All-Round Mid Laner

A week's time passed swiftly.
The practice match Lin Feng and Coach Tom had set up finally arrived.
Due to the time difference between China and North America, the practice game was set to start at twelve.

For the Chinese division, it would be noon.
For the American team, it would be midnight.
They were set to play two games, which meant they would finish at around one under normal circumstances.
They would wrap up just in time for Tianhuan's players to go eat lunch, and for the American players to go to sleep.

November 20th, 23:30.
North America.
Team FNO's base.

FNO, the abbreviated name of the team 'Fear No One', was a team which stood for fearlessness.
This team was an old, strong team from North America, and their play style perfectly matched their name.
They showed no fear when they played, and their way of fighting was extremely aggressive.

Their most aggressive player was their mid laner.
Generation after generation, their mid laners passed down a unique play style of charging in headfirst.
They played their mages like they were fighters.
When they had no skills up, they used normal attacks with their staff to whack their enemies to death.

In Season 6, Tianhuan had run into FNO at the semifinals of the world championships.
At that time, FNO's mid laner was Mitchell's master Grace.
Tianhuan's mid laner at the time had been Chi Shuo's master Ming Sheng.
The two world-class mid laners had battled fiercely at the apex of the world.
Finally, Tianhuan's mid/jungle duo earned them the slight advantage they needed to eliminate FNO and fight their way into the S6 world championship finals.

In the three years which followed, the two teams never met again, because Tianhuan never made it back to the world championships.

Both sides had seen shifts in their player lineup.

The only FNO player remaining from S6 was their veteran top laner, Clement.
He had once experienced the sharp edges of the young Chi Shuo in Season 6, but all the other FNO players were new.
The mid laner was now Mitchell, who was young and full of vigor.
He was even fiercer than his master had been.

Mitchell was currently one of the best middle laners in the international Gods War professional league.
He was very well-known in North America and Europe.
This captain was very amicable, and his friend circle spanned the whole world.
Every day, he gossiped with people in group chats, and he was on great terms with Zhou Jiawen from the international server.

There was still half an hour before the practice match.

Mitchell looked towards the top laner Clement and curiously asked, “I haven't faced off against this Tianhuan team before.
Is there anything I need to be aware of? Can we just obliterate them on the middle lane?”

Clement scratched at his hair and said, “I haven't run into them in three years.
I only remember that their jungler is super strong.
That extra powerful mid laner they had in the past retired, I think?”

At that time, Coach Tom walked over and explained, “Tianhuan's captain Ming Sheng retired after S6 and gave the captaincy to the jungler Chi Shuo.
Their new mid laner is named Qu Jiang.
He's good at playing support mid laners.”

Clement said, “I heard Tianhuan's been performing worse and worse these years?”

Coach Tom shrugged.
With a bit of regret, he said, “It's true.
In the three years of S7 to S9, they haven't gotten into the world championship once.
Their results have been even more of a disaster than ours.”

S6 had been FNO's best season.
They lost in the semifinals to Tianhuan, ultimately winning a bronze medal that year.
That was something which had lingered on Coach Tom's mind.
Afterwards, in S7 and S8, FNO had made it into the world championships again.
However, the team that had once eliminated them kept slipping—Tianhuan couldn't even win the right to fight in the world championships again.

These two teams could only meet if they privately arranged practice games.
It really made one sigh with regret.

Mitchell rubbed his hands together and took his seat properly.
“I got it.
They're a jungle-core team with a support mid laner.
As long as we destroy their captain Chi Shuo, victory will be ours!”

Coach Tom smiled faintly and said, “Right.
When Chinese division teams face off against Tianhuan, they also target Tianhuan's jungle.
As long as they don't let Chi Shuo develop, the other players won't be much of a threat.”

He paused for a moment, then quickly added, “Oh, that's right.
Tianhuan is like us.
Their bottom lane marksman and support are both new.
So we should target their jungle and bottom lane in these games.”

The curly-haired youth in FNO's bottom lane, Angus, and the blue-eyed youth, Allen, met each other's gazes.
They gave each other a high five of encouragement.

“We're not afraid of facing off against newbies!”

“That's right.
We'll completely suppress them in a 2v2!”

 

Meanwhile, at Tianhuan's base—

Everyone had gotten up early that morning and headed straight to the training room to prepare.
They would eat lunch after playing their practice games.

The five players took their seats one after another.
Lin Feng walked over to Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang.
He stopped behind them and asked, “Which heroes will you two take in these practice games? Double flight, black/white wolves? You want to bring out these comps?”

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang met each other's gazes.

Ye Shaoyang said, “There's no need, is there? The flight comp and wolves comp set a very fast mid/jungle pace.
If we choose the double flight comp, the two bottom lane newbies on FNO will be destroyed by us too easily.”

Chi Shuo calmly agreed, “Mm.
In the game recording Mitchell sent to the international group chat, we just so happened to run into their team's new marksman and support.
If Shaoyang and I choose the double flight comp, we would be bullying them too much.”

Lin Feng was silent.

Okay, then.
For this practice game, they would let their international friends save some face.

For now, they would hide their demon kings duo.

