League of Legends: League of Unknowns

To excel at League of Legends is not merely a matter of individual players pulling off plays of blinding brilliance, nor is it about sitting pretty in your own lane, promising your team that you’ll definitely win your lane.

So what if you win your lane? If your equipment doesn’t complement your team’s strategy, whatever you gained in the early game will be lost in the mid to late game.

Those who fail to understand this are likely to never rise above 1,600 LP, while blaming their teammates for their lack of success. Even if their individual skill might be on par with players at the 2,000 LP tier, what’s measured in the end is their value to the team overall.

Remember: Ultimately, victory in this game depends upon breaking through the enemy’s defenses to demolish their Nexus!

In the pursuit of this goal, no matter how many times you’ve been Aced, no matter how many times your corpse has adorned the scenery, no matter how flamboyantly your enemies may dance about beneath their towers… nothing else will matter in the end!

Seize victory, at any cost!

***

Leaving aside for now Vayne’s overpowering late-game dominance in single combat, although Luocheng had fallen short of the mark in his duel against Shallow Dream, he wasn’t going to throw a hissy tantrum over that.

If anything, this had stoked the dying embers of his competitive spirit!

His opponent had proven superior to him in terms of individual skill, yet he continued to weigh heavily upon the balance of power in this game. Didn’t that suggest he might have some advantage in terms of teamwork?

***

Once again, both teams were on the verge of another team fight. This time, it was for the sake of defending their second-tier tower in the Middle Lane.

Making use of a large wave of their minions, Shallow Dream’s blue team was pushing hard up the lane. With minion waves advancing on multiple fronts, they were applying tremendous pressure upon the red team!

As the situation was coming to a standstill, the enemy Lee Sin made a misstep ¹ , and red team’s Jarvan immediately seized upon it!

Since Lee Sin had just used his ‘Safeguard’ skill, if they could lock him down here, it was probable his life would be ended then and there. Between Ryze, Riven, and Ezreal, there was no shortage of burst damage at their disposal!

Lee Sin’s blunder caused the fires of war to surge anew!

Runic spells, magical chords, energy bolts, living vines, and an enchanted clockwork Ball… skills raged across the battlefield, ordered within the chaos, precise and calculated!

Ten champions met once again in another titanic clash, the earth thundering beneath their feet, while their battle cries shook the heavens!

Ezreal stood amidst the battlefield, his gaze piercing through all the smoke and explosions, to where Vayne was similarly watching from behind the rest of her team.

Luocheng recalled that the last time he’d met a pinnacle-tier opponent like this was during his final year of high school, back when he was still playing Ranked games alongside Snowfall, and they happened to meet Asmodai.

At the time, Asmodai had undeniably awakened Luocheng’s thirst for victory—but that had been nothing compared to this!

It felt like his pounding heart was spewing gouts of flame, his boiling blood like liquid fire in his veins!

No one would understand just how deeply Yu Luocheng loved games, to the point that he could feel it in every beat of his own heart!

It was like this too for all the most passionate gamers. They spent their days blending in with the rest of society, aimless and unfeeling, more dead than alive… but when their heart was set to racing like this, it reminded them of what it felt like to be alive!

Come! Let’s fight with all we’ve got, until death!

It had been a long time since he’d cared so much about winning a match. He yearned to know that feeling once more, after winning a game like this—to feel like he’d proven the worth of his existence!

***

In a typical team-fighting formation, the ADC should remain in the back, out of harm’s way, while still being able to deal out their damage.

But Luocheng knew that Vayne did not have to be constrained by these standard conventions. She had a knack for prevailing in combat in spite of terrible injuries.

Ezreal had his own means to excel, too. It was the trump card which had so far allowed him to remain undefeated with Ezreal in the Ionia server!

And it was time to play that card. Observe!

***

As soon as the fighting had begun, Shen and Lee Sin had been ardently searching for Ezreal. As front-liners, their primary duty was to disable the enemy APC and ADC.

Shen’s main role in a team fight was to absorb enemy fire. Since Lee Sin was occupying Ryze’s attention, Shen moved in to engage Ezreal!

After being kited to death by him previously, Shen had been stocking up on armor: a Sunfire Cape, a Randuin’s Omen, and one more Chain Vest. Now Shen was so tanky that any ADC besides Vayne would be clawing the walls in frustration . ¹

Shen advanced through all the commotion to reach the enemy’s rear line. He seemed to be thinking something along the lines of, ‘I’m wearing chain mail, plate armor, a cloak… I’ve even put on a pair of long johns. Let’s see what that damned Ezreal can do to me now! Beat me, scratch me, throw everything you’ve got at me—I’ve made up my mind to render you completely irrelevant in this battle!’

And yet… where had Ezreal gone off to?

Had he gone off to farm, instead of joining the team fight?

