Chapter 476 - Mentality over Skills

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

While the other LPL players were enjoying themselves in their seats, the game had taken a little turn.

This was due to Xie Yi’s Gragas.

Bang!!!

Xie Yi’s Explosive Cask fell and hit three Team Skycrown’s players, the attack completely disrupting Team Skycrown’s formation.

At the same time, a praying mantis had closed in from the sky, directly jumping onto Zhou Yan’s Pantheon!

Pantheon still had about half of his HP left, but Kha’Zix’s explosiveness was too terrifying, and Zhou Yan was unable to escape from being instantly killed by Tinghua’s combo.

Kha’Zix’s E-skill immediately reset and Tinghua swiftly charged onto his next target, Wu Sen’s Lulu.

Wu Sen reacted in the nick of time, casting his ulti and Barrier on his champion to mitigate most of Kha’Zix’s damage.

Luocheng gave up on targeting other Team Sky members after Kha’Zix infiltrated their backline.

Tinghua had leveled up rather quickly. He was now Level 11, same as Team Skycrown’s side-lane champions.

Apparently, Tinghua had evolved his ulti, Void Assault.

After he failed to kill Lulu in one fell swoop, Kha’Zix recast his ultimate and turned invisible to continue trailing the fleeing prey.

He had to take down Lulu in order for his E-skill to be reset, otherwise, there was no way that he could escape the round-up by the remaining Team Skycrown members.

Wu Sen kept running. He had used Whimsy and did not have a better choice other than running against the invisible Kha’Zix.

It was definitely not easy to kill a Lulu that had Wild Growth and Barrier cast on her, and Kha’Zix’s damage was still a tad short.

Xie Yi, seeing that Tinghua was in a tight spot, quickly rolled over with Gragas’ body slam and used Barrel Roll to help Kha’Zix reduce some of Lulu’s health.

Tinghua decisively Flashed over and finished off Lulu with his Q-skill.

The E-skill refreshed instantaneously but Tinghua did not dare to stay any longer as he only had 1/3 HP left.

Kha’Zix leapt into the air, vanishing into Team Skycrown’s jungle. Tinghua, who had killed two champions, managed to retreat into safety, but his teammate was less fortunate.

Xie Yi’s Barrel hit a giant robot that turned back on him immediately. Without any skill to relocate, he was inevitably captured by Luocheng’s Rocket Grab.

Lin Dong’s ADC and Da Luo’s Shyvana rapidly followed up and instantly tore apart Xie Yi’s Gragas.

***

“Tinghua is so good with Kha’Zix. How did he manage to take two heads and still get out of such a situation?”

It was a 2 for 2 encounter. Both teams had lost two players in that teamfight.

The three survivors of Team Skycrown were still in tip-top condition, and they proceeded to push the mid while still being backed by the Hand of Baron. Meanwhile, Team Sky was left with a Support that only had half of her HP left, Kha’Zix with only 1/3 HP, a Lucian who had peed himself, and the mid turret that they were unable to defend.

Team Skycrown gained a larger lead over Team Sky thanks to the 1,500 gold from the Baron and 1,000 gold from taking down the mid turret. On the other hand, Team Sky had earned practically nothing other than the 600 gold Tinghua had obtained by killing two opponents.

***

“What a useless bunch! Why are they playing so horribly!?” Xu Pingyang could no longer sit tight in the VIP room.

Ever since his team had been killed 100 times last year, Pingyang had not been able to raise his head high in the LOL field for a long time. Nothing seemed to have changed even though the almighty Zhao Tinghua had returned to the line-up this year.

All turrets outside the base had been demolished, and they had fallen behind by 10,000 gold. The game had yet to reach the 30-minute-mark but Team Sky would not be able to overturn this huge disadvantage.

Tinghua’s Kha’Zix was, no doubt, excellent. He could easily walk into the enemy’s turf and kill at will. In stark contrast, his other teammates were useless. Team Skycrown couldn’t care less about the enemies and focused only on the turrets. Perhaps you could kill one or two of our men, but you are still going to lose this match once we destroy your Nexus first!

***

The green light lit up and the troop was On the Hunt once more. The destructive aura of the charging troop was too much to bear.

Luocheng’s speed was even quicker now. Blitzcrank could now “fly” to the enemy’s face, throw out an uppercut and “fly” back about 700 units before the opponent had landed, dragging him back with Q-skill.

In fact, the precision of the Q-skill became less important when Blitzcrank was able to move at such an insane speed.

Not many had played a Blitzcrank that was capable of speeding at more than 1,000 units per second prior to this. The millions of LOL players in China were astonished by what Luocheng had brought onto the stage today.

“Boss, beware of Tinghua right beside you!” Lin Dong warned Luocheng.

Luocheng had noticed. However, he ignored Kha’Zix and hooked the dying Rengar toward him without the slightest hesitation.

