All-Round Mid Laner

The Illusionist was very commonly seen in online ranked games. This hero could take a quick kill as soon as he set his sights on his opponent. He was a typical assassin mage who could take a kill every time he attacked, and he was one of the easiest assassin mages to play. Casual players who were 'handicapped' especially liked to play him.

However, this hero didn't actually appear all that often in professional games.

That was because the Illusionist had one fatal flaw—his ult could be diffused. In other words, the Illusionist could kill off most glass cannons in a 1v1 fight. However, as soon as he entered a group fight or a full team fight, the damage of the Illusionist's ult would be split up between enemies in his range. That left him in the awkward position of not being able to take any kills at all with his big move.

Furthermore, unlike the Abyssal Lord, the Illusionist's skills wouldn't come off cooldown as soon as he got a kill. After unleashing a skill combo, the Illusionist would be left with no more skills. In that state, he would be no better than a minion.

Team BOB's coach was a little surprised—

Tianhuan, using their first pick on the Illusionist… why?

When the Illusionist appeared in professional games, he was usually chosen specifically to counter the cumbersome Frost Goddess. In that match-up, the Illusionist would have a natural advantage. However, Tianhuan had taken the Illusionist as their first choice. That meant their opponents could pick a hero to counter him, right?

BOB's coach thought for a moment, then decisively said, "Take the Cobra King to counter him."

The logic here was very simple. The Cobra King could summon four little snakes. When the Illusionist used his ult, his damage would be split up between those snakes. He would never be able to kill the Cobra King.

Furthermore, those little snakes could chase after the Illusionist and bite him like crazy, swiftly stacking poison on him. It would be very easy for the Illusionist to be poisoned to death.

A summoner hero like the Cobra King was the bane of the Illusionist's existence.

BOB's mid laner excitedly rubbed his hands together. "I heard Xiao Bai is nationally ranked with the Illusionist? I've been the National #1 Cobra King in the past too. By choosing the Illusionist first, they really aren't taking us seriously enough!"

BOB's jungler smiled and said, "His teammates helped him take a pentakill last week. I bet he's gotten carried away with himself."

Both sides continued their picks and bans. Tianhuan's first three picks were the Illusionist, the Holy Knight, and the Machine Gun Huntsman. Among them, the Holy Knight was a flexible hero who could be played as a support, top laner, or jungler. It was currently unclear which role Tianhuan expected this hero to fill.

But their mid laner and marksman were already confirmed. And so, BOB decided to target the top lane with their next round of bans. They chose to ban the Black Dragon Knight, which Old Qin was quite good at playing.

For their fourth and fifth picks, Tianhuan chose the Enchained Reaper and the Blessed Priest.

BOB's coach froze—

The Blessed Priest could only be played as a support. That meant the Enchained Reaper would be their jungler, while the Holy Knight was their top laner?

The coach mulled it over for a while, then locked in a lineup focused on team fights.

Tianhuan's five players swiftly swapped around their heroes. The Holy Knight was, as expected, given to the top laner Qin Yizhu. The Enchained Reaper went to Chi Shuo. The Illusionist went to the mid laner, the Blessed Priest went to the support, and the Machine Gun Huntsman went to the marksman.

Lots of question marks filled up the chat in the livestream.

[How long has it been since we saw this Enchained Reaper hero? He was nerfed to death ages ago, wasn't he?]

[This hero's DPS is totally weak. Trying to do damage with him is like trying to scratch an itch through leather boots.]

[Did Chi Shuo sleepwalk back to S6? Wake up, it's already S10.]

[If they only have the Illusionist and the Machine Gun Huntsman doing damage, their DPS in team fights won't be enough, will it? The Illusionist is useless in team fights.]

The two commentators of that match gave each other a look, then started to voice their doubts.

"With this lineup, Tianhuan's damage output in team fights will be a bit weak. Their top laner, the Holy Knight, is very tanky, but he can't do much damage. The jungler… in S6, Chi Shuo used the Enchained Reaper to take multiple MVP titles. However, everyone knows that skill changes in S7 dunked this hero into the sewer."

The female commentator added, "That's right. We haven't seen this hero in a professional match in three whole seasons."

Heroes who wound up being swept away like sewage after being brutally nerfed by the game… basically no one would play them now.