That couldn’t be… he’d clearly seen him poking at them earlier. There was no way he’d go missing now that the team fight was in full swing. Knowing how skilled this Ezreal player was, it was impossible that he’d make such a noob mistake!

Weathering a non-stop barrage of skills, he pushed deep into the enemy’s ranks, but Ezreal really wasn’t there, in the back!

“Argh!” A cry of agony rang out from the far side of the battle! Shen whipped around to look, and was shocked to find that Orianna had fallen apart in a heap of mechanical parts, her life force mysteriously snuffed out!

They’d lost Orianna? How had this happened?

Riven and Jarvan were still busy trying to take down Lee Sin. Ryze was maneuvering to flank Vayne. Who else among their enemies could possibly have struck down Orianna where she hid at the back of their formation?

Just then, a dashing figure with blonde hair darted past Orianna’s wreck, one hand glowing with a frosty blue aura! It was the prey he’d been hunting for, Ezreal!

Shen’s eyes were close to popping out of his eye sockets!

You’re an ADC, you should be attacking from behind the protection of your allies! What in blazes are you doing over there? Who in hell plays ADC this way?

Shen was veritably frothing at the mouth!

He’d put on his finest armor. He’d been working out. All for the sake of getting Ezreal’s attention—but the moment this team fight started, Ezreal had immediately disappeared off to goodness-knows-where, and the next time he showed up, he’d done something unspeakable to poor Orianna!

Ezreal had gotten himself an Infinity Edge, and he had Muramana active, so he could dish out an obscene amount of damage in a hurry. Orianna had first been Slowed down by the effect of his Iceborn Gauntlet, and then Jarvan had tossed her salad with an EQ-combo. Basically, the Lady of Clockwork had taken a licking, and then stopped ticking.

Orianna was the Mid-lane APC, as essential to them as their ADC champion. For her to be slain right at the start of the team fight meant that it could well be their turn to get Aced, this time!

Whereas Luocheng typically played Vayne by dancing upon death’s doorstep, he played Ezreal as an assassin ADC on the battlefield!

By employing Ezreal’s agility, he would slink out of sight when a team fight began, and look for the perfect moment to pounce upon the enemy APC or ADC!

When an APC or ADC was busy doing their thing, their concentration was typically focused entirely on the team fight itself. If a burst-damage ADC suddenly jumped in out of nowhere, it was hard to react in any adequate fashion before they found themselves biting the dust!

Playing like this was extremely risky. When Luocheng first started practicing to fight this way, he’d even dropped from 2,000 LP all the way down to 1,500 LP. After screwing up countless games, he’d finally formulated a genuinely viable modus operandi!

Inspecting how both teams were doing, paying particular attention to the health and armor of the APC, gauging the enemy’s skill cooldowns, checking whether they still had Flash available…

And then, once a mana-based Ezreal with Muramana has also picked up Infinity Edge, that’s when they have the highest odds of pulling off a successful assassination! It was thanks to this unique play-style that Luocheng’s Ezreal had a 100% winning rate in Ranked play on the Ionia server!

Not by accident, and certainly not by luck—it was a success born from countless failures!

***

Without the slightest warning, Luocheng had slipped up to Orianna and taken her out. Behind him, Xiao Bei and Lin Dong stared in amazement. They’d never known that Ezreal could be played this way!

This had caused them to think back to the 5v5 team fight at six minutes, down in the Bottom lane, when Luocheng’s Ezreal had slipped behind the enemy unnoticed and killed off a wounded Sona, while at the same time cutting off Vayne’s escape!

Meanwhile, this sneak attack in the middle of a frenzied battle was some advanced-level stuff! Ask yourself how many ADC champions you feel would be able to pull off something similar—it could only be Ezreal, the most mobile of ADCs!

***

“Kill Ezreal! We can’t miss this chance to kill Ezreal!”

In the wake of Orianna’s sudden demise, the blue team was at a loss for a moment, but then they realized that Ezreal was now right beside them—and easily within striking distance!

Vayne went into her ulti without hesitation, vanishing from sight as she dove across the ground, abandoning her attacks on Jarvan to go after Ezreal instead!

Lee Sin had also noticed this beautiful opportunity. He threw down a ward and dashed over to it, closing the distance rapidly ! ¹

“Hah!” Lee Sin threw out a Sonic Wave, but Ezreal deftly side-stepped it!

A frost-wreathed Mystic Bolt flew out from Ezreal’s fingertip, hitting Vayne. The icy mist spread out all around her, Slowing down both her as well as Lee Sin . ¹

He’d gotten the kill he’d come for. Luocheng wasted no time getting out of there. If Vayne and Lee Sin really had such a hankering for him, they were welcome to follow after!

With his mana-focused build on Ezreal, never mind the two of them, the whole enemy team could come after him if they liked. He could kite them all day long, drag them all the way across the map!