A Broken Mirror Reunited In An E-Sports Ch 54

The lion spoke confidently, leaving the audience in awe.

Some people took the opportunity to muddy the waters and discuss in the spectator area.

“Yeah, VIT is nothing special. Just focus on catching them. Look at the last match between RVG and VIT. Once they were caught, they couldn’t handle it anymore. Easy was dragged to death.”

“That’s right. They keep boasting about their undefeated record, but that’s only for the regular season. Everyone is hiding their true abilities. It doesn’t matter.”

The players on the field couldn’t hear the commentary, so they gathered to discuss the pick and ban phase.

The audience was also eagerly waiting, holding their breath in anticipation.

Before the match, there was a draw, and the first round of pick and ban began. VIT had the second pick, and it was a familiar procedure.

RS started by banning the hero Yin and opted for a substitution ban, giving the strongest jungler, Di, to Lang Bai.

“A standard start, but who knows if it will lead to a standard outcome?”

The co-commentator, Bingbing, was very popular among fans. She had a cute personality and sharp analysis. She had always been partnered with Lin Yi, and this time was no different, following their usual commentary style.

“Brother Yin truly deserves the title of the Most Valuable Player for three consecutive years. In VIT’s matches this season, the ban rate for his signature hero, Yin, reached a staggering 73.86%. It goes without saying that being banned is the highest honor for a player.”

Bingbing glanced down and continued, “Next is Li, with a ban rate of 71.4%, primarily targeting VIT. Easy has raised the ban rate for Li in the entire league.”

The lion chuckled and said, “That’s normal. The purpose of the pick and ban phase is to restrict the opponent, especially their key heroes.”

It seemed like he was continuing the conversation, but in reality, he subtly shifted the topic, implying that there was nothing to be proud of.

The commentator’s attitude was delicate. This subtlety could directly affect the viewers mood while watching the game. Whether a certain play was worth cheering for or how important a highlight moment was, these were all aspects that the commentator had to present to the audience.

The fans knew about the longstanding feud between Lion and Rong Yi—aside from the remark “retire within three years,” there was another conflict. Rumor had it that Lion couldn’t make it in RS’s youth training because Rong Yi didn’t agree.

Lion had played in the secondary league for a while, and during that time, he had some remarkable individual performances, including a 100% win rate on stage. His fans still boasted about this achievement to this day, using it to criticize Rong Yi’s lack of foresight.

Of course, these were all trivial matters.

The opponent banned Yin, and VIT picked Di as their first choice. With the selection right back to VIT, Hui Mao followed their previous strategy and wanted to pick Li first and give it to Rong Yi.

Rong Yi said, “Wait a bit and see the lineup.”

As a result, Ci She picked Empress first, locking in a hero. Hui Mao chose Earth Mother afterward.

Empress and Earth Mother were both top-tier heroes, so VIT didn’t suffer any major losses in this round of pick and ban. They even gained a little advantage.

However, the balance of this game lay in the fact that there were too many top-tier heroes (T0) to ban, making it impossible to determine victory or defeat through the pick and ban phase alone.

In the second round of picks, RS chose Dreamworker and Arctic Rider. They banned Li.

Dreamworker was a support hero with an ultimate that forcibly put enemies in a dream state, reducing their vision and detection ability by 70% and slowing them down. Directly hitting a hero within the area of effect would cause a 90% slow.

Various minor skills also had slowing and vision-reducing effects.

Dreamworker was a fierce support hero, but its appearance rate had been low in recent years. Slowdown and healing reduction were soft controls and negative effects that couldn’t compare to the kind of control that Earth Mother had, which allowed players to take their hands off the keyboard.

Its most valuable aspect was the reduction of vision, but because it was an active skill, it was not easy to fully utilize in professional matches.

“Picking Dreamworker into Earth Mother and Empress, that’s something,” the online fans discussed. “How are they going to play? Earth Mother and Empress are unbeatable.”

Arctic Rider, on the other hand, was a burst-type mage in the mid lane with fragile health but control effects that came with frost.

VIT picked their last two heroes.

Wu Dao Gu chose the powerful role of Lava Gem, who was immune to crowd control effects, leaving only Xiao Yin and Rong Yi to be picked.

