All-Round Mid Laner

Yueying's core DPS died, and their top and middle lane minions had been cleared away.
It would have been unreasonable for them to try to tank the damage from Tianhuan's defensive tower in a 4v5 fight.
Xu Zhuo decisively ordered, “Let's fall back.”

Xie Weiyu was waiting to respawn at their base crystal.
He took the initiative to say, “Sorry.
That was my bad.”

Xu Zhuo couldn't help but retort, “What are you talking about, your bad? When those two calamities set their sights on someone, not even a god could escape!”

Xie Weiyu fell silent.

That was true.
Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang demonstrated a terrifying degree of synchronicity.
The two of them had gotten behind Xie Weiyu in the blink of an eye, and they'd unleashed their killing skills in just 0.1 seconds.
Their brainwaves were completely in sync; it was like they were two heroes played by the same person!

Xu Zhuo thought for a moment, then said, “This lineup of theirs is too gross.
We can't let their mid/jungle duo start to roam.
Little Yu, after you respawn, go finish off the minions on the bottom lane.
Then immediately hit the middle lane.
We'll take down their tower by force!”

After respawning, Xie Weiyu swiftly returned to the bottom lane.

The Machine Gun Huntsman and Master Machinist were a formidable tower-pushing duo, and they were also extremely quick at clearing minions.
The Machine Gun Huntsman's Q skill fired off a spread of bullets that could finish off a whole wave.

Once the bottom lane was clear, Xie Weiyu swiftly moved to the middle lane under the support's protection.
In the top lane, the Kung-Fu Master was also very quick at clearing minions.
Xu Zhuo finished and rushed to the middle lane at the exact same time.

By choosing top and bottom lane heroes who were good at clearing minions, Yueying created a time advantage for themselves.
Presently, Xu Zhuo and Xie Weiyu had already gotten to the middle lane.
But Tianhuan's top and bottom laners had yet to finish clearing away enemy minions.

Ye Shaoyang took a look at the approaching crowd and helplessly said, “Five on the mid lane.”

Here they come again.

Did they want to set up camp and play mahjong with him in the middle lane today?

Chi Shuo glanced at the mid lane and said, “Group up to assist ASAP.”

However, by the time Tianhuan's top and bottom laners finished clearing the minions in their respective lanes and rushed in to help, Yueying had already cruelly taken the initiative to start a fight.
The support used his disruption skill to temporarily stop Tianhuan's defensive tower from attacking.
Xu Zhuo bullied his way under the tower, striking fiercely at Ye Shaoyang!

Ye Shaoyang moved swiftly and intuitively.
He used his W skill to bolt over a wall and escape into the woods, and on his way—he turned back and cast a 'Sleep' at Xu Zhuo, rendering him immobile under Tianhuan's tower.

In everyone's headset, a voiceline rang out.
“You're tired.
Sleep for a while.”

Xu Zhuo was silent.

I'm not even a little tired! I want to beat you to death!

Ye Shaoyang's escape was extremely diabolical.
When he flipped over the wall and escaped into the woods, the enemy jungler kept his sights on Ye Shaoyang.
The jungler immediately gave chase, leaping in to stun him.
But then, in the next instant… Ye Shaoyang suddenly disappeared?

When Yueying's jungler took a closer look, he noticed that Chi Shuo had arrived.

Yueying's mid laner, the Storm Goddess, was lurking in the nearby woods, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Chi Shuo had sneakily possessed her, and with one use of his Q skill—he'd pulled Ye Shaoyang over to him.

Then, Ye Shaoyang unleashed a skill combo with his terrifyingly fast hand speed…

Nightmare Descends.

Under the joint assault from Tianhuan's mid/jungle duo, the enemy mid laner was killed in an instant.

Yueying's mid laner gloomily muttered, “Damn! They can even pull that off?!”

Originally, Xu Zhuo had charged under Tianhuan's tower to kill Ye Shaoyang.
Ye Shaoyang had used his own movement skill to escape.
Yueying's jungler was lurking nearby.
They should have been able to kill Ye Shaoyang for sure in that attack.

They hadn't imagined… that Chi Shuo had this sort of method for saving his teammate?

He saved someone by killing someone else? Was that reasonable?!

After Chi Shuo got an assist for killing the mid laner, his 'Possess' skill instantly came off cooldown.
He took aim at the enemy jungler and once again possessed an opponent.
With another use of his Q skill, he pulled Ye Shaoyang along with him again.

