IeSF World Championship Finals vs. Macau (5)
Over on Recon Gallery the usual war of words had broken out—Macau played like trash versus Korea just played well. It looked almost exactly like the war council unfolding in Game 5 of the finals.
But whether the Korean community was in chaos or not, the actual war council on the Rift was even more chaotic.
“Macau’s pissed right now!”
“They had the Peacock locked down and it got stolen. Still, they got three kills, right? They’re trying to force something somehow!”
Macau, who had been about to end the game with the Peacock buff, stormed into Korea’s territory in a full rage. Only moments earlier they had been trying to calm down, but the war council had always been a place ruled by the logic of turns. If you lost one thing, you were supposed to take something else in return. That was the norm.
“Korea just bought themselves some time. Even if Macau pushes top, they’ll probably only break the inhibitor and have to back off.”
“Korea can hold with the Peacock buff.”
“By the time the inhibitor goes down, the whole squad should be back up.”
“Hold on. Miss Winter’s positioning is really interesting right now.”
“Korea’s planning to hit them hard the second they respawn, aren’t they?”
The furious Macau players shoved toward the top inhibitor. Olaf was already waiting behind the base wall, ready the moment they showed.
No matter how big the gold lead, if you got bitten before you could set up, you were going to stagger. Just like David dropping the giant Goliath with a single shot straight to the forehead.
MAC LiuRen ▶ Red Team Inhibitor
The inhibitor crumbled. Olaf, as if he had been waiting for exactly that, popped his ultimate and charged forward. His target: all five Macau players retreating in a neat little clump.
— Hwoooooooar!
The enraged red Viking’s axe carved through all five champions, and for an instant the Macau players slowed to a crawl.
“Korea’s forcing the fight!”
“Whoa! Every single axe slow landed!!!”
“Olaf’s tanking in front while Ginn follows up and hits them! Ginn’s only on two items but it still hurts!”
Back in 2017, Recon had still felt almost like a turn-based game. But the meta always changed, and this was 2018. The diagonal rule and trading turns still mattered, yet the game’s speed had exploded, shrinking those windows to almost nothing.
They had lost the Peacock and taken kills instead. So destroying the inhibitor was their right—that was how Macau had read it.
“Aatrox’s ultimate is down! Even if he respawns he’s dead here!”
“Leaving the rest to the teammates coming from behind—Elko and Ginn are pushing forward!”
“Nami buffs, they’re flying!!!”
But Korea was thinking something else entirely. The moment Macau stepped deep into their territory to take the inhibitor was the perfect chance to grab the ankle of a team that had been sitting so far above them all game.
“Elko and Ginn, chase!!”
Elko and Ginn had always been built for these kinds of chases.
KOR ValKyrie ▶ MAC LiuRen
While Olaf finished Aatrox and the rest of the team followed, a slaughter was unfolding deeper in the jungle between Choi Do-yun and Yu Min-jae. Macau had sensed the danger and tried to retreat, but the second Olaf snagged their ankles they were destined to become cheetah prey.
KOR MJLow ▶ MAC TakTak
“Woohoo! Crit popped!”
“Ahh—root landed!!”
“Macau has to survive somehow! This game can flip in one fight!!”
“MJLow keeps diving in. Can he get them all?!”
KOR MJLow ▶ MAC NeverH
Elko and Ginn surged forward at terrifying speed, turning enemies into paste.
KOR Loki ▶ MAC GodFegei
“Pyke’s down too! Korea just clawed back two thousand gold in an instant!”
“Man. Closed the gap to six thousand. Korea actually has a shot now!”
“Now the side with the Peacock buff pushing is Korea!”
At over twenty-five minutes, Korea finally destroyed the outer mid and bot towers they had never been able to touch. The gold deficit shrank rapidly to five thousand.
“Elko and Olaf just hit three items.”
“Macau can’t just take random fights anymore.”
“They still have four dragons locked down and the lead, but Macau needs to calm down. They can’t just stroll into the enemy jungle like before!!”
