Lin Feng chuckled. These guys have no clue how lucky they are. They’re getting all the perks of belonging to a professional team with none of the downsides, and the whole thing is free! He was coaching them while Ren Rou took care of everything else in terms of management. All the five players from the esports club had to do was work on their game. To improve as quickly as they possibly could! They didn’t even have to think about strategy or what champion to play, he did that for them. It couldn’t be any easier for them!

This was exactly how the professional teams and esports orgs worked these days. After the competitive League of Legends scene had matured, there was a lot of money going around. Team owners woke up one morning with more than enough funding to expand their organizations. There was now enough money for support staff. They already had managers, but now they could start investing in coaching staff and analysts. The coaches made all the decisions. They decided who would play in a tournament, what strategy the team would go for, and which champions the players would use. All that was left for the players to do was focus on improving their play and being in optimal condition when the next game started.

Lin Feng didn’t have this luxury back in Season 1. Not that many people played League of Legends during those days, and  there really weren’t many professional players and orgs. There was no money for support infrastructure around the teams. No coaching staff to tell them how to play. All they had was a team owner, someone who spent most of their time seeking out potential sponsors and convincing them to throw money at the team. They also had a manager who took care of the logistical things, like arranging scrims, booking travel and accomodations, and buying food. The rest was up to the players.

From analyzing the game to staying up to date with the latest patches. They researched their opponents and prepared their own strategies. Lin Feng and his team handled all of that back in Season 1. They had to coach themselves. That’s what Lin Feng drew on for what he was doing with the esports team. As far as game knowledge and tactics went, Lin Feng was good enough that he could be considered about half of a professional coach. Sure, it was a given that he didn’t have anywhere near enough experience to join the coaching staff of a professional team. But it was more than enough to help the esports club prepare for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament.

The five players on the esports club team sat side by side. Lin Feng walked behind them, back and forth. His eyes caught everything, from how they sat in their chair to the smallest mistakes they made in the game. And he was sure to point them out as bluntly as he could. There was no time to be nice about it. They had to be ready when the Shanghai 16 School Tournament started!

“Tang Tang, you have a minimap for a reason! Go to your settings and make it bigger, maybe then you can keep an eye on it!”

“Wei Dong, Tang Bingyao isn’t going to bite you. Stop running away from her! Support her goddamnit!”

“Liu Yue, quit it with the bullshit roaming. Maintain vision and move in when there’s an opportunity! Don’t walk around the map admiring the trees and the rocks! If you can’t find an opening to gank, force one!”

“Chen Ze map awareness! Come on dude, what did we talk about last game? If you pick Teleport, use it. Hey! Chen Ze! Listen! What did I just say? Teleport!”

They tried to do what Lin Feng told them to do, but every time they tried to change things he’d be yelling at them about yet another mistake they made. Another mistake. Another thing they did wrong. Half of the time they didn’t even understand what it was they did wrong. Or how it was wrong! They started to play more carefully, hoping he would stop shouting at them. But he didn’t, he only shouted louder. Their hands felt sweaty and their hearts would skip a beat every time they thought he would scream at them again.

Ouyang tapped on Lin Feng’s shoulder and gestured at him to follow. When they were out of earshot from the rest of the members, he said, “Hey bro. I trust you, really, I do. But are you sure this is the best way to coach them? Look at them! Look! They’re terrified! If you keep pushing them, they’ll snap. They’ll either rage and tilt or give up. You don’t want to see that happen, right? So how about you chill down a bit?”

“No. I can’t.” Lin Feng shook his head. “I would be a bad coach if I did that. If they want to improve, I have to point out their mistakes as they happen. That’s the only way they’ll get any better!” He looked over at the five players, then added, “Besides, I’ve only been pointing out the big, obvious mistakes. I’ll go into a little more depth after the game is over.”

“The big, obvious mistakes?” Ouyang looked at Lin Feng, incredulous. He felt his heart skip a beat. If he thinks those are only the big and obvious mistakes, then what about…? Is he going to scream even more at them after the game…? He grabbed Lin Feng by his arm and asked, “Yo bro, are you sure about this? Don’t you think you’re setting the bar a little too high? It’s only a high school tournament…”

Lin Feng smiled at Ouyang. “Trust me. We need to do this if we want to win that tournament.” He understood better than Ouyang how vast the gap between them and high ranked teams was. If they wanted any chance at winning the Shanghai 16 School Tournament, they couldn’t slack. He couldn’t be nice about certain things. Being this harsh and yelling and hammering down on them, it wasn’t fun for him either. But it was necessary if they wanted to have any chance of beating the top schools like Shanghai International and Shanghai High School.

The team had two weeks to prepare for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Even if they trained every single day until then, it was still going to be incredibly difficult to get to a point where they were ready. There were so many variables that had to fall perfectly into place. Even with Lin Feng on the team there were no guarantees. He couldn’t carry them by himself. But if they worked hard and really tried, they would eventually get to a point where they’d be real contenders.

No one gave up. No one tilted. The members of the esports club listened to Lin Feng’s advice, trying to ignore his harsh tone, and worked hard to improve their game. For every failure, they made a mental note to work on it later. They couldn’t let Lin Feng down. They wouldn’t let this golden opportunity to take home the trophy pass by. For the honor of their club and the glory of victory, they would push themselves to their limits and exceed them! They would go beyond plus ultra!

They played several more games like this until Lin Feng noticed how late it was. “Oh, shoot! It’s already seven? I need to go home guys!” Su Xue was probably already in her pajamas, waiting for him with dinner ready. He’d promised to take over her stream so that she could get some sleep. “Alright guys, gather around. Come here for a moment. Let’s call it a day for now. Think about everything I’ve told you and then we’ll continue tomorrow where we left off. Go get some rest. See you guys tomorrow!”

Everyone nodded and started grabbing their stuff, when Ouyang nudged Yang Fan and said, “Hey bro, wanna play a couple more games with me? You know, get some extra practice in before tomorrow? We can walk home together afterwards.”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. “Sure, sounds good. I think I finally understand one of the things Lin Feng was explaining to me. I wanted to see if I could get the hang of that anyway. Let’s stay and play a few more games.”

Wei Dong watched the exchange between Ouyang and Yang Fan and then looked at Tang Bingyao, who was packing her bag. He fidgeted his fingers before gathering the courage to walk up to her. “Erm, Tang Bingyao…?” When she looked up at him, he felt his face heat up. He tried to hide it behind his hand as he meekly asked, “I-I feel like our synergy in bot is kind of bad. You’re way better than me. I can’t really keep up. So I was thinking that maybe, if you’re ok with it, that we could play a few more games? That will help me get better… But only if you’re ok with it of course!” He stared at the ground, his eyes wide and terrified, waiting for her reply.

Tang Bingyao was caught off-guard. She paused midway through putting a notebook in her bag and looked at Wei Dong. Then she thought about it for a moment before nodding, “Sure. That sounds good.”

Chen Ze looked at his new teammates. Three of them had already decided to stay behind and get a few more games in to practice what they’d learned today. He couldn’t slack behind them! So he put his bag back down and sat behind his monitor again. “I’ll stay for a few more games too! I have almost no homework for tomorrow anyway.”

Liu Yue looked at everyone and then laughed. “Chen Ze, wait! Don’t queue up yet! I’m joining you! Let’s play some games together. I felt our Jungle-Top combo had great synergy. Let’s work a little more on that and make Lin Feng proud of us tomorrow!”

Ren Rou looked at the excited team members with a smile. “Guys! Guys!” she shouted while raising her hand. She waited until she had everyone’s attention and then continued, “Seems like we’re all staying to get some more practice in. That’s great! I’m really proud of you all! But we can’t work on an empty stomach! So, you guys play one game while I go and get some takeout. Then we’ll have a quick bite to eat together and then play a few more games! How does that sound?”

“Sounds good!”
“Sounds great!”
“You’re the best Rou Rou!”
“Get me something vegetarian please.”
“Only if you pay for it with club funds.”

Lin Feng flung his bag over his shoulder and looked at his trainees. Without exception, all of them chose to stay behind and get some more practice in. It seemed like his first training had lit a fire under their asses! He pumped his fist in the air. “Awesome guys! Train hard! I’m really looking forward to seeing how you’ve all improved tomorrow!”

To Lin Feng, only the impossible and far-fetched could be considered a dream, and working hard to achieve it was one of the most fulfilling things in life. This group understood how difficult it was to reach their goal and how hard they would have to work for it. And they were willing to put that work in! He was incredibly proud of them for this. If they kept it up, then High School 13 would deserve to win the Shanghai 16 School Tournament! In his opinion, at least.

✹

While the high schoolers in Shanghai were excited about the Shanghai 16 School Tournament, there were tens of millions of League of Legends fans in China looking forward to a different event. One that would start in another three days. Worlds! Chinese fans everywhere were in heated discussions on their favourite forums and platforms. Riot put more fuel on the fire by releasing emotes for every team participating at Worlds. Players could buy them and flash them above their Champion’s head during a League game to show which team they were supporting.

Riot also released a promotional video for Worlds. It featured all 16 teams and their achievements as well as interviews with the players. This video became the most viewed video in all of China. Everyone was watching it. Fans would go online and discuss the interview highlights. How one player looked really out of it and how their team had to be preparing poorly for Worlds. Or how another one looked happy and carefree. That had to be a sign that their team was doing great!

Lin Feng and Su Xue also watched the promotional video. Su Xue had put her laptop on the table, and they were playing it on repeat while enjoying dinner. The different teams and players flashed across the screen. Su Xue had something to say about all of them, nitpicking every tiny detail.

“Oh god… That dude is seriously ugly.”
“Oh yeah! Wait, he’s a support? How can a support be that hot!”
“Hahaha! Look at that troll! Haha! That American looks like a troll! What do you think Lin Feng? You think he plays Trundle? Hahaha!”

When KG appeared, both Lin Feng and Su Xue sat up a little. They watched closely on the screen. First they saw some of KG’s previous achievements, after which came the interviews with the players. Tian Tian was also featured here.

“Roundy! Ahhh, he’s so cute!”
“Oh my god and he’s so chubby and totally adorably!”
“You know Lin Feng? I just really wanna hug him and squeeze him and pinch his cheeks!”

Lin Feng looked over at Su Xue and laughed, “I know right? Fatty’s cheeks are really great to pinch!”

Lin Feng was deep in an intense schedule of his own design. He had three things that he couldn’t change. School, homework, and filling in for Su Xue on her stream. Other than that, every spare minute was poured into coaching the esports team. If he wasn’t working with them, he was thinking about strategy and thinking about how to help them get better. Even when he was in class and doing his homework, he was still thinking about the esports club and how to coach them better.

Lin Feng wasn’t just coaching the esports club. He was still trying to help Su Xue get better, but his time with her was much more limited. After he bumped into Nightsong and Hermes in solo queue the other night, Su Xue’s stream hit a record viewer count of 6,000! It never got that high after that. But Su Xue never really expected it to. From that night, Su Xue’s stream gained around 2,000 new viewers who decided to stick with her and keep watching. Far more than Su Xue had expected or even hoped for!

Su Xue made it her mission to convert as many of these new viewers as possible into fans of her stream. People who would buy subscriptions, gift gifts, and participate in chat. Lin Feng played a key role in this. Most of these people had stuck around for him after watching his game with Nightsong and Hermes. They wanted to see him carry. That was why Su Xue was willing to bribe him with two chicken cutlets a night just to have him show off how good he was at the game. But she didn’t stop there. She also worked hard to improve her own skills at the game. That way, she wouldn’t have to rely on Lin Feng to lure these people. She could do it herself!

Hard work could eventually catch up to raw talent. Su Xue absolutely believed in that. As far as League of Legends went, she literally had no talent. Her game instincts were horrendous, and that was understating it. But she overcame all of those hurdles through diligence. dedication, and sheer force of will. She worked harder than most people, giving up sleep and sacrificing her sanity. And all that hard work was paying off. Her skill at the game was rapidly improving, and that directly translated into a higher quality stream. Last night’s viewer count spike was a fluke. A one-off lucky break. But behind that was a steady increase in the number of viewers, all from her own efforts. And with more viewers came more money, and she now had more than enough in her bank account to pay rent.

“Just you pervs wait! Mama’s gonna climb to Diamond!” Su Xue laughed at the camera.

The people watching the stream couldn’t help themselves and turned the chat into “The Roast of Su Xue”.

「climbing to diamond? LOL you called the molehill in the park diamond or something? hHAHHAHA」
「nah, sounds too hard for her! LOL! HARD bet she’ll calls her bootycall diamond and climbs him like a tree」
「oh oh! I volunteer!!!!! climb me xue xueee!!!!」
「yo guys i’m xue xue rl friend!! this is her number: 867-5309! call her!!!!」

✹

Coach Lin Feng’s Legends Bootcamp!

Ren Rou spent a couple of days going through the games that happened during the tryouts, and eventually came up with the official lineup for the esports club team. Her list also included the substitute players for every role. Noticeably absent from the list was Lin Feng’s name. He was good enough that he could play any of the roles for the tournament, so he would fill in whenever it was necessary. Right now, Lin Feng’s job was to be the Coach and get the team for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament.

Which is exactly what Ren Rou told Lin Feng when she came to show him the finalized list for the esports club team. Then she started talking about each of the players, but he cut her off.

“Sounds good! I completely understand.” Lin Feng pounded his chest. “I’m really good at playing every role! Let me see that list.” He snatched the list out of Ren Rou’s hands and started reading.

Name: Chen Ze
Rank: Diamond 5
Role: Top
Main: Irelia

Name: Yang Fan
Rank: Platinum 4
Role: Mid
Main: Twisted Fate

Name: Liu Yue
Rank: Diamond 5
Role: Jungle
Main: All current meta junglers.

Name: Tang Bingyao
Rank: Diamond 4
Role: ADC
Main: Draven, Kallista, Twitch

Name: Wei Dong
Rank: Platinum 2
Role: Support
Main: Nami, Braum

“What about the substitutes? I don’t see their names on the list?” Lin Feng asked after he finished reading.

“Don’t worry about them,” Ren Rou reassured him. “I got a backup for every position. Ouyang is actually the backup for Jungle. I can make a list of them too if you want…”

“Mhm,” Lin Feng nodded, but his mind had already drifted elsewhere. He was thinking about the plan of attack. The first few rounds of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament shouldn’t be too hard. Unless they got really unlucky in the draw again. That meant that he wouldn’t have to worry about playing a specific role for now and could instead put all of his energy into training the club’s team. It was important that the team played together in games that actually mattered, and not just in practice rounds. Team synergy only started developing when the stakes were high. That’s when they would really learn how to come together as a team and grasp victory.

While Lin Feng was thinking about this, Ren Rou continued to talk, “… so I told everyone on the list to come meet us in the club room today. Ouyang’s also coming. We’re going to let them know that you’re a Challenger and that you’re going to be coaching them for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Is that okay? I know this is short notice, but are you ready?”

Lin Feng had only heard the second half of what she said and started to answer. But before he could get a word out, Ouyang walked into the club room. “My bro Lin Feng over here is always ready to slay. Amiright Lin Feng?”

Lin Feng gave Ouyang a quick bro hug before answering. “Yeah. We can tell them today. Let’s get started on training as soon as we can! We have to play as many games as we can before the tournament. That’s the only way we’ll achieve the dream of winning!”

Ren Rou jumped in, “Alright Ouyang, I’ll introduce Lin Feng and tell them about the training we’ll be doing. You can jump in when you think it’s necessary or back me up.”

Ouyang vehemently shook his head to indicate how much he disagreed with Ren Rou’s plan. “No way! I’m going to introduce my bro Lin Feng here! Tell those scrubs that he’s the Challenger and they need to fall in line or fall behind! If anyone tries to argue, their ass is grass! I got this!”

Ren Rou sighed, but she just didn’t have the energy to argue with Ouyang. It was probably best just to let him do whatever he was going to do. That was her usual policy whenever he got this hyper about anything.

The three of them talked about the training program and the Shanghai 16 School Tournament until the five players on the main team arrived in the club room. Their arrival was the final piece needed to put their plan in action. Everything else was ready!

✹

The players on the roster for the esports club team had all finally arrived in the club room, and stood there waiting to find out why Ren Rou had asked them to meet. It was now time to introduce Lin Feng and start the training camp for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament.

Ren Rou stood at the front of the classroom and cleared her throat. Everyone else stopped talking and settled down to hear what she had to say. Before she could, Ouyang jumped in front of her and started his own speech.

“Alright. You guys are here today because you’re good! You guys are the best players out of everyone that showed up at tryouts. The best of the best! And that’s who we want. Only with the best of the best can this esports team kiss that trophy from the Shanghai 16 School Tournament!

“BUT…

“You guys aren’t really the best of the best. You guys are only better than the rest of the trash that showed up at tryouts. We gotta forge you into an army! HOW DO YOU TURN TRASH INTO AN ARMY? BY TRAINING!

“We’re going to wash the stink of trash from you guys, from us, from this entire esports team. Right now, I look at you and I think why did they send me daughters when I asked for sons? But that’s okay! We’re going to make men out of you! Then we’ll train some more until we turn you into warriors. Then we’ll train even more until we’re an army! An unstoppable army!

