IeSF World Championship Finals: vs Macau (6)

At the critical moment that would decide the match, Jin Gyeo-wool barked out a reckless order.

"Let's end the game."

"What? Don't force it—just back off. We already took the inhibitor!"

"No. We end it now. You finish a game when you can finish it."

Ordinarily the players followed Gyeo-wool's calls without question, but not this time. How were they supposed to just obey an order that was clearly wrong?

They had been trained not to defy her, but that had only ever been her way of keeping the team unified. In a moment this important, even Gyeo-wool could misread the board. Blind obedience was no longer an option.

"Shit, this doesn't feel right…"

"Jeong-uk hyung, is this actually correct?"

Yu Min-jae's question flew toward Ha Jeong-uk, the one person who usually judged Gyeo-wool's calls with some objectivity—but even he had no easy answer.

When you spend too long in a losing game, your judgment clouds. That was why teams that kept their heads and flipped a match from behind earned so much respect. But these were amateurs, and by this point even Jeong-uk couldn't tell right from wrong with any certainty.

Until now Gyeo-wool had only ever issued orders that made sense, so decisions had been easy. This was different.

At the moment when a clear call was needed most, Ha Jeong-uk half-gave up and shouted,

"I don't know—just go in!"

The result?

A five-for-zero trade. A dive gone completely to hell.

After a brief silence, Gong Je-hyeon watched the enemy push up mid and snapped at Gyeo-wool in a sulky voice.

"Ah! Now what?! My million won! Are you serious right now? Noona, you just don't want to give us the bonus, do you?!"

Even on the brink of a possible loss, Gyeo-wool was too busy laughing.

"Sorry. Hey, if it felt wrong you should've said so. You just dive in because I said something?"

There wasn't a single thing wrong with that statement. All any of them could do was stare at the black-and-white screen in utter desolation.

"The game isn't over anyway. Respawn and think about stopping Peacock."

"…Looking at the timer, yeah, we can hold it."

"Only the bot inhibitor's down. Why are you talking like we already lost?"

Gyeo-wool's short whip cracked across Gong Je-hyeon. Checking the clock, it was clear the game wouldn't end just yet.

"Haa. For real. I'm locking in and watching every weird call you make from now on. Jeong-uk hyung! You're responsible too, you know?"

"Tch… sorry."

Just as Gyeo-wool had said, Macau only took the bot inhibitor and cleanly retreated—a decision that seemed mindful of the mistake they'd made earlier at the top inhibitor.

"Anyway, don't trust me too much. You'll get played."

The longer ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time went on, the harder it became to expect they would always play on the same team. Right now they had formed a roster of people who wanted to be together, but once they went pro, money usually decided everything.

Once they scattered, they wouldn't be able to go looking for Jin Gyeo-wool wherever they landed. Even if they somehow ended up at Hyeonseong together, the odds were high they'd be taking Lee Do-jin's one-man calls instead of hers.

So the players needed to be able to adapt under any new environment.

"I'm saying this in case any of you end up on another team later and start looking for me. Just so you know."

Gong Je-hyeon, who had recently received the most tempting offer of anyone, averted his eyes and muttered,

"What useless crap is that, noona? Anyway, we're winning this game, right?"

Gyeo-wool laughed and answered,

"Isn't that obvious? Don't you all want your bonuses?"

The global gold lead they had nearly closed stretched back out to five thousand.

"Really, the Korean players caught a huge break."

"Macau seems a little spooked. Might be the aftereffect of getting caught at the top tower earlier."

"Right? They probably could have taken at least one of the twin towers."

Macau's mid inhibitor was down; Korea's bot inhibitor was down. Both sides held the lanes with super minions while the vision war continued, and a tense standoff formed over what might be the final Peacock.

"Alright, this has a real chance of being the last teamfight."

"Whoever wins this fight wins the game, regardless of who takes Peacock."

"Macau does have the gold lead, but the game's already late. Most of the players have their full builds out, right?"

"That's right. Still, Korea has a slight edge on jungle control right now."

While the Macau players had pushed the bot inhibitor and gone back to reset, the Korean team had rapidly seized every scrap of vision around Peacock. It would prove to be the decisive opportunity that carried them to victory in the final fight.

