It was 20 minutes into the second game of the Quarterfinals for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Though it was never really a game to begin with. Shanghai International was playing with such ferocity, with such complete domination, that no one even knew who their opponents were. This was Shanghai International’s party, and only they mattered here today. The main event of this party, the headliners, were the Midlaner and ad-carry. Yan Liang played on his Fisherman Fizz and fished up kills across the map. The unidentified opponents were helplessly speared by his magnificent harpoon, while he only found his own fishy self on the sushi mat one time, bringing his score to 6/1/3. The other life of the party was Liu Zhengjie. He had his Striker Lucian dribble his ball through the lane and nutmeg his no name opponents, killing them after the fact with his two big guns. His score was a perfect 5/0/5.

The players from Tonji Affiliated High watched the game breathlessly. Shanghai International was steamrolling over their opponents! The first game was an easy win, and now in the second they were 5,000 gold in the lead, not far from closing the series out. To those watching who also happened to read the Xianxia webnovels, they knew what was happening. Shanghai International had become the favored disciple in the best sect in a tournament for cultivation resources! They were tyrants on the rift! Everyone who appeared before them had to bow down! Their opponents had to kowtow and kiss the floor, begging to be spared from too humiliating of a defeat!

“Damn. They stronk. Like… Damn.”

“But it’s still the same playstyle. They always push and force openings out of nothing.”

“Yeah, it might be the same playstyle, but it’s also completely different. Are you watching the game? Do you see how good they are? It looks almost perfect. I haven’t seen a slip up yet…”

It wasn’t just Tonji Affiliated High who were worried. Shanghai High School, the strongest team from last year and favourites to take the trophy home again this year, was also paying careful attention to this game. Most of their players were a little worried. Shanghai International looked strong, much stronger than last year. And last year it was already a very close game. They all turned to Zeng Rui to see how their team captain was holding up. He was their pillar and their leader. His calm rubbed off on them whenever they started to worry, and it did now too. His expression was empty and his breathing was even. There wasn’t anything that betrayed his true feelings, except for his lack of blinking. He wasn’t going to miss even a  millisecond of this game!

A short trip around the crowd was long enough for Shanghai International to end the game and win the series. They destroyed the Nexus and secured their spot in the Semifinals! They were only a single step away from the Finals, where they could finally fight for redemption after last year’s humiliating defeat! But though their minds were already drifting to the Finals, to scenes of defeating Shanghai High School and claiming the trophy, they’d first have to beat the dark horse. The team that was a misbegotten clusterfuck of both phenomenal and downright terrible players. High School 13.

As for the players from High School 13, the usual seven were sweating profusely and shifting around in their chairs, while one was leaning back, chilling. Su Xue sat behind this anomaly and tugged at his elbow. “Hey, Lin Feng? You have to play against those guys next, right? They look really strong…”

“Mhm, yeah. They’re strong. They played really good!” Lin Feng agreed, smiling. He enjoyed a real challenge, and beating Shanghai International looked like it might actually be a challenge. They were a strong team, though individually nowhere near his level. He was a lot better than them, but the same couldn’t be said about his teammates. Even Tang Bingyao, the next best player on the team after him, would be hard-pressed to achieve anything besides maybe going even against Liu Zhengjie. And at the end of the day, there was only so much carrying he could do. He couldn’t be everywhere all the time, and Shanghai International were the first team they’d face who could really abuse that.

Until now, Lin Feng’s go-to tactic to carry his team was by playing a strong Champion and let the game get to a stage where he could solo carry. Shanghai International wasn’t a team that would wait around for that to happen. They picked strong early game Champions and pushed and pushed. And then they pushed some more. They never let up the pressure. From start to finish, they pushed and forced plays. They would never give an opponent enough time to get strong enough to solo carry. Their games simply didn’t last that long. So Lin Feng had to think of something else. He had to come up with a different approach for this game, because if Shanghai International was allowed to push, then his team would lose. It was that simple.

Lin Feng looked over to Chen Ze. He’d lose. He then turned to Yang Fan. Same here. He shook his head as his gaze fell on Tang Bingyao. Even Tang Tang won’t win… He had to think of something, because if they went in like how they usually did, this would be the end of the road for them. If he played in top lane, mid and bot would lose. If he played in mid lane, top and bot would lose. It was a question of what the better option here was. He was a mid main, but the meta of the game was called League of Toplane for a reason these days. Neither option looked much better than the other. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I have to find a way to win this. It doesn’t matter that it’s hard. It’s good! I actually have to try. But I have to try. I really have to try and think of something to make this work. Suddenly, he started smiling. First it was a weak grin, but then it turned to his usual goofy smile. His lips spread wide and they looked like they were almost touching his ears. His eyes lit up with light, almost as if they were shining. His entire face screamed joy! He clenched his fist and threw it up in the air, shouting, “Ha! The greater the challenge, the greater the reward! Let’s do this! We’re going to win! Woo!”

✹

Chu Fang felt his heart beating hard and fast, crashing into his ribs and trying to get out. Faster. Faster! His hands trembled. He traced his finger over the name. That name. Him. He couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t possible. It was a name he’d often thought of, wistfully. A time when China competed for the world title. The wonderkid. I-is it… He shook his head once, then slapped himself across the cheeks twice. Lin. Feng. Challenger. That was all the information the piece of paper held. Nothing more. But it told him everything he needed to know. It… It…

The member of staff who’d brought Chu Fang the document stared down at his boss, dazed. His boss was nicknamed Mister Unshakeable. He was always calm. It didn’t matter what got thrown at him or what he had to deal with, it never brought him off his piece. With calm determination, he waltzed over everything thrown at him, smiling along the way. That same person was now sprawled on the floor, desperately tugging a piece of paper, almost crying. “U-uh, boss?” the member of staff asked, careful. But there was no reaction. His boss was staring at the paper, tracing a name, holding it to his cheek and cradling it. “Alright then,” the member of staff mumbled, raising his brows. He bit on the inside of his lips, his foot already off the ground. He hesitated for a moment, but then turned around and walked away.

Chu Fang didn’t see the look in his employee’s eyes, nor would he care if he had seen it. There was only a singular thought on his mind. Lin Feng. It… It… He traced his fingers over the piece of paper again. It really said it. Lin Feng. Challenger. He moved to the wall over to the side and leaned up against it, then wiped his face. He put his hand over his mouth and blew out all the air from his lungs, full of disbelief. H-how… How is this possible? H-he left…

Lin Feng had left the scene four years ago, at the end of season 1. He was a 15 year old kid back then. Now, four years later, he was 19. He’d grown up into a young adult who was attending his final year of high school. Chu Fang counted it out on his fingers. The name. The rank. That joyful look on this Lin Feng’s face when he walked up on stage. The age. There were too many coincidences for them to be coincidences. “N-no. This can’t be real,” Chu Fang mumbled, more frantic with every repetition. “T-this can’t be… it can’t be real!”

However, the more he thought about, the more he started believing it. This Lin Feng was the same Lin Feng who competed at the Season 1 World Championships. This Lin Feng was the same Lin Feng who beat Phoenix and led his team to the Finals. This Lin Feng was the Lin Feng who went toe-to-toe with Rake in a tense series that lasted five games. It was the first and last time in League of Legends’ history that Rake was pushed to his limits. There was no one else who came so close to beating him. Chu Fang said with his lips shaking but his voice firm, “This. Is. Maple! It really is him!”

Chu Fang bit on his lips, smiling. A smile that covered his face, with tears of joy running down his cheeks. “It has to be him!” His mouth was making all kinds of strange movements. He didn’t know what to do with it. “It really is him! It is!” he shouted, looking like he’d completely lost it. But he didn’t care. He pushed himself onto his feet, his knees shaking with excitement. “I need to make sure. I need to see him. If it really is him… It is him, I know it!” He rushed out from the backstage area and looked around the arena, searching for that face, mumbling, “Where did he go…”

✹

High School 13 had made it to the semifinals. The games for the day had come to an end. By all right, they should be celebrating their victory. Chuck a few beers and congratulate themselves on a job well done. They’d gone further in this tournament than ever before! But they didn’t care about any of that. They only cared about the trophy, and the team standing in their way towards it. That team, right now, was Shanghai International.

The whole team was down. They could barely raise their heads, their hope having sunk down into their boots. Their hope was initially, after winning their quarterfinals, rather high. But that all changed when they watched Shanghai International play. It didn’t matter how much Lin Feng had taught them, they were still a far shot from being Shanghai International’s opponents. There was a distinct difference in individual skill and team synergy. A difference that Lin Feng couldn’t bridge for them. They knew he was good, but there was a limit to what one person could do. Even if that person was Lin Feng.

Ouyang looked around at his friends. The same he’d watched win the games, while he sat out. This isn’t right. His gaze was steady. He knew his job. “Ha! What’s with all the long faces, my awesome super-bros? It isn’t like we gotta play against Shanghai High School! Now that would be bad… I know! Come, sing with me!” He cleared his throat and started singing, very loudly, “Always look on the bright side of life… tu-du, tududududu. Always look on the light side of life… tu-du tududududu!”

Yang Fan grinned and shook his head. “Idiot.” Then he adjusted his glasses and said, “You’re right. We do need to look on the bright side. I guess it was about time we faced them again. Remember what they did to us last year? Let’s give them some payback for that!”

Tang Bingyao tilted her head and asked, “You guys played them last year too? What happened?”

“Yeah, you see…” Ren Rou started, then trailed off. They were walking towards the exit of the venue. But to get there, they had to walk between the rows of chairs packed closely together. Straight up ahead, there was another team walking in the opposite direction. Both sides stopped, just standing there, staring at each other. Ren Rou tried to put on a brave front, pushing her chest forward, but her shaking arm revealed how she really felt. Scared and angry. Furious for what these assholes had done to her and her team last year! And terrified the same would happen again this year.

The headquarters of the Shanghai Esportions Association was located in a high-rise in downtown Shanghai. On the top floor, looking out over the city, was the president’s office. Fang Hao sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair. He held his mobile phone beside his mouth, Chu Fang’s voice coming from the little speaker. It wasn’t a serious call. Chu Fang was the perfect protege. He worked himself to the bone, searching for the next big star to be born. Fang Hao walked over to the window and looked down at the streets below. A sea of car lights, barely visible below the lights coming from the office buildings around.

Fang Hao stared at the nightscape of the city, Chu Fang’s voice still coming from his phone. He took a deep breath, air filling his lungs as he raised his shoulders. Then he let it all out. The air, the memories from four years ago and everything since then. It’d been an uphill battle, and it still was. He was the man who helped China step to fame in the esports world through DotA. China became the dominant region. They were the best. And even after their first generation of talents decided to retire, a new one, the next one was ready to take over the scepter. His work in all of this was exemplary. So much so that he was appointed the position to oversee Chinese interests in the new massive online battle arena game League of Legends. He was asked to work his magic again, but this time without direct supervision.

There were doubters who thought League of Legends would never become anything big, but he ignored them and pushed through. He pushed and he pushed to prove everyone that he was suited for the job. Sponsors, manpower, and equipment were just some of the obstacles. From nothing, absolutely nothing, he built up the Chinese League of Legends scene to what it was today. From working for weeks to land a small time sponsor, to now where the biggest sponsors in the world came to him for a deal. From barely being able to organize a small LAN-event, to holding multiple events on several different levels throughout the year. All of that was his hard work.

It wasn’t just him. Fang Hao was blessed with employees who believed in his vision and players that were just as passionate about building up the scene as he was. Through their love of the game, they infected the Chinese people with the League of Legends bug. Most memorable of these players were the five who made it all the way to Worlds in Season 1. The true heroes of the scene. Their result saw a direct and sharp rise in the game’s popularity. The five who flew to London to represent the LPL. The team that made it all the way to the Finals.

Chu Fang sighed and shook his head, smiling. “That day when I heard we qualified for Worlds. I still think back to it so often. That was the happiest day in my life. They were something special.”

Fang Hao chuckled and said, “Mhm. We worked so hard and then those kids thanked us by actually making it to Worlds. It was all going great until those guys from the Global Esports Association came knocking…”

Maple the wonderkid. One of, if not the best player in the world at that point. He was only 15 years old, a year too young to compete. An exception was made for him to play in the LPL. This was then communicated with the Global Esports Association, who had no qualms with it. Maple was allowed to play in the LPL. But when it came time for the kid to play at Worlds, suddenly the Global Esports Association had something to say about it. Fang Hao still remembered how angry he got. He never really got mad. But that day, in the office of people who could have his job, he lost himself and raised his voice high enough that people in the office building across the street could hear him.

“I’m the Vice President of the Chinese Esports Association! We’ve had this conversation before when we wanted Maple to play in the LPL. Back then you had no issues? But now? Now it’s an issue? Your stupid organization suddenly feels threatened? Are you afraid our wonderkid will knock out whatever team you’re cheering for?

“I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION! I DEMAND THAT YOU LET HIM PLAY!”

“We’re not going anywhere until you say he can play. WE’RE STAYING RIGHT HERE!”

