League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“I’m guessing Captain Yu will pick Teemo Support!!”

“Teemo your a*s, you think a pro-player like him has yet to reach level thirty like you?” A man seated beside the elementary school student said as he patted his head.

With Luocheng’s various different champions in the LPL matches, a wonderful trend of picking various unusual types of champions as Support had started up in the country which was simply unsightly.

This was one of the reasons many people held some hatred in their bones toward Luocheng.

Can you imagine, it was already hard to reach the final game in the promotional games, just one more game and you could reach Platinum already. Fifth floor had begged for the Support position and you had a good feeling about this game, but then suddenly, the fifth floor picked Anivia!

Holding out some sliver of hope that the fifth floor was some big-shot, turned out that this phoenix was beaten to the ground into an ostrich instead, really, what a terrible game.

In short, the world simply shouldn’t go around trying to imitate a godlike player!

Luocheng’s champion pick had once again become the hot topic of discussion among everyone, some people were even saying that even if the captain of Team Skycrown were to simply play, he would still be able to turn the tides.

This was plainly just exaggerating Luocheng…

***

“Boss, what tactic are we using this round?” Wu Sen glanced at Luocheng and asked.

“Moving castle.” Luocheng replied.

Once he mentioned the moving castle strategy, everyone quickly understood. The champion that Wu Sen had picked was Lulu!

Lulu was a champion that could be picked first as she didn’t have any naturally outstanding restraining skills and CC. If you wanted to talk about restraining and CC skills, Morgana would be said to be one of the best ones to pick.

The problem was, Morgana had already been banned in one of the first few bans during the banning phase.

Morgana was a champion that Luocheng wouldn’t release into the rift because she was a difficult champion to deal with, adding on Kha’Zix who could easily jump into the middle of all of them and clean up once she had unleashed her ulti. Xie Yi was also overly familiar with this champion and he could easily coordinate with Tinghua…

Since Morgana was out of the options, Lulu was a more golden existence as compared to an Orianna at the middle lane.

After the second floor had picked Lulu, the next champion selected for Team Skycrown was Pantheon.

As soon as Pantheon appeared in the lineup, Team Skycrown had successfully confused everyone yet again.

A Jungler Pantheon had always existed, but by the end of last season, it was so rare to see it, and even less in professional leagues.

This time, for Zhou Yan to give up on his Elise and choose a Jungler like Pantheon, there had to be another motive here!

“Maybe Lone Gull will be playing Pantheon at the top lane!? I’ve always liked Pantheon, always killing the top lane when he’s on the opposition, but dying like a dog when it’s your own teammate, always making me lose.” A guy wearing a hat among the crowd commented.

“Idiot, Pantheon is not a champion that’s suitable to be played in the top lane. That’s because even if he’s strong, it’s only until before he hits Level 6. A player who knows how to use Pantheon will be able to pick up the pace during the mid-game, otherwise, Pantheon will be basically useless then, unable to keep up with those Top who can farm and scale better.”

Pantheon was indeed suitable to be used in the top lane for ranked games, but not for professional matches. Hence, for Team Skycrown to pick Pantheon, it must be for Jungler!

The lineup for Team Skycrown had basically been determined.

Sivir for ADC, Panthen for Jungler, Lulu for Mid…

Why hadn’t anyone suspected that Lulu was a champion chosen for Support?

Ah, what nonsense, who had ever seen Captain Yu use such a passive Support before? However, it couldn’t be denied that Lulu was also a Support that could be used in many maneuvers.

The last two picks would be the Top and Support.

After the first three champions were chosen, the latter two basically had no other choice.

Da Luo saw that the opponent had chosen Rengar, and he decided on Shyvana without hesitation.

His choice didn’t really surprise many, after all, Dr. Mundo had been banned and Rengar had been taken. The remaining choices would be Renekton, Trundle, or Shyvana. Overall, Shyvana had a better synchronization with Team Skycrown’s purpose.

The last to pick, was of course Luocheng.

Normally, teams would place their Support on the first or second pick. This was because picking a Support like Taric or Leona didn’t cause much of a restriction.

Team Skycrown was not like that, however, and Luocheng’s picks were forever a mystery.

“Ohh!!!”

When the fifth pick lit up, the entire arena was sent into a frenzy!

Previously when Tinghua had picked Kha’Zix, the same kind of boiling atmosphere had appeared.

“What will our esteemed captain choose? I’m sure it will definitely blind all of us once again!”

Finally, the champion’s avatar appeared!

The deep yellow color of the face appeared, a metalic head!

The Great Steam Golem—Blitzcrank!

In ranked games, Blitzcrank was definitely a mainstream Support. However, with more and more AP champions joining the ranks of Support, Blitzcrank was not very suitable for the professional leagues nowadays.

