IeSF World Championship Finals, vs Macau (4)

With the mid-lane Tier 2 turret hanging on by a sliver of health, Akalin's savage dive cut Gin down as well — and the caster desk erupted in cheers.

"Whoa! That was incredible!!"

Until now, the Korean team had always held the advantage without ever showing a real opening. Jin Gyeo-wool and Ha Jeong-uk had kept every reckless impulse among the players firmly in check.

But Korea had been the exception. A one-sided stomp usually breeds crisis.

Once the item gap and kill gap start to widen, a dangerous boldness creeps in. Players ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠attempt dives they would normally think twice about, or keep a fight going even when the team's health bars are a mess.

Which, put another way, is also an opportunity for the side being crushed. An overwhelming deficit can flip in a single moment thanks to a built-in comeback mechanic — the bounty system.

Bounty: The system itself gets fairly complex under the hood, but simply put, consecutive kills or gold income from CS that runs well above the average places a bounty — bonus gold — on a player's head.

The team in control overreaches, trips over its own feet, and hands the enemy a massive bounty payout all at once. It happens more often than you'd think.

Jin Gyeo-wool had dressed it up as showmanship for Hyeon-seong, a bit of provocation.

In truth, this was the situation she had wanted from the start.

She wanted players who had been winning too easily lately to taste real crisis again — to feel that superhuman edge that only sparks in those moments.

The ability to catch an opponent's mistake and flip the game when the team is staring down annihilation.

The ability to manufacture a comeback angle through mid-to-late teamfights or pickoffs, even after losing lane to a bad draft.

That survival instinct that blooms out of pure, suffocating despair when defeat feels certain!

"No way! Zaku just flew back in from behind! Ka'Sha's going down!!"

"Doyoon shuts down Ka'Sha! That's a 675-gold bounty!"

"But Macau still has the numbers. Health bars are roughly even, but Nari's not contributing right now — effectively it's a 2v4."

"And they're still going in?!"

The fight spilled into the blue buff jungle on the red side of the map.

Zaku, down to half health but with his passive off cooldown and a revive ready, played cat-and-mouse with Lyushin, while Jin Gyeo-wool's still-sturdy Olac marched forward like he owned the place.

But Nari, trailing behind, got caught by Akalin peeling off to the right. Zaku leapt toward Olac — straight into Atroque waiting on that side — and died on the spot.

"Nari's down! Zaku popped too — he's reviving, but…!"

Olac somehow held a 1v3 to buy time, but resurrecting the exploded Zaku looked impossible.

Then, at a miraculous timing, Elko came back up and teleported onto the fight without a second's hesitation.

"Elko's up! He TPs in and saves Zaku's jelly form!!"

This was why Jin Gyeo-wool had forced a 2v4 fight she had no business taking. She needed Elko in the fight to farm kills.

A fed Elko could pick off the enemy Ka'Sha, or soak an extra turn in a teamfight and land a wide-area stun for a single-moment total reverse.

In this ankle-grab strategy, Olac and Nari's roles were nothing more and nothing less than aggro magnets and attention sinks.

The spiritual pillar of the legion had volunteered to play the clown.

"Elko joins! Zaku's back!! Olac's in danger, but… he should be able to live and get out!"

"Ah—! Macau needs to stop! This fight has gone on way too long!"

Nari had died, sure, but the death streak advantage probably only handed over about 150 gold.

Olac had bought more than enough time and casually slipped away toward the bottom Tier 2 turret.

Lyushin and Akalin had been trying to pin down that sticky Olac — but it was their own side that got pinned instead.

Over by Elko and Zaku, they picked off Payek for another kill.

"That's enough! Lyushin, Akalin — you need to recall!"

"Exactly. Macau's been in this fight way too long. It's time to reset. That's the right call."

Two kills — a long-overdue rain shower for the Korean team.

"It felt like Korea was clawing back a bit, but the gold lead actually got bigger. Eight thousand difference."

