The engines on the airplane rumbled to life. The flight attendants walked down the aisles reminding people to stow their tray tables and put their seats into the upright position. The cabin filled with noise as the airplane got ready to take off. But An Xin heard none of that. None of the noise could penetrate the peaceful atmosphere that had settled over the back row, where she sat with Lin Feng. With the Ashe plushie on her lap. As she looked at it, her heart beat fast and slow at the same time with light trembles of joy. 

Lin Feng waited a couple of seconds for An Xin to say something. But she remained silent, and he mistook that for confusion. He picked it up off her lap and waved it in her face, oblivious to everything else in his excitement. “Look! It’s the Ashe you wanted! Remember? You said you wanted it! It’s the exact same one. I helped you get it!”

An Xin’s face flickered with a complicated expression. “You went all the way there just to get me this Ashe plushie? So early in the morning?” she asked quietly and softly. So softly that the question was barely audible over the hum of the engines.

“Yeah! That’s why I set my alarm for 5:30 AM! I really lucked out! My phone had just enough power for the alarm. It died right after I left the hotel. And then I got even more lucky and got the Ashe doll. It only cost me ¥20!” 

An Xin stared at the big grin on Lin Feng’s face and the Ashe. She bit her lips to keep herself from smiling. “You’re an idiot. I didn’t want it that much. Why did you have to go out of your way to get it?” She rebuked him, but there wasn’t a hint of blame in her gaze.

“But I promised you I’d get it! A man keeps his promise!” Lin Feng said.

Lin Feng had said almost the exact same words to An Xin before back at the hotel. Now, he’d kept his promise and brought her back the Ashe plush. He’d backed up his words with action. 

“Here, take it!” Lin Feng stuffed the Ashe plush in An Xin’s arms. “See, I told you I’d get it! Hahahaha! I’m really good at claw machines too!” He smiled brightly. 

An Xin accepted the Ashe plush and held it in her embrace. She buried her head into it, hiding the expression in her eyes as she softly whispered, “Thanks.” She hugged the plush tightly, as if she wasn’t willing to let it go, as if the thing she was hugging wasn’t only the plush.

An Xin slightly bit her lips as she silently muttered the word, “Idiot— “

“Hey, look! There’s fireworks!” Lin Feng interrupted, jabbing his finger across An Xin’s face to point out of the small airplane window.

“You idiot!” An Xin yelped, pushing away the arm that was in her face. She then looked out the window and her eyes went wide and round. Her heart stopped beating slow. Or fast. It was stuck in her throat. Her voice trembling, she mumbled, “L-L-Lin Feng… That’s not… That’s not fireworks! THE PLANE IS ON FIRE! THE PLANE IS ON FIRE!”

More people started noticing the fire burning at the second motor on the left wing. There was that first moment, brief as it was, in which the airplane turned completely silent. No one spoke. No one even breathed. They only stared at the black flumes twisting and twirling around the red tongues of flame.

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and looked around the cabin, at the strange calmness of it all. He asked, “Isn’t it supposed to—”

“NO IT’S NOT!” An Xin screamed.

Everyone turned to look at An Xin. They knew she was right. And as if to confirm it, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, the warning labels went on and the captain’s voice sounded over the intercom system, “We’re experiencing some light turbulence. Please return to your seats, put on the oxygen masks, and stay calm. Thank you for traveling with Amazing Airlines.”

A couple of people listened. They raced for their seats, pushing aside those in their way, and strapped themselves in so tightly that the polyester of the belt cut into their skins. But most never made it back to their seats. They stood there, staring at the fire that was trying to jump to the motor closest to the cabin, petrified. A particularly sturdy woman collapsed to the ground. Fainted from fear. But no one watched her, even noticed her.

“I can smell it! I CAN SMELL IT!”

“IT’S IN THE CABIN! IT’S GONNA GET INTO THE CABIN!”

“AAAAHHH!”

“WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!”

“I DON’T WANNA DIE!”

“SMOKE! I CAN SEE SMOKE! IT’S GETTING INTO THE CABIN!”

Stewardesses ran along the left isles, urging people to return to their seats. Begging them. The airplane shook. No one was listening; everyone saw their lives flitting past their eyes. A primal fear gripped them, tightened around their necks and stopped the flow of reason between their minds and the rest of their bodies.

The captain’s voice sounded over the intercom system again, “We’re experiencing some small issues. Nothing we can’t handle. We’re going to make an emergency landing. Please return to your seats, and thank you for flying with Amazing Airlines!”

People paused again, until the next strike of turbulence. A few lost their footing while a couple of others started moving. Through the screaming and the sobbing and the bodies that’d given up already, they pushed their ways towards the emergency exits. They tried to unlock the doors, but a half dozen fail-safes ensured that couldn’t happen. Turbulence tried to knock them off their feet, but their grips on the emergency doors made sure that wouldn’t happen. And then logic twisted. The emergency exit near the front of the airplane flung open.

An Xin sat in the back, petrified, holding Lin Feng’s hand tightly in her own. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the burning wing, but she could feel from the sweat in her hands and the trembling and shaking that Lin Feng was just as scared as she was. Maybe even more. And then the air got knocked out of her due to the sudden change of pressure in the cabin. A jolt shot through her body. Where’s my Ash… Lin Feng… She pinched in Lin Feng’s hand, making sure he was still with her. And smiled. It became hard to breathe, impossible. Specks of black swum in her vision. Her thoughts slowed down as she could feel the airplane losing altitude, fast. Far too fast.

“We’re going to die… We’re going to die…” Lin Feng mumbled quietly. “There is still so much… There are still… I never even got to say sorry to my friends…”

An Xin tore her eyes away from the burning wing. She pushed through the darkness trying to claim her and the strong smell of burning plastic trying to knock her out, and reached both arms around Lin Feng. She hugged him. Pulled him close. She whispered in his ear, “At least we’re together. Just you and me.” The last thing she saw was the back of his neck. She pushed her nose closer to him, smelling his fear and finding some solace in it. I’ll miss you. Sorry we never got to go back to Worlds…

✹

The engines on the airplane rumbled to life. The flight attendants walked down the aisles reminding people to stow their tray tables and put their seats into the upright position. The cabin filled with noise as the airplane got ready to take off. But An Xin heard none of that. None of the noise could penetrate the peaceful atmosphere that had settled over the back row, where she sat with Lin Feng. With the Ashe plushie on her lap. As she looked at it, her heart beat fast and slow at the same time with light trembles of joy.

Lin Feng waited a couple of seconds for An Xin to say something. But she remained silent, and he mistook that for confusion. He picked it up off her lap and waved it in her face, oblivious to everything else in his excitement. “Look! It’s the Ashe you wanted! Remember? You said you wanted it! It’s the exact same one. I helped you get it!”

An Xin’s face flickered with a complicated expression. “You went all the way there just to get me this Ashe plushie? So early in the morning?” she asked quietly and softly. So softly that the question was barely audible over the hum of the engines.

“Yeah! That’s why I set my alarm for 5:30 AM! I really lucked out! My phone had just enough power for the alarm. It died right after I left the hotel. And then I got even more lucky and got the Ashe doll. It only cost me ¥20!” 

An Xin stared at the big grin on Lin Feng’s face and the Ashe. She bit her lips to keep herself from smiling. Wait. I know this. I know— Her eyes grew wide and round. She turned away from Lin Feng and looked out of the window. The airplane was getting ready for takeoff. It’s going… We… “THE PLANE IS GOING TO EXPLODE! IT’S GOING TO EXPLODE! GET OFF THIS PLANE! IT’S GOING TO EXPLODE!” she screamed as loudly as she could, jumping from her seat and already pulling Lin Feng with her to the exit. “LET US OFF! LET US OFF! IT’S GOING TO EXPLODE!”

Su Xue stood there, phone still in her hand and halfway up to her face, looking shocked. The silence stretched on as everyone waited for her to tell them what happened. But she said nothing. Eventually, Lin Feng got up from his bed and asked, “Su Xue, what happened? What did Huya call you for?” 

Su Xue had a complicated expression on her face. She looked at Lin Feng and opened her mouth to explain. And then closed it again. Then she shook her head to clear her mind. Finally, she answered. “Hm… I’m not going home with you guys tomorrow. That call was from Huya… One of the executives that works there. I’ve mentioned him before to you guys, right? Zong Yao. He… Well. He…—” 

“Su Xue, did he ask you to do something inappropriate? We won’t stand for that, and you don’t have to worry about Zong Yao either! The Shanghai Esports Association is no paper tiger! Tell me if you need help!” Chu Fang cut in. He’d noticed how distraught Su Xue was and started to get concerned. 

Su Xue looked at Chu Fang for a few seconds. Then she laughed. “No, no, no. Guys! It’s nothing like that! This is really good! Oh god! I’m so, so, so sorry guys! I couldn’t believe what just happened and I needed a minute to process it all. Mr. Zong Yao is a really nice person! He called to tell me that everyone loved my shoutcasting! So much so that they want me as the shoutcaster for two more matches tomorrow!” 

Zong Yao explained the entire situation to Su Xue on the phone. Right after asking her to be the shoutcaster for two more matches. But she was so stunned and thrilled by the unexpected news that she couldn’t understand it at the time. During the Round of 16 match today, Huya had run multiple surveys to find out which shoutcaster the viewers liked best. And Sue Xue had won by a landslide! Over 68% of the viewers who participated in the survey had voted for her! Zong Yao had also told her some of the comments left by participants in the survey. 

“If Evening Snowfall is shoutcasting, I’m watching!”
“Evening Snowfall is the real dark horse talent discovered in this tournament!” 
“Best shoutcaster was definitely Evening Snowfall! Kappa! Kreygasm!”
“EveningSnowfall Pogchamp! She was great! Man, today’s matches were exciting, but she managed to hype me up even more. Seeing her getting so excited on the desk… BibleThump!”
“EveningSno’s got a great personality. Great face too! And she knows the game!”

Zong Yao had obviously selected the most positive and nicest comments. But the rest of the responses were along the same lines. The audience loved Su Xue! Her unique shoutcasting style, drawn from her experience as a streamer, had resonated with something in all of the viewers. Her sheer popularity was an unexpected development though. Huya TV’s management reacted quickly though, and decided to let Su Xue be the shoutcaster for two more matches. Then they asked Zong Yao to get in touch with her to confirm that she’d be there.

All of Team Shanghai cheered when they heard the good news. The victories kept rolling in today. An Xin walked over to give Su Xue a hug and said, “Congratulations! This is such great news! You’re going to be amazing tomorrow!” 

“Phenomenal work, Su Xue! This is going to take you up to a whole different level!” Zeng Rui called out. And then he let out a little chuckle. “Heh-heh! I guess this means… you’re Huya’s little pogchamp now heh-heh!” 

Chu Fang smiled. “Indeed! Zeng Rui understands exactly what this means. Huya is going to start paying a lot more attention to you now. You’ll get even more chances to go up on stage and show the world what you can do. This is a hard-won opportunity that most people can’t even dream of grasping. Make sure you take advantage of it. Congratulations!”

After being cheered on by the members of Team Shanghai, Su Xue was also fired up. So much so that she punched her fist into the air, like Lin Feng usually did, and said, “Hell yeah! Yeah! I’m going to kill it tomorrow!”

Lin Feng, who had been suspiciously lowkey with her cheering, inched his way closer to Su Xue and asked, “This is such great news, right guys? How about we go get something to eat and celebrate?”

Everyone turned to Lin Feng and shouted in unison, “No!”

✹

Everyone in Team Shanghai got up at 7AM the next morning and washed up. Their flight was at 10AM, and they needed to get into a cab and get to the airport. Su Xue also got up to see them off. Because she was staying at Huya TV’s request, they’d be taking care of her new travel arrangements. 

The plan was simple. Everyone on Team Shanghai would wake up in the morning and get ready to go. Then they would all meet up in the lobby, say goodbye to Su Xue, and be on their way home. The airport was 40 minutes away from their hotel. An Xin and Zeng Rui had made sure to include a buffer for anything unexpected. There was no way they would miss their flight.  

What An Xin and Zeng Rui didn’t account for was Lin Feng. When Team Shanghai gathered in the hotel lobby, he wasn’t there. They looked around and did another headcount just to make sure. 

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5…. Lin Feng! Where did Lin Feng go!?” 

No one on Team Shanghai had any idea where Lin Feng was. Neither did Su Xue. After a few tense minutes of checking with each other, no one could remember seeing Lin Feng in their room. Or walking down with them. Which made this even more puzzling. After all, this was Lin Feng. Not Kuroko. He was always making noise or eating or doing something. Chu Fang decided to run back up to their hotel rooms to look for him again. Just in case Lin Feng was still sleeping under some blankets or in the bathroom. But it was fruitless. Lin Feng was nowhere to be found!

This delay caused by Lin Feng made An Xin furious. “Bloody hell! He’s been so calm for the last few days that we let our guard down. How did he manage to get lost without any of us knowing?! Does he hate it when everything goes well for a change?” Then she took a deep breath and fixed her hair. She thought about where Lin Feng could have gone and how to track him down while she did this, and came up with an idea. An Xin walked over to the front desk of the hotel and spoke to the receptionist for a bit. The receptionist confirmed that someone matching Lin Feng’s description left the hotel with his luggage a little bit earlier. 

“He left… with his luggage?!”

Everyone was dumbstruck.

“Where the hell could he have gone!?”

“Mhm! The airport! Did he decide to go on ahead to the airport? Without us?” Tang Bingyao asked.

An Xin shook her head. “That just doesn’t make any sense. We were all going to leave together. We made sure he knew the plan. I made sure he knew the plan. Why on earth would he randomly decide to go off to the airport alone? Besides, he would have told one of us if he had some reason for leaving early.” An Xin pulled out her phone and dialed Lin Feng’s number as she spoke. A moment later, she got an automatic response that the other line had no signal or that the phone was turned off.

Su Xue facepalmed. “I know what happened. It’s Lin Feng. He’s always playing or reading something on his phone until he falls asleep. So he never charges it at night. He always forgets to plug it in before he nods off! He probably forgot last night too!”

Chu Fang frowned. “This isn’t good. If we can’t get in touch with him, we can’t confirm where he is. If he didn’t head to the airport ahead of us, we won’t be able to meet up with him.”

Zeng Rui massaged his temples. “Thundering. Dumbass.”

Team Shanghai had no other option but to sit down in the hotel lobby and wait for Lin Feng to come back. Or contact them somehow. All they could do was sit there and pray that Lin Feng showed up in time for them to leave. And so, they waited. Until 7:20AM. 

And there was still no sign of Lin Feng.

Chu Fang wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead and said, “Alright guys! We can’t sit here and wait any longer. We’ll miss the plane if we do. Let’s go to the airport and see if Lin Feng is there. If he isn’t, you guys head back to Shanghai and I’ll go look for him. Hopefull—”

“I could bring him back with me, Chu Fang! I’m staying here for another day anyway. If he’s not at the airport, I’ll find him before the matches and then bring him back to Shanghai with me. Once he realizes that he missed the flight, he’ll come looking for me anyway.” Su Xue said, interrupting Chu Fang. 

Everyone reluctantly nodded. It didn’t make sense for the entire group to miss the plane. Especially since Su Xue was staying behind. They started gathering their luggage while An Xin called a cab. And then Zhang Hao noticed someone walking into the hotel lobby. “Guys! Look! LIN FENG! Isn’t that Lin Feng?” he exclaimed while pointing. 

Everyone looked up and at the person Zhang Hao was pointing towards. It was Lin Feng. With his luggage on his back, a tray of soymilk in one hand, and a bag of steamed buns in the other. He’d heard Zhang Hao yelling his name and looked over to find everyone from Team Shanghai. So he started waving the bag of steamed buns at them happily. “Wow! Everyone’s already down here and ready to go? Nice! You guys didn’t eat breakfast yet, right? I went out for food, and I brought more than enough for everyone! Let’s eat!” 

Everyone was speechless.

Su Xue had murder in his eyes and she gnashed her teeth, ‘I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Him. He is dead, one of these days. I’m going to kill him dead!”

Zeng Rui expressionlessly nodded in agreement.

