Chapter 93 (1)
The match between YQCB and Huawei was about to begin. Tong Yao looked at Ai Jia. He seemed quite relaxed and Li Huanshuo occasionally stretched his neck to look at the YQCB fan section from time to time. Tong Yao felt even more nervous than her best friend next to her-- --
Jinyang was still checking her WeChat chat groups.
My friend, can you be a little bit more focused? At this critical point, even Im nervous for Ai Jia...If he cant play this round well, youll be the one to take the blame since youre the center of this storm.
Tong Yao elbowed Jinyang. Jinyang shook a little from the nudge, but took her time to like one of her friends posts before looking up at the big screen: It hasnt started yet, has it? Ow, shit, why is this cameraman giving Ai Jia such a big close up? He's been so anxious the past two days, hes gotten a few pimples popping up on his forehead
Tong Yao: ......The ban & pick phase is starting.
Oh. Jinyang didnt have much of an expression on her face: I dont understand the game anyway.
Tong Yao: ......
A YQCB fan sitting next to them glanced at Jinyang, with a not so friendly expression-- --As if to say if you dont understand the game, why are you sitting here?......The first two rows of seats were usually reserved for the fans of a particular team, normally given out to fans and special guests of the team. The team had the right to decide who could get those fan tickets.
(Usually, a pro league ticket will cover all the matches in one day, but the designated fan tickets are only valid for a particular teams matches on that day. Once the team finished playing, those with fan tickets would have to leave the arena.)
Jinyang rolled her eyes: Im just a Platinum player, so what? Just because Im in a relationship with a professional player, I have to be Diamond to qualify? You think everyone is like Lu Sicheng whos only going to fall in love with someone that plays games better than him.
Tong Yao: Er. Even if youre in Diamond, you still cant play better than Lu Sicheng.
Jinyangs eyes almost rolled over to the back of her head and she turned her head to mouth to Tong Yao: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you rock.
Tong Yao giggled. People around them didnt know what their conversation was about, it looked like they were just chatting...On stage, they were halfway through the ban & pick phase. YQCB had picked Nidalee and Thresh. From the champions they picked, Tong Yao knew that for this match, YQCB was going to use their main strategy for this season: roaming.
-- --Normally, support would stick with ADC at bot. But if the teams communication was good enough, the ADC had enough skill and had good map sense, then support could leave bot and work together with the jungler and agiley roam around to gank, helping the other lanes pull ahead. This kind of strategy is called roaming.
Nowadays, YQCB had a world class ADC player, Pope Li Junhe. His skills at positioning and map awareness were at the top. It was a strategy most suitable for this team.
Just as Tong Yao had anticipated, from the very beginning of the match, YQCBs support, Liangsheng, was very aggressive-- --It was the total opposite from the overly conservative style he played during the spring competition.
There seemed to have a tiger presiding over YQCBs bot with a howling German shepherd at its side-- --By the eight minute mark Huaweis AD had placed himself a little bit ahead, Pope, who had reached level 6 ahead of everyone else, obtaining his ultimate, and took his time to signal to his teammates. Liangshengs Thresh instantly flashed in and hooked Huaweis AD!
The audience cried out. Huaweis AD obviously was surprised by the move as well. He couldnt react at all, at that instant he neither retreated nor attacked. In that moment of hesitation, YQCB killed him and drew first blood!
The audience roared as the game announced the kill!
YQCBs support could now leave bot. He went back after placing wards in the river brush, then he joined up with their teams jungler, Xbang. They went to mid lane but failed, then went to grab the red buff from Huawei. Afterwards, they went up to top lane, worked with top to rush the tower and gank Huaweis top, destroying the first turret on top lane-- --
Within a short three minutes, starting from Popes ping, YQCB successfully gained two kills and destroyed one turret back to back!
The audience was a bit restless by now. YQCBs fans were very excited. It was obvious that the team had been working and training hard to achieve this kind of coordination and performance.