The first match in Group C was the ga to watch! It was a clash between two titans, a ga that guaranteed edge-of-your-seat-almost-shit-your-pants monts! Team Season versus Team teor! A battle between North Arica and Europe. Two of the teams most likely to make it through to the next round. The winner of this ga could very well cent their position as number one in the group! The crowd in the Wembley Arena was cheering. The casters were hyping up the ga! And Su Xue tried to do the sa with her viewers. “This is a super hype ga, bois! A Midlaner who’s a King up against an Emperor Support! I really wonder how this ga will go!”
Su Xue’s pathetic attempts at building hype fell flat. The viewers on the stream just ignored her. Besides, they weren’t here in this particular stream to listen to her. They were here for Lin Feng. His insights, his breakdown of the ga. They knew he saw more in the ga than they did. So they waited until he decided to chi in. Lin Feng shook his head, disagreeing with Su Xue’s assessnt. “I don’t think we should see this ga as one between a King and an Emperor. The roles that each of them are playing, they’re too different to compare directly. I think. But… uh, let’s see what happens in champion select first, yeah? We can learn a lot from that. Then we’ll talk about who’ll win this ga!”
Kings and Emperors weren’t only given the title for sheer chanical skills. There were many other variables taken into consideration, such as showmanship both in dostic and international gas and their ability to build plays that substantially impact the team’s performance. Spoon from Team teor was a Midlaner and a flashy-sort of King. People watched gas with Team teor just to see him and his outstanding ga chanics! Autumn, on the other hand, was a completely different type of player. It really made no sense comparing the two. Autumn was much more of a team player. He wasn’t really flashy, nor did he ever do anything that focused the spotlight on him. What made him great was his ability to ward the map to maximize vision just where it was needed, the calculations he did to create opportunities for his team, and the plays that he called for his team. His presence alone made his team far better than they could be without him, all while he stood in the background. This skillset is what earned him the nickna of God Support and the title of Emperor.
For this first ga of the day, Su Xue and the casters all focused on the idea of a titanic clash between a King and an Emperor, the rest of the players on both teams were afterthoughts. People there to round out the numbers. But Lin Feng thought this was ridiculous. This ga was Season versus teor. Two strong teams, both talented in their own way. It was a fight for dominance between raw individual skill and perfect teamplay. Of course, this wasn’t to say one had no teamplay and the other no individual skill. They were both among the best teams in the world, skilled in all aspects of the ga. It was simply a matter of what they excelled most at.
✹
The two teams entered into Champion Select. It was Season on the Blue team and teor on the Red team. Season banned Mordekaiser, a strong Champion in the current ta. There were other ta champions that were generally banned out in every ga, like Gangplank, Azir, Darius, and Lulu. These Champions were too strong right now. However, instead of taking one of those Champions off the board, teor banned Thresh. Thresh wasn’t especially strong in this patch, but he was a frightening Champion in the hands of Autumn! teor showed their respect. They weren’t going to try and compete against the world's best Support on his best Champion.
The Champion Select ended without any surprises or shocking twists. The teams loaded into the ga while the fans and analysts were discussing the picks. More specifically, they were honing in on the King versus Emperor perspective. They couldn’t let this go. Spoon had picked Yasuo in the mid lane, while Autumn went with a support Morgana. One of Yasuo’s skills was a Windwall that could block Morgana’s skillshots. So the analysts argued that teor had co out with the advantage in the draft.
“teor is farming minions. Season is farming minions. Man, why are these European and Arican teams always so boring in the early ga? All they do is farm and farm and farm even more. I wanna see them fight!” Su Xue complained. To which her viewers were quick to point out that this was just how Europe and North Arica played the ga. They prefered to scale up into the late ga and then win it through one big teamfight.
The Jarvan IV from teor did try to force a fight at bot lane. Several tis, in fact. But the first two tis failed miserably. Autumn had warded correctly and spotted the Jarvan IV before he was even close to lane. They backed away to their tower and didn’t even try to fight. That changed during the third gank. Autumn had his Morgana retreat a little, but not completely back to his own tower. There was just enough room to bait the Jarvan IV into jumping at him.
The Jarvan IV flashed forward and then used his flag-toss combo to dash at the Morgana and knock her up. Autumn was ready. He activated Dark Shield on his Morgana, blocking all crowd control effects. She wasn’t knocked up. The Jarvan IV found himself out of position, far ahead of his teammates. The Morgana binded him with her dark magic–Dark Binding! Then she used her ultimate skill–Soul Shackles! Wings unfolded from her back. She unleashed the full force of her Celestial power! Chains of suffering made corporeal latched onto the Jarvan IV, slowing him and dealing damage before stunning him. All the while the Tristana blasted the Jarvan IV with her cannonballs and Explosive Charge. They ended the Jarvan IV’s pitiful existence before the stun ended.
“Wow! Nice! Aweso play!” Lin Feng exclaid, giving a thumbs up at the cara. The people watching Su Xue’s stream were quick to agree. They flooded the chat.
