Streamer Debut (3)
“Jayce is good into Aetrox.”
Render, the streamer who had been there since the crackling dawn of support chats, locked in his pick for the top lane. Jayce.
“You just have to dodge well.”
Render said it with real confidence. Jayce was a high-mechanics champion, the kind that demanded a lot from your hands—but after more than fifteen years of SOL, he had every right to that confidence.
“This guy’s playing pretty aggressive, huh?”
The Aetrox was taking aggressive trades and aggressive spacing. As levels ticked up, the threat against Jayce only grew. Still, holding the lane priority, Render went in for a cannon-wave trade.
“Uh—uh—uh?”
Aetrox’s Q into chain combo. In an instant Jayce’s health bar cratered.
“Oh shit—!”
When Aetrox vaulted the minion wave and kept swinging, Jayce had no choice but to burn Flash.
“Ah, this is not how this is supposed to go.”
Even with Jayce’s ranged poke, once you were down Flash and the enemy still had theirs, you simply could not step up. Before long he had lost priority, and the second-pick side started bleeding CS and experience.
“Ah……”
He had thought the trade was good and dove onto Aetrox—only for the enemy jungler Ekko to show up and finish the kill.
“If jungle would just come…… yeah, no, that wouldn’t work either.”
A top and jungle with zero hard CC trying to lock down that Aetrox looked impossible.
“Ugh, what the hell.”
The level gap that opened while he was dead with Flash down was brutal. He hadn’t even taken the full Aetrox combo this time and his health still evaporated.
“I should’ve taken Phase Rush.”
Picking Conqueror instead of Phase Rush was already starting to feel like a mistake.
A massive wave rolled in behind the enemy Aetrox.
“This is actually miserable.”
Ekko diving with Aetrox and then casually walking out on his ultimate was getting seriously annoying to look at.
Allied jungle was starting to hand out instructions to top.
Render admitted he was getting completely stomped in top.
“But seriously, this Aetrox is actually cracked. The pressure is insane.”
He meant the enemy top laner’s skill just as much as the champion.
“So close.”
The fight in front of Herald. Result of a 5v5: not a single enemy champion killed, four allies dead. The overfed Ekko’s damage from early kills plus Aetrox’s perfect engages completely owned the fight.
“If our ADC Kai’Sa keeps playing well I think we can still stall this out.”
Render’s remaining hope was the Kai’Sa moving on a completely different wavelength from the rest of the team. And Braum, their support, was a strong late-game pick as well. If they could just get bot and their core items online against the enemy Zen-Kar, it was still too early to throw in the towel.
“Wait, what is this Aetrox building?”
Aetrox had brought a full murder kit. From a lagging Jayce’s perspective, every single step of movement had to be hyper-focused.
“Ah—!”
He hadn’t even been trying to kill the guy, or pressure him—he just wanted to stand in the side lane together. Aetrox did not allow it.
“Uh, yeah. I guess so.”
A burst Aetrox you almost never saw. Render was left completely speechless.
“That was close.”
No matter how hard they tried to fight, they could not hold against an Aetrox and Ekko that had become actual monsters. Watching Aetrox ult and walk up, then delete their Kai’Sa with a full skill combo, had looked like a natural disaster.
“What are you talking about.”
Render, who had been a heavy gamer since school and streaming since he was twenty, shook it off immediately and queued again.
“He’s locking Yohone?”
This time the enemy top laner first-picked Yohone.
“What should I pick to cook him with?”
Render thought for a second. Yohone was the kind of champion you either killed properly or you didn’t kill at all.
Mid had hovered Galio and typed it out.
“Camille into Yohone is solid too.”
He matched the team comp without hesitation. Games were more fun when you synced with your teammates.
“Wait, what is jungle doing though.”
The real problem was their jungler locking Master Yi—a champion that looked more like it belonged in an RPG than in SOL.
“Ah, yeah, I’ll just play better then.”
It was awkward, but he started the game anyway.
“That hurt, right?”