Fang Hao grinned as he thought back to those days. His yelling hadn’t done them any good, but in the end, the wonderkid was allowed to play. Their team made it all the way to the Finals. They did absolutely fantastic. He was so proud of them and had been eager to see where they would end up. It was unfortunate that the future he hoped to see them have didn’t play out like that. The lost Finals were a harder blow to the team than he or anyone could’ve expected. The wonderkid quit, and the rest of the team split up after. Of the five, only two still played the game, and only one was still on an LPL team. God Roundy was the only one of that team full of talent who was still on the top of his game.

God Roundy was a top talent. He was a beast in top lane back then and still to this day. No one could deny that, and Fang Hao wouldn’t either. But despite that, Tian Tian was nowhere near the best player on the team. There were at least two players better than him. One of them was the ad-carry, the clear number two on the team. As for the best player on the team. That was Maple, the wonderkid, the best player in the world. The 15 years old kid was so ridiculously good at the game that every time Fang Hao watched him play, he had to take a step back and make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. And ever since, he compared every talented new Chinese star to Maple, only to find himself somewhat disappointed.

Chu Fang broke the silence, breaking the memories, and said, “If those guys were still playing, we’d have won Worlds at least twice by now. They were good.”

“We wouldn’t just have won Worlds. We’d have two Emperors,” Fang Hao laughed. Then he went quiet as those final scenes played through his mind again. He recalled how Maple walked away. The kid was gone before he’d even noticed it. Maple was the best player to have ever come out of China. He was an Emperor. There was no one who could deny that. But he’d quit the game. He was gone, and so he wasn’t an Emperor. He was an almost forgotten name…

Fang Hao shook his head clear of those memories. They were tales of four years ago. Today, there was another story building up. KG could write history by defeating SSK! That deserved his attention. He slapped himself across the cheeks, just to wake himself out of his thoughts, and asked, “Is that final game almost done? Everyone at the venue is probably itching to go home and watch KG versus SSK. We should finish well before then, right?”

Chu Fang quickly replied, “Yeah. First series is done. High School 13 made it to the semis. Shanghai International is now playing, but that shouldn’t take too long. They’re clearly the better team.”

“Oh? Shanghai International? They were the runner-up last year, right? They were pretty alright from what I remember. Uhm. What was the second team? High School 13 you said? Are they a new team? I don’t remember hearing about them before.”

✹

Game 1 was a stomp. Shanghai International waltzed all over their opponents and finished the game in a short 25 minutes. They’d picked strong early game champions and brute forced their way into the opponent’s base. The second game didn’t seem like it’d be any different. In the first 10 minutes of the game, Shanghai International built up an advantage that was difficult to come back from. Too difficult by all standards.

Below the stage, the players from High School 13 were watching the games. Tense. Nervous. Sweat dripping down their faces and their hands clam. Last year, Shanghai International looked strong. But because they weren’t good enough of a team yet, they had no idea just how good Shanghai International was. Now, however, they did have a clue. They spotted the big and small techniques and tactics Shanghai International forced to push for the advantage. This Shanghai International was far better than they expected.

“C-can we really win?” Liu Yue muttered, dazed.

His question was met with silence. Chen Ze and Wei Dong stared at the screen, terrified. Yang Fan kept adjusting his glasses, looking, searching, but not finding anything. And then there was Ouyang. The man with quick wit. The myth who always knew what to say. The legend who brought up morale just by being in the room! He sat there, silent.

Lin Feng was laser focused on the games. He heard the question, but didn’t turn to look at his teammates. The game was more important. He had to spot the small things, the errors that Shanghai International made that he could take advantage of. “They’re strong, but…” he said, half to himself and half to his teammates. His eyes were on the large screen, never shifting away. Every small play, he wanted to see it. Then he smiled. He’d seen what he needed to see. His hand almost automatically clenched into a fist and was flying up in the air. He jumped from his chair and shouted, “We’re still going to win!”

✹

Chu Fang put his phone away and was about to find his seat to watch the last few minutes of the Shanghai International game, when a staff member walked up to him. They handed him a document and said, “Here’s the information on all the teams in the quarterfinals. It also has something on High School 13.”

Chu Fang accepted the documents and nodded. “Thanks for the trouble.” Then he started flipping through the pages until he found the information they had on High School 13. He skimmed what was written down. School information, club president, team membe— His eyes went wide as the document slipped through his fingers and fell on the floor. He trembled on his knees, his hands shaking violently. “T-this… T-this…” He stared at the document on the ground, then dropped to his knees and grabbed it up. His finger traced over the information from High School 13 again, directly towards the names of the players on the team. Towards that one particular name. His mouth fell open. He closed it, only for it to fall open again. “H-how?”

It was 5:53 PM. Seven more minutes until the start of the Quarterfinals for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament! High School 13 versus West High. Two strong teams clashing in a series that could go either way! The long hand of time marched closer and closer to 6:00 PM. 10 players had gathered below the stage, five on either side. On the far left, there was High School 13. On the far right was West High. Staring at each other, tension palpable between them. All around them were tournament staff, giving them last minute instructions and waiting to give them the official go-head to get up on stage. Waiting. Staring. Coiled. Then one opened his hand and waved it towards the stage. The ‘go’ sign, the green light.

Lin Feng was about to step forward, when someone pulled on his arm. He turned around to find Su Xue. She smiled at him and said, “Make me proud! If you do, I’ll cook anything you want tonight!”

There were a few ways to light a fire in Lin Feng’s heart. But all of them paled before the inferno that could be lit in his stomach. Through food. His eyes beamed at the thought of food and he replied, “Awesome! You can make me stir-fried eggplants, squash so—”

“Shut it! Win this matchup first. Then you can come and claim your prize,” Su Xue said, interrupting his food fantasy. Then she gave him a quick hug and ruffled his hair. “Go, kid. You can do it.”

Lin Feng let the hug overwhelm him, the familiar scent of Su Xue bringing peace. He broke free from the hug and laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll win this game. It’s no biggie.” Then he turned back to the stage, his friends already walking up the steps, and walked up. His confidence was as big as ever. There was not a single worry on his face, a stark difference from the other nine players competing. They couldn’t smile, or look at the crowd, sweat dripping down their faces. They stared at their computer screens, barely breathing, as they waited for the competition to kick off.

Below the stage there was a special seating arrangement for the other six teams still in the competition. They were all present, including the players from Tonji Affiliated High. They were one of the teams who’d played against High School 13. They knew like no one else how strong this team was. But at the same time, that was weeks ago by now. Perhaps they’d just had an offday that day. Their Midlaner thought so, at least. He turned to his teammates and said, “West High was pretty decent last year from what I remember. What do you guys think? A win for them?”

The Toplaner stared at his teammate, eyes wide open. “Wait. You’re serious?” he asked after a moment of silence. He shook his head and mumbled, “Do you not remember that game? I don’t care how good West High is, they don’t have that Lin Feng guy. Holy shit was that dude good. I’ve never played against anyone better…”

The other three teammates nodded. They remembered. They wouldn’t ever forget that Riven. That wasn’t just a good game. That wasn’t luck. That was pure skill. More skill than their entire team combined. It didn’t matter how terrible that Lin Feng’s teammates were. When you were that good, solo carrying a game at this level was an easy thing to do. Besides, they’d played against West High before. Just last year, they were the ones who’d eliminated West High in the quarterfinals. West High was a good team, they had to admit that. But West High was just that. Good. Not great. Not perfect. Not Legendary like Lin Feng.

Tonji Affiliated wasn’t the only team talking about the match. Shanghai High School, the reigning champions, were also in discussion about this series. It was another round, and still the same and confident Lin Feng. They’d seen this before. It felt somewhat like deja vu. And if it was, then High School 13 would tear West High a new one and move on to the semis. From out in the first round of the qualifiers to the semifinals, though between then and now they’d almost completely revamped their team. A superb move.

“What do you guys think? I think this’ll be an easy win for High School 13. Right?”

“Yeah, probably. Did you see him hug that girl and talk about food? It’s just like last time. He doesn’t seem worried at all. And why would he be? We all saw him play. He’s fucking fantastic! Then they still have that ad-carry. She’s pretty decent too. Together they can easily carry any deadweight to the semis.”

“Who would’ve thought that fielding an almost completely new team can have such big results! Remember their team from last year? It was hot dogshit! And now they’re on their way to the semifinals. It’s unreal.”

Zeng Rui sat calmly, aloof. He heard his teammates talk but didn’t engage in conversation with them. Their logic was flawed. Who cares if High School 13 wins? He looked at the players from High School 13. Some of them look nervous. Good. Except for him. The thundering dumbass. Enjoy your five minutes in the spotlight while it lasts. Idiot.

The organizers of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament had revealed the brackets to the eight teams in the quarterfinals. Everyone knew who they had to play in this round, as well as their potential opponents in the next round. For High School 13, that potential opponent in the next round was Shanghai International. Zeng Rui smiled, an almost palpable coldness spreading from him. He knew how strong Shanghai International was. His team was the only team who’d beaten them! In the Finals! It was a hard fought victory for his team. Even he felt a cold shiver run up and down his body when he thought of them. We almost lost. They were good.

They’ll never bridge the gap. It’s the core that’s flawed… Zeng Rui glanced over towards the players from Shanghai International. They were different from High School 13. Shanghai International’s entire team was phenomenal compared to High School 13, which only had a good Toplaner and a decent ad-carry. Good players all around who’d played so much together that their synergy was on a whole ‘nother level. And to top that all off, beyond their good players and great synergy, they had a Midlaner and ad-carry who were more than good. They were GRRREEEAAAT! Genuinely top tier among all high school players!

It wasn’t just Zeng Rui who saw it like this. The players from Shanghai International felt the same. It was first voiced by their Jungler, who mumbled, “High School 13… They sound… Those idiots from last year? Didn’t we stomp all over them? They were terrible… How did they make it this far?”

The Support laughed, loud and freely, grabbing his stomach and arching his back just to give it a bit more power. Then he said, “I know, right? I couldn’t believe it either when I saw it. Maybe they cheated? Or did they just get the luckiest draw ever? It’s a disgrace for this tournament that a team like them got this far already.”

Yan Liang, Master Midlaner and team captain of Shanghai International, waved his hand, cutting off the conversation. “Enough of that, guys. Who cares about last year? Fact is, they’re still in it this year. We might meet them in the semis. Who knows, maybe they’ve actually become a strong team.” He paused, ever so briefly, then broke out laughing. “Oof, I could barely keep a straight face through that. Hahahah! Can you imagine? Those losers actually becoming good? Hahaha! What a joke!” He wiped the tears of joy from his eyes and tried to take a deep breath, only to burst out laughing again.

The Support patted Yan Liang on the shoulder, still laughing. He said, his short breaths keeping him out of breath, “Haha! You almost had me! Haha! Remember? Remember how they went after Liu Zhengjie’s Trist? Haha! My god, they were so pathetic!” He was out of breath, completely. He fought hard to get some more oxygen in his lungs before he continued, “That last fight where they ran out of their founts and gave a triple kill away. Oh boy. It’s all coming back to me now! Haha! Shit shit! And right before the end. Liu Zhengjie here was dancing and taunting them! Hahaha!”

Liu Zhengjie, Master ad-carry, reclined back, balancing his chair on the two hind legs. He shook his head and smiled, “Not my fault. They were asking for it. All I did was give it to them. But man. They were garbo. Like. Really garbo. Shame we didn’t let that game dragon a little longer. I would’ve gotten a penta. Would’ve been the easiest penta of my life.”

The Toplaner looked over at Liu Zhengjie and teased, “Hey, don’t go jinxing yourself now. Find some wood and knock it off! You see that pretty girl up there?” He pointed at Tang Bingyao who sat up on stage behind her computer. “She’s their new ad-carry. Smokin’ hot and crazy good. Who knows, maybe she’ll slap your ass if you don’t watch out. Unless that’s what you’re into, hehe.”

Liu Zhengjie shrugged his shoulders and said, “Eh, if it’s a girl, I’ll have to go easy on her. Gotta act like the gentleman I am, y’know?” He then turned his attention away from High School 13. He just didn’t care about them. A weak team last year, a weak team this year. They could replace all the players they wanted. That wasn’t going to change the simple fact that a bad team was a bad team. And he was good. Very, very good. So good that a coach from an LSPL team had approached him and asked if he was interested in playing for them. That was how good he was. In the entire Shanghai high school League of Legends scene there was only him and Zeng Rui who’d been offered a spot in an LSPL team.

Zeng Rui! Liu Zhengjie turned to look over at his rival in a different role. They played different roles, but also in the same lane. And that lane, in last year’s finals, had gone to Zeng Rui. Zeng Rui had won that lane and he had lost. His parents, his friends, that coach from the LSPL team, all of them had seen him lose to another high schooler. This was a disgrace! Just thinking about it made him angry. How he couldn’t pressure like he usually did. I hate him. Hate him. Hate! But this year. When we meet in the Finals. Watch me. I’ll make you feel what I felt. And worse. You’re going to get your ass kicked so hard… That. That… He’d completely forgotten about High School 13. He didn’t care about the semifinals. His team was too strong. The Finals were just about guaranteed to feature Shanghai International.

