[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return – Chapter 411

When facing Jax as Kamal, the most important thing is not to recklessly use your E skill.

One of the key aspects of Kamal is his hook E skill, which can be used not only for attack but also for defense, responding to ganks, and dodging ganks—it’s literally a broken skill.

Of course, Jax has a similar situation.

Jax’s E skill, Counter, blocks all basic attacks and basic attack-based skills.

That’s the main reason why Jax comes out as a counter to Kamal, and it’s also why he appears as a counter to most basic attack-based champions.

So, it’s like this.

Depending on the situation, in most trade exchanges, the one who uses Counter or the hook first is likely to be at a disadvantage.

Therefore, the most crucial thing when facing Jax, who counters Kamal, is to control your distance and bluff to force the opponent into using Counter.

Once Jax’s Counter is down, Kamal can unleash his attacks completely.

However, as long as Jax has Counter available, Kamal has virtually no means to deal damage to him, making this matchup a fierce combination of psychological warfare and physical skill.

‘That’s what makes it fun, though.’

I sneakily took a look at the names on the loading screen.

Just like in Challenger queue, most of the names were either familiar or from professional gamers.

In that game, Seo Yeon-woo and I were set to meet as enemies in the top lane.

There was no way it wouldn’t be fun.

– Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!

The game was officially starting.

[⬇] [⬇] [⬇]

[OLZ Outlaw (Kamal) is on the way]


[OLZ Outlaw (Kamal) is on the way]


[OLZ Outlaw (Kamal) is on the way]

As soon as the game began, I relentlessly pinged the top bush.

To be honest, a typical invade is usually more beneficial from the bottom bush or the jungle side for vision.

But this time, I decided to create a little rush.

The Kamal vs. Jax matchup is fundamentally a bruiser vs. bruiser fight, so if one side breaks, they could completely shatter.

Especially for champions like Kamal or Jax, their overall carry potential or destructive power when well-fed is immense, and given that they are both good at side-laning, if either Kamal or Jax gets big, it could easily shake the game.

In a way, the top lane is where the champions suited for late-game scaling are most fitting.

Perhaps that’s why my teammates didn’t express much skepticism about my push and accepted it readily.

I was truly grateful for such teammates.

‘But that wasn’t the only reason.’

The Kamal vs. Jax matchup is certainly crucial enough to draw resources from the team, but aside from that, the fact that I was up against Seo Yeon-woo was also a big part of it.

Should I say it’s a matter of pride?

Of course, I’m not a top laner, but still, I didn’t want to lose to Seo Yeon-woo.

While establishing our top lane’s pride is important, filling my own pride takes precedence.

‘Let’s have a go, then.’

As soon as the fountain gate opened, the allied champions dashed towards the top bush.

Leading the way were Rill and Galion, and I quickly followed behind.

If by any chance the enemy also came to invade, I needed to position myself to avoid being swept up by AOE spells.

At that moment.

[❗] [❗] [❗]

With a ward placed in the bush, an intense danger ping sounded.

The enemy is there.

Of course, we hadn’t confirmed their appearance yet; Jax could have just placed the ward alone, but that seemed unlikely.

‘I should back off.’

Just as that thought was about to translate into a ping.

Flash!

With a flash of light, Jax appeared from the bush, spinning Counter.

In the level 1 timing, Jax’s Counter is practically invincible.

Therefore, our team chose to retreat instead of attacking Jax.

‘We need to make a timely escape.’

However, Jax’s positioning was too perfect for a smooth withdrawal; retreating without using flash meant we had to use it to avoid his AOE stun.

But for some reason, whether it was because no one could react in time or because they felt it was a waste to use a spell just to dodge one ability in a 5v5 situation, nobody used their flash.

Instead, Galion, at level 1, decided to take the hit and prepared to provoke the enemy.

Boooom───!

As Jax’s Counter stun hit Galion and Rakan, Galion’s provoke simultaneously blanketed the enemy.

Slash!

Whatever kind of pressure I imposed to get my team to follow, the result was that the early invade turned into a 5v5 fight in the top bush.

And, in this chaotic melee, Jax, who had leveled up his E at level 1, wielded tremendous power, almost rivaling a team fight deity.

