[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return – Chapter 196

The game has started.

As always, ping goes off loudly.

In the midst of it, Baek Seong-an said,

[“Top?”]


“Yep.”


[“Okay.”]

It was a short conversation, but the message was clear.

Right now, our chosen early invade target is top.

Of course, going into the late game doesn’t put us at a significant disadvantage either.

Actually, we could almost say time is on our side, given how much potential our champions have.

Despite that, the reason we insist on an early invade is that our team’s composition is strong for early invades, and if we can force Kennen to blow his Flash during the invade, the early top lane situation could change completely.

[“I’ll go first.”]


Kim Ji-hoon’s Morgana circled around the bush.

As our team suddenly appeared like a trap closing in, Kennen, seemingly startled, popped out of the bush on a straight line and ran down.

With the fluidity of water, Morgana’s Q skill, which she had already cast, flew toward Kennen.

Will he dodge it, or not?

-Bang!

In the end, unable to withstand the pressure, Kennen used his Flash to escape over the hill.

We successfully executed our initial plan of forcing Kennen to use his Flash with the early invade.

[“Nice.”]


“Good.”


[“Oh, sweet.”]

Of course, there’s a price for our early play.

We can’t know how our jungle vision is around the blue side anymore.

“Bot, can you check the blue side while managing the lane?”


[“Sure.”]


“Okay.”

Thus, we would know the starting position of the enemy jungle, but they’d know ours too.

Essentially, knowing the jungle positions for both sides started the game, so it’s not much different.

‘If getting Kennen’s Flash is the cost, it’s very good.’

No, to be precise, it’s embarrassing to even call it a cost.

It was essentially an unbalanced benefit.

-Minion has spawned!

After the early invade skirmish, based on what was seen with wards, both jungles started with red.

A completely ordinary and standard start.

‘Hmm.’

While the jungler is farming, they need to constantly check the state of lanes.

That’s how they can decide where to move next.

Of course, in a team game, this difficulty becomes a little easier.

You can just ask.

“How is top?”


[“…It’s fine.”]

Since it wasn’t the answer I wanted, I took a look at the top lane myself.

Soon, I figured out why Seo Yeon-woo had replied so ambiguously.

‘Hmm… No angles coming out.’

Could it be because he blew his Flash?

With Kennen in a position to pressure Kamal using the range advantage of his champion right from the start, he instead opted to play it safe, just farming slowly.

With the situation being the way it was, the lane naturally shifted toward Kennen, and there were no gank angles available.

That said, does that mean we have dive angles? Not so much.

Kennen was managing his health carefully, so the dive angle was ambiguous too.

‘Well, it isn’t a bad situation.’

Even though he just lost his Flash, fundamentally it was a ranged champion versus a melee champion matchup, so Kennen had to be stronger early on.

The fact that Kennen seemed to give up on that early advantage meant that our top laner could eventually gain an edge later.

‘So then…’

The remaining options were roughly one of three.

Use our top lane dominance to boldly invade the enemy blue side, or follow the standard and farm my lower camps, or finally pressure mid directly to naturally transition down.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to make a difficult choice.

[“Yujin, can you check mid for me?”]


“Oh, sure.”

Galion versus Sylas.

This matchup can be seen as being straightforwardly favorable for Sylas, but that isn’t the case all the time.

Galion, being an AP counter to some extent, can have lane dominance against Sylas until level 3.

Of course, as time goes on, trading hits with Sylas becomes increasingly disadvantageous, and the benefits of his global ultimate become difficult to utilize, but still.

“We need to think about Jarvan too.”


[“He’s probably there.”]


“Let’s keep an eye on it.”

There was no denying it.

Galion and Sylas.

Those two mid champions charged at each other almost simultaneously.

And at nearly the same time, Kindred and Jarvan III popped out from the bushes on both sides.

It became a 2:2 skirmish.

Galion and Sylas had both already burned their E skills.

In other words, there was no escape.

All that was left was to fight.

From here on out, it was all about tactics and mechanics.

[“I’ll dodge Jarvan’s spear, so let’s focus on him first.”]


“Got it.”

Jarvan’s flag landed on Sylas’s head, who had been provoked, and just before Jarvan’s spear could hit, Sylas barely dodged it with a timely Flash.

‘If it were me, I would’ve engaged with a Flash onto the spear.’

Well… I’m not the coach of TBW, so I don’t need to worry about that.

‘What’s important isn’t that.’

What’s important is that I’ve gained enough confidence in the current situation to be able to have such unnecessary thoughts.

