Much of Summoner’s Rift was covered in a thick, dark fog. Team Shanghai only had vision around their own structures, minions, wards, and champions. But none of them were inside Shanghai University of Finance’s Jungle. They had no clue where Huang Yang’s Jarvan IV was going to appear next. But similarly, Shanghai University of Finance’s team had no vision on An Xin’s Sejuani either. Both teams were in the dark. Both Junglers were setting up the same gank. And the only ones who knew were the people in the university’s clubroom watching the game on the large LCD screen.

The students at the Shanghai University of Finance started to worry. Their team was facing a high school team, which should’ve been an easy win. But the start of the game was anything but easy. Team Shanghai was pulling ahead, especially in the mid lane. And now Luo Yu was looking to do something about that. But little did he know that he was walking right into a trap!

“Back! BACK! RETREAT! GO BACK! DON’T GO IN, LUO YU!”
“Luo Yu knows something is up, right? Tell me, he knows, right?”
“Are we really going to give away first blood? Please tell me they’re baiting the high schoolers!”
“ShitShitShit! This is bad! Seju and Yasuo are way stronger right now! SHIT!”
“LUO YU! WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT! BE CAREFUL!”

✹

Lin Feng had carefully kept the minion wave frozen on his half of the mid lane. His eyes drifted to the minimap every few seconds, scanning for signs of Jarvan IV and to see what was happening in the other lanes. That was also how he noticed that An Xin was pathing towards the mid lane. His eyes narrowed. Let’s set up a gank opportunity for her. He had his Yasuo stab out with his katana, piercing through two low health minions and killing them! A storm started brewing around Yasuo’s katana. If he hit enemies twice in a row with Steel Tempest, a storm would gather around his katana, allowing him to unleash a tornado onto the Rift.

Luo Yu grinned. Good. Killing two minions with your Steel Tempest. You finally made a mistake. About time. He glanced at his minimap and saw that Huang Yang’s Jarvan IV was coming to the mid lane for a gank. Huang Yang always knows just when to gank. This is good! I’ll go up a bit and pretend to last hit that caster minion in the back. That should be believable enough, yeah? He clicked on the caster minion and his Twisted Fate walked forward.

Huang Yang’s Jarvan IV arrived in the brush right above the mid lane. He moved to the edge of the brush closest to Team Shanghai’s side of the map, and then he waited for the Yasuo to move a little more forward. Come on. Go for that minion. Be an idiot. He said over the team’s voice chat, “Typical high schoolers. Don’t even know how to ward. Let’s punish him for that.” He laughed, still waiting. A little more… Just a bit… He slammed down on his E key and then his Q. Jarvan IV threw his standard down on top of Lin Feng’s Yasuo, then dashed towards it with Dragon Strike!

Lin Feng didn’t panic when the flag came down on him. He didn’t think. He moved. Sweeping Blade! His Yasuo dashed through a nearby minion, avoiding the knock up from Jarvan IV, and then he dashed again toward Twisted Fate! There he stepped to the side, dodging Twisted Fate’s Wild Cards before they were even thrown, and stabbed out with Steel Tempest! The katana piercedTwisted Fate as a storm gathered around the blade.

Huang Yang cursed over the team’s voice chat as he chased after Yasuo. But with his gap closer on cooldown, he needed a few seconds to catch up. Luo Yu, on the other hand, wanted to open a gap with Yasuo. But he couldn’t. Twisted Fate didn’t have any mobility skills, except for Flash which he wanted to save for later. So he threw an auto attack at Yasuo as he kited back towards his outer tower.

Lin Feng shouted over Team Shanghai’s voice chat, “BunBun! TF! TF!”

“I know!” An Xin replied. She charged up the river into the mid lane. Twisted Fate was still a good distance away from her. And he was about to step inside the range of his outer tower. So she activated Arctic Assault! Sejuani charged forward, then disappeared with a mottled flash of light. She carried her momentum with her as she reappeared right on top of  Twisted Fate, knocking him up into the air!

