Tournament Practice Period (3)
"Does top even need looking after anymore?" Chongmyeong asked.
"I told you to keep watching no matter what the result is," Render said. "Stick to the plan."
"The kid takes solo kills like it's a meal," Park Solmi added.
"·····"
At level four, Park Jimin had solo-killed the Master top laner on Sett.
Kalista was a champion built to demolish lane phase outright.
But half-hearted demolition wouldn't bring out her true flavor.
"Keep warding and find their jungler," Render said.
"Got it."
"Mid's a bit rough — sorry," Park Solmi admitted.
"Just hold mid. Bot's looking fantastic," Render replied.
Render's team was up against Park Gyeoul's squad.
Their roster: Crow, a Master top laner; team captain Park Gyeoul in Gold jungle; Chuchu, a Master mid; Yongjin, an Emerald ADC; and Mitani, a Bronze support.
Park Solmi had picked Viktor and was answering the enemy Jayce by mostly clearing the wave, but she was still struggling to contest the lane properly.
In contrast, the Render–Yapang bot duo was crushing the enemy Lux–Rakan pair with their Ashe–Karma combination.
"Hehe."
"Hm?"
"Oh, I'm sorry — I've never done this well against Mitani unnie before," Yapang said softly.
"Ah····· Yeah, that's great."
Yapang was stomping bot against a fellow agency Vtuber, and she was simply in a good mood.
"There — toward Sejuani by the raptors!"
While dominating lane, Render was also tracking the enemy jungler's position with hawkshots.
"·····"
Mid was fighting an uphill battle. Bot was firmly ahead.
And Jimin was tormenting the enemy Sett exactly as the setup had been drilled into him.
"Oh."
Even he couldn't help admiring the hit he'd just landed.
He stacked Rend, then, at the last possible second, sent a Pierce through a dying minion and into Sett.
Miss, and the strength drained out of you in an instant — but when it landed this cleanly, the opponent simply had no idea what to do.
"Wait, what is that CS? Is that a bug?" Render muttered.
Sett: 11. Kalista: 58.
From Sett's perspective, he'd given up a solo kill, and the enemy Kalista was catching every minion while still flinging spears with surgical precision. There was no way to pin her down.
On top of that, the enemy ADC and jungler kept finding their own jungler, so even the ganks sitting right in front of his face were nearly impossible.
A Facebreaker that just barely missed.
Kalista hopped clear, and Sett burned another Flash to run.
You have to be good at the things your opponent hates.
Yes.
The words of the coach who seemed to pour more hours into him than the rest of the team combined came back to him.
Shapes that made the enemy uncomfortable.
Whenever Sett tried to take CS, Jimin dumped damage into him one-sidedly. Whenever Sett tried to set a favorable wave, Jimin twisted it somehow.
It wasn't simply about dodging well and landing skills well — he used everything available to make the opponent miserable.
If he was comfortable, the enemy was comfortable too.
Without a single moment of rest, he kept the mouse moving, scrambling Sett with constant micro-adjustments.
For someone still taking his first steps, Jimin was executing the ideal of a ranged top laner's lane phase almost to perfection.
"Have they given up on the top side?"
Chongmyeong's Rek'Sai nearly free-ate three void grubs at the pit.
Separate from the fact that the enemy jungler Sejuani preferred dragon, the top-side priority had completely collapsed, so she'd judged that a fight simply wouldn't form.
"Uh — top!" Chongmyeong shouted.
"·····"
Even the tightest net had gaps.
Enemy Sejuani had timed a top gank with uncanny precision.
No matter how well he'd snowballed, a squishy Kalista was not going to live easily in this spot.
Chongmyeong abandoned the camps he'd been clearing and sprinted top, while Jimin walked into the brush and prepared to thrash for his life.
Kalista hopping.
The moment Sejuani and Sett closed in she should have died on the spot — yet somehow she kept slipping just out of their hands.
An ally has been slain.
Still, winning a 1v2 was beyond him.
Enemy slain.
"Whoa, what?" Park Solmi said.
"You got Sett?" Render asked.
At the brink of death, Jimin had speared down Sett — a tank, yes, but still a fragile one this early.
Sett wasting his W meant to protect himself had been huge.
"Where do you think you're going!" Chongmyeong barked.
Enemy slain.
Arriving late to top, Chongmyeong cleaned up the enemy jungler Sejuani.
