VLL Finals (6)
"There it is!!!"
"It's finally open. Shen-saeng's Shen!"
"There's even a saying that Shen-saeng on Shen is pro-level, isn't there?"
"Exactly. Honestly, everyone knows Shen isn't a carry champion, right? But Shen-saeng carries on it anyway."
"They're using three bans on mid to erase mid-lane carry potential. That's the strategy I'm expecting."
"So they open Shen-saeng's Shen—how do they plan to deal with it?"
"Ah, Gnar. Do they figure the skill gap is big enough either way?"
"Looks like they want to pressure the side lanes and the laning phase."
"Well, Shen's open either way. Top looks like they grabbed a versatile pick."
"What about the rest of the cards?"
"Bottom duos will probably lock in next, and then the top side of the map should come together."
"Jungle split Lee Sin and Viego again this game."
"They're solid cards for filling out the AD damage."
"And mid, we've got Para's Azir and Seongho's LeBlanc."
"Both teams put together pretty balanced top-side compositions, I'd say."
"Bot lane, both sides took their comfort picks."
"Yujin's Kai'Sa is a masterpiece every time, after all."
"On the flip side, Count's Ashe is open too. And when you say Count, you mean the Divine Archer, right?"
"That's right. When Count's Ashe comes out, the top side always has to respect the ultimate—Enchanted Crystal Arrow. His hit rate is absurd."
"This game's looking like a real banger too."
"VLL is a tournament where celestial-elo players gather, so the level of play has always been high—but this finals has to be all-time, right?"
"We say 'all-time, all-time' every single series, but the fact that we keep getting games this entertaining might just be the beauty of a LoL tournament."
"Honestly, today's matches have been good enough that you could believe they were a pro league."
"If both teams hit their ceilings, I think we could see a legendary game that rivals even the LCK."
"Alright—they're signaling ready. Let's meet the teams!"
TOP: Shen
JG: Lee Sin
MID: Azir
AD: Kai'Sa
SUP: Rakan
TOP: Gnar
JG: Viego
MID: LeBlanc
AD: Ashe
SUP: Seraphine
"Gnar okay? That's gonna be rough."
"Who am I? The man who hit 2,500 LP on Shen back in the day."
"Bro, how long ago was that. Seoha probably wasn't even playing LoL yet."
Shen-saeng's Shen had been left open, but the card they locked against it was Gnar—a champion vulnerable to ganks early, but one that could pin you in melee range and beat you down in a basic laning phase, then turn into a kiting monster late. Fill the rage gauge, transform, and he became a nightmare to catch. A versatile pick, and for that exact reason a hard one: you couldn't afford a single mistake.
"You guys know what I get in solo queue when I lock Shen?"
His reasoning for saying he could win the Gnar matchup was simple. Solo queue threw worse at him all the time. Vayne, Heimerdinger, Swain, Teemo, Kennen—the list went on. Those were harder, not easier.
Yeah, Gnar does look freer than those nightmares…
Our strategy this game was a bottom-lane game. Mid, honestly, I could solve on pure skill gap. Top was going to lose by default the moment we locked Shen—so the plan was to babysit bot as hard as possible and ride Yujin's Kai'Sa carry potential.
"Finally, a prince-babysitting game."
"Please correct that to Garak."
"A tool doesn't get to say that."
While the bot duo bickered, the minions hit their lanes. From here on, a single mistake meant the championship was over. I cranked the tension and the focus as high as they would go.
"I command!"
I summoned a sand soldier off the W that was forced onto the bar at level one. My early job was simple: don't lose mid, and don't die to a gank. To do that, I had to force the opponent into choices.
Your move.
We farmed up to three, and that was the window for them to take a trade. My position sat behind the minion wave, at the very tip of the sand soldier's range. All they could do was shove the wave or commit to a trade on me.
On paper, the Azir–LeBlanc matchup favored LeBlanc. If she opened a trade with her spells, Azir had to answer with E—his shield and his only real escape—just to trade back. Do that, and you were dead meat the second their jungler showed up. So the real goal was to make her spend W on movement instead of damage.
Figured as much.
She threw W forward to seize tempo and force a trade, but if I didn't eat the W damage, the exchange was mine.
"Conquer!"
I dropped W on her retreat path, chased the trade all the way through, and by the end her health was the one that had dropped further. A glance at the minimap showed top had landed a taunt on Gnar and come out of the trade looking fine too.
We were settling into a clean laning phase when—
An ally has been slain.
—a groan from the bot duo, and Yujin the ADC was dead. Viego had timed the gank for the exact window they needed to shove and recall. Early Kai'Sa barely had a real dash, so there wasn't much to be done.
"It sucks, but whatever—next dragon, take the fight, get a kill, and scale from there."
"Didn't even burn ult this time. I was dead anyway."
…
…
…
"Can you shove bot and rotate for dragon?"
"Priority's a little awkward, but I'll shove it."
The clock had already rolled past seventeen minutes—third dragon spawning. The enemy had already taken two off Ashe priority and a well-fed Viego. We had to take this fight.
I cleared the wave where the bot tower used to be and started heading up. Then—
"Ahh~♪"
—a song bloomed out of the brush in front of the dragon pit, Seraphine's ultimate flying straight at me. If I died, a teamfight was a fantasy, so I tried to dodge—
"You cannot escape the winter!"
—and the spot I dashed to with E ate Ashe's ultimate right after.
They predicted this from mid?
I thought I was dead. Then—
"I've got ult!"
—a violet shield bloomed over my head as Shen slammed down between me and the enemy team.
"It is not yet time!"
Shen's barrier snapped up with him. The enemy team was auto-attack heavy, so Spirit's Refuge ate most of their damage and they couldn't finish me.
Which meant my job was—
"I'm flipping them!"
—to shove the whole enemy team, already leaning into me, into our formation and turn the fight.
"Shurima is eternal!"
The second I launched them, Ppot's Rakan ult-flashed straight through their formation. He held his W just long enough to knock Ashe up, and Kai'Sa had a perfect free-damage angle.
Last enemy slain!
Yujin ulted after the fleeing Ashe and Gnar, cleaned them up, and we wiped the entire team for a massive win.
"Whoa—Shen's shield was that fat?"
In a situation where dying wouldn't have been strange at all, Shen's shield had been thicker than I expected, and that was the only reason I walked out. I asked, half in disbelief.
"Ult shield scales hard off HP, so I recalled, bought two Kindlegems, and ulted in."
I hit Tab and checked the item panel—sure enough, Shen was holding two Kindlegems. I had no idea that was even a thing. Honestly, it was a champion you never saw in pro play, so I'd never learned the tech.
"We haven't won yet. Everyone stay calm."
"Okay. Lock in."
"Gnar's scaling well—don't let him run the map."