✹

High School 13 took another step forward on their historic run in the Shanghai 16 School Tournament! The games ended without much fanfare. Lin Feng played. It was too easy. There was never the question if High School 13 would win, only when. Was it going to be sub 20 minutes, or were they forced to fight for their wins. Spoiler. They weren’t. It was easy and fast and only an hour later, the series came to an end. High School 13 went 2-0 and took the series. They moved on to the semifinals!

The players from High School 13 walked down the stage, smiling, cheering, laughing. Below the stage a large gathering of esports club members were waiting for them. Their friends and fellow League enthusiasts. They cheered and laughed and lifted Ouyang up on their shoulders. Ouyang who hadn’t played a game but was shouting like he’d carried the whole team. “WE DID IT! SEMIFINALS, HERE WE COME! HIDE YO KIDS, HIDE YO WIVES! WE WRECKIN EVERYBODY OUT HERE!”

Lin Feng laughed with his teammates and accepted the hugs and bro-fists from his fellow club members, until he noticed Su Xue standing just a bit behind the esports club members. He walked up to her and showed her his bright, goofy grin.

“Good job, kid!” Su Xue laughed, ruffling his hair. “You did great. I’m proud of you!”

“Of course I didn’t let you down! I told you. I’m really good at the game!” Lin Feng said.

“You little fool. Is it so hard just to say thanks? Why do you always have to be so full of yourself?” Su Xue teased, laughing. Then she looked at him and asked, “I guess you’re done for the day? Or are you planning to watch the other game?”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head. “Oh, yeah, I was planning to watch the second match. We’ll be facing the winner from that match in the next round.”

✹

While the Shanghai 16 School Tournament was moving on to the second quarter-finals series, Chu Fang was backstage, taking a phone call. The person who’d called him was his direct superior, Fang Hao, the President of the Shanghai Esports Association. He was informing Fang Hao on the going-ons at the tournament. Between all the buzz and people pulling him to every which direction, he took the time to inform Fang Hao. Not because Fang Hao was his boss, but because Fang Hao was also his mentor. Someone he deeply respected.

“Everything is running smoothly. The first match was won by High School 13. It’s all looking good. I think that’s about it,” Chu Fang reported.

Fang Hao said, “No need to be so stiff, son. I believe in you. That’s why I left you in charge. You don’t have to double check everything with me. You can do this. You really can.”

Chu Fang smiled and replied, “You’re too nice to me. Honestly, I’m not good at taking charge. It’s just, difficult. I much preferred it back in the day when I followed you around and helped you.” 

It was silent on the line for a minute, before Fang Hao sighed. “You’re talking about the Season 1 Worlds? Time flies by. You’d almost forget it. But that was already four years ago.”

Su Xue was dealing with problems of her own for the past two days. Ughh… this is so bad, why can’t I do this! I didn’t think it would be this hard! She’d just finished recording her voice over for the recent Nasus game Lin Feng had played and recorded for her. But her commentary, it just wasn’t as good as she thought it would be. The quality of the whole production was far less than what she wanted it to be, at least compared to the average standard of other popular gameplay videos. It just didn’t feel right. And her commentary, it was boring. Uninteresting and dull. She knew it wasn’t good enough, she didn’t even need to show it to other people and ask for feedback to confirm that.

But what if…? Hm… no that’s no good. Su Xue’s plan was to take a more comedic approach with her commentary. She couldn’t really provide interesting insights that would engage the people watching her videos. But she could make them laugh! She thought it over more, tried to come up with jokes and witty banter. But the natural charm and wit that came so easily to her while streaming, it was completely gone. The few jokes and bon mots that she’d come up with and recorded fell completely flat now that she was watching the video. If she couldn’t even make herself laugh, how would she make other people laugh? 

You know what? This isn’t that bad. Cause it’s  all in my head, I think about it over and over again, I keep picturing it over again. And that’s driving me crazy! I’m being too hard on myself for no reason! I’m funny! My jokes are funny!  It’s probably all in my head. I’m being too hard on myself! I’m funny. My jokes are funny! I’ll show it to Lin Feng. See what he thinks!  Su Xue went to get Lin Feng from his room, then sat him down in front of her computer and made him watch the video.

Ten minutes later, Lin Feng finished watching the video. He turned to Su Xue and said, “Wow! That… it was something. Hm. Um… I don’t know how else to say this but it was really bad. The best thing I can say in this situation is that I think you’d set a record for dislikes if you made your viewers watch this.”

“What? Record for dislikes? Y-you…” Su Xue gasped out the words before falling speechless. She genuinely had no words, no thoughts, nothing. Lin Feng had used brutal oblivious honesty on her, and it was super effective! I-i showed him it, and he… he roasted me for it! WHAT A LITTLE SHIT! Her mind slowly started working again as rage overwrote her embarrassment and cringe. Her face flushed red and she lunged at Lin Feng, intending bloody murder. 

But Lin Feng had quick reflexes and mechanical skill. He ducked around her just before she reached him and ran towards the door. Then he stopped and turned around to look back at her. He was about to open his mouth to say something, but quickly changed his mind when he saw Su Xue charging at him. He ran out the door and around the house, trying to find some safety.  

Su Xue returned to her room after she burned off some energy and stress chasing Lin Feng around the house. She sat down at her desk and stared at her monitor and the video, still breathing heavy from all the running. She stared at the video, thinking and frowning. Well, that was a nice breather, but now I gotta get back to this again… What am I going to do with this video? If I upload this the way it is right now, no one will want to watch it… Am I actually going to need to do something as cheesy as falling back on dirty jokes here…?

She started smoothing out and adjusting her shirt when another thought occurred to her. Maybe I coul- WAIT! WHAT? NO! Su Xue smacked herself in the face and shook her head. She was flustered and stressed, worried that no one would like her videos. That turned into the catalyst for some dangerous thoughts and a terrible pivot in her content creation strategy. The ideas floating around in her mind right now, they were genuinely dangerous and scandalous. I won’t do it! I’m better than that!

Su Xue cleared her head and tried to think up what to do for the video for a little bit longer. Then she came to a decision. She’d put the Nasus video aside for now. There was no point trying to force something that just wasn’t coming to her right now and recording another subpar voice over. The best thing to do right now was for her to play some ranked games and record her own footage. Since it was going to be her game that she was playing, she didn’t think there would be any issues with putting emotion into the commentary when she recorded it. It was an experiment worth trying!

Of course, Su Xue wasn’t delusional. She knew that her gameplay wouldn’t be good enough for a video. She wasn’t at that point yet. So she asked Lin Feng to help by duoing with her in bot lane. Like always, Lin Feng agreed to her request without any hesitation. He patted his chest and smiled. “Sure, no problem! I’ll be your support! Let’s do it!” 

✹

《Triple kill!》

《Aced!》

“FUCKFUCKFUCK! That fucking Yasuo! What is his problem!!? If he didn’t steal those two kills, I would’ve got a penta! That FUCKER stole my penta!” Su Xue raged after winning a teamfight.

They were playing in ranked queue on the Korean server with a Gold account. Su Xue was playing the ad-carry Lucian and Lin Feng was supporting her with Thresh. The two of them did really well in the early game, with Lin Feng making a lot of flashy engagements and helping her pick up kills. She’d scaled and become really strong in the mid game. Enough to dominate during most of the teamfights, including the one right now where she had almost gotten a pentakill.

“AGGGGH! MY PENTAAAA!” Su Xue slammed down on her desk. “If I’d gotten that pentakill, it would’ve made this video perfect!”

Su Xue glared at the Yasuo on her team. The one that had stolen her pentakill out from under her nose. Her eyes narrowed as she read the summoner tag. “This Devshard guy was 0/5 before this fight too! He was completely useless the whole game. But right when I’m about to get a pentakill, that’s when he shows up to screw me out of it and finally get some kills. Lin Feng, help me report his ass when we get out of this game!”

“Sure!” Lin Feng smiled.

However, after finishing the game and because it was a win, Su Xue was in a good mood and completely forgot about reporting the Yasuo. She made sure her Lucian game had been saved properly and smiled. “Let’s call it a day then. We’ll play a few more tomorrow. If we can’t find any better games, we’ll go with this one.” 

Then, Su Xue suddenly thought of something and turned to Lin Feng. “Hey, aren’t you playing in your quarterfinals tomorrow?”

Lin Feng nodded. “Yep.”

“Okay! Got it! I’ll come tomorrow to cheer you on!” Su Xue cheerfully said.

“Awesome!” Lin Feng said. Then, he patted his chest and declared, “Just watch. We’ll definitely advance to the semis tomorrow!”

“Good I’m looking forward to it! I’ll be waiting for the day you bring hom that trophy! Su Xue laughed. Then she suddenly paused as her expression sank. “Right, semis. KG is playing SSK tomorrow too. If KG can win, that’d be great.” The words were hopeful, but her tone was anything but. In fact, it was just her, but most Chinese fans were feeling the same way about tomorrow’s match. It was obvious why. The opponent was SSK. The Mountain that towered over the whole League of Legends competitive scene. They were the team that all other teams looked up to and could never hope to beat.

✹

“Play your best Fatty! That’s all that matters!” Lin Feng said. He’d decided to give Fatty a phone call before bed. 

“Mhm! Mhm! I will do my best! You can trust in me, Lin Feng!” Tian Tian nodded, forcefully, a bright smile on his face. Tomorrow was KG’s toughest match yet, but there wasn’t a speck of fear or anxiety on his face. Instead, his small eyes shone with a sharp and dangerous light. “Even if we’re up against SSK, we’ll do our best! At the very least, we’ll take a game or two off of them!” 

Lin Feng made a fist bump under his covers. “Haha! That’s what I like to hear, Fatty! I’ll be watching and cheering you on tomorrow! Beat them! I believe in you!” He had full faith in Fatty. Even if the opponent was SSK. Even if the opponent was Rake. No one could reign eternally. No one was invincible forever in the world of esports. As long as the people below were still climbing up, as long as they still desired to reach for the throne, there would come a day when even the greatest Emperor would fall.

“Right! Don’t you have a game tomorrow, too?” Tian Tian asked. He’d recalled Lin Feng talking about the Shanghai 16 School Tournament the other day.

Lin Feng nodded. “Yep, that’s why we both have to try together! I’ll win first. Then I’ll wait for the good news from you!”

Tian Tian’s eyes blazed with competitive spirit. He blew hot air out of his nose and nodded. “Yeah!”

✹

The next day at 5:30 PM in the evening, High School 13’s team rushed over to the electronics mall in Pudong, the venue for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. The matches were starting at six. When they arrived at the venue, they discovered that many of their schoolmates were already there. They came up and excitedly greeted the team members.

“Do your best Yang Fan! Show them the power of us four eyes!”

“Go Lin Feng! Carry the game!”

“We’re waiting to see you beat West High! We even bought glowsticks and neon signs to cheer you guys on!”

“GO TANG TANG! WE LOVE YOU! DESTROY THEM AT BOT LIKE YOU DESTROYED US!”

High School 13’s team members were also smiling at the warm welcome as they walked past their fellow schoolmates.

“Come on, let’s register first. We’re playing in the first group,” Ren Rou reminded.

When High School 13’s team arrived backstage, they bumped into the players from Tonji Affiliated High. The two teams were already acquainted by. So, they politely greeted one another. Tonji Affiliated High’s ad-carry walked up to Tang Bingyao. His face was all red as he fidgeted around for a while before eventually getting out a few words.

“G-good luck in your match today. L-lets both d-do our best!” Then he hurriedly retreated back to his team.

Tang Bingyao stared at the young man in bewilderment. She tilted her head. “Huh? Why does he keep running away?”

Standing nearby, Ouyang, Chen Ze, Liu Yue, and the others burst out laughing.

✹

5:45 PM. The backstage area of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Chu Fang, the Vice President of the Shanghai Esports Association accepted a clipboard from a staff member. It contained the registration form for the teams playing today. He faintly nodded. “All eight teams are here?”

The staff member nodded. “Yes sir. Shanghai International was the last to arrive. They’ve already finished signing in. We’ll be playing two best of three games today. Since we’re starting at six, we should finish easily before 11. That’ll be good since everyone is rushing to get back home in time to watch Worlds.”

“Good. Looks like everything’s in order.” Then he looked down at the schedule for today. “Two brackets are playing today. High School 13 vs. West High and Shanghai International vs. Shanghai High 6.”

“Yep that’s right! It looks like Shanghai International is guaranteed to advance to the semis in the second bracket. After all, they were last year’s runner-up. As for the second bracket, High School 13 is a dark horse, but West High is still pretty strong,” the staff member interjected. 

“Mhm. Yeah. West High was a quarterfinalist last year too. I know.” Chu Fang nodded. “But I still think High School 13 is going to win this match.”

