All-Round Mid Laner

After the first round, there was a ten-minute break. CYC's coach immediately rushed into his team's soundproofed room and said, "The last game is already over. Everyone, don't give it too much thought. Quickly adjust your mental states."

Each player wore a different expression; the marksman, who had been carried into traps and killed the most times, had the most unsightly look on his face.

The coach patted him on the shoulder and smiled as he said, "Tianhuan's 'Standing Punishment System' is indeed quite cruel and unusual, but you guys think about it carefully—the Blazing Angel's ability to carry a player across a short distance is actually the same as the Enchained Reaper's hook or the Black Dragon Knight's taunt. These are all displacement skills that reel in distant enemies for a kill.

"At the end of the day, they're just using a support to drag people in and a jungler to control people. It's just your standard seamless crowd control! Tianhuan has definitely been practicing this comp for a long time. It isn't out of the ordinary for us to lose to them. If our marksman had taken a cleanse, and if our support had checked the jungle for traps in advance, then they wouldn't have gotten such a smooth victory."

Although the coach could only say these things because everything became evident in hindsight, his analysis of the game they'd just played did make the players feel a bit better. When running into a bizarre comp in games, it really was normal to lose to the other side.

The coach added, "Tianhuan had been focusing on strategies that support their mid laner. They've been letting their mid laner take kills and MVP titles. So in the next game, we'll avoid their strengths and target them on the outer lanes!"

CYC's captain asked, "Should we destroy their bottom lane? I think that Fanxing of theirs actually isn't that strong."

The coach shook his head. "No, Fanxing has Qu Jiang's protection. It won't be easy to kill him. Everyone says top laners are orphans, right? In the next game, we'll focus on the top laner. Obliterate their top lane!"

CYC's coach was right to think that way. Tianhuan was constantly having their top laner leave resources for their mid laner, right? In that case, would they still be able to do that if someone destroyed their top lane? They wouldn't have any extra resources to give to the mid laner at all!

The second game started very quickly.

In this game, Tianhuan was the blue team. They had the first set of bans.

Coach Lin continued to ban strong support heroes in order to take some pressure off Little Xing. When their turn came up, CYC banned the Abyssal Lord again. They also once again banned the Blessed Priest, sealing away his speed buffs.

The picks and bans stage of the second game was unfolding much like the picks and bans of the first game. One commentator couldn't help but remark, "Are they not afraid of Tianhuan taking out the 'Standing Punishment System' again? Or are they saying CYC's coach has found a way to counter that comp?"

"What I'm thinking is… Tianhuan won't take out the same comp twice in a row, right?"

For their first pick in this game, Tianhuan took the Machine Gun Huntsman—the marksman hero that Cheng Xing had gotten pretty good with lately. This hero had a very fast attack speed. He was good at clearing minions with his bullets, and it wasn't easy for him to be suppressed in his lane.

CYC then chose the Blessed Light as their support and the Great Witch of the North Sea as their mid laner.

"I got it," one commentator said. "CYC isn't banning Tianhuan's 'Standing Punishment System' because they've thought of a way to counter that comp! The Blessed Light is a support who can shield his whole team, ensuring his teammates won't be instakilled. Plus, his ult can cleanse away immobilizing status effects and grant his teammates immunity for 1.5 seconds. Tianhuan won't be able to keep them immobilized with this!"

"That's exactly right. CYC has come up with a very good counter. This support not only seals away Tianhuan's 'Standing Punishment System', but makes CYC's marksman very difficult to kill as well. With a shield from the support and a cleansing ult, the marksman would be able to flee no matter what, right?"

"Let's take a look at what Tianhuan will choose—they've gone for the Black Dragon Knight as their second pick. This is the top lane hero that Qin Yizhu has been using the most as of late, and his win rate is also very high. Tianhuan's third pick has gone to the Master Machinist… the Master Machinist and the Machine Gun Huntsman form a commonly seen tower-pushing duo!"

