Chapter 1: S12’s Most Shameless Top-Lane Strategy

That night.

The traffic following the conclusion of the Demacia Cup hit an unprecedented new high.

Normally, a mere Demacia Cup is just a snack-sized tournament that wouldn't stir up much of a frenzy among esports fans, even if it were a Cinderella story of an underdog team like V5 pulling off an upset.

But the point was this.

After the Demacia Cup ended, V5's "Hero Mic" footage was released.

And the moment it dropped, it went so viral that its view count shattered the records of the actual tournament matches, climbing toward a million and beyond.

Among the highlights...

"I was wrong! I was wrong! I was... wait, what was I wrong about? What did I do wrong? I wasn't wrong!"

"Come on, let's form the V5 trident—I'll be the head!"

"Watch closely, this is the supreme technique of the top lane!—Daddy, come here!"

"Since 'Daddy, come here' isn't enough, then... Mommy, come here too!!!"

When the Hero Mic video inadvertently reached its end, the moment that crisp, firm "Mommy, come here too" popped out, almost every esports fan watching in different locations couldn't hold it in and spat out their dinner.

What a "tasty" performance!

This rookie was just way too damn talented!

[Is this top laner salvaged from FPX?]

[No, where did V5 find such a clown? Does he really not burst out laughing while playing in a tournament?]

[He looks like a pretty boy, but he speaks like a crosstalk comedian. V5 really struck gold; this rookie is going to be a star.]

[That damn esports comedian—does anyone have a raw audio clip of just his mic? I need to critique it first; I'll give my conclusion after I've finished judging.]

He was hot!

Absolutely viral!

The combination of his handsome looks, the contrast of his crosstalk-style comms, his eye-catching performance at the Demacia Cup, and his outrageous ID allowed Luo Ji to make his presence known to countless esports fans in just one tournament. Don't think that's easy.

There are so many players in the LPL.

Some have had legendary moments and served as starters for years, yet later on, fans can't even match their faces to their IDs.

Take Zika, for example; it took a long time and some great performances for fans to finally associate his face with his ID. Look at Bin—before he broke out through sheer skill, his way of gaining fame was even more ridiculous; it was by accidentally sharing a voting video from a "no-fap" group. And Luo Ji?

He relied on crosstalk...

It was just, in every sense, very strange.

Of course.

Luo Ji didn't know he was famous yet. After leaving the arena, the group headed straight for the hot pot restaurant they had booked with the TES players.

Since they had won the championship, they were entitled to some relaxation.

Even construction workers know that life requires a balance of work and rest—if they can work on a site all day and night, these esports players on their off-season certainly wouldn't be kept on too tight a leash by the club.

Of course, they wouldn't be too relaxed either.

After all, in this day and age:

If an emperor is wild, it's called "a dragon playing with a phoenix." If a noble is wild, it's called "stealing fragrance and jade." If a rich heir is wild, it's called "chasing flowers and seeking willows." If an intellectual is wild, it's called "entangling with flowers and grasses." But if regular guys are wild, it's called a violation of Article 66 of the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, punishable by up to 5 days of detention or a fine of up to 500 yuan.

Over dinner.

Not only did Luo Ji successfully get the contact information for every TES player, but the two teams also ironed out the details for future practice matches.

But as they chatted.

Rookie and JKL disappeared.

It can only be said that the bond between the Invictus Gaming veterans is like this: it's fine if they don't meet, but the moment they do, it's as if they've automatically fallen for the "Happy to stay in Shu" trap card, and it even comes with a built-in success effect.

"Should we not worry about them?"

"No need. Old Song and Jackey just haven't seen each other in a long time. You know how it is—when people from the same team meet, the winner always has to gloat a bit to the loser. Otherwise, what was the point of winning?"

Karsa said with a calm expression.

"This... it's just that simple?" Xiao Yan's eyes widened, looking somewhat incredulous.

"What else? Are they going to sit around singing 'Brothers Forever' in private?"

But as soon as he said that, the "big brother" image that Rookie had painstakingly built up in everyone's minds shattered completely.

Hearing this.

Luo Ji, his mouth twitching, also opened his phone. But after struggling for a long time, he still didn't dare send the message. He really wanted to share the celebration, but knowing the person on the other end, he feared that the moment he finished bragging, the other person would just reply with, "What have you won?"

