Chapter 59: Outsmarted
The second game of the esports club tryouts had started. Ren Rou, Ouyang, and Yang Fan huddled together around a screen to watch. Though there were 10 players, 5 on each team, they weren’t really interested in watching all of them. Their eyes were locked on mid lane, taking in everything that was going down there.
“Oh damn! You guys seeing this? It's starting to feel like Lin Feng is beating Luo Tianming...?” Ouyang half-muttered.
Ren Rou nodded. “You’re right. If Orianna keeps taking hits like that, she’ll have to go back to base or give LeBlanc the kill. Was Lin Feng always this good in mid?”
“I figured it out! Whole thing finally came together. Listen, that fucker Luo Tianming probably got his account boosted! I’ll even bet on it. I mean, sure, Tang Tang is really good. I can see how he’d lose to her. But this… what is this? The fucker’s playing like a Silver! If that’s a Diamond 3, then I could be one too!” Ouyang exclaimed.
Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and looked at the screen again. He shook his head, disagreeing with Ouyang’s analysis. “Sorry man. But if you were in his shoes, you would probably look like the worst League player in all of history. Watch the game more closely. There! See how Orianna is going for CS? And right there! Look at how she’s trying to get some poke in. You see that? Luo Tianming isn’t playing poorly at all…it's just that Lin Feng is playing really, really well. Absurdly well.”
It took quite a bit of experience and understanding of the game to fully understand what was happening in mid lane during this game. Yang Fan was Platinum ranked, he could see beyond the hype and spectacle. He could see that Luo Tianming wasn’t making too many mistakes. Every last hit was well-timed and solid. Every poke was planned out and designed to deal maximum damage while taking very little back in return. Luo Tianming was not bad at the game at all. He was better than most people.
The reality of the game was that Lin Feng played better. Not a little bit better. Significantly better. In every aspect and facet of the game, Lin Feng outplayed Luo Tianming by a considerable margin. From the moment the game started, the Orianna never stood a chance. Lin Feng used his LeBlanc to clear minion waves with the splash damage from Distortion, while also positioning to let the splash damage deal poke to the Orianna. Once Lin Feng hit Level 2 and learned Sigil of Malice, the situation went from bad to worse for the Orianna. Yang Fan’s eyes had a peculiar gleam to them as he stared at Lin Feng’s back. Was he telling us the truth this whole time? Is he really a Challenger…?
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Luo Tianming knew he had to do something. This LeBlanc was far better than he expected. She was quickly taking control of the lane. He could feel his scalp tingling from apprehension. SHIT! I can’t lose another one! But there wasn’t anything he could do. Every time he tried to last hit a minion for the gold and experience, the LeBlanc would already be there, lying in wait. The second his Orianna walked into the LeBlanc’s attack radius, she would jump out and hit him with her entire combo for a ton of damage before jumping back out. He tried to counter using Orianna’s Ball, but the LeBlanc was just too damn fast. And LeBlanc’s skills could chain together faster than Orianna’s Ball could move. If the game kept going this way and at this rate, his Orianna’s health would continue to plunge until he was forced out of lane and back to base.