As soon as Jarvan IV respawned, the director immediately cut the camera to him. Without any hesitation, he headed straight toward his own top-side jungle.
"Tian knows very well that once FPX completed that invasion, they would definitely clear out the entire bottom jungle. So going bot side right now has no meaning at all. It's better to quickly take the top side and see if there's a chance to move into FPX's upper jungle," Miller analyzed.
"Clid already has a huge jungle advantage. Now it depends on whether FPX can further expand that lead through Graves."
Hearing Miller's words, FPX fans finally felt a bit more reassured.
In terms of professional analysis, Miller was still more reliable. His reads were usually accurate—unlike Guan Zeyuan, whose infamous reverse caster curse meant that whenever he said someone had an advantage, it was basically doomed.
But then… why was this Syndra in mid lane not playing by the book? Why was she pressuring so aggressively at level one?
It felt like she wasn't afraid of Graves at all. After all, the jungler had just died—getting back to the jungle alone would already take quite some time.
Could it be because she brought First Strike?
Still, First Strike Syndra was something everyone was seeing for the first time in pro play.
Miller had actually wanted to mention it earlier, but FPX's level-one invasion had interrupted him.
Gori originally planned to use Azir's soldiers to clear the wave and rush level two. By his logic, Syndra would never dare to step up and pressure him, so he began clearing minions.
Azir's attack animation was extremely obvious. Lin Fan decisively controlled Syndra to step forward, auto-attacked to trigger First Strike, immediately followed with a Q, then chained two more autos. As long as First Strike was still active, he dealt as much damage as possible before instantly backing off.
Five gold stolen first, then bonus damage triggered—when it ended, fifteen more gold popped up above his head.
One quick touch for twenty gold. Absolute robbery.
Worse still, Azir had clipped Syndra with a single auto. When he tried to reset his attack, he stepped forward and autoed again, drawing minion aggro instead. It turned into a one-sided beating, his health bar dropping by more than two chunks.
Gori's heart jolted as he watched his HP plummet.
Clid, who was clearing Gromp, noticed it as well.
"Gori, be careful. Their mid laner plays this champion really well."
Hearing that, Gori's face twitched, but he stubbornly replied, "I just wasn't paying attention earlier. I'll be more careful now—there's no way he can steal like that again—"
Before he could finish, Syndra suddenly doubled back and dropped another Q right under Azir's feet.
Boom!
Direct hit.
In just a few seconds, Azir—who had been at full health—was down to only 240 HP. The main reason was that he hadn't started with Doran's Ring, instead opting for Corrupting Potion, leaving him with just over 500 health.
The crowd erupted in shock.
Was this really something you could do in a level-one lane?
With that Q landing, Syndra didn't retreat—instead, she advanced aggressively, chasing Azir down with autos. One auto took off forty-five HP, then Ignite was applied.
Panicking, Gori hastily popped a potion and ran backward.
Damn it! Why does this guy have such heavy kill intent at level one?!
But because he had chased forward earlier, when retreating he got body-blocked by his own minions. He took two more autos and another Q.
Corrupting Potion's healing was slower than a regular health potion, and with Ignite's Grievous Wounds, in those three seconds it only restored a measly fifteen HP.
His health now dropped below seventy.
Two more autos would be enough to take him down.
Another auto landed.
A bright red forty-five damage number popped above Azir's head.
Gori clenched his teeth and finally burned Flash. His survival instincts were maxed out.
Getting solo killed at level one was simply too humiliating. As professional League of Legends continued to develop, the gap between players had narrowed—it was rare to see level-one or level-two solo kills anymore.
He didn't want to become a textbook example.
Flashing into the turret, Syndra should hesitate for at least a moment. As long as she hesitated, he'd be completely out of her range.
But Lin Fan was never going to let this chance slip so easily.
Even if you Flash under tower, I'm following.
One final auto attack from Syndra landed, deleting Azir's remaining HP.
Red side TES.Dine's Syndra has slain blue side FPX.Gori.
"Ah, damn it—these minions blocked me!" Gori fumed internally. He never imagined that his own minions would trap him in position, causing him to eat four extra autos. Even with Ignite, without those extra autos, a level-one solo kill would've been impossible.
He was furious, chalking it up to bad luck—being targeted by the system.
Those three stupid caster minions—why did they have to stand behind him? And in a straight line, no less. Disgusting.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
"A solo kill? Just like that?"
Miller looked completely dumbfounded. He had mainly been watching to see what kind of effect First Strike Syndra could have.
At first, she stole twenty gold at level one—pretty decent. With a thirty-second cooldown, if you proc it whenever it's up, that's theoretically three procs a minute, sixty gold total.
That's a solid stealing speed—equivalent to being three melee minions ahead per minute.
First Strike Syndra looked very viable.
But then the second Q hit Azir, and the situation instantly transformed.
This wasn't just a favorable trade anymore—it was a straight-up solo kill attempt.
"My god, looking at this solo kill, I don't even know what to say. Rise of Kingdoms Bro's Q accuracy—I can only say it's insane. At first, I thought he stepped up just to proc First Strike and would back off immediately, especially with Graves pressuring the jungle."
"But now I realize I underestimated him. Rise of Kingdoms Bro is playing on the fifth layer—not only does he want the First Strike gold, he wants the kill too."
"Look at Gori's frustrated expression. He probably never imagined getting solo killed at level one. But that minion block was truly fatal."
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup