Chapter 18: Showing Off Makes You Soar~

Commentary Booth.

The classic trio responsible for commentating the V5 versus FPX match consisted of the veteran Zhao Junri, a newcomer, and a third person affectionately dubbed “the waste,” who happened to be the EDG heir and self-proclaimed lolita fanboy. The newcomer was unknown and thus overlooked.

As the primary carry and main attacker, Zhao Junri immediately focused all his attention on Karsa the moment he stealthily approached with Xin Zhao.

“He’s coming!”

“V5’s first gank is initiated by Karsa, setting the pace on the top lane.”

“Throughout the entire De Cup, this seems to be V5’s first attempt at establishing tempo in the upper half of the map. Kennen has skillfully frozen the minion wave, but the river ward is still up, so Karsa’s direct river approach would be too obvious.”

“Wait! What is Karsa doing? He’s flashing straight into the dragon pit!?”

Not only the commentators but even the audience was stunned by Karsa’s decisive flash.

Over the team’s voice chat, Karsa marked Jayce and muttered, “Seize the opportunity! Don’t say your brother didn’t come to help with the gank. I even used my flash—pretty generous investment, right?”

“Generous? That’s damn generous!” Under the camera, Logic’s joy was unmistakable.

Tears welled up. Truly moved.

As a rookie, he understood why the coach hadn’t tailored tactics to favor his playtime—after all, professional matches require early dragon control.

But for a top laner, lacking the jungler’s early support makes survival exceedingly difficult.

On a lane where a single minion wave can decide dominance and one death might end the game, the jungler’s arrival is akin to divine intervention.

In four words:

Mechanical Godfall!

Karsa’s sudden descent terrified FPX’s top laner, XiaoLaoHu. Despite a ward in place, he never saw Xin Zhao slip into his jungle. How did Zhao appear behind enemy lines so silently?

The shock was akin to your facial recognition AI suddenly detecting someone beside you in an empty midnight room, but when you glance, there’s no one there.

Pure horror.

“What the hell is this!?”

He tried to retreat with Jayce.

But the top and jungle duo had kept him under tight surveillance. If he escaped, the jungler’s effort would be in vain.

Logic made no hesitation.

Holding the W’s passive, he instantly initiated—flash plus E crashing into Jayce’s face.

He showed no greed.

If Jayce pushed him away, E plus passive auto-attack with W would stack three marks, stunning the enemy to facilitate the gank.

If Jayce didn’t push him away and tried to flash out, Xin Zhao would combo a triple spear throw and, combined with Kennen’s passive stun, still secure the kill.

Seeing Kennen’s move, XiaoLaoHu was frozen, reason telling him flashing now was wasteful.

But as everyone knows, theory and practice rarely align.

What reason knows, the body's reflex often does not; otherwise, there would be fewer infamous flash fails in ranked and pro games.

“Whoosh—”

The flash was used.

Karsa’s lips twitched with a grin.

Instead of using W first, he closed distance with E to slow Jayce, then activated W. Together with Kennen’s follow-up, they piled on damage and killed Jayce.

V5’s Mebius secured the kill on FPX’s XiaoLaoHu.

First Blood!

The first blood was theirs.

“Wuhu~ Godfather! Karsa, you’re my godfather, love you~” Logic beamed with joy the moment he secured the kill.

Kennen versus Jayce.

Forced flash, sacrificed his head, pushed the wave under the tower—what a perfect start!

Having long been the sacrificial role, this was Logic’s first time experiencing the jungler’s affectionate care. Perhaps even XiaoLaoHu couldn’t imagine Karsa going to such lengths for a rookie top laner.

This wasn’t about defense or offense.

Normally, players avoid two types of ganks: those with instant start frames and those with long wind-ups.

Why not dodge? Because you either aren’t afraid or you simply can’t react in time.

A flash straight into the dragon pit bypassing vision, then flash plus E combo—who the hell can dodge that?

“This gank...”

“So decisive with two flashes, V5’s top laner plays damn steady.”