Yueying's jungler, the Brawler, was a very fragile hero to begin with.
And in this game, he was playing as a support jungler.
His gear wasn't very good.
With two people hanging off him, unleashing a set of skills aimed directly at him, he fell right away—dead on the ground!

Tianhuan-Lieyang (Nightmare) killed YY-Fengfeng (Storm Goddess)!

Tianhuan-Lieyang (Nightmare) killed YY-ALong (Brawler)!

Double Kill!

Ye Shaoyang actually managed to take two kills in this bout!

Chi Shuo had used his 'Possess' skill to blink around wildly with Ye Shaoyang in tow.
Their double kill was the sort of flashy display that could make people's scalps tingle with numbness.
All the viewers in the streaming room filled up the chat with '6666' comments!

[Yangyang was saying, 'I've been surrounded.
Captain Chi, come give me a hand! Okay, all good.
Now I have a double kill.
^_^']

[You give me a hand, I give you a hand… this is exactly how good teammates should play.]

[These two are seriously too annoying.
Possession, joint movement skills… they're bouncing around all over the place!]

[Their mid/jungle duo got a kill on the enemy mid/jungle duo.
Yueying's taken a huge loss here!]

And at that moment, the most excited fans were the Riyue shippers.

Countless screenshots and reaction memes flooded the #RiyueTonghui# super topic chat.

[They're just too funny.
As soon as Captain Chi sets his sights on a target, he pulls Yangyang over for the kill, haha!]

[Yangyang must be feeling so good right now.
'I was surrounded and about to die, but then Captain Chi pulled me away… and oh? What's this? There's an easy kill here? I'll take it, thanks.' Beautiful!]

[Captain Chi is seriously so caring.
Team fights can be so chaotic, but he still always keeps his eye on Yangyang's position.
At critical moments, he pulls Yangyang out to save him.
And then he even took Yangyang to take a double kill.]

[Every time Yangyang runs away, he'll take Captain Chi with him as well.
How thoughtful~]

[I'm really dying of feels from this match.
Their tacit understanding is so sweet.
I want them to get married right now, on the spot!]

The Nightmare and the Enchantress were heroes that had appeared as a duo much earlier, in S6.
These two heroes were very strong together in theory, but when they were actually played together, poor teamwork made it easy for their players to crash and burn.
For example, if the Enchantress possessed someone and tried to pull the Nightmare in with her, but the Nightmare was standing too far away… she wouldn't be able to pull him in.
In that case, the Enchantress would have just moved in from afar to give her own head away.
The mid laner would have no choice but to watch his teammate die.

Furthermore, the two players had to be extremely clear on the status of each other's skills.
They had to always judge their situation correctly.
Otherwise, if the Enchantress pulled the Nightmare in, but they couldn't kill their enemy and were instead trapped… it was very likely they would become the victims of a tragic double kill.

Chi Shuo's game sense was extremely strong.
In this recent bout, he had kept his eye on the middle lane the whole time.

After he saw Xu Zhuo approach their tower to kill Ye Shaoyang, and after he saw Ye Shaoyang flip over the wall to escape—Chi Shuo had swiftly arrived on the scene.
He used the fragile Storm Goddess as a stepping stone, first pulling Ye Shaoyang in to kill her before continuing on to possess and kill the jungler as well.

This time, Yueying's mid laner and jungler were the ones who became victims of a double kill.

But Yueying didn't rush to retreat.
Their mid laner and jungler were playing the roles of support heroes, after all.
They hadn't taken up many resources to begin with.
Yueying's key DPS heroes were their marksman and top laner.

After the sleep status on Xu Zhuo elapsed, he instantly charged in to attack Cheng Xing—aggressively trying to kill him even with Qu Jiang there to provide heals!

Xie Weiyu was too far away to hit Cheng Xing, who was in Tianhuan's back line.
So, instead, he wildly fired away at Qin Yizhu in Tianhuan's front line.
Qin Yizhu had been suppressed in the top lane this whole time.
He hadn't managed to get the river crab in early-game, so his gear was very bad.
He was instantly brought down to low health by Xie Weiyu's assault!

Soon enough, another double kill was announced.

Xie Weiyu first gunned down Qin Yizhu, then Xu Zhuo used his ult to chase down Cheng Xing.
Eventually, the fragile Little Xing fell to Yueying's attack as well.

