Chapter 209: How deep... ? I THINK IT MIGHT BE TOO DEEP!
Blue coloured spotlights flashed over Shanghai High School’s side of the stage. They were the Blue team in Game 1 of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament Finals. The players from Shanghai High School and High School 13 went into Champion Select, and started as always with the ban phase, where they could ban three Champions each. Shanghai High School used these bans to target Lin Feng. Their first ban was LeBlanc, a Champion Lin Feng had used to great effect on multiple occasions. Then they banned Fizz, and finally they banned Yasuo. They were three assassins. Three Champions that could win a game on their own. Three Champions that Lin Feng loved to play.
Westwind sat at the caster desk. He looked out over the overcrowded venue. The audience exclaimed in surprise to the bans. It seemed like no one expected Shanghai High School to single out the mid lane. Westwind grinned. He grabbed the microphone from its stand on the desk and shouted into it, “There you have it! Shanghai High School recognizes that Lin Feng is the real threat on High School 13! But we’ve seen Shanghai International do the same thing in the Semifinals. The real question here, people, is this: How deep is Lin Feng’s Champion pool? I think it might be… TOO DEEP!”
Silent Reed looked over at Westwind standing next to her and said, “I don’t know if they’re singling out this Lin Feng guy. Zeng Rui banned out three strong Champions in the current meta. I think he just doesn’t want to deal with those three Champions. It probably has nothing to do with who their opponent is. Don’t forget how good Zeng Rui’s team is.”
Zeng Rui had come up with a strategy for his team to shine, rather than shutting Lin Feng down. He saw no point in changing an entire strategy in reaction to one opponent having a good couple of games. The bans of LeBlanc, Fizz, and Yasuo had nothing to do with Lin Feng and everything to do with Shanghai High School’s Midlaner. Zeng Rui recognized, especially after the Semifinals, that Lin Feng was a very good Midlaner and that he was the only real threat on High School 13’s team. So they had to shut him down. The best way to go about that was to give his own Midlaner, who was incredibly skilled, every advantage he could get before the game even started. He performed better against non-assassin type Champions, so Zeng Rui decided to ban out the strongest assassin type Champions in the current meta.
Zeng Rui didn’t worry about Tang Bingyao and her Draven either. She was a good ad-carry, but she wasn’t anywhere near the level of Lin Feng. On top of that, Shanghai High School’s bot lane was their strongest lane. They had a Diamond 1 ad-carry and Zeng Rui was a Challenger Support. There wasn’t a doubt in Zeng Rui’s mind that they would win the fight in bot lane. They would stop Tang Bingyao before she could achieve anything with her Champion. The only variable Shanghai High School had to worry about in this game was the mid lane. They had to shut Lin Feng down.
An Xin looked across the stage at Zeng Rui, smiling. She’d seen her fair share of Champion Selects and knew exactly what Zeng Rui was up to. I’m almost impressed. Decent plan to ban out Lin Feng and beat Tang Tang in lane. It can work, I suppose. Heh. If Lin Feng was going mid that is… She giggled as she helped her team decide on the final Champion to round out their team.
Game 1 of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament Finals:
Shanghai High School (Blue) versus High School 13 (Red)Top lane: Irelia versus Twisted FateJungle: Xin Zhao versus Rek’SaiMid lane: Orianna versus WukongAD-carry: Jinx versus TristanaSupport: Thresh versus Morgana
After both teams had locked in their Champions, the players had a minute to confirm their Summoners Spells and switch Champions around between the team members. High School 13 used this time to have Lin Feng and Chen Ze constantly switch their Twisted Fate and Wukong back and forth. The crowd watched it happen and laughed. Westwind made a joke about it, saying how it would bite High School 13 in the bum if they didn’t get it correct at the last second. And then the last few seconds of the Champion Select counted down. It wasn’t allowed to switch the Champions around anymore. Chen Ze was playing Twisted Fate while Lin Feng was playing Wukong.