“Did you all see that? CN•HOOK2 anticipated that the Lee Sin would co back to mid for another kill and waited for it! Then he played it perfectly to get a turn around kill!” Lightless scread into his microphone. He slapped his thigh and said, “What a beautiful outplay on Lee Sin!”
The hundreds of thousands of people in Lightless’ stream chat also erupted with excitent, flooding the chat with walls of text.
✹
In the gaming house of an NLB team in Korea, Clue’s eyelids twitched as he watched Zed dance through the gank and a 2v1 to kill the Lee Sin on his team. Goddammit! I don’t know who this CN•HOOK2 is or where he ca from, but this guy is way more difficult to deal with than I thought he’d be. I can’t be reckless anymore or treat this as a casual ga. I gotta give it all I’ve got or I’m going to turn into a doormat for him to walk all over!
Can I still turn this around? I was careless at the start… careless enough to completely lose the early ga. Now that Zed has two kills… can I still co back? Or have I lost the midlane completely?
✹
15 minutes from the start of the ga, Lin Feng’s Zed had a KDA of 4/1/1.
Lin Feng’s forehead was unfurrowed, his breathing was slow and regular, and his expression was completely calm. He played with perfect precision and machine-like efficiency. His hands never stopped moving, and the sound of his mouse clicks and keyboard taps created an entrancing rhythm.
By the 20 minute-mark, his Zed was 6/1/2. And at 27 minutes, Lin Feng and the Blue Team secured the victory.
✹
Everyone following CN•HOOK2’s climb on the forums cheered and celebrated when they refreshed the Korean Challenger ladder page to see the end result of the ga. The people following on Lightless’ stream were also ecstatic! More importantly, the number of concurrent viewers on Lightless’ stream had climbed to more than 1 million viewers! His chat was impossible to keep up with as ssages flooded in at a breakneck pace from so many people.
At present, CN•HOOK2 had won four out of the five gas that he played and League fans all over China were losing their minds.
✹
However, this ranked climb was still far from over for Lin Feng. He continued onto his 6th ga of the night, and this ti he was playing Jayce. A midlane Champion who was known as the Defender of Tomorrow. Jayce’s weapon was the rcury Hamr, forged from Hextech. And it could switch between the rcury Hamr form and the rcury Cannon form.
By the ti his 6th ga hit the 10 minute mark, Lin Feng had already solo-killed the opposing Orianna twice.
At 18 minutes, Lin Feng completely decimated the opponent’s ranks in a teamfight around the Dragon Pit. And when the ga tir hit 32 minutes, Lin Feng had won another ga! He was on another win streak with two consecutive victories!
In the hotel room, Lin Feng took another sip of his water and closed his eyes for 10 seconds. That brief respite was all he needed. After taking a deep breath, he dove right back into the battlegrounds of Summoner’s Rift for a 7th ga.
A 7th ga where he was, once again, victorious! Lin Feng had reestablished his win streak with a hat trick!
✹
At this mont, let alone the casual League players watching CN•HOOK2’s climb, even the pro players watching Lightless’ stream were completely blown away by his incredible gaplay and perseverance!
“PFOO!” Lightless exclaid. He shook his head, incredulous, and laughed loudly. “See?” he asked towards the cara aid at his face. “See? I knew it was going to be hard and it looked like CN•HOOK2 was gonna get sniped Korean style. But he’s way too good to let that happen!” He paused to read his stream’s chat before continuing, “That’s back to Rank 8 for our Chinese Secret Agent! He’s even closing in on 7th!”
「did you ever get this close???」「you tried to climb to top 10 too right?!?」「tell us how hard it is!!!!」「do you think its hers??」「Do you know who it is?」「What odds do you give him?」
Lightless looked at his chat and smiled. What odds would I give One? A solid 1. If anyone’s going to do it, it’s him. But that doesn’t make it any easier… He grimaced and closed his eyes, thinking back to a ti where he tried to achieve the sa goal. I failed. I was never good enough. But then again, I’m not one. He opened his eyes and said to his viewers, “We can’t celebrate too early. This is the ti that the Korean professional players log on to play a ga. If he gets matched up against soone like Rake… Well, rip I guess. But it might not even take professional players. Like so of you said, I tried to do the sa a year ago. I got together with a friend of mine and we duo queued, which by the way is far easier than climbing solo. But when we got deep into the top 100, everyone started going against us. Literally everyone. The pressure combined with everyone being against you? That was too much for . I went on a big ass losing streak. I just hope CN•HOOK2 won’t fall for the sa trap.”
✹
CN•HOOK2 won his 8th ga and reached Rank 7. He was doing what everyone else dared only dream. They spamd different forumboards and the various streams that were talking about Lin Feng’s gas. But there was only one stream that was showing the live gaplay. That was Lightless’ stream. Everyone in China with access to the internet tuned in and many of them flooded his chat with their excitent.
