On the Verge of Exploding

In the mid lane, the Purple Team's mid laner Katarina was first hit by Ziggs's E skill, slowing her down, and then her steps were halted for half a beat by his W skill "Satchel Charge", affecting her retreat speed.

At the same time, Chen He, controlling his jungler Jarvan IV, strode out from the brush on the right side of the river, executing an EQ combo to rapidly charge toward the target, Katarina!

Yet right at this moment, the Purple Team's Katarina abruptly made a small right-angle turn, dodging the knock-up of Jarvan IV's EQ combo by a hair's breadth, and immediately countered by throwing out her Q skill, "Bouncing Blade"!

Clang—clang—clang—clang—

A flurry of bouncing daggers rang out with a crisp metallic sound. Above the heads of the Blue Team's jungler Jarvan IV, mid laner Ziggs, and two Blue Team minions, a dark red mark of death from the dagger appeared in rapid succession.

In the very next second, instead of retreating, Katarina advanced, using her E skill "Shunpo" to instantly blink in front of the Blue Team's mid laner Ziggs, triggering the passive mark damage from her Q.

With a W skill "Sinister Steel", she spun in a circle, drawing a sharp trail of cold light around her body, hitting the close-range Ziggs and dropping his health bar to just over a third!

Immediately after, Katarina's slender, exquisite body suddenly began to spin rapidly on the spot!

Countless daggers flew out wildly in all directions with Katarina's body as the center, like an unparalleled, violent storm of blades!

The Sinister Blade · Katarina's Ultimate—"Death Lotus"!!

Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang clang!!!!!!!!—

A continuous, fierce metallic clatter rang out amidst the flurry of cold light and shadows. Katarina's long, fiery red hair could be seen whipping through the air, a gorgeous dance of death that harvested massive chunks of health from the two Blue Team heroes!

Under these circumstances, Jarvan IV, who had already used his EQ combo, and Ziggs, who had no W skill, had no way to interrupt Katarina's ultimate. They could only desperately run out of the coverage area of the terrifying blade storm of "Death Lotus".

But for Ziggs, whose health was already in a bad state, running now was too late.

Having taken almost the full duration of Katarina's ultimate, just as the blade storm of "Death Lotus" came to an end, the health bar of the Blue Team's Ziggs bottomed out—

...

"You have been slain."

The first-person screen of Ziggs suddenly turned black and white, accompanied by a system announcement of the kill appearing on the screen.

Lin Xiao muttered, "If Ziggs had held onto his W just now, he wouldn't have taken the full ultimate from Katarina..."

Tang Guo also couldn't help but marvel, "This Purple Team's Katarina calculated the damage so precisely, and her movement was great. Are there actually high-tier players in the freshman class?"

Lin Xiao reminded her, "Senior, you should also mind your stance."

Tang Guo snapped, "Who was the one saying the opponents had a higher chance of winning just now? You actually have the nerve to remind me?"

Lin Xiao pretended not to hear, saying nonchalantly, "Our Class 8 is still very good~"

Tang Guo rolled her eyes at Lin Xiao. "Yes, yes, after all, we have you, a professional support from Ionia's Silver rank..."

Lin Xiao nodded calmly, not forgetting to complete the sentence: "Quality guaranteed—"

Tang Guo: "...Shut up!"

...

After slaying the Blue Team's mid laner Ziggs, all of Katarina's basic skills instantly reset their cooldowns.

Having also taken almost the full damage of the enemy Katarina's ultimate, the Blue Team's jungler Jarvan IV had less than a third of his health left. Seeing his opponent turn around to clean him up, he hurriedly used Flash to escape.

But in just a brief moment, the Purple Team's jungler Lee Sin rushed out from the brush on the left side of the river in the mid lane. Using his W skill "Safeguard" to shield one of his minions, he quickly followed up with his Q skill "Sonic Wave", kicking toward the target Jarvan IV.

Thud!—

Hitting the target, a brilliant silver-white mark appeared over Jarvan IV's head.

