Tournament Practice Period (4)
"Landed the cocoon for now."
This time, Park Gyeoul snared the enemy Kog'Maw with Elise's cocoon.
"Nice!"
Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow. Elise's cocoon. Twisted Fate's Gold Card.
With the superior CC packed into their composition, Park Gyeoul's team snuffed out the enemy bot duo near the dragon pit.
But top lane, locked in a lonely 1v1, had no such company.
The Aetrox with Riftmaker was already infuriating with how much he could sustain. Renekton was supposed to stick to him from the start and never let up—but as the growth gap kept widening, he could do neither one thing nor the other.
"He's going to walk the front line in the fight, so let's jump him fast."
With the enemy Kog'Maw-Lulu duo, this was a composition that needed to close the game early. Renekton losing to Aetrox was unfortunate, but the enemy top laner was far from invincible.
A teamfight broke out in front of the Herald.
With first-engage priority on their side, they secured the Herald without trouble.
Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow announced the start of the fight. His positioning was a little awkward, but the first target that needed to die was Aetrox. The moment Ashe's ultimate locked him down, Renekton charged in.
"Ah—Ahri!"
But Ahri and Ekko kept getting in the way from the flanks, and they couldn't commit as one clean unit. Twisted Fate's Gold Card had to be spent on Ahri instead.
"Are you kidding me—!"
They had focused Aetrox from the very first second, only for him to claw back from the brink with a passive auto and the Riftmaker effect. He danced along that razor-thin threshold like some kind of marksman, and it was maddening.
Neither team had a real tank. The fight collapsed into a chaotic free-for-all with both sides dropping their guards and swinging wild.
Even underdeveloped, Renekton showed his class and thrashed until the very end before going down. But Ashe's Flash misplay and Soraka's missed skillshots kept the fight from flowing the way it should have.
The result was a 3-for-3. Their Twisted Fate and Elise survived; the enemy kept Aetrox and Ekko.
"So close."
"We're still fine. We've got strength left."
The teamfight that should have delivered a clean KO had ended in a draw. But their composition still had teeth, so they could look for the next one.
Aetrox stacked on another core item. Renekton couldn't hold up against that monstrous greatsword any longer.
A free solo kill on the side lane, and nothing to show for it.
"Aetrox..."
The Master top laner they'd trusted, Crow, was crumbling. Team captain Park Gyeoul could feel the game starting to twist the wrong way.
The moment Aetrox finished his third core item, Serylda's Grudge, Gyeoul didn't even want to look him in the eye. He couldn't even muster the nerve to punish Aetrox for snatching all the jungle camps that should have been his.
But then Aetrox pushed all the way to the Tier 2 turret. That demanded retribution.
Ashe, Renekton, and Twisted Fate launched an Aetrox raid. If they'd kited properly, they should have brought him down no matter how strong he was—but Ashe, rattled by Aetrox's relentless aggression, lost his cool and died.
Ashe and Renekton fell. Only Twisted Fate barely scraped out alive and managed to finish Aetrox at the last second.
"Ah, I should've run in faster too—I was too far."
Twisted Fate's Flash and Soraka's ultimate both being down a moment earlier stung hard.
"Ah—he's got Mercurial Scimitar too."
Kog'Maw had gone past recovery and into full late-game monster mode, complete with a Quicksilver Sash upgrade. While Ashe kept getting collapsed on, the enemy ADC had scaled in complete comfort. Their jungler Ekko had also grown steadily enough for a mid-jungle matchup against Twisted Fate and Elise.
Twisted Fate had mixed utility into his build, so even with a lead over the enemy Ahri, he couldn't put out the same raw damage.
The unkillable Aetrox swung his greatsword like a man possessed. And then there was Kog'Maw, now terrifying under Lulu's buffs.
A teamfight fought with the snowball already stopped cold. This time, they had to accept the loss.
"Ah... so close."
There wasn't much anyone could say under that kind of helplessness. They could only stare at the words that floated up on the screen.
