Tian Tian shook off his nerves and even smiled a little. And then what? If Lin Feng had asked him this right after HoG’s loss to SSK, he might’ve said something else. But not anymore. He thought back, back to minutes after the game, when the players from HoG walked off the stage, deflated. Nightsong and then Daybreak Hermes right behind him. He’d clapped. These two all time greats from the LPL had put on a phenomenal show. They’d given it their all! It just wasn’t enough this time. He’d clapped as they walked by and even mumbled a few words, “Y-you guys did great!” But they were lost in the crowd, never reaching anyone’s ears.

Nightsong did hear something. He looked at Tian Tian and smiled, pained. There was a pause in his step, a slight hesitation, before he stopped and walked up to Tian Tian. He put his hand on Tian Tian’s shoulder and, after a brief moment, grinned. “That wasn’t enough. You saw it. Fuck. Whatever, shit happens. I’ll piss all over them next year and show who can last longer. But this year is all on you now. You can do it, man. Make us proud.”

Daybreak Hermes had followed a step behind Nightsong. He’d put his arm around his friend’s shoulder and looked at Tian Tian. “What this dude here says. Make us proud. You can do this. Just like the Heca and Riven games.”

Tian Tian held the phone close to his ears. And then what? The answer was so simple. This was for the players! This was for the hopes and dreams of everyone who followed the LPL! This was for the glory of the LPL! But more than anything, this was for him! He took a deep breath and said, “Then we’re going to make it to semis!”

✹

It was all on KG now! Hand of God was eliminated. They were the first seed from the LPL and most Chinese fans had vested their hopes and dreams on them. Now that they were out, these fans turned to KG. They acted like lifelong fans and flooded the online sphere with their presence. The added pressure was almost palpable. Even more so since KG had, in the eyes of many, the easiest way to the semifinals. Their opponent wasn’t an Emperor team. They only had to play a King team. Assassins.

Assassins was a team from the LMS. This was the League of Legends Master Series, a competition in which teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau competed. They were the best in this smaller region. And not just by a little. This was in part due to their Jungler. Read XIII. He was one of the best Junglers in the entire world, most known for his fantastic Lee Sin. His skills on Lee Sin were so good that many fans considered him the best player on the Champion! The only other player who could lay claim to this title was Orion, another King and Jungler for the Korean team Warrior.

There was a famous Taiwanese esports publication. They ranked all professional teams on their individual skills, teamwork and team synergy. In their rankings, 65 points was the score of a middle of the pack professional team. As for the best few teams in the world, those who were expected to make it to the quarterfinals and beyond at Worlds, they scored a minimum of 80 points. This was where Assassins ranked. Their individual players got them a score of 65. On top of that, they got another 15 points for teamwork and team synergy for a grand total of 80 points! They were one of the best teams in the world!

Lin Feng was talking with Fatty over the phone. The topic had shifted from some motivating words to Assassins’ Jungler. “I’ve been watching some games. That Read XIII sure has gotten a lot stronger!” He was Lin Feng, and he didn’t know how demotivating words could sound. His words were full of excitement. In his eyes, this was the perfect chance for Fatty to show the world just how good he was! He said, “Fatty, you can do it! Read was worse than you! You had one full rank on him! Now he somehow got this King title behind his name. That should be yours! You were better then and you’re better now! You just have to beat him for the rest of the world to see it!”

Tian Tian wasn’t quite feeling the enthusiasm in Lin Feng’s voice. He replied, “B-but he’s a Jungler… I’m a Toplaner! I-it’s like apples and oranges. You can’t just compare us. And he’s really good! H-he’s gotten so much better since Season 1.”

“Ah, who cares about that?” Lin Feng laughed. “All you have to do is win. You can do that. Easy. Just do like Eleven did! Eleven—” Eleven was the Jungler on Lin Feng’s team back in Season 1. It was a name he hadn’t said in a long time. One he didn’t intend to say out loud.

Tian Tian heard Lin Feng’s voice breaking off. He thought for a moment the connection died, but then heard his friend breathing on the other side. It was the name. He put two and two together, but didn’t know what to do with it. All he had were his words, and he wasn’t great at using them. The only thing he could think of was a fond memory, one he shared with Lin Feng. He said, “Y-yeah, yeah! Remember how we always made fun of their names? Eleven is better than Thirteen. Hehehe. That guy got so annoyed by it. It was great, hehe…”

It didn’t have the desired effect. There came no reply from the other side of the line. “U-uh… ‘Member XIII?” He stuttered a few more words. “Oh I ‘member!” Anything to get Lin Feng talking again. “That was fantastic.” But there came no reply. Lin Feng didn’t start talking again. So he stopped, holding the phone to his ear, not knowing what to do.

Lin Feng thought back to his road to Worlds in Season 1. His team was only one step away from securing the Asian wildcard. Their final opponent was the team Read XIII was on. It was a best of three series. The series came down to a difference in Junglers. Eleven outplayed Read XIII in both games, landing Lin Feng’s team a clean sweep. They qualified, while Read XIII and his team were sent home and could only cheer on Lin Feng’s team. Something they promised to do.

The two teams even made plans to meet up again in the next season. They’d had that much fun in the series! Read XIII was especially interested in this rematch. He wanted, needed even, a chance at revenge! With only this in mind, he started practicing. He trained and he trained to become the better Jungler, to become the better player. But the next year, Eleven had disappeared from the professional scene just like Lin Feng had. There was no revenge to be had for Read XIII. That didn’t slow him down. He kept working hard and had fought his way into the Seven Kings!

Lin Feng bit his lips, then finally said, “Hey, Fatty. After your games, I want to talk to you about something.”

Tian Tian held the phone closer to his ear. He smiled when he heard Lin Feng’s voice again and started nodding. “Okay!”

Lin Feng forced a smile on his face and hyped up his voice. “You have to win! You can do it! Just do it! I’ll do the same tomorrow in the next round of my tournament!”

✹

League of Legends fans from around the world opened their favourite streams. So too did Su Xue’s viewers. They were looking for the best viewing experience of Day 4 of the League of Legends World Championships! The all Chinese team KG would face off against Assassins for a spot in the semifinals! To them, no one was better at analyzing than Lin Feng! Their li’l bro! But it wasn’t his voice that welcomed them. It was a female voice. The one that belonged to the maid. “Go KG! Go KG!”

「GO AWAY STUPID MAID」

「stop waving around that jerky like a fool……」

「lill brroooo, help us get rid of the maid pllssssssssss」

「Why does she always have to be here?」

「remember the games with just lil bro? Those were the days」

「she isnt goin to be givin that shit analysis talks again right」

This was how the viewers showed their affection with Su Xue. It was a game where they were offensive while she pretended to be infuriated. There was never a dull moment in the stream because of that. More importantly, right now, it helped to get the viewers’ minds off the game. To forget about their nervous anticipation. KG had to win. They just had to! It couldn’t be any other way!

Lin Feng sat next to Su Xue. His eyes were on the stream, instead of on chat. The camera panned over to the players from KG, showing closeups of their expressions. When Fatty came on screen, Lin Feng started smiling and balled his fist. You can do it! Come on, Fatty! Do it!

✹

The Zenith Paris was full of excited fans. Even if the game didn’t feature a European team, that didn’t dampen their mood one bit. Everyone had found their favourites, many of them leaning towards KG after their phenomenal performance in the second week of the group stage. They were clapping their glow sticks together and cheering for the 10 players as they took to the stage and sat down behind their computers.

Tian Tian sat down behind his computer. He heard the fans in the background, cheering his name! Beads of sweat rolled off his forehead and trickled down his face. These were just 9,000 people. There were millions more watching online, counting on him to carry KG to the semis. He was the hope for the LPL. He was the only one who could do this! Closing his eyes, he breathed in deeply. The air filled his lungs. Then he blew it all out, letting the tension in his body go with it.

“I-i’m going to win! I will win! Win! Win! Win!” His eyes snapped open. Tian Tian looked up from his screen at the crowd in the arena. At all the people cheering for him! For his team! For all the people watching him play at home! For Nightsong and Hermes! For Lin Feng, and most importantly, for himself! He was going to win! No matter how hard it was going to be. No matter how strong Assassins played today! No matter how shit his team was today! No matter anything and everything! He was going to fight! He was going to never give up! And he was going to win! He looked at the screen and placed his hands on his mouse and keyboard. It was time to play!

KG and Assassins locked in their Champions. They loaded into the game and went with a standard strategy. There were no early level invades into the other team’s jungle, nor were there lane swaps. It was a pure matchup of skill. A matchup KG won. They pushed the different lanes, with top tower being the first to fall. Tian Tian kept putting pressure and forcing Read XIII, Assassins’ Jungler, to make trips up top. The rest of KG used this time to push their lanes. From there it was a methodical finish. Assassins’ Nexus exploded after 32 minutes.

This was the start that KG’s fans wanted to see! Assassins was a King team. KG only had God Roundy. But KG was the team dictating the pace of the game. There was no evidence that Assassins actually had a King on their roster. In the first game, anyways. The second game was a little different. It was a lot more even and at 35 minutes, KG tried to make the difference by trying to kill Baron Nashor without Assassins noticing. They did notice. Read XIII played Rek’Sai and was waiting around the edge of the Baron Pit. Waiting for that one moment. That one opportunity.

KG’s Jungler played Jarvan IV. He tanked Baron Nashor while his team killed it. His health was dropping, but there was no sign of Assassins coming to stop them, so he kept pushing. He kept pushing. And then a tunnel appeared on the map. It came from the other side of the wall. Rek’Sai clawed herself out of the tunnel and knocked the Jarvan IV airborne. She followed up with a quick auto attack to kill the Jarvan IV. Then she turned to Baron Nashor.

《Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!》

Game 1 of Hand of God versus SSK was underway. Hand of God decided to go with a lane swap, sending their bot lane top. Nightsong played Jinx while SSK’s Toplaner played Fiora. HoG both wanted to make sure that the Jinx scaled into the mid game, so that Nightsong could carry them into the late game, as well as stopping the Fiora from getting any farm. If she was starved of resources in the early game, she wouldn’t be having much fun. This way, HoG took care of two of their five win conditions.

The third of five win conditions for Hand of God was that Daybreak Hermes didn’t lose his lane. A steep task with his choice of Champion. It was a Yasuo versus Kassadin matchup. Both Champions were rather vulnerable pre Level 6. So HoG decided to make use of this. Their Support, who played Janna, roamed up to mid lane at 5:10 minutes and forced Rake to Flash away to safety. It wasn’t a kill. But a Kassadin without Flash pre Level 6 couldn’t apply any pressure to the lane. If he did, HoG could come for another gank and he’d be dead.

The Hand of God fans all across the world started cheering at their computer screens or TVs, including those watching Su Xue’s stream. The streamer herself jumped up from her gaming chair and threw her hands up in the air. She laughed and cheered, “NICE! He forced the Flash! He forced the Flash! They can do it! They’re doing it! Let’s go HoG!”

Lin Feng looked up at Su Xue and rubbed his chin. “Yeah. Not a bad start for HoG.”

The game went on. Hand of God was playing well across the entire map. Then, at 8:10 minutes, their Jungler went to top lane for a gank on the Fiora. Nightsong and his Support had been pushing the Fiora deep underneath her outer tower and punished her whenever she tried to come out for some last hits. Rek’Sai Burrowed into the ground and moved through the tri-brush towards SSK’s top lane outer tower. She dug a tunnel and arrived right underneath the Fiora, where she Unburrowed. Nightsong didn’t need someone to tell him what to do. His Jinx got excited as she fired off her minigun, piercing the Fiora with bullets and killing her.

《First blood!》

《An ally has been slain!》

The Janna made a slight miscalculation. She thought she had enough health to tank one more tower hit. She did not, and ended up giving away a kill. But Nightsong got the all important first blood on his Jinx. That was the only thing Hand of God’s fans cared about right now. Their team was doing it! They were winning! The impossible suddenly started looking sort of possible! SSK wasn’t stomping HoG! There were openings for HoG, chances for them to win this game! Hope grew among the fans.

