Episode 5: Legend of League

Legend of League was the game that took the throne after Star War, the biggest title in the country through the early 2000s, collapsed under a match-fixing scandal.

You picked one hero out of a vast roster and fought it out five versus five.

The match popped. I'd queued as jungle and marksman, and jungle came up on its own. Top and marksman were usually more popular than jungle, so if you set jungle as your secondary, the odds of actually landing it climbed even higher.

Army bits kept cropping up, which meant a decent number of people from the first broadcast had come back.

"If my team luck had been even halfway decent, I'd already be messing around in Diamond or higher. It's a real shame I have to greet you all from Platinum."

I left the viewers' howling behind me and checked the enemy's first pick. Xeros—a mage who lived in mid or support, built around long-range skillshots. Noktan tugged at me for a second, but plenty of picks were still on the board, so I waited.

Our first and second picks came in as Seto and Ketlin. Seto, playable top, mid, or support, was a genuinely excellent pick, with a disgusting kit and a ridiculous spread of tools. Ketlin, though—the marksman with the longest range in the game—felt a little wasteful as a first pick.

Their second and third picks were Jing and Rishin. Jing, a marksman who looked terrifying in lane, and Rishin, that staple jungle hero who never dropped below tier two.

"Now I'm stuck between Evilqueen and Noktan. Looking at Jing, they grabbed Xeros because they want to smash the lane, and both of those are heroes you can assassinate beautifully."

Viewer opinions on the heroes were thin, so the moment my turn came around I locked Noktan. Then I committed to the bit of mystery.

"I served with the 30th Division, in Paju. The back half of my resident ID starts with a 2, and the surgery happened because Mom tricked me—told me we were going out for tonkatsu."

While that was going on, every hero got locked in. They'd had first pick, so they were on blue side and we were on red.

Topside was passable. Bot lane was badly losing. Ketlin was a pick whose whole point was winning the early lane, and if she fell behind anyway, the pick barely meant anything.

"This isn't great. Bot's going to get shoved in hard, and with Lula on support the ganks won't be easy either."

"When did I say I hated her? I said the ganks wouldn't be easy."

That was only true in the early game. After level six, a Noktan ultimate made hunting Jing and Xeros—two immobile champions with no dash—simple work.

"I'm just worried bot can hold on that long without collapsing."

"Huh?"

I had not seen that coming at all.

BJ Mia. A streamer with a tiny frame, a cute face, and a whole persona that made you think of a little sister, and she was pretty well known on Shindaeryuk TV. Her fan club sat a little over twenty thousand—not the absolute peak—but she regularly ran joint broadcasts with streamers inside Shindaeryuk TV's top ten and showed up in all kinds of gaming tournaments, so her name carried.

"Oh, it really is her. Everyone, don't get the wrong idea. I genuinely had no idea she was even in a game right now. Sniping somebody is pure bad-faith nonsense."

There were so many viewers who'd mortgaged their entire lives to personal broadcasts that information I'd never gone looking for slid straight into my ears. Anyway, I handed the bad-faith commenters a one-minute chat ban apiece so they'd settle down, and put my attention on the game.

"It's Rishin, so I'll drop a ward on their blue side while I'm being careful."

I pinged top and mid for help, moved with them, and warded the brush by the enemy blue. The early minutes passed without incident. I recalled safely, took the leash on our blue, cleared both the gromp and the wolves, and hit level three.

"Since it's Rishin, I'll put a point in E."

Usually, when you were brainlessly full-clearing for the fastest possible level six, you put a second point in Q at level three to jungle even faster. But their jungler, Rishin, was a vicious predator who treated counterjungling like a hobby, so I took E—partly to be ready, and partly in case an early gank opened up.

...!

Sure enough, while I was eating the raptors, our mid laner dropped a danger ping. On the minimap, their mid laner Arkjan had shoved the wave and vanished into the brush above mid.

"Looks like Rishin's going for my red. Their mid will get there first, so I'm giving it up clean."

This early, that was real damage. Forcing it could cost even more, so I warned the top laner with a danger ping that Rishin was in our jungle, typed it in chat as well, and ran for the bottom scuttle. I took the enemy raptors on the way and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hit level four.

And then I found an opening I hadn't expected.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Jing and Xeros had shoved the wave all the way to our tower and were lost in the joy of poking. Ketlin and Lula, clinging to a thread of health, were drawing an insane amount of aggro.

I pinged the gank straight toward bot and cut through the enemy tri-brush. On the minimap while I moved, Rishin finished my red and then lightly probed a gank top. Seto, playing safe because I'd warned him ahead of time, slipped the gank clean. Their turn was spent, so the chance swung back to us.

Xeros's Q lanced out hard. Lula, with about ten health left, barely scraped far back behind the tower. Still greedy for the kill, Xeros dumped her E and W on the remaining Ketlin like she was taking her frustration out on her.

A perfect window. Jing, startled by Noktan bursting out of the brush, hugged the outer wall and tried to run first. The target, obviously, was Xeros, whose Flash was gone. Ketlin landed her Q as well, and what health Xeros had left dropped below half. Her skills were still on cooldown. She couldn't really fight back—just some sloppy movement—until Noktan's E fear locked her whole body, and she had no choice but to offer up first blood.

"Ah, sweet. So sweet. Is this what first blood tastes like? A kill before level six. This is honey."

Ketlin pinged for help pushing the wave, so I spent skills too and neatly shoved it with her into their tower. Sharing the experience of the minions that had piled up let me barely scrape level five. On top of that, the recall left me with a decent stack of gold, and I had to think about the build.

"Jing and Xeros... can't let this slide. I'm going the assassin path."

One option was a mythic-tier item with decent attack damage and an aura that slowed everything around me. The other offered heavy attack damage for nothing but assassination. I chose the latter, bought the components to finish the mythic-tier item, and headed for the gromp that had respawned.

Gromp, wolves, raptors—and somewhere in there my experience hit the tail end of level five, right as blue was about to come up.

"I do feel a little bad here, but... I lost my red earlier to a numbers gap, so you could call this innocent."

I strolled straight through mid and shared the minion experience. I had to endure Anibear's furious back pings for it, smoothed things over with a ping that blue was theirs, and took the lower path.

"Hitting six before blue even spawns is genuinely fast. The bot gank landing, then shoving about three waves with them and soaking the experience—that was huge. In that spirit, I'm paying it back with another gank."

Jing and Xeros were still shoving the wave without a shred of hesitation. This could not be allowed. I signaled our bot laners that both of them were inside Noktan's ultimate range. Lula stepped forward and baited, and the moment a Xeros who took that bait burned her E, Noktan charged without hesitation.

Xeros was shredded. Jing didn't get away until he'd burned both Heal and Flash. Rishin showed up late to back them up, but by then the bot laners and I had already taken plenty and were recalling.

"Rishin's playing pretty badly. If your allies are shoving a lane that hard, you either hover for the countergank, or if you're going to abandon them you poke topside one more time. Showing up late is just wasted pathing."

The mood was good. I'd recalled and was about to finish buying boots and the rest of the components when a mission actually landed.

"Everyone, I'm locking in from here. Full tryhard."

I hadn't meant for any of it, but because I was in the same game as BJ Mia, the trickle-down was already reaching me. The live viewer count was ticking up, little by little. Fan club signups were whatever. A fat mission had dropped in their place.

An opportunity I couldn't miss.

My stare drove itself into the monitor and stayed there, nailed in place.