Rise

Lin Feng didn’t queue up for a ranked game right away. This is One’s smurf! One ranked on it! I… His hand trembled slightly. I need to know. His mouse moved away from the play button and towards the profile button in the top right corner. He clicked and a new page loaded. It showed the recently played matches. Lin Feng’s eyes went wide in shock. So many wins! They’re all wins! Wins everywhere! It’s green, green, GREEN! It’s a Challenger account! How is he getting all these wins!? Lin Feng scrolled through the recent match history, a perfect field of 10 wins. Wait, huh? Annie? Thresh? Why is he playing Supports? What’s going on? One is a Midlaner! He scrunched his nose and moved his head back, confused.

Lin Feng opened up his browser and went to a League of Legends summoner statistics website. There he typed ‘CN•HOOK2’ in the search bar. Come on, show me already! Why is it taking so long!? Go faster! Faster! Ah! The page loaded and showed him a detailed analysis of the games played on the CN•HOOK2 account.

Some of the most impressive statistics appeared on Lin Feng’s monitor. CN•HOOK2 was a relatively new account that played all its games in duo queue together with an account called CN•DancingShoe. Lin Feng recognized this name right away. He knew it almost as well as he did CN•HOOK2’s. Five! That’s Five’s account! One is duoing with Five! They’re playing together! Oh… Now I’m playing on this account, so they can’t duo… But One gave it to me! I have to try my best!

Lin Feng scrolled through CN•HOOK2’s statistics. Wow! One still has it! There are so many wins! He’s winning everything! How isn’t he Top 1 Challenger yet? All these wins! There were a total of 90 games played in duo queue. And nearly all of them were victories. It was only once the account hit Challenger that a couple of losses started appearing. But even then, One and Five were climbing fast! They’re so good! If the Koreans knew about them, they’d be shitting their pants! One will pound them hard! He’s the best! All those analysts saying Korea is the best, they don’t know One! He’s still at the top! He’s still so good! He… He…

Lin Feng took a long, deep breath. He browsed through the statistic website for another 10 minutes, letting the reality of the situation settle in. This is such a strong account. It went straight to Challenger in only 73 games! That must be like a record! And even in Challenger he barely loses anything! I can’t screw that up! I won’t! Lin Feng balled his hand into a fist, his eyes blazing in determination. I’m going to make One proud! This account is going to go on a massive win streak! I refuse to lose even a single game! Top 5? SCREW THAT! He pumped his fist in the air and shouted, “Watch me climb, One! I’ll make you proud!” He then tabbed back into the League client and entered the queue.

“Hmm, what to play, what to play,” Lin Feng mumbled to himself. I can’t play Support like One has been doing. If I want to carry and reach the top of Challenger, I need to carry. So I’ll play Mid. The queue popped and he entered Champion Select. He smiled as he went through the practiced motions of banning and picking Champions. I’m going to go mid every game and carry everything! For One, and for myself.

✹

Lin Feng was in the loading screen, waiting for his first game to start. He’d locked in Yasuo, one of his best Champions right now, and had to play against an Ahri. “Let’s see what rank you are,” Lin Feng mumbled while tabbing out of the League client and looking up the Ahri’s statistics. Master? That’s all? I’m playing against a Master Mid? My Yasuo is getting better. There’s no way a random Master can test me. This game will be easy! He smiled and tabbed back into the game.

《Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!》