Chen Mu received special training for his CS farming skill. He was able to farm CS with ease even with a champion like Harbinger of Doom who only had forty-five points of attack damage, what more Tankard who could easily reach hundreds of damage after drinking from his barrel.
The jungling Blind Monk sped over to the mid lane the instant he reached Level 3. Chen Mu easily dodged Blind Monk's Q—which enabled Blind Monk to locate his target enemy and dash over—with a violent twist of his body and reciprocated with a blasting barrel.
Chen Mu aimed to reduce as much of Blind Monk's health to lower the risk of Blind Monk winning over Prince if they encountered each other in the jungle. Chen Mu was not the kind who would forget to help his teammates build an advantage amidst dodging abilities.
Chang Hao played in at least hundreds of matches before this. His team lost to the champion in the Provincial Championship in the past by two mere points. Yet, after playing two matches with Chen Mu, Chang Hao solemnly realized that super-strong players who had yet to be discovered existed! Chen Mu's grasp on details was always more in-depth than his; Chen Mu's concerns were always more layered than his. If Chang Hao could not even suppress Chen Mu's CS, that just went to show how strong Chen Mu was.
Since he did not manage to capture Chen Mu, the jungler had no intention of wasting time. Chen Mu still had his E and Flash. Blind Monk had no way of killing him anyway. In fact, he was worried that Chen Mu would replicate Chang Hao's technique to drag Blind Monk into the turret and get himself killed instead.
All Blind Monk wanted was to help his mid laner gain an advantage over the enemy mid laner through harassment and reducing the enemy's health. Yet, he could not achieve that. Blind Monk felt a strong sense of helplessness creeping up. Meanwhile, Chang Hao simply asked Blind Monk to farm rapidly so that Blind Monk would be able to capture the top lane later.
At the same time, Chen Mu started planning the combos and damage required to send Clockwork to her death. After reaching Level 6, Tankard's Q would have reached Level 3 and he would have two hundred points of magic damage. After adding AP, the damage would become 1.0. After reaching Level 1 in his W, he would increase in thirty points of attack damage and mana regeneration. His E was more special; its damage would be increased by an additional eighty points.
When Gragas charged forward until he collided with his first target, he would deal damage to surrounding enemy units in addition to his 66% attack damage. The damage would be evenly distributed to the targets he collided with. Moreover, the targets that collided with Tankard would have their movement speed reduced by 35%. The effect would last for 2.5seconds.
In other words, in his drunken state, Gragas' damage would be higher as he would have sixty points more in damage after drinking from his cask.
Chen Mu hurriedly calculated the damage from all of Gragas' skills mentally, along with Clockwork's magic resistance, physical resistance, and damage reduction. He did not forget to add on the true damage from Ignite and increased damage from his masteries.
Oh, yes. He should not forget the fact that Clockwork had a shielding E and a firm barrier.
Clockwork remained at full health eventually. For a person who understood Tankard like the back of his hand, Chen Mu knew he was safe for now. His enemy could only cut his health down to low health at the very maximum.
Chang Hao continued laning until he reached Level 6. He had already accumulated a lot of gold. Chang Hao started to push lane as he prepared himself to recall to base for items.
The minion line was suppressed all the way to the front of the first turret. Since Prince appeared at bot lane and failed at an attempt to capture his victim, Clockwork thought it was safe for him to leave after pushing the lane.
His chance came!
In full health, Clockwork observed the enemy jungler's position and relaxed his sense of wariness. Meanwhile, Chen Mu used Q to blast all of the minions to very low health.
With one Q removed from the equation, Clockwork started to move even more rampantly, thinking that he could harass Chen Mu a bit.
Suddenly, Tankard's ultimate, Explosive Cask, was hurled at Clockwork. Clockwork could not register what just happened and did not cast Flash at that instant. Clockwork was blasted into turret range as the turret coincidentally killed off the last dying minion. The turret started to attack Clockwork!
Chen Mu followed up with his Body Slam to reduce Clockwork's speed. Then, he started using his increased attack damage to cast his basic attacks.
Clockwork could only chain up a D and an F, turned around, and pulled Tankard with her QR in hopes of escaping. Chen Mu smiled and topped it off with Ignite before being dragged into Clockwork's ball.
Solo kill!
In the eyes of the audience, this was Clockwork's failure in wave control, but Chang Hao knew that it was because his opponent somehow calculated the window of time where the tower had finished killing off the minions and began hitting Clockwork instead. If the minions were still not down, then a quick flash paired with an E would have led to an easy escape for Clockwork. At the same time, if he threw the Cask a little too late and the minions were already down, then Chang Hao would have backed off instead.
Terrifying. It was too terrifying. The enemy mid laner Tankard was a hell lot stronger than Chang Hao!
Chang Hao took in a deep breath, picked up the mineral water from the table, and drank a mouthful. This was not the time to give up. As long as his Nexus was still up, anything was still possible. If he responded faster just now and cast his Flash, he would not need to die! He needed to remain calm!
