As soon as LeBlanc’s portrait appeared, all the stream viewers felt greatly reassured.

“LeBlanc! According to the stats gathered from the start of the spring season all the way until now, the win rate for Soft’s LeBlanc is—” Commentator A paused before he said emphatically and firmly, “—100%.”

Commentator B nodded. “That’s right! Although the reason for such a high win rate is because their opponents started consistently banning LeBlanc halfway through the season, this still proves that Soft’s LeBlanc is absolutely one of the best in the world!”

The audience members in the stadium were screaming, the stream barrage was spamming “666,” and the Korean commentators were analyzing how HT should’ve been a bit more cautious and banned LeBlanc.

Meanwhile, in TTC’s voice chat—

After Lu Boyuan got Kindred and Yuan Qian got Kennen, Ding-ge said, “We still need a frontliner, so let’s get a tank to make it a bit more stable. Any issues with that, Xiao Bai?”

“Take it.” Xiao Bai pitched his voice down lower and said, “No matter what champion you give me, I’ll always be able to carry.”

The tense atmosphere was shattered in one blow by Xiao Bai, and everyone else burst out laughing.

Jian Rong’s eyebrow twitched. “Zhuang Yibai, are you a copycat?”

Xiao Bai nodded. “I am~ kiss kiss.”

Jian Rong was expressionless. “Then let me see you carry with Sona.”

Sona, a glass cannon enchanter support, was a benched champion in the current meta. Though she wasn’t strong, many female players were fond of her, and she was colloquially known as 36E¹.

“That won’t do,” Xiao Bai said seriously. “I don’t have a problem with that, but you see, the main issue is with my family’s P-baby: he faints when there’s too much cleavage.”

Jian Rong: “…………”

Yuan Qian: “Hahahahaha damn.”

Pine: “I’ll solo bot this round.”

Lu Boyuan adjusted his runes. “You really faint?”

Pine: “…no.”

“I have no idea whether he faints or not, but laozi is about to faint on stage soon.” Ding-ge couldn’t bear it any longer. “Hurry up and choose!!!”

Both teams’ champions were finalized. TTC’s team composition was: Kennen, Kindred, LeBlanc, Kalista, and Nautilus.

HT’s team composition was: Jax, Jarvan IV, Malzahar, Jhin, and Leona.

Commentator A: “It’s obvious that HT wanted TTC to reveal their mid lane champion first before they selected their own. Malzahar’s passive skill grants him a major shield, and this champion can also suppress and silence. Actually, Malzahar restricts LeBlanc quite a bit, Soft probably won’t be able to kill him easily in lane.”

Commentator B nodded. A few seconds later, he realized something was wrong. “…won’t be able to kill him easily?”

Commentator A, who had gotten very into observing Jian Rong’s games these past few days, coughed lightly. “Slip of the tongue, sorry about that. I meant, he won’t be able to lane against him easily.”

“Speaking of which… at 3:27 AM today, Soft completed the promise he made in his stream—with 1,587 LP in the Challenger tier, he successfully climbed to the top of the Korean server, becoming its current rank one.” Commentator C smiled as he finished informing the spectators of this piece of news. Then he continued, “In that case—let’s look forward to Soft’s second climb to the top today! The first game of the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational finals match is about to begin!”

Right as the commentator said that, both coaches shook hands and left the stage. The camera focused on each player as spotlights criss-crossed through the stadium. The game interface appeared on the big screen, and ten champions simultaneously emerged in the Summoner’s Rift, accompanied by the sound effects of spawning in the base.

Everyone thought that the camera was going to be locked on the mid lane today, but unexpectedly, the bot lane began to clash frequently as soon as they hit level 2.

When Rish first started shading the LPL on the internet, HT’s management and his other team members all turned a blind eye to his behavior—they had always done so. Not only did they look down on the LPL, they also looked down on quite a few smaller LCK teams. Most LCK teams would bow and call them hyung backstage when they saw them, so HT grew used to being full of themselves and couldn’t be bothered about that one post.

But nobody thought that the situation would end up developing in such a way. HT consecutively lost several collaborations and endorsements, and nearly all the contracts that were still in negotiations fell through as well. Under such circumstances, everyone was definitely going to blame the person who first started stirring up trouble—

Recently, Rish had been given a talking-to by the management and was the target of his teammates’ lecturing. He was truly in an abyss of suffering.

So he needed to prove himself in today’s match; he needed to regain his image a little.

“What’s wrong with Rish?” Xiao Bai muttered. “He wants to come hack at me and not clear minions? Can he get 50 gold or burst me down with 1,000 damage if he hacks away a bit of my health? Laozi is a huge tank, could you please show me some respect… P-baby, he keeps going after me! He’s still doing it even under pressure from the minions!! If my hook doesn’t freaking slice off his head, then my surname isn’t Bai!!!”