The sense of loss when something that was yours gets taken away is hard to put into words. The Macau players were feeling it keenly right now. They had been ahead the whole time, and jungle vision control had been theirs. Then, just because Korea had clawed back a little at the end of the game, they came swaggering into the jungle like they owned it—of course Macau was furious.

"Macau looks pissed."

"They're pushing out like, 'This is our jungle!'"

"And the moment I say that—Lee Sin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is approaching from behind. Korea has no idea where Lee Sin is!!"

Just as three Korean players finished locking down the blue side's top-side jungle and started peeling off toward the blue buff camps, a Lee Sin appeared out of nowhere behind them. Korea hadn't predicted the rear approach either. Gyeo-wool hadn't called it out.

"Ward hop—Dragon's Rage!!"

"The kick lands perfectly! Elko goes flying and everyone gets airborne!! Wait—in the middle of that, Miss Winter popped Ragnarok and didn't get knocked up?!"

Elko, kicked by Lee Sin's ultimate, went sailing toward the pursuing Macau players. Of the ones hit by the kick, only Olaf—who had blocked the airborne with Ragnarok—stayed grounded; Elko and Zac went up into the air.

"Akali, and Kai'Sa flying in with her ultimate!"

"Korea's teamfight setup looks bad!! Two players still haven't joined!"

Of all times, the support and ADC were split off, fracturing the formation. But the enemy's follow-up CC never landed on Elko. The enraged Olaf's sheer presence made them hesitate for a crucial beat.

— Spacetime Collapse!

The instant the airborne ended, Elko's ultimate detonated. Massive damage crashed down on three Macau players' heads. Kai'Sa, who had dove in looking for damage, got caught in the reverse burst instead.

The moment the furious Viking started swinging his axes, chaos erupted. Gin, buffed by Nami, finally reached the fight, and right on cue stun marks stamped themselves over the Macau players' heads once more.

"No way! Loki! When did he put that W down?!"

"Looks like he dropped it in that split second before getting kicked by Dragon's Rage!!"

"Gin's here. The whole situation just flipped!!"

Elko's W had a long wind-up, but the AoE stun was first-rate. You threw an invisible ball ahead of time, and the moment Elko stepped into its range the stun went off…. Gong Je-hyeon had laid down W/Chronostasis in that fleeting instant before Lee Sin kicked him, then detonated it the second his ultimate finished.

"Olaf shoves Kai'Sa and Pyke away!"

"Zac airborne! Ultimate! And Nami's Tidal Wave comes crashing in!!"

From that point on it was entirely Korea's world.

Zac bounced the three stunned champions up with a short hop, then launched them again with his ultimate.

— Tidal Wave!

"Chain CC! The burst is pouring in with it!"

"How long are they staying up?! The airborne never ends!!"

Aatrox revived off his ultimate, and Lee Sin came back on Guardian Angel—but what good did reviving do? The teamfight was already over.

With the formation collapsed and champions already cut down, even Akali in her shroud couldn't do anything.

Lee Sin had slipped out of the fight early and barely survived, but the battlefield was far too close to the blue base. Over forty seconds remained on the respawn timers. The mid inhibitor was already gone, and super minions were pushing straight down the mid lane.

"Korea…. Incredible. They're just ending the game like this!!"

"That last teamfight was truly beautiful."

"They got initiated on first, but Miss Winter's calm ultimate usage, and the way they cut through the enemy formation while stitching their own split lineup back together—outstanding play."

"Loki had already put Chronostasis on the ground in the middle of all that. Nobody saw the stun coming!"

The casters poured praise onto the Korean players as they marched on the twin towers.

"Classic comeback Korea. Their focus in long games is really something else."

"They got dragged around this entire match. It was hard the whole way. But in the end they showed that grit and that destructive power! And they did it on champions that get classified as low-tier."

"Man. Honestly. Thinking about it again, it's insane. Who decides to half-throw draft just so they can run CWC winner skins?"

"Once you're pro you can't do that anymore! You've got to pull it while you're still amateur—when else are you going to get the chance?"

"Wahaha! That's fair. Pull those picks in a pro league and people would lose their minds!!"

"Whatever the goal was. Whether the champions were good or bad. That last game just proved it was always a winnable match. They started the final fight at a disadvantage and still flipped it."

"Truly excellent."

Twin towers down. Then the Nexus.

After thirty-five minutes of brutal fighting, it was the Korean team that put the victory screen on the display.