This team fight resulted in a two-for-two exchange of lives.
But Yueying had failed in their original attempt to suppress Tianhuan's mid laner, and they also failed to destroy Tianhuan's mid lane outer tower.
With his self-healing ult still in effect, Xu Zhuo started to retreat from the side.
Xie Weiyu also swiftly followed suit.

At that moment, the game had already reached the fifteen-minute mark.

Cheng Xing could distinctly sense that this was the first fearsome foe Tianhuan had encountered in the regular season.
Their Group B wins had all come very easily.
By the fifteen-minute mark of those games, Tianhuan usually had a crushing advantage over their opponents already.
After hitting that point, everyone could basically sit back and watch Yang-ge show off.
Ye Shaoyang could swiftly destroy the enemy on all three lanes, invade their jungle to amass more resources, and then end the game at around the twenty-minute mark.

But in this game, at the fifteen-minute mark, neither side had lost a single tower!

The two teams were also basically evenly matched in terms of resources.
Yueying's top laner and marksman were relatively more powerful, while Tianhuan's most powered-up heroes were their mid laner and jungler.

Yueying's tactic of endlessly targeting the middle lane had indeed destroyed Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo's plans to roam the map.
However, at the same time, Yueying gave up something as well—under normal circumstances, they could have destroyed Tianhuan's top lane very easily.
But since they were targeting the middle lane, they hadn't even been able to destroy Tianhuan's top lane outer tower yet.

Xu Zhuo furrowed his brow and said, “Shift gears and focus on the top.
Jungler, come with me.
We'll take down their top lane tower, fast! Then we'll invade their jungle.”

Tianhuan was dead set on guarding their mid lane tower.
Yueying had aggressively attacked the mid lane twice already, and both times they failed to take down that tower.
If they shifted their focus to the top lane now, they just might find the opportunity to break through.

Yueying's sudden shift in tactics did indeed leave Tianhuan struggling to keep up.
Qin Yizhu was alone up there; how could he possibly fend off two enemy heroes? Xu Zhuo and Yueying's jungler killed Qin Yizhu and sent him home.
Then they swiftly destroyed Tianhuan's top lane outer tower.

At the same time, Xie Weiyu and his support were engaging Tianhuan's bottom lane duo in a 2v2.
They had Cheng Xing and Qu Jiang backed up against Tianhuan's tower, and they were getting ready to target the tower.
That was when they heard a teammate call out in their voice channel—

“The Nightmare's ult is off cooldown, and the mid laner's gone! Be careful!”

Professional players would take care to precisely calculate their enemies' skill cooldown times.
When Xie Weiyu heard this, he instantly retreated back to his own tower, just in case Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang came after him again!

However…

He didn't see Chi Shuo or Ye Shaoyang anywhere near him.

In the top lane, Xu Zhuo planned on retreating as soon as he finished destroying the tower.
Suddenly, a shadow shot out from the nearby woods.
Xu Zhuo hit his own flash to escape nearly instantly, however—

Flashing away was pointless, with the Enchantress already possessing him.
He would take her with him when he flashed.

As a result, Xu Zhuo took Chi Shuo's Enchantress with him when he flashed across a distance.
Then, Chi Shuo used his own Q skill to pull in Ye Shaoyang, who had been lurking in the woods…

Originally, Chi Shuo wouldn't have been able to pull Ye Shaoyang in, because he was too far away.
But because Xu Zhuo had instinctively used his flash, taking him and Chi Shuo closer to Ye Shaoyang's hiding spot, Chi Shuo was able to pull his teammate closer.

Xu Zhuo's attempt to escape had actually helped Chi Shuo?!

Tianhuan's two players were both hanging off Xu Zhuo now.
The Nightmare used his control skill to immobilize Xu Zhuo on the spot.
Chi Shuo unleashed a skill combo that took Xu Zhuo down to half-health, and immediately afterwards—Ye Shaoyang unleashed his ult!

Tianhuan-Lieyang (Nightmare) killed YY-OldXu (Kung-Fu Master)!

Xu Zhuo nearly spat up blood.
“Fuck, how is he doing that much damage?!”

He instantly checked the game stats and saw…

“Ye Shaoyang just equipped a magic penetration staff!”

Resistance penetration was a stat that was perfect for targeting tanks.

Ye Shaoyang had first equipped a piece of magic attack boosting gear, then switched to a resistance penetration booster in mid-game.
This was clearly to target Xu Zhuo.
Although Xu Zhuo could heal himself with his ult, he had just used up that ult while pushing Tianhuan's tower.

