Chapter 2: The Dark Forest Law of the Canyon

Top lane Smite Janna.

Runes: Glacial Augment, Stopwatch, Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight (for crowd control, survivability, sustainability, and cooldown reduction).
Secondary Runes: Zombie Ward, Relentless Hunter (for vision and mobility).
Passive: Movement speed.
Abilities: Crowd control, self-preservation, and supportive healing.
Build: Boots of Swiftness, either Moonstone Renewer or Shurelya's Battlesong, and Chemtech Putrifier (for Grievous Wounds). Usually, the game ends by this point anyway.

In short, prioritize the team above all else.

Looking back at the entirety of Season 12, this is easily one of the top three most disgusting, "shrimp-head" strategies of the year. It originated in the LCS, where it was played in three professional matches in a row, winning all of them perfectly. In those three games, the opposing junglers were, without exception, completely dismantled.

It wasn't until the influence grew that the LCK "stole" the strategy in January, and by February, it had slowly trickled down to the LPL. One could only say that at this point, the "Sharingan" pupil power of the Chinese server still hadn't managed to catch up to the Korean server. It made sense; even though the Sharingan is a Japanese invention, the Korean server has its own variant—the "Color-wheel Eye." It was only natural to fall behind.

"Brother, how are you planning to play this?"

Since the pick was already locked in, Luo Ji’s teammates could only choose to trust him for now. Of course, if he ended up throwing, according to the unwritten rules of the Chinese server, his family tree would surely be "taking flight." Especially when they realized this Janna was running Smite and had started with a support item, their anxiety only deepened.

"Don't worry, just start in the top half of the jungle normally. I'll help you leash with a Smite, then head to lane. After that, just clear downwards. Don't come top."

"This... alright then."

After coordinating the plan, Luo Ji glanced at both team compositions.

Blue Side: Darius (top), Shaco (jungle), Talon (mid), Draven + Alistar (bot).
Red Side: Janna (top), Kindred (jungle), Ahri (mid), Kai'Sa + Nautilus (bot).

Normally, he could consider invading to steal the Shaco’s camp at level one, but against a Shaco with boxes, the risk was too high. Better to stick to a standard start.

The moment the buff spawned, he dropped a casual Smite on it, then strolled leisurely back to the top lane.

In the early game, Luo Ji didn't go anywhere else. He stayed in the top lane, peacefully laning against Darius. Everyone is familiar with Darius; while rare in high-ELO, he is the "foundation hero" for countless top laners in lower ELOs, characterized by high error tolerance and adaptability.

What does high adaptability mean? It means high-level players can test the limits of Darius through spacing, while "cake-level" players can feel his lower limits through raw stats. That is the terrifying adaptability of this hero.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with Luo Ji. He quietly soaked up experience, occasionally firing off a Q, and was even quite indifferent about last-hitting. His passive, low-effort style made the entire livestream chat go wild.

[Is this what you call a strategy?]
[Picking a soft support to go top and AFK? Why not call the jungler to gank? With all that CC, Janna could definitely help the jungler kill the Darius.]
[Learned absolutely nothing. If this is a strategy, I could come up with hundreds of them in minutes.]
[Streamer, I'm a fitness enthusiast. I'm not a pro, and I've tried a few private trainers, but they weren't great. I just want to ask: what posture, what weight, and what equipment do I need to train my mouth to be as hard as yours?]

The chat began to boil over. However, this didn't cause the slightest fluctuation in Luo Ji's emotions. Strategies are like that: when you are one version ahead, people think you're brilliant; when you are ten versions ahead, people just think you're insane.

The moment he hit level three, despite a massive wave of minions being stockpiled by the Darius and threatening to crash into the tower, Luo Ji manipulated his Janna to recall on the spot.

Darius: ?
Recalling?
The Darius player thought for a moment, convinced this guy must be baiting him. You dare to recall with a wave like this about to hit the tower? If you recall, won't your experience be ruined?

Thinking this, the Darius didn't even harass him, just stood nearby, watching the channel time tick down. A few seconds later, the Janna vanished with a "whoosh."

