League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“They won!? How!?” A girl accompanying her boyfriend wondered out loud as she looked up at the screen, not understanding what she had just seen.

Even this girl was able to see the difference between the two teams that was so great. The defending team should’ve lost the team fight, no questions asked, and yet, how did the challenging Team ILUN lose so miserably? No clue.

“Bing Bing, care to explain what just happened!” The guests were all wondering the same thing.

How… Just how had they won?

It suddenly felt as though everything was going the defending team’s way during the team fight, and you had to bear in mind that the defending team also had a Soraka who could shock the blood right out of your face!

“The defending team’s pretty alright,” said one of the guests.

Bing Bing was a regular here, and everyone knew him. Whenever there was a competition, he would always be the one to explain what had happened.

“How do I put this, I couldn’t tell either, it just felt really messy…” a fashionable girl said and trailed off.

Bing Bing looked up to see everyone’s eyes focused on him, and he straightened his posture a little.

Honestly, he quite enjoyed the attention. Taking a sip of his Budweiser, he feigned seriousness, saying, “Well I won’t go much into the defending team’s Support, she was more of a pothole than an actual player.”

“Let’s start from team compositions. Now, as long as Jarvan forces a team fight, Orianna and Sona can chain their ultimates to CC-lock the opposing team’s backline, easily winning the team fight. On the defending team’s side, even if Maokai was able to catch someone, no one would dare follow up, because as soon as the challenging team starts to use their crowd control abilities, it would be game over for the defending team.

“The challenging team had the upper hand in engaging first, and taking into account Ziggs’, Ezreal’s and Maokai’s continuous damage output, forcing a team fight would be the right move. The longer they delayed it, the lower their health would go. It’s a shame, though, that Jarvan engaging so suddenly wasn’t exactly the smartest decision.”

“Why? Wasn’t everything under control? First knocking up Maokai and Soraka, and then using his ultimate to trap Ziggs and Ezreal even though Ezreal managed to jump out.” Someone eating snacks asked.

“He rushed in too far. A Flash alone would put 600 units of distance between him and his teammates, coupled with his EQ-combo and going another 800 units, that would already be around 1000 units. Even if he was able to trap his opponents, none of the carries would be able to follow up.

“Although Orianna quickly cast her E-skill on Jarvan, she had her sights on one-shotting Ziggs, using her ultimate on only a single champion. However, Ziggs had a Barrier, and if she didn’t kill him right away, Jarvan’s ultimate would be rendered useless, and thus, Orianna’s abilities and ultimate would share the same fate. Most importantly, Renekton and Sona were still 800 or so units away, unable to help their team.”

“Not to mention, the defending team’s Jungler was quite something, not CC-ing anyone, instead choosing to focus his efforts on the Sona who tried to Flash forward and cast her ultimate. Let me ask you this, if you were jungling or a solo top, would you use your summoner spells on a Support?” Bing Bing asked.

Everyone shook their heads. Using up your abilities on a Support, if you lost, there would surely be some hard questioning from your teammates.

“The Maokai used his CC on the Support, and this was the key turning point in the battle, making it so that the challenging team’s third CC would be unable to have any major effect. This caused Sona to panic and use her ultimate on the Maokai, meaning that Jarvan, Orianna, and Sona’s ultimate weren’t able to do much in the team fight except bring the opposing team’s APC’s health down significantly.”

Following Bing Bing’s statement, everyone had a moment of realization.

That was exactly what had happened, the three most important crowd controlling ultimates had only been used to reduce the health of their enemy’s APC, Ziggs!

With this, the spectators flashed back to the positioning of the four players on the defending team, forming a triangular shape of sorts!

The two tanks in front formed the point atop the triangle, preventing Orianna and Corki from dealing any damage to their carries in the backline, who had in turn been positioned in a line behind the tanks, dealing massive damage from both sides. First, bursting down Jarvan who was in too deep, and then, luring Renekton away to his grave!

“You should know how tanky a Shyvanna who has activated her ultimate and has been building up to a pure tank with a Warmogs is, and the same goes for a jungling Maokai, but add to that a 20% damage reduction from Maokai’s ultimate. With Shyvanna and Maokai in front, they were either trying to kill off Corki, Orianna, and Sona, or, they were trying to split off Fei and Feng Da from the rest of their team.

“Tell me, who do you think is tankier? Shyvanna and Maokai? Or Jarvan and Renekton?” Bing Bing asked.

Everyone contemplated the answer. A Shyvanna with her ultimate was way tankier than a Renekton, and the burn damage she dealt was no joke either. She could easily absorb the damage from 3 other champions.

Maokai was an easy decision, too. With an ultimate that reduced incoming damage, all he needed to do was use his ultimate and barricade the enemy team with Shyvanna, and thus, the Orianna wouldn’t be able to get past them. Similarly, the Corki wouldn’t dare to use his W-skill on them either, leaving them to hit the tanks to no avail.

Even after the defending team’s hyper-carries Ziggs and Ezreal had finished off the slightly under-levelled Renekton, Maokai and Shyvanna still had a pretty decent amount of health remaining. At this point, the 4 of them regrouped and rushed forward together, and the team fight was as good as won!

When playing LOL, especially during team fights, a lot of players would lose track of the positioning of their champions, even those in Gold or Platinum Rank didn’t really know how to play in a team fight!