"They lost the mid Tier 2 and bled a lot of kills. We're past the twenty-minute mark already. Isn't this the longest game of the finals?"

"It is. That's how dominant Korea has been all series!"

"Alright, Macau. Reset properly and close this out. The Peacock just spawned. Take the buff and finish it! They need to take a game!"

Macau's voice chat crackled with energy for the first time in a long while.

"Hit the Peacock first! Think while we hit it."

"They're gonna come contest. If they show while we're hitting, we turn on them."

"Let's do it."

They had been completely dismantled in the group stage. Games one and two of the finals had been humiliating blowouts.

And now the opening had finally come.

Whether Korea had gotten careless or simply overestimated their own skill — they had definitely locked in picks that didn't work in the current meta.

Champions from two full years ago. Relics. These weren't just outdated; they had been obsolete for ages.

"Elko's on the Golem side. I'll check."

"On my way!"

The moment Akalin, who'd been lurking in the Golem-side jungle, engaged, the Macau players hitting the Peacock all pushed down into the red buff jungle together.

A brief skirmish. Akalin's ultimate went down, and Elko burned hers too just to survive. For Macau, already ahead, an ult-for-ult trade cost them nothing.

And in that instant — as if chasing Akalin, who was trying to flee toward the top lane —

the sound of Gin's ultimate activating rang out.

A sinister orchestral swell, a fan-shaped firing zone unfurling across the map.

"Gin's looking!"

But this was Macau's chance. When Gin activated his ultimate, his vision widened and he had to look far across the battlefield — which meant he constantly lost track of his immediate surroundings.

Payek, Ka'Sha, and Lyushin stormed in like a hurricane. With no one nearby to peel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for him, Gin simply handed over his life.

"Herd them! Push everyone to the top Tier 2!"

"Surround them — they've got nowhere to go!"

And so began a 3v5 teamfight pinned against Korea's top inner turret. They had the tower, sure — but with the numbers advantage and the gold lead, Macau looked overwhelmingly favored.

Jin Gyeo-wool's Olac hastily teleported onto the turret, but Macau was already smiling before the fight even started.

"I'll ult and body-block!"

"Nari!"

Nari, the first target, barely escaped into the jungle with a flash.

Then Zaku dove through the encirclement, trying to punch a path toward base, and Elko charged in alongside him for the breakthrough.

But the tightened net held firm. They died in seconds, surrendering only the shutdown gold they'd earned a few minutes earlier.

Before anyone realized it, the only one left standing near the top Tier 2 turret was Olac. Like a single piece of equipment from a one-man army — one lone bearded Viking, standing in solitude.

"Kill Olac!"

"Kill him!!"

Atroque had already burned his ultimate revive tanking turret aggro and Olac's damage, but he was in a state of pure rage.

Game one, game two — hadn't he been tormented by Jin Gyeo-wool in the top lane the entire time?

Even in game three, he'd lost the 1v1 top lane. The team might have been winning overall, but top lane had lost.

Cheap or not, wasn't this the moment for revenge? Beat her into the ground, feed her a death, and shut her down.

But he wasn't the only one thinking it. Everyone was overhyped.

"Hey, hey — turret aggro!"

Atroque, who'd been holding turret aggro from the start, had already burned one revive and was staggering out.

But top laner LiuRen never called that the aggro had dropped — and the rest of the team realized it far too late.

The damage Zaku and Elko had pumped in during their breakthrough attempt snowballed.

Turret aggro snapped onto Lyushin, who was already nearly dead.

The buzz-cut Muay Thai fighter, eyes locked on Olac and nothing else as he charged in, crumpled straight to the cold floor.

As if he'd been waiting for exactly that, Olac activated his ultimate.

— HWOOOOOOOOORGH!

The berserker's body blazed crimson. He went berserk, slamming and swinging and hurling his axes, chasing down the half-dead demon greatswordsman and the kunoichi.

