League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Double Junglers. I think their target is you, Hades,” Charon said.

Two Junglers would not only secure most of the monster camps, but also apply enormous pressure to the mid-lane.

A champion like Ziggs feeds on exhausting the opponent’s health while constantly pushing the lane. With two Junglers, furthermore it was a deadly combo of Lee Sin and Elise, roaming in and out from both sides, it was going to greatly jeopardize Hades’ development in the middle lane. Belial would not be able to help if both Junglers ambushed the mid at the same time.

“Double Jungler strategy… Why didn’t we think about this possibility earlier?” Coach Huang Kang slapped his forehead.

Luocheng’s philosophy as a Support was heavily roaming-oriented to begin with. His gank initiation was often more effective than that of a Jungler.

‘So, why have we never considered the likelihood of him playing as one?’

After all, this was not the first time he had ditched the ADC to absorb the opponent’s pressure alone at the bottom lane.

***

“Captain Yu, you have completely overthrown our perception toward professional players. Can you please tell me, which position do you actually play in this team?” The commentator, Bao Jun, was equally astounded.

Just when people thought that they had seen through him and were busy guessing his next out-of-the-box Support champion, Luocheng underwent another drastic transformation and played as a Jungler instead.

This guy had been a legend in the previous year’s LPL as an ADC, and this year in the Demacia Club, he had played mid-solo when facing Team Beijing. And now, just as most of the audience had gotten used to him playing as the Support, he once again pulled out a shocker.

A Jungler…

This could be the very first time Fighting Hawk had played in this position and Team Daemons was completely stunned by the turn of events.

Teams in LPL always had fixed formations. Professional players usually played only one role and aimed to become the best player in their respective lanes. It was rare to see someone like Luocheng who played different positions in successive games during an official tournament!

“How arrogant could this Fighting Hawk be? I bet he will troll hard in this game!” Guan Langjie from Team Sky sneered.

Those in the professional circle knew well that changing positions abruptly usually ended up in a disaster. Players who were being touted as all-rounded were, in fact, terrible in all positions.

Though there were examples where players had changed their position in the middle of their careers, this usually meant that they had to completely give up their previous habits and train for a prolonged period. It was especially unusual for a player to change roles as frequently as Luocheng did.

The members of Team Sky were sitting in the auditorium. Both teams in this match were their biggest rivals in this LPL Championship, there was no reason not to watch this game from the front row.

Team Sky snorted at Luocheng’s action of switching roles so drastically from one game to another.

Such a change would only harm the team chemistry. After being accustomed to each other’s long-time playstyle, the teammates would be the first to feel out of place when one player suddenly switched positions. Doing this in a casual team-ranking game was acceptable, but during a professional match? That was no different from suicide.

Furthermore, did this Fighting Hawk even know how to jungle?

Though the Jungler role seemed simple, in which you only needed to focus on neutral monsters farming and ganking, it actually took a whole lot of effort to master its efficiency. The precise timing on monster respawn and gank initiation was difficult to master and required lengthy training. Without proper practice, a Jungler would only be a walking camp-hoarder with no real contribution to the team.

Fighting Hawk seldom played in this role prior to this, and perhaps he would not even be qualified to play as a reserve Jungler in any LPL team. Opting for the double Jungler strategy without proper planning might backfire hard. Not only might the other Jungler of the team be affected, but he may also handicap his own ADC who would be outnumbered at the bottom lane.

“Team Daemons is an experienced team. They won’t panic despite the unexpected strategy used by Team Skycrown. If Team Skycrown loses this game as well, we only need to take one game in our next encounter and the champion trophy will be ours!” Guan Langjie laughed.

Team Sky had remained undefeated so far. Team Daemons had lost straight games to them, so they could no longer compete for the first place.

The team closest to them now was Team Skycrown, and judging by the current development, Team Skycrown was about to lose to Team Daemons again. This meant that when Team Sky would meet Team Skycrown in the next match, the former would only require one victory to secure the top spot. As long as they did not lose to the other top 4 teams in the subsequent matches, they would be this year’s champion for sure!

“Speaking of which, I remember our captain had a solo game with Fighting Hawk before. He used none other than Lee Sin in that game!” Jupiter from Team Sky recalled.

The Battle of Lee Sins. That particular clip was still one of the highest-viewed videos in the famous LOL channel.

“That didn’t count!”

Solo games and a standard LOL match were completely different. In short, Guan Langjie refused to believe that a group of immature players could effectively execute the double Jungler strategy.

***

The game had officially begun. The most notorious thing about double Junglers was the ability to monopolize early-game buffs.

It was impossible to compete for buffs with opponents that owned two Smites.

This time, Team Skycrown had learned their lesson and decided to carefully avoid a Level 1 team fight.