In S6, the Enchained Reaper did have a moment in the spotlight. But after S7's skill changes, the damage from his ult was practically cut in half. This hero's DPS became lackluster, and he was also quite fragile. It was extremely rare for him to ever be seen in the hands of a pro player these days.

With this lineup, Tianhuan only had two sources of damage, and one of them—the Illusionist—wouldn't be able to kill anyone when the damage from his ult was diffused between enemies. They could only rely on their marksman. Would they be okay? The audience couldn't help but worry about that.

The game began.

In the jungle, the first set of buffs spawned. Tianhuan's support, the Blessed Priest, was fairly fragile. Meanwhile, the enemy support, the Forest Envoy, could heal. If they got into a fight now, Tianhuan would be at a disadvantage.

And so, Tianhuan deliberately went out of their way to avoid a fight. They went to take down their own red buff first. Team BOB must have thought that Tianhuan would invade their jungle to steal their blue buff, so they stayed at home and guarded their own blue.

The two teams successfully avoided an altercation.

Chi Shuo was still playing the part of a support jungler. He gave the first red buff to his marksman, and he gave the first blue to his mid laner.

Then, everyone saw—

The support, the Blessed Priest, hooked himself to the Illusionist with a purple chain and followed the Illusionist up to the middle lane to clear minions.

"The support is sticking to the mid laner at Level 1. This is a commonly seen tactic. Two players working together will be able to clear minions faster, after all. Once they finish clearing the first wave of minions, the mid laner will have some time to wander the map."

"Team BOB's support is sticking with the marksman. Little Xing is dealing with a 1v2 in the bottom lane. He should be able to withstand the pressure!"

"That's right. The Machine Gun Huntsman has a very high base attack speed. He can continuously fire his gun from a distance with his Q skill, which allows him to easily clear minions in his lane. Plus, his defense is also relatively high. If he just stays under his tower, he won't die too quickly."

As the commentators spoke, the mid laner Ye Shaoyang and the support Qu Jiang did indeed swiftly clear a wave of minions. Then they made their way towards the bottom lane together. BOB's mid laner instantly warned his team, "Mid laner's gone! Bottom lane, be careful!"

BOB's two bottom laners swiftly retreated.

However, the eagle-eye view of the match clearly showed the audience that Ye Shaoyang and Qu Jiang didn't actually go down to the bottom lane. They started to make their way down, giving the mid laner a 'false' view of their movements, before circling around through the jungle to make their way to the top lane.

Old Qin's Holy Knight had a very low attack stat. He was extremely slow when it came to clearing minions.

In the time it took Ye Shaoyang to kill off six little minions in the middle lane, Old Qin only managed to kill two in the top lane.

So, when the mid laner came to the top lane and helped Old Qin take down the six remaining minions, the experience and gold rewards from those kills went to the mid laner.

One commentator said, "Tianhuan is building up a mid lane core in this game. The top laner has given four minions to the Illusionist!"

Professional games were nothing like casual ranked games. If you wandered into a teammate's lane and took their minions without permission, you would be lectured to death by the coach. So, if Ye Shaoyang was going up to claim some minions from the top lane, that had to mean it was something the team agreed on together.

The Holy Knight didn't have any DPS potential anyway. Old Qin would be fine with just two pieces of defense-boosting gear. Feeding the rest of his resources to Ye Shaoyang was no problem.

And so, when Ye Shaoyang finished assisting in the top lane and returned to the middle lane, he had one hundred gold more than the enemy mid laner. He was also one level ahead. The opposing mid laner also quickly realized with surprise that the support was still sticking to Ye Shaoyang.

BOB's mid laner sensed that something wasn't right. "They're running a mid/support duo! The marksman has been left on his own."

BOB's jungler instantly said, "Understood. Then I'll go gank their marksman like crazy!"

A moment later, BOB's jungler took the lead and hit Level 6.

He opened the game stats panel and saw—whoa! Chi Shuo was only at Level 4!

With this, wouldn't it be a piece of cake for BOB's jungler to join up with his bottom lane teammates and kill Cheng Xing?

BOB's jungler swiftly ran down to the bottom lane, lurking in the woods to prepare an ambush.