He had to keep farming. Clockwork still had a shot at turning the tables with its late game potential.
Chen Mu's Tankard was already equipped with Chalice of Harmony and Sorcerer's Shoes, he was on the way to an Athene's Unholy Grail. He also planted another round of wards. The twenty-thousand was within striking distance now, he was not going to let the enemy team take away his shot.
Chen Mu placed his ward where his enemy F4 were located and in the river so that he could pinpoint the enemy jungler's position. This would provide a major advantage for the overall game.
Now, Clockwork would not be able to withstand even a blast from Tankard's Q. With the existence of Sorcerer's Shoes, half of most champions' magic resistance could be ignored. Most champions started off with thirty points of magic resistance, added with nine magic resistance points from runes. Some champions that might have some mana to spend but had no magic resistance would shudder at the sight of Sorcerer's shoes. Only twenty percent of damage received could be reduced. Therefore, three hundred points of basic damage from an enemy would be able to blast away more than two hundred forty health.
Clockwork was probably not going to build Mercury's Threads at this rate, he was solely relying on a late game damage turnaround now. Chang Hao believed that it was more stable to just focus on last hitting with his Q and to avoid the enemy's Q.
However, their difference in CS continued to grow bigger and bigger. The enemy Tankard continued to last hit from afar with his Q, and whenever he wanted to take a blue buff, he would get a blue buff; whenever he wanted to reinforce a lane, he would reinforce a lane. Clockwork was basically pinned down on the mid lane.
When Tankard left to grab the blue buff, Clockwork quickly pinged his bot lane to retreat. With the mid lane missing and the minions pushing toward the tower, it was a perfect opportunity to travel to bot lane for a quick kill. This was because by the time they were done killing in bot lane and returned, there would be minimal loss in minions in the mid lane.
However, it was too late. Chen Mu passed through the dragon pit's wall directly with his E, then blasted Gun Dude out from under his tower using his ultimate while his teammate followed up with a quick skill to seal the kill.
One quick assist with his ultimate and Chen Mu was gone. Without missing a beat, he returned to mid lane to continue ravaging Clockwork. Did Clockwork really think Chen Mu was going to give her a chance to farm?
After massacring the bot lane, they took down the dragon. A stable economy was key to fueling the steamroll that would roll their opponents over.
They had reached the middle game. The purple team had a huge advantage over the other team with a gold-advantage that exceeded four thousand. The mid laner was leading with a Needlessly Large Rod that cost one thousand six hundred gold. This gave him an AP-advantage that was as high as eighty points. Clockwork did not dare to get within Tankard's ultimate casting range, and thus, missed out on even more CS.
However, this did not mean security. As the minions began pressing at the base of the tower, Clockwork had to come and clear them or risk losing the tower altogether. Chang Hao hoped to slip past and avoid Tankard's barrel. Using W to increase his speed, Chang Hao dodged the rolling barrel that came at him in a straight line. Chang Hao thought he was safe since he could probably survive with his current health until the barrel had cooled down.
However, Chen Mu's ultimate came crashing in without any hesitation, sending Clockwork straight into the air. At that moment, Chang Hao thought, 'Good thing I have enough health, it even sent me to safety…'
"F*ck! Clockwork got blasted back onto the barrel!" Below the stage, the audience watched as Clockwork died in vain before she even touched the ground. This was absolutely unbelievable. He must have had an incredibly deep understanding of Tankard's mechanics. Was it truly up to him wherever he wanted to send his enemies blasting toward?
"I've seen this move being used in the European championships. In the match that brought Ice King to the World Championships, it was this move that enabled the Ice King to blast the enemy AD to death," commented an experienced member of the audience.
"A professional player's move? I have not seen such a thing in all of my solo queue days, at least not in my 1800 ELO points range." Someone continued.
This wave of solo kills was too brilliant to ignore. This match blew everyone's mind on understanding Tankard. If it was not for this match, they would not have realized that they could play Tankard this way.
Second solo kill!
The opponent seemed to begin securing the high ground now. This Tankard was getting way too fed. His positioning and farming momentum was perfect with a CS of two hundred and ten at the twenty-minute mark. Not to mention he also had five kills under his belt.
Chang Hao felt a deep sense of helplessness. After making their way to the city cybercafe tournament without suffering any defeat, would this be their end?
"Brother Hao, let's just surrender," Someone said. Against a Q that could wipe out half a health bar, there seemed to be no point in playing anymore. Especially since the skill's cooldown was so short.
"Hush, I, Chang Hao, has never surrendered in a competition. I will not do so today, and I will never do so, not ever!" Chang Hao continued commanding Clockwork to clear the minion waves with a focused expression.
His teammates could only continue with gritted teeth. Their carry had been beaten to obscurity, there was little hope for victory at this point.
"Retreat, we're getting Baron," said Chen Mu.
With his mission incomplete, the option to steamroll was not yet an accessible one. Chen Mu needed to solo kill Clockwork a few more times. This Chang Hao was much stronger than Liu Fei, and was a very steady person. It would be hard to kill him using conventional methods.