“Oh shit! What the—”
“Woooooo—”
“Dang! Ho—”
“Bloody sweet bej—”

Lin Feng landed an auto attack on Twisted Fate, the storm still brewing around his katana. Then he cast Ignite. An unquenchable flame burned on Twisted Fate’s body, damaging him over time and more importantly reducing the effects of heals!

Luo Yu had brought the Summoner Spells Heal and Flash to the game. He had cast Heal the moment he got Ignited, greatly reducing its effect. Shit! Should’ve used it earlier! It felt like an eternity had passed before his Twisted Fate finally landed back on solid ground. FLASH! Twisted Fate blinked towards his outer tower, arriving almost underneath it, and activated Pick a Card. Three cards appeared above his head. From left to right they were blue, red and gold. The blue lit up shortly before going dull. Then the red card lit up.

Lin Feng’s finger was already hovering over his D key. He’d been in similar situations often enough to know how to play this. He flashed after the Twisted Fate and then activated Steel Tempest. Yasuo swept his blade out, unleashing the storm it contained. A tornado blew through the Rift, slamming into Twisted Fate and knocking him up into the air!

The red card dimmed above Twisted Fate’s head and the gold card lit up. Luo Yu slammed down on his W key, his Twisted Fate still Airborne, and selected the Gold Card! Throw the card! Stun him! Twisted Fate landed back on the ground. And with a flick of the wrist, he threw the Gold Card at Yasuo.

Lin Feng’s Yasuo wielded the air itself. He slashed out with his blade, conjuring up a wall of wind that blocked every projectile! Twisted Fate’s Gold Card smashed into it and disintegrated! Yasuo then struck out with Steel Tempest and an auto attack.

《First Blood!》

“Oh my god… What…”
“Did he just? Huh…”
“Damn that was good! These high schoolers, dude! Fucking crazy!”
“DAYUM! Sick play!”
“Wut? What just happened? How did he get the kill?”

Luo Yu stared at his grey screen, speechless. The Yasuo was still at full health when he dove the tower, so the energy shots had no chance of killing him. He walked away at half health. Then Luo Yu noticed Huang Yang was still chasing Yasuo. His eyes went wide and he shouted over the team’s voice chat, “Back off, Huang Yang! The Sejuani is still there! They’ll kill you!”

Huang Yang gnashed his teeth and said, “I know.” He still chased after Yasuo for a few more steps, but then stopped himself. He wasn’t suicidal, or a bad player. He was just very upset. He cursed over the team’s voice chat, “Shit! How did they get so lucky ?We can’t let them get away with this!”

Luo Yu shook his head and smiled bitterly. Should’ve seen that coming. He played so well and then suddenly hit two minions with Steel Tempest. It was such a small ‘mistake’. He took a deep breath. That wasn’t luck, Huang Yang. He knew what he was doing. And exhaled. They planned it and executed it perfectly. I gave away first blood because I didn’t think he was baiting me. I underestimated him. But I won’t make that mistake twice! He focused back on his monitor as vibrant colours filled his screen once more. I have to win this.

✹

First blood happened in just under four minutes. The game quickly broke open. Shanghai University of Finance’s team was desperate to get a kill back. Huang Yang scanned across the map. Bot lane is pushing too far and the Alistar can just Headbutt me away. That’s a waste of time. He looked at the top lane. Rumble and Fiora were fighting each other in the middle of the lane. I just have to knock that stupid kid up. He probably doesn’t know how to ward either. He ran up the river and found that Team Shanghai’s Rumble had indeed not warded the river entrance to the top lane. He flag-tossed onto the Rumble and knocked him up. Then he helped the Fiora pick up the kill. “That’s it!” he shouted over the team’s voice chat. “Show those little snots what we’re all abou—”

《An ally has been slain!》

An Xin’s Sejuani had gone down to the bot lane after helping Lin Feng pick up the kill on Twisted Fate. There she helped Tang Bingyao’s Kalista kill the opposing Morgana, while also forcing Tristana to Heal, Flash and Rocket Jump away.