In Tianhuan's voice chat, Ye Shaoyang reminded, "Little Xing, the enemy jungler has already hit Level 6. He'll definitely target you."

Cheng Xing said, "I'll be very careful and stay under my tower."

Ye Shaoyang said, "Don't do that. Go out and put on a show. I'll be right there."

Cheng Xing froze for a second.

Put on a show?

Well, alright! Yang-ge's orders must always be obeyed.

And so, Cheng Xing cautiously advanced from under his tower, acting like he planned on moving forward to claim the last two enemy minions in his lane. As soon as he took a tiny step forward, he entered the attack range of the enemy jungler who was lurking in the woods.

The enemy jungler instantly seized that opportunity to leap out with an ult, stunning Cheng Xing in place!

However, before he could even follow up with his attack skills, a chain suddenly shot out from inside the woods, hooking him and yanking him back. Ye Shaoyang, who had been hiding out nearby, instantly unleashed a swift WQR skill combo. Purple illusory shards flew towards the enemy jungler's chest, killing him on the spot!

First Blood!

BOB's jungler failed to take a kill. Instead, he was counter-killed.

"…fuck! Three of them were waiting in the woods. That was bait!"

BOB's captain furrowed his brow. "Support, pay more attention to establishing visibility around the bottom lane."

BOB's support felt like he was being treated unjustly. "They circled around through their own jungle. There was no way I could have seen them."

"It's fine," the captain reassured. "Let's keep going."

After respawning, BOB's jungler swiftly returned to his own jungle to take the new blue buff.

He only had the buff down to half-health when he suddenly heard the sound of an attack in his ears—

Tianhuan-Lieyang (Illusionist) killed BOB-XiaoBo (Cobra King)!

That attack had come without any warning at all!

BOB's mid laner had been clearing minions with his four little snakes. But then, a black hook suddenly shot out from the woods—the ice-cold chains of the Enchained Reaper instantly trapped the enemy mid laner in place. Then, immediately afterwards, all that awaited this mid laner was the enemy Illusionist's assault!

The Illusionist was the assassin mage with the highest burst potential; he could kill an enemy in just one second.

When he went down to the bottom lane, the enemy jungler was bound to die.

When he went back to the middle lane, the enemy mid laner was also doomed.

Then, Ye Shaoyang ran up to the top lane again to farm a few more minions.

The two commentators were stunned for a moment. Finally, they came back to their senses and realized the secrets of Tianhuan's mysterious team comp.

"This is a highly mobile one-hit, one-kill style of play!"

"The mid laner, support, and jungler work together to surround an enemy, then attack wildly! They've completely disrupted the enemy team's rhythm!"

It was only then that the spectators realized exactly why Tianhuan's bizarre team comp was so strong.

The support, the Blessed Priest, could link himself to the mid laner and constantly provide the mid laner with mana regeneration and a magic attack power buff. This way, the mid laner would never be short on mana, and his attack power would be leveled up as well.

Although the Enchained Reaper didn't personally have a very high attack power, his Q skill could ensnare a target from afar. So the Cobra King had four little snakes that could split up the Illusionist's damage between them? So what? The Enchained Reaper would reel in the hero and make him take a beating on his own!

And once the Blessed Priest hit Level 6, he would gain access to an ult which gave the whole team a speed boost.

The gear Qu Jiang took in this game also had the bonus effect of boosting his teammates' speed in team fights. With that, they would have two speed buffs when they fought!

Ye Shaoyang had also equipped himself with a pair of hastening boots.

He could seriously sprint around the map and provide assists at the speed of light!

And so, the spectators all saw the jungler, mid laner, and support team up and run wild all across the map. As soon as they initiated a brawl, they stacked up their speed buffs. They ran all over the rift, constantly finding places to lie in wait and stage an ambush.

As soon as Tianhuan's mid laner killed BOB's mid laner, this dangerous trio swiftly ran into the enemy jungle to steal BOB's blue buff.

Immediately after that, once Ye Shaoyang's ult came off cooldown, the three of them once again ran down to the bottom lane. Chi Shuo threw out his hook from a great distance, and with a cleverly aimed shot—he landed a hit on the fragile marksman hiding behind the support, dragging the poor glass cannon right out.

