Rise

《An enemy has been slain!》

The announcer’s voice rang out, confirming that CN•HOOK2’s Yasuo had killed Orion’s Zed. But all of the viewers on Lightless Heart’s stream remained frozen in shock. Over a million people simply could not believe or understand what they had just seen. Everything that happened over the last three seconds in this duel between two Mid lane gods happened so quickly that no one could process the series of actions that had taken place.

The fight had blown all of their minds. And it was important to remember that most of these viewers had seen many LPL games recently. Including the amazing clash between Hermes and AyDeeCee that had happened just earlier this afternoon. But none of those games could hold a candle to what they had just witnessed. This was a dance of move and counter-move, of action and reaction, all while standing on a razor’s edge. This was what a 1v1 between two Midlaners looked like at the highest level!

Slowly, almost tentatively at first, the chat on Lightless Heart’s stream stirred to life. The viewers registered their shock, admiration, confusion, and excitement over the fight. Then the flood gates broke and the chat roared to life. The people on the League of Legends forums, on the other hand, wasted no time putting up clips of the fight. There were already posts detailing the actions and decision-making that Orion and CN•HOOK2 went through during the whole thing. Long posts detailing analysis and comparisons to previous fights were already starting to go up.

Lightless’ eyes were still wide open with undisguised shock and admiration. My god! I know I was looking forward to seeing what Hook2 could pull out in this fight… but… oh my god! I never thought his Yasuo would be this good! Or that he’d pull… whatever that was against Orion!

“What. A. God!” Hermes exclaimed. He sucked in a cold breath of air. “I’ll tell you this, Nightsong. If I was playing Yasuo against Orion’s Zed there, it would not have gone that way at all. I would not have been able to kill Zed. Hook2 stomped all over Orion with nothing but pure mechanics! Now we know that Hook2 can go toe-to-toe with a King! That’s a confirmed fact now.”

“God damn… did that really just happen…?” Aurous stared at the computer screen in complete shock. No words could describe the emotional storm raging through him right now. After a while, he finally calmed down. But he still couldn’t hide the tremor in his voice. Or the conflicting emotions in his heart. “Maple… he’s already this strong. When he returns to pro play, even Hermes will fold like a cheap deck of cards!”

Shi Hang smiled, “I don’t know about all that. It’s more that Lin Feng’s been pushed and backed into a corner harder than anything he’s dealt with in the last few years. He’s turned into a berserker. Actually! He’s turned into Tryndamere! Everything is being pulled out of him right now and he’s unstoppable for a short time. But he can’t keep this up consistently. Orion really does have terrible timing. Challenging Maple tonight, at the very end of the line. Idiot was basically begging to get his ass kicked!”