The Ban & Pick phase was underway, and the opposing team once again banned Tong Yao's Twisted Fate and Leblanc. Tong Yao was so frustrated she wanted to slam her mouse. Just then, she heard Ming Shen's voice behind them asking, "Tong Yao, do you want to pick Corki or Diana? Diana’s a solid choice. She’s not exactly meta right now, but she’s a great assassin."
Upon hearing this, a flicker of surprise flashed through Lu Sicheng’s deep brown eyes.
He glanced back at Ming Shen, thought for a moment, then nodded. "Diana works. Early game, she can’t fight anyone and has to farm, which will kill any thoughts of solo kills... Then late game, once she scales, she returns to her assassin role and can wreak havoc. Perfect fit."
Tong Yao kept shaking her leg in silence.
Lu Sicheng turned to glance at her for confirmation. "Diana, yes or no? I remember you even taught Lu Yue how to play her."
Tong Yao continued shaking her leg without a word.
Little Fatty chuckled. "She’s fuming right now, thinking about how to solo kill Ai Jia later—too bad you can’t type in-game during matches, or else you could just flame him in chat."
Old Cat: "They should’ve let you borrow the fruit-cutting knife during the break. You could’ve gone next door and solo killed Ai Jia in the lounge."
Lu Sicheng shot Tong Yao a look. "With her scrawny chicken build? She’d get outplayed and wrecked."
Tong Yao finally stopped shaking her leg and glared at Lu Sicheng, who was still in the mood to tease her. "If I can’t beat him, won’t you help me?"
Lu Sicheng let out an indifferent "Oh." "...Someone’s gotta bail you out from the police station. If your parents go, you might get your legs broken. I can go as your fiancé to save you."
Tong Yao opened her mouth to retort, but Ming Shen’s exasperated voice cut her off over comms: "I’m begging you all, can we act normal for once? If we win this, we slap the other team off the cliff. If we lose, we’re the ones hanging off it—either way, there’s only one cliff, and five people are gonna dangle from it. Them or us?"
Everyone: "..."
Little Fatty: "Them."
Ming Shen: "Good. Now shut up and focus on Ban & Pick. No more thug strategies—they won’t expect us to pick Diana, so we can grab her later. First, lock in Kalista and Thresh. Kalista’s open, and we can’t let Pope take her."
Old Cat and Old K, picking first and second, both muttered an "Oh" and locked in the Kalista-Thresh bot lane duo. When the enemy team picked Ezreal and Bard, Old Cat and Old K started whispering about switching to the "Blood Moon" skins for their selected champions...
How to describe the Blood Moon skins for Kalista and Thresh? In terms of champion synergy, skin aesthetics, and functionality, they were a match made in heaven—literally wedding-ready.
Little Fatty: "Why are you two so gay? Should we just let you two play bot lane?"
Old Cat: "At least one of you and Cheng Ge should have some chemistry, whether in looks or in heart."
Old K: "Heart’s out of the question."
Old Cat: "So we’ll just scare the enemy with our wedding-ready skin combo for the looks."
Lu Sicheng: "Pathetic."Tong Yao held the mouse with one hand while the other tapped rhythmically on the desk, muttering to herself, "Huh, Diana also has the Blood Moon skin? Let me check—oh, she does! Carry me, carry me, three matches, three matches!"
As she spoke, she swiftly switched to the Blood Moon skin.
Ming Shen: "You're discussing Champion skins during the finals? Not tense enough, huh? Anyone else spouting nonsense gets their tongue ripped out."
Everyone: "..."
Ming Shen's words always carried weight. When everyone else was fooling around, he remained the most serious one. Aside from being the seasoned veteran and big brother of the team, another reason was that he was genuinely reliable in critical moments—like just now, when he suggested Tong Yao pick Diana, Scorn of the Moon. It was downright awe-inspiring. Before this, no one had seriously considered how she could gain an advantage against a Mid Laner whose playstyle countered hers. The temporary solution had been: if you can't win, just play safe, don't overthink it, turtle up, and wait for the other core players to carry.
Though they knew Tong Yao wouldn’t be used to playing like this, there was no other way. The coaching staff had privately discussed this issue early on, but even Lu Sicheng couldn’t think of a solution yet. All he knew was that after watching Tong Yao struggle in the first game today, they still hadn’t figured out the right approach. They could only feed her some toxic positivity like "play safe" and "trust your teammates."
But then, Ming Shen, calm under pressure, suddenly came up with the answer.
In just those few dozen minutes of break time, he thought of a Champion that could temporarily salvage the situation: Diana, Scorn of the Moon.
Diana was a Champion that had to play safe and farm early. Once she hit level six, she could unleash her first burst combo. Thinking about it now, she seemed perfect for a player like Tong Yao—it wasn’t that she couldn’t fight, but the Champion’s early-game limitations forced her to focus on farming. After level six, when the laning phase transitioned into mid-game, she could go wild. Not only would she not necessarily fall behind in lane, but she could also carry or even take over the game in the mid-to-late stages.
