Rank #1
It started with a single community post.
Someone had stumbled across Yoon Seoha's stream by chance and posted about it on the community board. On any ordinary day, a post like that would have been buried under a flood of attention-farming threads and vanished without a trace. But this was the off-season. With the year's crowning achievement — the Worlds championship — already decided, the usual noise had lost all meaning. The post about Yoon Seoha's stream shot up to recommended status in no time.
To community users who'd been bored out of their minds with nothing to latch onto, a middle-school Challenger turned out to be a bigger bait than anyone expected. And not just any middle-school Challenger — a beauty so striking that the first thought was, why is a face like that playing games? Add in the easygoing, unbothered vibe she'd shown on the Master's Showcase, and Yoon Seoha's existence was more than enough to set the community on fire.
Viewers trickled in one by one until the count had swollen to twelve hundred. Twelve hundred on a first stream with zero promotion was an absurd number. And when Yoon Seoha noticed the surge, the action she took was this:
"Wow, a ton of people showed up? Alright then, let's hop into a game real quick."
She queued solo rank.
More people than I expected.
Twelve hundred. Small if you wanted to call it small, enormous if you wanted to call it enormous. In my past life as a pro gamer, this would have been the moment I stopped playing and at least read some chat. But right now, queuing was the priority.
One more win and I'm number one. You expect me to hold back?
Momentum was everything in ranked. You stopped on a losing streak and kept rolling on a winning one. I was already on a two-game win streak, and nobody was going to stop me.
Checking chat, it looked like the viewers were fully on board with the #1 climb.
⚔ Match Found
"Mm..."
The queue popped faster than expected, and somehow I ended up with last pick. Top had locked a tank, and bot had locked a freelo non-ADC. The enemy mid was Azir — a champion whose laning phase had been gutted by successive nerfs. In that case...
I locked in Yone, one of my mains. The board was set up for me to carry — backing out now wouldn't be very manly.
...Not that I am a man anymore.
The game began.
TOP: Maokai
JG: Lee Sin
MID: Yone
AD: Ziggs
SUP: Leona
TOP: K'Sante
JG: Viego
MID: Azir
AD: Aphelios
SUP: Rell
True to someone who'd locked a freelo non-ADC, the mindset was already different. Most ADCs suffered from a terminal condition where they couldn't stand not being the protagonist.
You go win, then.
Minions arrived, and both mids showed on the line. The enemy Azir had taken Conqueror — the classic "survive lane and pump DPS in teamfights" approach. Knowing that, I'd taken Grasp. Until level three, Azir had a window to pressure Yone, and he tried to poke, but I didn't give him anything free. I took a few jabs, sure, but Doran's Shield and Second Wind were divine. As level three approached, Azir shoved the wave and looked to recall —
With Q charged, I closed the gap with E — Soul Unbound — and interrupted the recall. The next wave was a cannon wave. If Azir went home now, even with teleport he'd come back to a frozen lane.
"Yeah, you can't go home, can you? Then take your punishment."
Azir, forced to stay, tried to shove one more time, and I took the trade. Too early for a solo kill, but his health was driven to the brink of death — and then Lee Sin, who'd just snagged the enemy raptors, dove in to finish the job.
Just like that, the mid lane phase was over. All that remained was to deliver pain to Azir every time the Q whirlwinds stacked up.
Time had somehow pushed past the forty-minute mark. After Lee Sin's early gank, I'd taken two consecutive solo kills, but top had gotten ganked and snapped clean in half. Even on a recently buffed Maokai, folding like that wasn't easy — but then again, that was just how that lane went.
Judging that dragging it out any further killed our win condition, Lee Sin started Baron solo. Honestly, it looked more like he'd tilted after eating consecutive deaths, but enemy top and support were showing on bot, so I joined in.
But with Ziggs as our ADC, Baron wasn't melting as fast as hoped, and enemy top and support arrived. That was when Lee Sin decided to force the fight. The moment enemy Aphelios ate a Sonic Wave, Lee Sin's flashy ult combo chained into Maokai's CC. Aphelios, who'd already burned Cleanse in the previous fight, couldn't even react before he exploded on the spot. But the enemy still had a fed K'Sante and Viego left standing.
Enemy K'Sante flashed ult to snatch Ziggs and tore him apart, seemingly determined to avenge Aphelios. Viego followed up with a passive body swap. If I'd been on a mage, I might have killed one of K'Sante or Viego and died to the other — but the champion I was playing was a fully stacked Yone.
Q knock-up into ultimate combo launched both K'Sante and Viego into the air. Then came W's health-scaling damage, another Q, and auto-attacks. I cleaned up Viego — who'd transformed into the squishy Ziggs — in seconds, then finished K'Sante with E's return damage. After that, I hunted down the lone remaining Azir to close it out. Super minions were already pouring down the enemy top inhibitor I'd pushed earlier.
Our support, who'd been silent the entire game, finally called the shot — and I teleported top. Just as we were about to smash the twin turrets and take the Nexus, enemy Aphelios respawned. Luckily, I used E to create distance and focused the Nexus down to seal the win.
We'd won — but it was too early to relax. Checking the LP, I'd gained +27, putting me at 1,023. If the current number one hadn't been playing, I would already be first.
Please...
I opened the ranking site and checked the ladder.