I hesitated."

Coach Lin smiled slightly and said, "That's fine. In the next game, let's see what other problems we can identify."

The players all got ready for the next match, then heard Coach Lin say, "For this game, the blue team will take a three thousand gold disadvantage. And get rid of the outer towers on the top, middle, and bottom lanes. You'll play at a big disadvantage."

Ye Shaoyang was stunned.

Coach! Isn't this too much?!

Not only would they be starting with a disadvantage of three thousand gold, they would be starting without their three outer towers? How were they supposed to compete?

Reality would prove that not even gods could turn the tide against such a huge disadvantage.

Without their outer towers, they couldn't make any headway in the jungle at all. Yan Bin had also learned the trick to dealing with the double flight comp. He took his whole team of five through the jungle, surrounding Ye Shaoyang for a gank…

Ye Shaoyang saw the five of them and instantly used his flash to flee.

Can't afford to piss them off. Bye-bye, bye-bye.

The other five players all seemed to think—

Don't run!

The support instantly flashed in and used a shield to stun Ye Shaoyang. The top laner swiftly charged forward and used an ult to bring Ye Shaoyang down to critical health. Xie Xiaotian lit the ground beneath Ye Shaoyang's feet on fire, and—

[Mid Laner No. 17] killed [Mid Laner No. 7]!

Xie Xiaotian was so jubilant that it was like he'd won the tournament finals. "I killed Yang-ge, hahaha!"

Ye Shaoyang was silent.

You guys… do you think you're fighting a boss monster?

Five people surrounding me, to kill me?

Using up all your ults on this one fragile mage… there's no need!

Ye Shaoyang was chased around by all five youths. It was the first time he'd received such treatment, fitting for a most esteemed VIP. Chi Shuo, seeing all this, couldn't help but find it a bit amusing—in previous internal practice games, the young players from Team Two would all persistently chase Chi Shuo around.

Now, they were starting to chase Ye Shaoyang.

A new boss had appeared at Tianhuan. For the time being, the pressure on Chi Shuo lightened.

Although they lost the third game, everyone had a lot of fun.

Ye Shaoyang lifted his hands off the keyboard. He laughed and said, "You guys are too much!"

Xie Xiaotian giddily said, "I killed Yang-ge! I need to take a screenshot as a souvenir!"

Coach Lin looked at Ye Shaoyang with a complex feeling. Although he'd been chased around by the five kids and killed several times, Ye Shaoyang's expression was still extremely relaxed. He always wore a smile on his face, as though it didn't matter whether they won or lost—his mental state would remain positive.

This mental fortitude of his wasn't at all like that of a newbie.

Coach Lin thoughtfully looked over the data from their practice games. It seemed they could take out the double flight comp as soon as they started playing in tournament games. In advantageous positions, they could play steadily. In disadvantageous games, they had ways to turn things around and claim victory from defeat.

As for that final game, with the extraordinary disadvantage…

Tianhuan's five starting players weren't idiots. How could they possibly lose three outer towers at the start of the game, unless they all went AFK for two minutes? This kind of disadvantage definitely wouldn't occur in a real game.

Coach Lin had deliberately rigged a game with a huge disadvantage to let Team Two win, for the sole purpose of not letting the kids from Team Two become too dismayed with their losses.

After three games, Team One and Team Two both came away with some gains. That was the best outcome.

Coach Lin was relieved to know that Tianhuan's mid/jungle dual core play style could once again take the field. He believed, next season, Shaoyang and Chi Shuo's teamwork would definitely give the league many delightful surprises.

Author's Notes:

While the five kids chase Ye Shaoyang to attack—

Ye Shaoyang: ?

From now on, Tianhuan's daily practices will be filled with five people surrounding the boss. ^_^