Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The fact that such a complicated process had been carried out in just 0.5 seconds left a strong impression on everyone, they were unable to calm down at all!
There were also a lot of professional Mid players watching the game, and even they had yet to recover their wits.
At Beijing’s Noxus Club, Number One was still staring blankly at the screen. His Zed was right next to Lucian’s corpse. Even though it happened within a short period of time, he had clearly seen all of Kassadin’s movements.
A piece of void energy was Kassadin’s landing point. He had already thrown out Deathfire Grasp before his figure fully materialized. The moment it landed on Lucian, Force Pulse and Nether Sphere made their appearances!
Under normal circumstances, you would still be able to see Lucian’s health dropping in stages, no matter how fast you released the skills. First, it would decrease from Kassadin’s ulti, followed by a 15% drop from Deathfire Grasp. Then, it would further drop from Force Pulse, and finally from Null Sphere.
Altogether, the damage was caused by a total of four skills…
But what Number One saw was Lucian’s health bar immediately draining to zero!
There were no words to describe the speed. It felt like all the skills had been launched together with the press of a single button! This guy must have placed all those skills on one button, there had to be some special key that allowed him to configure it that way…
That had to be it. There was no way anyone in this world would be able to do something like that so quickly. Impossible!
Unbidden, another thought floated through Number One’s mind.
A one button setting? If everything was programmed onto a single button, how was he able to first hit Lucian with Deathfire Grasp, and then follow up with his other two skills?
If the fireball from Deathfire Grasp missed Lucian, it wouldn’t have triggered its unique passive of increasing all subsequent magic damage taken by the target by 20%. It would then be even more difficult to kill Lucian who had a Null-Magic Mantle!
It was impossible for someone to be able to launch a combo in such a short span of time, because it was equivalent to pressing all the keys together. No one had a finger speed fast enough to do it.
However, it couldn’t be a one button setting either, because Kassadin’s Deathfire instant kill had its steps. You had to first use Deathfire Grasp and wait until the fireball hit the target, before pushing out the other two skills. Only then would the skills that hit Lucian be able to instantly kill him.
And also…
After killing Lucian, he used Flash to immediately escape… it all looked like a simple set of steps, but the problem was the speed that it was executed at.
When using Zed to instant kill, it took at least one second to execute the combination of Ignite + Blade Of The Ruined King + E + Q. And that was provided that you were incredibly proficient, but even that was very slow when compared to Kassadin’s speed in killing Lucian!
At this moment, while he continued to stare blankly at the screen, Number One suddenly remembered a conversation he had a year ago with an e-sports senior.
“Number One, e-sports is all about the speed of your finger movements. In other words, your click-per-second. I’ll give you a basic speed test. Use one finger to press a key. Let’s see how many times you can press it in one second.”
“That’s easy, I can press the key eight times in one second. I used to play in arcades, so something like that is easy for me.”
“Eight times in one second? Alright, that’s considered a pass I guess.”
“Eight times in one second is just considered a pass? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Hehe, do you know what the highest record is?”
“What?”
“Twice as much as yours!”
Click-per-second was basically a neglected measure for e-sport players, similar to Warcraft’s APM*.
Number One had tried it out before, and he could click eight times per second. In most click tests, this speed was already considered a top score, which is why he had proudly announced it to his senior.
However, when the senior told him that the record was sixteen times per second, Number One was completely dumbfounded!
Sixteen clicks in one second… was there actually someone in the world that could do it?!
That person must be an alien!
No matter how light your fingers were, it was impossible to reach sixteen clicks per second. This speed would even make some of the low-quality keyboards revert to its default settings.
Kassadin’s burst of skills took 0.5 seconds to launch five sets of skills, which meant ten clicks in one second. Ten clicks per second may be possible for certain people, but in this case, we’re talking about five different keys—1, R, E, Q, and D!
Number One felt just like he did when he first heard about the record of sixteen clicks after thinking that his own ability of eight clicks per second was so great.
It seemed like something so simple, but only those who had tried countless times would know what it meant to be able to hit ten clicks per second!
***
Team Beijing was unable to defend their base after their ADC was instantly killed.
Once the middle lane Inhibitor was taken down, Number One’s confidence was also completely shattered by that onslaught of skills in 0.5 seconds.
Team Skycrown pushed towards victory, breaking the Inhibitors in all three lanes, leaving Team Beijing with no hope of a comeback.
Right up to the point where Team Beijing’s base was taken down, everyone’s minds were still stuck on that glorious moment of Kassadin’s assault.
VICTORY!
As the victory sign floated on screen, Yu Luocheng took off his headphones with an ear-splitting grin on his face.
He initially thought that everyone in Demacia Cafe would crowd over to them. Who knew that they would be looking like him like they’d seen a monster instead? Feeling self-conscious, Yu Luocheng scratched his nose nervously… did he have something in his nose?