So the question arises.

How many Demacia Cup titles does it take to synthesize one World Championship?

Just as he was about to give up.

*Beep, beep, beep~*

The familiar notification sound rang out.

This time, the text contained only four simple words:

[Not bad.]

...

The S12 patch.

The entire Summoner's Rift underwent a massive reshuffle with this update.

The elemental drakes added the Chemtech Drake (later referred to as the "Resurrection Dragon," with an effect similar to Sion's passive) and the Hextech Drake (later referred to as the "Electric Dragon," with an effect of lightning chains that slow).

Mythic items added the Crown of the Shattered Queen, the core item for the new "Tiger" set.

Runes were updated: First Strike, Lethal Tempo, and Glacial Augment were added.

Teleport was changed: Before 14 minutes, you could only teleport to defensive towers, putting an end to the possibility of ten-man skirmishes in the bot lane with four teleports in the early game.

And the most beastly thing of all: Objective Bounties.

Many players who are still playing might have gotten used to this by now, but the current bounty system is different from when it first came out. Simply put, it has an irregular trigger interval and a built-in cooldown.

That is to say:

Sometimes your team falls behind, but because of the built-in cooldown, the objective bounty is still on the opponent's side.

And this thing gives so much gold that if you trade neutral resources for it, you'll lose your shirt. In a winning position, if you lose one team fight and the opponent takes the objective bounty, they can take back all the advantages you've worked hard to build over ten minutes in one go.

Nofe had been studying the patch for many days.

He knew the patch wouldn't be this simple, and he realized the designers didn't like their logic being figured out, but he was still searching for the answer.

Under intense contemplation.

The electrical charges in his head began to spin wildly.

Most of the knowledge in this world was hidden in his mind, and those things surged uncontrollably with the flow of his thoughts.

Finally.

He had an epiphany!

He looked up, a relieved and confident smile on his face, and concluded:

"It's all bullsh*t."

With the corners of his mouth turned up, in this bizarre and outlandish patch, he finally handed in a zero-score exam paper!

Yes.

A scene like this didn't just happen at V5; it occurred in the team meeting rooms of every LPL squad.

Countless coaches, assistant coaches, and even data analysts entered the famous "subway, old man, mobile phone" meme state after the new patch dropped.

The only thing they could understand.

Was based on the rework of the Scuttle Crab, realizing that the designers didn't want everyone to play a macro game, but rather to fight more.

"It's really a version for bayonet combat now."

"What do you mean?"

"With us being a mix of old and new, won't we get crushed in the new season?"

Compared to the others' hesitation.

Karsa was all smiles after reading the patch notes.

Although the S12 changes were a mess, the word "tempo" was written between every line, which happened to be in his comfort zone.

"I don't think it's that big of a problem."

Luo Ji stroked his chin and offered his own perspective:

"Even though we're starting late, we're progressing fast. Even though our current combat power is questionable, we have a huge room for improvement in the future!"

"At worst, we'll let them run 99 meters first, and then we'll slowly pull out our 100-meter long blade."

Hearing this.

PPGOD suddenly asked with some confusion:

"But what if we die before we pull it out?"

"Then we're dead."

The rest of V5: ...

The new S12 patch left most LPL players in a state of confusion, including Luo Ji. Even though he had played the S12 patch in his past life, once it came to the specific details...

Who the hell remembers things from years ago?

However, having said that.

The massive changes in the patch also allowed him to sniff out an opportunity.

Although he had forgotten most of the details, he could still recall some of the most disgusting, game-breaking playstyles when he saw the corresponding patch and champions.

Thinking of this.

Unable to suppress his desire, Luo Ji hurriedly opened his livestream after the meeting, and this time, he even called the substitute player, XLB, to join him.

You still couldn't duo queue above Master in S12.

But to test out a strategy, finding two Diamond accounts was no problem.

[Hmm! Look what I've found???]

[Streaming in the middle of the night? You're a cow, streamer. One of you and the fans has to die, right?]

[Just asking, is this the livestream of the Esports Crosstalk Comedian?]

[What about the preseason? You developed the 5A-tier Mordekaiser before, is there an even simpler "visiting the grave" strategy for the new patch?]

Looking at the scrolling chat in the livestream room.

Luo Ji, having called his good buddy, logged onto his alt account and began to interact with the scrolling messages:

"Don't rush."

