Division 3 Promotion Match (8)
Cha Yuna was always burning with competitive fire, never slacking off in bot lane, scrims, or real matches.
Like all pros, she treated victory as the ultimate virtue and hated defeat with a passion, but her fiery temper was the real issue.
When she died due to her own pure mistake, she'd explode in rage and frustration, scaring everyone around her as she pushed her body to the limit—skipping sleep and meals to endlessly repeat and practice that situation.
The problem came when someone else's mistake factored in. If an ally's poor response or missing call led to her death, Yuna redirected that full fury straight at the culprit.
Despite my repeated point-outs and feedback, this was Yuna's massive flaw that just wouldn't improve easily.
She'd gotten reported plenty in solo queue for flaming, and she'd clashed with teammates during scrims too. Of course, once her head cooled after a fight, she'd apologize first and get along fine normally... but situations like this were the problem.
She'd failed to manage her health in lane, letting Bloodbath's buff stacks build up. Sure, the other laners were definitely at fault too.
But Peacemaker had brought a comp perfect for poking her health from afar, so it wasn't fair to blame them entirely.
To counter a comp like that, a champion with small AoE heals like Dark Priest would've been better than Holy Knight as support.
Proficiency issues aside, and with the enemy snagging Dark Priest, that option was off the table.
They should've placed a hard CC offlaner to counter-dive the incoming Bloodbath, but Wave Sorcerer only had a slow outside her ult.
The comp matchup was terrible from the start.
A disaster born from the gap in experience and champion pools.
But Yuna, unaware of all that depth, was venting at the others for failing health management and stacking Bloodbath's passive.
The pressure of this—her biggest match since going pro—had her even more on edge than usual.
The issue was that everyone else felt the same pressure, stress, and burden, so they were firing back at Yuna's usual nitpicking instead of brushing it off.
Especially Seon-ah, who had pride to match.
"It's all my fault, huh!? Then you come mid, sis! What am I supposed to do when Thunder Spirit is chucking targeted spells from range!?"
"Yeah, you talk big! I'll go mid, so you swap to top right now! Let's see how long you last!"
"You think I won't?"
"What are you two doing!? Why send Wave Sorcerer against a magic damage dealer like Thunder Spirit!?"
Even sweet, mild-mannered Ha-young, crushed by the stage pressure, had her voice uncharacteristically loud and sharp.
But ignoring her, the two swapped lanes on the fly—no prior planning.
"Haa... this is driving me insane. Of all stages, now..."
I squeezed my eyes shut watching them.
An anti-physical tank like Wave Sorcerer couldn't survive against a magic dealer like Thunder Spirit, and Nightcrawler—who couldn't even match Wave Sorcerer—stood no chance against Bloodbath's assaults.
Blinded by anger and irritation, they weren't thinking rationally, and Ha-young, who should've reined them in, was too frazzled herself, basically letting them do whatever in spite.
They swapped, and as expected, Yuna got absolutely demolished by the enemy Thunder Spirit.
"Sis, what are you doing? Manage your health! Don't you know Bloodbath's skills?"
"What'd you just say?"
Meanwhile, at top, Seon-ah used her ult Black Mist Dance before Bloodbath could detect her low health and dove in. But just as Bloodbath teetered on death, Dark Priest's skill dropped.
Touch of the Lowly (Q) - Applies continuous damage and slow to an enemy target. The slow intensifies over time, culminating in a very brief stun before slowly recovering.
Grace of the Grave (W) - Prevents a targeted ally from dying from damage for a short duration. Does not block specific instant-death skills.
Dark Healing (E) - Restores a small amount of health to the target ally and nearby allies. Enemies around the healed ally take equivalent damage.
Form of Darkness (R) - Passive. Permanently reduces cooldowns on your skills and items. Each skill cast reduces defense across a wide area around you; effect stacks.
