Chapter 23: The Ultimate Power

Nickname SY YunGi. Real name Park YunGi.

It’s not uncommon for a professional gamer to create a nickname based on their own name.

SY YunGi, player Park YunGi, was no exception.

While the loading screen was running, I hastily swapped the keyboard and mouse back to the ones I used yesterday.

If it had been anyone else, it might not have mattered, but since the opponent was YunGi, I couldn’t afford to be careless.

“This match-up, especially the early invade and skirmishes, is crucial. I need to focus.”

Statistically, the match-up between Ellison and Karthus favors Ellison.

Moreover, with a champion like Renekton, who can provide strong gank responses and dives, our win rate would only increase.

Even though it’s a time-attack composition or a fireball composition, our team’s champion picks are slightly more favorable from a general perspective.

But…

“The opponent is YunGi. I can’t let my guard down.”

Strictly speaking, my record against YunGi was 6-4, or maybe 5.5-4.5 in my favor.

Because of this, when YunGi performed poorly in tournaments, some people in certain communities would bring me up and criticize him, but that was merely an example used to attack him.

No one seriously considered me to be better than YunGi, and I didn’t think that way either.

In the first place, for a pro player, solo rank is usually something done after tournaments or scrims, when they are exhausted, so it’s not the same as being a perpetual solo rank warrior like me.

The world’s best jungler.

That title wasn’t given lightly.

Even though my solo rank record was better, I never once thought of him as beneath me.

And that’s because YunGi had something that I never had.

“I was pretty jealous.”

To sum up YunGi as a player, it’s quite simple.

A wild horse with its reins loose.

That much aggression and the overwhelming fighting ability he displayed surpassed normal levels, and it was his greatest weapon.

A player who teetered between super plays and throwing the game.

Of course, just like there’s light, there’s darkness. His excessive aggression often led to weaknesses in solo rank. In fact, the reason I had a better record against YunGi was mostly because of this.

But,

That’s only a story about solo rank. In tournaments, it was never an issue.

If there’s a wild horse, all that matters is having capable jockeys to hold the reins.

More importantly, SY had two such capable jockeys.

[SY Rainbow]
[SY GuineaPig]

SY’s mid-lane and support players.

They were very capable players who could easily control YunGi’s aggression.

Especially Rainbow, the mid-laner, who had an incredibly close relationship with the jungle position, and was a world-class player in his own right, was able to control YunGi perfectly.

The reason I’m telling this story now is because, unfortunately, one of those two from SY, the mid-lane or support, was on the opposing team.

-SY GuineaPig – RulLo.

“Are they a duo?”

This was an important issue.

If they had queued up as a duo from the start, they would be using voice chat, and if that was the case, YunGi’s only weakness would practically vanish.

‘…No.’

I immediately shook my head.

I realized how meaningless the thought I had just had was.

‘Even if it was a coincidence, if we’re both playing at the same lodge, the presence of voice chat doesn’t really matter.’

In other words, from now on, I wasn’t going to face Solo Rank Warrior YunGi, but SY’s YunGi.

‘At least it’s lucky that it’s GuineaPig and not Rainbow.’

Of course, this was relative luck. Even if Rainbow wasn’t there, just the SY jungle-support duo itself was a disaster.

If Rainbow was added to the mix… well, the result had already been proven on the verified stage of Red Cup.

[100%]

In the midst of these thoughts, the loading finished, and the game officially began.

• Welcome to Summoner’s Rift.

The time when the first minions spawn: 1 minute 5 seconds.

The time when the first minion reaches the mid lane: 1 minute 28 seconds.

The time when the first jungle monster appears: 1 minute 30 seconds.

Many people know one of these times as the start time of a League of Legends game.

But it’s not.

The real game begins the moment you leave the fountain.

As usual, ping spikes appear everywhere.

Our team is on the top side.

We are the Red Team.

I checked the invade match-up.

[Allies / Enemies]

Top: Renekton / Sion

Jungle: Ellison / Karthus

Mid: Galion / Akali

ADC: Ezreal / Jhin

Support: Maokai / RulLo

‘Hmm, is it slightly unfavorable?’

Although our team composition is strong for early skirmishes, that’s only true after reaching level 3 and when we can engage in river fights. In fact, level 1 team fights are more akin to late-game team fights, so it’s a bit different from the usual early-game skirmish potential.

‘At level 1, Karthus is almost a god. It’s better to avoid fighting if possible.’

Karthus’ main skill, Q, has a cooldown of just 1 second at level 1.

This means that Karthus at level 1 truly has god-like power in early skirmishes.

So, where will the enemy, who is confident in winning the invade, come from?

Actually, the answer to that was pretty easy.

Without the Blue Buff, Karthus can’t really jungle effectively in the early game, so he only has two viable starting jungles.

Our Blue or their Blue.

Considering how much YunGi loves early skirmishes, there’s no need to think hard about what choice he will make.

‘He’ll go for our Blue.’

I didn’t plan to stop him.

Our team’s CC chain is quite strong, but the problem is that doing that might mess up the laning phase for our laners.

Renekton doesn’t mind using W at level 1 because he’s up against Sion, but if Galion or Maokai also use W at level 1…

If they couldn’t gain a significant advantage during the invade, there was a high chance they’d suffer a critical blow in the laning phase.

Can you imagine Akali, a champion typically classified as a late-game powerhouse, being able to smoothly handle the laning phase without any early pressure?

I didn’t even want to think about it.

In other words, considering all these situations, it was best to avoid any early-level skirmishes if possible.

‘Most importantly, if Karthus or Akali were to get a kill during the invade, the game would be over.’

Both of these champions have an unstoppable snowballing potential once they secure a kill.

For the same reasons as earlier, it was unnecessary to create any unnecessary variables.

Weing-

Perhaps my teammates were thinking the same thing, as Maokai’s sapling was planted in the enemy Blue Bush.

Instead of waiting and not putting any skills into the invade fight, the decision was to use the E skill to clear vision early.

‘That’s a good decision.’

When more than one person makes the same decision, it serves as a good indirect proof that the judgment I made earlier was correct.

Without hesitation, I immediately changed my route and headed towards the Red side.

Given the situation, it seemed likely that the enemy Sion would guard the Blue jungle early, so I thought it best to start at our Red.

‘I’ll split the camps evenly.’

Karthus is typically classified as a full-camp jungler.

In other words, if the enemy starts at our Blue, it’s usual for the mid lane to split the camps, and we’d end up in an even situation.

Sure enough, as soon as it hit 1 minute 30 seconds, the enemy Karthus and bot duo headed straight for our Blue.

Of course, our team had already completely disengaged, so there was no real loss.

Afterward, when I finished taking our Red and Karthus had taken our Blue…

Something unexpected happened.

After stealing only my Blue, Karthus must have rushed straight to the mid lane, as he appeared there not long after.

[Karthus – Level 2]

Perhaps it was because of the champion match-up, but despite the unexpected timing, the gank wasn’t particularly sharp.

Actually, it wasn’t a gank at all.

Boom, boom!

A few Qs from Karthus were fired into the air, but Galion smoothly dodged them with his movement.

However, it wasn’t entirely without consequence, as Galion had to play passively in mid and focus on last-hitting minions for a while.

‘See?’

Karthus’ intentions were clear.

He crossed through mid openly, giving Akali control of the mid lane, then headed to the top side to protect his jungle.

In other words…

‘He’s challenging me to a fight.’

The world’s best jungler had come right out and provoked me.