The staff member laughed. “That’s only cause you’re always hoping for fresh blood. That’s fine too, though. High School 13 is a pretty strong team. I remember their ad-carry and top both being really amazing”

“Oh, right!” Chu Fang recalled something and turned to the staff member. “Hey, do me a favour and help get me the info for High School 13 in a bit.” He’d been meaning to find out the name of that top laner for High School 13 before. But he was interrupted by an important business call and ended up forgetting. Now that he remembered, he’d finally get his answer to why that young man was so familiar. By this point, he wasn’t imagining things. There was a strong voice at the back of his head telling him that he should already know who this young man was!

There was a belief, a bit of conventional wisdom, a line of thought among long-time fans of the competitive scene for League of Legends. It was simple. Europe beats Korea! North America beats Europe! Korea beats North America! Exactly like Rock-Paper-Scissors. This was the ‘rule’ created by truly small brain analysis that occasionally held true but also had a million and one exceptions. The idiot logic was built up after watching what seemed like a recurring pattern over the years. The European teams managed to do well against the Korean teams, most of the time. Then the North American teams managed to do well against the European teams, most of the time. Finally, the Korean teams dominated the North American teams, most of the time.   

Why this pattern sprang into existence and managed to hold true most of the time, no one could really say. The best theory was that it was from the difference in regional playerbases. The European teams played against each other, and played in a way that tripped up the Koreans. Same thing for the North American teams against the European teams. But at the very end, the Koreans always managed to dominate. But again, there were a million and one exceptions to this sort of thing. Not that most of the fans watching competitive LoL cared about that nuance. For them, the 80 IQ EU > KR; NA > EU; KR > NA equation was enough. Truthfully, the mental gymnastics required for that algorithm might’ve taxed the mental acuity of 40% of the fanbase. 

For the upcoming semi-finals matchup between Legend and Season in the World Championships, this small brain analysis was enough for most fans to confidently and assuredly state that Season held the upper hand. Because LoL Rock-Paper-Scissors-ROFL-LMAO-LOL logic was irrefutable. Of course, there were also those who took simplicity to another level. An almost -200 IQ level. Including a certain dude-bro in Senior Class 7 whose blood and mouth ran far faster than his brain.

“ListenListenListen! Forget about League Rock-Paper-Scissors! All you need to know, my brother, is that Autumn is the second ranked Emperor. Phoenix is the third ranked Emperor! Do I need to make this any clearer? Number 2 is better than Number 3! You smelling the smarts here? Autumn is one rank higher, so Season is going to win this semi-finals matchup! It’s going to be as smooth as I am with the ladies,” Ouyang declared. 

Yang Fang turned around in his seat and stared at Ouyang over his horn-rimmed spectacles. Then he shook his head. “Ouyang. There are several things wrong with everything you just said. Let’s start with the first one. I’m not an expert on the subject per se, but based on observations you are not smooth with women. Now that we’re done with that, let’s talk about the rest of this. Do you really think the analysis and predictions for a game between two of the top teams in the world with some of the best players is as simple as that? Do you really think it’s as simple as some arbitrary ranking that states that the second best player in the world has an edge over the third best player in the world, so Season is going to win? If it were that simple, there would be no esports, no World Championships, none of this. The only logical conclusion here is that you’re just as bad with predictions as you are with women.”

Ouyang progressively frowned and grimaced as Yang Fang talked. Then he glared at Yang Fang for a long minute. “Oh? Oh! Well, ya know what? How about you spin up that egghead and try? Come on, fog up those glasses. Have a brain blast! Riddle me what you got. Show me how streets ahead you are! I’d like to see you try. Even the professional analysts and strategists at Worlds can’t predict who’ll win! Everyone gets it, Yang Fan.  Legend and Season are among the foremost teams in the world. There’s a lot of things to think about. But getting bogged down in the deets, what’s the point? Think about it! There’s always a trap, and worrying about the trap is pointless. You say trap and I say no, you say tomato and I’ll say potato. We’ll never get an answer until someone checks under the hood. Ain’t no point in thinking. Or overthinking. Might as well go full small brain genius. Because when everyone else thinks smart, you might as well think dumb! Ain’t nothing wrong with being 40 IQ when everyone else is just guessing anyway. I got just as much a chance of being right as anyone else.” 

“This… what? Traps? Hood? Potat…” Yang Fan wanted to say something, wanted to argue back. But the words died in his mind before they got to his tongue. He was speechless. Ouyang had become… Nicholas Cage! So random and pointless that he transcended conventional standards and thought to create a new point that no one ever really thought of. The biggest shock of all was that Ouyang’s words made complete sense. Did Ouyang independently arrive at Occam’s Razor… in reference to League of Legends?!

Lin Feng had been watching the exchange quietly from his seat the whole time. But Ouyang’s moment of insane clarity and Yang Fang’s reaction to it was too much for him to handle. He broke down laughing and gave Ouyang a thumbs up. “Ouyang’s right. Nothing wrong with keeping things simple. I don’t blame him. Both teams are really strong, so it’s hard to predict who’ll come out at top. There really is no point in overcomplicating things!”

Ouyang jumped out of his chair and fell to his knees, arms raised to the sky in supplication, once he heard Lin Feng say he was right. Then he cried out, “YES! PRAISE THE TRUE SAVIOR VAN WILDER! In! Yo! Face! Yang Fan! I thought your faith was strong but you needed proof. Well here it is! Even Bro Feng over there agrees with me! Only the truest of bros can see the genius in other bros!” Then he sat back down with a smug smile on his face, basking in the moment where he’d one-upped Yang Fan. 

“Fine, fine, stop making so much noise. Your analysis was fantastic, you truly are the more intelligent one. Far smarter than I. Real-real big brain,” Yang Fan said as he motioned to Ouyang to calm down. Then he looked over to Lin Feng and curiously asked, “What are your thoughts on this? Who do you think is mostly likely to win this one, Season or Legend?”

“Hmm… Me?” Lin Feng thoughtfully rubbed his chin. He had an answer in his mind. Or he thought he had one anyway. He mulled it over again and then scratched his head. His analysis wasn’t as simple as Ouyang’s, but he didn’t know if he could explain it right. And it would take too long anyway. “Oh, I guess Season probably has the higher chance of winning.”

Legend and Season. Two of the best teams in the entire world. Both teams also had an Emperor as one of their players. Two players who stood at the top of the world, facing off against each other. They were the strongest representatives from their respective regions. This semi-final matchup, everything was about nuance. One misclick, one minor incorrect decision, one champion stepping just a hair too close or being a smidge too far away. That was the difference between victory and defeat here. Lin Feng just didn’t feel comfortable making a clear judgement about who would win this game after being away from the competitive scene for so long. This game was at an entirely different level of play. Even the players on both of the teams playing couldn’t confidently state they had a 100% chance of making it through the semifinals. The only person qualified to make a statement with such certainty was someone who stood above them. Perhaps.

✹

The city of Brussels in Belgium. The Sun rose on the day of the semi-finals. Thousands of fans, spectators, enthusiasts, literally anyone who was even remotely interested in League of Legends and nearby had all gathered together to watch this epic semi-finals match between Legend and Season. The arena was completely packed! There was not a single empty seat in the whole place. Stage lights flashed around wildly and Silver Scrapes boomed out from the speakers, hyping an already hyped crowd up to the level beyond that of a Super Saiyajin! 

In the VIP viewing area above the ground level with the crowd, the members of Team SSK calmly looked down at the stage below. They were breezy, not a line of tension visible on their faces. Maybe it was magic, or maybe it was Maybelline. But they were aloof, untouched and unblemished by the hype and excitement and tension in the air. Pure indifference to the competitive semi-finals matchup that was about to take place, unconcerned about who would win. It simple did not matter to them.

One of the coaches for Team SSK turned to the unassuming 22-year-old Korean lad sitting next to him. He smiled and asked, “Hey Se-Ho. Who do you think will win?”

Se-Ho. Han Se-Ho, that was his full name. But this Midlaner was far better known by another name. His summoner tag. The handle of the world’s best Midlaner and the God Emperor among the Four Emperors. Rake. 

Rake turned to his coach and said, “Season will win. It’ll be 3-1. Or 3-2.” His reply was calm, collected, and precise. It had an eerie mechanical quality to it, the absolute confidence of a machine that had calculated everything and come to the only possible conclusion. There was no hedging. No explanation. No justification. His analysis and judgement were absolute. Then he looked back down at the stage. The first semi-final game between Legend and Season was starting.

✹

The first game of the series went on for 45 minutes. Legend managed to drag it out to the late game phase. This was where they were the strongest and the most comfortable. Then when the stage was set, they went in for one last crucial teamfight. Phoenix started the engage with his Orianna and his ad-carry Tristana followed up and took out the rest of Team Season’s Champions. Then they pushed down mid lane together and took out Season’s Nexus. Legend grasped the first victory of the semi-finals matchup and an early lead.

The second game, Season came out the gate swinging hard with a new team composition that was strong in the early game. They dominated during the first 15 minutes. Then they pushed that advantage out further, continuing to snowball hard and keeping Legend on the defensive. Season trampled over Legend’s Nexus and ended things at the 30 minute mark. With this game, Season had evened things up and tied the matchup score at 1-to-1. 

The third game was a truly unfortunate one for Legend. They lost the game during Champion Select, where they had allowed Autumn from Team Season to pick one of his main Support Champions. Tahm Kench. Autumn showcased why he was an Emperor in that game, chaining godlike plays together into unholy combos, saving his teammates at the very last second with Devour, and manipulating the flow of the game. Team Legend was off-kilter the whole time, and Autumn’s Tahm Kench was always there to catch them off-guard when they were most unbalanced to engage with his ultimate. The game was over before Champions had set foot on the rift. Team Season pulled ahead with this win, making the score 2-to-1. They were now a single game away from taking the whole series.

An incalculable number of European fans watched the matchup at the edge of their seats. Nails were chewed off, breaths were held. The earth of the continent was bathed in the flop sweat of nervous gamers and fans. They couldn’t couldn’t help it. The combination of excitement and energy drinks had revved their hearts. They prayed to Gods Ancient and new alike. Some even lit incense offerings to PewDiePie. They wanted to do whatever they could to help Legend endure the pressure and mount a comeback. But their prayers went unanswered. Even PewDiePie could not change the outcome of the fourth game in the series. Legend had lost. Team Season destroyed their Nexus.

The LCD screens in the arena all showed ‘VICTORY!’ over the ruined chunks and dying embers of Team Legend’s Nexus. A hush fell over the entire stadium, almost as if everyone in the crowd had simultaneously decided to let the moment sink in. Then the quiet and stillness was broken by applause. Quiet at first, slow. Then it gained strength, rolling through the crowd, growing in volume, before finally erupting into deafening cheers. Even the European fans cheered and clapped through their disappointment. Legend had lost, but they’d also played an amazing series! Team Season had also played brilliantly. And they were there to witness it all live!

The North American fans in the crowd were especially excited. They were waving their batons and cheering their hearts out. Season had won. They had defeated Legend 3-1! Their region was advancing to the finals!

Up on the stage, over on Team Season’s side, Autumn remained seated in front of his deck. He leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes, taking a moment to rest. A moment to reset mental after focusing hard in four straight games. But his face was calm. No trace of excitement, no joy, nothing. It didn’t look like this win meant anything to him at all, like he’d been expecting to win the whole time.

Over on Legend’s side, the mood was somber and heavy. Phoenix balled his fists and let his chin fall to his chest. Then it snapped up suddenly. His eyes narrowed as he considered something that he’d only just thought of at that moment. Concentration and focus back in full force. Then he sighed and shook his head.

✹

“THAT WAS INTENSE! We haven’t seen a series this tense and exciting in a while. It was a toss up to say who would make it through, both teams were fantastic. But it’s Team Season at the end of it all who’ll be going onto the Finals!” Stone announced on the official Chinese commentator desk for Worlds.

Beside Stone, Qinghe nodded.  “Indeed. Season played extremely well in these past three games. Legend also played well, especially Phoenix in the midlane. But in the end, in terms of tactics and game plan, he wasn’t a match for Autumn.”

Stone chuckled. “That’s very true! Well, this calls for a celebration! We have to congratulate Team Season for advancing to the Finals!”

Qinghe also beamed a smile before riffing back, “Right! Reaching the Finals of the World Championships is THE DREAM of every professional team. Team Season climbed all the way to the top and is now only a single step away from the Summoner’s Cup!”

Stone nodded. “The only thing left to do is wait for tomorrow, when we’ll find out who Team Season will be up against in the Finals for the League of Legends World Championships! I don’t know about you Qinghe, but I’m more than a little nervous about tomorrow. We’ll be here the whole time, letting you know what’s happening when it happens!”

The two commentators paused right after this, letting the hype dwindle. The millions of Chinese fans watching the live broadcast of Worlds also settled down. The excitement from the matchup between Season and Legend completely washed away and replaced by apprehension. Because they were reminded that tomorrow was coming. The games today were fun. Satisfying to watch. But now the games were over and the anxiety that had hidden in the dark corners of their minds had come roaring out. Tomorrow. When their very own Team KG would play against Team SSK in the last matchup of the Semi-finals. 

