Hwasong High Charity LoC Tournament - Part Two (3)
"Alright! You're joining us right now for the Hwasong High School Charity LoC Tournament! Today's special guest commentator is none other than the world's greatest pro gamer produced by Hwasong High—Yeokchoemi himself! Plum, Lee Do-jin!"
The caster's hype only grew more over-the-top by the second, and Lee Do-jin's headache intensified right along with it.
The finals began. From the moment both teams finished ban-pick and loaded into the game, the caster's mouth never stopped running.
"Alright, let's watch the match! First up, blue side! Winter Kingdom won the coin toss for side selection and chose blue!"
Blue side's picks were Rarr / Nidalee / Joni / Xayah / Rakan.
Opposing them on red, Average Diamond locked in Gangplank / Kha'Zix / Azir / Varus / Braum.
True to a finals opponent, their average tier matched the team name—Diamond. One Master, two Diamonds, and two Platinums. That they outclassed Winter Kingdom, whose average sat at Platinum, needed no further explanation.
From the opening minutes, every lane except jungle and top started wailing.
"Hey hey, bot bot!"
"Forget bot, mid hurry up."
Even Choi Go-yun, who had been calmly steering the game all day, visibly frayed under support calls flying in from every direction. Jungle pathing wasted itself as a matter of course, the enemy jungler freely invaded, and Jin Gyeo-wool herself had to spend nearly half the early game crouched low, pulling the wave as far as she could.
Composition-wise, Average Diamond held superior teamfight power, while Winter Kingdom excelled at side-lane pokes and pickoffs. In other words, if Winter Kingdom failed to bank advantages through the early-to-mid game, they would almost certainly collapse in a single late-game fight.
But there was nothing to be done right now. Every lane was already getting shoved in, wasn't it?
"Ah, these bastards for real. Their laning is filthy garbage."
"Choi Go-yun, top a bit."
"Ah, top why again!"
Lee Yeong-bin tilted his head watching Choi Go-yun yell at Jin Gyeo-wool. Whether from the crushing pressure or not, Choi Go-yun's fear sensors had clearly short-circuited.
"You lose the smite fight on krugs and then bitch at me? It's a kill angle, so get over here."
"…Got it."
But when she called a kill angle, how could he refuse? The enemy jungler had just swung bot, and everything Jin Gyeo-wool said was pure fact. There wasn't even room left to stay annoyed.
"Golem bush front. Waiting?"
"Yeah. Hold up."
Choi Go-yun's Nidalee slipped into cougar form, circled the enemy top jungle, and vaulted the golem wall. Hiding in the bush that looked straight onto the top lane, he confirmed it—definitely a kill angle. A razor-thin spot just outside red tower range. There, the blue caster minions Jin Gyeo-wool had patiently shaped for five full minutes sat clustered in a perfect wave. On top of that, her relentless poking had already dropped the enemy Gangplank below half health. Even if the opponent was Diamond, this was a guaranteed catch.
"Looks like the first kill will come from top."
"Is that so? Observer? Top, please… Yes! Thank you. Wait—when did Gangplank's HP drop this low?"
"Jin Gyeo-wool has been forming the wave and poking him relentlessly since earlier."
"Look at that wave gathered so neatly right in front of the tower. This wave is massive."
Nidalee's spear burst from the bush and barely skimmed past Gangplank, but by then Gangplank knew. He was completely surrounded. There was no escape. The wave crashed in; tower shots began. Gangplank twisted and weaved behind the tower, but Rarr and Nidalee refused to move rashly. The three champions danced left and right as if by prior agreement—until Rarr's small boomerang whooshed straight into Gangplank and shattered the calm.
"I'll take the tower aggro."
"Confirmed!"
Because the auto-attack damage landed on the exact same frame as the tower shot, Rarr sprinted toward the red side before the next tower volley could begin. A sharp warning ping rang out as the tower's attack laser locked onto Rarr's head. Already Nidalee's autos and javelin were flying toward Gangplank as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
"Spear landed! Ahhh! This—this is dead!!"