"Hah. We won."
Park Jimin murmured to himself. The enemy had so much CC that staying alive had been genuinely hard. He'd lost count of how many times he'd been one hit from death.
Render, the team's Master card and late-game carry line, blamed himself.
Even so, the coach wasn't about to tear into anyone hard after a victory.
"Thank you."
Jimin bowed his head in gratitude.
"Yes. I'll do even better."
"....."
Jimin thought back to something Hwata had told him during their one-on-one practice session last time.
Jimin, there's a saying—a first-rate ADC can change a game with the slightest movement.
Does that mean I should play ranged champions a lot?
That's not what I mean. You can fill a similar role on the team. Move aggressively and throw the enemy into chaos.
Ah...
Move along the razor's edge like a tightrope walker. The opponent who takes the bait commits first. You never get touched—and the enemy, balance broken, gets eaten alive.
It was the ideal theory in SOL, but actually pulling it off was incredibly hard.
Set three of today's scrims. The winner was already decided, but as practice they still had to play out the remaining set. Crow, who had been completely dominated by Jimin in sets one and two, first-picked the tank Sion.
"Yes."
The moment the coach spoke, Jimin locked in the champion.
"Ah—no, I like Vladimir too."
Jimin genuinely liked Vladimir for his strength in late-game teamfights. And in lane, you didn't even have to manage mana.
"Yes."
With the games going well, the mood was warm and easy. A smile rose on Jimin's face before the game even started.
"Good work, everyone!"
10/1/6.
A game where the whole team played like they'd woken up. Once again, from laning phase through the teamfights, Jimin put on a masterclass.
And just like that, the scrims between Render's team and Park Gyeoul's team ended in a crushing 3–0. When the roster had first come together, Render's team had felt more like an entertainment project. But through the practice period, at least, they were putting up a performance where the other side would be lucky to take even a single set.
"It really is, though."
"Huh? What'd you say?"
"Ah—nothing."
Jimin had muttered without realizing it. Looking at your phone at the dinner table wasn't a great habit, but as a streamer, checking the reactions was part of the job—or so he told himself.
"Want more rice?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah."
Jimin had been about to get it himself, but his mother came over and took his bowl. When she came back, the half-empty bowl was full again.
"I wonder what Dahye likes to eat."
"She said she doesn't care, but..."
When Jimin had asked what kind of food she liked, Dahye's answer had been that most hated of replies: anything's fine.
"She lives alone—does she eat properly?"
"Ah..."
"Do her parents live far away? She should at least go home and get some side dishes."
"....."
His mother fretted over all these little things about Dahye that Jimin never usually thought about. He'd always felt grateful to Dahye, but now he found himself thinking he might be more careless than he'd realized.
"Is streaming fun?"
"Yeah."
Jimin answered with confidence.
"The people who watch your streams—be really grateful to them."
"I know."
Kim Eunhye had always taught Jimin to carry a grateful heart.
"As I've been streaming, I've been hanging out with other streamers a lot, and they're all really nice."
"Yeah? They're all older than you, right?"
"There's a hyung thirty years older, and a nuna who's almost thirty, and they treat me really well."
"Be careful. Get too comfortable and people start taking liberties."
"Yeah..."
Everyone he met through streaming was inevitably older than him. But Jimin never forgot his manners.
I'm happy.
Lately, everything felt so good. Hanging out with streamers was one thing, but his viewer count was climbing, and donations were popping more often too. If the settlements came in and the stream kept growing, he might be able to make things easier for his mom—and pay Dahye back right away.
"....."
And even when he couldn't play games with Dahye, just staying in touch like this—it was a happiness he never saw coming. He was a streamer himself now, and he'd learned so much more about that world, but still, no streamer made his heart race the way Dahye did.
"Hm?"
As Jimin closed the chat and casually scrolled the web, a headline caught his eye.
"....."
So basically, P1 was trying to get stronger. That was about the size of it.