Although Galion’s heroics allowed us to counter Jax’s ambush, it was still the enemy who took the initiative.

– First Blood!

In the end, our ally Galion fell first, unable to withstand the enemy barrage.

We could say that using level 1 provoke against Jax’s surprise attack cut his lifespan short.

However, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Thanks to Galion’s sacrifice, we were able to take down one of the enemy champions, too.

– Enemy slain!

With Jax at level 1, having used Flash as an entrance and now unable to escape, it was only natural for him to go down.

The fight continued.

With Galion and Jax at the front lane having fallen, the real chase was on.

– Enemy slain!


– Ally slain!

The fight ended in a 2:2 tie.

The ensuing back-and-forth chase resulted in our Rakan and their Maokai both going down.

‘Hmm… not bad.’

One could argue that the fight ended similarly, but one key difference remained: the spell difference.

The enemy team lost their flashes with Jax, Maokai, and Ruler, while our team lost Rakan, Galion’s flashes, and my Ignite.

In terms of spells, our side felt slightly better about the exchange, plus there was a spell difference in the top lane.

Flashes have a cooldown of 300 seconds.

Ignite has a cooldown of 180 seconds.

As we all know, Ignite obviously has a much shorter cooldown, which means there are favorable timing windows for me spell-wise.

‘So far, the results aren’t bad.’

No matter how good Jax is at escaping ganks, Kamal’s assistance in ganks outclasses that.

Especially since after level 6, my ultimate becomes one of the few absolute judgments even in Legends of League.

At the moment, kills were shared amongst either Rakan or Ezreal, and Tristana and Ruler, so we could say that the item gap in the top lane hadn’t formed yet.

You might view it as a slightly unsatisfactory result after using Ignite, but if the kill went to an ally and they’re performing well, then that was enough for me.

Above all, if our showdown with Seo Yeon-woo ends because of such early issues, I would feel a bit let down.

– Minions have spawned!

Soon, the minions spawned and the laning phase began.

The core of the Kamal vs. Jax laning phase is indeed the psychological warfare of E skills, and knowing this, Seo Yeon-woo immediately began to put the pressure on with Jax from the start.

The key was to pressure with Jax while conserving Counter.

The moment Jax carelessly uses Counter is when he allows a counterattack.

Especially, Jax was very vigilant not to let me touch the minions to stack my exploit.

‘But that’s okay.’

I didn’t need to stack exploits.

Pretending to hit the minions while Jax approached, I lightly tapped him with a basic attack, activated my passive, and used it to block one of Jax’s basic attacks while backing off.

In this way, I incurred a loss from my passive timing but still gained a trade of damage for a basic attack, so I didn’t feel bad about it.

Of course, if I wanted to do a little more, I could have aimed to stack exploits while baiting Jax’s Counter, but I didn’t feel the need to overdo it.

Given that both junglers were Rakan and Maokai, Rakan was relatively more passive in the early game.

No matter how absolute Kamal’s survival skill is, it wasn’t worth taking unnecessary risks early on.

‘For now, I’ll aim to gain an advantage in trades, and eventually, an opportunity will arise.’

As I focused on collecting as much CS as I could, the lane naturally began to pull towards me.

This is the key point.

‘The lane shouldn’t get locked into the turret.’

If that happens, the lane will reset, and Jax’s pressure will continue.

However, if I can get the minion wave to rest near the turret?

‘Jax won’t be able to enter, and I can farm freely, ready to trade damage whenever I want.’

If our jungler had been a different champion, I might have felt more pressure from ganks on top of this, but unfortunately, with a basic attack-based champion and a level 6 champion like Rakan, gank pressure was naturally limited.

However, that was merely a minor disappointment; there was no need to feel compelled to pressure the enemy for a gank.

The crucial aspect was making the opponent feel uncomfortable in this lane phase.

Only by achieving this would the effort put into enduring Jax’s early pressure feel worthwhile.

Naturally, from this point on, Jax would also start pushing the lane desperately while conserving Counter.

‘Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.’

The battle between the one trying to push the lane and the one trying to maintain it began in earnest.