An Xin flashed her murder smile at Lin Feng. “When we get back home, I’m going to beat the stupid out of him.”

✹

Now that Lin Feng was back and the entire group was ready to leave, Chu Fang breathed a sigh of relief. But there was no time to eat the breakfast that Lin Feng brought back. They needed to get to the airport as quickly as possible. “Guys! I called two cabs to take us to the airport. They’re outside! Eat in the car! We need to go now!” Chu Fang said as he shepherded them out of the hotel and into the cabs. 

Chu Fang and An Xin hauled Lin Feng into a cab with them, where they forced him to sit in the middle. Where they could keep an eye on him. As the cars left for the airport, Chu Fang checked his watch to make sure they would arrive in time. Then he looked at Lin Feng. “Lin Feng, don’t do something like this again. You had us all worried sick.” 

Lin Feng scratched his head. “Um, sorry. I wanted to send a text, but my phone was dead!” Then he held up two steamed buns in his hands. “I got you guys breakfast though!”

An Xin stared at Lin Feng, her lips curving into a faint smile. “Did you really go out to buy breakfast? Nothing else?”

Lin Feng looked down before mumbling his answer. “Yeah! You know me! I’m Lin Feng and I like food! Only went out to get breakfast. Haha!”

“Oh? You didn’t do anything else while you were out?” An Xin asked.

“Nope!”

“I see,” An Xin said, but her expression said she didn’t believe him at all.

✹

After an uneventful cab ride, Team Shanghai finally arrived at the airport. Then they went through security and checked in for the flight. They’d made it just in the nick of time. All of them sat at the departure gate, waiting for boarding to start, and relaxed. 

Nothing more happened, and the plane started boarding 30 minutes later. Team Shanghai got on the plane and started sitting down. Lin Feng and An Xin ended up sitting next to each other. And since they were all on the plane and waiting for it to take off, Zeng Rui, Zhang Hao and Tang Bingyao decided it was a good time to catch up on some sleep. Especially since they had to wake up early to make this flight.

Lin Feng was wide awake and bored. So he pulled out his phone and hit a few buttons before looking down at it sadly. “Oh no! The battery is still dead…” Then he turned to An Xin and asked, “BunBun, let me play with your phone?”

An Xin rolled her eyes. “No way!”

“Come on, don’t be so selfish!”

“Idiot! The plane’s about to take off! Our phones are supposed to be off right now and we’re not allowed to have them out!”

“Oh, rodger-dodger…”

Suddenly, An Xin smiled at Lin Feng and asked,“But we can talk right now. Be honest! Where did you go this morning?”

Lin Feng’s eyes widened. And then they started spinning as he tried to look everywhere except at An Xin while replying, “I told you. I went out to buy breakfast!”

An Xin’s smile didn’t change at all. “Really now? That’s so curious! I spoke to the receptionist at the hotel. That’s how I found out that you left the hotel with your luggage. But you know what else she told me? That she saw you leaving at 6AM. We all know that you came back with the steamed buns at 7:20AM. So….. that means that it took you an hour and twenty minutes to buy some breakfast. Did you go out and make the steamed buns yourself? Do you think I’m an idiot? Are you trying to turn this BunBun into a steamed bun with all the hot air you’re blowing?”

Lin Feng looked like a deer in headlights. He knew he’d been caught. 

An Xin continued staring at Lin Feng, waiting for him to spill the beans.

Finally, Lin Feng folded under the pressure and confessed, “Alright, alright! You win!” He looked around carefully, then took his bag out from under his seat. While he opened it, he turned to An Xin and said, “You have to keep this really secret! I was going to give this to you later on… I swear! Just don’t tell Chu Fang and the others. They’ll be so mad if they find out what I was doing.”

An Xin slowly nodded. “Yes, yes, I know. I’ll keep your secret. Now show me what it is that was so important that you woke up at 5:30AM to go get? And almost made us all miss this flight. What did you go get?”

Lin Feng pulled something out of his bag and put it on An Xin’s lap. As she looked at it, her eyes popped open in surprise.

It was the super cute Ashe plushie doll! The exact same one that she said she wanted a few days ago! 

The second Team Beijing got back to their hotel, Fan Yuan gathered his team together to tell them, “Make sure you think about everything you saw today! We have to crush Team Shanghai! Don’t hold back, don’t underestimate them, don’t take any chances. We’re going in hard and we’re going to win! We have to win, no matter what!”

Everyone on Team Beijing nodded slowly, not saying a word. Except for Zhang Hongyi. He coldly stated, “That is obvious. All of us watched their match this morning. Two pentakills. One with Riven and another with Kalista. This is not an opponent that we can take lightly.” 

Yun Ping’s eyes flashed with a competitive gleam as he took a deep breath. “Of course we have to win! The Collegiate Cup belongs to us! We have to take it home!” Going up against someone who had defeated Goalie hadn’t discouraged him at all. Quite the opposite. It fanned and stroked his competitive spirit, firing him up. He’d even picked Riven in Game 3 in an attempt to send a message to Team Shanghai’s Midlaner. You think you’re hot shit because you can play Riven in mid? So can I! We’ll figure out who’s better between us on the Rift, and settle things once and for all!

✹

“Thank god that’s finally over! I’m beat!” Su Xue exclaimed while sighing as she fell into her soft bed. It had been a long day of shoutcasting for her. After the match finished, she left with Team Shanghai and ate dinner with them before returning to the hotel. As she lay there in bed, with Team Shanghai talking and celebrating in the background, her thoughts wandered back to the day. Today was amazing! Wait-wait-wait! Thinking about it is going to get me excited again and then I won’t be able to sleep. We’re all getting on the flight back to Shanghai tomorrow at 10AM. I need to wake up! But today was a really good day. Lin Feng and his team got through to the quarterfinals!

The day truly had gone well. Not just for Team Shanghai, but also for Su Xue. She’d had a phenomenal debut as a professional caster. But the celebration for Team Shanghai’s victory had not died down just yet. Or ended, in Lin Feng’s opinion.

“My brothers! The night is still young and we are ALIVE! And everyone knows that there ain’t no party without an afterparty! And that the afterparty is better than the party! WE SHOULD CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE! WITH A MEAL!” Lin Feng enthusiastically suggested. 

“Didn’t we just eat dinner…?” Zhang Hao asked, muttering in shock.

Lin Feng looked at Zhang Hao, penetrating him with sudden seriousness. “Zhang Hao! Is there only one game in a match? No! Are we all one trick ponies who can only play a single champion? No! So why do we limit ourselves to a single meal to celebrate? We’re going for number 1, the top spot, the Collegiate Cup. And beyond that! Because all of us dream of being at the top. Is there any reason for that dream to be limited by the rules set by others about single dinners? Or a set number of meals? NO! The meal that we ate, the match that we just won, that was only the appetizer! It doesn’t count as a celebration meal! We must continue to celebrate and continue to have reasons to celebrate as we chase our dream! WE EAT BECAUSE THAT IS OUR ASSAULT ON THE COMMONPLACE AND THE ORDINARY! WE EAT BECAUSE WE NEED TO FUEL UP AS WE RUN AFTER OUR DREAM! And we celebrate as we eat every meal. Zhang Hao, how could you possibly think that we would celebrate only once over a single meal?” 

“… Sure. But didn’t we celebrate at lunch?” Zhang Hao said.

An Xin facepalmed as Lin Feng delivered his confusingly inspirational monologue. And then cut into the conversation before Lin Feng delivered another speech. “Hao Bro, ignore this idiot. There’s only two things in life that he understands and cares about. Food and League. If he’s not playing League, he’s eating. And if he’s not eating, he’s playing League. He’s the kind of guy who considers every meal of every day a celebration, and constantly wishes for greater heights of culinary delight. There’s no reasoning with him.’

Zeng Rui put his hand on Zhang Hao’s shoulder and nodded in agreement with An Xin’s words.

Chu Fang chuckled. “Alright guys. Looks like our little stay in Guangzhou is over. Everyone’s worked hard. When we get back, get as much rest as you can. Once the Quarterfinals start, this tournament will only get more and more tense.”

“No worries! The championship is ours! I can already taste the victory meal we’re going to have once we win!” Lin Feng said as he thrust his fist into the air.

Chu Fang looked stunned for a brief second. Then said, “Lin Feng, I believe the expression is taste victory…” Lin Feng looked at Chu Fang, puzzled. “Taste victory? I’ve never tasted victory. The food that we have after winning is pretty good. What does victory taste like? Why didn’t we get it today?” 

This was the point where An Xin had enough. “Forget the Championship, you still have exams to worry about,” An Xin said. Dousing Lin Feng’s excitement and insatiable hunger with cold water. But not him alone. That single sentence snapped everyone back to reality.

Team Shanghai had left for Guangzhou on January 12th. Yesterday was a Friday. And after Friday came Saturday, which was today. The 16th of January. After Saturday came Sunday, the 17th of January. This meant the end of the weekend. They could no longer afford to take it easy and decide if they were kicking it in the back seat or kicking it in the back seat. No, no. The date was significant because it meant that they were already halfway through the school year. And coming up on January 25th were exams. The most dreadful period for all high schoolers across China! In a very real sense, they did not want this weekend to end. 

“What? Argh! Exams!? No! No! No! I wanted to celebrate and eat! Not think about exams that I don’t want to take!” Lin Feng shouted and started throwing a fit.

Chu Fang, An Xin, and the rest of Team Shanghai were more than accustomed to Lin Feng’s fits of impotent autistic rage. They ignored him and continued the conversation. 

“Our exams are on the 25th, which is perfect timing. Zeng Rui, how about you? When are your exams?” An Xin asked.

“On the 24th. We take them a day earlier than you guys, ” Zeng Rui replied.

“Excellent!” An Xin said. Then she continued, “The quarterfinals start on the 28th. Our exam schedule and the tournament schedule works out well. Perfect. We’ll do it just like we did this time. I’ll buy the plane tickets and get in touch with you guys when the time comes. Then we’ll be off to Beijing!”

They continued to work out the details while Lin Feng wallowed in existential dread over the upcoming exams. Eventually, everything was set in stone. Team Shanghai started to wind down. The conversation mellowed and lulled. And then, Su Xue’s phone started ringing. 

She fumbled around for her pocket and pulled it out to see who was calling. And then sat bolt upright in bed. “It’s from Huya!” The person on the other side of the line was the Huya TV executive Su Xue had spoken to before, Zong Yao.

Su Xue hurried up from the bed and composed herself quickly before answering. 

“Hello, hello! Su Xue here. This is Mr. Zong, right?”

“Yes, Mr Zong! Today was great! I had so much fun shoutcasting for the matches! And doing both matches was no trouble at all, really! I appreciated the opportunity.” 

“Hm? My schedule? I have a flight back to Shanghai at 10AM tomorrow morning. Other than that, nothing besides streaming. Why?” 

No one besides Su Xue could hear Zong Yao’s side of the conversation. But right after Su Xue asked why he wanted to know her schedule, her eyes jolted open wide. An expression of shock was frozen on her face. She was so surprised by what Zong Yao asked that she couldn’t speak for thirty seconds. Then she mumbled something quickly into the phone and hung up. Then she turned around to look at Team Shanghai and squeaked, “I… I don— I can’t believe what just happened!” 

Team Shanghai looked at her, curious and concerned about what had transpired on that call to leave Su Xue in such a state! 

The high school teams were stealing the show at the Winter Collegiate Cup. But it wasn’t until Team Shanghai’s win over Team Guangzhou that the fans became really invested in finding out which high school team was the best. Or more specifically, which branch from the Chinese Esports Association had nurtured the biggest talents. They were sitting at the edges of their seats, waiting for the show to continue, waiting for Team Beijing to take to the stage and cleansweep Chongqing University in a similar fashion as Team Shanghai had done to Team Guangzhou.

The players from Team Shanghai also found their way back to the stadium after a long lunch. They’d eaten their bellies full with the Korean Barbecue and fell down on their seats, letting the after lunch dip overtake them.

Chu Fang looked at them and chuckled. He said, “You guys can relax until tomorrow morning. We’ve got a flight back to Shanghai to catch at 10 A.M.”

Lin Feng’s eyes grew round and wide when he heard Chu Fang. He looked between Zeng Rui and An Xin and complained, “Ah, why! Why do we have to spend our last day watching these games? It’s totally not gonna be worth it! Let’s go and do something else!” He got up from his seat but was pulled back down by An Xin. “Okay, okay! I get it! We’re watching!” he said, then continued grumbling while looking around, searching for something to pass the time. “Uuuh…” he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. “Where is Team Guangzhou? Are they not coming to watch these games?”

“‘Cause they got knocked out of course!” Zhang Hao replied, chuckling. “You really think they’d have the face to come back here? Even if they wanted to, they’re probably worried everyone will laugh at them when they get here!” He briefly paused, grinning, then added, “I totally would.”

Lin Feng sighed loudly and said, “I see. How boring.”

“No one likes a whinebaby,” An Xin said, smiling. She winked at Lin Feng and added, “Su Xue is casting. You can enjoy listening to her!”

Lin Feng looked at An Xin and shrugged. He replied, “She talks my ears off at home already. Why would I want to listen to her cast?”

“Right. Right. You two are living together. You’re living with a cute, beautiful, famous streamer…” An Xin said, narrowing her eyes while the corners of her lips arced up. “How lucky you are. Think of all the guys dreaming to be you! What do you think they’d be willing to pay to switch places with you for a night?”

“Who would wanna pay for that!?” Lin Feng exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration.

Zhang Hao looked from Lin Feng at An Xin and back at Lin Feng again, a cold shiver running up and down his spine and goosebumps spiking on his arms. She’s doing that thing again! The murdersmile! Lin Feng, you idiot! Stop looking around and look at her! She’s mad! She’s mad! Oh no, she’s mad! Why am I not looking away? I need to look away! I’m not part of this conversation! Look away Zhang Hao! Don’t look at them! Look away! He grabbed his chin with one hand and pushed, forcing himself to look up at the stage. I’m not listening! Totally not listening!

Zeng Rui was a step faster than Zhang Hao. He turned his head to look at Tang Bingyao, away from An Xin, and said, “Sooo Tang Tang! How about that pinky of yours?”

“Mhm! Yeah,” Tang Bingyao replied, looking down at her pinky and cradling it. “I think it’ll be fine. Just bruised I think. It doesn’t really hurt that much right now.”

Chu Fang watched Lin Feng and An Xin get up to their usual antics and how the other three players on the team quickly diverted their attention elsewhere. He shook his head and laughed. Just like the old times. You do something that makes BunBun go all special BunBun mode and the others don’t know how quickly they need to get away. It’s good seeing this again. I’ve missed it.

✹

The first game of the afternoon was so incredibly boring that half the audience would’ve fallen asleep if it wasn’t for Su Xue’s fantastic and energetic casting. She managed to turn a boring game into something exciting by giving personal anecdotes and background stories about the players from the competing teams. The fans were actually on their feet, cheering loudly for Beijing International Studies University when they won their Round of 16 match 3-1.

Some people were more invested than others. But least invested of them all was Lin Feng. He yawned and said, “Su Xue was okay there.”

Tang Bingyao glanced at Lin Feng and shook her head. She said, “Mnh-mnh. She wasn’t okay. She was great!”

“She’s a natural,” Zhang Hao agreed. “The way she just keeps talking and never shuts up, it’s like she’s been casting all her life! And it’s also not just talking for the talking, but she actually has things to say! I had fun listening to her!”

Zeng Rui nodded and said, “Her analysis throughout all four games was on point too.”

“Yeah. She’s starting to look like a professional caster. The way she and Zephyr bounce off each other also helps. It’s like they were made for each other,” An Xin chimed in, smiling.

Lin Feng yawned again and mumbled, “So tired… What’s next? Oh! Team Beijing is up next, right? Maybe that game will be more fun to watch!”

✹

The host walked up on stage and waited for the audience to quiet down a bit. He then raised his microphone to his lips and said, “After a fantastic game earlier today between Team Shanghai and Team Guangzhou, it is now time for the third high school team to make their appearance! Give a round of applause for Team Beijing!” He waited, allowing the crowd to cheer, before he continued, “Their opponent is a veteran of the scene! A team we’ve seen much of in the previous editions! Five guys looking to make it all the way to finals! Let’s give them a warm welcome! Here is Chongqing University!”