Moreover, if this champion couldn’t hook the target, he was just a little better than being a minion. His role in a disadvantageous situation was limited, because even if he could hook anyone, it wasn’t for sure that they would be able to win against the opponent!

Luocheng was not taking the mainstream path as usual, picking such an old-school champion in a professional match!

Did he really want to win with one hook?

“I’m not sure if this counts as a mainstream Support anymore, and I must admit that there were many other champions for Support that have flashed through my mind. Didn’t expect our esteemed captain to actually let us see Blitzcrank today…”

“Blitzcrank is actually a very simple champion that uses his Q-skill to grab things. Only, what’s the difference with using Blitzcrank in a pro game compared to a ranked game?”

***

The opposite side’s lineup had also been determined, and Luocheng’s pick on Blitzcrank had left them unprepared.

If it was anyone else using Blitzcrank, Team Sky would have snorted because they were experienced players who would definitely not get hooked by a Blitzcrank.

But what if the player using Blitzcrank was someone who had gotten 100 kills on them before?

“They should be doing normal lanes.” Tinghua said.

If the plan was to swap lanes and do the fast-push routine, the Support chosen would have to be Taric, Lulu, or Zyra. Champions who could bring down the health of the turrets, choosing a melee champion like Blitzcrank, it would definitely be normal laning.

Jupiter and Guan Langjie nodded their heads. If it was normal laning, they wouldn’t need to be so concerned about Blitzcrank. Their Support was a Leona after all, let’s see how you can hook this!

“Alright, in just a little while, we’ll be able to see the rift on screen!”

The four thousand audience members became silent after a while.

From a seat on the second floor, a man stood at the railings, the multicolor lights reflecting off his balding head as he watched the big screen.

“Hmph, what stubbornness. You really think our team will lose to you?” Xu Pingyang smirked.

Pingyang had made Team Sky, and he was clearly aware that Team Sky was the strongest.

For last year’s disgrace, Pingyang would pay it back double. He didn’t want just victory for his club, but he also wanted to completely shatter this team, to let them know that opposing Xu Pingyang was basically looking for death.

 As long as Team Sky won one match, they would be the champion for this year. Taking the head secretary position in ACE was equivalent to managing all the professional players and teams. Wouldn’t the money just keep rolling in in the future?

Thinking about how the entire gaming and e-sports industry would soon be in his grasp, Pingyang couldn’t help but hum a tune.

Xu Pingyang was not worried about the tense atmosphere for the competition, because no matter what the outcome was, everything would be according to his plans…

***

As the game was displayed on the screen, the camera angle was pointed at Team Skycrown’s side. More interesting was that Luocheng was given a big special display of himself on the big screen.

He was using the Boom Boom Blitzcrank skin, the silver robot wearing a pair of deep red boxing gloves that made him look extra powerful!

Buying their items, they left the base.

It seemed that Luocheng’s playstyle had never been the same as everyone else. The first skill he added was not the usual Q-skill, but his W-skill—Overdrive!

With Overdrive activated, Blitzcrank ran faster than most of any other champions, and this guy took the lead, running straight into the opponent’s jungle area…

Placing a 180-second ward, Luocheng’s Blitzcrank then quickly returned to his position across the river.

This kind of warding was actually a bet on time.

Betting that the opponent would be slightly slower, allowing them to place a ward before they reached their positions so that they could have a read on their opponent’s movements.

Most of the professional players nowadays would stand in a more scattered position, and so, placing a ward at the entrance of the jungle area would allow you to see one champion’s position.

“Team Sky has obviously not noticed the small action that our esteemed captain has done.”

“Yeah, but under normal circumstances, who would expect a Blitzcrank to use Overdrive and fly there to place a ward. This should be last season’s tactics.”

“No, there wasn’t any Blitzcrank that added its W-skill first in the last season. If this was a normal amatuer game, I’m sure their teammates would have asked to surrender at 20 already.”

You still dared to ask, when you saw a Blitzcrank that didn’t up its Q-skill first, how would you feel?

However, adding a Q-skill for Blitzcrank at Level 1, was it really useful? At least, in professional games, the players would be standing scattered around at the beginning and there wouldn’t be much chances for a hook to land.

The two commentators were quite absorbed in this small action taken by Blitzcrank because the captain of Team Skycrown was known to play this game very differently as compared to others. This led to everyone looking at the game in countless different angles, and he had proven time and time again that these simple actions that he took were extremely effective and purposeful, because this ward had coincidentally caught the movement of Team Sky’s Mid and ADC.

“They guessed that we were going to the lanes like normal.” Lin Dong said.

“Yeah, I picked Blitzcrank, so they deduced that the probability of swapping lanes was extremely unlikely.” Luocheng smiled lightly.

As soon as the game had started, Luocheng had already been calculating his moves.

That’s right, Team Sky really was as stupid as Luocheng had anticipated!