Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Their match was going to be streamed across multiple platforms, and with Team Sunlight’s own popularity, streams like this could easily break a hundred thousand viewers. Now with the additional help of Boss Lei’s media coverage, the total viewer count across every website would probably break two hundred thousand.
Two hundred thousand current viewers and two hundred thousand views were two very different things. Since not every player was waiting in front of their computers at every hour of the day, most would just wait to watch the playback when they had the time, and if calculated that way, their video could easily surpass one million views without a hitch.
Team Sunlight had always had a large following, but their fans had never had the chance to see them face off against another real team. Now with their fight against Demacia Cafe’s defending team going live, every other career team in the country was giving it their full attention!
“This Team Sunlight is starting off the match by choosing non-meta champions so that they can boast even more if they win!” Team Stardust’s Earth grunted.
“That Demacia Cafe has become pretty popular recently, some of my friends specifically went over to check it out,” Wind said.
Team Stardust was currently participating in the Champion War, their popularity had taken a nosedive after they had been disqualified in the Spring LPL.
Even though they had gotten last place in the last LPL, they could easily destroy this Team Sunlight with no problem. Earth didn’t know what f*cking right these kids had to have so many fans!
“Were you guys watching just now? Didn’t those guys from Demacia Cafe’s defending team look familiar?” Fire asked.
“I think I saw that Wu Sen guy,” Wind said.
When the camera shifted, Wind indeed saw Wu Sen standing among the defending team.
LPL players like them would be gathered backstage before and after competitions, so most of them knew each other, and since Wu Sen was originally one of their members, they could recognize him as soon as the camera panned over.
“Isn’t Wu Sen still in that Team Skycrown?”
“Something doesn’t add up, why do those people from the defending team look like the members of Team Skycrown!”
Even though the clothes and general styling of Team Skycrown had obviously changed, unlike other LPL teams whom they had just seen through videos and streams, the two teams had met face-to-face before, so they had a pretty clear impression of what they looked like.
It wasn’t just Team Stardust, LPL’s fifth place, Team Dusk, had also recognized Team Skycrown from their interview too.
“I never liked that Team Sunlight, let’s hope it actually is Team Skycrown,” Team Dusk’s leader said.
“Yeah, let them know just how strong we LPL teams are!”
Hatred toward Team Sunlight has been brewing for quite a while, especially among the e-sports community, mainly because Team Sunlight shied away from matches with real LPL star teams like cowards, so nobody could testify how strong they were or weren’t. Now, however, Team Sunlight had barged through the doors of Demacia Cafe, and lo and behold, the disappearing Team Skycrown was right there waiting for them!
Everyone in the LPL knew exactly how strong Team Skycrown were, and even though they had been banned and disqualified from the LPL, their strength was still recognized and respected by their fellow LPL competitors!
Almost every star team from the LPL were sitting in front of their screens, waiting for the show to begin.
“I wonder if Team Skycrown’s skills have gotten rusty. They haven’t made an appearance in so long and they haven’t been in any competitions either,” Team Revelation’s Hao Yue said.
“Team Sunlight is one of the above-average teams out there, if Team Skycrown loses, it will just boost their popularity even higher,” Qing Ye lamented.
“It’s starting.”
***
Word of the match had spread quickly through the country and many LPL stars were tuning in to watch the battle play out as well.
In Demacia Cafe, the defending team and Team Sunlight had entered their respective lanes.
Luocheng and Lin Dong made their way to the bottom and since no fights broke out before the minions spawned, Luocheng chose to upgrade his E-skill.
Alistar’s E-skill was a group healing skill, and even though the healing done was very limited, using this skill correctly in-lane could cause quite a lot of trouble for the enemy team. For example, if the enemy Draven wanted to farm a low-health minion, Luocheng could cast his E just as Draven threw out his auto attack.
The minion’s health increased rapidly and Draven’s auto attack left the minion with just a small sliver of health, getting killed by a nearby enemy minion instead!
Knowing how to use your E-skill like that could easily infuriate the enemy team.
“Upgrading your E-skill first, let’s see how you’ll die by level two!” Leona’s summoner, Bing Bing, laughed coldly.
The bottom lane was always dominated by whichever side hit level 2 first. The reason was simple, the side that reached level 2 first not only had the advantage in terms of health and runes, they would also have one ability more than the enemy. In the early game when both teams were almost equal in Defense, Health, Magic Resistance, and Attack, the team with an extra ability and more powerful runes had the clear upper hand!
When Alistar reached level 2 and attained both his W-skill, Headbutt, and Q-skill, Pulverize, his prowess in battle would be unrivalled to the point that even champions like Leona, who gained an early power spike at level 2, wouldn’t be able to compare. However, the opposing Alistar had gone for his E-skill first, so it didn’t matter if Alistar chose to level up his Q-skill or W-skill, he still wouldn’t be able to compete against a Leona with her EQ-combo!