“That’s where my bro Lin Feng here comes in. He’s going to be our coach! He’s going to teach us everything we need to know to not embarrass ourselves at the tournament. He’s going to teach us how not to be trash. He’s going to show us how to grab our dreams with our own two hands!

“Some of you are wondering why you should listen to him, right? WELL I DON’T CARE! You’ll listen because I’m telling you to listen. And if you don’t listen, we don’t need you in this esports club. But all of you saw how awesome his LeBlanc was at tryouts, right? Well, my bro Lin Feng here is an actual Challenger on the Ionia server! THAT’S WHY YOU LISTEN TO HIM AND TRAIN UNTIL YOUR EYES BLEED! OR I’LL MAKE YOUR ASS BLEED!”

“Are you for real? A Challenger? He’s actually a Challenger?” Wei Dong exclaimed.
Chen Ze looked at Lin Feng like he’d seen a ghost. “Holy shit! I didn’t know we had a legend at our school! Oh damn, a Challenger? Holy damn!”

“… wait, did you just say you’d make our ass bleed?” Tang Bingyao asked. She already knew Lin Feng was a Challenger and that his training would work. So most of her attention was on Ouyang’s increasingly peculiar choice of words as he got more and more excited during his speech.

The only one who didn’t say anything was Liu Yue. He just stared at Lin Feng thoughtfully. Where have I seen you before? He knew he saw Lin Feng somewhere before, the guy felt familiar to him. But where? Where was it? He couldn’t figure it out. Damnit where– “Wait!” he suddenly cried out. “That’s where I know you from! You’re that Vayne! I watched you play on Huya! You were that amazing Vayne!”

“Ehh? You caught me.” Lin Feng laughed, scratching the back of his head. It seemed like someone had finally recognized him.

“Huh? What Vayne? Bro, since when are you a streamer?” Ouyang asked, bewildered. He stopped for a moment and then fired off, “What’s your stream called? You stream everyday? Wait! Why haven’t you told me about this? I thought we were bros! What the fuck man! You could’ve invited me. If we duo queued, you’d definitely gotten more viewers! I’d be the sex appeal in your stream. All the girls would show up!”

Liu Yue finally connected the dots in his head. This is him! That was his Vayne! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! His eyes went wide in shock and excitement. “I knew you looked familiar! I was browsing Huya and then clicked on your stream just as you queued up with Nightsong and Hermes! Oh my god! That game was so amazing! Nightsong actually gave you the ad-carry and then you went Vayne! I thought for sure you would fail. But man were you good! Your Vayne was so good! I don’t think I know a better Vayne player! Even Hermes gave you a compliment! Hermes! Your Vayne was just that good!”

“I know right?” Lin Feng laughed and patted his chest. “I’m really good at Vayne!!”

While Lin Feng and Liu Yue were talking about Lin Feng’s plays and how he kept his cool when he was playing with Nightsong as his support, everyone else was silent. They stared at Lin Feng with their mouths wide open. It was as if they’d lost their tongues. Or like they’d forgotten how to function. They just stood there in shock.

Ouyang was the first to recover. He shouted, “You played with Hermes and Nightsong? THE HERMES AND NIGHTSONG?”

Yang Fan followed soon after. He adjusted his glasses and said, “I know I was a little pessimistic before, but man, I had no clue you were that good! If you can even impress Hermes, maybe we really do have a chance to win the 16 School Tournament.”

“Guys, GUYS!” Ren Rou interrupted. “It’s great that Lin Feng is amazing, but that only means we have to work harder! Don’t forget, we can’t drag him down!”

Liu Yue raised his hand and shouted, “I promise to give it my all! I won’t hold him back! I promise!”

Chen Ze and Wei Dong, the Toplaner and Support, looked at each other and found the same excitement in the other’s eyes. They had been with the esports club for a while now, but they had nothing to show for it. It wasn’t because they hadn’t tried. They’d given it their all! But they were just never good enough. Now, though, their team actually stood a chance! For the first time since joining the club, they felt the rush that comes from a chance at victory! A fantastic conclusion to their otherwise dull high school years!

Lin Feng smiled as he saw that everyone was full of anticipation and excitement. He pounded his chest and declared, “Coach Lin Feng’s Legends Bootcamp is going to start!”

✹

The best way for Lin Feng to understand the esports club team’s skill level was to have them play a 5v5 ranked game. They found a quiet corner in the NetCow Cafe and the main team members all sat down in front of a monitor. Lin Feng walked behind them, back and forth. “Alright guys, this’ll be your first match. Just show off what you can do. Try and work together. This game is just for me to get an idea of your skill level. So try your best! Impress me! You guys can do this! Let’s go!”

The team members logged into their account on the Ionia server and queued up as a team for a 5v5 ranked game. This game mode was different from solo and duo queue, because it relied far more on team synergy rather than individual skill. Take the esport club’s team. They all knew each other. They were even sitting right next to each other and could easily communicate. This was impossible to do when you were queued up with random players.

It didn’t take long to find a game, and it also didn’t take long to finish it. The esports club’s team pulled ahead from the start. Every lane did great and pushed for an advantage. The gold lead grew and they got the first and second Dragon mostly uncontested. But their opponents saw it differently. They believed that all it would take to turn the game around was one misplay. One opportunity. But this opportunity never came and when the game hit the 25-minute mark, they gave up and surrendered.

Ouyang walked past the lineup of players, patting them all on their shoulders. “Great work guys! That’s what I love to see! Perfect play! That was super! Keep it up and we’ll definitely win the tournament!”

Lin Feng watched Ouyang and the others. They were all excited. Their first game was a win! He shook his head and mumbled, “This is going to be a lot of work… There are so many problems. Where do I even start?”

Lin Feng knew what to expect when it came to the individual skill of these players. They weren’t half bad. They could hold their own in lane, even against a stronger opponent. That was great in solo queue, but it meant very little in a 5vs5. And he wasn’t training them so they could climb in solo queue. He needed to turn them into a team! This was going to take a lot more effort than he thought it would. He let them enjoy their victory and bask in the glory before starting to give them feedback on how they did.

“Wei Dong, you don’t hide behind your tower when your ad-carry is towerdiving the enemy! Match your ad-carry. Support her damnit!” He then turned to Tang Bingyao. “And you! What was that? Why in the world would you towerdive when your Support is hiding behind his tower? Any decent team would’ve taken advantage of you. You have to play a little bit less aggressively!”

Lin Feng turned to Yang Fan and Chen Ze, both of whom were now a little bit less excited. “And you, Yang Fan, sure your laning was fine. But help explain something to me. Why did you pick Teleport? Why? I didn’t see you use it even once! Why pick it if you don’t plan on using it? Communicate man! Communicate! When you pick Teleport, you have to communicate with your team and find the right place and time to use it! I don’t want to see you do that again! Better yet, you probably just shouldn’t pick Teleport again.” He barely took a breather as he turned to Chen Ze. “Same for you Chen Ze. You did fine in lane but who cares about that? This is a team game! Not solo queue! If you pick Teleport, you have to use it! I didn’t see you leave top lane once!”

The good mood from a moment ago was completely shattered by Lin Feng’s judgement. Tang Bingyao fidgeted with her fingers, Yang Fan was cleaning his glasses and Chen Ze just stared at his screen and his score in the post game lobby. None of them dared to look in Lin Feng’s direction, afraid he would think of more things to fault them on.

Liu Yue looked at Lin Feng, hesitant. “Uh, Lin Feng? What about me? Did I do ok?”

“No. You did not,” Lin Feng replied. “Your Jungle was fun and nice for some random game, but we’re not here to prepare for some random game.” He stopped for a moment and looked at the others, then continued, “Alright guys, listen up. We’re not here to feel good about crushing some silver scrubs in a random game. We’re here to prepare for the 16 School Tournament. We want to win that thing! We’ll be up against Masters and Challengers. Your little win over some silver scrubs? It means absolutely nothing! Get your shitake mushrooms together! We’ve got a long way to go!”

Hermes and Nightsong took a seat at Tian Tian’s table. Nightsong looked at all the plates already on the table and grabbed a small pastry from one of them. He aggressively bit a chunk of the pastry, savoring it as he chewed, and said, “Holy Cannoli! Literally! This cannoli’s so good! Good thing I was smart enough to steal it from you, eh Roundy? Don’t worry, there’s a couple more of them on the other plates. I checked.”

He wasn’t lying. There were five plates spread out on the table, all within arm’s reach of where Tian Tian was sitting. All of the plates were piled high with different kinds of pastries and sandwiches. It was honestly more than a little impressive. Each plate contained enough food to feed a family for several days, and utilized a genuinely creative organization and stacking structure to achieve this. Nightsong and Hermes both took a minute to look at all of the food on all of the plates. For different reasons. Hermes was awestruck at the volume of food and how much was packed onto each one. Nightsong was making sure there were more cannolis like the one he’d stolen. He figured there would be when he said there were, and now he wanted to make sure. Once he confirmed there were, that’s when he saw the bigger picture.

Nightsong’s eyes popped out of his head as he gasped, “Good lord! I know you like to eat Roundy, but what the hell is this? I could literally make a life-size sculpture of you from all this food! This ain’t all for you, right? The rest of your team is coming down? There’s no fucking way you can eat all of this! The UN doesn’t even give Africa this much food! Please tell me you got this for the rest of your team because you got here early! God damn! If I was into food like you were, I’d have a boner all the time!”

Hermes shook his head. Well, at least Nightsong didn’t tell him he’d be trash if he got fatter. He looked at Roundy, “Nightsong’s got a way with the words, right? But you can really pack it away, Roundy! That is so much food! How can you eat all of that!”

Tian Tian shrank into his chair and slid a little more under the table. But he didn’t fit. The table tilted and some of the plates started sliding off. He jumped back into his chair and set the table right, but his face was completely red from embarrassment. “Hahah, yeah. I’ve always been pretty big. Got a large stomach, ya know? So I need to eat a lot…” His eyes fell on the chocolate mousse cakes on one of the plates. The energy he lost a moment ago was back in full. He grabbed two cakes and gave one each to Nightsong and Hermes. “Here! You guys have to try these! They’re super delicious! Probably the best thing they have here right now!”

Nightsong looked at the chocolate mousse then at Tian Tian, amazed. He had no words. He let out a long sigh. “Damn. You’re crazy, man. Completely cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Wait! Shit! Don’t go get cereal now because I reminded you of it. But god damn! I got a big dick and everything, but I’m still freaking out about Worlds right now. Here you are stuffing your face with pastries and sausages, telling me about how good the chocolate mousse is. I gotta know. How big is your dick? Gotta be huge, right? I mean, I can barely keep food down right now! You either have a monster of a trouser snake or you’re chillin cause you’ve been here since Season 1.”

Tian Tian waved his hands and shook his head. “No no! You’re wrong. I’m really nervous too! Maybe you can’t tell, but I’m freaking out!”

“So why are you eating here all by yourself?” Hermes interjected in an attempt to bring the conversation back to a more normal vein. Then he chuckled to himself and added, “I’m sorry but I need to ask. Did you eat your teammates?”

Tian Tian rubbed his hair. “Oh, them… They went sightseeing around the city. I think I heard them say something about a theme park? I don’t really know.”

“Theme park?” Nightsong’s eyes started shining. “Hermes and I were just talking about going there! I heard they got a ton of cool rides and shit there! Also heard that it was a decent place to meet some cute girls. Why didn’t you go? You feelin’ the chocolate mousse more than the girls here?”

“No no no, no. No. No! They’re going for the rollercoasters! I hate those things. They’re terrifying! What if something goes wrong? What if the seatbelt-thingie comes loose? I don’t wanna go flying! Or what if the cart falls off the track… Nope! Just no. I’m never getting on another rollercoaster ever again!” Tian Tian frantically shook his head, his chubby face turned pale. Just the thought of a roller coaster terrified him! There was one time he got talked into getting on one and he made a solemn vow to himself that it would never happen again. That was a memory he wanted to repress!

✹

Laughter rolled through the banquet hall. Nightsong and Hermes were talking and joking around with Tian Tian while tasting the pastries. Tian Tian, on the other hand, had a different approach. He ate like his life depended on it. Like he was worried someone would steal his food if he looked away for a second. He still looked up and replied to the two sitting across from him, though, and they eventually started talking about Worlds.

“The pressure’s starting to get to me. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.” Nightsong sighed. “I mean, we’ve had our fun in the LPL and those teams were good. But you know, they were only LPL good. We knew everyone we played against from solo queue or from scrims against them. Worlds is a completely different animal! We don’t know half the teams. I mean, not like we know all the LPL teams, and we’re going to be up against many of the Seven Kings and Four Emperors. And yeah yeah, before you guys start about it, I know. It sounds cringy as fuck. Can barely believe hearing myself say it. But it’s still true that those guys are really fucking good. They’re way better than what we have in the LPL!”

Hermes nodded. “You’re right. Every team that qualified for Worlds this year is really good.”

Nightsong suddenly jerked his head to look at Tian Tian. “But you…” He waved at all the food spread out before him. “I don’t know how you do it man. But you don’t look nervous at all. Like not one bit. How do you do it?”

Hermes patted on Nightsong’s shoulder. “Stay frosty, man. Roundy over here has been playing at Worlds since Season 1. He’s been around the block way too many times. It doesn’t freak him out as much as it did in the beginning. It’ll be the same for us in a couple of years.”

Hermes hadn’t started playing League of Legends until Season 3. Then it took him a little over a year to climb up high enough to get noticed and sign with a professional team. His team managed to qualify for Worlds in Season 4. So this was only his second time at Worlds.

Hermes was a baby compared to Tian Tian when it came to Worlds. Tian Tian’s first Worlds was in Season 1, and he even made it all the way to the finals that time. Every year after that, with the exception of season three, his team had made it to Worlds and he’d played in all of them. This year would be his fourth time around the block. Tian Tian was the most experienced player in China and among the most veteran players in the entire world.

“No no, guys, you got it all wrong! It’s nothing like that. I’m really not immune to the stress or anything. I’m also super freaked out!” Tian Tian tried explaining to them. He hated being complimented like this. It made him feel incredibly uncomfortable. Especially since it was the furthest thing from the truth. He wasn’t calm. He was so far from calm that calm disappeared over the horizon. But he stumbled over his words when he tried to explain, and then eventually gave up and slouched in his chair.

Both Nightsong and Hermes noticed that Tian Tian was getting uncomfortable with the conversation. They changed the subject to the most recent game of League they’d played. Hermes made fun of Nightsong and the strange things he did and said. That was just what Tian Tian needed. His breathing calmed and he looked a lot more relaxed. He even sat up straight and chewed his food like a normal person instead of swallowing it whole.

✹

Nightsong and Hermes spent the next 20 minutes eating and talking, enjoying the pastries they picked up from the buffet. They also tasted several that Tian Tian highly recommended. By the end of it, they’d eaten more than they could handle. Their stomachs bulged out and their eyelids felt heavy. The early signs of an impending food coma. Tian Tian, on the other hand, still had several plates to go and was busy stuffing his face with no signs of slowing down.

“Mghmmm?” Tian Tian attempted to ask when Nightsong and Hermes stood up. They looked at him, confused. He gulped down whatever was in his mouth and tried again, “Are you guys done eating? Already? Are you leaving?”

“Nope! No more! I’m not eating another bite! I feel like I’m about to blow up, and not in the good way!” Nightsong yelled while frantically waving his hands around. “You’re something else. I don’t even know why you got into playing League! You should’ve gone into competitive eating. You’re already an Emperor in that sport. Respect man. Respect!”

Hermes picked his plate up and cut Nightsong off, “We’ll let you enjoy your afternoon snack. Nightsong and I are going back up to our rooms. Gotta let all this food digest. We’ll probably chill out on the couch or something for a bit and then get back to playing some more ranked games to warm up for Worlds.”

“Oh, alright then! Thanks for sitting down with me for a bit, it was fun. Good luck in your games!” Tian Tian waved goodbye while the other two walked away. Then he looked back down at the food on his plate. “This isn’t going to eat itself,” he mumbled before shoveling it into his mouth again. It was a continuous fluid motion. Food went up from the plate, into his mouth, and down his throat. But it happened so quickly that it was impossible to figure out when he actually did all of those things. Food disappeared from the plate and his hands blurred while moving up and down. He did this while sitting completely alone in that large banquet hall. The only other people with him were the wait staff who occasionally walked by. In that large banquet hall, he looked all the more lonely.

Tian Tian looked a little different after Nightsong and Hermes left. His hand started trembling. He made a fist, holding onto the fork more tightly. But it still trembled. The piece of cake on it vibrated off and fell in his lap. Then he dropped the fork. It fell onto the plate and the clink of steel on porcelain echoed through the empty banquet hall. His teeth started chattering. He’d been trying really hard to keep himself together in front of Nightsong and Hermes. He didn’t want them to see how absolutely petrified he was. That he was freaking out more than the two of them combined. More than the rest of his own team combined! Once they left, he completely fell apart. Just thinking about Worlds sent him into a panic attack!