ValKyrie ▶ StickyTangerineHands
Even while peeling out, Jin Gyeo-wool sniped the kill with Q/Whoosh Boomerang.
"Hey! You snatch the kill like that?"
"Bullshit no. I planned to take it from the start."
"……Fine, if that's how it was, nothing I can say."
Choi Go-yun had been flaring up all game, yet every time Jin Gyeo-wool spoke he settled back down—a pattern that kept repeating.
Every lane except top was still suffering, but Choi Go-yun had run his feet raw covering them, so the damage never turned catastrophic. Whether it was because everyone's form was sharp today, or because they simply believed that trusting Jin Gyeo-wool and playing straight would be enough—unexpected super plays kept exploding out of nowhere.
"Ahhh! Kha'Zix just got hit by CoolCool Star! Azir tries to body-block but—!"
While Azir was back home, Kha'Zix had rotated for a brief mid cover—only for E/CoolCool Star to come screaming through the lower mid river wall. Kha'Zix leapt toward the tower in a panic, but the follow-up barrage of Joni's Q/PongPong Stars shredded sixty percent of his health.
"Uwaaaak! That hurts so bad!"
"Blue's going down for sure, and dragon with it."
"With that much HP left, Kha'Zix literally can't do anything…!"
The good fortune Do Ho-jae had summoned put Winter Kingdom in full festival mode. For the first time all match, Choi Go-yun actually praised mid and bot.
"Ah you bastards. You can do it when you try! Worth covering the living shit out of you, huh?"
They stole the enemy blue buff with relish, then mid and bot naturally funneled in for the dragon hunt. Despite the raw size gap, Winter Kingdom was steering the early game into a lead. The enemy jungler had to be nursing a migraine—he had thrown consecutive ganks at mid and bot, yet Choi Go-yun had abandoned his own camps to race over every time, leaving nothing to show for it.
A solo kill from a laner would have been ideal, of course, but Average Diamond's ban-pick was built for mid-to-late teamfights. Mid-laner Azir still needed growth time, and the support was Braum—optimized for defense and counter-engage. Even with the size advantage, champion matchups could not simply be ignored. And once the Gangplank who had sacrificed himself for the team was completely gutted, Jin Gyeo-wool alone grew more and more arrogant.
"Top is hopeless! Rarr's poking is pure hell!"
"Gangplank probably won't be able to do anything for the rest of this game."
"Ah, then isn't that a problem? Gangplank is a champion that needs quite a bit of growth time!"
"Exactly. Winter Kingdom's jungler Choi Go-yun is locking down mid and bot while Jin Gyeo-wool plays the absolute best game she can. It almost feels like she already knows exactly how to win."
Leave her alone and later they would have no answer for Jin Gyeo-wool's monstrous split-push. Even if a teamfight broke out, Rarr would flash east and west, making single-target focus nearly impossible. The moment Average Diamond failed to crush them outright, their empty base would be torn apart by a ferocious Rarr. The enemy jungler clearly understood that, because at some point Kha'Zix's pathing began leaning heavily toward the top side. He had to cover the completely wrecked Gangplank and stop Rarr from snowballing any further.
"Kha'Zix is waiting right now. Rarr's HP is a little chipped, after all."
"But her rage management is solid. This is a picture where Average Diamond could get reversed instead."
Game time: twelve minutes.
Kha'Zix, camping the top tri-bush, finally drew his blades. Through his ultimate he melted into the shadows, insect wings buzzing as he took to the sky.
"She's transformed into Mega Rarr!"
And in that instant, Jin Gyeo-wool's mind began spinning at high speed.
Three champions standing in a straight line, each spaced one Teemo apart: Mega Rarr, Kha'Zix, Gangplank. Nidalee was already racing up the river toward top. Ally teleport status—everyone except Rarr, so mid and support. Enemy teleports—only the support. Numbers gathering at top were 2:2, but the numbers that could be called by teleport were 2:1. Open the fight, create chaos, and bank the advantage before mid's Azir could join—this was a critical point that could lock in the win.