Just like a few weeks ago, High School 13 played on the same day as KG! However, that was where the similarities ended. This time, the games wouldn’t be played simultaneously. There would be no Lin Feng and Tian Tian finding the same wavelength, wreaking havoc on the opponents with their Rivens. Due to the time zone difference, KG wouldn’t play until it was 11 PM in China. High School 13 would’ve finished their quarterfinals series by then. If they hurried home, they could even catch the start of the KG versus SSK series. But many people weren’t going to hurry. They’d choose to watch one or the other. And the KG versus SSK series was a lot more interesting and exciting than some high school tournament.

Ouyang had gathered up with the other members of the esports club main team. All eight of them were here, watching Ouyang as he threw his hands up in the air and wailed, “Why! Why can’t we play a day later? Or earlier! I want everyone to come cheer us on! They have to come for us! I want to show off how good I’ve become!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and looked at Ouyang for a long, never-ending second. Then he sighed and shook his head. “So that’s what you were getting worked up about. The attention.”

“No shit!” Ouyang snorted. He pushed his chest up and clenched his fist. “Last year we had nothing to be proud of. That spy really screwed us over. We could’ve made it to the main tournament if it wasn’t for him, and then. Then…” He looked past Yang Fan, standing opposite of him, and at the wall behind. He stared at it, then shook his head. “We had nothing to brag about last year. But this year? This year is different. We made it to the quarters. The quarters! Yang Fan, we’re in the quarterfinals of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament! Don’t you think it’d be really cool if the other club members come and watch us play? Watch us win? Maybe we can even get the whole school to come! All the cute girls will see how cool I am! Can you imagine?”

Ren Rou looked over at Ouyang. She shook her head and scrunched her nose. This little piece… She breathed in, long and deep, gathering all her frustrations. Then she breathed out. He’s right. It would be cool. She sighed and shook her head again before saying, “Hahh… I hate this. Why do you have to say something that makes sense? But you’re right. It would be cool to have the other students come and cheer us on. This is a pretty big deal for the club. I suppose we could make some flyers and hand them out, or maybe just tell everyone we know about it. Some word of mouth can do miracles. It might even help to build up the popularity of the club.”

Last year we didn’t even tell Mr. Zhou. Ren Rou smiled. Mr. Zhou was in charge of club activities. He could help them get the word around school. She looked at the others until she reached Lin Feng. Here she paused. She looked at their new teammate, her new friend. It’s all thanks to him. She nodded towards him and then said, “Let’s ask the club members to come and watch us Wednesday. I’ll make an announcement for it, and it’d be great if you guys could build some hype up as well. If we make it to the semis, I’ll inform Mr. Zhou. He can help us get the whole school to come and cheer for us! It’d be awesome if they’re there, cheering us on when we win the tournament and lift up the trophy!”

Making it to the Finals. Having the whole school cheer them on. Beating Shanghai High School or Shanghai International or whichever team they’d be up against in the Finals. And then lifting that trophy. Realizing their dream. Making history for their school. Their minds went wild. It actually sounded plausible! They were almost there! Only a few more steps! Perhaps they could really do this! Maybe! Maybe! Maybe Lin Feng was there to curb their enthusiasm. He put up his finger and said, “Hey, guys… Uhm. It sounds good and all. Just. We aren’t even in the semis yet. We have to keep working really hard to get there. You guys can’t start celebrating now. Celebrate when we’ve won.”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and nodded. “Lin Feng is right. We need to focus on our next match. There is nothing beyond that if we don’t win.”

Liu Yue bit on the inside of his lips, holding his tongue. He glanced over towards Ouyang, fighting back the urge. But Ouyang wasn’t saying it. Ouyang was staying quiet. So he jumped onto the table in the middle, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted, “WE CAN DO THIS! THE TROPHY IS OURS! HERE WE COME!”

✹

High School 13’s esports team had been so invested that it’d taken away all attention from the rest of the esports club. But it was still that. A club. They had a large number of members, students who loved to share their love for League of Legends. The club wasn’t just about the main team. It was about creating a community for like-minded individuals to enjoy playing the game they loved together. Now, Ren Rou had a good excuse to put some of the bigger plans on the backburner. The Shanghai 16 School Tournament was the most important thing on her schedule right now. But that didn’t mean she could forget all about the club. Smaller and recurring events would still take place. So, with the exception of Lin Feng who had better things to do with his time, the other players of the main team joined the other club members in playing friendly 5v5s, or giving pointers to people in 1v1s.

Tang Bingyao was of the same mindset as Lin Feng. It wasn’t worth her time to teach these random club members. She hadn’t joined this club to be friendly with them. The only reason she joined was because there was a prize for winning the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Besides that, she’d rather spend her time working on ELO boosting orders than spending time with the club members. However, unlike Lin Feng, she didn’t make herself scarce fast enough. She stuck around just long enough to grab Ren Rou’s attention. The club president walked up to her and grabbed her by the arm. “Come, Tang Tang! You can’t leave now! You’re our poster girl! You see all these first years here? They’re all here for you!”

Tang Bingyao, she was the fairest of them all! To the first years, anyways. Tang Bingyao was the prettiest girl in the club by popular vote. On top of that, she was also the best ad-carry of the club! This was enough for these League enthusiasts to fall in love with her. So when they got a chance to learn from their Princess, they swarmed around her, their pubescent bodies raging with hormones.

“You’re so pretty! Add me on League!”
“I love you! Please go on a date with me!”
“Your Draven is so good. Can you help me with my Draven?”
“Can you add me on League, please? I wanna play a game with you.”
“Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow? My mom is cooking meatloaf!”
“I’m a Support main! Want to duo queue? Just add me on League and we’ll play!”

The guys of the main team stood together off to the side. Basically no one came up to them. Chen Ze shook his head and said, “What’s wrong with these kids? Were we this thirsty too?”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and looked over at the club members pushing and shoving just to get closer to Tang Bingyao. He shook his head, stunned. As did Wei Dong. He added, “I don’t think we were…”

Ouyang clicked his tongue and chuckled, amused. “These idiots, hehe. There are so many girls at this school. They could’ve picked any of them. Worst case, they would’ve been let down easy. But they just had to pick Tang Tang. Haha! Do you guys remember that guy from Tonji? How she just destroyed him? Haha, that shit was hilarious.”

The guys turned to Tang Bingyao and watched her deal with a first year student. He was badgering her with questions, only some of them loosely connected to League of Legends. All he wanted was her attention, and she latched onto it. She frowned and asked, “Did you come here for some advice, or because you like me? Is that why you’re trying to flirt with me? What’s next? Are you going to ask me out on a date?”

“W-what? I-i…” The first year shut up completely. He stared at her, wide eyed. He liked her. A lot. But as much as he wanted to ask her out on a date, he wasn’t ready to be asked about it so bluntly. He was still working up the courage to pop the question! It was too much for him. The plan that he’d worked out in his mind collapsed. He didn’t know what to do anymore. More guys were pushing around him, trying to get Tang Bingyao’s attention. He let them push into him, force him back, as his face went red. Then he turned around and bolted away out of the classroom.

Liu Yue shook his head and said, “Tsk tsk. He ran faster than that Tonji guy. That must be a new record. He’s got a long way to go before he’s ready to flirt with Tang Tang.”

After the first ran away, the less brazen also slowly backed off. They turned to the other players of the main team, or started chatting amongst themselves. Anything was better than having to answer that question from the girl of their dreams! However, several guys remained. They smiled their most handsome smile and flexed their muscles. They did their hair and winked at her. The first worked up the courage and stepped up to Tang Bingyao. He didn’t spin around it, but straight up asked her, “Hey, I think you’re really pretty. Would you like to go out for dinner with me Thursday?”

“No. I don’t like you.” Tang Bingyao didn’t even need to think about it. The words came from her mouth the moment the guy finished asking her out. She’d barely looked at him. But she’d seen enough to know he wasn’t the kind of guy she liked. But that didn’t dissuade the others. Another one came up to her and professed his love. She looked at him, annoyed, and said, “No. I don’t like you either.” Then came a third. Another group of guys were standing around her. There seemed to be no end to it. None of them got the hint. She shook her head and looked around at the guys. “Alright. Let’s do it this way. I’ll consider going on a date with any of you, if, and only if, you can beat me in a 1v1.”

Tang Bingyao, the number one ad-carry of the esports club, would take on any challenger in a 1v1! Better yet, she’d go out on a date with anyone who could beat her! At least, that was how the first years understood it. The blood rushed to their heads as they pushed over each other again, trying to be the first to challenge her. She was the fair maiden in search of a man worthy of her! And they would prove their worth in battle! Because they were the heroes of their own stories! They would dominate her and show them why they were her perfect partner! Dreams of beating her played in their minds. Taking her out for dinner. Falling in love. Having babies together, and maybe even getting married! They planned out an entire life together before the 1v1 even started. And then it was over. There wasn’t a single match that lasted more than a few minutes. Tang Bingyao won all of them. She beat all 19 challengers.

Tang Bingyao looked around the room. The 1v1 Love Confessions, as Ouyang had started to call them, had come to an end. There were no more challengers. Those who’d played against her were now huddled around different computers, waiting for their turn to play, to practice. Because maybe, just maybe, if they kept practicing long enough, they could get good enough to beat her. They’d do anything for a date with their fair maiden! But that wasn’t of any help to Tang Bingyao. She was using these matches as practice, and now there was no one left to practice with. She asked, a little helplessly, “Is there anyone else? No one?”

Ren Rou had joined the guys in watching Tang Bingyao fighting off all challengers, and then seeing them actually get to practice their skills. They weren’t thirsty teenagers anymore. Well, they were. But they were also League of Legends players trying to get better at the game! She laughed and said, “Isn’t this great? Everyone is working so hard!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. He looked over at Ren Rou and said, “It’s great that they’re practicing and all. But, there is a small problem. At this rate, half the club is going to become ad-carry mains. Maybe we should have Tang Bingyao play Jungle for a while.”

✹

The next two days came and went. The Round of 16 of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament came to an end. The eight teams for the quarterfinals were announced. Amongst them were, as was to be expected, the big three. The three strongest teams in Shanghai. Tonji Affiliated High, Shanghai High School, and Shanghai International! Fortunately, High School 13 wouldn’t play against any of them in the next round. Their opponents were still strong—West High, a team that made it all the way to the quarterfinals last year. Their team this year looked stronger than last year, but they were clearly a step below the real powerhouses. In other words, for the first time ever, High School 13 had some luck in the draw.

The players from High School 13’s esports team practiced hard in preparation for the next round all throughout the week and weekend. Even that Monday, they spent most of their day practicing for the series on Wednesday. But on Tuesday, their minds were somewhere else entirely. That was because this was the day that the first semifinals match of Worlds was! A clash of titans! Europe versus North America! Legend versus Season! Two Emperor teams were going to fight it out for a place in the Finals of the Season 5 League of Legends World Championships!

Thornmail. A defensive item in League of Legends that had high armour and reflected a portion of the physical damage dealt to the Champion. It was the single, most important item of this game. Riven. Basically no damage, but still physical! Yasuo. A little bit more damage and also physical! Vayne. Slightly fed. A lot of damage. Most of it, again, physical. Every single Champion on the Red team was high on physical damage. It was a tactic that could do wonders in the early game but would also blow up in a team’s face if it reached the late game. In this game, Nasus was similar to a normal late game Champion by minute 15. It got to the point where he could 1vs5 the Red team.

There was no crowd control in the world that could stop Lin Feng’s Nasus anymore. He whacked a minion to the next life, and then another, constantly building up the stacks of his Siphoning Strike. There was no maximum to the amount of stacks he could get. So he whacked and he whacked, monsters and minions alike from 100 to 0. There was no skill involved anymore. All he did was run around, sometimes with Ghost, and whack anything he could whack with his cane. And when a player from the Red team was stupid enough to get in his way, he would just have to whack twice.

If the Red team wanted to turn this game around and win, they would have to look beyond just the game. There were no fair ways to turn this around. The only way to stop this Nasus was by getting him to disconnect. An attack on his internet connection, or maybe attacking the entire Korean client. Whatever worked to have this game end. Because if they played it to the end, the Blue team would win. It was that simple.

Zeal knew this, as did Ron. The two players from Hydralisk sat behind their computers next to each other, playing. Searching, frantic, for a way to win this game. At 24 minutes, Zeal was trying to get some farm in his Jungle. A costly mistake. He ran straight into the Elise. She was busy killing a monster camp. He wasn’t going to stick around to try and compete. So he pressed on the F key–Flash! His Vayne flashed away towards Red team’s base.

However, before Zeal could get back to base, a ward lit up with a pillar of light. Teleport. It could only be one Champion. Nasus. There was nowhere Zeal could go. Behind him was the Elise and in front of him the Nasus. The Nasus that cast Wither on his Vayne. The Nasus that threw down a ring of Spirit Fire and lowered his Vayne’s armour and magic resistance. The Nasus who raised his cane and then slammed down on his Vayne. He turned around. Maybe I can take the Elise down with me… It was a fool’s errand. The Elise had Rappel. She could jump up high in the sky and stay there for a couple of seconds. Seconds the Nasus could use to kill the Vayne. But it never got that far. Before Zeal could get to the Elise, Nasus’ cane came down on him again.