The name Tian Tian was made up out of two characters. Tian (田) was his family name, and the Tian (天) in his first name was given to him by his grandfather. It represented the sky and was given to him in the hope that his accomplishments would be just as vast. But Tian Tian worried every day that he had let his Grandfather down over the past 21 years of his life. And that he’d continue to let his Grandfather down for the rest of his life.

For as long as he could remember, he was always the fat kid. But it didn’t stop there. He could’ve been the fat kid who was funny. But no, he was shy and timid. He never found the courage to stand up for himself. All he wanted to do was hide, fade into the background. But that was not particularly easy to do for a fat kid. This unfortunate combination also made him the perfect target for any bully.

From kindergarten to his final day in high school, not a single one went by without someone showing up to bully him. They took his lunch money, roughed him up every once in a while, and made fun of him until they got tired. That last one was the worst. He got used to the fat jokes fast, and they figured that out just as quickly. So they changed tactics and pinpointed the stuff that actually hurt him. That’s when their words started to hurt. Really hurt. But he never fought back. He never tried to stop them. He never even told his parents. Instead, he buried his frustration and pain underneath food. He ate and ate and ate, and then realized that he truly enjoyed eating food. Whenever he was eating, he stopped feeling sad. Stopped worrying. Only through eating could he step out of the mental prison he’d trapped himself in and enjoy life. If only for just a moment.

As the years went by, Tian Tian grew fatter and fatter. He had no real friends at school. The only people that really talked to him were the ones who wanted to bully him. He turned to gaming because it was something he could do alone. He didn’t need any friends to play games. Didn’t need to talk to anyone at all while playing games. And while he played the game, no one needed to know he was Fatso Tian Tian. So no one could bully him.

That’s when he found out about a new game that was just released. League of Legends. He decided to give it a try because he heard that every game was played with nine other real players. He could get to know people from behind a screen, maybe even make some friends. And if they wanted to bully him, they could only do so for the length of a single game. Then he’d never see them again. Picking up League of Legends, that turned out to be the best decision Tian Tian had ever made in his entire life. He was good at the game! It was the first thing in his life that he was actually good at! The truth was that he wasn’t just good at the game, he was fantastic at it. He was so talented that he managed to get noticed and signed by a professional team a few months after he started playing the game! Then he climbed with that team to the very top and played at the very first World Championships. And he’d been doing that for the last five years.

Nightsong and Hermes weren’t wrong when they assumed he wasn’t freaking out about Worlds. He’d been in the professional scene for five years now and played in four World Championships. Most people would think that he’d gotten used to the pressure by now. But that was the furthest thing from the truth. His secret was that he was always worried. More than everyone else combined. The anxiety and panic kept him awake all night. His hands trembled and his knees wobbled.

It was one thought. Just one thought that always ran through his mind and broke his spirit and sent him spiraling into panic attacks. One thought. “Don’t fuck up! Don’t let your team down! Don’t let your fans down! Don’t let your Grandfather down!” He never even thought about how well he’d do. He didn’t think about how happy he’d be if he did well. All he thought about were the countless ways he could fuck up. The things that could make him choke. How he’d let his teammates down. How he’d let all the people that believe in him down. Every second that he was alone with his thoughts, a brand new scenario in which he would fuck up and singlehandedly lose the game popped up in his mind.

It was his anxiety, his fear of failure, the idea that he might choke when people were counting on him that led to the five plates of food in front of him. He was sitting here eating all that food to try and ease his anxiety, to bury it under mountains of pastries. He wasn’t sitting in the banquet hall alone because his teammates had abandoned him. They didn’t want to go and do something without him. He was here alone because he wanted to be here. He wanted to be alone. If his teammates knew how he was feeling, what was going on inside his head, they would worry about him. They would be sad because they couldn’t do anything to help him if they knew the truth. It wouldn’t accomplish anything if everyone felt like he did. That would make things worse. That’s why he was alone.

Every time he took a bite, the rush of sugar and the joy of the flavor banished the anxiety from his mind. He could relax for a second. This was the only way he knew how to cope. The constant need to eat to escape from his crippling anxiety and the desire to not burden anyone with his problems or let them down in any way created a truly unfortunate combination that resulted in him isolating himself from everyone around him.

It wasn’t always this way. Well, the anxiety and panic attacks were always there. But there was a time when Tian Tian wasn’t completely alone. It was four years ago, right before the start of Worlds. His anxiety amped up and he was on the verge of a panic attack. Exactly like today. He couldn’t deal with his thoughts, couldn’t stop worrying and he couldn’t breathe. Before he knew it, he was in a small restaurant across from the hotel he was staying at. He didn’t even remember walking there, that’s how panicked he was. He ordered every single thing on the menu and settled into a quiet corner. All by himself. The first of his food arrived and he salivated in anticipation of both the food and the momentary reprieve from his thoughts. Just as he was about to dig in, he was interrupted by a young man. A teenager, still in middle school, holding a tray with a large plate of food in his hands.

The young guy put his food down on the table and sat down in the empty chair across from Tian Tian. He got comfortable and then grabbed his own fork and knife. Just before he started eating, he looked at Tian Tian and said, “Fatty! Did anyone tell you it was rude to go off and eat by yourself? You should’ve said something if you wanted to eat. I was hungry too! It’s rude when you don’t ask your friends to come eat with you! Haha!”

“Uhh… I, it’s uhm, just I think…” Tian Tian looked at his food and then looked at the guy sitting across from him. He wanted to eat, needed to eat. But he wanted to reply. Back and forth. But every time he tried to say something, he stumbled over his words. It always happened when he got nervous. “You know…. Um…. well, w-w-with the game… hm… err tomorrow. You know… the, uh… The Worlds thing. And I thought. N-n-no, I was thinking… uh, and I was… you know… uh. And. Well, if I eat, my nerves…”

“Oh! So you’re nervous? You got some anxiety and you’re trying to eat your feelings, huh? Bury it under whatever you can put in your mouth?” The youth laughed, “No wonder you’re so fat!”

“Uh, yeah, I guess…” Tian Tian lowered his head, embarrassed.

“Well that makes two of us! I’m also super nervous! Worlds starts tomorrow! Can you believe it? Tomorrow! I can barely keep it together! So I came down here to eat my feelings! Just like you! Haha!” The young man looked Tian Tian right in the eyes and his cheerful tone turned serious. “Fatty, listen up. This is important. Next time you get this anxious and need to eat, call me. I’ll tag along. Then we can both eat our worries away together! It won’t be so lonely!”

Tian Tian looked up and looked in the young guy’s eyes for the very first time. Met his stare for the first time. Tian Tian surprised himself. He didn’t remember the last time he’d looked up at someone, looked them in the eyes. This might have been the first time he did that in his entire life. But something about the young guy made him want to, and when he did he found eyes that were beaming with joy. But he still hesitated. He’d gotten used to eating alone, eating so fast that he could stop his own thoughts from beating him down. If someone else was there, they wouldn’t let him just eat. They’d want to talk. And then he’d be trapped in his thoughts again.

Just as he started walking down the thorny path in his mind that he’d walked so many times before, the one that spiraled into the dark place, the young guy interrupted him again, “It’s so lonely, this whole eating by yourself thing! Isn’t it way more fun to eat with someone else? Food is meant to be shared and enjoyed with friends! Let’s enjoy this meal together!”

Pain shot through Tian Tian’s head and gut at the same time, snapping him out the memory. He picked his fork up off the plate and licked it clean. Then he sat there, staring at the empty banquet hall. Dazed. He didn’t eat or move for a long time. He just sat there without blinking. Then all at once and without warning, he stabbed the fork into whatever was on the plates and started eating. He ate like his life depended on it. Like he needed to bury whatever he was feeling under as much food as his body could handle. Frosting and crumbs combined and created a crust around his mouth. He still kept eating. Some of the crumbs got pushed into his mouth, but they were quickly replaced by new crumbs and bits of food. He inhaled the food in front of him while tears ran down his face. His shoulders trembled. In between bites and the shifting of plates, he cried and mumbled, “L-lin Feng, where did you….go? You said you’d eat with me! You said to call!” But no one heard him or saw his tears in that empty banquet hall.

Su Xue slammed one hand over the lens of the webcam, and then used her other hand to turn it off. Those goddamned perverts! They should’ve closed their eyes! I can’t believe they didn’t have the decency to do that. I know some of them clipped it too. The stupider ones probably took a bunch of screenshots. GAH! Su Xue was embarrassed and upset. She knew it was her fault, she’d been careless. But her eyes still teared up when she thought about all the people watching the stream seeing her like that. Knowing that some of them had pictures and video of her exposed like that just made it worse. Okay. Webcam is off and those perverts can’t see anything anymore! There’s nothing I can do about what they’ve already seen, but at least I’m not giving them any more. Wait! Lin Feng is still here… Su Xue shot a glare at Lin Feng to make sure he wasn’t looking at her the same way the lonely losers on her stream were. He wasn’t. That’s a relief. Looks like those degenerates haven’t corrupted Lin Feng yet. Okay! Now get dressed and deal with this! Su Xue stormed out of her bedroom and into the bathroom to change.

Seconds after Su Xue turned the webcam off, chat started protesting. Quite a few of the people watching demanded that the webcam be turned on. They kept up the demands for a few minutes, and then decided to pivot when they saw that their strategy wasn’t working. They made promises of donations, tips, and gifts that they’d send if the webcam was turned back on. Some of the amounts were beyond absurd. But that didn’t matter, they never intended to follow through on the promise. When that didn’t work, they started pleading. Three of them even wrote extensive sob stories about how their wives had died and Su Xue’s beauty had rekindled passions that they thought were gone. One talked about how he was paralyzed, but Su Xue made him forget how terrible his situation was. It was… something.  Once Su Xue returned and started to turn her webcam back on, the anticipation peaked! Then they saw that she was dressed normally, and they made their disappointment known in the chat.

「Where’s your pajamas?」
「you looked so cute!!! put them back on」
「keep providing us with your special service!」
「hahaha! lewd stream!」

The viewers who’d been watching Su Xue’s stream for a while now knew that she didn’t spend hours putting makeup on and dressing provocatively to draw people into her stream. Most of the time, she wore cute outfits that were comfortable and casual. And the makeup she did use, it was the bare minimum to look presentable on camera. Her stream was about her gameplay, her personality, and her interactions with people watching. But Su Xue was beautiful even without trying. None of her viewers would deny that. She was just as gorgeous as most of the popular e-girl streamers. The fact that she didn’t flaunt her body or her looks, that made her all the more alluring. Even her most faithful viewers weren’t going to complain about a chance to appreciate just how beautiful she was.

Su Xue started reading the messages in the chat and got angrier with each one. Her eyelid started twitching. Then she hit her breaking point. She looked straight at the webcam and yelled, “Alright you perverts! You got to see more than enough! Did you enjoy yourselves? Are you happy? Did I satisfy you? Good! NOW, tell me which of you looked! Don’t try to hide! Start typing! Who looked?”

「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」
「Typing with both hands to prove innocence!」

Su Xue stared at the wall of the same message being sent from thousands of viewers. She read over it again, not understanding. Then she addressed them, “Huh? What? What do you gu–” Su Xue snapped her mouth shut mid-sentence. Starting to say the word “guys” had snapped all the pieces together in her mind.  Her face turned a deep shade of red and she screamed, “YOU PERVERTS! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS? DID NO ONE EVER TEACH YOU HOW TO TALK TO A LADY? How could you say something like that!”

“Su Xue?” Lin Feng tugged on Su Xue’s arm. “What do they mean? Typing with both hands? Isn’t that how everyone types normally?”

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!” Su Xue snapped at him. Then she took a deep breath and continued in a more measured tone, “Think about it for a minute and you’ll figure it out. If you can’t, that means you’re too young to know. But I’m not going to explain it to you.” Then she took another deep breath.

Su Xue was embarrassed. She was annoyed at herself for letting something like this happen. She was also annoyed at some of these assholes, so much so that she wanted to tear them a new asshole. But beyond that, she was also happy. She started out happy when she woke up and saw the view count. Then she was embarrassed, then angry, and then annoyed, and then angry again. But the memory of her gaffe was fading and she was starting to feel happy again. No, more than that. She was ecstatic! Lin Feng had helped her shatter her view count record! 6,000 viewers! It was a dream come true!

Once chat settled down, they started talking to Su Xue about everything that happened while she was asleep. That’s how she learned that most of these viewers joined after Lin Feng ended up in a game with Nightsong and Hermes. She understood that the stream had blown up because people came to see the two professional players. That meant that her viewer count would start dropping soon. Many of these viewers had only shown up to see Nightsong and Hermes, and then they’d stuck around for Lin Feng. They weren’t here to see her, they didn’t even know who she was. But that didn’t mean that this wasn’t an opportunity. If she played this right and entertained them, she could probably convince some of them to stick around. That could net her anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand new regular viewers. This was a huge win! She could double her average view count!

“I did good, right?” Lin Feng asked.

“Yes. Yes! You did amazing!” Su Xue ruffled his hair, full of energy.

A low growl came from Lin Feng’s stomach. He looked up at Su Xue and said, “Can I get that chicken cutlet now?”

“I should’ve known. Food! That’s all you can think about. Here, take my card and order your chicken cutlet,” Su Xue replied.

Most of the people watching the stream right now had never seen Su Xue before and had no idea who she was. They had joined the stream while Lin Feng was playing and thought he was the streamer. When she took his spot and shooed him away, they got even more confused. To them, it looked like she was taking over and kicking their steamer out!

「Is li’l bro not going to stream anymore?」
「whats going on???? whos that girl?」
「i thot this stream was different with actual content….. turns out its just another THOT stream」

Su Xue knew this was going to happen. Her stream had gone viral with Lin Feng’s face on webcam. But she was ready for it. She explained to the viewers, “Lin Feng here needs to do his homework. And he has school in the morning. He can’t be late for that…” Su Xue had one eye on the chat while she gave the speech she rehearsed in her head, and she saw the tide of resistance to the change rising. But she had a card up her sleeve just for this! “Don’t worry! Don’t worry! He’ll be back tomorrow! He’ll be switching places with me every night!” She tugged at Lin Feng’s arm. “Isn’t that right?”

Lin Feng looked at Su Xue for a moment. She looked right back at him, her eyes pleading for him to say yes. He waited another second and then held up two fingers. “Two! I want two chicken cutlets and I’ll fill in for you!”

Su Xue’s smile disappeared. “You little punk! Are you trying to extort me? Can you even eat that much?”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head. “Eh, that’s nothing. I know someone who can eat way more than that. Two really isn’t much.”

✹

Over in London, inside the Brighton Hotel, Hermes and Nightsong were still in their room and on their laptops. They’d just finished playing a ranked game. Nightsong cracked his back and sighed. “Great galloping galoshes, man. That was a good game. Only because I was awesome in it. Did you see how fucking fantastic I was at support? If I can’t play as an ad-carry anymore, not that it’s ever going to happen. But if I got so bored of being the most amazing ad-carry in China or something like that, I’ll try playing support.”

“You? Support? Trying to take Ol’ Eight’s job now? Sure. Go tell him you’re going to be a support. And then stand there for an hour while he tells you the three hundred different ways he’s going to defile your mother, your sister, your grandmother, and any other relatives you can think of,” Hermes replied, and then broke down laughing.

Nightsong shrugged, uncaring. “There’s only one rule, my HoG brother. Don’t be trash. And my support game is the furthest thing from trash. But it doesn’t really matter anyway. My magic fingers and insane skills are meant to be playing ad-carry. It’d be a tragedy to waste all of this raw talent anywhere else.”

Hermes shook his head with a wry smile. Typical Nightsong. Could this guy be any more of a narcissist? He’d gotten used to it by now. Arguing with Nightsong when he was in this kind of mood was beyond pointless, it was an exercise in futility. Hermes sighed. If Nightsong’s ego gets any bigger, his head might explode. Then we wouldn’t have an ad-carry for Worlds. But he also knew that pride and ego was well-deserved and hard earned. The guy was an amazing ad-carry. Top three in China, just as good as any of the other great ad-carries in the world!

The players who had a shot at becoming one of the Four Emperors and Seven Kings, all of them had a single common trait. When they played at the highest level and competed under metric tons of pressure, they didn’t just play at their best. They played better. When these guys went all out, it was at 120%. Being able to play at 100% under that much pressure when the stakes were that high, that made a player great. These guys were beyond great. They had found something within themselves that let them go to a level beyond that of a super saiyan, and that’s where their absolute confidence came from.

Take Nightsong for example. He knew exactly how to get into the right mindset for a competition. He knew exactly what worked for him. There were two days until the bootcamp for Worlds started, and he was preparing himself mentally. Instead of decompressing completely by drinking a beer on the beach or going out partying, he played ranked games with Hermes. As a Support. That’s how he relaxed and reset his headspace. By playing games where he didn’t have to worry about his performance as the ad-carry.

It was exactly because Nightsong knew what worked for himself that Hermes had so much trust in him. He had no doubt in his mind that Nightsong would be ready when Worlds started. They had a real shot at winning! At least in the group stage and maybe even in the round after. Making it all the way to the finals, that was probably pushing it. The other teams were just as good as them. Some were even better! They would be playing against the best teams in the entire world! Then there was SSK, and their Midlaner. The Emperor who sat on the throne of Sovereign. Just thinking about that guy sent shivers down Hermes’ spine.