In actuality, if you observed your team’s composition, compared it to the enemies’ composition, and then figured out what would be the best course of action when you engaged in a team fight, you would see your success in team fights sky-rocket. Don’t put all the blame on your teammates, accusing them of forcing team fights willy-nilly.

As long as you played your part well, you would meet good teammates eventually, helping you steadily gain elo. The higher in ranks you climbed, the more your teammates would be able to play team fights according to the strengths of their team, and once you got to that point, don’t become the guy that holds their team back. If you did, then maybe you didn’t deserve that high of a rank.

Team ILUN had put on a stellar performance during the laning phase, even against professional players like Zhou Yan, Da Luo, and Wu Sen, they didn’t get absolutely obliterated. They also knew how to fight to their strengths, grouping quickly to take advantage of their team composition.

Sadly, their team fight cooperation and knowledge were lacking in comparison to Team Skycrown. Team Skycrown’s messy composition against their hyper aggressive composition made two things very clear. One, no starting team fights, and two, divide and conquer. Thus, Team Skycrown were the victors of the battle, using this victory to take down the Baron as well!

And as soon as Team Skycrown took the upper hand, they knew that they wouldn’t be able to count on Xiao Ya to plant wards, so they each bought Pink Wards and Green Wards to seize control of the vision on the map.

During the remainder of the game, Team ILUN’s jungle became their playground, and if someone was pushing in the side turrets without paying much attention, the Dragon was free money for them.

While they still held on to the Baron buff, they pushed their lead even further. After Team ILUN lost all of their outer turrets and got caught numerous times in their own jungle, Team Skycrown’s items saw a substantial improvement, especially the pitiful ADC, Lin Dong, who was finally getting the items he needed. His damage was frightening, coupled with the Hexplosives Expert, Ziggs!

With two unmovable tanks and two terrifying carries, who cared if Soraka was even in the game or not!

Also, Soraka had picked up some kills here and there with her team, and she now had 10 stacks on her Mejai’s, can you believe that?

Team ILUN wasn’t weak by any means, each player had Diamond level skills even though they weren’t all at Diamond I, but losing a 4 vs 6? Ouch.

***

After the competition came to a close, the cafe manager Duo Duo had to clean his glasses.

They had won!? Just like that?

They had won a 4 vs 6 with that kind of team composition!?

Over in the hall, the guests all shared the same puzzled expression.

Even though Bing Bing had explained most of what had just happened, there were still things that Bing Bing couldn’t understand nor keep up with.

They had won a team fight, taken the Baron, gained control over the enemy’s jungle, caught a few stragglers, pushed in the side turrets, and even after Team ILUN had lost that battle, it still seemed as though they had zero chances at making a comeback.

The Battle Ring operated under the rule of one victor per match, and you could only challenge the same team once per week. Team ILUN had spent nearly a thousand bucks each to buy the weekly passes, all in hopes of winning the 10,000 RMB cash prize, but all they got was a whole lot of nothing… Well, I guess they did get the chance to be publicly humiliated…

Fei was still in disbelief. His dreams of the Japanese girls were gone, too, guess his right hand would be the one accompanying him tonight.

On his end, Feng Da was eying the stack of cash sitting behind the glass pane, despair taking root in his heart.

Their bottom lane had been doing so well, they had almost had them…

How could they lose like this! He was just about ready to burst in anger, especially when he thought about the Soraka who died so much that she was worth as much as a minion, and yet, she had ended the game with 10 stacks on her Mejai’s, can you even believe that!?

“Sadly, our challenging Team ILUN has failed, and the defending team has succeeded in maintaining their 10,000 RMB prize. The prize has now accumulated to a total of 10,500 RMB,” Duo Duo announced, a smile plastered on his face.

“F*ck, I won’t stand for this!” Feng Da shouted.

“Feng Da, don’t make a scene,” Duo Duo said quickly.

“D*mn it, who said I wanted to make a scene! But I sure as hell don’t approve of this outcome.” Ever the alpha leader, Feng Da glared at Fei and the rest of his teammates. “We’ve already spent our money buying these passes, all of you had better report back here for training every night at 8 o’clock sharp. We’ll fight them again next week, they won’t be so lucky next time.”

Manager Duo Duo broke into a smile.

Ooh, a rematch next week! It would almost be time for another payment of 1,000 RMB for their passes, nice!

“Feng Da, my friend, maybe it’s possible for you to win against a casual team, but playing against a team of professionals and semi-professionals? The difference in skill level is just too immense. Some of my mates couldn’t make it tonight, I’ll call them over tomorrow and show you how I’ll be the one bringing home that 10,500 RMB cash prize,” said a boy from the Royal’s District, a smug look on his face.

The boy was smoking a cigarette, and the only ones allowed to smoke in this club were those from the Royal’s District. Duo Duo was about to tell him to put his cigarette out, but he quickly bit his tongue back after seeing who he was. This guy was one of the famous rich kids of the younger generation, even Mr Lei wouldn’t be able to tell him what to do.

The rich kid shook some ashes off of his cigarette as he glanced over to the defending team in the VIP lounge, and he continued, laughing, “Duo Duo, ask Boss Lei, isn’t 10,000 RMB too little? It wouldn’t even be worth my time.”

Hearing this, the corners of Duo Duo’s mouth tugged upward slightly in an ironic fashion.

Sh*t, it was already a 10,000 RMB gamble on a video game, was that still not enough!?

When have you ever seen a single match worth a prize of over 10,000 RMB!? Even those breaking into the thousands already said wonders about the cyber café’s reputation!