Chapter 82: Encounter with a Professional Player

Having spoken so frankly, the third pick naturally had nothing more to add and silently pre-selected Sun Bin. Sun Bin, as a hero, is quite formidable when paired with the right lineup. But when taken alone, as a soft support, he’s not as powerful as some of the hard supports who can initiate fights and protect the carries.

Lin Hao sensed a certain desire from the third pick to goof around. Still, Sun Bin would do—the team would have a support at least. With all heroes banned, Lin Hao’s team ended up on the red side. The opposing team’s first pick was Liu Chan.

Liu Chan is extremely popular in high-level matches, mainly due to his abundant crowd control and high damage. In the early and mid-game, his ultimate's spinning damage can even single out and kill fragile enemy marksmen.

When it came time for Lin Hao’s team to choose, the fifth pick immediately requested Lin Hao to secure Shen Mengxi for him. Lin Hao obliged without hesitation, which bumped him down to the fifth slot—the counter-pick position—allowing him to react to the enemy lineup.

“Shen Mengxi is truly all the rage right now. With the meat cleaver and ice staff, she’s both tanky and deals high damage, and the slowing effect is disgusting. I’m telling you, within a month, either the meat cleaver or the ice staff will get a massive nerf,” Lin Hao chatted casually with his viewers.

“Agreed. I run into Smite Shen Mengxi every single game at top rank these days. When she’s on the enemy team, it’s a nightmare—one ultimate and the whole backline is left barely alive.”

“When is the dev team going to nerf the meat cleaver? I’m so sick of it. When Shen Mengxi rushes a big meat cleaver early, we Li Bai mains can’t even kill her!”

The viewers, too, were venting their frustrations in the live chat. As they discussed, both sides’ lineups were nearly finalized.

Lin Hao glanced at the opponent’s composition, nodded almost imperceptibly, and locked in Meng Tian.

In fact, he had come prepared today. Last night, he’d just unlocked the national Meng Tian skill point, and today was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Meng Tian is a rather unique hero—countered by some, but in turn, he counters others. Much like Chang’e, he’s one of those champions best saved for a counter-pick.

Given the opponent’s lineup, Meng Tian was the perfect choice.

“Meng Tian?”

“Haven’t seen that hero in ages.”

“What does he even do, exactly? All I remember is that he always summons a bunch of little soldiers in team fights.”

“Meng Tian actually matches up well against their comp. But does Haoran know how to play Meng Tian?”

Soon, both teams entered the game loading screen.

The blue side: Liu Chan, Hua Mulan, Nakoruru, Genghis Khan, and Angela.

Lin Hao’s red side: Agu Duo, Shen Mengxi, Sun Bin, Yu Ji, and Meng Tian.

As Lin Hao entered the game, he received a prompt from the system.

“Detected: the enemy jungler Nakoruru is a professional player—Wen Yang from Kyoto BW. Taking into account popularity and the pro player bonus, the host will receive six times the reward when collecting Wen Yang’s rage value!”

Damn!

Lin Hao’s eyes lit up.

Six times the reward! This was the first time Lin Hao had encountered a pro player.

What’s more, he was familiar with Wen Yang. Although BW’s current form was lackluster, they had once claimed the KPL championship. Wen Yang, as BW’s star jungler and a starting player, had even earned an FMVP title and his own exclusive skin!

If I’d known, I’d have taken Smite this game!

Lin Hao regretted it for a moment.

The top-lane Smite Meng Tian build was gaining traction lately. The idea was to invade the enemy jungle, using Meng Tian’s early tankiness to harass and deny the enemy’s jungler.

Yet, the more standard approach is Flash Meng Tian, which focuses on lane pressure and, later, using Flash to dive the enemy carry.

After some thought, Lin Hao let it go. After all, this was the championship jungler Wen Yang; trying to outplay him with top-lane Smite Meng Tian would be difficult. At the very least, Wen Yang’s mastery of Smite would surpass his own.

So, bringing Flash was fine. Even if he wasn’t laning directly against Wen Yang, as long as he could use his lane to influence the game and disrupt Wen Yang’s rhythm, he could still harvest rage value from the enemy jungler.

The game began!

At the start, Lin Hao went straight to lane and leveled his second skill first. He strode confidently onto the battlefield, switched to his defensive stance, and began basic attacking the oncoming minion wave.

This is Meng Tian’s standard early-game play.

When Meng Tian switches to his defensive stance, he reduces frontal damage by thirty percent. While charging his skill, he gains an additional twenty percent damage reduction. Stacked together, Meng Tian can reach a terrifying level of damage mitigation in the early game.

As Lin Hao cleared the wave, he was surprised to find that the enemy Mulan didn’t challenge him to a trade.

“Usually, because Meng Tian isn’t yet level two and can’t pivot his defensive stance, most top laners would walk behind him at level one to whittle down his health.”

“But this Mulan hasn’t done that. I have to say, that’s smart. Do you know why?” Lin Hao kept his eyes off the barrage of chat messages as he finished clearing the wave and moved to attack the river crab, briefly glancing at the enemy midlaner’s movements.

Good, both were heading top.

Meng Tian truly gets no love.

While working on the river crab, Lin Hao continued, “Mulan has a weakness in lane—no sustain. Meanwhile, Meng Tian, when releasing a fully charged spear and landing it, heals himself, and the efficiency is considerable. So if Mulan tries to trade early, she’s bound to lose.”

As Lin Hao spoke, he noticed Mulan edging toward him, eyeing the river crab. Lin Hao carefully timed his charged attack and finished off the crab with a precise strike.

Mulan, after clearing the wave, ran straight to mid.

“No problem. If she goes to help, I’ll just pressure the lane,” Lin Hao said nonchalantly, watching Mulan’s rotation. “Everything is waiting until I hit level four.”

Time flowed on in the canyon. As Lin Hao cleared the wave that would bring him to level four, calamity struck top lane.

“First Blood!”

Yu Ji had been tower-dived and killed by Wen Yang’s team!

Lin Hao shifted his camera to Yu Ji. Earlier, Angela had led with her 2-1 combo, which Yu Ji dodged with her movement. Liu Chan then sped in, using his second skill—Mechanical Claw—to trap her, but Yu Ji used her second skill as a cleanse to escape.

“She used her second skill as a cleanse? Not bad,” Lin Hao chuckled.

But in the end, Yu Ji couldn’t escape their collapse. Nakoruru burst from the river and blue-side jungle, and after Yu Ji’s second skill was on cooldown, she was finished off under the tower by Nakoruru’s pounce, combined with Genghis Khan’s basic attacks.