「666666666666!」「Omg, he actually won again!」「Fucking hell! Nobody can stop hook2! Hahaha! 」「Is he gonna climb all the way to rank!? It’s gonna happene!」「God! It’s a new god of league」「Hook2 is my idol!」
Lightless read through his chat, but he couldn’t share the sa excitent with his viewers. All they’re seeing is another win. Three wins, a loss and then a four ga win streak. That sounds impossible at this level. But it’s also 9 full gas. That takes a lot out of you. This last ga especially. It was like his teammates were playing against him too. The amount of ntal resilience that asked of him… He can’t keep this up. It just isn’t possible. Maybe he should take a short break… Just then it’s going to be so much harder to hit the Top 5… If that’s even his goal. Probably is. Right. Streaming. He smiled at his cara and cheered, “Yeay for CN•HOOK2!”
✹
“Ah, co on!” Lin Feng yelled at his laptop screen, throwing his arms up in the air. “What the fuck was that!?” He groaned as he was forced to accept the loss. It only took my teammates 18 minutes to screw up so hard that… He breathed in, letting the air fill his lungs. No excuses. I could’ve played that better. I should’ve carried harder. He breathed out and tried to let every hint of irritation escape from his body with it.
Lin Feng gritted his teeth and shouted, “Fuck!” He shook his head and then said to his screen, “How did this Kha’Zix give their Lee Sin 3 kills in 7 minutes? How does that even work!? And this ad-carry? What is wrong with them!? How do you only have half the CS of your lane opponent? This is Challenger, not Challenged League!”
Lin Feng slamd his hand down on his desk in frustration. Frustration aid at himself and not at his teammates. He knew solo queue was all about the individuals. And he knew there were going to be good gas and bad gas. And downright terrible gas. There were always going to be gas that he simply couldn’t win or gas where he had to try so hard that the question beca if it was worth the effort it would take to win. But those were the simple truths of solo queue. “I’m better than this,” he mumbled to himself, clicking through the nus and finding he’d dropped back to Rank 8. “I’m better than this, dammit! But I’ve only got a bit more to go and I still need so many points to get to Rank 5!”
✹
The people following Lin Feng’s ascent of the Korean Challenger were far more upset than Lin Feng was. New posts appeared on the different forumboards and Lightless’ stream was lighting up with the most obscene curses, all of which were directed at Lin Feng’s teammates. Lightless’ moderators were working overti, trying to distinguish the good from the bad ssages.
「fuck! Were hook2’s teammates brain dead or sothing?」「I’ve never seen soone feed so badly in Challenger!」「how did that kha’zix and kog’maw even get out of bronze! Can you even buy boosted accounts in Challenger!?!」「I HOPE THEY DIE」「dox them soone goo doxx tehm.」「they had to be doing it on purpose! There’s no way! 」
Lightless raised his hands and said, “Guys, guys, cool it. Please.” He then focused on his screen again, because CN•HOOK2 was in queue again. Dammit, One! This isn’t like you! Everyone else is too busy with your teammates, but I’m here to watch you. Do you really not see how tired you are? You’re slipping up! This is a ga you would’ve won three hours ago! But… I get it. The ti crunch. You’ve only got two hours to go. He grimaced and said to his viewers, “Looks like he’s going into his next ga. Let’s give him so positive vibes and energy!”
「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」「つ CN•HOOK2 take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ」
The ga lasted just short of 30 minutes. Lightless shook his head the entire ti. He’s not tilted, or not playing like he is anyway. But he isn’t playing at the level we saw earlier tonight. He’s making silly mistakes and his plays are slower. And of course he is! He’s been playing these high intensity gas all day! It’d be strange if he wasn’t exhausted! It’s just… Fuck! I want to see you win, man! Refind yourself, for all of us. Please!
「two losses in a row?????」「DID HE LOSE IT!?!?!?!?! HE NOW ALSO SUCK!!!????」「co on! Where are the win streaks from ebfore! Don’t tell he’s tilted from that loss earlier?」「crap, if he’s actually tilted, it’ll be hard to keep climbing!」「nooooooo y u do tis to eeee?!?!??!??!!??」「I STAY UP LATE FOR YOU! YOU WIN GAS FOR ! OR YOU PAY ! YOU CHOOSE!」「:C I just wanna see him win….」「Hes climbing the ladder like I do the stairs… I dont get up my stairs QQ」
✹
Lin Feng rubbed his eyes and repressed a yawn. I should’ve won that last ga. It’s… He sighed and shook his head. I’m not even frustrated. I’m just… I’m tired. He blinked a couple of tis, finding it progressively more difficult to open his eyes again. Maybe I should just take a nap… What ti is i— “No nap! No nap!” he exclaid, his eyes growing round and wide. “Shit! Where did the ti go!? I’ve only got a bit longer to go! It’s almost over and I’m losing! ShitShitShit! Drink and play!” He reached for his glass of water and took a sip from it, then scrunched his eyebrows and looked at the glass. Oh… Empty.
“Here, drink this.”
The voice sounded like that of an angel to Lin Feng. It caused tingles in his neck as his exhaustion disappeared. He looked up at An Xin who was offering him a glass of water and smiling at him. He smiled weakly back at her.
An Xin shook her head and pushed the glass into Lin Feng’s hands. She said, “Working hard like usual, eh? Oh, wow wow! Don’t drink that all in one go! You’ll have to go to the toilet in the middle of your next ga. We wouldn’t want that, now would we?” She smiled brighter and winked at him. “You got this, Lin Feng.”
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