Grace of the Grave kept Bloodbath's health from dropping below 1 for 5 seconds. Now immortal, it weathered the assault, got healed by Dark Priest, and finished Nightcrawler with three autos.
"Hah, what are you doing? You dive just to feed? Why not just go join Peacemaker while you're at it?"
"What? You done talking?"
No more constructive callouts—just snarling, sniping, and trash-talking each other.
Our usual stellar teamwork and synergy vanished; we became a pile of loose sand. Bloodbath, fully online, roamed the map racking up kills nonstop. To make matters worse, with teamfight monsters like Land Crusher and Brutal Spearman, we lost both skirmishes and full fights.
Bloodbath's speed made catching it impossible, and Thunder Spirit's global ult denied map control. Total deadlock.
No way to drag it late relying on our carry's scaling—the comp power gap was too vast right now.
We got crushed in game 1.
Afterward, Seon-ah and Yuna returned to the lounge glaring daggers, exploding into shouts the moment the door shut.
"Hey! Say that again!"
"Why? Think I won't!?"
"Both of you, shut it!"
I barked them down just as it escalated. I'd rarely yelled like that, so all five flinched, shoulders hunching.
"Cha Yuna, Kim Seon-ah! If a teammate messes up mid-game, can't you encourage, console, and rally instead? Captain's words fall on deaf ears, you swap lanes without discussion like 'screw you'—what the hell? Fighting after the game is one thing, but mid-match!?"
"Lee Ha-young! Even if they're bickering, as captain, you break it up or guide the macro to fix it! You just toss orders in frustration? What if the captain abandons conflict resolution!?"
"Kim Eunjae, Shin Sera! With those three going nuts, you two just do your own thing? Not your problem? We're a team! If Ha-young won't step in, you do it—prep the next plan! Don't spectate from across the river!"
The players fell silent. I rarely scolded them harshly, so they had no resistance to it.
Especially the culprits—Seon-ah and Yuna—and Ha-young, who'd let it slide in anger—all hung their heads.
Of course, sending them out like this wouldn't change much. They were quiet now because I scared them, but inside, they still weren't convinced, ready to kill each other. Pros were prideful like that.
So I didn't stop, calling out the root cause: Yuna.
"And Yuna, how many times is this? I've told you a hundred times to control your temper with teammates mid-game. My words mean nothing? Or you just hate them?"
"That's not—!"
"Then what? They trolled on purpose hoping you'd die? That it?"
"N-no!"
"Then? You rage and they suddenly snap out of it, powering up to shred the enemy lane? If that works, rage away. Say whatever. I permit it."
"......"
Yuna bit her lip, clenching her fist into her pants leg.
"Cha Yuna, listen up. Teammates aren't your emotional trash bin. If your anger came with productive, implementable feedback mid-game, I wouldn't chew you out like this.
But your outbursts in team games? Pure mood swings dumped on others—nothing more. This ain't solo queue. They're pros like you, enemies are pros.
In pro clashes, what's as key as skill? Mental. You think offlane—the most frustrating role—isn't hell for pros?
Know how 1st Division offlaners play through dogshit? A snag and you lose it? Your actions shatter your own mental and your teammates'. Why can't you see that?"
Stubborn as ever—never backing down to Seon-ah—Yuna didn't seem convinced. Her fist trembled; tears welled in her eyes.
"Got something to say?"
"But... the other lanes' poor health management let Bloodbath stack huge—that's fact."
"True."
"Then why just me—!"
"You died to dives 9 times. 4 were hopeless kills—no escape. Those, yeah, other lanes should've managed health better—you had every right to call it out. I agree. But the other 5? Survivable with better play from you. Yet you blamed them anyway."
"How do you survive that!?"
"Not saying you always do. You'd still die sometimes. But you could've dragged Bloodbath or Dark Priest with you."
"......"
I could tell Yuna was still stubborn.
Time to show her directly—force her to admit I was right, she'd overreacted.
I opened the door linking lounge to backstage. A staffer stood outside.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Requesting strategy time."