While Yu Luocheng was worrying about his handsome image, Feng Da, Mao Ge, Xu Ben, and K who were in the cafe all had the same thought in their minds: “Are you really a f*cking human!? What kind of alien are you and why would you play the same game as us humans?!”
Having played LOL for so long, they had seen so many Top 10 players, godlike plays, and all kinds of executions plays. Who would have thought that someone could launch a set of skills in just 0.5 seconds?!
The match took a total of forty minutes.
In the first twenty minutes, Yu Luocheng’s Kassadin had been pressured to the point he couldn’t do sh*it. He died multiple times and his items had been lagging way behind.
The next twenty minutes weren’t very interesting either. His teammates were more exceptional than him…
And then, this 0.5 second thing happened.
No matter how dazzling and eye-catching Zed’s maneuvers were, how much the Top could carry, how great the Jungler was at awareness, none of it mattered anymore. The only thing everyone would remember was this 0.5 second maneuver.
Not only was everyone cheering at the victory, a god had also been born in their hearts!
***
Miracle couldn’t contain his excitement as he exclaimed loudly, “Congratulations… congratulations to Demacia Cafe’s Team Skycrown for obtaining victory. I must admit that although they were in a deadlock for the majority of the game, I don’t have to say much about how interesting this match was. Let us use our warmest comments and flowers to support our godlike Kassadin!”
The match result had already been announced, but the flowers were still being thrown up, the entire comment section was exploding!
Can you imagine that the comments section which was previously refreshing at a calm rate, was now refreshing at an alarming rate with thousands of comments bursting forward?!
Scrolling down, you would see exclamation marks everywhere!
At the Noxus Club, the entire room was rendered speechless. What began as a match full of confidence, with a twenty minute advantage in Team Beijing’s hands, had ended in their loss.
It wasn’t that they were unsatisfied with the loss, nor was it an accidental loss. They were unable to describe this feeling of losing, especially after witnessing a Kassadin who could kill the ADC in 0.5 seconds. There was no concept of victory after witnessing such a scene, their minds had halted at that moment.
Ancient Dust was known to be an instant killer, and Number One was known as the upgraded version of Ancient Dust. He killed faster and more accurately, plus his hands were also more stable.
And today, their countless instant kills, their countless perfect retreats had just fallen through a hole…
Because they were well aware that although they now knew that Kassadin could be played this way with Deathfire Grasp, they would never be able to execute the speed needed for this game play!
“It’s okay Number One, this is just a warm up match. There will be chances to play against them in the LPL, and we’ll get them back then!” said someone in an attempt to comfort him.
No matter what, Number One was still considered to be a godlike Mid player in the Noxus Club. Everyone supported him, protected him, and loved his smooth execution and perfect retreats.
Nodding his head, Number One managed to force a smile on his face.
In the LPL, they would have a real professional exchange. More than an hour ago, Number One still had the confidence that he could beat any team, but now all of that confidence was gone with the wind.
Just like when he previously only managed to hit eleven clicks per second no matter how much he tried, Fighting Hawk’s Kassadin’s winning play of 0.5 seconds was something that he would forever be unable to surpass!
***
Walking out of the Noxus Club, Number One took a deep breath to calm himself down. He slowly took his phone out and dialled a number.
“Hey, it’s me, Number One.”
A deep baritone male voice replied from the other end of the call, “Oh hey, what’s up?”
“I’ve learnt my lesson. The strongest e-sports player in the country… he really is terrifying,” said Number One, speaking honestly from his heart.
There was a kind of opponent who caused chills to crawl up the spine of anyone who faced them. Number One’s purpose of entering the world of e-sports was to get stronger, to become someone who could defeat every opponent placed in front of him.
Even when he knew that he couldn’t surpass the record of sixteen clicks per second, he’d still persisted in practising it for a long time…
But there are times when you’re completely helpless, like when you think that your click-per-second rate was already very, very fast, the sun would shine through the clouds and open your eyes to the fact that there would always be people outside your reach!
“Talent is inherited and hard work is essential. His speed was not as fast as it used to be, he’s relying on his muscle memory at the moment. I watched the match earlier. There are probably only about five people in the world who can pull off that maneuver he threw out,” said the man Number One was talking to.
“Five?” replied Number One, smiling bitterly. “That’s to say that there are only five people in the world who can match Fighting Hawk’s speed of sixteen clicks per second?”
“Oh, you’ve misunderstood. Fighting Hawk’s click-per-second rate should only be about fourteen clicks. The one who’s at sixteen clicks isn’t someone who’s in the country,” said the man.
That sentence made Number One’s inner emotions which had calmed down suddenly roar up again like a torrent of waves!
