Rise

The players from Flash felt numb. They stared at their screens. Feared. The Hecarim. Roundy Round’s Hecarim had baited them into a five man ultimate. His spectral riders had feared all five of their Champions! The screams from the 12,500 fans in the arena hit their eardrums, making it all the more painful. Chris especially felt his heart drop. This was the second time this game that he’d been baited by Roundy Round. He’d fallen for it both times. “T-this can’t be…” he mumbled.

On the caster desk, Qinghe couldn’t hold his excitement back any longer. “Look! Look! It’s Orianna and Rek’Sai! They’re finally there to help God Roundy! They can win this! KG can win this! Come on, KG, get that ace! ACE FLASH! ACE FLASH!”

The players on Flash saw the health on their Champions drop. Lee Sin especially. He was the only one who could keep up with the Tristana Rocket Jumping after the Hecarim by dashing to her–Safeguard! Then, as both of them were under KG’s outer tower and he got tower aggro, Hecarim hit them with Onslaught of Shadows. The tower fired off an energy shot at him. A second one followed right after and hit him before the fear broke.

Tian Tian was in the middle of Flash’s team after using Onslaught of Shadows. He turned around. The Tristana was walking aimlessly under his outer tower. He activated Devastating Charge. Hecarim gained increased movement speed and could walk through units. He charged through the Riven and Lee Sin. Then he kicked the Tristana with his hooves, knocking her back into his outer tower.

The voice chat from KG had been quiet during the games last week. It wasn’t all that different at the start of this game, safe for when Tian Tian got the solo kill on the Riven. But right now it finally sprung back to life. Tian Tian’s teammates were showering him with compliments.“Nice job Roundy!”“You roll over ‘em, Roundyboy!”“We can win this fight! Focus, guys!”“Let’s do this!”

The Rek’Sai had burrowed underground for the increased movement speed as she rushed down to the fight in bottom lane. She arrived just as the players from Flash broke free from the fear. Three of them were closely huddled together. She flashed towards them and Unburrowed, knocking them airborne! One of them was Lee Sin. His health was almost zero. Rek’Sai sunk her teeth into him–Furious Bite!–and killed him.

《An enemy has been slain!》

The Orianna arrived in the river entrance to bot lane. The players from Flash were still disorganized, and Rek’Sai stood in the middle of them. This was Orianna’s chance to make a move. She flashed forward and used Command: Protect to attach her Ball to Rek’Sai. The Tristana tried to run out of tower range, but ran straight towards the Rek’Sai Now! Now! Now! The Orianna watched her Ball move until it attached to the Rek’Sai and activated her ultimate–Command: Shockwave!

The millions of Chinese spectators all held their breaths. Their eyes were glued onto their screens. This was it! The moment when KG could win the fight! Even the casters weren’t really casting. Only Stone was talking and he kept repeating the same words over and over again. “Come on. Come on. Come on.”

A powerful electromagnetic shockwave erupted from Orianna’s Ball. It swept out into the surroundings before sucking everything towards it! The Tristana had walked right into its range, while the other members from Flash were also in range. They were all pulled in and lost a lot of health! Then the Orianna used Command: Dissonance to release a pulse of energy that also dealt a lot of damage. The four players from Flash suddenly had only a fifth of their health remaining at most.

It was beautiful to watch, that synergy and combo by Orianna and Rek’Sai! They did exactly what the fans expected of them! The millions of people watching the Chinese stream went wild! This wasn’t just a 3,000 ELO Orianna ultimate, this was also the move that won KG the fight! It might even be the catalyst to them winning the entire game!

「Did you see that ori ult? SO SICK!!!」

「the rek-ori wombooo commboooo!!!!1!!!」

「KG GOT THIS! LEZ WIN THE GAMEEEEE」

「Orianna is the best Orianna in the world!」

Tian Tian chased after the Tristana. After she got caught by the Orianna ultimate, her health dropped into the single digits. All he had to do was attack her one last time with an auto attack. His polearm swept across her body.

《An enemy has been slain!》

Chris had a little bit more health left on his Riven than the Tristana had. But it still wasn’t anywhere near enough to stop Tian Tian. Tian Tian had his Hecarim cleave the Riven with his polearm–Rampage!–and then hit her with a last auto attack. For the second time this game, he’d killed the Riven.

《Double kill!》

Tian Tian’s screen was flashing red and his Hecarim had less than 10% of his health remaining. There were still the Alistar and Kassadin alive on Flash’s team. The Kassadin fired an orb of void energy at the Rek’Sai–Null Sphere! He followed up with a Force Pulse, swiping his blade and firing off excess energy in a cone in front of him. It hit Tian Tian’s Hecarim, slowing him and dropping his health to less than 1%. Then a purple rift appeared out of nowhere and Kassadin disappeared. This was the animation for Riftwalk! If this skill hit the Hecarim, he would die! Tian Tian smashed down on his D key to flash away. His Hecarim disappeared from the exact spot where the Kassadin arrived. He’d gotten out just in time! With another Devastating Charge, he ran down the lane all the way back to his inner tower.

