Rise

VICTORY!

At 28 minutes, High School 13 breached Shanghai International’s base. They took down all three inhibitors and then started attacking the Nexus. Shanghai International did nothing to stop this. All five players on their team had tilted off the edge of sanity. They were off doing their own things, ignoring pings from their teammates, or recklessly jumping into 1vs5s. In fact, it looked very much like they wanted to lose this game. There was no one defending the base. A few stood at the fountain, waiting for the end, while Liu Zhengjie was farming minions down in bot lane.

The blue energy trapped in Shanghai International’s Nexus exploded outwards. It wrapped and turned around itself to form the victory emblem. This was the moment the fans at the venue had been waiting for. They were finally moving on to Game 3! This last game was over at 9 minutes after the second gank in bot lane. The next 20 minutes were a one-sided stomp by High School 13. And though that was fun to watch every now and then, the crowd was hoping to see something more during this match. High School 13’s students were the only exception. They were enjoying every second of this Semifinal. Their team, written off by analysts long ago, was on the verge of making it to the Finals! Better yet, they were about to knock out last year’s runners up and one of the favourites to win the whole tournament this year! High School 13 had never amounted to much. They were the school people easily forgot about. But that would all change today!

“GO GO GO! HIGH SCHOOL 13 FOR THE WIN!” “WOOOOOOO THIRTEEN IS MY LUCKY NUMBER!” “We’re gonna get the clean sweep, we’re gonna get the clean sweep!” “STOMP THEM LIKE YOU STOMPED OUR HEARTS, TANG TANG!” “Shanghai WHO? Shanghai WHO? Shanghai SUCK ME!” “We are the Champions, my friends! And we’ll keep on fighting till the end!”

There were a decent number of students from High School 13 at the venue who weren’t League of Legends fans. Some of them didn’t even play the game. They enjoyed watching a game of football. Beer in both hands, jumping up and down to the beat of a song, singing until their voices gave out. They believed that that atmosphere was something special, unique to real sports. Today, they learned it wasn’t. The fast beating of their hearts as their team made another clutch play. The thrill when Tang Bingyao picked up her next kill. The pure bliss when their team soundly beat the tournament favourites. Even if some students didn’t understand League of Legends, they could understand what was going on. It was the universal language of sports. High School 13 was doing something really special, and they were here to witness it!

✹

There was a short break between the second and third game of the series between High School 13 and Shanghai International. The players were given time to unwind from the last game and prepare for the next. Shanghai International’s players were in dire need of this moment of relaxation. They were down 2-0, a single game from being knocked out of the tournament. This was a situation they never expected to find themselves in. To make matters worse, they weren’t just losing, they were being toyed around with.

Yan Liang gnashed his teeth, looking around at his teammates, and said, “Dammit, guys! Come on! We have to get our shit together!” He pointed at the players from High School 13 and continued, “Are we really going to lose to those guys? Look at them! Look at that fucking idiot shouting at the crowd! They’re terrible players! We are so much better than them. All we have to do is focus. Focus and we win this easily!”

Liu Zhengjie looked at Yan Liang and raised his eyebrows. That’s rich coming from you… You fed that motherfucking idiot! But Yan Liang was still the team captain. So he calmed himself down and said, “You’re right. We can’t lose this! Now, their Midlaner is the issue here. He’s carried their team in both games. If we keep him down, we should win.”