Chapter 57: Helper (2)

“The enemy top laner is a hacker, apparently.”

“Huh?”

“It seems he’s someone who uses cheats in high elo when he’s matched against pros or streamers.”

Only then did I realize the source of the déjà vu I had been feeling.

‘His playstyle is similar to mine.’

My playstyle was characterized by an aggressive approach based on confidence in my mechanics. Skillshots? Just dodge them. Targeted abilities? Just calculate the cooldowns.

It was strange that a Grandmaster player, someone with hundreds of games under their belt, could replicate that. If he consistently played like that, he should have been at least Challenger, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have been scouted.

[No wonder he dodged the Q right in front of me.]

[For real, I knew something was up when he dodged the W I threw from the bush.]

[A hacker? But she killed him?]

[How did she kill a hacker?]

“Should we just surrender quickly?” Han Byul-i asked me in a gloomy voice, having realized the opponent was a cheater.

I pressed tab to check and saw that mid lane had exploded, having been solo killed three times in a row. Bot lane was also losing, so it was understandable that she wanted to surrender.

“Let’s take it slow. The Yasuo versus Zoe matchup is inherently difficult.”

Still, the build I had chosen this game was Lethality Aatrox. The enemy team also had an immobile ADC, so it was a game where I could definitely try to carry.

“Is that so? I’ll try to keep my composure and play it out.”

“I’ll follow Yasuo around.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Just don’t give K’Sante any openings and focus on farming.”

I made that call thinking that even a hacker wouldn’t be able to kill someone who just stayed under tower and farmed. However, the opponent was playing K’Sante. Han Byul-i was caught out twice more by K’Sante’s signature play of pushing opponents out from under their tower, resulting in five deaths. To turn the tide in this situation…

‘The enemy jungler and support were just spotted at Rift Herald.’

It was a 1v1 between me and Yasuo in the bottom lane.

Perhaps because he had been playing passively and farming until now, or maybe because he thought his team was winning, the enemy Yasuo kept aggressively pushing the lane. This time, he pushed hard again, and I seized the opportunity to go for the kill with my ultimate.

The item I currently had was the new item this season, Goredrinker. Think of it as a Ravenous Hydra, but with armor penetration instead of lifesteal. The advantage of this item on Aatrox…

“I think I got bottom.”

…was that the active dealt significant bonus damage to enemies below 50% health. The cooldown reduction, AD ratio, and armor penetration were all good, but the active, which received substantial buffs in the recent patch, was the most broken part.

Yasuo tried to escape as soon as he saw me activate my ultimate, but it was too late. With no minions around, even if he blocked my W chain with his Wind Wall, his head would just get split open by my Q. Three Qs followed by Goredrinker’s active, Cleave. A blue effect appeared, and Yasuo literally vanished.

“Wow… Aatrox’s damage is insane.”

“This is the damage you get with lethality.”

There was one reason why Lethality Aatrox became popular after this patch: absolutely brutal damage. You didn’t even need to land all three Qs; most ADCs could be brought to near death with just one Q and a passive-empowered auto attack.

“Let’s look for a fight at this dragon, okay?”

A short while later, as the dragon spawned, I spammed assist pings. Aatrox shined in mid-game objective fights, and there was no reason to refuse, especially since I was significantly ahead of the opponent.

‘Bot lane is even in farm, too.’

Encouraged by my frantic pings, my initially passive teammates started gathering at the dragon pit one by one. The enemy team, also believing they had the advantage, seemed unwilling to give up the dragon, leading to a standoff in front of the pit.

“I’m going to flank.”

After confirming there were no wards in the tri-bush near bot lane, I started to move behind the enemy team.

The teamfight began, and it was a 4v5 without me, the strongest member of the team, so it was only natural that we were losing.

‘Now.’

However, even as they were dying, my teammates dealt as much damage as possible and baited out the enemy’s abilities. With the stage set, I initiated my flank, the essence of Lethality Aatrox.

[World Ender!]

As I activated my ultimate, ominous background music began to play, and the in-game screen turned red. The first enemy I took down was their support, Karma, who was already low on health. She disappeared with a single passive-empowered auto attack, without needing to use any abilities. Next, I targeted their ADC, Varus, with a max-range Q1 and W. K’Sante belatedly tried to stop me, but with his ultimate already expired, he was nothing but a punching bag.

