RAG’s next match is against TG.
Although TG’s era of dominance ended long ago after Bai Yu left, the training system he left behind has kept them in top form.
They were ranked seventh during the points race this year and climbed to sixth in the regular season. Their jungler, Cao Xinzhi, has shown significant improvement, and the team’s coordination is solid. It won’t be easy for Bai Yu to get a 2–0 sweep, but with a top-two ranking on the line, it’s hard for him not to go all in.
He prepared extensively for this match. Even right before going on stage, he was still analyzing possible drafts.
Cao Xinzhi’s standout performance this year has a lot to do with the buffs to jungle Morgana.
This champion was rarely played in the jungle before, but with the meta favoring faster pacing and more utility-focused junglers, Morgana started showing up in pro play. As a jungler, she offers reliable crowd control and can counter specific team comps.
Like Nocturne.
Nocturne relies on his ultimate to dive the backline, but Morgana’s Black Shield hard-counters his engage. Nocturne is also one of Fang Zhixu’s signature picks, usually banned or picked immediately.
So if the enemy doesn’t ban Nocturne, Bai Yu can’t afford to give it to Fang Zhixu either. That essentially puts them one ban behind.
Back when Bai Yu was mentoring Cao Xinzhi, he never imagined they’d one day face off as opponents. He still remembers when he qualified for the league, Cao Xinzhi immediately sent a message to congratulate him and said he was looking forward to their matchup. He even sounded a little excited.
That’s how it is. The closer you are off the Rift, the harder you go at each other on it.
Bai Yu was eager too. Aside from wanting TG’s points, he genuinely wanted to test himself against Cao Xinzhi.
As the match approached, the venue was full of support banners.
Many of Bai Yu’s fans had been with him since his TG days. They had feelings for both sides, so the atmosphere was friendly. They cheered for RAG, then TG.
Even the chat was peaceful, with almost no flame.
Completely different from what SG got.
[Lol, the SG match was just nonstop flaming.]
[SG had it coming. Look at TG. Back when Bai Yu left, they let him go smoothly. The contract was resolved without drama. But SG? Every time someone leaves, it turns into a mess. They even held up Bai Yu’s contract once, which forced his team to disband. If another team hadn’t had an opening, Bai Yu might’ve been stuck at home.]
[Wait, seriously?]
[SG is disgusting...]
[If Bai Yu’s team really disbanded, we wouldn’t even get to watch RAG.]
[Exactly. SG is the worst.]
[SG’s management is seriously flawed. Teams that don’t respect players should just fold.]
[Sadly, a lot of orgs have been taken over by investors. No one supports players like they used to. It used to be about growth together.]
[I know, right? When I found out Bai Yu’s contract was being held hostage, I was shocked. If even a top-tier player gets treated like that, imagine what happens to lesser-known ones.]
[Greedy executives.]
[They don’t understand League at all. Just chasing clout.]
[Every year we complain, and nothing changes.]
[Shouldn’t teams be built around players?]
[Not anymore. If you don’t obey, you get benched.]
[I heard RAG is the only team where Bai Yu has full decision-making power. Every other org is controlled by clueless execs.]
[If RAG does well, maybe it’ll pressure other teams to give players more control.]
[Now I kind of want to cheer for RAG...]
While the chat was still buzzing, the match started slightly early.
After both teams banned the meta picks, TG did lock in Morgana, clearly planning to play around Cao Xinzhi.
Bai Yu had expected that. He picked mid and top early, delaying the jungle pick. TG hesitated. They weren’t expecting that and discussed their draft for a long time before finally locking in mid and bot just before the timer ended.
They knew they couldn’t beat Lu Sheng in lane, so they picked Galio mid for roam potential. Combined with Morgana’s CC, they planned to dominate the jungle. Since Chen Shian wasn’t known for aggressive top play, they didn’t rush that pick. Instead, they locked in their AD carry to secure bot lane control.
Seeing the draft, Bai Yu quickly understood their strategy: “They’re going to gank the side lanes.”
They wanted to use Morgana’s mobility to open up bot and top. Galio was the perfect support-mid to roam with, which would isolate Lu Sheng in lane.
They were clearly afraid of the Lu Sheng and Fang Zhixu combo.
That surprised Bai Yu. He didn’t expect the enemy to fear Lu Sheng this much.
He rubbed his chin and thought for a moment before asking, “What do you want to play?”
Lu Sheng replied, “Anything’s fine.”
Then quickly added, “Just not Ahri. I can’t get a lead with her.”
Bai Yu thought to himself that he was overthinking it. There was no way he’d give him Ahri in this kind of game. But if that’s the only one he didn’t want...
After a moment of thought, he asked, “Can you play Zed?”