Lin Feng asked Ye Shaoyang, “Then what do you guys want to run?”

Ye Shaoyang turned back to look at the coach.
“Do training games use the same picks and bans structure from official games?”

Lin Feng shook his head.
“Usually we don't use bans.
The two sides can pick whichever heroes they like to practice.
If we ban the hero a player wants to use, then there wouldn't be much of a point to a training game.”

Ye Shaoyang continued and asked, “Will practice games be kept confidential? That Mitchell seems to like recording games and sending them into group chats.
The games Captain Chi and I played on our alts were sent out by him, right? If our training games are exposed by him, then it won't be good for us to choose heroes we want to keep hidden.”

Lin Feng said, “You don't have to worry about that.
It's customary in the esports circle to keep practice games confidential.
After all, two teams that schedule practice games with each other are very likely to use comps they want to use in official games.
If you expose your opponents, it's just like leaking their battle plans.”

Chi Shuo said, “FNO probably aren't that stupid.
If they leak footage of a practice game, no other teams will want to practice with them in the future.
We'll be keeping their team comps secret as well.”

Ye Shaoyang could finally relax.
“Then can I take the Abyssal Lord?”

As soon as Cheng Xing heard that, his eyes lit up.
“It'll be the first time Yang-ge shows off his Abyssal Lord to them!”

Chi Shuo said, “Then I'll take the Stealthy Rogue to complement you, and I'll leave you the blue buff.”

The Stealthy Rogue was a jungler, but despite that, he didn't have a mana bar and therefore didn't need the blue buff.
After the Abyssal Lord took the blue buff, he would reach his peak performance period faster.
This was something that Chi Shuo and the streamer Xiao Bai had established a long time ago when queueing together.

With that, Ye Shaoyang would be able to take the blue buff in early-game, enabling him to clear minions and provide assists more swiftly.
He would be able to help Chi Shuo protect the jungle.
In late-game, once Chi Shuo got his own equipment, the two of them would be very hard to stop.

Coach Lin smiled faintly and said, “Okay.
Then let's let Shaoyang show us the strength of the National #1 Abyssal Lord!”

 

At exactly noon, both teams got ready to log in to the international server.
Lin Feng had made five alt accounts on the international server just for these practice games.
The names were very uniform and simple, going from TH0001 to TH0005.
Their ranks were all Bronze III.

These accounts hadn't even played any placement games.
They solely existed for practice games.

There were no rank requirements for entering a practice game.
Bronze-ranked accounts could play with King-ranked accounts.

As a result, when both teams logged in, Mitchell saw those five uniform Bronze-ranked accounts and couldn't help but wonder, “How come Tianhuan doesn't even have King-ranked accounts on the international server?”

The five players of Team FNO were all using their international server main accounts.

It was just a practice game, anyway.
The recording of these games wouldn't see the light of day.
It didn't matter whether they used their main accounts or alt accounts.
Among them, Mitchell's account was the most astounding.
It was simply named 'Mitchell', and it was a King-ranked account with 77 stars.

Compared to him, those five little Bronze-ranked accounts belonging to Tianhuan looked so pitiful.

Coach Tom laughed and said, “They usually play ranked on the Chinese servers.
They rarely use the international server.
Not everyone is like 'zhouzhou', who likes to play on the international server so much.
If they don't speak the language, it's hard to communicate.”

Mitchell nodded his understanding.
“That's right.
zhouzhou's English is really good, he can talk to me in voice chat.
If Tianhuan couldn't advance to the world championships, they wouldn't have any reason to play on our international server either.”

The two teams of players swiftly got themselves into the appropriate positions in the practice game room.

Cheng Xing, who would be playing against international players for the first time, was very excited.
He quietly mumbled, “We're five little Bronze-ranked accounts, facing off against five Kings.
And one of them even has an insane 77 stars.
I feel like we're country bumpkins visiting the big city.”

Ye Shaoyang smiled and patted Cheng Xing on the shoulder.
He said, “Why should professional players look at rankings? Main accounts, alt accounts—it's nothing to worry about.
Bronze-ranked accounts can destroy Kings too.”

Cheng Xing gave it some thought and decided that was true.
If they really played ranked on the international server, they could get a dozen accounts to the King rank in just three or four days.
Coach Lin just thought that was too troublesome, so he'd simply made a few Bronze-ranked alts.

Their new accounts had a full set of heroes, though.
Cheng Xing took a look and saw that all the heroes in his account had been unlocked… but they were all at a basic, white proficiency.

Lin Feng politely greeted Tom in their room chat, and both teams hit their 'ready' buttons.

The two coaches would serve as referees.

There was no need to ban heroes in a practice game.
Both teams would take comps they were good at or comps they wanted to practice.
So the two teams simply skipped over the bans phase, without sealing away a single hero.

Tianhuan was randomly assigned to the red side; they would choose their heroes second.

The blue team's first spick went to the Sun Mage, a mid lane hero.
This hero was very special—he was a close-combat mage.
If he got some tanky gear, he could both take damage and dole out damage.
As soon as he moved in and stuck himself to an enemy, fragile mages would be very easily crushed by him.
This hero was quite well-suited to Mitchell's aggressive and straightforward style of play.

