The First League Match
We entered the ban-pick screen for our first league match.
The preliminary full-league round robin is played as single games, but starting from the playoffs, ban-picks follow the Peerless Rule. Basically, it means you can't pick the same champions you picked in previous sets again. Unlike the prelims, the semifinals are BO3 and the finals BO5, so you could say champ width becomes hugely important.
Becky Team grabbed the Ez + Karma combo, just like in scrims, clearly aiming to completely demolish our bot lane. It was the flow I'd more or less expected. Our team was overwhelmingly ranked number one in top and jungle solidity, and the only thing you could call a weakness from scrims was our ADC, Strawberry Soda's champ pool and her brain freeze moments.
But we hadn't just sat around idly either.
"Gimme that Caitlyn, please."
"Okay~ Been practicing her?"
"You bet~"
Strawberry Soda said she'd been grinding Caitlyn—my absolute favorite ADC—during the four-day break. It wasn't her usual in-your-face infighting style; it was a poke-and-nuke champ that controlled distance with traps for burst combos to pick off a single target. But she asked me to trust her once, so I let her take it.
Matching that, I picked my go-to support, Thalia. I wanted to go SFE support, but against Ez + Karma, you couldn't just feast on lane. I'd get smashed trying to throw out a hook once.
We balanced mid with the tanky mage Goliath overall, and filled the rest with mobile dive comps.
The game started, and we hyped ourselves up yelling "FIGHTING!"
As expected, the enemy bot duo came out aggressive from level 1. We backed off just enough to not eat lane pressure. Caitlyn + Thalia bot duo gets strong at 3 anyway.
Our jungler farmed the bottom three camps, hit 3, and prepped to gank bot right away.
"Neru-nim, when's 3?"
"After these three melee ones."
"Okay, coming right down~"
Centi, on his strong early-game Vi, dove in for the gank.
"Soda, get ready to go in."
"Okay!"
He cleared the three melee camps fast, hit 3, popped his heal, and pushed forward aggressively. The enemy bot duo obviously sensed something coming and started burning all their skills to back off.
Thalia's E lays down a zone—if an enemy on it uses a dash, they get stunned. Her W makes rocks erupt from the ground, and landing it lets you pull or push them wherever you want. Chain them, and you get a hard CC that lifts into stun.
Ez has a short-range teleport on his skill and flash, so low chance to catch. We were targeting their support Karma. I closed the gap with flash and dropped E under her. As Vi charged her skill to kill, Karma's only escape was flash.
I predicted the flash distance and hit W. Pulled her toward us. No flash? Vi catches her. Flash? Pulled right into it.
Pah!—As expected, enemy Karma flashed, got yanked into my pre-placed W, and straight into Caitlyn's trap combo for the kill.
My intrusion rune popped at the same time, boosting move speed massively. I smacked Ez a few times from range, denying them lane entirely.
"Nice~"
Centi recalled right away, bought some items, and looped top jungle.
We widened the CS gap holding lane, when Neru, watching the game beside me, spoke up.
"Opponent jungler might skip top rock crab and invade our top jungle, right? Better tell the crappy dev to warn top~"
'Okay.'
"Looks like enemy jungler's got time left, might invade our jungle. Kang Hyun, if you push lane and watch, that'd be great."
"Yep."
Kang Hyun mined one tower creep and headed down immediately. Centi arrived top jungle just as the enemy jungler tried to invade—but spotted our top coming down and had to back off. He'd skipped top rock crab to invade, but Kang Hyun's constant harass denied that too.
Enemy jungler's options now: recall or go bottom for rock crab. Recall? Centi times top rock crab and meets at bottom one. Go bottom? High chance we take it for free.
Sure enough, enemy jungler crossed mid to grab bottom rock crab quick.
"Soda, come here."
"Huh? No more CS? Got it!"
I'd read it ahead, pushed lane, and rotated up. Enemy jungler on bottom rock crab—but now it was 2v1. He used smite to secure but had to flash to dodge my skill chain.
"Enemy jung no flash."
"Okay~ Recalling then dragon."
Neru, watching intently beside me, constantly calculated enemy jungle spawn timings. They started blue, so first jungle mob out is toad. To minimize pathing waste, they'd take toad, wolves, then go top.
Our jungler got some XP bot earlier and would near 6 after the respawned bottom two camps.
"Centi-nim, bottom two camps get you 6?"
"Nah, short."
"If enemy pathing looks dragon-bound, clear bot ward and grab XP."
"Okay."
Enemy was behind our jungler in XP. If they contest dragon, we have ult, they don't—huge edge. No contest? Free dragon.
As expected from an ex-pro, enemy jungler deemed dragon risky and went top. We took it easy, lull for a bit.
But Neru's brain never stopped. 40 seconds later, top objective Yuchung spawns—enemy, denied dragon, would push for it. We'd already taken bot prio pick, no way they hold longer.
"Centi-nim, heading up soon."
"Yeah~"
"Soda, just poke. Can't 1v1 Ez."
"Got it!"
Thalia ult walls across distance to ride globally. Perfect timing to roam mid, chew their mid's HP/spells, and take Yuchung prio.
"Sunbae, Annie flash?"
"Yeah. Coming? I'll flash respond."
"Nah, just chew spells then."
Best to kill, but they wouldn't give it easy... wait, low-tier mid, maybe they would.
"Actually, wanna engage?"
"Sure."
Mid matchup even, lanes mid-push. I angled the wall just outside tower range and rode it fast.
No mobility Annie blocked by wall—flash to cross, right into my predicted W spot.
Pah!—All per plan, Annie yanked back inside wall. Ritz followed up, and we killed their mid easier than expected.
"Nice~"
"Yuchung support now."
"She can't respond. Just pretend to be there?"
"Okay~"
Game exploded early. And at the center was Neru.
Bot, Strawberry Soda got dived 2v1 once, but lane cleared so no extra gain—they just burned spells and died next Centi gank.
Centi doggedly farmed bot, leading to huge prio on all three lanes: top, mid, bot.
Dragons stacked for us. Enemy, desperate, forced fights but no results.
"Aborn call and bait. One teamfight to end it. Neru-nim, join?"
"Okay."
Per Centi's call, I rotated up immediately. Aborn Nashor—Riocham's strongest objective, gives enhanced recall and minion buffs on kill. Siege-optimized, painful to give up.
"Poke then check enemy mid. Neru-nim, cover."
"Okey~"
Aborn at ~10k HP, Centi ults enemy mid for guaranteed CC. I chain WE for more. Soda traps underneath—enemy mid bursts without doing anything.
Enemy top/jungle target our ADC, but too late. Core dealer dead, Ez shredded by our top—5-0 ace.
Straight to nexus, 21-7 kill score total victory.
Game over in 27 minutes. The following match—Riens Team vs Rest Team—ended the same: easy win for top-seed Riens.
"Ugh, great games today everyone!"
"You all crushed it. Let's take league first like this!"
After feedback, I shut down the PC, utterly drained.
"Whoa... stamina drain's no joke."
[Sigh, so tiring.... Crappy dev, Neru helped hard—repay with a massage quick.]
"Got it, got it."
Tournament tension burned so much energy—even victory left heavy fatigue. I crashed into bed and passed out.