Scrim vs Team CroMagnon (3)

Back-to-back losses in Game 1 and Game 2.

The mood inside Team CroMagnon had started to sink fast.

"Dude, what the hell were you thinking throwing your brain out the window there?"

"Oh, so that's my fault?"

"Honestly, if you hadn't inted, nobody would've even noticed."

"Hey, cut it out. Are we doing ban-pick or not?"

Actually, it wasn't so much sinking as it was boiling over into something uglier.

You're right, I'm right. You inted, I held the line. The back-and-forth arguments sparked friction, and in a practice room where the air conditioning already barely worked, the temperature climbing was only natural.

Unable to watch any longer, team captain Park Su-ho stepped in.

"Hey. Knock it the hell off. What good does fighting each other do?"

Mid laner Jeong Tae-yang, still seething from the argument, muttered under his breath.

"Just half-ass it. It's a scrim anyway. From where I'm sitting, we're losing Game 3 too."

At that, the ADC who'd been going at him neck and neck just moments before lunged right back in.

"Tae, isn't that because you inted?"

"Ah, fuck. Stop bringing that up."

At this rate the fighting was never going to end.

Park Su-ho squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.

"I said stop!"

Half-ass it because it's a scrim?

Park Su-ho had never expected to hear something that absurd.

If anything, a scrim was when you had to try even harder.

They were going to run into this team again at the actual tournament, no question.

His own team would sharpen up with time, sure — but there was no way the other side was just going to sit around twiddling their thumbs until then either.

If you compared the rate of skill growth to the slope of a graph, even that slope already belonged to the Winter Army.

And still they were thinking this casually?

Ah… nationals are going to be rough again this year.

Jeong Tae-yang's head was starting to pound.

The Winter Army was a team that had started from a completely different line.

They were organized to a degree that made it hard to believe they were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠amateurs, and even when they made mistakes, their in-game macro was sharp enough to recover from them.

Su-ho didn't yet know that Jin Gyeo-wool stood at the head of all that — but objectively speaking, they looked like a team that could snatch a win off a pro squad on a good day.

Going up against a team like that, he could understand why CroMagnon looked the way they did right now.

But if feeling the skill gap in defeat was enough to make them quit, they all would have hung up LoC a long time ago.

So stopping here was not an option.

Even if charging in meant cracking their skulls open, they had to take the challenge first.

"Hey. Everybody get your heads on straight and get ready for ban-pick."

Final set. Sides swapped again — Winter Army on blue, CroMagnon on red.

"Varus?"

The moment the pick phase opened, Winter Army's first pick was Varus.

Watching them pass on Xayah — the strongest pick in the current meta — to lock Varus instead sent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a ripple through CroMagnon.

"Varus is kind of rough right now, isn't it?"

CroMagnon's ADC muttered, unable to make sense of it.

"Guinsoo's Rageblade got more expensive, and they changed Varus's skill kit too. And they're still picking him?"

"Maybe they've already practiced him that much?"

"Hey, nothing to think about. Xayah and Rakan are open — just take them."

"Okay."

The pick timer was ticking down by the second. CroMagnon locked in Xayah–Rakan as their first and second picks.

It was still considered one of the strongest bot lane duos from 2017 straight through 2018, and with both open, there was no reason not to take them.

Winter Army's second pick was Trundle.

Choi Do-yun played him well, he was a consistently popular pick, and whether you needed ganks or tanking, he was an easy, solid champion to work with.

And the third pick that followed was Ornn — Jin Gyeo-wool's champion.

"It's Ornn."

The moment Park Su-ho saw it, the nightmare of Game 2 came flooding back.

The second Su-ho had locked Ornn in Game 2, Jin Gyeo-wool had been waiting for it — snatching Irelia and detonating the top lane.

For Su-ho, who had never been beaten that badly while playing Ornn, it had been a horrific experience straight out of that famous line from a popular indie game a few years back.

And now that same Jin Gyeo-wool had picked Ornn herself.

It was as good as a declaration: The Ornn you just showed was pathetic, so now I'll show you how it's done.