In his ear, a familiar voiceline sounded out—

“You're tired.
Sleep for a while.”

“Hope you don't have any bad dreams~!”

Xu Zhuo was silent.

After killing Xu Zhuo, Ye Shaoyang used his W skill to escape over a wall.
Chi Shuo possessed him and followed along.
The two of them disappeared from the line of sight of the enemy jungler, who wanted to counterattack.
They swiftly retreated, vanishing without a trace.

With Xu Zhuo dying, Yueying's plans to break through on the top lane were destroyed as well.

And in the bottom lane, Cheng Xing had been taken down to critically low health.
However, Qu Jiang could heal as his support.
When Qu Jiang used his ult, Cheng Xing swiftly returned to full health.
Xie Weiyu was ultimately unable to kill Cheng Xing.

Ye Shaoyang returned to the middle lane.
At that point, his gear was already superb.
He had the most gold and experience of anyone on the field.
He swiftly pressured the enemy Storm Goddess back to Yueying's tower.
The crippled Storm Goddess had no choice but to make a trip back to Yueying's base.

Yueying's top laner was dead, and their mid laner was running home to heal.
Tianhuan seized the opportunity to swiftly take down the first grand dragon of the game.

The grand dragon's buff helped Tianhuan push with their promoted minions.
They started to push down all three lanes, focusing on the middle lane.
Yueying's mid lane outer tower finally fell!

One commentator excitedly said, “We're at the seventeen-minute mark of the game already, and a mid lane outer tower has finally gone down! Both sides have engaged in a few fierce team fights in the middle lane already.
Ultimately, Yueying was the first to break through on the top lane.
But in the end, Shuoyue and Lieyang worked together to take down Yueying's top laner.
They cut off Yueying's momentum!”

“That's exactly right.
They were extremely wise to gank Yueying's top laner in this bout.
After killing off Yueying's most powerful player, Tianhuan instantly went after the grand dragon.
Captain Chi is as alert as ever when it concerns the resources in the jungle!”

But Yueying's players were extremely tenacious as well.

Once their mid lane outer and inner towers fell, they all retreated to their base to guard their crystal.
They defended their base for over ten minutes.

Yueying's Storm Goddess finally managed to sweep all the enemy minions into the air.
Xie Weiyu shot them all down, clearing a full wave of minions before they could reach their base tower.
Yueying was extremely fast at clearing minions and extremely good at protecting their base.
Tianhuan tried to attack their base a few times, but were rebuffed every time.

Chi Shuo was very patient.
He mildly said, “Don't rush.
Wait for the next grand dragon.”

After they defeated the grand dragon and obtained the grand dragon's buff again, their minions would be promoted and would become much harder to kill.

Once they had that buff, they could uniformly push down all three lanes with their promoted minions.
If all went well, they would be able to break through to the enemy base.

When Tianhuan pulled away to fight the grand dragon, Yueying naturally wouldn't dare let them have their way.
Yueying's support forged ahead to scope out the area near the dragon pit.

As soon as the dragon was down to half-health, Xu Zhuo clenched his jaw and commanded, “Charge!”

Yueying's five players instantly rushed into the fray.
Their support, the Master Machinist, stunned Cheng Xing.
The jungler followed up with a powerful flurry of attacks.
Cheng Xing was taken down to critically low health in an instant.
He used his cleanse to free himself of the immobilizing effect, then instantly ran to where Qu Jiang could use his ult to heal him.

Qin Yizhu was tanking the damage from the boss monster in the dragon pit.
His own health was in a pretty bad state.
Xu Zhuo leapt into the pit and beat him to death with two blows!

Tianhuan's fans were all clenching their fists in nervousness.

“This can't be, right? The grand dragon is going to be stolen from them?!”

“Old Qin is dead, Yueying is so fierce right now!”

Yueying's players really were fighting vigorously—because if they lost this fight and couldn't steal the dragon, all that awaited them would be a slow, painful death.
As one of the most outstanding top laners in the league, Xu Zhuo really was very good at seizing the right opportunities.

As a result of Old Qin being killed off, Tianhuan had no one who could tank damage from the dragon left.
It was very possible that they could lose this grand dragon.

Although Cheng Xing had managed to stay alive, he didn't dare approach the front lines of the battle.

Just as everyone was starting to think Tianhuan would have the tables turned on them, Xie Weiyu suddenly felt a chill run down his back.
Because through his headset, he heard—

“I've come to find you.”