"I mean, brothers, don't rush."

"There is a strategy. I've already thought of a super brain-dead one, but I have to make this clear: you can learn it, but after you learn it, you can't tell people you learned it from my stream. We strictly follow the rules of the underworld; if you get into trouble, you can't sell out your master."

As soon as these words were spoken.

The entire stream exploded!

Based on the "5A-tier Mordekaiser" success, the veteran fans knew something new was coming, while the new fans who came because of the Demacia Cup were totally baffled.

And that was normal.

After all, so many years had passed.

The "research and development ability" of LPL players was ranked at the bottom of all regions.

Note that this refers to the professional players' R&D ability, not the LPL server's players. If you compare the R&D ability of the player base, no server could beat the Chinese server, which has nearly half of the world's ARAM players.

But as for the professional players' R&D...

For so many years, the only one who made a name for himself was Able, who was known as the "Canyon Inventor."

But now, Luo Ji was preparing to steal his thunder.

Don't ask.

If you ask, it means the Canyon must have its own "Patch Plagiarist."

"Brother, how should I coordinate with you?" XLB asked, somewhat excited.

He really had discovered Luo Ji's value.

With other players, eight out of ten would cut ties with subs or second-team players once they became famous. In regions like Europe and North America, starters would never play practice matches with their second teams to protect their starting positions.

Why?

Because if they lose, their secrets are exposed, and their high-paying, easy jobs would be gone.

But after the Demacia Cup, the currently infinitely popular Luo Ji was still willing to pull XLB into a livestream. This was, damn it, a benefactor!

"Why call me 'Brother'? You're older than me; I should be calling you 'Brother'."

"That won't do. We don't subscribe to that senior-junior system like the Koreans. I genuinely want to call you 'Brother'."

Seeing XLB's strong insistence.

Luo Ji was silent for a moment and said:

"How about this? I'm playing top, you call me 'Top Daddy.' Since you're older than me, I'll still call you 'Dragon Brother'."

"Of course, if you want, we can make it simpler."

"I'll keep calling you 'Brother,' and you change it to call me 'Daddy'."

"Let's just use our own titles."

XLB: ???

Livestream chat: ???

Facing the wall of question marks in the chat, Luo Ji finally clicked into ranked with XLB.

Since it was still the preseason patch, all the new changes and EDG's championship victory led to a long-awaited wave of returning players. The wait time wasn't long, and a new ranked game started.

In this game.

Luo Ji and XLB were on the Red side.

Of course, the side didn't really matter. He just told XLB to pick Kindred, and after showing off his match history, he told his teammates to pick champions with wave clear, and then waited calmly for his turn to pick, while once again exhorting:

"Let me reiterate!"

"You can learn this strategy, and you can play it, but when you go out there, don't say you learned it from me. Let's make a pact—whoever breaks it will grow taste buds on the end of their colon!"

[What a ruthless man!]

[Damn, what are you going to teach us? Why be so mysterious?]

[It's only the preseason patch, everyone is still testing items and runes; what strategy could there be? I think it's pure bullsh*t.]

[Whatever, I'm signing up, let's go brothers~]

Seeing the various "1"s scrolling across the chat, Luo Ji finally picked his true top laner in the last few seconds.

"Yes, for just 998, I can make you feel so good you can't breathe."

Janna – The Storm's Fury.

Lock in successful!

The moment the champion was locked, let alone the livestream, even the other three teammates in the game typed "???" in the chat.

What does this mean?

Looking at the match history posted earlier, they thought a "Big Bear" was coming.

With this Janna pick.

Are you, by any chance, the "Gummy Bear" himself?

"Brother?"

XLB was also stunned.

If he had picked any normal champion in the top lane, with Luo Ji's macro perspective and his own operations, the two of them could easily crush the top side of this Diamond game.

But this Janna?

How does Janna work with Kindred? Does he really expect to get a thrill for 998?

"Don't worry, you just need to believe and follow my lead. Do you think I'd scam you out of your ranked points?"

Feeling XLB's anxiety, Luo Ji waved his hand casually.

Others might not know.

But how could he not know this strategy? Among all the League players who played in the early S12 patch, who hasn't been disgusted by this unremarkable support champion?

This was even a strategy that could be called insane.

Full name:

Top Lane Smite Janna.