The Master Tier Challenge

A week had passed since Mia's birthday broadcast, and the gallery was still burning.

The aggro had gotten so bad I'd stopped running face cams altogether, and still these people wouldn't quit. Relentless.

They'll entertain themselves. What matters right now is this.

My eyes were on fire. This one thing I meant with my whole chest, stream or no stream — the promotion challenge for Master tier. Me, hardstuck Platinum since the dawn of time, finally standing here. I was genuinely moved, proud enough of myself that I wanted to reach over and pat my own head.

Ever since the cam broadcast, a lot more people had started hanging the title Goddess off the end of my nickname. It felt a little unclean. As if things were unfolding exactly according to the will of that goddess whose name I could barely even remember — Haruoga-something. The System Helper, of course, was delighted, calling it a most desirable development.

"Everyone, please cheer me on. I'm getting to Master today. I have to."

Public opinion was tipping against me more than with me. My pride took a little nick.

"Let me be perfectly clear. No face cam until I hit Master. Go ahead — try sniping me all you want."

"..."

My viewers changed tack fast enough to put a professional turncoat to shame. Anyway, I was killing time on idle chatter when the game finally popped.

Red side. Hmm... luckily, nobody on the team looks ready to int on purpose.

I pulled up my teammates' match histories in a flash. Every one of them was ordinary. It would've been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nice to have at least one smurf in the mix. A little disappointing.

"Ah, they could've just banned Lucian."

If they got rolled in lane later and I had to hear jg diff, or that comp is busted, nothing polite was coming out of my mouth.

"Miss Fortune and Alistar isn't bad, though."

Fortunately our own picks weren't getting pushed around either. Miss Fortune, fresh off a rocket ride into tier one, and Alistar ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— a reliable tank who could start the fight himself. With those two, I had no reason to envy the enemy comp.

"I think the bans all piled onto the top half of the map. That's why bot got to walk out with picks that strong."

"You're right."

Enemy jungle was Jarvan. With the recent buff, he felt like he was showing up more and more, and that deepened the problem.

What can actually crack Nami and Lucian?

Nami's a squishy enchanter, so Nocturne came to mind first. But unless the gold gap got enormous, I might kill Nami and still never touch Lucian.

Evelynn, Graves, Kindred — same story.

No matter how I turned it over, there wasn't a single pick that could punch through Nami's peel and solo Lucian. So I changed the plan. Rather than hunting Lucian alone, I'd balance our AD and AP and take someone who could backdoor.

I'm not going to be teamfighting all that often anyway.

Guillotine Match 4 only comes online in a one-versus-one. The instant Irelia was locked in mid, I took Diana. She used to live in mid, but a company patch bent on shoving Morgana, Diana, and Darius into the jungle had moved her hunting grounds.

A hard AP nuker. Stack Nashor's Tooth on that three-hit passive and a tower doesn't even get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to finish its sentence.

Our top locked Ornn. Enemy mid and top were Jayce and Galio. Ornn's and Miss Fortune's ultimates swing so wildly I couldn't call the teamfight either way, but Galio's presence made one thing clear: the enemy had the edge in macro.

"Excuse me, did all of you wander in from another world? I never said I'd do any of that. Why are you spouting nonsense?"

"I'm not doing one because you people are way too perverted!"

I ignored the perverts who were practically begging to be roasted harder and locked in on the game. Red team, top side of the map. With an early-game monster like Jarvan in the enemy jungle, counterjungling was off the table. Open on blue, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scale clean, and hit level four — that was the whole goal.

"..."

19Sonyeo was a BJ I knew. I'd been one of her viewers before I turned into a woman, and more than that, she mained top, had already reached Master, and was counted on one hand among the best women playing Legend of League. I was getting famous off a meteoric climb these days, but if you judged pure skill in Legend of League, the consensus still had me a step below her.

I dropped the Gromp and the wolves and headed for red. Checking the map on the way, bot was naturally getting shoved in off the early Alistar-versus-Nami matchup, and mid was holding even, eyes peeled for a level-two Jarvan gank just in case. And top, the main event...

"..."

The situation was bad. Going top anyway would have been the wrong move — it was too obvious. This wasn't Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Everyone out here moved on complicated math.

Jarvan still hadn't shown his face once. Most likely he'd hit three and was loitering somewhere between mid and top. He knew I'd opened on blue, so he'd cross a bot gank off the list and figure the lanes he could actually stab were mid and top. In the early game Jarvan is plainly stronger than Diana, which let him walk into a two-versus-two with real confidence and set up for a countergank from an aggressive spot. If I never showed at all, he'd casually pocket the top scuttle and let Jayce shove the wave to his heart's content.

The math settled. I pinged Ornn that I couldn't come, cleared red and the krugs, and recalled. Jarvan would spend that early priority on the top scuttle and the Gromp, then head home to buy. Which meant the first real battlefield drew itself.

The bot-side scuttle!

I could have ducked it one more time. The Gromp was about due to respawn. But I was done feeding their momentum. Handing both scuttles to the enemy is a jungler's shame. I moved down and made my intentions crystal clear to mid and bot in chat: I was one hundred percent sure I'd win the one-versus-one against Jarvan, so they didn't need to crash the party. What I did ask was that they do everything in their power to stop the enemy team from collapsing on me. Acknowledgments came back from mid and bot.

We met head-on with the scuttle between us. A breathless tension ran the length of the river.

I can do this. I can.

I could feel Guillotine Match 4 taking hold, and with it Nimble Control 3, the one I'd upgraded back when I was up against actual soldiers. Jarvan's feints went slow-motion. Then, for an instant, a flag glittered in empty air. I held a razor gap and eased the distance open. In that sliver of time he came rocketing in like a shot. He missed by less than a centimeter. Jarvan stopped dead in front of my nose, and Diana's skills poured out in a detonation. He did get one swing of the lance in, but our bars were no longer in the same conversation.

Would he back off? He couldn't help himself. Not with the thumbs-up blooming over my head.

Fully baited, Jarvan even burned Smite on the scuttle to claw his resources back, then came in bullheaded. At the same moment pings started stacking from mid and bot all at once. His laners were trying to move on the help call. Our side's interference was nothing to sneeze at, though. Alistar hard-engaged Nami as she tried to rotate up, and mid locked into a vicious game of chicken.

Three seconds... two, one. Now!

I counted Jarvan's cooldowns, and using that count as the measure, I predicted the timing of the next attack. If you had to put it in a short word, you'd call it insight. The lance whiffed again. In the end Jarvan had no choice but to turn his back on the scuttle and leave it behind, looking thoroughly lonely.

"At this point, Jarvan basically leashed it for me with Smite."

I'd broken their momentum. And with his Smite already burned, I cleared the scuttle and walked straight into the enemy jungle, full of confidence. There he was, dutifully beating on the raptors. I stepped in close, floated the thumbs-up emblem over his head one more time, and Smite-stole the camp. Then I strolled off toward our jungle like I had nowhere in particular to be. A perfect early lead.

"...!"

In that instant, tragic news came down from top. The hammer of Jayce — piloted by 19Sonyeo — spat lightning and smashed Ornn to pieces. A perfect solo kill.