Crushing the Challengers Tournament (1)
“Jimin’s pulled out Veil for only the second time this season, haha.”
“Found Lee Sin by the raptors,” Rapid called.
“Nice,” Shake answered.
P1’s ADC Ashe loosed her hawk and lit up the enemy jungler’s position. They were already stomping the lane with Ashe-Braum and now they were taking the map too.
“Oh, that was so close! He’s playing it so annoyingly!”
“Aatrox still has poke into ranged tops, but like this…”
Against P1’s top laner Jimin, CK Savings Bank Orion Challengers’ top laner Simon could only limp through the lane phase just as helplessly as he had in game one.
“I have ult first,” Rapid said.
“Hit,” Open confirmed.
“Lee Sin, Lee Sin!” Sala shouted.
P1 locked onto the enemy Lee Sin.
“They got the jungler!”
“If that happens, they can’t contest Baron.”
“Look at Veil’s items already—Orion’s short on CC for this comp.”
With their jungler cut down near the Baron pit, Orion tried to punch through vision and force a fight.
“Veil! Veil! Veil!”
“He’s tumbling—Veil just keeps tumbling!”
“Come on! Come!”
Veil slipped the enemy support Ren’s skill and kept rolling, raining arrows the whole time.
“There’s no way through like that.”
“How many people is Jimin tying up by himself?”
“If Orion had overcommitted they would’ve all died.”
A few clean kites from Veil drained Orion’s will to fight. When the enemy peeled off together, Jimin stopped the chase and waited for his teammates to finish the Baron.
“Giving up one jungler doesn’t mean you’re safe here.”
“Veil hasn’t been interrupted in his growth at all.”
Even while crushing the lane, Veil had kept one eye on the endgame. He never overextended, just kept scaling, and finally hit the items he wanted.
“Ren’s on Ashe—but Ashe still has Flash!”
“Here he comes!”
Ashe shrugged off the engage. Ashe, Braum, and Lysander gave chase, and Veil appeared from the flank.
“What is that damage?!”
“The skills look so slow against Jimin.”
He dodged every ability and jammed Veil’s devastating damage down their throats. With Ghost up, there was nowhere left to run.
“Triple kill! Quadra kill!”
“You can’t stop them—they’re just marching.”
“P1! P1! P1! P1!”
“Even in their final match, P1 looks this dominant!”
“GG!”
“Waaaaaaaaaah!”
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
The applause had started the moment the nexus turrets fell and never stopped. To the fans packed into the Hongdae venue to cheer P1, the fact that this was the last regular-season game of spring barely registered as a regret.
“Incredible from P1!”
“That was just overwhelming, wasn’t it?”
P1 Academy had already locked first place in the 2031 SCK Challengers Spring regular season, yet they still put on a clinic in the finale.
“With that win, P1 closes the 2031 SCK Challengers Spring at seventeen wins and one loss, plus thirty-three! A new Challengers record! Let’s meet today’s MVP, Jimin, who took POG in both games one and two. Jimin, congratulations on the victory.”
“Thank you.”
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
…
The cheers and applause that always followed his name still felt strange to Jimin. It was easier when he did the winner’s interview with his teammates; days like this, when he walked out alone, hit harder.
“Seventeen and one with a plus-thirty-three differential—that is just absurd. What’s the secret behind P1 Academy’s form this season?”
“Uh… well, our teammates all played well, and the coaches and staff worked really hard, so I think that’s why we got these results.”
Jimin never considered himself creative or especially good with words. But when a model answer already existed, he wasn’t the type to go looking for a different one either.
“You’ve already locked the most POGs of the season and you just added two more today. An incredible debut season—did you ever expect it to go this well, Jimin?”
“Haha.”
Tough question. He paused a beat.
Humility suits Jimin best.
…
Yu Dahye’s words suddenly floated up in his mind.
“I still think I have a lot of shortcomings and a lot to learn. But I’ve been practicing hard, so I guess that’s why the results came out well.”
“Aww, hahaha, you’re way too humble!”
The female announcer laughed in a lilting voice.
