Rise

The Syndra pushed into the Orianna. She conjured a Dark Sphere, dealing magic damage and forcing the Orianna further back. Then she grabbed a minion and lifted it up with her mind before throwing it down onto the Orianna. The Orianna was slowed. Her health was dropping. She tried to dodge and weave, anything to escape the Syndra. Then the Syndra cast Scatter the Weak. She knocked back a Dark Sphere that hit the Orianna, stunning her. The Syndra followed up with another Dark Sphere before casting her ultimate skill–Unleashed power! All the Dark Spheres on the ground and the three that floated around her bombarded the Orianna. And killed her.

《You have been slain!》

Yang Fan stared at his screen. The game was 9 minutes in. Tonji Affiliated High’s Midlaner had just killed him. He’d tried to outplay her, and when that didn’t work, escape. But she’d killed him. His screen was grey. He took his glasses off and started cleaning them on his shirt, annoyed. He’d given away a solo kill. The one thing he shouldn’t have done, he did. I shouldn’t have gone that far out into lane. I should’ve backed sooner. I knew she had her ultimate. That was stupid of me. I could’ve evaded that whole situation.

《An ally has been slain!》

Yang Fan was pulled out of his thoughts and looked to his side, where Tang Bingyao sat. She was biting on her lips and glowering at the screen. He hadn’t seen what’d happened, he’d been too busy in mid lane. “Uhh, Tang Bingyao?” he asked. She looked up at him, frustrated. He almost recoiled back in surprise, but didn’t. He continued, “What happened?”

“That stupid Elise came for a gank. I had so many Adoration stacks on my Draven. They’re all gone now. This is really annoying,” she replied, curt. Draven’s passive was called League of Draven. Whenever he caught a Spinning Axe or killed a minion, monster, or tower, he gained the Adoration of his fans. If he killed an enemy Champion, his stacks of Adoration would grant him a certain amount of bonus gold. But when he died, he would lose 75% of his stacks.

Tonji Affiliated High killed High School 13’s Midlaner and ad-carry within seconds of each other. This left the Dragon uncontested. So they moved down into the river and killed the monster. It gave the team Gold and also a stack of Dragon Slayer which granted all players on the team bonus attack damage and ability power. The advantage High School 13 had built up was gone. Tonji Affiliated High were right back into the game, as could be expected from last year’s semi finalists.

The players from High School 13 were all looking to Lin Feng for guidance. But he sat up in top lane, quiet. He was never quiet. He always had something to say with that big, goofy grin of his. They didn’t know what to think of it, so they did what they could and focused back on the game. As for Lin Feng, he wasn’t paying too much attention to his teammates. His focus was entirely on the game. If he wanted to solo carry on his Riven, he couldn’t make a single misplay.

Lin Feng was well aware that in normal circumstances, High School 13 was no match for Tonji Affiliated High. The skill gap was just too big. Two weeks worth of bootcamping wasn’t nearly enough to do something about that. If he wanted to win this game, he had to do something special. That was why he was playing in top lane right now. However, the longer a game went on, the harder it became to make up for the lack of skill of his teammates. They could make one small mistake in late game, like getting caught out before a teamfight, and it would be game over. So it was pivotal that he got such an overwhelming advantage in the early to mid game that it never got to that.