League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Entering the picking phase, the first champion that Team Daemons picked was Riven!

“Riven! Team Daemons actually brought out Riven! Riven is an all-rounder type champion right now, she can Top, Jungler, and even Mid. Before you see the entire lineup, you can’t be sure which lane she will be going to. If… if this Riven is played by Hades, that would be crazy awesome!” exclaimed Bao Jun.

Riven was very different from the majority of other champions, she was a very interesting champion. The unleashing of her combo had a particular order of steps, and whether it connects or not made a huge difference in her damage output. The difference was like night and day!

Once Riven was locked in, the whole crowd went wild.

Master players love Riven, she’s basically an unbeatable soldier!

Her flexible Broken Wings and E skill allowed her to easily close the gap between her and her opponents across the battlefield.

With the shock and stun effect from her W skill coupled together with the knock up from her third cast of Q, her enemies have no time at all to chain any skills before they are completely immobilized and instantly killed!

In terms of defense, her E has a short shield effect that allows Riven to have a better survival rate. This would surprise her enemies, allowing her to turn the fight in her favor.

After you get the maximum cooldown rate of 40%, Riven’s shield from her E would only be down for 0.8 seconds. Master players who know how to calculate skill cooldowns wouldn’t have to build tank items on her, she could still go all in during a team fight and get out unscathed.

Riven’s ulti, combined with her attack range and damage, plus her passive Runic Blade, allowed her to have a massive burst damage.

Highly flexible movement skills, high burst damage, high defense with shield, good CC skills… this champion’s only weakness was that she was not beginner friendly.

How fast can you chain Riven’s abilities?!

Which combo does Riven need to chain in order to get maximum damage?

Which skills does she need to use in order to move the fastest?

What kind of combo will result in continuous stun and high damage output at the same time?

There was just so much to research, she was just too strong. It was to the point that the creators had no choice but to harden their hearts and nerf her. But even after she had been nerfed, there were still countless Riven enthusiasts using her on her new kit!

***

“Hade, are we going for a Jungler Riven?” asked Belial, watching as Hades immediately locked in Riven.

A Jungler Riven was one of their strategies, and Belial also had a deep understanding of this champion.

It was previously said that Kha’Zix was the only Jungler champion who could go full damage without any tank items. But after the rework on Riven, the discussion regarding these two champions became a hot topic. The jungle used to be dominated by Lee Sin, but now with Riven and Kha’Zix, Lee Sin won’t be so lonely anymore.

Hades considered it as he stared at the screen, and then he shook his head. “I’ll take Riven.”

“For Mid? You don’t want to see what they pick for Mid first?” asked Charon, slightly surprised.

Riven is a champion that can be used in the middle lane, but it also depends on what Mid your opponent has chosen. A ranged Mid would be quite a threat to Riven, and normally a Mid Riven was only chosen after seeing the opponent’s pick.

“No need,” said Hades, firm in his decision.

Other professional players who play Mid Riven would normally have to see what their opponent Mid was picking first, but Hades’ Riven had never been pressured by this sort of thing anyway!

Charon and Belial both looked at Hades, it was obvious their captain was taking everything out of his arsenal for this match.

As though it was contagious, the other members of Team Daemons were also filled with confidence. Besides those champions with obvious weaknesses, the others all picked their best champions, not bothering what their opponents were picking to counter them at all!

Any champion can be countered, Riot Games didn’t design a perfect, all-rounder champion. Whether you can play well depends on whether you are clear on your selected champion’s strengths and weaknesses, and work with its weakness until the crowd goes wild.

It’s right to think twice before making a decision, but sometimes overthinking can destroy your confidence. In decisively picking their champions, Team Daemons was sending a message to Team Skycrown: ‘Even if you pick a champion to counter mine, I will still wreck you all the same!’

There were actually quite a few champions who could counter a Mid Riven, and The Dark Sovereign, Syndra was one of them. Coincidentally, that was Wu Sen’s favourite champion.

Wu Sen didn’t hesitate, with a 70% chance in mind that Riven would be a Mid, he picked Syndra!

“My Elise has been taken by Belial,” said Zhou Yan.

Both Team Daemons’ Mid and Top were ADs. It’s possible that Belial was trying to make up for the lack of AP damage, or maybe he knew that Elise was Zhou Yan’s best champion. Whatever the reason, Belial had very decisively chosen Elise as his team’s second pick.

Belial’s decision left a sour taste in Zhou Yan’s mouth, as Elise was his best champion. There was no other champion he would rather use, and Elise was the best choice to face a Jungler like Belial.

‘Let me teach you how to play Elise properly!’ That’s what Zhou Yan felt like Belial was trying to tell him by choosing Elise like that.

The more familiar you were with a champion, the more aware you were of which other champions it would be scared of.