In the player seating area, Zeng Rui narrowed his eyes when he saw the five from Team Beijing making their way to the soundproof booth. He said, “They’re playing with their main roster.”

Zhang Hao glanced at Zeng Rui and then looked back at Team Beijing. He asked, “So the guy at the front is their real Toplaner and the one in the middle their Midlaner? What’s his name again? Yu Ping, right?”

An Xin nodded and said, “Yea—”

“Sweet!” Lin Feng exclaimed. He clenched his fist, pumped it into the air and said, “Now we can finally see how good they really are!”

Tang Bingyao nodded and chimed in, “Mhm! I wanna see it.”

Chu Fang took a long, deep breath before turning his head to look for Team Beijing’s manager. Fan Yuan… You couldn’t sit still any longer, huh? Team Shanghai finally woke you up a bit. You’re going to show that Team Beijing is at least as good. Or you’re going to try too. Tough luck. We’ve got Maple. Who’ve you got? That’s right. Nobody.

✹

Yu Ping sat down behind his computer. It stood in the middle of a row of five computers. His Jungler and top sat to his left and his Support and ad-carry to his right. He smiled and breathed out, calm. Over the rim of his monitor he could see the crowd cheering. This is my stage. We’ve played around long enough. It’s time to show everyone what we’ve been holding back.

Team Beijing’s Jungler put on his headset and said over the team’s voice chat, “We can’t let those guys from Team Shanghai hog the spotlight! That’s our place! Let’s show them what we’re really all about!” He glanced at Yu Ping before adding, “Do your best, Yu Ping! I’ll do my best to Support you!”

Yu Ping took a deep, long breath before he replied, “Don’t worry.”

“Of course we won’t worry! There’s nothing to worry about!” Zhang Hongyi exclaimed. He narrowed his eyes, then chuckled and said, “Everyone is so focused on Team Shanghai’s Midlaner… both of them… that they forgot to look at the rest of the team. Team Shanghai is a one man team! We’re a five man team! We’ll show everyone what a real team looks like! And in the process hopefully kick Zeng Rui’s ass out of this tournament. That’d be the best–”

“Focus,” Yu Ping interrupted. He looked at Zhang Hongyi and added, “One game at a time. We’re going to beat Chongqing University first and then we’ll see who we have to play next.”

“Of course, of course!” Zhang Hongyi replied, nodding. “I’m focused! Look!” He leaned in towards his monitor and put his hands on his mouse and keyboard. “See? Ready!”

Team Beijing’s Jungler laughed and said, “Alright, let’s play then! For the win!”

“For the win!” The other four from Team Beijing replied in unison.

✹

“Holy what!?” Zhang Hao exclaimed. He looked at the time on his phone and shook his head, incredulous. “How does this work? How are they up 2-0 already? It hasn’t even been an hour yet!”

Zeng Rui nodded and analysed, “That change in top and mid actually made a big difference. They always looked strong. But with their main roster? They look stronger than Team Guangzhou to me. Yeah, I think they’re better than Team Guangzhou, quite visibly.”

An Xin smiled and said, “Team Guangzhou was all about Goalie and to an extent Seo. Looks like Team Beijing is more about being a team. But not only are they more like a team, Yu Ping is even just as good as Goalie! Maybe, just maybe, even better.”

It was difficult to compare Goalie and Yu Ping because their playstyles differed so much. Where Goalie was the attack specialist, the player who always made the plays, Yu Ping was the all-round player. There wasn’t anything he was clearly the best at, but every facet of his game was at such a high level that it was incredibly difficult to catch him making mistakes, or even to force him into making mistakes.

Lin Feng yawned again and said, “He’s worse than I expected… Eh, whatever.” He shrugged and then turned to look at Zeng Rui. A smile appeared on his face and he asked, “So ZengZeng… I seem to remember you and that Support… What was it again… He looked dirty at you, right? Right! What was his name? I could swear you told me at some point… And his playstyle, his playstyle is like yours! It’s like you two are twins! Tell me more about him! I need to hear the gossip!”

Zeng Rui felt his eyelid twitch. He glanced at Lin Feng and said, “I don’t know him. Stop asking.”

An Xin giggled and said, “You know he’s right, Zeng Rui. Team Beijing’s Support is about as good as you are and your playstyles are very similar. You’re both around the A- grade? Maybe going towards A…”

“Goddammit!” Zhang Hao exclaimed. He looked at his teammates and continued, “Why is everyone this good? Why can’t it be like at the Shanghai 16 School Tournament where I was like the best Toplaner! Now I’m just trying not to be the worst… And now that guy from Team Beijing… He’s better! He just is! Did you guys see him? FUCK!”

“You’ve got me, HaoBro! I’ll carry you!” Lin Feng said, laughing. But that didn’t do much to cheer Zhang Hao up. He let his shoulders droop and kept shaking his head, mumbling, “I just need to get better. Get better before the next round and be ready for… this.”

Chu Fang grimaced and said, “It doesn’t stop there. The Beijing Esports Association hired two professional coaches to train the team. I guess we really should support you guys more. It’s…” He shook his head.

“Look!” Zeng Rui interrupted. He pointed at the large LCD screen and continued, “They picked Riven. They’re going Riven mid, I’m sure of it!”

“Riven mid?” Zhang Hao asked, stunned. He turned his head to look at Lin Feng, as was everyone else. They all stared at him, waiting to see how he’d respond.

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and said, “Oh? He’s copying me? NICE! You know what they say! Copying is the best form of flattery! Yu Ping is totally in love with me!”

“What? No…” An Xin replied, incredulous. “How did you… No, no. Nevermind.”

Tang Bingyao leaned closer to An Xin and whispered, “He knows they’re trying to provoke him, right?”

✹

Lin Feng jumped up to his feet with the rest of the audience who were celebrating Team Beijing’s victory. He pumped his fist in the air and shouted, “He only got a quadra! I got a penta! He sucks and I’m the best!”

“Quadra, penta, who cares?” Zeng Rui said. “Point is that they stomped all over Chongqing University. We’re going to need to watch out for them. Their main roster is much stronger than I expected it to be.”

“You know Zeng Rui is right,” An Xin said to Lin Feng. She smiled and added, “They really aren’t half bad. You might actually have to try.”

“Hey, kids, not to be rude or anything,” Chu Fang interrupted. He pointed at the exit and continued, “Let’s go now before it gets busy again…”

There was no hesitation. After what happened to Tang Bingyao, no one from Team Shanghai wanted to get caught in a busy hallway. They rushed for the exit and beat the crowd to it. When they arrived at the long walkway up to the stadium, they finally stopped. Lin Feng put his foot on the water running down the center of the walkway and An Xin told him to stop playing, while the others were debating what they were going to do next.

“If it isn’t Zeng Rui! What a coincidence running into you here!” Zhang Hongyi said.

Zeng Rui turned around to find Zhang Hongyi walking over together with his teammates. He narrowed his eyes and replied, “Zhang Hongyi.”

Chu Fang looked past the players at Fan Yuan who was the vice president of the Beijing Esports Association. He said, “Fan Yuan.”

“Chu Fang,” Fan Yuan replied.

Chu Fang hesitated but then said, “Congratulations.”

“Likewise,” Fan Yuan replied.

The awkwardness persisted and turned into the most uncomfortable silence. Both teams stood there eyeing each other, until Lin Feng finally grew bored from playing with the water and turned around. He looked a bit confused and then said, “Oh! I know you guys! You’re Team Beijing! You guys played great, but not as great as us!” He laughed and then turned to look at Chu Fang and asked, “When are we going?”

“Now,” Chu Fang said. He led the players from Team Shanghai away, glancing over his shoulder to see what Team Beijing was doing. When he was confident they were out of earshot, he turned to Lin Feng and whispered, “If you guys draw Team Beijing, please do me a favour and smash the everloving shit outta them!”

The long blades of grass rose up high around Seo’s Tristana, hiding her from view. She raised her cannon, aimed it at Kalista’s back and squeezed the trigger. The cannonball shot from the muzzle and slammed into Lin Feng’s Kalista! It was a critical hit! She took a step forward and fired again! Another cannonball slammed into Lin Feng’s Kalista!

“KALISTA IS DEAD! SEO’S GONNA KILL HER!” Zephyr screamed into his microphone. “TWO MORE HITS! OR A CRIT!”

Su Xue’s eyes were wide open in horror. NoNoNo! Her jaw trembled as she stuttered into her microphone, “Y-y-you got this, Lin Feng!”

Lin Feng breathed out calmly. He’d kept an eye on Seo’s Tristana the entire fight. He saw it when she killed Jarvan IV and also when she killed Zhang Hao’s Rumble. He knew, though the fog of war hid it from view, that she was most likely going to try and get to him through the tri-brush. More than anything, he believed in his skills and in his teammates. He had his Kalista hurl a spear at Tristana and then used her passive to lunge towards the tri-brush. During that brief mid-dash moment, he pinged on Tristana to alert Tang Bingyao.

Tang Bingyao felt her entire body go stiff when she heard the ping and saw Seo’s Tristana. She’d been so focused on killing the Thresh that she hadn’t thought to look behind her. But then instinct took over. She flicked her mouse towards Seo’s Tristana, who’d walked out from the tri-brush, and cast Winter’s Bite. Her Braum propelled ice from his shield! It struck Tristana, slowing her and applying the first stack of Concussive Blows.

Seo snarled at his monitor, furiously clicking his keys. His Tristana fired another cannonball at Lin Feng’s Kalista. CritCritCrit! COME ON, WHY DON’T YOU FUCKING CRIT!? He wanted to throw his mouse through the glass panels of the soundproof booth, but kept himself from doing that. A crit would’ve killed Kalista. Now he needed to hit her one more time. KILL THE STUPID BEGGAR! He clicked on Kalista. His Tristana raised her cannon again.

Lin Feng licked his lips as he had his Kalista fire another auto attack. Her passive skill–Martial Pose–added a lunge to each auto attack. He used that to disappear into the tri-brush. It killed the line of sight with Seo’s Tristana and it canceled Tristana’s auto attack. He then threw an empowered spear with Pierce to apply the third stack of Concussive Blows, and followed up with another auto attack! It applied the fourth stack of Concussive Blows and stunned Seo’s Tristana!

“Oh my god… Oh my god!” Su Xue said. She began laughing her worries and nerves away and continued, “He did it! He got her! He really got her!”

Zephyr looked at Su Xue and smiled. Damn, she’s got some great energy! He then looked at the audience and listened to them. They were up on their feet, screaming out their joy. They need some direction. Let me give it to them! A la Su Xue! He laughed and shouted into his microphone, “WHO DO WE WANT?”

“WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG!”

“WIN FENG!”

Zephyr felt the chills run up and down his spine when the audio from the stadium exploded into his headset. He grinned and added, “WHEN DO WE WANT HIM?”

“NOW!”

“NOW!”

“NOW!”

“NOW!”

“NOW!”

“NOW!”

Lin Feng’s Kalista was revealed to Seo’s Tristana when he attacked her from the brush. The moment the stun wore off, Tristana could kill her. But Lin Feng wasn’t planning to let that happen. He counted down the time he had until the stun wore off and then the time it would take to load a cannonball and fire. Right before Seo’s Tristana could kill him, he activated Rend. His Kalista pulled on the telekinetic links with the spears lodged inside Tristana and pulled them free.

《Quadra Kill!》

After getting the double kill and finding Kalista’s back open, Seo had started to picture himself as the starplayer of this match. He was going to get the penta kill, he was going to secure this win, and he was going to win Team Guangzhou this series! His teammates would laud him. Every single woman inside this stadium would fawn over him. Most importantly, Tang Bingyao and An Xin would drop to their knees before him. And he would turn them down! He would show them exactly how little they meant to him! But all of that ground to a halt when he saw his screen turn grey. His dreams came crashing down around him and were replaced with hundreds of identical faces. They laughed at him and told him that no one was going to remember his face. LIN FEEEEEEENG! I’M GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU!

Across the stage in Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth, Lin Feng shouted over the team’s voice chat, “Gimme the penta! I want the penta! Give it to me!”

An Xin glanced at him, smiled and said, “Of course we’ll help you. That’s only good manners.” She already had her Morgana chasing after Team Guangzhou’s Thresh and when she found the angle, she cast a Dark Binding. The dark crimson orb flew through the air and struck Thresh, rooting him to the ground.

Tang Bingyao nodded and said, “Mhm! I’ll help!” She then had her Braum dash in front of Lin Feng’s Kalista with Stand Behind Me, functionally disabling all of Thresh’s crowd control skills that could impede Lin Feng’s Kalista.

Lin Feng grinned brightly as he had his Kalista hurl spears and lunge after Thresh. The chase went past the Gromp Camp, the Blue Buff Camp and down the Jungle path leading to Team Guangzhou’s base. But before Team Guangzhou’s Thresh could get to the safety his base provided, a final spear pierced his back and claimed his life.

《Pentakill!》

“He did it! He did it! He did it!” Su Xue rambled into her microphone. But no one paid much attention to her; they were too busy cheering. Up on their feet, even those at home, they were jumping and dancing and screaming until their lungs gave out! Lin Feng hadn’t just given them a pentakill, he hadn’t just given them a good series, he’d given them a great series and two pentakills!

「6666666」

「WIIIIIN FEEEENNNGGGGGGG!!!!!」

「LIL BRO HARD CARRY! WHERE HIS WATER? GO RUN MAID XUE!」

「I feel a tear in my eye. What beauty this man produces! He’s everything and more! Talking about more… Want to see more of him? Want to see the legend play in the comfort of his own home? Want to know what he’s up to in solo queue? Tune in to EveningSnowfall and watch him make an appearance! He’ll force her to buy him food and get him water! She’s the maid and he’s her boss! *wink wink*」

「PEEENNNTTTTAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!1」

「HOLY SHIT THEY REKT GUANGZHOU!!!!!」

「GET FUCKED GOALIE AND SEO! GET ABSOLUTELY FUCKED IN THE ASS!」

「how is he that good….??????? How the fuck did he survive that? Tristana shoulda had him…..」

「COZ HES LIL BRO! HE CAN DO WHAT NO ONE ELSE CAN DO! HES SUPER LIL BRO!!!!!」

「Shit dude… I got a little hard for that penta…」

“He’s done it again,” Shi Hang said, laughing. He shook his head and added, “Just like the old days. He goes off and does something ridiculous and somehow makes it work. Gets a damn penta as ad-carry… Crazy kid!”

“No kidding…” Team Rapids’ Jungle muttered. He watched the livestream, incredulous, and asked, “That Kalista is the one who beat you, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Shi Hang replied. “Don’t think I’ve ever won against him.”

Team Rapids’ Jungler looked at Shi Hang, waiting for an explanation that wasn’t coming. He finally asked, “How much do you know about him? Do you know where he came from? Who he is? He can’t be new to the scene, right? He’s too good… Any LPL team would be happy to pick him up!”

Shi Hang grinned and said, “Secrets are meant to be kept. Sorry bud.” He then zipped his mouth close and swallowed the key.

✹

Chu Fang from Team Shanghai cheered with everyone else, proud of his team. He then looked at Coach Yin from Team Guangzhou and laughed. Look at you! You look like a sack of shit! Always with that big mouth bragging about your latest victories. What are you going to brag about now? How you got these useless shits from Korea because you couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort to find and nurture Chinese talents which, by the way, is in your job description? Serves you right! I hope they get rid of you. He looked away from Coach Yin and back at the large LCD screen, smiling.

After Team Shanghai won the teamfight, they went straight to the mid lane where super minions were attacking the two Nexus towers. Lin Feng’s Kalista, Tang Bingyao’s Braum and An Xin’s Morgana helped the super minions in taking down the two towers before Team Guangzhou could respawn. When they moved on to the Nexus, Twisted Fate spawned on the fountain. He charged at them and tried to stop them, which he succeeded at. The three from Team Shanghai turned their attention to him and killed him. Then they focused back on the Nexus and destroyed it before anyone else could respawn. The blue energy broke free from the nexus and morphed into the victory screen.

