Tournament Practice Period (6)
“Ah! So close.”
Park Jimin nearly locked down the enemy Irelia on Jayce, but she burned Flash and slipped away. With the risk of a gank still hanging over him, he made the call to save his own Flash.
Still, he had shoved the wave under tower, so the plate gold came free.
Render: “Rek’Sai just showed bot!”
“Got it!”
Chongmyeong: “Keep shoving. Keep going.”
Park Solmi: “Aww, poor Diyul.”
Park Solmi, who normally doted on fellow streamer Diyul like a little sister, let out a string of muffled giggles. They were on opposite teams now, so of course she wanted Jimin to school her—but she still felt a twinge of guilt. If she ever had to lane against Jimin herself, she didn’t even want to imagine how badly she’d get demolished.
The opposing side—Hirose Haruka’s team—had Gold Diyul in top, Master Daruma in jungle, Master Dokidoki in mid, Emerald Gyoyeong bot, and Bronze Haruka on support.
No matter how you looked at it, this was a matchup you had to smash in top and bot.
Chongmyeong: “I’m heading bot. Nuna, hold mid for me.”
Park Solmi: “Wasn’t counting on you anyway.”
Park Solmi sat across from Haruka’s Master-tier mid laner, Dokidoki. The truth was, she had been quietly keeping games from completely exploding against high-elo mids game after game—Render’s team’s real housekeeper was without a doubt her.
Render: “I’ve got ult.”
Yapang: “Huh?”
Render and Yapang had locked in a Varus–Janna bot duo against Miss Fortune–Leona. And just now, Leona had thrown an engage onto Janna.
Chongmyeong: “Oh, this is good.”
They had been looking for the play themselves when the enemy initiated first—a perfect setup to punish.
Varus’s ultimate, Chain of Corruption, slammed into Leona. Catching Miss Fortune cleanly was a little too tight.
Chongmyeong: “Wait, what?”
They secured Leona for certain and, with jungle help, nearly took Miss Fortune as well—but the enemy ADC slipped away on a thread of health.
Render: “It’s fine, that was huge. Yapang, that Charm just now was great.”
Yapang: “Hehe.”
It had actually been a positioning mistake that accidentally turned into a body-engage, but Yapang laughed, happy she had pulled something off.
Park Solmi: “Nice! What was that?!”
Yapang: “Insane.”
Chongmyeong: “Didn’t even use Flash?”
“Ah……”
But the enemy Rek’Sai chased perfectly and cut Jayce down. From the other team’s perspective they had completed the diagonal trade—yet the board still felt off-kilter.
Render: “Close.”
Chongmyeong: “Rek’Sai burned ult and Flash. We’re fine. And wait—a forty CS lead already? Bro, top’s already exploded.”
Park Solmi: “That’s our Jimin. Ugh, Nuna’s dying over here.”
The enemy mid Azir landed a brutal trade, but Park Solmi on Lissandra walked away alive. She would lose some plates, but with both top and bot already ahead, it didn’t matter.
“……I’m taking this one-versus-two.”
Chongmyeong: “Huh?”
Not two-versus-one—one-versus-two. Jimin had spotted the enemy jungler approaching on vision.
If you force them to feel like they have to gank, and then just don’t die to it—that’s the absolute best.
His coach’s lesson floated up in his mind. A ruined lane is a lane junglers refuse to visit—that was the iron rule they all shared. But what if you made them want to gank?
Irelia thrived on gank setups. Jayce was notoriously weak to them. And if the wave was being relentlessly shoved?
Render: “Chongmyeong, come bot.”
Chongmyeong: “On it!”
Trusting top, they decided to force something hard on the bottom side. The growth gap had already stacked up enough that they could lean hard into the enemy bot duo and pin them under tower.
Nidalee’s spear sailed toward the enemy bot lane—and missed.
Chongmyeong: “Ugh, how did that miss.”
Render: “So close.”
Yapang: “Cabi cabi.”
Both bot laners escaped, and the dive attempt never reached a kill window. But they were hammering the tower for free, and the enemy bot had to abandon a massive wave.
Then they looked top.
Render: “Oh?”
“……”
Jimin sidestepped Irelia’s ultimate with pure movement. The level gap between the tops was already huge, and the item disparity was even starker. Calmly, methodically, he played out the one-versus-two.
Jayce slipped every one of Irelia’s crowd-control tools and dropped her.
“Ah.”
He flung an Acceleration Gate Q at the fleeing Rek’Sai, but it clipped just wide.
