Chapter Seventy: Yuan Song as Support?

These streamers are all renowned in the Honor of Kings community for their exceptional technical skills. When Lin Hao browses short videos, he often comes across clips featuring them. For instance, if a certain short video wants to attract attention or gain popularity, it simply adopts a title like “Ran into Yifan, single-killed him four times in three minutes.”

Lin Hao greeted each of the streamers individually.

“Hao Ran, do you play the solo lane? If you want, I can let you have it,” Yifan offered, thinking it courteous to give the newcomer a choice of position. In Yifan’s eyes, Lin Hao’s skills are already on par with theirs, so there’s no risk of dragging the team down.

“No need, no need,” Lin Hao replied after thinking it over. “Looks like we’re short a support. I’ll play support!”

Yifan plays the solo lane, Han Han is a veteran jungler, and Bag is a top national marksman with several marksman heroes at the highest rank. As for Xin Ran... she’s capable of playing support, but Lin Hao only knows a few mid-lane heroes, and the mindset required for mid-lane is very different from that of the side lanes. So he didn’t intend to play mid.

After considering the options, support was the only position left for him.

“Support?” Xin Ran frowned. “Are you good at support?”

“Don’t worry, I’m a pro,” Lin Hao assured, patting his chest.

At this moment, the teammates finished picking their heroes. This was a late-night squad grinding for performance points, so naturally Xin Ran chose Xi Shi for her performance score. Bag and Han Han did the same, picking their signature heroes—Sun Shangxiang and Pei Qinhu—both popular choices. Without playing for performance points, it’s hard to achieve national ranking through peak matches alone.

So they all chose their national server heroes. As for Yifan, he picked Ma Chao.

Yifan’s Lao Fuzi is consistently ranked first nationwide, and Ma Chao is also among the top, so there’s no need to worry about losing his title.

Now it was Lin Hao’s turn, the fifth pick.

The opposing team had locked in their lineup: Lao Fuzi, Bai Li Shou Yue, Shen Mengxi, Dong Huang Taiyi, and Yao.

Lin Hao examined the lineup… it seemed like Yuan Ge would be a perfect pick—like slaughtering chickens.

So he said to the four streamers, “Would it be alright if I played Yuan Ge as support? Yuan Ge is really strong in this matchup.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Well, as long as you’re confident,” they replied, all but Yifan wearing doubtful expressions.

Yifan, having faced Lin Hao before, knew well the strength of Lin Hao’s Yuan Ge and was entirely reassured.

“Don’t worry,” Yifan said.

Armed with two golden skills and the prowess of a national Yuan Ge, Lin Hao was confident he could dominate even as support.

First, this lineup was indeed a good fit for Yuan Ge. Second, his teammates wouldn’t let him down, so there were no worries.

Entering the game, Lin Hao’s four teammates, aside from Yifan’s Ma Chao marked as top fifty national server, were all distinguished with national titles: Xi Shi, Pei Qinhu, Sun Shangxiang.

Their peak rankings were all high.

Then came the fifth pick, Yuan Ge, with no skin, and even marked as a “blue bean” (a sign of a new or less experienced account).

It looked like he was just putting on a show!

“Hao Ran, are you sure about Yuan Ge? Maybe you should build tank items and let the puppet absorb damage?” Han Han asked, concerned by Lin Hao’s eye-catching Yuan Ge in the loading screen. Having never played with Lin Hao, Han Han was genuinely uneasy.

At their score, losing one match meant it would take three wins to make up for it.

“Han, trust me. I promise this will be a slaughter,” Lin Hao declared with absolute confidence.

The only thing that could defeat him was his teammates, but when the team consisted of top-tier national streamers, only a first-class pro team, with five players working in flawless harmony, could hope to beat them.

The audience in Lin Hao’s stream burst out laughing when they saw the blue bean, default-skin Yuan Ge.

“Ha ha ha, every time I see Hao Ran’s green bean default skin, I want to laugh!”

“Correction, Hao is a blue bean Yuan Ge now. He played a few games as a green bean, but don’t spread misinformation!”

“Can Yuan Ge even play support? Doesn’t he need gold?”

“Hao Ran deliberately doesn’t use skins so the opponents underestimate him, then he crushes them, creating a psychological gap that breaks their morale!”

“Just arrived—is Hao Ran skinless?”

“Why not just buy a skin? The extra ten attack points are great!”

“I think the companion skin shop hasn’t updated yet. ‘Cloud Puppet Show’ is a battle pass exclusive—if you didn’t buy it before, it’s unavailable now.”

“Don’t be petty; Hao Ran said default skin feels best.”

Few doubted Lin Hao’s skill with Yuan Ge. As one of his rare national server heroes, Lin Hao often chose Yuan Ge in peak matches, depending on the lineup.

He always earned the badge.

His strength was indisputable.

Still, could Yuan Ge really play support?

At the start, Lin Hao muted his mic and explained seriously to his audience, “Some comments say Yuan Ge can’t play support. Actually, Yuan Ge can play any lane. To be precise, he’s the most oddly positioned hero in Honor of Kings.”

“In solo lane, he’s too fragile. Usually, you need a warrior or tank to absorb damage in team fights, but Yuan Ge’s puppet enters to control and burst, so it’s best not to take any hits.”

“Playing mid? Not really. Mid-lane generally requires a mage. If the lineup lacks a mage, opponents stack physical defense and it becomes hard.”

“As jungle, it fits his role, but Yuan Ge’s first skill cooldown is too long early, and as a ranged hero, he’s not suited to jungling.”

“For the farming lane, it’s basically like playing double side lanes. He has burst damage, but lacks sustained output and can’t replace the ADC.”

“And as for support, that goes without saying.”

“Yuan Ge feels awkward everywhere, but that’s exactly why he can fit anywhere.”

The audience was dumbfounded.

Lin Hao seemed to say something, but also nothing at all.

“If you play Yuan Ge as support, just help your teammates with lane control early, and wait until level three or four.”

At the start, Lin Hao walked alongside Xin Ran’s Xi Shi, mainly helping her clear lanes and harassing the enemy mid-laner.

Shen Mengxi and Dong Huang Taiyi cleared the lane first and headed straight for the bottom lane, the solo lane position.

With Lin Hao and Xin Ran’s information, Yifan’s Ma Chao was in no danger, so the bomb cat only helped contest the river crab.

A minute later, the river crab spawned on the left.

Han Han’s Pei Qinhu played cautiously this match, avoiding invasions, and only contested the river crab from a distance with Yao.

In the end, Yao secured the river crab.

Continuing the game, before the third wave of minions arrived, Xi Shi went to assist bottom lane, while Shen Mengxi ran to the top lane.

Han Han’s tiger jungled unpredictably. Starting red, he quickly cleared blue, then pounced to the left mid bush, preparing to ambush the bomb cat’s return route.

Lin Hao had just reached level two, snuck a health pack under tower from Xin Ran, and turned towards the central mid lane.

Shen Mengxi appeared in vision from the red jungle, slowly approaching mid.