What Just Happened?
I couldn't wrap my head around what had just gone down. The result was so shocking that it made even less sense. A total catastrophe where all five of us got wiped by a single Azriel. Sure, Azriel had scaled insanely well—that much was true. Hitting 2-tier boots, Rune Saber, Sandglass of the White Night, and Mercury Band at 15 minutes? Unheard of.
But even then, taking out all five of us in a 1v5 and walking away? That was straight-up impossible. And yet, that's exactly what happened. How the hell did he pull it off?
There were things I couldn't understand, mistakes we made, and some rotten timing. And when it all stacked up, this disaster unfolded. My head was spinning, so I started replaying the sequence in my mind. I'd died last anyway, so I had time to think it over.
*
We were on our way to hunt the dragon when Azriel suddenly popped up with his ult animation. His ult has a huge wind-up, and I was hyper-focused, so I immediately threw Glacier Shield right at him. But Azriel wasn't looking at us—he was facing bot lane. Still, I slapped I'm Right Here on the closest ally to stick to Azriel and fired off Chill Aura.
But as soon as his ult animation ended, it didn't come from Azriel. It burst out of the bush right in front of all five of us. We ate it point-blank, everyone's health dropping by about half. Jade and Fiona up front took the worst of it, losing more than half their HP.
Panic set in for a split second, but they fired their ults at the suddenly appearing Azriel. And Lucius's auto-attack flew his way too. That was the biggest problem—the three hits landing on Azriel at the exact same time.
Anyway, their two ults hit alongside Lucius's auto. His two autos stacked two more Concussion Fist stacks. And Fiona had already used her ult, adding one more stack from her. My initial Chill Aura made one, her ult another, and Lucius's auto pushed it to two more. Perfect four-stack timing.
But the second he got stunned, he popped Mercury to cleanse it and activated Sandglass of the White Night. Stun broken, Azriel immediately used the sandglass to cut off both ults. Jade and Fiona's targetless ults fizzled out instantly and evaporated. And since Concussion Fist prevents stacks on stunned targets for a bit, that became a wasted skill too.
The second his invincibility and untargetability from the sandglass wore off, Azriel Spell Blinked right into our straight line, perfectly dodging Briium's shield angle. The blink damage unluckily hit the squishiest one, Lucius, who then got melted by the Spell Torrent follow-up.
And it didn't stop there. Spell Torrent clipped every champion, leaving the others on razor-thin health. Instead of immediately firing Mystic Arrow, Azriel threw in a quick dodge. Obviously to sidestep Arachne's remaining CC, Silk Spray.
Whether from the chaos or just her skillshot being trash, Arachne whiffed Silk Spray. My Glacier Slash was on cooldown too, even though it was CC. With all CC gone and Azriel putting some distance on the melee champs, our only play was to burst him down with raw damage.
Dragon hunt was toast, tower was pushing hard. Even if we grabbed Azriel for the shutdown gold, it'd barely break even at best.
Fiona dove in with One Strike. Jade had prepped Shadow Summon during his ult attempt for full combo angle, but with no mobility up, only Fiona went in.
But it wouldn't have mattered if she did. Azriel's Rune Saber-infused Mystic Arrow left her on the brink, and two quick autos finished her off. As Fiona dove, Arachne followed with Repelling, but she got caught in the painful Rune Saber damage too. She'd succeeded in dealing damage, but the refreshed Mystic Arrow took her out.
Three down in a flash. We were left with the tank support whose long-CD mobility was gone and the melee assassin weak without skills. Azriel wasn't full HP either, though.
Jade must've thought he could win, so he blinked in with refreshed Shadow Summon. But Azriel had CDR items from the start, plus Mystic Arrow cut cooldowns further. He Spell Blinked between me and Jade, then shot Mystic Arrow at Jade. The blink arrow hit the closer Jade, who couldn't tank it.
Azriel was low too, so I closed in. One Chill Aura and a couple autos should've done it. But that was my mistake.
