Rise

really isn’t much.”

✹

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Over in London, inside the Brighton Hotel, Hermes and Nightsong were still in their room and on their laptops.
They’d just finished playing a ranked game.
Nightsong cracked his back and sighed.
“Great galloping galoshes, man.
That was a good game.
Only because I was awesome in it.
Did you see how fucking fantastic I was at support? If I can’t play as an ad-carry anymore, not that it ’s ever going to happen.
But if I got so bored of being the most amazing ad-carry in China or something like that, I’ll try playing support.”

“You? Support? Trying to take Ol’ Eight’s job now? Sure.
Go tell him you’re going to be a support.
And then stand there for an hour while he tells you the three hundred different ways he’s going to defile your mother, your sister, your grandmother, and any other relatives you can think of,” Hermes replied, and then broke down laughing.

Nightsong shrugged, uncaring.
“There’s only one rule, my HoG brother.
Don’t be trash.
And my support game is the furthest thing from trash.
But it doesn’t really matter anyway.
My magic fingers and insane skills are meant to be playing ad-carry.
It’d be a tragedy to waste all of this raw talent anywhere else.”

Hermes shook his head with a wry smile.
Typical Nightsong.
Could this guy be any more of a narcissist? He’d gotten used to it by now.
Arguing with Nightsong when he was in this kind of mood was beyond pointless, it was an exercise in futility.
Hermes sighed.
If Nightsong’s ego gets any bigger, his head might explode.
Then we wouldn’t have an ad-carry for Worlds.
But he also knew that pride and ego was well-deserved and hard earned.
The guy was an amazing ad-carry.
Top three in China, just as good as any of the other great ad-carries in the world!

The players who had a shot at becoming one of the Four Emperors and Seven Kings, all of them had a single common trait.
When they played at the highest level and competed under metric tons of pressure, they didn’t just play at their best.
They played better.
When these guys went all out, it was at 120%.
Being able to play at 100% under that much pressure when the stakes were that high, that made a player great.
These guys were beyond great.
They had found something within themselves that let them go to a level beyond that of a super saiyan, and that’s where their absolute confidence came from.

Take Nightsong for example.
He knew exactly how to get into the right mindset for a competition.
He knew exactly what worked for him.
There were two days until the bootcamp for Worlds started, and he was preparing himself mentally.
Instead of decompressing completely by drinking a beer on the beach or going out partying, he played ranked games with Hermes.
As a Support.
That’s how he relaxed and reset his headspace.
By playing games where he didn’t have to worry about his performance as the ad-carry.

It was exactly because Nightsong knew what worked for himself that Hermes had so much trust in him.
He had no doubt in his mind that Nightsong would be ready when Worlds started.
They had a real shot at winning! At least in the group stage and maybe even in the round after.
Making it all the way to the finals, that was probably pushing it.
The other teams were just as good as them.
Some were even better! They would be playing against the best teams in the entire world! Then there was SSK, and their Midlaner.
The Emperor who sat on the throne of Sovereign.
Just thinking about that guy sent shivers down Hermes’ spine.

Hermes shook his head.
Worrying about the other teams and how they’d do against them was meaningless.
All they could do, all he could do, was to give it his all.
To keep pushing and never give up.
As long as he did that, nothing else mattered.

✹

After finishing one ranked game, Nightsong didn’t feel like playing anymore.
He stretched and spun around in place on his chair before turning to Hermes.
“Hey, you think the buffet is open?”

Hermes nodded before replying, “I think so, yeah.
Didn’t they say something about serving tea and pastries in the afternoon? Why? You hungry?”

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Nightsong got up from his chair and patted Hermes on the shoulder.
“Come! It’s not like we have anything better to do.
Let’s go stuff ourselves!”

Besides Nightsong and Hermes, there was one more Chinese player in Hand of God.
Their support, Eight Saltspoons.
They went to ask him if he wanted to join them for a quick snack, but found him passed out on his bed in the room next door.
As for the other two members of the team, they were Korean and had gone to tour the city after lunch with the team’s translator.
Nightsong and Hermes took the elevator down to the second floor together.

The buffet was being served in a large dining hall on the second floor.
Nightsong and Hermes stepped inside and looked around.
The place was practically empty.
Not that it mattered to them.
All it meant was they wouldn’t have to spend as long waiting in line.
They loaded up their plates with cake, tarts and biscuits.
Then they picked up some coffee.
Nightsong slapped Hermes in the chest and pointed at the label for the coffee, “You know this coffee, there are monkey-cats that eat the beans and shit them out.
They collect the coffee beans from the shit of a monkey-cat! That’s what makes it so good! Super expensive stuff, this is a nice hotel.” Hermes sighed.
“They aren’t monkey-cats, the animals are called civets.
They have an enzyme in their stomachs that makes the coffee good,” he replied.
Nightsong did not look at all convinced by Hermes’ explanation and continued talking about monkey-cats.

They finished picking up their afternoon snacks and started looking around for an empty table in a nice spot.
They had prime pick since there weren’t that many people in the dining hall.
That’s when they spotted a familiar figure sitting in the corner by himself and eating.
The table he was sitting at was full.
There was enough food to feed an entire team, and this guy was eating it all by himself.
Nightsong called out to the guy, “Roundy!”

Anyone with an iota of interest in League of Legends would know the name.
One of the greatest players to have ever come out of China! Everyone, from fans on the street to other professional players, called him by his online handle as a show of respect.

The person eating alone in a corner of the banquet hall was Tian Tian! Roundy Round! God Roundy! He was the top laner of KG and also known as the Uncrowned Eighth.
There was no better top laner in all of China, and there were only a few in the entire world who could go toe-to-toe with him.
When he heard his name being called out, Tian Tian looked up and saw Nightsong and Hermes.

They walked over and put their plates down on the table.
“Hey man!” Nightsong smiled.
“I see you’ve come down for a snack.
That’s good.
I’d start worrying if you lost weight.
Me and Hermes here got bored up in our room, so we decided to see if there was anything good here.”

Tian Tian wiped the crumbs from his mouth and swallowed a giant mouthful of food.
Then he smiled at them and said, “Hey! You guys! Hi! Here, pull up a chair! We’ll eat and talk!”

Tian Tian was the number one top laner in China.
But at first glance, he didn’t look even remotely special.
He was chubby with a baby face and wet round eyes.
He looked like the mild-mannered kid people would forget was there.
Or the target of the school bully.
A timid young man who usually minded his own business.

Everyone in the professional scene knew that Tian Tian was a shy and reserved guy in real life.
There was even a funny story about him that went around and everyone knew it now.
It happened after an LPL match.
A beautiful female fan walked up to him for an autograph.
He signed whatever she gave him and handed it back.
Then the girl asked him if he’d like to join her on a lunch date sometime.
When the word ‘date’ registered in Tian Tian’s mind, it went haywire.
He started stumbling over his words and his face turned red.
The girl asked him again and stood there waiting for his answer.
But poor Tian Tian never managed to get the words he wanted to say out.
He wanted to say, “YES! I would love that!” The girl was beautiful.
He never thought a girl like that would walk up to him and ask him out.
She was out of his league.
But what he actually said was nothing, and the poor girl walked away thinking she’d been rejected.

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