League of Legends: League of Unknowns

After the match, Yu Luocheng left the arena with a thoughtful look on his face.

A call came in, and Zhang Aijing’s voice was heard, “Luocheng? Do you have some time?”

“Yeah,” said Yu Luocheng, nodding his head.

Later that evening, Zhang Aijing took Yu Luocheng for a drink at a place not too far from the competition venue. She was holding her notebook and didn’t beat around the bush, opening it to show Yu Luocheng a particular page.

Slightly suspicious, he didn’t say anything and just looked at her.

“This is the data from the match Blood Eagle played earlier,” she said, pointing at different sections of the page as she spoke, “This is the KDA, gold, and his total damage. And this is the control he had over the jungle area.”

Yu Luocheng studied the numbers seriously. Blood Eagle had the highest kills in his team, as well as the highest gold, and his total damage was second only to Gragas…

The stats were incredibly perfect. In a regular competition, a Junger was almost like a second Support. The later the game, the weaker the role actually got. The fact that Zhao Tinghua was able to be an existence his enemies needed to fear was really terrifying.

“Do you remember my previous allocation of points for Zhao Tinghua?” asked Zhang Aijing, her voice solemn.

Her expression was serious, with no hint of the playfulness she usually had when dealing with Yu Luocheng. Normally, she would joke or tease him a little, and sometimes talk about things unrelated to LOL. But tonight, she was completely different. From the moment she opened her notebook, she spoke of nothing but the match that took place earlier that day.

Both Yu Luocheng and Zhang Aijing were clearly aware that there was only one reason behind Team 71’s loss.

Zhao Tinghua was just too strong!

Compared to Xiao Xiong, Team 71’s Jungler, Zhao Tinghua was on a completely different level. However, Xiao Xiong’s overall ability was almost at 21 points. Adding on the years of experience he had of participating in big competitions, there was no reason for him to crash and burn so badly!

“It’s not like his teammates purposely gave him the kills or farm, the rest of the lanes were doing their normal things. The only one who stood out was probably their Mid, Xie Yi. But you should remember that in the LPL last year, the threat in Team Sky was Xie Yi, and his Mid capabilities were really something…

“This year, Xie Yi’s performance was completely following Zhao Tinghua’s pace. The ganks at the lanes, the invasion in the jungle area, the damage in teamfights… they aren’t like Team Revelation where they deliberately drag the game on to let Bai Feng as an ADC have enough time to farm up his items.

“Zhao Tinghua relies on his leadership capabilities to make all the players unconsciously follow his pace, and he uses them as stepping stones for his plays throughout the game,” said Zhang Aijing, her voice still heavy and solemn.

Every tactic had its core. Team Revelation was never that strong because the entire team relied on Bai Feng alone, paving a way and advantage for him. The moment Bai Feng was targeted and singled out, it would be difficult to carry out Team Revelation’s entire plan.

During the previous year’s LPL, Team Sky didn’t have a core tactic that they could use, which was the main reason behind their loss. Even so, if they had not been banned, they would have still easily nabbed themselves a spot as one of the top four teams in the country.

And now that Blood Eagle had returned, Team Sky had really been reborn.

Unlike Bai Feng, Blood Eagle was not a late game ADC. He didn’t need anyone to purposely pave a path filled with advantages for him, and he didn’t need anyone to sacrifice any resources for him either. Blood Eagle could rely on his own strength to carry the entire team.

Since laning champions could be singled out, then how do you go about targeting the Jungler? Take his buff in the early game? This kind of tactic would likely put your entire team in a risky situation!

“And then, I recomputed the statistics of the game, and compared it to the data from some of the games Team Sky played this year,” said Zhang Aijing as she flipped to another page in her notebook.

She leaned closer to Yu Luocheng, using her finger to point at the information she wanted to show him. The enticing smell of perfume on a matured woman hit him immediately and his eyes involuntarily glanced at her white neck…

He thought to himself, ‘Ugh, serious business here, serious business. Don’t get distracted!’

Turning his attention back to the data, he noted that Blood Eagle had maintained a good record in the past competitions.

Gank success rate: 45%

Counter gank and kill success rate: 40%

Jungle control rate: 60%

Current data:

Gank success rate: 51%

Counter gank with kill success rate: 50%

Jungle control rate: 80%

You have to compare everything just to unravel this mystery.

This afternoon’s game made Yu Luocheng feel that Zhao Tinghua was really strong, his strength was not any lesser than Taiwan’s Xiao Zhuai. He was definitely deserving of the title of the strongest Jungler in the country.

After seeing Zhang Aijing’s numbers, Yu Luocheng couldn’t help taking a deep breath. With a gank success rate of more that 50%, this basically meant that where Blood Eagle went, people would surely die.

More importantly, in a situation where everyone now had a warding trinket, Zhao Tinghua’s success rate in ganking had jumped up to 51%?!

The success rates of Jungler ganks were now declining across the country, and a drop of at least 20% was not surprising. However, Zhao Tinghua’s rate had not dropped, instead increasing to a scary extent of 51% that even most professional players were unable to reach…

Where did this guy go last year? How could he have such an amazing breakthrough?!

