[Right now, I just want to stand up and sing the national anthem: "The Chinese nation has reached its most perilous moment..."]
[Daddies, hold steady QAQ!]
[Ahhh, just heard insider news that Smiling is being swapped back in for the next game. This rotation is way too frequent... feels like Tong Yao isn't even playing as well as Lu Yue—at least he doesn't feed. Sigh... if only they weren't up against OP Team, they could've beaten anyone else. So frustrating and disappointing!]
[Doesn't matter who they swap in, they're not beating Jin Yuguang anyway lol. Even if the other two lanes go even or ZGDX's bot lane outperforms OP's, what's the point? Mid and top do nothing early game, it's just slow death. The game's already over before Lu Sicheng can take over...]
[To the person above saying Smiling is worse than Lv—you're just wasting electricity watching the matches. In your eyes, as long as someone doesn't feed, it's fine, right? Can't you see Jin Yuguang's playstyle in the second game was completely different from the first? Actually, the second game snowballed much earlier. After the first Elemental Drake at 14 minutes, the Mid Laner was completely tied to mid lane, letting Jin Yuguang roam freely wherever he wanted. OP dominated vision control in the jungle, and that was the beginning of the end... ZGDX really needs to find a way to break free from Jin Yuguang's oppressive dominance, or else it's just waiting for a 3-0 sweep. If not for Lu Sicheng's desperate teamfight plays to salvage some dignity, this BO5 could've been over in an hour!]
...
And so it went.
Amidst the LPL fans trembling in fear at the prospect of "ZGDX getting swept 3-0 by OP Team in the quarterfinals," the crucial third game began—just as some insiders had leaked, Tong Yao was back in the starting lineup for this match... When the players took the stage, she followed behind Lu Sicheng, flexing her wrists as she walked up, only to be mercilessly teased by the casters on the desk—Caster D: ["Now the players are returning to the stage, and we can see ZGDX's starting four... uh, hey ZGDX, where's your Mid Laner?"]
The live audience instantly caught the joke and burst into laughter.
Caster E: ["......"]
Caster F: ["Bwahahahahaha! We can see Smiling peeking out from behind Chessman and glaring at the casting desk—hahahaha relax, girl, just a joke. I dream of finding a little lady who can hide behind me like that—makes me feel strong as a superhero—uhhh, I think she probably understood me, because she's laughing now."]
Caster E: ["Stop digging your own graves, you two. I heard Chinese people start learning English at age eight."]
Caster F: ["Keeping up with international standards."]
Caster D: ["Uhh, according to the latest info I have here, Smiling actually studied abroad in the UK... thanks to the backstage staff for the reminder. So, yeah, my bad, sorry. It's really annoying when someone understands you but you can't understand them—"]
Amidst the casters' banter, the players took their seats. OP Team, already up 2-0, looked relaxed, while ZGDX... well, they were chatting and laughing too.The live comments in the domestic stream were instantly flooded with messages like "Stay optimistic" and "The millions from illegal gambling bets are already in the bank, can't even fake a sad expression now"—Meanwhile, in the team's voice chat, Tong Yao let out a small sneeze, rubbed her nose, and glanced at the camera pointed their way nearby: "Control your expressions, teammates. The domestic audience is probably roasting us as the optimistic shopping squad right now."
Little Fatty: "Nah, during the last match, I missed a hook after flashing once, you know? Then during the break, I saw a post on Weibo where some guy asked if I was throwing the match for illegal gambling money, otherwise how could I play so badly."
Everyone: "..."
Little Fatty: "I told him I’m picking Thresh again this match to prove I’m genuinely bad, not throwing."
Everyone: "..."
Tong Yao: "6666. No surprise, your Weibo is probably getting bombarded right now, and the Forum walls already have your name hung up like a dried corpse..."
"It’s fine. Either way, if we lose this match, I’ll get flamed. But if we win, I’ll be a god—just pure confidence..." Little Fatty shook his leg as he banned Corki, the champion Jin Yuguang had wreaked blood rain havoc with last game. "You were wall-staring for dozens of minutes down there—come up with any counterplay? I saw you holding Cheng Ge’s hand with ‘I’ll carry him’ written all over your face..."
Lu Sicheng: "Yeah, what’s my wife picking this match?"
Lu Sicheng’s ways of addressing Tong Yao had expanded beyond "Hey," "Shorty," and "Our Mid Laner"—now, any term rolled off his tongue without a care for public settings... Tong Yao shot him a glance: "Twisted Fate. I’m not laning against him anymore—can’t win anyway."
Hearing this, Old Cat immediately locked in Twisted Fate for Tong Yao.
Caster D: ["Twisted Fate."]
Caster F: ["Let me process this for a second."]
Caster E: ["OP Team’s coach looks shocked too... What, you can play Twisted Fate too?!"]
Caster D laughed: ["Does every Mid Laner in the LPL know Twisted Fate? My god, Twisted Fate! I’ve never seen Smiling play it before!"]