Hermes shook his head. Worrying about the other teams and how they’d do against them was meaningless. All they could do, all he could do, was to give it his all. To keep pushing and never give up. As long as he did that, nothing else mattered.

✹

After finishing one ranked game, Nightsong didn’t feel like playing anymore. He stretched and spun around in place on his chair before turning to Hermes. “Hey, you think the buffet is open?”

Hermes nodded before replying, “I think so, yeah. Didn’t they say something about serving tea and pastries in the afternoon? Why? You hungry?”

Nightsong got up from his chair and patted Hermes on the shoulder. “Come! It’s not like we have anything better to do. Let’s go stuff ourselves!”

Besides Nightsong and Hermes, there was one more Chinese player in Hand of God. Their support, Eight Saltspoons. They went to ask him if he wanted to join them for a quick snack, but found him passed out on his bed in the room next door. As for the other two members of the team, they were Korean and had gone to tour the city after lunch with the team’s translator. Nightsong and Hermes took the elevator down to the second floor together.

The buffet was being served in a large dining hall on the second floor. Nightsong and Hermes stepped inside and looked around. The place was practically empty. Not that it mattered to them. All it meant was they wouldn’t have to spend as long waiting in line. They loaded up their plates with cake, tarts and biscuits. Then they picked up some coffee. Nightsong slapped Hermes in the chest and pointed at the label for the coffee, “You know this coffee, there are monkey-cats that eat the beans and shit them out. They collect the coffee beans from the shit of a monkey-cat! That’s what makes it so good! Super expensive stuff, this is a nice hotel.” Hermes sighed. “They aren’t monkey-cats, the animals are called civets. They have an enzyme in their stomachs that makes the coffee good,” he replied. Nightsong did not look at all convinced by Hermes’ explanation and continued talking about monkey-cats.

They finished picking up their afternoon snacks and started looking around for an empty table in a nice spot. They had prime pick since there weren’t that many people in the dining hall. That’s when they spotted a familiar figure sitting in the corner by himself and eating. The table he was sitting at was full. There was enough food to feed an entire team, and this guy was eating it all by himself. Nightsong called out to the guy, “Roundy!”

Anyone with an iota of interest in League of Legends would know the name. One of the greatest players to have ever come out of China! Everyone, from fans on the street to other professional players, called him by his online handle as a show of respect.

The person eating alone in a corner of the banquet hall was Tian Tian! Roundy Round! God Roundy! He was the top laner of KG and also known as the Uncrowned Eighth. There was no better top laner in all of China, and there were only a few in the entire world who could go toe-to-toe with him. When he heard his name being called out, Tian Tian looked up and saw Nightsong and Hermes.

They walked over and put their plates down on the table. “Hey man!” Nightsong smiled. “I see you’ve come down for a snack. That’s good. I’d start worrying if you lost weight. Me and Hermes here got bored up in our room, so we decided to see if there was anything good here.”

Tian Tian wiped the crumbs from his mouth and swallowed a giant mouthful of food. Then he smiled at them and said, “Hey! You guys! Hi! Here, pull up a chair! We’ll eat and talk!”

Tian Tian was the number one top laner in China. But at first glance, he didn’t look even remotely special. He was chubby with a baby face and wet round eyes. He looked like the mild-mannered kid people would forget was there. Or the target of the school bully. A timid young man who usually minded his own business.

Everyone in the professional scene knew that Tian Tian was a shy and reserved guy in real life. There was even a funny story about him that went around and everyone knew it now. It happened after an LPL match. A beautiful female fan walked up to him for an autograph. He signed whatever she gave him and handed it back. Then the girl asked him if he’d like to join her on a lunch date sometime. When the word ‘date’ registered in Tian Tian’s mind, it went haywire. He started stumbling over his words and his face turned red. The girl asked him again and stood there waiting for his answer. But poor Tian Tian never managed to get the words he wanted to say out. He wanted to say, “YES! I would love that!” The girl was beautiful. He never thought a girl like that would walk up to him and ask him out. She was out of his league. But what he actually said was nothing, and the poor girl walked away thinking she’d been rejected.

Kassadin’s plan was flawless. He’d blink on top of the Vayne with Riftwalk and then kill him with a Nether Blade. It would happen so quickly that the Vayne wouldn’t even know what happened. There was nothing the Vayne could do to stop him. She would only have milliseconds to react before death! His plan was flawless, perfect, you could even say it was beautiful. But that perfection that existed in his mind shattered when he actually tried to do it. The instant he blinked out of the brush and got to where the Vayne was, he found himself standing alone in the river with an impotent Nether Blade. The Vayne had disappeared! She’d vanished so fast that he didn’t even see it happening. But he had no time to think or act or pivot around. A thick, heavy bolt struck him squarely in the chest and pinned him to a wall!

The muffled impact from Kassadin was the catalyst for the people watching the stream to erupt and verbally scream like they were trying to go Super Sayajin!

「666666666666666666!」
「WHAT A GOD!!!!」
「HOLY WUTT!?!?! is he scripting? he must be scripting right? That reaction spee what the actual fuk…..」
「CHEATER!!! MUST BE A CHEATER!!!!!11!」
「A QUADRA ITS GONNA BE A QUADRA!!1!!!」

The man at the center of it all was completely oblivious to the uproar in chat. All of Lin Feng’s attention was squarely focused on the Kassadin. After stunning Kassadin with Condemn, Vayne fired off a silver bolt. She followed up with a Tumble to land the third silver bolt. The three silver rings around the Kassadin detonated with true damage.

Vayne fell into a dance of auto-attacking, repositioning, and kiting. Over and over again. Not only did it whittle down the Kassadin’s health, the lifesteal from her items allowed her to heal all the way back to a safe buffer. That’s when Rumble rushed over. He plowed straight at the Kassadin and fired off two harpoons–Electro Harpoon! They pierced and electrocuted the Kassadin, simultaneously dealing damage and applying a slow. Rumble then activated his flamethrower and scorched everything in front of him–Flamespitter!

Kassadin’s health dropped fast. He tried to Riftwalk away, smashing the R key while waiting for the stun from Condemn to break. But one-and-a-half seconds were an eternity with two enemies attacking. He only had a sliver of health left when the stun finally broke. But it was enough. He blinked away with Riftwalk. Away from the river. Away from the Rumble. And definitely away from the Vayne. But he didn’t notice that single solitary silver bolt following him. Literally right when his Riftwalk ended, the arrow found its mark and emptied the last bit of his health bar. He collapsed dead on the ground.

《Quadrakill!》

✹

In his hotel room in London, Nightsong leaned back in his chair. He glanced over to Hermes and said, “Would ya look at them apples? Can I call it or what? I told you this Water Wraith shit was a fucking fantastic Vayne!”

“Yes, yes. You’re a god whose eyes pierce the veil and see truths the rest of us cannot. You were right.” Hermes nodded. He stared at his screen for another second before turning to Nightsong. “I gotta say something though. I’ve seen you play Vayne. A lot. And now I just watched this guy play Vayne. I’m thinking… well, I’m starting to think that this Vayne is so much more reliable than your Vayne. He shows up for every teamfight. Oh! He also showed up right when I needed him to help me get that kill before. He’s always exactly where he needs to be, right when you need him to be. What a team player, right?”

Nightsong glared at his friend. “My dick! You wanna start something here? I’ll show you my Vayne’s dick! Mine is bigger and better. It’s like a fucking third leg! This little shit’s got a toothpick! Nothing on me. Ya dig?”

“Well… you were dead for that whole teamfight. Damn, your Blitzcrank is pretty unreliable too now that I’m thinking about it… But you had all the time in the world to see how he played that. Think you could’ve done it better? That Vayne is Zen! Did you notice how he held onto his Flash until the very last moment? He didn’t waste a single ability. Tell me man, could you have done it better? Do you really think you could’ve played that teamfight better?” Hermes asked with a smile.

Nightsong had nothing to say. He had watched the whole fight, from how Vayne escaped from the Irelia, chased down the Nami and killed the Jarvan IV to how he held his Flash through all of this for the Kassadin. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed. This Vayne had played the teamfight to perfection and it stung. He would’ve died to the Kassadin after wasting his Flash on chasing down the Nami or the Jarvan.

“God damn! You really want to do this whole ‘fiddle-dee-dee look how much better than you is he’ thing? Go for it! You just want to mess with me and I know it. But it’s not going to work. I don’t give a flying fuck about that Vayne! My Vayne’s dick is bigger. It’s the best! I am the best Vayne player and that’s that!” Nightsong barked.

Hermes shook his head and grinned. Then he turned his attention back on the game. Or to be more precise, back onto the Vayne. “I think we’re watching the birth of a new pro in the scene. He’s got the eye of the tiger, he plays for the thrill of the fight. I think we’re going to see him rising up to the challenge.” he mumbled.

✹

Lin Feng shook his head. He was mildly miffed. The teamfight went great, he was happy with how he played that. Picking up a quadra kill was pretty fun too. But his KDA was now 7/1/1. That one death, all because he’d gotten distracted and careless. He grumbled, “If I didn’t screw up in lane that one time… Why’d I give that kill away? I would’ve gotten a godlike if I didn’t…”

The chat had no sympathy for Lin Feng. The people watching the stream jumped on the chance to make fun of him and pour a little bit more salt on his misery.

「lul! now you realize」
「Whose fault is it for showing off!」
「karmas a bitch ey? and i don’t mean the champion!!!! shes cute and hot and totally bangable」

The viewers were poking a little fun at Lin Feng. But when all was said and done, they’d come to respect him. New or old viewers, all of them were thoroughly impressed with his Vayne. Especially this quadrakill that was nothing short of breathtaking! There were several diehard Nightsong fans in chat, and even they had to admit that no one could’ve played that teamfight better than Lin Feng had. Not even Nightsong himself!

After this last teamfight, the Blue team was up two Dragons and two towers, and their mid and ad-carry were fed. The advantage they held over the Red team was overwhelming. Nothing short of a miracle or some serious griefing would let the Red team make a comeback. But that wasn’t about to happen with two professional players and Lin Feng on the same team. The rest of the game was much calmer. There were no more flashy plays, no unnecessary risks. Only solid teamwork.

The Blue team’s synergy started to shine. Nightsong had learned his lesson after overextending and dying. His playstyle changed to one that was more serious and wary. As the Support, he was the shotcaller. He led his team around the map, searching for targets to hook. Whenever he found an enemy champion, he’d Rocket Grab them. Veigar followed up with an Event Horizon. Stuns piled onto stuns with an extra side of stun. All the while Vayne would be unloading her silver bolts on them. They died so fast that Veigar didn’t even have the time to use his ultimate half of the time. Neither did Vayne or Rumble. They were just that much stronger than the Red team.

Lin Feng stayed in the backline along with Veigar. He never walked in front of his Blitzcrank, never left himself exposed to attack. He only went in on enemy champions that were within attack range and already engaged by the Blitzcrank. Vayne had such a large item advantage over the Red team that it didn’t matter who she attacked, they all died the same. There was no escape. It didn’t even matter how much armor the Red team champions stacked to defend themselves against her, it just wasn’t enough.

“Sweet! My Vayne is really really strong! I can probably 1vs5 them now!” Lin Feng exclaimed, smiling.

The chat had no response. Most of them were new to the stream, and just didn’t know Lin Feng well enough to react. They couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking or delusional. But the viewers who’d been watching for a while now had more experience with Lin Feng and his quirkiness. They knew he was different and not like the other streamers. So, earlier on, one of them had suggested a copypasta in the QQ group chat. One that they’d spam in chat whenever Lin Feng had one of his special moments.

「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」
「uWu! I’ve never seen such a shameless person in my life! uWu!」

The entire chat was blotted out by walls of this message that were constructed over and over again. This was a sort of tribute from the chat, one usually reserved for the most popular streamers who had large and very loyal communities. On that note, Su Xue’s stream was growing quickly. The viewer count was over 6,000! It was something that Su Xue never even dreamed would happen! She would have been screaming, “WHAT? OVER 6000? That can’t be!” But Su Xue was still sleeping, and this wasn’t a dream. Lin Feng, with a little help from Hermes and Nightsong, had done it!

✹

After the first game, Lin Feng jumped straight into a second, riding the momentum and chasing the high. That game was another quick and easy win. So was the third. But when it came to the fourth game, things took a bit of a left turn. In the last two games, it didn’t make that much of a difference if the other lanes lost. As long as they didn’t give up and go AFK or grief by walking into the enemy tower every time they respawned, he could still carry to a win. In the fourth game, none of that happened. But something similar and just as annoying did happen. A teammate who was so bad that all they accomplished was feeding, even while trying to play seriously. All of the kills created enough of an advantage that it no longer mattered how well Lin Feng played, the game was unsalvageable.

“Well, this was unexpected… That Tryndamere is ridiculously boosted,” Lin Feng concluded after looking at the numbers in the end game lobby.

Chat had come to a similar conclusion much earlier in the game and said so then, and agreed once more.

「Yeah! That trynd could feed an entire nation!」
「such a shame! you were doing so amazing with your yasuo」
「that game was unwinnable with how bad that trynd was 」
「Report him for inting! Report him!」

Not a single person watching the stream doubted Lin Feng. Not anymore. No one tried to argue that Lin Feng wasn’t that good either. Lin Feng had united every single person watching with his gameplay. They were happy when he was happy and angry when he got mad. He was their streamer, and they were his chat.

Lin Feng read through the chat and engaged with the viewers, a wide grin on his face. There were a lot of messages flooding in. So many that he was starting to have a hard time keeping up. At first he thought people were just typing fast, but there were just too many messages for that. He eventually got curious enough to investigate and looked at the viewer count. His eyes stopped for a moment. Then he rubbed them and looked again. “Oh WOW! This is crazy! There’s so many of you! You guys seeing how many of you there are in here? Oh. Wait. Did you guys already know?”

Lin Feng was so surprised that he shouted while saying that, and it woke Su Xue up. She rubbed her eyes, still drowsy, and then dragged herself out of her comfy cocoon of blankets and pillows. She pushed herself up and looked over at Lin Feng. “The hell are you yelling for? Trying to wake the whole neighborhood up?” She grabbed her phone to look at the time. “Oh, right. It’s almost 12? Alright. Fine. You’re lucky your shift is almost done. If you’d woken me up early…”

She stretched and yawned one more time. Then she cracked her back and shook off the grogginess. “Alright, I’m up! We can switch.” She walked over to Lin Feng, still in her pajamas, and ruffled his hair. “What were you screaming about anyway?”

“Oh! Look! You’re going to be so happy! Look! Look!” Lin Feng said while jabbing his finger at the monitor. Unfortunately, his excitement and his finger also blocked Su Xue from seeing the viewer count.

Su Xue pushed Lin Feng aside and looked at the screen. Her heart stopped for a moment as her mouth fell open. She moved a little closer as all the sleep left her face and was replaced with shock. “S-s-six t-t-thous–” The shock was too much for her. She leaned on the desk and forced herself to breathe. “SIX THOUSAND? How? Lin Feng how did you do it?”

A certain demographic of the viewers, a very specific subset, had already feasted their eyes on the heavenly sight of the sleeping Su Xue. But seeing her in her pajamas, that was an entirely different dimension of enticing. The thin fabric accentuated her curves, and the stream lights highlighted the sheerness of the material. They stopped breathing. They could only sit there drooling with their eyes locked on the screen staring at the beautiful woman who had appeared on the webcam feed.

「Woahhhh…..」
「Is xue xue going naked on stream?」
「LIL BRO TURN OFF THE WEBCAM!!!」
「I didn’t know the stream provided these kinds of services too!」
「COOMERS UNITE! OUR MOMENT HAS COME!」
「clipped it dn saved it!」
「this is THE BEST STREAM!! Nightsong, Hermes, now this. OMG!」

Su Xue noticed what was being talked about in chat before it went on for too long. Or too far. Her eyes turned into round saucers as she glanced at the webcam feed and saw herself showing off her body in her scanty and translucent pajamas! She quickly wrapped her arms around her chest and screamed at the camera, “What! You freaking perverts! Close your eyes! CLOSE THEM NOW!”

“Nice play, bro.”
Every person watching the stream read those words. This was Daybreak Hermes! The Star Emperor! One of the Seven Kings! And he’d just complimented Lin Feng! Literally every single person watching fantasized of a moment like this happening to them. A game where they’d be playing with legends, and then do so well that a professional acknowledges their skill. For Lin Feng, that fantasy was now his reality. After a pause, once their hearts started beating again, chat went nuclear!

「666666666666666666」
「OMMMG SNEPAI NOTICED US」
「Siiiiiick! Star emperor just said nice bro to us! IM STARSTRUUUUCK!」
「my life is complete i can die with no regrets. to the sleeping xue xue, i leave my most beloved gundam figurine collection….」

Lin Feng read the chat and smiled. “I know right? My Vayne is totally awesome!” he said while laughing. For the first time since the start of the game, not one message was sent that made fun of him. Every single viewer simultaneously decided that he had earned the right to gloat. When Daybreak Hermes, a professional player and one of the best in the world, told Lin Feng he was fantastic, who were they to disagree? Lin Feng had earned the right to enjoy this moment.