It was rare for Rong Yi to be the last one to pick a hero. Xiao Yin looked at him with Phoenix-like eyes and said, “I’ll go first, and you pick later. Let’s play it safe.”

Rong Yi took a deep breath and nodded.

Xiao Yin picked the ordinary utility jungler, while RS completed their final lineup.

Key of Memories and Crown Prince.

Crown Prince was a burst-type top laner whose story was intertwined with Marksman Empress as siblings. They both had similar mechanics that allowed them to enter a bloodshed mode, but while Empress’s mode boosted her attack power, Crown Prince’s mode increased his speed.

Coupled with the Key of Memories, it was clear that RS’s intended playstyle was about all-out aggression, high burst damage, strong slowdown, and control.

They were going for picks.

“Not bad,” Rong Yi laughed softly through the microphone, his voice clear and calm, like gentle snowflakes. “The style is different from before.”

Ci She said, “Captain, this one looks dangerous.”

Hui Mao immediately responded, “I will protect the captain!”

Wu Dao Gu chimed in on the microphone, “Sure, is this considered a bold move?”

The audience in the spectator area was also discussing it.

From the commentator’s desk, Lion said, “It’s clearly a strategy to catch the opponents off guard. RS came prepared, and their lineup is significantly different from the regular season. This shows that RS was prepared for this.”

“The lineup RS used in the regular season was quite obvious, centered around the jungle core with a few fixed heroes. But today, they deviated from the jungle role, and almost everyone used new configurations. Everyone has a lot of room to play.”

Bingbing, the co-commentator, was also carefully observing, “Heroes like Dreamworker and Arctic Rider are rarely picked by RS. They haven’t used them in the regular season this year.”

As the countdown ended, Rong Yi chose Silver Hook.

Silver Hook was now the second most frequently picked hero in Rong Yi’s hands, second only to Li.

Since the previous team fight that had required pulling teammates, Rong Yi had specially practiced Silver Hook in VIT to combine it with various combinations.

“He’s picking Silver Hook against such a strong diving lineup?”

The commentary team was a bit surprised, saying, “Anyone with a discerning eye can see that they are aiming to catch someone. Rong Yi didn’t pick heroes that are convenient for retreat or rotating, nor did he pick high-defense heroes. It’s indeed a bit risky.”

Silver Hook’s pulling ability is strong in a literal sense. This hero doesn’t have any mobility skills and relies entirely on the control effects of the silver spear it throws, making it extremely easy to be unexpectedly killed.

The match started, and both sides silently entered their lanes from their respective perspectives.

The first three minutes were crucial for resource control, but RS didn’t directly camp in the middle lane. After all, the intention to catch someone was well-known, and VIT must have been prepared.

Both sides played cautiously in their lanes, even if it meant sacrificing some resource gain. In the overall map perspective, players from both sides were scouting for vision. RS’s bot lane, accompanied by Key of Memories, took the initiative to scout with Ci She and Hui Mao.

Once Ci She and Hui Mao’s positions were confirmed, almost simultaneously, RS’s mid laner, jungler, top laner, and support directly flanked towards the middle lane!

The support created fake vision towards the top lane, while the bot lane perspective showed their intention to flank the bottom lane.

At the same time, Wu Dao Gu reported, “They’re not here.”

Ci She was scouted by the support but remained alert, saying, “The enemy support is not here.”

“Understood.”

Rong Yi rotated near the blue area in the mid lane, facing a hidden brush. He immediately used his hook, pulling out a figure!

Dreamworker activated its ultimate, causing a wide-area slow and healing reduction. At the same time, Key of Memories combined with jungle hero Di to dive under the tower, while Crown Prince protected them from behind and confirmed the vision in the blue area.

They wanted to dive and secure a kill under the tower!

The speed of the commentary outside the battlefield increased as they commented on everyone’s movements.

None of the VIT players were affected. Xiao Yin cleared vision in the enemy blue area, and the bot lane took advantage of the outnumbered situation to push rapidly. Wu Dao Gu held his position with superior vision after clearing the wave, preparing to counter-gank from a hidden location.

Rong Yi hooked the Dreamworker, who didn’t manage to escape. In the blink of an eye, he dragged the enemy Di under the tower, redirecting the tower’s aggression towards him.

In less than two seconds of chaos, Rong Yi completely controlled the enemy with a full combo of skills, without any escapes.

