Chapter 45
“Hello, everyone.”
For a moment, I just spaced out at the realization that Haebin was the jungler on the tournament I'd finally entered.
Before I knew it, all the team members had been picked, and the captain of the finalized team invited us to the voice chat.
-This team looks good??
-They look kinda strong
-Ah, this one's strong
-<<<We just need this guy to play well
Unlike my dazed reaction, the viewers' response was unexpectedly positive.
That made sense, since the team members' tiers themselves were high.
“Nice to meet you. I'm team captain Jeongin.”
To start with, Captain Jeongin, our mid laner, was the second-highest-rated captain in the tournament.
I'd heard they'd even dabbled in going pro at League, hadn't they?
Maybe that's why their draft priority had been pushed back so far.
They picked the seventh seed from A rank, the eighth from B, then went around and took the first seed from C.
“Please take care of me!”
Right, fuck.
They'd used the first seed they got to pick that bastard.
“Thank you for picking me!”
“No, it’s because your tier is the highest.”
“Ahem.”
For reference, Haebin's tier was Platinum.
That was also an indicator of that bitch's skill.
Why else would a Platinum player have gone into C rank, where the average tier was Silver to Gold?
She'd been placed in B rank in the previous tournament, then got demoted after putting on a horror show.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Nice to meet you!”
And the rest of the team consisted of an A-rank Master playing ADC
and a D-rank streamer playing support.
“...Nice to meet you. I’m Wayo, the top laner.”
Looking at it this way, we seemed unexpectedly strong.
-Kyaa
-No, but they're strong?
-We got a surprisingly lucky draft
For starters, our top was Diamond (in spirit) and our jungle was Platinum, so were we winning on sheer team strength?
On top of that, the ADC could handle the support, and having the highest-tier player in mid was excellent for balance.
It seemed the viewers hadn't been making a fuss for nothing.
“Okay, let's find some scrim teams first.”
“Sounds good!”
However, it wasn't until the scrims began that I realized the team had a serious flaw.
“Haebin, could you look at mid for a moment?”
“Ah, yep! I’ll head over right away.”
Come to think of it, our mid was Challenger and our ADC was Master.
Wasn't this obviously a composition that needed to play around the bottom half?
“Yeah, sounds good. Let’s speed up our dragon tempo.”
When you work out your lower body, your upper body inevitably gets neglected.
How much more so in the Rift?
“Ah, ah!!”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, the enemy's here again
The Rift is a surprisingly mathematical game.
Just as it's natural for two to be stronger than one, and three stronger than two,
our jungler spent all day going bottom, where we overwhelmed the enemy,
while up top, where the enemy jungler spent all day, a bullying session unfolded that was painful to watch.
“Gank! Gank!”
“Hang in there! You can do it!”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah, just take the beatingㅋㅋㅋ
-So that's how it turned out..
-Why don't you just get carried??
And on top of that….
“Hmm, Wayo, would you be able to play Malphite or Sion?”
“…Pardon?”
Since our composition revolved around a mid and ADC carry,
top naturally had to play a tank that soaked up everyone else's shit.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋ
-Shut up and play a tank
Naturally, Wayo's most-played champions were all carry champions.
His specialty was dazzling plays that fooled the enemy and let him dance around them….
“Ah, I’m not confident on tanks….”
“Huh? Looking at the season before last, they were your most-played champions….”
-??
-?
-Was that true?
“Um, you saw that?”
“Uh… Since you're my teammates, I checked all the way through your in-game play.”
-For real??
-This bastard played tanks too??
-Is that actually true??
…Let's just call it evidence that I once followed the meta.
Back then, I was willing to do anything to escape Gold.
[Victory!]
Anyway, putting that problem aside, our scrim record itself was good.
No, should I say it was excellent?
At least we had a clear win condition.
Our skilled mid laner would carry the game, and in the late game our ADC would set up behind a tank and carry.
So we crushed the other teams early in the scrims.
-Kyaaㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This team is strong??
-Why are you so good?
“Ahem, well, naturally.”
Still, winning felt good.
Honestly, it felt much better than solo queue.
Is this why people play in tournaments?
“King, how was the eighth-seed top laner?”
-We have witnessed the undisputed king of tanks..
-This bastard's good when he plays tanks
-This is just your true callingㅇㅇ
-Is this bastard really the eighth seed??
-The other captains didn't pick him?
Well… I still didn't like playing tanks.
But if it was for the sake of victory, I could make that much of a concession.
More than anything, I could feel the enemy team getting flustered.
Right, this was why I'd sent them nothing but endless clips of carry champions for my gameplay reference.
“Haebin, you should've come cover that, right??”
“What?? Ah, wouldn't invading be better here?”
Of course, that was separate from the scrims going well.
I often clashed with the low-tier jungler over our opinions.
Even so, we didn't grab each other by the collars and start fighting.
Haebin was different from before, and more importantly, this was a five-person game.
So we were even using honorifics with each other, which we normally didn't.
“My minions are all dying to turret.”
“Oh no… what do we do?”
-The power struggle is scary..