"I'm over the wall!"

Payek scrambled across the turret and flung his harpoon to stop the rampaging Viking — but the timing was a fraction too early.

Olac's ultimate, which granted immunity to crowd control, hadn't quite expired. Not by a hair's breadth.

At Olac's unexpected rampage, Macau's voice chat fell silent for a beat.

But the game was still massively in Macau's favor. Still buzzing with adrenaline, they forced themselves back to calm.

"We… need to cool it a bit."

"Yeah, that was overextending. Let's reset and play clean. We end it this time, no matter what!"

The terror of defeat — carved into their bodies by Jin Gyeo-wool and the Korean team — was creeping back up their spines.

If they didn't settle down. If they didn't play with composure, they would lose.

To a bunch of obsolete fun-picks, no less!

The casters, thoroughly fired up, launched into a passionate rant.

"That was a genuine disaster scenario just now! Miss Winter dragged the Korean team straight out of hell!"

"Exactly. Looking at the result, she took three of them with her! Two with her own hands, one by pulling turret aggro!"

"Wahaha! This player is seriously something else!!"

They'd bought one turn, but Korea was still behind. And yet Jin Gyeo-wool was shining in the heart of a battlefield drowned in storm clouds.

A game state where anyone would assume Macau had already won. The reason people kept rooting for Korea even in this life-or-death crisis — that driving force was Jin Gyeo-wool herself.

A gold deficit that looked like it might close but never quite did. Under the crushing disadvantage, the third dragon — the Infernal Drake — fell to Macau as well.

Riding the momentum, they prepared another Peacock take, the one they'd attempted and failed just minutes ago. This time, they were truly going to end it.

There was nothing to gain from letting a game against Korea drag on.

It had been famous for a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠long time: Korean teams, pro or amateur, had monstrous game focus.

It wasn't exactly something to brag about, but wasn't Korea the country that held the two longest professional league games in world history?

They endured and endured until the bitter end, somehow manufacturing a foothold for a comeback. The very incarnation of tenacity.

"Alright, Macau should be able to take the Peacock this time. Their clear speed is pretty fast!"

"Korea's a bit late. Akalin's also cutting off the path. Can they even contest this…!!"

United by a single will — end it now — the Macau players shredded the Peacock's health at high speed.

"Korea's trying to catch up somehow, but once the Peacock walks out, things get dangerous from there. If Macau secures it, they can just methodically take inhibitors one by one and close the game!"

"They need to be careful. They have to open up jungle vision, but if they overforce, they get picked instantly, right?"

"And the moment I say that — Nari gets caught! The tidal wave gets shoved toward the Peacock pit for the steal—!!"

Elko and Zaku ignored Nari getting collapsed on and dove straight into the Peacock pit. It was a play that said they'd sacrifice Nari if it meant ripping the objective away.

But even after bursting into the pit, the Peacock's health was still sitting in the two thousands. The enemy had stopped dealing damage specifically to prevent a steal.

"Ah, this makes the steal really hard!!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Zaku and Elko might just die for nothing?! If they give kills AND the Peacock, the game is over?!!"

And then the judgment of those two players who'd forced their way in became, out of nowhere, a divine play. Sudden massive damage dumped onto the Peacock, and a steal window opened.

They had clearly been holding damage — so where did the burst come from? Atroque and Akalin.

Both champions had deliberately hopped over the back hill when the Peacock was around four thousand HP, positioning to block a Korean steal. But Zaku and Elko had broken through the defensive line with the force of a suicide charge.

"Peacock HP! 800, 400!"

Trying to get back into the pit, they had no choice — a demon dash-into-Q combo and a flash ultimate. The resulting damage dumped hard and fast onto the Peacock.

In that instant, Choi Do-yun summoned superhuman focus and slammed his Smite dead-center onto the Peacock's skull at four hundred HP.

"AAAAAAGH! Doyoon! Council Duke steal!!"