Chapter 107: Finals (3)

“It’s easier than I thought?”

“We are playing better.”

“Varus Q skill used 560 times in this game, 0 misses.”

“Seriously, what if my Alistar appears in the opponent’s dreams?”

The atmosphere in the waiting room after winning Set 1 was good.
It wasn’t an incredibly long game, and we won by cleanly sweeping the opponent in the final team fight, so riding the momentum was natural.
However, we couldn’t let our guard down.

‘…That’s coming.’
VXG’s ultimate weapon that comes out after losing Set 1.

“Opponent picked Corki.”

As expected, as soon as the Set 2 ban-pick began, the opponent picked Corki.
Corki taken with the first pick on the blue side, followed by their 5-minute strategy focused on dragon stacks.

We lost at MSI by getting caught in that one-sided strategy that they knew was coming but couldn’t stop.
However, the current ARK is different.

“Jin-seong and Yoo-chan, are you ready?”
“”Yes.””
“Let’s go.”

The two cards we picked in response to Corki’s first pick were…

[No way, are they picking Rengar and Senna here!?]

It felt like I could hear the commentators’ voices from somewhere.
It was Rengar and Senna.

‘They were surprised.’

I looked up at the opposing players and saw expressions of not insignificant surprise.

Our team had two ways to deal with Corki.
One was to pick a composition strong in early to mid-game team fights and engages and fight on our terms.
The other was to counter him through Senna’s sustain and range.

What made VXG’s Corki scary was the dragon fight priority that followed their powerful bot lane picks.
This could all be nullified by Senna alone.

Her early range advantage, her strength in the current patch version, and her ability to provide sustain in standoff situations.
On top of that, the extreme pick of Rengar.
Furthermore, the pilot wielding Rengar was…

“It’s time to return to being a Rengar main.”

Not the jungler, Kim Do-jin, but the support, Lee Yoo-chan.
That’s right. Following Senna-Nautilus, Senna-Tahm Kench, and Senna-Lee Sin, it was Senna-Rengar.

‘Didn’t he say we win if we just ban Ashe?’

Our team concluded that there were no picks that could beat early Senna in the bot lane as long as Ashe wasn’t there.

“Winning this and making a Rengar skin would be legendary.”
The reason this composition was possible was because Lee Yoo-chan was a Rengar main in his amateur days.

“No way! ARK! Xin Zhao has come out here?”
“This makes the position of that Rengar strange?”
“And then Ornn! So is it Camille support? Or perhaps Rengar?”
“Wait a minute, it’s theoretically possible. In the last patch, Rengar’s passive leap wasn’t limited to bushes anymore; it changed to a judgment call where he can leap while stealthed?”
“Then, no way, did they prepare such a pocket pick for the finals?”

[ARK]
TOP: Camille
JG: Xin Zhao
MID: Azir
AD: Senna
SUP: Rengar

vs

[VXG]
TOP: Ornn
JG: Viego
MID: Corki
AD: Varus
SUP: Karma

“Rengar’s position seems to be support, but can we get a ban-pick review?”
“First, VXG, having lost Set 1, brought out their strong bot duo along with Corki and an AD jungler. They brought the same Set 2 ban-pick they always show.”
“We know how scary that composition is!”
“ARK’s ban-pick seems to be aimed at forcing fights using Camille and Xin Zhao to prevent Corki from using his Valkyrie for dragon stacks. Camille is specialized in that.”

[What kind of Support Rengar is this?]
[KAI was a Top Rengar main in amateur, though.]
[Are there any new viewers who don’t know KAI Rengar <<< used to beat both Spread and Bon?]

“Following that, I think they picked Senna because she can provide range coverage along with Azir when the game goes late, and she has good sustain.”
“Then what was the reason for picking Rengar?”
“In my opinion, the reason why Rengar has a big gap between solo queue and competitive play is that while his stats are good, the counterplay is clear. But KAI really likes and plays this pick well.”

[Definitely don’t look up the pro top laners KAI archived on YouTube.]
[KAI actually plays Rengar when he’s solo queueing instead of support.]
[Honestly, he’s a talent who doesn’t even play 100 games as support in a season.]
[Maybe the real talent isn’t Para, but KAI…?]

