Rise

A cloud of dust hung in the air. An orange glow filled the sky. Flames ravaged the battlefield as the corpses of soldiers in red or blue littered the ground. A woman’s voice echoed out, cutting through the air and reverberating into the surroundings. “So long have I wandered… How should I proceed?”

Five minutes into the High School 13 versus Tonji Affiliated High, Lin Feng had his Riven hide in the brush on the top side of the lane. After giving away first blood, the Darius had gone on the defensive. He hid under his tower and only farmed minions when Riven wasn’t anywhere near him. He was terrified to give away a second kill! But Lin Feng was patient. He knew this Toplaner was scared and that if he wanted to pick up a second kill, he had to give this Darius some confidence. So he pretended to have recalled and waited. The Darius took the bait. He overextended.

A silhouette broke through the brush, brandishing her heavy runic blade. She charged towards the Darius and unleashed a flurry of slashes. A dazzling eruption of runic energy erupted from her blade, scattering into fragments of mottled green light. Her swordplay was exquisite. Every slash, thrust, and movement of her blade flowed smoothly into the next. She didn’t give her opponent any opportunity to react. Then she came down on him with one final slash.

《You have slain an enemy!》

“NICE BRO!” Ouyang cried out from the sidelines. He wanted to jump up and hug Ren Rou. But her glare made him rethink that. So he turned to Chen Ze and hugged him instead. “Fuck yeah! Lin Feng is the best! Carry us with that Riven, bro!” 

“I know, right! It’s looking like we might actually beat Tonji!” Chen Ze grinned. He’d been feeling a little down about swapping out from top lane in this game. But all of that was forgotten when he saw Lin Feng play. Even these first two kills that looked simple were things he couldn’t pull off himself. So he took this game as another lesson from Lin Feng and patiently started taking notes.

Impossible! Tonji Affiliated High’s Toplaner stared at his death screen, his eye twitching. How is he that good? He knew what'd happened in the game between High School 13 and High School 7. He knew this Riven was good at the game. But there was a massive difference between being good at the game and whatever he was supposed to call this performance from the Riven. Everything he tried got shut down and even when he played as defensively as he could, he was still giving away kills!

✹

The supersized LCD screens in the Wembley Arena panned to top lane in the match between KG and Legend. God Roundy was pushing out the minion wave into Legend’s outer tower. His Riven was ahead after picking up First Blood. But Demon was still a world class Toplaner. If he played safely under the tower, there was nothing Roundy could do to his Fiora. Not by himself, at least. That changed if his teammates came to help him. And they did. Two silhouettes were coming up top from the river. KG’s support Thresh and jungle Rek’Sai! They moved into the tri brush closest to Legend’s outer tower and waited for Roundy to push in the next minion wave.

Blue team’s minions pushed into Legend’s outer tower. Demon was farming them on his Fiora, while keeping an eye on the Riven. If she stepped closer, he would back off. A few lost minions was better than giving away a second kill. But he was so focused on the Riven that he forgot to check what happened on the rest of the map. He failed to notice that bot lane’s support was missing, and that KG’s Jungler hadn’t shown herself in quite some time. He didn’t even realize he was getting ganked when the Rek’Sai popped up on his screen. His eyes were on the Riven and Blue minions, and not on what was happening in his own Jungle.

The Rek’Sai moved quickly underground, digging a tunnel to arrive underneath the Fiora–Tunnel! Then she Unburrowed, knocking the Fiora airborne. The Thresh followed up with a Death Sentence, an easy hook on the airborne Fiora. He bound her in chains and kept her from escaping as the Riven jumped in. With a burst of green ki, the chain of crowd control continued. The Fiora wasn’t given any chance to escape. Her health dropped and she died. KG was out of tower aggro before the energy shots could kill any of them. It was a successful towerdive!

《You have been slain!》

Really…? Demon stared at his grey screen. They really went for a three man gank… Why? It was only a week ago that KG couldn’t work together as a team if their lives depended on it. Yet right now they looked like a unit. A team that understood each other perfectly and worked to help each other get ahead! He expected Roundy to play better this game, especially after seeing his last game against Flash. But he never expected the rest of his team to do the same.

KG’s Jungler had his Rek’Sai walk back towards the outer tower and started recalling back to base. He stopped moving in his gaming chair for a moment, hesitating, then said, “Sorry Roundy. Great play.”