Then Ye Shaoyang unleashed a skill combo…

Purple shards flew in from every direction, and immediately the marksman was no more.

Next, Tianhuan started to engage the minor dragon.

After that, Ye Shaoyang returned to the middle lane to clear a wave of minions, then once again ran up to the top lane.

BOB's top laner sensed that this was a dangerous situation. He immediately retreated to his own tower. However, Chi Shuo was lurking in the woods by that tower. With one Q, he threw out a familiar black chain and hooked the top laner out from under the tower—

Ye Shaoyang fired off his skills, and BOB's top laner was no more.

BOB's players were all rendered speechless.

Damn it! Where were these attacks coming from?!

Wasn't this fluid, aggressive play style way too wretched?!

Hiding under the tower was pointless. Chi Shuo could land every shot he took with a hook. He would drag the enemy out, and Ye Shaoyang would do his damage with his dizzyingly fast hands. All the spectators saw the effect they had together—these three could run rampant across the rift together, and as soon as they reached their destination…

Chi Shuo would hook one, and Ye Shaoyang would kill one.

It was like they were saying—

"Come," Chi Shuo said. "Kill this one."

"Okay," Ye Shaoyang said. "He's dead."

Then, after taking a kill, they would invade the enemy jungle to steal some resources. Once their ults came off cooldown, they would head off to another lane to hook and kill another hero.

The commentators were caught between laughter and tears.

"Ahem, maybe we can call the three of them the 'Tragedy Trio'? Who will tragedy befall next?"

"Ah… the opposing mid laner has been hooked again."

"He used his flash to escape! Unfortunately, the Illusionist has already attacked with his E, and with a W to immobilize the enemy… the Illusionist has gone in for the kill, right under the enemy tower!"

"Those who can evade Captain Chi's hook still can't evade Yangyang's control skills. It's rough out there!"

The viewers in the livestream were laughing their heads off at this play style.

[Let's all appreciate the show that the Tragedy Trio is putting on for us in the rift?]

[Tianhuan really doesn't have enough DPS for a full team fight, but they're not interested in getting into team fights at all. They'll stay on the move and use guerrilla warfare tactics to take you down in an instant.]

[Qu Jiang is thinking: 'We're a four-wheel drive vehicle with plenty of horsepower. Running around like this feels great!']

[They kill on the bottom lane, then go to the middle lane. They kill on the middle lane, then go to the top lane. So BOB is going to collapse on all three lanes?]

One commentator excitedly announced, "With Tianhuan's mid/jungle/support trio zooming all around the rift and bringing tragedy to their enemies everywhere they go, the economic difference between the two teams has reached 5,000 gold!"

"What's truly shocking is that the bottom laner Little Xing, who's been left all on his own, hasn't died a single time. This is because BOB's mid laner and jungler have been ganked by Tianhuan's trio far too many times. They don't have any time to target Little Xing at all."

"Little Xing has been developing very steadily. Because he hasn't died even once, he has a 1,000 gold advantage over the opposing marksman!"

"The mid laner's equipment is already top-of-the-line as well. He's already taken ten kills!"

BOB wasn't just collapsing on all three lanes. Their players' mental states were collapsing as well.

Fifteen minutes into the game, Ye Shaoyang had taken ten kills. What did that mean? It meant that after respawning, BOB's players could only get back to their lanes and clear a wave of minions before the Illusionist popped up from god only knows where and sent them home again.

A staff, a tome, and a crystal ball—Ye Shaoyang had already assembled all three pieces of gear for his hero's build. With his remaining gold, he'd made himself two sets of boots. One was a support-focused pair of shoes which boosted his speed and allowed him to quickly provide assistance somewhere else on the map after one fight ended. The other pair reduced the cooldown of his skills…

The speed bonuses from two pairs of boots wouldn't stack, but the passive effects of two pairs could be active at the same time. Later on, Ye Shaoyang could swap them out as needed. With three weapons and two pairs of boots, it was clear that he had plenty of gold to spend!

At that point, all the spectators realized Tianhuan had actually gone into this game with a very clear strategy.

Chi Shuo, Ye Shaoyang, and Qu Jiang would team up to pick off enemy heroes one by one. They would rely on their terrifying movement speeds to fly around the rift.