By picking Diana, Tong Yao wouldn’t psychologically fixate on playing safe early because her playstyle was countered, or because she couldn’t win, or because she was being carried to victory. She’d likely relax a lot more.
—In short, Diana was an excellent and unexpected pick.
When the Ban & Pick phase reached its final stage and ZGDX Team locked in Diana as their last pick, the entertainment factor was undeniable—though the players couldn’t hear it with their headphones on, the casters and viewers on the livestream could clearly hear the audience erupt into murmurs and cheers when Diana was selected!
Caster A: "Diana! ZGDX is picking Diana to counter Viktor!"
Caster B: "This is unexpected—truly unexpected! Smiling’s Champion pool isn’t just hype from the fans. First, she pioneered a new trend with Syndra, then naturally forced Twisted Fate and Leblanc into ban slots. And now she’s pulling out Diana!"Commentator A burst into laughter: "This is a good thing. I believe the fans and audience would love to see something different in the finals."
Commentator B: "The question is whether this Diana can amaze us like Syndra did back then—ah, come to think of it, this champion is actually quite suitable for Smiling in this situation. If she can't handle Ai Jia early game, she can just play safe since the champion itself needs time to scale. By late game, she won’t need to play safe anymore and can just go wild—ah, now that I think about it, this Diana pick is truly brilliant!"
Commentator A: "...That’s why they say the game starts—or even ends—during the Ban & Pick phase. Compared to the starting players, the coaches and data analysts play an equally important role."
As soon as Commentator A finished speaking, the ZGDX fan section erupted with excited chants of "Ming Shen! Ming Shen!"—
Commentator A chuckled: "We know it’s your Ming Shen handling the Ban & Pick. Aren’t we praising him already? Alright, alright, Ming Shen, well done!"
The venue erupted in laughter.
Amid the laughter, the Ban & Pick phase concluded. The coaches from both teams stepped forward to shake hands. The two coaches were already so familiar with each other that they exchanged handshakes, shoulder pats, and even walked off hand in hand like old buddies under the watchful eyes of the crowd.
Meanwhile, the big screen transitioned to the game loading screen, signaling that the match was about to begin.
...
As the game loaded, the sound of teammates pinging the bushes came through the headphones. Tong Yao suddenly felt an eerie calmness wash over her—now that she was playing Diana, the vague sense of unease from losing a small round earlier had completely vanished. She no longer held even the slightest hope of sneaking a kill on Ai Jia or capitalizing on his mistakes to gain an early lane advantage.
With Diana as her pick, she had already accepted her mission: survive safely, farm well, and wait until level six.
All distracting thoughts were cast aside.
During the laning phase, she played extremely cautiously, trading hits carefully and never recklessly going for kills—she even proactively coordinated with Old K to set up protective vision, leaving no gaps.
……………… This uncharacteristic steadiness, however, left Ai Jia feeling uneasy. While Tong Yao leisurely farmed, Ai Jia on the YQCB side couldn’t stop muttering to himself—
[YQCB Team Voice Chat]
Ai Jia: "Why isn’t she engaging anymore? Damn it, she trades hits and then just runs away. What’s going on? This isn’t like her! Teammates, something’s wrong—the enemy’s ‘Esports Mulan’ has been possessed by their mid-lane turret, Lu Yue!"
YQCB’s support and captain, Liang Sheng: "Stop yelling, stop yelling. Ugh, you’re giving me a headache. She picked Diana—of course she’s gonna focus on scaling instead of brawling with you early!"
Ai Jia continued wailing: "No way, if she suddenly gets smart like this, I can’t beat her!"
Liang Sheng wanted to say, "You never really ‘beat’ her before—you just capitalized on her recklessness." But before he could speak, their ADC, Li Junhe, clicked the ground with his mouse, signaling the jungler to retreat, and said succinctly in Chinese: "This game, no dives."Liang Sheng immediately beamed with joy: "Hear that? Even this troublemaker boy is suppressing his nature and not recklessly tower diving this game—compared to that, Smiling picking Diana and playing safe to farm isn’t surprising at all. Stop yelling, this game’s about macro play. Learn from the LCK—Koreans usually don’t fight, but when they do, it’s a god-tier battle. Very composed, very profound."
Li Junhe: "Me, Korean, profound."
Liang Sheng: "Not you. Except you."
Li Junhe: "..."
The YQCB voice channel was lively and full of nonsense, while on the other side, ZGDX was just as noisy now that the person who threatened to rip out their tongues had left—
[ZGDX Voice Channel]
Tong Yao: "Q him, hah, I’m out after that Q—he’s so mad!"
Lu Sicheng took a moment to glance at the mid lane and chuckled. "You didn’t even gain anything. Why so happy?"
Tong Yao: "I’m optimistic."
Little Fatty: "I admire how women’s hearts are as deep as the ocean—one moment you were hugging coffee in the breakroom, pitifully staring at the wall, and now you’ve joined the optimistic family. Oh, the Blood Moon Thresh skin looks really nice. If we win this, Cheng Ge, top up my account to buy it."
