"Game starts!"
The BP interface popped up, and Coach He with a notebook in his right hand stood behind his team.
Tian Meng was given the priority to choose a side and they picked red.
YL unceremoniously slammed down one jungler after another and TM hit back with one ADC after another.
YL first secured Kaze for XiaoXi whereas TM locked down the bot-lane for Li Haoran and Yang Yuxuan.
Seeing this, Coach Lu was rather surprised.
"They are already revealing the Support?"
Ever since his arrival, BlackLotus has become TM's wild card. His hero pool is deep so it won't affect him even if he were to pick last.
Due to this, Coach Lu thought that it would be the same this time around.
After studying 404's live stream, he seemed to only know how to play mages.
Of course, Coach Lu wouldn't be so stupid to think that a professional player could only play one class.
But it is evident that his hero pool is limited.
Based on this, they expected Tian Meng to quickly secure a strong mage for 404. Mo, in particular, is quite strong in this patch so it doesn't make any sense that they didn't grab her.
Slightly pushing the glasses that slid on the bridge of his nose, Coach Lu was not polite and calmly said, "Take Mo and Qiao."
In the last game, 404's Sen was quite good but they were not afraid of him. In fact, they were trying to force him to play Sen by not banning him in the first place.
If he really dared to pick Sen in this game, it would be like digging his own grave.
As expected, Tian Meng also had the same thought. Even though Sen was still open, they instead locked in Yhan, a tank that was played by Wei Chen a couple of times.
Coach Lu frowned, "They are still not picking mid? Are they going to abandon the middle road?"
XiaoXi, on the other hand, shook his head, "I have played with him before, Xiao Yue is quite strong."
Despite his warning, Coach Lu didn't take his words to heart.
How strong can a rookie Omega mid-laner be?
That five kills in his debut game was through the help of his teammates. His strength was not that strong.
Tian Meng's mid won't pose any threat to them.
As a result, YL didn't ban any mid-laners and gave the last two spots to Zhao Fu's most-played heroes.
Tian Meng didn't seem to be bothered by this and quickly banned two Supports that went well with Kaze.
When it was Tian Meng's turn to pick, they immediately slammed down Li causing the crowd to go wild.
Commentator A expressed his shock, "Oh, Yhan is actually going top and Li, jungle! We are going to see Silence's Li! How long has this been?! But in hindsight, Tian Meng's counterpick will go to 404!"
Commentator B tried to make sense of the situation, "Maybe Tian Meng wants to see YL's whole lineup first to relieve the mid-lane's pressure?"
The online discussion was also heated.
[Wow, Silence actually gets to play Li?]
[Silence has been released from tank duty so that he can carry the useless Omega lol]
[They wasted such a precious chance on a rookie mid-laner?]
[I thought that the whole reason for adding a new mid-laner was to relieve the pressure on Silence? Isn't this just adding more weight to the team?]
[Peace was never an option ever since that Omega joined #eyeroll#]
[Why didn't they let the top lane have the counterpick? Are they so hell-bent on not breaking the losing streak?]
[I am glad I am not watching it on-site. This is embarrassing!]
[Congrats on the fifth losing streak :)]
In the meantime, Coach Lu was a bit speechless, wondering whether Coach He had gone mad.
Are they too confident or just looking out for their rookie?
In any case, the situation was in their favor so Coach Lu couldn't be any happier. Since Tian Meng blind-picked top, they had the upper hand on the top side.
YL immediately locked down a top laner who could handle Yhan well and their draft looked solid.
If nothing went wrong, they would have three winning lanes in the early gam–
"Chase! Chase is locked in!"
The commentators cheered loudly and the crowd screamed, unsure whether it stemmed from excitement or frustration.
Chase was rarely picked in the competitive match despite his huge threat to steal the enemies' big moves.
Mainly it was because his laning phase was quite average. In addition, his attack range was that of a melee so playing against another mage, he would get poked into oblivion before even going in for a trade.
Most of the time, he would just throw himself in and die right before the team fight even broke out.
Since his recklessness outweighed his usefulness, every Coaching team didn't like seeing their players play him in a competitive match.
You see… They don't have that much faith in those hot-blooded youngsters.
While watching the game backstage, their heads were almost gone bald from the stress.
On a good note, having Chase in the game would guarantee an entertaining match which was the reason why the commentators were excited.
After the initial shock, Coach Lu quickly calmed down.
No, Chase is not unexpected. After all, their team has a lot of good big moves to steal.
It is right to pick him. The problem lies in whether 404 can handle this champion or not.
404 is likely to be forced to play this due to the draft by his coach. Coach Lu silently thought.
Feeling like his guess was correct, Coach Lu patted his mid-laner's shoulder, "Ah Hua. Don't go easy on him just because he is an Omega."
Ah Hua, YL's mid-laner pretended to be concerned, "Will he cry after this match? I won't get bashed by the internet for bullying an Omega right?"
XiaoXi who overheard their sarcastic exchanges almost couldn't hold himself from rolling his eyes at them.
Just because Fu Yue was a rookie and an Omega, they both looked down on him.
During their preparation, they didn't take any measures to guard against Tian Meng's middle road.
Did they not stop to think that for someone to be able to catch Wei Chen's eyes, just how strong that person is?
Regardless, XiaoXi said nothing since he didn't want to ruin the team's mood before the game even started.
Let's see whether they can still smile later on.
