VLL Preliminaries (2)

"Swap?"

"Yeah. I'll take top and pick the counter."

"If I run Conqueror and max W first, I shouldn't get shoved around too hard, right?"

"Their jungle is Nidalee. The second Sylas hits level four, he trades hard and freezes the wave — you're never getting out of that. We're on Nocturne."

Between Malphite's raw base stats and the string of nerfs Sylas had taken, the matchup itself was far from unwinnable in a pure laning sense. The problem was that the enemy top-jungle duo were active pros who'd been playing in the LPL right up through this year.

Level four was the window where Sylas could actually win trades against Malphite. Land a trade at that timing, then link up with the jungle for a dive, and top lane became a miserable freeze-and-suffer experience.

It blows up. Guaranteed.

Expecting Shinsaeng — a player who leaned hard on game sense over raw mechanics — to hold a freeze under pressure against active pros? Either top lane got demolished, or the jungler spent the entire game wandering around never hitting six. One of those two outcomes was a lock.

"So what are you taking?"

"Ryze."

One of League's three great bald men — the blue-domed Ryze. A solid answer into a second-pick Sylas. Ryze's usual weakness of short range for a ranged champion barely mattered against a melee, and Sylas didn't even get anything particularly juicy from stealing Ryze's ultimate. Late-game value held up fine, too. All around, a good card.

And I'm confident on him.

He'd been one of my most-played champions in my past life, which only made me surer. Looking at their comp, they didn't even have hard CC locked in. This was a board Ryze could run wild on.

"Then I'll farm it out until six?"

Pressure had locked in Nocturne — a champion who only really started rolling once he hit six and learned his ultimate.

"You can handle farming under tower against Tristana mid, right?"

I asked Shinsaeng, and he answered with full confidence.

"Then I'll play a little greedy up top."

With the movespeed on Ryze's abilities and the Phase Rush rune, dodging ganks wasn't particularly hard either. Looking at the overall lane setup, this was a game where I needed to create some space from top — and everyone agreed.

"Let's all play well."

"Everyone play safe until I hit six."

"Bot lane priority's on their side, too."

"Let's win this~"

Even without Han Byeori, the atmosphere was surprisingly warm as the game loaded in.

"Greetings to all our viewers. This is the VLL Preliminaries, and I'm your caster, Kim Dongjin."

"Yoo Seunghwan on analysis. Pleasure to be here."

"First, we have some news we need to share. Han Byeori of Arts & Athletics is reportedly unable to compete due to an injury."

"Ah — she's been one of the players whose form I thought had really been climbing lately. That's a real shame."

"So they got the other teams' consent and found a substitute. Let's take a look."

"Ah~ Para — one of the rising stars making waves lately, isn't she?"

"That's right. The only woman to reach Challenger on mid lane — and she even hit rank one. A genuine supernova."

"And she's only fifteen. Still in middle school. Incredible."

"Shall we take a look at the opposing team as well?"

"Team Does LPL Look Easy — one of the heavy favorites to win this entire tournament, wouldn't you say?"

"You've got the carry power of a top-jungle duo that was playing in the LPL until just a month ago, plus solo queue monsters Kuku and the Beebig-Yerim bot lane who finish every season in Challenger. Nothing more needs to be said."

"The key question is how they'll answer that devastating top-jungle carry synergy everyone's expecting to see."

"With the roster change, Para looks like their ace. I'd expect them to try to play through mid with a roaming-heavy style."

"Alright — word is they're ready. Let's take a look at the draft."

In the ban phase that followed, exactly as everyone expected, Shinsaeng's Shen got sniped early. Then came a first-pick Malphite — and the counterpick Sylas right after.

"Ah~ Actor used to pull out top Sylas a lot even in his league days. I'm curious what Arts & Athletics is thinking here."

"I agree. How exactly do they plan to stop a Sylas running around with Malphite's ult— oh! Ryze! Ryze just came out!"

"A champion that barely shows up mid anymore after several rounds of nerfs... interesting."

Once the draft locked in, the champions found their places.

"Hmm... I've got my doubts about that Ryze."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Looking at it, there were plenty of other champions they could've picked for mid."

"Well then — let's load in and find out."

And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the game opened exactly the way the casters had half-suspected.

Malphite sprinted mid. Ryze sprinted top.

"Oh! They actually did it?"

"Yeah — looking at Para's champion pool, there were a lot of stronger mid options available."

"Ryze into Sylas. How do you rate that?"

"It's a counter, honestly. She can win early trades, Ryze's ultimate is better, and she doesn't fall off late either."

"Interesting item choice, too?"

"These days most people buy Tear of the Goddess at level one and play for the late game — but Doran's Ring? Para knows exactly what her job is this game."

"Indeed. The moment the minions arrive, Para walks up and starts applying heavy pressure!"

Wow, he's not even backing off?

I body-blocked the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠incoming minion to deny him the experience, and Sylas immediately threw out his E to force a trade. But I'd taken Bone Plating, so I barely lost the exchange — and with the slow on my W, I stuck to him and tagged him with a few autos to seize priority.

"Enemy jungle started red buff."

Based on mid's briefing, the odds of a Nidalee gank the moment Sylas hit four were one hundred percent. I needed to shove the entire wave in before then.

"Bot, play safe — I'm heading down."

Just as I'd nearly finished clearing the wave, our jungler called that he was skipping the scuttle crab to gank bot. I fully expected good news from that side of the map.

Our support overcommitted to a surprise kill angle from the enemy bot duo and died — a total disaster.

"Ah... my bad. I miscounted E cooldown."

"No, I threw a weird Q."

With the countergank succeeding bot, Nidalee scooped up both scuttle crabs. Priority flipped, and she started pathing into our jungle for free counters. At this rate, we were sliding into a clean loss.

"Buying Seeker's and Tear, then back with TP."

Sylas had taken a slightly loose recall timing — I could see him channeling outside his tower. Losing the cannon minion to our turret was a little painful, but—

"Looking for a top kill angle."

The enemy jungler and laners had all just shown on dragon. On top of that, I'd already forced out Sylas's Flash earlier.

In that case—

I burned my remaining Flash to close the gap and dumped my full combo into him. Ryze's primary damage spell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— Q — refunded its cooldown every time you cast W or E. Used right, you could land Q at least three times in a single combo.

Rooted in place, the enemy Sylas had no choice but to drop.

"Nice."

"I'm about to hit six."

"If they dash in first, we take the fight?"

"Clean solo kill top."

I steadied my voice as much as I could, trying to lift the team's spirits.

"This game — I'll carry it."