But locking Irelia to put her in her place? The odds on that gamble were far too low.

ValKyrie was demonstrating with her own hands what Challenger-tier dignity looked like. If Su-ho threw himself at that level, he might sink into a slump he couldn't climb out of.

"Hyung, Irelia's kind of iffy, right?"

"…Yeah. It's awkward."

"Honestly, even I couldn't pull off that Irelia from last game. She was a complete maniac. Holy shit."

Their third pick was Swain — a champion mid laner Jeong Tae-yang had been practicing a lot lately.

"Yo. You just slammed the lock?"

"Ah, so what? I've been practicing him a ton lately. Gotta try him at least once in a scrim. And he's actually pretty decent. You saw it too, hyung."

A lock-in with zero contingency plan. Park Su-ho let out a long sigh.

When even his own teammates wouldn't listen, his headaches only got deeper.

A few more key picks banned on both sides, and then pick phase two.

On their turn, CroMagnon chose Olaf.

"Let's grab them hard early and shake them up. Looking at this, if it goes late we're screwed."

At least jungler ShyWolf had a solid idea. Su-ho called it a good thought and greenlit the lock.

Back to Winter Army's 4–5 pick window.

Counter-style support Braum, and Azir — one of Gong Je-hyeon's staple picks — finally made their appearance.

Seeing that, Jeong Tae-yang, who'd locked Swain, let out a groan.

"Why the hell is that bastard Loki locking in like his life depends on it?"

"Guess they're trying to take all three. With Azir we can at least play the early game, right?"

After some thought, Park Su-ho locked Lar as his final pick.

What made the player called ValKyrie terrifying wasn't just her combat mechanics — it was her map reading, the way she dropped teleports at exactly the right place and time to shatter the balance of power.

So he steeled his resolve: he was going to pin Ornn down and never let those feet get free.

If there was any comfort to be found in Winter Army's completed draft, it was that it leaned late-game overall, with Varus as a somewhat awkward inclusion mixed in.

But if the game flowed cleanly, Winter Army's late-game advantage was obvious.

In simple terms: Winter Army's shield versus CroMagnon's spear.

CroMagnon needed to leverage Lar's split-push pressure and Olaf's early-game strength, snowball from the start, get Xayah fed, and take the win.

Easy in theory. How much of that they could actually execute in a real game was the variable.

The game began, and once again the early phase started flowing quietly.

CroMagnon was supposed to be the side that struck first — and yet around the five-minute mark, it was Winter Army who threw out the first play.

"Ah, fuck. Bot lane again."

Choi Do-yun hadn't forgotten. He was back in the bot lane.

Even with jungler ShyWolf's danger ping on the map, GinGin had overextended into a forward position and handed them the opening.

Part of it was that Jin Gyeo-wool had told Do-yun to stay out of top whenever possible, so he visited bot a lot — but from the enemy ADC's perspective, it was pure hell.

Trundle's pillar erupted from the ground.

Xayah was briefly launched into the air and shoved toward Trundle, and the slow aura pouring off the pillar clamped hard around her ankles.

On top of that, Varus's E — Hail of Arrows — rained down, dragging Xayah's move speed even lower.

GinGin groaned at the sluggish crawl of his own champion.

"Ah shit. Am I dead?"

He flashed in a panic, but Trundle flashed right after him the moment Xayah cleared the danger zone.

The filthy troll's fangs sank hard into Xayah, and the second she finally escaped the slow zone, her move speed dropped all over again.

"Hyung! Watch the freeze tag!"

"Block it, fuck—!"

Rakan stuck to Trundle's side like glue, grinding against him, desperately trying to keep Xayah alive somehow.

But then a problem cropped up.

While the fleeing Xayah and Rakan jostled and tangled together, Braum's Q — Winter's Bite — came flying in and planted a mark over Xayah's head.

Xayah's feet, which had just seemed free, locked up and slowed again, and Trundle kept swinging his club, stacking marks over her head.

Two club hits. Braum latched onto Trundle for three auto-attacks.