When the red team's turn came up, Lin Feng thought for a moment before he said, “Let's take our bottom lane duo first.”

The first two picks on their side went to the Forest Envoy, a healing support, and the Divine Archer, a marksman that flourished in late-game.

The blue team picked two heroes next.
They also locked in their bottom lane duo.

Angus and Allen once again took the tower-pushing comp of the Master Machinist and the Machine Gun Huntsman.
These youths had been practicing this combo on the international server this whole time.
It was clear that this would be one of the team comps FNO ran next season.

The red team's turn came up again.

For their top lane, they took the Black Dragon Knight, which Qin Yizhu was quite adept with.
They also took the Stealthy Rogue as their jungler.

Seeing that, Mitchell couldn't help but grin.
“They really are going to run a jungle-core comp, built around the Stealthy Rogue.
This hero can go invisible.
Everyone, be careful.
Don't let him get going.”

Coach Tom thought for a moment and said, “Let's take the Brawler as our jungler, and leave plenty of resources for the middle lane.
Mitchell, you'll be our main DPS.
Take over their jungle first.
For our top laner, we'll take the Willful Sword.
Cut into their back line and take out the marksman in team fights.”

With that, Team FNO completed a very well-rounded lineup.

The top lane hero, the Willful Sword, was very nimble.
He had the ability to protect himself, so it wasn't easy for him to be ganked.
He also had several movement skills, which would allow him to cut into the enemy's back line and pose a threat to Tianhuan's fragile mage and marksman.
The jungler, the Brawler, would be able to provide crowd control; he could be played as a support jungler, leaving additional resources to the mid laner.

The mid laner, the Sun Mage, had huge DPS potential.
And the bottom lane duo was very formidable when it came to destroying towers.
This was a team comp that could thrive in team fights as well as push towers.
It didn't seem to have any obvious shortcomings.

Tianhuan's final pick came up.
Their last position to fill was the mid laner's.

Tom smiled and said, “They'll probably take the Frost Goddess, to play her as a support mid laner! I heard that this player Qu Jiang plays the Frost Goddess very well.”

But then, Tianhuan used their fifth pick on the Abyssal Lord.

The entirety of Team FNO was floored.

Coach Tom's smile stiffened on his face.
“The Abyssal Lord?”

Upon seeing the new hero pop up, everyone froze.

The Abyssal Lord had been released for nearly two months now.
Professional players weren't entirely unfamiliar with this hero, as they would often run into him in ranked matches.
Most professional mid laners had even practiced with him already.
However, this was still a very new hero.
Major teams had yet to fully scrutinize the team comps that could make use of him.

Running into an Abyssal Lord in a practice game was also a first.

This was a very difficult to play mid lane assassin mage.

Mitchell dubiously looked towards the coach.
“Didn't you say that Tianhuan's mid laner doesn't know how to play assassin mages?”

Coach Tom awkwardly rubbed his nose.
“That's what I heard.
Qu Jiang typically plays control-type mages.
If he's running the Abyssal Lord, he… could he be practicing a new hero?”

Mitchell grinned and said, “This hero is very difficult to play.
It's a good chance for me to see how he's doing with it.”

The Abyssal Lord was a powerful burst hero, but his defense was extremely low.
He was as fragile as a sheet of paper.
Mitchell was confident in his own Sun Mage's ability to kill the enemy before the Abyssal Lord could run away by swapping places with a shadow!

Mitchell rubbed his hands together while boasting, “I'll give him a taste of the might of a world-class mid laner.
I'll help him realize this game is pretty hard to play!”

Tom was silent.

Mitchell was an extremely skilled and powerful player, and his pre-game trash talk was also top-tier.
But since his personal skills were truly excellent, even if he bragged wildly, it was very rare for him to be slapped in the face and taken down a peg.

He was the world's most 'hot-blooded' mid laner.

 

At Tianhuan's base—

Ye Shaoyang's face still wore his usual ^_^ expression.
He was perfectly calm and collected.

Lin Feng gently reminded, “Little Ye, you'll be facing off against Mitchell.
Don't be careless.”

“Mm, mm,” Ye Shaoyang agreed.
“I got it.

Lin Feng was silent.

Why didn't he seem the slightest bit anxious?

Lin Feng added, “If the pressure gets to be too much, you just call Chi Shuo to the middle lane for help.”

Ye Shaoyang blinked.

Pressure? Too much? The enemy was a close-range mage, while the Abyssal Lord was a hero who relied on shifting around with his shadows and attacking from a distance.
The Abyssal Lord was a very strong counter for close-range mages.
Wasn't Mitchell the one who should be feeling the pressure?

Oh, that's right.
Ye Shaoyang forgot.
He was supposed to be a newbie, which meant he wasn't supposed to appear too confident.

Ye Shaoyang feigned nervousness and rubbed his fingers together.
He smiled and said, “Coach, don't worry.
Although I feel some pressure, I'll be careful.
I'll do my best to not leave my tower.”

In the other team's training room, Mitchell suddenly sneezed.

Why was he suddenly getting an bad feeling?