"Tianhuan hasn't chosen their mid laner or jungler yet. They'll be targeted in the second phase of bans."

In the first round of picks, Tianhuan had chosen their top laner and bottom laners. CYC had taken their mid laner and support.

As a result, Tianhuan started their second round of bans by targeting the top lane. Meanwhile, CYC continued to target the mid lane like crazy—they banned the Illusionist, and they sealed away the Destruction Mage as well.

One commentator said, "CYC had gone and banned three mid laners in a row. Are they going to continue targeting the mid laner until the end?"

"What hero will Lieyang take out next?"

Inside Tianhuan's soundproofed room, Coach Lin said, "The enemy support can cleanse, so we won't be able to rely on crowd control this time. Should we focus on pushing towers on the bottom lane in this round, or is there another play style you guys would like to try?"

Ye Shaoyang said, "Their support can cleanse certain status conditions, but there are some that can't be cleansed… poison, for example."

Coach Lin looked towards him. "You want to take the Cobra King?"

Ye Shaoyang crinkled his eyes with a smile. "I don't really like the Cobra King. I'll take another."

In CYC's soundproofed room, the coach beamed brightly. "Our cleansing support has broken Tianhuan's support/jungler control combo. Even if they run the Tidal Goddess in the middle lane, her slowing debuffs will have no effect on us. Let's see what kind of fancy hero Ye Shaoyang can play now!"

As soon as those words fell, Ye Shaoyang really did pull out something quite fancy.

CYC's coach saw the hero Ye Shaoyang locked in. His smile froze on his face. "…the Flower Dryad?"

The two stunned commentators echoed, "The Flower Dryad?!"

They looked at each other in disbelief.

"The Flower Dryad as their mid laner, with the Holy Knight as a support jungler? Do they intend to have the Holy Knight act as the Flower Dryad's personal bodyguard, enabling her to freely roam the rift?"

CYC's coach felt his temples spasming wildly.

There was really no end to Tianhuan's dirty tricks!

The bullet comments in the livestream filled up the screen with ellipses.

[Damn, this disgusting hero actually made an appearance.]

[She plants flowers all over the place, and you're struck with poison if you step on them.]

[In late-game, if she gets geared up properly, she can take one bite out of you with a carnivorous plant and chomp away half your HP. She's seriously such an annoying hero to play against.]

[Those carnivorous plants have psychologically scarred me! When I play ranked, this is the hero I hate the most!]

The Flower Dryad wasn't an unpopular hero. On the contrary, because she was a beautiful, alluring jiejie, with a rather sensual voice, she had quite a lot of fans among the online player base. The game had also released a lot of official skins for her.

This hero's most annoying point wasn't her ability to instakill an enemy. Rather, it was her ability to sow the seeds of her 'Man-Eating Flowers' all across the rift.

Every one of those carnivorous plants would deal magic damage to anyone who stepped on them, and they would inflict enemy heroes with a stack of poison as well.

Having to dodge those carnivorous plants in a fight was just too troublesome.

The picks and bans stage ended very quickly.

In this game, Tianhuan was no longer focusing on crowd control. The support and marksman would stay in the bottom lane and focus on pushing towers, and the top laner would stay up top and play by himself. As for the mid laner and jungler, with those heroes… they were definitely up to something.

As expected, as soon as the game began in earnest, Chi Shuo led Ye Shaoyang into CYC's jungle to steal their blue buff.

The Flower Dryad was very powerful in Level 1 fights. She could plant her carnivorous plants with her Q skill, and in the time it took for her to leave her base and make it to the river, she would amass five seeds—which was the equivalent of five charges of an attack skill. Other mid laners at Level 1 could only fire off one attack, while she could fire off five. Although each seed did a relatively small amount of damage… five hits meant five stacks of poison!

At the start of a game, no one had any magic resistance gear. Being poisoned was a very terrifying thing.

That was exactly why poison comps were so powerful in early-game.

CYC's captain immediately said, "Avoid the fight. Let's go steal their blue!"

This was a good idea, but it was easier said than done.

