The Duel
The Legend of League tab on the Internet Broadcast Gallery was on fire. The World Series was over, the pro season was on break, and there wasn't even a decent scrap of bait to chew on—so small as it was, an event had finally appeared that they could sink their teeth into. And with the added keyword of a 1v1 between a boost-duo Hyeji and a Baekjeong, support players and junglers who saw themselves in the matchup slammed into each other and fanned the whole thing into a spectacle.
Then, at last, the day of the match arrived. Far more eyes than anyone had expected turned toward Shindaeryuk TV.
"All right, you're both ready, yeah?"
"Just start already!"
"Yes."
The thing had gotten bigger than I'd thought. True to a pro BJ who knew how to catch a current, Lac came aboard and took the hosting duties for the 1v1.
"The hero for the first duel is Lula. Mia picked her. Starting the game right now!"
Lula was the hero Mia had played, and picked, more than any other. From what I'd heard, her mastery was past seven hundred thousand. Which meant the fact that Lula would be her choice was almost too easy to predict.
My main role is jungle, so of course they figured my Lula mastery would be pathetic. Think of it that way, and it's a sharp strategic pick... A real shame for Mia, but that plan was wrong. My main role is jungle, yes, but my off-roles are ADC and top—and of those, top was a lane I loved and resented in equal measure. By temperament I hated locking in tanks, so whenever I was sent top I always chose a hero who could hit from range: Kennen, Quing, Vaing, Timon. Then, one day, the rune system was overhauled, and a massive upheaval rolled through top as well. Up into top—into that lane people called the sacred ground of men—climbed the support heroes, Lula among them.
I had way too much fun on top Lula back then. You'd smack them with an auto, detonate Electrocute off E into Q, and if you rushed Hextech Revolver—the component that built into Hextech Gunblade, though the finished item is gone now—an obscene burst of instant damage would explode out of a champion nobody would ever take for a support. Add Ignite on top of that and the early game was littered with surprise kill windows. I only dabbled on my main, but on a smurf I played almost nothing but top Lula for an entire season. Count the mastery and it landed somewhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred thousand.
On raw numbers that was only about half of Mia's Lula mastery, but what those numbers meant was enormous. Hers was mastery stacked playing bot lane in a 2v2. Mine was mastery stacked fighting 1v1 in top. This duel was a 1v1 played in mid. Mia would be confident her Lula experience was far ahead, but under a format like this one, even that was something I crushed.
"Oh, they've split on runes. Mia took Aery, and Hani took Electrocute."
Aery into Nullifying Orb, Absolute Focus, and Scorch was a perfectly decent page, and the secondary—Biscuits and Sightwarp Tonic, leaning on stability—wasn't bad either. I, however, had no intention whatsoever of dragging this out to the six-minute mark, when the last biscuit appears. I end it before level six.
The longer a game runs, the less you know what variable might show up. In that sense, choosing Electrocute could be a risk: to proc it, you had to land three attacks or skills within three seconds, a much harder trigger than Aery. But that's exactly why the damage is so much stronger if it lands. And with Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter in the tree, you pick up a decent amount of sustain too. For my secondary I took the same thing Mia did. Leaning all the way into offense can, if you slip, give birth to a mistake you can't walk back. Either way, we each finished buying our items and came face to face in mid.
"Hehehehe! Ehehehehe!"
Mia's Lula came at me with a taunt fit for an asylum. Alongside Timon and Allister, Lula is one of the three great taunt kings of Legend of League—a vicious little mental assault. I didn't let myself get dragged into it. I checked her items instead.
"The items split a little too. Mia went Corrupting Potion... and if you count the Biscuits, she's basically a potion tycoon. Hani, on the other hand, has a Doran's Ring and two potions. Hmm. We'll have to watch a little longer to see which choice gets the last laugh."
With that, Mia's plan was clear. Chip away at health with Aery, lean on superior sustain, drag the game out as long as possible, and bleed her opponent dry. Not a bad plan. But once she actually tries it, she'll learn that nothing ever goes perfectly the way you drew it up.
Back when I played top Lula, Corrupting Potion was my staple starting item, so I knew the downside that came with it. Taking Teleport would soften that flaw a little, but to someone who swore by Ignite top Lula, that was a choice I could never accept. Lula's skills burn more mana than you'd think. She didn't take Manaflow Band, and if the item isn't Spellthief's Edge, with its mana regen, the result is obvious.
As a support Lula, you don't really feel the mana shortage. There's an ADC in the lane helping you poke, and between runes and the support item you get a fair amount of mana back. A 1v1 is different. I knew that well from top Lula, so from the opening moments I mixed skill harass into the lane and started pressing hard.
"Ooh, the trades are sharp on both sides. Still, early on it looks smarter to play it safe because of the rune difference—but Hani absolutely will not back off."
Electrocute needs three basic attacks or skills inside three seconds, so at level one, with only a single skill, it's a miserable rune to proc. Aery, by contrast, goes off if you land just one attack every time it's off cooldown. But if I factored all of that in and played it cozy, I'd only get strung along by Mia, who was planning a long game. I swallowed the health deficit and rushed level three.
"So early on, Hani took a bit of a loss. She's already used one potion. Mia, meanwhile, still has potions to spare, and a Biscuit just spawned. By my razor-sharp eye, I'd say Mia's the one ahead."
Mia seemed to think the same, because she fired off another taunt. A crazed laugh so unhinged it made me want to step outside and get lunch. I didn't take the bait. I answered with an even hotter trade.
"W-whoa? Hani will not retreat, not for anything. A total alpha—scratch that, not a man's man, a woman's woman. Who on earth would look at her and see a jungler? This is a top laner, pure and simple. The sweaty, reeking, one true lane of men!"
We cast E, chained it into Q, and both of us watched the other while hoarding W. Mana fell as fast as the skills were being thrown. Health was still plenty on both sides, but I could see Mia's Lula hit the point where she didn't even have the mana for one more skill—and freeze, with no idea what to do. I'd started Doran's Ring, so every minion I killed steadily gave me six mana back, and I still had room for about three more casts.
"Huh? Did she plan this from the very start? They both have plenty of health, but the mana left on each side is miles apart. Trading gets awkward like this. Mia can only auto, and Hani's going to use skills. Naturally she gets pushed back, and then securing CS gets hard too."
You don't have to take the kill. If you kill a hundred minions first and hit a hundred CS, that's a win as well. In that sense, a CS gap slowly opening while she played under pressure was a meaningful result.
"They can each recall home once. What are they going to choose? Honestly, if both of them recall, Mia's loss is too big. The Corrupting Potion will recharge, sure, but there's already a gap in the gold they're holding. The CS lead is past fifteen... it might be better to force the issue right now, however she can."
Lac's read was exact. I was fine either way—keep pressing, or match a recall. The position was tilting in my favor, little by little. In the end Mia couldn't stand it. She stepped up and forced a heavy trade.
We were both level five. Same spells: Ignite and Flash. Electrocute detonated clean, explosive damage went in, and in an instant Mia's health dropped below half. She panicked and Flashed away. I answered with my own Flash, stuck to her, popped Ignite, and finally spent the W I'd been saving—on myself, for the attack speed and move speed. Mia had burned every last point of mana in that short trade. Powerless, praying for luck, she had no choice but to flee under the tower. I chased her all the way, ate the tower shots, and landed two more autos. It finished by a hair.
The viewers roared, and then Water Balloons I hadn't even imagined began bursting across the broadcast. I hurried out a thank-you to the people who'd rushed to join the fan club and set up for the next game. It was only 1–0 so far. The goal was 3–0. I pushed on, toward a perfect victory.