Chapter 6: The Word file is quite large, could you please take a look?

Commentary Box.

As someone who had been keeping a close eye on the top lane, Miller naturally spotted the arrival of the WE jungler, Nidalee, the moment it happened. In truth, Nidalee was already a bit late.

A quick note here: in the early versions of S12, junglers could save time by "kiting" the jungle camps. For a high-level Nidalee player, if they had put in the practice, the efficiency of a solo blue-side start would typically allow them to hit level four at around 3:03. Proficiency might shave off a few seconds, but not much more.

View had chosen to hit level four, recall to update his items, and then hover toward the top lane. An item upgrade meant a boost in damage, which was intended to minimize the chance of failing the dive and being counter-killed while coordinating with Renekton.

However... when he finally arrived at the top lane just as Renekton had stacked a wave and was preparing to dive, View’s mouth twitched involuntarily as he looked at the health bar above Tahm Kench’s head.

This? With nearly four-fifths of his health left, could they really secure the kill?

"His health bar?"

"I tried my best! You have no idea how disgusting this thing is. If your positioning is even slightly off, he’ll lick you for a full combo. The most brain-dead part is that this piece of trash has a thick shield while his healing is also insane."

Honestly, this was the umpteenth time Biubiu had wanted to start cussing. It wasn't as if he hadn't encountered this champion in ranked before, but a Tahm Kench played by a random player and one played by a professional were two completely different things—whether in terms of wave management or the timing of ability usage, they weren't on the same level.

Especially since... no normal professional player wasted their time studying Top Tahm Kench. He knew the abilities, but he wasn't familiar with the numbers; he only had a vague concept of them.

Feeling the opponents' intent to dive, Luo Ji curled the corner of his mouth. He didn't bother with any fancy high-stakes maneuvers; instead, he proactively stepped slightly toward Renekton, baiting the Nidalee who was cutting off his retreat path closer to the tower.

Then... the moment the enemy minion wave entered the tower and Renekton landed a basic attack on him:

W - Abyssal Dive.

He didn't use it to knock them up in place; he used it to displace backward. Luo Ji wasn't Katarina, and he generally didn't like making proactive choices. In a sense, he preferred being passive. This W had no hidden meaning; it was just a getaway move aimed at the furthest point back. But the moment this ability was cast, Biubiu had to make a choice.

Because—Tahm Kench’s W can only be interrupted by crowd control!

Either you burn your empowered Renekton W on me, and then we gamble on this "death roulette" where I pop my white shield and we bet on whether the tower kills you guys or you kill me. Or, you don't use the empowered W, you let me walk away, and you wait for the next wave to dive—which, of course, would likely result in the same situation, purely wasting Nidalee’s time.

Here it comes!

This was the mysterious curse of the S9 Champion Support: "If I don't have a sword in my hand, I cannot protect you; if I hold the sword forever, I cannot embrace you."

This scene made Biubiu’s scalp tingle. Rationally speaking, this was just a "let’s see if there’s a chance" play, as they hadn't expected to run into a Tahm Kench when they picked this composition. But since they had already picked it, and they were already here, they had to try, right?

So... W - Ruthless Predator!

The empowered W snapped shut, forcibly controlling the Tahm Kench that was about to W away. Seeing his top laner commit, View acted with extreme decisiveness; after his Q landed, he flipped into cougar form, pouncing to dish out a massive burst of damage.

High, indeed. It was certainly high damage.

But when Tahm Kench finally emerged from the crowd control and popped his E shield, both Biubiu and View were instantly dumbfounded by the thickness of that shield.

E - Thick Skin: Converts 45%/50%/55%/60%/65% of damage taken into grey health. 30%-100% of that is converted into actual health (no enemy cap). The active effect consumes the stored grey health to create a shield.

Level one: 45%.

To put it bluntly, in the current S14 version, Tahm Kench’s W only stores 15%, and it requires the presence of two enemies to reach 42%—which is why Tahm Kench is currently bound to the support role in the bot lane.

Even so, the current Tahm Kench’s numbers were nowhere near the version in the book. After finally whittling down his health, a single shield had just created a white bar nearly half the size of his total HP. How the hell were they supposed to fight this!?

"Wind’s picking up, abort!"

"The target is too thorny, break, retreat, sell, run!"

"I’m out of here!"

As the one who had taken the initial tower aggro, Biubiu’s Renekton didn't hesitate for a second after seeing that absurd, unbreakable white shield; he used his second E dash to retreat. He had to—if he didn't, he could take one more shot, but that would force him to burn his Flash. He wasn't willing to do that.

