Is This Your First Time at Master? (3)

The Master promotion series had begun, and this was the fateful second game.

Jin Gyeo-wool considered her passive play just moments earlier — the way she'd lost faith in herself — a decisive blunder.

Having already committed to Fiora, she'd long since resolved to crush her opponent with pure mechanics from the opening minutes. But the instant the Grand Duelist locked into the pick window, voices of concern flooded the in-game chat.

Still, at least nobody was throwing just because it was a promo series. Diamond I was the kind of tier where the lobby was packed with washed-up veterans who would rather grief than watch someone else climb to Master.

Today, luck was on their side. All Jin Gyeo-wool had to do was play well. If she did, there was no way this promo series ended here.

Her teammates were rooting for her to put on a show. But the moment the game finished loading and the loading screen appeared, a viewer who'd already looked up the matchup on a stats site started freaking out in chat.

"What? Oh, come on. You've got to be kidding me."

Sure, Diamond I was called the graveyard of one-tricks, but wasn't today a little excessive? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠How was it even possible to run into nothing but specialists back-to-back like this — and people she'd never faced before, at that?

"No. The more of a one-trick someone is, the more holes they tend to have."

Anyone who'd played the same champion for hundreds, even thousands of games was bound to keep showing the same weaknesses at the same points throughout a match.

Fiora and Irelia were both monsters in a pure 1v1. Fiora might hold a slight edge head-to-head, but still — the opponent was a specialist, wasn't she?

In the end, the side that won the mental war and landed the cleaner skillshots would seize the advantage.

"Just watch. I'm winning this one and punching through promos at one loss, three wins."

Objectively speaking, though, Jin Gyeo-wool's current form was roughly even with her opponent's — or perhaps a notch below.

In a prolonged fight, the one who usually came out smiling was the more seasoned player. And in the matchup between Gyeo-wool and her opponent, the seasoned one was the other side.

To beat a veteran standing in her path to promotion like a wall of seasoned gear, the climber who'd fought her way up from below needed something new.

Twenty-five minutes into the game.

Against all expectations, Jin Gyeo-wool had silenced her viewers' doubts, perfectly weathering the relentless assault of the enemy Irelia raining down from top lane. Not only that — she slipped two jungle ganks, and on one of them traded her life to take the jungler with her.

Even so, despite everything she was doing in the top lane, the overall state of the map had favored the enemy for the entire twenty-five minutes.

Around the fifteen-minute mark came the dragon fight. Both teams had been jockeying for vision without committing to the objective when the jungle behind the pit got breached by an enemy flanking squad. With vision locked down, the moment Gyeo-wool's team collapsed onto the area to contest, the enemy started bursting the dragon.

The sudden dragon burst threw the fight into chaos. Thankfully their jungler managed the steal, but the teamfight itself was a complete wipe.

Gyeo-wool, who'd been scaling steadily the whole game, fearlessly popped her ultimate and dove straight into the heart of the enemy formation, holding out long enough to cut down the jungler and support. But a two-for-three trade that cost them both Fiora and their ADC still came out as a net loss on the final ledger.

She kept the enemy Irelia pinned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to her lane and pushed the side wave as aggressively as she could, but her mid laner and support each got picked once, and the losing pattern refused to break.

Still, her split push was so relentlessly aggressive that the enemy Irelia couldn't rotate to her team — she had to keep peeling off alone just to stop Gyeo-wool's advance.

What Gyeo-wool wanted from her team hadn't really changed from the start.

I'll keep the enemy top laner locked down on the side. Just win somewhere else — win with the main squad. I'll watch their movements, keep pushing the side wave, and crack either the tower in front of the inhibitor or the inhibitor itself.

I believe in you, team!

In fact, when she confirmed the main forces were still staring each other down near the Peacock's pit, she shoved the wave out and soloed the dragon in place of her jungler. She was doing everything she could.

But separate from Gyeo-wool giving it her all — and her teammates giving it theirs — the flow of the game remained painfully constrained. Naturally, she pushed farther and farther forward, and that overextended positioning bred crisis.

A razor-edged standoff with the enemy Irelia in front of the enemy bot tier-two tower. After a measured trade, both of them sat at half health.

Gyeo-wool saw Irelia get careless and step out in front of the tower, and she flashed like lightning. The following Q — Lunge locked perfectly onto the vital mark sitting at Irelia's nine o'clock; Fiora's passive proc from the skill's secondary effect detonated for massive damage and a surge of healing.

Sensing the moment, she activated her ultimate — Grand Challenge. Four vitals flared to life around the enemy Irelia. If she could just keep pressing, a solo kill was well within reach.

But there was one thing Gyeo-wool had overlooked: whether the enemy Irelia still had Flash. A cool head could have calculated the timing easily enough — but a hot one ruined everything.

Irelia flashed backward, and Gyeo-wool, unwilling to waste her ultimate, had no choice but to dive deep under the tower.

The enemy turret opened fire all at once, but her ultimate was already up and the lifesteal was more than enough. If she just popped every vital, she could still win.

Her mid laner was rotating up, too. If she could just stall for time, they'd win the skirmish and take a favorable Peacock fight—

"Ah—"

Gyeo-wool had been watching only for her own team's arrival and completely missed the enemy's rotate timing. Worse, the enemy backup arrived faster than her own cover.