《You have been slain!》

“FUCK!” Zeal raged, slamming his fist down on the desk. His screen was grey. Again. “This fucking shit Riven! If she hadn’t fed this stupid Nasus, I would’ve… God fucking shit!” He gritted his teeth and slammed on the ENTER key. Then he started typing, and backspacing, and typing again.

“Stop, Zeal. We can’t win this,” Ron said, sighing. He shook his head and added, “Let’s just move on to the next game.”

“You want to surrender?” Zeal asked, surprised. He forgot about his anger at the Riven for a second and turned to his teammate. His friend. “You want to surrender in a Platinum game? A Platinum game!”

✹

Lin Feng had his Nasus run towards Baron. He’d just killed Vayne, the only player on the Red team who was a little strong after picking up some kills in the early game. Then he turned to Su Xue and said, “See? Easy! We can Baron now! Then we can just storm down mid and end the game! Man, I’m playing so good!”

Su Xue didn’t really listen to Lin Feng. Her eyes were on the screen. The Vayne was spending an awful lot of time on the fountain. Su Xue loved seeing this, especially after his big words at the start of the game. She was beaming as she said, “Haha! Sweet! Serves that Vayne right for talking so much smack at the start of the game! Hey, Lin Feng, Lin Feng…” she tugged at his arm, “… go type something back in chat!”

“Sure!” Lin Feng replied. He hit the ENTER key and was about to type something in all chat, but paused. He hesitated, then scratched his head. “Uhm. What do I say?”

A silence fell over the room. They both wanted to say something witty, something funny, something so brilliantly stupid that it would make the Vayne erupt. But they couldn’t think of anything. Nothing came to mind. And then, in chat, a message appeared from the system. Four players on the Red team had agreed to a surrender vote. That was enough to surrender, but the fifth still had to make their choice. Su Xue’s eyes went wide. She pulled on Lin Feng’s arm and urged, “Hurry! Write something before the surrender goes through!”

“Uhh, ok.” Lin Feng shook his head trying to think, then wrote the first thing that popped up in his mind:

CN•Maple (Nasus):「no zhuangbi?」

“There!” Lin Feng said, laughing. He turned to Su Xue and added, “Perfect, right?”

Su Xue was speechless. She looked at Lin Feng and then back at the game, which moved to the victory screen. The chat disappeared. She sighed, helpless. “What the hell? Why would you type in pinyin? He’s Korean. He doesn’t speak a word Chinese… How is he going to figure out your ‘no show off’? This is so stupid.”

But while Zeal and Ron couldn’t understand what Lin Feng wrote, there were two others who could. Cup Noodles clutched his stomach, laughing, and tried to catch his breath. Then. “Hahaha!” He pulled himself. “Hahaha!” Together. “Hahaha! That guy! Oh my god. Hahaha! This is some next level trolling! Talkin smack in pinyin! Haha! Does he think they’ll understand just because it’s in English letters? Hahaha!”

Old Huang coughed, violently. He’d just taken a puff from his cigarette. Right at the moment the message appeared in all chat. He couldn’t stop the laughter, his face turning red from the coughing. He grabbed his water, but spurted it all out again. “Haha!” Another coughing fit. More time trying to pull himself together. Then he did. And chuckled. “Haha, it’s fine. What matters is that we won. I bet that Zeal is pretty fucking mad right now. That’ll teach him for talking shit! Haha!” He took a deep breath, finally. The smoke was gone from his lungs. He then looked at the post game lobby. More specifically, at the score of the Nasus. He shook his head and said, “Damn, a pentakill. That Nasus actually got a pentakill. He was so good. Dude, why can’t you be like him? I could actually use the footage if you were the one who’d gotten the penta. But now it’s pretty useless. I can’t really use this game at all. Sadly.”

✹

“Yes! We can use this game!” Su Xue announced, overjoyed. She went through the recording. This game had it all! There was the rivalry between China and Korea, emphasized by the Vayne shittalking at the start of the game. Su Xue was making this video for a Chinese audience, so Lin Feng winning the game and shutting the Vayne up only made it a bigger selling point. The Platinum rank was acceptable too. But perhaps even more important, the icing on the cake, was the pentakill. A Nasus pentakill! Just being able to put the word ‘pentakill’ in the name of the video would draw in a ton of people!

Su Xue now had the gameplay for her video, but that was only part of the work. Next up, she needed to make the commentary. It was the second half of the video, making a whole together with the gameplay. If one was lacking, the other aspect would also look worse. The gameplay and commentary needed to flow together to build a coherent whole. To create something truly extraordinary. Su Xue wanted to do this. She wanted to make the best video she possibly could! But she hadn’t done any commentary before, except for the Worlds games on her stream. She looked at Lin Feng, thinking, then said, “I’ll have to do some more research on commentary. See how others do it with this kind of video. I have to do this perfectly. I don’t want to waste your gameplay. It took so much work just to get it.”

“It’s fine!” Lin Feng laughed, waving Su Xue’s worries away. “I’ll just play another game like this. It’s easy. I can do it. Don’t worry. I know what you want now, so it’s really no problem at all!”

“Ha. Since when do you have so much free time?” Su Xue snorted. She then smiled and said, “You’ve got school and the quarterfinals for your little tournament is soon. You have to prepare for that too. Don’t put too much on your plate. This is a great video. I just have to make sure that I don’t screw it up.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s fine. The Round of 16 isn’t even over yet,” Lin Feng said. He wasn’t at all worried about a lack of time. For League of Legends, he would make time! “There’s another two days before the quarterfinals matchups get announced. That’ll be really fun! I hope our next opponents are a little better! Then I can show off a bit of my skills! After the quarters, we got two more series to win, and then that trophy! Haha! That trophy will be ours!”

“Hmph. You sound excited. Way too excited for some kiddy high school tournament. Not like it’s Worlds or something actually cool…” Su Xue said, a little too eager to throw cold water over Lin Feng’s enthusiasm. It came across as disingenuous. She did care. A lot. But as he mentioned Worlds, her mind drifted to KG versus SSK. She sighed and said, “I hope KG beats SSK. It would be so cool to see them go to the Finals and then win it all. Can you imagine. Ah, I can already see God Roundy lifting the trophy…”

✹

Reaching the quarterfinals of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament was a massive step forward for High School 13. A year ago, they went out in the first round of the qualifiers, and now they were in the main tournament, battling for the trophy! However, there were only eight members of the club involved. As for the others, the casual members who liked to come and play with other people from the school after classes, most of them had no clue how the team was doing. So Ren Rou had gathered them all to announce the good news.

The good news was that High School 13 could now say that they had one of the best esports teams in all of Shanghai! The members who until now only came by irregularly and were just looking for someone to play with, suddenly started paying attention to the club. To the main team. They wanted guidance and to play with the team members who could now call themselves some of the best players amongst all the high schoolers in Shanghai!

High School 13 was one of the best schools for esports in Shanghai! They stood on equal footing with the likes of Tonji Affiliated High, Shanghai International, and even Shanghai High! From nobodies to heroes! The members of High School 13’s esports team could finally raise their heads in public. When talking with their friends from other schools, they’d brag about which club they were in. How good their team was! These were the bragging rights their esports club had secured!

However, though Ren Rou managed to build up excitement. Though she got everyone riled up for the esports team, the reality of the situation wasn’t as glamorous. High School 13 wasn’t on the level of the top schools in Shanghai. Their win over Tonji Affiliated High could even be called a fluke. A mistake mostly on the part of their opponents. Not to mention how hard Lin Feng was carrying them. He didn’t just outright win games for them, but he also spent a lot of time teaching the team how to play the game, how to build up synergy, and so on and on and on. Without him, they’d be eliminated in the first round again this year, just like last year.

Then there was something else. A piece of news no one particularly liked hearing. The officials for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament had announced when the quarterfinals would be held. High School 13 knew the date and time. And that date and time fell together with another big event. An event that was far more exciting than some high school League tournament.

Ouyang shook his head and whined, loud enough for the entire room full of esports club members to hear, “Ahh, why! Why do we have to play next Wednesday? Shit! This is ridiculous! Why do these stupid organizers make us play on the same day KG play against SSK? Dammit!”

“You do you, buddy!” Lin Feng laughed, ignoring the Jarvan IV who was attacking him. His entire focus was on Red team’s top inhibitor tower. “I’ll do me. We can both have fun! See? Isn’t this great? We can all get along!”

However, the Red team wasn’t laughing. This was no joking matter. The Nasus was destroying their base! And while the Nasus was doing that, they were stuck on the middle of the map, because four annoying pests were stopping them from recalling. There was nothing they could do to get the recall through. Except by walking half way back to base. By walking so far back that it almost felt like walking back the entire way was the faster approach. But they still tried channeling their recall every few seconds, and finally the Thresh succeeded. He teleported back to his fountain and then rushed towards the top inhibitor tower. He rushed to stop the Nasus from taking the last line of defense of their base!

“Awww, looks like they’re coming back to base already,” Lin Feng complained as the Thresh appeared on his screen. The other players from the Red team had disappeared from his minimap. They were probably all successfully recalling or already arriving back in the fountain. “Ah, too bad. And I almost had it too… Such a waste.” He then pressed on his Q key–Siphoning Strike. His Nasus whacked the tower into disrepair. The stone structure collapsed and the energy kept within dissipated in the air.

“Almost had what? Didn’t you destroy the tower anyway?” Su Xue blurted out, sitting next to Lin Feng, incredulous. What is wrong with him…

“Oh! I was referring to the Jarvan. The tower was already down anyway. But, oh well, looks like I can’t kill him now,” Lin Feng explained, complained.

Su Xue rolled her eyes. She was speechless. Two towers, an inhibitor tower included, wasn’t enough. Apparently. Not for Lin Feng, anyways. He wanted more. He wasn’t satisfied until he had everything. She shook her head and said, “Hey… Aren’t you being a little greedy here?”

Lin Feng wasn’t being greedy. Not even a little. Nasus was the raid boss. He had both health and damage. Taking on a tower and a Champion or two was fine, especially after getting fed. But even a fed Nasus had its limits. That limit was Vayne in combination with Jarvan IV and Thresh. The true damage from Vayne’s silver bolts could deal serious damage to him, while the crowd control from Jarvan IV and Thresh could make sure that he’d never get anywhere near the Vayne. If he ended up giving away a kill to the Vayne, his massive bounty would go to the Vayne too. That was unacceptable. But being mindful of the situation didn’t equate to panicking. Lin Feng played to the full potential of his Champion and not a step beyond that. So he backed away from the Red inhibitor and declared, “I’ll be back!”

✹

Cup Noodles and Old Huang were truly enjoying this game. After Nasus had destroyed the tower defending Red team’s top inhibitor, the Red team had to play a lot more defensively. They couldn’t let the Nasus just push into their base. That would be game. Even the Vayne, who’d welcomed everyone into the game with his big mouth, was forced into submission. He couldn’t make any more aggressive plays. All he could do was defend. He had to try and help his team get to a point where they could challenge the Nasus again. And then, hopefully, if everything worked out just right, they could fight for a win again.

Old Huang didn’t see this happen in a million years. He puffed out some smoke and laughed, “Haha! Raid boss Nasus! He’s my hero! Nobody can beat him! Haha!” He looked at the game and how multiple players from the Red team were forced to continue dealing with the Nasus. “There is no winning for them. They either stop the Nasus and let you guys take the rest of their towers, or they stop you guys and let the Nasus destroy their nexus. They basically have to give up everything to defend their base.”

Cup Noodles chuckled and said, “Yep! Let’s see that Vayne try to talk more smack. Haha! It doesn’t matter how much she scales, it’s hopeless. The Nasus is too strong already. She can’t stop him.”

This was something Zeal also knew. He sat behind his computer, in Hydralisk’s training room in Seoul, South Korea. He had to do something. He was a professional player. So too was Ron, his Support. There was no way the two of them could lose a simple game in Platinum. I refuse to believe… He wanted to think of something, a brilliant plan to turn this situation around. Something. Anything to deal with this Nasus. But he was coming up with a blank. He couldn’t think of anything that could help his team get back into the game. Maybe if we turtle… Can we get back enough? Maybe in the late, late game? Hope the Nasus—

《An ally has been slain!》

Zeal felt his heart drop. He’d been farming minions in mid lane, trying to come up with a plan. A brief moment where he’d forgotten to keep an eye on the rest of his team. On the Riven. The Riven who’d decided to split from the rest of the team and go top to stop the Nasus. This useless piece of. Please. Uninstall. You’d do all of us a favour. He panned his camera to the top lane. There, the Riven’s body lay on the ground, far away from any tower. She’d gotten it into her thick skull that that was a good idea. SOMEHOW! Wait… The Teleport animation lit up around the Nasus.

Zeal felt a shiver run up his body, and then back down. The Nasus could only be teleporting for a singular reason. Danger. Danger. His hands started shaking as he had his Vayne retreat. Then he started spamming the yellow retreat ping.

