Who Is Jimin? (2)

"Ugh."

Jax took Camel's second Q hit. Streamer Temujin flinched.

"That movement is... heh heh heh."

Temujin was comfortable in melee matchups like Camel versus Jax. But his opponent's movement was anything but ordinary. He was trying to play the mind games himself — yet this kid was somehow impossible to read, which only made things harder.

"Hey, Vi-nim, you can't just throw your punch like that."

His allied jungler, Vi, ganked to try and pick Camel. One skill missed, and Camel fired her hook and slipped away with casual ease.

"Hmm."

Camel's movement bounced all over the place. By the time Temujin realized he was getting stuffed, the CS gap had already opened up and the wave state had turned ugly. That was why they should have locked her down with that earlier gank.

"Ah, damn."

Jax's leap went out wrong, and in an instant he ate a brutal trade. The impatience of trying to force open a stifling lane only came back as a deeper wound.

"Uh, yeah — our team, fighting!"

With the laning phase thoroughly lost, Temujin asked his team to take over the game.

"Ah, this is..."

In theory, the matchup favored Jax the more items came online. But with the growth gap refusing to close, he simply could not seize any tempo. Even after laning ended, Jax kept getting shoved in on the side lane — and his teammates were not exactly in a great spot either.

"Ah, once Galio comes over to me it should be somewhat playable."

After giving up dragon, Jax linked up with Galio on the bot side. At least now he could farm without constant poke.

"Wait—!"

From top, he watched his mid laner Sylas's health bar get shredded in a straight line.

"Sylas-hyung, why would you do that there?"

Sylas, who had been facing off against Camel, got solokilled.

"I mean, I raised him... but not that much."

Getting meaningfully outlaned by Camel on Jax was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a bad result, no question. But it shouldn't have been enough to shatter the entire game state — at least, that was how the frustrated Temujin saw it.

Regardless, Camel kept evolving into more of a monster by the minute.

"Ah, this is getting nasty."

Enemy Kindred in the jungle, Galio mid, Xayah bot — from Jax's perspective, the board was full of champions that were a pain to dive into. He was a bruiser, sure, but if his team offered zero peel, enemy support Rakan could just snap an engage on him out of nowhere.

"Is this it?"

Allied Rell went for a surprise engage. The setup did not look great.

"Ah, this is not it."

He had no choice but to commit with the teamfight. And yet they got countered so cleanly by the enemy skill kit that it was almost embarrassing.

Xayah — who absolutely should not have been allowed to scale — scooped a kill, and the teamfight collapsed. Meanwhile their Aphelios was stuck getting harassed by Camel and Rakan and never managed to do much of anything.

"We've got to play it out to the end."

Temujin was a stubborn top laner. He kept grinding, trying to flip the game. But...

"Ah..."

On the side lane, Camel crushed whoever showed up — Sylas or Jax, it did not matter. And after picking up kills in the teamfights, she had become completely unmanageable. The top second tower fell, and Temujin himself gave up a solokill.

"Ahem."

The hope of flipping this increasingly one-sided game was fading fast.

"Wait wait — Galio! Galio!"

But even on a Challenger stage packed with elite players, mistakes were inevitable. Allied Vi did not miss Galio overextending deep and locked him with her ultimate.

"Nice!"

They sniped Galio for almost free. Thankfully, Kindred was not in range to drop Lamb's Respite. The teamfight opened up.

"Huh?"

They were charging to dive Kindred and Xayah when Camel hooked onto their Aphelios. Rell was already peeling toward the enemy carries — there was nobody left to stop her.

Camel's double Q detonated in an instant. The damage was so absurd it left him stunned.

"Ah..."

They tried to clean up Kindred somehow, but even after burning every one of Xayah's escapes they could not land the final blow. The moment their ADC went down to Camel, there was nothing left they could do.

The enemy team marched in with Baron buff.

"This is over."

On the side, Camel was already a monster. He needed to run — but if he ran, every tower would fall. He gambled on a last stand and, of course, exploded.

"That's a shame."

From the opening minutes to the end, the game had been one long stretch of helplessness — and they lost just like that.

"Man, though. He is actually way too good."

Temujin had been through every storm imaginable and still held Challenger in solo queue on pure mechanics. And even so, this time he had been completely dismantled by the enemy top laner.

"The age difference... yeah, thirteen years."

"Oh, he accepted."

After the game, Temujin sent Jimin a friend request. Jimin accepted faster than expected.

"Heh heh heh."

Considering how thoroughly he had been dominated, it might have been empty politeness — but Temujin still appreciated the courtesy of a nineteen-year-old pro.

As someone who still loved SOL deeply, he never forgot to bless the future of young talent.

"Tsk. First-picking Vlad top?"

Kwak Minseok was the highest-rated streamer among the Charcoal SOL streamers. As a jungler, something about the enemy top laner's champion pick did not sit right with him.

"Oh?"

But the moment he checked the match history, his reaction flipped completely.

"Ah, so he's a pro."

Kwak Minseok checked the info listed on the match-history search. The owner of this account was Jimin from P1 Academy.

"His main is rank 10 in solo queue? Damn, P1's been cooking lately — and now they've got a prospect like this coming out of Academy too."

Kwak Minseok had wrapped up a short pro career and was living as a streamer now. He was not as passionate about the SOL pro scene as Temujin, but he had not completely checked out either.

"Alright, this game I'm going to show you a proper Lee Sin. Gotta get a YouTube video out of this."

He had not filmed many highlight-worthy moments today, so Kwak Minseok was hungry to perform.