Zed was Lu Sheng’s signature champion. He was incredibly skilled on high-burst assassins. This was his comfort zone.
When Lu Sheng returned to China, he wasn’t familiar with the team, so Bai Yu had avoided giving him assassins to help build synergy. But now, asking if he could play Zed was as good as saying:
Can you carry?
Lu Sheng answered, “I can.”
Zed was locked in last. With that, both teams’ drafts were set. One of the casters couldn’t help but react, “Wow, that Zed pick is aggressive.”
Both comps were fairly even. The key to RAG’s victory would come down to that Zed pick. Everyone knew how dangerous Lu Sheng’s Zed could be. He even picked it during Worlds while his team was behind.
[Oh my god, I forgot Lu Sheng used to be an assassin player.]
[His playstyle got so flexible these past couple years that people forgot his comfort picks are assassins.]
[Hard to say, but a well-played Zed can definitely shred TG’s comp.]
[Why are both sides pulling out their aces right from the start?]
[Because this match is critical for RAG. Bai Yu doesn’t want to drop a single game.]
[It matters for TG too. This result will affect both teams’ standings.]
[So TG is betting that Lu Sheng’s Zed isn’t sharp anymore?]
[Bai Yu is betting too.]
[He really hasn’t played Zed in a long time...]
But Zed truly was Lu Sheng’s comfort pick.
He hit level 2 first, instantly double-Q’d. The timing was perfect. Galio caught both hits just on the edge of the radius and took heavy damage. He had an opportunity to trade back, but Lu Sheng had placed his shadow at a perfect angle. With fast enough mechanics, he could dodge everything.
Galio didn’t have the confidence to outplay him and backed off.
Then on the next wave, Lu Sheng hit level 3. He opened with W to slow, and even with Galio trying to dodge, casually landed another double Q.
The caster got hyped. “Akoi’s double Q is insane! He read Galio’s movement perfectly! He even had the presence of mind to land a basic attack during the slow!”
This is what it looks like when mechanical skill feels as natural as breathing.
Just watch Lu Sheng.
In Lu Sheng’s hands, Zed looked like he had a secret attack speed buff. His skill chains were incredibly smooth, constantly testing the opponent’s reaction time.
Galio dropped to half HP. He knew if he didn’t fight back now, he wouldn’t get another chance. He immediately used his abilities to engage, but Lu Sheng quickly cast the second part of his W, returning to his shadow to dodge the damage, then chased Galio down with basic attacks and another Q, pressuring his HP even further.
At that moment, Galio sensed danger. In this position, Fang Zhixu might be lurking behind him. If he got caught now, he’d be as good as dead.
In an instant, just as Kha’Zix jumped out from the fog, Galio reflexively flashed and narrowly escaped.
Cold sweat soaked his back.
If he hadn’t been laser-focused, he would’ve died right there.
When did Lu Sheng and Fang Zhixu get this coordinated?
But that wasn’t the real problem.
The real issue was that Lu Sheng completely shut him down after this wave. Despite all his caution, all the prep work, and all the anti-pressure training he’d done before the match, he still cracked by level 3.
He forced a bitter laugh. “They’re definitely going to tower dive me next.”
Zed and Kha’Zix don’t have any crowd control. Their kills rely purely on raw damage. With his Flash down, he’d be an easy target.
Cao Xinzhi frowned. He was still in the middle of a jungle mind game with Fang Zhixu and couldn’t afford to lose tempo.
He told mid lane, “Just hug the turret.”
The mid laner agreed. After respawning, he played extremely safe. RAG didn’t pressure him. He cleared the wave and immediately recalled in place.
Galio didn’t dare touch him, only focused on waveclear.
Second wave came. Lu Sheng still handled it the same way, even recalling right in front of him.
That move was borderline insulting.
Galio couldn’t take it. He threw out a Q to interrupt the recall.
But the moment his Q was cast, Lu Sheng left a shadow behind, instantly blinked beside Galio, applied a slow and double-Q, and chased him with auto-attacks.
The most brutal part? Lu Sheng’s Q also hit a minion, just enough to get him to level 6!
A level 6 Zed has absolute kill pressure.
If Fang Zhixu was nearby and landed a bit more damage, Galio would be dead for sure.
Despite all the anti-pressure training, Galio stayed sharp. He instantly used Taunt to lock Zed down. Right then, a flash of light appeared, Kha’Zix had arrived.
Fang Zhixu wasn’t level 6 yet, but he was close enough to Lu Sheng. One jump and he landed a full combo. Galio’s HP dropped dangerously low. Fang Zhixu didn’t back off, he dove the turret.
Galio fought back immediately, but Fang Zhixu Flashed out just before taking the final tower shot, surviving with a sliver of HP.