That was the advantage of Renekton. When he wanted to be serious, he could transform into a prehistoric giant crocodile. When he didn't, the two dashes of his E plus the healing from his Q were enough for him to flop around like a salted fish. So, he ran without hesitation.

But the problem was...

"You piece of trash, you ran! What about me? What am I supposed to do!?"

Watching Renekton’s retreating back, View’s heart went cold. The defensive tower switched its target, and what was more lethal was that the enemy Tahm Kench had started licking him instead.

Although the "salted fish" was tasty, the "leopard print" was definitely more capable of stirring a man's desires.

Q - Tongue Lash.

A Q ability landed point-blank, successfully slowing Nidalee. Because of his earlier positioning toward Renekton, both Nidalee and Tahm Kench were now on the inner side of the defensive tower. From this spot, a simple Flash wouldn't get him out; he had to walk a few more steps.

A two-second slow was applied to Nidalee. Then... came the advanced version of the 5A combo—the "Stutter-Step" combo! The principle was simple: weave basic attacks between movement, and movement between basic attacks. It was slightly difficult to master, and anything below Silver rank didn't need to learn it.

"Slurp~"

"Slurp~" (x2)

By the time Nidalee finally reached the distance to Flash out of the tower range, Luo Ji didn't rush to follow with his own Flash. His white shield had already vanished over time. The good news was that Nidalee and Renekton had chosen to exit the tower from two different directions; Nidalee took the path she came from—the enemy jungle.

Here is the key point.

At this moment, Luo Ji’s Tahm Kench was at low health, with only a three-digit HP total. Nidalee had slightly more, but if she took one more tower shot, she would enter the opponent's execute range. If it were any other hero, failing the dive would have been the end of it. But View couldn't let it go.

Nidalee’s melee-form Q dealt more damage the lower the target’s health was, and View—a benchwarmer who had finally seized a chance—was desperate.

There’s a chance!

Nidalee’s melee and ranged forms had a three-second transformation cooldown. Without knowing where the enemy jungler was, the nervous but greedy View didn't immediately shift back to ranged form to heal himself. He waited, waiting for his ability cooldowns.

Then... the moment his abilities were back up, he decisively used his W to counter-attack!

This pounce brought him back into the tower’s range. He knew Tahm Kench still had Flash, but it didn't matter. With Tahm Kench’s health, even if he managed to Flash away from the pounce, as long as he followed up with his cougar-form E and Q, or at worst switched to human form for a basic attack, the kill should be a sure thing!

"Whoosh!"

Flash.

Sure enough, the moment Nidalee landed, there was no succulent flesh of a Tahm Kench beneath him. However, the spot where Tahm Kench flashed wasn't far away. In that moment when both sides were filled with murderous intent, it was a gamble on mechanics and courage.

"Slurp~"

As Tahm Kench proactively closed the distance to land a basic attack, Nidalee unleashed her E followed by her Q.

I can’t have calculated this wrong. View admitted that this play involved gambling, but as a "bench-god" who had finally grabbed a starting opportunity, if he didn't gamble when there was a chance, would he only regret it once he was back on the bench?

With this health... I won this trade!

The moment the E swung and the Q followed, the experience of a thousand games as Nidalee made him certain that this Q would take down the Tahm Kench.

However.

At that critical moment, another layer of white shield bloomed on Tahm Kench. If it were a professional support, they would clearly know the cooldowns of Tahm Kench’s abilities and would know that his E only had a short three-second cooldown—the same as Nidalee’s form-swap.

But unfortunately, View was not a professional support; he was a professional jungler.

"Wh... white shield!?"

View’s eyes widened instantly. Although it was only a thin layer, that pathetic bit of white shield blocked the Q damage that would have been fatal to Tahm Kench.

"Slurp~"

Another basic attack landed, followed by an immediate retreat. This movement put him out of range of the melee-form Nidalee’s basic attacks. View panicked and hurriedly switched back to ranged form, trying to land a basic attack.

But... the tower’s shot arrived just in time.

V5 Mebius killed WE View.

First Blood!

[Huh???]

[Are you Zhou Tai? How are you not dead?]

[Deserving of being a five-cost unit, truly powerful.]

[Now you know, this is the charm of a stat-monster, unlike that sewer-tier humorous dart-thrower.]

The other four members of V5 were stunned. It wasn't like they hadn't seen him play Tahm Kench, but the opponent was a Renekton-Nidalee combo! How could he possibly counter-kill them?

PPGOD was baffled and hurriedly asked in the team voice chat:

"Dream, what’s going on in the top lane?"

