Chapter 103: Worlds Quarterfinals (2)

‘Is this the LCK mid laner?’

OB’s mid laner, Governor, wiped the sweat from his forehead as he recalled.
The LCK now was, to put it kindly, a third-tier league, on par with North America, which hadn’t won an international tournament in recent years.
He couldn’t accept that he, the second-best in the LPL and a player who had taken a set off VXG in the league, was being outplayed by a mid laner from such a region.

‘It’s like she’s a machine, not a person.’
Granted, the Sylas versus Ahri matchup was unfavorable for Sylas.
But the current situation was something he had never experienced, even in the LPL.

‘At 9 minutes, the mid tower had two plates taken, and the CS difference was 30.’
Moreover, with mid lane in this state, they had no choice but to give up Grubs and Dragon uncontested.
It was a situation where the mid lane difference had occurred purely without any intervention from the jungle or support.

‘This is insane.’
All of it was due to Para’s laning prowess.
If he tried to contest CS, he would be forced into a trade. If he tried to retaliate, Ahri wouldn’t let him land his guaranteed W skill and would instead punish him.
Having suffered this for almost 10 minutes straight, he felt like he was losing his mind.

‘Still.’
However, Governor quietly waited for the timing when he would hit level 9.
There was only one reason he endured the painful laning phase without prioritizing Q: to make a play when his W skill was fully leveled.

‘She’s letting me hit her on purpose.’
Ahri was currently trapped under her tower, measuring the distance. If he landed Charm, she would surely use all her skills.

‘And the grievous wounds effect lasts for 3 seconds.’
The grievous wounds effect from Ahri’s item would apply a healing reduction for 3 seconds upon dealing magic damage.
And Ahri’s cooldowns after using her full combo were at least 5 seconds or more, as her Q skill’s cooldown doesn’t decrease with level.
Therefore, if he used his W immediately after taking the full combo, he could, in theory, heal fully twice before the grievous wounds effect wore off.

‘Now!’
He intentionally got hit by Charm and took the full combo, but he had taken Bone Plating, even sacrificing Revitalize, specifically for this timing.
After taking the damage as painlessly as possible, he would steal her ultimate at the moment grievous wounds disappeared and use Flash W.
He thought this was a timing where he would definitely gain an advantage or even get a solo kill, but…

‘…Huh?’
Sylas’s W clearly has a mechanism where it heals more when his health is low.
If he had used it in this state, he would have healed at least half his health, allowing him to withstand Ahri’s next ability.

[First Blood!]

But what he saw was the narration announcing that the opposing Ahri had gotten First Blood and a gray screen.
And a few seconds later, Governor realized why he had died.

‘…Grasp.’
It had been strange that the opponent had taken Grasp, even though it wasn’t a ranged Grasp meta right now.
Until now, he had thought it was possible since she preferred aggressive laning.

‘She’s insane.’
Grasp empowers your auto-attack every few seconds.
And that damage is magic damage.
But if that were the case, wouldn’t it be better to take Summon Aery?

‘So she took Grasp instead of Aery?’
The difference from Aery was that it was an auto-attack based on targeting, allowing her to control the timing.
Only then did Governor realize that Ahri hadn’t used her auto-attack even while using all her skills.

‘A monster.’
Sweat had already gathered on his forehead, far more than before.

“There’s simply nothing to say.”

“Agreed.”

[ARK will shock the world.]
[Just a complete stomp.]
[Didn’t OB even beat YK in groups?]
[YK’s one loss was to OB, but they’re just getting stomped.]
[Why are you mentioning the eliminated YK?]
[Still, a 1st seed is a 1st seed lol.]

“It’s just perfect. Even if you brought in someone who dislikes ARK to do commentary, you couldn’t find a single flaw in their gameplay.”
“The one-sided advantage shown in mid, the jungler using that to disrupt enemy pathing, and top and bot winning their lanes on their own.”
“Isn’t this what a strong team is!?”

[The gameplay is elegant.]
[Para <<< seems truly revived now.]
[She’s my wife.]

“In Set 1, they banned mid 5 times to shut down Para. In Set 2, they just let everything open and split the picks. In Set 3, they went back to 5 bans.”
“OB’s strategy itself was good, in my opinion. They were targeting the ace while also putting together a ban-pick that could utilize OB’s mid laner Governor’s champion pool.”
“If their opponent wasn’t Para, that is.”
“If they 5-ban, they’ll pick off-meta champions that are out of the meta due to nerfs and get crushed in lane. If they leave everything open, giving Yone or Azir to Para means starting the game at a disadvantage.”
“Isn’t this the kind of performance we wanted to see from ARK!?”
“Now, it’s safe to say the LCK’s storm has returned.”