「HOLY SMOKES!!!! if only my support was that good. ez ga then」
「teach senpai!」
「what a support play! just goes to show you dont have to play a carry to carry」
「Did you guys see that reaction speed? Like fk dude. That was fuckign ntal!」
“It really was a brilliant bait. Autumn knew there wasn’t enough space for a flag toss combo. He didn’t just get the Jarvan to jump at him, but also waste his Flash while doing so!” Lin Feng explained to the chat and Su Xue. “He also knew he didn’t have to worry about Jarvan’s ultimate. That was still on cooldown after the little skirmish Jarvan had with Elise in the jungle a little earlier. There were still at least 30 seconds left on that cooldown. Autumn knew all of this and made the perfect play for it. That really was great to see!”
「that’s so great insights lil bro!」
「see, maid? That’s how you cast a ga! You should take a lesson from his book!!」
「You know so much lil bro! That’s really cool! Thanks!」
「this just goes to show: LIL BRO >>>>>>>>>>> the maid. GO BACK TO THE KITCHEN WHERE YOU BELONG!!!!!1!」
✹
While Autumn was making plays in bot lane, Spoon tried to do the sa in mid. To no effect. Season’s Midlaner had picked Lulu, a defensive Champion who was hard to pressure in lane. Then there was the Elise, the Jungler from Team Season, who was also focused on shutting mid lane down and constantly hovering around it. Whenever the Lulu needed any help, she’d be right there to provide it. There was nothing Spoon could do, except farm the minions and stay even in CS with the Lulu.
“Heh. That Spoon isn’t all that great… Is he really a King?” Su Xue asked Chat. She chuckled and added, “Roundy is way better than him! Right, guys? Roundy should take his spot and beco the new King!”
Su Xue’s viewers agreed. All of them. Without exception. Because they only rembered the last ga. Their judgent was based solely on Roundy’s Hecarim and Riven ga and Spoon’s Yasuo ga. And then not even on the actual quality of their play, but rather how it looked on the screen. Lin Feng understood this and he knew how wrong they were. He thought for a second about arguing with the viewers over it, but then decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Spoon wasn’t making flashy plays nor was he getting solo kills on the Lulu. But no one could reasonably expect him to. That just wasn’t how the ga worked. Lulu was a strong pick in mid lane because of how defensive she was. It was really hard to get a solo kill on her, almost impossible. To this end, it was rather impressive how Spoon forced the Jungle Elise into mid lane to protect the Lulu. This was a testant to his skill. Sothing the viewers completely missed. And when the Elise and Lulu would make a mistake, and they would—people always did—he’d be there to make the outplay and pick up the kill. That was the skill of a King.
Lin Feng looked at the minimap, at the icon of the Morgana. It’s just… Autumn is just better. A lot better. Spoon is great, but it’s not enough. He really needs to do sothing special here, otherwise Autumn will walk away with the ga on his Morgana. Autumn is playing super good!
At 14 minutes, the second Dragon spawned. Season had gotten the first. The ga was slowly slipping out of teor’s hands. They really needed this Dragon if they wanted to stay in it. So they warded aggressively around the Dragon pit and tried to force Season away. It looked like a success. A few skillshots hit and Season retreated into their own jungle, around the edge of a wall. A wall they then used perfectly.
The players from teor had to walk around it to chase Season. The Morgana ran at the front of Season’s team, and the Jinx from teor at the back of their team. A wall separated them, but they could almost touch hands if it wasn’t there. The Morgana called upon her dark magic. No wall could stop it. She threw it at the Jinx and bound her–Dark Binding! Then she flashed over the wall and cast her ultimate–Soul Shackles! Wings unfolded from her back. She unleashed the full force of her Celestial power! Chains of dark pain lashed onto the Yasuo, Jarvan IV and Jinx, slowing them and dealing damage before stunning them.
The other four players from Season turned around as if they’d been waiting for this exact mont. They were ready and pounced on the three Champions that were pinned down. Yasuo and Jinx were blown up fairly quickly, since they were squishy, and the Jarvan IV barely managed to survive longer than those two. The remaining two Champions from teor knew what was coming and were already in the process of retreating. But Season didn’t chase after them. The second Dragon was way more valuable than an Ace.
“Nice catch!” Lin Feng exclaid. “That was a great play! They got baited so hard! Haha!”
That teamfight turned out to be the one that decided the ga. Season grabbed such a large advantage from it that there was nothing teor could do to turn things around. Not that Team teor gave up. No one ever gave up during Worlds. But they never really had a chance to claw their way back. Team Season thodically played it out, taking down every Red tower on the map. Finally, at 32 minutes, Team Season destroyed teor’s Nexus and ended the ga.
“Autumn was amazing! He was really amazing! Wow! That was crazy! Did you guys see it? Can we see a replay? I want to see the replay!” Lin Feng couldn’t get enough of Autumn. From start to finish, he played a perfect ga on his Morgana. He showed the world why he was the second Emperor and proved himself worthy of the title. He played like a machine, and didn’t make a single mistake.
Lin Feng stared at the screen, but had stopped watching what it showed. Watching this Autumn play made him recall his old Support. These two were polar opposites. One played ticulously. Like a machine. The other played full of style and passion. They were completely different approaches to the ga. And both worked, when coupled with the right ad-carry. He grinned. The perfect bot lane. A duo that complented each other’s plays perfectly into a tango. That was sothing special. Season showcased it this ga, and he’d seen the Support and ad-carry in his old team do the sa. His old teammates, they were great. Every single one of them. He smiled wistfully and rubbed his eyes. I miss those guys.
Reviews
All reviews (0)