Chapter 107: Controlling Luna!

"Nuwa?"

Coach Ge repeated the name, his brow furrowing in thought. As a legendary former KPL coach, he immediately realized that Nuwa was indeed a strong counter to Shouyue. Or rather, among all the mid-laners, perhaps only Nuwa could exert any real pressure against him.

After all, the strength of a hero like Shouyue lies in his second skill and the survival potential of his ultimate. In such scenarios, when facing short-ranged compositions, a skilled Shouyue player can make the opposition miserable with precise sniping. However, Nuwa’s range exceeds that of Shouyue.

That said, Nuwa is also a hero with a high skill ceiling and a very low floor; simply put, a skilled player can be dazzling, while a poor one will only perform even worse. Still, if the goal is to restrict Shouyue, building a Grail and playing a poke-heavy style with her ultimate is a viable strategy.

After weighing his options, Coach Ge finally nodded. "Fine, let's go with Nuwa!"

Having received the coach's approval, Lin Hao locked in Nuwa.

Meanwhile, in Tommy’s livestream, the streamer was taken aback. "Nuwa? What the hell, who is playing Nuwa on the other side?" Tommy looked down at the roster, trying to confirm if he had misread it. "That’s not right, the mid-laner for them should still be Haoran, playing Yuange, right?"

"Is Haoran playing Nuwa? But I’ve never heard that he plays her."

Tommy glanced up at the chat.

"Haoran plays Nuwa? Even as a ten-year fan, I’m skeptical."

"Agreed, I’ve never seen him play Nuwa, not even once."

That was strange. To be fair, Nuwa does provide a certain degree of suppression against Shouyue. Of course, that is the nature of the hero mechanics, but it isn't an absolute counter; in practice, it all comes down to the player.

"Let’s just stick to the plan," Tommy told his teammates. "Look at it this way, our draft was successful. At the very least, Jue-ge’s Baili Shouyue has forced their specialty Yuange off the table."

...

Eventually, both sides finalized their lineups.

Lin Hao’s team: Lu Bu, Kai, Nuwa, Sun Bin, and Yu Ji.
Tommy’s team: Hua Mulan, Luna, Baili Shouyue, Zhang Fei, and Gongsun Li.

Once in the game, the coaches exited the voice chat to observe and provide commentary from a god’s-eye view.

Coach Ge began his analysis of the lineups. "Looking at the compositions... we might have a harder time. The opposing Luna is a point that’s very difficult to restrict."

"If Luna gets ahead, it won't matter even if Shouyue fails to exert pressure in the middle. As long as Luna is split-pushing, no one will be able to stop her."

"Kai? Kai can’t catch up to Luna at all, unless Nangua builds full damage, but that’s difficult. A full-damage build won't provide as much value in team fights as the current Meat Cleaver tank build."

"When it comes to team fights, it will come down to mechanics. Relatively speaking, the opponents have a much lower margin for error. A missed shot from Shouyue, a broken ultimate chain from Luna, or Gongsun Li being instantly deleted by stray AOE—any of these could lead to them losing the fight."

The match officially began.

At the start, Nangua’s Kai headed straight for Luna’s blue buff jungle. It was necessary to restrict Luna’s growth early on. Sun Bin gave a second skill boost to the mid-lane before following Kai into the jungle.

Lin Hao stayed in the mid-lane to contest the minion wave against the opposing Baili Shouyue. He didn't have lane priority, so he didn't force the issue, simply hiding under the tower and using his first skill while waiting for the minions to arrive.

"Their Zhang Fei is moving over. Shouyue should be there soon," Lin Hao told his teammate.

On the other side, Nangua was already helping Jiayue with the jungle camp, while Jiayue watched from nearby, ready to use his first skill and Smite to steal it. Nangua held onto his skills until Baili Shouyue and Zhang Fei arrived.

Baili Shouyue reached level two and immediately began firing shots at Kai from across the blue buff wall.

"Pull back and wait for me!" Lin Hao said, watching the jungle situation.

Nangua followed suit, pulling back immediately. Baili Shouyue’s basic attacks were potent early on, so Nangua dragged the blue buff away to avoid being hit. Across the wall, Shouyue had to reposition to continue attacking.

With Shouyue and Zhang Fei nearby, Luna approached, sword in hand. The buff’s health was down to a third, reaching the threshold for a Smite execution.

Sun Bin placed a delayed bomb on Luna and began basic attacking her. Kai had already lost half his health to Shouyue’s attacks. Luna had moved toward the blue buff pit, positioned between the buff and the lizard camp, ready to dash in with a basic attack, follow up with a first skill, and use Smite to steal the buff.

As a veteran national-level Luna player, Jiayue had likely had his blue buff stolen more times than an average player had even played the game. He was experienced. Luna is weak before level four, and her burst damage isn't high, so he could only try to contest it. As a top-tier player, he was precise with the health threshold for his Smite.

But Kai wasn't a pushover either. Just as both sides were about to commit their skills to secure the buff, Lin Hao shouted in the voice comms: "Control Luna!"

Simultaneously, a green halo began to spread out from a point slightly behind Luna. It was the effect of Nuwa’s third skill!

Lin Hao had cleared his wave, reached level two, and leveled his third skill, preparing to descend from the heavens! Nuwa’s support had arrived.

Thinking quickly, Nangua’s Kai changed his plan. Abandoning the blue buff, he charged directly at Luna with his second skill, knocking her airborne with a two-part strike!

The halo continued to expand. Zhang Fei rushed over, trying to use his first skill to peel for Luna and mitigate the damage. The halo completed, and Nuwa descended from the sky, stunning both Luna and Zhang Fei!

The chain control was successful!

In that position, Luna was carrying Smite and couldn't easily escape. Zhang Fei clearly lacked understanding of Nuwa’s hero mechanics. Nuwa’s third skill lands with a stun first, then the hero descends. To predict and counter it, one would need a skill with a very long wind-up time. Zhang Fei’s first skill was too difficult to time against Nuwa; even a professional-level player wouldn't have been able to stop it, and instead, he ended up stunned alongside her.

Nangua’s Kai stopped caring about the buff and went straight for Luna with his greatsword! Lin Hao began his own maneuver, using Flash to position himself behind Luna.