[Finish him!]

Lee Sin, who had somehow managed to survive, finished off Yasuo, securing an ace for our team.

[The Great Seo-ha]
[How to beat a hacker: Dodge everything and hit everything]
[This is the way]

After the dragon fight, it seemed like the enemy team had an internal conflict, as their mid laner and jungler disappeared at some point. Then came the surrender vote. Curious about what had happened, I watched the post-game lobby.

[1414141 del (Varus): Sigh No hope when there’s a hacker and a Chinese player. GG]

[JuyeonS (Karma): If you’re going to use hacks to climb, just go die lol Making hedge fund jokes.]

As expected, they were fighting even in the post-game lobby, which warmed my heart. This is League of Legends.

“Should we quickly queue for the next game?”

“Right away?”

“If we win a game like this, we have to go on a win streak.”

.

.

.

“Should we stop here…?”

“Today’s just not our day.”

After winning the first game, we ended up losing three in a row. The reason was stream snipers and cheaters.

‘Were we just lucky to get a normal team in the first game?’

I realized I had underestimated myself too much.

I glanced below the monitor and saw that 9000 people were watching my stream. Han Byul-i’s stream also had almost 8000 viewers. With a combined total of 17000 viewers, stream sniping and cheating became impossible to deal with.

‘I would understand if it was just stream sniping…’

But most of them were intentionally throwing the game, perhaps to get attention. The most memorable one was the guy who intentionally soaked XP behind me just because I didn’t respond to his greeting in champ select.

[Stop stream sniping]
[Seriously]
[They think they’re being funny lol]
[Pathetic]

“Let’s end it here for today.”

“Good work.”

“Then good luck in the playoffs.”

With Han Byul-i’s words, our collab stream ended. Since it ended earlier than expected, I decided to just chat with my viewers since it felt like a waste to just end the stream. I hadn’t had much time to interact with them due to my busy schedule, so I answered the viewers’ questions, which had piled up.

Then, a donation popped up with an unusual question.

{User ㅇㅇ donated 10000 won}
Who do you think will win in Round 1 of the playoffs, AX or DH?

Until now, most of the questions had been about me, but this was the first question about the LCK. Moreover, since the winning team would likely be our next opponent, it was an important question for me as well.

‘They’re 4th and 5th place…’

The 1st and 2nd place teams in the regular season advanced directly to Round 2, and the 3rd place team, who got to choose their opponent, usually chose the weakest, 6th place team. So, naturally, the match between the 4th and 5th place teams usually took place in Round 1. Unless there was an upset in the match between 3rd and 6th place, the winner of the 4th versus 5th place match would likely be our opponent.

“I think AX will probably win.”

They were ranked higher, and we had beaten them twice in a row during the regular season, indicating a favorable matchup. Under normal circumstances, AX winning was definitely the safer bet. Our team was planning our strategy based on the assumption that AX would advance.

‘And AX is the easier opponent.’

AX was a team with good synergy between their mid laner and jungler. In that case, if I dominated the mid lane and freed up Kim Do-jin, we could easily win. However, DH had a top laner who single-handedly carried his team to the playoffs, playing like five people at once. Park Jin-hwan’s form had been improving, but…

‘He still can’t beat Bon.’

Bon was the epitome of a top laner suffering because of his team. He was a player who displayed destructive carry potential with both bruisers and tanks, a representative figure of LCK top laners. In the future, he would move to China and play in the LPL.

‘If I remember correctly, AX won at this point.’

That’s definitely how I remembered it.

“Also, DH’s ace is their top laner, but top lane is a lonely island, no matter how well you play.”

[That’s true.]
[Bon will suffer again this time…]
[If he loses while carrying five people, maybe he’ll win if he carries ten and goes 1v9?]
[ㄴ You evil person.]
[Honestly, AX is the safer bet lol.]
[I bet everything on DH. Time for a life turnaround.]
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

And a few days later…

“Our playoff opponent has been decided.”

At the coach’s words, I checked the bracket.

R2 Match 1

ARK (1st) vs DH (5th)

Contrary to my expectations, DH had swept their opponents 3-0 and now stood before us.