Chapter 64: I play games well 4148

Sometimes, in normal games, you encounter matchmaking so absurd that it defies common sense.

This happens because the MMR for normal games and ranked games is partially separated.

[Allies / Enemies]
(Platinum 3) / (Master)
(Level 21) / (Grandmaster)
(Gold 3) / (Diamond 3)
(Silver 3) / (Level 341)
(Level 26) / (Diamond 2)

Yeah, just like right now.

Is this enemy team even real?

No, forget the enemy team—why is there such a huge tier gap between the two sides in the first place?

League of Legends is a game of relativity.

No matter what the enemy’s absolute tier is, as long as they are ranked higher than your teammates, the game becomes incredibly difficult. But this tier difference was on another level.

It felt like the matchmaking was wildly unfair, but I had no right to complain. After all, this strange phenomenon was likely caused by my own win streak.

[GameWellPlayed4148]
[Level 21]

Solo Rank

• Unranked

Normal Games

• 51 Wins, 0 Losses
• 100% Win Rate

51 wins, 0 losses.

Even considering that this was a normal game, that kind of streak was rare.

Of course, even with such a record, it was unusual for the tier gap between teams to be this extreme, but “unusual” didn’t mean “impossible.”

In other words, I was just unlucky.

Sigh.

Still, the game had already started, and there was no choice but to play through it.

– Enemy slain!
– An ally has been slain!

It wasn’t an easy game, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult either. However, it was undeniably long.

[Victory]

57 minutes and 14 seconds.

That was the time it took for me to trade the enemy’s Nexus for Baron through a backdoor.

[Wow… I can’t believe they pulled it off like that.]
[Hey, what’s your main account’s rank?]

From the start, our team had been at a massive disadvantage.

The enemy team clearly hadn’t expected to lose this one, while my teammates were celebrating.

[Wow, you carried so hard.]
[Damn, you just played the game of your life in a normal match.]
[LOL]
[Seriously, what’s your real rank? Their jungler was Grandmaster. Are you a smurf?]

“Phew…”

After such a long match, I felt completely drained.

I considered taking a break, but if I rested today, I’d have to play two extra games tomorrow. So, half out of obligation, I queued up again.

[Game found!]
[Accept / Decline]

[Victory]

I won again.

[Victory]

And again.

[Victory]

Winning, and winning some more.

Of course, it wasn’t always smooth sailing.

If it were just a matter of facing unbalanced matchmaking like before, I could have dealt with it.

But, as always, things never go exactly as planned.

I had finally run into those kinds of players.

[? Hey, our third pick has a 100% win rate.]
[Time to throw.]

There are always people like this.

The kind who see someone with a perfect win rate and feel an overwhelming urge to ruin it.

Sigh… I knew it was too quiet for too long.

Running into trolls in League of Legends is an inevitable fate.

And the lower the tier, the more frequently you encounter them.

It was simply the nature of the ranking system.

And this was normal mode.

Not just any normal mode, but the infamous beginner bracket.

There was no ranking pressure to hold these players back.

Hmm.

Since I had never really played on a secondary account before, I rarely encountered blatant griefers like this. But that didn’t mean I was unfamiliar with them.

Even in the highest ranks, while intentional trolling was rare, it wasn’t nonexistent.

Particularly, griefing that stemmed from in-game emotional conflicts was something I had seen far too often.

Well, there’s a reason people call this game a disease.

However, the troll I encountered now wasn’t griefing out of frustration—he was doing it purely for fun.

It was frustrating to think that I had to win even with players like this on my team, but since victories meant more experience points, I had no choice.

The silver lining was that, since this troll wasn’t motivated by in-game conflict, his trolling wasn’t particularly malicious.

At worst, he was just brainlessly running it down mid.

– An ally has been slain!
– An ally has been slain!
– An ally has been slain!
– The enemy is dominating!

If you want to troll properly, running down mid isn’t the most effective way.

A true troll would actually farm minions or jungle camps to stall the game and actively sabotage their team’s scaling.

Or maybe that’s just his actual skill level.

Judging by his gameplay, the latter seemed more likely.

I really need to climb out of this mess soon.

To do that, I needed to level up first.

And for faster leveling, I had to win this game.

[Victory]

Should this be considered a triumph of human willpower?

Even in a 4v6 situation, where we had an active griefer on our team, I still managed to pull out a victory.

[0/27/2]

Our troll had racked up a staggering 27 deaths.

A death count that would be impossible in a normal game.

Yet, even that wasn’t enough to make me lose.

[LOL, they lost even with me feeding.]

The troll left the lobby after dropping that final taunt.

Pathetic until the very end.

[Report Player]

Might as well report him.

While it’s true that League of Legends has a reputation for being lenient on trolls, that’s mostly because the system struggles to define what counts as griefing.

But when someone racks up 20+ intentional deaths, even the most lenient report system won’t ignore it.

“Ugh…”

Having won yet another painfully exhausting match, I leaned back in my chair.

Playing like this was starting to wear me down, even for me.

Is this really worth it?

I loved this game.

And yet, I was starting to feel burned out.

If anyone saw me right now, they’d probably say:

“It’s just a normal game. Why try so hard?”

But I couldn’t agree with that.

I just don’t want to lose a game I could have won.

If I kept playing like this, I would burn out in no time.

So, I decided to change my approach.

“Maybe I should take it easy.”

Everyone has certain champions—so-called signature picks—that come with an unspoken rule: if you pick them, you must win.

Those are the serious picks.

But I was confident in playing almost every jungle champion.

Which meant, to me, nearly every jungle champion was a must-win champion.

So, my solution was to change roles.

Anywhere but jungle.

Any role would do, as long as it wasn’t jungle.

Playing off-role brought an odd sense of relief.

It’s okay to lose this game.

I don’t have to carry this game.

It’s fine even if I don’t play well this time.

That mindset gave me room to breathe, and strangely, I found myself playing more smoothly than usual.

[Victory]

[Victory]

[Victory]

Maybe it was thanks to the role swap, but I started winning again, feeling much more relaxed.

Of course, the journey wasn’t without its bumps.

There were several games where not just one but two or more players either went AFK or intentionally fed.

Even so, I kept winning.

[Level 29]

Winning, winning, and winning again—I was now just one step away from level 30.

Soon, I’d finally be eligible for ranked games.

“Almost there.”

Once I hit level 30, I’d be done with these agonizing beginner-tier normal games.

Does normal game MMR affect the first ranked placement matches?

I vaguely recalled hearing that it did.

If that were true, considering my current record, I might be able to climb ranks much faster than usual.

“Then, I’ll hit Challenger quickly, get a scouting offer, and debut as a pro.”

It was a rough, simple plan, but I was confident.

I had already reached the top once as Prisoner.

If I could just push through this hurdle, everything else would fall into place.

At least, that’s what I believed.

[Game Found!]

[Accept / Decline]

“Of course, accept.”

[눈나헤으으응응 has joined the lobby.]

[qq7785dd55 has joined the lobby.]

[게임잘해요4148 has joined the lobby.]

[냐미장인 오다혜 has joined the lobby.]

[눈나헤으으응응: ᄋᄃᄋᄃ]

[게임잘해요4148: I’ll take whatever’s left except jungle.]

After a short wait, my teammates started calling their roles.

[IUILL: I’ll go jungle.]

[냐미장인 오다혜: Support.]

“Let’s see… That leaves top and mid.”

I didn’t mind where I played, so I asked my teammate.

[게임잘해요4148: 2nd pick, where are you playing?]

But…

Even after a while, there was no response.

Did they fall asleep?

As I was starting to feel puzzled, I noticed something about their username.

It seemed oddly familiar.

qq7785dd55.

I quickly checked their match history.

Then, it hit me.

[qq7785dd55]
Rank 50

Solo Queue

• Grandmaster
• 626 LP / 89 Wins, 16 Losses
• 85% Win Rate

“GRS Nightmare… Li Zhixuan.”

It wasn’t the first time I had run into Nightmare.

Back when I played as Prisoner, I had frequently encountered him—sometimes as a teammate, sometimes as an enemy.

But running into Nightmare in a low-level normal game on my secondary account?

Now that was some crazy luck.

Should I dodge?

I hesitated, but then shook my head.

“Nah, that would be a waste of time. I’m almost level 30.”

If I had been playing jungle, I might have seriously considered dodging.

But this time, I wasn’t jungling.

No matter how desperate GRS was to recruit Prisoner, Nightmare wouldn’t easily connect me to him.

[게임잘해요4148: I’ll go mid.]

Even though I knew Nightmare wouldn’t understand Korean, I typed it out and locked in Ryze.

Recently, Ryze had been one of my favorite champions, and I’d been having a lot of fun with him.

“Plus, he doesn’t overlap with any of my jungle champions.”

That meant there was almost no risk of revealing my Prisoner habits by accident.

After I locked in Ryze, Nightmare finally picked his champion—Kamal for top lane.

[눈나헤으으응응: ? Whoa, 3rd pick’s win rate is insane. And 2nd pick is Grandmaster?]

[L: ᄅᄋ?]

[눈나헤으으응응: 0]

[IIILL: Whoa, seriously? That’s insane.]

[L: It’s an honor.]

The chat filled with reactions.

After all, it was rare to see a Grandmaster or a secondary account with a 100% win rate in a normal game.

It was only natural that people were surprised.

[Please select a skin!]

[3]

[2]

[1]

The game started.

And as the loading screen appeared…

I couldn’t hide my shock.

See you in the next chapter.