-These bastards are throwing a power-struggle party all dayㅋㅋ
-Did Haebin always talk like that?ㅋㅋ
-Should we have the teacher analyze it for us?
Still, one fortunate thing was that our team could hold an on-the-spot Rell Muncheol.
Wasn't our mid laner a Challenger?
So whenever a disagreement like this came up, we could ask right away.
“Huh? Ah… This one is definitely the invade, right… The pathing is awkward too. It’s bad if our position gets revealed.”
“You heard them, right? Good grief, as if Wayo would know anything about the situation here.”
“....”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, these two are suffocating
-Why are only those two fighting??
-But thanks to them, the sound never diesㅋㅋ
“Th-that said, there’s a reason to go top too. Since their jungler is low tier, we could even look for a crack in their pathing….”
More than that, the disappointing thing about our captain was
that they were subtly lacking in confidence.
“No, no. You don’t have to defend me.”
“Ahem.”
They seemed incredibly good at the game,
but perhaps because they were so focused, they weren't good at shotcalling either.
“Ah, I should've survived there… Um, I’m sorry….”
“No, it was because you should've gone earlier instead of hitting the jungle camp, Haebin.”
“Huh? Me? Wayo, don’t you have Teleport?”
“This~ I turned around five seconds ago. Your spell tracking is a little rusty.”
“....”
-Another fucking power-struggle party
-These two do this even when they're winning
-Was Haega always like that??
-The pact of peach blossoms is 66% complete, and it's getting really chaotic..
Oh, for reference, the bottom lane….
“Jhae, go into the bush and die.”
“Pardon?”
“Die after drawing out the cocoon. Oh, and put Exhaust on the ADC too.”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-That guy's a true ADCㅇㅇ
-Master players really are different..
…The two of them were having a lovely little date.
Did this guy view a support as something like a third summoner spell or a seventh item?
I felt sorry for Jhae, our Bronze II streamer who had somehow become the Master ADC's tool….
But it couldn't be helped. If he was unhappy, he should've gotten good at Rell and entered in a higher tier.
[Victory]
[Victory]
[Victory]
Anyway, despite being such a chaotic team, we won every scrim we played.
Mechanically, at least, every lane was solid enough that jungle was the only weak spot.
A tank top laner who was good at laning.
A mid laner who consistently overwhelmed the opposition.
And an ADC who treated support like a third summoner spell and was certain to carry in the late game.
However I looked at it, wasn't that an excellent team for the Tournament of Doom?
-This team is strong
-Seriously strong, huh?ㅋㅋㅋ
-They could be contenders for the title for real
Of course, there were stronger teams, so becoming title contenders would be difficult despite the chat's excitement….
Still, taking a good result in the tournament seemed perfectly doable, didn't it?
**
Before I knew it, the scrim period had ended, and the quarterfinals began.
[Defeat]
[Defeat]
“Spacing out….”
After dropping two straight sets in a best-of-five, I stared blankly into space.
-Ah..
-Lost again, fuck..
-Why can't this team win?
Uh… why did we keep losing?
Had anyone's performance suddenly fallen off?
No.
-They prepared counters for the main event
-We're losing because the enemy won't fight us bot?
-Maybe it's because we only have one plan
Right, if there was a reason, it had to be exactly that.
We were strong in scrims because we were a fundamentally strong team.
But when they brought counters to that composition for the main event, a team with only one standard strategy was helplessly overwhelmed.
“S-sorry, it’s because I wasn’t good enough….”
“So close. I got caught at the end.”
Still, we weren't having a major fight….
Honestly, that was the bigger problem.
It would've been better if we'd fought and given each other feedback.
The team's supreme commander, the captain, was blaming themself for everything.
And the ADC also thought every mistake was his own.
Even though the support had clearly used an active item incorrectly during the final team fight.
Did this bastard genuinely not consider the support a person?
-Wow, this team is getting eliminated here??
-How did things end up like thisㅋㅋ
-They're going to get 3-0'd in the quarterfinalsㅋㅋㅋ
Anyway, this was a full-blown emergency.
“Hmm….”
Was I, Wayo, really going to go out in the quarterfinals at my first tournament?
And actually be eliminated in the quarterfinals after being picked as the eighth seed?
That would mean the other teams had judged me exactly right.
-Look at this bastard's expressionㅋㅋㅋ
-He looks fucking venomous
I stared at the screen with a sullen expression.
And more than anything, I'd played nothing but tanks the entire time.
If I'd played tanks for the sake of victory and still lost,
was there any reason to keep doing it?
“Hey, you fucking Haebin.”
“Huh??”
And since it seemed we'd lose even if we tried our old plan,
I called over the only person who looked perfectly fine: Haebin.
-This 'fucking Haebin' shitㅋㅋ
-These bastards are starting to drop the honorifics againㅋㅋ
I didn't want to join hands again with this sunlight-loving bat….
“Just play one game my way.”
“It's the last game, though?”
“That's why we should.”
This time, we're only temporary allies.
If we're going home anyway, isn't it okay to invest in top just once?