Rise

The time was finally there! The moment everyone had been waiting for! KG versus Legend! The crowd in the Wembley Arena forgot all about KG and their spectacular victory over Flash. They only chanted, “LEGEND!” Both teams walked up on stage, the European favourites waving at the screaming crowd. This was their crowd! This was their hometurf! They would show the world why they were a title contender! The 10 players sat down behind their computers, each lane opponent opposite each other. They were given a minute to adjust their mouse and keyboard settings as the arena went quiet.

There was a buzz in the arena while the fans were waiting for the game to go into Champion Select. But the seconds soon turned to minutes. They were getting antsy. They wanted to see the game, and they wanted to see it now! A few people started a wave that went around the arena, while others started cheering for Phoenix and Legend. There were even a few bored Dutch fans who started singing a poor translation of a well-known song:“It takes too long,“We’re stuck here for a while now,“We have to move on,“So for the final time I’m sorry,“This takes too long!“Boohoo!”

The Chinese fans tried to get their voices heard. But they were tiny droplets of sound lost in an ocean of voices. No one could hear them, no one noticed what they were saying, or paid any attention to the pride they felt at a team from their country winning. It was a bittersweet moment for them, joy and sadness swirling together. Until one of the Chinese girls, one who was waving around a sign that said “MARRY ME ROUNDY”, decided to do something. If there was ever a time she could make their voices heard, it was now! There were far more Europeans in the crowd than there were Asians, but the Europeans weren’t cheering together right now. She would be the beacon for all of the Chinese fans, she could and would unify their voices until they overpowered everyone. She jumped up onto her seat and pulled her sweater off. She waved the bright red sweater in the air like a flag, and then flung it out towards the crowd in front of her. Underneath the sweater, she had a crop top on. A racy, lacy one that revealed her toned midriff all the way up to just below her breasts. The sheer fabric clung to her curves and only accentuated their appeal. They were large, round, and perky. The breasts of a goddess, one that lived in every man’s fantasies. Now that she had everyone’s attention, she grabbed another fluorescent sign and held it high above her head. There was a new message on it: “GO KG!!!” Then she screamed at the top of her lungs, “DO YOUR BEST KG! I BELIEVE IN YOU! GO GOD ROUNDY!”

The spotlights just happened to pan over her during this perfect moment. Perhaps fate was a man, or an avid admirer of the feminine form. Everyone was drawn to her. Thousands of eyes fell on her body. People from all the way across the arena squinted their eyes, trying to get a better look at her. For most of them, it was part of the excitement that went with large scale events like Worlds. But for a small minority, this was something different. For that small minority, this was the first time that they’d ever seen such an attractive woman in such revealing attire in real life. They were stunned! Most people just laughed. They started catcalling her, jokingly, while keeping their eyes on her. One lucky man even got her sweater and took a big whiff. The people around him could hear a loud “Aaahhhhh!”

The girl in question cared for none of these lecherous gazes. Or the catcalls. She was the center of attention right now, and that was all that mattered. This was her goal. Whatever she said next, everyone would hear it. She dropped her sign and cupped her hands around her mouth. Then she screamed, “GO KG! GOD ROUNDY FOR THE WIN! GO KG!”

She gave small kicks to the girls sitting directly next to her. They were her friends, and they also happened to be very attractive. She needed their help right now! The two girls looked up at their friend, caught up in the mixture of shock and awe. Their friend had done something incredible. Embarrassing! But incredible! Then one of them mumbled, “Screw it!” She took off her shirt, and threw it down onto her seat. Then she cheered and started jumping up and down with just her bra on! The men in the crowd couldn’t believe their eyes. Their shouts grew louder, chanting for her to also get up on her chair. She did. Then she noticed all of the people looking at her and got shy. She wrapped her arms around her chest. Then she clenched her jaw and looked at her friend next to her, still cheering KG on. Her friend needed help! She turned around and bent over, mooning the entire crowd! There were those that just weren’t into breasts, and she would help get the attention of those people with her shapely rear! Once she was sure she managed to get everyone’s attention, she grabbed the fluorescent sign board from the ground. She lifted it up high above her head and started cheering for KG together with her friend, her breasts jumping up and down, dangerously close to popping out of her bra.

The third girl tried to hide her head behind her arms. She slid down into her chair, hoping no one would see her. But they did. Everyone did. And they were calling for her in between whistling towards her two friends. She bit on her lips and looked up at the other two. They seemed to be having fun. It was reckless. But also harmless. She thought about it, thought about how you only live once. Ah, fuck it! She grabbed her sign and stood up on the chair, then started chanting for KG together with her two friends.