Pine was too lazy to correct Xiao Bai about his surname. After he finished off a siege minion, he leaped forward and said succinctly, “Get him.”

As soon as he said that, Xiao Bai decisively flashed and hurled out his anchor—which landed directly on Rish’s head. Then, he took advantage of his passive to root Rish in place.

Rish had actually positioned himself relatively cautiously, but Xiao Bai was an old hand at throwing hooks by now. He knew all the crafty angles that would still allow him to hit someone.

Rish treasured his flash, and he stubbornly dragged it out until he had only a sliver of health left before he was finally willing to use it to escape. But a second after he flashed, Pine followed close on his heels with his own flash and threw out a spear—

“First blood!”

“Nice nice!” Xiao Bai walked over to the other team’s tower and flashed his Mastery Emote. “P-baby is awesome, P-baby is the strongest, P-baby is the world’s number one ADC!”

The first blood announcement and Mastery Emote struck a nerve in the other HT members.

Originally, HT’s voice chat was dead silent with almost no communication in the first five minutes of the game. Upon seeing the emote that Bye flashed under the bot lane tower, HT’s top laner knitted his brows together and said, annoyed, “What’s the matter with you? Getting solo killed five minutes after the start of the game? Concentrate a little, okay, do you want to drag down the entire team again?”

Rish drew in a deep breath and said, scalp prickling, “It’s my fault, hyung. But that hook shouldn’t have been able to reach where I was standing, could there have been another bug…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Master spoke coldly. “Get in the lane and waveclear.”

HT’s jungler said, “Yeah, just stop talking, go eat your minions. Wait until Master has the advantage, stop trying to put yourself in the limelight.”

Since even Master had spoken up, Rish didn’t dare to say anything else. “…got it, hyung.”

Master ate another burst of damage from Jian Rong. His expression was extremely dark.

His champion should’ve been able to restrict LeBlanc, but since the start of the game until now, LeBlanc had been constantly whittling away his health. He ended up being the one suppressed to the point where he found it difficult to even clear minions.

Soft had improved again.

The fact that he could make his lane opponent sense how strong he had become in a few short days—it was extremely frightening.

If things were to continue like this, forget creating an advantage…

At level 8, Soft dodged his Void silence and smacked Master in the face with a combo, bursting down his health until only a third of it was left. Master clenched his teeth and used his flash, but Soft’s chains still latched onto him—Soft had predicted his movements.

The commentators and spectators from both competitive regions felt their hearts rise into their throats because of this scene. But Master was too close to the turret, and he ultimately still escaped successfully with a tiny chunk of HP left. The LCK commentators wiped away their sweat while the LPL commentators slapped their thighs and sighed regretfully…

Master hit “B” to recall to base. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly said, “Come gank mid.”

The bot lane duo, who was originally tentatively communicating in the voice chat, immediately went quiet.

Rish was somewhat stunned. He couldn’t help but switch POVs and check in on the mid lane, just in time to see the half-health LeBlanc clear minions with the attitude of a winner.

It had been a year and a half since Rish joined HT, and he had competed with Master for one year now. He had never once heard Master actively tell the jungler to help the mid lane—and this was also a situation where the enemy jungler wasn’t even targeting the mid lane.

LeBlanc seemed to have a sixth sense. When Rish’s camera locked in on him, Jian Rong flashed TTC’s team logo.

With a quiver, Rish instantly switched back to the bot lane.

So freaking spooky!!

Commentator A: “HT’s jungler is back again, this must be his fourth time coming to gank, right… Soft doesn’t have his flash this time, it’s a bit dangerous.”

Commentator B: “Soft is still trading blows with Master. I have to admit, it really is fun watching these two lane against each other!”

Commentator C: “Neither of them are willing to give in to the other. However, I personally feel that Soft has the advantage in terms of laning, even in a situation where his champion is being restrained. On top of that, his opponent is Master… Soft’s too strong, it really is the power of youth.”

Commentator A: “Mn. After all, Soft is a man who challenged everyone in the LPL to a solo duel.”

Commentator B: “You know that too?!”

Commentator A: “Doesn’t everyone? Kongkong posted it on Weibo, it’s really incredible.”

Commentator B: “Really incredible.”

Commentator C: “Forget about that! HT’s jungler is here!!!”

With no hesitation whatsoever, Master flashed and used his ult, suppressing Jian Rong. The jungler’s Jarvan flashed, followed up with his E and Q, and knocked Jian Rong straight up into the air before also unleashing his ult!

All their skills were used! They were determined to kill him!

