A second after Jian Rong sent that message, half of the barrage emptied out.

Everyone had the same first instinct—screenshot.

Then came an overwhelming surge of amazed exclamations.

[Damn!!!]

[Badass!!!]

[That felt so good, so freaking good T-T]

[This is true badassery! My son really lives up to expectations, Dad’s covered with goosebumps right now]

[At this moment, Rish probably desperately wishes that he could travel back in time and strangle his past self for deciding to challenge the LPL’s number one flamer.]

[Man, I’ve watched my dumbass son stream for several years now, and this is my first time seeing him use English.]

[This solo kill was super cool. Never mind Master, I’m his dad and even I was caught off guard when I saw that blind E dodge.]

[Master’s expression is way too spectacular. What a wicked director, they still focused on the camera on Master at a time like this hahahahaha!!]

There was a close-up of both teams’ mid laners at the bottom left and right corners of the screen, underneath the barrage.

Master had a dark look on his face. The instant he was solo killed, he even smashed his mouse firmly against the table, causing HT’s voice chat to go silent again as if it had been sealed away. The bot lane newcomers especially lightened their breathing as well.

A few seconds later, their team’s top laner mouthed a swear.

Among the LCK, who would dare to taunt and provoke them like this?!

Yet they weren’t in any position to strike back either—disregarding the fact that their mid laner was just solo killed, the state of the game had also changed because of the mid laner and jungler’s mistake. Presently, they were already at a disadvantage.

In today’s match, the loser had no choice but to shut up.

Meanwhile, the bluenette was mostly expressionless, despite having just ridiculed the other team in an international competition after getting a solo kill. He cleared the minions in front of him and recalled back to base.

TTC’s voice chat was currently comparable to the stream barrage; it was filled with shouts of “badass.” Naturally, Xiao Bai was the loudest of them all, but even Pine tonelessly echoed the sentiment a few times.

Lu Boyuan glanced at the chat, and his mouth curled upwards. “As a reward for the solo kill, you can have the next raptor camp.”

Jian Rong was originally maintaining a poker face, but upon hearing that, the corners of his lips twitched. “Mn.”

Yuan Qian: “Captain, I understand the reasoning behind that, but you ate so many of my minions only to turn around and give your own monsters away to please your boy… teammate. Isn’t this freaking inappropriate?”

“How is it inappropriate?” Lu Boyuan lifted an eyebrow. “I relied on my own skill to eat those minions in the top lane. At the beginning of the game, I baited out a flash and counterganked for you, is that not enough payback for those minions? Don’t be too greedy.”

Yuan Qian: “…”

Xiao Bai: “Badass badass badass!!!”

Playing it cool, Jian Rong sneered. “It’s just a solo kill, that’s all…”

“—you actually know English!!!”

“…”

“When’d you pick that up? It must’ve been so hard for you to remember those letters! You didn’t write it on your hand using a pen, did you?!”

“Why don’t you try and keep spouting BS?”

Xiao Bai snickered mischievously. “I was wrong, the solo kill was the most badass!”

This double kill set the stage. Jian Rong’s champion was already one that laned very fiercely, and after getting those two kills, he might as well have carved “berserk” onto his forehead.

In lane, Orianna was hard to attack with but easy to defend. Since she could waveclear quite quickly, as long as she took the coward’s way out and stayed under the tower, it was very difficult to “burst” her down.

Unfortunately, the opponent that Master encountered in this game wasn’t so sensible.

Jian Rong dashed and evaded the magic ball flying his way before he once again unleashed a burst of damage on Master. Gritting his teeth, Master decided to retreat back to the turret.

But after Jian Rong’s skills were off cooldown, he continued to approach the enemy tower.

Master: “He’s rushing it, there’s an opening. Quick, come over and gank him, do it properly this time…”

Before he could finish, Graves appeared behind him.

At that moment, HT’s jungler had already fallen halfway into despair—his jungle was completely empty. After taking a lap around his entire jungle, he was only able to eat the Krugs¹.

TTC’s mid laner and jungler were already one and a half levels ahead of them, and they hadn’t even reached the mid game yet.

Under the tower, Jian Rong poked and unleashed as much damage as he could. Then, he dodged Master’s ult—because of that missed ult, Lu Boyuan was able to circle behind Master even more boldly.

Lu Boyuan dashed forward and fired a round before he followed up with his ult, an explosive shell with a recoil that he utilized to leave the attack range of the tower, cleanly finishing off Master.

On his way over to help gank, HT’s jungler arrived late and ran straight into Graves in the jungle, who had just finished killing his team’s mid laner.

HT’s jungler glanced at his opponent’s level before checking his own… in the end, he helplessly used his E and fled in the opposite direction.

His running away incited some boos from the live audience.

Right now, this situation was beyond everyone’s expectations.

To tell the truth, after experiencing the last few group stage matches, the LCK fans had already started mentally preparing themselves to lose the finals. After all, TTC’s momentum was truly unstoppable this year. However—it was one thing to be blindsided by a 2:0 score right off the bat, but this was the third game now! The game that would decide if they ultimately won or lost!

