The Shining Solo Queue Warrior (2)
"Thanks for the 1,000 won. Ah, is that so."
"·····"
Jimin scratched his head.
In solo queue — already a paradise for toxic players — if someone was famous for being toxic, just how bad could they possibly be?
Still.
This wasn't someone who'd wronged him personally. There was no reason to go in hostile. He'd simply met them as an opponent, so he'd play hard. That was all.
"Whew, okay then."
Jimin locked in Akali and headed top, lining up against Jax. From what he'd heard, this guy only picked carry champions — and sure enough, he seemed aggressive right from lane. Diving in from the very start like that.
"Yeah, this is nice."
From Akali's perspective, though, Jax was a comfortable matchup. Jimin was already steering the early game into a favorable state.
Huh?
He thought he'd created a winning setup, but Jax kept trying to fight. Jimin fell silent and focused.
"Hmm."
He dropped shroud, won the trade. His opponent seemed fairly well-known — the chat was reacting much harder than usual. But Jimin had simply played the correct move with cold precision.
Weird one.
Top lane was full of players who lived and died by the 1v1. This guy seemed to take that a step further.
"·····"
Jax leapt in with Leap Strike. Akali's shuriken-weaving evasion and counterattack. Jimin came out ahead again.
"Ah, I see."
One chat message caught Jimin's eye.
Come to think of it.
Someone had said something similar before, hadn't they?
Ah.
(People who've played a long time all have their own data — and you twist it all out of shape.)
(Against Masters, you play Sol like you're stomping a total noob. Anyone meeting you for the first time has no choice but to be shocked.)
"·····"
Hwata's two remarks surfaced in his mind. That his distinctive playstyle threw opponents off balance.
But.
At the very least, the opponent in front of him right now hadn't managed to give him that feeling at all.
"You're not recalling?"
At some point, Jimin had gone from simply trading back to dancing all over the place, harassing Jax relentlessly. Akali's Q shurikens kept landing. And if Jax tried to close the gap, he only took more damage. Jimin hit him; Jax couldn't hit back. When Jax landed one hit, Jimin landed three. A continuous parade of unfair trades.
"Yeah, that's a kill."
The moment Akali hit level 6, she sent Jax straight to the afterlife.
"The opponent's pretty aggressive, but I don't think I got baited into it much."
Jimin spoke leisurely. Akali had the better setup. If he'd been the one on Jax, he probably would've played more carefully — but his opponent had been half-measured until, at some point, he started diving in recklessly. Eating that up was easy work.
"Damage is already coming online."
He bought items and returned to the top lane. Jimin was casually crushing Jax underfoot.
"I should rotate."
With the Voidgrubs coming up, his ally jungler Hecarim and the enemy jungler Lee Sin met in the river. Jimin moved fast. Allied mid Talon and enemy mid Katarina both came up. The fight exploded in an instant.
"Whoa."
Hecarim pulled off a beautiful play out of nowhere.
Allied Talon got focused and died, but they took down Katarina and Lee Sin. They couldn't catch Jax, who'd peeled off quickly — but Akali still pocketed two more kills.
A mid-lane chat that seemed to say don't forget my sacrifice. But Jimin promised victory.
"I've got three kills — of course I have to perform."
Items were coming online fast. With the game flowing in their favor, Jimin was grinning ear to ear. His teammates were rolling decently enough, too. A teamfight kicked off ahead of the third dragon.
Jimin's Akali had been posturing against Jax on the side lane before teleporting in.
"Nice."
An angle where a well-fed Akali could collapse the enemy formation.
"Huh?"
Talon had once again positioned carelessly, gotten hooked by the enemy Thresh, and died. Getting blown up by Jinx's ultimate at the end was not a pretty sight.
Of course, the teamfight result wasn't much different. Jinx charged in boldly after her passive popped — and Akali blinked in and melted her instantly. Without even using her ultimate·····
Then he mixed Flash and ultimate to take down Katarina as well.
Reactions of pure shock at the absurdly fast, flashy combo.
"·····"
Jimin was still locked in. But watching his team's follow-up, he quickly became certain of the win.
"Ah, Tristana's playing really well."
His ADC Tristana's positioning and damage just now had been excellent.
"Thank you LonelyIntellectual for the 20,000 won! Things are really clicking today."
Jimin felt as light as if he'd become Akali herself.
"Hm?"
Before teleporting to the fight, he'd shoved the wave pretty far up — but Jax had stubbornly walked through it and taken the top tier-two turret.
Weird one.
Playing like that, your teammates would normally flame you to hell. Had he decided that his own growth mattered more than the teamfight? Jimin decided to respect it for now.
Regardless of any of that, Jimin — who'd scooped up more kills from the previous fight — caught Jax on the side lane.
"Ah, Jax's turret-taking speed is so fast I'll need to focus on him."
He decided to stick close and mark Jax carefully.
"Bot's not looking good."
He caught Jax again. And a skirmish opened on the opposite side lane. Jimin teleported.
Before long the enemy bot duo had joined the fight too. Once again, Jimin dominated the teamfight.
"Hoo."
After taking Baron, the tension eased a little. The game had become overwhelmingly favorable.
"Uh oh."
Akali had become a god. The enemy's last desperate stand in front of the nexus only served to set the stage for her.
"We won."
A game he'd wanted to win because his viewers had been cheering so hard. Jimin wore a victor's smile.
"Thank you for the 30,000 won!"
Moved by the pentakill, the chat scroll was flying. Exploding donations were a bonus.
"·····"
Hope I run into him again.
Something on some community board had drawn aggro again — his viewer count was climbing. If he had a streamer's greed, it was this: he hoped he'd match that foreign player DoubleAxe again.
"Fiora?"
The enemy top laner first-picked Fiora. Last game and this one — he was stuck facing top laners who preferred side-lane pushing.
"Shall we try this for the first time in a while?"
Jimin's pick was Kalista.
Watching the chat reactions, Jimin figured he'd made a good choice.
"Huh?"
The enemy username looked familiar.
"·····"
Jimin loosened his hands and grinned. No grudge — but with the viewers this excited, what else could he do?
Early laning phase. Facing a ranged Kalista, DoubleAxe's Fiora seemed more careful than before.
Or not?
That thought turned out to be a delusion — the moment Fiora leveled up, she charged straight in. Of course, the result was a massive advantage for the hop-hopping, spear-flinging Kalista.
"Oh, nice."
A Pierce that flew out while last-hitting a caster minion. It buried itself in Fiora's body and her health dropped hard.
When's he coming?
Kalista's real counter wasn't the enemy champion — it was the jungler. Jimin waited for the enemy Nidalee, ready to respond.
"There she is."
While he was thrashing Fiora, sure enough, Nidalee came in for a gank. Nidalee's spear. Fiora's Riposte for the slow. Jimin dodged both with his eyes alone. Nidalee gave up quickly, and Fiora only got beaten even harder for her trouble.
"Lucky."
He could have just run away entirely, but he'd gone for a slightly more aggressive pathing. The result was sweet fruit. He shrugged off the enemy jungle gank and further ruined the Fiora who'd overextended.
By now he'd shoved the wave and was free-hitting. Rek'Sai was coming to help.
The result was a clean successful dive.
"Ah, this is so much freer now."
He'd executed the early laning phase perfectly on Kalista without falling over.
His viewers were so happy that Jimin was happy too.
"Huh?"
Fiora ulted and charged at Kalista. Four vital points lit up.
Of course, Jimin killed her before Fiora could pop all her vitals.
He's playing a little recklessly, isn't he?
At some point, whenever things stopped going his way, the enemy top laner would just charge in mindlessly. Jimin coolly punished every attempt.
"My items came out so well."
Jimin was nearly three items. Enemy Fiora wasn't even worth looking at, and enemy mid Viktor hadn't even finished two cores.
Jimin had been a lane spirit almost the entire game, then showed up to a teamfight. Fragile as Kalista was supposed to be, with superior growth pumping out damage, enemy champions simply exploded.
Kalista was dominating the game.
"Alright, time for Baron soon····· huh?"
4 votes for, 1 against
The enemy nexus detonated on its own.
"Ah·····"
Jimin had wanted to enjoy the game a little longer. Shame.
When the game ended, the enemy team seemed to have a lot to say. Of course, Jimin ducked out quickly so any excessive flaming wouldn't get caught on stream.
"Thanks for the 10,000 won! Ah, but I think champions should be picked based on the team comp. Sorry about that."
The day after banishing BattleAxe, Jimin went live again. A viewer was requesting a champion pick. But Jimin didn't particularly listen to viewer pick requests. He simply followed his own instincts and the team composition.
My viewer count went up more.
He swallowed. The tournament was over, and it wasn't a situation where people were flooding in all at once like yesterday — yet the numbers had grown.
"Hm?"
"·····"
An email had arrived. He read through the contents while queueing.
"Hm?"
Finding the Artisan?
Jimin searched for the content series name written in the email.