And then it shattered. It all came crashing down. At 10 minutes, SSK decided to make a play. Rake decided to show the world why he was the best player in the world. Together with his Jungler, he walked into HoG’s upper jungle, dodging the wards. Hand of God had no idea what was happening. The last they saw of the Kassadin was him recalling back to base. But the Kassadin wasn’t back in base. He was walking toward the Jinx and Janna in top lane together with his Lee Sin.

The Fiora pushed. The Jinx and Janna knew something was up. They retreated back to their outer tower. But that was precisely what SSK wanted them to do. The Kassadin and Lee Sin were waiting in the jungle brush right below the outer tower. And when the Jinx and Janna felt safe underneath their tower, they showed themselves. The three from SSK jumped on the two from HoG and made an end to any hopes of an upset. They picked up two kills without giving one away.

Lin Feng looked at the stream. Then he looked at the chat and at Su Xue sitting next to him. The excitement from a moment ago was gone, and with good reason. SSK had flexed their muscles. They’d given a reminder to the world that they were the best. That HoG could try all they wanted, but that it was them who would take this game and then the series. Lin Feng shook his head. This was what he’d expected that would happen. Hand of God just wasn’t good enough. This series was more than just difficult.

✹

The game had slipped out of Hand of God’s control before they even realized it. At 15 minutes, they found themselves at a 3,000 gold deficit. This was a large enough gap that every fight felt like SSK had an extra Champion on the Rift. It was the gold equivalent to a full item. One SSK made full use of two minutes later at the dragon pit. Both teams were hovering around the alcove in which the Dragon slumbered, firing off skillshots at each other and trying to find a pick. To find the angle so that they could win the teamfight and then slay the Dragon.

The Lee Sin found that angle. His Sonic Wave connected with Nightsong’s Jinx. He activated the second part of his skill–Resonating Strike–and dashed towards the Jinx. Then he flashed through the Jinx and appeared behind her before turning around and hitting her with a roundhouse kick–Dragon’s Rage! The Jinx was launched towards SSK’s team, who made quick work of her. Rake picked up the kill.

While the players from HoG turned on the Lee Sin, The Fiora from SSK had pathed around the dragon pit and walked right into HoG’s backline to help her Jungler. All the while Kassadin lingered around the edge of the fight, waiting for his opportunity. The Janna moved forward a little. Just enough to be in range of a Rift Walk. The Kassadin jumped on her, dealing splash damage. He followed up with a Null Sphere, an orb of void energy that dealt magic damage, and also canceled the Janna’s Monsoon within half a second after her casting it. Then he hit her with a Force Pulse, unleashing the residual power of collected magic, before stabbing her to death with his Nether Blade.

《Double kill!》

《Triple kill!》

SSK won the teamfight. There was no hope for Hand of God after losing their ad-carry before the fight even started. Hand of God did end up killing the Lee Sin, the silver lining around a deep pit of despair. Rake got a triple kill. The Fiora picked up a kill and two assists. SSK’s carries were fed. They took the Dragon and from it they got a buff to their physical and magical damage. Then they pushed down the wave in bot lane and picked up a tower. Four kills, a Dragon and a tower. And all it cost them was one death. Their Jungler. Not even a carry. They came out big in this teamfight and had just about secured a win.

The Hand of God fans all across the world were silenced. Their hopes were crushed. SSK was too strong. Hand of God had no chances of winning this series. Or even a game. The fans didn’t start flaming Hand of God. Most of them didn’t, at least. But they also didn’t cheer. Stream chats all across HuyaTV were empty. Despite there being thousands of people in the stream, there was almost no one typing.

SSK wasn’t a team to let an advantage slip from their fingers. They capitalized on the play at Dragon and only pulled further ahead from there. More and more kills were coming their way. Hand of God had to give up objectives to them and were forced to protect their base, afraid to even step out into their own lanes or jungle. Then, as the game reached the 27th minute, SSK dealt the killing blow. They towerdove into HoG’s base and Aced them. A clean ace. Zero for five. The nexus exploded 20 seconds later.

Though HoG had enjoyed the early advantage, SSK decided to show the world why they were the best team. Su Xue had a hard time accepting this. She was still riding the high of Hand of God’s early game and was desperate to see them win. Watching SSK win felt like a bad dream to her. She muttered, “H-how did this happen? How did we lose? We had such a good start! HoG was so far ahead! I thought they’d win for sure! How did SSK turn that around?”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head. This outcome was the most likely one. The momentum was now in favour of SSK. HoG would have to pull something truly special if they hoped to turn this around. Their odds had dropped even lower than they already were before the first game. Lin Feng really couldn’t see a world in which they’d do the impossible.

✹

Hand of God was the Red team in game 2. They put their best foot forward, giving it their all. But there were no fancy tactics or tricks that could surprise SSK. It became another  game where Rake showcased to the world why everyone called him the best player in the world. His Support helped him jumpstart his lane with an early gank at Level 3. He got a kill on his Fizz against Hermes’ Viktor. A fed Fizz was a deadly fish. Rake kept the pressure on and only a few minutes later, at 6 minutes, he picked up a solo kill on the Viktor.

Four minutes later, SSK was winning in every lane. They’d opened up a 4,000 gold lead and it was looking very difficult for HoG to do anything about it. No matter how HoG tried, from a teamfight at 15 minutes that ended in them losing all five members for two kills to a last ditch effort at 30 minutes where they lost all five players without getting a single kill, nothing worked. Their deficit just became larger and larger, reaching far beyond 10,000 gold by the end of the game, until their nexus exploded after 32 minutes of playing.

SSK 2 – 0 HoG

Hand of God found themselves with their backs against the wall. One more loss and it would be all over. Their dreams of lifting the Summoner’s Cup would end. The fans felt just as nervous, sweating behind their computers. Their team had to win! It was still possible! All Hand of God had to do was to win the next three games! A reverse sweep! It’d happened before!

But it didn’t happen this time. SSK decided to end the third game fast and decisively. Rake played LeBlanc mid. He achieved the Legendary status within 20 minutes. Hermes didn’t stand a chance. Even walking into lane felt dangerous. And when he didn’t, or hesitated, Rake would roam top or bot and pick up kills there. No one was safe. It wasn’t even fun to watch anymore towards the end. The only positive point for HoG was that SSK didn’t drag the game and ended it just short of 25 minutes in.

The online forums didn’t descend into chaos. No one wanted to flame Hand of God. They’d played their best and given it their all. There was nothing to blame them for. SSK was just better. The millions of Hand of God fans across the globe, though most were located in China, slumped back in their seats and shook their heads as they watched the screen. It was over. Their hopes for a World Championships title were gone. They’d have to wait for next year.

The stream showed the players from SSK. They were laughing and joking together. It looked like they were just having a good time, and not as if they’d just come out of a grueling quarterfinals series at the World Championships for League of Legends. Like this was just another day for them. Then the camera focused on Rake. He wasn’t laughing with his teammates. Rather, he sat behind his computer and looked at the post game lobby. There was no change in his expression from the start of the first game. He looked as calm as ever, a calmness that was borne from the absolute confidence he had in his own skills and in his teammates. They were the best.

Lin Feng looked at his old rival. He didn’t hear Su Xue blabbering on next to his ear, or the viewers typing in chat. His full attention was on Rake. The only person he’d ever lost to. Just wait. I’m training. I’ll get stronger again. We’ll fight again and I’ll win this time. Just wait. I’ll be back.

✹

Day 3 of the quarterfinals came to an end. SSK made it through to the semis and HoG was sent home. The only Chinese hope left at Worlds was KG. They felt the pressure of an entire region resting on their shoulders. Lin Feng was well aware of this. And the heavy burden this placed on Tian Tian. So, after ending the stream with Su Xue and retreating to his own room, he took out his phone and made a long distance call to France.

“Hey, Fatty! How are you! Excited for tomorrow?”

“H-hey, Lin Feng. I-i’m ok.”

“What is that? You don’t sound all that good!”

“Eh, i-it’s just…”

“Nope! That’s not the Fatty I know! The Fatty I know would be talking about winning!”

“I-i’m going to win!”

“So you’re going to carry?”

“Y-yes. I’ll carry my team to victory!”

“And then what?”

Tian Tian had nothing to say. He had no idea how to respond to that question…

Day 3 of the Worlds quarterfinals! It was the day of Hand of God versus SSK! It would start at 7 PM on the dot. But that didn’t stop people from talking about the game before. The online forums lit up in the early hours of Saturday with discussions about the best of five series that would be played that night. It was a battle of regions. The strongest team from the LPL versus the strongest team from the LCK. Though, it was also a World level team versus the World Champions. There was a distinct difference between both teams, one most fans, even the Chinese ones, didn’t see Hand of God overcoming. However, that didn’t stop HoG’s fans from plastering the online space with supportive messages for their team! It didn’t matter what they believed would happen. For the only thing they could do to influence the games was to show their trust and confidence in the team and hope it would carry through into the game.

The incident with KG was a turning point for many Chinese fans. Their faces were pushed against the facts. KG never wanted to lose. But they struggled just like any other normal person would do. The thing that could help them over that point, to get them in a place where they could perform, that thing was encouragement. Confidence of their fans that showed through in their own gameplay. It was how fans could influence the game! Whether this was in a small tournament with almost no stakes or at Worlds where the stakes couldn’t be any higher, this rule didn’t change. If they showed their confidence and trust in the team. If they encouraged them to do better than they normally could. If they cheered in support even when things weren’t going great. Then, and only then, could their team perform at the best of their ability!

There was something else many Chinese fans had come to realize. The teams that qualified for Worlds, they didn’t participate for a participation trophy. They participated to win. Every waking hour they practiced, they prepared themselves both physically and mentally, to be in that optimal state where they could perform at the highest level. It wasn’t any different for Hand of God. They didn’t give up just because their opponent was SSK. They were working together, planning their game tactics. Finding that perfect plan that could get them the advantage and do the impossible! They would fight to the end and never give up!

Hand of God’s fans wouldn’t give up either. They would support their team through thick and thin! So they did the only thing they knew, and that was to plaster the online space with their support for the team. There were hundreds, thousands, and by the late afternoon tens of thousands of posts, all of them full with ongoing discussion. All of them overflowing with a singular wish. For Hand of God to play their hearts out tonight!

✹

It was late in the morning and the sun was shining in Paris, France. League of Legends fans were streaming into the Zenith Paris, finding their way to one of the 9,000 seats. They were the lucky few who’d got their hands on a ticket before it was completely sold out. Their clothing was in the colours of their favourite teams and they’d brought with them signboards and glowsticks, with some especially fanatic fans trying to sneak in megaphones and fireworks. Inside the arena, Chatter rang out to the backdrop of epic battle music from the oversized speakers.

The time drew closer to noon and there were only 20 more minutes before the first game of Hand of God versus SSK would start. Backstage, the players could hear the vibing sounds inside the arena becoming louder as the announcer started hyping up both teams. All the way to one of the bathrooms. The bathrooms where Nightsong and Daybreak Hermes were hyping themselves up before they’d go on stage and play the best team in the world. Maybe even beat them.

Nightsong leaned over one of the sinks and looked at himself in the mirror. He was about to play one of the most important games in his life. The nerves that came with that even affected him. He took a deep breath and then splashed his face with some cold water.

Hermes came out from one of the stalls and walked up to the sink next to Nightsong. He opened the faucet and let the water splash on his hands while looking at his friend. He chuckled, short and rushed, and asked, “How’re you feeling?”

Nightsong breathed in, deeply, and then blew it all out through his nose. He forced a smile to his lips and looked up at his friend. “Excited! Of course! What else? I’m very excited! No one can beat me!”

This was Nightsong. Hermes knew his friend like no other. He asked, “Feeling the pressure?”

“Ha! Pressure? What pressure! Look at me! Do I ever feel pressure?” Nightsong laughed, his hands shaking. He quickly grabbed one hand with the other, then forced them both under the faucet. Anything to stop Hermes from noticing how they were shaking. He was nervous and he was feeling the pressure. This wasn’t just some random game. They were up against SSK in the World Championships! This could turn out to become the biggest game in his entire career! It’d be crazier if he wasn’t feeling the pressure. But that didn’t mean he’d admit to that.

