Rise

Lin Feng died in the mid lane while Tang Bingyao picked up a kill in the bot lane. But he didn’t really care all that much that he’d lost focus and given away a kill. He was playing Lulu, a supportive control mage. She didn’t need gold to do her job; she just needed to be at the right place at the right time to buff her allies. It was up to Tang Bingyao to do the carrying. A stark contrast from the first three games, where he'd been the one carrying.

There was a brief respite in the game. Westwind used the time to talk the audience through what had just happened. He leaned into the microphone and said, “It’s starting to look like High School 13’s protect-the-ad-carry composition is slowly coming together. The Lulu is scaling pretty well in mid, despite giving away a kill. She’s going to become a real nuisance for Shanghai High School. All she’s gotta do is to use her ultimate on the Vayne and the Fat Lady’s is going to sing. GAME OVER FOR SHANGHAI HIGH SCHOOL! Killing the Vayne before that happens is going to be a real challenge for Shanghai High School.”

“Talking about the Vayne,” Silent Reed interjected. “She’s playing really well this game! Look at her score! We’re only 10 minutes into the game and she’s already on a killing spree! She’s ahead of Kalista and Leona is struggling to stay relevant. Shanghai High School needs to chain their crowd control skills together perfectly if they want to keep any hope of killing that Vayne alive!”

✹

“What I’m saying,” Lin Feng argued over High School 13’s voice chat, “Is that I actually helped the team by giving away that kill! Tang Tang wouldn’t have gotten the solo kill on Kalista if it hadn’t been for me forcing Leona to come to mid! So, you see, you guys should really be thanking me!”

An Xin rolled her eyes and said, “Thanking you? Are you stupid? You could’ve forced that Leona to come mid and survived, if you’d just put up a damn ward! Why didn’t you ward your lane?” She glared at Lin Feng and continued, “And am I hearing this right? Are you really trying to take credit for something Tang Tang did? You screwed up and she made up for it by getting a solo kill! Solo. Kill. She did it all by herself! You didn’t have any part in it. Yeesh, what a glory hog.”

“Mhm!” Tang Bingyao agreed. “He’s shameless.”

“Ah, you two are teaming up! That’s so unfair! Guys, help me out here!” Lin Feng whined. But neither Chen Ze nor Liu Yue replied. Lin Feng looked over at them but they ignored him. Liu Yue even went so far as to look away from him. He shook his head in disbelief and said, “I can’t believe you guys! Oh well, whatever. Tang Tang’s Vayne is fed now. We can all play around her!”

Across the stage, Zeng Rui had a similar thought to Lin Feng. Shanghai High School’s focus was also going to be on the Vayne. “Focus the Vayne first. She has to die before she can kill us,” Zeng Rui said over the team’s voice chat. She’s 3/0/0 and actually playing really well. Now that she’s got her first big item, we can’t stop her in the bot lane. And we can’t take any risks either. If she gets anymore fed, we’ll lose this game before the 20 minute mark! We can’t lose this game! They’re on match point. We have to shut her down!