“You should know that his jungle control rate of 80% isn’t just referring to his own area…” said Zhang Aijing.

Yu Luocheng nodded his head in understanding.

With a jungle control rate of 80%, it meant that you needed his consent to do anything in the entire Summoner’s Rift, even if you wanted to take the three wolves or four wraiths. And don’t even dream about taking the buffs that would affect a team’s gold—Dragon and Baron!

This kind of a Jungler could really make an opponent lose sleep!

“Don’t talk about the others, our Xiao Xiong’s individual ability index is at about 6.8 points. Blood Eagle knocked him out easily, which means that he is already above 8.8 points.

“In the entire LPL, there is no other Jungler whose individual ability index surpasses 7 points. So, in other words, besides Belial, the Jungler from Team Daemons, the Junglers from the other seven teams are basically already defeated,” said Zhang Aijing.

An individual ability index of 8.8 points.

The individual ability index of all the LPL players was only about 6 points, and only those at the top level were at 7 points. The only ones who had 8 points were star players Hades, Bai Feng, Forgetful Laughter, and Blood Eagle. There were only two others who were almost at 8 points—Ancient Dust and the new rising player, One.

The fact that Zhao Tinghua was at 8.8 points was terrifying, because just as Zhang Aijing said, Belial from Team Daemons was the only Jungler with more than 7 points, while the others were somewhere between 6 and 7 points.

In other words, all the other team’s jungle areas were basically Zhao Tinghua’s backyard! This was an absolutely crushing realisation!

“This is my calculation for Blood Eagle’s current data, have a look…” said Zhang Aijing.

Blood Eagle: Captain of Team Sky

Individual ability index: 8.8 points

Team-fighting capability index: 8.4 points

Tactical and leadership index: 8.5 points

Skill and dexterity index: 1.0

The skill and dexterity index referred to his performance in the matches that he played. A score of 1.0 meant that his performance had been very stable all the way.

With this, Zhao Tinghua’s overall points have exceeded 25 and was on the verge of hitting 26 points!

In this season of declining Jungler ganks, it was amazing that Zhao Tinghua’s ability index had not dropped, but instead increased by almost two points!

“You know that the further you go, a 0.5 point increase in the ability index is already very obvious, especially when the stats of the other players in each team are basically stagnant…

“His overall points have already surpassed Hades’. In this season and patch where Mid is not the same as it used to be, if Hades doesn’t have any major breakthroughs, then it wouldn’t be surprising if this year’s LPL championship falls into Zhao Tinghua’s hands!” said Zhang Aijing, her voice still heavy.

Yu Luocheng didn’t think that Zhang Aijing’s assumptions were too far-fetched. A Jungler was the pace setter of the entire game, and all tactical execution required a strong Jungler to carry them out.

Zhao Tinghua’s individual abilities were almost invincible, which meant that he would be leading all the other teams around by their noses. All their tactics and strategies would mean nothing in front of him, and they would all fall to his rhythm. If they didn’t have any effective countermeasures against him, then it was only a matter of time before they lost.

If you were facing a powerful ADC, then you could head to the bottom lane to camp. If the Mid was particularly skilled, you could gank without much thought. If the Top was strong, then you could camp until the cows came home.

But how do you intend to target such a flexible and strong Jungler? What could you do? It’s like all you could do was to watch as your jungle gets invaded, your lanes fall, and the gold gap becomes bigger and bigger.

“Why are you suddenly sharing this with me?” asked Yu Luocheng, looking at Zhang Aijing as the confusion continued to burn in his mind.

Theoretically, these numbers were Zhang Aijing’s treasure. After entering into the LPL, they were both on different teams, and something like this should be kept hidden and fiercely protected.

Looking at Yu Luocheng’s confused face, Zhang Aijing snorted and said, “Don’t misunderstand, I just think that since our Team 71 has already lost, these statistics are not as valuable anymore… and on that note, since the two of you used to be teammates, you should understand him better.

“How did he suddenly become so strong? It’s not that he wasn’t strong before this, but he’s basically like a demon king right now. Anyway, I can confirm that our team doesn’t stand a chance against him. It’s now all up to your team and Team Daemons.”

When it came to talking about Zhao Tinghua, Yu Luocheng didn’t even know where to begin.

He couldn’t be more aware of Zhao Tinghua’s many accomplishments in the e-sports industry, and some of them were even things that Yu Luocheng lamented.

Moreover, this guy seemed to be getting smarter as time went by. He didn’t have the recklessness and impatience that he used to have in the past, and it was more difficult to find any flaws in him now…

“I remember that you weren’t actually in the same team back when you were playing DOTA. How did the two of you end up in Team Wings after that?” asked Zhang Aijing, her voice filled with curiosity.

Indeed, she didn’t understand how the two strongest DOTA players were not rivals, but teammates instead.

Yu Luocheng shook his head, choosing not to answer.

***

There were some people you don’t want as your enemy, because you know very well that the goddess of luck won’t always be with you when you go against that other person.