The Rek’Sai used Queen’s Wrath to empower her basic attacks, then attacked the Kassadin with her claws. His health dropped to almost zero. The Orianna also threw an auto attack at the Kassadin and then commanded her Ball to attack! The Ball moved to the Kassadin and hit him. It was just enough to kill him. All the while, the Alistar tried to run away. He’d gotten halfway down the lane when Orianna and Rek’Sai caught up to him. And between the two of them, they had enough damage to kill him before he could reach his outer tower. The Orianna dealt the last attack.

《Double kill!》

《Aced!》

Millions of people were watching the Chinese live broadcast of Worlds. They watched KG turn a terrible situation around! Tian Tian had single-handedly helped his team win this teamfight! KG had a chance at winning this game! Messages flooded into the chat. Everyone had an opinion on the fight and wanted to explain just how good God Roundy was. As for the three shoutcasters, they were speechless and sat there staring at the screen. Qinghe then turned to the other two, a voice in his ear reminding him he had to cast. “WOW! KG has come out big! That play was insane, you guys!

“I can’t believe he turned that fight around! They even aced Flash!

“I thought for sure Orianna and Rek’Sai were too far away. But they never gave up and arrived in time to clean up the fight! Props to them!

“However, I think we need to stand still for a second and look again at what God Roundy did. That was something special, guys. A five man Hecarim ultimate. He hit a five man Hecarim ultimate! Have we ever seen this happen before at Worlds? Or even in competitive play? I don’t think so. I know I haven’t.

“For all of you watching at home. This is one of those moments you’re going to tell your children about. I think this play will be one of the highest skill plays we’ll ever see in the game! God Roundy just made himself a legend! Oh my god, that was a five man Hecarim ultimate!

“Are we going to start calling it a Roundy? I say we start calling it a Roundy as a sign of respect to the man! Though, I doubt we’ll ever see another one. That was just too good. God Roundy is too good.”

Qinghe hit the nail on its head. This teamfight was the God Roundy show! Roundy Round showed the entire world why his fans called him a God. He showed them why they nicknamed him the Uncrowned Eighth. Though, going solely off this play, calling him the Uncrowned Eighth would be an insult. This play alone made him deserving of the title of King, if not Emperor!

Lolo laughed and cried. Her emotions were in turmoil. She didn’t know anymore how she felt or how to act. Then she wiped her eyes clean and spoke towards the camera, “God Roundy did fantastic. He carried that teamfight on his back! That was so good.”

As for the man in question, Tian Tian slumped back into his gaming chair. His Hecarim had survived and they’d won the teamfight. He looked drained. But there was also a smile. He grabbed his chest with both hands and breathed out deeply. Then he laughed. One short laugh full of disbelief. I-it worked. It worked! I can’t believe that worked! There’d been no big plan, no grand scheme, nothing behind his play. All he did was follow his intuition. He’d used his ultimate when it felt right. I-i’m really really good. Lin Feng was right. I’m good! Then he calmed down. Whenever he thought of Lin Feng, he remembered the promise he’d made. He had to win this game! Not just one teamfight. It's time to focus and win!

✹

In the NetCow Cafe in downtown Shanghai, the players from High School 13 had jumped up from their seats and were hugging each other and cheering. High School 7 had surrendered 25 minutes into the game! Though, the game was pretty much played after the teamfight at the Dragon pit. That fight had crushed High School 7’s motivation. They’d stopped trying as hard and got caught out of position constantly, to the point where there wasn’t another big teamfight to speak of, only solo kills all over the map. But it didn’t matter what High School 7 did or how they played. All that mattered was that High School 13 had won the game and would move on to the main tournament!

Ouyang, Yang Fan, and Ren Rou ran at their teammates and created a bigger hug-circle, as they jumped up and down. They’d done it! They were going to the Shanghai 16 School Tournament!

“Nice! You guys are the best!” Ren Rou laughed.

Ouyang ruffled Lin Feng’s hair and shouted loudly into everyone’s ears, “HAHA! I KNEW IT! You guys totally did it! The Championship trophy will be ours! Watch out everyone, HERE WE COME!”

When everyone calmed down a little and the hug-circle broke, Lin Feng rubbed his nose and said loud enough for everyone to hear, “It’s still not enough, though.” He waited for the others to look at him before continuing, “It doesn’t matter that we already qualified. We still have to win the next game. Just this isn’t enough. We have to go three for three.”

The third game in this qualification round of the Shanghai 16 School Tournament was against Tonji Affiliated High. They were the strongest team in this group and had made it all the way to the semifinals of the main tournament last year. But compared to what Fatty had to face at Worlds, this was nothing. Lin Feng only had to beat some high schoolers, while Fatty had to beat Legend, whose Midlaner was Phoenix and one of the Four Emperors.