After the pick and ban was over, both coaches walked to the center of the stage to shake hands and they smiled meaningfully at each other.
Coach Lu thought that since his team was able to beat Tian Meng from going to the international stage last year, this time would be no different either.
Coach He, on the other hand, welcomed his smug face with a relaxed smile.
Let's see who is going to cry tonight.
"30 seconds until the minions spawn."
Without saying anything, four men from YL walked into Wei Chen's lower jungle to steal his blue buff.
Upon seeing that Tian Meng let their blue go, Ah Hua walked back to the mid-lane in a leisurely manner.
Silence must have gone straight to their blu–
Just as this thought occurred, a pair of black bondage extended from within the bush and landed on him. Afterward, Chase pulled himself over, and together with Li, they started beating him.
In the blink of an eye, Ah Hua was beaten down to half-health. Not wanting to miss the first wave, he decisively flashed behind the wall only to be hit by Li's Q in the next second.
Seeing such an action happen early into the game, Commentator A excitedly shouted, "Silence keeps his Q and predicts his flash! Ah Hua should go down here!"
[First Blood!]
"First Blood went to Silence! This is bad for YL! Silence should not be allowed to get ahead this early!"
In response to the first blood, Tian Meng's fans cheered. Their frustrations were slightly alleviated.
After getting a kill, Wei Chen walked into YL's lower jungle and YL couldn't do anything about it.
To make matters worse, Ah Hua didn't bring a teleport and had to walk back to his lane causing him to lose a whole wave!
Ah Hua apologized, "My bad. I didn't expect Silence to squat mid instead of going to our blue."
WuWei, YL's jungler comforted, "It is okay. I will come over soon."
Hearing this, Ah Hua's mood slightly improved.
However, just as he arrived at his outer tower, Chase once again hit him with his bandage stunning him in the process, and dove him under the turret!
Ah Hua's eyes widened in shock, "What the hell is he do–"
His words stopped mid-way as he was suddenly hit by Li's Q from over the wall.
Afterward, history repeats itself.
[TM_Silence has slain YL_Ah Hua!]
Ah Hua: "..."
Another cheer was heard and Tian Meng's crowd finally came back alive.
"404 dropped the tower aggro and Silence jumped onto him. Both of them got out safely! What a beautiful dive!" Commentator B praised.
Commentator A echoed, "404 is really ruthless! Ah Hua is still level 1 with zero farms! He is two whole levels behind now!"
Both commentators and audiences who watched from the god's perspective knew that it was Fu Yue who called for that tower dive.
After seeing the ping telling him to go in, Wei Chen who had just taken the enemy red buff wordlessly walked over and went behind the wall.
Ah Hua knew that the enemy jungler was lingering in their red jungle but he just didn't expect that these two were so bad to dive him right after he had just resurrected!
On the other hand, WuWei, who was about to path mid to help his mid-laner regain control swiftly changed his direction and went to the bot-lane.
At the moment, Li Haoran and Yang Yuxuan were pushing the wave which was a good opportunity to gank them.
WuWei, who had been clearing the camps without stopping, inevitably rotated down faster than Wei Chen who was busy ganking mid.
Therefore, even if Wei Chen was still hovering around the bot-lane, YL could still make this gank work.
"Oh no! Tian Meng's bot-lane is being surrounded! BlackLotus and Alphabet's health bars are depleting extremely fast! Silence is moving over but will he arrive on ti-Teleport! 404 is teleporting!"
An alarm bell rang in XiaoXi's heart, he hurriedly said, "Retreat!"
However, his Support and Jungler had other thoughts.
WuWei said, "We can still win. Alphabet and BlackLotus are low."
Milky agreed, "That's right! We invested too many resources, we couldn't afford to back out now!"
Unable to convince his teammates, XiaoXi gritted his teeth and continued chasing Alphabet and BlackLotus.
Fu Yue arrived shortly. WuWei put down the rocks intending to stun Chase the moment he finished his teleport.
Unfortunately, Fu Yue reacted quickly and dodged his CC ability with his flash. He then immediately stunned Qiao with his E.
Facing a two-level higher mid-laner with better items, Qiao didn't even have time to flash before falling under his hands.
[TM_404 has slain YL_WuWei!]
Without saying anything, Fu Yue quickly turned to YL's Support and killed him before he could take away Li Haoran's head.
[TM_404 has slain YL_Milky!]
[Double Kill!]
XiaoXi knew beforehand that they were at a disadvantage and stayed away at the back.
Unfortunately, Wei Chen emerged from their jungle and dove him under the tower.
When his health dropped to a dangerous zone, Fu Yue timely arrived and dashed into the tower range.
Wei Chen jumped onto him, dropping the tower aggro leaving Fu Yue to harvest the kill.
[TM_404 has slain YL_XiaoXi!]
[Triple Kills!]
[TM_404 is on a killing spree!]
Commentator A regretfully sighed, "YL thought that they could kill Alphabet and BlackLoths before Silence and 404 rotated over but 404 based after getting a plate and teleported down to the bot-lane right after spending his gold!"
Commentator B's eyes were full of admiration, "WuWei timed his abilities with 404's teleport perfectly, and the scenario could have been played differently had 404 not flashed immediately upon his arrival. Tian Meng's mid-laner is really putting on a performance for everyone here to see! 3/0/2 with 300 gold bounty at 5 minutes!"