VLL Preliminaries (3)

"Whoa—solo kill!"

"With the Arts Specialty team in a tough spot overall, a solo kill like that really lifts the whole team's mood."

"That was some razor-sharp play, befitting the Challenger rank-one."

"A clean solo kill in the very first prelim match, putting her name in front of everyone watching—that's Para!"

Just one solo kill. But the timing was perfect for stopping a game that had been tipping the wrong way.

"Uh... uh? Oh! Solo kill again—!"

"Does LPL Look Like Water's draft, built around rolling their bot lane, is turning into poison instead."

"Once Para seizes the initiative, her laning is at a level even active pros can't ignore."

A long top-lane wave, plus Ryze's ranged CC. Stack those two together, and Ryze started hopping past the enemy turret for overfarm.

"Isn't this the kind of thing Manjae needs to come clean up?"

"You could call it that, sure—but with the dragon stacks they've already banked, I expect them to play around that side instead."

"Looks like they decided top can't be solved on its own—Sylas is sprinting straight for dragon."

Ryze finished the overfarm; Sylas abandoned every last minion. Both recalled at once and set up for the dragon fight.

"This dragon is definitely going to blow up into a real fight."

"The way I see it, even with Ryze farmed up, Lucian-Nami's raw damage is still stronger at this timing."

"Agreed. The problem is they don't have a champion who can eat Lucian's poke once he has ultimate."

And so the standoff in front of dragon began.

"Both teams are playing a brutal mind game here... Actor's sudden engage!"

"Rakan's ultimate—AoE charm! But Jaa reacted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in time!"

"Ah—Malphite pops ult, but Kuku flashes it!"

Skills flew back and forth in a furious exchange—and then:

"Para suddenly surges forward!"

Judging every enemy skill burned, Ryze took an aggressive angle and started laying down damage.

"Does LPL Look Like Water, if you don't peel off right now you're all dead."

"She doesn't even have full stacks on Rod of Ages yet, and Ryze's carry potential already feels online."

"The gold lead matters, of course—but Para's decision-making was excellent."

"Exactly. Trusting the HP items and taking that bold position the second every enemy cooldown is down. Not just anyone can do that."

"Incredible from Para!"

"This is textbook top-lane carry. Three of them collapse on the side lane, she takes one down and walks out clean."

Shake the side lane. The moment the enemy's center of gravity tips toward her, she slips away without a care. Yoon Seoha was putting on a clinic in what a well-fed top laner is supposed to look like—not a single mistake.

"Ah—and Does LPL Look Like Water finally starts hitting Baron."

"Isn't this just an emotional burst? Feels like they just hate watching Ryze farm the side."

"Arts Specialty looks ready to take the fight here too—Ryze and Malphite both drop teleport."

Unable to stop Ryze's side pressure, Does LPL Look Like Water committed to the Baron burst.

"Ah—here's where Lucian-Nami's weakness shows. Lucian's on Rapid Firecannon instead of Navori, so the Baron burst is a little slow."

"Does LPL Look Like Water, you have to take the fight here! You cannot go to a smite contest!"

Just as the casters said, they aborted the burst and looked for the fight—but:

"Lucian kiting! Kiting! Ah, Nami's supposed to be a set with Lucian, and if she just explodes like that... Arts Specialty gets the ace!"

It started with Nami—the heart of the Lucian-Nami duo—getting executed by Nocturne's ultimate. After that, it was nothing but a Ryze slaughter show.

"Mid lane's getting shoved hard too. If they just march down from here, this game is over."

"Ah—she's even using the Overdrive Ryze ultimate, sprinting mid."

"And that is the Nexus."

"GGs~"

"Wow, Seoha, you're seriously good."

"I almost said I wish Seoha would just keep subbing in forever~"

"Honestly, same."

"If we play with Seoha we might actually make it through prelims, right?"

I'd been a little tense knowing the enemy top and jungle were active pros, but the match hadn't been as hard as I'd expected.

"But Seoha."

While everyone was still dissecting the game, the team captain, Shinsaeng, suddenly brought up something out of nowhere.

"What you said earlier was really cool."

"Huh?"

He cleared his throat once, then:

"I'll carry."

He was parroting the line I'd thrown out to fire the team up. Hearing it in someone else's mouth, it did sound a little middle-school-chuuni.

But past-life experience had taught me that little things like that could decide a game, so I wasn't embarrassed—

"I'll carry."

"Oh, that was a perfect copy."

—until they started teasing me like that, and then a little embarrassment did creep in.

They're not doing it to be mean.

I knew they were just trying to loosen the atmosphere so the sudden sub wouldn't feel any pressure, so I wasn't actually mad.

"Alright, that's it for today. See you all tomorrow."

"Tomorrow we win and make main stage~"

"See you tomorrow."

"Watch whichever team wins Game 2 and think about draft."

Once I'd confirmed everyone had left, I dropped out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of Discord.

Right. Gotta turn chat back on.

There was a rule that anyone streaming had to mute donations and hide chat during matches—a bare-minimum measure against possible match-fixing, or so I'd heard.

The second I put chat back where I could see it and flipped donations on:

Chat was pure worship.

Yeah—even I had to admit, subbing in and carrying was pretty cool.

In the middle of the ongoing praise, my phone started ringing.

"Hello?"

The caller was Han Byuri. If you're hurt, rest a little, will you? She'd clearly been watching the match just now.

"No, thank you. I'm the one who's grateful you gave me this chance."

Having wrecked my own wrist in a past life, I was genuinely worried about Han Byuri's condition. The silver lining, at least, was that she wasn't running some hyper-competitive skill-focused stream, and she wasn't a pro.

"Yeah. Don't push yourself—get some real rest."

I hung up and was about to go back to reading chat when:

"Whoa, I've never gotten a voice donation before."

Someone had used the voice-donation feature. Back in my pro days, nobody ever sent those.

Curious, I hit play—

—and my own voice from earlier came through the speakers.

You people have some really unique tastes.