Rakan hurriedly used W to knock up both the mustached man and the filthy troll clinging to them — but from a short distance away, Varus's arrows came streaking in for mark number four.

His head went blank.

"Aargh! Shit!"

Braum's passive: Concussive Blows.

When he hit an enemy with a basic attack or his Q, stacks began building over their head — and once those stacks filled, the target was stunned for a long duration.

Even better, once the mark appeared, any teammate could contribute stacks.

It was one of the reasons Braum was so strong at both peeling for allies and chasing down enemies.

A satisfying first blood for the Winter Army. For CroMagnon, a signal flare announcing the start of a miserable set.

Whether keeping him from fixating on Jin Gyeo-wool had been the key or not, Choi Do-yun's jungle pathing was clearly cleaner than before.

That gank just now hadn't wasted a single step of movement either.

Up through the fifteen-minute mark, both teams had a relatively clean stretch of time.

Winter Army took the Ocean Dragon as well, though a fight broke out in the process and Ha Jeong-uk's Braum picked up one death.

Winter Army's lane swap led to a push on the top tower, while CroMagnon's Xayah held the bot lane to the bitter end and managed to take down the outer bot turret in return.

In the ongoing macro war, a fairly large teamfight broke out around Cerberus at the sixteen-minute mark. A three-for-three trade went down — Ornn and Varus surviving for Winter Army, Swain and Rakan for CroMagnon.

The surviving Winter Army players collapsed CroMagnon's mid tower first, but as lanes reset, CroMagnon secured Cerberus.

Fortunately, the global gold gap hadn't opened up too wide.

Lar pinning Jin Gyeo-wool down with everything he had was having an effect.

Even after all that lane harassment, keeping the CS difference under twenty was a little disappointing — but holding that well against a clear skill gap was more than worthy of praise.

Time rolled on to twenty-six minutes.

Having claimed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠three Infernal and Ocean Dragons, Winter Army began casually prowling around the Peacock's seal.

"Yo, stop the Peacock. They're coming up."

But the fight setup was bad. Of all people, Olaf — who'd been probing at the front — got caught on Trundle's pillar.

"Yoyoyoyo. We're fucked."

Seeing Swain come sprinting down from the river above, Park Su-ho read the setup and shouted.

"Tae. Tae! Your position's dangerous, fall back!"

Winter Army came pouring in a mass from below the river's brush ward.

By the time anyone registered it, Jeong Tae-yang's position — after he'd rushed in to save Olaf — was completely wrong.

"Huh?"

Swain tried to backpedal the moment he realized how bad it was, but Trundle and Braum both whipped around and crashed down on him at once.

"Just hold a little longer! Azir's shoving, I'm coming!"

Before anyone knew it, the picture on screen was Azir holding three alone while Swain faced Varus, Trundle, and Braum by himself.

Swain hurriedly activated his ultimate, unleashing the demon's power.

But it wasn't enough to tank the damage pouring in, and he had no choice but to pop Sonia's Hourglass.

"I used Sonia for now!"

"Azir's backing off — coming right now."

The instant the invulnerability ended, Braum's ultimate — Glacial Fissure — tore the ground open. With a shattering crack, three of CroMagnon's champions were launched into the air.

Every champion except Xayah, who'd been farthest back, went flying — and Yu Min-jae's Varus started drawing his bowstring at speed.

Ultimate and arrow volleys poured out the moment the attack-speed buff activated. Min-jae even flashed out of Rakan's ultimate.

"He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dodged that?"

The focus was genuinely insane. Dodging skill after skill with that kind of precision in the middle of a brawl.

You could tell he'd drilled meticulous control into his body even while always standing aggressively at the front of the fight.

All of it thanks to Jin Gyeo-wool's relentless nagging at Yu Min-jae.

Swain melted in an instant, and Jin Gyeo-wool's Ornn — having cleared the bot wave — appeared below the brush ward with a teleport.

Through the chaos of the battlefield came the deep blast of a war horn.

Jeong Tae-yang, first to die, cried out in alarm.

"Ornn ult incoming! Watch your positioning!"