As soon as CYC's jungler ran into Tianhuan's jungle to steal their blue buff, he was stunned in place by one of the Master Machinist's deployed robots. Immediately afterwards, the Black Dragon Knight charged in with his heavy shield.

CYC's jungler exclaimed, "They're protecting their blue!"

His mid laner and top laner instantly came over to help.

However, Qu Jiang and Old Qin were both playing very tanky heroes in that game. They could stand their ground even in a 2v3. As a result, before CYC even finished fighting that battle over Tianhuan's blue buff, they saw the elegant Flower Dryad appear on the scene, shrouded in the glow of the blue buff from CYC's jungle. The mighty and noble Holy Knight appeared right at her side as her devoted bodyguard.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo had taken CYC's blue buff down very quickly, and no one had even tried to interfere with them.

After taking the blue buff, Ye Shaoyang's Flower Dryad was already at Level 2. Besides his Q skill, Man-Eating Flower Seeds, he had also learned a W skill, Poison Mist. When Ye Shaoyang arrived at Tianhuan's blue buff, his hands flew across the keyboard, and suddenly—

One flower popped up, two flowers popped up…

In the blink of an eye, five patches of flowers sprang out of the earth and surrounded the CYC heroes who'd come to steal the buff!

CYC's mid laner decisively used his flash to escape. The top laner and jungler were a bit slower; they were trapped in the field of flowers.

And when Ye Shaoyang unleashed his W skill, Poison Mist, puffs of purple clouds emerged from those flowers.

Poisoned, poisoned… right before their eyes, CYC's players saw those status effects stack up on their heroes. The two trapped players had no choice but to grit their teeth and step through the ring of flowers to escape, inflicting themselves with another stack of poison. With three stacks of poison on them, they could only narrowly escape with their lives and return to their base to heal.

Ye Shaoyang managed to make CYC's players retreat in that bout. Immediately afterwards, Chi Shuo took their own blue buff.

Then, Chi Shuo went after their own red buff.

He and Ye Shaoyang took down three buffs together, then merrily started to level up.

"Tianhuan has opened with three buffs, and the opposing mid laner has used up his flash as well. This is a big loss for CYC!"

"The Flower Dryad is undoubtedly very strong in early-game. She can plant five patches of flowers, and if you step on them all, you'll be dealt the maximum of five stacks of poison. But this hero is actually a huge test of a player's operational skills. You have to be fast enough when you plant those seeds, and you have to plant them in the right places. Otherwise, it's very easy for other players to simply avoid your flowers. We don't recommend this hero for players whose hand speeds are on the slower side."

"Ahem, that's right. I, for one, can't play this hero well at all."

New bullet comments filled the screen—

[Understood. This hero isn't for 'handicapped' players like me.]

[I can only ever plant the flowers in a straight line. Those cross-shaped killing techniques or circular planting strategies… I can understand those plays with my eyes, but my hands just can't carry them out!]

[Yangyang, 666. I thought he could only play those eight nationally-ranked heroes of his, but he actually knows how to play the Flower Dryad too!]

CYC's error in judgment during the first bout of the game led to Tianhuan taking two blue buffs. This was very commonly seen in the league. CYC quickly adjusted their mental states and started to farm minions to level up.

Their goal was to gank the top lane and destroy Qin Yizhu.

CYC let the first minor dragon go without fighting over it at all. Instead, four of their players grouped up on the top lane to attack Qin Yizhu. Of course, Qin Yizhu couldn't fend off four players all on his own. Soon enough, they bullied their way under his tower and took his head. The 'First Blood' announcement soon rang out in everyone's ears.

Qin Yizhu scratched his head and said, "Four of them came up to the top lane. Just how much do they hate me!"

Ye Shaoyang said, "They want to use the top lane as a breakthrough point in this game. Want some help?"

Chi Shuo calmly said, "Old Qin, hold them off for a while. We'll take care of this after we destroy their outer tower on the bottom lane."