Lee Sin activated the second cast of his Q, dashing to catch up.

His E skill slammed the ground to slow him down.

The pursuing Katarina raised her hand to throw her Q, followed by another E skill "Shunpo" to blink behind the low-health Prince, and finally a W skill "Sinister Steel"—

The cold, snow-bright blade drew a deadly arc in the air.

"Double Kill!—"

The system's female voice announced the kill, and at the same time, the screen in front of Chen He turned a dismal black and white.

"Hahaha, beautiful!!"

"Jiang Ran is awesome!!—"

The crowd of students watching from the opposite side erupted in cheers once again.

Just now, it was almost entirely Katarina in the mid lane, yet she managed to complete a counter-double kill. This "Double Kill" was a massive morale booster for the spectating students and the Purple Team!

On the other hand, the faces of the Blue Team's Class 8 team members were somewhat unsightly.

"Chen He, what are you doing? Going over there specifically to feed Katarina?" Fang Yi, the Blue Team's ADC Lucian, spoke in an extremely angry tone.

"I saw that Lao Sun's Ziggs couldn't really hold on, so I thought of going over to help..." Chen He complained of being wronged. "Who knew that Katarina's damage was so high, bursting Lao Sun down instantly—"

Playing Ziggs, Lao Sun was also ashamed: "My bad, my bad. I was already low on health, I shouldn't have stepped up to let Katarina blink on me..."

Lin Xiao was still muttering in the back: "Getting blinked on is actually fine. If you had kept your W, you might have counter-killed her—"

This time, even Chu Yu was speechless from hearing it: "Lin Xiao, you've said that so many times..."

Lin Xiao was dazed: "Oh, really?" After a pause, he couldn't help but continue muttering, "But that Ziggs really should have kept his W..."

Chu Yu: "...Shut up!"

...

In the blink of an eye, another three or four minutes passed.

The game reached the 10th minute, and the kill score of both sides was 4 to 3.

The gap didn't look very large.

In the top lane, Tryndamere faced Malphite. Although Tryndamere had solo killed Malphite once earlier, he was ganked and killed by the Purple Team's jungler Lee Sin over a minute ago. Even though Tryndamere could still press Malphite, as long as the latter farmed stably, he could still contribute fully in team fights by landing a good ultimate.

Thus, the top lane could be considered even.

In the bottom lane, the Blue Team's Lucian and Braum had a relatively clear advantage. After a strong engage upon reaching level six, in a 1-for-1 trade, Fang Yi's Lucian also secured an assist and a kill.

But in the mid lane...

The Purple Team's mid laner Katarina already had a score of 3/0/1!

Right at the 11th minute of the game, the Purple Team's Katarina solo killed the Blue Team's Ziggs once again.

By the 12th minute, with 105 CS and shutdown gold in hand—

"Oh, Katarina is getting a bit unstoppable—"

Lin Xiao muttered his commentary.

On the Blue Team's side, the best-farmed player so far was Fang Yi's Lucian with a score of 2/1/1 and 110 CS, which didn't look much different from the Purple Team's mid laner Katarina.

But by comparison, in the first ten minutes or so of the game, a well-farmed mid laner could exert far more influence than a well-farmed ADC. For example, the mid laner's roaming capability.

Game time: 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

In the bottom lane, the minion wave was carefully frozen by the Blue Team's Lucian and Braum in front of their own turret—just as the enemy Katarina's icon disappeared from the mini-map, the mid lane ally Ziggs also timely pinged a warning signal.

The Purple Team's Blitzcrank and Varus also rarely became aggressive, jumping around and taunting in front of the Blue Team's turret.

Lin Xiao glanced at the mini-map. The Blue Team's red buff jungle area was completely shrouded in darkness, without a single ward.

"The support has no vision control..."

Sweeping his gaze over the top lane on the mini-map again, Lin Xiao noticed that the Purple Team's top laner Malphite had also just cleared a wave of minions and was retreating toward his own turret.

Lin Xiao instinctively muttered, "If they don't back off, the bot lane is going to explode..."