We were fighting where the Mana Spirit jungle monster spawns. It respawned mid-fight, and Azriel instantly recovered his remaining HP with a Smite on it. I forgot about Pathfinder of the Vanguard's 15% HP/mana restore on lost health. That was my screw-up.
I should've just bailed—maybe I'd have lived. But I dove too, thinking we had to get at least Azriel. Paid the price.
That was the whole sequence. We were all too shocked to say a word. And I...
*
It happened yesterday when I was solo-queuing Rune Saber Azriel in custom mode. I fat-fingered Flash during ult. And something ridiculously exploitable happened.
Azriel kept doing the ult animation, but teleported to the Flash direction. Yet the ult fired from the original cast spot. Even the direction stayed the same as the initial cast. Since Flash also turns you to face the new spot, anyone seeing it first would eat it hard.
Pondering the 1v5, yesterday's glitch came to mind. Ult from the bush, Flash to a totally different spot.
Briium naturally threw Glacier Shield at me the second I ulted out. It only blocks from the shield-facing direction, so faking position cleared step one.
Next up: Jade and Fiona's ults, and Briium's Concussion Fist. Once they snapped out of it, they targeted me. But if they were gonna, they should've staggered timings. I had Sandglass of the White Night.
I hit sandglass—it didn't go off. Lucius's passive auto pushed Concussion Fist to 4 stacks. So I quick Mercury'd the stun and sandglass'd again.
Boom—dodged both ults and the stun. Step two clear.
Invincibility off, I Spell Blinked to line up the whole enemy team with Spell Torrent, then unleashed it. Lucius ate blink damage and died instantly.
Only CC left: Arachne's Silk Spray. Figured she'd fire post-Lucius kill, so I dodged a bit—she whiffed beautifully.
Then melted incoming Fiona and Arachne one by one. Refreshed mobility let Jade stick, melted him too. I was low HP now. Didn't matter.
I'd clocked the enemy Mana Spirit respawning when Lucius dropped. As Briium closed, I Smited blue for HP/mana restore. Nothing left for him to do.
My first PvP pentakill ever. Does scrim count as PvP? Same as queuing users, so sure.
Game balance shattered after. Even Taekjun's macro couldn't save it. Post-1v5, we shoved top and mid to second tower, snowballing gold for everyone—not just me.
I'm no macro god, but I know basics. I called shots, took down WoL jungle boss Sharon Baron. One back, trapped them, poked 'em out, and closed.
"Good game... I'll head out then..."
She'd slipped casual earlier, now back to polite. "Yeah, good game."
I responded, and the voice actress smiled faintly before heading to her friends.
"Man, that was fun!"
"Fun for you? Yunho carried solo."
"Shut up!! The trap-and-beat at the end was hilarious though."
"Dude, that was gold. You running that in ranked?"
"Dunno, too weak early. Duo might work?"
As we chatted about the game, Taekjun showed up.
"Traitor's here?" Hangil teased with a cackle.
Taekjun usually banters back, but not this time. "...Got something come up. Heading home first, sorry."
We hit him with "What happened?" and "Suddenly?" but he ignored, shut down his PC, grabbed his bag, and bounced from the PC bang.
...Some emergency?
*
I wandered the streets in a daze after leaving the PC bang. That 1v5 kept replaying. If I were Yunho in that spot, could I have done it? Nah, no way.
I know my mechanics. Top Diamond/Master level, with room to grow. Two years in WoL got me here at 15. But Yunho's?
A 2-3 month noob pulling that? His growth ceiling's insane. Jealous. Teeth-grinding, jaw-clenching jealous.
That guy's gonna go pro, lift the trophy, right?
"Ah..."
Tears welled up unbidden. I'd grinded so hard for pro, building skill bit by bit. He just has it with raw talent. That injustice, that rage—tears came.
The feeling I'd buried resurfaced. One I hated facing in the cold. Its name...
Envy. Ugly, ugly envy. Of my friend. Of his talent.