"Oh, we got her."
"Nice one, Jimin," Chongmyeong said.
"This is an absolute jackpot," Render added.
"Nice, nice," Yapang chimed.
It wasn't just that one had died and two had been taken — the critical part was that top's structure hadn't warped at all.
"Love it, love it."
"Ugh, this is hard," Park Solmi groaned.
Bot rotated up and monopolized all six void grubs.
And they kept pressuring so the enemy couldn't swap lanes.
"Hyung, can you come for this?"
"Just tell him to walk out!" Chongmyeong laughed.
"·····"
Watching the enemy top Sett get shredded, Chongmyeong was all smiles.
He was using top's pressure to harass Sejuani, who was actually a strong jungler on the clear, and that made him feel even better.
Enemy slain.
"Nice."
"Clean," Chongmyeong said.
A perfect clean dive.
Kalista and Rek'Sai took down Sett, who was stuck under tower with more than half his health gone, without burning a single summoner spell.
Turret destroyed.
Kalista's spear, loaded with the power of six void grubs.
Just like that, Render's team smashed the first top turret and claimed the first-tower bounty.
"Ugh, I'm gonna need a bit more time to scale this," Park Solmi said.
Viktor, the team's only AP mid.
But she'd gotten so thoroughly bullied by the enemy Jayce that her growth was lagging.
"It's fine — keep playing through top," Render said.
Between Kalista and a well-fed bot lane, Viktor's slow start still wasn't a real liability.
Turret destroyed.
Swapping down to bot, Kalista took another first turret.
"Don't group — just keep shoving, keep shoving," Render ordered.
"Fighting," Yapang said.
"Come join once you've got about three items," Chongmyeong added.
"Yes."
It was said half as a joke.
But Jimin didn't take it as one.
He'd already been told his purpose was to create as many 1v1 — or even 1v2 — situations against the enemy as possible.
"Jayce is kinda strong!" Park Solmi warned.
"·····"
Jimin's Kalista met the enemy's well-fed Jayce in a side lane.
But the moment he slipped a few of Jayce's skills, the result was obvious.
This is fun.
The champion he'd played the most: Jayce.
Because he was good at it himself, facing it was easy too.
Hwata's advice — experience as much as you can and think — landed not in his head but in his skin.
Enemy slain.
MomBeHappy is unstoppable!
"Nice!!!" Park Solmi cheered first — she'd suffered the most under Jayce.
"Keep going like this," Render said.
Turret destroyed.
Jimin's Kalista punched a highway straight through the bot second turret.
The rest of the team avoided getting caught thanks to Ashe's slippery movement.
"This dragon fight is important," Render said.
"Yes."
"Just take the smite fight — we are not losing it," Chongmyeong said.
"For real?" Park Solmi asked.
"We just kill their jungler."
"We're reading the fight," Render said.
Setting the empty jokes aside, Render prepared the engage.
Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow locking onto Sett.
"Sett! Sett! And watch for Rakan Flash-engaging!" Render called.
Enemy slain.
Sett, who had barely grown at all under Kalista's constant pressure.
Forced onto the front line, he melted in seconds.
"Ah, fuck—" Park Solmi cursed.
"·····"
She got hit by Rakan's Flash all-in combo and watched Lux's ultimate drop over her head.
An ally has been slain.
But Ashe Flashed out, and Kalista slipped Rakan with spacing and movement.
Enemy slain.
Double Kill!
Triple Kill!
Both were ADCs, but where Ashe's arrows harassed the enemy, Kalista's spears felt like they were carving bodies apart.
Your team has slain the Dragon.
"Ah, easy. So easy," Chongmyeong said.
"Jayce burned Flash····"
"Jimin just played that so well," Render said.
"Nice, nice," Yapang echoed.
"I'll take blue," Jimin said.
"Huh? Yeah, yeah — take it."
"Go ahead," Chongmyeong added.
Jimin snagged the nearby blue buff to finish his next core item.
In an instant, the item gap with Sett was nearly three full cores.
Enemy slain.
Double Kill!
Jayce, practically the only member of the enemy team who'd grown well.
The moment he could no longer hold a side lane against Kalista, the game had already been tilting for a long time.
Victory!
"Hah·····"
An acrobat who never fell, all the way to the end.
Only when he saw the victory text could Jimin finally breathe properly.
"We won!" Park Solmi cheered.