“Alright, Korea. What are they going for next? Another pick attempt, right?”
“Exactly. They have to start by cutting down anyone who overextends. They’re still behind!”
One minute until Peacock respawn.
Vision was almost nonexistent; the top-side jungle was still pitch black. Even the last remaining red buff ward had just been cleared by the enemy Pyke’s lens.
Gyeo-wool’s voice rang through everyone’s headsets for the first time in a while. The enemy Akali was clearing a ward she had planted in a bush a short distance away.
“You see Akali?”
Short answers came back from everyone.
From a bush about eight Teemo-lengths away, preparing to charge, Gyeo-wool gave the order in a surprisingly serious voice.
“Zac E, Ginn W, Zac Q. Keep the order. Everyone else melt her in between. Even if she uses Sonia, we take her no matter what.”
As if she already knew exactly where every other Macau champion was, Jin Gyeo-wool’s pings left four rapid dots across the map.
“Pyke, Kai’Sa, Aatrox, Lucian respectively. Aatrox’s TP still isn’t up.”
“Confirmed.”
Ha Jeong-uk quickly helped check the spells. Even if a fight broke out they would have a 4v5 numbers advantage, so Gyeo-wool’s call carried real weight.
“Now!!”
The moment the three-stack ward’s health dropped from two to one, a massive blob of jelly launched itself across the distance.
Exactly as Jin Gyeo-wool had called it: airborne, root, then airborne again. The startled Akali never even got her smoke out before her health was shredded.
She tried to hold with Sonia’s Hourglass, but it was a numbers-disadvantaged fight from the start. Holding out wasn’t going to bring her team’s help.
KOR Loki ▶ MAC Errorr
“That’s it!”
“Mid, let’s go!”
“Noona, I’ll push top.”
“Come down once the inhibitor regenerates.”
“Okay!”
The Korean players were throwing themselves into the game with more desperation than anyone else right now.
Lose and a million won vanished. Win and it became two million. No matter how you looked at it, the opportunity cost of losing was just too big, wasn’t it?
“Man, for real. If Gyeo-wool noona hadn’t held that floor wipe top earlier, the game would’ve just ended right there…”
“Real.”
When the teammates sighed, remembering the life-or-death crisis they had faced top earlier, Jin Gyeo-wool snorted a laugh and shot back.
“If I’d died then it would’ve been an isolation death. The solo kill bet isn’t over yet, you know?”
She had pulled off that super play for that? Everyone stared at Jin Gyeo-wool in pure disbelief as they pushed mid.
Gong Je-hyeon, unable to hold the jab in, clicked his tongue.
“I swear the people who already have money are the worst.”
The two casters at the desk were shouting even louder than before.
“Errorr. He should’ve seen this coming. Korea’s got pure poison in their veins right now trying to flip this board however they can!!”
“Way too complacent. They got properly punished!”
“Without Akali it’s Ginn’s world. What’s there to fear with Olaf and Zac peeling?”
“Korea’s inhibitor just rebuilt!”
The stands weren’t packed, but the cheers from the fans supporting the Korean team and Devil Maiden had grown louder than earlier.
It had been a pick so clean it made the people watching jump.
“Macau has to stay calm until Akali’s back.”
“Zac’s looking for another dive right now. No vision in the bot-side jungle.”
“If they give another kill here, the game could end in one go. Korea’s fully locked in with poison right now. And it’s late game. Buildings melt fast.”
After cutting Akali and shoving to the inner mid tower, the Korean team prepared a dive. Elko still hadn’t arrived, but they were confident they could tank the tower damage and fight.
Once again, the call came from Jin Gyeo-wool.
When the team was always ahead, they rolled the game with just pings and no real orders. But now they were extremely behind. Cornered, everyone wanted an order they could trust, and Jin Gyeo-wool filled that role more perfectly than anyone. From time to time Ha Jeong-uk added his own thoughts, lending weight to the decisions.