VICTORY!

Su Xue lost any semblance of impartiality that she still had. She tightly clutched the microphone and screamed, “WE WOOOOOON! WE WOOOOOOOOON! TEAM SHANGHAI CLEAN SWEEPS TEAM GUANGZHOU AND ADVANCES TO THE QUARTERFINALS!” She turned to look at Zephyr, lost in joy, and added, “LIN FENG DID IT! HE WON!”

✹

Zeng Rui relaxed in his gaming chair and breathed out the tension from his shoulders. He smiled and said, “Good job! Good job! Yes!”

“That was great!” Lin Feng cheered, laughing. He turned his head to look at Zeng Rui and added, “See? I told you so! I’m a great ad-carry!”

An Xin rolled her eyes and said, “Idiot. It was a team effort.” She then smiled and added, “Great work, everyone!”

“I don’t know, BunBun…” Zhang Hao replied. He was grinning from ear to ear as he added, “Lin Feng did get two pentas. Two pentas! When have you ever gotten two pentas like that? Shit, I really wanna see those guys from Team Guangzhou tilt! Can you imagine what they must look like right now?”

Tang Bingyao looked across the stage into Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth, where mice and keyboards were flying around and people were just short from fighting each other. She smiled and said, “Mhm! Look!”

The five players from Team Shanghai huddled around the far end of the soundproof booth which was the closest to Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth across the stage. They stood there, watching Team Guangzhou lose it. And when it finally looked like things were cooling down a bit, Coach Yin walked in and everything started from scratch again.

Zhang Hao laughed and said, “Guess we’re not shaking hands?”

“Come,” Zeng Rui finally said. “Let’s go and see Chu Fang.” He then opened the door to the soundproof booth and held it open for the others. Together, as a team, they walked to the front of the stage and bowed to the tens of thousands of fans at the stadium and the hundreds of thousands of fans watching from home. They then walked down the stage and into the player seating area, where they received congratulatory words from several teams before finding their own seats.

Chu Fang smiled brightly and said, “Good work out there! I’m really proud of you all!” He then nodded at Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth, from which the players and Coach Yin emerged, and continued, “You guys should’ve seen Coach Yin’s reaction when Lin Feng got that second penta. It was the best thing ever! I think I saw the exact moment a part of him died!”

Zhang Hao laughed and replied, “He did look pretty mad! Oh, look! Look! They’re coming down! They’re coming down! Hey! HEY! TEAM GUANGZHOU! WELL PLAYED BUDS! GREAT GAMES! STRONG WORK!”

Coach Yin glanced at Zhang Hao and then mumbled something over his shoulders. The players from Team Guangzhou all turned their heads away from Team Shanghai and hurried after Coach Yin in the direction of the stadium’s exit.

“Hey! What’s this? Are they really going to act like they didn’t hear me?” Zhang Hao asked, stunned. He then snorted and shouted, “What’s wrong? Did you leave your big dicks on the nightstand this morning? I thought you guys had some balls! Guess you were wimps after all…” He shook his head and loudly said to his teammates, “I thought they were supposed to be good… What a letdown.”

It was the last bit that made Coach Yin pause. He turned his head to glare at Zhang Hao and said, “You little pie–” He took a deep, long breath, trying to contain his humiliation-turned-fury, and continued, “Don’t push me. You won’t like what happens.”

Zeng Rui smiled and asked, “Kind of how you don’t like what happened after Seo pushed Tang Tang, right?”

“Call it karma,” An Xin chimed in.

Coach Yin wanted to scream! He wanted to yell at them that he’d make sure they would never get the support from the Chinese Esports Association again! He almost did, but then Lin Feng opened his mouth and said, “Korea really has a ton of amazing players. You’re not wrong there.”

“Uh?” Coach Yin blurted out. His anger relaxed a little, part of it replaced with confusion. He wanted to ask what Lin Feng meant, when Lin Feng continued to explain himself, “But that doesn’t mean you can just take some random players from Korea and expect to win. The Chinese competitive scene hasn’t fallen that low. How about the next time you go to Korea to find players, you scout out some actually talented players, rather than opening the Challenger ladder and throwing darts?”

Coach Yin looked at Lin Feng, but rather than argue he turned around and shouted at the interpreter, “DON’T TRANSLATE THAT!” He then grabbed Seo and Goalie by their arms and pulled them away, adding, “Come, we’re going. Now! Come! GoGoGO!”

Chu Fang bit hard on his teeth to force back the laughter. He then turned to Lin Feng and the others and said, “Come. We should go too. Nothing good’s gonna come when Seo and Goalie hear what Lin Feng just said.”

✹

Su Xue ran out of the Tianhe Stadium and straight at Lin Feng who was waiting for her with the others. She laughed and hugged him and said, “You were great! That was such an amazing series! Those two pentas! I thought for sure you were dead at the end there with the Tristana but then you cut vision by going into that brush and just… just… Aaaaaaaaaah! You were great!”

Lin Feng grinned and replied, “Yeah, I know right! I am great!” He ignored the glares and stares from his teammates and continued, “But I’m also really hungry. And we can’t possibly not celebrate this win! So look…” he pulled out his phone and opened the restaurant ranking list he’d compiled with Tian Tian. “… I say we go to this one. It’s Korean Barbecue! Get it? Korean Barbecue! Because we just roasted two Koreans! You know, Goa–”

“Yeah yeah, we know,” An Xin interrupted. She shook her head, smiling, and said, “Alright, let’s go. Lead the way.”

Lin Feng walked out in front of the rest and showed them where to go. After he’d orientated himself, he looked over his shoulder at Su Xue and asked, “How was the casting anyway?”

Su Xue smiled and replied, “It was great! I had so much fun and I wasn’t nervous at all! I even tried to be impartial, though that didn’t really work out… Team Guangzhou is just such a toxic team! It’s really hard to cheer for them. But I tried!”

An Xin winked at Su Xue and said, “With the way you interact with your viewers and how you cast when Lin Feng is playing a game I never doubted your casting ability for a second! You didn’t have any reason to be nervous! You’re really good at this kind of stuff!”

“What BunBun says! I said that too! Before, remember? I told you it’d be easy for you!” Lin Feng exclaimed. He then paused, nearly causing Zeng Rui to walk up against him, and asked, “Hey, XueXue? Did you remember to brag about me like I asked you to?”

“What was there to brag about? You got two pentas!” Su Xue countered. She laughed and added, “I tried to be impartial… But I think that at some point I might’ve gotten carried away a bit and become slightly partial towards you guys. Though… It wasn’t too much either I don’t think. Zephyr said I did great too!”

Tang Bingyao nodded and said, “Mhm! That’s because you’re good at this. Like BunBun said.”

Su Xue was beaming with joy, glowing even. She suddenly raised her finger and said, “That reminds me. Remember how I said I’m casting two games? The second one is right after lunch! I think… Maybe it was the second one? I need to check the schedule again… But yeah! I’m casting another game today!”

A pillar of blue light slammed down on Blue team’s Blue Buff Camp! Zeng Rui, whose Jarvan IV was fighting the Blue Sentinel, felt his heart stop. “Irelia! Irelia is teleporting in! Where’s TF?” he asked over Team Shanghai’s voice chat.

“On me,” Lin Feng replied, calm.

Zeng Rui panned his camera towards Lin Feng’s Kalista, who was still fighting the Gromp, and then a bit further up to where Twisted Fate was teleporting to. He then moved his camera down and spotted Thresh running past his inner tower and towards the Jungle. Fuck! They’re flanking us! I need to save Lin Feng! We need him alive! He glanced at his skill and grimaced. He’s too far away. I need to… He sighed and then had his Jarvan IV dash towards Lin Feng’s Kalista with his flag-toss combo.

Team Guangzhou’s Thresh saw Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV dashing towards Lin Feng’s Kalista and knew there was a chance there. His fingers glided over his keyboard as he linked several skills together. A mottled flash of light carried his Thresh past the players from Team Shanghai and into his top side Jungle. He followed up with a Death Sentence, his scythe flying over a Jungle wall and latching onto Jarvan IV at the end of his dash animation. He then threw his lantern behind him with Dark Passage, waited just long enough for Lee Sin to click it and finally activated Death Sentence again, pulling himself towards Jarvan IV and Kalista!

“OH SHIT! KALISTA IS IN DANGER!” Zephyr screamed into his microphone. He stared at the monitor in shock and added, “JARVAN JUST KILLED KALISTA!”

Su Xue looked at the fight and searched the minimap for a way in which Team Shanghai could turn this fight around. But she came up empty. She chewed on her lips and said, “Maybe if they can get their Braum and—” The rest of the sentence was stuck in her throat.

Team Guangzhou’s Thresh activated his ultimate skill—The Box! Five spectral walls rose up from the ground and caught Lin Feng’s Kalista and Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV within. He followed up with Flay, sweeping his chain and scythe backwards. It caught both Kalista and Jarvan IV, lifting them off their feet and flaying them into the spectral wall. The wall applied a powerful slow effect.

Team Guangzhou’s Lee Sin came flying in with Thresh’s lantern. When he hit the ground, he placed a ward behind Lin Feng’s Kalista and hopped towards it with Safeguard. He followed up with his ultimate skill–Dragon’s Rage! He raised his foot and struck Kalista with a roundhouse kick! There was so much power behind the kick that it knocked Kalista up into the air and sent her flying into the spectral wall on the opposite side of the box. Right where Goalie’s Twisted Fate happened to be.

Zephyr shot up from his seat at the caster desk and yelled into his microphone, “They got him now! They got Kalista! He kicked her right at Twisted Fate! This is gonna be a stun and then a kill!”

Below the stage in the player seating area, Chu Fang sat at the edge of his seat and leaned closer towards the large LCD screen above the soundproof booths. He clenched his fists and mumbled, “Come on… Come on… Come on! Don’t screw up now… Don’t screw up now!”

In a different section of the player seating area, Coach Yin looked the complete opposite of the worried Chu Fang. He was grinning and trembling with excitement, mumbling, “Come on! COME ON! DO IT! KILL HER! KILL THAT KALISTA AND FINISH THE GAME!”

Back in the game, Goalie’s Twisted Fate ran down the Jungle path until Lin Feng’s Kalista was kicked towards him. He threw the Gold Card he was holding and followed up with a volley of Wild Cards, both skills striking Lin Feng’s Kalista at the same time.

Lin Feng’s Kalista was stunned. Twisted Fate stood in front of her, auto attacking with playing cards. Behind her, Team Guangzhou’s Irelia finished teleporting and was running to join the fight together with Thresh and Lee Sin. Zeng Rui was trying to run interference there with his Jarvan IV, but Team Guangzhou simply ignored him. The other three Champions from Team Shanghai were in the top lane, separated from the fight by a Jungle wall they couldn’t run through. They hesitated, deciding whether to run around it left or right, or to Flash over it. All the while, Seo’s Tristana was auto attacking them.

“It’s over… It’s over…” Su Xue muttered into her microphone, distraught.

Zephyr nodded and continued, “Definitely is! They’re almost on Kalista and when she’s—” His eyes grew wide and round when he saw a cleansing light wrap around Kalista. The stun was broken. And then a second light wrapped around Kalista. This one teleported her a short distance, dropping her back onto the Rift behind Twisted Fate! Zephyr clutched his microphone tightly and shouted, “OH MY GOD! CLEANSE! CLEANSE! HE CLEANSED IT AND THEN FLASHED!”

Su Xue’s mouth fell open. She stared at the monitor, incredulous, then mumbled, “H-he… He escaped?”

“OH SHIT HE DID! HE ESCAPED!”

“WOW! HE EVEN DODGED THE LEE Q WITH THAT FLASH!”

“HOLY LORD! WHAT THE EFFIN EF!”

“HE STILL HAD CLEANSE!? WHAT THE FUCK!”

“DAMN! FUCK ME! WHAT A FUCKING CLUTCH CLEANSE!”

Lin Feng’s Kalista started throwing spears at Twisted Fate, each one lodging itself into his body. But Kalista didn’t have a stun. She had to run after Goalie’s Twisted Fate as he looked to close the distance with his teammates. Thresh and Lee Sin had used most of their skills, so Lin Feng didn’t worry about them. Irelia on the other hand hadn’t used any of her skills yet.

“Tang Tang!” Lin Feng said over the team’s voice chat.

Tang Bingyao glanced at Lin Feng and smiled. Now it’s time to play hard! Ignore the pinky, ignore the pinky, mhm! She replied, “Pull me!”

Lin Feng’s Kalista pulled Braum’s spirit in with her ultimate skill—Fate’s Call! The second part of the skill was up to Tang Bingyao. She aimed her mouse at the four Champions from Team Guangzhou and clicked. Her Braum launched himself at them, regaining his physical form, and barreled into them! He knocked them up and followed up with his own ultimate skill—Glacial Fissure! He smashed his shield down into the ground, tearing a rift open and causing freezing air to erupt upwards and knock the four Champions from Team Guangzhou up into the air again!

Goalie’s eyes were wide and round in fear. He’d misjudged how quickly they could kill Kalista, and now Braum was there. FUCK! FUCKING DOGS! He ground his teeth and searched for Seo who was still busy attacking Rumble. He isn’t getting a kill there either anytime soon. FuckFuckFuck! I need to survive! We can’t win if I die here! He slammed down on his keyboard, trying to activate Flash the moment his Twisted Fate fell back on the ground. But right then, just before his Twisted Fate had both feet on solid ground again, a Dark Binding hit him and rooted him!

“Ooooh! Nice one, BunBun!” Lin Feng exclaimed.

“Just kill him already,” An Xin replied, smiling.

Lin Feng grinned and said, “On it!” He then activated Rend. His Kalista pulled on the telekinetic link with the spears lodged inside Twisted Fate’s body and pulled them free! They shattered Twisted Fate’s health bar!

《You have slain an enemy!》

Goalie’s death boomed in Seo’s ear and continued echoing, as if mocking him. His heart leaped up into his throat and cut off air from reaching his lungs. He widened his bloodshot eyes and felt his nose and eyelids twitching. The most intense hatred he’d ever felt coursed through his veins. He glared at Lin Feng’s Kalista and mumbled, “I’m going to kill them all! And I’m going to make you watch!” He then glanced past Kalista at Jarvan IV, whose health was down considerably after trying to protect Kalista. You first.

Seo’s Tristana aimed her cannon at the ground and fired. The recoil lifted her off her feet and sent her flying over the Jungle wall where she landed right next to Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV. A fire started burning at the edge of her cannon as she activated Rapid Fire. And then she fired. Again and again. Cannonballs battered Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV and sheared away at his health bar! Buster Shot! Tristana loaded a massive cannonball and fired! It smashed into Jarvan IV and went straight through him!

《You have slain an enemy!》

“WOOOOOO! WHAT A KILL!” Zephyr screamed into his microphone. He glanced at Su Xue and added, “And that also resets her Rocket Jump!”

Su Xue nodded with her eyes wide open. She was trying to find the words, constantly reminding herself to be impartial. But then she spotted Zhang Hao’s Rumble casting his ultimate skill on top of Team Guangzhou. She smiled. Nice HaoBro! Help Lin Feng win this one! She then said into her microphone, “That was a beautiful kill! But that Rumble ultie is also a great response by Team Shanghai!”

“TEAM SHANGHAI!”

“TEAM GUANGZHOU! WOOOOOOOO!”

“WOOOOOOOO!”

“TEAM GUANGZHOU!”

Seo had his Tristana Rocket Jump back over the Jungle wall and started auto attacking Zhang Hao’s Rumble, when An Xin’s Morgana flashed the other way. She arrived at the Gromp Camp where Lee Sin, Thresh and Irelia were trying to get through Tang Bingyao’s Braum to kill Lin Feng’s Kalista. She glanced at Seo’s Tristana and nodded. He’s still in range. She then smiled and activated her ultimate skill–Soul Shackles!

Morgana unfurled her wings as she tapped into the full potential of her Celestial power! It radiated from her, lifting her off the ground as dark crimson chains manifested around her. They fired at the four Champions from Team Guangzhou and latched onto them, tightening around them and restraining their movement speeds!