「nightsong is still better though.. got a ways to go」
「keep at it bro, one day you might become a pro tooo!」
「It’s okay! I’d still say he’s around as 70% as good as Nightsong!」
「we can call him the mini nightsong! cuz he’s like half as good!」

The validity of these statistical assessments that the viewers were making was dubious at best. Lin Feng did spend a minute thinking about what they were saying though. The gap between him and Nightsong was not as huge as they believed it to be, that he was certain of. But there wasn’t much of a point in telling them that. Their minds were already made up. Nightsong was one of the best ad-carry players in all of China, unquestionably in the top three. They would never accept that he could possibly be Nightsong’s equal. In their eyes, he could never match up to Nightsong.

But they are right about one thing. I’m great at being an ad-carry, but not as good as Nightsong. Nightsong was the better ad-carry, and he would never pretend otherwise. When it came down to mechanics and reflexes, he was just as good as Nightsong, maybe even better. But he just didn’t have the depth of ad-carry gameplay that Nightsong had. Lin Feng wasn’t a master at every single role in the game. He was a midlaner. Besides, he was still shaking some of the rust off. Nightsong had been playing every single day for the last couple of years, during the time he walked away from the game. Lots of things in the game changed while I was gone. New patches, new champions, and little tweaks to the flow of the game. Nightsong knows every little tiny nook of those things, and I don’t. It would take time to learn all these things. What he needed right now was practice. He was a god in low ELO games where no one knew a damn thing about the game, sure. But the way he was right now, there was no way he could stomp all over the best players in the LPL. But I ain’t done yet! I’m not going to give up, I’m going to climb all the way back to the top! All these people watching the stream, they’re going to watch me rise! The competitive drive and fire that burned in Lin Feng wasn’t dying out. It was burning brighter than it had before! If he had the choice, he’d be where the Kassadin was right now. Going toe-to-toe with Hermes. It would’ve been a glorious way to find out where he was at, testing himself against the best midlaner in all of China. God damn, that’d be fun. Going up against one of the 7 Kings. If I went all out, I wonder where I’d be compared to the top professional players in the world today?

✹

After Ashe came back to life in Red team’s fountain, she ran back towards the bot lane. The second she got there, she started farming minions. The Vayne had gone back to base after taking down the Dragon, so this was her only chance to get some gold and experience from minions. Catch back up a little before the Vayne came down with more items and a stronger build. She pushed the wave out as fast as possible with the help of Nami. The plan was simple. Get as much gold and experience as possible while pushing the wave all the way to Blue team’s outer tower. The tower would kill most of the red team’s minions, and every single one that the tower took was lost gold and experience for the Vayne. That would also help decrease the canyon between them.

The Ashe and Nami managed to get the minion wave all the way to Blue team’s outer tower, and even gotten a few hits in on the tower. That’s when they spotted Lin Feng’s Vayne running towards them. Neither Nami nor Ashe considered engaging. Both of them turned tail and ran. They knew what would happen if they tried. The Vayne was fed, and if they let her get too close she could kill both of them by herself!

Lin Feng arrived back in lane. His mind still wasn’t back on the game. He started farming his minions, accurately last hitting them under his tower. It would be a waste if he didn’t pick gold that had come to him so freely. Then he started pushing the minion wave out towards the middle of the lane.

At 11 minutes into the game, Lin Feng had pushed the minion wave back to the middle of the lane. His focus shifted to the Ashe. She was hiding behind her minions but would occasionally step forward to last hit a minion. She would probably try to escape the moment he landed an auto attack on her. He waited for her to do just this and then tumbled forward to poke at her a bit.

Ashe didn’t turn around when she saw the Vayne tumbling towards her. She didn’t try to escape. This was the moment she’d been waiting for! The moment that the Vayne would use the only movement ability in her kit. She raised her bow up and pulled back on it as the Enchanted Crystal Arrow coalesced. Then she let go. The arrow whistled through the air and pierced the Vayne, freezing her where she stood.

Lin Feng saw the Enchanted Crystal Arrow coming, but there was nothing he could do. Flash was still on cooldown and he’d just used Tumble to engage. He tried to dodge by side-stepping the arrow, but it wasn’t enough. His Vayne and the Ashe were too close together for that. The Enchanted Crystal Arrow plowed into his Vayne and stunned her.

Nami was ready with an Aqua Prison the second the Enchanted Crystal Arrow hit. Vayne was trapped in a bubble before the stun ended. The Jarvan IV came running down from the river and went right into his flag toss combo without skipping a beat. Vayne was knocked up in the air, and riddled with frozen arrows from the Ashe’s auto attacks. Then the Jarvan IV leapt up into the air and grabbed the knocked up Vayne. He threw her down with so much force that it created a crater at the impact site, his ultimate–Cataclysm! The damage piled on. Vayne’s fate was sealed, there was no way to escape.

《You have been slain.》

Lin Feng’s screen went grey for the first time in this game. For the first time in the stream, actually. The message from Hermes had distracted him too much. He’d been lost in his thoughts and not focused on the game. The viewers immediately started dogpiling on him.

「smh, shouldn’t have q’ed in.」
「hahaha dumbass thats what you get for trying to show off」
「get rekt m8!!!!!!1!」

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head. He was embarrassed at the sloppy play. “Haha. Yeah. My bad, my bad. I shouldn’t have done that. But it’s fine. No worries my homies. I still got this.” He was so distracted thinking about where his skills were compared to Hermes and the other professionals that he’d forgotten for a minute that he was playing against Diamond 1 and Master players. All of them had gotten to this point because they didn’t give up and lose hope like players in the lower ELOs did. When the cards were stacked against them, they waited and watched for an opportunity to turn things around. Which is what just happened to him.

But beyond embarrassing himself, there was no major harm that came from his death. The Dragon hadn’t respawned yet. The only thing that he’d given up was the gold bounty on his Vayne for being on a Rampage. His carelessness hadn’t screwed his team over. But something still changed. The look in Lin Feng’s eyes was just a bit different. His breathing slowed down. He said more to himself than to the stream, “Time to get serious!”

✹

The Dragon respawned every five minutes. The Blue team had killed it for the first time 8 minutes into the game. It was now 13 minutes into the game, and the Dragon would respawn any second. The Red team was still resentful over how they’d lost the first Dragon. That 3vs3 in bot lane had screwed them over, and they weren’t going to let that happen again. They had a plan. All of them arrived at the Dragon Pit early, before it had even spawned. And they started warding everything they could, maximizing their vision. They weren’t going to get ambushed or surprised this time. This Dragon was going to be the start of their turnaround!

The Blue team had no intention of letting the Red team get the second Dragon. They noticed what the Red team was up to, and started planning a counter-play. The Jungler and Support put down wards where they could to give the rest of the team some vision. But they were careful not to overextend themselves to the point where the entire Red team would pile on top of them and kill them. Unfortunately, Nightsong underestimated how extensive the Red team’s warding went and pushed his luck a little bit too much. He’d put his Blitzcrank into Overdrive and charged through the Red team’s jungle to slap a ward down near their Blue buff.

A volley of ice arrows flew out of the brush near Blue buff and pierced Blitzcrank. Ashe had been lying in wait, and her revenge was best served with her ice cold arrows. Blitzcrank started running towards the river. But before he took two steps, the Jarvan IV charged in towards him from the river entrance! Blitzcrank’s escape route was blocked. Jarvan IV dashed in with his flag-toss combo, which knocked Blitzcrank up into the air. Then jumped up into the air to catch the knocked up Blitzcrank and threw him back down to the earth with so much force that it created a crater, a cage of dirt–Cataclysm!

Blitzcrank was hemorrhaging health. The attacks from Ashe and Jarvan IV had taken out more than half of his health. That’s when Kassadin decided he wanted to join in on the fun. With the damage of the Void Walker on top of the other two, there was nothing that Nightsong could do. Flashing away would be a waste of the summoner spell. Backed into a corner like this, there was only one thing left to do. Nightsong was going to get some good hits in before he died. So he started fighting the Kassadin with his fists until his health dropped to zero. Thus, the noble Blitzcrank did die, his gears spinning to the beat of battle until his final moments.

Right when the Red team finished turning Blitzcrank into scrap metal, the Dragon spawned. They quickly grouped up and moved to the Dragon Pit. Jarvan IV engaged first and quickly pulled the Dragon out of the pit. If all five of them squeezed into the pit to fight the Dragon, they’d leave themselves open to both Rumble’s ultimate and Veigar’s cage.

✹

《An ally has been slain.》

Back in the hotel room in London, Nightsong shook his head. He looked at Hermes and said, “I messed that up, what am I doing with my life? I know a sausage when I see one, and that was a bad sausage. I’m sorry, man.”

Hermes looked at his friend and laughed, “As long as you get all of this outta your system before Worlds, I’m chillin!” He stopped and smiled, “Chillin like a villain!” Then he laughed and looked back at the game for a second before continuing, “We’re still in this, even without your Blitzcrank. Or that super special ward that you wanted to put down. Rumble has his ult, I got my cage. We’re good. If the Elise and Vayne decide to pop-off, we’ll be even better.”

Between Hermes’ Veigar and Rumble, the Blue team had two champions with powerful AoE damage and crowd control skills. There was also the Vayne who could dish out a lot of consistent damage and Elise couldn’t be underestimated either. All four of them together were more capable of taking the entire Red team out. They would avenge the noble Blitzcrank!

✹

The Blue team waited up the river from the Dragon pit. They were letting the Red team whittle down the Dragon’s health. Just to throw off suspicion, they threw out a few skill shots every now and then. But they never went in. Until the Dragon’s health got down to around 20%. That was their cue. Veigar quickly went in towards the Dragon Pit and threw an Event Horizon down on top of the Red team. The edges of space curled up and formed a cage.

Rumble was right behind Veigar and followed up. With the Red team locked inside Veigar’s cage, he had the perfect target for his ultimate–The Equalizer! He fired off a group of rockets, creating a wall of flames over them that damaged and slowed them.

While all of this was happening, the Dragon continued to slash at the Jarvan IV! All five champions on the Red team were taking too much damage. They started to back away, slowly. None of them committed to the retreat. They didn’t want to give up the Dragon, so they hesitated. The Dragon was almost dead. If they pulled out too far, the Dragon would flee back to its pit and heal to full health. They would have to push the Blue team back and then start all over again. If they just managed to get a few more hits in, they’d take it down!

Suddenly, the shadow of a spider loomed over the Dragon. The Blue team’s Jungler, Elise in spider form! She lunged onto the Dragon and gave it a Venomous Bite, while also hitting it with a Smite. That was it. The Dragon died!

《Your team has slain the dragon!》

Lin Feng’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Nice steal!” he exclaimed.

The Blue and Red team stood across the river from each other, one side wallowing in despair while the other sipped on joy. It was still. Calm. Tranquil. Then suddenly and all at once, the stillness was shattered! Attacks and skills flew back and forth, a full blown team fight had broken out! The Jarvan IV went in on the Veigar with his flag-toss combo, while the Ashe fired her Enchanted Crystal Arrow in Elise’s direction. The Arrow found its mark and froze the Elise. Both the Ashe and Nami focused their attacks on Elise after that.

The Jarvan IV’s flag-toss combo missed. Veigar flashed right over it, and straight into the heart of the Red team. The proximity to the entire Red team was ideal for him to throw his signature Veigar Combo down. He coelesed a ball of Dark Matter in the sky and brought it down on them. Then he followed up with a small and big bolt of dark energy–Baleful Strike and Primordial Burst! The Ashe took the brunt of Veigar’s attacks. She was blown up before the Dark Matter hit the ground.

The Nami tried to neutralize Veigar and possibly save Ashe. She threw out a bubble to trap the Veigar–Aqua Prison! It landed, but only after Veigar had already killed Ashe. Aqua Prison couldn’t save Ashe, but it could avenge her. Jarvan IV and Kassadin ran up to the trapped Veigar and eviscerated him!

On the fringes of the fight, Irelia locked onto the Vayne. She dashed forward with Bladesurge and was planning to stun the Vayne with a follow-up Equilibrium Strike, But her plan went the exact same way it did the last time she tried it. Lin Feng pressed the R key to activate Vayne’s ultimate, and then tumbled away from the Irelia’s Bladesurge. Then Vayne vanished into the darkness where Irelia’s Equilibrium Strike could not reach. When she reappeared a moment later, she let loose a stream of silver bolts. This was followed up with the active skill gained from the item Blade of the Ruined King, which slowed the Irelia.

The Irelia tried to close the gap. But her skills that could do so were on cooldown, and the slow from the Blade of the Ruined King meant that the Vayne was always faster. Her health quickly dropped. Between the damage from Rumble’s ultimate and Vayne’s silver bolts, she was going to die! Three silver rings appeared around her and exploded. Her screen went grey.

Lin Feng picked up his fourth kill for this game, and his score was now 4/1/1. But the fight hadn’t ended yet! He started zoning in on the Nami along with Elise who had just broken free from Ashe’s stun. With their damage combined, Nami went down to zero from hero.

《Double kill!》

The viewers were going wild in the chat! Lin Feng was quickly turning this team fight around! But their cheers stopped mid-sentence. The Elise was only one or two attacks away from dying and she was in the middle of the enemy team. They watched the Jarvan IV turn around to the Elise. He skewered her with Dragon Strike and finished her off with an auto attack.

Lin Feng wasn’t about to let Elise’s death go unavenged. He shifted his focus to the nearly dead Jarvan IV. Vayne shot three silver bolts at him in quick succession before the Jarvan IV could even reach her. The third silver ring appeared around the Jarvan IV and exploded. The true damage was enough to kill him.

《Triple kill!》 

The excitement in chat that had crashed and burned when the Elise died, it returned with added interest when the announcer’s voice rang out again across Summoner’s Rift, her tone more animated than when she announced the double kill, for the triple kill.

「TRIPPLLLLEEEE KILLL!!!!!! FCCK YEAH!」
「damn! That was a crazy ass 4v5!」
「OMG HAVE MY CHILD」
「uhhh… guys? Kassadin is still alive right?」
「WATCH OUT!!!!!! KASSADIN IS BEHIND YOU!!!!」

Lin Feng had picked up a triple kill, but the battle still raged on. The Red team still had a living champion. A violet silhouette appeared in a nearby brush. Kassadin was an assassin. After killing the Veigar, he’d retreated to let his skills come back off cooldown while searching for an opportunity to jump back in the fray. That moment was now! Vayne’s health was low enough that two attacks would be enough.

The Kassadin blinked right on top of the Vayne with Riftwalk. He activated his Nether Blade mid-blink, ready to kill Vayne before she could react.

Lin Feng was focused. Ready. He knew Kassadin was still alive. He wasn’t stupid. His finger trembled slightly on top of the D. There was only one way to outplay the Kassadin with the little health his Vayne had left. Lin Feng was going to use his Vayne as the bait in his trap! When Riftwalk activated, a dark violet portal appeared a moment before Kassadin did. Lin Feng kept his eyes trained on the screen for that splotch of purple. The instant he spotted it, he pushed down on the D.

Vayne flashed away from Kassadin, completely avoiding his Nether Blade. Then she raised the heavy crossbow on her back. A giant bolt flew out and sent the Kassadin colliding in a wall, stunning him. Condemn!

✹

Over in London, Nightsong sat up straight in his chair and stared at his screen. Amazed at the play. “Girrunafuck! This Vayne’s mechanics could fingerbang a cat!”

Vayne had just flashed through the Ashe’s Enchanted Crystal Arrow and dropped down right behind her. Lin Feng didn’t sit back and congratulate himself on a brilliant maneuver or glance at chat. His eyes were locked on the game. He wasn’t done yet, not by a long shot. Before the flash had even ended, Vayne had the heavy crossbow in her hands, ready to fire. A heavy bolt thrummed through the air and pinned the Ashe to the wall in front of her. Condemn! Vayne followed this up with another auto attack, and a third silver ring appeared around the pinned Ashe. All three rings exploded, dealing bonus true damage! Lin Feng’s play wasn’t just avoiding Ashe’s ultimate. He had chained Flash, Condemn, Silver Bolts, and auto attacks into a spectacular combo that he executed in less than a second! Ashe literally had no time to react after she fired her Enchanted Crystal Arrow!

Nightsong was impressed by the Vayne’s play, but not to the point where he forgot that he was still playing a game. He was Vayne’s support and his ad-carry had just engaged the Ashe. His Blitzcrank was in Overdrive and charging towards the stunned Ashe without any conscious thought from him. This was the same combo play they’d been doing since the start of this game. The instant that the stun from Condemn had ended, his Blitzcrank’s hand was wrapped around the Ashe. Blitzcrank pulled the Ashe back towards himself, and then knocked her up with Power Fist! Nightsong smiled. Their Vayne-Blitzcrank combo play was great at the beginning. But after running it a couple of times, it was seamless. This Vayne is great, feel like I’m playing with a teamma– Nightsong glanced at the minimap in the mid-thought. Something was happening!