Hermes rubbed his nose and smiled. “It is SSK we’re playing against. Look at my hand, it’s shaking so badly! I can’t get it to stop.” He imitated Nightsong, grabbing one hand with the other and putting them under the faucet. “But that’s normal. We’re playing against SSK. I have to face Rake in lane. Holy shit, dude. I have to face Rake. Rake! Fuck. I don’t know. This is going to be so difficult.”

Daybreak Hermes was China’s number one Midlaner. He was also a King. Fans had chosen him as one of the best players in the world! Some had even given him the nickname Star Emperor. There were very few players who were better than him, and those who were were only slightly so. Except for one. Against Phoenix and Moon, two Emperors, he would still have some confidence. They were the better players, but he wasn’t completely lost. However, that confidence was thrown out of the window when it came to Rake. Even Moon and Phoenix were terrified of the God Emperor. The best player in the world. It was only to be expected that he was fighting hard not to shit his pants.

Nightsong looked in the mirror, at himself. Then he smiled and turned to Hermes. “So he’s a little good. So what? That doesn’t change anything! You’re going up and you’re going to give it your absolute all! That’s what we do! Don’t look up to him. Look down on him! Piss on him and claim your territory!”

“That is what we do.” Hermes nodded and grinned. He looked up at the mirror straight into his own eyes. That’s right. I’m not giving up. I’m going to fight! I’m going to beat him! He turned to Nightsong and said, “You’re right. I can’t let him look down on me. We’re pros. It doesn’t matter what the odds are. We fight and give it our all. Who knows, maybe that’s enough today.”

Nightsong looked at his friend. The serious look in his eyes. The words that were meant to hype them up but that sounded completely ridiculous. His own nerves raging within him. It suddenly seemed all too comical. He started laughing and said, “Look at us! We’re acting like we’re supposed to be scared of them! Haha! They should be scared of us! We’re HoG! It’s just SSK! How bad can it really be? I’ll stomp all over them with my flashy plays and show the world who the best ad-carry is! And you do the same in mid lane! We’re going to kick some asses!”

Hermes smiled. “Hehe. I guess we did do pretty ok at the Mid-Season Invitationals. Maybe we can carry that through here. Only one way to find out. Let’s do this.’

✹

Su Xue and Lin Feng were sitting in Su Xue’s bedroom behind her computer. The stream was on. There were 2,000 people watching, all of them here for Lin Feng’s insights. Their excited messages flooded the chat, slowly turning more nervous as 7 PM approached. They kept asking for reassurances from Lin Feng, something he wouldn’t give. He kept reiterating his view on the matchup. It’d be hard for HoG to win, but not impossible. Still, that little was enough for a lot of viewers. They felt a little more confident in HoG’s chances, until a few minutes later when this process would start all over again.

Su Xue was very much in on it with her chat. She tugged at Lin Feng’s arm as both teams went into Champion Select and asked, “Hey! What do you think HoG’s chances are? Like 40% Maybe 50? Do you think they have a better chance!”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head. “Eh, I’ve said it to the stream already, HoG’s chances are pretty slim. If they play at their best and SSK screws up a little, then they might have a 30% chance of winning, I guess?”

Su Xue’s mouth fell open. She knew the answer. She tried to prepare herself for it. But it still hit like a truck. “Really? That low? Don’t you think their chances might be a little better? You know, just a bit?”

Lin Feng shook his head, resolute. “I’m being optimistic here. Realistically? It’s probably lower. SSK is really good. They’re the favourites for a reason.”

There were several conditions that had to be met if Hand of God wanted to win this series against SSK. First, they had to play a perfect Champion Select. That meant banning the Champions they wanted out of the game, including having SSK ban Champions for them, and also picking the Champions that were perfect for their composition. Of course, it’d help if SSK went with a composition that just happened to be weaker against theirs.

A second hard condition was Hermes. He was up against Rake. An impossible lane to win. But he didn’t have to win, not necessarily. As long as he could somewhat keep up, or even go even, then there was still a chance. He had to scale up and get out from under Rake’s pressure, so that SSK had to focus on mid lane as well as the other lanes. This condition applied for the most part to the early game. In the late game, where one teamfight could decide victory and defeat, anything was possible.

Hand of God’s Jungler was another important condition. Just like Lin Feng kept hammering on with Liu Yue, jungle pressure was everything. HoG’s Jungler couldn’t fall behind. He couldn’t react to SSK’s ganks. He had to be the one ganking. He had to be the one making plays. Or at least, he had to put enough pressure on the game that SSK’s Jungler couldn’t move around freely and dictate the pace of the game.

There were two more conditions. Top lane couldn’t fall. Going even was fine and even a slight loss was fine. But they absolutely couldn’t afford losing it. And then there was bot lane. Bot lane was where an opportunity lay for Hand of God. Nightsong was a strong ad-carry. If he could get a slight advantage in the early game and carry his team through the mid game and into the late game, then all bets were off.

If Hand of God wanted any hope of winning this series, they had to meet all five of these conditions. Not three, not four, all five. An impossible task. On a good day, Lin Feng saw them meeting maybe two or three of them. But that wouldn’t be enough. Hand of God would lose. Lin Feng lowered his head. The situation was clear. Hand of God needed a literal Hand of God to win this series. They needed divine intervention. A true miracle.

When Lin Feng raised his head again, the stream switched to the cameras aimed at the players. They first showed the five from Hand of God. From the Toplaner all the way to the Support. Their expressions were tense. Lip biting. Fidgeting. Shifting around in their chairs. It was clear how they felt. Then the players from SSK came into view. They looked completely different. Relaxed. Confident. Excited even.

The camera stopped on Rake. The 20 years old Korean and best player in the world. He sat behind his monitor, waiting for the game to start. His breathing was even and his expression was calm. There was no concern. There was no conceit. There was nothing that betrayed his feelings other than that calmness that felt so natural. When looking at him, there was no doubt in the minds of the viewers. SSK was going to win. This was going to be a quick and easy series. These were the words Rake spoke to them without even opening his mouth.

Ouyang had a very specific selective attention. Girls. League of Legends. Friends. In that order. Anything else he didn’t really pay attention to. Like the big and bold letters the teacher wrote down on the chalkboard. They went in one eye and out the other. But when the words ‘pretty’ and ‘girl’ were mentioned in a hushed conversation on the other side of the classroom, his ears would perk up and his eyes would lock onto the students talking. That kind of conversation got his undivided attention. Right now, Lin Feng’s pencil case had his full focus. There, buried under pencils, erasers and other stationary, he spotted it.

The English teacher hadn’t walked into the classroom yet. There were still a few more minutes until the lesson started. So Ouyang grabbed Lin Feng’s shoulder and looked at his friend. “Yo! Lin Feng, buddy! Best bro! You’ve been holding out on me? Were you hiding that picture from me? That’s not what bros do, my man! Come, gimme! Lemme have a look at that!” He held out his free hand and added, “Hurry up! Give it!”

“Oh, this? It’s nothing,” Lin Feng said, ruffling his messy hair. He emptied his pencil case on his desk and took out the picture. An old memory. He looked at it for a moment and then showed it to Ouyang. “It’s just an old picture I have from a few years ago.”

Ouyang leaned forward, just about pressing his eyes onto the paper, and started scanning it. Something had drawn him to this picture, he was now looking for what that something was. Lin Feng stood in the middle of the frame. It looked like someone had called his name half a second before snapping the picture as only his head was turned towards the camera. He looked the same, with the same messy hair and the same simple clothing. The only real difference was that the Lin Feng in the picture looked a few years younger. But it was just Lin Feng. Ouyang had hoped for something else. He shook his head, disappointed. “I thought it was something better. Not just a picture of you…”

Ouyang squinted his eyes. His special Ouyang senses, as he liked to call them, didn’t lie to him, they never did! There was something more to this photo. But what… He turned to Lin Feng, the man with the answers, and asked, “Yo, you look pretty young in this. So where was this taken? It looks like some kind of auditorium? Was this at your old school or something?”

Lin Feng looked at the picture. It was more than a quick glance this time. “No. That was at the Season 1 Chinese Finals for League of Legends!” He’d almost forgotten about this picture. It’d been at the bottom of his pencil case for the longest time now. But it was a snapshot of a good memory. One he treasured deeply. He smiled. Those were some fun games.

“You forreal? We actually had finals back then?” Ouyang looked up at Lin Feng, his eyes wide and round, then looked back at the picture. “Bro. That’s crazy. Yikes though. Looks like they had no real budget. That all looks really cheap.”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and said, “Yeah, it really was low budget. It was also really small. I think there were maybe a few hundred people there?”

League of Legends wasn’t big in Asia in Season 1. It didn’t really gain traction until a year later. That also meant that there were no big sponsors and no big money going around. The Chinese Esports Organization had to work with what they had, renting small venues on the outskirts of Shanghai and trying to make it look better than it was. All that hard work wasn’t even rewarded. There were 500 seats for the Season 1 Chinese Finals, but there weren’t 500 fans willing to come and watch. A good portion of the auditorium had stayed empty. This was something unthinkable with the current stage of the game, where the biggest venues were rented and even those weren’t enough to hold the fans looking to watch their favourite team play.

“A few hundred? No way… That sounds crazy! I saw some numbers online that the LPL Summer Finals last summer had 10,000 people in the crowd! And there were people outside trying to sneak in!” Ouyang clicked his tongue. “But dam, bro! You really were one of the first to play the game! You’re like a living fossil of a League player! I can’t believe you convinced your parents to let you go watch the finals live!”

“A living fossil? Haha! Yeah, I guess you could say that. I’ve been playing this game from the start!” Lin Feng laughed.

“Wait. Wait. Wait! What’s this here?” Ouyang put his hand to Lin Feng’s mouth and zoomed in on a corner of the photo. A small detail in the background. His eyes went wide. He pushed off Lin Feng and jumped up from his chair. Then he held the photo up and shouted through the classroom, “WHOOOO! OH YEAH! SCORE! I found the girl! She’s hot! I knew my Ouyang senses were right! Hehehe!”

The classmates of Senior Class 7 turned to look at the far back of the classroom. Ouyang and Lin Feng sat next to each other. Well, Lin Feng sat. Ouyang was jumping up and down and pointing at a photo in his hand, shouting. They were getting used to it by now. Ouyang always screamed over absolutely nothing. Some shook their heads while others sighed. That was Ouyang for you.

“U-uh? A girl? Where?” Lin Feng asked, confused.

Ouyang shoved the picture in Lin Feng’s face. Then he pointed at a corner of the photo and kept jabbing at it with his finger. “Here! Here! Look! Behind you!” There stood a girl behind Lin Feng, looking at the camera from the corners of her eyes. She wore a white t-shirt, had black framed glasses resting on her nose, and had her hair up in two pigtails. Though she stood in the background and Ouyang could only see half of her face, that was all he needed to see.

Ouyang looked at Lin Feng, almost looking angry! He barked, “Pigtails and glasses! You know how much I love those! And she’s rocking that cute-cool look! Totes a 9 outa 10! Dammit! I can’t even call you my bro now! How could you hide her from me? I thought we were friends! What ever happened to us? Get me a better picture of her, maybe with her phone number on it!”

Lin Feng grabbed the photo and looked at the girl Ouyang was pointing at. He directly recognized her. “Oh! That’s Bunbun!”

“H-huh? Bunbun? What’s a Bunbun?” Ouyang stammered, surprised. That didn’t sound anything like a name! Not one he’d heard before, at least.

Lin Feng said, “Bunbun! She’s my childhood friend! I remember now! She went with me to the Finals!”

✹

After the dismissal bell rang, the members of the esports team gathered in the club room. Ouyang was the first in the room. He was jumping up and down on his feet, about to burst! There was something on his mind. Something so important that it couldn’t wait. He had to share it with everyone! Lin Feng had a hot friend from his childhood! The guy who spent all his free time playing League of Legends had somehow found the time to meet a girl and hang out with her! It wasn’t just Ouyang, everyone found this difficult to believe. In the short time they’d known Lin Feng, all he did was League of Legends! So they had him pass the photo around, with everyone zooming in on the girl with pigtails in the background.