Chongmyeong: “Bro, what?!”
Yapang: “Woooah.”
Park Solmi: “Jimin!”
Render: “How did you dodge all of that?”
The performance was so unreal their teammates could only sit there, baffled.
The top tower fell on the spot. Bot tower’s health was already hanging by a thread.
The game kept tipping. The snowball never stopped rolling. On the side lane, Jayce was making Irelia completely unrecoverable, while Varus poked mid tower and stretched the gold lead even further.
Render: “The only win condition they have left is a toss.”
Another standoff in front of dragon. The enemy’s only real card looked like a super-toss from Azir.
“I’m going in deeper.”
Near the top second tower, Jimin sniped Irelia again. The rest of the team was still holding the dragon pit.
Render: “Azir! Azir!”
Azir dove in. The play was completely telegraphed, but they had to flip the game somehow. Against this composition, though, a naked toss was nearly impossible to land clean.
Their best-fed player, Azir, went down—and the rest of the enemy champions started collapsing one by one.
In the main fight, poke Varus rained merciless arrows; on the side, Jayce shoved towers like a runaway freight train.
Chongmyeong: “Man, this game is way too smooth.”
Yapang: “Let’s go, let’s go.”
Render: “Stay careful to the end.”
They took Baron and marched forward with authority. The enemy Irelia, Rek’Sai, and Leona threw a desperate engage first.
Their “unfair” engage combo caught Varus. But the enemy champions were already far from full power.
Jayce owned the battlefield. A couple swings of the hammer and Miss Fortune was on her way to the afterlife.
Park Solmi: “We won!”
Render: “Whew.”
“Good game, everyone.”
Yapang: “Nice nice.”
Chongmyeong: “Ahh, Jimin, that was beautiful.”
“Ah, I’m so sorry.”
Haruka: “Good game.”
Dokidoki: “Close one.”
Daruma: “I played way too bad.”
“Haa……”
Twenty-four-year-old female streamer Diyul—real name Song Jiyul—stared at a chat and donation feed that had turned into pure chaos. The trolling was running hotter than usual today.
Daruma: “Should we ban Jayce?”
Dokidoki: “Jayce does look pretty high-tier right now.”
“If it gets first-picked, I’ll take it.”
Gyoyeong: “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
Irelia, Jayce, Akali, Kennen—Diyul’s champion pool was nothing like the usual girl-streamer fare.
Daruma: “Maybe we try a tank top.”
Dokidoki: “If we pick a tank, we just get hit even harder.”
Gyoyeong: “Play what you’re good at. That’s the right call.”
Haruka: “Fighting.”
“Okay.”
Haruka’s team’s first pick was Jayce.
Haruka: “Ah, I just don’t know that many champs……”
Gyoyeong: “It’s fine.”
Dokidoki: “Yaragass?”
Daruma: “Let’s go.”
Dokidoki: “Is top Vlad?”
“Ah……”
They had Ahri, so of course top was Vladimir. Diyul locked Jayce into a Vlad matchup. The lane itself wasn’t particularly losing—but something about it felt deeply uncomfortable.
Haruka: “Alright, let’s win this!”
Daruma: “Go go.”
Dokidoki: “I’m shredding this Ahri.”
Master-tier mid laner Dokidoki had watched last game as the enemy Master top demolished their Gold top laner, while he himself had failed to properly punish the Gold mid. This time, he was going to reclaim his honor.
Top: Jayce versus Vladimir. Jungle: Gragas versus Lee Sin. Mid: Yasuo versus Ahri. Bot: Kai’Sa–Lulu versus Caitlyn–Lux.
Once again, no real tanks on either side—a game where nobody could ever fully relax.
“Ah, come on.”
Jayce was a champion she had played more than almost anything else since she started Sol. She didn’t expect to solo-kill and dominate a Master top—but she at least didn’t want to get completely run over.
And yet she was losing, inch by inch. She had no choice but to eat Vladimir’s Q transfuses and try to trade back, but he kept slipping every single auto.
Daruma: “You don’t have to play top that aggressively.”
Master jungler Daruma tried to encourage her. Mid lane, Yasuo was already creating a gap against Ahri. If Gragas’s power could also crack the enemy Cait–Lux once, they had a real shot at winning.
“Wait—!”
Mid-trade, Vladimir unleashed a lightning-fast skill combo. Jayce dropped on the spot.
“Ah—ugh…… I’m so sorry.”
She felt so bad the words barely came out.
Dokidoki: “It’s okay.”
