League of Legends: League of Unknowns

The best act a troll would always try to pull at the start of the game was a Level 1 teamfight.

Thus, when the Korean player pinged desperately for Luocheng, Shallow Dream, Xiao Zhuai, and Lianda to join him, they all tacitly ignored him.

“Which buff are they aiming for?” Yisheng asked the spy.

“I don’t know,” The spy answered.

Yisheng was fuming. ‘What kind of blind idiot are you? Why don’t you know which buff your teammates are going after first?’

Yisheng had been planning to use the spy’s intel to gain three buffs to start the game. Unexpectedly, the opponent’s Jungler must have seen through his plan and instead, waited diligently at the middle lane as if he had gone offline.

Besides, their mid and bottom champions had positioned themselves in their respective creep camp. It was really hard for the spy to tell which buff was being prioritized by the Chinese side.

When the countdown was close to 50 seconds, Xiao Zhuai finally guided his champion, Wukong, to move toward the red buff camp.

Luocheng’s team had been spawned on the red side. Naturally, Xiao Zhuai would need Lianda’s help to take down the red buff. As for the spy at the top lane, they had decided it was best to leave him out since it would be too risky to ask for his help. Who knew whether he would purposely wait for the last drop and kill-steal the creep, pretending he had mistimed his attack. This world had never lacked such sh*tty b*stards.

As a result, Lianda would arrive late to his lane, but as the most dominant Mid champion of this patch, it was not that big of a deal for Ziggs to be slightly delayed.

After Xiao Zhuai had taken the red buff, he had no intentions of infiltrating the enemy’s jungle. The renegade at the top lane would certainly expose him if he did.

“Xiao Zhuai, it looks like you are used to tackling these trolls,” Luocheng, who was supporting Shallow Dream at the bottom lane, took a jab at his team’s Jungler.

“True. Guess I’ve been playing too much on the Chinese server these days…” Xiao Zhuai retorted.

Luocheng went quiet because he knew Xiao Zhuai was right. He had had the same horrendous experience in the Chinese server before, playing in one rigged game after another the whole night.

As usual, Luocheng’s choice of Support champion in this game had not disappointed his viewers.

His selection was none other than the most unpopular champion of LOL—Galio, the Sentinel’s Sorrow.

In the last patch, Karma, Galio, Trundle, and Urgot, were collectively known as the F4 of forgotten champions.

Nevertheless, in this current patch, Karma had been used extensively as a versatile Support, while Trundle had been picked numerous times in the LPL after being strengthened in the update. Thus, the original F4 had been reduced to F2, with Galio’s and Urgot’s existence continuing to be neglected by the vast number of Summoners.

Not by this man, though. Luocheng had picked a champion that was said to have a lower chance of occurrence in the game than a pentakill.

Fortunately, Shallow Dream was used to Luocheng’s unpredictability. At the very least, his Galio was still better than the Ashe Support pick that would interrupt her farming.

Shallow Dream had selected Caitlyn for the ADC role. She was equally excellent in Sivir and Vayne, but Luocheng still thought that Caitlyn was her signature champion. It was normal to see her Caitlyn maintain a zero death even in a Challenger ranked game.

Going against three Korean professionals, Shallow Dream did not hesitate and selected her best champion in a match that was perhaps second only to the finals of the S International League. Lianda had also chosen the craziest Mid champion in this patch, Ziggs. Xiao Zhuai’s Lee Sin was terrific, but unfortunately, that champion had been banned, and so, Xiao Zhuai decided to go for Wukong, which had high early-game damage and was equally effective in late-game teamfights. This champion also addressed their lack of frontline. As for Luocheng, a lot of viewers didn’t understand the reason he had picked this champion. Luckily for him, his teammates were all top-tier players and could roughly grasp his plan.

How should one play Galio as a Support?

Galio was not as useless as people had perceived. This champion was formidable if his skills were being executed properly. This was especially true for his Ultimate, which was one of the most brutal CC skills in LOL if timed perfectly.

Galio and Caitlyn were playing against Yisheng’s Sivir and his Support Nami at the bottom lane.

Sivir was a powerful ADC thanks to her ulti that granted a team buff as well as her Spell Shield to protect herself. More importantly, her ability to clear creeps was superior among the ADCs. By upgrading Ricochet first at Level 1, she could constantly harass and force back the enemy to reach Level 2 faster.

Nami was so-so at Level 1, but two or three levels later, her ability to heal and harass would grow more and more prominent. If she was also good in placing her Aqua Prison, this Support was going to be a very scary opponent.

