Chapter 27: Surprise, I'm the Top Laner!

Chapter 27: Are You Kidding Me? I'm the Top Laner!

"Oh? Blitzcrank? IG, as the blue side, has actually picked Blitzcrank as their first choice. Are they revealing their support pick right out of the gate?" Guan Zeyuan asked, stunned.

Prior to this, in several of IG's matches, they had consistently saved their counter-pick for Cheng Xian. But in this game, they flipped the script, taking the blue side and locking in Blitzcrank in the first slot.

"However, picking a support first in this meta, especially a 'lottery-style' support like Blitzcrank, doesn't seem very useful," Tong Xi added.

Guan Zeyuan let out a strange laugh. "There's a strategy here. Shaqima is definitely hiding something! At the very least, have you forgotten his Thresh from a week ago? Blitzcrank is a hook champion similar to Thresh."

"But the feel of playing Blitzcrank is quite different from Thresh. I've seen official player statistics before; in terms of hit rate, Thresh's Q is significantly more accurate than Blitzcrank's," Tong Xi supplemented.

Meanwhile, in the TES team voice chat, the players were bewildered to see IG reveal Blitzcrank as their first pick.

"Is he playing support?"

"Otherwise? Could he possibly be going top?"

The TES players were skeptical, but given Cheng Xian's extraordinary performance over the last three matches, they were on guard. After some discussion, they began drafting their composition to counter the opponent's. Since IG was on the blue side and had locked in a support Blitzcrank, TES specifically saved a counter-pick for their own support.

"Brothers, let's go! Let's win this! Smash IG!" Karsa cheered in the team chat.

TES, on the red side, drafted Cho'Gath for top, Volibear for jungle, Tristana for mid, and Sivir with Morgana for the bot lane.

"The win probability for TES on paper is already at seventy percent," Guan Zeyuan judged the situation while shaking his head. "I still don't think that Blitzcrank pick was good. Since they've made Shaqima the core, they shouldn't have let him reveal a support-centric hero as a first pick... wait... wait a minute? What is going on???"

The moment the game loaded, Guan Zeyuan's words trailed off.

The yellow-skinned, iron-clad rodent was currently spewing a cloud of white... steam, and strutting straight toward the top lane!

"Top lane Blitzcrank???" Guan Zeyuan nearly slid off his chair.

In the rules of League of Legends esports, there is no hard requirement dictating which role must go to which lane. Players generally follow these conventions because coaches train them to specialize in their specific lanes, relying on specific minion arrival times, jungle environments, and champion matchups.

However, because Nofe had given Cheng Xian special permission to play Blitzcrank top, TheShy naturally swapped to the bot lane to play support.

"Wink, do you want a championship title?" Cheng Xian asked softly.

Wink's mouth twitched. He stared blankly at the ceiling. "I..."

"Wink, can you do this? I'm only good at playing Lucian support, is that okay?" TheShy asked, feeling no resentment about playing support as long as he could win.

Wink eventually bowed to the pressure and silently locked in Senna to support TheShy.

As for the biggest liability in IG's draft—the Blitzcrank—it was now heading to the top lane.

"I'm actually fine with it," Cheng Xian said, while 369, seeing IG lock in Lucian top, opted for Cho'Gath to counter, seeking to survive until level 6.

The match began.

"Kill them! Are we going to let a support lead us by the nose? They beat WE silly, do they really think they can trash us, TES, too?" JackeyLove snorted.

"The dual-shield combo is specifically to counter the Blitzcrank!"

As the game progressed, the irony was palpable: while TES had prepared a three-pronged interrogation for the bot lane, they were now facing a three-pronged medical examination from a Blitzcrank in the top lane.