However, the rest of the crowd wouldn’t have anything of it. Everyone had turned their attention to the three girls. Two were revealing more than they perhaps should. But the third was still wearing a large sweater! One person in the crowd yelled, “Take your shirt off and I’ll chant for KG!” And soon the whole arena was chanting that one sentence.“TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND WE’LL CHANT FOR KG!”“TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND WE’LL CHANT FOR KG!”“TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND WE’LL CHANT FOR KG!”“TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND WE’LL CHANT FOR KG!”

The girl with her long sweater on felt herself blushing. She was probably beet red right now from the embarrassment and attention. She wanted to jump back down, but there was something that kept her standing. And it wasn’t a creepy pervert. She shook her head in refusal, which only invoked louder screams from the crowd. Then she put her sign down and took her sweater off. She twirled her sweater on her finger and let it go. It flew through the air and landed a few rows to the front. She picked the fluorescent sign board back up and held it before her chest before finally moving it up above her head, jumping up and down and cheering for KG, as did everyone else in the Wembley Arena, if only for a little while.

✹

After their loss to KG, the players on Team Flash were in no mood to sit down with the rest of the players, the ones from other teams, in the VIP viewing area. So they walked out of the main arena, up the stairs, and into one of the private skyboxes. None of them said a word. They walked up to the window and looked down on the arena from the skybox, at the cheering crowd. Some girls had gotten the entire arena riled up, screaming, “KG!” and “God Roundy!”. They hated it. Chris smashed his fist against the double glass, while the others turned away and sat down at a table and started talking about their plan of attack.

“Man! No way in hell KG beats Legend! That’s our chance! We play Legend later! All we gotta do is play out of our minds and beat them! Sounds great, right? Great… Ah, I don’t know guys. It’s kinda unrealistic, right? They’re really fucking good. Odds are that we lose and end up in a tiebreaker against KG…”

“You’re right. I don’t see us beating Legend either. Let’s be real, Legend is the better team. They got Phoenix, we got no Emperor. Simple as that. Let’s just assume we’ll be in the tiebreaker against KG.”

“It’s cool. It’s cool. We’ll be good. Screw the Legend game. Let’s just focus on the tiebreaker. We got this. Just focus down that Roundy guy and then it’ll be an easy win. Right guys? Right? We’ll win for sure!”

“I mean, sure, we’ll win. As long as we don’t give away first blood again. Let’s not do any stupid towerdives and shut that Roundy Round down. The others on KG are all shit. This game is in the bag.”

Four players from Flash had resigned themselves to playing the tiebreaker against KG. They couldn’t be faulted for giving up. Legend was an Emperor team. It didn’t matter how good Chris played, he was only a King. Flash was only a King team. That generally wasn’t enough to come even close to beating an Emperor. All five members from Flash knew. That included Chris. He was on the same wavelength as the others. The game against Legend was a loss. They had to focus on the tiebreaker against KG. Chris looked through the window down at the center of the arena. KG was setting up for their game against Legend. Roundy Round sat behind his computer. You fat shit! You got lucky! I’ll wipe the floor with you. Chris was determined to wash away the humiliation from the last game. The possibility of KG defeating Legend didn’t even register in his mind. Let’s see you get your ass kicked by Phoenix first.

✹

Moon sat in the VIP viewing area, watching God Roundy. If anyone knew how strong an Emperor was, it’d be him. The strength of an Emperor wasn’t just their individual skill. It was their ability to bring a team together and lift them up to that next level. To help every member reach their potential, and then some. And through that, they instilled a sense of fear into their opponents. It was this combination that set Emperors apart from other players. This was also the reason why Moon didn’t think KG had much of a chance against Legend. Phoenix was the third ranked Emperor. He was one of the greatest players this game had ever seen, and would probably ever see. The way he could bring up the overall strength of his team was something special. Even Moon didn’t think he was that good.

KG had played well in their game against Flash. God Roundy had put on a show with his Hecarim. He’d shown the world why he was one of the best players. But he wasn’t at the absolute top. He hadn’t made that jump that Phoenix had. Moon turned his head away from Roundy to look at a man sitting a little further in the VIP viewing area. But how does he look so calm? This was the man some called the Esports Legend. The man he knew from the game he played before League of Legends. Someone who was connected to Roundy. He was grinning, unconcerned. What does he know? How can he be this calm? Something didn’t feel right for Moon. His analysis of the teams told him Legend would win, but the way that man was acting had him doubting himself.

✹

The third and final match of the qualifiers for High School 13 was about to begin! High School 13 versus Tonji Affiliated High! Both teams had already qualified for the main tournament. There were no real stakes left to play for. This was a game for prestige! At least, it was for High School 13. This was a great opportunity for them to show everyone, especially themselves, how strong they were this year. Tonji Affiliated High, on the other hand, didn’t particularly care for this game. They never put High School 13 in their eyes. High School 13 was a weak team with a bad reputation and wasn’t worth their time. They would play to get a quick win this game and move on.