 “Did you guys not ward? How’d you die from that gank? You knew Sejuani was just mid!! Now they’re one kill ahead again!?” Huang Yang said in frustration.

Xie Qing pursed his lips and shook his head. He took a deep breath and said, “They’re not playing like high schoolers.” He stared at his monitor and waited for colour to return to the screen. They’re outplaying us. That girl, the Kalista, she’s more than 10 minions ahead of Qiu Le. And we can’t touch her. That Alistar is always there protecting her. What are we supposed to do when I can’t even hit a Dark Binding on her? 

“They. Are. Little. KIDS!” Huang Yang shouted into his microphone. “We can’t lose to them! We just can’t!”

Qiu Le stared at his screen in shock, not even registering what Huang Yang was saying. He was just staring at Tang Bingyao’s Kalista. The way she was moving around, constantly repositioning herself. The way she was always just in range to last hit a minion, while also staying out of range for him to land poke damage. The way she knew exactly how much damage she could do without taking a risk, and then backing away. Shit. ShitShitShit! I shouldn’t have been so cocky. It doesn’t matter whether she’s a guy or girl! She’s a really good ad-carry. And she’s outplaying me! I’m getting outplayed. I’m getting fucking outplayed by a girl! She’s fucking good! Damnit!

✹

Luo Yu’s Twisted Fate hit Level 6 seven minutes into the game. He unlocked his ultimate, and grimaced. I need to have space to use my ultimate. It’s useless to activate it when I’m being pushed into my tower. And I can’t walk forward or th—

An Xin’s Sejuani suddenly appeared next to Twisted Fate. She’d flashed over the Jungle wall right underneath Shanghai University of Finance’s outer tower. Then she charged into the Twisted Fate with Arctic Assault, knocking him Airborne.

Lin Feng had watched An Xin approach the mid lane through the Red Team’s Jungle. His mouse was already hovering over Twisted Fate and he was just waiting to activate his ultimate skill. LAAAAST BREATH! Yasuo dashed to Twisted Fate and suspended him in midair, unleashing a series of strikes. Then he hacked down on Twisted Fate, slamming him back to the ground. He followed up by Igniting Twisted Fate, and throwing out a Wind Wall. The wall of air appeared just in time to block an oncoming Gold Card. It came, just as he’d expected. He smiled and had his Yasuo land one more Steel Tempest and auto attack before leaving the outer tower’s attack range.  That should be eno—

《You have slain an enemy!》

Luo Yu stared at his grey screen, stunned. A-again? He blocked my Gold Card twice now! How are his reflexes that fast? Did he know I was going to do it? But even if he did, he shouldn’t have been able to react. There wasn’t enough time! Unless he knew it was coming before the fight even started! Before I even knew where the Sejuani even was… He stared at Yasuo who was back to farming minions in the mid lane. Did I really just underestimate him again after telling myself not to…?

✹

Shanghai University of Finance had completely lost the mid lane. Luo Yu recognized it and told Huang Yang to focus on the other two lanes. There was no point in ganking the Rumble, since Fiora was beating him already. So Huang Yang turned his attention to the bot lane. He did his best to evade the wards as he made his way down through the river.

Zeng Rui was a really skilled and talented Support. His friends sometimes compared him to Autumn from the North American team Season, and he agreed with their reasoning. Just like Autumn, he approached the game from a methodical point of view. There was nothing he liked more than to see a carefully planned plan being perfectly executed. Part of this was placing his wards in the right spots at the right times. His careful attention to detail paid off right now as he spotted Huang Yang’s Jarvan IV passing by the outer edge of a ward he’d placed high up in the bottom side river. He nodded to Tang Bingyao and said over the team’s voice chat, “Careful, J4 is coming.”

“Mhm, I see,” Tang Bingyao replied. But she didn’t back away. She stared at her minimap, at the place where they’d just caught vision of Jarvan IV. He’s that annoying jerk from before! The one who made fun of us for being girls and high schoolers. She narrowed her eyes and licked her lips. We’re ahead right now. Let’s teach him a lesson. Mhm!