However, just like a few minutes earlier, the Blue team wasn’t going to let the Red team back. Even more, Nasus’ teleport was their cue to initiate a teamfight. The Nami did this with her ultimate skill. She summoned a Tidal Wave that crashed through mid lane, straight into the players from the Red team who were trying to retreat. The water slammed into them, knocking them up and leaving them powerless. Then, coming from the other side, came Nasus running. A Nasus sped up by Ghost and empowered by his own ultimatell–Fury of the Sands!

“W-what? He still has his ult?” Zeal blurted out. He stared at his screen for a moment, stunned. Then he erupted, again. “THIS FUCKING RIVEN! HOW FUCKING BAD IS SHE! HOLY SHIT!” He took a breath, just so he could continue his shouting contest. “MY FUCKING GOD! DID SHE BUY A ELO BOOST? FUCK!”

✹

Lin Feng could’ve taken the inhibitor after killing the Riven. That was the easy path to victory. But Lin Feng wasn’t playing this game to win it. He was playing it to get content for Su Xue’s videos. To that end, split-pushing alone wasn’t going to cut it. He needed to make the plays. He had to do something truly spectacular. An opportunity for that presented itself. Lin Feng grinned. He could already see it play out in his mind. He looked at Su Xue sitting next to him and said, “It’s time to… get a pentakill! Hahaha! Let’s go!”

Lin Feng had his Nasus barrel straight for the players from the Red team. They were running straight at him. And behind them, there was a massive tidal wave chasing them down, knocking them up. He pressed the F key, and then the R. Ghost activated, granting his Nasus increased movement speed. Then a sandstorm started raging around him as his Nasus doubled in size.

The Vayne ran straight into the Nasus. Lin Feng pressed on the Q key–Siphoning Strike! His Nasus’ staff lit up with purple fire. He raised it up above his head and then slammed down on the Vayne. One hit. More than half the Vayne’s health. That was the new power of his Siphoning Strike. It was absolutely terrifying. The damage was beyond ridiculous.

Zeal reacted in an instant. He was still a professional player at the end of the day. He pressed the R key, and then the Q. Darkness shrouded his Vayne as she Tumbled into stealth. Tumbled away from the Nasus. And then she was revealed. A pink ward was placed on the ground, revealing everything and everyone hidden away in stealth. A withering aura wrapped around her, pulling at her skin and her body, sapping out the life. She withered, aging half a century in a mere second. Her movement speed fell, as did her attack speed.

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! NO! Zeal refused to believe it. He tried to find an angle, for a wall to Condemn the Nasus into. Only a stun could save him now. But the Nasus never let his back face a wall. So Zeal pressed the E key anyway. His Vayne pulled the large crossbow from her back and squeezed the trigger. Condemn! A large, silver bolt flew out and pierced the Nasus, knocking him back. But not stunning him. And the Vayne was still slowed. He was back on her almost instantaneously.

Lin Feng ignored the Condemn. He ignored the other players from the Red team trying to stop him. His only target was the Vayne. The girl with the big mouth. Ghost was still giving him increased movement speed. He charged after her and exclaimed, “Haha! Keep talking smack! More smack please! I want to hear more smacktalk!” Then he pressed on the Q key again.

The Vayne had used Heal. It gave her just enough health to survive this second Siphoning Strike. Another few seconds to try and get away. She Tumbled again, its cooldown almost as short as Siphoning Strike. Two short cooldowns. One was barely able to open up a distance, while the other could whack the Vayne right back to the fountain. And whacking her it did. The Vayne ran for a few more seconds before the staff came down on her and knocked her out.

《Double kill!》

“Nice! Haha! It counts as a killstreak! That’s perfect!” Lin Feng exclaimed, smiling. The time between killing the Riven and the Vayne was short enough that the game considered it a spree! This meant that Lin Feng’s goal was still possible. “The pentakill is still on! Haha!”

Lin Feng turned to the Yasuo. He was Red team’s Midlaner. The Tristana had already done some work on him, making him use his skills and bringing him down to below half health. There really was no challenge to it. Nothing special. The Xerath, Blue team’s Midlaner, landed a stun on the Yasuo. It meant the Yasuo couldn’t jump between minions anymore. He couldn’t run away as the Nasus came at him. He could do nothing but watch as the Nasus raised his staff and then smashed it down, whacking him back to the fountain.

《Triple kill!》

Three down, two to go. Lin Feng looked at the last two standing members from the Red team. Thresh and Jarvan IV. Two defensive Champions. However, right now, even if they could combine their defensive stats, they still wouldn’t be as tanky as the Nasus. And they definitely lacked the damage of the Nasus. Lin Feng smiled, wickedly so, and clicked on the Thresh. His lips moved, as if on their own, and he spoke the same sentence Nasus did, “The cycle of life and death continues. We will live, they will die.”

Lin Feng pressed on the Q key–Siphoning Strike! His Nasus’ staff lit up with a purple light. Lin Feng clicked on the Thresh. Not with his right mouse button, but the left. His Nasus walked forward until he was standing right on top of the Thresh. He wasn’t going to let this pentakill slip from his fingers. He looked at the Thresh’s health, then at the precise damage his Siphoning Strike would deal. He waited as the Tristana and Xerath attacked the Thresh, draining his health bar. Now! He clicked his right mouse button. His Nasus’ staff came down on the Thresh and whacked him back to the fountain.

《Quadra kill!》

The announcer’s voice rang out, climbing in excitement with each successive kill. It was almost as if she could feel what was happening. Was anticipating what was to come. Only the Jarvan IV was still alive. He was running. Or trying to, anyways. The Nami had her Aqua Prison. Xerath had a slow and a stun. And Elise had a cocoon she could lock him up in. They used these skills and not their damage abilities. This was Nasus’ moment. This was all him! He came at the Jarvan IV, who was already at low health. His staff lit up with a purple fire. He raised it up high above his head and slammed it back down. Down on the Jarvan IV.

《Pentakill!》

Old Huang jumped up from his chair. He balled his fist and screamed into the microphone, “Yeah! Nice! You got this! Jump and kill! Jump and kill!”

Cup Noodles laughed. Vayne was dead! His Tristana got the reset on her Rocket Jump! And there were still three opponents waiting to be killed! “Ha!” he shouted. “It’s about damn time! Let’s clean this fight up! Haha!”

Nami took a silver bolt to the knee and Vayne got done in by the cane. Two dead. Five alive. The 3v4 became a 2v3. It still looked like a difficult situation for Blue team. Tristana and Nasus had to kill Thresh, Jarvan IV, and half a Riven. Half a Riven because she was so far behind that she really couldn’t count for a whole Champion. But Lin Feng didn’t mind the challenge. He welcomed it! His Nasus was 5/1/0 and it could be 8/1/0 by the end of this teamfight! That was all he needed to know. So he clicked towards his next victim, shouting at his screen, “Haha! 2vs3! Easy! Let’s get these kills! Haha!”

The Jarvan IV turned around, around to his side of the map. Because that was where the Tristana was, closer to his own outer tower than he was. He closed the distance towards her with a flag toss combo, then jumped up high into the sky. His vision locked onto the Tristana. He screamed at the top of his lungs. And then he leaped down from the sky, crashing into the Tristana and then the ground. The residual force was so powerful that the earth terraformed into an arena–Cataclysm!

There was only one logical direction for the Tristana to escape in. Red team’s outer tower. Away from the Jarvan IV that was in the arena with her. Away from the Riven that was charging at her with her reforged sword. Away from the Thresh that could lock her down completely with his crowd control. Her Rocket Jump was off cooldown after killing the Vayne. So she aimed her cannon towards the ground and fire, launching herself up in the air and over the arena walls, away to safety.

Lin Feng placed himself between the Tristana and three Champions from the Red team. His Nasus was the tank. A tank with high health and high damage. He pinged the Riven, the half a Champion, and shouted at his screen, “Go for her! Attack the Riven!”

There was no voice chat. There was no way for Cup Noodles to hear Lin Feng’s instructions. But he didn’t need to hear them. He was a Master player and knew exactly what was expected of him. He pressed down on the Q key–Rapid Fire! His Tristana’s attack speed increased. She turned around and focused all her firepower on the Riven.

The Riven and Jarvan IV went to town on Lin Feng’s Nasus, throwing all their abilities at him. But they barely scratched him. The sandstorm raging around him dealt more damage to them than they did to him. Then his staff lit up with a purple fire. He raised it up high and then slammed it down on the Riven–Siphoning Strike! Her health disappeared.

The Tristana and Nasus’ damage together brought the Riven to below half health. And lower. She turned around and ran. She dashed towards Blue team’s outer tower, past the Thresh. The Thresh who activated the Box. This was his ultimate skill. He called forth five spectral walls around him, which slowed any enemy Champion that walked through it. The Nasus was next to the Thresh, caught in this prison. But he didn’t give up on his chase. He charged through the spectral wall, accepting the slow. Then he raised his staff and cast Wither on the Riven. Her body withered. She aged 50 years in the span of a single second. It became hard to walk.

Slow versus slow. But the slow on Nasus wore off first. Lin Feng had his Nasus chase down the Riven. Then he pressed on the Q key–Siphoning Strike. The Riven had a little more than a third of her health remaining. The Nasus raised his staff high. It lit up with a purple fire. Then he slammed it down and whacked the Riven back to the fountain.

《Double kill!》

The Tristana got another reset of her Rocket Jump skill for the assist on the Riven. Cup Noodles used it to jump onto the Thresh and continued firing away. The Thresh was doing okay in lane. He’d gotten enough gold to get some health items. So he was a little harder to kill. Hard enough that it gave the Jarvan IV all the time he needed to escape up the river and into his own jungle. Lin Feng had his Nasus attack the Thresh too, helping the Tristana, who ended up getting the kill.

《You have slain an enemy!》

“Nice! That’s what I’m talking about! Yes!” Cup Noodles laughed. He hit the TAB key, looking at the stats of his Tristana. Her creep score was lacking. But he wasn’t 0/1/0 anymore. One kill and two assists! He was on the board now! He could use this to get back into the game and overtake that Vayne!

✹

“I played that fucking perfectly! Flawless!” Zeal raged on. He couldn’t accept the Nasus. The jackal-headed monster that came from top lane to rain terror on the bot lane. Zeal had done everything so beautifully. From the engage to the Flash into Condemn combination to stun the Nami to a wall. “And that stupid shit Riven gave away another kill. Of course! Of fucking course! How could I expect anything different? She’s absolutely useless! Oh my god, why does this always have to happen to me?”

Zeal was 3/1/0 on his Vayne. This was normally great for an early game Vayne. He got the gold and the kills. He was set to become a monster. If only there wasn’t another monster on the Rift. Something far more terrifying. A Nasus was a difficult opponent for Vayne from the start due to Wither. But this became all the more difficult when this Nasus was already 6/1/0. Those six kills included the one on his Vayne. A shutdown kill. A kill that netted the Nasus extra gold. Gold he could spend to get even further ahead.

“Why? WHY? Why does it always have to be me?” Zeal whined. “WHY!” Now, this game was almost impossible to win. The Nasus was too strong. His team was useless. The Riven was practically worse than a cannon minion at this point. All he wanted was to have some fun. This wasn’t fun. “God fucking dammit! This stupid shit! Argh! I hate this piece of shit Riven!” The only way he could still win a fight against this Nasus was if the Nasus screwed up, his Thresh Support perfectly linked his crowd control skills to keep the Nasus away from his Vayne, and he bought items that could cancel crowd control skills, like the Quicksilver Sash. And even when all of those conditions were met, there were still four other players on the Blue team he had to think of. “Fucking shit teammates…”

✹

“Oh, nice! We got the shutdown! Bot should be a win too now!” Lin Feng laughed. He then pinged on the Dragon, already having his Nasus walk towards it. “Let’s grab the Dragon while we’re here!” he said to absolutely no one. But the Tristana seemed to understand him, a case of being on the same wavelength. And the Elise also finally found her way towards the bot lane, after the fight ended. But that did mean she was there to help take the Dragon.

Lin Feng made a quick trip to the fountain to spend the gold from the kills in bot lane and the dragon before returning back to top lane. The items he bought were the ones Su Xue instructed him to buy, the ones from the guide. He had no clue how to build Nasus. Nor how to play him, really. But the guide told him the best thing to do was to keep pushing top lane and force the Red team to send Champions to stop him. At this point, they’d need to send more than two players to stop him. Because otherwise he would just kill them and continue pushing. Every next minion wave, his Siphoning Strike would deal more damage. Every next Champion that came his way would take more damage. It was a real headache for the Red team.

And for Lin Feng, for Lin Feng it was a fun game. He could do whatever he wanted, he was that far ahead. “Haha! Let them come! It’s just more gold for me! This is so much fun!” he laughed. His Nasus was no Master Yi who could push a lane fast and then had to run away. His Nasus was a raid boss in its truest form. He could push and keep pushing even when opponents came to stop him. They couldn’t stop him.

Zeal knew this too. The Nasus was too strong. The timeframe the Red team had to win this game was quickly disappearing. There was no point in sending people after the Nasus. They’d lose too much elsewhere on the map if they did that. So he came to the only logical answer. “Let’s teamfight! We’ll force them into a teamfight by pushing down mid! We can win a 4v4. We just have to keep the Nasus away. The Riven is already worthless, so we might as well have her do that. That should work.”