Liu Yue stared at the photo and mumbled, “So this is his childhood sweetheart?” Then he looked up towards Lin Feng and squinted his eyes, doing his best Ouyang impression. “Are you kidding me? I can’t believe you have such a pretty friend! The pretty childhood friend… I thought this only happened on TV!”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head, sheepishly. “Uhh, yeah. Me and Bunbun go way back. I’ve known her since elementary school.”

Ren Rou looked over Liu Yue’s shoulder and then shook her head. “Hmph. Yes, she’s pretty. Really pretty. I don’t know how he did it, but it seems like he did. He somehow found himself a really cute girl. Maybe he had more game a few years ago. That could explain how he found her.”

Wei Dong stood on Liu Yue’s other side, looking at the photo. He clicked his tongue and said, “This was taken four years ago, you said? She was already so pretty back then… I wonder how much she’s grown. Ah, shit. Can I have some of your luck? I want to find myself a girl like that!”

While the others were gathering around Liu Yue to look at the picture, Ouyang stood a bit away. He’d stopped jumping up and down. His excited expression had disappeared. Now he was staring at his laces, his smile having turned upside down. Some bro… Doesn’t even share… Keeps everything for himself… Bastard. Bastard. Bastard! He grabbed Lin Feng’s arm and tugged on it. With his other hand he grabbed his chest to hold his broken heart together. He forced tears from his eyes and said, “Y-you bastard! Traitor! What happened to the bro code! What happened to honour! Chivalry! All those things! Is Tang Tang not enough for you? Do you have to hoard all the pretty girls for yourself? What, are you going to build a harem? Take every cute girl for yourself and let your good bro here dry out and wither? I know I’m no first prize! But even a Gollum like me needs some love! Leave some girls for the rest of us!”

Lin Feng tried to tuck his arm free and looked at Ouyang, confused. “Uh? What do you mean? Tang Tang and I are just friends…”

“Mhm. We’re friends. Nothing more,” Tang Tang added while looking at the photo of Lin Feng’s childhood sweetheart. She was the last to look at it. Everyone looked at her. She nodded. “Cute.”

Ren Rou wrapped her arms around Tang Bingyao from behind and rubbed her cheeks. “You’re also very cute! Don’t let the guys make you think otherwise! You’re at least as cute as that girl in the picture!”

Chen Ze turned to Lin Feng and asked, “Hey, why do you call her Bunbun? That’s a pretty strange name…”

“Oh, that.” Lin Feng grinned. “You see, she was pretty round and chubby when we were young. It reminded me of a steamed bun! So I called her Bunbun once and the name kind of stuck. Hehe.”

A stunned silence fell over the room. The seven people turned to Lin Feng and just stared at him. Ouyang even had to push his mouth closed. They were shocked. Stunned. KO’d. Lin Feng had done it again! He’d showcased just how dense he really was. He actually nicknamed a girl after a steamed bun and didn’t seem to see anything wrong with that! It looked like he even thought it was funny! Ren Rou shook her head and said, “I feel for that girl. It sounds rough being your friend.”

“Ahem.” Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. He didn’t like this awkwardness, so he changed the subject. “You’ve told us this before. But wow. You really did start playing in Season 1, huh? You’re the super veteran. We all started playing in the later seasons.”

Liu Yue nodded. “Yeah. I only started playing last season.”

“SCREW THAT! Are you guys stupid?” Ouyang shouted. “You’re just ignoring the most important part here! He went to the finals with a girl! A PRETTY GIRL! Who cares about him playing League in Season 1? There’s only one thing we should be looking at. THAT GIRL! He already took such a pretty girl out on a date before we even met… I feel like he just stabbed me in the back before we even met! Here! Look at the scar! That’s what Lin Feng did!” Ouyang pulled up his shirt and jabbed at his side, where there was no scar.

“Uhh, no?” Lin Feng shook his head and looked at Ouyang, confused. “She was there to cheer me on. I was playing…”

“Sure, whatever. You went there to play. Of course,” Ren Rou said, her voice overflowing with sarcasm.

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and said, “It’s not that we don’t believe you. It’s just that we don’t believe you.”

Lin Feng kept claiming that he used to be a pro. And they had to admit that he was really good at the game, far better than anyone else they’d met. But Lin Feng also said that was in Season 1. The year he was only 15 years old. The rules were clear. Everyone knew them. You had to be at least 16 years old if you wanted to compete professionally. Lin Feng wasn’t 16, so he couldn’t possibly have competed. And he’d done nothing to prove the opposite. They were a little bored with his nonstop claims of fame.

However, none of them had played the game back in Season 1. They knew the rules from Season 2 and onwards. Back in Season 1, the rules weren’t as strict. Exceptions were made. This was why Lin Feng, a 15 year old, was allowed to compete. But because of the special circumstances, extra measures were taken. His real name and age were never revealed. To the world, he was Maple. Nothing else was revealed by the Chinese Esports Organization or his teammates. It was kept under such a tight seal that even most people he played against didn’t know how old he was.

✹

Lin Feng got home early again. Tonight was the second match of the quarter finals at Worlds. Season versus Fate. The first clash between Emperors in this edition! The millions of League of Legends fans across the world had been waiting for this moment. This once in a year opportunity where two of the best players in the world would go toe-to-toe against each other, putting everything on the line! And they were rewarded for their patience. They were treated to a spectacular best of five series! Full of ups and downs, and even some loops! The games were long and it went all the way to a fifth and final match to decide the winner.

Right before midnight in China, with Lin Feng and Su Xue commentating on the game, the series deciding play happened. Autumn, Season’s Emperor Support, caught Moon out of position. Fate’s Emperor Midlaner slipped up after a grueling five hours of playing League of Legends. One moment of losing focus cost him and his team a teamfight. The death timers were more than a minute. Season ran down mid lane and finished the game. They secured their place in the semifinals! The Korean Killers had done it again!

This second day of the quarterfinals had it all! But there was still more to come. There were still two series in the quarterfinals. One of them was KG versus Assassins. A matchup that wasn’t half as exciting as the match between Season and Fate. The other matchup, however, that was something the whole world looked forward to. Even the Chinese fans wanted to see how their first seed would do. The next match, played on Saturday, was none other than Hand of God versus SSK! A finals worthy matchup! The best of two regions would fight it out! The challengers would face the title defenders! This was the ultimate hurdle for HoG!

The first seed from the Chinese LPL versus the first seed from the Korean LCK. It sounded like an exciting match when said like this. Until people looked at the lineups. Hand of God’s strongest player was Hermes. One of the Seven Kings. On the other side was SSK. Their team captain was none other than the God Emperor, Rake! The best player in the world. The one who never lost his lane. Then they also had a King on their roster. They were the World Champions. They were the team to beat. And HoG didn’t seem like they were the team to do that.

In the Mid-Season Invitational, HoG had beaten an Emperor team. They’d beaten a Korean team! This was something that until then had seemed impossible. No one could beat the Koreans! But that victory was against Fate. A strong team, yes. But they weren’t SSK. There was still a large chasm separating them from that height. The Moon Emperor had struggled hard together with his team to qualify for Worlds. Then there was SSK. The invincibles. Fate had only managed to beat them once this year and lost six times. It just went to show how big the difference between the two teams was.

From analysts to fans, from professional players to casual players, everyone knew who SSK were. Who Rake was. It didn’t matter how much Hermes improved, he wouldn’t be good enough to beat Rake. And the rest of his team wouldn’t win their lanes either. This would be a stomp. There was nothing HoG could do but extend the suffering. It was to the point that Chinese fans stopped paying attention to HoG and shifted to the KG versus Assassins game. KG might not be as good as HoG, but Assassins wasn’t as good as SSK either. KG versus Assassins looked like a matchup that could go either way. The all Chinese team actually had a shot to make it to the semifinals! This was the game they chose to place their hopes on!

✹

Lin Feng had come home early from coaching High School 13’s esports team. He’d promised to watch Worlds together with Su Xue and her stream and give his insights on the games. So, after enjoying a quick dinner prepared by Su Xue, he followed her into her room and sat down at her desk. Then he waited for her to start up the stream, browsing his phone and looking at the matchups. The first game of interest for the Chinese fans was HoG versus SSK. Viewers were coming into the stream and were welcomed by Lin Feng’s analysis on the matchup, “Mhm. SSK is the better team. I don’t see how HoG is going to get anything from this matchup.”

It wasn’t a great first thing to hear on the stream. The viewers were hoping that they were little balls of negativity. They were hoping that their li’l bro would set them straight! To hear him agree with their own assessment felt like a low blow.

「damn… even lil bro thinks so too?」

「aghh, hog is screwed」

「MANN WHYYY i thought maybe you could convince me they had a chance……….」

「maybe ssk has an offday…… maybe…? I hope」

Su Xue listened to Lin Feng and read her stream chat. Everything was agreeing with him. She did too. So she gave her two cents on the matter, “I think so too. SSK has the Emperor and a King. What does HoG have? One King. That’s all. They really needed an Emperor if they wanted any chance of winning this.”

「fucking maid… who told her she could talk?」

「GO BACK TO THE KITCHEN!!!! IT”S WHERE YOU BELONG」

「look at this wannabe expert over here, thinking she can judge teams on some stupid ranking…..」

「I knew girls were stupid, but this…. Wtf… does she really think that’s the reason??????」

「JEEZ We got us a little miss small brain here…」

Su Xue stared at the chat, her eyes widening with every next message. Then she shouted, “Hey! Stop that! There’s no need to flame me so hard! What did I do? I was just giving my opinion…” It was her little show. Pretend to be upset. She wasn’t. Not really. She understood how her viewers were feeling. They were upset! Angry that the LPL’s best shot of making the finals was thrown against a brick wall and then down a well with spikes at the bottom! Hand of God was as good as eliminated with this draw! They wouldn’t even make the semi finals.

Just as everyone felt like they were stuck at the bottom of that well, Lin Feng threw them a rope. “Well, you know, it’s not lost yet. They still have to play. It’s really difficult to win, but that’s no reason to just give up! We should cheer them on and hope that they play the series of their lives!”

Nothing in life was set in stone. Life wasn’t that boring. Miracles did happen. And hard work was rewarded. Take KG. Everyone had written them off at the end of Week 1 of Worlds. They looked like they were in shambles and were a shadow of their former selves. But then something happened, something changed during their short break. And when they came out again, they looked like a team born anew. They fought, really fought for it and were rewarded with a spot in the quarter finals! Then there was also High School 13 making it through the first round of the qualifiers for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament, though the miracle there was mostly Lin Feng joining the team.

There was a simple lesson in all of this. One Lin Feng was living by every day while chasing for the title of best League of Legends player in the world. That was to never lose hope. To never give up. And to always keep striving for more! Miracles hadn’t left this world Not for Lin Feng, not for anyone. This wasn’t the time for the viewers to give up hope on HoG. If anything, this was when they had to support their team the most!

“Oh! It’s starting, it’s starting, guys! Let’s watch today’s game first! We’ll talk about the other games later!” Lin Feng exclaimed, excited! The first match in the quarter finals was Legend versus Warrior. It wouldn’t be until the weekend that Hand of God and KG had their games.

✹

Friday morning, Lin Feng walked into the classroom and sat down next to Ouyang, who was already being his excited self despite the time of day. “Damn! Those four games last night were absolutely amazeballs! Did you guys see it? Did you feel it? I had goosebumps all over! That was so good!” He looked up at Lin Feng and nodded before turning back to Yang Fan. “Legend actually made it through to the semis! Did you see that coming? They beat the Koreans! They beat the Koreans! Holy, I never saw that coming. Did you? That was the best quarter finals so far!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and started talking, “Ye–” but Ouyang wasn’t finished yet. He just continued rambling on, “Also, also, shut up for a minute. Let me talk. Also, that Phoenix! Did you see him play? I totally get why he’s an Emperor. He’s so good! That was like, he carried so hard those games! Even that game they lost, he was the best player in the game. The MVP in every game!”

“Mhm! Phoenix is really good!” Yang Fan blurted out. He didn’t even adjust his glasses. All he wanted was to finally get a few words in. “Yeah. Game 3. You know, the one they lost, his Orianna was still the best Champion. He dominated mid lane with her. Warriors Midlaner was pretty much taken out of the game. That’s the difference between an Emperor and any other player right there.”