"And with the Nexus destroyed, the Korean national team takes the championship of the 10th IeSF World Championship, League of Council division!!"

While the cameras panned across the players hugging and soaking in the joy of victory, the casters kept talking. It was in English, so Gyeo-wool couldn't catch everything, but a few short words still reached her ears.

— …Miss Winter………she…incredible…woman…not easy…

Roughly: on a battlefield this heavy, and in a woman's body no less, she was achieving something absurd—and that was amazing.

— …tournament…top…strongest………

They followed it by saying no top laner in this tournament had been stronger than her. Gyeo-wool smirked at the words she roughly understood.

I'm going pro… for real.

For someone whose pro team signing was already half-locked in, this amateur tournament had really just been an event. An easy one, sure—but another title secured. Another wall climbed. That encouraging feeling wrapped around her like a warm blanket.

Then the casters brought up something Gyeo-wool herself hadn't even cared about. If she debuted as a pro like this, she would become only the second woman ever to join a pro team's starting roster—after kolarin, the substitute for Taiwan's dark-horse CWC 2012 squad, TPN.

From the audience seats, Coach Bae Jeong-ung flashed a thumbs-up that said he'd enjoyed the match. Gyeo-wool smiled, mouthed a thank-you, and bowed at the waist.

Meanwhile, Korea's Hyeonseong Universe was spending a chaotic November rebuilding the team.

"Donggyun, you get ahold of all the players?"

"Oh, GM—you're here. Yes. Everyone except Gong Je-hyeon."

"So? They all coming?"

"Well…"

Kim Donggyun's expression as he looked over the player list was not good. Sensing the bad atmosphere, General Manager Ju Yeongsik fired off a question.

"Why. Something wrong? Who's not coming?"

"Ha Jeong-uk. Sounds like he's not planning to go pro."

"What? Why? Kid's that good at the game."

Kim Donggyun's finger pointed at the notes written next to Ha Jeong-uk's parents on the list.

— Father: CEO of mid-sized company ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠OO Flex

— Mother: Director of OO Academy in Noryangjin

Ju Yeongsik read through it and sighed.

"…. Yeah, parents would push back on that."

"They probably told him to take over the family business. And it doesn't seem like he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had zero interest in that himself."

"Gyeo-wool doesn't know? I thought she had the whole roster locked down tight—guess not?"

"Apparently he deliberately didn't tell her."

Because he knew how desperately Gyeo-wool wanted to get through the IeSF tournament and go pro, Ha Jeong-uk had quietly invested a full year for her sake.

"Even when they first talked, he said it was only for this year."

"Ah…. So that's why the parents signed off for now."

"Seems that way. Anyway, Ha Jeong-uk is a no-go for the time being."

Of course, Hyeonseong would be fine without him. Even if their recent pro-scene form had been a little soft, they still had Affort—Lee Yunho—a support they'd raised themselves out of the Hyeonseong youth system.

"Gong Je-hyeon not answering his phone has me a little nervous too. What if he's going somewhere else?"

"Possible. We only made an offer—there's no binding contract that says he has to come. Signing is up to the players."

"Yeah, well…"

Still, it was a relief that the players with a chance of falling through were mid and support. If it had been jungle or ADC—roles with no replacements—they might have had to force Gyeo-wool into a position swap just to field a roster.

"Right. The new logo and team name. Donggyun, you see the draft?"

"The draft? No. I've been handling the players—haven't looked yet."

"Here. What do you think?"

GM Ju Yeongsik grinned as he showed off the new logo and team name. A sideways S-shape formed from the English letters T and U, glittering in mint green. Wings sat on the head of it, making it clear the team was the successor to Hyeonseong Universe.

"But doesn't that make the Hyeonseong name way too small? They're okay with that?"

"We got a massive investment this time. Hyeonseong and the new investor are splitting equity fifty-fifty now. So it's fine."

"An investor? Out of nowhere?"

When a new investor came in, the front office had nothing to lose. And if that investor put up the money and left operations entirely to the existing staff, even better. They might still tank results this year and have a miserable season—but Ju Yeongsik looked happier than he had in a long time.

"Gyeo-wool's mother said thank you for taking her daughter. So she's coming in as an investor."

They'd known the family had money, but enough money to buy into a franchise?

Kim Donggyun looked at Min Cheong-ha's dazzling profile and went pale.