Cheng Xing and Qin Yizhu were both left on their own. Although it was very dangerous for a marksman to be left without any protection—a strong offense was the best defense! If Tianhuan repeatedly killed off BOB's jungler, mid laner, and marksman, then how could any of these enemies pose a threat to Tianhuan's marksman?

Cheng Xing happily stayed on the bottom lane, clearing minions. No one had any time to approach him at all. He also swiftly pushed on his lane and destroyed the enemy's bottom lane outer tower. After that, when Yang-ge took down the enemy mid laner, Cheng Xing scurried up to the middle lane and destroyed BOB's mid lane outer tower as well.

Then, Cheng Xing swapped places with Old Qin after Yang-ge killed the enemy top laner. And just like that, the top lane outer tower was destroyed as well.

Cheng Xing was basically saying through his actions—

I'm just an emotionless tower-destroying machine.

The economic difference between the two teams grew and grew. BOB was a bit dumbstruck by this diabolical play style. By the time they composed themselves and forced a team fight, it was already too late.

As soon as the two teams clashed in a 5v5, Chi Shuo shot his hook through the crowd of BOB heroes and nailed the marksman standing in the back. He dragged this fragile hero out, and Ye Shaoyang killed him in an instant—it really was just an instant! The marksman was gone in less than a second, before anyone could react!

The 5v5 immediately turned into a 5v4.

BOB had lost a member before the fight even truly began. There was no way for them to continue fighting this battle.

Tianhuan seemed to be saying, so what if BOB's team comp was extremely powerful in team fights?

Tianhuan just had to perform a 'marksman disappearing act' at the start of a fight.

They could send BOB's main DPS home before any damage was done.

The first round ended swiftly at the eighteen-minute mark. The end results were an almost unbearable sight.

The Illusionist… had taken twelve kills. With 45% of the damage in that round to his name, he was unquestionably the MVP!

Although the Illusionist hadn't taken a cool pentakill like the Abyssal Lord, he'd spent the whole game swiftly racing around the map. He destroyed the enemy on all three lanes, popping up like a ghost and disappearing without a trace. This kind of Illusionist who could kill his enemies so swiftly was a truly terrifying existence!

His enemies couldn't even figure out where he was attacking from; they could only lie down and die.

This kind of assassin mage struck a huge amount of fear in a person's heart. Late in that game, BOB's players didn't even have the guts to venture out from under their towers. Unfortunately for them, Chi Shuo could strike them with a hook and drag them out even if they didn't want to leave.

The first round ended in a miserable defeat for BOB!

The two commentators stared at each other for a moment, stupefied.

"When you're facing off against an extremely mobile and powerful team like Tianhuan, what strategies are you supposed to use to fend them off?"

The other commentator shook her head and said, "Their rhythm was just too fast. The Blessed Priest has a speed buff, and he geared himself up with a speed-oriented build. They were running on four-wheel drive. You can't catch them, and you can't hide from them!"

"BOB's only choice would have been to pick a more agile lineup at the start, so that they could cut into Tianhuan's back line and take care of the mid laner. Or maybe they could have taken magic resistance gear as their second piece of equipment, so that the Illusionist wouldn't have been able to take them down in one fell swoop."

"But if they prioritized magic resistance gear like that, their DPS wouldn't have been good enough."

How exactly was a team supposed to fight against this kind of strategy?

At that moment, all the other coaches watching this game felt themselves developing a serious headache.

No one had imagined that the Enchained Reaper, a hero who had been washed away with the sewage already, could return as such a powerful support jungler with the Illusionist as a mid lane core. As soon as he hooked a hero, that hero was dead. This combination was extremely formidable!

Banning Ye Shaoyang's Abyssal Lord wasn't enough. They had to ban the Illusionist too?

But then, wouldn't that mean all of Chi Shuo's heroes would be let loose?

The two teams took a break, and then the second round soon began.

BOB was on the blue side in the second round. The coach was, as expected, hesitating over their first bans.

Who were they supposed to ban? The Abyssal Lord had just taken a pentakill. They couldn't possibly let him out. But Tianhuan's Illusionist comp was extremely unnerving as well. They could race around the whole map and kill anyone they ran into. BOB's rhythm had immediately been destroyed.

