Streamer Debut (4)

"Oh, yeah. Looking forward to this."

They put the last defeat behind them and stepped into a fresh Rift.

Top: Yohone versus Kayle.

Jungle: RealOh versus Scanner.

Mid: Anivia versus Azir.

Bot: Ashe-Braum versus Draven-Nautilus.

Yohone, the allied ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠top laner who had shown devastating carry power from the other side of the map in the previous two games. RealOh, a jungler burning with rage. And Braum, who would be sharing the lane with him after he locked Ashe — a player with a solid track record. Render had every reason to feel hopeful.

"What's this?"

In the early bot skirmish, the enemy Nautilus whiffed his grab. With solid synergy between support and ADC, they seized the bot-lane advantage. Then came Ashe's specialty: landing Hawkshot after Hawkshot in lane to lock down vision.

"Oh, nice."

Yohone versus Kayle — a matchup with massive late-game stakes. But their Yohone was already landing flashy skillshots and shredding Kayle's health bar in the early game.

Yohone shoved the wave. Matching the push, RealOh dropped a ping on the enemy top outer turret. Yohone knocked Kayle up with a skill. RealOh's Three Talon Strike third hit was fully charged.

"Beautiful."

A perfect clean dive without even burning Flash. Yohone tanking the turret shots first and peeling off was textbook. Render, who had been grinding a hard bot lane, broke into a grin.

Kayle teleported back to top. Yohone, flush with the kill, returned to lane as well.

It wasn't just the two top laners who wanted a piece of top side.

"Oh?"

Yohone turned the early growth gap into an instant winning trade. RealOh dove right back in.

"Nice! Hahahahaha."

Top lane was completely ruined. Render, who knew from experience exactly how hopeless Kayle felt right now, laughed out loud.

The growth gap was completely out of hand. Kayle, realizing RealOh was MIA, couldn't even stand under his turret and started backing off. RealOh popped out of the brush.

"Oh, come on!"

RealOh beat Kayle senseless. Then Yohone used Soul Unbound and dashed in.

Kayle died again. And RealOh scooped the kill, collecting his gank fee.

"Ah, Kayle is so cooked."

Render usually avoided roasting toxic players on stream, but this time he made no effort to hide how satisfying it felt.

Already winning lane, Render asked his team to keep the game topside. Together with Braum, he harassed the enemy bot lane and kept sweeping vision to track down the enemy jungler.

"Wait, what? He's already a monster?"

Even when the ruined Kayle burned her ultimate to stay alive, she couldn't stop Yohone's relentless, crushing damage with Conqueror stacked.

"Hold on a second…"

Render was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, snorting and wheezing. After a counter-jungle trip, allied jungler RealOh was quietly angling toward top again.

"Alright, then I can't just sit here either."

From bot, he launched Ashe's ultimate — Enchanted Crystal Arrow — all the way toward the top side of the map, firing on the assumption that Kayle would be glued to his turret. Lane phase wasn't over yet. RealOh flashed over near the enemy Gromp as Kayle returned to lane. Kayle dodged the arrow that had flown up from bot, but burned Flash doing it.

"Hahahahahaha!"

He couldn't help clapping. It was too good.

The teamfight in front of Herald ended the moment Yohone's ultimate knocked up the enemy Azir.

"There's nothing for me to do here?"

A light ultimate for the engage, a few autos to slow the fleeing enemies — and that was the full extent of Ashe's job as ADC. Yohone's lane dominance and RealOh's unhinged top-side ganking had done the rest. Both mid mages had been quietly farming their own lanes. RealOh had not only banked kills off the topside advantage but also plundered the upper jungle, and once he mixed in tank items, the enemy team couldn't even dream of breaking through.

"Ohhh?"

Kayle — who looked nowhere near level eleven, let alone sixteen — died to Yohone yet again. The enemy Azir teleported in and still couldn't handle the hyperfed Yohone. Their top laner deleted both the enemy top and mid in a two-versus-one and walked away clean.

"I'm jealous. Yohone's so good."

Render, who had been playing a perfectly solid game himself, said it with genuine admiration.

"Wait, for real?"

The chat lit up with interest in an instant. But Render was a veteran — he didn't make a fuss. He just stayed calm.

"He's really good."

And as a fellow streamer, basic courtesy was in order.

Ashe's ultimate started the engage. Braum and RealOh held a rock-solid front line. Yohone entered a half-beat late and deleted the enemy damage dealers so fast that the mid ADC was left with nothing to do but clean up the last hits.