Two of the wards in the bottom lane had lit up! One glowed blue and the other was red. Teleport! Two champions were teleporting to bot lane. The summoner spell Teleport was one of those used almost exclusively by top laners. Top lane was the longest lane on the map, and moving back into lane after going back to base or dying was a priority. Right now, both of the top lane champions were teleporting down to bot lane. Blue team’s Rumble and Red team’s Irelia!

“Hot diggity dog! Woooooooo! Alright, alright, alright! We gotta party going on in bot lane, boys!” Lin Feng shouted while laughing. This game was getting more and more fun for him. He wasn’t even slightly surprised this was happening though. This was a real game he was in, an actual high ELO game. Every single person in this tier had impeccable map awareness. There was never a point during the game where they didn’t have an eye on what was happening all over the map. All three of the other players on Red team knew that bot lane was in trouble during this game. So when Lin Feng engaged the Ashe, he knew there was a huge chance that other players on the Red team would show up to bail her out. He was ready for this. Which is why he didn’t back off when Irelia decided to show up. Vayne continued to attack the Ashe who had just been knocked up into the air by Blitzcrank. By the time she hit the ground, she was nearly dead.

Both of the teleport animations finished one after the other. Red team’s Irelia had shown up in bot lane first, and Blue team’s Rumble followed two seconds later. Irelia dashed towards the Vayne with Bladesurge, dealing damage with the collision. Then the Irelia followed up with a fast Equilibrium Strike! Or she tried to, anyway. The attack sliced through empty air! Vayne was already gone and completely out of sight. Lin Feng had dodged with a well-timed and empowered Tumble, and his Vayne had melded into the shadows right after because her ultimate was still active.

The Nami put two and two together real fast and threw down a Vision Ward! The ward revealed Vayne to the Red team, but it was still a little too late. Lin Feng didn’t use the brief window of stealth to escape. Vayne had continued to attack the Ashe. By the time the Vision Ward went up, another auto attack from Vayne was whistling through the air towards Ashe. The silver bolt pierced her and all three of the silver rings around her exploded, leaving her lifeless corpse on the ground!

《You have slain an enemy!》

Once again, Lin Feng didn’t stop to cheer or tell the chat how his kill was awesome. He didn’t have the time to relax. There were still two more enemy champions around, one of whom could easily kill his Vayne. He clicked on the Irelia to target her and started attacking. The first silver bolt landed. Then he cancelled the last part of the attack animation by backing up two steps. Another silver bolt pierced the Irelia. Vayne moved a step back and a step to the left this time. Over and over, Lin Feng flawlessly kited around the Irelia while the thrum of his Vayne’s crossbow created the rhythmic melody for the dance.

Blue team’s Rumble had teleported onto a ward placed in the river, just outside of the entrance to the middle of bot lane. That was the closest ward that he could teleport to. He ran into bot lane quickly, chasing after the Irelia, and then down bot lane to where the Vayne had just killed Ashe. By the time he got there, Vayne was kiting around and attacking Irelia. He wasted no time getting into range and throwing his ultimate skill–The Equalizer! A barrage of rockets rained down on the Irelia and Nami in a straight line, like a bombing run. The area they landed on boiled and erupted, turning molten from the payload of caustic jet fuel, which burned away the flesh of the two enemy champions caught in it.

Nami was still level 5, which meant that she still hadn’t gained her ultimate skill. The ultimates could only be gained at Level 6, they were locked before that. There was nothing she could do to help Irelia at the moment without her ultimate, and her already low health was now dropping dangerously low. There was only one thing she could do right now, and that was to preserve her own life. She quickly made up her mind and flashed away from the Irelia and towards her outer tower. There was nothing cowardly about it, she couldn’t save the Irelia’s life so the best thing she could do was save her own life.

In a truly unfortunate twist, the Irelia’s Flash was still on cooldown. She’d used it back in Top lane a little while ago. Not having Flash was what truly doomed her, since her movement speed was decreased while she was caught in the Rumble’s ultimate, and that meant she would constantly be taking damage while trying to escape it slowly. To make things worse, Rumble had caught up to her by now and applied a second slow by shooting two harpoons at her. She needed to escape! But every step was painfully slow. The real cherry on this shitshow sundae was that the Vayne continued attacking her. Silver rings appeared and exploded, over and over. Burning, slowed, constantly taking true damage, the Irelia started making peace with her eventual death. Then her screen went grey.

《Double kill!》

The people watching the stream saw everything, from Lin Feng’s spectacular Flash combo to the top laners teleporting into the Ashe’s death and then the double kill with Irelia. The entire play bloomed before their eyes, and the sheer excitement of the moment rendered them breathless. Once the Irelia was slain, they started talking again. For the first time since this game had started, everyone had something nice to say about Lin Feng and his Vayne.

「Wooooah! Nice mechanics! Almost as good as Nightsong!」
「that rumble ult was so sickkk!!!!11!」

The Blue team won the 3vs3 team fight in bot lane. They picked up two kills, while the Red team failed to secure even one. But the Blue Team didn’t just stop there. Since Rumble was already at bot lane, they decided to go kill the dragon. This was salt on top of a grievous wound for Red team. Their top laner and ad-carry were waiting to respawn, and Nami had recalled back to base to recover her health. They had no one who could contest Blue team for the dragon kill. They could do nothing.

✹

Back in London, at the 5-star hotel where Hermes and Nightsong were staying. Both of them were sitting at a desk, behind their laptops. When the double kill was announced, Hermes pushed himself against the back of his chair and stretched. He looked at Nightsong and said, “That Vayne, eh? He’s doing pretty good.”

Nightsong rubbed his eyes and chuckled. “Damn straight. I don’t know if ‘pretty good’ is correct. The little shit is doing fantastic with Vayne.”

“Wait. What? I was just messing with you! Look at you, saying someone else is playing Vayne well. I thought you were going to tell me ten things he did wrong in the last 30 seconds and how you would’ve done better. Hahaha! Hang on! I know what happened! Truck-kun must’ve gotten me on the way to the airport and now I’m in a different dimension, a parallel universe. One where Nightsong is an arrogant shithead.” Hermes said and then  laughed again. He’d been playing with Nightsong for a while now. Long enough to understand what kind of guy his teammate was. Nightsong was friendly and went with the flow for most things. Except when it came to League of Legends. That’s where all of Nightsong’s hidden pride and arrogance came out, especially when someone else was playing his role or his champions. It wasn’t undeserved or unearned arrogance though. He had every right to be proud. He was one of the top three ad-carries in China! He had gone toe-to-toe with Mote, the ad-carry for SSK when that team won Worlds last year, without buckling during the off-season. Nightsong was most definitely a god-tier ad-carry!

Chinese fans everywhere thought there were two Chinese professional players who deserved a chance to make it into the Seven Kings. The first was Roundy, the Uncrowned Eighth. His fans argued it was ridiculous he wasn’t already part of the Seven Kings! Right behind Roundy was Nightsong. He was phenomenal at the game and could go toe-to-toe with the best players in the world. Since last season, he was even publicly acknowledged as the number one Vayne in all of China! So when he judged another player’s Vayne, he was doing so at the standards that he held for himself. He almost never had anything good to say about another player’s Vayne.

Nightsong shrugged. “I’m the realest, and I’m just being real. I’ve been next to that Vayne this whole game. He’s good, that’s all there is to it. Just keep watching, you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

✹

10 minutes into the game, Hermes had poked the Kassadin he was against nearly to death. And right now, it was time to go in. His Ignite had just come up, and his ultimate was ready to go. It was time for him to start setting the stage for the kill. The first thing he did was push the minion wave up a little.

Kassadin was a melee champion, so he had to walk right upto the minions in order to last hit them. This is what Hermes had taken advantage of. Every minion that Kassadin went to get the last hit on, it was just a little bit further out from the Red team’s tower than the last one. Just far enough from each other so the Kassadin only took baby steps, never feeling like he was overextended. He kept going, until he finally realized exactly how far out he’d gotten. Which was too far out. This was the moment that Hermes had been waiting for so patiently. Veigar went in and twisted the edges of space to create a cage–Event Horizon! Any champion that tried to pass through it would be stunned.

Earlier in the season, Veigar had been nerfed slightly by Riot Games. They had made a change to Event Horizon. The skill used to cast instantly. Now, there was a brief delay between the activation animation and when the cage would form. This window allowed any champion who would be caught in Veigar’s cage a chance to escape unscathed.

When Kassadin saw the activation animation for Event Horizon, he reacted instinctively with his ultimate–Rift Walk. The skill allowed him to blink through space and land a small distance away, similar to Flash. But he could also deal damage when he landed. Right now, the Kassadin had decided to blink towards the part of the river that connected mid lane and bot lane. He had completely avoided the stun from Veigar’s Event Horizon and saved himself from death!

Lin Feng chuckled. My timing couldn’t have been better! Holy shit! I can’t believe this Kassadin decided to blink this way. Vayne, shrouded in darkness, burst out of the river brush and straight at the Kassadin! Lin Feng decided that bot lane was going well, so he pushed the minion wave out and went roaming to mid. Just as his Vayne got to mid lane, he saw Veigar casting Event Horizon. And then the Kassadin had helpfully decided to save him some walking by blinking closer. Lin Feng chuckled again. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect! Alright Kassadin, let’s what you’ll think of this! Lin Feng pressed down on the E key–Condemn! Vayne took the heavy crossbow from her back and shot a giant bolt at Kassadin. The impact lifted him off the ground and carried him through Veigar’s newly formed cage, stunning him!

The people watching the stream had no words. Just no words. It took them a minute to process what just happened. Veigar’s Event Horizon, the cage that it formed, didn’t count as a structure. So Vayne’s Condemn couldn’t pin enemy champions to it. And without pinning, the skill couldn’t stun. But any enemy champion who passed through the walls of Event Horizon’s cage would be stunned. Which is exactly what Condemn had done. So Lin Feng had just come up with a way to use Condemn to stun an enemy with an unpinnable structure.

「WHAAAAT!?!?!??!?!!? That works!?」
「THAT”S SO BIG BRAAAIN! LUL!」
「5HEAD! 20000000000IQ! WTF? WTF? THIS IS WHY I SUCK」
「This guy gets me hard. He single?」

Hermes was surprised, then startled. He’d was planning on resetting and trying something else when the Kassadin blinked away. But then the Kassadin had come right back. Stunned and neatly packaged. He pushed down on the W, Q, R keys in sequence, the Veigar combo. Dark matter coalesced into a ball in the sky above and then rained down on the Kassadin, dealing magic damage–Dark Matter! Veigar followed this up with a bolt of dark energy from his staff–Baleful Strike. That was just the appetizer. Veigar charged up an even bigger bolt of dark energy that blasted the Kassadin away–Primordial Burst, his ultimate!

《An enemy has been slain!》

Hermes was in a good mood after picking up the kill that he thought was lost. Such a good mood that he decided to say something nice to the Vayne that had brought his runaway Kassadin kill back.
OldWorn:「Nice play, bro.」

Lin Feng chuckled. A new Ashe, huh? So I should be worried? He smiled. The idea wasn’t wrong, per se. The reworked Ashe should have an advantage over Vayne during early game. Her attack range was longer and the cooldown on her skill Volley was reduced, so she could theoretically poke and burst his Vayne down. Changes and champion buffs don’t really matter unless you know how to take advantage of them. And we’ll see if this Ashe really can do that. But there’s no way I’m throwing in the towel because of a little rework. Besides, they were down in bot lane. Lin Feng had a support champion at his side, and that support could negate every advantage from this new Ashe. He had a Blitzcrank! A robot with a flying hand that could hook and pull enemy champions. That hook made it impossible for the Ashe to position herself in the most advantageous way. And when combined with his Vayne’s Condemn, it was downright deadly.

This Vayne-Blitzcrank combo move was put on display three minutes into the game. There was a single minion defending the Ashe from a Blitzcrank Rocket Grab. Lin Feng waited, patiently, for the perfect moment. He targeted the Ashe with an auto attack, when the minion’s health dropped to single digits. NOW! He had his Vayne last hit the minion and created the opening Nightsong needed to hook and pull the Ashe. The second the Ashe was pulled forward, Vayne shot another bolt at the Ashe and then tumbled forward to cleanly dodge an Aqua Prison from the Nami. Lin Feng followed up with Condemn. Vayne pulled the heavy crossbow on her back out. A giant bolt flew out and pierced the Ashe through her chest and sent her flying backwards towards a nearby wall, pinning her to it.

Nightsong put his Blitzcrank into Overdrive to gain some extra movement speed and rushed towards the pinned and stunned Ashe. The timer on the stun was ticking down, and the Ashe would soon be free to escape. Blitzcrank continued charging forward and reached the Ashe literally the instant she broke free from the stun. Nightsong’s Blitzcrank went in with a Power Fist that connected with the Ashe just as she flashed away. The Flash had worked, but the Power Fist had also connected. The Ashe reappeared a small distance away and was instantly knocked up!

Good enough! Lin Feng wasn’t even a little upset that the Ashe managed to flash away. His Vayne’s passive increased her movement speed whenever she was chasing after an enemy champion, so the flash didn’t make that much of a difference. Vayne ran down the Ashe, nailing her with auto attacks every second and a half. Narrowing the distance between them while still taking out as much of the Ashe’s health as possible. She shot a third silver bolt at the Ashe, and the three silver rings encircling the Ashe exploded, dealing extra true damage. Then Vayne took aim again.

The Ashe was feeling both the pressure and the pain. She had to keep running, keep trying to retreat to the safety of her outer tower. But her health was dropping dangerously low! She didn’t know if she would make it. But her support Nami healed her precisely when she needed it with Ebb and Flow. Ashe also used the Summoner Spell Heal to get some extra health. Hopefully, this would give her enough health to get to the tower. But the Vayne was still right behind her, cutting away at the health she’d just gotten back. Thankfully, Nami was there to stop that by throwing an Exhaust at the Vayne. This lowered both Vayne’s movement speed and damage. That was all the opening that the Ashe needed. Exhaust had slowed the Vayne down and dropped the damage just enough for her to get under her tower. She was safe. If the Vayne tried to follow her under the tower, she still had enough health to avenge her death with her own hands.

For the people watching the stream, the engage and fight at bot lane was riveting! Not one message was sent on chat the whole time, they were too absorbed in the action to type. Until the Ashe slid underneath the safety of her tower by the skin of her teeth and Lin Feng’s Vayne backed away.

「You could’ve flashed there…」
「Yeah, wtf… you couldve gotten the kill if you flashed!!!!」
「You should have known that the Ashe was going to Flash and flanked!」
「you let all of nightsongs hard work go to waste! noob」

Lin Feng shook his head. “Nope. Guys, it wouldn’t have worked. I don’t have enough damage right now. I couldn’t kill her even if I did the towerdive. Plus, tower shots early game really hurt on this patch. I might’ve given them a kill if I did that.” He knew exactly how much damage he could dish out right now, and it wasn’t enough to towerdive and kill the Ashe.

Lin Feng’s explanation was solid, his reasoning was well thought out, and made complete sense to most of the viewers. But in the history of streaming, when had the backseat gamers ever accepted a reasonably well-thought out explanation behind a gameplay decision without trying to convince the person who was actually playing that they were wrong? Never. This stream was no exception to that rule.

「Keep making up excuses!」
「that was clearly a kill…..」
「Nightsong would’ve definitely gotten that kill if he was ADC!」

The trend of messages in chat from these guys made what they were trying to do blatantly obvious to everyone else watching. They weren’t trying to backseat, they were just trolls. They wanted to turn the tide of chat against Lin Feng. That would tilt him. Then he’d start playing poorly and they could laugh as he embarrassed himself in front of two professional players. But Su Xue’s faithful followers wouldn’t just sit there and let this happen.

「shut the fuck up you morons! Look at these armchair challengers here. Lol」
「KYS, please. Then we wouldn’t have to listen to you.」
「youre all new here right? I could tell the moment you opened your ugly ass mouths」
「Don’t talk when you don’t even know how good he is.」
「Oh, that’s right! Bronzies over here know when to go in best, right?」
「if ur mommy knew how dumb u were shed kill herself」
「if you dont like what you see, piss off! There is a red X in the top right of your screen. Go on and click it.」

The sheer venom and outrage from the other viewers cowed the trolls into silence. They tried to pivot, explain to the chat that they were only trying to have a bit of fun. Some harmless banter. But no one was in the mood to listen or make them feel better. Every message and response was quickly shut down. Any comment they tried to make that was less than sugary-sweet nice was met with an army ready to stomp them down.

It was beyond confusing for any viewer who showed up to troll. The whole thing just made no sense. The streamer was a guy! They could see it! And yet, there was an army of white knights defending him! So they tried to pivot again, explaining that they didn’t understand why so many people were defending a guy streamer. They were indignant and convinced that they had done nothing wrong, but no one was listening to them.

Su Xue’s faithful followers and long-time viewers saw this from a completely different perspective. They’d seen these kinds of messages before, met these kinds of people before. They weren’t going to make the same mistake twice. If they gave these trolls an inch, chat would end up overrun again. They had seen it happen when LovelyRose’s troll army had attacked Su Xue’s stream. They were more accommodating back then, more forgiving. That was the mistake, one they weren’t going to repeat. So they pushed back hard against any and all trolls!