Daruma: “Just surviving is enough.”
“……”
The gap had to be even wider now than before. She had no confidence she could hold.
The hellish top lane dragged on. Worse than Vladimir’s sustain was that uncanny, slippery movement. Far from pressuring top on Jayce, she was reduced to hanging back just to farm CS.
Haruka: “Ah!”
Haruka’s Lulu stepped on Caitlyn’s trap.
Haruka: “Ah…… sorry.”
Gyoyeong: “Cabi. Ugh, Cait–Lux is so rough.”
Against Caitlyn–Lux, that was a mistake you simply could not afford. Sighs rolled through bot lane as well.
“……Haa.”
Vladimir and Lee Sin dove top. Diyul died on the spot. The enemy Vlad was already sitting on two kills.
Daruma: “Oh, that was good.”
Dokidoki: “Nice.”
Gragas’s mid gank sniped the struggling Ahri. The only real hope left was jungle and mid power. Gragas was building full damage, and the enemy team barely had a tank either.
“He’s just glued to top, isn’t he.”
Diyul grumbled after getting solo-killed by Vladimir in front of the second tower. And now it was teamfight time.
Daruma: “Watch me!”
Gragas threw a thunderous engage. Yasuo soared in after him.
The Gragas–Yasuo combo deleted the well-fed Caitlyn in an instant.
Haruka: “Nice!”
“Kill her, kill her!”
Gyoyeong: “Looking for ult angle.”
Kai’Sa flew in with her ultimate.
Gyoyeong: “Huh?”
Kai’Sa caught Lux’s root—and after Vladimir spun his skills a few times, she simply exploded.
Daruma: “Ahri! Ahri!”
They took the enemy mid Ahri as well.
Dokidoki: “Wait—!”
Ahri put up a little resistance, and Lee Sin wasn’t dying easily either. What they could see now was Vladimir, returning from the Kai’Sa kill. He slipped Gragas’s body-slam and closed on the wind-wall-down Yasuo.
Vladimir’s ultimate landed on both Yasuo and Gragas. Yasuo popped first—he had rushed Infinity Edge for carry potential. Jayce and Gragas glared him down, but the Vladimir simply would not die, and his damage was terrifying.
Dokidoki: “Ah, what is this……”
Daruma: “Vlad got way too big…… wait no, he’s just broken.”
Haruka: “Cabi.”
Gyoyeong: “Ah, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten rooted. I’m playing so bad today.”
Gyoyeong, who had locked Kai’Sa, was beating herself up.
“……”
Diyul couldn’t get a word out. She just pressed her lips tightly together.
“Ah.”
All Baron vision lost. Baron itself handed over. While the main force held mid, she died to Vladimir on the side lane again. Neither the second tower nor the inhibitor tower could protect her.
Dokidoki: “Ah, that’s rough.”
Daruma: “They just play too well.”
Gyoyeong: “I needed to do more bot…… ah……”
Haruka: “Sorry, everyone.”
“……I’m sorry.”
Diyul sat there, restless and miserable.
Render: “Everyone’s playing so well.”
Yapang: “Our team is the best.”
Chongmyeong: “Cait–Lux is nice, huh?”
Render: “Yapang, your Lux is way too good.”
Yapang: “Hmmph!”
Park Solmi: “Ah, I really thought I was gonna be the traitor that game.”
“Good game, everyone.”
Chongmyeong: “Man, that Vlad was art.”
Render: “I thought once we hit late game Jimin would carry.”
Yapang: “That’s our Jimin!”
“……”
Jimin gave a quiet little smile. The enemy Yasuo had gotten so big it had been rough—but they had pulled through.
Render: “Huh? Why aren’t they joining?”
Park Solmi: “Something wrong? Wait—”
What’s going on?
Jimin was waiting, but the other team still hadn’t queued in, and it was getting awkward.
“Thanks for the thousand. Wait, what?”
He had no idea what that was supposed to mean. There were five people on the other team—which one?
Park Solmi: “Ah, what do we do.”
Yapang: “Huh?”
Chongmyeong: “What’s wrong?”
Render: “Ah……”
Even Render, who had zero personal connection to the other team’s captain, looked uncomfortable.
“……”
Jimin didn’t know the opponents well, so he hopped into Render’s stream instead.
“Huh?”
What the streaming Render was watching was Diyul’s broadcast.
“I want to play well too! If you’re just gonna flame me, why are you even watching my stream?!”
A girl’s voice, crying. Teammates trying to soothe her.
“……”
What on earth was going on.