“What a beautiful ultimate!” Su Xue exclaimed. She leaned over the desk, letting her emotions carry her casting. “Team Guangzhou is done for! This is all Team Shanghai! That ultimate seals it! Lin Feng is going to kill Lee Sin, Thresh and then Irelia and Team Guangzhou is going to look stupid as they try to make something work!”

Zephyr glanced at Su Xue and raised an eyebrow. I like her. Casters in the LPL are all expected to be dry and monotone and “objective”, and because only those types of casters get hired, you see it happen at these kinds of tournaments too. But what we really need is the type of casters they have over in Europe and America, the kind who knows how to hype up a crowd! He glanced at a monitor showing the crowd. Everyone was up on their feet, everyone was screaming and everyone was having a good time. He nodded at himself and smiled. Yeah. She’s right. This is how you’re supposed to cast. He pushed his microphone to his lips and shouted, “TEAM SHANGHAI FOR THE WIN! WOOOOOOO! LIN FENG PENTA! I’M CALLING IT RIGHT NOW!”

“MORGANA MASTERCLASS!”

“KALISTA PLAYING LIKE A BAWS!”

“SEO GONNA GET WRECKED!”

“WOOOOOOO TEAM SHANGHAI!”

Yu Ping felt like he was knocked in the back of his head by the cheering crowd behind him. He rubbed his head and stared at the large LCD screen in shock. She’s their substitute Midlaner… Yet she’s landing these crucial four man ults like they’re nothing! It’s fucking perfect every time! How is she doing this!? How are they this good? How… How did we not see this coming…? 

Back in the game, Tang Bingyao’s Braum propelled freezing ice from her shield–Winter’s Bite! It hit Lee Sin and applied the first stack from Concussive Blows. The second, third and fourth hits followed soon after, two of them dealt by Lin Feng’s Kalista and one of them by An Xin’s Morgana. Stunned, Lee Sin couldn’t escape the onslaught of spears that pierced him. His health bar dropped until it ran empty.

《Double Kill!》

Seo growled when the voice announcer boomed in his ears. He ground his teeth and clicked on his mouse more forcefully, as if that’d increase the damage of his auto attacks. DIE! DIE! DIE! YOU STUPID UGLY RUMBLE! DIE! His stomach clenched. He needed Tristana to get the kill faster, because Morgana’s Soul Shackles had a secondary effect. A stun. And if he got stunned, it was game over.

Zhang Hao’s Rumble was almost dead. Two more auto attacks. Seo already started smashing on the W key for Rocket Jump, hoping that pressing it would make it go off early. KIIIIIIIILL! 

《Double Kill!》

“WOW!” Zephyr exclaimed. He shook his head, incredulous, and continued, “What a timing on that Rocket Jump! He jumped out of the Soul Shackles right before the stun went off! Look! Irelia and Thresh are stunned! But Seo’s Tristana got out!”

The Tormented Soil from Morgana dealt continuous damage to Team Guangzhou’s Irelia and Thresh. On top of that, she also attacked Irelia with auto attacks, as was Tang Bingyao’s Braum. But the two of them together weren’t dealing nearly as much damage as Lin Feng’s Kalista was. She was lunging back and forth, hurling spears at Irelia. When Pierce came off cooldown, she threw the empowered spear for a bit more damage. Irelia’s health dropped sharply until Lin Feng’s Kalista landed the killing blow. The stun from Soul Shackles never even wore off.

《Triple Kill!》

✹

“WOOO!” Shi Hang exclaimed, throwing his arms up into the air. He grinned and added, “Fucking knew it! His ad-carry is just as good as Autumn’s!”

“Autumn? The Support from America?” Team Rapids’ Jungler asked.

Shi Hang turned his head to look at his new teammate and laughed. He explained, “No, not that one. I’m talking about the one all the way back from Season 1. Hmm… Thinking about it… Have you ever heard about him? No one seems to remember Season 1.”

Team Rapids’ Jungler shrugged and replied, “That was back in Season 1. I know there was some wonderkid or something? Eh, that was then. I didn’t go professional to learn history.”

Shi Hang laughed and turned his attention back to the stream. Come on, Lin Feng! I’m over here waiting for you. Win this series already and get your ass back into the LPL!

✹

“Seo… Seo!” Goalie shouted over Team Guangzhou’s voice chat. “SEO!”

“What!?” Seo asked, annoyed.

“You need to kill him. Stay calm. Kill that Kalista. We need to kill her now or we lose,” Goalie explained.

Seo looked at the fight happening in the Jungle and grimaced. His Tristana was in the top lane, momentarily safe. But he knew Goalie was right. He had to take Lin Feng’s Kalista out before she had the time to regain her health. Morgana and Braum are busy with Thresh. Kalista’s back is open and she only has like a third of her health left. This is it! I’ve got a double already and that’s gonna be a penta! I’m going to be the star! The real MVP! THE MIGHTIEST DICK…err… DUCK! Screw Goalie! I’m the best player in this game! He smiled at that thought and then had his Tristana run through the tri-brush into the Jungle, arriving right behind Lin Feng’s Kalista. Then he screamed at his monitor, “DIE YOU LITTLE BITCH!”

“No… No… No…” Zhang Hongyi muttered, shaking his head. His eyes were wide in shock and his face drained of all colour. “No… This can’t be…” He bit the inside of his mouth and pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t having a nightmare. His stomach contracted and he felt like puking. He’d been enjoying himself immensely this third game, because Team Guangzhou was finally winning. Because Zeng Rui was screwing up in the Jungle and because An Xin was screwing up in the mid lane. But An Xin didn’t screw up in the previous fight. She wasn’t the terrible player he’d made her out to be. He glanced at his teammates, but they weren’t looking at him. He breathed out in relief. Why did I have to open my big mouth? Why did I have to make fun of Team Shanghai? No, wait. Wait. He narrowed his eyes slightly. How did they do that? How did she do that? Has she been… Is she good?

Yu Ping scratched his forehead and looked down at the ground. Mechanics, awareness, judgement… Just a single fight, but she’s shown she has it all. She isn’t just a good Jungler, but also a good Midlaner. She’s… She’s a good player. A really good one. I can’t look down on her or on him. Those two, An Xin and Lin Feng, hmm… He moved his lips and took long, deep breaths. He then looked at Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth and nodded. They’re at least as good as I am. Their teammates… I don’t really have to worry about them. But those two… Those two I need to watch out for—

“Lol! Look at Coach Yin!” Team Beijing’s Jungler said to his teammates.

Yu Ping shook the worries about Team Shanghai from his mind and looked in the direction of Team Guangzhou’s area in the player seating area. He grinned and asked, “What is he doing?”

“Losing it!” Team Beijing’s Jungler replied, laughing.

Coach Yin sat at the edge of his seat, pulling his hair. He shook his head and then struck himself across the cheek. He shouted, “I’m dreaming! I’m having a nightmare! This is a nightmare! Goalie and Seo wouldn’t let me down! We’re winning! SOMEONE TELL ME WE’RE WINNING!” He looked around at the other teams, everyone staring at him. “TELL ME! ONE OF YOU! TELL ME! TELL ME I’M SEEING THINGS! TELL ME MY TEAM IS WINNING!” He then put his head on his hands and let the tension slip from his body. Why is this happening to me? What have I ever done to deserve this? Why can’t those two do what I’m paying them to do…? Why? Why…? 

✹

The players from Team Guangzhou were distraught by the previous teamfight. Lee Sin and Irelia forgot to open the fountain shop and spend their gold, while Thresh mindlessly clicked on items he didn’t have enough money for to buy. Yet he kept clicking, only registering he wasn’t buying the item but not understanding why he couldn’t buy it.

Seo stared at his monitor, smiling and nodding. I did it! I did it! I killed her! I… I… The smile disappeared. The dull grey colours faded away, flaring into the vibrant blues and greens of life. His Tristana had revived on the fountain platform. I died. She baited me. She… He shook his head abruptly. NO! I KILLED HER! I KILLED HER! IT WAS A GOOD FIGHT! IF THOSE IDIOTS HAD FLASHED HER ULTIE AND IF… IF… He clenched his fists, trying to ignore the visceral clenching of his stomach. I KILLED HER! I KILLED HER!

At the very back of Seo’s mind, a small voice nagged him. “No one will remember your face.” “No one will remember your face.” It grew in power with every repetition. Seo grabbed the sides of his head and pulled down. He wanted to cry, to disappear, to wake up from this nightmare. But it wouldn’t end; it only got worse. His skills at League of Legends, the ones he was so proud of were being laughed at. His opponents never even regarded him as a real threat. He was their stepping stone. He blinked his bloodshot eyes and growled, “People will remember my face!” He then grabbed his mouse, feeling the curves of the slick design, and placed his other hand on the keyboard. “Fight,” he said over the team’s voice chat. “We need to fight and win this!”

“So you’re done laughing?” Goalie asked, glaring at Seo. You fucking idiot! Bonehead! Nincompoop! You’re losing us this fucking game! Why do I have to put up with trash like you!? The Guangzhou Esports Association promised me capable teammates! He forced himself to take a long, deep breath, and then exhaled in a loud sigh. He continued, “They’ve got Baron. We’re going to have to defend for the next few minutes and hope they can’t end the game.”

“AND WE WILL!” Seo shouted, his nostrils flaring. “I’ll make that fucking bitch regret everything! I’ll kill her again! I’LL FUCKING MURDER HER!”

Goalie nodded slowly as he turned his attention back to his monitor. He panned his camera all the way to Team Shanghai’s base. There, hidden in the fog of war, An Xin’s Morgana respawned. He scrunched his nose and stared at the thick fog hiding her from him. You let me get comfortable for 20 minutes. You never slipped up in mid lane. But because you kept letting me gank the other lanes… Was this your plan all along? Did you make me underestimate you so that we’d fall for your bait? And now you’ve got Baron… Are you actually so good that you knew how much you’d be giving up in terms of kills and calculated it’d be worth it if you got this bait to work? He shook his head. No, that can’t be. Because if it is, then your mid lane skills are far better than your Jungling skills. You can’t be that good. You just can’t!

✹

Team Shanghai recalled back to base after they killed Baron Nashor. An Xin’s Morgana was waiting for them there and together they ran down the mid lane. When they arrived at their inner tower, the voice announcer informed them that Team Guangzhou had killed the Dragon.

“Oh, right! We forgot all about the Dragon!” Lin Feng exclaimed, grinning.

“We didn’t,” Zeng Rui countered. His eye twitched in annoyance as he explained, “We want to make full use of the Baron Buff, so we gave up on Dragon.”

Lin Feng shrugged and mumbled, “Could’ve just taken it. Whatever! Let’s take their base!”

An Xin glanced at Lin Feng and said, “Yep, we’re taking their base! Let’s siege them with our very shitty siege team!”

It was only a few minutes earlier that Team Shanghai had tried to push down the mid lane and take down the inner tower. But because their team composition didn’t have good wave clear or long range attacks, they failed. This time, they were boosted by the Baron Buff. This allowed them to take the mid inner tower with no trouble at all. Especially because Team Guangzhou didn’t manage to recall in time after killing the Dragon to defend it. But when it came to the inhibitor tower, Team Shanghai ran into the same issue as before. Their team just wasn’t any good at sieging.

An Xin watched Lin Feng’s Kalista lunging around, switching between attacking Blue minions and the tower when possible. This isn’t going to work. The Baron Buff will wear off long before we even get half the tower down. We need something special… Hmm… She had her Morgana drop back a bit and looked at the inhibitor tower.

The players from Team Guangzhou had huddled around it and were trying to kill the Red minions as quickly as they could. The melee minions weren’t difficult, because they were in range. The caster minions were a bit more difficult, because Team Guangzhou had to make sure Team Shanghai wouldn’t catch them when they moved in front of their inhibitor tower. And finally there was the cannon minion, firing cannon balls at the inhibitor tower from outside its range.

An Xin smiled and had her Morgana move into position. She then aimed her mouse and waited. That ad-carry is far too aggro. He’s going to— Seo’s Tristana walked forward to attack the cannon minion. An Xin’s Morgana cast Dark Binding! The dark crimson orb flew at Seo’s Tristana!

Seo’s eyes grew wide in shock and fear. He smashed down on his W key, having his Tristana Rocket Jump away to safety! But behind him was Lee Sin trying to offer support. Lee Sin got caught by the Dark Binding and was rooted. He then got jumped on by Team Shanghai. It was a swift and decisive move, finished off by Lin Feng’s Kalista ripping out the spears lodged in Lee Sin’s body with Rend!

《You have been slain.》

“Fuck!” Team Guangzhou’s Jungler cursed as his screen turned different shades of dull grey. “Sorry…”

Goalie grimaced, ignoring the string of curses Seo spewed over the team’s voice chat. We’re done. We can’t defend this. Maybe… He shouted over Seo’s voice, “Retreat! Back we protect Nexus!”

Lin Feng watched Team Guangzhou’s players retreat and grinned. He said over the team’s voice chat, “They’re running! Let’s chase them!”

“No,” An Xin replied. She pinged on the inhibitor tower and the inhibitor and continued, “We’re taking the inhibitor tower and the inhibitor and then we’re rotating bot. I don’t think we can finish them under their Nexus towers and we need to make the most out of this Baron Buff.”

✹

Team Rapids had their headquarters located in Shanghai. Shi Hang practically lived here, training day and night in an attempt to form synergy with his new teammates. But an important part of training was to know when to focus and when to chill out. Right now was a moment to relax and unwind from a long day of practice. Shi Hang relaxed in his chair, his fingers interlacing behind his head, and watched the game between Team Guangzhou and Team Shanghai. He mumbled to no one in particular, “Team Guangzhou has one last chance to win this. It’s a small one, but it’s there.”

Team Rapids’ Jungler walked into the gaming room and heard the end of what Shi Hang said. He walked over towards his new Midlaner and asked, “What’s there?” He then looked at Shi Hang’s screen and saw the Winter Collegiate Cup live stream playing. “Oh?” he said. “You’re watching the Collegiate Cup? I heard your old team made it to the Round of 16, right?”

Shi Hang nodded and replied, “Yeah, but I’m not watching them right now. This is the game between Team Guangzhou and Team Shanghai.”

“I heard something about that!” Team Rapids’ Jungler exclaimed. He shook his head and continued, “Can’t believe they did that. Why call it a uni tourney and then invite non-uni teams? Seems stupid to me. But whatever. They do them.”

Shi Hang smiled. He looked over his shoulder at his new Jungler and said, “You’d be surprised. A couple of these players could give us a run for our money.”

Team Rapids’ Jungle raised his eyebrows and asked, “You’re telling me they’re at the LPL level? I mean… if they are, then why aren’t they playing in the LPL? Seems like you— Wait! I remember now! You played one game, didn’t you? And you lost that!”

“Yup, I sure did,” Shi Hang replied. He chuckled and explained, “I lost against Team Shanghai. Their Midlaner straight up beat me.”

“Oh shit!” Team Rapids’ Jungler exclaimed. He looked at the screen again and saw that the Red team was Team Shanghai. He pointed at it and said, “That’s them!” He then grabbed a chair and sat down next to Shi Hang, asking, “That Morgana is the one who beat you?”

Shi Hang shook his head and explained, “No, it’s the Kalista. But that Morgana is pretty damn good too.” 

✹

There were more than 100,000 people watching the official broadcast of the Winter Collegiate Cup. Many of them were regular League of Legends fans who usually played the game themselves and only tuned in for the important matches in the big tournaments. When it came to the Collegiate Cup, those fans were mostly university students looking to see how their peers were playing. Next to the stream was the chat function, which allowed the viewers to share their opinions and banter.

「these two high school teams are pretty good!」

「KOREANS GETTING SCOOLED HAHAHHAHAHHRHHRAHRHAAHA」

「+1 to that bro! FUCK IMPORTS! MADE IN CHINA ALL DAY BAAAAABY!」

「What’s that Morgana skin called?」

「I ASKED MY CRUSH ON A DATE AND SHE LAUGHED IN MY FACE」

「F」

「FFFFFFFFFFF」

「MORGANA IS THE MANLIEST STANLIEST STAN!!!!!!!」

There was also a second type of viewers. They made up nearly a quarter of all the viewers and called themselves the Xuenatics or the Fengtastics. None of them cared particularly about the game. There were only two things in the world that they did care about: Lin Feng and Su Xue.