Logically speaking, shouldn’t it be a desperate counterattack, a fight to the death? How could Master, HT’s backbone and the bulwark of the LCK mid laners, be solo killed at the very beginning of the game? And how were they already one and a half levels behind TTC’s mid laner and jungler less than twenty minutes in? And what was up with you turning tail and fleeing the moment you saw someone else enter your jungle after tower diving your team member?!

The Korean commentators wiped away some sweat and tried to console the LCK fans. “Don’t worry! Although HT is currently at a disadvantage, they have an excellent team composition, including an engager, a tank, and AOE skills. The mid-late game is undoubtedly more favorable to us! Also, we have Orianna this round, one of Master’s signature champions. As long as he performs well in team fights, does his best to trade, and utilizes his ult wisely…”

“—so what if we let you take Orianna! Don’t tell me you’re still hoping your Orianna will come into play in the late game?!”

On the other side, the LPL’s Commentator A seamlessly picked up where the Korean commentator left off. Unwittingly, the two sides constructed an interesting, unintentional conversation with each other.

Commentator A’s neck was red from watching the fights in the mid lane. “Get it through your head! No matter how fierce your Master’s Orianna is in the late game, it’s pointless! If TTC allows you to drag this out until the late game! I! Little A! Will retire on the spot!!!”

The other two commentators were originally stirred up as well, but they immediately calmed down when they heard that.

Commentator B: “Well, you don’t have to go that far.”

Commentator C: “Get down from the table first, the director is already sending you a warning.”

The mid lane dominance was established. With Jian Rong, this big bad-tempered Buddha, standing guard in the mid lane, Master had to exercise extreme caution without his flash, even if he just wanted to clear minions from under the tower. HT’s jungler also kept hovering near the mid lane, waiting for an opportunity.

Meanwhile, Lu Boyuan seized the chance to take the red buff before he proceeded to head towards the bot lane.

Pine instantly pushed the wave over to the enemy tower. As soon as Lu Boyuan was in position, Xiao Bai’s Sett promptly flashed into a tower dive and unleashed a W+R combo. He directly tanked the turret damage as he bound himself to Rish and slammed him onto the ground. Lu Boyuan and Pine followed up with DPS and finished off Rish.

Lu Boyuan’s DPS was extremely high, and Xiao Bai only endured two hits from the tower before the gank was over, allowing the three of them to safely retreat.

Xiao Bai whistled. “The month I hate the most is February, because I can only pummel Rish for 28 days.”

Lu Boyuan: “Didn’t he just knock you down 17 LP the other day in solo queue?”

Xiao Bai: “………that’s because I was paired with an ADC who was even worse than Ding-ge!”

The mid and bot lanes were both sailing along smoothly. TTC pocketed the first two elemental drakes, and since Yuan Qian was playing his trademark champion, Irelia, his CS also far surpassed his opponent’s in the top lane.

It must be said that LCK teams were actually very good at dragging out competitive games.

But frankly, the instant Master was solo killed by Soft, the remaining four members of the team had crumbled entirely. They were utterly helpless in the laning phase, and they only knew how to fall back when their opponents forcefully destroyed the mid lane’s second tower.

Master’s brows were tightly furrowed. “How is this supposed to work if you’re all scared?! I’m playing Orianna, yet I’m standing at the front of the group, is that right? Are you saving Gragas’ ult to blow me up? Nobody knows how to engage anymore? Are you guys planning on retiring the second this match is over???”

HT’s jungler drew in a deep breath. “Got it, hyung.”

As a result, when the five TTC members grouped together to push the top lane’s inner turret, Gragas threw out his ult after noticing that Jian Rong had used his dash—and successfully exploded Lucian, Graves, and Irelia all back underneath HT’s tower!

Rish: “Nice! Great engage, hyung!”

The support, Alistar, headed straight towards Jian Rong with Master’s ball attached to him. But right as Master used his ult, a white circle appeared around Jian Rong—in less than a second, Jian Rong used the “cleanse” included with his Quicksilver Sash item and flashed. This removed Alistar’s CC and created some distance between him and Master, allowing him to dodge Master’s ult.

Before anyone could understand how Jian Rong had escaped, Master had already missed his ult.

Master felt like his heart was about to fail him.

Pine didn’t give him another chance to deal damage, and he solidly stunned the flashless Master in place with his ice arrow ult. Tanking the tower, Yuan Qian moved forward and immediately used his ult on Master. Lu Boyuan nearsighted Gragas with his smoke screen before he coordinated with Yuan Qian’s DPS and killed Master in a matter of seconds—

Xiao Bai looked at Rish, who was trying hard to dish out damage, and slammed him onto the ground with his R. He said, bemused, “Is this guy trying to do gua sha²?”

Lu Boyuan did away with Rish in two gunshots. “Seems like it.”

Staring at the gray screen in front of him, Master resisted the urge to smash his keyboard. Through clenched teeth, he interrogated the support, “You clearly knew he had QSS, so why were you in such a rush to CC him?! Since my ball was on you, you should’ve let Gragas go up first and force out his QSS…”

Unfortunately, there was already no point in him saying any of this.