“Mebius is like this; anyone who’s watched tokusatsu knows when a light beam shines and you don’t use it immediately, it summons something formidable.”

“Tiga: Did you just say ‘light’? Ding!~”

The swift coordination between top and jungle reignited excitement among viewers. XiaoLaoHu’s flash fail had many laughing uncontrollably.

With Karsa’s jungle presence on the top side confirmed, down below—

LWX immediately commanded Hang to initiate an attack. Though the jungler was absent, the enemy wouldn’t know that. They seized the chance to bluff and strike.

Unfortunately...

Although XiaoYan was a semi-rookie in the LPL, his partner PPGOD was not.

The “half-zone principle” was triggered.

(Meaning if your jungler is in one area, the opposite lane must contract defense to avoid being ganked.)

No way around it.

Faced with V5’s sudden bottom lane contraction, FPX had to reluctantly accept the disadvantage. Meanwhile, Beichuan, spotting Karsa’s position, considered invading since Xin Zhao had already used flash and Beichuan himself was in the top half. Theoretically, he could counterattack.

However...

Mid lane Rookie’s dominance forced him to abandon that idea.

At this moment, Gori’s Akali was pinned under tower by Rookie.

It was Rookie, after all.

Against mid laners in the first tier, form matters, but against a second or third-tier player like Gori, Rookie simply crushed him without mercy.

The key was reach—long arms beat short arms.

“Don’t worry about the jungle; I’ll cover it.”

“Thanks, Old Song.”

The synergy between the veterans was smooth beyond comparison, unlike the rookies.

Elsewhere—

After securing first blood and pushing lane under tower with jungle support, Logic returned to base with boots, a magic power book, and a control ward.

Movement speed for kiting.

Ability power for damage.

Control ward to provide vision for teammates.

In his mind, he dismissed the idea of AD Kennen. To him, Kennen only deserved AP itemization to unleash his thunder. Building AD would be a waste. If he craved lane dominance, he might as well pick Kalista top.

FPX’s jungler Beichuan noticed Kennen’s build.

Just now, Karsa’s genius reverse thinking gank killed their Jayce. Now with the enemy top laner having experience and items advantage, he’d be more aggressive.

If Beichuan also used reverse thinking to attack top lane, he might turn things around.

What’s thought is done.

He cleared jungle camps fruitlessly but after his second recall, pushed top lane again to help XiaoLaoHu regain ground.

Yet, he miscalculated.

Despite his lane advantage, Logic maintained a conservative approach on top.

He froze the wave, played passively, and avoided risky minion trades.

It seemed as if the advantage belonged to the enemy, not him.

“This...?”

“Incredible, he knows exactly where his strength lies.”

In V5’s backstage lounge,

Though this wasn’t the first time witnessing it, Nofe and Zero were still stunned by Logic’s maturity.

Discipline!

He understood its importance.

Many believe a top laner should dominate the lane, relentlessly pushing and forcing advantages because TheShy played that way.

But anyone who’s played knows this style shackles the jungler.

If the jungler doesn’t watch top, one roam equals a death, squandering any lead.

If the jungler does watch top, your rhythm breaks and map control suffers. In this meta, bottom lane’s experience income is nerfed; if the enemy jungler roams mid twice, bottom is basically lost.

Of course, if you can solo kill or outplay 2v1 or 3v1, then ignore this.

Superheroes don’t play League; they rescue CN Dota instead.

The right top laner is one who holds steady when sacrificed and delivers when given advantage.

That’s a world-class top laner.

Logic’s wave management was a nightmare for Beichuan.

Top lane gave no opening; camps hadn’t respawned yet, so Beichuan wasted a trip, falling back to the same XP and gold level as Karsa’s Xin Zhao.

Others won twice, he lost twice—effectively down to zero.

Completely crushed.

“Is he really a rookie? How can he be this timid?” Beichuan muttered but could only admit defeat and retreat to the bottom jungle.

This back-and-forth left him inherently behind in tempo.

“If that’s true, then the rumors online about him being personally trained by Saint Gunner might be real,” XiaoLaoHu, the surfing expert, remarked.