It looked like Fang Zhixu had wasted Flash just to escape, but behind him stood Lu Sheng.
After Fang Zhixu baited Galio’s retaliation, a shadowy figure zipped past. Zed ulted, exploded with damage, then used the second cast to safely return.
The entire sequence was clean, seamless, and lightning fast.
Lu Sheng walked away without looking back, leaving a lethal mark on his target. Galio sensed the danger and immediately activated his ult to call for protection from Cao Xinzhi.
Too late.
Lu Sheng had calculated the damage perfectly. Even his combo timing was frame-perfect.
Before Galio could finish his ultimate, the Death Mark popped and killed him mid-air. Cao Xinzhi had already prepared a shield but never got the chance to apply it.
No wonder Lu Sheng’s Zed felt like an insult to play against. With this kind of performance on stage, he really could humiliate anyone.
TG’s mid laner smiled bitterly. “They’re too bold. I really didn’t think they’d commit in that situation…”
Looking back, there was no way Fang Zhixu would’ve tower-dived if he didn’t fully trust Lu Sheng. And Lu Sheng wouldn’t have gone in either unless he was absolutely confident in his mechanics.
In just a few days, their synergy had clearly leveled up again.
Is this guy even a human mid laner?
The audience was stunned. They couldn’t even process what had just happened until the replay rolled.
The replay showed Fang Zhixu’s dive was pure bait. He held onto Flash specifically to draw Galio in, giving Lu Sheng the angle for the kill. Lu Sheng didn’t disappoint, he followed up with perfect damage and execution.
[Holy crap, what a flawless combo!]
[Ever since that Ahri game, it felt like Fang Zhixu truly understood Lu Sheng’s skill. He started playing way more aggressively.]
[Lol, Fang Zhixu’s plays are hard to read. Lu Sheng barely knows him and still reacts perfectly.]
[It’s like even Fang Zhixu’s mechanics have improved.]
[You’d improve too if your mid laner was a literal monster.]
[I feel like Lu Sheng’s the type to call you out directly if you play bad...]
[LMAO, he’d totally flame him to his face.]
After that fight, Galio’s entire support plan fell apart.
When he respawned and returned to lane, he got chunked to half HP again. He could barely defend tower, let alone roam. TG finally clawed back a bit of tempo with jungle help, and Galio prepped his ultimate for a cross-map play, only for both RAG’s top and bot lanes to back off immediately.
He had nowhere to go.
At this point, Zed and Kha’Zix’s damage was off the charts.
Cao Xinzhi was just clearing his jungle when Fang Zhixu suddenly jumped him. Lu Sheng followed up instantly. They broke through Morgana’s Black Shield and straight-up nuked him.
The caster yelled, “That wasn’t finesse. That was pure damage!”
Morgana had been picked to prevent CC, but RAG flipped the script. They used two champs with no crowd control and overwhelmed them through sheer burst.
As the match entered mid-game, everyone expected Morgana to keep the backline safe from Zed. But Lu Sheng burst right through the shield and deleted his target.
When damage is absolute, mechanics are just a theory.
[This is so satisfying to watch!]
[Whoever let Lu Sheng pick Zed is a genius.]
[You’d have to know him really well to let him play this champ. So easy to throw a game otherwise.]
[Who said RAG’s mid-jungle was weak? This is the best mid-jungle duo TG has ever faced.]
[Morgana’s tempo just got dumpstered by Kha’Zix. That’s crazy.]
[Fang Zhixu is legit.]
[Any normal player would hesitate, but he just dives.]
[He probably got chewed out after that Ahri game. Ever since then, they’ve looked way better.]
[That Ahri pick might’ve been Bai Yu’s plan, to help them see what they were missing.]
[Can’t deny Bai Yu’s training methods are on point.]
[BN: Anyone gonna stand up for me here?]
The match quickly approached its end. Lu Sheng’s damage was ridiculous, and Morgana had no tools to lock him down. He moved freely, landing clean flanks and deleting priority targets in every fight.
Bai Yu held the frontline, leading the final push to victory.
On the other side, Chen Shi’an kept up the split pushing. TG was under siege from all fronts. Gritting his teeth, Cao Xinzhi forced an initiation, but they still lost the fight and got pushed all the way back to their Nexus.
RAG took the first game.
Bai Yu seemed to really enjoy the outcome, smiling at the camera.
Cao Xinzhi’s growth had indeed surprised him, but it still wasn’t enough to match the brilliance of Lu Sheng.
He turned to Lu Sheng. “Well played.”
Then suddenly caught himself. This was a team game. He quickly corrected, “Mid-jungle synergy was great. Top lane’s pressure was solid too, and Qi Yi’s scaling was excellent.”
Lu Sheng glanced at him, then looked away.