Lin Feng noticed something was going on in chat. Oh? They don’t think I’m good? Well. Alright. I’ll just have to show them how good I am! He didn’t even notice that people were trying to tilt him. He genuinely believed that the trolls were upset that the Ashe kill didn’t happen, and they were starting to doubt him because of that. Which wasn’t really a problem. The game was only a few minutes old. He still had plenty of time to change their minds. Which is why he confusingly told the viewers, “Calm down guys, it’s fine. Just sit back and enjoy. I’ll kill her when she gets back to lane!”

✹

Lin Feng’s word was his bond, and he’d always follow through on a promise. He told the viewers that he was going to kill the Ashe when she got back to lane, and that’s exactly what he planned to do. Well, he was planning to do that even before he promised them. His plan went into motion the instant the Ashe recalled back to Red Base. First, he let the Red team’s minion wave push out a little. Hanging around just beyond the range of Red team’s outer tower wasn’t ideal. It limited maneuverability and positioning too much. So he shepherded the minion wave to the middle of the lane. This was the perfect spot. Between the lack of towers and the opening to the river, this was where the best possible positioning and plays could happen. That’s where Lin Feng decided to freeze the minion wave. With absolute precision and perfect control, he made sure that the Blue minions never dealt more damage than the Red minions.

At 3:40 minutes into the game, the Ashe arrived back in bot lane. She walked out from the safety of her tower and into the middle of the lane to start farming minions. She last hit one minion, and then another. Then she decided to move forward a little bit to get to one of the Blue caster minions who tended to hang back.

Lin Feng smiled. Here we go! Vayne tumbled forward and shot an empowered silver bolt at the Ashe. A single silver ring appeared around her. Then Lin Feng took his fingers off every key except D. He pushed down on it slightly, not enough to register a button press and activate the skill. But almost. He had his Vayne shoot another bolt at the Ashe.

Ashe turned around and started running when the first bolt hit. She knew it was risky to get that caster minion. But the gold was worth it, she didn’t want to fall behind this Vayne. That’s when Ashe noticed that the Vayne was chasing her. That first attack wasn’t just a poke. She needed to get away before she was forced out of lane again! She turned around and shot out a cone of ice arrows–Volley! Nine arrows that would cover her back and slow the Vayne when they hit. She turned back towards her outer tower and continued retreating.

GOTCHA! Lin Feng’s smile grew wider. His finger pressed down the D key a nanosecond before the ice arrows pierced Vayne. Flash! Vayne flashed through the arrows and ended up right behind Ashe. Then she took the heavy crossbow from her back and fired out a giant silver bolt. Condemn! It pierced Ashe through the ribs and lifted her off the ground, carrying her until it collided with a wall and pinned Ashe there.

The viewers watching the stream were blown away! Lin Feng was phenomenal! They sent messages about how they wished they could play Vayne like Lin Feng. They talked about how it would go if they tried to do what he just pulled off, and collectively agreed that it wouldn’t have gone well. They would’ve never flashed through Ashe’s Volley. Once they got hit by that, the Nami would’ve come in with an Aqua Prison. And then the Ashe would have rained arrows on them until they died.

Nightsong and Lin Feng weren’t talking to each other in voice chat. Nor were they using pings to indicate what they intended to do. Neither of them needed to type out a single thing in the in-game chat. They just understood each other perfectly. So when Nightsong saw Vayne engage the Ashe, he shifted his Blitzcrank into Overdrive and charged towards the pinned Ashe. Nightsong knew exactly what Lin Feng wanted done without words or pings. The stun from Condemn lasted for 1.5 seconds. Even with Overdrive, Nightsong didn’t know if he could get his Blitzcrank close enough. The Ashe broke free of the stun while he was still a few steps away. He was close enough, barely though. Blitzcrank’s hand blasted off his arm and flew forward until it grabbed the Ashe, dealing damage and dragging her back to him. Then he knocked her up into the air with Power Fist!

The Ashe knew that she was just too far away from her tower. Her skills were all on cooldown, as were her Summoner Spells. There was nothing she could do. She still tried to run away from the Vayne and Blitzcrank, but she knew how hopeless it was. A moment later, her screen turned grey.

《First blood!》

Literally seconds after first blood was announced came another announcement. A second kill for Blue team. This one happened in mid lane, where Hermes was playing Veigar against a Kassadin. He’d been harassing the Kassadin for the first few minutes of the game. And then the jungler, Elise, decided to come to mid lane for the gank. That’s when Hermes had gone in and gotten the kill.

The viewers of the stream cheered and spammed and rioted in chat. Both of their idols, the two professional players in this game, had gotten a kill! At nearly the same time! They got onto the scoreboard together! Hermes in the midlane with his Veigar, and Nightsong’s Blitzcrank in the bot lane!

「Star Emperor is a god! 66666666666666666!」
「Best Veigar ever!」
「Nightsong’s Blitzcrank is also pretty amazing!」

“Hey! I was the one that got first blood, you know!” Lin Feng protested.

「oh, you did okay i gues…」
「its good you didnt bring nightsong down」

“What? Really? Is this actually happening right now? I’m really good, too! You guys…” For the first time since he’d accidentally stumbled into streaming, Lin Feng understood what Su Xue went through all the time. These viewers, his viewers, had demoted him to a side character in his own stream! He even started sympathizing a little with Su Xue.

✹

Six minutes into the game, Lin Feng and Nightsong had claimed dominion over the bot lane. Red team’s Ashe and Nami could only cower impotently underneath their tower and watch minions die off in the distance halfway down the lane. Lin Feng had once again frozen the minion wave in the same spot as before. The Ashe’s creep score was falling further and further behind every minute.

Lin Feng looked at his minimap. Nightsong had warded all around bot lane, so he had fantastic vision. He noticed Jarvan IV, the enemy jungler, trying to sneak up on them and gank them from behind. He had his Vayne walk back towards Blue team’s outer tower. The Jarvan IV tried to ambush her with a flag-toss combo, but she easily dodged it with a Tumble. That’s when Nightsong decided it was time to show everyone why he was a professional player. He had positioned his Blitzcrank under the tower and waited. Once the Jarvan IV fell for Vayne’s bait, Blitzcrank used his rocket arm to grab Jarvan IV and pull him underneath the tower. Then Blitzcrank used Power Fist to knock Jarvan IV up into the air!

Lin Feng knew it was his turn when the Jarvan IV was knocked up. His Vayne was perfectly positioned. The Jarvan IV was stuck underneath the tower, a powerful structure he could be pinned to with Condemn. Vayne took the heavy crossbow from her back and fired a large silver bolt at the Jarvan IV, pinning him to the tower and stunning him. Between the damage from the tower shots and Vayne’s bolts, it was an easy kill.

While this was going on in bot lane, Hermes’ Veigar hit Level 6 in mid lane. This opened a brief window of opportunity where he had the advantage over the Kassadin. Hermes wasted no time and engaged. There was no suspense. The Kassadin was already at low health, he should have gone back to base when he saw Veigar at Level 5 but decided not to. It was a mistake that would prove deadly. Veigar’s ultimate did more damage the lower an enemy champion’s health was. The combination of circumstances had decided Kassadin’s destiny. Hermes had his Veigar blast the Kassadin to the afterlife with his ultimate–Primordial Burst!

Just like what had happened with first blood and the second kill in the game, bot lane and mid lane got a kill simultaneously again. There was so little time between the kills that the voice announcer only called out the first of the two.

《An enemy has been slain!》

“Oh wow! He’s really good!” Lin Feng didn’t say that out of surprise though. There was no reason for him to be surprised. Hermes was a member of the top LPL team in China, Hand of God. He was the best mid laner in all of China! And he was one of the Seven Kings! It would’ve been surprising if he wasn’t winning his lane in a random solo queue game. That statement was Lin Feng’s way of expressing pure and genuine admiration. Both Nightsong and Hermes, and how they were doing in this game, managed to ignite the fire of competition in Lin Feng’s soul. A fire that he hadn’t felt burn in a long time!

“We’re going to show them how awesome I am!”

✹

Lin Feng got a chance to showcase just how awesome he was 8 minutes into the game. The Ashe had once again overextended herself. Lin Feng activated Vayne’s ultimate–Final Hour. Darkness enveloped Vayne, and she disappeared. She raced towards the Ashe under the invisible cloak of darkness, the demon hunting crossbow held ready in her hands. When she got close enough, she attacked! A silver bolt struck Ashe.

Ashe was already wary. She’d been cautious since the first time she died, and that caution had doubled with her death. She’d been hanging back near her tower, and only stepped forward a little in the moments that she felt absolutely safe. And she always had one eye on the Vayne. Which is how she noticed immediately when the Vayne disappeared into the shadows. Death was coming for her. But she was ready for it this time. She waited for half a second, and then fired her ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, at point blank range. There was no way it could miss the Vayne, invisible or not. The Frejlordian cell in the arrow would freeze anything it hit. Like the invisible Vayne.

Too easy. Lin Feng knew Ashe’s ultimate was coming. He knew that was her only option, the only way she could stop him. He could dodge it though. Or just avoid it. His eyes were trained on the Ashe. He stared without blinking, searching for signs of the animation that would signal that Ashe was about to fire her ultimate. There! He spotted it before the arrow had even left her bow and twitched down on D. Vayne flashed through Ashe’s Enchanted Crystal Arrow, rendering it completely impotent. More importantly, Vayne wasn’t stunned.

The mechanical skill and balls of steel required to do what Lin Feng had done didn’t just blow the minds of the people watching the stream. Nope. Lin Feng had made waves on an international level. All the way over in London where Nightsong was sitting in his hotel room with a laptop. Nightsong watched as Vayne activated her ultimate and started to engage. Then he saw the Ashe fire her ultimate right at the Vayne he was supposed to be supporting. Just as he was getting ready to go in and save his ad-carry, he saw Vayne flash through the ultimate and gasped. “Holy shit! Wow… That. That was impressive.”

The waters of the Ionia server ran deep. Those murky depths were where the Diamond 1 and Master players gathered. But one could never know exactly what kind of monster they’d run into fishing in those waters deep. There were a lot of professional players, streamers, and famous gaming content creators at this level, waiting for the chance to finally step up to Challenger. The truth was that they weren’t hard stuck at this depth because they weren’t good enough to become Challengers. That was the furthest thing from the truth. These were the best players in all of China, some of them were even among the best players in the world.

But League of Legends was a game built around teamwork. Especially at this level. Sometimes, a game would be lost because one player on the team was having an off day, and that was enough for the opposing team to gain an advantage and snowball. Most of these players had hit the peak of individual ability in the game, so their advancement to the top of the Master rank was based more on how well they managed to synergize into a team with four other people. Some days, they’d get lucky and find the perfect team. Other days, not so much.

But climbing up to the top of Master wasn’t the only obstacle in the path to becoming a Challenger. There was a fixed number of players who could get to Challenger. In order for a player to move up from Master to Challenger, one of the current Challengers had to be forcefully thrown back down into Master. The battle never ended for those in the Master and Challenger rank. They had to fight constantly to get up to Challenger, and then keep fighting to keep their place. A single moment of weakness and all of the silent monsters hidden in the depths of the Ionia server would come out to feast.

Beyond the hurdles, there was a more practical reason why most of the professional players never bothered to hit Challenger or retain their spot once they hit it for the first time. They rarely had the time to sit around and play in solo queue. Their focus was on winning tournaments, and to do that they needed to constantly play together with their team. Playing alone in the Challenger pool would actually be detrimental to them. Their focus was on practicing as a team and scrimming against other professional teams. It built team synergy, one of the most important aspects in tournaments. Between that and all the time they spent travelling across the world to attend tournaments, they just didn’t have the time to worry about their solo queue rank.

On the rare occasion when a professional player did show up in solo queue, the entire server would start bubbling as the monsters swarmed around. Especially if the professional player belonged to a team that was playing in the LPL. Streamers would spectate the game and provide play-by-play commentary to their viewers. Fans would debate and cheer across chats and social media would end up flooded with memes and clips from the game.

That was the situation that Su Xue’s stream was in right now. The people watching the stream had completely lost their minds! The name of the player who had fifth pick! It was one of the most recognizable names in all of China! Everyone knew it! HoG Nightsong. Snowfall Nightsong. The ad-carry for Hand of God and one of the top three ad-carries in all of China!

The viewers spammed the chat in their excitement. They weren’t reading what other people were saying or responding to them. They barely knew what they were typing. This was literally the most exciting thing that could happen while watching a stream, and it was happening to them! Nightsong was their idol! Watching him play in solo queue was a dream come true! And now they’d get to see him play on the same game as the streamer they were watching, on the same team! And to think that only a minute ago they were complaining that Lin Feng hadn’t queued up with a professional player yet. The gods had heard them!

But under the waves of excitement was also a weak undercurrent. One that started gaining traction as the initial hype and shock of seeing Nightsong’s name in the champion select faded and chat regained some composure. More than a few viewers didn’t buy that this Nightsong was the real Nightsong.

「isnt nightsong supposed to be in london right now? why isnt he scrimming with his team?」
「right! this cant be him right???? is that a troll pretending to be nightsong??? it cant be nightsong??????」
「Idiots! Didn’t I just tell you! Their scrims don’t start for another two days! Go read HoG’s announcement!」
「OMG! Wiatwaitwaitwitawatiwait! LOOK AT THIRD PICK!」
「Look at third pick!」
「ITS HIM!!! LOOK!!!」
「who is that?」

The summoner name of the player at third pick was ‘OldWorn’.[mfn]The original name “久了就旧了” is a play on words in Chinese using different characters that sound similar. It translates to, “if it’s old, it’s worn”. [/mfn] The viewers of the stream felt like they’d heard this name before, but they couldn’t place where. It looked so familiar. The answer was on the tip of their tongue. Then it hit them.

「omgomgomgomgomg」
「ooooooooooooohhhhh shiiiiit!!!!」
「Isn’t that the name of Star Emperor’s smurf?」
「YEP! that’s the friggin star emperor!!!1!!」

There were players who had second accounts in lower ranks where they would occasionally play on. Smurf accounts. Different players had them for different reasons. But most top and professional players had them for the same reason. There were only so many players in Challenger. This meant that the queue times could get really long, and really boring. If they played on their smurfs, which were ranked just below Challenger, they could quickly get into a game and start having fun!

OldWorn. Star Emperor. They were just different names for one person. The player at third pick in champion select on Lin Feng’s team was Daybreak Hermes! The Daybreak Hermes. The famous midlaner of Hand of God. One of the Seven Kings. And the King who had gone toe-to-toe with an Emperor in the Season 5 Mid-Season Invitational and emerged victorious!

Two famous professional players in the same game! On the same team! ON THE SAME TEAM AS THEIR STREAMER! The people watching the stream were beyond shocked, beyond starstruck. This was the day they finally achieved Nirvana. Chat was completely still. Snowfall Nightsong. Daybreak Hermes. Not one, but two. Daybreak Hermes, Snowfall Nightsong and… Lin Feng? Two of their idols duo queueing together! They would get to see the game firsthand! Chat stirred to life again. But no words. It was walls of exclamation marks and emotes.

While the people watching the stream were losing their minds and changing their shorts from the excitement of finding out two of their idols were in the same game as their streamer, Lin Feng had been lost in his own little world and didn’t notice the hullabaloo. He was trying to figure out what champion he wanted to play. Once he sorted that out in his head, he looked over at chat and noticed that something had happened. Exclamation marks. Emotes. There were a  few messages every now and then, but they scrolled up so fast that he couldn’t read a word of them. After this happened 30 times in the last 10 seconds, he started putting the pieces together. They’re super excited about the guys in third pick and fifth pick? Hm… He looked at the summoner names in champion select and then exclaimed, “Oh wow! How awesome is this, guys? Did you notice? Oh… right. You guys already did. YEAH! This is going to be really fun! Hermes and Nightsong! This should be a pretty cool game!”

The players started picking their champions. Lin Feng was fourth pick on the Blue team. First pick locked in a Top lane champion. The Red team could now choose their first and second champion, and then the second and third pick on Blue team could go. Second pick locked in a Jungler. The players who had first and second pick on the Blue team had both decided not to choose Mid or Ad-carry as their roles out of respect. Those two roles were reserved for Hermes and Nightsong! Sadly, this meant that the only role left for Lin Feng was Support.

Lin Feng scratched his hair, a little unhappy. “Man… I really really don’t wanna play support…”

「Don’t whine and just support!」
「are you dumb!? you dont fight them for their roles!! they be legends!!!!」
「Nightsong and Star Emperor are probably trying to warm up for the tournament! Give them their roles!」
「yeah! YOU better not tilt our players right before worlds starts!!!」

OldWorn, better known as the Star Emperor or Hermes, locked in the champion Veigar. He was going mid. It was starting to look like Lin Feng would have to end up being a Support in this game. But then Nightsong typed a message in the champion select chat.
HoG Nightsong:「Fourth, can you adc? If you can’t support, I’ll do it.」

Water Wraith:「Yes yes! I can adc. I’m really good at ADC!」

Nightsong asking Lin Feng to play ad-carry was a twist that no one watching the stream saw coming. They literally could not believe that a professional ad-carry player, one of the best in China, would willingly give up his role to some unknown player. And that he was willing to add wonder on top of a miracle by offering to play support for that unknown player who would be the ad-carry. But that wasn’t even the thing that blew their minds. Not even close. The most spectacular, unbelievable, astonishing, mind-blowing thing to happen in the last five minutes was  Lin Feng’s reply.