He dealt with slowing and healing reduction rather than hard crowd control, acting faster than the enemy Di, effectively taking a full Silver Hook combo along with the tower damage. Although Silver Hook’s damage was low, combined with the tower’s damage, it was enough to instantly kill an underdeveloped jungler.

The core damage dealer, the enemy Di, was controlled, while the rest of the team couldn’t keep up with their damage output. Rong Yi survived with a sliver of health, and the opportunity passed by quickly.

The attempted four-man gank failed, only trading the enemy Di. Li wanted to pursue further, but Xiao Yin arrived directly, intercepting his killing route.

At this moment, the audience began to realize the reason behind Rong Yi’s choice of Silver Hook for crowd control.

Rong Yi reacted quickly and had the advantage of controlling the situation under the tower. He accurately replaced one of the enemy players who were trying to gank him.

And he had the ability to drag a few more people.

It was a reenactment of the comeback in the previous Crystal match.

Silver Hook slowly lowered his head, wiping his shiny spear.

It was a silent signal.

If you dare to come, be prepared to lose at least one person.

If you dare to catch Rong Yi, you must first consider whether you’re the one who reacts faster or if it’s Rong Yi.

Outside the arena, the commentator was still working hard.

Regarding this gank by RS, he said, “It’s understandable. RS has a late-game-oriented lineup with a high demand for items. They took a risk with this early gank, hoping to secure First Blood and secure a stable victory. But now that the opportunity has passed, they can only focus on farming.”

Some of the audience started to complain.

“After such an exciting escape earlier, not mentioning the protagonist Easy feels a bit off! What’s wrong with this commentator?”

Gradually, such comments began to flood the screen.

The commentary desk could actually see the real-time barrage, but Lion acted as if he hadn’t noticed.

“Now, we are entering the fifth minute—the blue buff is respawning. Yin has already taken the enemy jungle’s blue buff, and there’s a high possibility that he will give his own blue buff to Easy in the mid lane!”

“But we can see that the top laner, Light Word, has paused near the blue area! The enemy jungle, Di, has finished his red buff and can join in at any time! It’s a two-lane ambush!”

“RS has indeed shown a significant change in their playstyle today, such as the synergy between the jungle and top lane and their proactive actions. It’s obvious that they have moved away from the passive playstyle and are actively looking for opportunities.”

“Yin is giving away the blue buff! Now Easy is heading towards the blue area—”

Lion was about to utter the continuation of “Easy being caught,” but the situation on the battlefield changed rapidly, completely unexpected by him.

Rong Yi created fake vision towards the blue area and then circled back to the tower, while Wu Dao Gu and Xiao Yin cooperated to directly intercept Light Word, who was planning to ambush from the brush.

“He got caught and controlled.”

In a calm and indifferent tone, Xiao Yin said, “Their jungler hasn’t arrived yet. Take it slow.”

Xiao Yin firmly controlled the vision of the river, and the enemy Di seemed to sense the danger and hesitated to come over, ultimately turning around to farm the top lane minions.

Xiao Yin then took a detour to help the bot lane while Wu Dao Gu stayed solo.

What many people didn’t know was that, after multiple calculations and thorough verification, vision was considered the most valuable resource in VIT’s strategy.

The longer vision was exposed, the more uncertain the outcome of the battle and the lower the initiative.

Therefore, in any situation that can be handled by a single person, they would not send more than two; a battle that can be ended in one second would never drag on for two seconds.

Creating fake vision was a consensus in professional matches, but how to do it, how to do it properly, and how to create fake vision without affecting the pace of the game were the true skills.

Wu Dao Gu engaged in a skirmish with Light Word, while Xiao Yin disappeared. Rong Yi returned to the blue area to help Wu Dao Gu secure a kill and then calmly took the blue buff.

Because Xiao Yin only appeared for a brief moment and then disappeared, RS didn’t dare to continue advancing and could only retreat.

Xiao Yin casually said, “Maybe they could’ve been more aggressive.”

After all, everyone knew that Rong Yi was blatantly taking the blue buff without any fear.

Rong Yi smiled and replied, “It will take some time.”

“It’s fine to adopt a new playstyle, but they shouldn’t forget their fundamentals.”

“No matter what, I have taught them all the tricks of creating fake vision. They shouldn’t forget that.”