"Oh, the deceased, Nidalee, attempted suicide. Fortunately, the Tower-Dad and I acted in time to execute the deceased and prevent her suicide."

PPGOD was stunned, about to retort, when Xiao Yan suddenly asked:

"And the reason for the suicide?"

"Hasn't spoken yet."

"Continue the interrogation."

The other three members of V5: ???

While the three members of V5 were pondering how two once-in-a-century geniuses could suddenly appear on their own team, the WE team voice chat had completely exploded.

In fact, there shouldn't have been a kill in that play. Since the dive failed, they should have just waited for the next opportunity. Biubiu had intended to pull back and figure it out later. But he had overlooked one thing: the thoughts of a substitute player are not the same as those of a starter. He was too impatient.

Of course, beyond that, he was also lamenting the absurdity of the opponent’s top-lane pick. Tahm Kench was a champion that completely countered their composition. Playing Renekton and Nidalee meant they had to dive; diving meant they had to use their W to lock someone down; using their W meant they couldn't break the shield; not breaking the shield meant they couldn't dive; not being able to dive meant Renekton and Nidalee were useless. And to be useful, they had to dive, so they had to use their W.

See? It all just went in circles.

"My bad." View felt heavy.

His eagerness to perform had become his biggest weakness in this game. He had calmed down now, but what was the use of late-coming composure?

"It’s okay, just play steady. Since he didn't succeed once, there won't be many opportunities later. See if you can set the tempo in other lanes." Biubiu sighed silently.

Even though it was the jungler who threw, he still had to be the one to comfort him. Look at this mess. At this moment, he missed the original jungler, Beishang, who was currently quarantined in a room. All he could say was that "stand-in literature" could never replace the "white moonlight" deep in his heart.

Right, Jiang Nan?

With the First Blood gold in his pocket, Luo Ji’s successful recall announced that he was officially rich. When playing against Renekton, there was no need to overthink it: mindless Plated Steelcaps + Warden's Mail was the way to go. If he wanted to be extravagant, he could add a Warden's Mail, though even without it, the first two were what mattered.

Although he didn't have enough for both, he could afford the Warden's Mail and boots. When he returned to lane, Biubiu just gave a habitual glance at Tahm Kench’s equipment, and with just that one look, he completely abandoned the idea of seriously trading with Luo Ji.

Aftermath + Doran’s + Warden's Mail?

He remembered the Demacia Cup vlog he had seen a while ago. How did he remember the rookie in that vlog playing Aatrox, winning 1vX fights, and even getting a Penta? Looking at the one in front of him now... he could only say that the current Biubiu gave that vlog a high rating of 5.7, because he had 1.5 units of language ability, the vlog creator had 1.6, and he actually believed it after watching it, which made him look like a 1.2. It was a complete farce.

When the Renekton-Nidalee system was forced to split up due to the failed dive, the top lane entered a rare period of peace. There was no other way. Renekton had no way to deal with a full-tank Tahm Kench, and likewise, Tahm Kench had no temper against a mechanic-and-stat monster like Renekton.

So, when the viewers watching from the "God's eye view" looked at the big screen, they would find that in the top lane, the two top laners were carefree, watching the clouds roll and the flowers bloom, with a remarkably harmonious atmosphere for farming.

In the bot lane, ever since Nidalee left, the other eight players had been beating each other’s brains out in the bottom river; the kill notifications were like a ticker tape, never stopping.

It wasn't until nearly eight minutes in that someone in the team chat finally started calling for the top laners. For WE, even though the top-side dive failed once, they were still Renekton and Nidalee—there was no reason not to contest the Rift Herald. For V5, their bot-lane duo were Miss Fortune and Zoe, two major powerhouses; why would they avoid the edge? It made no sense.

Both sides quickly began to assemble.

Among them, Xiao Yan had started greeting Luo Ji in the top lane quite early. He knew that the Leona support was essentially "no support"; once a team fight started, this Leona might charge in faster than the jungler. So, as a stationary AD Carry without a support, he had to find a new "thigh" to protect him.

In this world, was there anything with more protective capability and a greater sense of security than Tahm Kench’s ultimate?

None at all.

"Big brother, my little life depends on you. You must protect your little brother in the upcoming fight, protect your little brother!"

"No problem." Luo Ji agreed confidently: "If there’s danger later, just run toward me. Of course, you can also wait until I’ve killed everyone on the opposite side, and you can come out when it’s safe."

"Mm."

"My (tongue) is huge this game, just bear with it!"

"???"