Both carries died too fast, and the remaining HT members had no choice but to withdraw, seeing as how they lacked both DPS and the right state of mind. But Yuan Qian evidently didn’t intend to let them go. With a flash and a Q, Irelia forced them to stay, after which Lu Boyuan and Jian Rong simultaneously dashed forward and unleashed their DPS…

The pitiless female voice resounded through the competition stadium for the second time that day—“Aced!”

Commentator A was so excited that he hiked one of his legs onto the table again.

The LCK commentators pursed their lips and shook their heads as they heaved continuous sighs.

After TTC finished pushing the top lane inhibitor, they instantly doubled back for Baron. At this point, there was a 10,000 gold difference between the two teams.

Unless every member of TTC made a mistake, the outcome of this game was already determined.

Thirty minutes in, TTC grouped up and went for the mid lane. In a last-ditch effort, HT’s support flashed in an attempt to CC Pine, the only one who didn’t have a dash—only for Pine to also flash and evade him.

Lu Boyuan seized the opportunity to flash and fire his smoke canister, slowing Rish, who had positioned himself poorly because he wanted to move in and deal damage. Using a skill and an auto attack, he promptly killed Rish.

Once more, HT was in an outnumbered situation, so they had to draw back. During the Nexus turret team fight, Master was forcibly engaged by Yuan Qian, and Master’s screen went gray again after Jian Rong skillfully released all his DPS. Without Orianna to clear the minion waves, HT was no longer in any position to struggle…

One second before his last teammate died, Rish revived.

In the fountain, Rish stared at his team’s empty base, as well as the five extremely well-off TTC members standing motionless outside of the spawn point…

Sensing that something was amiss, Rish frowned and subconsciously shrank back in the fountain.

Did that make a difference?

Xiao Bai directly flashed and charged over to Rish, bringing him out of the fountain with his ult. Then he used the Stopwatch that he had prepared solely for this moment, rendering himself invulnerable to the enemy fountain’s damage—meanwhile, Rish was now within the attack range of the other TTC members.

Jian Rong used his Q, W, and a combo; Yuan Qian dashed forward with his Q to help Xiao Bai tank the damage; Pine shot all his ice arrows; and the instant Yuan Qian and Xiao Bai withdrew from the enemy fountain, Lu Boyuan fired an explosive shell with his ult—

“Aced!”

A second after they finished spawn camping.

[[All] TTC ་ Soft: rish? rubbish.]

Jian Rong turned around and auto attacked away the last twenty HP left in HT’s Nexus, causing the crystal to subsequently explode.

Commentator A shouted hoarsely, “The match has concluded!! Let us congratulate TTC for completely sweeping HT with a final score of 3:0! And becoming the ultimate winner of this year’s Mid-Season Invitational!!!”

Jian Rong pulled off his headphones and heard the LPL fans in the arena cheering “TTC” so loudly that it even suppressed the Korean commentators’ voices. All the lights in the venue turned on as inspirational, rousing music echoed through the arena.

Amidst their teammates’ roars and laughter, Jian Rong was tugged into Lu Boyuan’s embrace.

He caught a whiff of the fragrance coming from Lu Boyuan’s body, and he retrospectively dialed back his hostility from the match. Surrounded by the audience’s screaming, Jian Rong was finally able to relax out of the tense mental state he had been in for the better part of the month, and he transferred all of his weight over onto Lu Boyuan.

The staff members rushed on stage to hug the pro players who had brought glory to the team; Xiao Bai wanted to lift Pine up and turn a few circles, but he had give up because he wasn’t strong enough; Yuan Qian hugged the assistant coach tightly and choked back sobs as he asked why his wife hadn’t come on stage too…

While emotionally wiping away his tears, Ding-ge went to drag apart their team’s mid laner and jungler, who were locked in an embrace and looked like they were about to share a deep kiss any moment now. “Badass, so badass… you two, let go of each other first… you guys played so well… I’m begging you, don’t come out of the closet at a time like this, I still wanna be happy for a few more days… we have to go pick up the trophy now… endure it, endure it, you better not do anything unnecessary… you have to control yourselves…”

After all sorts of reasoning, he finally persuaded the two of them to separate. Under the guidance of an employee, the TTC members headed for the center of the stage, where the gold trophy stood quietly.

The instant the five of them lifted up the trophy, there was a bang, and countless pieces of golden confetti descended from above.

They took turns holding the trophy, and it ultimately ended up in Jian Rong’s arms.

According to the competition schedule, they had to do an extremely simple and brief interview now, and the host walked onto the stage with a translator. Because the audience was too enthusiastic, Jian Rong wasn’t able to hear what the translator said at first.

As a result, the translator repeated, “The host asked: is there anything you want to say? A speech for winning the championship or something like that…”

Jian Rong nodded. With hardly any hesitation, he raised the trophy and said, firmly and emphatically, to the camera, to the entire world—

“The LPL is badass.”

Yan: And that is our last official competitive match!!! :’) I don’t think I’ll miss googling league terms lol but I will miss Rongrong’s outplays. My favorite game overall is probably still Jian Rong’s pentakill, but this game was super satisfying with the spawn camp ending ehehe a fitting last game indeed. What are everyone else’s fave games from ICDI?