Chapter 393 - Hooked On The Game!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Taiwan server was already on Season 4, whereas back on the mainland, it would probably take a couple more months.

These professional players had a certain degree of understanding toward the NA servers and they were already quite accustomed to the Season 4 changes, trying out new builds and strategies for the new season as well.

The biggest changes for Season 4 were probably regarding Wards, Top Lane, Jungle gold and Support items.

No matter how good Luocheng’s ADC was, how troll his Jungle went, how fiercely his Top played, or how badly his Mid fed, nothing could change the fact that Luocheng was born to play Support.

During Season 3, the Support role had been absolute trash.

After forcing out a Sightstone, Luocheng still couldn’t fix the weird scaling issues that Supports had, instead, hauling onto himself the entire responsibility of warding and gaining vision.

Back then, the sentence “I’ll fill, but no Support!” floated around most ranked games.

F*ck you, you called fill but then you f*cking reject Support!? Why call fill then, really! Out here acting as if you can play any role given to you! (To all my friends who have said this in-game, go face a wall and think about what you’ve done, your Crazy Uncle is hella judging you!)

And you can’t forget the conversation of “Go, go, we can fight!”, “But they have 3 people, we only have 2!”, “Since when did a freaking Support count as a person!?”

Season 3 Supports, all your tears and pain will be remembered.

Under those harsh conditions, Luocheng had really tried his hardest to think up ways to let Supports shine, to show his team what Supports could really do, even though Supports were squishy champions with low health and could easily get taken out in one shot if he took a single misstep. Luocheng felt that the Support role couldn’t truly show off his inner demon most of the time.

But now, Supports were making a comeback!

Whether it was Relic Shield, Spellthief’s Edge, or Ancient Coin, all of these could provide a substantial amount of gold for the Supports. From mid to late game, many Supports could even rival Junglers in terms of tankiness, and those who couldn’t had their chance to shine by one-shotting the enemy squishies instead!

All in all, Luocheng was very, very, happy with Season 4, it was as though it had been made specifically for him!

***

Huo Ma was playing a Thresh Support.

Season 4’s Thresh still maintained its spot as the top pick among the Support lineup. Ridiculously long Crowd Control effects, strong peeling abilities, an engage that could not be rivalled, and a super slow from his ultimate to help attack or retreat, not to mention his lantern being one of the best tools to help engage and disengage…

According to the statistics from the American server, Thresh had long maintained his title as the highest win-rate Support, all the while continuously sustaining his position in the top 10 most played Champions in LoL, and this in itself already showed how strong this Champion was.

Luocheng really liked Thresh himself, too bad he was picked by Huo Ma. Luocheng took a good hard look at the rest of his team and picked one of the weirder Supports, even for his standards.

Just for this choice alone, Feng Da and his friends all showed the same confused expression.

“Feng, I’ve only hit level 20, but even I know that Ashe isn’t a Support, right?” said the girl with the notebook.

“Um… We just can’t understand this sort of high-level play!” Feng Da said awkwardly.

Regulars of the Demacia Cafe knew that Luocheng didn’t play standard Support champions, and the one time he did was when he played the somewhat unpopular Alistar against Team Sunlight. So when Luocheng picked Ashe, Feng Da and his friends didn’t even bat an eye. Honestly, they would find it even more odd if Luocheng didn’t pick some weird champion.

A guy known to the people in the cafe as Daisy piped up, “Feng, how do you play an Ashe Support?”

The kid was thin and lanky and the buff guys in the cafe liked to tease him, but they were also oddly protective of him, that was basically the origin of his name.

“Just shut up and watch, will you!” Feng Da didn’t know the answer himself.

Since it wasn’t a proper match, none of the players were all that serious during the champion selection, but you could probably already tell by seeing Luocheng pick an Ashe Support.

Luocheng had previously tried a Support Ashe during Season 3, and there was only one word for it — Garbage!

When he got to Season 4, Luocheng discovered a new way to play Ashe as a Support. He had tried it out a couple of times with decent results, and the number of times he was called a troll in Ionia had dropped dramatically.

Their ADC was Ezreal while the opponent’s was Caitlyn. Luocheng didn’t know who this Ezreal was, but whoever it was certainly matched up to Asmodai.

For Runes and Masteries, Luocheng put 9 points into Defense, and the remaining 21 points were put into Utility.

Gold income was very important for a Support Ashe, not so she could deal damage, but to make sure that she could do her job right. Luocheng brought an Ancient Coin to the lane so that he could gain an extra 3 gold whenever a minion died near him.

Not much happened in the bottom lane during the early game, Luocheng used Ashe’s long range abilities and auto attacks to keep Thresh’s health low, deterring him from engaging in a fight. Huo Ma wasn’t in a hurry with Thresh either, if he hooked them he hooked them, but it didn’t matter if he missed either.

This was the sort of integrity all professional players should have, no matter how many grudges you held against your opponent, you should never be blinded by rage and only go in when the time was right.

Both sides farmed quietly until level 6, and then it was obvious that a fight was about to begin.

“Thresh is at level 6, be careful!” Luocheng pinged Danger on the enemy Thresh, warning his ADC that the enemy Support was very likely to engage them.

Their ADC’s name was in Traditional Chinese, Mirage, but he had never said anything in Chinese in the group, so it was tough to say whether or not he really was Taiwanese.