[⨷] [⨷]

[OLZ Outlaw(Kindred) has marked TBW Kim Baek-soo(Jarvan III)]

[OLZ Outlaw(Kindred) has marked TBW Kim Baek-soo(Jarvan III)]

Galion and Jarvan III are not champions with strong sustained damage.

Thus, once Jarvan’s spear missed, the outcome of this fight was pretty much decided.

“Let’s go for Jarvan first.”

Despite all of Sylas’s skills being on cooldown, two passive basic attacks were still left.

One hit,

Another hit.

The heavy whip swung by Sylas slapped Jarvan, and shortly after, I unleashed my slowed full combo onto Jarvan.

In an instant, Jarvan III’s health plummeted as he used his Flash to escape, but I followed and finished him off with my own Flash.

-First Blood!

-You have slain an enemy!

As soon as Jarvan died, Galion was also unable to handle the damage pressure and used his Flash to escape.

[“That was good.”]


Not only did we take down Jarvan, but both the enemy Jarvan and Galion had used their Flashes.

[“Let’s push mid together.”]


“Sure.”

We pushed the mid lane, and with Sylas not having good health or mana, he recalled.

I jumped straight into my jungle to do more farming at the lower crab.

[“Galion’s no Teleport.”]


The moment Galion used his recalling teleport to mid,

[“Let’s see this.”]


[“Go!”]

Kim Ji-hoon initiated, and a skirmish for damage broke out at the bot.

Thanks to the sharp trading, Miss Fortune’s Flash and Heal were both burned away.

‘Dive angle is coming.’

The bot lane is gradually forming.

[“We need to create a big wave. Let’s wait and push until the wave arrives.”]


[“Oh, sure!”]

Kim Ji-hoon seemed well aware of the dive angle, asking Kim Jae-min to take it slow and form a big wave until the lane arrived.

[“…Can you come top next turn?”]


“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can right away.”

Right now, the top was naturally a lower priority.

If we succeed in this bottom dive, we can lead the game to victory without worrying about the top lane matchup at all.

There was no need to deliberately take a hard route when an easy one exists.

‘We’ll win comfortably.’

The momentum had already shifted.

Dare I say, it’s pretty rare for our team to lose when having this much of an advantage.

If the issues lie within individual lane matchups, then that’s one thing, but in terms of handling a favorable situation, our team already doesn’t fall behind any other team.

Then suddenly,

[“…Ah.”]


The resurrected Jarvan III has now shown up top.

The diagonal rule.

From Jarvan’s perspective, having already suffered significant losses, he had to come to terms with his situation. If he faced another dive at bot, there’d be nothing he could do, so simply to mend the losses, he had to make a choice.

In other words, his ganking top is an unfortunate choice rather than a proactive one.

‘…This might actually be good.’

While it was a bad thing for our top laner, it was indeed better that Kennen, who has Teleport, didn’t come down to cover the dive, had he been at bot.

But if Jarvan showed up top and committed to a top dive, we wouldn’t be in a bad position either.

“Stay calm. Focus on Morgana first.”

Slowly, the angle for the bot dive was closing in.

Of course, that was the same for top.

‘She could’ve just backed off…’

For some reason, Seo Yeon-woo made an uncharacteristic decision to hold onto the turret.

Sadly, there was no energy to spare for that right now. A bot dive was about to happen.

[“Miss Fortune first!”]


Miss Fortune, who didn’t have Flash, fell, and right after, Leona also went down.

-You have slain an enemy!

-Double kill!

[“Nice!”]


[“Oh yeah!”]

With the success of the bot dive following the victory in the 2:2 skirmish mid, the game pretty much broke open.

All that remained was for the top…

[“Ah…”]


The opponents are openly tormenting our top lane.

Having already suffered significant losses down below, Kamal was kept from even gaining experience.

It would certainly be annoying and frustrating for Seo Yeon-woo, but from a team perspective, the opponent’s play was nothing more than an attempt to mitigate their losses.

The situation has already favored our team tremendously, and even if the top were to suffer a dive, the game’s outcome was already practically predetermined.

It should be that way…

[OLZ Honor(Kamal): Kindred – Survive]


[OLZ Honor(Kamal): Kindred – Survive]


[OLZ Honor(Kamal): Kindred – Survive]

One after another, my champion’s portrait was marked,

[“Can you not hear me?”]


Like a beast growling,

[“Top, come here.”]


The top laner howled for the jungler.