Caster F: ["What’s happening? Wasn’t it said that ZGDX had the last Twisted Fate player in the LPL, and that was Lu Xuan Shou? Hey, intel was wrong! Look, OP Team didn’t even ban Twisted Fate against Smiling!"]
Caster E: ["........................ So, like I said, their coach looks stunned."]
Meanwhile, amid the casters’ banter, Old K picked Kindred. Then Tong Yao locked in Tahm Kench—At this point, everyone assumed ZGDX was copying OP Team’s strategy of Tahm Kench support plus Kindred jungle, a super-sustain combo. So without hesitation, OP Team immediately picked Zilean in the next rotation, planning to outlast them... What they didn’t expect was that the moment Zilean was locked in, Ming Shen, in charge of ZGDX’s Ban & Pick, actually said: "Nice!"
And then, something OP Team never anticipated unfolded—
This was a composition they’d faced in scrims before—
For the final two picks, ZGDX directly locked in Kalista and Annie. The Tahm Kench, originally assumed to be support, was moved to top lane, while the bot lane became the classic S5 duo of Kalista and Annie!Commentator D: ["We can see that OP Team seems a bit surprised... Honestly, if they hadn't picked Zilean earlier, there might have been better choices for their team composition. Were they outmaneuvered here?"]
Commentator F: ["ZGDX appears to have made tactical adjustments. I don’t think Smiling is normally a player who favors Twisted Fate..."]
Amid the commentators' discussion, the match began.
—It turned out that ZGDX had indeed made significant changes in this game... To be precise, the Mid Laner's playstyle had undergone a major shift. From the moment the minions met in lane, Tong Yao remained composed, keeping the wave consistently in the middle and engaging in very few early trades... Jin Yuguang also reverted to the cautious approach he had used against her in the first game.
Both players played it safe.
Around level five for the Mid Laners, it became clear that Tong Yao had ramped up her wave-clear speed—when the minions pushed in, she cleared them with abilities and immediately turned to leave... At first, everyone assumed she was just in a hurry to secure her first Mana Buff. However, moments later, when the broadcast cut to a frontal view, the audience was stunned to see ZGDX’s Mid Laner appearing in the Top Lane!
She wasn’t even level six yet!
She had walked all the way to Top Lane!
OP’s Top Laner, who had been tracking ZGDX’s Jungler’s movements and knew Old K was in the Bot Lane, had been confidently pushing the wave. The sudden sight of Twisted Fate sneaking up startled him—but it was already too late. Combined with the Top Laner Tahm Kench’s exceptional crowd control, Tong Yao instantly drew a yellow card, landed the stun, and unleashed a chain of CC that left no room for counterplay or escape. She secured First Blood with Old Cat’s help and retreated to safety before Jin Yuguang could arrive, then recalled!
While the audience was still processing this—
In the Bot Lane, Old K teamed up with the Bot Lane duo to create a three-versus-two pincer, killing the enemy Support and forcing the enemy AD to burn their Summoner Spells before barely escaping back to base. With that, ZGDX had successfully opened up both Top and Bot Lanes, bringing the kill score to 2:0!
Tong Yao then returned to the Mid Lane, seemingly resuming her laning phase against Jin Yuguang. But in a flash, she cleanly drew a Red Card, precisely hitting the second melee minion, followed by a Q, swiftly clearing the wave and hitting level six—simultaneously—no one even knew how ZGDX coordinated this so quickly—the moment Twisted Fate had her ultimate and her card wheel appeared in the Bot Lane, the Top Laner teleported down as well. Along with Old K, who had been lurking in the enemy jungle, and the Bot Lane duo, they grouped up and wiped out the enemy Bot Lane again, then took down the First Tower!
This entire sequence happened in just over ten seconds!
So fast that the commentators barely had time to explain what was happening!
Commentator D: ["Because all of ZGDX’s teammates were nearby, Jin Yuguang chose to give up on trying to assist... He must be frustrated. This Twisted Fate is like a ghost on the battlefield—one second she’s in the Top Lane, the next she’s back Mid, then she hits six, and suddenly she’s gone again..."]
Commentator F: ["I believe Jin Yuguang is completely baffled right now... After all, the laning phase in Mid this game lasted about five minutes—five minutes! For Smiling, Mid Lane was just a place to farm minions."]Commentator E: ["Laning phase? What laning phase?"]
Commentator D: ["Now Smiling is coordinating with K to secure the first Elemental Dragon—hahahaha she’s really busy! ZGDX seems to have two Junglers, which is driving OP Team crazy because there’s always someone else helping to gank the side lanes—either the Jungler or the Mid Laner!"]
Commentator F: ["She can go anywhere, just not mid lane."]
—That’s right. This game’s relentless roaming strategy was the tactic Tong Yao came up with after sitting by the Water Dispenser and observing the previous match. Witnessing firsthand how helpless Lu Yue had been when locked down in mid lane, she finally realized: Jin Yuguang is strong. Obsessively focusing on mid lane and trying to counter him to defeat OP Team was subconsciously limiting their macro play. This is a five-player game—besides the Mid Laner, there’s also the Top Laner and the AD Carry!
Mid lane?
Can’t win? Fine, I’ll clear the minion wave and roam.
You’ll never get to gank mid lane in this lifetime because there’s no one there to gank.
With Tong Yao’s Trinket Ward, plus Little Fatty and Old K’s Sightstone, vision was successfully established deep in the enemy’s bottom-side jungle… Through Tong Yao’s two successful ganks on the top and bottom lanes, Jin Yuguang’s mid lane also began to struggle. Soon, the tempo of the game fully shifted into ZGDX’s control!
By the 20-minute mark, when the standard laning phase ended for both side lanes, the kill score was already 7:0 in ZGDX’s favor. With their AD Carry significantly outperforming the opponent’s, there was no way they could lose a teamfight!
At 27 minutes, during the Baron fight, the OP Team—trailing by 6k gold—grouped up to kill Old K, then cleared mid lane minions and forced Baron… Old Cat recalled right under their noses.
Commentator D: ["Looks like ZGDX is giving up Baron this time."]
Commentator F: ["After clearing a wave, their Jungler is about to respawn. If ZGDX stalls and waits for the Jungler, they might not lose this. I don’t understand why they’re giving up so easily—this feels like a misplay…"]
Before the commentators could finish, something unexpected happened: despite being down their Jungler and Top Laner, ZGDX engaged in a 3v5 when no one saw it coming—Kalista ulted, hurling Annie straight into the Baron pit! Annie landed her ultimate, stunning all five enemies! Twisted Fate stood outside the pit, safely farming minions. When his passive’s fourth stack triggered, he instantly drew a yellow card, Flashed into the pit, and comboed Q + Ignite to delete the enemy Zilean!
With Baron now low, the recently recalled Tahm Kench ulted into the pit, bringing the freshly respawned Old K into the fray. With a slurp , he spat Old K out—the moment Old K landed, he Smited Baron and stole it!
The entire crowd leapt to their feet, roaring. LPL fans in the venue turned red with excitement, wildly waving their team flags and bright red national flags. One bespectacled guy even jumped onto his chair, flailing and pounding his chest!Thirty minutes in, ZGDX Team pushed through all of OP Team's outer turrets with the Baron Buff—by this point, OP Team was trailing by a staggering 15,000 gold deficit. After ZGDX recalled to base to upgrade their equipment, the overwhelming gear difference left OP Team powerless to fight back... In the end, with their backs against the wall, ZGDX saved themselves from the brink of defeat with Twisted Fate's split-pushing and team support tactics, securing victory at the 35-minute mark!
Commentator D: [ZGDX ultimately won the game thanks to Smiling's relentless aggression, turning teamfights in their favor—honestly, I still don’t know what just happened... After a 50-minute second game, Smiling came back as a completely different player.]
Commentator F: [Welcome to the LPL, the Brawling Region.]
Commentator D: [I never imagined there’d be another player in the LPL who could play Twisted Fate with such fluid mastery—everyone said Lu Xuan Shou was ZGDX’s, even the LPL’s, last remaining card...]
Commentator F: [Hahahaha, looks like the intel was wrong!]
Commentator E remarked dryly: [OP Team probably thought the same thing... Look how happily Smiling is smiling. She hugged her captain—who also happens to be her boyfriend—though sadly, things didn’t escalate further.]
Commentator D: [It’s great... Ever since I heard a female player would compete in the World Championship, I’ve been looking forward to this moment. How wonderful. A reminder to all the single Internet addicts watching this on their iPads: even the pros are dating—what are you waiting for?]
...
On this day, ZGDX finally had an epiphany while Smiling was "watching the Water Dispenser," realizing how to counter OP Team’s invincible Mid Laner. After a rollercoaster reverse sweep, they defeated OP Team and trudged forward into the semifinals to face Korea’s TAT Team.
On this day, the world finally learned that ZGDX Team’s so-called "LPL’s last card" wasn’t referring to a single person—it meant their Mid Laner carry role... Regarding this, Smiling grinned during the post-match interview and said, "A deck has both big and small Jokers. Two people—nothing wrong with that."
On this day, the battle between Chinese and Korean esports was finally settled.
Domestic players joked that this day should be commemorated as an annual holiday where in-game experience and gold rewards are doubled to celebrate. Let’s call it... "The Redemption Day of the Last Card"?
Author’s Note: Here it is, here it is! Sorry for the delay—today was my grandfather’s memorial, so I had to go home for dinner and only started writing at 8:30 PM. My apologies for the wait! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: this chapter is pure fantasy with zero scientific basis. If I were actually this good at countering an unbeatable Mid Laner, why would I be writing novels? Chinese esports needs me!!! All scenarios are fictional—if you’re unhappy, consider it me teasing you!!!
OpenNovel