「Hahah! GOOOOO LIL BRO! WOOOO! CAARYYYYMEEEEHOOMMEEEEE」

「lil bro is life! I”D GIVE HIM MY KIDNEY!!!!」

「y the maid no give lil bro water? he need his water, lemon flavoured!」

「What is this shitty ass spectator camera? Don’t they know we only care about Lin Feng? SHOW US LIN FENG!!!!」

「TELL EVERYONE YOU”RE THE MAID, XUEXUE!!!!」

「the impartial very not partial xuexue is soooooooo cute! She should do this in her vids!!」

「XUEXUE BEST CASTER COLEGIATE CUP!」

「I NEED MORE XUEXUE IN MY LIFE!」

「and gimme another dose of win feng」

The stream chat flooded with so many messages that it was difficult to read even the shorter ones before they disappeared. But rather than slowing down the typing, the viewers saw this as a reason to double their efforts, typing more and faster. They forgot all about the game between Team Guangzhou and Team Shanghai as their focus was completely drawn towards the chat.

「Oh shit! WOOD!!! You’re here too!? 」

「HAHAHA AOILIBRO IM HERE! SNOWFALL ARMY!」

「WATER WRAITH, MOST FATEFUL VIEWER, REPORTING FOR DUTY!!!!」

「futalover, you’re here too! Can’t miss a good part without you!」

「GOD OF FLAMES! IT’S Me!」

「Everyone’s here! This is great! The more the merrier!」

✹

Goalie glanced at the gametime and forced a smile. They don’t have the Baron Buff anymore and we need another minute to get our mid inhibitor back. He panned his camera towards the mid lane, where Irelia was fighting the Super minions. She was on the job because she had Teleport, allowing her to join the rest of the team if a fight were to break out. Goalie then moved his camera towards the bot lane. They’d lost the inhibitor tower, but the inhibitor was still standing. They’ll get that. But not as long as we keep them busy here in top. He centered his camera on his Champion again. His team was fighting back against Team Shanghai’s assault of the top lane inner tower.

“You good?” Goalie asked Seo over the team’s voice chat.

Seo replied through gritted teeth, “My Trist is strong. We just need to get the fight. I’ll carry and kill those ugly shits! AND—”

“Stop,” Goalie interrupted. He straightened his back and added, “You can rage after we win. Now focus.”

Seo breathed loudly in and then blew it out in frustration. But he nodded and replied, “Okay.”

Goalie moved his camera to Lin Feng’s Kalista and narrowed his eyes. We need to take her out first. She’s their entire damage. All the other Champions are just there to Support. If I can get the jump on her and kill her… We can still win this. This can still be our game and we can still win this series. But we’ve only got one chance to pull this off. We can’t afford any more screw ups. This is that single moment where everything has to come together. And I need to make that happen! I will make that happen! He smiled and nodded at himself, then turned his head to look at his teammates and said, “Follow my lead. Now we fight!”

Zephyr leaned towards his microphone on the caster desk and said, “Team Guangzhou can’t afford to drag this out much longer. Two inhibitors down is usually considered the point of no return and it’s getting really damn close to that. The minions are pushing towards their inhibitor in the bot lane and their top inner tower is also going to fall if nothing changes.”

“Mm-hmm!” Su Xue replied, nodding. “Team Guangzhou needs to be proactive here! They have to find a flank with an Irelia or Twisted Fate teleport. But I don’t think Team Shanghai is going to give them that chance. They’re too good for that!”

The Blue Sentinel respawned in Blue team’s Jungle. Zeng Rui pinged on it and asked over the team’s voice chat, “Can you help me, Lin Feng?”

“Sure, ZengZeng!” Lin Feng replied. He then had his Kalista follow behind Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV. After hurling a couple of spears at the Blue Sentinel, he noticed the Gromp had also respawned. While I’m here… Might as well. He walked to the camp directly opposite the Blue Buff Camp and attacked the large frog. A red and yellow eye suddenly appeared above his head, followed by the animation of Twisted Fate’s portal opening a bit further down the Jungle path Lin Feng was in.

“TWISTED FATE HAS FOUND THE FLANK! HE’S GOING IN!” Su Xue cried out into her microphone.

Su Xue leaned over the caster desk and watched the Team Guangzhou versus Team Shanghai game on the large monitor in front of her. Her chest brushed against the microphone stand, but she barely registered the sensation. Nor did she notice how she was holding her breath. Her full attention was on the game. On Seo’s Tristana walking into the river and on An Xin’s Morgana waiting for him in a brush. She pushed the microphone to her lips and shouted, “Q! Q! Q! Seo’s gonna get hit—”

Morgana’s Dark Binding, a dark crimson orb, flew out from the brush and at Tristana. There was practically no time to respond. But Seo responded anyway. Years of practice and intuition helped him skip the thought process as he flicked his mouse and clicked. His Tristana abruptly changed the direction she was running in and the Dark Binding harmlessly flew past her.

“Give vision!” Seo shouted over the team’s voice chat.

Goalie cast his scrying orb on the brush the Dark Binding flew out from. A blue ward fell from the sky and planted itself in the brush, revealing An Xin’s Morgana hiding within. He replied over the team’s voice chat, “Get her!”

Seo smiled wickedly. He threw a bomb at Morgana with Explosive Charge and built up its damage through auto attacks. His smile then grew into a bright grin as An Xin’s Morgana chose to fight him. You stupid, arrogant bitch! You think I’m a pushover just because you pushed me over? Keep dreaming! Yeah, cast your Tormented Soil and throw your auto attacks! You think those will kill me? You stupid, stupid bitch! You’re so stupid!

“What’s going on? Why isn’t Morgana running? You don’t compare auto attacks with an ad-carry…”

“She missed her Q, what’s she gonna do? This is painful to watch!”

“PLEASE BACK! BAAAACK!”

“Come on, girl! Don’t be foolish! Back off already. He’s going to kill you!”

The bomb from Explosive Charge exploded! It dealt a large amount of damage to An Xin’s Morgana, dropping her health to below half! This was finally the moment that An Xin chose to turn away from Seo’s Tristana and to run towards her teammates closer to the Dragon pit. But Seo didn’t let her get away. He activated Rocket Jump, and his Tristana aimed her cannon at the ground below her feet and fired. The recoil from her weapon launched her up into the air, arcing over Morgana and landing on the other side of her!

Zephyr grabbed his microphone and shouted, “Buster Shot! BUSTER SHOT! IT’S– BLACK SHIELD! MORGANA DODGED THE BUSTER SHOT WITH HER BLACK SHIELD! SHE DIDN’T GET KNOCKED BACK TOWARDS THE OTHER CHAMPIONS FROM TEAM GUANGZHOU! SHE’S STILL ALIVE! SHE’S STILL ALIVE!”

Inside Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth, Goalie said through gritted teeth, “You knew she still had Black Shield up! What are you doing!?” He shook his head in frustration and glanced at the minimap. The rest of them are at the Dragon pit. She’s closer to us here and she’s almost dead. If we kill her fast… He ordered in broken Chinese, “In now!”

Goalie had his Twisted Fate run into the river while activating Pick a Card. A blue card appeared above Twisted Fate’s head, then was replaced by a red card a brief moment later until finally the gold card appeared. He selected it and stopped right in front of Morgana. Thresh and Lee Sin ran past him and engaged An Xin’s Morgana, but he waited, counting down the final second until her Black Shield would wear off.

Su Xue planted her free hand on the caster desk and pushed onto the tips of her toes to get even closer to the monitor. Her heart slammed into her ribcage. BunBun! Why!? WHY! She looked from the rest of Team Shanghai to Goalie’s Twisted Fate holding the Gold Card and shrieked into her microphone, “SHE’S IN DANGER! DANGER!”

“That’s it for Morgana… Rip.”

“Man! Why did she not just back off? Why…?”

“That was a great engage by Seo though!”

“I don’t know… Why would she play it like this…? Something’s off…”

“She just got a little overconfident after the previous two games.”

“RIPPERINO MORGARINO!”

Seo cackled as he watched the other players from Team Shanghai rushing over to help An Xin’s Morgana. You stupid fools! She fucked up! And now you’re all going to die! He clicked on the Morgana, repositioning himself closer to his teammates. A few more auto attacks to kill her and then the rest will be here. We’ll kill them all! And I’ll finally make sure that no one will remember that ugly beggar’s face!

Across the stage in Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth, things were quiet except for the constant clicking of mice. An Xin glanced at her minimap, gouging how far away her teammates were and how much longer it would take them to reach her. She then turned her attention to Team Guangzhou’s Champions. Four of them had run from the Blue team’s Jungle through the funnel into the river. They’re all here and I’ve got no time left. She cast Flash and followed up with her ultimate skill.

Bright light wrapped around An Xin’s Morgana and teleported her a short distance into the middle of Team Guangzhou. She then undid the chains locking away her power. Celestial power burst from her, lifting her off the ground as two wings spread from her back! Soul Shackles manifested and started coiling around her before firing at all nearby enemy Champions!

Goalie’s eyes widened in shock. His heart jumped and his fingers moved to both throw his Gold Card at An Xin’s Morgana while also trying to Flash away. He shouted over the team’s voice chat, “Kill her! Kill! KILL!”

The players from Team Guangzhou activated their highest damage abilities to finish off Morgana and break the slow that would soon turn into a stun. A myriad of colours representing various skills and attacks illuminated the river, while grains of sand fluttered down from the sky and stuck to Morgana’s skin.

“ZHONYA’S!” Su Xue exclaimed at the caster desk. “SHE CAST ZHONYA’S!”

The grains of sand wrapped Morgana up until they revealed only her outline. They then turned golden, placing Morgana in stasis and making her invulnerable and untargetable! Skillshots flew right through her and other abilities were canceled! Nothing and no one could damage her right now.

Zephyr shook his head, incredulous. He stared at his microphone for a few seconds before saying into it, “Wow! Wow! What a play by Morgana. She somehow baited four players from Team Guangzhou, including their two carries, and stunned all of them with her Soul Shackles. For all of you watching from home, hoping to learn a thing or two? This, right here…” he pointed at the monitor in front of him. “… this is what a high level play looks like—”

“And it isn’t over yet!” Su Xue interrupted. “Look! Backup has arrived!”

In their attempt to kill Morgana rather than run out of her Soul Shackles’ range, four Champions from Team Guangzhou were stunned by the chains. Backup then arrived for Team Shanghai. Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV dashed at Seo’s Tristana with his flag-toss combo and knocked him up! Behind him, Lin Feng’s Kalista drew Tang Bingyao’s Braum into her body with Fate’s Call, after which Tang Bingyao’s Braum hurled himself at Goalie’s Twisted Fate and knocked him up into the air!

Lin Feng grinned and said over the team’s voice chat, “ZengZeng, get TF first! Leave Trist be!”

Zeng Rui glanced at Lin Feng, glaring. He replied, “I’m the shotcaller.” He briefly paused, pursing his lips, then added, “Fine, Twisted Fate first.” He hovered his mouse and activated his ultimate—Cataclysm! His Jarvan IV leaped up above Goalie’s Twisted Fate and then came down on him with such force that he terraformed the earth into an arena!

“Tang Tang!” Lin Feng said over the team’s voice chat while having his Kalista hurl spears at Goalie’s Twisted Fate. He didn’t have to say more; Tang Bingyao understood him. She nodded and replied, “Mhm! On it!” She then stopped attacking Goalie’s Twisted Fate and dashed over the arena wall with Stand Behind Me! She looked at the fight. Twisted Fate is as good as dead. The other three will break free from their stun soon. If I move over here… Here, yeah, mhm! Here I can knock them all three up!

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, gouging how much more damage was needed to kill Twisted Fate and comparing that to how much longer the stun from Soul Shackles would persist. He then grimaced. We won’t kill him in time, even with… He sighed and activated Rend. His Kalista telepathically pulled on the spears lodged in Twisted Fate’s body and tore them out!

《You have slain an enemy!》

“I’m here! I’m here!” Zhang Hao shouted over the team’s voice chat. “Just a bit late, but I’m here!” He laughed and activated his Rumble’s ultimate skill—The Equalizer! His Rumble tapped several buttons on his construction and fired a volley of missiles that landed in a straight line over the Champions from Team Guangzhou, setting the ground on fire!

The stun from An Xin’s Morgana wore off. Team Guangzhou’s Thresh, Lee Sin and Tristana could run again. They could finally try and escape. But right then, Tang Bingyao’s Braum slammed his shield onto the ground with such force that it opened a fissure! Freezing coldness spewed out from it and knocked Thresh and Lee Sin up into the air! Seo’s Tristana was the only one to escape the skill, dodging it with a well-timed Flash. He followed up by auto attacking An Xin’s Morgana, clicking frantically, hoping that would help him kill her faster. Bright lights flashed on his screen, skills slammed into his Tristana and he continued attacking An Xin’s Morgana. Come on, come on, come on! DIE ALREADY YOU STUPID, UGLY WHORE!

《You have slain an enemy!》

《You have been slain.》

Seo relaxed back in his chair, smiling. His screen turned dull grey and his team lost the teamfight, but he’d gotten a kill back. He chuckled and rubbed his hands together, glancing across the stage at Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth. Fucking killed her! Heck yeah! Now I have to take care of the others! I’ll kill them all and I’ll make sure no one remembers their faces! Not like anyone wants to remember their ugly ass faces anyway… 

“SEO! WHAT THE FUCK!” Goalie shouted over the team’s voice chat.

Seo glanced at Goalie and asked, “What?”

“What? What!? What do you mean ‘what’?” Goalie replied. He glared at Seo and continued, “You forced us into that engage! Look at your screen! Look at it! Do you see that? They killed you and they killed me. Irelia is still in top for whatever fucked up reason and Thresh and Lee are going to be dead in 3, 2… now. Great. We gave them four kills and for what?”

“Uuuh…” Seo scratched his nose, using his palm to hide his smile. At least I got a kill! I killed that stupid bitch!

“You’re fucking laughing! STOP FUCKING LAUGHING!” Goalie yelled. He grabbed his hair and continued, “What’s wrong with you? This is the third game! We’re down 2-0! We were getting back into this game! We were going to win this! What the fuck, dude!? Why? WHY?”

“What do you mean, why? I fucking killed her, didn’t I?” Seo countered, glowering. “It was a good fight for us! We got her down and should’ve finished her! Why didn’t you Flash? You all had your flashes and everything up, right? Why didn’t you escape her skills? At least I killed her!”

“Oh my god! I can’t…” Goalie stopped himself from saying more by biting on his lips. He then forced himself to take a long, deep breath before slamming his fist on the desk. He finally shouted, “They’re gonna do Baron and then what? Huh? How are we going to win then!?”

✹

Su Xue clutched her microphone with both hands and cheered, “WOOOOOO! TEAM SHANGHAI WON THAT! WOOOOOOO!”

Zephyr laughed and added, “That looked scary, but… FOUR FOR ONE! WOOOOOOO! They wrecked Team Guangzhou! What a crazy turnaround!”

“WOOOOOOOO!”

“TEAM SHANGHAI IS LIFE!”

“BEST MORGANA WORLD!”

“MORGANA MID NEW FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH!”

“SIIIIIIIICK MORGANA ULTIE!”

“WOOHOOOOOOOOO!”

Zuo Cheng felt goosebumps on his body as he turned around and looked up at the stands. There were more than ten thousand people on their feet, stamping and cheering for Team Shanghai. All of them were screaming An Xin’s name, because it was her bait that started the fight and her ultimate that decided the fight. This is it! This is what’s so special about playing League and mid! You make that one play that decides the fight and probably the game and then this! I wish she could see them! He turned back around and looked at Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth. Through the glass panels he saw the top of An Xin’s head poking out above her computer’s monitor. He clenched his fists and shouted, “YOU GO GIRL!”

✹

Zhang Hao turned to look at An Xin and said, “Wow! That was such a cool bait! You totally had them!”