Darius, ready to crash the wave: ???
Shaco, ready to help tower-dive with Darius: ???
No way. You actually left!?
What happened to all top laners loving their minions like their own children?

On the other side, the blue side's top and jungle were in a state of confusion. Meanwhile, the Janna, having finished her recall, purchased her core item—the 300-gold Boots of Speed.

"Watch closely," Luo Ji said. "Learn well. The essence of this strategy is to run away the moment you hit level three. We are handing over all the top lane resources to the opposing Darius. We'll deal with him once we're done elsewhere. For now, let the torture begin!"

***

After buying the boots, Luo Ji bought a Control Ward, swapped his trinket for a Sweeper, and pinged his own bottom lane. Seeing this, XLB’s professional jungler instincts immediately allowed him to guess the gist of the strategy.

Could this be... a variation of the Master Yi-Taric funneling strategy!?

On the blue side's bottom lane, the Alistar—serving as Draven’s support—had been looking for a chance to engage throughout the early laning phase. The reason was obvious: if this were any other AD, playing passively would be fine, but since he was supporting a Draven, if they didn't fight and get the Draven kills early, wouldn't picking Draven be a total waste?

Alistar had been patient. After all, the Kai'Sa and Nautilus combo was quite strong in its own right, and an impulsive engage might not win. But just as he thought this, the Nautilus seemed to make a positioning error; in his greed to proc his passive, he stepped too far forward into the open.

The opportunity had arrived!

After quickly pinging for an engage, he went for the decisive WQ combo!

"Bang!"

In the blink of an eye, the Nautilus was knocked up by the Alistar's combo. Behind him, the Draven was ready to follow up—but the next moment, from the brush, a strange, howling gale swept out, knocking the Alistar into the air.

Draven: ?
Wait, someone is actually blowing hot air (Alistar) into the sky?

The next moment, the red side’s jungler, Kindred, appeared in the river.
Draven was completely stunned. He had seen junglers gank bot at three and a half minutes before, but a top and jungle showing up to play mahjong in the bot lane at three and a half minutes? Didn't they change how Teleport works!?

Heaven knows how desperate the Alistar felt. He thought he was the hunter and the opponents were the prey, but as soon as he stepped in, people jumped out of nowhere to "immortal jump" (ambush) him. It turned out he was the prey all along!

The kill was perfectly secured by XLB.

[???]
[Press "1" to check the size of the blue Alistar's psychological trauma.]
[But this isn't worth it, right? Giving up such a huge wave of minions top just to gank bot like this—when he goes back, he's going to be so far behind.]
[Wait, is this Janna not going back at all?]

If, at the moment the Alistar died, many viewers still thought the Janna would return top, Luo Ji’s next move completely shattered their conventional thinking. He didn't go home. Instead, he continued to follow XLB into the blue side's bottom jungle. After a quick sweep revealed no one, he returned to the brush directly opposite the blue side's Krugs.

Then, he intercepted the Alistar again as he returned to lane.

Nautilus's hook, Janna's knock-up, Kindred's damage, plus the Kai'Sa's W from afar—the blue side's Alistar didn't even understand what was happening before he watched his screen turn gray for the second time.

Alistar: ?
What the hell is wrong with this Janna!?
Your top tower is being taken! That Darius has been soloing for two minutes! You don't even want your minions or your tower, you're just hard-camping me in the bot lane!?

In that moment, in his eyes, the Janna had become a total "dog-man."

After the Alistar died twice in a row, the four of them turned their attention to the trembling Draven under the tower. Given Draven's strength as an AD, a 1v1 or 2v2 was fine. With good mechanics, a 2v3 was manageable. But the problem was there were four people here! To put it bluntly, a person only has so many holes—how could he withstand that?

Soon, another kill notification rang out. In just over a minute, the blue side's bottom lane had died three times combined, while the Darius top had solo-farmed his way to level five.

And the Janna was still level three.

"Hmm?"
"This strategy of yours..."
Behind Luo Ji, Nofe had been watching for a while. He had heard Luo Ji mention a new strategy and came over to observe with a playful mindset, but what he saw actually opened his eyes.