"Ah, thank goodness," Yapang said.
"No, playing through top makes this way too easy?" Chongmyeong said.
"Everyone really played well," Render said.
"Good work, everyone."
This is fun.
A game where you controlled just one champion, yet breathed and moved together with your allies.
Jimin found SOL endlessly enjoyable.
"Thank you, 10YearRogueTopSolo, for the 30,000 won!"
A donation from someone moved by Kalista's dazzling performance.
Jimin expressed his gratitude.
"No, it isn't."
Streamer Park Gyeoul answered in a firm voice.
"Ah, this game got completely wrecked," Crow said.
"I'm really sorry."
"No — they kept finding the jungler, so there wasn't much we could do. And top Kalista hasn't been showing up much lately, so I just didn't handle it well," Crow said.
Crow was a Master top laner who always put on a solid showing whenever high-tier players showed up in a Jijik tournament.
Displaying such an ugly performance in front of his own stream of over a thousand viewers left frustration thick in his voice.
"Their top is good. And the Kalista mastery is high," Chuchu said.
"So we ban Kalista?"
"Ah····· I don't think it's ban-worthy," Crow replied.
"Isn't bot a bit rough?" Chuchu asked.
"I think we need to play the lane hard. That Ashe looks strong," Yongjin said.
"Ashe's tier is high right now," Chuchu agreed.
"Ah, I just played so badly," Mitani said.
"No, you didn't," Yongjin answered.
"Since they're rolling so hard through top, what if we just go all-in on cracking top?" Park Gyeoul suggested.
"Worth thinking about. Taekjin hyung, what do you think?" Chuchu asked.
Park Gyeoul's team brought in their coach and planned for set two.
It was called a scrim, but the meeting felt like the real thing.
Once they were a team, they had to find an answer no matter what.
"Let's go. Everyone smile, smile," team captain Park Gyeoul encouraged her teammates.
"Nuna, we have to kill Aatrox completely in the early game," Crow said.
"Oki oki."
Top and mid were Master. Jungle was Gold.
Even if her mechanics were a touch short, Park Gyeoul's long career in SOL — long for a woman streamer — made her extremely sharp on macro setups.
Allied top: Renekton. Enemy top: Aatrox.
Jungle: Elise vs. Ekko.
Mid: Twisted Fate vs. Ahri.
Bot: Ashe–Soraka vs. Kog'Maw–Lulu.
It was a game that demanded speed.
"Wait, what's with Electrocute Aatrox," Crow muttered.
Last game, top Kalista. This game, Electrocute Aatrox.
Crow couldn't believe how bold this kid was.
"Ah!"
Park Gyeoul's sharp scream.
The cocoon that should have hit Aatrox missed.
"Close, close," Crow said, his voice heavy.
He'd burned Flash and still failed to kill the enemy Aatrox.
"Ah, I thought it hit····"
It had missed so narrowly that Park Gyeoul was talking nonsense.
First Blood!
Enemy slain.
"Oh, nice," Chuchu said.
"Phew, thank god."
Park Gyeoul finally smiled after ganking mid and taking down the enemy Ahri.
"Ah, this·····" Crow muttered.
The enemy Aatrox they had failed to kill early the way they'd wanted.
His movement and skillshots were anything but ordinary.
Renekton won at first, but as Aatrox's skill levels rose and items came online, it got steadily more unbearable.
Elise headed top again. Renekton was shoving the wave in.
If they didn't take him down this time, it would be hard to deal with him afterward.
Because of Electrocute Aatrox's absurd movement, even late game that Electrocute rune didn't look like it would become a weakness.
"Ah! Come on!"
A breakdown in coordination between Renekton and Elise.
You have been slain.
"Ah·····" Crow said.
Elise, unable to escape the chain, died. Renekton, factoring in Aatrox's sustain, realized he couldn't finish the kill either.
"Ah, sorry about that."
"Close," Crow said.
Selfish top laner or not — the other person was his senior, a representative streamer of Jijik, and his teammate.
More than that, through the eyes of someone who had played a lot of Aatrox himself, it hadn't been Elise's fault. Against a 1v2 setup and the invincible dive duo of Renekton–Elise, the top laner had simply been too composed.
An ally has been slain.
"No, wait—!" Crow shouted.
But falling behind in growth and dying himself was another matter entirely.
Under Electrocute Aatrox's destructive damage, Crow's eyes went wide.