Tong Yao: "Can’t you buy it yourself?"
Little Fatty: "We’re both people close to Cheng Ge—you got a Maserati, and I can’t even get a skin? That’s too much! I’ve slept with him for two years, isn’t that worth at least one skin?"
Lu Sicheng: "Watch your words. No dirty jokes."
Little Fatty: "Ming Shen’s gone. For some reason, the moment he left, the urge to act shameless became overwhelming."
Old K chimed in: "Li Junhe’s playing really safe this time—doesn’t look like he’s planning to tower dive. Ugh, it’s so frustrating not being able to type in-game. Otherwise, I’d ask him if he’s still diving or not. If not, I’ll go top to help Old Cat gank."
At around four minutes and thirty seconds into the game, Lu Sicheng checked his experience bar and the enemy’s movements. Both ADCs had perfect CS, not missing a single minion. They were about to hit level four, but Li Junhe was still happily freezing the lane, showing no intention of pushing deep for a dive—everyone knew Li Junhe had a personal quirk of diving at least once before level four. But for the sake of the LPL Summer Split, he was forcibly suppressing his habit…
The last time he was this restrained was during the S5 World Championship finals.
"K-God, since you’re already here, why leave? What’s the point of going top? Old Cat can take care of himself, even if the enemy jungler’s probably there..." Lu Sicheng said calmly. "Li Junhe probably won’t dive this time. Seems he really wants to take his little support and win an LPL championship."
He paused, then added mercilessly, "Too bad. With me here, he won’t get it."
Everyone: "..."
The moment he finished speaking, Little Fatty sighed about "other people’s ADCs"—just then, both sides hit level four. Lu Sicheng instantly cleared the wave and pressured forward, while Little Fatty, still lamenting "other people’s ADCs," ruthlessly hooked the so-called "other people’s ADC," triggered the second part of his Q, dashed in, followed up with an E, and then slapped on Exhaust!Li Junhe's Ezreal retreated nimbly, while Lu Sicheng was slowed by Liang Sheng's Bard and hit with Exhaust. The Bard covered Ezreal's retreat—but at that moment, Old K's Gragas leaped out from the bushes, using E and Flash to block their path, allowing Lu Sicheng to cleanly land an auto-attack and secure First Blood by taking down Li Junhe!
The live audience erupted in cheers and applause, while ZGDX's voice channel buzzed with praise—
Old K: "Nice!"
Old Cat: "Nice!"
Little Fatty: "Did you see that godly hook?! There’s no wind in Summoner’s Rift today—nothing to blow that hook off course!"
Tong Yao: "Good, good. I’ll just lie down this game—you carry."
Lu Sicheng securing First Blood against the enemy ADC and establishing a dominant bot lane advantage was undoubtedly an exhilarating piece of good news.
From then on, ZGDX surged forward with unstoppable momentum—
Because YQCB feared Lu Sicheng’s scaling in the bot lane, Ai Jia was forced to roam, leaving Tong Yao alone in mid to farm freely... By the time YQCB realized what was happening, that Diana had already become an unstoppable carry, cleanly diving the backline in every teamfight to eliminate priority targets before escaping with Thresh’s lantern—effortless in and out, swift as the wind.
Meanwhile, Old Cat’s Gnar in the top lane was an unkillable tank, transforming at the right moments to stand like an immovable mountain in front of his team.
In contrast, Lu Sicheng—who had successfully drawn the enemy’s attention—played a more subdued role. During teamfights, his main contributions were either tossing Little Fatty in to engage or waiting for Little Fatty to throw his lantern so he could fling Tong Yao deeper into the fray, ensuring she could retreat safely after securing kills...
At the 35-minute mark, ZGDX destroyed YQCB’s Nexus.
Just as they had planned before the match, ZGDX pushed their sister team to the edge of match point with a 2-1 scoreline—while Tong Yao, with her Diana at 7 kills, 0 deaths, and 10 assists, rightfully claimed MVP honors for the game.
Tong Yao: "Tong Yingjun is still your Tong Yingjun."
Lu Sicheng removed his headphones and stood up, glancing down at the small figure beside him—her cheeks faintly flushed, unable to hide her exhilaration. He chuckled. "Next game, YQCB’s ban slots will be Twisted Fate, Leblanc, Diana."
"No worries, no worries. Diana’s not the only assassin of her kind—there’s Ahri too. I can play them all anyway," Tong Yao waved her hand dismissively. "They can’t ban them all."
Under the stage lights, Lu Sicheng didn’t respond. Instead, he reached out and patted the head of the jubilant girl beside him, his touch impossibly fond.
His eyes flickered, as if he wanted to say something—but he remained silent, the corners of his lips curling imperceptibly.
He watched as she pushed open the soundproof booth’s door, wriggling through like a lively little eel before naturally reaching back to take his large hand in hers—just as she had countless times before. Side by side, they walked offstage toward the break room, the cheers and applause of their fans ringing behind them.
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