Ouyang laughed and slapped Lin Feng on the back. “Point is, those were some awesome games to watch. Right, bro? I don’t care who wins. All I want are fun games. Plus, it’s always good news for us when a Korean team gets sent home.”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and reminded, “HoG still has to play SSK. We still have to have a team make it to the semis for this to be your so-called good news.”

“Dammit! You just had to do that, didn’t you? You just couldn’t let me be happy for a change. All I was happy about was that a Korean team lost. That should mean something, right? Korean teams are defeatable! HoG still has a chance! They can make it to the semis!”

“Heh.” Yang Fan chuckled and shook his head. “Who cares about Warrior or Fate? They’re nothing compared to SSK. If SSK loses, now that would be something to talk about.”

“Oh! Oh! Fate is playing tonight, right? They got Moon! That will be awesome to watch! I can’t wait!” Ouyang exclaimed, bouncing on his chair.

Yang Fan nodded and then turned to Lin Feng, “Fate will have a hard time, even with Moon. Right Lin Feng? What do you think?”

“H-huh?” Lin Feng mumbled, half asleep. He yawned and stretched out long, then rubbed his eyes. “Tonight’s games? Uhm… It’s going to be a difficult one for Fate, that’s for sure. Season is a really strong team.”

Season wasn’t just a strong team from North America. They were also the secret weapon against Korean teams. No one really understood why, but whenever Season played a Korean team, they seemed better. Stronger. More cohesive. They were even dubbed the Korean Killers! Their track record supported this, with 75% of their games against Korean teams ending in a victory. There was no other team in the world who could say the same!

The bell rang and the first period began. The three friends paid little attention to class, whispering amongst each other just enough to get on the teacher’s nerves, but not so much that they got sent to the principal’s office. The period bell rang again not much later, announcing the end of class. And a little later, the next one rang. This one had Ouyang a little worried. He turned to Lin Feng and asked, “Hey, bro. We were doing some sort of listening test for English today, right? And something with picture cards? I forgot. What was it? Wait. Oh shit! We need a pencil and eraser, right? Crap. I think I forgot mine!”

Lin Feng opened his drawer and rummaged through it. It was mostly clean and organized. Mostly. He took out a pencil case and checked its contents. Then he looked up with a wide grin and said, “Look! I brought mine!”

“Nice! I knew you would! That’s why I didn’t bring mine! It’s perfect teamwork! Just lend me yours in a bit!” Ouyang grinned, moving his chair right up to Lin Feng and looking over his friend’s shoulder. “Uh? Huh! Is that a picture? It is! Who’s that? Tell me who that is!”

“An Emperor?” Old Huang blurted. Across all the regions, in all the teams, four players were considered the best in the world. It sounded ridiculous to think that someone who played back in Season 1 and then quit could just come back and displace an Emperor four years later. Even if they’d been training nonstop, it was still impossible to just become an Emperor! “Are you serious? You’re joking, right? That’s way outta there. That can’t be right…”

From individual skill to past achievements, there were four people who were better than anyone else. They stood at the top of the global esports scene. Fans called them the Four Emperors. A good sounding title. But it was so much more than just a title. It was a symbol of the most skilled professional esports athletes! These were their names: 

Moon, The Moon Emperor!
Phoenix, The Undying Emperor!
Autumn, The Autumn Emperor!
Rake, The God Emperor!

The LPL had no Emperors. No real ones, at least. They did have Daybreak Hermes, The Star Emperor. It was a nickname given to him by his Chinese fans. Just like how they called Roundy Round “God Roundy”. However, no matter how highly the Chinese fans spoke of Hermes, or Roundy for that matter, they all knew that neither of these two had what it took to measure up with an actual Emperor. The Four Emperors were just on another level. Another plane of existence. The gap was so wide that it was hard to even compare them. That was why Old Huang didn’t really listen to Cup Noodles. The LPL had some great talents who couldn’t even get close to the Four Emperors. In his mind, some random player in solo queue couldn’t even dream about it!

Cup Noodles breathed in deeply and then let it all out. “You don’t understand it. You should’ve been there. It was something else. That guy was so good. It was just a joy to watch. He was the best player in China, and one of the very best in the world.”

Old Huang puffed out some smoke and replied, “So what? Star Emperor is the best Midlaner in China right now, right? Do you see him holding his own against the Emperors? No. He isn’t good enough. Why would this kid be? Besides. That was four years ago. He’s probably past it. I doubt he can even keep up with the current meta.”

“Please,” Cup Noodles said. “It’s not that simple.” He remembered Season 1. He could still name the players of the Unrivaled Ten. That match at the World Championships where Maple beat Phoenix was one of the few games he remembered from back then. Maple had beaten an Emperor! He was that good! And then there was the Finals. The best of five series. Maple versus Rake. It took all five games and an unfortunate mistake on Maple’s part for the conclusion. It could’ve gone either way. If Maple was really back, then… Then…

Cup Noodles shook his head. Maple had always come out on top. He was unbeatable in Season 1. Except at the very end. In that final series, and ultimately in that final game, he lost. And then he quit. He left through the backdoor, while his opponent took the Summoner’s Cup in his hands and lifted it up high. Today, there was Rake the God Emperor, but no Maple. It was the painful truth. Cup Noodles shook his head and breathed out deeply. “Nevermind. Forget I said anything. Anyway, this game is useless for your video. Let’s move on to the next one.

There was still the game of League. Cup Noodles focused on his screen. There was no tension to the game anymore. That Orianna was too strong. He didn’t surrender, but he also didn’t really tryhard. The Blue team, led by the Orianna, pushed their way down mid lane and into Red team’s base. They destroyed one inhibitor and then moved on towards the Nexus. There was a scuffle there. A few players on the Red team who were just throwing themselves at the Orianna, trying to get at least one kill in. They didn’t. She played too well. And then the Nexus exploded. The game was over and the players were moved to the endgame lobby.

CN•Maple

Cup Noodles grinned to himself and shook his head. He didn’t care that he’d lost this game, because he’d lost to Maple. It didn’t matter if this Maple was the real Maple. What mattered was the manner in which they’d played. Full of confidence and with perfect awareness and mechanics. This Maple hadn’t let the name down. More importantly, he’d seen a shimmer of the most brilliant Midlaner from China. He muttered to his screen, to this Maple wherever he was, “Don’t let down the reputation of that Summoner Name…”

The name Maple didn’t mean anything to most Chinese League of Legends fans. There was only a small group who remembered the name, and even fewer what it stood for. The significance and weight behind it. It belonged to perhaps the best player China would ever see. The legend from Season 1. The only player who could go toe-to-toe with Rake!

✹

Lin Feng pumped his fist. “Yes! Another win! Let’s go!” He glanced at the clock. It was only 11:30 PM. He was young, he didn’t need much sleep. And if he wanted to catch up to Rake, he had to play more and give it his all! So he hit the queue again. “I’ll play one more. Maybe two. Yeah, two sounds better. If I’m fast, it should be fine! I’ll just sleep after three more games!”

Lin Feng was a man of his word. He went to bed at a respectable time and woke up early the next morning, mostly refreshed. He went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. Full of energy he walked towards the dining table, where he saw Su Xue just walking out of the kitchen. She was yawning, her groggy eyes barely open, while carrying her breakfast. “Wow, you look tired.”

Su Xue forced her eyes open a little more and only then seemed to notice Lin Feng. She nodded at him, though it felt more like she was rocking her head back and forth while falling back asleep. “Good, you’re awake. Come, have breakfast.”

Lin Feng grabbed the bowl of congee from Su Xue’s hands and dug in. While he was wolfing down the food, Su Xue peeled a soft-boiled egg for him while saying, “So I started looking into that video recording software. I found one and downloaded it. But there are so many options and settings and things… I don’t even know where to start.”

There was a brief silence. Just long enough that Lin Feng looked up, catching Su Xue shaking herself awake. Then she continued, “Oh, and I also watched the videos of some other commentators. Man, they’re some really smooth talkers. They just keep talking. It’s like they never breathe. I tried it for a bit, but like… I don’t get how they do it. How should I even come up with all those funny lines? I don’t just want to copy theirs. That would be lazy. But how do they keep producing more? I don’t get it. How do I even start learning about that?”

Su Xue looked down at her phone, which was playing a video on silent. It was a video she’d looked at before. She knew the words being said before they were even spoken. Another dirty joke… It was one of the constants in all the popular videos she’d found. No one shied away from making those dirty jokes. She grinned. If I’m going to do this… She looked up at Lin Feng, her eyes finally open and awake, and said, “Well, it doesn’t matter. All these videos are popular. I even tried looking for unpopular ones. There were none. They were all doing great! Getting a few hundred to thousands of new fans should be easy! Easier if I make some dirty jokes. People seem to love dirty jokes.”

Lin Feng paused for a brief moment. He put his chopsticks down and looked up at Su Xue, shocked. “You are going to tell dirty jokes?”

“You little brat! Hyperboles! Hyperboles! All I’m trying to say is that I’m taking it seriously! I’m going to learn how to do commentary!” Su Xue barked. She glared at Lin Feng, shoving the peeled egg into his bowl. “Eat that. Now. Or you’re going to be late for school.” She then put up her finger and added, “Oh, right! Make sure you’re home early tonight! The quarter finals for Worlds starts at 7! We’re commentating together on those games!”

✹

The eight teams who’d qualified for the quarter finals of the World Championships of League of Legends Season 5 had flown from England to France. Their next set of games would be held in the Zenith Paris in Paris. It was an indoor arena perfect for these kinds of occasions. The brackets were already announced.

Legend (Europe) versus Warrior (Korea)
Season (North America) versus Fate (Korea)
Hand of God (China) versus SSK (Korea)
KG (China) versus Assassins (Taiwan)

The best teams in the world participated at Worlds. Deeper in the tournament, the matchups would only become more exciting. There were basically no weaker teams in the quarter finals. The first and second matchup were especially exciting. They were the powerhouses from Korea versus Emperor teams. As for HoG versus SSK. Even the Chinese fans didn’t have much hope for that game. It seemed like SSK would have an easy way to the semifinals. They were simply the better team in every way. Then there was KG versus Assassins. These two teams were arguably the worst, if they could be called that, of the teams in the quarter finals. Either team could make it through to the next round. This was also the matchup most Chinese fans turned their attention to.

Cup Noodles’ Tristana was only Level 5. She had pushed the minion wave in bot lane, which had cost her a fair bit of health, before coming mid. And now the Level 7 Orianna attacked her with several skills. Each dealing substantial damage. Her health was dipping low, only a few more hits from death. This was something the Ahri wouldn’t let happen. She dashed toward her ad-carry to support her, firing off an essence bolt at Orianna–Spirit Rush! The Tristana wasn’t on the same page. She just wanted to get away, but her Flash was on cooldown. So she started running. Running into the Sejuani.

The Sejuani appeared from the bottom side river brush. She Arctic Assaulted into the Tristana, knocking her Airborne, and then threw a Glacial Prison! A bola flew at the Tristana, and the Ahri next to her, freezing the Tristana and slowing the Ahri. The Tristana couldn’t move. She couldn’t do anything for the next 1s. The Orianna moved toward the Tristana and commanded her Ball to attack while throwing out an auto attack.

《Killing spree!》

Cup Noodles stared at his screen. It was grey. His Tristana was dead. He’d died in a Gold game. A Master on the Ionia server had just been killed by some random Gold player on the Korea server. He didn’t know what to say or do, so he just sat there, staring at his screen.

Old Huang was also silent. He watched the fight happen on his recording software and hit replay. Then he watched it again, and one more time. “U-uhm…” He was searching for the words, but they sounded wrong. They sounded impossible. He still asked the question, “D-did you just get outplayed?”

“N-no, I-i, t-this…” Cup Noodles stuttered.

Cup Noodles knew it and Old Huang knew it. The Orianna had outplayed Cup Noodles. For some reason, this Gold rank player knew how much damage she had and that she had enough to kill the Tristana. But that could also be explained as an overly confident play. Those happened all the time in Gold. The real surprise was pulling the Tristana out of her Rocket Jump. The Orianna used her ultimate in the exact moment that it would shock the Tristana out of her escape. That took actual skill, or more luck than most people found in a lifetime of playing video games.

