League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Team Scarlet vs. Team Pride was the main highlight of the day. Even people who weren’t taking part in the tournament were crowded outside, craning to see. Eagerly yearning to improve themselves, and curious to know how they compared to the best, the players couldn’t resist the opportunity to witness the gameplay of elite players firsthand. It was a rare and thrilling spectacle.

Where there’s an audience, there’ll be discussion.

Naturally, the discussions surrounding this particular match were mostly centered around Team Scarlet’s new Support player. He was a completely unknown element.

As speculation raged about the worth of this new kid, he left everyone astounded with a sudden Flash and First Blood!

Cool, decisive, powerful!

Instantly, all eyes were on Yu Luocheng’s Alistar!

“Uh… Nice!” In the wake of that kill, Team Scarlet’s ADC, Xue Haiyang, blurted out this word of praise. Recalling the moves with which his Support had secured that kill on Sona, he now had no trouble seeing his Support as an equal!

Too aggressive? No, it was Xue Haiyang himself who had been too hesitant!

Sona was well-known as a squishy champion. Paired with Varus, they had no hope of surviving a fight at Level 2 against a high-powered combo like Alistar and Graves.

The reason his Support had gone for Sona instead of Varus was because he knew she’d already wasted her Flash when she’d walked into that ambush at the start of the game.

Without Flash, it was mighty bold of a Level-2 Sona to come up and harass the enemy. Any skilled Alistar player would have definitely put paid to her!

***

“This Alistar is kind of a bull!” Team Pride’s Support, Zhang Zijian, was aghast.

“Your ass he is. Everyone knows they’d pick a fight at Level 2. You’re just a retard!” Huang Mi berated him. “Play safe over there, wait for us to come and help!”

With Sona back at the Fountain, Varus had no choice but to withdraw from XP range. If Alistar shoved him up against a wall now, he’d either lose his Flash—or his life!

At the four-minute mark, Graves was ten minions ahead of Varus. After clearing off another minion wave, he immediately returned to base for more items.

***

Straight away, Graves bought himself a Vampiric Scepter. When he returned to the lane, Varus and Sona behaved themselves, keeping back a respectful distance.

As before, Yu Luocheng stampeded all about, seeking a good angle to push Sona or Varus up against the nearby wall. Even if such an opportunity didn’t present itself, no matter, he was pressuring them all the same. Sona was already flinching away with every step. Never mind trying to harass the enemy, she was just trying her best not to let Alistar get her again.

Playing a control-type support champion, if you couldn’t exert a certain amount of deterrence and psychological pressure on the enemy, you’d be better off denying that you played League of Legends!

***

As the game went on, Sona and Varus made no more mistakes. However, by the time they were Level 5, Varus had fallen a whole twenty minions behind Graves in Creep Score. Together with the First Blood bonus from earlier, this meant a difference of about seven hundred gold between them.

“Ah… that’s quite a gap. You can already see the difference between Team Scarlet and Team Pride.”

“Sona and Varus must be waiting for Level 6. At Level 6, both of them have powerful control ultis. At that point, if the rest of their team comes down to help them out, they could regain control of this game.”

“Indeed. That might be their only hope.”

The spectators’ discussion carried on.

***

It was exactly as they’d said: Yi Xing and Zhang Zijian, Team Pride’s ADC and Support, were waiting on their levels to act.

At last, they both attained Level 6. Meanwhile, Alistar and Graves had sent the minion wave in their direction, and then both had returned to base.

Varus quickly cleared off the enemy minions, allowing his own minions to push back in the opposite direction. The two of them were also planning to return to their Fountain now, but then their Jungler, Gunther, called out to them: “Don’t go back yet. I’m Level 6 now. No wards in the tri-bush, so I’ll wait here behind the wall, and dive their Tower to get a kill.”

“That’s… too reckless, surely,” Zhang Zijian remarked.

“No worries, I’m here too.” Huang Mi brought Katarina down the river and through the tri-bush to join Fiddlesticks where he lay in wait.

“Sona, first you’ll use your ulti to stun them under the Tower. Fiddle and I will both jump in with our ultis to insta-kill them. Once they’re down, we’ll immediately move to take the Dragon. You got all that?” Huang Mi said.

Zhang Zijian felt himself perking up, a vindictive grin spreading across his face. Yi Xing nodded in assent, as well.

***

“Is Kata missing from Mid?” Xue Haiyang wondered.

“Probably went home to do some shopping. I saw her walking back that way,” Yu replied.

Xue Haiyang nodded. A great wave of minions had arrived at their Tower, so Graves put it out of his mind and got to farming.

Alistar was right behind him. Sona and Varus both had CC available now. If he ran off by himself now to go place a ward, Graves could very well be killed with a tower dive. It would be better to wait until this wave of minions had been cleared off first.

Yu Luocheng glanced at the map, and noticed that Katarina hadn’t returned to her lane yet, and Fiddlesticks also hadn’t appeared in a while.

He observed Sona and Varus. They continued to linger around, as though unafraid of being attacked. Yu Luocheng felt tempted to give it a try.

‘Wait, they should be well aware that they can’t win a fight against us, especially after we’ve just picked up more items.’

It was a trap! Alarm bells rang in Yu Luocheng’s head.

Suddenly, Sona rushed in and unleashed her ultimate skill, ‘Crescendo’!

Deep yellow waves of light washed over the surprised Alistar and Graves, stunning them senseless, so that they stood immobilized in place . ¹

“Are you crazy?” Xue Haiyang yelled, not knowing why Sona would waste her ulti on them while they were being sheltered by their own Tower.

He had no idea that Fiddlesticks had already been chanting his profane rituals behind the nearby wall for a full second now. Meanwhile, Katarina hurled a dagger over the wall!

This attack immediately revealed her to the enemy—along with Fiddlesticks, right beside her, his ulti already fully charged!

‘We’re dead!’ Xue Haiyang thought.

Fiddlesticks’s ultimate skill could already cause a lot of damage by itself. With Katarina’s ulti on top of that, they’d be dead before this stun effect wore off—and right under their own Tower ! ¹

Xue Haiyang hadn’t expected the enemy to stand in place so long for the sake of ambushing them!

Suddenly, the minotaur beside him gave a mighty roar!

Throwing his arms wide, as though tearing off the invisible fetters upon himself, he was now wreathed in a crimson aura!

Unbreakable Will!

Upon falling under Sona’s spell, Yu Luocheng immediately responded by activating Alistar’s own ultimate skill, which broke the stun effect.

At the same time, Fiddlesticks arrived amidst a murder of crows, teleporting right up to the tower!

The dark storm of crows swooped down upon Alistar and Graves!

Eyes serene as a tranquil lake, his finger had already been waiting over the W key.

Headbutt!