Zhou Yan’s Elise moved around in Team Skycrown’s side jungle while Luocheng roamed the river with his Lee Sin.

Patrolling the river allowed Luocheng to decide whether he should steal the opponent’s monsters or go back to his side based on the enemies’ movement.

Team Daemons had also given up on creating a fight this early. They would not be able to catch the more vigilant Team Skycrown out this time.

If they chose to set up an ambush, Team Skycrown would most probably ignore them and go straight in to steal their buff.

After setting down their wards appropriately, it was time to get the buff.

In the second match, Team Skycrown was on the blue end, meaning that the red buff was near the bottom lane.

The Jungler was the fastest to reach Level 2, and after taking down the buffs, Luocheng and Zhou Yan began to sweep the remaining camps around their respective zones.

***

“D*mn it! They’ve switched lanes again!” Charon cursed in annoyance.

This time, Team Skycrown had placed Draven to face-off with their Top Shyvana, while Dr. Mundo had been swapped to the bottom lane to take on the double-team.

That way the ADC in the top lane could maintain his farm. Besides, Lin Dong’s Draven would also level up quicker since he was alone in the lane. More importantly, Draven could easily oppress Shyvana and pin the latter under the first turret.

As predicted, Charon was bullied mercilessly and had to hide in the bush not long after the start of the farming phase.

Draven’s axes were extremely dangerous and Shyvana’s health bar dropped by a large chunk with only a single hit. Worse, Lin Dong seemed to be able to catch the returned axes every single time.

Similarly, Da Luo’s Mundo was constantly being forced back by Karma, but yet, he was still able to CS some minions with his mid-range cleaver without sacrificing too much of his mana (Infected Cleaver costs health points instead). Thus, he was not much better but not much worse either as compared to Shyvana.

“Team Skycrown has outwitted their opponent so far. The biggest weakness of the double Jungler strategy is usually regarding the ADC’s development. Being outnumbered, the bottom lane could be easily crushed since ADC’s are generally unable to withstand two opponents. The switch adequately addresses such a glaring problem, and from what we can see now, Shyvana’s condition is as dire as Dr. Mundo at the bottom lane. This greatly reduces the potential loss brought on by having two Junglers in a team. I believe the two assassins from Team Skycrown are going to reveal their fangs soon, Team Daemons had better be prepared to face the first wave of ganking from Team Skycrown!” Bao Jun commented.

In the mid lane, Ziggs did not dare to push too far up or charge at Wu Sen. Hades only had a single ward, and this was not enough to protect him in the presence of two Junglers. Hence, he chose to control the minion wave and farm steadily. Other than that, he also needed to ready himself to move into his own side’s blue buff at all times.

They needed to be cautious not to let the two Junglers invade their area as Team Skycrown could quickly empty their monster camp and buffs with two Smites.

Belial purposely placed a ward near the monster area when he went over the second time, not daring to get the buff alone without knowing the whereabouts of Elise and Lee Sin.

“They did not cross the river…” Belial said. He was puzzled. Why hadn’t they come in deeper with two Junglers? What was their purpose of using this formation if they didn’t plan to counter-farm?

“I wonder why…” Hades was unable to guess the true purpose of Team Skycrown as well. He had given up on guessing the moment Luocheng had decided to use the double Junglers playbook in this second game.

Belial happily secured his buff after the opponent did not show up on his turf, however, since he was very wary of any ambushes, he checked around the area first before attacking the monster, and this had cost him quite some time.

Belial had almost reached Level 3 after getting the double buffs, but he still needed another monster before reaching Level 3 in this patch. He moved carefully toward the Wight’s at the nearby camps and decided to gank once he had leveled up.

“He’s appeared. Bottom lane.” Belial saw Lee Sin’s icon pop up at the bottom lane after he had taken the blue buff.

“That’s odd. Why didn’t he try to gank but make a detour to the bottom lane instead?” Belial questioned.

Either way, he was relieved to see that Lee Sin had shown up and did not dwell on the matter further, continuing to farm.

‘It sure takes longer to kill the Wight without Smite.’

***

Mephistopheles and Hades had pushed the minion wave right into the first turret. The number of minions this round was huge and they wished to pry away as much health from the turret as possible. If it weren’t for Lee Sin’s timely arrival, Asmodai believed that they could have either destroyed the turret or at least forced Mundo to recall.

Luocheng relieved some of Da Luo’s pressure and gained some experience himself.

“Da Luo, get ready,” Luocheng said solemnly after glancing at Lee Sin’s experience bar.

Da Luo nodded lightly.

He and Luocheng had executed this same play numerous times in the past. Even if Luocheng had not said anything, he would have still gotten the cleaver on Mundo’s waist loaded!