IeSF World Championship Finals, vs Macau (2)

"A perfect first blood!"

"Doyoon only landed a slow and still walks away with the kill. That's a jungler's dream! Not a single resource wasted. The Korean team takes the kill without burning a single Flash!"

"Wook's engage was flawless, wasn't it? Let's watch that again!"

Barely into the game, Korea drew first blood and seized control.

Throughout this IeSF World Championship, blowing open lanes and steamrolling opponents with raw power had become the Korean players' signature move — though no one watching could have guessed the real reason was a million-won bread solo-kill bet.

"They got a kill bot side, but Aatrox is holding his own in mid. He's already doubled Akali's CS."

"That's just the early-game matchup. Nothing you can do about it."

While the casters talked, another skirmish broke out bot lane. With both sides still holding their summoner spells, the fight ignited in an instant.

"Wahaha! The supports trade kills!"

"Looks like both supports are going to make it out, though?"

"Wook had already used Ignite earlier, so that death was unavoidable. Korea's bot lane is playing incredibly aggressive."

They were still reviewing the replay when the camera snapped straight to top lane the moment it ended.

In the blink of an eye, another gank was already underway.

"The action just doesn't stop! There's no time to look away!"

"LiuRen's Irelia is a little too deep! Lee Sin and Urgot ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are both level five!"

"Without ultimates, this might be tough to convert, right?"

Irelia, who'd been sitting in the topside brush, dropped a Q/Bladesurge to escape toward the wave — only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for Urgot to lunge in with a perfectly timed E/Disdain aimed right at her landing spot.

Without Flash, she would have been flung straight into the enemy team and handed over a free kill. Irelia's Flash went out as naturally as water flowing downhill.

Irelia bolted. But Lee Sin was right on her heels, landing a slow with a Ward–W–E combo.

That was the exact moment the level-up chime rang out beside Lee Sin.

"Level six! Urgot just hit six!"

"Did she seriously calculate the level-up timing?!"

Left alone, Irelia still had a chance to slip away — there was no hard CC left to lock her down.

Then a massive iron harpoon blasted from the gut of Jin Gyeo-wool's freshly sixed Urgot.

"She still needs to chip a little more health!"

"Lee Sin Q auto! Urgot burns Flash too! Purge—!"

"FEAR BEYOND DEATH—!"

Clatter-rattle-rattle!

The shriek of chains filled the battlefield as Irelia was dragged screaming into a nightmarish meat grinder.

"What even was that gank timing?!"

"Wow, Macau had every reason to get caught there. Korea's jungler almost never path topside at this timing."

"Exactly. This is usually when ValKyrie just solos her lane opponent. That's why LiuRen was sitting so deep, looking for a 1v1!"

"Korea is executing these variable plays to absolute perfection."

It was a string of plays only possible when you were living rent-free inside the enemy's head.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason Korea was strong. Every single player on the roster possessed combat power beyond imagination.

Simultaneous 2v2 skirmishes broke out in mid and bot. Bot traded 1-for-1, but mid went 2–0 in a decisive stomp.

"Bot keeps trading back and forth."

"And somehow neither ADC has a single kill yet."

The funny part was that less than a minute after the casters said that, both bot laners dropped each other and walked away with a kill apiece.

With the kill score at 4–7 in favor of red-side Korea—

"Solo kill!!"

"Our observer can't even keep up at this point. The second we glance at another lane, something happens!"

An out-of-nowhere solo kill had just dropped top.

Matchup-wise, Urgot did pull ahead once she hit level seven, but Irelia could still farm it out with some CS losses as long as she avoided bad fights.

The problem was that her opponent completely misread the combat power differential. They bickered over a few minions, then Irelia couldn't swallow her pride and charged in.

Jin Gyeo-wool said thank you very much and pocketed the kill. With the solo-kill bet still active among the players, freebies like this were too good to pass up.

"Hold on, another fight's breaking out!"

"Korea's jungle and mid are linking up for a mid dive!"

"Aatrox has to be swallowing his pride here — isn't he one of the better champions at surviving this kind of thing?"

"He doesn't have ultimate right now. They know it, and they're going in—!"

What the casters didn't know was that throughout the fight, Choi Do-yun was getting chewed out by Gong Je-hyeon.

Somehow, every single time a kill window opened, Choi Do-yun materialized like a ghost and ruined the solo kill.

Chopping up a starved Aatrox was something he could handle alone — and yet Do-yun insisted on tagging along and snagging the assist. How was he supposed to not be pissed?

Of course, to the casters it just looked like beautiful teamwork.

"Doyoon swept through the topside jungle first. He already knew Xin Zhao was botside."

"The cover was incredibly fast."

"The gold lead just hit three thousand. They're up six kills!"

"Wow. ValKyrie is 2/0/0, Loki is 4/0/0. Once Akali gets that many kills, you cannot shut her down later."

Not even ten minutes in, and the game had already tilted completely on its axis.

Choi Do-yun, as if personally devoted to securing Jin Gyeo-wool's bet victory, started tunneling botside next.

He'd caught an earful from Gyeo-wool for snagging that early topside assist — but to the casters, this was simply a jungler exerting massive map influence.

The bot tower could no longer protect Macau's bot duo.

Korea had completely demolished bot lane behind a shield, a lantern, and a Lee Sin who seemed to teleport through walls.

"Korea! Another double kill bot side!"

"Akali rotated down from mid, but she didn't even need to!"

"Hey — who can make it to Kerberos right now?"

Meanwhile, Jin Gyeo-wool was tracking Xin Zhao and Irelia on a ward as they started the Kerberos objective.

The second the call went out, Lee Sin and Akali — who'd been heading back to base — swung their path topside instead.