"Got it. Max 10 minutes—keep it tight."
I shut the door, turned back to Yuna.
"Yuna, you think all 9 deaths were hopeless?"
"......Yes."
I prepped my capsule. Pointed her to another—custom-set anticipating this mess.
"Get in. Got the replay data. You play Bloodbath. Replay your deaths exactly—or better if you see an angle. Enemy AI's challenger-level; you'll outplay 'em. Rest of you, spectate. Learn."
In our 10-minute strategy huddle, I replayed her 9 dives—surviving the 5 playable ones myself.
"Here, wrong skill order. Panicking for damage, you led with Anchor Swing—instead, start with Torrent. Speed unchanged, they dodged the animation and re-entered. Slow first, Anchor when they commit. You'd tank 3 more autos. See Bloodbath's health? It amps damage taken—3 more tower shots and it's dead."
"Here, ult too hasty. Enemy misplayed—diving blind, Dark Priest lags due to speed diff, eating minion aggro.
You ulted early on Bloodbath. Hold till it commits to heal—hit both, follow up kills Dark Priest at least."
"Bush ward gone here. Tracked Dark Priest's retreat, timed ward—could've kited around tree for vision deny. Didn't check, straightlined out, dead."
My breakdowns continued. Even against challenger AI on her team, in "hopeless" spots, I survived or traded kills.
Pinpointing her errors and fixes.
Feeling her judgment wrong firsthand, Yuna stopped arguing—just bit her lip, trembling in shame.
But ending here would just break her mental—right call or not. Prideful hothead, her unknown mistakes exposed raw.
So, to salve her ego a bit, I called out others' errors too.
"Not just you. Said 4/9 were hopeless—those rolled from other lanes' health mismanagement.
Especially Seon-ah. Enemy has Bloodbath, your matchup Thunder Spirit—why overextend early with non-scaling Nightcrawler? Below 25% health? Bloodbath detects, denies your sustain—forgot?
Ha-young, hoarding heals? Sera's fine or not, time 'em with other lanes. Both low, Bloodbath pumps—Yuna helpless.
Eunjae, roaming nicks jungle camps—dipping health feeds their pump.
Sera, Holy Knight nearby—don't skimp potions."
Still silent. Total rout—no clean lanes. My stern tone left no room for backtalk.
Then, specifics: Yuna—dive skill sequencing, vision; Ha-young—heal timings, builds; others—push/pull vs. Peacemaker comp.
Doubt they'd retain much in-game, but trusted their skills.
"This ain't solo queue. Pro match, team game. Can't trust each other, bickering over who's best—win how? Skimp heals/mana, potions 'cause 'not dying yet'—teammate dies. Shared fate. One falls, all do. No selfishness. Communicate clear, help hard. That's a team."
"Players, prep for match!"
At staff's call, the five left for backstage.
But one lingered in the dim shadows: Cha Yuna.
"Sis, game's on."
Sera called, but no reply. Then...
"Hic... Hnngh... Sniff... Ngh..."
Stifled sobs. Players whipped around.
"Sis crying?"
Sera rushed over, stunned. Yuna—tough big sis—crying backstage? Unthinkable.
"Hnnngh... Hic... I-I'm that bad...? Could've lived but I failed and died...? Me? Hnnngh... Damn... So mad... Hnnngh, my pride!"
Emotions surged; she collapsed, bawling. Flustered staff patted her shoulder, but tears flowed.
"Hnnngh... All 'cause I sucked... and I vented...? That's my level? Hnnngh!"
Suddenly, venom in her eyes, she shot up. Tears streamed, but her face was fiercer than ever.
'Sis okay?''Dunno—don't poke, let her be.'
Others whispered, steering clear—fresh off the fight.
"Damn... I won't accept it... I'm way better! No way that's my limit!!! You bitches, watch... I won't let it slide... Revenge!!!"
Yuna's eyes blazed with grudge and rage, spilling her grief.