After a moment, BOB's coach gave his orders.

The first ban went to the Abyssal Lord.

The second ban went to the Illusionist.

The two commentators were speechless.

And the viewers in the livestream were laughing like mad.

[Holy shit, this new mid laner is really getting the VIP treatment!]

[Banning two mid laners in a row. Coach, you're really something. Doge.jpg]

[Looks like Tianhuan has produced a demonic mid laner with the ability to psychologically scar his opponents?]

[I run into the Illusionist all the time when I play ranked, but this is the first time I've realized he could be played in such a diabolical way. Coming and going like a ghost, taking twelve kills… if I were the coach, I would ban him too!]

[Hahaha, Captain Chi must be feeling very happy right now, right? It's the first time that their opponents haven't banned a jungler.]

Chi Shuo's feelings really were quite complex.

In S9, his best junglers had been banned for the whole year. But in S10, other coaches were realizing after a few games that Tianhuan's mid lane-centric team comps were exceptionally gross. They could only start by banning mid laners.

All of Chi Shuo's junglers were set free. This was something that hadn't happened in several years!

When Coach Lin saw all this, his eyes even started to burn slightly.

He could finally understand why Chi Shuo had insisted on having Ye Shaoyang join Tianhuan. Shaoyang was like a sharp blade that could cut through the restraints on Chi Shuo, by making their opponents fear Tianhuan's mid laner. This way, the pressure on Chi Shuo would naturally diminish.

[Is Captain Chi still not taking a jungler core?]

[The Bloodstained Assassin, the Stealthy Rogue, the King of Fighters, the Ninja… so many jungler cores have been left unbanned?]

Many viewers of the livestream were starting to venture their guesses in the bullet comments.

But Chi Shuo still didn't choose a jungler core. There was no need for him to lift a finger against the lowest-ranked team in Group B.

Shaoyang could handle it on his own.

In the second round, with Ye Shaoyang's Abyssal Lord and Illusionist on the ban list, Tianhuan couldn't use any of their comps built around these two mid lane cores.

So what hero would Ye Shaoyang choose?

Netizens eagerly awaited the answer to that question.

A second later, they saw Ye Shaoyang lock in a commonly used mid laner—the Tidal Goddess. Qu Jiang chose the Blessed Priest once more. He had just used this hero in the last round, and he'd gotten a feel for him. Regular season games didn't follow a cumulative bans format, so players could continue to use heroes they'd already used, as long as those heroes weren't banned.

As soon as those picks were made, BOB's coach felt his head fill up with a faint buzzing sensation.

This was a 'macro' comp.

Tianhuan had used a similar comp in their S9 playoffs match against Beimu. It was what they had used to win one round.

Unsurprisingly, they took the Brawler as their jungler—a fast hero with many movement skills, perfect for pushing lanes.

With this team comp, Tianhuan would be relying on the Tidal Goddess to slow their enemies while the Blessed Priest hastened his own teammates. This would create an effect of Tianhuan's players moving very quickly while BOB's players could hardly move at all. As long as Tianhuan pushed swiftly, they could once again collapse all three of BOB's lanes.

The difference between a strong team and weak team often came down to how good they were at macro play.

Many of the weaker teams in the league seemed quite fierce in team fights. They could often win individual fights, but they couldn't win the game in the end. They would often gain the upper hand, only for their enemies to turn the tables on them. At the end of the day, it boiled down to the fact that their macro play simply wasn't good enough.

The teams of the Korean division were the best of the best when it came to macro play. Coach Lin's goal in taking out these macro strategies in today's regular season game was, in part, to see if Tianhuan's macro play would improve with Shaoyang as the mid laner.

Shaoyang's play style was quite sharp and aggressive; he was more inclined towards playing assassin mages and mounting direct attacks. Qu Jiang, on the other hand, had been better at playing control-oriented mages. He could slow the pace of a game and steadily push down his own lane, which was a test of every player's patience.

The game they just played had gone too smoothly. Coach Lin wanted everyone to cool their heads.

And reality would soon prove…

Even when Ye Shaoyang played a control-oriented mage, he could still make the enemy feel like life was meaningless!

When he played an assassin mage, he would pop up from out of nowhere and instakill an enemy hero in a second. That was enough to make his opponents' teeth go numb with rage.

