Chapter 41 : PTSD

What is the most essential skill for a mid laner?

If someone asked me this question, I would answer without hesitation, “Everything.”

The basics, like game sense and mechanics, are just the beginning.

You also need map reading skills and the ability to understand the overall flow of the game.

Additionally, understanding your champion and making decisions based on the situation are crucial.

Of course, these are important skills for other lanes as well, but mid is the lane that can influence all other lanes.

Hence, it is more affected by these skills.

Before starting his stream, the wandering swordsman was a typical mechanical player, maintaining his challenger rank with extraordinary understanding and mechanics of his champion.

Unlike in the past, he had also become a monster with excellent game sense, without feeling burdened.

“One champion masters,” those who specialize in one champion, generally experience a decline in overall skill when playing a different champion.

This applied to the wandering swordsman and other famous challenger one champion masters. However, it didn’t apply to me.

Scrim matches are conducted in the same tournament draft format as general competitions’ pick and ban phases.

To briefly summarize the tournament draft format: Both sides take turns banning three champions and picking three champions.

Then, they repeat the process by banning two champions and picking two more. This process is commonly called 3-ban 3-pick, 2-ban 2-pick.

In the 3-ban phase, the opponents banned Yone, and we banned Yasuo. After the 3-ban phase, it’s time for the 3-pick phase.

“Are we taking Ornn with the first pick?”

“Yes, let’s take him since Samira is also banned.”

Latte, who had the first pick, chose Ornn. We had already banned Yasuo and Samira, who are two of Ornn’s three main counters.

This was a solid choice, as Ornn is a reliable champion that pairs well with the overpowered item ‘Sundering Aegis.’

After our pick, it was the opponent team’s turn. They picked Braum, the last of Ornn’s three main counters, and Nidalee, a jungle champion that Mirage excels at.

“We should pick Kayn.”

The opponent had already banned Elise and Rek’Sai. If we didn’t pick a jungle champion now, Jericho would likely be targeted.

“Kayn and Leona would work well for bot lane.”

“Let’s pick Kayn and Jhin then.”

Jericho picked Kayn, a guaranteed performer, while I chose Jhin, a top-tier ADC champion.

We had finished the 3-pick phase, and now it was the opponent’s third pick. As the pick count ticked down to about five seconds, the opponent chose Zed.

Zed, a quintessential assassin champion, was a sensible pick in this situation. However, it was the wandering swordsman who picked Zed, and there were no records of him playing Zed before.

It was an unexpected pick, a hidden ace up his sleeve.

With that unexpected pick, the 3-pick phase ended, and the 2-ban phase began.

We banned Kai’Sa and Jinx to counter their ADC, Ras, who was a former professional player.

The opponents banned Twisted Fate, a mid champion I often used in scrims, and Leona, a support champion.

They must have thought that the wandering swordsman’s Zed couldn’t handle my Twisted Fate. They seemed to know the consequences of giving me lane control.

After the 2-ban phase, it was time for the 2-pick phase.

The opponent picked Maokai, another sturdy champion alongside Ornn. Not choosing an ADC until the end meant they wanted to see our support pick before choosing their ADC.

“A Thresh ban, huh. I’ll pick Thresh.”

Antenna picked Thresh first. Now, the only pick left was a mid laner. I carefully considered the matchups with the opposing champions and the synergy with our team.

With about 10 seconds left on the pick count, I finally made my decision after a long deliberation.

“Pick Akali.”

“Okay~”

Cooldog replied smoothly and picked Akali. Our team had completed all our picks, leaving only the opponent’s ADC pick.

The reason I chose Akali, even though their ADC wasn’t revealed, was simple. When targeting the enemy ADC with an assassin champion, the support was always nearby.

As a result, the assassin had to either eliminate the ADC despite the support’s interference or inflict significant damage causing extreme loss of damage output.

Returning to the point, I was confident that by picking Akali in the current situation, I could assassinate the enemy ADC no matter who they picked. One might wonder, why not pick Talon instead?

If we picked Talon, we’d end up with an all-AD composition, making it impossible to deal with a pure tank like Maokai.

Moreover, if they picked Zed first, picking Talon as a counter later would be nearly equivalent to countering a first-pick Talon with Kassadin.

Additionally, the opponent’s support, Braum, couldn’t protect their ADC from Akali. Typically, the support needs to use hard CC to protect the ADC, but Braum’s passive stun and ultimate’s knock-up were no threat to Akali.

Braum’s passive required four auto-attacks to stun, and Akali could simply stay in her smoke screen. Braum’s ultimate could be dodged easily due to its slow casting time.

With these thoughts in mind, the pick and ban phase concluded. The opponent’s final ADC pick was Aphelios, a typical immobile ADC without any escape abilities.

“Don’t be nervous, everyone. Let’s play comfortably.”

“Seems like Rico is the most nervous.”

“Shut up.”

Listening to Jericho and Cooldog’s conversation, the atmosphere naturally relaxed. Cooldog was truly playing the role of the mood maker. Thus, the scrim against the Supreme Clan began.

The wandering swordsman stared at the loading screen, recalling a not-so-distant past. It was a day like any other when he was streaming, and he received a team offer from Curry, a famous corporate streamer.

At that time, the wandering swordsman intended to refuse Curry’s offer. In fact, he did refuse.

“Don’t you want to compete against Barcode in the tournament?”

Even though he declined the recruitment offer, Curry coaxed him with ambiguous words. Of course, the wandering swordsman didn’t fall for this baseless persuasion.

Barcode hadn’t officially announced participation in the tournament, and knowing her personality, he thought she wouldn’t be interested in such events.

“Barcode will definitely join the tournament if you become our team’s mid laner.”

However, the wandering swordsman couldn’t help but reconsider with Curry’s following words. On what grounds did Curry think Barcode would participate?

How was his joining Curry’s team related to Barcode’s participation in the tournament?

“Given Barcode’s personality, if I recruit you, she will definitely enter the tournament.”

It seemed Curry knew a lot about Barcode. The wandering swordsman decided to take a chance and accepted Curry’s recruitment offer.

Shortly after joining Curry’s team, the news arrived. Barcode had been recruited by Jericho’s team and would participate in the tournament.

From the moment he heard the news, the wandering swordsman set aside Yasuo.

Since participating in the tournament would result in Yasuo being banned every time, the wandering swordsman desperately practiced other champions.

He played various champions on his secondary account in solo queue and watched strategy videos to improve his understanding.

This naturally led to a scrim schedule with Team Curry Breaker. In the scrim against Curry Breaker, the wandering swordsman chose Zed, the champion he had honed his skills on.

On the other hand, Barcode’s pick was Akali, a champion whose performance varied greatly depending on the user, despite overall statistics not being favorable.

It was a new pick for Barcode, not seen in previous scrims of Team Curry Breaker. The wandering swordsman suppressed the tension born out of unfamiliarity.

As the loading screen’s percentage gauge filled, the game began.

[Minions have spawned.]

Nothing happened during the invade phase. The minions reached the lane, and the laning phase began.

If it were the old Akali, it would be wise to play cautiously. However, after several nerfs, Akali could no longer poke with the Q-passive-auto-Q combo early on.

In standard auto-attack trades, the wandering swordsman moved aggressively, as he would undoubtedly come out ahead.

Zed’s shuriken and auto attack hit Akali, and Akali’s shuriken and empowered auto attack hit Zed. It was an intense exchange with no room for concessions.

The wandering swordsman aimed to gain an advantage by reaching level 2 first. Unfortunately, Akali and Zed hit level 2 simultaneously.

The wandering swordsman immediately learned the W skill and used the W-Q combo. He thought he had landed both shurikens and pressed W again to swap places with the shadow, aiming to capitalize on the passive auto attack and electrocute for massive advantage.

However, at the moment Zed used the W-Q combo, Barcode’s Akali used E towards Zed’s shadow and retreated.

As a result, Zed’s two shurikens missed, and when he swapped with the shadow, Akali’s E hit him. Akali then used E again to dash to Zed, landing the passive auto attack, Q, and electrocute for massive damage. With a single mistake, the wandering swordsman’s Zed was left with a sliver of health.

[First Blood!]

The futile struggle was in vain. The wandering swordsman, running through the white fog, sank to the ground.

He thought he could recover once he escaped the dense fog, but a massive and solid wall stood in his way, larger and sturdier than the one he had encountered before.

With a perfect trade, I saw an opportunity for a kill and decisively used Flash forward. Sticking to Zed, I used Q and landed an auto attack, causing Zed to panic and Flash backward.

Predicting this, I hit E to secure the kill. Zed’s level 1 W cooldown is 20 seconds, while Akali’s level 1 E cooldown is 16 seconds. I caught the kill window using the cooldown difference.

[First Blood!]

“Nice!”

“Hnn… big sis, I’m dying…”

Jericho reacted more excitedly than ever, and Cooldog threw in a crappy line to celebrate my victory.

Cooldog had recently visited my stream and happened to join during a game where I was overwhelmingly carrying.

Most of the chat at that time was filled with “Hnn…” and “Big sis, I’m dying” messages. Since then, Cooldog would say such ridiculous lines whenever I got a solo kill or carried in a scrim.

Despite my warnings to stop, Cooldog always ignored them as if it were a given. Hearing it so often, I eventually got used to it and didn’t care anymore.

After confirming that about three minutes had passed since I solo killed the wandering swordsman, I glanced at the chat.

[Hnn… Hnn…]

[Wandering Swordsman Cut!]

[The swordsman who lost his spirit cut!]

[Big sis, I’m dying… I’m going crazy…]

[Cooldog is insane]

[The only one saying ‘Hnn’ out loud must be Cooldog]

[Barcode big sis vs. Akali big sis]

[What is balance?]

[This is definitely a landslide]

[Is the balance real ]

[Looking at mid alone, Barcode big sis is dominant]

[Oh-ho]

[Take out the protractor, friend]

[Act like a gentleman]

[Hnn… big sis…]

Well, even without Cooldog, I would have gotten used to it. Seeing the chat filled with “Hnn…” messages every time, how could I not adapt?

Since it was a handcam rather than a facecam, I freely smiled and enjoyed the moment.


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anon
anon
Reply to  Sunraku
1 month ago

Literally the champions names. It’s using exact lol names so idk how it changes every chap. Akali as Achilles, ornn as orun, Katarina as katrin etc.

Spectrum
Spectrum
1 month ago

Akali incorrectly turns into Achilles partway through.