“And while Senna has good stability when paired with tanks like Nautilus or Tahm Kench, there’s a reason why compositions like Senna-Lee Sin appear.”
“I see!”
“The advantage is that you can prey on poke compositions like VXG’s bot lane. And the DPS can be covered by Para’s Azir in mid anyway.”

[Support Rengar in Worlds finals Set 2 is legendary.]
[I will teach you Rengar.]
[No way, is Para unable to play Yone because it keeps getting banned?]

“And lastly, KAI’s Rengar build was a bit unique, as I recall.”
“What aspect are you referring to?”
“I once looked through the players’ solo queue data. When KAI plays Rengar, he dominates early lane and gets an overwhelming gold lead, but in the mid-game, his growth falls behind the opposing laner.”
“Are you saying Rengar’s value is low?”
“Not that. Even when he went top, he would build support items. Items like Knight’s Vow, for example.”
“I see! Then, for the highly anticipated Set 2, will ARK be able to continue this momentum, or will VXG show the power of their signature composition once again? Let’s find out together!”

“Can I just bully Ornn if I leave him alone?”

“You don’t know about Camille’s current state? Until Trinity Force, she loses even to Maokai, not just Ornn.”

“Then just farm. We’ll split the map this game too.”

“Then why did you even ask?”

“Just trying to pretend I care?”

“Okay, I’ll die if you gank.”

And so, Set 2 began.
My goal was.

‘Just bully him.’
Even though Azir had been nerfed repeatedly due to his frequent appearance in tournaments, I could still lead the laning phase against Corki.

At the 2-minute mark, I traded with the opponent almost simultaneously as we leveled up.

Normally, you’d put a point in Q, but I put a point in E and gained a shield, winning the trade.

In the process of the trade, Corki used his E skill on the minions, creating a pushing lane towards me.

Now, there was only one thing to do.

“Since we know where Xin Zhao started anyway, just show your face in mid as you go down.”

After freezing the lane near my tower, I would pressure the opponent by calling my jungler.

Even though Corki has good survivability, his sustain isn’t great.

So, I’ll pose a dilemma.

Will he give up CS and fight a phantom jungler, or use his skills to push the wave?

Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation for Corki.

Giving up CS is an obvious loss.

Even if he comes forward to push me away and take CS, he won’t be able to use his Valkyrie forward because he’ll be mindful of Xin Zhao.

Then, naturally, I’ll gain priority, lose the trade anyway, and miss CS anyway.

The laning phase was over the moment he lost the trade at the 2-minute mark.
.
.
.

“Ornn ult used!”

At 23 minutes.

The laning phase was long over, and I was pushing Ornn out in the top lane.

‘The situation is… even.’

There were no solo kills, but mid lane won by creating a scaling difference.

However, Camille gave up a solo kill in top lane, allowing Ornn to scale comfortably.

Fortunately, thanks to Lee Yoo-chan’s proficiency in bot lane, they eventually secured a duo kill despite getting ganked and losing.

“Let’s just take Baron before the dragon spawns!”

“Then I’ll recall and Teleport.”

Kim Do-jin’s suggestion was to fake Baron and bait out skills to eliminate the variable of Corki’s Super Valkyrie in the next dragon fight.

Our team fight strength was currently stronger, and everyone agreed to the reasonable call.

I recalled and started taking Baron. When Baron’s health was reduced by about 20%, an enemy ward was placed, leaking the information.

Upbeat music spread through the Rift. It was the announcement that Corki had acquired Super Valkyrie.

The ward placed above allowed us to confirm that Corki was Teleporting immediately.

“Want to fight instead of backing off?”

The reason for wanting to fight even with Super Valkyrie was our strong team fight power, and the fact that the enemy’s only long-range CC,

Ornn’s ultimate, was on cooldown.

“Let’s do it!”

“Camille, ult Corki!”

My teammates agreed to my call without a moment of doubt.
Simultaneously, Corki’s Super Valkyrie animation played, but…

“Got him!”

As Camille used Flash ultimate, the flying Corki was pulled back by Camille’s ult.

Followed by our teammates’ abilities, but I held onto my skills until the very end.

There was one reason: my role was to eliminate variables.

“I’m going for their bot duo!”

Confirming that Varus’s Edge of Night was gone from Senna’s skill, I flew forward and tossed.

I threw the enemy bot lane duo into our team’s formation, and we cleanly got an ace without any variables.

24 minutes.
That was the time it took to break the 100% win rate of Corki in Set 2, which had never been broken before.