Rise

Zhang Hao was just about jumping in his chair, barely keeping his attention on his monitor. He had his Lissandra retreat to her outer tower and then recalled back to base. He finally couldn’t hold it in any longer. He threw both of his fists up in the air and shouted, “YOU GOT THE DOUBLE! SWEET!” He leaned forward to look around An Xin at Lin Feng and continued, “That was such an awesome turn around kill! The way you sidestepped the Charm and then Flashed the Rek’Sai! It was, it was... WOW!”

“I was sweating for you there!” Zhang Hao exclaimed. He shook his head and laughed, his heart slamming into his ribcage. “That was so tense! I thought for sure you were dead like five times!” He kept shaking his head, incredulous. Lin Feng is playing against a pro! I thought for sure he was going to lose! How the fuck was he going to win against an actual, real life, former pro! But he is! HE’S WINNING! Holy shit! He just outplayed a professional player! HE OUTPLAYED A PROFESSIONAL PLAYER! He clenched his fist and shouted, “You outplayed a professional player, dude! Oh my god! You outplayed AyDeeCee!” You’re amazing! Shit, you’re so amazing! What was I even worried about? You always win! You even stomp pros!

An Xin watched Zhang Hao losing it and giggled. She winked at Lin Feng and said, “He’s right, that was a nice job. You didn’t even need me for that one.”

“Mhm! Good job!” Tang Bingyao chimed in. She then glanced at Lin Feng, her lips curling up and forming small dimples in her cheeks. Her eyes started beaming in a mix of envy and joy and tinges of red painted the tips of her ears. I knew you could do it! You always do it! Mhm! You’re the best!

Zeng Rui turned his head to look at Lin Feng. The thundering dumbass went and did it, somehow. That was way too risky. If he’d died, we’d have lost the game right then and there! But it’s always like this. He does the weird shit that can lose us a game! It just always works out for him… He always makes it work. He shook his head lightly and said, “Well done. Keep it up and we can win.” He then turned his attention back to his monitor. His Alistar had just arrived back in the bot lane. Top is doing well, mid is doing better again and bot, well we’re sort of even right now. Plus we got the Dragon! Can we actually win this one? We might...

Lin Feng was usually the first to congratulate himself for a good play. He always jumped on any and every compliment that came his way. More often than not, he’d even complain when people didn’t give him the recognition he felt he deserved. But not right now. The compliments flew right by him. His eyes were locked on his monitor. On Ahri. Her corpse disappeared from the mid lane. She’s respawned. He bit on his lips and then said over the team’s voice chat, “Thanks, but it’s not enough. Shi Hang is way better than this.”

✹

Team Shanghai had a good couple of minutes in their first game against Zhejiang University. Each lane had found some manner in which they picked up a kill to fight their way into the game. But that was far from enough. Zhejiang University was one of the best teams in the entire Winter Collegiate Cup. They had the better Toplaner and the better ad-carry. More importantly, their team had been playing together for years, and Shi Hang switching in didn’t change much in that regard. He was more than good enough to adapt to his teammates at this level of play.

At 11 minutes, Zhejiang University’s Jungler found his way to the top lane to help Rumble pick up a kill on Lissandra. Zhang Hao had grown too confident after his own kill and especially after watching Lin Feng pick up the double kill in the mid lane. He overextended and couldn’t retreat to safety before his health bar bottomed out. The top lane started shifting back into Zhejiang University’s favour.