“You're tired.
Sleep for a while.”

At some point, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had popped up out of nowhere.
They suddenly appeared behind Xie Weiyu.

Because marksmen were fragile, Xie Weiyu had a habit of hiding behind his teammates and doing his damage from afar.
It was precisely because of this habit that he'd stayed back while his teammates leapt into the dragon pit.
At that point, he was so far away from his teammates that no one could have arrived in time to save him.

Tianhuan-Lieyang (Nightmare) killed YY-Rain (Machine Gun Huntsman)!

After the marksman was down, Chi Shuo said, “Kill the mid laner next.”

Ye Shaoyang noticed that the enemy mid laner was moving towards the red buff.
He immediately used a W to pursue the Storm Goddess.

Chi Shuo instantly used 'Possess' to ride along with Ye Shaoyang.
They swiftly caught up to the enemy mid laner.

The Storm Goddess was completely speechless—

Captain Chi, do you think Ye Shaoyang is your ride?!

Ye Shaoyang was indeed giving Chi Shuo a ride this time.
He brought Captain Chi in for the kill.
In the blink of an eye, this terrifying pair of demon kings had swiftly killed off Yueying's mid laner and marksman.

Xu Zhuo was seriously just about pissed enough to spit blood.
“Exactly where were those two hiding?!”

Tianhuan had actually employed a tactic of 'luring the snake out of its den' in this grand dragon fight.
Yueying had been holed up at their base, clearing minions this whole time.
It would have been very difficult to break through their defenses there, and if they got into a team fight around Yueying's base, it would have been very easy for Tianhuan to fall apart.

Luring them away from their base was the best way to kill off some of their key heroes.

By killing their mid laner, Tianhuan stopped the Storm Goddess from sweeping Tianhuan's minions into the air.

And by killing their marksman, Tianhuan left Yueying with no one to kill off those invading minions.

Tianhuan started to push down all three lanes in unison.

Although Xu Zhuo was alive, he was a fighter with short-range attacks.
At most, he could only contend with one lane of minions.

Tianhuan broke through to Yueying's base, engaging them in a 4v3 fight.
With Qu Jiang's ult healing them all up, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang directly charged towards Yueying's base crystal—where they killed Xu Zhuo!

The jungler and support were the only ones left alive, and they couldn't kill off the incoming minions at all.
Cheng Xing fired at Yueying's base crystal with abandon.
Then, finally—with a bang, the crystal shattered in a grand explosion!

Xu Zhuo and the other Yueying players could only listen to the sounds of their crystal blowing up.
And at the same time, the Nightmare was still saying, “Hope you don't have any bad dreams~!”

Everyone on team Yueying was silent.

Next time they played, they would definitely shut off the hero voicelines!

“Congratulations to Team Tianhuan for taking the first game!”

Thunderous applause rocked the stadium.
Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang took off their headsets at the same time.
They looked into each other's eyes with a smile.

This final team fight had actually been Ye Shaoyang's idea.
They would pretend to go after the grand dragon, but in truth—Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo would be lurking nearby, waiting to stage an ambush on Yueying's players.
The enemy top laner and jungler would definitely try to steal the dragon.
When Yueying's formation split up, Tianhuan would instantly cut into their back line to kill their marksman!

Chi Shuo took in the sight of Ye Shaoyang's merry smile.
He couldn't help but say, “Your bizarre ideas are pretty good.”

Ye Shaoyang corrected, “They're just good ideas.
Nothing bizarre about them.”

The corners of Chi Shuo's lips curved up.
“Mm.
Good ideas.”

A new thought was suddenly born in his heart—when they ran into tough opponents in Group S in the future, maybe they could let Shaoyang be their leading commander? After all, many teams in the league were already very familiar with Chi Shuo's style of play.
But they weren't familiar with Ye Shaoyang's.

No one would be able to guess that Tianhuan didn't only have a powerful mid/jungle duo.

They had two commanders as well.

 

Author's Notes:

The Nightmare's 'Sleep' skill is similar to the way Lao Fu Zi from Honor of Kings can tie up his enemies.
After an enemy falls under this status effect, hitting 'cleanse' is useless.
But if you use 'cleanse' right before the Nightmare uses his skill, you can make yourself immune to the immobilizing effect.

However, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang launched a sneak attack.
They wanted to immobilize the enemy before the enemy could use cleanse.
It's very difficult to time this well.