Rise

“Another win for SSK sees them to 6 wins and 0 losses! Did anyone expect anything else?”“What a beautiful win by Season! That secures them the group!”“WOOO! Assassins! What was that! How! They did it! They’re through to the next round!”“Damn! The warriors from Warriors are REAL! They are the warriors that built this town! They hacked’n’slashed their way into the Quarterfinals!”

The second week of League of Legends World Championships had come to an end. All 12 matches were played and the results proved to be a heavy blow to the thousands of Chinese fans watching. They’d had high hopes for Dust, the LPL’s second seed. That small flame of hope raged into an inferno after KG’s last game a few days ago, where they had without a doubt, undoubtedly, unquestionably made the impossible possible. And then all of those hopes and dreams came crashing down. Dust didn’t perform like their fans would’ve liked to see. They were obliterated by the two Korean teams they got matched up against. It was hard to watch. Dust never really found their footing or had a chance to get their rhythm in any of their games. The Korean teams that Dust was up against, those were the strongest in the world right now. But to the Chinese fans watching, knowing that the difference was this big made them all the more hopeful for a David-vs-Goliath situation. Everyone wanted to see the underdog win. But that didn’t happen.

The Chinese fans had been prepared for this outcome from the very beginning. They knew Dust had pulled the short straw during the group stage draw. But it was never fun to see your team go out like this. Their only consolation was that two of their teams managed to qualify for the quarterfinals; KG and Hand of God. This was an impressive accomplishment. The only region and league with more teams in the quarterfinals was Korea’s LCK.

First place in Group A were the Legend from Europe!First place in Group B was Korea’s Team Fate!First place in Group C was Season out of North America!First place in Group D were last year’s champions, Team SSK from Korea!

Second place in Group A was China’s KG!Second place in Group B was HoG from China!Second place in Group C were the Assassins from Taiwan!Second place in Group D were Korea’s Warriors!

The group stage at Worlds was fun, but the teams here weren’t playing for the hardware or glory just yet. They were just qualifying to play for it. The knockout stage was where it all happened. The main course of the World Championships! The Chinese fans were ecstatic that they had two teams, two possibilities, two beacons of hope shouldering their pride! Fighting for the Summoner’s Cup! Their teams had survived London. The weather, the food, and their matches! Now the time had come to fly a little further south, to the beautiful city of Paris! That was where the knockout stage would be held.

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While the World Championships of League of Legends came to the business end of things, High School 13 had their own game to worry about. They’d made it through the first qualification round and now had to play in the second qualifiers. There were now 32 teams remaining and competing for the 16 spots in the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. The second round of qualifiers would be held in the downtown Shanghai branch of the NetCow Cafe, which was where they gathered up today. In this internet cafe, the teams would be matched up against one other team. If they won, they would qualify and advance to the main tournament. If they lost, then their journey would end. They could go home early and watch the rest from their couches and through the haze of their tears.

The Shanghai 16 School Tournament was still a school event at the end of the day. So, in an effort to waste as little of the students’ time as possible, the organizers planned to have four matches going on simultaneously. This way they could keep the event organized and move things along, without too much waiting time for any one team. The goal was to finalize the teams playing in the Shanghai 16 School Tournament by the end of the night. Because if it took any longer, if they kept the students waiting for a second day, then that could take away from the time the students could spend on studying or preparing for exams. A failed exam could ruin a life! None of the organizers wanted to have that on their conscience.