Buzz
Hiro02 astounded both audience and international professional gaming community in the match against CES.
At present, VCS Hoang Hon 2023 has initiated its playoff matches. Following the initial two playoff rounds, Saigon Buffalo and Team Secret secured their spots in the next stage.
Notably, in the CES - TS match, the team known as 'Hidden Cult' trailed 2-0 after the first two rounds. However, they staged a remarkable comeback to secure advancement. Particularly, in the 5th round, player Hiro02 - who switched from Top Lane to Mid Lane to substitute for Artifact - showcased a very unconventional item build. Specifically, Hiro02 utilized LeBlanc and simultaneously built both Trinity Force and Statikk Shiv.
In reality, apart from Hiro02, hardly anyone builds this item combination for LeBlanc. The reason is that Trinity Force leans towards physical damage whereas Statikk Shiv enhances magical power. Building both will make the player invest time and gold into items leaning towards specific directions. Moreover, both Trinity Force and Statikk Shiv are quite expensive. Unless it's a dominant situation or an intentional experiment, in important professional matches, players will not build both of these items.
But Hiro02 truly surprised with his itemization. Even the international community was astonished, with some even commenting: 'I thought he was trolling when I saw both Trinity Force and Statikk Shiv on LeBlanc.' Molecule - an international League of Legends analyst - admitted that Hiro02's minion score at minute 31 also made Chovy envious (at that point, Hiro02 had accumulated 402 minion score).
However, evidently, Hiro02's decision to build both these items likely stemmed from factors present in the match. Firstly, it was the Wind Dragon map that helped TS avoid unnecessary conflicts in the Dragon pit, especially since they also possessed an Earth Dragon. Additionally, with the hefty damage output from Trinity Force and the Executioner's Calling, Hiro02's LeBlanc faced no difficulty in crumbling CES's main base, securing victory for TS.
Certainly, Hiro02's itemization was situational and aligned with the gameplay TS opted for throughout the match. However, in the immediate context, TS succeeded with that gameplay style, and they now have a real chance to advance far in this playoffs.
