Climbing the Ladder (2)
"Ah…"
"Aigoo."
"So close."
The same group gathered again the next day. With Lee Jonghyun and Yoon Sangcheol helping him out, Park Jimin was working through his placement matches.
"This one's gotten a little rough."
"Yeah, it's actually hard."
Jimin's face twisted with frustration. He'd at least picked Varus, so he was dealing damage and dying with purpose — but this was the first time he'd been put on bot lane, his secondary role, and he wasn't exactly putting on a clinic.
"Guess ADC is a tough position, huh?"
"It's not exactly that…"
Jonghyun paused for a moment, hunting for a way to explain it simply without crushing his friend's confidence.
"ADC is important, but the synergy with your support matters a ton, and early game your impact is just… lower."
"Yeah. Jimin was clearly better, but the support gap was real, and when the top side of the map explodes like that, bot lane can't do anything."
Unless the enemy bot duo started a civil war among themselves, it was rare for an ADC to create a real gap on pure individual skill alone. Even if you outplayed your lane opponent, it didn't mean much if your teammates couldn't roll the snowball.
"Still, when you get stuck on ADC, just pick Ez."
"Ez?"
"Yeah. Ezreal's at least less support-dependent."
"True. He's pretty solid on this patch too."
"Oh, ADC again."
"Your secondary is mid. Why do you keep getting bot?"
"Mid's too popular. Even if you set it as secondary, you just get filled somewhere else."
Ever since SOL launched, mid lane had been the most popular role. Sitting at the center of the map made it easy to influence every fight, and mid laners often carried the late-game damage load. The importance of the position had never once been undervalued.
Mid would be fine, too.
In Jonghyun's eyes, Jimin suited mid just as well as top — maybe better. With physical talent like that, climbing would probably be easier through mid lane. Not that Jonghyun understood why his friend suddenly wanted to climb so fast in the first place.
Jimin confidently first-picked Ezreal. The fundamentals of a marksman. Unless auto-attack ADCs were at the absolute peak of the meta, Ezreal was a pick that never truly failed.
"Alistar's kind of rough here, though."
"Is it?"
Sangcheol tilted his head as he watched the support lock in Alistar even after seeing the first-pick Ezreal.
"Ezreal's weakness is wave clear, and Alistar's not great at that either. Plus the whole tank combo itself is just…"
"…"
"Ah — no, I mean, it's just not ideal."
"Got it."
Sensing that Jimin wasn't following, Sangcheol waved it off. It was a laning-phase issue anyway. By late game, Alistar's kit was solid enough on its own.
"Ahem."
A little tense, Jimin started locking in. He figured there was probably a reason for the concern — but also figured that if he just played well, it'd be fine.
"Oh, he's cooking."
"Enemy Vayne can't even breathe, huh?"
Jimin's god-tier skillshots battered the enemy Vayne into submission. The opposing support was Zyra, a damage support, and Jimin tracked every one of her non-targeted abilities with his eyes and slipped past them like it was nothing.
"Ooooh, nice, nice."
"Jungle's helping out well too."
"Hehe."
Jimin gave a little shrug. His friends had been less than thrilled about the Alistar pick into Ezreal, but watching the jungler — RealOh — execute a tower dive with him, it was clear the guy was a seasoned player. One-trick ponies might look disappointing in champ select, but once the game started, they knew what they were doing.
"Should I say something too?"
"Fiora's teamfight is trash anyway. He's right."
"I mean, still — shouldn't he group?"
Even Jonghyun and Sangcheol, who had a decent amount of SOL experience between them, couldn't agree. Jonghyun thought a stubborn side-lane split was the correct call. Sangcheol insisted that for a third dragon, you had to join the main force. Experience and philosophy — that was all it took for opinions to split.
"…"
Jimin wasn't thinking about any of it. The knowledge his two friends had been pouring into him still hadn't fully landed. Objectives? You took them when you could, and they were just an excuse for a teamfight anyway.
"Oh, beautiful scrape."
Jimin's Ezreal landed his ultimate — Trueshot Barrage — clean across every enemy damage dealer. Then, under the protection of Alistar and RealOh, he started unrestricted poking.
"They're bailing. Fall back."
"Dragon's free."
Meanwhile, their Fiora kept stubbornly working the side lane.
"Whoa, whoa — careful."
"…"
The enemy top laner, Gnar, had taken a back teleport, and his rage bar was nearly full.
"…"
Both friends went silent. Even with their health chipped down from the poke, the enemy team was throwing an engage into a five-versus-four. Mega Gnar's flash-plus-ultimate combo landed flush. Their Viktor got hit square and detonated — but not before dropping his ultimate and W magnetic field in a last act of defiance.
"Kill them! Kill them!"
"Ooooooh!"
Jimin held his breath and hunted down the enemy champions. The highlight was dodging Zyra's flash stun with pure movement alone.
"Dude, that teamfight was insane."
"Wait, he's actually this good?"
"Haaah…"
Only after the breathless damage sequence ended did Jimin finally exhale. So many skills had flashed across his vision in such a short window that his eyes were starting to hurt.
"I think they just peeled really well for me."
"They did, but you played ridiculously well too."
"Yeah. Not just anyone can do that."
RealOh and Alistar had kept their cool and protected Jimin's Ezreal, and that was how they'd won a four-versus-five teamfight. Viktor's grit — never giving up and throwing his ultimate onto the enemy ADC Vayne at the last second — had been excellent too. That was SOL: a game where team chemistry mattered. And of course, when a team had a truly special player on it, everything shone that much brighter.
"We won!"
With Jayce in mid and Aatrox in top, Jimin had just secured a three-game win streak.
"Huh? Something's popping up."
Something appeared on Jimin's screen as his placements wrapped up.
"Silver?"
"Silver 2, specifically."
"Isn't that low?"
"It's low, but placements are just like this these days."
"Not always — but yeah, it's been this way for a while."
Jimin's record had been excellent, and his performance every single game had been top-tier. And yet the rank he'd been handed was Silver 2.
Kind of disappointing…
He'd already heard about SOL's rank distribution from his friends. How much further was it to Diamond?
"For a brand-new ranked account, this is actually a solid placement."
"Yeah, yeah. Totally."
His friends rushed to console him. Had this guy always been this hungry for rank? It was honestly surprising. Normally he was the type with zero motivation whatsoever.
"Huh? What's this?"
Yu Dahye's livestream — the one he'd been waiting and waiting for. And to type in chat, he had to wait a whole day?
"Hello, everyone~ Today I'm only twenty minutes late."
"Ah…"
I want to type in chat too…
"Alright, I'll trust that you've all done about half a game of ranked warmup on your own. Let's hop into solo queue."
"Ah, fuck."
Huh?
Jimin flinched at the curse that came through the stream.
"…"
Yu Dahye suddenly zoomed in on the chat window.
"You. You just made eye contact with me."
Heheh.
Her viewers really, truly loved it when Yu Dahye cursed and when she died. He still didn't fully get it, but Jimin found this rough-around-the-edges, somehow adorable girl's gaming stream genuinely fun. And now that he was learning more about SOL with his friends, he could enjoy it even more.
Clack.
"Park Jimin! Why aren't you coming out!"
His bedroom door swung open.
"Aaaargh! Come on!"
Unable to land a single auto-attack and failing to take her killer with her, Dahye wailed in agony.
"Huh?"
His face briefly flushed, and Jimin whipped his head to the side. He'd turned the sound up nice and loud so he could enjoy the stream properly, after all.
"O-Oh. Mom?"
"…"
He had no idea when she'd gotten home. His mother's expression was twisting as she looked at him.