Cutting through the dense jungle canopy, the enemy ADC Kai'Sa's W — Void Seeker slammed dead-on into Gyeo-wool's Fiora.

A Void Tracking mark bloomed over Fiora's head with a sharp pop. Kai'Sa, who'd been a full screen away, tore through the Void and dropped right beside her.

The arriving Kai'Sa's Q — Icathian Rain lived up to its name, a violet cascade of projectiles pouring down onto Fiora.

Her overall planning had gone sloppy from the heat in her head, but her mechanics had spiked to their absolute limit. With extreme reaction speed, Gyeo-wool snapped W — Riposte and caught Irelia's skill along with Kai'Sa's autos and passive damage in a single parry.

Not only did the perfect Riposte timing let her shrug off an entire turn of damage — she immediately chained an auto and Q — Lunge to detonate two vitals in the blink of an eye.

But that was as far as Gyeo-wool's defiance went. Her vicious counterattack drove Irelia to death's door — but couldn't finish her.

Fortunately, the mid laner who arrived late cleaned up the Irelia who'd killed Gyeo-wool and then carelessly stepped forward to clear the wave, so at least they got the revenge kill.

For Gyeo-wool, though, it was still a loss.

If she'd kept a cold head and tracked Flash timers precisely. If she'd anticipated the early enemy rotate and dodged that incoming Void Seeker from Kai'Sa.

She could have avoided dying entirely — and the drawn-out fight that pulled her team's strength to one side wouldn't have cost them mid's tier-one and tier-two towers.

Still, running the numbers off both teams' bounty boards, the global gold difference was practically nothing. Both ADCs had hit three items and were scaling at the same pace.

The game was stretching long, but the plan remained the same.

She pushed even harder — advancing with the sheer force of someone about to solo-break the entire bot lane.

Her mid laner caught on to the consistency of her pressure and quietly shadowed her from behind, predicting that a fight similar to the last one would break out again at the enemy bot tier-two.

And that prediction hit dead-on.

The moment Gyeo-wool crashed a cannon wave into the tower, the enemy Irelia used Q — Bladesurge to clear the minions and stepped out in front of the turret, trying to turn back.

This time — this was the real chance. Gyeo-wool's ultimate, Grand Challenge, fired instantly. Lissandra, who'd been waiting in the jungle brush, revealed herself on the exact same beat.

Irelia hadn't expected the Lissandra rotate; she immediately started kiting back. But no amount of pure mechanical skill could react to a R — Frozen Tomb erupting from a Lissandra she couldn't even see.

"Nice!"

The death of the defensive general who'd been marking Fiora 1v1 to keep the backline from collapsing.

A well-fed Lissandra and Fiora's siege speed was monstrous. The enemy bot tier-two fell in seconds, while Gyeo-wool's main force deliberately loitered near the Peacock's pit to draw the enemy team away.

The enemy split two-and-two. With Irelia dead, they had no champion left who could win a 1v1 against Fiora.

But a fed Fiora was a monster who could handle a 1v2 just fine. Two bodies showing up wouldn't stop her. All they could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do was stall until the dead Irelia respawned.

That play didn't convert into a Peacock buff, but the skirmish had carved a highway straight down bot lane for Blue Team.

It was a superplay born from Gyeo-wool's dig-and-dig-again strategy, with her mid laner adding the perfect timing on the breath.

But Jin Gyeo-wool lost that game in the end.

Viewers who'd been mourning the near-certain win erupted at the unexpected turn.

The decision came in the blink of an eye.

Who could have predicted that the teammates who'd held so well would completely collapse in the Peacock teamfight a few minutes later?

Still, in a fight that started with their ADC getting picked by the enemy support Rakan's spectacular engage, three of them walking out alive was a miracle in itself.

After losing the teamfight, giving up the Peacock was a given.

Gyeo-wool's team split into two prongs and launched their final play.

The two remaining champions would cling to the enemy and stall the Peacock kill for as long as possible, buying time for Gyeo-wool to teleport into the empty enemy bot lane and strike from behind.

The Peacock was already gone. At this point, the team had no choice but to pin everything on Gyeo-wool's backdoor reverse sweep.

The jungler and mid laner who'd been contesting the enemy's Peacock try dove into the pit as if on cue, and ten seconds later they died one after another, five seconds apart.

In that window, Gyeo-wool managed to take down the last remaining twin turret.

But that was the limit.

The enemy champions, all recalling at once, poured out of the fountain in a swarm and pinned Gyeo-wool's Fiora down.

Gyeo-wool held out to the bitter end with W — Riposte, but even her stubbornness couldn't finish it — the Nexus died with a mere five percent of its health remaining.

After the game ended, her teammates groaned in frustration, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and even the enemy side typed all-chat praise for their support, saying they'd barely scraped the win. It was almost wholesome.

But there was one person who couldn't join that atmosphere — Jin Gyeo-wool, who'd just logged another loss in her promotion series.

"Ah. How do you lose that…"

A heartbreaking defeat with victory right in front of her face. The viewers' anxiety began to spike.