***
In high-level matches, the victor in the bottom lane was mostly decided by the respective Supports. Whichever side’s Support took better care of vision, positioning, and etc., would be the side that would win.
Bing Bing had been planning his course of action for when he hit level 2, but he soon realized that Alistar and Sivir were clearing minions much faster than their team. Even though Alistar’s E-skill didn’t heal much, the entire wave benefitted from the healing, effectively slowing Draven’s clear-speed and causing the minion wave to push toward them.
Needless to say, Luocheng and Lin Dong were the first to reach level 2.
Upon hitting level 2, Luocheng took on a more aggressive stance, sticking close to the front of the minion wave, the threat of a barging Minotaur pushing the enemy team back.
Bing Bing and his ADC had no choice but to stay on the defensive.
Their retreat allowed Luocheng to swiftly gain control over the bushes with a pink ward placed strategically on the edge. This patch of grass was mine!
Bing Bing and his ADC were on the blue side. Players who frequented the bottom lane should know, the combination of an Alistar hiding in the bush and the minion wave pushed so close to the turret would cause CS-ing to become incredibly uncomfortable. Having the threat of a minotaur rushing out to pin you to the wall looming overhead was not a great feeling!
A W-skill against the wall resulted in a roughly 1 second stun, add that on to the 1.5 second stun from a Q-skill and that would be a total of 2.5 seconds of CC which was more than enough for them to score a kill during the early game!
Bing Bing finally figured out why Alistar had levelled his E-skill first, he had wanted to push the minion wave in so that he could gain full control over the lane!
“This Support feels… different, somehow,” Bing Bing mumbled to himself.
A Silver or Bronze Support couldn’t have orchestrated such an operation, or maybe he was just overthinking it?
The minion wave was stalling at a bad position, so even after hitting level 2, Bing Bing still didn’t dare to engage in a fight. As for throwing out his skills toward the troll Support Alistar, he didn’t think that would do much as the defending team’s ADC was still ridiculously strong.
“Luocheng, you’re going to be level 3 soon, the enemy Leona has at least half an experience bar to go!” K said.
Even K knew how to calculate experience now. He also knew that once they hit level 3, there was no way Luocheng wouldn’t do something, otherwise, his arrangements in the early game to control the bushes would have been pointless.
“CS carefully…” Bing Bing reminded the ADC.
But just as soon as the words came out of his mouth, that d*mned Alistar had already walked to the lowest edge of the bush!
Team Sunlight’s ADC Scorch had already been minding his positioning carefully, he was not about to give that Alistar a chance to knock him into the wall.
But in the single second that Leona had lost vision of the bush, Alistar had made his way to the very edge, bursting out from the left corner as Scorch walked up to CS!
Draven was unceremoniously pinned against the wall, fully exposed to the wrath of Sivir’s Boomerang Blade!
Lin Dong has good senses as well, following up on your Support usually meant predicting your Support’s next actions ahead of time to be able to use your abilities immediately after.
Seeing the b*stard Luocheng adjusting his positioning, Lin Dong was already on standby with his own abilities. As he watched the Glorious Executioner get knocked toward him, Lin Dong swiftly gave him a taste of his combos!
Bing Bing saw the situation quickly take a turn for the worse and immediately rushed up to Sivir’s face with an E-skill, but there was no way a level 3 Sivir hadn’t upgraded her E-skill, Spellshield!
Sivir blocked Leona’s E-skill without a problem and continued to auto attack!
“BOOM!”
Pulverize! Luocheng didn’t give Draven a chance to Flash out, and the oh-so-dapper Draven had walked over to Leona to seek help, but that just allowed Luocheng to knock the both of them up with a single Q-skill!
Alistar’s Pulverize had an extremely tiny range of only 365 units and a lot of Alistar’s usually ended up missing their abilities when chasing more than one target. Most of the spectators had been expecting the Q-skill from this troll Support to hit miles away from where it should have landed, but instead, they witnessed both Draven and Leona get knocked sky-high!
This sort of crowd control was fatal because all Leona had to do was Exhaust Lin Dong and he wouldn’t have been able to deal enough damage to kill their ADC, but now that Leona was flying along with the Draven, her abilities and summoner spells were still disabled, allowing Lin Dong to come in for the kill!
Without any other option, Team Sunlight’s Scorch used both his Barrier and Flash as soon as the CC duration was over.
Bing Bing’s Leona used her Exhaust on Lin Dong’s Sivir as well, fearing that they might Flash forward to kill them.
All at once, Team Sunlight’s bottom lane had given away 3 very important Summoner Spells.
“Whoa, I’m seeing this correctly, right!?”
“Why is the defending team’s Support suddenly so good? Forcing 3 Summoner Skills out of Team Sunlight’s bottom lane at level 3!”