“… was luck, right? I-it has to be!”

Old Huang blew out some smoke rings, then shook his head and shrugged. “Who cares what that was? That Orianna got the fancy play, not you. I need you to do that. Those are the plays I need. Just do what that Orianna is doing!”

Cup Noodles chuckled, though he didn’t sound happy. It was more of a worried confusion. He slammed his hand down on his desk and said, “It’s fine! Really! It’s all fine. That was just a small slip up. Nothing to get worried about. I won’t do it again. Don’t worry. I got this!”

“Alright, I believe you. Just stop messing around,” Old Huang sighed. He then glanced at mid lane. At the Orianna. She was 3/0/0 and had almost double Ahri’s creep score.

✹

Cup Noodles had had his fun. It was time to get serious. He had to if he wanted to win this game. Fortunately, he was still a Master on the Ionia server. As much as this game wasn’t going his way right now, he was a really good player. When he returned to bot lane, he did what he did best, carrying. He pushed the lane towards the Blue team’s outer tower and kept poking the Jinx. Then, at 10 minutes, his Nami support threw a bubble that connected with the Jinx–Aqua Prison! The Jinx floated in the air, unable to do anything. Cup Noodles had his Tristana jump in and kill the Jinx. He didn’t even care for the tower aggro, because of Tristana’s Rocket Jump. This skill reset on a kill. So after bursting the Jinx down, he jumped back out and laughed into his microphone, “Haha! Pretty slick, eh? What do you think? That’s what you want, right?”

“Slick my ass! Hurry the fuck up! That Orianna is coming for you!” Old Huang shouted back over voice chat. He could already see what was going to happen. It was all too obvious.

“Eh?” Cup Noodles muttered. He looked at his minimap, where he found Orianna almost arriving at bot lane. “EH? How did she get here so fast!”

Cup Noodles ran towards his own outer tower. But Blue team’s Thresh wasn’t about to let this happen. The Thresh flayed the Tristana back and then threw a lantern to the river entrance. A shield wrapped around the Orianna as she was pulled to the Thresh’s side. Then she commanded her Ball to Attack and then Dissonance! The Ball shot towards the Tristana and then released a pulse of energy.

《You have been slain!》

Cup Noodles’ screen turned grey again. The announcer’s voice rang out in his ears. He stared in shock. The window on his screen showed him where most of the damage came from. Energy shots from the outer tower. He’d gone too far. His outplay had turned into a misplay real quick. Then he looked back at bot lane. The Nami was still alive. Well. She was. The Thresh and Orianna were chasing her down and had enough damage and crowd control between them. There was nothing the Nami could do.

《Enemy double kill!》

There was silence on the voice chat. Old Huang looked at the Orianna’s score. 5/0/0. And then at the 2/2/0 on Tristana. “Dammit! Who the hell’s gameplay am I recording? Yours or that Orianna’s? She looks like the Master! You look like the Gold player here!”

✹

Lin Feng was finding a steady groove this game. Push out mid lane, maybe pick up a kill, and then go to the Wraith Camp in the jungle for some extra gold and experience. Then it was back to mid lane and pushing the minion wave out again. And when the opportunity presented itself, he’d roam down to bot lane. He had a specific purpose for these little trips down bot lane. They weren’t something obvious like gold or kills. He already had both this game, more than he could ask for even. The real reason he terrorized Red team’s Botlaners was that Tristana. The ad-carry who’d roamed up the river to gank him twice. He had to enact revenge on her!

At 13 minutes, Lin Feng roamed bot lane for the second time in the game. His presence alone made the Tristana Flash away and then Rocket Jump for good measure. The Nami didn’t have these tools at her disposal. She tried to dodge the Thresh hook but failed. Orianna’s Ball was attached to the Thresh as he pulled himself towards the Nami–Death Sentence! And that was all she wrote. The Orianna’s damage was too damn high. It was a quick and easy kill.

At 16 minutes, the Sejuani went for a gank in bot lane. Lin Feng panned his camera over and watched what happened. The Sejuani missed her ultimate, with the ice storm merely slowing the Tristana and Nami down. They had enough of a headstart to safety. With only a sliver of health, they arrived at their outer tower. But the Sejuani had a lot of health and they had almost none. The Sejuani could towerdive. So they kept running all the way back towards their inner tower.

Lin Feng recognized the opening. He was already walking through the Red team’s bottom jungle to cut off the Tristana and Nami’s path of retreat. There was an entrance to the jungle halfway between the outer and inner tower. The Tristana and Nami walked past just as Lin Feng’s Orianna arrived there. She commanded her Ball, the damage from this first attack enough to pick up another double kill!

《Godlike!》

Lin Feng smiled and muttered, “Keep coming mid. Heh. Keep coming mid…” He sounded borderline insane as he had his Orianna walk back towards mid lane, leaving behind the two bodies of his latest conquest.

✹

Lin Feng looked down at bot lane. “Oh, another opening. This should be fun!” He’d just pushed the minion wave into Red team’s outer tower. The Ahri wasn’t there. She probably backed, or something. So he had his Orianna move down to bot lane. Through the river brush right below mid lane, and then a second brush. And then, from out the jungle they came. Ahri and Rek’Sai! They’d been waiting for him! It was an ambush!

Ahri used the first two dashes of her ultimate skill to close the distance, while Rek’Sai burrowed a tunnel to arrive right underneath Lin Feng. Then she Unburrowed. But Lin Feng wasn’t that easy to kill. His fingers glided over his keyboard. He knew precisely what to do. A quick sidestep from the Ahri’s Charm that was already flying his way, and then a Flash to dodge the knock up from the Rek’Sai. All the while, he commanded Orianna’s Ball to stay put right on top of the Rek’Sai and Ahri.

“Command: Shockwave!” Lin Feng exclaimed as he pressed down on his R key. An electromagnetic pulse ripped out from Orianna’s Ball and dragged Ahri and Rek’Sai back towards it. Then he pressed down on the W key–Command: Dissonance. A pulse of energy erupted from the Ball.

The Ahri and Rek’Sai turned around to escape. Their health bars were almost empty and they didn’t want to give any more kills to the Orianna. They ran into their jungle, towards a ward from the Blue team. This ward lit up. The Irelia was teleporting in! Behind them was a fed Orianna. In front of them was an Irelia who was more than strong enough to finish them off. There was no left or right way to escape to. They put up a last struggle before both dying. One kill went to the Irelia, the other to Orianna.

《Legendary!》

Lin Feng pressed the TAB key. It showed his kills, deaths and assists. 8/0/2. The game announcer was right. He was Legendary! “Oh, wow!” he exclaimed. Then he grinned and added, “Man, my Orianna is really awesome!”

✹

Cup Noodles and Old Huang were also checking out the game score. More specifically, they were looking at the Orianna. The game wasn’t even 20 minutes in, yet she was already Legendary and had somehow found the time in between kills to get over 200 CS. It almost felt like it should be impossible. But this Orianna had somehow done it. At this point, it was hard to see anyone kill her, even in a 5vs1.

“It’s over…” Cup Noodles sighed and shook his head.

Old Huang lit up a new cigarette and blew out some smoke before saying, “What the hell? I recorded a highlight reel for this Orianna… Dammit! This was supposed to be a highlight reel of you! What good are you if this Orianna in a Gold game beats you!”

Cup Noodles wanted an excuse. He needed one! “Hey! I didn’t expect to run into this Ori. She’s definitely not Gold. She must be a smurf, and a really high ranked one. She’s way too good.”

Old Huang snorted. “Aren’t you a Master? What random player is better? What? Are you going to tell me this is that oh so great Midlaner from Season 1 you were talking about?”

“Haha. Maybe… I don’t know? Probably not. Doubt it.” Cup Noodles fell silent for a brief moment, thinking back to Season 1. Then he sighed. A deep and long sigh. “It’d be great if he was. He was something else. If he came back, the LPL would have an Emperor finally.”

“What? A solo kill?” Cup Noodles yelped into his microphone. “What the hell is that Ahri doing? Wasn’t she low health? Why did she not back?”

“No, wasn’t like that,” Old Huang replied. He looked at his screen, blowing out a large breath of smoke, and shook his head. “That Orianna played that good. She flashed in the very exact moment that Ahri threw out her orb. There was nothing she could do.”

“Damn really??” Cup Noodles laughed. This is only Gold, what did I expect… He clicked his tongue and said, “Whatever. Just a typical solo kill in Gold. When that Ahri hits Level 6, she’ll be fine. She’ll dive and I’ll get my time auto attacking while they all jump on her. First blood was mine. I’ll carry this game. Easy.”

Cup Noodles had a point. Tristana was a late game hyper carry. A maximum level, full item build Tristana was almost unstoppable! The more kills she got in the early game, the faster she reached that point. That super late game didn’t always come to pass, though. But that didn’t really matter either. Starting from two items, a third on her way to completing her build, she would suddenly receive a big power spike!

“Mhm.” Old Huang stared at his screen, nodding. Everything Cup Noodles said sounded logical, but it still didn’t feel quite right. So he warned, “Just be careful. You can have a little more fun at bot, but then go take care of mid! Late game Orianna can get really strong. I don’t wanna see that. The viewers would hate it. You gotta carry this one. Carry it hard!”

“Chill! Chill, man!” Cup Noodles said. Then he chuckled and added, “You just said that Ori used her Flash, right? Here. Let me show you what we do with a flashless Ori!”

✹

At 5 minutes, Lin Feng returned to base and spent his gold. The items he bought gave him the edge over the Ahri. When he returned to lane, he started pressuring the Ahri even harder than before. She wasn’t allowed to do anything but sit behind her tower and try to stay in range for the experience. Lin Feng continued to widen the gap, accurately getting every last hit on the minions while keeping her from even getting one. It was painful to watch.

Lin Feng was pushing into the outer tower in mid lane, when he spotted the Tristana walking up the river into his lane. She Rocket Jumped on top of him and placed a bomb on his head–Explosive Charge! Then she Rapid Fired at him with her auto attacks, dealing physical damage and charging up the bomb! His Orianna’s health fell. The bomb would explode in a few more seconds too. He pushed down on his E and then his W. Orianna’s Ball retreated to her side and protected her with a shield before it sent out a pulse of energy. This pulse boosted her movement speed and she sped away.

The Tristana kept firing at the Orianna all the way until the Orianna reached Blue team’s outer tower. Then she had to give up. Her damage in the early game just wasn’t enough. It’d take a little more scaling before she could burst down her targets. But she did leave the Orianna with almost no health.

Lin Feng rubbed his chin and grinned. “Hehe, that Tristana looks a little interesting. This might be fun!”

The Tristana’s gank wasn’t a gank in its truest form. Unlike most Junglers, Tristana didn’t have any crowd control. All she could do was fire off her cannon and harass, in this case, the Midlaner. There was never a real threat to the Orianna. It was just a little trick to help the Ahri in her lane and force the Orianna to give up on some of the pressure she was exerting.

✹

Cup Noodles had his Tristana walk back to bot lane while laughing into his microphone. “Haha! Did you see that? Did you see her run away? Haha! Man, I totally pissed her off! She’s probably tilting off the edge of the world right now! Haha! Did you see that? Haha!”

Old Huang blew out some smoke, smiling. “Not bad, not bad. That was some quick thinking. Great move! It really worked great! This should make the game even easier! Now let’s get that Quadra or Penta!”

Cup Noodles had played this little gank in mid lane to perfection, as could be expected from a Master player. He first pushed out his wave in bot lane, making sure that there was nothing he was losing from his roam, before going up to mid lane. Then he attacked the Orianna, forcing her to give up on a minion wave and retreat. He got the Orianna’s health down, made her lose CS, and gave the Ahri some breathing room to finally get some CS. This little gank couldn’t have gone any better for Cup Noodles!

“That’s how you reach Master as ad-carry. Takes some real awareness,” Cup Noodles said into his microphone. He started laughing, proud of his little play. Then he decided he should explain it to Old Huang in a little more detail. Old Huang wasn’t a Master, after all. “If you can’t push for any direct advantages in bot lane, you want to look around the map and see if you can put pressure somewhere else. Like here, I saw Ori pushing in mid. It was the obvious choice. You help your Midlaner, and that helps you later into the game. Now I tilted that Ori and this’ll be an easy win.”