Fight angle…!
In the same breath, Lee Do-jin saw it too.
"Big fight incoming at top."
"Huh? Right now?"
The caster barely had time to look startled before Mega Rarr front-flashed straight onto Kha'Zix and cast W/CrashBang. Mega Rarr raised a fist high overhead; a long red rectangular hitbox stamped itself across the ground, swallowing both Kha'Zix and Gangplank.
"Do Ho-jae, Yuk Min-su. Top TP! Right now!"
The cast time was barely a single second—reaction was never going to be easy. Kha'Zix flashed on instinct, but in his panic he flashed not left or right of the hitbox but to the tip of it, straight onto Gangplank's position. It was the kind of mistake that still slipped out even in pro games under pressure, and Jin Gyeo-wool had half-intended exactly that outcome.
The caster exploded into a full-throated rant.
"Two stunned at once!"
Rarr's ultimate Rarr! fired the instant the stun landed. The already-stunned Kha'Zix and Gangplank were slammed into the wall.
"No way! The fight balloons in a split second! It's flowing exactly the way commentator Lee Do-jin predicted! And Rarr!! Two-man stun! Insane damage!!"
Then Q/Rock Throw and E/Crunch piled on top. The two hunters who had come to bag Rarr were already down to forty percent health. Behind the two champions trying to peel away, teleports landed as if they had been waiting for the cue—Joni holding the ice-spike rifle MTC-645 spell shards, and Rakan.
"Uwa, total chaos! Nidalee's here too!"
"Rakan charm landed. It's already over."
Rakan's ultimate Grand Entrance locked down the fleeing Kha'Zix and Gangplank; Joni's MTC-645 and PongPong Stars buried them. Nidalee arrived in cougar form and swept the area—the fight was finished. Azir was sprinting to join, but he still hadn't crossed even half the river. Braum, teleporting in late, desperately tried to save Kha'Zix and Gangplank with his ultimate Glacial Fissure—
GoGoYun has slain KshKsh!
LuckyLucky has slain StickyTangerineHands!
Joni and Rakan, who had been dancing under the tower, had already fled outside its range long ago. Their bodies floated up on the fissure, but the teamfight was over—it was nothing more than a boring amusement-park ride.
"This is 4v2—even if Azir arrives he can't do a thing!"
"Winter Kingdom's overall health isn't great, but Azir alone absolutely cannot clean them up. Average Diamond will have to settle for the top tower still standing."
"Ah—just as commentator Lee Do-jin said, Azir can't freely dive in either! He's abandoning the chase and setting up to defend in front of the tower!"
The four of them peeled cleanly out of the teamfight. Lee Yeong-bin, still solo laning bot, asked,
"Something fun happen top?"
Jin Gyeo-wool herself was completely unfazed, but Choi Go-yun—who had been racing over to cover and watching the whole thing—answered in a full-blown frenzy. His voice was so loud the entire team voice chat thundered.
"Yah, shit. You guys just see that? Didn't see it? Wow, this has to be clipped. Just now Jin Gyeo-wool was fucking insane, holy shit!"
Choi Go-yun's evaluation was fair. Seeing the enemies lined up single-file, she front-flashed without hesitation, predicted the flash position and clipped a slightly off-center stun, called the team in the same breath, then chained the ultimate stun. In LoC, just breaking a 1v2 right in front of you was already chaotic enough—yet she had been calculating the team's join the entire time. Honestly, in that situation the one who should have been calling for the team join was Choi Go-yun, but this match he had been too busy covering mid and bot.
"Jin Gyeo-wool. Wow. Wow! For real, crazy. Wow! Solo mad-movie!"
Jin Gyeo-wool tried to rein in the hyped-up Choi Go-yun with a scolding,
"Hey, Choi Go-yun, calm down."
What came back was the blissful scream of a man who had already become her fan.
"You guys from now on call her GameGyeo-wool instead of FightGyeo-wool. This kid games fucking good!"