The Finals (1)
"All right, then—the Legend of League Ladies Cup finals begin, riiight... nowww!"
A thunderous roar answered him. Waaaaah—!
It couldn't compare to the LCK or Worlds, but nearly a thousand people had packed the arena for the final, every face turned up toward the stage where we stood.
"Hey, you haven't even introduced anyone properly. What kind of match-start call is that?"
"Ahaha. Commentator Jeon Yongjin's legendary line left such an impression that I just had to steal it once—for the finals."
And so the final opened on the hosts' back-and-forth. The semifinals had already come and gone before any of this.
"Two whole weeks... no, if you count the roster draft, it's been an even longer road. Either way, we've been sprinting breathless through all of it. And now, at last—the finals!"
"Two teams that clawed their way here through a bloodbath. Fighting Girls! And We Won! Which one of them is walking away with the championship cup?"
We offered a few short remarks—confidence written all over them—and stepped into the booths built specially for the tournament.
The point, they said, was to keep us from hearing the crowd and playing off the cheers the way you'd read a sound cue. The soundproofing did seem excellent.
"We can all do this, right?"
"Of course."
"I'm hunting First Blood."
"Yeah."
"Obviously."
Talking it through with the team bled the nerves out of me. Through the glass I could see the hosts outside, still pumping the room, and below the stage the crowd swung light sticks and hoisted handmade banners overhead.
Time to show them. My skill—and the teamwork we'd hammered into shape all week.
The screen cut, and the match began in earnest. After a brutal battle of wits, the final bans and picks locked in.
Game one of the finals was underway.
Our comp was the classic long-arm setup. Jason and Izrael alone would've been enough, and Zeros on top of them made it a vicious poke composition. Theirs was the opposite: Kamin and Pizn to start the fight, Kassus and Jinxson to sweep up whatever was left.
So the shape of the game was simple. Engage versus poke. Which meant my role was the one that mattered.
Evil Queen. From the moment she hit level six, her passive gave her stealth—a peculiar hero, with monstrous burst packed into a single instant, and the drawback that aside from her ultimate she had no survival tool at all. Add one more: she was a walker. No dash. No movement skill. For exactly that reason, she almost never showed her face in pro play. The standing verdict was that she existed to pubstomp low tiers.
But in this lobby, she was more than playable. Aside from their support, Revia, and the mid laner, the rest of that roster was stuck in Platinum. And matchup-wise, Kassus was a hero Evil Queen could swallow whole. Their Kassus had probably flinched the second they saw me lock her in. Not that the pick was mine alone—the team had backed me through the entire draft.
"I'm forcing a fight at level three. No matter what."
"Okay!"
Kassus was obviously starting Blue, so I took a leash from 19Sonyeo, opened on the opposite buff, and sprinted straight for their Raptors. I planted a ward in the bush beside the camp, checked the vision, and stole their Red.
They almost certainly hadn't imagined I'd do it. Evil Queen lives and dies by a fast level six if she wants her stealth, so they would've pictured me clearing safe and steady. But this was a tournament. Ordinary play had no business here.
I was still working through the Krugs when the ward lit up with Kassus.
"Now!"
"Okay, I'm coming!"
Just as we'd planned, 19Sonyeo had the wave shoved, and she rotated in a flash. Kamin would be hammering missing pings, but the enemy team wouldn't read much into it. Scuttle was up; at most they'd expect a collapse over there. They'd assume I was still clearing the bottom jungle.
That naive little theory would die the moment they finished the Raptors and found Red sitting empty. And right on that timing, 19Sonyeo and I stepped out of the bush together.
Kwaaang—!
A brutal Shock Blast tore out of Jason's hammer. Kassus, already drained from a bloody scrap with the Raptors, was driven to the brink in a single breath. At the same time I looped the long way around, cast Charm, and latched onto her from behind.
Kassus burned Flash in a panic and fled into the bush beside the Raptors. But that bush had been warded since before any of this started.
"Flashing."
"Mmh!"
I matched the Flash, closed the gap, and popped the heart mark hovering over Kassus's head with my Q. Caught in Evil Queen's spell, Kassus forgot all about running and walked straight back into us. My attacks and Jason's slammed home, merciless.
"Nice!"
"Good, good! Our team's the best!"
The victory call rang from the opening minute, and our momentum caught fire. Pizn had tried to rotate over and help, but this early Pizn was desperate just to survive the lane Zeros was crushing in. Once they hit level six and put a point in their ultimate, the script would flip and Pizn would be the one angling for solo kills... but that was later. Right now, this was the story.
After we finished Kassus, 19Sonyeo returned to lane, and I leisurely scooped the top Scuttle before drifting back into our jungle. Gromp, Wolves, then the whole of the bottom side—and somewhere in that clear I was already level five.
Kassus had lost Blue. Were they even managing a clear?
I was backing to shop when bot started spamming pings like mad.
"Kassus is here. Still level four."
"Good, good! Completely choked out."
Allied bot had caught them taking the bottom Scuttle. Yeah. I wasn't letting that go. I set off on another expedition, straight into their red-side jungle.
"Ahh! This is genuinely horrific. What are they supposed to do? Kassus still can't hit level six. Like this, the pick means absolutely nothing."
"It's already a two-level gap. That second death was enormous. Just when it looked like they'd barely lived, Zeros's ultimate grazed them for the last hit... it's hindsight talking, sure, but that clip decided everything."
The game was turning into a rout. We Won's bot lane was ahead, riding Revia's edge—they'd even picked up a kill—but Jinxson and Lula still needed more time to grow before that pairing's real strength came online. Fighting Girls' top and jungle, on the other hand, were peaking right now.
Core item in hand, 19Sonyeo seemed to have erased Kassus from her mind entirely, brainlessly crushing the lane, while the unseen Evil Queen put every lane on edge by presence alone. The fear of an Evil Queen who might step out of nowhere, at any moment.
In the end, We Won couldn't bear it. They drew first.
"Huh? Are they serious? Starting Herald..."
"I understand it. They confirmed Jason just recalled, and they called it early, so bot is already rotating up. There's logic to it. But is Fighting Girls really going to hand over a comeback window that easily?"
Redback, once a pro himself, had a sharp glint in his eye. It went just as he'd predicted. Pings flew across every lane, and Fighting Girls moved on the Herald as one. Then the standoff began. Led by Jason's Shock Blast, their poke came in one-sided and relentless.
"Ah! They cannot sit in this standoff. Every poke that lands rips their health down. Focus the Herald right now, or flip straight into a fight and start tearing into them!"
"It's already too late. If this fight is going to start..."
Redback's gaze had locked onto Evil Queen, split from the main group and pathing the long way around. The Belt, built as her first core item. And a perfect angle onto Lula—the one holding the CC that could stuff an engage cold. The former pro's honed instinct was already screaming the answer. The one who would strike the bell on this fight was Evil Queen.
"Ah! Jason's poke—!"
"Now!"
The instant Jason's poke tore a chunk of health out of Lula, Evil Queen's ambush began.