Tang Bingyao nodded and added, “Mhm! That was really good!”

“Thanks!” An Xin replied, cheerful. She then pinged on the Baron pit and said, “Forget about Dragon. They’re down four players and you guys are only missing mee. I won’t do too much damage to the Baron anyway, so this is only better. Go take it.”

Zeng Rui nodded and said, “BunBun is right. Baron. Let’s go. If Irelia comes, just ignore her. She can’t do anything to us.”

Following Zeng Rui’s order, Lin Feng, Tang Bingyao and Zhang Hao had their Champions run up towards the Baron pit. The large purple wurm gave the most powerful buff to whoever killed it, but it was also the strongest monster on Summoner’s Rift. It had a monstrous health pool and the green saliva it spit out burned through Champion health bars. But between Braum and Jarvan IV, Team Shanghai had enough high health Champions and with Lin Feng’s Kalista they also had the damage. Before Team Guangzhou’s Champions respawned, Team Shanghai took down Baron Nashor!

“That’s game!” Su Xue said into her microphone, smiling brightly.

Zhang Hongyi from Team Beijing wasn’t cheering with the other people in the Tianhe Stadium. He reclined back in his chair and laughed. “That’s right,” he said. “That’s the useless kind of play that Zeng Rui is known for!” He turned his head to look at Yu Pin and asked, “Did you see that gank? You really want to worry about this team with a player like him? He’s so far up his own ass that he can’t even tell he’s smelling shit anymore!”

Team Beijing’s Jungler leaned forward, smiling schadenfreude, and chimed in, “That’s karma for you! They’re going to lose because that moron thought he could just Jungle, like it doesn’t require any skill… News flash, it does! Jungling isn’t easy! It takes practice and skill and talent! That dude has none of it!”

Yu Ping nodded, slowly. He looked down from the large LCD screen at Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth. Through the glass panels he could see five heads full of hair popping up above the monitors. They aren’t reacting like Team Guangzhou… Are they really not tilting? They should have tilted from that top gank. Mid failed at preventing Twisted Fate from using his ultimate and the Jungler made a horrendous gank… He glanced at his teammates and said, “I don’t know what’s gotten into them, but it’s pretty obvious they aren’t playing their main roles. Dangerous game they’re playing…”

The cheers and applause for Goalie’s gank in the top lane quieted down enough in the stadium where the players in the player seating area could hear the members from Team Beijing discussing the game. Most nodded in agreement, then started chatting with their own teammates about how it did indeed look like Team Shanghai was throwing this game by playing a suboptimal team composition. But there were a couple of teams, specifically those who played against Team Shanghai before, who knew the sheer raw talent that Lin Feng possessed.

Qiu Yijie from Fudan University looked around at the people making fun of Team Shanghai and muttered, “Lin Feng got a penta last game and these guys are already making fun of him. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. They hate it that he got a penta and they’re just hoping it was a fluke. But writing him off this game, that’s just dumb. He’s playing ad-carry. Give him until late game, when he can start carrying.”

“He’s shown his skills already too,” Sun Ruinian added. “The teamfights are going to be really interesting. I can see him carrying them hard, kind of like how he carried from the mid lane… with a penta.”

Zuo Cheng clenched his fists and said, “That Morgana, the girl? She’s playing quite well too to be honest. She’s better than I am, I think… But I mean, she’s going even with Goalie! How many Midlaners can do that? Two! Her and Lin Feng!” He wrapped his hands around his mouth and shouted towards the stage, “GO BUNBUN! KICK ASS!”

✹

Zephyr repositioned in his chair and watched the monitor. For the first time in three games, there was a real lull in the game. Team Guangzhou knows they can’t fight Team Shanghai right now because of the Morgana and Rumble ultimate combo, but Team Shanghai doesn’t have the Champions to force a– Wait, I need to say this, not think it. He grabbed his microphone and turned his head enough where he could see both Su Xue and the monitor. He said, “The second Dragon is spawning in a couple of seconds, but it’s already obvious Team Guangzhou isn’t going to contest it. How about you run us through why, EveningSnowfall?”

“Okay, okay!” Su Xue replied, cheerful. She looked at the monitor and nodded at herself. I know why! It’s because Team Shanghai has Morgana and Rumble– Talk! I need to cast! She coughed, then smiled and analyzed, “That’s because Team Shanghai has Morgana and Rumble! These two Champions have skills that are especially hard to deal with in the early mid game, which is around now, the 15th minute of the game! Team Guangzhou is probably going to wait this out for another 5 to 10 minutes, so that they can get enough gold and buy some magic resist.”

The Dragon spawned and Team Shanghai moved towards the Dragon pit as a unit. They warded and searched looking for potential places where the teamfight might start, but Team Guangzhou completely ignored the Dragon. They stayed in their lanes and continued to farm minions, allowing Team Shanghai to take the Dragon uncontested.

Zephyr said into his microphone, “EveningSnowfall is absolutely right! A little extra bit of analysis also shows us that Team Shanghai doesn’t really have a Champion to engage. Sure they’ve got Jarvan IV, but then what? He can towerdive and no one can follow up. What they really need is something like a Leona or a Lee Sin. Or something else like that. Too bad they don’t. The balance of this game is starting to tip towards Team Guangzhou.”

“Yeah…” Su Xue mumbled, frowning. She continued, “It looks like Team Shanghai is going to try and push mid lane now though! And the mid outer tower is almost down! It is down! They just tore through that! Oh my god that came out of nowhere!”

“Those last two hits it needed,” Zephyr replied, laughing. He then pointed at the monitor and added, “But see there? Now they’re at the inner tower and Team Guangzhou has put up their defenses. There’s nothing Team Shanghai can do here but waste their time. They’ll recall back to base in a bit without having gained anything.”

✹

Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV couldn’t do anything but look menacing in front of Team Guangzhou’s inner tower. He stared at his monitor and watched Lin Feng’s Kalista hurl spears and An Xin’s Morgana conjure some dark magic, but neither did much damage. He sighed and said over the team’s voice chat, “BunBun’s Flash is on cooldown, so her flash-ult combo isn’t going to work, and I don’t think we can towerdive this…”

Zhang Hao glanced at his minimap and replied, “I would really like to get that wave in top lane…”

“You’re right. You’re right,” Zeng Rui mumbled. He shook his head and ordered, “Let’s fall back. Zhang Hao go get the wave in top, Lin Feng get bot.” He had his Jarvan IV run into his own Jungle and started clearing Camps, starting with the Wolf Camp and then going up to the top side Jungle to take on the Wraith Camp. All the while he kept his eyes locked on his minimap, searching. Thinking. This is a tough game… I’m not a Jungler and Tang Tang isn’t playing great as Support either. Well, she isn’t a Support to begin with and her pinky probably hurts a lot right now. BunBun’s a great Midlaner and all… but she’s not like the thundering dumbass and we’re really missing his flair right now. We need him to do something…

Zeng Rui panned his camera towards the bot lane, where Lin Feng was farming minions a couple of steps in front of his inner tower. Why are those two Botlaners from Team Guangzhou letting him push a bit…? He panned his camera towards the mid lane, a sensation he couldn’t yet place swirling in his stomach. Twisted Fate is still mid. His ultimate is up soon, but he’s still— His eyes grew round and wide. “GANK! BOT! GANK! GANK!” he shouted over the team’s voice chat.

A large red, yellow eye appeared above each of Team Shanghai’s Champions, the telltale sign of Twisted Fate’s ultimate skill–Destiny! Zeng Rui clicked on the bot lane inner tower, frantic. Run you stupid Jarvan! Get down there! He ordered over the team’s voice chat, “Zhang Hao! Get down there! Help Lin Feng! BunBun, you too! Tang Tang! Where is Tang Tang? Why is she in base? Get to Lin Feng! HELP LIN FENG!”

Lin Feng let his hand go off his keyboard and scratched the back of his head. He said over the team’s voice chat, “Guess I’m fucked, eh?” He chuckled and placed his hand back on his keyboard. Twisted Fate teleported in behind him and Team Guangzhou’s Irelia was teleporting on a Blue minion. And now… He glanced at his skills. Most were off cooldown, but none were going to save him from a four man dive. His teammates weren’t close enough to save him either. Crap.

Team Guangzhou’s Thresh flashed forward and Flayed Lin Feng’s Kalista backwards, then threw a Death Sentence that connected. From behind him, Tristana Rocket Jumped into the fight and on the far side Goalie’s Twisted Fate was running in with a Gold Card in his hand. They combined their crowd control skills well enough that Lin Feng couldn’t move at all, and he chose not to use Cleanse. He didn’t believe he could escape even if he did. The damage stacked up and before Team Guangzhou’s Irelia finished teleporting to the bot lane, Lin Feng’s Kalista died to Seo’s Tristana.

　《You have been slain.》

“WHAT A GANK!” Zephyr exclaimed into his microphone. He briefly paused, his full focus on the game, then added, “And it’s not over yet! Braum has arrived! He hits Twisted Fate with Winter’s Bite! Twisted Fate is slowed! Rumble finished his teleport! He’s using his Flamespitter! Are they going to get the return kill?”

Su Xue sat on the edge of her seat, nervous. She clutched her microphone with both hands and screamed, “Morgana is also coming down! Team Shanghai can turn this around! Twisted Fate took a couple of hits, they might kill him! The others know! Look, there! Tristana Rocket Jumped away and Thresh is running! Irelia is with them too! It’s just Twisted Fate in the back and he’s slowed by the Winter’s Bite from Braum!”

“Aah. But they’ve got Thresh,” Zephyr said. He clicked his tongue and continued, “He just has to throw— Yep, there, see? He just throws his lantern, Twisted Fate clicks it, and they’re gone. They got the kill and they got out. Beautiful gank. Like I said, beautiful.”

“WOOOO! GOALIE!”

“AAAAND HE SCORES!”

“Team Guangzhou looks like a different team… They look strong!”

“Goalie and Seo going to carry hard now!”

“Can’t believe how stupid Team Shanghai was to change their lineup…”

“Who even picks Morgana mid? Such a troll pick, lawl.”

The cheering for Team Guangzhou didn’t last long, especially not in the player seating area. Team Shanghai’s changes between the second and the third game were too significant. The other competing teams started arguing again that they’d never seen such an arrogant group of kids and that they were getting what they deserved; an assbeating.

Zuo Cheng looked around him at his fellow competitors and grimaced. He said to his teammates, “I want to tell them wrong! I know how good Lin Feng is and how good BunBun is and how good…” He shook his head and sighed. “Team Guangzhou is completely dictating the pace of the game at this point. They’re picking off players from Team Shanghai where they can and beyond that they’re just waiting for their Tristana to scale. This is going to become a very ugly game for Team Shanghai if things keep going…”

“Looks like it,” Sun Ruinian agreed. He took a long, deep breath and said, “Team Shanghai needs to be ready to counter Twisted Fate’s ultimate. They can’t just let him move around and do what he wants. If they still want to win, that’s what they need to do.”

✹

“We can’t drag this, guys. We can’t!” Zeng Rui said over the team’s voice chat, worried. He glanced at An Xin from the corners of his eyes, hiding the skepticism. She isn’t the thundering dumbass. She isn’t fucking Maple! And I don’t even think Maple can force a play here! How can he? It’s Morgana! She is the most passive thing ever! That’s why she’s a Support! She’s a Support! He breathed in and forced himself to calm down. BunBun said it’d be fine. She doesn’t look worried now, so why should I worry? Why am I worried? When have they ever let me down? Never! Right. But what do we do? What should I do? I’m the shot caller and I’m all out of ideas… I just don’t know. I don’t know… Shit I hate this feeling! I need to be in control! This isn’t control! This is… Dammit!

“The third Dragon is spawning in a minute,” Lin Feng said. He then scratched the back of his head and complained, “They keep focusing on me, so damn annoying. That’s why I don’t like playing ad-carry. It’s just too squishy and I can’t peel like I can with my Midlaners! But I should be good after the next fight. I just need a few more items. Just a little bit more, and then I’ll carry this game for you guys!”

Zeng Rui felt his eyelids twitch. Where does he always get his confidence from? Complaining one minute and then casually talking about carrying in the next! What is this ridiculousness? It’s stupid and it’s… it’s… He did get a penta last game. He looked across the long desk at his teammates. Lin Feng looked a more serious version of his usual cheerful self, Tang Bingyao was nodding and Zhang Hao was visibly trying to look happy. BunBun… What’s going on with you? He looked at her, searched her expression and posture for a tell, but came up empty. She looked like a blank slate. There was no frown or smile on her face, nor any tension in her shoulders. She looked calm, yet not relaxed. What’s going on in her head?

“Okay,” Zeng Rui said. “Dragon. Move. Ward. Let’s do our thing and fight for it.”

Zeng Rui didn’t need to say the words. Everyone was already moving, working together without needing him to tell them how to exactly move. He’d told them often enough; they knew what he wanted. He smiled when he saw it, then focused. He panned his camera and searched for Team Guangzhou’s players, and then he looked for openings they might abuse and how to counter them.

The Tianhe Stadium buzzed to life. The last few minutes of gameplay, aside from a gank on Lin Feng’s Kalista, had been rather dull. Nothing really happened because Team Guangzhou played it so defensively that it was impossible for anything to happen. But on the large LCD screen, all the fans and other competing teams could see the movements from both teams around the Dragon pit. Team Shanghai was throwing around their weight, getting in the wards they wanted. But Team Guangzhou was there too, searching for a way in.

Zhang Hongyi from Team Beijing grinned, laughed. Cried from joy. He said to his teammates, “Team Guangzhou’s already won this one! That’s what Team Shanghai gets for exploring the depths of their ass cavity to such an extent! Goalie’s fed, Seo’s getting there and that Morgana is more useless than my two year old cousin on Zed!”

✹

Goalie said over the team’s voice chat in broken Chinese, “Wait. Near Dragon.” He then turned to look at Seo and continued in Korean, “We’ll let them set up their vision. We’ve got my ult for our vision. And if they’re stupid enough to actually start Dragon, we’ll pile on them and win.”

Seo chuckled and replied, “Sounds good. Lee and Irelia can jump the backline and we can crush their frontline and then we’ll crush their hopes of making it to the next round and then we’ll crush their faces!”

“Good. Throw a Scrying Orb on the Dragon pit for me,” Goalie said over the team’s voice chat.

“Sure, sure,” Seo replied. He glanced down and placed a Scrying Orb on the Dragon pit, revealing the powerful monster and Braum and Jarvan IV from Team Shanghai. He shrugged and continued attacking the minions in the mid lane, saying, “Looks like they haven’t started yet.”

“Be ready. Soon now,” Goalie said.

Seo nodded and had his Tristana kill the last Red minion in the mid lane. He then clicked towards the Dragon pit. His Tristana walked through the brush below the mid lane into the river. He knew there were Champions from Team Shanghai near the Dragon pit, but he couldn’t see them right now. He scrunched his eyebrows. Shouldn’t one of them be in front of me? I don’t— His eyes shot open. SHIT! I need to ward the bru— His stomach dropped. A Dark Binding appeared from the brush to the left in front of him. SHIT-FUCK!

Zhang Hongyi leaned back in his chair and balanced it on two legs, smiling. He pointed at the large LCD screen above the stage and said to his teammates, “They’ve got Goalie and Seo and… whatever the fuck that Thresh is. It honestly feels like an insult to Seo that he’s expected to play together in the bot lane with such a useless Support.” He then glanced at his ad-carry and added, “If I ever play like that, please kick me off the team.”

“I don’t know…” Yu Ping muttered. He stared at the large LCD through narrowed eyes. That Kalista… Lin Feng. He is so much better than everyone else I’ve seen in this tournament. He… He’s a challenge. He’ll make me try. He smiled and took a long, deep breath. “That Thresh engage wasn’t bad,” he said to his teammates. He shook his head and continued, “What that Kalista did was just really impressive. Dodging that Death Sentence? That requires incredibly quick reflexes and extremely sharp mechanics. Pay attention to him.”

