Lin Feng’s Orianna cast Command: Dissonance! A burst of energy pulsed out from her Ball and slammed into Shenyang’s Ziggs! It dealt a ton of damage, but more importantly also applied a slow. Lin Feng followed the attack up with an Ignite on the Ziggs, its flames ticking away life as it blazed!

Zigg’s health dropped from 50% to below 20, causing Shenyang University’s Midlaner’s screen to flash red. Shenyang’s Midlaner felt his muscles tense up. He knew Orianna still had her ultimate and he knew it would kill his Ziggs. So he Flashed. His Ziggs disappeared with a mottled flash of light, and as he did Orianna’s Ball started moving too. What the… Shenyang’s Midlaner stared at his screen, dumbstruck. Orianna’s Ball moved to the precise location his mouse was hovering over.

Lin Feng activated Orianna’s ultimate skill–Command: Shockwave! A powerful shockwave of electromagnetic energy swept out! It washed over Ziggs and pulled him towards the epicenter! That was where the damage registered. It was far more than what little Ziggs had left. His body collapsed to the floor. Dead.

《First Blood!》

“Wow! That… Wow!”

“Holy cow! Did he just…?”

“These Shanghai folks are Cray cray in the head head!”

There wasn’t time to celebrate, action was still ongoing! Lin Feng’s Orianna was stuck on the Red team’s side of the lane, with Gragas blocking his path of retreat. But before Gragas could even begin to make life difficult for Lin Feng, An Xin’s Lee Sin arrived. She placed a ward down in the middle of the lane and hopped towards it, then fired a discordant wave of energy at Gragas—Sonic Wave!

Shenyang’s Jungler gritted his teeth. His Gragas was quickly losing health. He still had two abilities off cooldown, but neither was going to claim a kill before he’d die himself to the combined damage from Orianna and Lee Sin. Making him feel worse were the voices of his teammates telling him to back off, to give up on this gank. They reminded him he’d failed and that he was outplayed by Lin Feng. “Okay, okay!” he replied over the team’s voice chat, annoyed. “Look! See? I’m backing! I won’t give Ori a double kill and double buffs. Jeesh!”

PufPuf scrunched her eyebrows in confusion and said into her microphone, “What? Why isn’t Lee Sin using Resonating Strike on Gragas? They can get the double here! Get the double! Why aren’t you going in for the double!?”

“Now this. This I can believe,” TheBrawnster said into his microphone. “I’ve seen the highlights from the East China Regionals and this is exactly the type of play you’d expect from this Jungler. She looks good, good, and then she reminds you why she isn’t all that in the end. Don’t get me wrong, she’s pretty damn decent. Definitely good enough for this type of game. But when she has to play a real opponent, like a Beijing team… Man, she’s gonna have it rough.”

✹

A minute went by in which not much happened. Shenyang University started playing more defensively, with their laners playing in reach of their outer towers and their Jungler farming his camps, in response to the losing first blood. Team Shanghai tried to break Shenyang University’s defensive formation, prowling for opportunities. And it was in the 8th minute of the game that An Xin found one.

TheBrawnster scratched his neck and said into his microphone, “Uh? Lee is ganking bot I guess? Yo, what’s she seein’ there? The minion wave is pushed way up towards Shenyang’s side of the lane. She’ll need a crazy good Thresh hook if she wants to get anything there. I’d bet she’d get more from just farming camps like the Gragas is doing.”

An Xin pinged on Shenyang’s Jinx and said over the team’s voice chat, “Flay Janna. Let’s see what we can get there.”

“On it,” Zeng Rui replied. He pushed through the Blue and Red minions towards Janna, ignoring the damage from Jinx’s semi-automatic machine guns. He followed up by whipping his chain and scythe backwards with Flay, knocking Janna up and towards him!

Zeng Rui’s movements sent a clear message that An Xin’s Lee Sin was coming for a gank. Shenyang University’s Botlaners didn’t want to be in the lane when that happened. Jinx flashed towards her outer tower and arrived within its range, while Janna cast Howling Gale! A small storm started brewing at the base of her staff and quickly gained in power before it erupted into a tornado! It carved a path through the map, knocking Thresh and Tristana up into the air! She then turned around and floated towards her outer tower!

PufPuf clutched the microphone tightly in her hand and shrieked, “SO NICE! A crucial Janna Q to stop the gank! Lee’s is Leeseless now! Haha!”

An Xin’s Lee Sin rushed out from the river brush and fired a Sonic Wave at Janna! Resonating Strike unlocked, allowing her to dash at Janna. But An Xin waited for a brief moment, smiling. Put down your Chompers! Throw them down!

Shenyang’s Jinx did exactly what An Xin wanted her to do, she threw down Jinx’s Flame Chompers in front of Janna. If An Xin tried to dash through them, she’d get caught by them. Her Lee Sin would get stunned and from there it wouldn’t take Shenyang University much effort to kill her. But An Xin knew all of this. She smiled brighter as she placed down a ward next to the Flame Chompers, hopped to it with Safeguard and then activated Resonating Strike. Her Lee Sin dashed at Janna who was now near Jinx! She then flashed past Jinx and activated Dragon’s Rage! Lee Sin struck Jinx with a roundhouse kick, kicking her off her feet and sending her flying through Janna and towards Zeng Rui’s Thresh!

Zeng Rui’s mouth fell open. “Wow!” he exclaimed, watching Jinx flying straight at him. “Oh, right,” he added, his pinky finger pushing on the Q key. His Thresh swung his scythe ‘round and ‘round, charging it up, before hurling it at Jinx and catching her mid air! Zeng Rui followed up with Ignite, summoning the unquenchable flames to drain away Jinx’s health!

“Tang Tang!” An Xin said shortly over the team’s voice chat.

Tang Bingyao nodded and replied, “Mhm!” She had her Tristana activate Rapid Fire, the muzzle of her cannon erupting into flames to boost her attack speed, and Rocket Jumped on top of Jinx! She then started firing away. Cannonball after cannonball slammed into Jinx and knocked the health right out of her!

《You have slain an enemy!》

TheBrawnster stared at his screen with wide open eyes. It wasn’t until Janna had Flashed away and the trio from Team Shanghai started attacking the outer tower that he finally grabbed his microphone and said, “Wow. Just… Wow! I was wrong. That simple. I ain’t no prophet and this sure as hell proved that. What a play, my fuckin’ god! Those Lee mechanics? Dash-Q’ing like that? Shite! That was pretty damn sick. And yo, what’s even sicker is how it all looked like one fluid motion! She never even really reached the ward! She was already flying at Janna before the hop finished!”

“Like she curved her dash or something! Like in that movie with the curving bullets, right? Right?” PufPuf interjected, excited. She leaned closer towards the screen and continued, “That girl can play! She makes me wanna main Jungle!”

The audience got up on their feet for the first time this series and applauded Team Shanghai’s play in the bot lane, half-heartedly. They were still convinced that Beijing was superior to Shanghai in every sense of the word, but they also had to admit that An Xin’s Lee Sin was second best after them.

Sun Ruinian looked over his shoulder at the audience’s response and grinned, bitter. He then turned his attention to the various teams in the player seating area watching the large LCD screen. They were all staring, different versions of shock on their faces. He nodded, grimacing, and said, “There’s something about that team. I don’t know what it is; Shi Hang probably does. But there’s something about them… Every time we play them and every time we watch them play, they’re better. Better, better, better… Every single time. I don’t see how we’re supposed to beat them. Let’s just hope we don’t have to go up against them, I guess…”