Chapter 49: Superstar

To be honest, Juie’s recent tier hasn’t been that high.

Even so, I specifically banned Juie because it was one of Rainbow’s signature picks.

It was a kind of provocation.

CarryWell has joined the lobby. MobyDick1111 has joined the lobby.

SCV BlackDog has joined the lobby. ChansikChansikChansik has joined the lobby. Prisoner has joined the lobby.

As always, familiar IDs.

Among them, the ones that stood out the most were, of course, CarryWell and MobyDick.

[1]

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

A 1:1 chat popped up.

[CarryWell: Oh, hi.]

CarryWell.

One of the many top laners in my friend list.

I was too focused on Rainbow to check, but it seemed we had ended up in the same queue.

CarryWell’s playstyle was, simply put, the exact opposite of “3-Minute Top Lane Church Honorary Believer.”

In other words, while “3-Minute Top Lane Church Honorary Believer” would try to dominate the laning phase, diving the opponent’s top laner to the end, CarryWell preferred roaming mid or invading the enemy jungle for vision.

There was no definitive right answer, but in terms of win rate when playing with me, the more stable CarryWell had a higher success rate than the high-risk, high-reward “3-Minute Top Lane Church Honorary Believer.”

[Me: Haha, hi.]

[CarryWell: You’ve been insane lately… I’ll hitch a ride on your carry, hahaha.]

[Me: Haha…]

Looking at this, I wondered if they had sniped me.

“And the rest of the team… MobyDick and BlackDog, huh.”

The roles were slightly off.

There were two ADCs.

“But… at least they aren’t just any ADCs.”

GRS MobyDick.

Generally, when picking the world’s best laner, it’s common to choose someone from that year’s Red Cup championship team.

Yet, if you asked who the best ADC in the world was, MobyDick was always mentioned alongside SY Longbow and SCV BlackDog.

His career also proved it—he was a Red Cup runner-up and considered a rival to SCV’s ADC BlackDog, whose team had a similar playstyle and reached the semifinals.

For now, MobyDick was assigned mid, and BlackDog was ADC.

“Well, let’s see how it goes.”

The bans were complete.

[Ban List]

Saku/Ezreal

X/Lee Sin

Ezreal/Gwen

2/Rockton

Juie/X

Our team was the Red Team, the upper side, and we had the counter-pick advantage.

[ Sylas ]

The enemy first-picked Sylas without hesitation.

Since he could be flexed between top and mid, and his inherent champion value was high, it wasn’t a bad choice.

[ Sett ]

Our first pick, CarryWell, chose Sett.

Like Sylas, he could be flexed into multiple positions, and he was even safer as a first pick.

“Now it’s MobyDick’s turn.”

I was worried he might throw a fit demanding ADC, but surprisingly, he picked his champion without a fuss.

[ Lucian ]

A good choice.

Lucian, despite being a ranged ADC, paradoxically performed much better in top or mid.

Moreover, Lucian countered Sylas, making use of our counter-pick advantage.

“Plus, he’s not a bad blind pick either.”

As mentioned earlier, Lucian could be played in multiple positions.

That made me think—

“…Surely he didn’t pick it thinking he was ADC, right?”

He’s played on the Korean server long enough to recognize the position labels in Hangul, right…?

“…Maybe they assigned him mid on purpose.”

That must be it.

It had to be.

Clinging to hopeful thoughts, I just wished this wasn’t a sign of someone dodging the game.

27…

Finally, the draft was complete.

[Our Team / Enemy Team]

Top: Sett / Viego

Jungle: Rumble / Diana

Mid: Lucian / Sylas

ADC: Kalista / Aphelios

Support: Rell / Nautilus

Contrary to my initial worries, MobyDick seemed to understand his role as mid.

“Unless… he thinks Kalista is mid? No way, that’s too far-fetched.”

Overall, the lane matchups looked favorable.

Sett, Lucian, and Kalista were all champions with strong laning phases.

Of course, in bot lane, support mattered more than ADC in lane priority, so we’d have to see how the game played out.

But still.

[Please select a skin!]

The game has started.

Jungler’s s*ave – Viego

SY YunGi – Diana

SY Rainbow – Sylas

MAX KingGodEmperor – Aphelios

dwgkopkwrkty – Nautilus

As expected, familiar IDs appeared in the enemy mid-jungle.

Rainbow and YunGi.

The world’s best mid-jungle duo.

There was no need to be unnecessarily intimidated.

After all, they were the ones I had to overcome someday.

It just happened to be today.

The invade positioning was standard.

Sett was watching vision near the top tri-bush, and Lucian was waiting in mid.

I was keeping watch in the straight bush leading to the bot-side river, while our bot lane was watching near blue buff, looking toward the river.

Since I was playing Rumble, who needed to manage heat with W from the start, I didn’t want to create any unnecessary early-game variables.

[ ! ] [ ! ] [ ! ]

Sure enough, at the one-minute mark, Nautilus and Sylas led the enemy invade into our blue-side jungle.

Luckily, our bot duo reacted swiftly and retreated, so no direct damage was taken.

However, we lost vision control of the blue buff area.

This meant we had no way of knowing where the enemy jungler was starting.

That is, unless we got help from our team.

Having confirmed that four enemy champions invaded our blue, our Sett placed a ward in the enemy’s blue buff bush.

He briefly ran into the enemy Viego, but even a strong level-one Viego wasn’t reckless enough to trade blows with a Sett at that stage.

T & J

The enemy Diana’s jungle start was either at our blue or their red.

Based on vision, it was likely that we would be mirroring each other’s jungle paths.

That was assuming things played out normally.

But we were up against YunGi.

And not just YunGi—he was with Rainbow.

Making hasty decisions against them would be foolish.

After quickly clearing my top-side three camps, I didn’t head toward our blue. Instead, I moved straight to the river.

This was because the ward had just revealed Diana moving from our blue buff toward the river.

As expected, we ended up splitting the jungle map in half.

“Our bot lane better hold out.”

If they didn’t, the enemy jungler could set up a gank or even a dive.

Of course, by the rule of diagonal pressure, this meant our top side would have a slight advantage…

“Hmm.”

I glanced at the top lane matchup.

Our opponent, Jungler’s s*ave, was handling the lane phase smartly, as expected of a skilled top laner.

He wasn’t giving me an opportunity to gank or dive.

Since I needed to generate early-game pressure on top lane, this was starting to feel frustrating.

“Hmm.”

Just as I was about to continue farming and move into the enemy blue side…

A fierce trade broke out in mid.

[MobyDick1111 (Lucian): Sylas Flash]

Both mid laners had burned their Flashes.

Watching the tail end of the trade, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

“…Whoa.”

Rainbow and MobyDick.

Two of the top three superstars in League of Legends worldwide.

What makes a superstar?

There are many factors, but I believe the most important one is the ability to pull off flashy, game-changing plays.

When everyone else gives up, when everyone else assumes it’s impossible—true superstars turn the impossible into reality.

And both Rainbow and MobyDick had that quality.

That trade alone would soon be turned into a GIF and go viral.

But here’s the thing.

“I’m here to win.”

If they wanted a duel, they could do that in mid lane all they wanted.

I was heading straight for mid.

Normally, Rainbow wouldn’t have been this aggressive in trades, considering Lucian’s dominance in lane.

However, MobyDick’s sheer aggression had forced Rainbow to step out beyond turret range.

If he didn’t fight back, he risked losing mid priority for the entire game.

Even Rainbow wasn’t immune to that fear.

Naturally, such intense trading was bound to attract jungle intervention.

And this was where I came in.

Just as the skirmish ended, as if on cue, YunGi’s Diana emerged from the river bush.

He had read the situation the same way I did.

“A 2v2 fight isn’t bad.”

However—

Because YunGi had moved bot-side, their support was free to rotate.

What was supposed to be a 2v2 turned into a 2v3.

[ ! ] [ ! ] [ ! ]

Retreat pings were being spammed, but Lucian had already committed too deep.

“Do I have to abandon him?”

As I hesitated for a moment—

Vwoooom—

A teleport began channeling onto a mid-lane minion.