“We’ve been speaking with P1 Academy’s Jimin. Congratulations once again!”
“Thank you.”
Jimin summoned the courage to meet the announcer’s eyes as he bowed. Not freezing up in front of pretty women he didn’t know was a skill that needed training too.
1st — Maehwa Life Esports: 16–2
2nd — P1: 14–4
3rd — Gen.G Esports: 14–4
4th — C-Plus Dia: 12–6
5th — Bonsim Magic Force: 9–9
6th — VVK Flex: 8–10
Those six teams punched their tickets to the 2031 SCK Spring Playoffs.
And then the 2031 SCK Spring All-Pro teams, the best players at every position:
Top — Hwasan (Maehwa Life Esports)
Jungle — Kazi (Maehwa Life Esports)
Mid — Luca (P1)
ADC — Dexter (Maehwa Life Esports)
Support — Ice (Maehwa Life Esports)
Top — Gunt (Gen.G Esports)
Jungle — Oz (P1)
Mid — Sola (Maehwa Life Esports)
ADC — Himmel (C-Plus Dia)
Support — Durandal (P1)
Top — Blur (P1)
Jungle — Class (Gen.G Esports)
Mid — Sugar (Gen.G Esports)
ADC — Juggernaut (Gen.G Esports)
Support — Death (Gen.G Esports)
“I’ll head over right after the finals.”
— “Alright, alright. But it must be exhausting.”
“It’s not. There are so many days without matches in between.”
— “Hang in there. Even if it’s the second team, a ton of people are watching.”
“Yeah.”
Jimin hung up with his mom. Ordinarily he almost never took calls on match days, especially not before a game was finished. Today was different.
“Alright, you’ve all worked hard. Win today, win the winners’ bracket, keep rolling.”
“Yes!”
P1 Academy coach Kim Hyunjin fired the squad up.
“Haa… yeah. Win today, and if we meet them again later we stomp them properly.”
“Huh?”
“Last summer they kept us out of finals.”
“Hmm.”
Hearing Kang Jun, Jimin glanced over at the Gen.G Esports Academy players.
“You’ve waited a long time! Playoff Round 2 on the road to the 2031 SCK Challengers Spring Finals—regular-season first-place P1 Academy versus regular-season fourth-place Gen.G Esports Academy!”
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
The stage was less glamorous than the SCK first-team playoffs, but nobody packed into the Hongdae arena was treating the moment lightly.
“P1 Academy looked absolutely terrifying in the regular season, but playoffs are a different animal.”
“That’s right.”
“Can Gen.G Academy pull the upset and reach the winners’ final, or will P1 Academy show the same force they did all season? This should be good.”
“P1 takes blue side for game one—ban-pick begins!”
…
A playoff stage different from the regular season. Jimin felt the nerves, yet somehow a future where they lost never quite formed in his mind.
“Oh! P1 completes the Kalista-Renata combo!”
“We said after the recent buffs Kalista was fully viable again, right? And Rapid’s got a real track record on her.”
“Exactly. P1 is signaling they want to go hard from lane—same playstyle they’ve kept all year.”
Both sides worked through bans and picks.
“Renekton… of course Jimin is on the other side, but the champion’s value is still there.”
“Jimin’s been terrifying on Veil lately, and sure enough it’s banned.”
“And P1’s pick is—wait?”
“Draven?”
“If Draven comes out…?”
“That’s top Kalista!”
“Waaaaah, Jimin!”
“Go wild, Jimin,” Shake said over comms.
“Yeah.”
“Everyone watch vision,” Sala added.
“I don’t know, just tear bot from the start,” Rapid said. “Proc the passive once and we can keep snowballing.”
“Huu…” Open exhaled.
“Fighting, everyone!” Sala called.
…
The P1 Academy players shouted it back. From the moment they set the differential record they had kept telling each other the same thing: if a team like that failed to win the title, it would be pure humiliation.
Jimin flexed his fingers hard.
Ah, right.
For a second the old streaming days flashed back—imagining how to toy with the opponent for fun. But he didn’t need to entertain anyone with top Kalista anymore.
It was just a champion for demolishing the other side.