Mirage started to move his Ezreal closer to their tower, but as soon as he turned around, Huo Ma’s Thresh climbed out of the nearby bush, forming a 45 degree angle with Ezreal.

This angle and positioning was the sweet spot for champions with hooks, because most people would instinctively step back, causing the angle of the hook to almost become 0 degrees. A hook at 0 degrees on a fleeing enemy was basically a sure hit!

Luocheng used his W-skill, Volley, to apply a slow on the Thresh and Caitlyn, but it was still apparent that Ezreal was in a tight spot.

Mirage didn’t panic, even turning back to use his abilities on Thresh as he continued retreating.

Finally, Thresh threw out his hook. Mirage seemed to be anticipating this moment, and using his E-skill, Arcane Shift, he blinked toward Luocheng as soon as Thresh started his animation.

“Crap!” Something wasn’t right, Thresh hadn’t thrown his hook directly toward Ezreal, instead, he had aimed for Ashe!

A redirected Q-skill!

This was the highest level of mastery one could achieve when using a linear skillshot!

As LoL players get progressively better at the game, skills like Blitzcrank’s Q-skill, Thresh’s hook, as well as Lux and Morgana’s Q-skill binding would miss their targets more and more. After all, these skills had a very clear path that they followed, as long as you knew how to position yourself to walk out of these abilities, it was highly unlikely that you would get caught by them.

So, how would one be able to hit these skillshots?

Number 1, your abilities had to be sudden!

If you were playing Blitzcrank, you can’t just cast your W-skill to rush toward your enemies. Unless you were able to force them into a corner, there was absolutely no way your opponent wasn’t going to dodge your hook.

Smart players will realize that as soon as your Blitzcrank stops, a Rocket Grab will follow soon after. If they were able to anticipate an ability, the chances of you hitting with the said ability would decrease dramatically.

This was why the element of surprise was extremely important, you shouldn’t allow the enemy any time to react. If they were to see a hook flying toward them, most would have to rely on their reflexes and muscle memory to Flash out of the way. Compared to when they were anticipating the ability, they would have a much longer reaction time, allowing your abilities to find their mark more often, and Lux players mainly relied on this to land her Q-skill on the people in-lane.

Number 2, the art of redirection!

Let’s go back to the Blitzcrank example, you’re all amped up with your W-skill speed boost, charging toward the enemy ADC, so the enemy Support will obviously react accordingly to protect their ADC.

Time your actions wisely and then let your hook fly out in a different direction. Give up the thought of hooking the already anticipating ADC and instead, focus your efforts on the clueless Support!

This was exactly what Huo Ma was doing!

This really caused Luocheng to lose his marbles, someone should give this Huo Ma an Oscar! His aggressiveness in the early game, hitting level 6 early, and then a play like this, Luocheng was shaken to the core.

Originally, this hook was extremely likely to hit Luocheng, Huo Ma’s intentions were clear, Luocheng’s Ashe was his target all along since Ashe didn’t have any form of escape.

Coincidentally, Mirage had used Ezreal’s E-skill to blink toward Luocheng in order to dodge Thresh’s hook, ending up exactly at the tip of Thresh’s hook…

That is to say, he blocked it for Luocheng!

Seeing Mirage’s Ezreal get dragged over by Thresh who followed up with his E-skill and Ultimate, Luocheng could only stand helplessly to the side, pointlessly trying to damage the enemy laners with his icy arrows.

An Ashe Support did not fare well against hard-engage Champions like Thresh.

Luckily, Mirage still had his Flash, and with both his Barrier and Flash, Ezreal managed to escape under the turret with only 100 or so health left!

“Target Acquired!”

A red line appeared in the air, connecting right to Ezreal who was still under the tower.

Suddenly, Luocheng’s Ashe and Mirage’s Ezreal were like Romeo and Juliet, running toward each other in fear that they may never meet again!

“Block it! Leader, block the ulti!”

Daisy was pumping his fists!

Feng Da and a couple others were still stunned by Thresh’s magnificent Q-skill, but in the blink of an eye, Ezreal and Ashe were dancing around each other like ants on fire!

This was the time when Ezreal and Ashe should be filmed under a slow-motion camera, maybe add the Titanic theme song into the background too…

“I can make it.” Luocheng quickly moved his mouse to position himself.

But suddenly, Thresh was right in front of Ashe! Huo Ma had Flashed toward Luocheng and then used his E-skill, Flay, to shove Ashe aside!

Luocheng had almost been in line with Ezreal, but a single Flay from Thresh had ruined their entire plan!

This short distance was already too much, and Luocheng could feel Caitlyn’s sniper round encased in flames whizz right past his ear!

“BANG!”

Following Ezreal’s cry of pain, Mirage’s Ezreal was through, lying lifelessly under the protection of his tower!

“LOL!”

“LOL!!”

“LOL!!!”

Even Luocheng was stunned, and the all-chat was filled with Americans’ word of choice in this situation, the international “LOL”!

The first LOL came from the sniped-down Ezreal.

This exposed that the guy was an American player, or at the very least, he often played on the NA servers!

“Holy sh*t!”

“This Thresh is Madlife, what a play!”

“I have found my new idol!”

The sounds of shock that escaped the mouths of Feng Da and his friends rang out in the lounge of Demacia Cafe!