"Ah, we won!"

A win after a losing streak was sweet. He immediately pulled up the enemy top laner's match history.

0/9/2.

That was the final KDA of the enemy top Kayle.

"Wow. Consistently charming, as always."

Render lingered in the post-game chat longer than usual.

"Oh?"

After that satisfying win, a new queue popped — and there it was again. A familiar nickname.

"I'll go mid this game."

Render gave top to last game's Yohone again without hesitation.

"Oh, Jax is nice."

Their top laner locked Jax — a champion Render himself was fond of. Render went with a safe mid mage pick: Viktor.

Jax versus Irelia.

Karthus versus Lee Sin.

Viktor versus Akeli.

Varus-Rakan versus Xayah-Lulu.

The enemy lineup had terrifying late-game potential. Render traded carefully and calmly from the start.

"Ah…"

He'd done a decent job of bullying Akeli early, only to die to Lee Sin's signature gank.

"Nice!"

"Hey, guys!"

Good news came pouring in from both top and bot.

"Hey, I'm good on Jax too, you know."

He said it, but a smile kept leaking out from under his mask. Looking at the top-jungle matchup, Jax should have been struggling — and yet he'd pulled a solokill out of nowhere.

A soul-level duel. Jax had barely survived, killed Irelia, and was now mining turret gold for all he was worth.

"Wait, what's with Jax's items, hahaha."

He hadn't even converted Tear into Muramana. First item Youmuu's, then another Serrated Dirk. If he just didn't die, this build would delete enemy champions on contact.

"No, he's way too good."

Aggressive play, and yet the way he slipped every enemy skillshot — Render, who had watched the entire solokill sequence from the start, was genuinely impressed.

"Uh, this is dangerous."

The enemy Lee Sin, who had grown decently well, was heading top. Irelia was ready to follow up properly.

"Oh!"

Jax slipped Irelia's ultimate without even using Flash.

"Woooah!"

Jax killed both Irelia and Lee Sin and smashed the turret to pieces.

"No, no — what's with those items, hahahaha."

The game had already tilted hard. The enemy Irelia still hadn't finished a second item, and Jax's four-item build was drawing every eye on the map.

"This guy has zero intention of building any defensive items."

Not armor. Not magic resist. Jax wasn't even considering health stats.

With a teamfight brewing, neither top laner had rotated yet.

"Nice!"

In front of the enemy top inhibitor turret, Jax killed Irelia again.

"Uh!"

The enemy jungler Lee Sin used his ultimate in spectacular fashion and kicked Varus, and just like that their well-fed ADC was dead. Xayah and Akeli came charging in with their ultimates up. With the ADC cut down, it was hard to hold.

But Render's Viktor and jungle Karthus hadn't fallen behind either — they dealt damage to the very end before going down.

"Their health is all gone!"

All four enemies were still alive, but they'd eaten Karthus's ultimate too. Then Jax arrived on a teleport.

"Nice!"

Jax swept up the entire enemy team perfectly.

Varus, who had dominated lane but failed to show up in the critical teamfight, grumbled.

A perfect engage from allied support Rakan. And with five-man synergy firing on all cylinders, they secured an Ace during the Baron buff window.

"Ah, everyone played really well this game."

A game without a Master Yi-type troll like last time was pure happiness.

"Is that true? Hehehe."

A warm, good-natured laugh returned to his face.

"Youth really is something else."

He had no choice but to acknowledge the carry power of a player more than ten years younger than him.

"Ah, we won."

Park Jimin left the game with a satisfied smile. Irelia's pressure was scary, no doubt, but if you dodged her skills just a little carefully, the matchup swung in your favor — and that felt good.

"I'm not sniping."

Jimin laughed with a faintly wronged look. Everyone had seen him just queueing normally — and yet people said this kind of thing.

What do I do?

Keeping ending up with the streamer Render he'd been holding back on, the viewer count climbing past two hundred — Jimin was finding it hard to keep his composure. There was joy in watching the stream grow, but also the question of how to handle it all.

Just queue up another game.

Focusing on the game made the trembling ease a little, so he queued for solo rank right away.

"Ah, yes, thank you. Render played Viktor really well, actually."

He made sure to heap praise on the streamer he'd gotten tangled up with. At least when they'd met earlier, he hadn't made a big deal of it himself — that was a relief.

"Yohone's feeling good today."

Yohone really did seem to be working out for him today.

"Huh?"

Jimin blinked at a donation amount he'd never seen since starting his stream.