「HOLY SHIT DUDE!!! you’re my heroo!!!!」
「the fuck… first he sulks that Nightsong probably wants to play ad-carry, and then when Nightsong let’s him play ad-carry, he starts bragging like he IS nightsong……….」
「thicccest skin on all of huya!!!!11」
「how does he walk around with balls that heavy and made of steel?」
「Nah, thickest skin in all of China!」
「Dis fuck aksually tell Nightsong that hes good at adc? how/////」

The newer viewers had completely lost it. Since they didn’t know Lin Feng, this was to be expected. But even the long-time viewers felt like they’d just been suckerpunched by Lin Feng’s ego. They knew he was good at League of Legends. They even knew that he was a good ad-carry. They also knew that there wasn’t a single player in all of Gold and Platinum who could beat him. But no one had ever seen him play a game in an ELO this high before. But whatever happened in the game, Lin Feng had done something today that was worth bragging about. He made Nightsong give him ad-carry!

Lin Feng ignored whatever was happening in chat. He needed to focus on champion select. More specifically, he wanted to see which champion Nightsong was going to use. He waited and watched, thinking the whole time. Nightsong locked in Blitzcrank. Lin Feng considered his options for a moment. He needed to make sure the champion he picked had great synergy with Blitzcrank and was a champion he enjoyed playing. He looked around the list of ad-carry champions, thinking. Then he picked Vayne and locked in.

Lin Feng decided to go with Vayne after putting some thought into how the game would be played and how he could work best with Nightsong’s Blitzcrank. But he’d also done something that once again blew the minds of the people watching the stream. See, Lin Feng had not only taken Nightsong’s role in the game. In his typical unintentional and oblivious fashion, he also picked Nightsong’s signature champion.

✹

《Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!》

While the other players were busy buying their starting items and walking to their lanes, Lin Feng looked at the stream. The number of viewers had plateaued at 1,500. Until he ended up in a game with Nightsong and Hermes. That’s when the viewer count started skyrocketing. Right now, there were more than 3,000 viewers! And it was still going up! He looked over his shoulder at the peacefully asleep Su Xue. If she were awake right now, he knew that she’d probably be losing her mind. He grinned as he pictured her jumping up and down in joy. This game was like winning the lottery for her. Her stream hit a new viewer count record every few seconds. Some of them would come back tomorrow and eventually become regulars. This game had made her viral!

The insane number of viewers flooding into Su Xue’s stream wasn’t unprecedented or unexpected. In a certain light, it made complete sense. Nightsong and Daybreak Hermes rarely ever played solo queue. Nor did they show up in a game together very often. But the timing made this particular occasion all the more special. Worlds was right around the corner! This happening right now, there was a one in a million chance! No!  A one in trillion chance! The odds of this happening were so astronomically low that there was a higher probability of the viewers meeting a kpop idol who would agree to date them. There was only one stream to watch tonight, and that was Su Xue’s. They couldn’t spectate the game from Nightsong’s or Hermes’ perspective, but they could still see them play!

Lin Feng didn’t care about the viewers flooding in or their excitement beyond the joy it would bring Su Xue. His attention was on the game in front of him. He looked at his Vayne and balled his fist. No matter what, he had to do well in this game! He still remembered his very first game with Tang Bingyao at the NetCow Cafe. The game where she picked Draven and he took over from her because she was losing to a Vayne. First Tyrant. That was the summoner name of the guy who played that Vayne. Lin Feng remembered it well. That game had ignited his desire to relearn the champion. Every game he played with Vayne since then, he’d been comparing himself with First Tyrant’s Vayne. And now that he’d shaken off the rust, he was confident he could now go toe-to-toe with First Tyrant’s Vayne in lane. But Lin Feng didn’t know that First Tyrant was HoG Nightsong’s smurf account!

On the other side of the world, Nightsong sat in a 5 star hotel in London, equally unaware that the player behind the name Water Wraith was the same one who’d given him so much trouble with a Draven. The Draven who had forced him to go all out in what he thought was a casual game. The Draven he almost lost his lane to. The Draven who had sent chills down his spine. If the game hadn’t been cut short by another player’s angry girlfriend, Nightsong knew there was a chance he might have lost to that Draven.

Call it a fluke, a crazy coincidence, or fate, but these two players were now on the same team and paired together as the bottom lane duo. They had never played together before. Neither of them knew they’d even played against each other. But their synergy was on point.. It was more than good. It was perfect! They danced and moved like they’d been married for 40 years and could read each other’s thoughts!

✹

3 minutes into the game, a silver bolt from Lin Feng’s whizzed through the air and took down a low health minion. Nightsong’s Blitzcrank timed his Rocket Grab perfectly to the instant that the minion died. Blitzcrank’s right hand flew over the freshly dead minion’s corpse and grabbed the Ashe.

Lin Feng had targeted the Ashe behind the minion before the attack from his Vayne had landed on the minion. He knew Nightsong’s Blitzcrank was going to follow up with the grab. The second the Ashe was pulled forward, Vayne shot another bolt at the Ashe and then tumbled forward to cleanly dodge an Aqua Prison from the Nami. Lin Feng followed up with Condemn. Vayne pulled the heavy crossbow on her back out. A giant bolt flew out and pierced the Ashe through her chest and sent her flying backwards towards a nearby wall, pinning her to it.

“Awesome! That was so clean! I played that perfectly!” Lin Feng exclaimed.

Chat responded with emotes of rolling eyes. They heard Lin Feng praising himself instead of talking about what a great support Nightsong was.

Killing the Ezreal was fun, but it wasn’t enough to sate Lin Feng’s bloodlust. Not by a long shot. He was hungry now, and bottom lane had two enemy champions. He wasn’t about to let the Janna walk away. She had to die too! There was no way he would let her escape! His Jinx currently had the movement speed buff from her passive–Get Excited. Lin Feng used that to chase after the Janna while switching out Jinx’s rocket launcher for her minigun. He just realized that he’d been using the rocket launcher this whole time after the chat pointed it out. The rocket launcher was only really meant for long range pokes during the early game, and there was more than one backseat pedant in the chat who attempted to remind Lin Feng of this fact. The minigun was a far better option when it came to bursting enemy champions down and killing them.

“Hahah! It’s fine! I got the kill! It was definitely intentional! Hahaha!” Lin Feng said while laughing. He did make a mistake, sure. But was it really a mistake? It didn’t matter how he got the kill on the Ezreal. The only thing that mattered was that he got the kill. He saw replies popping up in chat, but he ignored them and focused on the Janna.

Jinx attacked the Janna, peppering her with a hail of bullets from her minigun. The Janna started running, and Lin Feng’s Jinx continued chasing after her while attacking. The Janna’s health quickly dwindled down as she juked around and ran back to the safety of her tower. Her health dipped dangerously low just as she managed to get near the Red team’s tower. It was a now-or-never moment. The Janna flashed, cutting through the distance and appearing cleanly underneath her tower. She was safe.

In a different part of the map, the Blue team’s jungler Jarvan IV had just picked up Red Buff. He decided it was time to go down to bot lane for a gank. Just as he arrived, he watched the Jinx and Thresh engage the Red team’s Ezreal. So he decided to go up the river and through the Red team’s jungle until he arrived at the brush just ahead of the Red team’s outer tower at bot lane. And he waited there. If the Ezreal and Janna tried to escape, he’d cut them off! But before he could follow through on his plan, Jinx killed the Ezreal and the Janna flashed under her tower bypassing his ambush entirely. But the Janna was almost dead. That’s when the Jarvan IV came up with a new plan. He was going to towerdive!

The Jarvan IV threw his Demacian Standard down on top of the Janna. Then he dashed out of the brush, striking out towards the standard with Dragon Strike. His lance connected with the standard, pulling him towards it. There was nothing the Janna could do! He’d been watching as she used all of her skills, so he knew they were still on cooldown. His attack struck her and knocked her up into the air.

Jinx stood just outside the attack range of the Red team’s outer tower. Lin Feng watched the Jarvan IV fly out from the brush and engage the Janna under the tower. His Jungler had decided to tank the tower damage! This was his chance to jump in and pick up the kill! His Jinx ran beneath the Red team’s tower and started attacking the Janna. The rattle of the minigun was the last thing the Janna heard as bullets pierced through the last of her health and ended her short-lived escape.

《Double kill!》

“Awesome! My Jinx is going to be invincible now!” Lin Feng exclaimed in delight. Jinx was a champion who needed a bit of time before she could start snowballing. But this game was going so well that it was no longer necessary. With this double kill under her belt, Lin Feng’s Jinx went from a snowball to an avalanche. She was going to blow the Red team away!

Lin Feng farmed several more minions waves and pushed his minion wave all the way to Red team’s outer tower before recalling back to base. He had saved up enough gold to buy an expensive item. The B.F. Sword. The Big Fucking Sword. This component item gave his Jinx an insane 50 attack damage on top of her base stats.

When people watching the game saw Lin Feng buy the B.F Sword as his first item, they literally had nothing to say. Even the backseat gamers in the chat were shocked into silence. It hadn’t even been five minutes since the game started! They had no idea when and how Lin Feng managed to farm the 1300 gold required for the B.F Sword. Or how he’d done it so fast. But they did know where this game was headed. It was going to be just like the first two games Lin Feng had played on Su Xue’s account in Platinum. He was going to stomp all over Red team. The Ezreal might as well quit now. Bot lane was lost.

At 7 minutes into the game, Blue team’s top laner was looking at bot lane as Lin Feng’s Jinx was the first to hit level 6. Irelia had chosen the Summoner Spell Teleport for this game, and she was looking for an opportunity to use it. There were three brushes along the bottom side of bot lane. In the one closest to the Red team was a ward. That was where she would go.

The animation of a teleport started playing on Blue team’s ward in bot lane. The Thresh knew what this meant. He’d played plenty of games and repeated this trick countless times. He flashed forward and then used Flay, sweeping the Ezreal back towards him and slowing him. Then he completely ignored the frantically escaping Ezreal and shifted his focus to the Janna. The Flay was a distraction. A trick to lower the guard of his real target. He threw out his scythe towards the Janna and hooked her.

The Janna was focused on helping Ezreal escape. She thought the Thresh was going to hold Ezreal down until Jinx killed him again. She had no idea that there was a very different play being set into motion. So when Death Sentence came flying at her, she didn’t know what to do. It surprised her, and she stood there frozen in shock for a second. Then three Flame Chompers landed just in front of her. Thresh’s hook pulled her right into them and the grenades exploded, rooting her. Her skills were of no use to escape, and as a support she dealt no considerable damage. All she could do was watch the Jinx and Irelia attack until her health hit zero and her screen turned grey again.

In the end, The Janna died and the Ezreal escaped. He’d fled to his tower and from there recalled back to base. This would normally be an acceptable outcome. The ad-carry had survived and that was what mattered. But the Red team didn’t just give away a kill, they gave away so much more. Their bot lane now completely unguarded, since both players from the Red team were now in base. Their Jungler was on the other side of the map, too far away to do anything. All Red team could do was watch as the Blue team took down an uncontested dragon. Irelia’s top-teleport-gank play had perfectly set Blue team up for a kill and dragon.

“Wow! My teammates are awesome!” Lin Feng exclaimed. This was a huge win! His teammates during this game were much better than the players he usually found himself playing with these days. Both his top laner and jungler understood he could carry the game, so they put their focus into getting him ahead. This was paying off tremendously. His Jinx avalanche was roaring! It wouldn’t be long before there was nothing more that the Red team could do to stop him! His teammates reading the game correctly and knowing to help him get ahead was something that only happened at higher ELO. Starting from Diamond 1, there was a marked increase in awareness, game sense, and objective control.

Just as Lin Feng was praising his teammates and celebrating in his mind, an announcement rang out across Summoner’s Rift…

《An ally has been slain!》

Lin Feng quickly moved his camera towards mid lane. Veigar had died in the middle of the lane. Red team’s Syndra had gotten away with only a sliver of health remaining. It looked like they’d gone all out against each other. Lin Feng thought about it for a moment, watching as the Syndra disappeared into the fog of war. He guessed that she’d recalling back to base right now. Most likely from right underneath her tower. He pressed down on the R key. Jinx’s Super Mega Death Rocket burst out from her rocket launcher and flew across the river towards mid lane.

The viewers of the stream had enough time to start typing as the rocket cruised over the river. The Syndra was hidden within the fog of war. They didn’t know where she’d stopped to recall. It was even possible that she’d already seen the rocket and was getting out of its trajectory!

「is it gonna hit?」
「it wont! it will! it wont! plzzz hittt!!!!!」
「PLEASE let her be stupid!!!」

The Syndra player still felt the adrenaline rushing through her veins. That had been too close! The Veigar almost got her! But she’d gotten the kill and survived in the end. She relaxed a little while waiting for the recall animation to finish. Only a few more seconds. Suddenly, a teammate started pinging on top of her Syndra. She placed her hand back on her mouse and looked at what those pings were all about. It hit her before she even realized what happened. Her screen went grey. A plume of smoke and fire rose into the air. The Super Mega Death Rocket had hit her. She’d just been killed by the Jinx who was all the way down in bot lane.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Lin Feng smiled. The kill was his. He then looked over at the stream chat. It had exploded once again with the viewers telling him how awesome that was and how amazing the play was. He smiled at the webcam and said, “Well. Yes. What did you expect? I’m pretty good at Jinx too!”

✹

The game eventually came to an end. Lin Feng’s final score was 7/1/4. His only death happened during the very last teamfight because he got a little bit too cocky. He’d let Darius get too close, which was just enough of an opening for the Darius to leap forward and strike a lethal blow with his axe–Noxian Guillotine! Almost at the same time, the Ezreal fired out his ultimate–Trueshot Barrage. A powerful blast of energy that did massive damage. Two attacks hit Lin Feng’s squishy Jinx simultaneously and killed her. This didn’t change the outcome of the game though. It was a win for the Blue team.

「Hahaha! Still died in the end!」
「ezreel still got his revenge!!」
「LOL. it’s a nice change seeing you fail for once」

The messages in the stream chat were all in the same vein. Schadenfreude. They found a strange glee in watching Lin Feng make a mistake and die, and this was the first time they saw him make a big mistake. They didn’t know how long it would be before something like this would happen again, so they milked it for all it was worth.

Lin Feng didn’t mind the messages in the stream chat. They couldn’t dampen his mood. He laughed as he read them and finally said, “Alright guys, time for another game!”

✹

The ranked queue popped and Lin Feng was first pick in champion select. He called mid and locked in Fizz. Now that he had gotten his main role, he could finally show a little bit of his true skill. He played so well that the enemy team never stood a chance. It started with two early solo kills in mid lane, after which he started roaming around the map. He helped his bot lane and top lane pull ahead, taking the kills for himself. Wherever he went, every time an enemy champion came close to him, he would kill them. There was not a single one who escaped with their life.

10 minutes into the game, Lin Feng was 5/0/0. He didn’t have a single assist. Every time he went in, he picked up a kill. It got to the point where the people watching the stream started calling him a killstealer and greedy. They wrote paragraphs about how he was showing off and being an attention whore. But Lin Feng disagreed with them and said, “I’m an AP assassin. Every assist is a badge of shame!”

That was too much for chat to handle. They’d accepted a lot of Lin Feng’s bullshit by this point and let him slide.

「Man, what a lame excuse!」
「i almost believed you!」
「you’re just a KSer, plain and simple!」
「keep doing this and we’ll report you」

✹

There was no suspense to the game. Lin Feng used his Fizz to hard carry his team to an easy victory. After the game finished, he directly queued up for a third game on Water Wraith’s Diamond 1 account. While he was waiting for the queue to pop, he looked at the chat and started reading some of the messages.

「y can’t we queue up against anyone famous?」
「 i wonder how his fizz will do against a pro」
「Star Emperor is a Fizz main too, right?」
「You mean Daybreak Hermes? I think he’s in london bootcamping for worlds. why would he playing in the china server?」
「didn’t they say they only arrived in england two days ago and are still jet lagged? I saw hogs weibo acc announce that they plan to start bootcamping in two days」

The viewers were still enthusiastically chatting about Daybreak Hermes and Worlds, when Lin Feng queued into his next game. He typed his usual message in the chat.
Water Wraith:「Mid plz! Can’t supp!」

While Lin Feng was doing his what he always did during champion select, the people watching the stream had noticed something far more interesting. The flurry of messages being sent was too much for the stream to handle, and the chat started lagging! Every second or so, all the messages would disappear and be replaced by an entirely new wall of messages. Over and over.

「OMGOMGOMGOMG」
「no way! Is that really him!? The guy in fifth pick!?」
「hooooooooooooooooolyyy!」