[The fact is, Para is just the god of League of Legends…]
[I think OB is just bad.]
[OB <<< The only team in LPL to take a set off VXG, all other teams were 0-2.]
[Is ARK on track to win?]

“OB must be frustrated! Set 3 is about to be a one-sided loss, and they’re even trapped and getting continuously poked in front of their Nexus turrets!”
“What can they do? They couldn’t punish ARK’s poke composition in skirmishes, so it’s just their time to take the beating!”

[How do you even play Mid Jayce?]
[A champion you can’t even use in top after the nerfs.]
[In top, if you fall behind due to base stats, it’s infinite solo kills, but in mid, you can just freeze the lane and farm lol.]
[Yone looks good? Take her, I’ll smash your head with Jayce instead.]

“And amidst all that, Para’s kill score is climbing again!”

“Seriously, she’s just poking from afar, but Jayce’s kills keep increasing!”

[Legendary poke has occurred.]
[If a 1-item ADC is poking a 3-item Jayce, Jayce should just die.]
[But OB is trying to hold on by clearing waves to the end.]
[YK got eliminated, let’s just give ARK the 1st seed ㅇㅇ…]

“What are they going to do? It wouldn’t even matter if they disengaged, took Baron, and then pushed.”
“That would be safer for ARK, but… here comes KAI’s Charm-assisted engage!”
“Followed by ARK’s carries’ abilities! Even though they haven’t spent their gold, the difference is already too huge.”
“They get an ace and destroy the Nexus!”

[Clean.]
[GG.]
[The Great Seo-ha.]

“ARK is heading to the semifinals!”

A few days after the Quarterfinals ended, we were still staying at the hotel in Busan since the Quarterfinals and Semifinals were held there.
But the place I was in was not the room I shared with the manager.

“Wow, Bon is pitiful.”

“Kawaisou.”

“Kawaii? Bon is a bit short, unlike his appearance.”

“Kawaisou, not Kawaii! It means pitiful!”

We were gathered in Seino’s room, watching the Semifinals match.
Choi Eun-seo and Seino were chatting about something, but I couldn’t hear them.

‘Strong.’
VXG’s gameplay was stronger than anything I had seen in my past life.

‘Bon did so well, but…’
Perhaps because we had given them a tough time in the LCK, DH’s gameplay was also more solid than I had seen in my past life.
At the center of it was the struggle of their ace, Bon, but…

‘He got First Blood, solo kills, and won side lanes for three games straight, but…’
In the end, they crumbled, getting caught in VXG’s strategy of shutting down just one ace.
Actually, despite the 3-0 one-sided score, Bon’s top lane performance was so unbelievable that all three games lasted over 30 minutes.

“But it really is a shame.”

“Huh?”

Choi Eun-seo spoke to me as I was contemplating whether we could easily beat VXG if we met them again.

“Bon did so well but still lost, he was 1st in damage among all 10 players for three games straight.”

“And yet, they lost.”

Bon’s strength was his ability to take over the game through 1v1 side lane dominance with bruiser champions.
However, due to the nature of bruisers, it’s difficult to show strength in the extremely early laning phase. Thus, Bon insisted on picking champions that could lead the lane from the start.
Indeed, he did win the top lane with those picks, but ultimately, they lost due to the difference in team fight difficulty.

‘Since Gangplank and Jayce are too difficult…’
I wondered what would have happened if he had trusted his team and picked champions like Aatrox or Gwen, or even a more extreme pick like Fiora.

LOL Gallery

[Title: Upvote if you feel bad for this person]
Bon-beo-ji <<< What kind of battle were you fighting?

–1st in damage among all 10 players for 3 games straight ㄷㄷ
–If it was Para, she would have carried.
–Didn’t Para get defeated in the finals though?
–At least she didn’t get 0-3’d.
–In the end, Bon is still trophy-less.

LOL Gallery

[Title: LCK’s Last Survivor, ARK]
In the end, it all comes back to ‘Please carry us, ARK.’

–Still, since it’s in Korea, one LCK team should go to the finals.
–RRK’s form is insane right now.
–North America will shock the world.
–ARK already shocked the world by winning Spring and getting runner-up at MSI, then coming in as the 4th seed.

LOL Gallery

[Title: RK Derby Tomorrow’s Prediction]
Top: No need to say, RRK landslide.
Jungle: If mid wins, ARK wins.
Mid: You know without me saying.
Bot: It’s ambiguous, but if RRK pulls out a pocket pick like in the quarterfinals, it could be tough.

–No way, is RRK going to pull out that pick again?
–They’re seriously crazy.
–The legendary pick they can use now that their jungler role-swapped to support…
–Are the North Americans even dominating in creativity now?