Rise

ver the nearest Blue minion and clicked on it.
His Fizz started running towards it.

Lin Feng was slowly getting back in his old groove.
He’d spotted the movement patterns from Fuzhou Tech’s Midlaner in the first game and applied that knowledge to the second game.
Every time Razor Shuriken came off cooldown, he activated the skill.
His Zed threw a shuriken in a straight line and each time it connected with Fizz, shaving away at his health! And then, just like in Game 1, Fuzhou Tech’s Midlaner crossed the midway section of the lane without having ward coverage.
Lin Feng laughed and said over Team Shanghai’s voice chat, “He really fell for it again? He really fell for it again! ZengZeng, go in!”

“I’m going in,” Zeng Rui replied over the team’s voice chat.
“NOT AGAIN! GO BACK FIZZ! GOOOOOO BACK!”
“Shit! I can’t watch this.
That Leona roam is so dirty!”
“How did that Fizz not learn from the previous game? Jesus!”
“RETREAT FIZZ! DON’T DO THIS!”
“Oh my god, he’s falling for it again… What a fucking noob!”
“FUCK ME! What’s wrong with this dude? Is he trolling?”

“It’s the Level 1 roam!” Silent Reed cried out from the caster desk.
She grabbed her microphone and moved it close to her mouth.
“Leona timed this roam perfectly! Fuzhou Tech won’t know what hit them! It’s going to be first blood in the mid lane again!”

Rollfire was steaming in rage next to Silent Reed.
Why can’t they fucking ward? How stupid is this Fizz!? He said through gritted teeth, “It’s going to be really hard to escape from this roam for that Fizz.”

Zeng Rui’s Leona had walked down the river from the top lane and arrived in the mid lane just as Fizz ran forward to break the minion freeze.
Zeng Rui had his Leona charge at Fizz and cast Exhaust on him! A debilitating energy wrapped around Fizz and drained away most of his stats! His movement speed slowed to a crawl and he was forced to use the only escape ability he had.
Flash.
But Zeng Rui was prepared for this.
He flashed right after Fizz and then slammed his shield into the Fizz.
Shield of Daybreak! It rammed into Fizz with such power that it stunned him!

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“Nice!” Lin Feng cried out over the team’s voice chat.
He last hit a caster minion, which brought him to Level 2, and then learned Living Shadow! This skill allowed him to place a living shadow of himself in front of him.
“I’m coming!” he shouted as he activated the skill.
A Living Shadow appeared right next to Fizz.
Lin Feng then used the second part of this skill, switching positions with his shadow! He cast Ignite on Fizz! An unquenchable flame burned away at Fizz’s health bar! Zed followed up with an auto attack, his sharp blade dealing a ton of damage, before finishing the job with a Razor Shuriken!

《First Blood!》

The crowd erupted with cheers! Their voices boomed through the venue and slammed into the glass of the soundproof booths! And it wasn ’t just the regular audience members who were impressed.
Even the players from Zhejiang University were in awe.
More specifically, their Support was deeply impressed with Zeng Rui’s gank.
He exclaimed, “That roam! Holy crap that was beautiful! The way they set up the top lane to make it seem like nothing was going on! Wooo that was impressive!”

Zuo Cheng looked at the large LCD screen, entranced.
He saw how Zed broke the minion freeze after picking up the kill and bit on his lips.
“That Fizz just lost so much there.
If that death wasn’t bad enough, losing out on all those minions is going to hurt real bad! This is looking rough for him already.”

Sun Ruinian looked from the large LCD screen to Zuo Cheng and felt his stomach drop.
That play looked good and Zuo Cheng looks worried.
He chewed on the inside of his cheeks as he turned back to look at the large LCD screen.
Is he better than an A- Midlaner? A? How good is this Midlaner? Shit! How are we going to beat them? That Midlaner is better than Zuo Cheng! We need, we need… He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.
We need Shi Hang.
We’re not going to win without him.

✹

Tang Bingyao’s Ezreal froze the minion wave in the top lane.
She could hold her own against a Rumble the first few levels because of her ranged attacks.
This was also what allowed Zeng Rui to make the roam to the mid lane.
But freezing a minion wave wasn’t as easy as Lin Feng often made it look.
She tried to manipulate the minions to the best of her ability and the freeze persisted for a good while.
But between Rumble trying to disrupt it and making small mistakes herself, the Blue minion wave grew in size.
More and more Blue minions slaughtered their way through the Red minions until Tang Bingyao couldn’t hold the freeze anymore.
A massive wave of minions started marching from the Blue outer tower to the other side of the lane.

