Chapter 13 ♫The big windmill spins round and round♫

"Akshan and Zeri?"
"Has V5's speed at practicing new champions become this fast?"
At the caster desk.
Little伞 and Yutong exchanged glances.
As official casters, they actually maintained relatively close contact with various clubs, frequently visiting for interviews and filming vlogs, so they had some idea of the current tier-list meta picks.
However...
Although a little over a month had passed from Patch 12.2's release to today's match, strategies didn't emerge on the very first day of a patch update; rather, they were gradually developed over time.
From development to going viral, and then to various teams starting to practice them, having half a month was considered a luxury.
And that was assuming teams could manage to practice other patch champions simultaneously.
Based on this, for V5 to dare to pull these picks out in an official match so quickly meant their champion-pool expansion speed was absurdly fast.

[Here it comes, here it comes, Teacher Meng's build masterclass.]
[Build guides for Akshan have already been released in videos, right? It's either Shieldbow or Stridebreaker, but I'm really curious about this Zeri.]
[That's right, it's Zeri. Since Teacher Meng can arm himself as a genius of item builds, why can't he arm his teammates too?]
[Holy crap, it actually seems like it!?]

Zeri was a champion whose evaluations were polarized due to her terrifying skill ceiling and the inability of players with slow hands to touch her floor. Furthermore, depending on the build, the damage output varied wildly, and up until now, there had never been a universally accepted build path.
But now, the Professional Bro had arrived!
With the Professional Bro here, the League was at peace!
The Professional Bro was here, the clear skies had returned!

"True enough, he manages to whip out something new every single round of matches."
Over at WBG.
Huanfeng subconsciously complained.
Of course, he actually wanted to see what V5's understanding of Zeri really was. This bug-tier champion was being practiced by every team, but daring to actually pick her...
Well, let's just say everyone's progress was still pretty mediocre.

Soon, the match began.
In this game.
Luo Ji didn't even consider Stridebreaker in his build. Stridebreaker was a playstyle for light bruisers to counter frontline divers, but in this game, as a counter-pick to Graves, he had one absolute priority: safe wave clearance.
Top lane matchups.
A large part of active agency is built upon the foundation of wave control.
Whether it was Quiver combined with the passive for full double-target damage on minions, or the sustain from Vampiric Scepter, both were vastly superior to building Stridebreaker, given that both champions were marksmen.
Getting a free auto-attack on the opponent was definitely superior to a trade where the enemy lost 200 health while you lost 160.
Mhm.
Having said all that, the core principle was actually just one: this champion had to be picked as a counter.
Once picked blindly first.
The enemy only needed to pull out a Irelia—as mentioned in earlier chapters—to bully him from level three all the way to level eighteen, with every single death coming in a brand-new, unique style.

At the start, standing in the red-side triangular brush, Luo Ji only began pushing the top lane wave once he confirmed the enemy had no intention of invading. The same went for The Shy.
Trading as a ranged champion differed from trading as a melee champion, especially since both top-laners here were an embarrassment to ADCs, practically devoid of any ADC soul.
Whoever hit level two first would hold the advantage of initiating a trade.
At this point.
The advantage of Akshan's ability cooldowns manifested.
His level-one Q ability had a cooldown a full five seconds shorter than Graves's E, and it possessed minion-piercing capabilities to boot.
This meant.
With no outside help, Graves was forced to rely on a reactive E just to reach level two.
An opportunity!
The exact moment he secured level two, the E ability [Heroic Swing] was decisively released, latching onto the wall.
Under the influence of the spatial maneuvering gear, Luo Ji's Akshan swung in circles while shamelessly pulling out firearms and going *gaka-gaka* rat-tat-tat.
My lord, the times have changed!
People of the past used cold steel to make men cold; people of the present used hot lead to make men hot (with burning steel). Although he had an inkling of it coming, The Shy had nowhere to hide against Akshan's sudden level-two spike.
Of course, he could have retreated cowardly before Akshan hit level two, or pulled back decisively right now to preserve his life, trading health for survival.
But...
Would that still be The Shy, the top-laner who would rather be ganked to death than yield an inch?
Facing the Akshan descending from the sky, he simply responded with an immediate auto-attack, a sidestep, and the moment his Q cooldown ended, he adjusted his position in an attempt to hit both Akshan and the furthest low-health melee minion simultaneously.
Regrettably.
Luo Ji did not afford him that opportunity.
The enemy Graves's intentions were as clear as day. If he could actually get hit by that Q, The Shy would be this guy (giving a thumbs-up).
Naturally.
If he missed the Q and still let the enemy Graves escape, then Luo Ji would be this guy (giving a thumbs-down).

Along with the demise of the distant melee minion, Graves successfully reached level two as well.
However...
This Graves was already showing signs of losing the trade.
Having frequently bullied Akshan with Kalista in solo queue, The Shy clearly understood that after missing his Q, he no longer possessed the confidence to guarantee a victory in this trade.
As the countered party, Graves already struggled against Akshan in the early game, yet given The Shy's personality, retreating was simply not an option he would consider.
Was there still a chance?
Subconsciously, the moment he spotted the brush closest to his own turret, he executed a decisive E slide directly into it, intending to abuse the brush to break the enemy's vision.
The very instant he stepped into the brush.
A control ward appeared with striking abruptness right where he had landed.
Giving the opponent no quarter.
Similarly.
Not intending to leave himself any way out either, Luo Ji stutter-stepped while continuously closing the distance to Graves.
When narrow roads meet, the brave prevail!
Neither player had burned their Flash.
In this situation, it was painfully obvious: whoever flinched would have to flash, and whoever flashed would lose the rhythm.

Luo Ji had never encountered a player like this in a professional match—a player completely unconcerned with the broader game state, someone who went *all-in* without hesitation the moment an action was initiated, possessing a terrifyingly pure offensive instinct.
Yet!
The opposing The Shy also used his actions to convey a single truth: a true master must possess a confident mindset.
Not waiting for a skill to land before realizing an opportunity existed, but launching an attack without hesitation the moment the slightest possibility arose.
Both players' health bars were plummeting in tandem, and both chugged their health pots at the exact same time.
Until.
*Snap.*
When Graves's final bullet jammed during the reload, needing just one more auto-attack to take down Akshan.
Right before his eyes.
Akshan's next auto-attack landed square in his face.
So close!
Just a hair's breadth!
In the end, the health bar above Luo Ji's head was left in the double digits.
If that Q ability hadn't been used by the opponent to clear minions and hit level two, this trade would have ended in his own demise.
But.
None of that mattered.
Because.
——I won.
V5 Mebius killed WBG The Shy.
First blood secured!

[Ohhhhhh~]
[Solo-killing The Shy! Mebius can brag about this play for a whole year!]
[That shouldn't have happened though. How on earth does a Graves dare to fist-fight an Akshan in the early levels? That's way too irrational!]
[A game of inches. If he hit the Q, he hits level two; since he missed the Q, he couldn't reach level two. To put it bluntly, Luo Ji went in far too decisively this time, and The Shy's positioning was way off.]

The early first blood in the top lane.
Left the teammates in all other lanes completely bewildered.
"No way, it hasn't even been three minutes!"
Karsa was dumbfounded.
His original plan was to power-farm to level three, head top, and coordinate with Akshan to potentially tower-dive the enemy top-laner. After all, Graves certainly couldn't beat Akshan early on, and wave control should naturally belong to Akshan.
The problem was...
How did you finish the job all by yourself?
"I don't know either," Luo Ji replied after a moment of hesitation. "He handed me the opportunity on a silver platter, I couldn't just *not* take it. My champion is only good at bullying people in the early levels anyway."
"I somehow feel like you've gone bad," Karsa said after a brief silence.
"No way, it's absolutely impossible for me to go bad. Trust me, because I was always bad to begin with."
"..."

With the kill secured.
There was no need to hesitate on the recall; he directly upgraded to a Vampiric Scepter to sustain in lane.
Solo-killing the opponent once in the early game was already a confluence of favorable timing, geographical advantage, and harmonious human conditions. For the rest of the lane phase, unless the enemy jungler came to help or the opponent handed over another gift, it would mostly be a path of steady, peaceful farming.
That being the case.
Was there anything more cost-effective than this item?
Nothing.
Luo Ji knew very well in his heart.
His Q ability often had to be used for wave clearance and couldn't be completely dedicated to poking the enemy Graves. At times like this, slowly chipping away at the enemy's health with basic attacks was actually a solid strategy for trading.
Meanwhile.
In the bot lane.
Xiaoyan and PPGOD were also defying WBG's expectations.
Zeri's Q range was simply too long.
On release, Zeri's Q range was 850 units, placing her archetype almost overlapping with Ezreal's—she could play safe just as well, yet scale harder than Ezreal in the late game.
While her true range wasn't strictly 850 units (since distance was calculated from the center of models while attack ranges were measured from the edge), what could this range actually achieve?
It meant that at the distance Caitlyn could auto-attack Zeri, Zeri could also land a Q on Caitlyn.
That was terrifying.
It wasn't so bad when Zeri players lacked proficiency, but once proficiency went up, the visual spectacle was astounding.
Huanfeng originally thought that with his long-ranged pick against a short-ranged one, he would fiercely school the opponent in the art of spacing during the lane phase.
Only to find out through a series of spacing exchanges...
That the enemy's effective range didn't seem much shorter than his own.
Wait, no!
Are you motherfuckers actually proficient at this champion?!
Huanfeng suddenly felt a headache coming on. Although Zeri's Q wasn't point-and-click and played out like Ezreal's Q, relying on probability to hit.
The key issue was.
The enemy was running a pressure-absorbent setup; they no longer needed to step forward dangerously to contest last hits, simply picking them off from afar with Qs.
This meant that if their bot lane wanted to open up an advantage or even grab tower plating, their support *had* to find an engage opportunity.
But ON...
You couldn't say he didn't know how to engage, nor could you say he lacked talent. The only thing you could confirm was that ON's performance in Season 12 was genuinely unhinged.
Either playing overly reckless, as if he had match-fixing money riding on it.
Or playing cowardly, resembling a film by Hayao Miyazaki: *How Do You Crawl Your Life Out?*
And to top it all off.
Their jungler was someone who prioritized his own early-game scaling far above his teammates' advantages.
That made things tricky.
Top lane secured first blood and an advantage, while bot lane absorbed pressure with absolute grace—did that mean the mid-jungle duo suddenly got to live the good life?
Karsa was a jungler who struggled in losing games, but conversely, in winning positions, he was immensely powerful. Though the top lane had already successfully killed the opponent once,
Ask yourself honestly.
Was once really enough, right?
Anyone with common sense knew.
The first time only brings pain, the second time breeds fascination, and by the third time, true addiction sets in. Since the zero-breakthrough had already been achieved, they naturally had to expand and snowball the advantage.
Just like the saying goes:
Authors don't stop writing just because they lack inspiration, much like streetwalkers don't skip shifts just because they lack libido, and likewise, a jungler cannot abandon ganks simply because there are no opportunities.
None?
Just manufacture the opportunity!

"Meng, get ready to dive."
"Huh?"
Having returned to lane, Luo Ji relied on his item advantage to slightly chip down The Shy's health, but Graves still sat comfortably at around 75% health.
This?
Was this genuinely safe?
"Don't worry, worst case I die. But if I don't die, the enemy game blows wide open."
"Sounds about right. Let's do it!"
Capital states:
For 100% profit, capital is willing to trample all human laws; with 300% profit, it commits any crime, risking even the gallows.
Now, in a match guaranteeing 100% pure profit.
Why the hell wouldn't they charge?!
Driven by Karsa's proactive jungle invasion and pathing to cut off the escape route, The Shy, who had been waiting for the minion wave under his turret, merely raised his head.
Before his eyes.
Stood two burly men, front and back, eyeing him with predatory intent.
"Let's go, Karsa-bro."
"I just petitioned Lord Guan Yu; if he dodges every single slash coming his way, his peaches are too big."
"Charge!"
Without even waiting for the minion wave to enter turret range, Karsa—fully aware of the ticking clock—piloted his Xin Zhao and instantly unleashed an active E-charge to slow the Graves.
The Shy's reaction was lightning fast.
Throwing down a smoke grenade, using EQ-auto against the wall to cross-flash, and even flashing to evade subsequent damage.
However...
E [Heroic Swing]
As Akshan's E ability began latching onto the turret to orbit in circles, the familiar lyrics echoed in V5's voice comms:
*The big windmill spins squeakily around,*
*The scenery here is truly so fine...*
Accompanied by the circular spinning output of the Q ability plus the landing auto-attack combo, combined with Xin Zhao's damage and turret aggro absorption.
Ultimately.
WBG The Shy killed V5 Karsa.
V5 Mebius killed WBG The Shy.
Simultaneously with the transfer of the buff.
The passive of W [Going Rogue] triggered!
One second ago, Karsa's Xin Zhao had fallen into a gray screen beneath the enemy turret; the next second, he muttered "believe in Brother Chun and gain eternal life" in his own fountain before respawning on the spot.
Rapid recall spell.
Plan executed!

[LMAO, you get what's coming to you!]
[What's going on with The Shy lately? Why does he run into lane issues every single game after the Spring Split started?]
[Karsa's radar literally sniffed out the scent.]
[Sofm is here too! Can Sofm keep Akshan? Wait, Sofm?!]
The exact next moment, as the livestream chat noticed Sofm successfully appearing in the jungle and looking poised to collapse on them.
On screen.
Sofm didn't even spare Akshan a glance, instead turning around to begin managing the top lane minion wave.
Not clearing it completely.
Instead, thinning out the leading minions while freezing the wave so it wouldn't crash into the turret.
Eccentric as his playstyle was, Sofm wasn't detached from reality. Chasing down Akshan didn't guarantee a kill, but if he ignored this minion wave, The Shy's top lane would be entirely blown to smithereens.
He just couldn't quite understand.
Clearly, with The Shy joining WBG and replacing Bin, the top lane should have been a massive upgrade.
So why...
Did The Shy's performance in the early Spring Split give off a strong déjà vu of trading Anthony Davis for Luka Dončić, or Neymar transferring to Paris Saint-Germain?
Was it just an illusion?