Chapter 727
Falling into a disadvantage?
Fiora, the Grand Duelist!
locking!
"Fiora!!!" Miller exclaimed, "Mozi has brought out the most classic 1v1 carry in the top lane! Against a clunky tank like Quesanti, Fiora's true damage and flexible vulnerability mechanics are indeed a perfect counter. But this is also a double-edged sword; Fiora's margin for error in team fights is too low!"
“Today, Brother Mo is all about showing off his sharpness,” Rita said with a smile. “You choose the meat, and I’ll choose the sharpest spear to pierce you!”
Game loading.
Both players bought their equipment and headed out.
After the intense battle in the previous game, both sides played very cautiously at the start of this game.
Bin's Quesanti brought Grasp of the Undying and stood firmly behind the minion wave after entering the lane, only using his Q skill [Unparalleled Spinning Axe] to finish off minions, giving Su Mo no chance to break through.
Su Mo's Fiora did not display the same ferocious dominance as in the previous two games.
He played with perfect logic, like a precise machine. Since you won't come out, I'll control the lane.
Fiora positioned herself on the flank of the minion wave. Whenever Quesanti took a step forward, Su Mo would precisely strike the opening with his Q skill, [Sky Piercer], then use the speed boost to create distance. He didn't greedily auto-attack, nor did he tank minion aggro.
In just five minutes, Quesanti was not killed in a solo fight, but he was already 15 CS behind in last hits and had long since run out of health potions.
"Brother Mozi played so steadily this game." Guan Zeyuan watched the uneventful top lane matchup. "He's like a frog being slowly boiled in water, gradually eroding Bin's development space."
In the river-view apartment, four girls sat on the sofa, watching the elegant Fiora on the screen, their tense mood gradually calming down.
"Teacher Su seems very relaxed this game," Lin Xuan's voice came through the phone, carrying a lighthearted laugh.
“Yes.” Yu Shuang placed a plate of washed strawberries on the coffee table and smiled gently. “He was too tired from the last game, so he’s adjusting his rhythm. This man is very shrewd.”
Eight minutes have passed in the game.
The Rift Herald has spawned.
Xun's Vi was looking for an opportunity, and when he saw Fiora pushing the top lane, he decisively circled around from the Krugs position.
"I'm here, we can catch him now, he's pushing too far!" Xun communicated in the voice chat.
Bin's Quesanti, seeing the jungler in position, immediately activated his ultimate, "Arrogant and Unyielding," bringing Fiora to the edge of the wall, attempting to coordinate with Vi's damage to secure the kill.
Vi bursts out of the bushes, charging up her Q skill, Power Punch, in preparation for a chain of crowd control.
Despite being surrounded by Ueno and his partner, Su Mo remained unfazed.
"No need to come up, go get Xiaolong." He instructed Ah Chen's big tree in the voice chat.
Just as Vi's Q skill was about to collide with Fiora!
Su Mo activated his W skill, [Laurent's Mind's Eye Blade]!
Fiora adopted a defensive stance, and her golden sword energy not only perfectly blocked Vi's knockback but also precisely pierced Vi's body with the rebounded stun!
"I'm stunned! Mozi used W to block Vi's Q and successfully countered the stun!"
The moment Wei was stunned, Su Mo immediately activated his ultimate move, [Peerless Challenge], creating four openings on Wei.
A basic attack breaks through the frontal opening, a Q skill pierces the side, an E skill [Deadly Thrust] resets the basic attack to shatter the lower opening, and finally, using the speed boost, walks behind and lands a basic attack!
"Four breakthroughs in one second!!!"
Miller's eyes widened, and his exclamation echoed throughout the stadium.
Vi, at full health, didn't even have time to unleash her ultimate skill before her health bar evaporated instantly under the swing of her longsword!
A green healing array unfolded beneath Vi's corpse.
"EDG.Mo has killed BLG.Xun!"
Having solo-killed the jungler, Su Mo didn't linger in the fight. This was because Bin's Quesant had entered his all-around form, dealing considerable damage.
Su Mo stepped on the healing array and used the speed boost from breaking the weakness to leisurely create distance and safely retreat back to the tower.
"Too calm, too decisive." Guan Zeyuan sighed. "Mozi's skill with Fiora is so high that he could find openings even with his eyes closed. Xun's gank not only failed to kill anyone, but also cost him his own life and the bottom dragon."
This 1v2 comeback kill solidified Fiora's dominant position on the sidelines.
The game time reached eight and a half minutes. Su Mo pushed the top lane minion wave completely under BLG's turret, and smoothly pressed the recall button while hiding in the blind spot of the bush.
Opening the shop, leveraging his first blood, last-hitting advantage, and the substantial bounty from the solo kill on Vi, Su Mo immediately purchased Sheen and two Long Swords. For Fiora in the early game, the burst damage from Sheen combined with her Q skill to poke weaknesses is enough to strike fear into any tank.