Tang Bingyao pursed her lips and tightened the hold on her mouse.
I can’t let Rumble get all this gold and experience! I just got a nice head start.
Mhm! I’m going to stop him! I’ll push him away from the minions and make him retrea—

“Get ready, Tang Tang.
We’re circling around,” Zeng Rui said over the team’s voice chat.

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An Xin added, “I’ll engage!”

“Almost there!” Lin Feng chimed in.

The Blue minions charged at Red team’s outer tower, unafraid of death.
Tang Bingyao’s Ezreal followed right behind them, firing skills and auto attacks at the Rumble to keep him from getting last hits on them.
And then, right as the minions slammed into the outer tower, An Xin, Lin Feng and Zeng Rui walked into the top lane.

An Xin’s Fiddlesticks got close to the Rumble and cast Terrify on him! Nightmarish illusions incapacitated Rumble for a second, which allowed Zeng Rui’s Leona to land an easy Zenith Blade! A solar projection of her sword pierced through Rumble and Leona dashed at him! Then she slammed her Shield of Daybreak into him! Stunned!

Lin Feng’s Zed jumped in with his Living Shadow and then attacked with his Razor Shuriken and the blades attached to his gloves! It dealt a lot of damage, even this early in the game.
Rumble’s health dropped fast.
But they were fighting Rumble right underneath his tower.
The turret locked onto An Xin’s Fiddlesticks and fired an energy shot at her.
She had to move out of range before a second one could hit, which caused the tower to shift aggro onto Zeng Rui’s Leona.
He ran away before the tower could attack him.
As did Lin Feng’s Zed, because Tang Bingyao’s Ezreal had fired a Mystic Shot at the low health Rumble! The damaging bolt of energy whizzed through the air and knocked Rumble out cold!

《You have slain an enemy!》

“WHAT A TOWERDIVE!” Silent Reed shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“Team Shanghai did it all perfectly! Fuzhou Tech didn’t know what hit them! And now with Rumble dead, Team Shanghai can take the top tower! That’s just going to make life so much harder for Rumble! Where’s he going to go? Is Fuzhou Tech going to follow along with the lane swap now? They really have to do something if they wanna stay in this! It’s their tournament life that’s on the line here!” She turned to look at Rollfire and asked, “What do you think? You have to admit that that was a beautiful play, right!?”

“It was,” Rollfire replied.
He took a long, deep breath and added, “It was a good towerdive.” Those words were incredibly difficult for him to say.
It was him admitting that Team Shanghai wasn’t just a team of high school students who didn’t know how to play the game.
That instead they were a team that could compete against university teams.
That the game he was hired to cast wasn’t all that terrible after all.
That the Shanghai Esports Association hadn’t screwed him over.
He gritted his teeth and glared at the large LCD screen.
It’s not over yet! Yeah, that 4 man collapse was impressive.
Yeah they juggled the tower aggro correctly.
And yeah they baited Fuzhou Tech well enough.
And yeah there was no way Rumble could escape that.
But that was just one gank! Or two now.
But the game has only just begun!

Silent Reed was getting used to the little input Rollfire was giving in this series.
She glanced at him but decided against mentioning it.
I’ll just do the best I can! I’ll be Westwind and me! She grabbed her microphone and shouted, “Team Shanghai has the initiative again! But we haven’t seen too much from the Fiddlesticks yet.
I’m really curious to see how they’re going to play with him! He’s such a niche Champion! But with how Team Shanghai is playing, they must have something special planned for him!”

Rollfire didn’t entertain the audience or Silent Reed with his opinion on the Fiddlesticks.
But he clenched his fist under the table until his knuckles were white and gritted his teeth.
You think they got a plan to use that Fiddle? Piss off! Yeah, Team Shanghai’s lanes are doing well and it might look like they’re winning now, but this is still a 5vs5 game! And that Fiddle is basically useless! Just wait until Fuzhou Tech sets up their line of vision! That Fiddle pick is going to look stupid then! Fuzhou Tech is going to fight their way back into this game after this minor setback and secure a win! Then we’re going to an all deciding Game 3 and the Shanghai Idiots Organization will find out that their team is also a group of cocky idiots!