"Of course it is."

Kwak Minseok said it like the question itself was absurd. At this rank, in this meta, if Singed was on the Rift — it had to be Kim Jongmin, the man widely called the world's best amateur Singed one-trick.

"If Vlad knows how to play the Singed matchup this should be free. Wait — they saw Vlad and still locked Singed? This is a free win."

Kwak Minseok grinned. Looking at Vlad's match history, he had a good feeling the top lane would deliver.

"Yeah, no surprise there."

From bot lane came the sound of the ADC and support getting double-killed.

"Huuu..."

Was this another game where bot lane lottery decided everything and they just lost? When the laners collapsed, a jungler had nothing left to do — that was the curse. Kwak Minseok clicked his tongue.

"Huh?"

A victory chime rang out of nowhere. Looking at the portrait, enemy Singed was face-down on the ground.

"..."

Okay. This was playable.

His motivation spiked hard.

"Back off, back off — Seju is showing mid."

As Lee Sin, he shelved his carry instincts for a moment and focused on setting vision so his Orianna and top-lane Vlad could scale. Top lane Vlad kept slamming Singed into the dirt. Mid lane Orianna, matched into Talon, was playing carefully and still collecting CS just fine.

"Whoa, nice! Singed is done."

Another victory chime. Vladimir had solokilled Singed again.

"This game is winnable."

The bot duo's ambitious Ezreal-Karma pick was completely gutted — but if top lane had collapsed this hard in their favor, they could absolutely still win.

"Oh, Seju going top?"

Sejuani headed top. But Vlad just pressed even harder into Singed.

"..."

It was about to become a 1v2, and somehow it did not look worrying at all.

"Wow."

All Kwak Minseok could do was clap as Vlad ate the enemy jungle raptors.

Allied Vladimir flashed to finish the fleeing Sejuani. There was no stopping his growth now.

"Hey— hahaha, stop already."

Vlad's play had crossed into something excessive. Singed's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠death count just kept climbing. Looking at the items alone, a still-underbuilt Singed had no hope of surviving Vlad's damage.

"If they walk up, thank you very much."

The enemy stepped forward like they had no intention of dodging the dragon fight.

"Just bait a little..."

Lee Sin's flashy movement pulled Sejuani's ultimate. Then Vlad walked in. His engage shattered the enemy formation, opening clean space for the allied carries to unload freely.

"Nice! Mid, mid!"

Even under Lulu's protection, enemy Jinx detonated under Vlad's skill combo. He locked onto the next target for the win.

On the side lane, Vlad deleted Singed yet again.

"He's insane, wow."

Kwak Minseok and the rest of the team could do nothing but sit back and watch Vlad carry.

"Huh?"

The surrender window appeared.

"Wow. That was something else."

He was going to have to upload a YouTube video — but he would not be the star of it.

"Ah, this is going to be tough."

"They're way too good."

"I thought we were going to win."

"..."

In the P1 Academy players' break room, Park Jimin was watching an SCK match with his teammates during a rest period after scrims. Of course, the first-team players of P1 shared the same building even if the practice rooms were different.

He swallowed.

This is ridiculous.

Setting competition aside, Jimin was rooting for P1's first team with pure support. His friends were surely watching this big-match game from a team that had been rolling early in the season, too.

But what was unfolding on screen looked pretty grim.

It was P1 versus Maehwa Life Esports — a match that would decide sole first place early in the SCK Spring split. But P1 had already lost the first set without a fight, and the second set was not looking much different.

"Dexter is just unfair."

"It doesn't feel like our hyungs played badly this game."

"Their jungle set the game up really well."

Jimin, whose SOL knowledge was steadily growing, offered his own take. The enemy jungler Kaji had moved well and bought Dexter's Cheri the time she needed to scale.

But still...

In set one, Maehwa Life's bot lane had simply erased the game with a devastating laning phase. And this set... Maehwa's Hwasan and Kaji — Renekton and Elise — had dismantled the Aatrox that P1's top laner Blur had locked in, while bot lane's Dexter scaled his Cheri so cleanly that the game was decided without resistance. It felt like they were losing too smoothly.

"Still, we've only played them once."

"It was just two games. Next time could be different."

"..."

Can they win?

They had only played two games. But the gap in performance made him wonder if even over ten games, P1 would be lucky to take one or two. It was hard to believe these were both undefeated 5-0 teams.

"Oh, Jimin?"

"I'm heading out first."

Jimin stood up after watching just far enough to see the enemy take Baron and start the march. He went straight to the practice room.

"Ah, damn it — bot, can you come help already?"

Upstairs, Kang Jun was, as expected, grinding solo queue and grumbling.

"Huh? You're already back?"

"Yeah."

"It's been less than two hours and you guys already got stomped by Maehwa?"

"How did you know?"

"It's obvious."

"..."

From what Jimin had seen, P1's performance fully justified a line like that.

Can we win?

It was a future that had not arrived yet. Maybe it was ridiculous to even be thinking about it this early. But after watching the team he dreamed of joining get dismantled so helplessly, a strange feeling settled over him, and his imagination wandered.

He pictured himself and Kang Jun stepping into P1's top and ADC slots.

But Maehwa Life's level of play was genuinely destructive. Even if a slightly more grown version of himself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Kang Jun joined P1 right now... he was not sure they could win.

"Ahem."

In the end, the answer was still practice. Jimin started queuing for solo rank without wasting a second.

Scrims depended on the team's schedule — you could not just add more because you wanted them. So Jimin would do the only thing he could control.