The coach from Team Beijing looked at his team members and smiled, satisfied. I’ve been trying to make them see this since the start. I’ve been telling them to be careful about Team Shanghai! But they never respected my opinion. They kept saying that I worried too much and that they could win with their eyes closed… He chuckled. I feel like I should be mad or annoyed or something else than happy. But I’m just glad that Yu Ping makes them take Team Shanghai seriously now. Hmm, we’re really lucky we didn’t draw them this round. That would’ve been ugly.

✹

There was such an intense burst of rage that exploded in Seo’s head when Lee Sin died that he couldn’t think anymore. Words spewed from his mouth in Korean, English and broken Chinese, but he hadn’t the faintest clue as to what they were. He’d completely lost control over his body, stuck within the darkness in his mind. Then that darkness blazed with light. He squinted his eyes in reflex and looked for the source. A single head. A fresh out of bed look. An angry grin. What followed were the words that kept haunting him. They echoed through his mind and with each repetition, another identical head appeared in his mind.

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

“No one will remember your face!”

Seo screamed in fear. There were a hundred Lin Feng’s in his mind, pointing at him with their illusory hands and repeating those same words over and over and over. “No one will remember your face!” “No one will remember your face!” Seo shouted in defiance, “YOU’RE LYING! THEY WILL REMEMBER ME! THEY WILL RECOGNIZE MY FACE!”

“Seo… Seo… Seo!” 

Seo faintly heard someone calling his name in the distance. He grabbed his head and shook it wildly. He then looked around at where he was, until he met Goalie’s worried stare. “Huh?” he mumbled.

“Seo,” Goalie said again over the team’s voice chat. He looked at his teammate and asked, “Are you okay?”

✹

“Zeng Rui, wanna help me kill Goalie?” An Xin asked over the team’s voice chat.

Zeng Rui looked at the mid lane and replied, “Yeah. I’ll be there in a bit.”

An Xin smiled and waited for the expected push from Twisted Fate. Before players recalled back to base, they liked to kill as many minions as they could so as to minimize the number they’d miss out on while away from lane. And having just hit Level 6, this was also the optimal time for Twisted Fate to start disappearing from the mid lane, whether that be to recall back to base or to roam around the map and use his ultimate skill to teleport to the top or bot lane for a gank. All he had to do was mix it up a bit and force Team Shanghai to keep guessing at what he was doing.

At 6 minutes, Goalie’s Twisted Fate started pushing the minions. Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV was sitting in the brush above the lane, waiting for the ‘go’-signal from An Xin. That came a few seconds later when An Xin flashed forward and cast her ultimate skill–Chains of Agony! Morgana fired dark crimson chains at Twisted Fate! They wrapped around him and slowed.

“Now!” An Xin ordered over the team’s voice chat.

Zeng Rui’s fingers started gliding over his keyboard. His Jarvan IV threw down his standard behind Twisted Fate and dashed at it with Dragon Strike! He barreled through Twisted Fate and knocked him up, which gave Morgana enough time to pull the chains tight and stun Twisted Fate!

An Xin’s Morgana called upon her Celestial power to torment the soil underneath Twisted Fate. She followed up with a barrage of auto attacks; wisps of dark magic that struck Twisted Fate. All the while she was holding onto her Dark Binding, waiting for the stun from Chains of Agony to wear off. Right before it did, she cast the Dark Binding and extended the crowd control. Combined with Jarvan IV’s auto attacks, she killed Twisted Fate before this root could wear off.

《You have slain an enemy!》

“WOOOOOOOO! SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT!” Su Xue exclaimed into her microphone. She turned her head to look at Zephyr and continued, “Did you see? Did you see? She did it! She killed him! What a beautiful engage! She flashed right into him and stunned him and there was nothing he could do about it! SHE KILLED HIM!”

Zephyr looked at Su Xue and chuckled. Man, I love her energy! He then reached for his microphone and shouted, “WOOOOOOO indeed! What a brilliant engage by Team Shanghai’s Jungler-turned-Midlaner! The ultimate into the Dark Binding was timed perfectly! And then there was the flag-toss combo from Jarvan… That was executed so perfectly!”

“She’s so cool!”

“She destroyed Goalie! Hahaha!”

“WOOOOO!”

“SIIIIIKE!”

“Holy cowerina! How is Team Shanghai this good!?”

✹

Goalie looked around the soundproof booth at his teammates. Seo was grumbling and the three Chinese players were caught in an awkward silence. He stared at his screen and gritted his teeth. Seo and I are supposed to be the leaders. But he’s tilting off the face of the Earth and I’m… I’m struggling. We’re almost out! I have to do something. I’ve got my ultimate now, so I can do something. He panned his camera towards the bot lane. Seo needs to get back into this. If we can get a good gank there and get some kills… He nodded to himself and said over the team’s voice chat, “Gank bot. Irelia teleport with me behind tower. Lee Sin gank lane.”

At 9 minutes, Team Guangzhou was ready. Lee Sin had snuck into the third of three brushes along the bottom edge of the bot lane and Seo’s Tristana and his Support were pushing into Team Shanghai’s outer tower, forcing Lin Feng’s Kalista and Tang Bingyao’s Braum to defend. More importantly, Team Guangzhou’s Thresh had snuck a ward into Team Shanghai’s bottom side Jungle which gave Irelia a target to teleport to.

Goalie double checked to make sure everything was ready. When he saw Zeng Rui’s Jarvan run over a ward in the top side river, he made the call. “Gank!” He then activated his ultimate skill–Destiny! Eyes blazed to life above the five Champions from Team Shanghai, revealing them. They were all exactly where Goalie expected them to be. He followed up with the second part of his ultimate–Gate! Cards spread below his feet and opened a portal to the brush behind Team Shanghai’s outer tower in the bot lane.

“It’s a 5 man gank bot! A 5 man gank bot!” Zephyr shouted into his microphone. “Irelia is teleporting! Look! And Goalie is going in and Lee was already there waiting!”

Su Xue nodded, casting a worried glance into Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth. Come on, Lin Feng! Do something! Outplay them! She then leaned towards her microphone and said, “This looks bad for Team Shanghai. Looks like Team Guangzhou is going to pick up a double!”

There was no hesitation from Lin Feng when he saw what was happening. He pressed the R key to activate Fate’s Call. Tang Bingyao’s Braum transformed into soul form and flowed into Kalista’s body. Lin Feng then said over the team’s voice chat, “Tristana! Tang Tang, Tristana!”

“Mhm!” Tang Bingyao replied, nodding. She then launched her Braum towards Thresh and Tristana and barreled into them! The sheer force knocked the two Champions from Team Guangzhou up into the air! Tang Bingyao used this moment of crowd control to activate her ultimate skill–Glacial Fissure! Her Braum jumped into the air and raised his shield above his head, gathering all his strength, before slamming it down into the ground! A fissure tore open and freezing coldness spewed out, knocking Thresh and Tristana higher up into the air!

Lin Feng’s Kalista hurled an empowered spear at Seo’s Tristana with Pierce, using the lunge to close the distance. He followed up with an auto attack and then another. Tristana and Thresh landed back on the ground and Thresh threw a Death Sentence at him, but he saw it coming. Lunging back and forth he dodged it. But he couldn’t dodge the knock back from Tristana’s Buster Shot. The large cannonball sent him flying back towards his outer tower, from where Goalie’s Twisted Fate and Team Guangzhou’s Irelia were coming.

Goalie’s Twisted Fate wielded a Gold Card, which was a single target stun. When Lin Feng’s Kalista was finally in range he threw it at her and stunned her! He then shouted over the team’s voice chat, “Kalista! Kalista! Focus!”

Seo grinned. Spears were sticking out from his Tristana, but he was alive. I’ll make sure no one remembers your face! Stupid beggar ugly face! He activated Rocket Jump! His Tristana aimed her cannon towards the ground and fired, launching herself towards Lin Feng’s Kalista. Some splash damage and an Explosive Charge and you’re gonna be dead–

Each player could bring two Summoner Spells with them. Most ad-carries went with Flash and Heal, but in this game Lin Feng had opted for Flash and Cleanse. When the Gold Card stunned him and Tristana jumped at him, he grinned and activated Cleanse. Every bit of crowd control affecting him broke. He threw a spear at the flying Tristana and used the lunge to get away from Irelia and Twisted Fate.

Seo’s eyes grew wide and round. There was a large number of spears lodged into his Tristana, and that number was growing. Lin Feng’s Kalista wasn’t stunned, like she was a moment ago. His low risk Rocket Jump suddenly became high risk. He looked down at his skill bar but found Flash on cooldown, as well as Heal. FuckFuckFUCK! He shouted over the team’s voice chat, “Help! Something do! GOALIE!” But there wasn’t any time to do anything. Kalista clenched her fist and pulled on the telekinetic link she had to her spears. They tore out from Tristana’s body and dealt massive damage!

《An ally has been slain!》

Goalie pursed his lips tightly together and felt his heart leap. “Focus Kalista!” he repeated over the team’s voice chat again. He threw a volley of Wild Cards which struck both Braum and Kalista. His teammates followed up on him and used their skills to attack Lin Feng’s Kalista. But Goalie couldn’t get himself to focus. He knew the gank was over and he knew that Team Shanghai’s ad-carry knew as much. He went full for Seo. The one guy who needed the kills more than anyone. That dog went for Seo and got him! Dammit! This is bad! This is really bad! Seo needed this kill for his confidence! Now… He glanced at Seo who sat to his left. I hope he can keep his mind in it.

《You have slain an enemy!》

《Double kill!》

“Wooooo Team… Shanghai!” Zephyr shouted into his microphone. He shook his head and continued, “Team Guangzhou got the double kill there, and both kills went to Goalie. But in that 5 man gank, Team Shanghai’s ad-carry somehow picked up a kill. That alone means they won that gank in my books!”

“And look at mid and bot!” Su Xue chimed in. She pointed at her screen and said, “See when Team Guangzhou pushed bot? Well, Team Shanghai’s Jungler went top and helped the Rumble push and Morgana in the mid has also been pushing. They didn’t get a tower, but they got close to getting a tower!”

Zephyr nodded and said into his microphone, “Yeah, yeah! But if we look at that… Well, look at bot. Team Guangzhou just destroyed the outer tower and now it’s looking like they’re going to take the Dragon! That’s quite valuable…–”

“Ah, what’s a tower and Dragon? That’s nothing!” Su Xue countered. She then frowned and added, “But Team Guangzhou did get a lot from that gank, even if they lost their ad-carry in the process. Team Shanghai needs to do something back.”

✹

“Wowie! Talk about overkill…” Lin Feng muttered. He turned his head to look at Tang Bingyao and asked over the team’s voice chat, “I wonder what we did to make them so angry. Do you know, Tang Tang?”

“Mnh-Mnh,” Tang Bingyao replied, shaking her head, smiling.

“What?” Zeng Rui blurted. He turned his head to look at Lin Feng and asked, “Really? You don’t know what you did? Maybe it’s because you pushed so hard on bot that you forced them to do something! And now we lost Dragon… If you hadn’t pushed them this hard, they would’ve focused somewhere else instead of trying to hard-force this in bot…”

An Xin shrugged and said over the team’s voice chat, “It’s just a little setback and we really didn’t lose all that much. Better yet, they played their hand. We now know what to look out for next time and, much more importantly, this combination of skills is on cooldown for the next 5 minutes! So let’s abuse that as much as we can!”

“On it!” Lin Feng replied, laughing. He then turned to look at Tang Bingyao and asked, “Ready to get some kills? Full aggro mode!”

Tang Bingyao smiled and said, “Mhm! Full aggro mode!”

Zeng Rui glanced at his teammates and slowly nodded. There isn’t much Lin Feng can do. He’s just a Kalista. He can’t roam like a Jungler can, nor can he track major skill and spell cooldowns like I can. I’ve trained all my life for this! For this moment! He focused on the portraits from Team Guangzhou’s Champions and wrote a list in his mind, denoting their skill and spell cooldowns and how he could abuse that the most. BunBun was right! I can apply the skills I learned from Supporting in the Jungle! I just have to do it!

✹

At 11 minutes Zeng Rui had his Jarvan IV sneak into Blue team’s bottom side Jungle. He walked past the backside of the Dragon pit towards the bot lane, where Team Guangzhou’s Thresh and Tristana were fighting against Tang Bingyao’s Braum and Lin Feng’s Kalista in the middle of the lane. They spotted him when he walked into the tri-brush at the edge of the lane and started retreating, but he knew it was already too late. More specifically, Thresh didn’t have skills available to escape.

“Trist has Rocket Jump; focus Thresh!” Zeng Rui ordered over the team’s voice chat.

“Yes!” Tang Bingyao replied, having her Braum jump in front of Lin Feng’s Kalista with Stand Behind Me and then following up with Winter’s Bite! Braum propelled freezing ice from his shield and slowed Thresh!

Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV ran into the lane and then dashed at Team Guangzhou’s Thresh with his flag-toss combo. He glanced at Seo’s Tristana and confirmed that she Rocket Jumped away right away, leaving Thresh behind to die. As expected. Now to let Lin Feng pick up the kill. But that won’t be hard…

Lin Feng’s Kalista flung spears at Team Guangzhou’s Thresh that remained lodged in his body. When his health bar fell down to dangerous levels and there were a dozen spears lodged in his body, she cast Rend! The spears were torn out by a swift pull on the telekinetic link she had with them and dealt massive damage!

《You have slain an enemy!》

“Wooooo! WIN FENG!” Su Xue exclaimed. She smiled and added, “That was such a great combination of skills again! Those three from Team Shanghai know exactly how to play together! It’s like they’ve been playing with each other for years!”

Zephyr nodded and said into his microphone, “Yeah, you’re right. They are great together! Also, want to know something else? While we were all looking at the fight in bot, Lee Sin tried to gank mid again! And he failed again too! How many fails is that now? He forced Morgana to blow her Flash, I guess that’s something. But this Lee Sin really, really, needs to step up his ganking game.”

Zhang Hongyi from Team Beijing sat in the player seating area, shaking his head in frustration. He muttered, “I can’t believe this… How stupid is Team Guangzhou? How can they get such a shitty Support and also such a terrible Jungler? This is such an easy win for them if their Support and Jungler were even half decent…”

✹

Goalie bit on his lips and narrowed his eyes. This is insanity! How can I not find any openings? She’s playing this matchup so perfectly! It’s so… so much like back… He shook his head. I’m only going to waste my time worrying about her and her stupid perfect game. My ult is coming off cooldown in a few. I’ll just gank… He glanced around the map and spotted Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV walking through a ward towards the top lane. Oh, ganking top? Let’s turn that around. He smiled and fell back just enough to drop away into the fog of war for Team Shanghai. He then ran up into the Jungle and stopped behind the Blue Buff Camp.

At 14 minutes, Zeng Rui ran into the top lane, which was pushed towards the Blue outer tower, and dashed at Team Guangzhou’s Irelia with his flag-toss combo! Zhang Hao’s Rumble followed right behind Zeng Rui, casting his ultimate skill in sync with Zeng Rui’s ultimate! The damage stacked up and killed Irelia before Goalie could respond.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Goalie smiled. They’ve used all their skills. Such overkill! But that’s perfect. He glanced at Lee Sin who ran into the lane and engaged the Jarvan IV and Rumble. And now they’re staying to fight. Brilliant! How did we ever lose a game to them…? He activated his ultimate skill–Destiny! The map was revealed to him, but he ignored that as he activated the second part of his ultimate–Gate! Cards spread beneath his feet and formed a portal that carried him into the top lane!

Goalie’s Twisted Fate was holding a Gold Card when he arrived in the top lane. He threw it at Rumble and stunned him! He followed up with a volley of Wild Cards that cut through Rumble and Jarvan IV! Lee Sin supported him, using his ultimate to roundhouse kick Rumble into Jarvan IV and knocking both of them up. That bought Goalie the few seconds he needed to cycle through his skills and deal damage. Enough damage to kill Rumble.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Zeng Rui’s Jarvan IV was caught in the middle of the top lane without any skills available. He’d used all of them to kill Team Guangzhou’s Irelia. He looked at the Lee Sin and Twisted Fate and grimaced. They were attacking him and he was trying to get away, but he knew there was no escaping this. “Sorry, guys,” he said over the team’s voice chat. “This one’s on me.”

《Double kill!》