The Support from KG bit on his lips when he heard what his Jungler said in voice chat. He felt a pang in his stomach and then added, “Yeah… Sorry.”

Tian Tian looked away from his screen and to his teammates sitting to his side. His Jungler nodded at him. “T-thanks, guys. Great gank!” Tian Tian looked back at his screen and smiled. His plan was working! Picking Riven really was the right choice! And his teammates seemed to start seeing that too now. They had the early game advantage and could push it out from here!

While Tian Tian focused back on the game. There were two more apologies that came through the voice chat. KG had come to rely too heavily on Tian Tian leading up to Worlds. He was their superstar and he would carry them through the group. That was the terrible mindset that had slipped in, and they knew that now. But hindsight was 20/20. Their apologies were a week too late. They’d lost an entire week of Worlds to it and were now desperate for a win to make up for it. Last game was the first win, which was all thanks to their ostracized Toplaner. This game, they had to apologize and hope that he could help them win again. So that’s what they did. But it left behind a heavy feeling that wasn’t very productive either. So the Jungler was the first to liven up the mood a little.“Alright, guys! We can’t let Roundy do all the work! Let’s win this game!”“Yeah! We can win this!”“What do you think, Roundy? Let’s do this?”

After last week’s performance, all of KG was under immense pressure. The coaches were upset with them, their fans were upset with them, they were even annoyed and mad at themselves for what’d happened in those three games. They came to Worlds to compete, and not to choke and get knocked out in the first round! But it was hard to change when all you received was criticism and abuse. The players from KG were still in that negative mindspace from a week ago when Roundy started carrying on his Hecarim last game. However, his performance helped them shake it off. For the first time in a week, they felt like part of the team. In this game, they helped Tian Tian, something they should’ve done much sooner. They were teammates, and they had to start acting like that!

Tears welled up in Tian Tian’s eyes. This was the first time in a long week that his team believed in him. They were even helping him get ahead in lane! He couldn’t remember the last time his Jungler came for a gank, let alone his Support! “Mhm,” he mumbled in voice chat. Then he focused back on the game and stared at his screen. Right! Who cares that they’re an Emperor team? I don’t… I don’t! I’ll beat them! We’ll beat them! He opened his mic again and stumbled over his words, “I, we… L-let’s win. Yes, win! We can do this!”

✹

The game between High School 13 and Tonji Affiliated High was in full swing. A large crowd had gathered around the isle of computers and were cheering on both sides. They wanted to see an exciting game, and that was what they were getting. Lin Feng in top lane wasn’t the only reason for this. The Jungler of High School 13 was running down the river for a gank on bottom lane! Tonji Affiliated High had no clue this was happening. They were pushing towards High School 13’s outer tower, when the Draven and Leona suddenly turned aggressive. “Careful! Back! Back!”“SHIT!”“Jarvan! Watch out for the Jarvan! He’s ganking in bot!”

Tang Bingyao activated Blood Rush. Her Draven got increased movement speed and attack speed! He strode forward with two sharp, spinning axes in his hand. He flung an axe at the Caitlyn, who fired her 90 Caliber Net to escape. Draven disappeared. The net flew through where he stood and hit nothing. Then he reappeared right in front of the Caitlyn. The force of firing off the net had sent her flying back a short distance. But before she landed, two axes flew at her and knocked her back to the ground–Stand Aside!

The crowd held their breath and leaned forward to get a better look at the screen as Draven engaged on the Caitlyn. Then when he flashed through her 90 Caliber Net, their eyes popped open wide. Of everything they’d expected, this certainly wasn’t it.

“OOHHHH SNAP! Did you see that? Did you see that?”“WOOOWWWWW! That Draven is crazy good!”“How in the world did she do that? What the fuck…”“She is so good. Look at those reflexes, jeesh. It’s crazy!”“WAAAAA! She’s showing everyone girls can also be good!”

Tang Bingyao threw her spinning axes at the Caitlyn. They hit the Caitlyn before bouncing back into the air. The damage was too damn high! If the Caitlyn took a few more of these attacks, she’d be dead! So she flashed away towards her outer tower, which was still a good bit away. And then she ran for dear life.

Liu Yue wouldn’t let the Caitlyn get away. He threw down his Demacian Standard on top of where the Caitlyn flashed to and then stabbed out towards it with his lance–Dragon Strike! He pulled himself towards the flag and dashed into the Caitlyn, knocking her up into the air!

