Rise

The mood at the ShoutCaster’s Desk was not a happy one. The last thing that Stone said, “Shit. That sucks.” echoed despite the professional grade microphones, pre-amps, noise-gating, and soundproofing. Those words hung in the air, echoing without an echo. The sentiment was precise, and the ShoutCaster’s Desk reflected what every KG Fan— No, what every Chinese fan of League of Legends was feeling at the moment. Regardless of how they individually felt about KG, the team was currently carrying all of China’s hopes for the Season 5 World Championships.

Qinghe felt it too, and tried to change the mood by forcing out a smile and some optimism, “Let’s not lose all hope just because Rake’s LeBlanc is on a rampage! There’s still more of this game to go! And let’s cheer for God Roundy back there for some quick, quick, quick thinking on his feet! That Teleport helped even things out for the whole team, pulled a baby right outta that trash-fire. If he didn’t jump in, that fight would’ve been 0-for-2. But Roundy’s Riven got there in the nick-o’-time and made it 2-for-3. And even with the kill back there, Riven is still scaling decently. Rake might be feeling the snowball, but I’m feeling like Riven’s starting to bring enough heat to melt it. Any thoughts, Stone?”

Stone was still slumped on his side of the Caster’s desk and completely missed the point of Qinghe’s analysis. “It’s no use, though. I don’t see KG turning this around...” Then his mind finally processed Qinghe’s words and he perked up a little and added tentatively, “Rake’s LeBlanc getting fed this early into the game, it’s going to be hard to stop hi—” He paused mid-sentence. Then perked up a little bit more, cautiously hopeful. “Unless.” He looked straight at the camera before continuing, “Unless God Roundy uses this lead to completely dominate top and carry the game. But that’s a big if right there, Qinghe. A real big if.”

Qinghe nodded silently. Stoically. There was nothing more he could say here. His momma didn’t raise no fool, and he knew there was very little that KG could do against a LeBlanc that was 4/0/0 this early in the game. And it was Rake’s LeBlanc too. He sighed. KG’s midlane was at an absolute disadvantage right now. Even the Lulu they’d strategically picked to counter LeBlanc was useless right now. All hope of a KG victory in this game rested solely in the hands of God Roundy’s Riven. Tian Tian was now carrying all of China on his back.

“GO GO ROUNDY! YOU CAN DO IT!” Su Xue shouted at her monitor. But all of the people on her stream could hear how nervous she sounded underneath the cheers.

Lin Feng, still sitting next to her, had nothing to say. He bit his lips and stared at the monitor intensely. Beneath his bangs, his eyebrows were scrunched together. He already knew what was going to happen. He knew that all of the optimism and hope would fall flat. He knew it was almost impossible for Fatty to turn this around. There was no way for Riven to turn the tide of this game.

✹

9 minutes and 25 seconds into the game. Rake’s LeBlanc was dominating the midlane, just as everyone expected. KG’s Lulu was pushed back to the safety of the tower multiple times, and eventually had to recall to base. LeBlanc froze the minion wave, and then decided it was time to go for a walk on the Rift with SSK’s Jungler Rek’Sai. Together, they roamed to top lane and took the scenic route. They circled behind KG’s outer tower in top lane and flanked God Roundy’s Riven. No man, no matter how perceptive, expects to be taken from the rear by two other men. Especially not the way Team SSK’s dynamic duo did it. Rek’Sai burrowed into the ground and popped up underneath Riven to knock her up into the air. LeBlanc jumped up over with Disortion and unloaded her full damage combo onto Riven. This combo play, the unexpected attack from behind where one Champion came in from the bottom and the other from the top, it was more than God Roundy’s Riven could handle. LeBlanc picked up another kill, and Rake killed any hope of God Roundy turning the tide in this game.

《Unstoppable!》