"Xiaolong, go back to base to resupply. They might put pressure on the bottom half of the map." Su Mo picked up the thermos on the corner of the table and took a sip. His voice was gentle and calm in the voice channel, as if he were just chatting with a friend. "I'm fine in the top lane. You guys just focus on farming."
"Alright, Brother Mo, I've taken the dragon, I'm leaving right away." Ah Chen's Treant Protector steadily smited the first Infernal Dragon and retreated into his own jungle.
The atmosphere in BLG's voice chat seemed somewhat somber.
"Damn, I didn't expect him to hold onto his W so tightly." Xun sighed, bought two longswords, and headed towards the jungle. He knew very well that the top lane was no longer a place he could touch.
Knight frowned as he looked at the mid-lane stats panel: "Let's shift our focus downwards. I picked Ahri this game specifically for roaming. Xun, come down bot after you finish clearing this round of jungle camps. We'll gank bot lane 4v2. We need to create an opening before Leave's Aphelios gets his power spike."
After ten minutes, the game entered a brief period of tension.
After Bin's Quesantti returned to the lane, he truly experienced what it meant to be in jail. Facing a Fiora wielding Sheen, he barely had the courage to even glance at a melee minion. If he moved even slightly forward, Su Mo's Fiora would nimbly slide in, her Q skill hitting the opening with pinpoint accuracy. With the added damage from Sheen, Quesantti's prized armor was as fragile as paper.
Within just two minutes, Bin was forced to use Teleport to replenish his health, and the CS difference was quickly widened to thirty CS.
At 11 minutes and 20 seconds, BLG's long-planned offensive finally unfolded in the bottom lane.
Xun's Vi bypassed the river vision and emerged directly from the tri-bush behind EDG's bottom lane turret. At the same time, Knight's Ahri cleared the mid lane minion wave and activated her ultimate, Spirit Slam, to pass through the wall and arrive.
"BLG is going for a four-man gank on the bot lane! EDG's bot lane duo is in danger!" Miller stared intently at the screen.
Faced with the encirclement of four, Leave and Vamp didn't even have time to retreat back to the second tower. Vi's locked ultimate, Skybreaker, launched Aphelios high into the air, followed by Rakan's grand entrance, and Ahri's charm perfectly timed the attack.
Even though Leave used his Wind Force and Flash, he was still held fast by Xayah's hook and ultimately fell. Maokai used his ultimate to try and cover, but the support, Riven, was still caught and killed.
BLG executed a perfect 2-for-0 exchange in the bottom lane.
The BLG fans at the scene erupted in enthusiastic cheers, and the live stream chat was instantly flooded with comments:
[Good for them! The all-Chinese team is still resilient!]
[Xun was very clear-headed this time. If you can't win in the top lane, gank bot lane. That's the right way to play.]
[EDG's bot lane is having a terrible time, it feels like BLG's chances of winning are back!] However, just as the commentators and viewers were cheering for BLG's bot lane rhythm, the director suddenly switched the camera to the top lane.
"boom!"
With a dull thud, BLG's top lane first tower collapsed.
A notification pops up at the top of the screen:
EDG.Mo has destroyed the first turret!
Guan Zeyuan gasped: "Wait a minute! BLG got two kills in the bottom lane, but Mozi solo-killed the first tower with full plating in the top lane! This is outrageous, the top tower is gone in less than thirteen minutes?!"
The director switched to the economy panel, and Su Mo's Fiora not only had all five tower plates, but also out-farmed Quesanti by a full forty CS, giving her a 2,500 gold lead over her opponent.
"This is a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul," Rita sighed from the side. "BLG did manage to get back at the bottom lane, but that also means they've completely given up on Bin's development. At this point, with an unstoppable Fiora left to roam freely on the side lane, the defensive pressure BLG will face next is unimaginable."
After taking down the first tower, Su Mo didn't greedily pursue the minion wave at the second tower. He glanced at the enemy jungler and support who had disappeared from vision, then controlled Fiora to retreat smoothly to a safe area and recall to upgrade her equipment.
The game lasts for fourteen minutes.
Su Mo's equipment inventory was now filled with the game's ultimate gear—the [Holy Separator], along with a pair of cloth boots and a Tiamat. His level had already reached twelve.
In contrast, Bin, who was defending the high ground and farming creeps under the tower, had only just reached level 10 and only had a pitiful Iceborn Gauntlet and a pair of boots.
"Let's switch lanes, I'll go bot lane." Su Mo bought a control ward and left the fountain. "You guys go top and mid lanes to farm and spread out vision along the river. Ah Chen, the second Rift Herald is about to spawn, you and Xiao Yue should try to take it."
His voice remained as gentle and calm as ever, and even though he was the fattest person in the room, he didn't act arrogantly at all.