"Noona! You're trying to snag another solo kill, aren't you?! Yo, hurry up. We gotta block the solo kill!"

Gong Je-hyeon's venom-soaked shout got an immediate answer from Choi Do-yun.

"She's asking for help because if she goes in alone it's a 3v1, you idiot."

"Whatever. No solo kills. We block it no matter what."

Choi Do-yun was the only one who'd actually parsed Gyeo-wool's intent correctly — but as long as both of them showed up, it was fine.

If a fight broke out at Peacock's Pit right now, the enemy could only collapse with three people at most, no matter how fast they rotated.

"Gyeo-wool, I'm rotating up too."

Leaving a well-fed Yu Min-jae alone bot, Ha Jeong-uk started pushing upriver.

Gong Je-hyeon and Choi Do-yun hit the mid lane in no time, and Jin Gyeo-wool wordlessly sprinted straight into Peacock's Pit.

"Noona, why are you going in already?!"

"Their HP is almost full!"

Convinced Gyeo-wool was about to get herself killed, Choi Do-yun's pulse spiked.

"I'm going for the steal — just come in whenever. I'm not dying instantly anyway."

"Aah, fuck! Sprint!"

Even after the bot dive earlier, neither of them had burned ultimate, so Lee Sin and Akali both had their ults ready.

Jin Gyeo-wool activated her turret and dove straight into the middle of the enemy team.

— Leave none alive!

Irelia fired her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ultimate, Vanguard's Edge, toward Kerberos to prevent a potential steal. Gyeo-wool tried to snipe it with Q/Purge, but missed the last hit by a hair's breadth.

A brief 3v1 had played out, but Gyeo-wool's health bar barely moved. Between two early HP items as her first core components and the Mercenary's Greaves she'd rushed specifically to tank the enemy's four-AD damage profile, she was a wall.

"Noona, we're here!"

The instant Lee Sin dashed in for cover, Xin Zhao's ultimate blasted both Urgot and Lee Sin clean out of Peacock's Pit.

Having solo-tanked long enough to shave the enemies down to about two-thirds health, Jin Gyeo-wool Flashed out of the pit with roughly a fifth of her HP remaining.

"Aatrox!!"

The order dropped the second she cleared the wall.

Akali and Lee Sin unloaded their full combos onto the designated target the moment they arrived. And right on cue, the familiar rattle of iron chains rang across the battlefield.

Clatter-clank-clank!

Watching Aatrox ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠get reeled in toward Urgot like a hooked fish, Gong Je-hyeon let out a groan.

"What the hell — when did you even fire that ult?"

The casters could not contain themselves.

"ValKyrie!! She just tanked three people's worth of damage in there alone and dragged Aatrox out with her!!"

"This teamfight is over."

"It is! Irelia and Xin Zhao cannot win a fight against Lee Sin and Akali! Even with a numbers advantage, Macau is losing!"

Akali scooped up yet another double kill, and Jin Gyeo-wool even had the leisure to deliberately gift a kill to Ha Jeong-uk.

Aatrox had been carved up by Urgot's Fear Beyond Death, but surviving thanks to his own ultimate only meant he became a poor support's daily bread.

"ValKyrie just gave away that kill."

"You almost never see a top laner looking out for their support like that."

"Right. Especially in a tournament like this, every single kill matters for the laners."

"Which just tells you how comfortable the game state is. Both sides of the upper map are already sitting on more than half a full item lead."

Score: 5–17. Global gold lead: five thousand.

Red-side Korea was rolling the game at a blistering pace.

The gap was nothing short of overwhelming.

Right before the game ended, standing in front of the nexus, Korea had dismantled every Macau player except the support — and they were up a staggering twenty thousand gold.

Jin Gyeo-wool finished 8/0/7. Choi Do-yun went 7/1/23. Gong Je-hyeon posted 10/1/6.

The unkillable top-side trio's hypercarry performance made the pre-match assessment of Macau as a relatively strong team look like a bad joke.

An unexpectedly massive audience had flooded the broadcast, and the live chat was packed with cheers in all kinds of foreign languages.

But the overwhelming majority was Korean — fans who'd tuned in specifically to watch Jin Gyeo-wool.

In a pro scene where the vast majority of players and fans were men, the heretical comet that was Jin Gyeo-wool had proven devastatingly effective at monopolizing everyone's attention.

Even with average looks and nothing but raw skill, she would have exploded in popularity. But Gyeo-wool combined an angelic face with the most destructive playstyle imaginable.

A character whose outside and inside were complete opposites. Features so lovely you couldn't forget them after a single glance.

This was only her second broadcasted match, and already you could hear the sound of her fanbase multiplying.

"I hope the Macau players don't get too discouraged. Dropping game one happens."

"Agreed. I'm a little worried about LiuRen, though. Miss Winter put him through the wringer."

"Still — they've got to shake it off."

Having watched the first game in awe, the casters even coined a brand-new nickname for Jin Gyeo-wool.

A little wordplay on her name — she'd frozen the top lane solid, just like winter.

"It wasn't just Miss Winter carrying, either. Bot lane kept getting blown open, and Loki was flying around on Akali in mid."

"Agreed. Completely agree."

"Korea is genuinely strong. I saw a prediction that they'd go undefeated for the title — and now they only need two more wins for a perfect run."

"And as I say that — the nexus goes down! Korea takes game one!"

The first set ended rather anticlimactically, and the broadcast cut briefly to the players.

As luck would have it, the wide cam covering the whole team was angled toward top laner Jin Gyeo-wool.

On camera, Gyeo-wool went to take a sip of water, snagged her bottle on the mic, and spilled it all over her hoodie. She scrunched her face in pure irritation — and the fans detonated in chat.