***

During the early laning phase, both sides would have the same goal in mind—to reach Level 2 first. Luocheng and Shallow Dream generously used up their skills, but the opponents were not being left too far behind in levels.

Even so, Luocheng bravely stepped forward when his champion reached Level 2. Galio had sufficient damage at Level 2, so he wished to use the momentum and force a fight.

Regrettably, the opponents did not fall to his trick and fell back slightly to move away from Luocheng’s range.

This was not the first time Yisheng had faced a Galio Support. He was amused by Luocheng’s selection after successfully avoiding Galio’s foolish attempt.

‘He’s digging his own grave by picking this champion. Galio is useless once he mistimes his skill, including his Ultimate.’

To be honest, it was extremely difficult to get Galio’s skills right. Inconsistency was the main reason many LOL players condemned this champion.

His ability to harass was not that great either because his skills came with a tricky trajectory and the usage of mana was another problem.

“This ADC is not weak.” Shallow Dream reminded Luocheng.

Luocheng nodded. He bore the same opinion.

In fact, the ability of an ADC could be gauged based on his/her basic maneuver of the champion.

How exactly? The answer lay in the auto-attack.

One could tell whether the player was good judging by his/her fundamental skill. For an ADC, the key would be Animation Canceling. If an ADC player grew so familiar with the champion’s ballistic, attack speed, and animation, he/she could immediately move the champion the moment the attack was made. This canceled the short instance of lag due to the attacking motion and thus, the champion could maintain a fluid movement.

The opponent ADC, just like Shallow Dream, appeared agile and dexterous despite the slower attack speed.

This was not something a common player could imitate easily because it required an in-depth understanding of the champion’s behavior.

“Park Yisheng, ADC from Team STG. He participated in the International League before, considered to be one of the best among the Koreans, hmm…” Luocheng murmured. He had obtained the player details from Lianda.

‘The opponent is strong and this game is going to be a tough one!’

***

Luocheng was constantly in attack mode. As soon as his Shield of Durand was up, he would go forth and clash with Nami. Though Nami was a healer, her attacking ability was not to be underestimated when she had enough mana to spend. Her presence could even be more daunting than Sona because her Aqua Prison had a longer CC time.

Thus, Luocheng used Galio’s HP to exhaust Nami’s mana, and then used his champion’s shield to tank more damage.

Other than that, the bottom lane was relatively peaceful as Caitlyn was tamed after being damaged several times by Sivir’s aggressive Boomerang. She planned to emphasize more on her CS and out-farm Yisheng. Luocheng himself hadn’t intended to be overly aggressive when he chose Galio.

However, it was a completely different story on the other lane.

In the middle lane, Lianda was his usual aggressive self and had pinned Nidalee back to her own turret with Ziggs. The turret’s health had been halved as well.

Lianda’s opponent was Walker, a Mid player that was rather popular in Korea.

Walker’s champion, Nidalee, had seldom stepped out from the turret from the beginning of the game. Ziggs pushed the lane ferociously and continued to undermine him right in front of his own turret. This brainless Ziggs didn’t appear to be wary of being ganked from behind.

As a professional player, Walker had taken on a lot of Mid players using Nidalee before. Based on his experience, other players using Ziggs would usually stay slightly further back to avoid ganks coming from the rear or diagonally from the forest. He wondered where the confidence of this One came from for him to push the lane so high up away from his safe zone.

‘Hmph. Enjoy the advantage while it lasts. You will learn the price of such aggressiveness. Our Jungler, Kim Zuoshen from Team Bok, is coming to claim your head soon.’

“What a pity. You’re 15 CS behind? It’s rare to see Walker’s Nidalee in such a pathetic state. From what I know, Ziggs arrived at the lane later than you did, didn’t he?” Zuoshen mocked Walker.

Zuoshen was no doubt a talented player, but his overbearing attitude had displeased many Korean pro-players.

“Cut the crap. He’s seeking death by pressing high like this. We’ll kill him easily once you’re ready,” Walker replied.

“Sigh, ganking the middle lane just doesn’t suit my style. You know, Nidalee has so little damage in the early-game, besides, I’ve learned that your toss is far from great.” Zuoshen refused to leave his teammate at peace. Despite his foul mouth, his champion, Vi, was seen rounding the bush and entering the middle lane through the river.

Walker was indeed experienced,moving his Nidalee to the right to sandwich Ziggs after noticing Vi was coming from the left.

Still, Ziggs refused to retreat. Walker smirked. ‘You are so dead!’