EDG quickly rotated lanes. Aphelios and Maokai moved to the mid and top lanes, while Su Mo, carrying a longsword, went to the bottom lane.
Sixteen minutes later, the suffocation suppression at the single end officially began.
Bin's Quesanti stood under the bottom lane's second turret, watching the Fiora approach with a minion wave, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
He tentatively used his Q skill to finish off the cannon minion.
The moment he made his move, Su Mo moved.
Without using her ultimate ability, Fiora simply used her Q skill, Sky Piercer, to precisely hit Quesant's side opening. The passive of Divine Separator was triggered, and with a crisp shattering sound, Quesant's thick health bar dropped by a large chunk, and he also had a mouthful of health drained by Fiora.
After exploiting the opening, Su Mo used the speed boost to calmly retreat from the turret's attack range, casually attacking a nearby minion to trigger Tiamat's cleave.
Bin gritted his teeth and could only retreat deep into the second tower. He knew very well that if he was reduced to below half health, this Fiora would definitely not hesitate to tower dive and kill him.
"Bin can't even see the lane anymore." Miller shook his head repeatedly in the commentary booth. "A Fiora with Tiamat and a split-second cooldown is like cutting tofu when she's fighting Quesant. BLG has to send someone to help him clear the lane, otherwise the bottom lane second tower will fall very soon."
BLG's commanders were also aware of this problem.
"I'll go check it out, Knight, you come too." Xun's Vi abandoned the half-finished F6 camp and headed towards the bottom jungle with Ahri.
Seventeen minutes.
Su Mo's intuition was quite sharp. He glanced at the dark enemy bottom half of the map, and instead of continuing to attack the towers, he retreated into the river bushes.
"They might be going down to gank me. You guys just focus on taking the lead and don't worry about me," he calmly instructed in the voice chat.
As expected, Vi and Ahri appeared at the edge of the bottom lane river vision.
The three of them surrounded the Sword Maiden.
But Su Mo was prepared. He activated his scan, cleared the wards in the triangular bushes, and calmly retreated along the route in his own jungle.
"We can't catch him, he retreated too early." Xun stopped in his tracks, feeling helpless.
Just as the three BLG players gathered in the bottom lane, a notification sound came from the top of the screen.
With the help of Chen's Treant Protector and the mid and bottom lane carries, they secured the second Rift Herald.
The live stream chat was flooded with comments like "So greasy!"
[Mozi's awareness is amazing. He slips away as soon as the opponent makes a move, giving you no chance to double-team him.]
[“He quit too early,” that’s what you call a top-tier top laner’s anti-gank instinct!]
[BLG not only missed their target during this gank, but also gave away the Rift Herald. What a huge loss!]
At 18 minutes and 30 seconds, EDG used the Rift Herald to easily push down BLG's mid-lane tower and completely pushed their vision into the enemy jungle.
Nineteen minutes and thirty seconds.
There is only half a minute left before the Baron Nashor spawns.
Su Mo's Fiora cleared a wave of minions in the top lane, completing her Ravenous Hydra. With two semi-divine items in hand, her combat power had reached its peak for the match.
"Slowly spread out your vision, don't let Vi lock onto you and initiate a team fight." Su Mo waited in the fountain for the Homeguard's speed boost effect while glancing at his equipment panel and gently commanding, "I'm going to join the team fight head-on, you don't need to rush to the end, wait for me to get into position."
He controlled Fiora, moving along the top lane river like an elegant assassin, silently approaching the soon-to-awaken Baron Nashor.
twenty minutes.
With a deafening roar, the great dragon spawned in the purple abyss.
Baron Nash, in his purple robes, roared through the middle of the river, shaking the canyon.
The air in the entire Mercedes-Benz Arena seemed to freeze at that moment. Fans from both sides held their breath, their eyes glued to the big screen.
EDG holds a huge advantage in the top lane and a one-point economic lead, but BLG's lineup, after twenty minutes of development, should not be underestimated in terms of team fight burst damage.
With Vi, Ahri, Rakan, and Xayah, this lineup's chain control and engage capabilities mean that if they can reach EDG's backline, they still have the potential to melt the game instantly.
"Push in with vision control of Baron, Chen, you hold the front, I'll look for opportunities from the flanks." Su Mo's voice was as calm as ever in the voice chat, without the slightest impatience of a match point game. He controlled Fiora, not joining the main force, but instead sneaking into BLG's upper jungle alone, hiding in the bush behind the red buff.
"Received, Brother Mo." Ah Chen's tree activated its scan, cautiously moving forward to investigate. Xiao Yue's Jess followed closely behind, switching to cannon mode and tentatively firing a reinforced cannon shot into the blind spot of the river.
"boom!"
The surge of electrical energy struck Luo, who was setting up vision, instantly reducing his health by a third! (End of Chapter)