The plan was sound. However, there was one important aspect to the plan. The Riven had to be able to hold top lane, something she’d failed to do all game. A small detail Zeal forgot all about. At his normal rank, it shouldn’t be too hard. But this Riven was a Platinum player. The Nasus was Lin Feng, the previous contender for best player in the world. So it really wasn’t unexpected when, before the Red team could force a teamfight, the announcer’s voice rang out across Summoner’s Rift.

《An ally has been slain!》

“My god. How bad is this bitch?” Zeal paused for a moment, thinking. Then he hit down on the ENTER key and started typing a message in all chat. A message he’d been keeping back all game but couldn’t anymore.

Zeal (Vayne):「쓰레기 놈, 게임 지워! TRASH RIVEN!」

Zeal stopped pressuring for a teamfight. He had his Vayne retreat. They needed to do something about top lane. If they didn’t, the Nasus would just keep pushing and eventually destroy their nexus. And the Nasus was going to be pushing a lot faster on his own without opposition than the four of them could against the rest of the Blue team. It was just that…

“Haha! You think I’m going to let you back? Dream on!” Cup Noodles said, smirking. He ran after the Vayne and kept auto attacking. He wasn’t going for the kill. That wasn’t possible right now. No, he was just interrupting the Vayne, keeping her from recalling back to base. Like this, the Nasus could keep pushing. Cup Noodles fired off another cannonball at the Vayne and said, “Come! Stay! Slow dance with me now! I just want to slow dance to the beat of Nasus destroying your base! Hahaha! Slow dance if you feelin’ me now!”

The Tristana showed the other players from the Blue team what to do. They followed his example and did everything they could to stop the Red team from recalling back to base. Lin Feng noticed this too. He panned his camera to mid lane and watched recall animations being cancelled every few seconds. “Haha! Nice! The rest of the team is working hard too! Haha!”

The Jarvan IV was the first to get his recall through. It took a hot minute, but he made it all the way back to his base. Which was crumbling under the assault it was being subjected to. Jarvan IV decided it was time to mount a defense, and he noticed that the Nasus had already destroyed the inner tower and was working on bringing down the inhibitor tower. He rushed in, expecting an epic clash between spear and staff. But contrary to all his expectations, the Nasus didn’t react to his arrival at all. The Nasus didn’t step back, didn’t reposition, didn’t even slow him or start attacking him. So Jarvan IV decided to go in for the engage, throwing his standard at the Nasus for a flag toss combo. He was going to knock the Nasus up and force a retreat!  But the Nasus cleanly stepped around the flag toss and continued to calmly and nonchalantly attack the inhibitor tower. Jarvan IV couldn’t understand what was happening, but he continued to struggle to stop the Nasus. Tried to get the Nasus’ attention. But all his skills and auto attacks together couldn’t scratch Nasus any more than the minions could. And so, the Nasus continued to ignore him in favor of the tower. Ignored him, like a small fruit fly. 

W-why is it always like this? P-please. Notice me, Senpai!

Zeal sat in his chair, stewing, staring at his computer screen. “How stupid is she? Stupid Riven…” He shook his head and rubbed his temples. “My god. All she had to do was play defensively. Let me scale and I’ll take care of the Nasus. I’m a Vayne for fucks sake! But no. She just had to feed and int and be a stupid fucking bitch! How the fuck am I supposed to carry this if the Nasus hits his late game build 10 minutes into the game? Fuck.”

“Yeah. Fuck,” Ron cursed. sitting next to Zeal. He moved his camera between the three screens and added, “We can’t let this drag any longer. This needs to end now or we’re losing.”

Zeal breathed in, long and deep, and then breathed out through his nose. The tension escaped his shoulders. He cracked his neck and fingers, then focused on the game again. “Yo, Ron.” He waited a moment for the response, then said, “We stick to the plan. First bot, then mid. We just have to be a bit faster. It’s time to start pushing really hard.”

✹

Cup Noodles was having an equally bad time as his lane opponent Zeal. The reason was even somewhat similar. They were both losing. Just that Zeal was angry that his team was losing the game, whereas Cup Noodles was upset with himself for losing the lane. He was smurfing! A Master in Platinum. But this Vayne was kicking his ass. It didn’t help that his Support wasn’t doing anything supportive. At times, it even felt like she was purposely making the lane a lot more difficult. A 1vs3!

“Stupid smurfs,” Cup Noodles grumbled. “I swear, the Vayne and Thresh are both Master or higher. Probably higher. I don’t believe for a second they aren’t. They’re too good together. This is something you don’t even see in Master on the Ionia. Yeah. They must be Challenger. It’s the only explanation. What are they doing in Platinum?”

“I don’t know. But it’s not looking good,” Old Huang replied, anxious. “You’re going to lose your lane at this rate. Your tower is almost gone, and then what? You can’t let this Vayne get any more ahead. It doesn’t matter how good this Maple is. A fed Vayne is at least as big of a headache as a fed Nasus is. Vayne is the tank killer for a reason! If the Nasus plays a fight poorly, that Vayne can win it. All on his own.”

“I know. I know!” Cup Noodles exclaimed. He gritted his teeth. I’m trying! I am! But this Vayne is just really good. And this Nami is as useless as they come. She’s like… like a Magikarp. Just flopping on dry land like the stupid fish she is! “Uh?” He was pulled out of his thoughts by a ping on his minimap. The Jarvan IV was coming! Red team’s Jungler was coming to gank him! Cup Noodles had his Tristana retreat back under the outer tower, while also pinging his Nami. “Back! J4 is ganking!” he shouted at his screen, though the Nami couldn’t hear him.

The Nami didn’t react. Not in time. Zeal grinned. “You’re mine!” He pressed on the R key–Final Hour! An aura of darkness shrouded the Vayne. She disappeared in stealth as she Tumbled forward. A silver bolt appeared out of nowhere and pierced the Nami. The Vayne stepped out of stealth then flashed forward, disappearing in a burst of light and reappearing behind the Nami. The Nami who now found herself with her back to a wall. The Vayne pulled the giant crossbow from her back and squeezed the trigger–Condemn! A massive silver bolt flew through the air and pierced the Nami, launching her backwards and pinning her to the wall. The Vayne followed up with another silver bolt. The third. The three silver rings around the Nami exploded and dealt bonus true damage!

The Nami was useless. She was more of a liability than a help. But Cup Noodles wasn’t just going to let her die. There was only one skill that could save her now. He pressed down on the R key–Buster Shot! His Tristana loaded a massive cannonball into her weapon and fired it at the Vayne. It knocked into the Vayne, the force blowing him away, far away from the Nami.

However, there were three players from the Red team in bot lane. The Thresh arrived at the Nami as the Vayne got launched backwards. He threw back his Lantern, allowing the Jarvan IV to dash to his side, and then threw his scythe at the Nami. It wrapped around her and he dragged her back. Her fate was sealed by the Death Sentence.

Cup Noodles watched his Nami losing her health. He wanted to help, but he had nothing he could do. Old Huang’s voice sounded out in the voice chat, telling him to back, to give up. This fight was lost! Cup Noodles also knew it was lost! After they killed the Nami, they could towerdive and kill him too! He had to back, back all the way to the fountain if he wanted to come out alive from this gank! Then. Just as he was about to give up, a blue minion stopped moving. A blue light enveloped it. This was the animation for Teleport! Only the Nasus had Teleport. The Nasus is coming!

Behind his computer, Lin Feng talked to his screen, sounding like he believed his teammates could hear him. Could listen to his advice and his calls. “Don’t panic, guys! I’m coming! Haha! Time for some fun!”

Moments after the blue minion stopped walking and the blue light wrapped around it, a red minion also stopped moving. A red light wrapped around it. The Riven was also teleporting down and joining the fight! This fight was going to be a 4vs3! And the Nami was already almost dead. This was basically a 4vs2!

Zeal had his Vayne auto attack the Nami. A few more hits and she’d be dead. Then he could focus on the Nasus and Tristana. He grinned and said to Ron, “Keep going! We got this! That Nasus can’t do shit against all four of us!”

Cup Noodles had his Tristana move back and forth, apprehensive. Old Huang yelled in his ear, “Run! Ditch the Nami! It’s lost! You can’t win this! Go back to base!” But he didn’t want to back. He wanted to fight this fight! He gritted his teeth. The Nasus was teleporting over. There still was a chance. He stopped moving his mouse back. “No. I’m fighting!” The apprehension disappeared from his voice. And from his game. He had his Tristana walk into the fight, her cannon loaded. “Nasus is coming! We can win! That Vayne has pushed me around enough. It’s time I do something back. This is the perfect opportunity. The Nasus just has to help me get a kill, and then I got my reset on Rocket Jump and can kill all of them. Plus, that Riven is far behind. This should be possible!”

The Nasus finished his teleport. He arrived in bot lane. Lin Feng, sitting behind his computer, let his eighth grader syndrome rear its head again. “Time to lay on the pain!” he shouted as his finger pressed down on the R key–Fury of the Sands! His Nasus swelled in size, a sandstorm kicking up around him. He followed up by raising his staff and casting a Spirit Fire underneath the Jarvan IV and Thresh. This lowered their armour, which allowed the Tristana to deal more damage to them. Then he turned to the Vayne. Lin Feng showed a wicked grin. “Hehe. You’re mine.”

The Vayne’s ultimate, Final Hour, was still active. Zeal had her Tumble forward, disappearing in stealth and getting far away from the Nasus that was hot on his heels. Then he shouted, “Ignore the Nasus! Hook the Tristana!”

A pink ward appeared on the ground. Right next to the Vayne. It revealed everything that was hidden. The invisibility cloak wrapped around the Vayne lost its power. Zeal’s eyes went wide. It felt like his heart stopped for a moment. Then he mumbled, barely audible, “H-he brought a pink ward?”

Lin Feng locked onto his target. The Vayne. “Haha! I knew this pink ward would come in handy! Gimme that juicy shut down gold! Haha!” He pressed down on the F key, activating Ghost. His Nasus gained increased movement speed. The Vayne was only a little further away. Almost within reach! Then the Nasus raised his free hand and cast Wither on the Vayne. The Vayne turned into an old lady. She lost her movement speed, and just squeezing the trigger from her crossbow became difficult. From there it was easy for the Nasus to catch up. He raised his staff far above his head and then slammed down, whacking a third of the Vayne’s health away–Siphoning Strike!

“FUCK! What is this damage!” Zeal exclaimed. He slammed down on his keyboard. “Heal! HEAL!” His Vayne’s health was restored and she gained a short burst of movement speed. But the Nasus’ Siphoning Strike had a short cooldown. He had to get out of the way fast. It was just that he was almost underneath Blue team’s outer tower. So he started running down the lane, all the way back to his side of the map.

The Vayne had to run past the Nasus. That got him another whack of the staff and an auto attack. His health dropped again. And he still wasn’t faster than the Nasus, who hit him with another auto attack. A few more seconds and Siphoning Strike would be off cooldown again. It would almost be enough to kill her. Then the Riven appeared. Her Teleport finally finished casting. Zeal had his Vayne move towards her and muttered, “Please be useful for once!”

She wasn’t. The Riven didn’t care about saving the Vayne. Saving the bounty on her head for the killing spree. All the Riven cared about was getting back into the game. And the way to do that was by picking up a kill. The Tristana was being ganked on by the Thresh and Jarvan IV. She was the easy target. This Nasus was also at full health. She couldn’t kill him. So she activated her ultimate skill, Blade of the Exile! Her reforged sword lit up with green energy and she flashed past the Vayne and Nasus, then dashed forward–Valor! Everything to close the distance with the Tristana! Only a few more steps. Almost in range! She pointed her sword up into the air and gave a loud shout, “Ha!” A green, runic energy exploded out around her, stunning all Champions it hit–Ki Burst!

The Riven was Platinum. Cup Noodles was a Master player. He wasn’t going to get caught by a silly tactic like this. He backed off a little, evading the stun and then Rocket Jumped over the Riven and after the Vayne. “Haha! Screw off!” he laughed, then took aim at the Vayne. He hit her with an auto attack, and then another. Cannonballs flew through the air.

There was also still the jack-headed raid boss, hidden within the raging sandstorm. A large staff, thick and powerful, came crashing down onto the Vayne. It was another Siphoning Strike. An ability that was quickly becoming the highest damage skill in this game. It’d found its next target. Another stack was added.

《Rampage!》

✹

《You have been slain!》

Zeal stared at his screen. Grey. He was dead. His face was drained of all blood. “GOD. FUCKING. DAMMIT!” he then yelled. He grabbed his mouse, pulled it free, and threw it to the ground. But that wasn’t enough. “I. FUCKING. HATE…” He slammed his fist down on the table, his eyes blazing with hatred. Disbelief. T-this can’t be happening… But the announcer’s voice didn’t lie. Nor did his grey screen. Or the Tristana Rocket Jumping to her next target. “FUCK!”