"Pick Tristana and Taliyah," Zack Harper said to Clearlove, his voice cutting through the tension in the draft room.
Coach Nofe barely said a word. Abe had already told him to let Zack handle this game's draft, and that if they lost, it wouldn't be on him.
Red side EDG immediately locked in Tristana and Taliyah with their first two picks.
Seeing EDG pick two carries straight up like that, everyone watching was caught off guard.
In professional League of Legends, blue side's main advantage was first pick—the ability to grab the single most powerful champion in the current meta and build an ideal comp around it. Red side's advantage, on the other hand, was being able to snag two strong champions from the current patch with their first rotation.
After all, it was impossible for every patch to have only one overpowered pick. If there truly was just one, red side would just ban it.
Beyond that, there was the counter pick.
And this counter wasn't just referring to the fifth pick—it was about comprehensive counterplay across the entire draft.
For example, if RNG first-picked Fizz top in this game, EDG should theoretically respond by picking a top laner that counters Fizz.
But EDG didn't do that. Instead, they picked two carries—and not even strong laning carries like Caitlyn and Syndra.
So when people saw EDG's draft start unfolding, they were completely baffled.
"What the hell is their draft even trying to do?" Coach Firefox, RNG's head coach, looked just as confused as everyone else.
"They got beaten so hard they're tilted out of their minds, right?" MLXG said with a wide grin.
"Maybe they've got some kind of prepared strategy?" Letme said, though his tone was uncertain.
"What do you think, Uzi?" Firefox turned to look at his star player.
"I think MLXG's right," Uzi said with a chuckle.
"Same here!" Seeing that the team's top two voices agreed, Xiaohu didn't even bother thinking for himself and just rode with his teammates.
"Then let's lock in our bot lane first?" Firefox looked at Uzi and suggested. "How about Caitlyn and Lulu?"
"Yeah, that works," Uzi said after a moment's thought, nodding his approval.
Tristana's early game trading was garbage—she was almost always paired with an enchanter support, and Lulu was hands down the best enchanter for Trist. Caitlyn, meanwhile, could absolutely dominate Tristana in the early laning phase and secure total lane priority.
RNG immediately locked in the powerful bot lane duo of Caitlyn and Lulu.
After RNG completed their second and third picks, EDG instantly locked in Leona.
Seeing EDG lock in Leona, everyone was stunned all over again.
Leona with Tristana into Caitlyn and Lulu? Wasn't that just asking to get abused ?
They'd be shoved under tower and poked to death the entire laning phase.
"I told you they got beaten stupid! Hahahaha..." MLXG laughed even harder now.
The reason EDG had lost the previous game was because his Lee Sin's early invade had crushed Rory's jungle, snowballing into a dominant win.
Uzi's smile grew even wider.
Everyone on RNG felt like this game was pretty much in the bag already. How do you even draft into yourself like that ?
The three casters up in the booth exchanged confused glances, all of them seeing the same bewilderment reflected in each other's eyes.
EDG's draft felt... off.
But with their current understanding of the game, they couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
The mid laner and ADC picks were fine, and an engage support that could start fights was also solid. These first three picks already painted a clear picture of teamfighting: Leona goes in, Taliyah follows up with the knockup, and Tristana cleans up.
Most of the audience couldn't see anything unusual either.
Only a handful of industry insiders caught something slightly strange.
In professional matches, blue side often had the power to construct their ideal lineup—to set the terms of engagement. Red side, meanwhile, needed to construct an answer to what blue side was doing.
Simply put, blue side posed the question. Red side solved it.
But EDG wasn't trying to solve anything right now. Instead, they seemed to be posing a question of their own.
Both sides moved into the second round of bans.
EDG chose to ban Syndra and Malzahar.
RNG banned Graves and Kha'Zix.
Those two junglers, once Leona landed her crowd control, could quickly burst targets and get Tristana rolling.
However, when the second ban phase ended and EDG locked in Ivern on red side's fourth pick, everyone was stunned yet again.
What the hell did EDG mean by this ?
Ivern jungle again?
Rory lost last game and clearly wasn't convinced, thinking the draft was fine—so they're just running it back with a different jungler ?
"What do you say, MLXG? Another round of Lee Sin?" Firefox asked with a smile.
"Lock it in. Just watch me dunk on him," MLXG said. Like Ning, he was a jungler with infinite confidence.
If EDG wasn't convinced, he'd personally beat them until they were.
"What about mid? Xiaohu, how about Ryze?" Firefox offered his suggestion.
"Ryze is perfect," Xiaohu nodded without hesitation.
A champion like Ryze, with his 2200-range waveclear, was tailor-made for him. Mindlessly shove waves, constantly splitpush in the mid-game, and in teamfights, just mash whatever buttons lit up.
RNG's draft was complete, while EDG still had their final top lane pick left.
"What's EDG going to pick this game? Will they go Gragas into Fizz again?" Miller said with a teasing tone. "Oh wait, too bad—Gragas got banned by RNG this game!"
"That's definitely not happening. If they were still going to pick Gragas, why even swap players? They could've just left Luke in," one of the other casters replied with a chuckle.
"You know what, you might be onto something," Walker added mischievously. "Coach Nofe would probably say, 'The draft and strategy are fine—it's the player who's the problem!'"
"Hahahahaha..."
The casting desk erupted into laughter.
But before their laughter even faded, EDG's fifth pick locked in.
Kalista.
The laughter cut off instantly. Their expressions froze mid-smile.
A massive wave of noise, like a tsunami crashing into shore, exploded through the arena.
Even the RNG players were stunned silent.
What... the hell did this mean ?
Kalista for fifth pick?
Was this... top lane ?
"No way. Is this guy insane? MLXG, go camp his ass into the ground," Letme said immediately, his blood pressure spiking.
A rookie, in his very first professional LCS match, locking in Kalista top lane—wasn't this just straight-up disrespecting him ?
"I'm gonna kick his head clean off this game," MLXG scoffed. "Just watch me camp him. That's all I'm doing."
An ADC in top lane wasn't just disrespecting the enemy top laner—it was straight-up disrespecting the enemy jungler too.
"They're tilted out of their minds. We've got this game, boys," Firefox said, patting everyone on the shoulder. "Play it steady, and we win late game for free."
"Yep."
"Got it."
"I'm already studying the draft for finals."
"Finals? Be bolder, bro. Study the MSI teams while you're at it."
"Hahahahaha... that's too aggressive, man."
While the RNG members felt like this game was a guaranteed win, the chat in the official livestream absolutely exploded.
"HOLY CRAP? AD TOP LANE? THE ANCESTORS ARE WATCHING FROM ABOVE!"
"Kalista top? What kind of unhinged draft is this?"
"Is EDG that desperate? They'll pick anything at this point?"
"7777777!"
"This is interesting. Very interesting."
"Finally, top lane isn't two blobs of meat smacking each other with Grasp anymore."
"I'm so hyped for this!"
"I don't even care how it goes, just seeing this draft is worth watching !"
Both teams completed their lineup selections and loaded into Summoner's Rift.
(Blue Side RNG) vs (Red Side EDG):
Top Lane: [Fizz] vs [Kalista]
Jungle: [Lee Sin] vs [Ivern]
Mid Lane: [Ryze] vs [Taliyah]
ADC: [Caitlyn] vs [Tristana]
Support: [Lulu] vs [Leona]
The game was about to begin.
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