There was actually nothing wrong with CYC's plan. Cheng Xing was difficult to kill, so they may as well get aggressive with the top laner. After taking down Tianhuan's top lane outer tower, they could invade Tianhuan's jungle and steal a blue buff. Then they could start snowballing their way to a crushing advantage.

But Tianhuan didn't rush to go help Qin Yizhu. Instead, the other four Tianhuan players grouped up to start pushing the bottom lane. They sent both of CYC's bottom laners running home. The end result was that CYC destroyed Tianhuan's top lane outer tower, but Tianhuan destroyed CYC's bottom lane outer tower at the same time.

"The two teams have exchanged a tower for a tower," one commentator said. "Seems like no one's come out at a loss here?"

"My guess is that CYC planned on targeting the top laner in order to stop Tianhuan from letting their mid laner take minions from two lanes. But what we see here is that Tianhuan's mid laner hasn't come up to the top lane for minions at all. Instead, he's farming in the jungle?"

"That's right. The Holy Knight took the blue buff in this game, but after he reached Level 6, he's been giving absolutely everything—even the monster spawns in the jungle—to Lieyang. You could say he's the ultimate bodyguard!"

"Lieyang once again has the most resources of any player on the map. Tianhuan's strategy of nurturing their mid laner is difficult to deal with. Unless the enemy kills off their mid laner and disrupts their rhythm early, they'll be tough opponents in late-game!"

CYC's captain had clearly realized this point as well. He instantly signaled for his team to group up on the middle lane. "Kill that mid laner!"

The support they chose for this game could shield and cleanse his teammates, but he didn't have any control skills.

Their top laner was a tank with control skills, though, and their jungler had control skills as well. They could charge into the fray and forcibly suppress the enemy mid laner.

And so, when a 5v5 team fight broke out, CYC's front line heroes wildly targeted Ye Shaoyang! The top laner flashed in to assault him, and the jungler used a movement skill to get close and stun him—were they not going to give up until Ye Shaoyang was dead?

Ye Shaoyang was speechless.

Nope, this was scary. He had to run!

However, he didn't use his flash to retreat and run away. He actually used his flash to go in the opposite direction. Instead of backing away, he flashed towards the enemy mid laner and marksman. There, he swiftly unleashed a set of skills—

His decision to charge forward instead of retreating left all of CYC's players completely baffled.

Before they could even react, they were surrounded by a field of flowers.

In this game, Ye Shaoyang's Flower Dryad as wearing the 'Phantasmic Flower' skin that had just been released last year. Her outfit was purple, and the flowers she grew were purple as well. The poison mist that spewed out from those blooms was a deep, dark purple… altogether, it was a very menacing aesthetic.

The game map was relatively dark to begin with. Now, in a place where some players had no visibility, dark purple flowers suddenly bloomed and started to emit clouds of an even darker purple mist. Along with that ghastly sight, a seductive voiceline rang out—

"Here's a flower from me to you. No need to thank me~"

CYC's mid laner and marksman instantly wanted to swear.

Fudge.

That was just a type of food.

The viewers in the livestreaming room were nearly laughing themselves crazy.

[The demon king is back again! I don't want his flowers.]

[I can't afford to take them. Please don't send them to me.]

[Stop planting, stop planting. The map is already filled with purple flowers as far as the eye can see. I'm about to go blind.]

[You can lose the team fight, but Ye Shaoyang must die! Flashing into the fray to plant his poisonous flowers… isn't this too cruel?]

Ye Shaoyang had flashed directly into the enemy ranks. How could anyone stand for this?

CYC's mid laner and marksman instantly opened fire on him, flinging all their skills at his hero!

At the same time, Tianhuan's Cheng Xing seized the opportunity to wildly unleash his own skills from afar.

Ye Shaoyang was a glass cannon to start with. After flashing directly into the enemy troops, he naturally died very quickly.

However, three of CYC's players were swiftly crippled by five stacks of poison.

