League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Rar!” Olaf brought down his axe, and Kayle lost a third of her health to his terrifying True Damage attack!

Ashe launched a Volley into the fight as well. Seeing that Kayle had been locked down and nearly destroyed, Xue Haiyang frantically hit R to activate her ‘Intervention’!

This divine intervention gave her absolute invulnerability, which also meant she couldn’t be Slowed.

Speeding herself up with ‘Divine Blessing’, Kayle fled from the carnage with the last one-third of her health.

“Kayle ends up using her ulti on herself! It allows her to break away for now, but Team Aviator refuses to let her escape!”

Sure enough, Olaf and Leona were both hot on her heels!

When Olaf picked up the axes he threw, the cooldown between throws was next to nothing. The instant Kayle’s ‘Intervention’ wore off, another axe was hurled to Slow her down again!

That Slow meant the end for Kayle. After that, if Ashe slowed her again with her ‘Volley’, it would be the last nail in her coffin!

As the enemy closed in on Kayle, a red card flew in from out of nowhere, catching both Olaf as well as Leona! Olaf’s ulti had already ended, so when the red card hit him, the chase stumbled to a halt!

“Another red card, in the nick of time! That red card will allow Kayle to get away from Team Aviator after all!” the MC’s commentary was blazing fast!

A fan of ‘Wild Cards’ followed, raking over Olaf! Already very low on health, these two hits from Twisted Fate brought him to death’s door.

That was when Team Scarlet’s Xiao Tongtong, fingers clattering across his keyboard, brought Renekton in to use ‘Cull the Meek’ and finish Olaf!

Blood spattered everywhere as Olaf fell to Renekton’s final strike, and he thudded to the ground at the intersection between the river and the Raptors.

In the wake of Olaf’s defeat, Renekton was slowed down by Ashe. With her excellent kiting capability, once Renekton got caught, there was basically no hope of escape for him.

Already behind in this game, he wasn’t likely to stand up to much punishment, either.

And then Xiao Tongtong noticed how much health Brand had remaining.

Without a moment’s hesitation, rather than flee, Renekton used ‘Slice & Dice’ to leap onto Brand, and gave him everything he had, including an Ignite spell.

Brand had already lost two-fifths of his health to Twisted Fate. Although Renekton hadn’t picked up any offensive gear, his burst damage was still considerable.

Brand kept his cool, chaining ‘Conflagration’ and ‘Sear’ to stun Renekton. Ashe meanwhile unleashed a withering cascade of arrows upon him.

Having spent the early game being bullied in the Bottom lane two-against-one, he was way behind in items, and couldn’t hold out for long. His health swiftly dropped to zero.

Yet Renekton doggedly continued to unload his skills onto Brand, bringing the mage down to critical health himself.

Still burning from the Ignite, Brand finally succumbed to his wounds, and Renekton got his revenge.

Knowing that his teammate had been sacrificed so he could escape, Xue Haiyang’s heart was heavy.

He turned back to finish off the wounded Leona, but then all of a sudden, Ashe drew back on her longbow, and a massive Enchanted Crystal Arrow was streaking towards him!

“Oh, that’s just bad luck: Ashe’s ultimate has just come off cooldown, and now Kayle takes it in the face! It’s the end of the road for her!”

As feared, Ashe immediately used Volley to apply a powerful Slow effect on the Stunned Kayle. Firing as she moved, Ashe’s player controlled her deftly, so that Kayle had no chance at all to escape.

Knowing her death was at hand, Kayle turned around and attacked Ashe with her angelic blade. Sadly, Ashe was basically still at full health, and those couple of attacks didn’t do much to hurt her.

Ultimately, Kayle perished beneath the hail of Ashe’s frozen arrows.

“The captain of Team Aviator proves his worth with finely honed ADC gameplay! Renekton and Kayle have both fallen to Ashe!”

Jarvan had been slain, Renekton had been killed in trade, and Kayle had been brought down. Three members of Team Scarlet had been eliminated, leaving only Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate. However, after all that fighting, Twisted Fate was almost completely out of mana. At most, he only had enough left for one more skill.

Team Aviator had only lost Brand and Olaf so far. Xin Zhao and Leona were badly wounded, while Ashe remained largely unharmed.

“Team Scarlet tried their best in this team fight—especially Twisted Fate, who dealt such amazing AoE damage with both his red cards and Wild Cards,” the MC cried out. “But it can’t be ignored that they’re fighting against superior numbers, and now that they’ve traded three kills for two, Team Aviator is in control of this game.

“Is this how Team Scarlet goes down?”

***

They’d lost?

Yin Qin stared at the screen, the light in his eyes slowly going out.

As an old veteran in the gaming scene, losing this championship was a hair-raising thought. It felt like a reminder of how much he’d failed in life. It was unbearable.

Xue Haiyang, Xiao Dao, and Xiao Tongtong all stared at their grayed-out screens, in a daze.

This team fight had been their last hope. There would be no coming back from a defeat, here. Right now, they’d give anything to have a Revive and Teleport, so they could have another go with those sons of bitches from Team Aviator!

But the gray screens, and the red-framed death notifications, allowed them nothing besides a feeling of failure and powerlessness.

When they’d first started playing LoL, they’d never once thought about how much they might be falling in love with the game. They’d never imagined that they could spend over two months slaving away at it for the sake of a competition, working their fingers to the bone every day.

Most of all, it had never occurred to them that after thousands of victories and thousands of defeats, the thought of watching their Nexus shatter at the end of this game, followed by the red sign of ‘Defeat’, filled them with the overwhelming urge to smash their keyboard to pieces!

They’d done everything they could, worked themselves to exhaustion… even when their captain Huang Yu got injured, they didn’t give up on this match, even if they might very well be walking to their humiliation.

And now they were going to lose anyway.

***

The captain of Team Scarlet saw the despair of his teammates.

So much guilt was pouring from his heart, he could have choked on it.

If not for his own foolishness, his team would never have to suffer such an unjust disgrace.

His Evelynn hadn’t even reached Level 6 yet. The best he could do was take advantage of the commotion to push the Top lane.

But what use was knocking down a single tower in the Top lane? It wasn’t enough to reverse the whole team’s downward slide towards defeat!

A moment ago, everyone had been roaring for battle. Now, he was hearing nothing in his headphones. Everyone had fallen silent.

It was irritating, maddening… that restless sort of silence which drove one to insanity!

***

“Look! Twisted Fate is still hungry for a fight!” the MC exclaimed suddenly.

“His whole team lies dead, and there are still three enemies standing. Twisted Fate has one last skill left in him, and he’s choosing to fight? This player has been keeping a cool head the entire time—has he finally lost his mind?”

Everyone in Team Scarlet overheard the MC’s commentary. All eyes fell upon Yu Luocheng, utterly confounded.

Had he given up as well, and just wanted to go for one more kill?

***

Yu Luocheng watched his screen with a focus he’d never shown before.

Had they lost? Far from it!

So long as Twisted Fate was still standing…