Fang Zhixu, who’d just been praised, instantly turned into a puppy, scooting over to Bai Yu with a grin as sweet as a sugar cube. “It’s all thanks to our captain’s brilliant coaching~”
With such a decisive win, the whole team was in high spirits.
Bai Yu walked among them, chatting and laughing. Then he remembered Lu Sheng and called out over his shoulder, “Why are you lagging behind? I need to adjust our next-round strat.”
Lu Sheng received the command and quickly stepped up, weaving through the crowd until he was right at Bai Yu’s side.
Meanwhile, Cao Xinzhi looked troubled. During their team’s draft prep discussion, he spoke up. “Chen Shi’an is too stable. We couldn’t crack Lu Sheng either. I think we need to shift focus to the bot lane. Thoughts?”
If Chen Shi’an was the immovable pillar on top lane, Lu Sheng was a walking killing machine in mid. Compared to them, Qi Yi still looked a bit green.
It seemed like targeting bot lane made sense, but then again, Bai Yu was down there too.
Cao Xinzhi knew Bai Yu far too well. He instinctively wanted to argue back, but what could he even suggest instead? In the end, he swallowed the words.
The second game kicked off quickly.
Both sides drafted safe, standard comps. But TG clearly changed strategy, this time they were aiming straight for the bot lane.
Bai Yu noticed the shift and raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised. “Cao Xinzhi actually dares mess with bot lane?”
It was even clearer from the third-person view. Cao Xinzhi’s entire jungle path revolved around bot lane. He even tried to swap jungle quadrants with Fang Zhixu, but Fang Zhixu refused, forcefully contesting control of the lower jungle. Both junglers gave up their top-side camps and starved themselves to fight over bot lane. And mid lane had to keep checking in on the mess.
As soon as bot lane clashed, both top laners teleported down. The map turned into a 5v5 mosh pit, a full-on brawl. Blood everywhere.
The scene was so absurd that even the casters sighed. “Did bot lane commit a crime or something?”
[LOL everyone’s fighting in bot lane]
[Let Qi Yi go, he’s the only rookie among ten people]
[I get why Fang Zhixu’s there. He’s a Bai Yu simp and would never leave bot lane unprotected. But why are you there, Cao Xinzhi? Why chew on the hardest bone?]
[Maybe he thinks Cao Xinzhi’s too old and can’t carry anymore?]
[Cao Xinzhi’s every move is within Bai Yu’s grasp. He gets countered before he even acts.]
[They’re too familiar with each other, like Cheng Lin. Bai Yu can read them like a book.]
[Haha this is the terrifying power of Fang Zhixu]
[Fang Zhixu’s map sense is cracked. Everyone else died, and only Qi Yi lived to dish out damage]
[What was TG thinking, attacking bot?]
TG lost both early teamfights in bot lane. Bai Yu had already foreseen the aggression and set everything up in advance. Once TG moved, they walked straight into his trap.
If Chen Shi’an was the rock, and Lu Sheng was the blade, then Bai Yu was the seer, the one who read every move before it happened.
He saw the win condition before the match even began.
TG’s coach watched from backstage, heart pounding. He admitted there was a gap in strength between them and RAG, but he’d hoped coordinated play could close that gap.
He had studied RAG’s previous matches. Every win came from a pivotal fight, not from pure macro. That meant there was a chance.
But when the game actually started, there was a different kind of pressure.
It felt like something invisible was guiding the game. Every situation, every play, somehow all tilted toward RAG’s victory.
Suddenly, he had a terrifying realization. Maybe RAG did know how to play macro. And if Bai Yu could control the entire match flow...
Then that would be the most terrifying form of macro play in the world.
RAG closed it out with a clean 2–0.
They were now one step closer to Bai Yu’s dream of a championship.
He smiled, took off his headset, and walked lightly to the other team’s side for the handshake.
“Good game,” he said cheerfully.
Cao Xinzhi forced a smile. “Come on, Captain Yu. No need to be modest. I know I can’t beat you.”
Bai Yu took his hand, smiled, and even pulled him in for a hug. A gracious gesture, especially compared to how coldly he’d treated Cheng Lin the other day.
[LMAO yeah, he straight-up ignored Cheng Lin that day]
[Bai Yu actually holds onto the past. After leaving teams, he stays in touch, except with SG. That fallout was serious]
[TG never badmouthed Bai Yu, and he never said anything bad about them either. It was a clean breakup]
[You can tell who’s decent and who’s not]
[Never thought SG would turn out to be the only villains in the esports scene]
After the post-game thank-yous, the match officially concluded.
Everyone was excitedly waiting for the interview segment, hoping Bai Yu would show up. But to their surprise, he didn’t.
Instead, he sent Lu Sheng.