Each seed of these carnivorous plants produced a swath of flowers. After Ye Shaoyang sowed them all at the start of the fight, a black-purple mist of poison rolled forth… the sight of it was honestly horrifying!

None of CYC's players had managed to get themselves any magic resistance gear yet.

They couldn't withstand five stacks of poison at all. With every step they took, they lost more HP.

Double Kill!

Triple Kill!

Ye Shaoyang's corpse was already lying off to the side.

Although he was dead, his poison was still slowly gnawing away at three players.

One life for three kills. That was a win!

The viewers of the livestream continued to laugh.

[Holy shit, he can even kill people after he dies?]

[That's the most disgusting thing about the Flower Dryad. You can kill her, but her poison will continue to eat away at you!]

[Who could possibly withstand five stacks of poison?]

[Flashing into the enemy ranks to take three kills for one death. Yangyang, you're awesome!]

CYC's jungler and top laner wanted to cry. They had originally wanted to hack Ye Shaoyang to death, but then Ye Shaoyang flashed into their ranks and took three kills in exchange for his one life. CYC's front line heroes struggled in a 2v2 stalemate for a long while, but their back line had already been wiped out.

The captain grit his teeth and finally ordered, "Retreat, retreat, retreat!"

In today's match, the word he'd said the most was definitely 'retreat'.

One commentator couldn't help but remark, "This one-for-three trade of lives has made CYC fall back from their offensive position!"

"That's right. Lieyang charged straight at them. He sacrificed his own life to poison three of the enemy heroes to death!"

"Even in death, he has to take three victims with him. Lieyang blew us all away with this show!"

After taking three kills, Ye Shaoyang easily took flight.

He respawned, then worked with Cheng Xing and Qu Jiang to take down the enemy's mid lane outer tower. Then he started planting his flowers around the enemy's jungle, like he was saying—

Your jungle is my backyard.

Ye Shaoyang demonstrated that fact with his actions.

CYC's jungle completely fell into Tianhuan's hands. The jungle was so full of narrow roads that a poisonous bunch of flowers, planted at any entrance or exit, could keep enemies at bay. If anyone dared cross those flowers, they would find themselves losing HP to poison with every step they took.

Tianhuan started to strengthen their advantage like crazy. Ye Shaoyang equipped himself with six godly pieces of gear before the twenty-minute mark of the game, and Chi Shuo also got four pieces of extremely high-defense gear for himself. Cheng Xing went where he was needed and spent the whole game pushing towers, so he had quite a lot of gold as well. In a late-game team fight, CYC wanted to find an opportunity to kill Ye Shaoyang, but with Chi Shuo protecting him, there were no opportunities to be found!

The two teams got into another team fight outside the grand dragon pit. Ye Shaoyang planted a new field of flowers in the blink of an eye. Those purple carnivorous plants surrounded the enemy, and Flower Dryad-jiejie's sultry voice rang out again—

"Here's a flower from me to you. No need to thank me~"

Yeah, right! As if they would thank you for that!

All five of CYC's players really felt like spitting up blood.

Their coach, watching the game from below the stage, was consumed by complex feelings.

By choosing the Blessed Light as their support, they had originally wanted to destroy Tianhuan's support/jungler combo. But in this round, Tianhuan didn't even try to run that combo to control their opponents. They were relying solely on their mid laner's flowers to stack poison on their enemies?

CYC's support couldn't cleanse poison, and their jungler and top laner couldn't hack Ye Shaoyang to death…

This was really going to be an infuriating loss!

The game ended after twenty minutes, and Ye Shaoyang once again took the title of MVP.

Chi Shuo had given him a lot of resources in the second game, but Tianhuan's jungler and support had been unable to work together to control the enemy heroes for him. Ye Shaoyang had instead relied on his own game sense and hand speed to plant a field of flowers and destroy the enemy team.

Those eight National #1 heroes?

That was only what he'd used to entice major teams to come knocking at his door.

In truth, after training with Tianhuan for three months, he'd already practiced with every single mid lane hero.

There was no way to ban them all. ^_^