When Jian Rong only had a tiny sliver of health remaining, HT’s jungler said in the voice chat, “Hyung, the kill is yours…”

Before he could finish, there was another sound of a flash—

Lu Boyuan’s Kindred charged into the battlefield! He used his ult and blessed the ground underneath them—all enemy and ally units inside the zone with less than 10% health were rendered invulnerable to damage and heals. By doing so, he successfully saved the low-health Jian Rong.

During the last two times Jian Rong was ganked, Lu Boyuan had stolen countless monsters from HT, helped Yuan Qian create a major advantage for himself, and aided the bot lane in a tower dive.

Right now, he had two kills on hand, and he forced his way in as the champion with the highest level in the entire game. Within just a few of Lu Boyuan’s autos, Master had no choice but to dodge back into the zone of Lu Boyuan’s ult.

Commentator A: “God Lu’s ult has ended! Soft received a heal—and he instantly attacks Master, getting the kill!”

Commentator B: “Jarvan is much too underleveled compared to God Lu, he can only E, Q, and run away. But as if God Lu would let you escape?! With an E and a slow, you’re forced to stay!”

Commentator C: “And then—mn, he gave the kill to Soft.”

Commentator A: “Mhm, routine procedure, routine procedure. It’s normal to give the kill to the mid laner, since it’s a double kill, after all.”

Commentator B: “It’s also normal to give the kill to Soft, since he’s his teammate, after all.”

Commentator C: “…right, let’s watch this replay! First, Soft was double-flash ganked by the enemy mid laner and jungler. Then God Lu, who was already prepared to countergank, threw out an online dating flash… I’m sorry, that was a slip of the tongue. He threw out a teammate camaraderie flash and saved Soft…”

HT’s bot lane fought frantically in the lane but ended up being taught a lesson instead; HT’s top lane was unsuccessful in its farming and was furiously ganked; HT’s mid lane forced a gank with two flashes but was counterganked…

From the beginning till now, TTC had maintained complete control over the rhythm of the game.

Once the bot lane tower was pushed, TTC’s duo didn’t linger any longer. They headed straight for the mid lane tower and waited for a chance to start a team fight. Four of them tower dove Master in the mid lane before they grouped together to get the drake, the Rift Herald, and to invade the enemy’s jungle…

Twenty-five minutes in, a small team fight concluded. TTC beautifully traded one member for three of HT’s, and Jian Rong got two kills. After he upgraded his equipment, he solo killed the enemy jungler as a way to inform everyone on the opposing team—LeBlanc’s time had arrived.

If LeBlanc’s time had arrived, that meant that some people were about to suffer greatly.

During this period of time when Jian Rong was playing on the Korean server, many ADCs in the higher tiers would break out into a damn cold sweat when they saw the other team’s mid laner take out a champion like Zed, Talon, or LeBlanc. Especially if they saw that the opponent was sporting an ID called “softsndd” upon entering the game—don’t even ask. The answer was that they instantly felt the urge to AFK at spawn.

In all the years Rish had been a trainee or pro player in the LCK, he had never been as miserable as he was now.

Killed while clearing minions, forced into team fights, even if he stood at the very back of the team LeBlanc still managed to pop out of fucking nowhere and burst him to death—LeBlanc hadn’t ever even used fucking Ignite on him.

On that day, a certain unrelated Squid member sat in front of his computer. As he watched the match, he profoundly lit a cigarette and recalled the terror he felt from being dominated by Soft.

By the time Lu Boyuan destroyed HT’s Nexus and TTC won the first game of the match, Rish’s score was 0/7/4. If he died one more time, he would’ve become a legendary ghost².

The LPL spectators cheered, while the LCK spectators were dumbstruck—

They knew that HT’s condition was average this MSI, and they also knew that TTC was in an extremely good condition.

But… how come no lane was able to get an advantage at all?

Even Master seemed to have been suppressed by his opponent?

The spectators weren’t the only ones with that question. The HT members on stage were also equally confused.

Rish, who felt dizzy from the number of times he had been killed, blankly removed his headphones and followed his teammates backstage. After a few steps, they came face-to-face with the TTC members that had also just left the stage—

Rish subconsciously looked towards the most conspicuous hair color in the crowd.

Soft walked next to Road with both hands stuffed in his pockets. There was a relaxed expression on his face, and he seemed to be saying something quietly to Road.

All of a sudden, Soft glanced over as if he had sensed Rish’s gaze.

Their eyes only met for a moment before TTC’s manager forcefully stepped in between them and broke it off.

But with just that one look, Rish still clearly saw the disdain, contempt, and ridicule in Soft’s eyes. From that gaze, he could almost even sense the word that Soft had left unspoken—

Trash.