“Huh? Online rumors can be true?”

“Occasionally, yes. Otherwise, it’s hard to explain how a rookie top laner can play so steadily.”

No matter how reluctant to admit it,

XiaoLaoHu had to face the fact that this rookie was a lychee: red on the outside, white beneath the skin, but with a black heart.

His playstyle was dirty—truly dirty.

FPX’s early jungle time was wasted, so naturally, V5’s top-mid-jungle trio enjoyed comfort.

Logic held a level lead, making counterplay irrelevant.

In terms of base stats, Kennen’s range was 550; Jayce’s cannon form only 500. Both had equal base movement speed, but Kennen had boots.

As the saying goes:

“An inch longer is an inch stronger.”

In combat, range is crucial, as is toughness.

Well,

I’m just rambling; size really matters more.

With longer range and better speed, as long as Kennen avoided Jayce’s EQ combo or a third-party interrupt, the lane was stable.

Top lane equilibrium equaled advantage, jungler relatively stronger, mid lane naturally dominant.

This trifecta was complete.

As the upper half’s advantage grew, Logic excitedly spoke in team chat:

“Chicken, do you think our lineup has a bit of that S8 Incheon IG trifecta vibe?”

Rookie paused, surveying the situation.

“Somewhat, but that trifecta was top, mid, and bot.”

“No worries, the meta’s changed. This is V5’s new-form trifecta.”

Then, in team chat, he shouted:

Logic: “Come on, let’s show them our V5 trifecta—I’ll be the head!”

Karsa: “Roger that! I’m second!”

Rookie: “Then… I guess I’m third.”

XiaoYan: “Wait, you three have the tridents. What am I? The trident handle?”

PPGOD: “If you’re the handle, I’ll support you; does that make me the handle’s hair?”

The bottom duo was instantly confused.

How did they end up as the trident handle and its hair just by laning together?

Behind the five players,

Several referees observing the match grimaced, barely containing their amusement. Trained by Fujii as professional esports referees, they were sworn not to laugh to avoid disturbing players—unless it was unbearable.

On the stage, every lane was nearly an advantage matchup, the perfect domain for a “screen-peeking” jungler like Karsa.

After confirming top lane’s discipline, he dove into the bottom lane.

With Xin Zhao’s protection, FPX dared not engage V5’s bottom lane recklessly, waiting for AKL to reach level six.

Under pressure from Miss Fortune and Rell, the enemy jungler was forced to show presence in the bottom lane.

To prevent minion sieges and turret dives.

Assassin junglers like Kha’Zix have high payoff but also high risk: lacking crowd control makes protecting their bottom lane difficult.

Their only choice was to show face and intimidate.

But as soon as he appeared, XiaoLaoHu at top suffered.

By the half-zone rule, if your jungler isn’t visible and you don’t know where he is, you play safe.

But both junglers were in the bottom half, and XiaoLaoHu had experience and item leads.

If you don’t bully me, what’s the point of playing top?

When he saw Kha’Zix already lurking bottom and Jayce daring to initiate with Q to poke him down, his killing intent soared.

“Aminos!”

“Jungler’s not here, and you still play so recklessly?”

“You really haven’t met the underworld!”

Again zero-frame initiation, E charged headfirst.

This time, aggressive Kennen scared XiaoLaoHu senseless.

Immediately switching to melee form to hammer him open.

But—

As mentioned before, their trades were simple.

If Jayce’s cannon shot missed, Kennen’s melee attacks always won.

However, Logic didn’t expect the opponent’s swift response.

Jayce’s instant switch to hammer form to knock him back meant without flash, even with ultimate, Logic couldn’t solo kill.

As for diving tower afterward?

Professional players aren’t fools.

With flash, you might get baited; without it, they’d control distance and skills to counter.

Still,

Just pushing the enemy under tower was enough.

As the wave approached the tower, Logic’s voice suddenly exploded in Rookie’s ear over team chat:

“Chicken.”

“I’m the damn liner!~”

Rookie: “???”