As the delivery was on its way, Kha’Zix jumped onto Blitzcrank and easily emptied Luocheng’s remaining life.

Tinghua’s maneuver was inhuman, and it felt like he bounced off as quickly as he had landed. Kha’Zix, once again, ran off agilely after he had killed Luocheng’s champion.

Luocheng didn’t mind at all. On the contrary, he was beaming with confidence despite looking at his grey screen.

‘It’s useless, Tinghua. You have been isolated by me.”

Isolation was supposed to be Kha’Zix’s innate ability, and this was what made him almost invincible in the jungle area.

Nonetheless, Luocheng had cleverly given Tinghua a taste of his own medicine. His brand of isolation was to destroy Tinghua’s teammates. Without the team to support him, what was the use of having the best farm in the team? What was the use of getting Legendary? Could he stop the Super Minions from spawning and rushing in to their base? Could he prevent their ADC from being slaughtered consistently?

8/0/5

Tinghua’s kda was impeccable.

His skills clearly surpassed other LPL players by quite a margin, evident by his ability to remain unkillable in such a one-sided game.

If this was a DOTA match, Luocheng believed that Tinghua could have carried his team to victory now. DOTA was a MOBA where one player could single-handedly dictate the outcome of any given game.

But this was LOL! The League of Legends!

Luocheng was not chasing after the eye-catching triple-, quadra-, or even penta-kill. He also didn’t seek for a dominating, godlike, or legendary streak. All he was after was how to make the team stronger as a cohesive unit!

Tinghua, like Luocheng, had shifted to LOL from DOTA. When he picked Kha’Zix, he had chosen to put the individual ahead of the team. The team was only a backdrop that complemented his one-man show.

On the contrary, when Luocheng had decided to switch into the Support role, he had vowed to contribute to his team. He passed on the core roles and let the other members get most of the money. He willingly did all the dirty work and created the space for his teammates to get the triple or quadra-kill instead. This was because he desired nothing else but victory!

He no longer prioritized personal glory and stats. It was okay to have zero kills, to be downed numerous times, or to be unable to even kill a neutral monster… To him, the team superseded the individual!

It was a state of mind that not many could achieve.

DOTA had taught Luocheng to become the best of the rest while LOL had taught him to make the people around him better. This was far more difficult than improving one’s own skills.

The former required only personal skills, while the latter required a transfigured mentality. Which one would turn out to be more powerful?

Luocheng had provided a crisp answer to Tinghua in this match.

That was why no matter how Tinghua had provoked and taunted him, Luocheng chose to ignore him. The result of the match was the best response that Luocheng wanted to show Tinghua.

Just like in a ranked-game, assuming you’ve lost to my team but still wanted to challenge me in a solo game… The best response was to give a faint smile.

So what if I am not as good as you individually? You still lost the game.

Of course, this was merely the official answer Luocheng would give to the media during an interview. In actual fact, his initial mindset when he chose the Support role was as follows. ‘An ADC is just a dog that I have petted. He will bite whoever I want him to bite. Look, it has bitten another champion to death. This satisfaction is out of the world!’

***

Before Luocheng was revived, his four pets… *ahem* teammates, had managed to destroy Team Sky’s Nexus.

The dominant victory cleared the dark cloud that had shrouded over them since yesterday.

Xu Pingyang had thought that he could demoralize Team Skycrown with all sorts of dirty tricks under the table, but he had underestimated their determination to win the championship this time.

Pingyang’s skinny face must have turned purple by now. Team Skycrown had hindered his business once in the past and they were humiliating his team again this time. Besides, the outcome of this match weighed more as it might influence whether or not he would get the secretary-general position of the ACE. His money would be gone in vain if Team Sky made a blunder.

“Those sons of a b*tch, I swear I am going to give them hell!” Pingyang bellowed in rage in the VIP room.

“Sir, please don’t get too agitated. They are going to be dissolved soon anyway. Even if they win the next game, it means nothing once their team gets disbanded, and the championship will still belong to Team Sky.” Sun Liang comforted his boss.

“I want to see them humiliated, not the other way round! Tinghua promised me that he was going to win but look at the final score!!!” Pingyang was raging mad. He had bet big with other club owners and was going to lose a ton of money at this rate.

“Call them over!” Pingyang could not hold back his anger and yelled at Sun Liang.

***

Team Skycrown returned to the backstage with big grins on their faces.

Meiqi wanted to tell them the good news she had just received but felt that it might not be necessary after all.

From the way they had enjoyed the match, Meiqi knew that they would still give their best in the next match even if the team was to be disbanded!

They had surfed through the toughest time together and they would certainly survive the next rough patch.

The contract would expire in August, and so, they would eventually be freed from Xu Pingyang’s evil grasp five months later!

What mattered more was the present! Team Skycrown was only one win away from clinching their long term goal—The LPL champions!