League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Alright. The players are now seated. We shall enter the banning phase!” The host announced energetically.

Seeing as the match had officially started, the crowd quieted down cooperatively and the atmosphere inside the hall immediately became solemn.

“And, the first ban from Team Dawn is on Twisted Fate!” The host’s voice went up several notches.

Dejected sighs were immediately heard from the crowd as they saw the ban decision made by Team Dawn.

Yu Luocheng’s Twisted Fate had completely dominated the battlefield in the previous match against Team Aviator. Anyone who had watched that match would most certainly be fearful of that hero.

“Such a waste. I bet a lot of us were looking forward to witnessing his magnificent card tricks again… However, this clearly indicates that even Team Dawn has recognized that the AP player from Team Scarlet is indeed their biggest threat in becoming the champions of this tournament,” The host continued.

Team Scarlet, in contrast, were not bothered much by this ban. This was because their AP position this time would not be Yu Luocheng, but Yu, who had almost fully recovered from his hand injury.

For their side, they banned an early-game hero, Lee Sin, and two AP champions which Yang Ying was good at to limit his impact on the game as much as possible.

After the banning phase, both teams began the champion selection process.

Xiao Dao was the first to pick and he snatched up Jarvan without any hesitation.

Jarvan was the jungler that Xiao Dao was most familiar with. The champion had decent all-around abilities—He was extremely agile, equipped with good control skills, great ganking abilities, and was essential in a team fight. This hero was a must pick if he was not banned.

After Xiao Dao had selected Jarvan, the opponent immediately picked Varus.

In this Season 3 patch, the two most powerful ADCs were none other than Caitlyn and Varus. It was not because these two heroes were buffed up in the patch, but rather, the other ADCs had been ridiculously nerfed. For example, Ezreal, who used to appear frequently before, was barely seen in big games nowadays.

Following the Varus pick, Team Dawn wasted no time in selecting Volibear.

Volibear, the Thunder’s Roar, was a jungling champion, though at times, he was also used as a support.

In actual fact, Volibear was not a very good choice of support. The development of the ADC at the bottom lane requires the flexibility to advance and retreat swiftly. Once Volibear charges toward an enemy with Rolling Thunder, it seldom ends well. More importantly, Volibear is a melee hero and can barely intercept the enemy’s attack efficiently as support.

This particular champion is not usually picked this early, however, it seemed like the jungler from Team Dawn was very confident.

After the Varus and Volibear picks, it was Team Scarlet’s turn to select a champion.

Huang Yu was a little hesitant on his solo-mid pick. In the end, however, he wound up choosing Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow.

This was one of Yu’s best mid champions. Although it was not the best decision to have Jayce in mid-lane when the opponent’s jungler was a Volibear, Huang Yu still clicked the confirm button.

Subsequently, it was Xiao Tongtong’s turn to choose and he selected Singed, the Mad Chemist.

“Jayce and Singed. I wonder what strategy Team Scarlet is using with this formation. Let’s see their next pick.”

“Alright. The two final champions picked by Team Dawn are Taric and Fizz. If I remember correctly, the AP from Team Dawn is Yang Ying. He played well using Kha’Zix in the last match by demonstrating a perfect kill to put an end to the game. This time, he has chosen a rather unique AP—Fizz, the Tidal Trickster. Do stay tuned for his excellent performance.”

Seeing how the opponent had chosen a mid-lane Fizz, Yu from Team Scarlet was stunned.

He had seldom faced Fizz in the mid-lane before plus Jayce had very little advantage against Fizz in a solo skirmish. This was because the EQ-combo by Jayce could be easily dodged by Fizz’s E-skill, Playful, and Trickster.

“We should have banned Fizz just now. His assault ability is too powerful to counter,” Yu said sonorously.

“Don’t worry, I will give you vision so he won’t have many chances to come from the side,” Yu Luocheng said.

Fizz was weak in terms of a team fight. This was the main reason that this champion did not emerge much in major tournaments. Then again, recently, Fizz’s playstyle was being re-innovated and people had started to use this hero a little bit more again.

It was Team Scarlet’s turn again. Yu Luocheng, who was the fourth pick did not hesitate and clicked straightaway on Lux, the Lady of Luminosity.

“Wait… Lux should be the support role, right? That pick is a little odd.”

The pick for Lux was even more startling than the Fizz pick.

Lux could indeed fill in the support role, however, this champion was not a very conventional support in the sense that her importance was only more prevalent in a late-game team fight.

“Oh, there’s a switch! From Lux to Zyra… I agree, Zyra is definitely a better support than Lux. Wait, he switches it back. It’s Lux again! It’s confirmed!”

“As everybody knows, Lux requires the player to have very good foresight. This is because all her skills are of the skill shot range. This champion is definitely hard to master and to play it well, the player needs to master quite a few things at the same time. I wonder to what extent can Huang Yu execute Lux as a support.”

After the ban and pick phases were done, both teams were basically set and the final 30 seconds countdown started to tick.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Grand Final of the Lecheng Coca-Cola Cup officially starts now! I believe all the LoL enthusiasts present today are deeply engrossed in this game. Let’s wait and see what kind of excitement these ten players will bring to us today!”

The host was definitely great at firing up the atmosphere. The entire emporium was immediately filled by the audiences’ excited cheers to back up and support their favorite teams.

It was hard to gauge how many LoL fans were in a city to begin with. But one thing for sure, the ten players sitting on the stage now were definitely the current ten best LoL players in Lecheng and their clash, without a doubt, had become the main gossip topic in the gaming society of this city.

Plus, all the LoL fans were eager to know which team was going to nab the grand prize totaled at sixty thousand RMB and the honor of being the top team in Lecheng.

***

“Okay, now that we are in the loading screen, let me introduce the lineup of both teams once again.”

“Oh my god! I did not see this coming. The Jayce at mid-lane is not controlled by Yu Luocheng!”

“He is playing as Lux!”

“Lux is carrying Exhaust as her Summoner spell which means that Yu Luocheng, who made spectacular plays with Twisted Fate in the last game, is not playing the vital AP position. He is playing as the support today!”

“This… This is a little unreal!”

The host was thrown off by this fact, as were the audience.

The heroic play displayed by Yu Luocheng the last time around had blown a lot of people’s minds away. ‘Such a wonderful AP player has given up the mid-lane to play as a support instead? What a huge waste of talent!’