A large crowd gathered around the isle of computers. There were even more than during High School 13’s second game after Ouyang’s outburst. The players from both teams were sitting behind their computers, with Lin Feng sitting behind the monitor for the Toplaner. That meant that Chen Ze was sitting out this round, while Yang Fan came back in to play in the mid lane. This wasn’t a rash decision by the team. Rather, this was a carefully planned out trap by Lin Feng. His main role was mid lane and he could beat the Master Midlaner from Tonji Affiliated High. But there was a big difference between beating a lane opponent and outright carrying the game. Right now, he needed to carry the entire game. The way to do that was to get fed. He couldn’t do that in mid lane against a Master player if they played defensively. But there was an easier target in top lane. Someone at a lower rank who would make the kind of mistakes he could easily capitalize on to snowball the lane into a winning game. That was why he would be playing in the top lane this game.

Lin Feng looked over his computer screen at the players from Tonji Affiliated High sitting across from him. He couldn’t let Tonji Affiliated High dictate the pace of the game. If that happened, High School 13 would lose. I just have to try-hard and carry this game. He took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves, then looked over at Tonji Affiliated High’s Toplaner. He was a Diamond 4 player. This was a high rank, but no different from any other low ranked player to Lin Feng. He would find this player’s flaws and abuse them to snowball. Hehe. Alright. I know. Let’s go with this plan. Stomp the lane, win the game. Now I just need to pick a strong early game champion that can do that.

✹

KG and Legend were in Champion Select. The crowd was cheering in the background as KG was the first to ban a Champion. Tian Tian listened to his teammates discuss their strategy. They’d come up with a game plan and were ready to execute it. But he didn’t join in with them. His hands were shaking a little but he stared them still. Whatever plan his teammates had come up with was irrelevant, because it was a plan where they would fight Legend on even foot. He knew how impossible that was, he just didn’t know how to tell them. Legend was better. Plain and simple. They couldn’t win if they went into this game thinking they could beat Legend at their game.

Tian Tian took deep breaths, quite unlike his usual shorter breaths. He wasn’t borderline hyperventilating. He had his emotions under control, for now. More than ever, he knew what to do. His plan of attack was clear. He was never more certain about anything than this. We can’t fall behind in the early game, or we lose. We can’t give them time to react and adapt, or we lose. I need to snowball early and hit them hard and never stop until their Nexus explodes! He bit on his lips. The voices coming from the voice chat sounded as indistinct as those coming from the audience behind him. He stared at the screen, scrolling through the list of Champions. I have to do something special. It didn’t matter what his teammates were doing, so long as they didn’t start feeding Legend kills. All that mattered was that he knew what had to be done to win this game, and that he did that! I’ll win this game!

The ban phase came to an end and both sides started locking in their Champions. KG was the Blue team and got first pick. Legend reacted to it, and KG reacted to that. Both teams showed more of their strategy as they locked in their Champions, until it was the turn for fourth and fifth pick on the side of KG. Fifth pick was KG’s Support and he locked his Champion in right away. But Tian Tian in fourth pick didn’t. He scrolled through his Champions, looking, thinking. His teammates talked to him, but he wasn’t listening. He knew he had to do this. His hands started shaking a little bit again, so he squeezed his mouse and pushed down on his keyboard harder to make them stop. Two more deep breaths and then he hovered over the one Champion that could help him do what he needed to do.

✹

It was High School 13 versus Tonji Affiliated High! The game went into Champion Select with Lin Feng’s team on the Blue team. They had first pick, revealing the first bit of their strategy. Tonji Affiliated High didn’t respond to this, but rather went with a Champion to suit their own team composition. What followed was a back and forth of locking in Champions until it was the turn for fourth and fifth pick on the side of High School 13. Wei Dong in fifth pick locked in his Support. Lin Feng was the last on his team to lock in a Champion. He’d already made his decision. Time to show everyone how to win a game in 20 minutes. He moved his mouth to the search bar and typed in a name, then selected and locked in the Champion. Watch me Fatty. This one's for you!

On the main stage in the Wembley Arena, Tian Tian watched the timer tick down. He only had a few seconds left to lock in his Champion. There was a trace of hesitation. A moment of weakness. But then there was no more time. He’d thought long and hard on this game. He knew what he had to do to win. He clicked on the Champion he was planning to play and locked it in. If he was to beat Legend, he had to pull something truly special out of the closet. I-i’ll win this! I will! I promise, Lin Feng! For you and f-for me.

Two different tournaments. The same Champion. Separated by 10,000 kilometers of land and sea. One playing top lane for High School 13, the other playing for KG. Lin Feng and Tian Tian were on the same wavelength, connected by a single string of fate. They both picked Riven, the Exile! A warrior wielding a broken runic blade, reforged through sheer willpower! Broken but not defeated. She overcame all odds to forge a path ahead. She was the perfect representation of an underdog, and she was here to issue a challenge!