Cup Noodles got back to bot lane and almost instantly started pressuring the Jinx again. This lane was too easy for him. He looked back up to mid lane. His Ahri was really far behind. He rubbed his chin and said, “Ahri can use a little more help. Plus, it’ll be so much fun to tilt that Ori even harder! I’ll go for another gank in a few! Hahaha!”

“Alright, sounds good.” Old Huang checked the footage from the last gank in mid and saw some openings for his commentary. “Make it good. I can talk a story around it. This should be good! Let’s do it and get a useful game!”

《Any ally has been slain.》

Cup Noodles panned his camera to mid lane. It hadn’t even been a minute! The game clock read 6:30 minutes. And there was already another kill! “What the… How did she die again? Is she feeding? Trolling? What is going on?”

The Ahri wasn’t feeding. Or trolling. She was a Gold player playing against a Challenger. Playing against one of the best players in the world. Lin Feng had baited her, showing an opening that really wasn’t there. The Ahri had just reached Level 6 and learned her ultimate–Spirit Rush! She dashed forward and fired an essence bolt at the Orianna. Then she dashed again and attacked the Orianna with three Fox-Fires! That was when the real threat revealed herself. Sejuani. Blue team’s Jungler. She charged at the Ahri and knocked her Airborne with her Arctic Assault.

Fidget Spinners flew at the Ahri. The Orianna’s Ball was on top of her, also dealing damage. She wanted to get away. Flash or the third dash of her ultimate. Either could work! But neither would. She was Airborne and couldn’t do anything. Then, as she hit the ground again and used her ultimate again, a shockwave spread out around her. It damaged her and dragged her backtowards Orianna’s Ball. Her health was almost zero. She was dead.

Behind his computer, Lin Feng shook his head, smiling. “So naive. She really needs to be a little more careful next time. Hehe.”

If the Ahri player knew what was happening, how she was being played by a Challenger on the Ionia server, she’d understand her frustration and anger. This was unfair! Absolutely unfair! There was nothing she could do about this. She couldn’t win this game. She just wasn’t good enough to face a Challenger. She was Gold! Dirty! This was a dirty play! Nothing more!

✹

Cup Noodles started to feel a little worried. That Orianna now had two kills. His own lane opponents, the Jinx and Thresh, were playing absurdly defensive on top of that. He could get all the CS he wanted, but it was impossible to get anything more out of this lane. The Orianna would scale faster. Would deal more damage. Might even carry the game. “This is shit. We need to shut down mid asap!”

Mindlessly farming minions in bot lane, unobstructed by Blue teams Botlaners, Cup Noodles panned his camera to mid lane again. He had to do something, or risk losing control over the game. “I’ll make another roam mid in a bit. Just have to wait for Ahri’s ult to come off cooldown. If we play that right, worst case scenario we force Ori to blow her Summoner Spells. Best case, we get a kill and a tower. That should shut that Ori down. Ahri should finally be able to get back into it then.”

At 8 minutes into the game, Cup Noodles had pushed out the minion wave in bot lane. He roamed up the river, looking to gank mid lane again. The Orianna was standing close to the bottom side river brush, farming minions in the middle of the lane. Cup Noodles chuckled. “Perfect. You’re dead! Hehe!” He walked through the river brush and then placed an Explosive Charge on the Orianna’s head before Rapid Firing away, dealing physical damage and charging up the bomb!

Cup Noodles grinned, happy with his little plan. This is going to be easy. Doesn’t even matter that I’m not Level 6 yet. There’s nothing that Ori can do to me anyway. Even if everything goes wrong, I still got my Rocket Jump. I’ll just fly away! Haha! And there’s also the Ahri. She’s a little behind, but should still deal enough damage to be of some he—

The Orianna’s Ball flew straight towards Cup Noodles’ Tristana and hit, dealing magic damage. Then a pulse of energy spread out–Command: Dissonance! “Shit!” Cup Noodles exclaimed. The Ahri was right there! He expected that the Orianna would run away in this 2vs1. It didn’t make any sense for her to stick around! But the Orianna didn’t flee. She was going hard on him instead! His Tristana’s health was getting low and the Ahri hadn’t even started helping yet. He flicked his mouse and pressed down on his W key–Rocket Jump! His Tristana aimed her cannon to the ground and fire, launching herself into the air.

Lin Feng smiled and muttered, “Keep coming mid. Heh. Keep coming mid…” He pressed down on his R key. This was Orianna’s ultimate skill Command: Shockwave! A skill that sent out a large shockwave around Orianna’s Ball and pulled in all Champions caught within its range. It didn’t matter if they were in the middle of an animation or not. The Tristana was pulled out of her Rocket Jump to safety and suddenly found herself in a peculiar position.

“Fuck.”

VICTORY

“Ha! Great game! I played that perfectly!” Lin Feng leaned back in his chair and laughed. Another win. The third in a row. Each next one more dominating than the last. He didn’t care what his teammates did. They could feed to their heart’s content for all he cared! He’d carry them and win the game anyway! Though it had to be said these games were only in Gold ELO. The opponents weren’t his match on their best day and his worst. It gave him the chance to ease back into it and start finding his form again. He played in mid lane and picked Champions like Lulu, Twisted Fate, and Viktor who were strong in the current meta. 

This was the first time in four years that Lin Feng played on his own account. He felt the added pressure. These games were on his name. He couldn’t hide behind different Summoner names anymore. Every move was truly his now. But that didn’t bother him in the game. Not really. He played like he always did, comfortable and confident. He overwhelmed his lane opponents and forced them to hide behind their towers. It was all they could do, or they’d feed him and make it even worse for themselves. However, hiding behind their towers was not the answer either. Lin Feng would simply go somewhere else. There were three lanes and a big jungle. There were five players on each team. He could go after whoever he liked. So he pushed out his lane and started roaming around the map, showing up just at the right moment wherever he went. This was something called Awareness. To know when and where to be and exert the greatest impact on a game. It was one of, if not the greatest divider between professional players and people climbing the ranked ladder.

Awareness was far more important than game mechanics. There were plenty of very strong mechanical players in Master and Challenger. They were a dime a dozen. Some random players were even better than professional players in this regard. But their mechanics had no purpose if they didn’t know when and where to apply it. The awareness to follow up. The awareness to navigate a chaotic teamfight. The awareness to play the whole map to their advantage. This was the skill of a professional player.

There was an element of talent to awareness. But most was borne from hard work. That was what Lin Feng was focusing on right now, and also the reason he chose to play on the Korean server rather than on the Ionia server. The best way to hone awareness was through teamplay, something that was simply far more prevalent on the Korean server. Even in lower ranked games in Gold, players were actively looking to work together to win the game. His plan was simple. He’d climb his way up the ladder, each rank becoming a little more difficult to win, to work on his awareness. Then, by the time he reached the top of Challenger, he might even get the chance to test his progress against him. Against the Sovereign.

From as early as Season 1, Rake was considered the best professional League of Legends player. He was the Midlaner for SSK and Lin Feng’s ultimate target. But Rake didn’t just stand at the top of the professional scene, he also stood at the top of the Korean ranked ladder. In fact, he had three accounts up there. One was in first place, one in fourth and the last in tenth. He had to play consistently to keep these ranks, so it wouldn’t be strange for Lin Feng to run into him down the line. Lin Feng would face Rake again. The same guy who had beaten him four years ago and had led to him quitting the game. But the past was the past. Lin Feng didn’t think about that anymore. He looked up ahead. At the challenge in front of him. A dream that seemed almost impossible. But it was exactly this apparent impossibility that motivated him to fight!

Lin Feng pursed his lips together and blew out the air from his mouth. He looked at the end game lobby screen. Gold 2, 85 lp. He’d gained 34 lp for this last win. One more and he would be in his promo series for Gold 1. Another step towards his goal. He closed his eyes and slowly breathed in and then back out again. Then he started smiling and set up straight again. He placed his right hand on the mouse and his left on the keyboard. “Just you wait! I’ll climb up to Challenger and beat you!”

✹

Dirty clothes were strewn across the floor. Old Huang sat on a sweater in front of his computer. He had his League client open on the Korean server. His recording software was properly set up and he’d just tried a test run. Everything was good to go. He was on voice chat with Cup Noodles, the Master player he’d invited to help him make a video. “Yo, Cup, you ready?”

“Yup yup! All good to go on my end!” Cup Noodles replied.

“Awesome! Let’s make something great today. Give your best, ya hear?” Old Huang scrolled through the comments on his most recent video. The comments were all pointing in the same direction. His fans knew what they wanted. He knew what he had to create. “I want to see a Quadra or Penta! Nothing short of that! My viewers have been bitching about how lame my videos are. They wanna see something cool. You better show me something amazing! We gotta blow them outta the water! I wanna shut them up and get them off my ass!”

Cup Noodles queued up for a ranked game and chuckled. “Chill, man. I’m a Master. Did you forget? Ha. And you’re having me play in Gold. This is going to be too easy. Just watch. I’ll make the plays happen.” He was an ad-carry main. And a very good one at that. He’d hit Master on the Ionia server relying only on his own skills. Not to mention that it was generally a lot harder for Botlaners to climb up the ladder because of how much they had to rely on their fellow Botlaner. He was one of the best in his role.

Many players were stuck in Gold. The queue never took long to pop. Before he knew it, Cup Noodles entered Champion Select and called his role. No one argued. They let him have it. So he picked his ad-carry and didn’t pay much attention to the rest of Champion Select. It didn’t really matter to him. This was just a Gold game. Until they went into the loading screen. That was when he noticed the name of a player on the other team. “Huh. That’s funny. Look. That guy on the other team, he’s also Chinese!”

“What? Howdya know?” Old Huang asked, confused. He was making sure his recording software was working properly. That it was recording at the correct resolution. So he wasn’t paying attention to the game yet.

“Dude. How do I know? Look at his name… CN•Maple. It can’t get any more obvious than that,” Cup Noodles replied. He looked at the loading screen, at that specific summoner name, and sighed. “That name brings back memories. We had a pro back in Season 1 with that name. Maybe this one is a fan or something?”

Old Huang shrugged and focused back on his recording software. “Eh, never heard of him. Season 1 was too long ago. Those guys all retired pretty much. And like, why care about some random pro?” He started playing League of Legends in Season 3 and back then hadn’t bothered with the professional scene. Even the famous players from Season 4 were fuzzy in his mind. He only really knew what was going on since recently, because it could help him with his videos. But beyond that, he simply didn’t care about it.

Cup Noodles shook his head. “You don’t get it, man. He was China’s number one Mid! Everyone looked up to him. I only started playing at the end of the first season and even I became a huge fan. It’s a damn shame everybody forgot about him.” 

Old Huang chuckled, uncaring. “Alright, I get it. I get it. You’re a hipster. You played League before it was cool. Quit ya braggin’. We’ve got a video to shoot here! Focus on getting me some content! I want that Quadra or Penta!”

✹

Lin Feng sat in Champion Select and moved his mouse over several different Champions. Whenever he played with Su Xue or his friends from school, he’d choose whichever Champion he felt like playing. They were mostly assassins, because they suited the style he enjoyed to play the most. His godly LeBlanc was just one example. Or his Fizz in that duel against Zuo You’s friend. But these games today were not for fun. He was playing on the Korean server and on his own account to get better. To find his form back. So he played all kinds of different Champions. In this game, he chose to play one of the most reliable mid lane Champions out there. Orianna.

Blue Team versus Red Team
Top lane: Irelia versus Gnar
Jungle: Sejuani versus Rek’Sai
Mid lane: Orianna versus Ahri
AD-carry: Jinx versus Tristana
Support: Thresh versus Nami

Lin Feng looked at the portraits on the loading screen while waiting for the game to start. He noticed that the Tristana’s Summoner Name was Paomian. It read like pinyin. “Another Chinese player?” Lin Feng mumbled, scratching the back of his head. Then he shook his head and slapped his cheeks. “Ah, whatever. Doesn’t matter. I’ll just win and go on to the next game!”