If you want to teach me how to play Elise properly, then I’ll teach you how to completely counter her. Zhou Yan didn’t hesitate too much in his pick either, locking in a Jungler champion that was strong and popular in the new season, The Berserker—Olaf!

Zhou Yan would not pick Lee Sin. Although his counter ganking in lanes was strong, he would also be second to Elise in initiating fights. His clearing speed in the jungle was also incomparable to her. The only champion who could really give pressure was Olaf.

Of course, nothing is absolute. In terms of ganking, Elise was still far superior to Olaf.

***

It was as though both teams had agreed to not pick their ADC and Support first. That was unusual for the professional scene, as teams would usually pick a stable ADC and Support once they saw their opponents picking other roles.

Top, Jungler, and Mid have been settled, now they were left with the pick of ADC and Support.

In the new season, Sivir and Lucian were the ADCs usually seen in the professional scenes. Meanwhile, the typically-used Supports were Annie and Leona, the two champions with big crowd control skills. If the combinations were played well, even the audience would feel the fatigue from these champions.

So will that also be the common lineup in today’s match between Team Daemons and Team Skycrown?

For ADC, Lin Dong was considering picking Draven.

Draven was a champion that would let him farm stably at the bottom lane. It was also able to wreck Lucian, who was a popular champion at the bottom lane right now…

But he also quickly realized that his opponents in this round were the very experienced Asmodai and Mephistopheles. He was sure that they would definitely have a deep understanding of Draven too.

More importantly, Draven didn’t have any repositioning skills. Their opponent Mid was Hades, and he had picked Riven. For Lin Dong to pick an ADC without repositioning skills to face Hades’ Riven, that was equivalent to making himself an AI in front of him.

Lin Dong didn’t dare to pick Draven, and he didn’t pick either of the mainstream champions—Lucian or Sivir. Instead, he picked Ezreal! Lin Dong liked this champion very much, and it matched his Sky Swan’s elegance.

Of course, there was another reason to pick this champion. In this game, Yu Luocheng would surely be more aggressive. With this guy’s attitude, he would definitely spend more time roaming and giving assistance to the other lanes.

If Lin Dong didn’t want to be left being pressured alone like a dog, he needed to pick Ezreal who could CS aggressively!

There were two key points in this match, and one of them was the champion that Hades had picked. The whole arena was in a frenzy as soon as this champion appeared. Who wasn’t interested in seeing Hades use Riven?

The second key point was, which Support champion was Fighting Hawk going to choose?

The strong Support champions in the new season had allowed Yu Luocheng who initially main Support to have some development in that role. During his time in the professional scene, he had surprised people again and again with his choice of Support champions.

People couldn’t help but think, ‘This sort of play also can Support, and it’s working!’

If you keep using the same champions, they will definitely be banned. With his new play style and innovation in the Support role, Yu Luocheng was telling all the LOL players that this role is actually a carry.

However, the criteria to this was that you needed a team that fully trusts and cooperates with you. You would also need to spend countless days and nights on research, otherwise your new strategies would be considered trolling in other people’s eyes.

Do you think that Yu Luocheng only trolled one or two times? Go and ask those people in Diamond I, which player doesn’t know Trolling No.1?

To be able to troll to the extent that the entire server knows you, then one day you would become incredible!

Naturally, as the captain of an incredibly strong team, as a public figure and object of worship for many people, especially girls, Yu Luocheng would never admit that the ID ‘Trolling No.1’ was actually his.

You never know, there might even be someone here who had rushed for Challenger but been c*ckblocked by him when he threw the game or messed up the fight. Even if anyone had managed to glimpse his shadow behind Trolling No.1, that was their problem.

He was the captain of a star team in the LPL!

The Support champions he picked now were definitely not for trolls. They were the result of his countless experience and training.

“It’s finally our Captain Fighting Hawk’s turn to pick!” exclaimed Bao Jun. He spoke with excitement in his voice, which in turn also riled up the crowd in the arena.

What kind of Support champion would this guy pick this time?!

How does he intend to wow the crowd today?

Ping!

With a loud signal, Yu Luocheng had selected his champion.

You really can’t relate to captain Yu’s broad imagination. With more than a hundred champions available, you shouldn’t be so naive as to think that the champion in your mind would be the one that he will pick.

When the screen displayed the champion that Yu Luocheng had selected, you could tell how wide the eyes of the crowd had gone!

From their expressions, you could obviously tell what they were thinking inside, and what they wanted to choke out amidst their surpris: ‘Holy sh*t, that also can play as Support?!’

That’s right, Yu Luocheng had not changed his uniqueness at all, grabbing the attention of the entire arena by once again picking an off-meta champion!

The moment Yu Luocheng selected this champion, many stunned audience members quietly stuck their hands into their pockets, pulling out five yuan and passing it to their friends sitting beside them.

In their minds, that loss of five yuan was worth it!