Once the shaky players started moving as one body under a single will, Korea’s momentum became so fierce it was hard to believe they were still five thousand gold down.
“Zac dive—! Kai’Sa’s locked down!”
“Same combo they used on Akali earlier!”
“Whoa! She popped the golden clock by a hair. She can live!”
“No, Korea’s bait play is art. Just now Ginn was blasting from the front so everyone’s eyes were glued there, and Zac flew in!”
The CC chain was a little loose, so she barely survived, but Kai’Sa had burned every escape tool she had.
“Aatrox entering from the side!”
“Cutting Ginn’s Curtain Call!”
Aatrox burst out of the flank to flip the situation, but it was hard to call it coordinated movement. Recognizing it as a desperate attempt to put out the fire, the Korean players dove back into the tower again.
“Ah, but it hurts. It hurts!! They can’t just tank it like before!”
“Olaf’s taking the tower aggro and going in! Ragnarok!”
“Zac re-engaging!!”
KOR Doyoon ▶ MAC TakTak
KOR MJLow ▶ MAC NeverH
“Korea’s rolling them like a steamroller!”
“Miss Winter! Flash dodged Pyke’s execute!!”
“Whoa, her reaction speed is still alive.”
The casters marveled at the play that cleaned up low-health targets while cleanly dodging every key skill. Even in the middle of the chaotic teamfight, the detailed movement and skill shots stood out.
Olaf, whose TP had come back up, recalled home and rejoined the fight, and the battle kept raging in front of the inhibitor.
A fierce struggle: Macau trying to hold a 3v5, Korea trying to end the game somehow.
As the tension stretched on, the Korean players’ raw talent started to show. In that life-or-death crisis, the animal instincts they had sharpened for so long finally ran wild.
KOR MJLow ▶ MAC LiuRen
KOR Loki ▶ Blue Team Mid Inhibitor
Before anyone noticed, the global gold difference had shrunk to just two thousand.
Victory almost seemed within reach.
If they just backed off once, reset, and won the Peacock fight, Korea taking Game 3 wouldn’t have been unreasonable at all.
“Uh-oh, Korea. They’re overreaching a bit. Nobody has much health or mana left!”
“I get wanting to end it! But everyone’s about to respawn! In ten seconds every Macau player except Aatrox is back up! They can still hold!”
“Korea’s pushing all the way to the twin towers?!”
“Looks like they want to end it, but this feels like a bit much?”
“Everyone except Aatrox is there. Korea’s health bars aren’t great either!!”
Yet for some reason, the Korean team suddenly forced a reckless twin-tower dive and walked themselves straight into crisis.
For a moment Akali danced through the smoke, drawing aggro from the low-health Korean champions like an acrobat.
MAC Errorr ▶ KOR Loki
MAC TakTak ▶ KOR Doyoon
“Uh-oh! This is getting dangerous! Dangerous for Korea!”
“Kai’Sa ultimate! Diving straight into the middle of them!!”
MAC TakTak ▶ KOR MJLow
MAC TakTak ▶ KOR ValKyrie
MAC TakTak ▶ KOR Wook
Finishing blow!
“Uwaaaaagh, QUADRA KIIIIILL!”
“Macau—!!!”
Up to forty-five seconds until respawn.
A sudden silence fell over the Korean team’s voice chat as the entire squad died in one go.
After that brief quiet, watching the enemy ride the mid wave up, Gong Je-hyeon shouted at Jin Gyeo-wool in a sulky voice.
“Ah! Now what are we supposed to do?! My million won! Are you seriously doing this? Noona, you just don’t want to give us the bonus, right?!”
But even in a life-or-death crisis where they might lose, Jin Gyeo-wool was smiling.
“Ah, sorry. Hey, if it looked wrong you should’ve said so. I call something and you just walk in like that?”
That was right.
The completely incomprehensible dive order just now had been given by Jin Gyeo-wool—on purpose.