Camille was a champion he was personally very confident on. Landing two Qs in the early trades put him ahead immediately. The control was sharp—but from the moment the game started he had noticed the enemy top laner making oddly questionable decisions in subtle spots. Render, a ten-plus-year veteran of the game, stabbed those openings perfectly.
“Oh. I misjudged you.”
With Yohone’s health already chunked down, allied Master Yi pinged that he was coming top. Camille’s hookshot was charged and both Flashes were up—they should be able to take him.
“Huh?”
He chased the fleeing Yohone. A few skills missed to the enemy’s movement and the angle started to fall apart. Even so, the earlier trades had been so good that Yohone was still in critical health.
“Back! Back!”
In the end, from his own eyes, it had become an angle they absolutely could not finish. Master Yi charged in anyway. Empty back-pings rang out into the void.
“What are you even doing.”
Render, who almost never got angry, let irritation slip into his voice.
“What is he talking about.”
Even the chat was starting to get on his nerves.
“Haa. I’ll just play hard.”
Render let out a long breath and decided to calm down.
“Ah, this is bad.”
But Yohone—who had slipped the gank, taken First Blood, and lost nothing—was starting to look terrifying. A Yohone who had turned crisis into opportunity. The same crushing pressure from the previous game was beginning to reappear.
“Ah—!”
Enemy jungle Sejuani’s gank. He dodged well, but the perfect synergy between Yohone and Sejuani still got him. Yohone now had two kills. Standing in lane meant getting beaten one-sidedly.
Galio, who had been holding his own against the enemy mid Corki, was starting to get irritated too.
Teamfight in front of dragon. Enemy ADC Ezreal cleaned up the allies Yohone had already shredded.
The team atmosphere was turning vicious.
In front of the tier-two tower, even after burning ultimate and hookshot, he got solokilled by Yohone. Render kept his mouth shut, said nothing, and locked in on the game.
“Oh!”
The enemy Ezreal and Corki walked in casually and got deleted by a perfect Camille–Galio chain. Two carries wiped in an instant.
They cut the enemy dragon buff and immediately rotated to Baron pit.
“I don’t see Sej—I don’t see Sejuani!”
Render desperately tried to track the enemy jungler. With all five of them still alive, though, Baron looked takeable.
“There—Sej! Sejuani!”
He lunged at the appearing Sejuani. But Baron’s health was awkward. Who to kill first—Sejuani or Baron. Allied pings crossed and conflicted. Sejuani Flashed into the pit.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!!!”
Render’s roar. Enemy champions started appearing one after another. He noticed Corki teleporting in, but Yohone was scarier.
Enemy Yohone’s Fate Sealed. ADC Caitlyn vanished in an instant.
Master Yi, who had taken a lot of Baron damage and more from Sejuani, had almost no health left and contributed almost nothing to the fight. Corki started dealing. Ezreal’s ultimate came flying from far away.
“Because it was on cooldown, what is this guy even saying.”
Render blocked the jungler a little late.
Even the toxic viewers were left speechless by Master Yi’s performance.
“……”
He had thought they could win. They lost.
“Good game, everyone.”
Even so, he kept the face of a professional broadcaster.
“Ah, yes, thank you for the ten thousand. Family insults are a no-go, hahaha.”
He left the regret behind and queued the next game.
“Huh?”
A familiar name popped up.
“MomBeHappy… ah… yeah.”
The top laner who had hard-carried two games in a row had landed on their team as ADC.
“……”
When support typed something like that, bot lane had a high chance of getting tilted.
“What, why is he so cute.”
Terrifying as an enemy—but looking at the chat, maybe he was just a nice player. Render was into top these days, but he was comfortable on all five roles, so giving it up was fine. And the guy’s skill was ridiculous, wasn’t it?
Top locked Yohone.
“Wait, that nickname.”
On the loading screen he saw the enemy name.
PregnantWomanKillerUmDongsik.
A nickname he didn’t even want to read. A player he didn’t want to remember.
Last game’s jungle Master Yi. This game’s top Kayle.
“……”
Welcome to the Rift.
Render cheered on the top laner.
“Oh, last game’s Galio?”
There was one more comrade from the previous match.