And when he played a control-oriented mage, he would occasionally toss a slowing spell at the enemy, making it impossible for the enemy to catch him when he ran. He would just continue to kite his enemies from afar, making himself an extremely annoying target.

BOB's players were continuously strung along by him, while slowed by his irritating debuffs… until they just couldn't take it anymore!

As a result, ten minutes into the game—BOB's five players suddenly grouped up in the middle lane and surrounded Ye Shaoyang. They were determined to take his head! BOB's top laner used a flash to jump in and stun Ye Shaoyang. The jungler charged into the range of Ye Shaoyang's tower to assist in the assault. The mid laner and marksman shot at him from afar. All five of them, working together, finally managed to kill Ye Shaoyang!

Ye Shaoyang was silent.

Well, thanks. I'm just a glass cannon, and you used how many skills to kill me?

Was there really any need for that?

The viewers in the livestream had just about laughed themselves to death.

[Yangyang is really receiving the treatment of a highly esteemed VIP. The coach banned his two mid laners, and the five enemy players got together to kill him.]

[Hahahaha, it was Chi Shuo who used to receive that treatment, huh?]

[A great demon king has emerged on Tianhuan's middle lane this season. Their opponents will have to keep an eye on the middle lane now, right?]

[I don't know why, but when I see five people teaming up to kill Yangyang, I kind of want to laugh. I'm his fan, though. Really.]

[Do those five think they're teaming up to fight a boss or something?]

Xie Xiaotian, watching from backstage, couldn't help but sigh nostalgically. "Back when we were playing against them, we were like this too. Ai, Yang-ge's way of playing is really effective at psychologically scarring his enemies!"

Yan Bin seriously nodded his agreement. "Exactly. He's too infuriating."

In the first round, Ye Shaoyang had freely roamed the whole map, popping up wherever he pleased. He'd killed BOB's players twelve times!

BOB's players had been stewing with a belly full of rage for a long time already. Now, in the second round, Ye Shaoyang was using the Tidal Goddess to keep them moving along at a snail's pace—how could they stand for that?

They couldn't!

In the middle lane, BOB's five players had surrounded Ye Shaoyang and finally managed to send him back to his base.

Qin Yizhu swiftly came down to the middle lane to defend the tower while Chi Shuo led the push down the top lane and took down the enemy's outer tower there.

Tianhuan's macro play skills were far superior to BOB's. With Chi Shuo commanding them, Tianhuan pushed onwards on all three lanes. BOB's three outer towers were swiftly destroyed, and they couldn't defend their own jungle either.

In a key grand dragon fight, BOB's five players wanted to gang up on Ye Shaoyang to kill him again. But ultimately, when BOB's jungler charged in to attack, Ye Shaoyang instantly flashed away and retreated, leaving behind his ult—

A huge flood of water coursed across the field, aimed at just the right spot. All five members of Team BOB were instantly slowed!

Tianhuan's other players instantly followed up with their own control skills. Cheng Xing happily fired into the fray from afar, and BOB wound up suffering a team wipeout.

Although they managed to hold on until the twenty-minute mark in the second game, the end result was still the same—they lost.

BOB's captain let out a long sigh. "Tianhuan could have gone into Group S. We really can't beat them. When people played Tianhuan in the past, they always knew to target their jungle. But this season's Tianhuan is extremely strong on the middle lane. Their strats have completely changed as well."

At that moment, all the other coaches of Group B teams were suffering huge headaches while watching this game.

What were they supposed to do when they ran into Tianhuan later on? Were they supposed to ban the Abyssal Lord and the Illusionist? But Ye Shaoyang was just as good as Qu Jiang when it came to playing control-oriented heroes. He fit into Tianhuan's macro strategies very well, and he could really debuff his enemies to death.

Ye Shaoyang had taken eight National #1 rankings.

But he must have trained privately as well. He must have other hidden gems up his sleeve!

So, if they banned mid laners?

Chi Shuo's junglers would be set free.

And if they banned junglers?

Ye Shaoyang's Abyssal Lord and Illusionist would be set free. Those mid lane cores weren't easy to deal with.

The same question popped into the heads of all the coaches of Group B teams—

Can we just ban Ye Shaoyang?