"This is a 'fasting-suicide' playstyle, letting the top lane and the enemy bottom lane trade blows in a mutual destruction?" Nofe asked curiously.

"No, no, no," Luo Ji shook his head. "I prefer to call this—the Dark Forest Law."

What is the Dark Forest Law?
It means mindlessly wandering the bottom half of the map starting at level three, coordinating with the bot lane and the jungler to dive, invading the jungle with the support and jungler, and occasionally helping the mid lane push and gank. Even if the enemy bottom lane doesn't give an opening, you ensure they don't get a single drop of experience.

After a few waves, you're three or four levels ahead. In short, don't let the enemy bottom lane smell the minions. Whether you kill them or not doesn't matter; the point is to deny them farm while you and your jungler invade their jungle.

On this basis, the only "fat" person on the blue side is the top laner, while the red side develops across the entire bottom half. Even the red side's mid-laner doesn't dare to push too far, given that both the top-lane Janna and the support Nautilus are roaming. In the river, if you dare to cross, you dare to die!

With the first elemental dragon secured by the double Smite, Luo Ji upgraded his boots to Boots of Swiftness upon returning to base. Then, he headed straight back to the bottom half of the map.

Compared to the struggling, farming Darius in the top lane, this incredibly happy top-lane Janna seemed absurdly out of place. The viewers in the livestream could even put themselves in Darius’s shoes and guess what he was thinking.

In theory:
[Darius's perspective: Such frequent roaming, surely their experience will fall behind, and my mana can sustain for a while longer. I just need to wait for the right moment.]

In reality:
[Janna's perspective: Who needs laning experience anyway?]

Beside him, XLB hadn't stopped smiling since the game started. It was too satisfying! Usually, when playing Kindred, he had to calculate every single mark spawn, and if the enemy jungler tried to contest it, he had to beg his teammates like a grandson to come and help. Kindred was a hero who desperately needed marks or an item advantage to be effective. Most of the time, he felt like he had a significant, unbridgeable gap between his liquid assets and his goals.

In short: No money.

But this game?
The jungle camps never stopped, the kills never ended, and the enemy jungler? He was so terrified by the double-support setup that he didn't even dare enter his own bottom jungle. A Shaco at best has three stationary boxes, but a Kindred has three living, breathing teammates providing flexible support. How are you supposed to play against that? Even the lowest-level Janna had a kit full of self-preservation tools, making her the bane of assassins like Shaco.

The Shaco player was almost ready to start cursing.

Until now, while the viewers understood this playstyle, they still felt it couldn't be called "breathtaking." It was just mutual destruction, right? What was so amazing about that? The more you kill, the faster the bounty system kicks in. Once the blue side's bounties appeared, they could catch up on gold in one or two teamfights.

In this version, they had suffered enough from the bounty system and were full of resentment toward the mechanic. The viewers thought so, and Nofe thought so at first, as did the rest of Luo Ji's teammates.

But...
Three minutes passed, no bounty.
Five minutes passed, no bounty.
Eight minutes passed, and still no bounty.

During this time, Luo Ji had coordinated with his team to dive the enemy bot lane countless times. They followed the neutral objective spawn timers strictly, taking them whenever they were up, never hesitating because of the bounty system—but the bounty system simply didn't trigger!

By this point, some finally started to realize what was going on.

Behind him, Nofe took a few deep breaths. After the new version arrived, he had spent a lot of effort studying it, thinking he was at least ahead of other teams. But now? He didn't know if he was ahead of other teams, but he knew he had just been "thin-sliced" by his own player's understanding of the version!

"Wait!"
"Your strategy... it prevents the bounty mechanism from triggering for the opponent?" Nofe's expression changed completely.

"Exactly," Luo Ji nodded nonchalantly. "I don't take experience, I don't take gold, and I keep giving tower plating to the enemy top laner. It would be a miracle if the bounty system triggered."

"But your experience and levels..."

"I'm a Janna. What use do I have for that? Is there really a huge difference between a level 6 Janna and a level 18 Janna? Don't they both get blown up in one combo if caught? Don't they both use their abilities to protect the backline and support teammates' output?"

"!!!"

My god!
There's a genius on this team!