League of Legends: League of Unknowns

The way Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate eliminated his enemy could only be described with one word—Artistic.

A lot of people had bought tickets to the grand finals because of Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate. They had even purchased the chromatic mouse used by Yu Luocheng without a second thought.

Alas, just as they were anticipating another wonderful magic show by the Card Master, Team Dawn had immediately banned the hero in the first phase.

Though slightly frustrated, they were not too disappointed by the ban. After all, they could witness another wonderful performance by a different champion at his hands this time around.

Much to everyone’s surprise, however, Yu Luocheng was playing as a support.

This caused an uproar among the audiences. They sighed and cursed out of utter disappointment.

Support was the least coveted position in the history of LoL. The following conversations were often heard in a ranked match.

“Why are you running? Fight!”

“The opponents outnumber us! It is a 2 vs 3 situation!”

“F*ck! There are only two champs and one support. Support does not count!”

There was no doubt that most players had a tendency to neglect the support player.

Then again, putting too much emphasis on a support would usually lose you the game.

***

Regardless of how dissatisfied the crowd was, Yu Luocheng was indeed playing the position that was basically deemed useless other than placing wards.

The disappointment the crowd felt was clearly reflected in the host’s tone. He, too, had been looking forward to Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate, but he was not in a position to judge, so he explained vaguely, “Support is quite an important position. A lot of captains of the professional teams actually play this role. Usually, these players do not take away the farm from the core and still make a huge contribution. Let’s hope that Yu Luocheng can shine in the support role. After all, he is playing Lux—a champion that demands a lot of micro-maneuvering.”

In terms of team formation, let’s begin with Team Scarlet!

Top-lane Xiao Tongtong: Singed, the Mad Chemist;

Mid-lane Huang Yu: Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow;

Jungler Xiao Dao: Jarvan IV, the Exemplar of Demacia;

ADC Xue Haiyang: Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover;

Support Yu Luocheng: Luxanna Crownguard, the Lady of Luminosity.

“The team composition for Team Scarlet has a formation that is good at poking and initiating fights. It’s still too early to give their team strategy a thorough definition, however,” the host continued.

Team Dawn didn’t exactly select a formation that synergized well in a team fight either.

Top-lane Huang Xiangcao: Riven, the Exile;

Mid-lane Yang Ying: Fizz, the Tidal Trickster;

Jungler Lin Laowu: Volibear, the Thunder’s Roar;

ADC Tao Fang: Varus, the Arrow of Retribution;

Support Zhong He: Taric, the Gem Knight.

The host continued to comment on the team’s formation. “This team composition is a riddle to me. They seem to have picked the heroes randomly. But who knows, it could be pretty strong in a team fight.”

After the host had re-introduced both teams, the countdown came to an end and the champions from both sides were seen spawning from their respective Fountains.

***

Yu Luocheng’s Mastery was the AP Bonus. In terms of Runes, he had selected the Gold Income Rune for Quintessence (3 gold per 10 seconds), Armor Rune for Seal, Magic Penetration Rune for Mark, and Mana Regeneration Rune for Glyph.

His starting items were two Vision Wards and three Stealth Wards, a basic choice.

After he had purchased the items, Yu Luocheng was the first to exit the Fountain and head straight down the mid-lane.

Judging by the opponent’s team selection, with Taric’s stun and Volibear’s charge, it was quite likely that they were going for a team fight at level 1.

Team Scarlet’s Spawn was placed up at the Red Spawn (top right position of the map).

The first defense ward Yu Luocheng placed was at the cross junction between the river and the opponent’s Raptor camp. Not long after the ward had been placed, it soon revealed the opponent team’s Taric passing by.

Yu Luocheng was lightning quick in buying his items, for without the few seconds he saved from being the first to rush out from the Fountain, Yu Luocheng would not have dared to place a ward at such a dangerous position.

After setting down his protective ward, he immediately headed back to the bottom lane.

“Let’s see, this support from Team Scarlet is very professional. He first used Lux’s E-skill to expand his vision, and only then did he place the ward at the tribush of the bottom lane.”

Perhaps Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate had made such a big impact thus causing the camera to be unconsciously focused on him from time to time.

“Do take note of these two ward positions. There is a lot of careful consideration behind it. If you are spawning from the red side, then you only need to place a ward between the Raptor’s camp and the river, thereafter placing another ward at the tribush near bottom lane. This single action has fulfilled several objectives all at once.”

“Why did I say that? First of all, this ward can prevent the opponent from coming up to the Red side’s blue buff zone and initiating war as early as level 1.”

“Secondly, the ward would last for 180 seconds, which was basically three minutes. To a certain extent, the first ward that he placed in the cross junction would allow the mid-solo champion to farm safely as it could prevent the opponent jungler from ganking the mid-lane right after taking his red buff. A champion like Volibear was good at ganking as soon as he reached level 2. One mistake could cost the mid-lane champion to be first blood easily.”

“Moreover, if the opponent jungler had intended to gank the bottom lane through the river, Volibear would first have to pass through the juncture where the ward has been placed. If the mid and bottom heroes decided to sandwich him, then he might as well have gone for wool and come home shorn . ¹ ”

“Which brings us to the second ward at the bottom lane’s tribush. This completely seals off any possibility of the enemy jungler sneaking through their jungle to gank the bottom lane.”

“It’s safe to say that his ward placement has completely blocked off the two obligatory ganking routes. If the jungler had plans to make something happen at the bottom lane during the early phase, then I have only one thing to say, and that is NO WAY.”

The skill level of a support player could easily be seen by his warding choices.

There were not a lot of pro players among the audience and they were not especially fascinated by Yu Luocheng’s warding at first. But upon listening to the host’s explanation, everyone came to realize the brilliance of those two wards in protecting the red side’s bottom lane.

***

Team Dawn had attempted to infiltrate Team Scarlet’s jungle from the start but after patrolling the area and finding no one, they decided to retreat back to their red buff zone.

The first ninty seconds of the game passed peacefully. All players, except the junglers, were present on their respective lanes.

“Everyone, please pay attention to the mid-lane. Team Dawn’s Volibear has just appeared beside the ward. Indeed, he wanted to gank mid-lane right after taking down the red buff. Without the ward, Jayce would definitely have needed to surrender his Flash if he had been caught out of position.”

Volibear had been there for only three seconds when he realized that his cover must have been blown. He immediately walked back into his blue buff region to continue levelling.

Xiao Dao also saw Volibear but he was reluctant to fight him for the blue buff. Volibear was a very powerful champion during the early phase and it would be extremely unwise to invade the beast’s jungle now.

***

“The mid-laner is not the Twisted Fate from the previous game,” Laowu conversed with Yang Ying as he secured the blue buff.

“I think my sister is the snitch. Hehe. How wise of him to play as the support instead… However, why Lux? He is asking for some, and he will definitely get some,” Yang Ying said complacently.

During their solo battle, Yang Ying had been using Fizz while Yu Luocheng had used Lux. In the end, Yang Ying had managed to kill him at level 3. Now in the official match, they were once again using the same heroes they had used in their solo battle.

This time however, Yu Luocheng was a support, which posed little to no threat toward Yang Ying’s mid-lane Fizz. Worse yet, Lux might even become Fizz’s ATM for the rest of the game!