Lin Feng followed behind his minions towards mid lane. His lane opponent was Ahri. A sexy fox spirit who held an advantage over his Orianna in the early game. This was in a large part due to Orb of Deception and Charm. The first skill allowed Ahri to send out her orb in a straight line in front of her and then pull it back, dealing magic damage on the way out and true damage on the way back. Charm was a little more devious. Ahri could blow a kiss and if it hit an enemy, they would fall under her charm, stopping their movement abilities and causing them to walk harmlessly towards her. Charmed Champions even took increased damage from Orb of Deception!

However, Ahri’s main abilities were skillshots. She had to hit them for them to deal any damage. So all Lin Feng had to do was dodge them and attack her with Orianna’s Ball and auto attacks. And that was what he did. The Ahri was only Gold, and played more than a little predictable. He sidestepped her attacks before she even used them and counterattacked when her skills were on cooldown. The game wasn’t even 4 minutes in, when he had her down to half health. She was hiding behind her outer tower and wasn’t getting any last hits on the minions.

《First blood!》

Lin Feng sat up in his chair, surprised. First blood wasn’t his. He looked around the map and found where it’d happened. Bot lane. The Nami and Tristana stood over the dead corpse of the Jinx. His best guess was that the Jinx got caught in the Nami’s bubble and was killed. He nodded, his brows raised, and said, “Oh, that’s pretty good.”

✹

Cup Noodles grinned. He’d just picked up a kill on the Jinx with his Tristana. It was an aggressive play, but he knew his limits. He’d played it perfectly. “Ha! See? I told you Gold was easy!”

“Never doubted you for a sec. That play was pretty nice. You just keep doing your best. Don’t forget to give me a Quadra or Penta!” Old Huang laughed. These first few minutes of gameplay looked promising.

“Just leave it to me! I’ll solo carry. Just watch!” Cup Noodles said. He then hit the TAB key and looked at the scoreboard. It looked a little different than he was hoping to see. “What in the world… Look at that! How is that Ori so far ahead of the Ahri in CS?”

Old Huang was spectating the game from Red team’s point of view. He moved to the mid lane and found the Ahri hiding behind her tower, desperate to get some last hits on the minions. “Oh, looks like she’s going to have to back. She’ll just die if–”

Old Huang didn’t get to finish his sentence. The Ahri walked forward instead of retreating, eager for that last hit. She threw out her Orb of Deception to try and get some gold. That was the cue for the Orianna. She flashed forward. Then commanded her Ball to Attack and then Dissonance! A pulse of energy spread out and struck the Ahri. She followed up by throwing a Fidget Spinner. 

The Ahri was immobilized during her cast animation. She couldn’t do anything for a brief moment. Then she flashed away. Her health was low, but she wanted to make it out. She still had at least 10 health remaining. I’m out! But she wasn’t. As she flashed away, the Orianna had thrown one last Fidget Spinner. It flew through the air, following her through the Flash, and struck her.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Lin Feng smiled and gave himself a pat on the shoulder. “Mhm! Good job, me! Well done! Played that perfectly!”

Video content creation. It was a spontaneous suggestion by Zuo You. A spur in the moment topic that could blow away into forgotten lands by the time the subject shifted again. But Su Xue didn’t want to forget it. Video content creation, and then specifically gameplay commentating, was on the up in China. There were many people doing it with great success. They would hire a professional or famous player and record gameplay with them, then commentate and finally prepare the video for release. This was another avenue for streamers to get their name out there and become popular enough, so that they could make a living by playing the video game they loved to play!

The main gripe as a streamer was that you could only attract viewers while you were online. It was the content that was created in the moment that got everyone together. If the streamer was lucky, they could get a feature on the main page of their streaming website and more people would come and watch. Then there was word of mouth advertising and short clips on social media. But beyond that, there weren’t a whole lot of ways to find new viewers, because the only way they’d come and stay was if you were online and they liked what they were seeing.

It was completely different on a video hosting website like PlayMoreLoL. There was no need to be online at specific times. People could come and watch a video whenever they felt like it. On top of that, PlayMoreLoL was at least as popular as the big streaming sites like HuyaTV. Content creators could reach an entirely different set of people who might enjoy their work! And who knew, maybe some of those new fans would come and watch the stream, or vice versa. The traction created through this would only make the content creators more popular. It was a win-win situation for them.

Su Xue enjoyed browsing PlayMoreLoL. She used to do it all the time, before she started streaming. Though not so much anymore. She was struggling to find any free time. And what time she did find was spent preparing dinner for Lin Feng. Just getting in a good night’s rest sometimes felt impossible. But she knew PlayMoreLoL. She knew how videos could easily gain traction and reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of views. Not to mention the much larger number of featured slots on the frontpage. It also helped that Su Xue was already a streamer. She could have her fans watch the videos, like them and leave a comment. There was no way this plan could fail.

All of this information swirled through Su Xue’s head even long after Zuo You had left. She’d done the dishes, absentmindedly, and sat back down at the dining table. Just staring in front of her. Maybe. Maybe I really could? The more she thought about it, the harder it became to see the negatives. Her mind focused completely on everything that could come from it. There were no negatives! Not that she could think of at least! It would be a success! There was nothing stopping her from becoming famous except herself! She looked into the hallway at the door to Lin Feng’s room and shouted, “Lin Feng!”

A few seconds later, the door opened and a head popped out. “Yeah?”

Su Xue beckoned him over with her hand. “Come! Come here! I want to talk with you about something.”

“Ok?” Lin Feng mumbled as he pushed open the door completely and walked over towards Su Xue. He sat down across from her and asked, “What is this all about? Is everything ok?”

Su Xue clasped her hands and looked at him. There was no smile in her expression. No joy. No anger. Just utter concentration. “What do you think of Zuo You’s idea? You know, the thing about me making videos.”

Lin Feng ruffled his messy hair. “Oh, sounded like a good idea. Probably going to be really exhausting though. Aren’t you already complaining all the time about how little time you have? It’s only going to get worse. You’re basically going to need twice the time!”

“Don’t worry about me,” Su Xue replied. She breathed out, letting all tension escape her body. “I’m new to the scene. If I want to make a name for myself, I can’t chill. I can’t sit back and expect everything to be handed to me. It’s going to take hard work. I’m willing to put in that hard work. I’ll make this a success.” She then turned to Lin Feng and looked him in the eyes. “But this plan from Zuo You. I can’t do it alone. If I’m going to do this, I’ll be needing your help. For the first bit at least.”

Though Su Xue had never done commentary videos before, she’d watched plenty of them to know what was important. A good video had two strong elements. The commentary and the gameplay. Both had to be of high quality. Commentary was something she would have to work on. All she had to do was put in the time and effort to research how others did it and then create her own style. It was a lot of work, but it was doable. However, quality gameplay was something a lot more difficult. She couldn’t just start playing like a professional player. She wasn’t that good at the game.

Quality gameplay was just as important as a good commentator. The Chinese people watching videos on PlayMoreLol were particularly picky about this. If someone new tried to break into the scene, the viewers would put this new video content creator under a loop. All it took was one mistake. One bad play. One bad comment on a good play. And it was all over. Their hopes of becoming a video content creator would be ruined. Even Diamond players weren’t immune to this. Only the best players could create the gameplay the Chinese fans felt was worth watching. Anything else and they would take to the comment section and write out their displeasure.

「I’d be embarrassed even uploading this garbage. What a waste of bandwidth.」

「Gold gameplay? Lmao. get out of here fucktard」

「lol, no point in watching this. Not even a quadra or penta…..」

「pls learn to play before posting this shit….. scratch that. just dont post and delete your acc」

「if your mom saw this shed off herself」

「I’ve seen two year olds with more personality than whoever this idiot is.」

Su Xue had read through these kinds of comments many times before. She knew how ruthless people could be on the internet. Even her stream saw it from time to time. But this example also showed why she needed help with procuring gameplay. Diamond players weren’t good enough. She was Platinum. It was absolutely hopeless if she tried to make some videos herself. Her only hope was that Lin Feng would be willing to step in and help her get quality gameplay.

Lin Feng didn’t need to think twice at her suggestion. “Sure! Of course I’ll help you!”

Su Xue smiled. She’d spent the last half an hour worrying how she was going to get her hands on quality gameplay if Lin Feng said no, and hadn’t come up with any solution. There really was only Lin Feng she could rely on for this. “Thanks,” she said. Then she added before he could say anything, “I won’t let you do this for free, of course! You’ve already helped me out so much! I can’t keep taking advantage of you! How about this, if this ends up making money, we’ll split the profits 50-50?”

Su Xue and Lin Feng lived together. They shared everything together and were quickly coming to see each other as family. But just because they were so close, that didn’t mean Su Xue felt good with Lin Feng helping her for free. She was making money for the time he spent streaming! As long as it wasn’t more than a little here and a little there, she didn’t feel too bad. She’d just prepare him a little extra for dinner to thank him. But if it became something more permanent, a deal where he would actively have to make time free in his schedule to record with her, then it became something different. She would have to pay him for his time with money, or she wouldn’t feel good about it.

Lin Feng waved his hands. “No need. Let’s talk about money when you’re actually successful. You just go and find out how we can record the gameplay. It doesn’t really change much for me anyway. I’ve been meaning to get my own account and play some solo queue anyway!”

✹

Lin Feng looked at his laptop. He’d spent the last few hours finishing up his homework. But his mind was never really on it. Not after the SSK versus Dust game the other day. That game had helped him realize how far behind Rake he was. How much work he had to put in to reach those heights again. He would find his old form again and then only get better! His games with Su Xue or High School 13’s esports team were only child’s play in comparison. They were good fun but wouldn’t really help him. If he wanted to achieve his goals, his first step would be to make an account and fight his way up the ranked ladder in solo queue.

The Koreans were the best players in the world right now. By that logic, their solo queue should also have the strongest players. It was the best place to get better. So Lin Feng chose to play on their server. He downloaded a VPN so that he could connect to it and bought a Gold-rank account that had finished its placement matches. Then he opened up the Korean League client and entered his new login information. The client loaded in. He took a deep breath. A smile spread on his face. Let’s do this!

Lin Feng had felt pretty comfortable about his chances of getting back to the top of the League of Legends scene, until that SSK versus Dust game. That one game had shook him awake. He realized how wrong his thinking had been. A four year hiatus wasn’t just him being away for four years, but also everyone else becoming better for four years. Rake was the number one player in the world. But the Rake of Season 5 was incomparably more dominant than the Rake from Season 1. They were like two different players. If Lin Feng wanted to have any chance against Rake, just playing a few games here and there wouldn’t do. He needed to take this seriously. He had to put his all into this. And he would have to work every waking moment on improving if he wanted even the tiniest chance of catching back up again.

Lin Feng breathed in through his nose and then let it all out. It was time to finally do this. He amped himself by moving around in his chair and then said, “I need to get better! That’s the only way!”

✹

In a small town in the Northeast of China was an almost abandoned apartment building. That was how it looked, at least. No one could be reasonably expected to live here. But voices could be heard and lights were on. In one of the apartments, in a dirty room with dishes piled up in a corner and a thick layer of dust, a man in shorts and a tank top sat on the floor in front of his computer. He had the QQ messenger app open and was talking with someone.

Smut Sentinel:「Are you ready?」

Cup Noodles:「Okay, ready.」

Smut Sentinel:「Good. Get on voice.」

Smut Sentinel, or Old Huang as he was called in the outside world, lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply, letting the smoke fill his lungs. Then he blew out rings of smoke, smiling brightly. His plan was a success. He’d found someone who could help him bring his videos to the next level!

Old Huang was still new to the whole video content creation scene, but he was already doing phenomenal for himself. His choice of name in combination with his skillful commentating style that heavily leaned on his sexual humour got his videos to average 250,000 views. This was a very impressive number for a newcomer. However, his viewers were never satisfied. They always wanted, even demanded, more from him. It was to the point where his channel was stagnating.

The comments sections below his most recent videos all complained about the same thing. Gameplay. The quality of the gameplay didn’t live up to the quality of his commentary. But his own rank was only Diamond 5, so he couldn’t use that. As for his friend who was helping him, he was high Diamond. That still wasn’t enough. So Old Huang had reached out to a Master player on the Ionia server and asked them to help him get some source material. To make it even more interesting, for this next video specifically, this mystery Master would play on the famous Korean server!