Case Study: How to counter Zhuang Zhou, who has a built-in cleanse, using a lineup lacking crowd control immunity? (Part Two)

Is Zhuang Zhou's existence unsolvable? He's banned ten times in top-tier games, yet no one chooses to put him in the ban zone, indicating that teams are confident in countering this hero. In the past, Zhang Liang players were most afraid of facing Zhuang Zhou. However, his ultimate skill could never be cleansed, leaving him stuck in place to take hits. What about his passive immunity to control effects? He had to take the damage, and in the end, he was doomed.

Case 1: Ignoring Zhuang Zhou, sending Zhang Liang to capture Han Xin

Let's look at Case 1 first. In this match, the player is filling in as support. Their team has Hou Yi, Fei Niao (a support hero) who can initiate team fights, and Nezha who is essentially a semi-frontline tank. Therefore, the player can play either a tanky or support role without too many restrictions. The strategy has two points: consider coordinating with their own team composition or countering the enemy heroes. The opposing team has Lu Bu, Han Xin, Xiao Qiao, Zhuang Zhou, and Sun Shangxiang. The most obvious hero to counter is Zhuang Zhou.

The natural counters are support heroes like Sun Bin and Sang Qi, who provide buffs or kiting, and can team up with the marksman for attrition warfare. However, to maximize the counter-attack effect, Zhang Liang is the better choice. He's full of crowd control abilities, making him a match for highly mobile heroes like Han Xin and Lü Bu. He can bind and protect the marksman, and aside from Xiao Qiao, virtually no one can interrupt Zhang Liang's spellcasting. Zhuang Zhou's Purify can't stop him from initiating team fights; at most, he can only provide a shield with his ultimate.

Case 2: Zhang Liang fills in and takes on two opponents.

In this second example, the lineup is similar to Case 1, but the mage is replaced by Wu Zetian. The opposing team consists of Doriya, Lao Fu Zi, Zhuge Liang, Shangguan Wan'er, and Sun Shangxiang, seemingly very mobile. Lao Fu Zi can bind enemies, Doriya refreshes her skills, Zhuge Liang and Shangguan Wan'er act as finishing machines, and Sun Shangxiang has a mobility skill for self-protection. However, thanks to Wu Zetian's presence, her combo-control skill mechanism makes the support options more flexible. The opposing team is terrified of crowd control because combos cannot be interrupted. To defend, they must choose to block the key skills of the two opposing mages.

Thinking differently and being more aggressive, we could have used Donghuang Taiyi or Zhang Liang as a countermeasure. If we wanted to increase the team's tankiness, we could have considered Su Lie or Kong Kong'er, but they were banned. So the best option was still Zhang Liang. As expected, we won 22 to 4. The opponent died 4 to 5 times. As long as we didn't save our ultimate for Doria, it was too easy to make money from kills.