“NICE! AWESOME! PERFECT PLAY, MY BROS!” Ouyang shouted from the sidelines, though only the people in the crowd could hear him. And Ren Rou, who covered her ears and gave him a kick against his leg, annoyed with his loud outburst.

Wei Dong caught up to the Draven on his Leona. He pressed down on his E key–Zenith Blade! Leona projected a solar image of her sword that pierced through everything in its path until it hit the Caitlyn. It briefly immobilized the Caitlyn as the Leona dashed forward. Then the Leona struck the Caitlyn with her shield–Shield of Daybreak! It dealt bonus magic damage and stunned the Caitlyn!

Tang Bingyao flung her spinning axes, cleaving the Caitlyn. They ricocheted off of the Caitlyn and fell back to the ground. Tang Bingyao caught them. All of them. Then threw them again. The bonus physical damage from these Spinning Axes added up and Caitlyn’s health depleted fast. The one second stun from Shield of Daybreak wore off, but Tang Bingyao didn’t care. With Blood Rush, which reset every time she caught a Spinning Axe, there was no ad-carry that could escape from Draven! He kept throwing his Spinning Axes and killed the Caitlyn before the Caitlyn could get close to the safety of her outer tower.

《You have slain an enemy!》

“Good work, guys,” Tang Bingyao said in the voice chat. League of Legends was a team game. She might’ve picked up this kill and dealt most of the damage to the Caitlyn, but it wouldn’t have been possible to do this if it weren’t for Liu Yue and Wei Dong using their crowd control skills to lock the Caitlyn down. This was a team kill! And her teammates deserved just as much praise for it as she did!

《A turret has been destroyed!》

The crowd had only shifted their attention to bottom lane for a moment, and had missed so much in top lane. Lin Feng kept pushing hard, even when the Darius was hiding underneath his own outer tower. This didn’t matter much to Lin Feng. The outer tower wouldn’t target him as long as he had minions by his side and didn’t attack the Darius. So with the Darius refusing to come out from underneath the tower, Lin Feng decided to just destroy the tower. Seven minutes into the game, he did just that. The Darius hadn’t stuck around to watch it happen. He’d retreated all the way back to his inner tower, determined to not give away another kill.

Lin Feng looked at the other lanes to see how everyone was doing, while mindlessly farming some minions. Top lane was rather boring right now. Suddenly, he noticed something in mid lane. Yang Fan was pushing into Tonji Affiliated High’s outer tower, with the Syndra defensively farming underneath. “Oh, perfect!” Lin Feng laughed. He killed another wave of minions and then disappeared into Red team’s top side jungle.

At 7:40 minutes, Tonji Affiliated High’s Midlaner was farming minions under his outer tower. His team was currently on the backfoot. High School 13 was pushing their advantages, so he decided to play it safely. All they had to do was farm and take back the advantage in the mid game. They were still the better team! Then a silhouette came running out of his own team’s jungle and dashed towards him. W-why the hell is he here?

Lin Feng activated Blade of the Exile and dashed towards the Syndra–Valor! He followed up with a burst of green energy that enveloped the Syndra and stunned her–Ki Burst! Yang Fan caught up to Lin Feng and cast Command: Protect on him. His Orianna instructed her Ball to shield the Riven. Then she commanded it to unleash a shockwave that dealt magic damage and launched the Syndra towards the Ball–Command: Shockwave! All the while, the Riven attacked the Syndra with the series of strikes from Broken Wings.

Tonji Affiliated High’s Midlaner tried to do something back. She conjured a Dark Sphere on top of the Riven, dealing a little bit of damage. She wanted to knock it back with Scatter the Weak and stun the Riven. But before she could, a powerful slash of wind combined with green energy washed over her. The damage of it was enough to kill her. She died while the Riven walked out of range from the outer tower, with about half of her health remaining. Lin Feng had pulled off a successful gank!

《Killing spree!》

Lin Feng was already 3/0/0 on his Riven. But this was only the start. The game wasn’t even 10 minutes in. He would use these early kills to snowball so hard that he could 1vs5 Tonji Affiliated High. Anything less and he wouldn’t be satisfied! He would show everyone here tonight that High School 13 was a title contender at this year’s edition of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament!