Rise

“Fate is pushing down mid lane! Will they finish the game right here?”“Only two more Nexus towers standing! Gold really has to fight now, or it’ll be too late!”“They’re going in! They’re going in!”“WAAAAAAA! DOUBLE KILL! MOON DOUBLE KILL!”“Oh my lord, it’s an ace! Fate has aced Gold! This is the game! This is the game!”

The last game of Day 1 of the Season 5 Worlds featured Korea’s Fate versus Europe’s Gold. Moon showcased why he was an Emperor in this game. He single-handedly carried his team to a win. No other tower fell, only those in mid lane. He pushed from the early game and just kept on pushing. The rest of his team came to help when they realized what was going on. They were just too strong, completely outclassing Gold. When Gold’s Nexus was destroyed, the players from Fate jumped up from their gaming chairs and started cheering!

Day 1 of Worlds came to an end. Six games were played and everyone had a better idea where their teams ranked in the world. The Korean and European fans had a lot to be happy about. Fate and Legend both secured two wins in their groups. It once again showed how strong a team with one of the Four Emperors was. If their opponent didn’t also have an Emperor, they were next to unstoppable! On the other hand, the Chinese fans had mixed feelings about this first day. They wanted to celebrate HoG’s victory over COG, but the disastrous performance of KG overshadowed it. KG had brought shame to the LPL.

KG had put up a poor performance against Legend, but that was only a poor performance. It wasn’t the end of the world. What was the tipping point for the Chinese fans was the game against the wildcard team. For the first time in five years of Worlds, a Chinese team was forced to drag out a game against a wildcard team until the 40th minute before, mostly due to luck, mounting a comeback and winning the game. KG had set multiple records today. Records for disgracing their region! The Chinese League of Legends community didn’t have a good word to say about KG.

✹

In a private booth in the NetCow Cafe, High School 13’s esports team was sitting in silence. They were all kind of staring at the screen, but not really watching what was going on. The results from Day 1 Worlds were nothing like they’d expected. Their hype was crushed. It was shattered! There was nothing left of their hopes for this year’s Worlds. KG had made sure of that!

“GODDAMNIT!” Ouyang slammed his fist on the table. “This was a fucking disgrace! How could they do this to us? Fuck it! I need to play. Who’s with me? Let’s get some ranked games in to forget about this shit!”

“Damn right,” Liu Yue agreed. “Let’s hop into some duo queue and kick some asses!”

“Sounds good, I’m in,” Yang Fan said, in his anger forgetting to adjust his glasses.