Rise

Top Riven? What the hell… The Toplaner for Tonji Affiliated High looked over his screen at the players from High School 13. He didn’t get a great look at their Toplaner’s face, but he had a hunch as to who it was. It was the guy who’d played mid lane against High School 7 and beat their Master Midlaner! From there, it was easy to guess High School 13’s plan. They were singling him out. He was the lowest rank, so they considered him the weakest link. He was the easy player to get fed on. He sneered. You think I’m that easy? We’ll see about that…

The Toplaner from Tonji Affiliated High was the mechanically worst player on the team. That was true. But just because he wasn’t the best in one aspect of the game, that didn’t make him the worst player on the team. Nor did he believe he was the worst player on the team. As for this game, he could prove that by not feeding High School 13’s Toplaner. He would take a safe pick in Darius and play his lane defensively, overly so. As long as he made sure he didn’t give away any early game kills, High School 13’s plan would go up in smoke. Then once the laning phase came to an end and they started teamfighting, he would show everyone just how good he was at the game!

✹

An audible gasp sounded through the Wembley Arena when Roundy Round locked in Riven. Riven was an offensive Toplaner. Players picked her when they planned to win the lane. This was a Champion with which you’d get fed with early on in the game and carry your team. Legend was the Emperor team. They had the more skilled players. So no one expected this coming out of KG. They’d expected a safe pick, something tanky and strong in the current meta.

The Chinese casters didn’t know what to think of this pick. They wanted to be excited, but they were also worried. This was a big risk KG was taking! Stone was the first to open his mouth. He wanted to say something interesting, but failed to find the words for that. All he said was, “God Roundy pulled out the top Riven!”

Qinghe looked at the two guest commentators and asked, “What do you guys think? Is he planning to jump in and try to snowball?” Stone and Lolo looked at him, but neither said a word. They didn’t know the answer. It sure looked like Roundy Round was planning that. But this was Legend they were playing against! Qinghe turned to the camera and grinned, “A bold choice, I’ll say that! KG is risking it all! But if they can get the Riven ahead in the early game, then who knows… Maybe they can actually win the game!”

On the main stage, the players from Legend looked at Phoenix. They didn’t expect to see this pick coming out of KG and wanted to know if this would change the way they were going to play this game. Phoenix nodded at his screen, at the Riven pick. He felt the gazes of his teammates on him and could hear them asking him for his plan over voice chat, but he kept staring at his screen. Interesting… This could be fun. He then turned to Demon and said, “Alright, let’s change the plan up a little. Scrap the lane swap, we’re doing normal lanes this game. Demon, just play it safe. Don’t give him a kill and we’ll get an easy win.”

“Sure, no problem,” Demon replied. He bit on the inside of his cheek as he looked at the Riven in the loading screen. Should be easy enough. He knew how poorly Roundy Round played last week, but he’d also seen how good Roundy Round had played last game. They were like two different players. If the first one showed up, it was an easy win. And if the second one showed up, it should still be relatively easy. He trusted in his own skills. Even if he didn’t outright win the lane, he was confident he could keep the Riven from snowballing in the early game.

✹