League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Ugh. Seems you don’t understand the difference between casuals and pros. Forget it—you’re just gonna be their punching bag this game, unless someone on our team happens to be good enough to match them!” Yi Qin said, sort-of optimistically.

As for Yu Luocheng, victory or defeat no longer mattered, this round. The only thing he wanted was to win in their Bottom lane!

Snowfall ¹ was playing ‘Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover’, while Yu Luocheng had selected ‘Zyra, Rise of the Thorns’.

Playing Zyra as Support had been popular back during Season 2 ¹ , and she was rather well-rounded for that role.

Her skills gave her robust damage potential, and the seeds she planted granted vision of that area, while helping to control an area—especially when used in tandem with her ultimate skill.

Yu Luocheng loved playing Zyra for Support. Her skills had large areas of effect: a well-placed ‘Grasping Roots’ could catch two or three champions at once, and if he followed up with her ultimate-skill ‘Stranglethorns’, it would hold them in place long enough to kill them all off easily.

It was even better with Snowfall’s Caitlyn also contributing her own disabling skills. When Zyra caught somebody in her ‘Grasping Roots’, Caitlyn could immediately drop a trap right behind the enemy. If both skills hit, it wouldn’t matter whether it was the Support or the ADC that had been caught, they’d be dead all the same—especially considering the burst damage that Zyra could dish out.

As usual, they first helped their Jungler to pick up the Raptors and the Red Buff, before actually going into their lane . ¹

When they arrived, one of the enemy’s melee minions had already fallen, without bequeathing its XP to either of them. At higher levels of play, missing out on even one minion could spell the difference between victory or death if a fight broke out afterward.

As long as their opponents could maintain their XP gain, and avoid any untoward mishaps, they should be the first to reach Level 2. The enemy Bottom-lane champions comprised ‘Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer’ and ‘Thresh, the Chain Warden’.

Knowing that Thresh had a higher Armor rating, Yu Luocheng had also selected Zyra for her Magic Damage ¹ , so that he’d be able to keep up in damage against Thresh.

The cost was that this made it more crucial than ever not to get hooked by Thresh. If either Caitlyn or Zyra got hooked by Thresh, it would mean losing a Flash—or a life.

Discussing champion match-ups, Caitlyn out-ranged Ezreal, allowing her to pressure him somewhat. However, Thresh could set up attacks on either Caitlyn or Zyra which could easily prove fatal.

In terms of damage, Yu Luocheng and Snowfall had the upper hand. As long as Yu Luocheng didn’t throw his skills wide during a fight, they should just be able to hold their own.

At the start, both ADCs farmed steadily. Yu Luocheng kept a close eye on Asmodai’s movements and positioning. There seemed to be no pattern to his movements. Even when going for the last hit on a minion, he would make sure not to expose himself to danger, never allowing Caitlyn or Zyra the chance to attempt any attacks on him.

Well, that was minimum standards for a professional gamer.

At Level 1, both sides were tied in Creep Score.

At Level 2, Ezreal began pushing forward aggressively. At the same time, Yu Luocheng noticed Thresh moving through the brush!

They were making a play!

At Level 2, Ezreal received a slight power spike, giving him an advantage over a Caitlyn of the same level. More to the point, both Yu Luocheng and Snowfall were still one minion short of Level 2!

They had to avoid this fight, at all costs!

“Snowy, fall back. They’re gonna attack,” Yu Luocheng urged his partner.

Yi Qin had also noticed their advance. She duly pulled Caitlyn back, forfeiting a minion kill.

“I would have you address me as ‘Ms Snow’!” she declared severely.

“Sure,” Yu Luocheng mumbled in reply, but he kept his eyes fixed on the screen.

In this moment, he had no interest to exchange barbs with Snowfall. He had to make sure to deny the enemy any possible opening to attack!

***

In a residential apartment in Shanghai, a young-looking man was handling a keyboard and mouse with lightning-quick movements!

As a professional gamer, even if League of Legends generally didn’t require a particularly high APM, he still had to keep his fingers lively, in order to ensure that he’d be able to come out on top during critical moments . ¹

There was someone seated beside him, also roughly twenty years of age, with dyed hair and a carefree sort of air about himself.

“Those two have decent instincts,” said the one with hair dyed blonde.

“Yup.” Asmodai nodded in agreement. Between pros, an initial assessment could be made even during the first few levels.

Caitlyn and Zyra had been wise to retreat, or else they would have likely suffered grievous harm, perhaps even death.

A merry voice rose up behind them. “I can’t believe you guys, teaming up on people like this.”

“Ahaha, just a game,” said the blonde youth playing Thresh.

“Come on, really. Stop picking on the 2,000-pointers. Against the two of you, paired up in Bot lane, how many people in China can hope to stand a fighting chance?” The one speaking was wearing a sports jersey.

Asmodai and the blonde dude chuckled, but made no further reply.

Indeed, there were few who could be their equal in the Bottom lane. Even at the 2,000-point level of Ranked play, it was not uncommon to see them winning the Bottom lane within the first ten minutes of a game . ¹

“Finish up quickly. The coach is having a guest for dinner tonight, so we can’t be late,” the sporty dude reminded the two of them.

“Relax, this will only take twenty minutes,” Blondie assured him with a laugh.

“And if the enemy refuses to surrender?” Sporty laughed back.

Without looking away from his screen, Asmodai replied, “At this level, the two of us might not even allow the enemy the chance to surrender.”

The sporty guy relented at this. Patting them both on the shoulder, he hefted a towel and went off to take a shower.

“What are Asmodai and Osiris up to?” another guy asked, from elsewhere in the house.

“Bullying kids. They never seem to tire of it,” the guy with the sports jersey said this with a frown.

“They’re going to make somebody cry.”

“Sometimes you’ll meet other pros in Ranked.”

“Heh! But like you said, only sometimes.”

“Sometimes you’ll lose! If that happens, you might as well delete that ID. You never know when some game-caster might be recording your game. If that replay starts getting around, your LoL career will end in disgrace.”

1. Although the author writes ‘Yi Qin’ a lot here, I’m using ‘Snowfall’ to indicate that she hasn’t actually revealed her true identity to Luocheng yet—and vice versa.
2. Competitive ‘Seasons’ in League turn over annually, unlike how some games might do it on a bi-annual or quarterly basis.
3. In future, this practice will be referred to as ‘leashing’. Helping your Jungler with their first couple of ‘creep camps’ costs you next to nothing, helps them get off to a flying start, and counters any surprise attacks by the enemy.
4. Unlike Physical Damage, Magic Damage ignores Armor, and is instead compared against Magic Resistance. These different types of damage /defense add a further layer of strategic consideration to gameplay and tactics.
5. Actions Per Minute (APM) refers to how quickly you can press keys and click on things during gameplay.Don’t be fooled by those people who hammer their mouse buttons obsessively, expecting you to be impressed by their artificially padded APM read-outs—true APM refers to how well you can chain together meaningful actions during the most frenetic moments of a game. You’ll know it when you see it.
6. Although specific definitions vary, ‘winning a lane’ generally involves destroying the enemy’s first Tower, and also proving superior to your opponents after a fight or two.